rays of the Divine Name of Truth and the manifestations of His Names and attributes. The reality of all things, whether physical, non-physical, essential, non-essential, and the reality of all human beings, is based on a Name and relies on Its reality. Things are not merely insignificant forms without reality. There is a brief discussion of this mystery at the end of the Twentieth Word. O my soul! If you long for the life of this world and flee death, know certainly that the conditions you suppose to be life are only the minute in which you are. All the time previous to the present minute and the things of the world within that time are dead in the present minute. And all the time subsequent to the present minute and all it contains are non-existent in it, and nothing. That means the physical life on which you rely is only one minute. Some of the learned, even, said it was a tenth of a minute, rather, the passing instant. It is due to this mystery that certain saints stated that with regard to this world, this world is non-existent. Since it is thus, give up the physical life of the soul; rise to the level of life of the heart, spirit, and inner faculties; see what a broad sphere of life they have. For them, the past and the future, which for you are dead, are living; they are existent and full of life. O my soul! Like my heart, you too weep and cry out and say:
I am ephemeral; I do not want another who is thus.
I am impotent; I do not want another who is thus.
I have surrendered my spirit to the Most Merciful; I do not want another.
I want another, but let him be an eternal friend.
I am a mere atom, but I desire an Everlasting Sun.
I am nothing, yet I wish for these beings, all of them.
FIFTH PARAGRAPH: This Paragraph occurred to me in Arabic, and so it was written thus. Also, it recalls one of the thirty-three degrees of reflection in the recitation, God is Most Great.
God is Most Great! The Eternal, All-Knowing, All-Wise, Most Generous, Most Compassionate, All-Beauteous, the Inscriber, the Pre-Eternal! What is the reality of the universe in its entirety and in its parts, and its pages and levels, and what is the reality of beings altogether and singly, in their existence and continuation, but the lines of the pen of His Determining and Decree, and His setting in order and determining, with knowledge and wisdom; what are they but the skilful inscriptions of His knowledge and wisdom and regulating and forming, with art and favour; the adornments of the shining hand of His art and favour and embellishing and illuminating, with grace and munificence; the flowers of the subtleties of His favour and munificence and making known and loved, with mercy and bounty; the fruits of the effusions of His mercy and bounty and pity and compassion, with