he should not say “it is the only right way.” Or he should say, “It is good,” but he should not say “It is the only good way.”
78. If Paradise did not exist, Hell would not be torment.
79. As time grows older, the Qur’an grows younger; it signs become apparent. Just as light sometimes appears to be fire, so sometimes intense eloquence appears to be exaggeration.
80. Degrees in heat occur through the intervention of cold; the degrees of beauty occur through the intervention of ugliness. Pre-eternal power is essential, necessary, and inherent. Impotence cannot penetrate it; there can be no degrees it in; everything is equal in relation to it.
81. The sun’s image, which is the effulgence of its manifestation, displays the same identity on the surface of the sea and in all its droplets.
82. Life is a manifestation of unity; unity is also its consequence.
83. So long as it remains unknown who are the saints among men, which moment prayers are accepted on Fridays, which night in Ramadan is the Night of Power, and which among the divine names is the greatest name, other things retain their value and importance is given to them. Twenty years of doubtful life is preferable to a thousand years’ life the end of which is specified.
84. The consequence of sin in this world is evidence for its punishment in the next.
85. In the view of power, sustenance is as important as life. Power brings into existence, Divine Determining clothes in form, divine favour nurtures. Life is a summary, a specified product and is apparent. Sustenance is not a summary; it is gradual and widespread, and provokes thought. No one dies from hunger, for death occurs before the food stored up in the body in the form of fat is exhausted. That is to say, illness resulting from the giving up of habit kills, not lack of sustenance.
86. The licit sustenance of carniverous wild animals are the innumerable remains of dead animals; they both cleanse the face of the earth, and they find their food.
87. Before entering the mouth and disappearing down the throat, a mouthful worth one kurush and one worth ten are the same. There is only a few seconds’ difference in the mouth. To raise the price from one to ten in order to gratify the sense of taste, which is like an inspector and doorkeeper, is most prodigal and wasteful.
88. When pleasure calls, a person should say: “It is as though I ate it.” (Sanki yedim.) For a person who took it as his guiding principle, could