GhazzaWs Alchemy of Happiness. 141 



asked the spirits "Am I not your Lord?" 1 and they 

 called out in an answer "yes!" that loving answer has 

 never waned or decayed within my soul. When I was 

 only three years old, I used to spend all night in the wor- 

 ship of the Lord God, without giving any slumber to my 

 eyes." 



thou who longest after the love of God ! the second 

 cause of love in man which we have mentioned, viz : 

 beneficence, operates through the state of poverty and need 

 in which man has been created. Both in the affairs of the 

 world and in the concerns of religion, man is in want of 

 an infinite variety of things, as God says in his word, 

 " Verily, God is rich, but ye are poor.". 2 Hence a man 

 always loves and honors whatever person enables him to 

 obtain any object of which he stands in need, or who 

 makes it probable that he will obtain it. This will be the 

 case especially, if the same individual has at various times 

 supplied his necessities. He will then be enslaved to him, 

 heart and soul, and whenever his name is mentioned will 

 chant his praise and invoke blessings upon him. The 

 proverb says, " man is a slave to beneficence." 



In matters of religion, man ha3 need of helpers of two 

 kinds. The first class are the great expounders of doc- 

 trine, 3 who instruct him in religious precepts, and preserve 

 him from the darkness of ignorance and the dangers of 

 doubt. They also make him acquainted with the restric- 

 tions of the law, and the regulations and ceremonies of 

 worship. They explain to him what conduct corresponds 

 with rectitude, and what is improper, — what is lawful and 

 what unlawful. The second class of helpers to man are 

 the venerable preachers. 4 It is their province to throw 



1 S. 7: 171. a S. 417: 40. 



3 " Ulema "—the learned in the Divine Law. See Note D. 



4 Sheikhs, i. e. elders, who are the preaching class. 



