Aslam

Similarly soul has got a nature which is termed divine light.
God says : He whose breast God has expanded for Islam remains upon divine light. Some say that it is intellect, some say it is secret insight some say it is light of certainty of faith. There is no meaning of engagement with these names. Soul can be separated from its special attributes which is outside the five senses and unimaginable, as the creation of the world is unimaginable. The nature of that soul is termed by us as intellect by which man is differentiated from beasts and by which spiritual experience can be gained. So the nature of intellect is Marfat or spiritual knowledge of God. In this there lies its pleasure just as good sight is the pleasure of eye and sweet sound is the pleasure of ear.

The pleasure which is found in spiritual knowledge is not found in the knowledge of other things. Spiritual knowledge includes besides knowledge of God knowledge of the reign of angels and heaven and earth. The more is the honour of the acquainted thing the more is the taste and pleasure. A man gets great pleasure in getting the secret information of an emperor.
God is the most high and the most honorable. So the pleasure gained by the pursuit of His attributes is the greatest. So divine knowledge is the best of all kinds of knowledge. It is thus proved that the best and highest pleasure can be obtained by the pursuit of knowledge relating to God and His attributes. It is many times more than the pleasure gained by satisfaction of lust or greed by the sense organs.

Pleasure differs in respect of difference of objects. For- instance there is difference in the pleasure in the cohabitation

258 LOVE AND ATTACHMENT Vol-IV