A Traveler's Narrative

page 69

"`So likewise He saith:

"`O child of the world! Many a morning hath the effulgence of My grace come unto thy place from the day-spring of the placeless, found thee on the couch of ease busied with other things, and returned like the lightning of the spirit to the bright abode of glory. And I, desiring not thy shame, declared it not in the retreats of nearness to the hosts of holiness.'

"`So likewise He saith:

"`O pretender to My friendship! In the morning the breeze of My grace passed by thee, and found thee sleeping on the bed of heedlessness, and wept over thy condition, and turned back.'

Finis.

"In the presence of the King's justice, therefore, the statement of an adversary ought not to be accepted as sufficient. And in the Furqán, which distinguisheth between truth and falsehood, He says, `O ye who believe, if there come unto you a sinner with a message, then discriminate, lest you fall upon a people in ignorance and on the morrow repent of what ye have done.' (31) And it hath come down in holy tradition, `Credit not the calumniator.' The matter hath been misapprehended by certain doctors, neither have they seen this Servant. But those persons who have met [Him] testify that this Servant hath not spoken contrary to that which God hath ordained in the Book, and recite this blessed verse: He saith (exalted is He) `Do ye disavow Us for aught save that We believe in God, and what hath been sent down unto Us, and what was sent down before?' (32)

"O King of the age! The eyes of these wanderers turn and gaze in the direction of the mercy of the Merciful One, and