(1) "God has seen many faults done by me; Yea, how many sins and faults of mine has He seen, Nevertheless of His mercy He punishes me not." God Almighty spake in the ear of Shu'aib, Addressing him with an inner voice in answer thereto, "Why hast thou said I have sinned so much, And God of His mercy has not punished my sins?" Thou sayest the very reverse of the truth, O fool! Wandering from the way and lost in the desert! How many times do I smite thee, and thou knowest not?

A king was enraged against one of his courtiers, and drew his sword to slay him. The bystanders were all afraid to interfere, with the exception of one who boldly threw himself at the king's feet and begged him to spare the offender. The king at once stayed his hand, and laid down his sword, saying, "As you have interceded for him, I would gladly pardon him, even if he had acted as a very demon. I cannot refuse your entreaties, because they are the same as my own. In reality, it is not you who make these entreaties for him, but I who make them through your mouth. I am the real actor in this matter and you are only my agent. Remember the text, 'You shot not when you shot;' you are, as it were, the foam, and I the mighty ocean beneath it. The mercy you show to this offender is really shown by me, the king." The offender was accordingly released and went his way; but, strange to say, he showed no gratitude to his protector, but, on the contrary, omitted to greet him when he met him, and in other ways refused to recognize the favor he had received from him. This behavior excited remark, and people questioned him as to the cause of his ingratitude to his benefactor. He replied, "I had offered up my life to the king when this man intervened. It was a moment when, according to the tradition, 'I was with God in such a manner that neither prophet nor angel found entrance along with me,' and this man intruded between us. I desired no mercy save the king's blows; I sought no shelter save the king. If the king had cut off my head he would have given me eternal life in return for it. My duty is to sacrifice my life; it is the king's prerogative to give life. The night which is made dark as pitch by the king scorns the brightness of the brightest festal day. He who beholds the king is exalted above all thoughts of mercy and vengeance. Of a man raised to this exalted state no description is possible in this world, for he is hidden in God, and words like 'mercy' and 'vengeance' only express men's partial and weak views of the matter. It is true 'God taught Adam the names of all things,' but that means the real qualities of things, and not such names as ordinary men use, clad in the dress of human speech. The words and expressions we use have merely a relative truth, and do not unfold absolute truth." He illustrates this by the reply made to the angel Gabriel by Abraham when he was cast into the fire by Nimrod. Gabriel asked him if he could assist him, and Abraham answered, "No! I have no need of your help." When one has attained union with God he has no need of intermediaries. Prophets and apostles are needed as links to connect ordinary men with God, but he who hears the "inner voice" within him has no need to listen to outward words, even of apostles. Although that intercessor is himself dwelling in God, yet my state is higher and more lovely than his. Though he is God's agent, yet I desire not his intercession to save me from evil sent me by God, for evil at God's hand seems to me good. What seems mercy and kindness to the vulgar seems wrath and vengeance to God-intoxicated saints. God's severity and chastisements serve to exalt his saints, though they make the vulgar more ungodly than before, even as the water of the Nile was pure water to the Israelites, but blood to the Egyptians.

A voice came from heaven to Moses, saying, "O Moses why didst thou not visit me when I was sick?" Moses inquired the meaning of this dark saying, and the answer was, "When one of God's saints is sick, God regards his sickness as His own; and, therefore, he who desires to hold companionship with God must not forsake the saints." This is illustrated by a story of a gardener who saw three friends walking in his garden, and making free with his fruit. Knowing he could not prevail against them while they remained united, he contrived by tricks to separate them, and then proceeded to chastise them one by one. And this caused one of them to make the reflection that he had acted very foolishly in deserting his friends.

(31) They have no tenderness or gentleness or amity, Love and tenderness are qualities of humanity, Woman is a ray of God, not a mere mistress, The Creator's self, as it were, not a mere creature! Moses and Pharaoh, alike doers of God's will, Verily, both Moses and Pharaoh walked in the right way, Though seemingly the one did so, and the other not. By day Moses wept before God, At midnight Pharaoh lifted up his cry, Saying, "What a yoke is this upon my neck, O God!

(85) And release you from danger and lead you to your home.' Like a prophet he warns you of hidden danger, For a prophet sees what worldlings cannot see." Mercy inclines the good to devotion, but vengeance the bad. If you do a kindness to a generous man, 'tis fitting, When you treat a base man with scorn and contumely, Infidels when enjoying prosperity do wrong, When they are in hell they cry, "O our Lord!" For base men are purified when they suffer evil, Wherefore the mosque of their devotion is hell,

Then follows a very long account of the dealings of Moses, an incarnation of true reason, with Pharaoh, the exponent of mere opinion or illusion. It begins with a long discussion between Moses and Pharaoh. Moses tells Pharaoh that both of them alike owe their bodies to earth and their souls to God, and that God is their only lord. Pharaoh replies that he is lord of Moses, and chides Moses for his want of gratitude to himself for nurturing him in his childhood. Moses replies that he recognizes no lord but God, and reminds Pharaoh how he had tried to kill him in his infancy. Pharaoh complains that he is made of no account by Moses, and Moses retorts that in order to cultivate a waste field it is necessary to break up the soil; and in order to make a good garment, the stuff must first be cut up; and in order to make bread, the wheat must first be ground in the mill, and so on. The best return he can make to Pharaoh for his hospitality to him in his infancy is to set him free from his lust-engendered illusions, like a fish from the fish-hook which has caught him. Pharaoh then twits Moses with his sorceries in changing his staff into a serpent, and thereby beguiling the people. Moses replies that all this was accomplished not by sorcery, like that of Pharaoh's own magicians, but by the power of God, though Pharaoh could not see it, owing to his want of perception of divine things. The ear and the nose cannot see beautiful objects, but only the eye, and similarly the sensual eye, blinded by lust, is impotent to behold spiritual truth. On the other hand, men of spiritual insight, whose vision is purged from lust, become as it were all eyes, and no longer see double, but only the One sole real Being. Man's body, it is true, is formed of earth, but by discipline and contrition it may be made to reflect spiritual verities, even as coarse and hard iron may be polished into a steel mirror. Pharaoh ought to cleanse the rust of evil-doing from his soul, and then he would be able to see the spiritual truths which Moses was displaying before him. The door of repentance is always open. Moses then promised that if Pharaoh would obey one admonition he should receive in return four advantages. Pharaoh was tempted by this promise, and asked what the admonition was. Moses answered that it was this, that Pharaoh should confess that there is no God except the One Creator of all things in heaven and on earth. Pharaoh then prayed him to expound the four advantages he had promised, saying that possibly they might cure him of infidelity, and cause him to become a vessel of mercy, instead of one of wrath. Moses then explained that they were as follows:

(1) Moses asks the Almighty, "Why hast Thou made men to destroy them?" Moses said, "O Lord of the day of account, Thou makest forms; wherefore, then, destroyest Thou them? Thou makest charming forms, both men and women; Wherefore, then, dost Thou lay them waste?" God answered, "I know that this query of thine Otherwise I should chastise and punish thee; Yea, I should rebuke thee for this question. But thou seekest to discover in my actions The ruling principle and the eternal mystery, In order to inform the people thereof, And to make 'ripe' every 'raw' person.

(41) And become cognizant of the meaning of thy ejaculations, And say, 'Ah! my prayers are as defective as my being; O requite me good for evil!'" Moses questions God as to the reason of Moses said, "O beneficent Creator, With whom a moment's remembrance is as long ages, I see Thy plan distorted in this world of earth and water; My heart, like the angel's, feels a difficulty thereat. With what object hast thou framed this plan, And sowed therein the seeds of evil?

(1) A voice came from God to Moses, "Why hast thou sent my servant away? Thou hast come to draw men to union with me, So far as possible, engage not in dissevering; 'The thing most repugnant to me is divorce.' To each person have I allotted peculiar forms, What is praiseworthy in thee is blameable in him, What is good in him is bad in thee, I am exempt from all purity and impurity, I created not men to gain a profit from them,

(32) merciful to each other." The Prophet once asked God and said. "O Lord, who are Thy lovers?" and the answer came, "Those who cleave to Me as a child to its mother, take refuge in the remembrance of Me as a bird seeks the shelter of its nest, and are as angry at the sight of sin as an angry lion who fears nothing."

(41) To utter the words, 'Come to the asylum!'" The wrath of the Prophet boiled up, and he said (Uttering one or two secrets from the fount of grace), "O base ones, in God's sight the 'Ho!' of Bilal Is better than a hundred 'Come hithers' and ejaculations. Ah! excite not a tumult, lest I tell forth openly If ye keep not your breath sweet in prayer, Go, desire a prayer from the Brethren of Purity!" For this cause spake God to Moses, At the time he was asking aid in prayer,

(11) In you too has God created infant needs; When they cry out, their milk is brought to them; God said, "Call on God;" continue crying, Moses said to one of those full of vain imaginations, "O malevolent one, through error and heresy You entertain a hundred doubts as to my prophethood, Notwithstanding these proofs, and my holy character. You have seen thousands of miracles done by me, Through doubts and evil thoughts you are in a strait, I brought the host out of the Red Sea before all men,

(101) O Cain! look but upon thy Kingdom, and consider what befell thy great [grand] Father Cain, who built this Kingdom, who cried out, Woe is me! my Sins are greater than can be forgiven me, when he saw himself (with his Kingdom) to be without God, in the Abyss of Hell. And if the loving Word of God had not recalled it, (when it said, No; Whosoever killeth Cain, it shall be avenged sevenfold; and God made a Mark upon him, that none that met with him should kill him) he had been quite lost. Those are wonderful Words, Moses's Face is so very much under the Vail; for the Vail is rightly the Cainish Church, which covers the Kingdom of Christ.

(71) That person was sad at heart and hung his head, And then beheld Khizr present before him in a vision, Who said to him, "Ah! thou hast ceased to call on God, Wherefore repentest thou of calling upon Him?" The man said, "The answer 'Here am I' came not, Wherefore I fear that I am repulsed from the door." Khizr replied to him, "God has given me this command; Go to him and say, 'O much-tried one, Did not I engage thee to do my service? Did not I engage thee to call upon me?

(151) I knew of myself what ye thought, But I desired that ye should speak it; As this boasting of yours is very improper, So shall my mercy be shown to prevail over my wrath: O angels, in order to show forth that prevailing, I inspired that pretension to cavil and doubt; If you say your say, and I forbear to punish you, My mercy equals that of a hundred fathers and mothers; Their mercy is as the foam of the sea of my mercy; It is mere foam of waves, but the sea abides ever!

(51) "O Moses! desire protection of me With a mouth that thou hast not sinned withal." Moses answered, "I possess not such a mouth." God said, "Call upon me with another mouth! Act so that all thy mouths When thou hast sinned with one mouth, With thy other mouth cry, 'O Allah!' Or else cleanse thy own mouth, Calling on God is pure, and when purity approaches, Contraries flee away from contraries;

(1) In this perfection it is possible for man and woman equally to share. It is not only Moses, then, that heard from God, "I have spoken to thee once, and twice, saying, I have seen this people, and lo, it is stiff-necked. Suffer me to exterminate them, and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make thee into a great and wonderful nation much greater than this;" who answers not regarding himself, but the common salvation: "By no means, O Lord; forgive this people their sin, or blot me out of the book of the living." How great was his perfection, in wishing to die together with the people, rather than be saved alone!

Mahmud, the celebrated king of Ghazni, had a favorite named Ayaz, who was greatly envied by the other courtiers. One day they came to the king and informed him that Ayaz was in the habit of retiring to a secret chamber, and locking himself in, and that they suspected he had there concealed coin stolen from the treasury, or else wine and forbidden drink. The fact was, that Ayaz had placed in that chamber his old shoes and the ragged dress which he used to wear before the king had promoted him to honor, and used to retire there every day and wear them for a time, in order to remind himself of his lowly origin, and to prevent himself from being puffed up with pride. This he did in accordance with the text, "Let man reflect out of what he was created." The intoxication of the present life puffs up many with false pride, even as Iblis, who refused to worship Adam, saying, "Who is Adam, that he should be lord over me?" This he said because he was one of the Jinn, who are all created of fire. Adam, on the other hand, confessed his own vileness, saying, "Thou hast formed me out of clay." The king was well assured of the fidelity of Ayaz; but in order to confute those who suspected him, he ordered them to go by night and break open that chamber and bring away all the treasure and other things hidden in it. It is a characteristic of evildoers to think evil of the saints, because they judge of their conduct by the light of their own evil natures, as the crooked foot makes a crooked footprint, and as the spider sees things distorted through the web he has spun himself The hug's conduct in this did not betoken any diminution of his love for Ayaz, because lover and beloved are always as ono soul, though they may be opposed to outward view. Accordingly the courtiers proceeded to the chamber of Ayaz at night, and broke open the door, and searched the floor and the walls, but found only the old shoes and the ragged dress. They then returned to the king discomfited and shamefaced, even as the wicked who have slandered the saints will be on the day of judgment, according to the text, "On the resurrection day thou shalt see those who have lied of God with their faces black." Then they besought the king to pardon their offence, but he refused, saying that their offence had been committed against Ayaz, and that he would leave it to Ayaz to decide whether they should be punished or pardoned. If Ayaz showed mercy it would be well; and if he punished it would be well also, for "the law of retaliation is the security for life." Only he enjoined him to pronounce his sentence without delay, because "Waiting is punishment."

(41) By the law of retaliation blood sleeps not after death; Say not, "I shall die and obtain pardon." The retaliation of this world is illusive, Therefore God calls the world "a pastime and a sport," Here punishment is as the repression of quarrels, But this discourse is endless, O Moses, Go and leave these asses to their grazing! Let them fatten themselves with the food they love, Zu'l Qarnain at Mount Qaf. Zu'l Qarnain journeyed to Mount Qaf;

(2) Therefore now we can speak or write of nothing else but of his Wonders; for we have a great Example of them in Cain, when the Kingdom of the fierce Wrath (after his Murder) awaked in him, and would have devoured him, that God came to help him; when the divine Justice (in his Conscience) sentenced him to Death, then the divine Answer spoke against it, [saying] No: Whosoever slayeth Cain, it shall be avenged sevenfold; by which Speech the fierce Vengeance of the Abyss of Hell was driven away from him, so that Cain did not despair; and As the Thoughts in the Mind flow or spring up. though he was gone forth from God, yet the Kingdom of Heaven stood towards him, he might turn, and enter into Repentance. God had not yet quite rejected him; but his malicious, murderous, and false Confidence he accursed, and would not nbe therein.