136 GhazzaWs Alchemy of Happiness. 



once asked, what is faith ? He replied," It is to love God and 

 his prophet more than wife, children and property." 

 And the prophet was continually in the habit of praying, 

 " my God ! I ask for thy love, I ask that I may love 

 whomsoever loves thee, and that I may perform whatso- 

 ever thy love makes incumbent upon me." 



On the resurrection day all sects will be addressed by 

 the name of the prophet whom each followed, "0 people of 

 Moses! people of Jesus ! people of Mohammed ! " even 

 to all the beloved servants of God, and it will be proclaimed 

 to them, " Friends and beloved of God,come to the blessed 

 union and society of God ! Come to Paradise and partake 

 of the grace of your beloved !" When they hear this pro- 

 clamation, their hearts will leap out of their places, and 

 they will almost lose their reason. Yahya ben Moa'z says, 

 " It is better to have as much love of God, even if only as 

 much as a grain of mustard seed, than seventy years of de- 

 votion and obedience without love." Hassan of Basra says, 

 " Whoever knows God, will certainly love him, and who- 

 ever knows the world, will shun it." 



thou who seekest the love of God! know that this 

 love is founded upon two things : one is Beauty, and the 

 other is Beneficence. Beauty acts as a cause to produce 

 love, because the being, the attributes and the works of God 

 possess beauty, and every one loves that which is beautiful. 

 There is a tradition which says " Yerily, God is beautiful 

 and he loves beauty." And the prophet says, "Desire to 

 transact your affairs with those who have beautiful counte- 

 nances." It is on this account that the spirit in man has 

 been created in accordance with the image of beauty, so 

 that whenever it either hears or sees anything beautiful, 

 it may have a propensity towards it, and seek for com- 

 munion with it. 



But you should also know, that beauty is of two kinds, 

 one of which is beauty of form, and the other beauty of 



