en created by Him--magnified be
His glory--and ordained to be the manifestations of His names and
attributes, stand, by virtue of the grace with which they have been
endowed, exalted beyond all proximity and remoteness, how much loftier
must be that Divine Essence that hath called them into being?...

Meditate on what the poet hath written: "Wonder not, if my Best-Beloved be
closer to me than mine own self; wonder at this, that I, despite such
nearness, should still be so far from Him."... Considering what God hath
revealed, that "We are closer to man than his life-vein," the poet hath,
in allusion to this verse, stated that, though the revelation of my
Best-Beloved hath so permeated my being that He is closer to me than my
life-vein, yet, notwithstanding my certitude of its reality and my
recognition of my station, I am still so far removed from Him. By this he
meaneth that his heart, which is the seat of the All-Merciful and the
throne wherein abideth the splendor of His revelation, is forgetful of its
Creator, hath strayed from His path, hath shut out itself from His glory,
and is stained with the defilement of earthly desires.

It should be remembered in this connection that the one true God is in
Himself exalted beyond and above proximity and remoteness. His reality
transcendeth such limitations. His relationship to His creatures knoweth
no degrees. That some are near and others are far is to be ascribed to the
manifestations themselves.

That the heart is the throne, in which the Revelation of God the
All-Merciful is centered, is attested by the holy utterances which We have
formerly revealed.

Among them is this saying: "Earth and heaven cannot contain Me; what can
alone contain Me is the heart of him that believeth in Me, and is faithful
to My Cause." How often hath the human heart, which is the recipient of
the light of God and the seat of the revelation of the All-Merciful, erred
from Him Who is the Source of that light and the Well Spring of that
revelation. It is the waywardness of the heart that removeth it far from
God, and condemneth it to remoteness from Him. Those hearts, however, that
are aware of His Presence, are close to Him, and are to be regarded as
having drawn nigh unto His throne.

Consider, moreover, how frequently doth man become forgetful of his own
self, whilst God remaineth, through His all-encompassing knowledge, aware
of His creature, and continueth to shed upon him the manifest radi