GhazzaWs Alchemy of Happiness. 



61 



existed in perfection. The Lord in bestowing these three 

 properties upon certain individuals, designates them to 

 exhort the nations and to be prophets of the people. To 

 every man there is given a certain portion of each one 

 of these peculiarities, to serve as a pattern. 



Man cannot comprehend states of being which transcend 

 his own nature. Hence none but the great God himself 

 can comprehend God, as we have shown in our Commen- 

 tary upon the " Names of God." So also the prophets can- 

 not be comprehended by any but the prophets themselves. 

 No person, in short, can understand any individual who 

 belongs to a scale of rank above him. It is possible that 

 there is a peculiarity in prophets, of which no pattern or 

 model is found in other persons, and therefore, we are in- 

 capable of understanding them. If we knew not what a 

 vision is, and an individual should say to us, that a man, 

 at a moment when he can neither move, see or hear, can 

 perceive events which are to occur at a future period, and 

 yet might not be able to perceive the same while walking, 

 listening or looking, we should not in any wise be able to 

 persuade ourselves of the truth of it, as God says in his 

 Holy word : " They treat as a lie that which they cannot 

 comprehend with their knowledge." 1 And you, do you 

 not see that he who comes blind into the world, does not 

 understand the pleasure which is derived from seeing? 

 Let us not regard, therefore, as impossible all those states 

 ascribed to the prophets which we cannot understand : for 

 they are the accepted and praiseworthy servants of God. 



From all which has been said, Seeker after the divine 

 mysteries, thou hast learned something of the dignity of 

 the nature of man, and that the way of the Mystics is holy 

 and honorable. But I have heard that the Mystics say 

 that external knowledge is a veil upon the way to God, and 



l B., 10: 40. 



