fall to the level of Musaylima the Liar and his ridiculous utterances. For the latter was the herald of falsehood, evil, and lies, and their embodiment. The Companions’ characters demanded that they looked to the rank of the perfections, those of God’s Beloved (UWBP) at the highest of the high, for he was the herald and embodiment of truthfulness, good, and right, and that with all their strength and endeavour they hastened in that way.

For example, it sometimes happens that in the market of human civilization and shop of social life, everyone flees in disgust from the fearsome results and ugly consequences of certain things, as from deadly poison, let alone buying them, while the beautiful results and valuable consequences of other things and of immaterial goods attract the general view and demand to themselves like a universal panacea and a sparkling brilliant; everyone tries their utmost to buy them. In just the same way, in the Era of Bliss in the market of human social life, since goods like lying, evil, and unbelief gave rise to such results as everlasting misery and base buffoons like Musaylima the Liar, it is certain and clear that the Companions, who were captivated by elevated characteristics and love of exalted things, would flee from them with loathing as from fatal poison. And of a necessity, the Companions, with their pure natures and praiseworthy characteristics, would, with all their strength, emotions, and faculties, be desirous of and customers for truth, truthfulness and belief, which yielded the results of eternal happiness and luminous fruits such as God’s Noble Messenger (UWBP), as though for the most effective panacea and precious diamond. However, after that time, the distance between truthfulness and lying gradually and by degrees diminished, until now they have become shoulder to shoulder. They have begun to be sold together in the same shop, and social morality has become corrupted. The propaganda of politics has caused greater demand for lying. At a time the awesome ugliness of lying has begun to be concealed and the shining beauty of truthfulness has begun not to be apparent, who can attain to the strength, constancy, and taqwa of the Companions in the matters of justice, truthfulness, exaltedness, and right, or surpass their level? I shall explain something which occurred to me which will illuminate this to a degree. It was like this:

One time, it occurred to me, why couldn’t wondrous persons like Muhyiddin al-‘Arabi attain to the levels of the Companions? Then, while saying, “Glory be to my Sustainer, the Most High” during the prayers, the phrase’s meaning was unfolded to me. Not its complete meaning, but its reality in part became apparent to me. I said in my heart: “If only I could perform one of the five daily prayers in the same way as this phrase; it would be better than a year’s worship.” After the prayers I understood that