since His attributes and names are perpetual and everlasting; certainly His names’ manifestations and impresses are renewed, affording them a sort of perpetualness; they are not destroyed and do not just disappear; they are not ephemeral and despatched to non-being. It is clear that by reason of his humanity, man is connected with most other beings; he receives pleasure at their happiness and is grieved at their destruction. He feel more grief at the suffering of living creatures, of humankind in particular, and particularly the people of perfection he loves and admires; and his happiness is greater at their happiness. Like a fond mother, he even sacrifices his own happiness and comfort for theirs. Thus, through the light of the Qur’an and mystery of belief, all believers – in accordance with their degree – may be happy at the happiness of other beings, and at their continued existence and being saved from nothingness and their being valuable dominical missives; they may gain a light as extensive as the world. Everyone may profit from this light according to his degree. As for the people of misguidance, in addition to their own pains they are grieved at the destruction of beings, at their transience and apparently being despatched to non-existence – and if they have spirits, at their suffering. That is to say, their unbelief fills their world with non-existence; it empties it over their heads, causing them hell before they go there.
FOURTH SIGN
As we have said in many places, a monarch has various offices and departments proceeding from such titles of his as Sultan, Khalifa, Judge, and Commander-in-Chief. In the same way, Almighty God’s Most Beautiful Names have innumerable different sorts of manifestations. All the different sorts of creatures arise from the varieties of manifestations. Thus, by virtue of the fact that every possessor of beauty and perfection has an innate desire to see and display his beauty and perfection, the names – since they are constant and eternal – want to be displayed in permanent fashion on account of the Most Pure and Holy Essence. That is to say, they want to see their impresses; that is, to see in the mirrors of their embroideries the manifestation of their beauty and reflection of their perfection; that is, to renew every instant the mighty book of the universe and the multifarious missives of beings; that is, to constantly write them anew; that is, to write thousands of different missives on a single page and to display each missive to the witnessing gaze of the Sacred Essence, the Most Pure and Holy One, who is signified; and in addition, to exhibit them to the meditative gazes of sentient beings, and to cause them to read them. Consider the following poem, which alludes to this truth: