certain invalid souls have confined the lands of knowledge
within the wall of self and passion, and clouded them with ignorance and
blindness, and have been veiled from the light of the mystic sun and the
mysteries of the Eternal Beloved; they have strayed afar from the jewelled
wisdom of the lucid Faith of the Lord of Messengers, have been shut out of
the sanctuary of the All-Beauteous One, and banished from the Ka'bih(35)
of splendor. Such is the worth of the people of this age!

And if a nightingale(36) soar upward from the clay of self and dwell in
the rose bower of the heart, and in Arabian melodies and sweet Iranian
songs recount the mysteries of God--a single word of which quickeneth to
fresh, new life the bodies of the dead, and bestoweth the Holy Spirit upon
the moldering bones of this existence--thou wilt behold a thousand claws of
envy, a myriad beaks of rancor hunting after Him and with all their power
intent upon His death.

Yea, to the beetle a sweet fragrance seemeth foul, and to the man sick of
a rheum a pleasant perfume is as naught. Wherefore, it hath been said for
the guidance of the ignorant:

Cleanse thou the rheum from out thine head
And breathe the breath of God instead.(37)

In sum, the differences in objects have now been made plain. Thus when the
wayfarer gazeth only upon the place of appearance--that is, when he seeth
only the many-colored globes--he beholdeth yellow and red and white; hence
it is that conflict hath prevailed among the creatures, and a darksome
dust from limited souls hath hid the world. And some do gaze upon the
effulgence of the light; and some have drunk of the wine of oneness and
these see nothing but the sun itself.

Thus, for that they move on these three differing planes, the
understanding and the words of the wayfarers have differed; and hence the
sign of conflict doth continually appear on earth. For some there are who
dwell upon the plane of oneness and speak of that world, and some inhabit
the realms of limitation, and some the grades of self, while others are
completely veiled. Thus do the ignorant people of the day, who have no
portion of the radiance of Divine Beauty, make certain claims, and in
every age and cycle inflict on the people of the sea of oneness what they
themselves deserve. "Should God punish men for their perverse doings, He
would not leave on earth a moving thing! But to an appointed term doth He
respite them...."(38)

O My Brother! A p