nothing save clear providence, and at every moment saith: “No defect canst
thou see in the creation of the God of Mercy: Repeat the gaze: Seest thou
a single flaw?”(21) He beholdeth justice in injustice, and in justice,
grace. In ignorance he findeth many a knowledge hidden, and in knowledge a
myriad wisdoms manifest. He breaketh the cage of the body and the
passions, and consorteth with the people of the immortal realm. He
mounteth on the ladders of inner truth and hasteneth to the heaven of
inner significance. He rideth in the ark of “we shall show them our signs
in the regions and in themselves,”(22) and journeyeth over the sea of
“until it become plain to them that (this Book) is the truth.”(23) And if
he meeteth with injustice he shall have patience, and if he cometh upon
wrath he shall manifest love.

There was once a lover who had sighed for long years in separation from
his beloved, and wasted in the fire of remoteness. From the rule of love,
his heart was empty of patience, and his body weary of his spirit; he
reckoned life without her as a mockery, and time consumed him away. How
many a day he found no rest in longing for her; how many a night the pain
of her kept him from sleep; his body was worn to a sigh, his heart’s wound
had turned him to a cry of sorrow. He had given a thousand lives for one
taste of the cup of her presence, but it availed him not. The doctors knew
no cure for him, and companions avoided his company; yea, physicians have
no medicine for one sick of love, unless the favor of the beloved one
deliver him.

At last, the tree of his longing yielded the fruit of despair, and the
fire of his hope fell to ashes. Then one night he could live no more, and
he went out of his house and made for the marketplace. On a sudden, a
watchman followed after him. He broke into a run, with the watchman
following; then other watchmen came together, and barred every passage to