sword-belt is long" and "he has lots of ashes." If someone says this, meaning that the man is tall and generous, it is true even if he has no sword or ashes. If you wish take note now of allegory and parables: you will see that by virtue of the value and power gained from fame, they become worthy of being ambassadors between people's minds and in the exchange of ideas. In fact, even such veracious authors and exacting sages as the author of the Mathnawī [^16] and Sa'di Shirazi [^17] were never contested because they used parables. If the meaning of this is now clear to you and has been lit up, light your candle from it and betake yourself to the nooks of stories and tales. For what is valid in the part may sometimes be valid in the whole.

[^16]:Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn al-Rūmī (d. 672/1273), renowned founder of the Mevlevi Order, Sufi, scholar, poet, and author of the Mathnawi. He was born in Balkh and died in Konya.

[^17]:Sa'dī Shirāzī (d. 691/1292). The great Persian poet and literary genius, and author of the didactic works, Bustān and Gulistān.

Reminder

A rule concerning the obscurities and allegorical verses of the Qur'an will be discussed in the Third Article, but because of the context we are going to mention it very briefly here. It is like this: the main purpose of the Wise Book is the guidance of the mass of people, who form the majority. For the elite can profit from the common people's way, but the common people cannot properly understand a discussion addressed to the elite. The greater part of the mass of people are uneducated (avam), and the uneducated cannot disengage themselves from their imaginings and their habitual modes of thought and see the naked, unadorned truth or purely abstract ideas. To allow them to see them, abstract ideas have to be presented in a dress familiar to them, in order to accustom their minds to them. They then may see and understand the abstract ideas by beholding them beyond those imaginary forms. In which case, pure truth will be clothed in something familiar to them. But attention should not be fastened on the form or style. It is because of this that included in the styles of Arabic used in the Qur'an of Miracu-