THE FIFTY-EIGHTH DISCOURSE On looking away from all other directions, and seeking the direction of Allah’s favor

Be blind to all sides and do not open your eyes to anything of them. So long as you look at any one of them, the side of the favour of God, the Mighty, the Glorious, and of His nearness, will not be opened to you. So close all the sides with your realisation of the unity of God and with the effacement of your self, together with your fading away and your own effacement and that of your knowledge. Then will be opened to the eye of your heart the side of God, the Mighty, the Great, and you will see it with the two eyes of your heart when it comes with the rays of the light of your heart and your faith and your settled conviction. At that time there will appear a light from your inside which will manifest itself on your outside in the manner of the light of a lamp which on a dark night, appears through its orifices and loopholes and the outside of the house becomes illuminated by the light of the inside. So the self and the organs of the body will feel at ease with the promise of God and His gift, to the exclusion of the gifts of others besides Him and of promise of others besides Him. So have mercy on your own self and do not be unjust to it, and do not throw it in the darkness of your ignorance and your foolishness, so as to look at the sides of creation and of might, of power and of acquisition and of means, and so as to rely on them; for if you do that all the sides will be closed against you and the side of the favour of God will not be opened to you by way of chastisement and retribution, and on account of your polytheism in looking up, to something besides Him. So when you have realised His unity and looked at His favour, and placed your hopes on Him to the exclusion of all others, and have made yourself blind of all except Him, He will make you close and near to Himself and will show His mercy to you and will nourish you and feed you and give you drink and give you medicine, and make you comfortable and bestow gifts on you and make you opulent and help you and will make you a ruler, and make you vanish from the creation and from your own self and make you disappear, so that after this you will see neither your poverty nor your affluence.