man who had dressed you in the garment. While if you were to reply proudly: “Yes, I am very beautiful. Surely there is no one to compare with me!”, that would be conceited pride.
In consequence, to avoid both conceit and ingratitude one should say: “Yes, I have grown beautiful. But the beauty springs from the robe, and thus indirectly from the one who clothed me in it; it is not mine.”
Like this, if my voice were strong enough, I would shout out to the whole earth: “The Words are beautiful; they are truth, they are reality; but they are not mine. They are rays shining out from the truths of the Noble Qur’an.”
In accordance with the principle of:
I cannot praise Muhammad with my words, rather my words become praiseworthy through Muhammad,
I say:
I cannot praise the Qur’an with my words, rather my words become praiseworthy through the Qur’an.
That is to say, I did not beautify the truths of the Qur’an’s miraculousness, I could not show them beautifully; rather, the Qur’an’s beautiful truths made my words beautiful and elevated them. Since it is thus, it is acceptable to recount divine bounties and to make known in the name of the beauty of the Qur’an’s truths, the beauties of its mirrors known as the Words, and the divine favours which comprise those mirrors.
Fifth Reason: A long time ago I heard from one of the people of sainthood that he had divined from the obscure allusions of the saints of old – received from the Unseen – that a light would appear in the East that would scatter the darkness of innovation. He was certain of this. I have long awaited the coming of the light, and I am awaiting it. But flowers appear in the spring and the ground has to be prepared for such sacred flowers. I understood that with this service of ours we are preparing the ground for those luminous people. So to proclaim the divine favours which pertain not to us but to the lights called the Words should lead not to pride or conceit but to praise and thanks, and to recounting the divine bounties.
Sixth Reason: Dominical favours, which are an immediate reward for our serving the Qur’an by means of the Words, and an encouragement, are a success granted by God. And success should be made known. If they surpass success, they become a divine bestowal. To make known divine bestowal infers thanks. If they surpass that too, they become wonders of the Qur’an with no interference on the part of our wills; we have merely manifested them. It is harmless to make known wonders of this sort, which