GhazzaWs Alchemy of Happiness. 



77 



desire, love, misery and pleasure. Their existence is ad- 

 mitted, but their quantity and quality cannot be measured. 

 If you desire to learn the absolute truth about them, you 

 cherish a vain longing; and it is the same, if you desire to 

 know the absolute nature of voice, nutrition or hear- 

 ing. As that which is perceived by the eye has no re- 

 lation to voice, and as that which is perceived by the ear 

 has no relation to form, and as that which is perceived by 

 the sense of smelling has no relation to taste, so that the 

 one can be known by means of the other, in the same man- 

 ner that which is perceived through the medium of the 

 mind or of divine power, cannot be perceived by the senses. 

 Again, as the spirit exists and controls the body, and yet 

 we know not the mode and essence of it, so God is present 

 in all things, and controls and governs all things, but his 

 form, essence and quality are exempt from being known. 

 Exemption and freedom may be illustrated in still another 

 manner. In the same way that the spirit pervades all the 

 limbs and the body, and the body is entirely subject to its 

 control, and that the spirit is indivisible, while the body is 

 divisible, so also in relation to God, all that exists, springs 

 from him, all creatures exist by his word, and in all possi- 

 ble things his operations are seen, yet still he is not related 

 to place, nor does he reason about anything, and he is free 

 from relation or affinity to any quality of bodies or to 

 quantity. 



This topic of exemption and freedom, beloved, cannot 

 be perfectly explained, until the mystery about the soul 

 shall have been developed. The law, however, gives no 

 permission to develop this secret, and it is not lawful to 

 stretch out one's hand to do what the legislator forbids. 

 But the language of his excellency the glory of the world, 1 

 " God created mau in his own image," cannot be explained 



' Mohammod. 



