as a result of such emotions, through meanings like loving and feeling proud, pleased, happy and cheerful he acts as a mirror to attributes of that sort, on condition they are suitable and worthy for the sacredness and absolute self-sufficiency of the Most Pure and Holy Essence.
Also, through his comprehensive life, man is an instrument that recognizes and measures the attributes and qualities of the All-Glorious One, and is an index of the manifestation of His names, and a conscious mirror, and so on, he acts as a mirror to the Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One in many respects. Man is also a unit of measurement, an index, a scale, and a balance to the truths of the universe.
For example, extremely decisive evidence for the existence of the Preserved Tablet in the universe and an example of it is man’s faculty of memory. And a decisive evidence of the existence of the World of Similitudes and an example of it is man’s faculty of imagination. And evidence for the existence of spirit beings in the universe and an example of them are the powers and subtle faculties in man.1 And so on. In small measure man may display almost visibly the truths of belief present in the universe.
Man performs many important functions like those mentioned above. He is a mirror to enduring beauty. He is the place of manifestation announcing sempiternal perfection. He is one needy and thankful for eternal mercy. Since beauty, perfection, and mercy are everlasting and eternal, it is surely necessary and inevitable that man, who is the desirous mirror to enduring beauty, the enraptured herald of everlasting perfection, and thankful and needy for eternal mercy, will go to an everlasting realm to remain there permanently, that he will go to eternity to accompany those eternal qualities, and will accompany that eternal Beauty, everlasting Perfection, and ever-enduring Mercy for all eternity.
For an eternal beauty cannot be content with an impermanent admirer, a mortal lover. Since beauty loves itself, it desires love in return for its love. Transience and impermanence transform such love into enmity. If man was not going to go to eternity and remain there permanently, he would feel enmity rather than innate love for eternal beauty.
As is described in a footnote in the Tenth Word, one time a celebrated
The elements in man point to the elements in the universe, and his bones to its stones and rocks, his hair to its plants and trees, and the blood which flows in his body and the fluids which issue from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth to the spring and mineral waters of the earth. Similarly, man’s spirit points to the spirit world, his faculty of memory to the Preserved Tablet, and his power of imagination to the World of Similitudes, and so on. Each of his members and faculties points to a different world and bears decisive witness to their existence.