Chapter VI: Love, Longing, Contentment
acquaintance of the first group is only with God and the preliminary acquaintance of the second group can be gained by their good works and then they are raised up to God. God says with regard to the first group: Is not your Lord sufficient that He is a witness over everything? God says: God testifies that there is no deity but God. A certain sage was asked: How have you recognized your Lord? He said: I have recognized my Lord through the help of my Lord . Had not there been my Lord, I could not have recognized Him. With regard to the second group the following verse says: I will show them My signs in the horizon and in themselves, till it becomes clear to them that He is the truth. God says: Do they not see the sovereignty of heaven and earth? God says: Say, look to what is in heaven and earth? God says: 'He created the seven heavens in stages. You will find no incongruity in the creations of the Merciful. Turn your look again. Do you see any incongruity therein? Then turn you look again, your look will return to you confused.' This mode is easy for majority of the people and more spacious for the travellers of the path of religion.
The easier way is to ponder over the wonderful creation of God. The lowest creation is earth and what is therein. It is in relation to heaven and angels and other beings, If you see the earth in comparisons to a body, you will see the earth very very big. The sun appears to be small but still it is 160 times greater than the planet of the earth. Now look to smallness of the earth in relation to the sun. The sun is attached to the open horizon. Look to the smallness of the sun in relation to the horizon. It is not comparable even in relation to the vastness of the horizon. The seat of the sun is in the fourth heaven. This fourth heaven is very small in comparison with higher heavens. The seventh heaven lies before the Throne is such a way that a stone lies is it were in a vast field. The Throne itself lies likewise in the vast Arsh. Now look at the earth how small it is in comparison with the sun, heavens, Throne and Arsh. In the earth again, the landed portion is very small in comparison with the area of oceans, seas and watery portions. The Prophet said: The land hemisphere in the seas is like a ball in the land hemisphere. The earth is therefore like as island in the area of water.
Then look to man made of earth. Man is only a clot of earth. Look to other animals also. How small they are in comparison
266 LOVE AND ATTACHMENT Vol-IV