ful. Now, with the briefest of indications, I shall speak of that very extensive and lengthy truth. The Hadith, "God created man in the form of the Most Merciful" [^51] is both a condensed, comprehensive statement, and a figurative (müteşâbih) Hadith. When reading the Hulâsatü'l-Hulâsa (Ar. Khulāṣat al-Khulāṣa) and the Jaushan al-Kabir, a truly significant and universal point concerning it became clear to my heart. So in order not to lose that strange and beautiful point, I jotted down signs and allusions to it between the Seventeenth Degree of the Hulâsatü'l-Hulâsa, which is the testimony of the Qur'an's tongue, and the Eighteenth, which is the testimony of the universe's tongue:

[^51]:Bukhārī, Isti'dhān, 1; Muslim, Birr, 115; Janna, 28; Musnad, ii, 244, 251, 315, 323, 434, 463, 519. [Tr.]

There is no God but God, the Necessarily Existent, the One, the Unique, through the tongue of the truth of humanity, through the words of its life and senses and disposition, and its being a measure and standard, and its humanness; and through the words of humanity's attributes and morality and vicegerency, and being index-like, and the nature of its 'I', and through the words of its comprehensive creation and diverse forms of worship and its multiple needs and its boundless poverty, impotence, and faultiness, and its unlimited potentialities.

Here, I am going to explain and elucidate this brief indication, again very briefly and in code. You can add it as an addendum to the Hulâsatü'l-Hulâsa.

Yes, when I read the Hulâsatü'l-Hulâsa, I see the vast universe as a circle for the remembrance of God. But since the tongue of each realm of beings is very extensive, to comprehend the divine names and attributes at the degree of the knowledge of certainty the intellect has to work excessively by way of reflective thought. Only then does it see them completely. But when the intellect considers the human reality, it confirms those names and attributes in that reality's comprehensive measure, tiny map, tiny true sample, tiny sensitive balance, and responsive egoism, with a conscience, assurance and belief which are utterly certain, direct, and assented to mentally. It acquires certain affirmative belief most easily, in its mirror that is present with it, without needing a lengthy journeying in thought; it comprehends a true meaning of "God created man in the form of the Most Merciful." Because, since form is precluded in respect of Almighty God, what is meant by form (T. suret; Ar. ṣūra) is character, morality, and attributes.