The magnificent sun also is a tiny dewdrop; the pupil of its eye is a light received from the Sun of Power; it is the moon to that power.

The heavens are an ocean; at the breath of the Most Merciful, droplets undulate in the creases of its frowns, which are the stars and suns.

Power was manifested, it scattered coruscating gleams on those droplets. Every sun a droplet, every star a dewdrop, each the likeness of a flash.

The drop-like sun is a tiny reflection of that manifestation’s effulgence. It makes its burnished soul pearl-like to that glass gleam. The dewdrop stars shine

In its delicate eye, it gives a place to the flash, the flash becomes a lamp, its eye becomes glass, its lamp is lit up.

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If You Have Any Qualities, They Should Remain in the Dust of Concealment, So They May Flourish

If You Have Any Qualities, They Should Remain in the

Dust of Concealment, So They May Flourish

O man of famous quality! Don’t be oppressive by displaying your qualities; if they remain in concealment, you’ll be a source of bounty and blessing for your brothers.

If you appear beneath all your brothers, with the possibility of its being you, it will attract respect to each of them.

But if you emerge from concealment and display yourself, although when beneath them you were revered, above, you become a tyrant. There you were a sun, here you cast shadows.

You belittle your brothers and lose them their respect. That means, to display one’s qualities and one’s individuality is doubly tyrannical. If it is thus, that is how you will appear.

So what place remains for lying artificiality and hypocrisy, the personality, and fame? This is a profound mystery, springing from divine wisdom and perfect order.

An exceptional person draws the veil of concealment over himself within his species or group, thus affording it value in the view of others, and making it appreciated.

Examples for you: saints among mankind, the appointed hour within a lifetime, are unknown, indefinite. Concealed within Friday is the hour prayers are accepted. Hidden in Ramadan is the Night of Power. Concealed in the most beautiful names is the elixir of the greatest name.

It is their indefiniteness that makes these examples awesome, this mystery, beautiful; they are proved through concealment.