Ninth Principle

Ninth Principle: You will understand, also, that so Compassionate a Being will bestow upon His choice servants in that world such gifts as no eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard, nor has their image crossed the heart of any man.[^22] In this we believe.

[^22]:Bukhārī, Bad’ al-Khalq, 8; Tafsīr al-Sūra, 32:1; Tawḥīd, 35; Muslim, Īmān, 312; Janna, 2-5; Tirmidhī, Tafsīr al-Sūra, 32:2; 56:1; Ibn Māja, Zuhd, 39.

Seventh Truth

SEVENTH TRUTH

The Gate of Protection and Preservation,

the Manifestation of the Names of Preserver and Guardian

Is it at all possible that God’s attribute of Preserver, which protects all things with the utmost order and balance – things in the heavens and on the earth, on dry land and in the ocean, dry and wet, large and small, commonplace and exalted – and as it were, sifts their results by way of accounting – is it at all possible that this attribute should permit the deeds and acts of man, man who has been given the lofty disposition of humanity, the rank of the supreme vicegerency, and the duty of bearing the Supreme Trust, not to be recorded, not to be passed through the sieve of accounting, not to be weighed in the balance of justice, not to be punished or rewarded fittingly, even though his acts and deeds closely pertain to God’s universal dominicality? No, it is not in any way possible!

Yes, the Being that administers this cosmos preserves all things in order and balance. Order and balance are the manifestation of knowledge and wisdom, of will and power. For we see that the substance of every created object is fashioned in well-ordered and symmetrical fashion. Not only is each of the forms it changes throughout its life well-ordered, but the totality of these forms is also marked by the same orderliness. We see, too, that the Glorious Preserver preserves many forms of all things the life of which comes to an end when they have performed their function and which depart from the Manifest World, in the memories of men, that are like a kind of preserved tablet,[^23] or in a form of archetypal mirror. He also writes and inscribes a brief history of their life in a seed, that is like the result and outcome of the whole. Thus He causes all things to be preserved in mirrors pertaining to both the outer and inner worlds. The memory of man, the fruit of the tree, the kernel of the fruit, the seed of the flower – all of these demonstrate the universality and comprehensiveness of the law of preservation.

[^23]:See, the footnote to the Seventh Aspect above.

Do you not see that all the flowers and fruits of the vast spring, the