present in human works nor in the products of the thought of the eminent among humankind. It is to be found nowhere in the works of the saints who have penetrated to the inner face of beings, which looks to their Creator, nor in the books of the Ishraqiyyun, who have passed to the inward, hidden meaning of things, nor in the knowledge of the spiritual who have penetrated the World of the Unseen. It is as if each group adheres to only one or two branches of the mighty tree of reality, as though they have practised a division of labour; each busies itself with only the fruit or the leaves. They either know nothing of the others, or do not concern themselves with them.

Absolute reality cannot be comprehended by restricted views. To comprehend it, a universal view like that of the Qur’an is necessary. For sure others are instructed by the Qur’an, but with their particular intelligences they can see completely only one or two sides of universal reality, and are preoccupied with them, and imprisoned in them. Due to either excess or negligence they spoil the balance of reality and mar its proportion and harmony. This truth is explained with an unusual comparison in the Second Branch of the Twenty-Fourth Word, and now we shall point to the matter with another comparison.

For example, let us suppose there is some treasure under the sea, full of innumerable jewels of various kinds. Divers are plunging the depths to search for the treasure’s jewels. Since their eyes are closed, they understand what is there through the dexterous use of their hands. A longish diamond comes into the hand of one of them. The diver assumes that the whole treasure consists of a long, pillar-like diamond. When he hears of other jewels from his companions, he imagines that they are subsidiary to the diamond he has found, and are facets and embellishments of it. Into the hand of another passes a round ruby, while another finds a square piece of amber, and so on; each of them believes that the jewel he perceives with his hand is the essential, major part of the treasure, and supposes that the things about which he hears are additional parts and details of it. The balance of the truths is thus spoilt, and the mutual proportion too is marred. The colour of many truths changes; in order to see the true colour of reality they are obliged to resort to forced interpretation and elaborate explanations. Sometimes even they go as far as denial and rejection. Anyone who studies the books of the Ishraqiyyun philosophers and the works of the Sufis who rely on illuminations and visions without weighing them on the scales of the Sunna, will doubtless confirm this statement of ours. That is to say, although their works concern truths similar to those of the Qur’an and are taken from the Qur’an’s teachings, because they are not the