souls who have willingly laid down
their lives in the hope of gazing on the light of Thy countenance. The
sighs and moans of these longing hearts that pant after Thee can never
reach Thy holy court, neither can the lamentations of the wayfarers that
thirst to appear before Thy face attain Thy seat of glory.

XXVII: ALL PRAISE TO THE UNITY OF GOD, AND ALL...

All praise to the unity of God, and all honor to Him, the sovereign Lord,
the incomparable and all-glorious Ruler of the universe, Who, out of utter
nothingness, hath created the reality of all things, Who, from naught,
hath brought into being the most refined and subtle elements of His
creation, and Who, rescuing His creatures from the abasement of remoteness
and the perils of ultimate extinction, hath received them into His kingdom
of incorruptible glory. Nothing short of His all-encompassing grace, His
all-pervading mercy, could have possibly achieved it. How could it,
otherwise, have been possible for sheer nothingness to have acquired by
itself the worthiness and capacity to emerge from its state of
non-existence into the realm of being?

Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein, He,
through the direct operation of His unconstrained and sovereign Will,
chose to confer upon man the unique distinction and capacity to know Him
and to love Him--a capacity that must needs be regarded as the generating
impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of creation.... Upon
the inmost reality of each and every created thing He hath shed the light
of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the glory of one of His
attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He hath focused the radiance
of all of His names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self.
Alone of all created things man hath been singled out for so great a
favor, so enduring a bounty.

These energies with which the Day Star of Divine bounty and Source of
heavenly guidance hath endowed the reality of man lie, however, latent
within him, even as the flame is hidden within the candle and the rays of
light are potentially present in the lamp. The radiance of these energies
may be obscured by worldly desires even as the light of the sun can be
concealed beneath the dust and dross which cover the mirror. Neither the
candle nor the lamp can be lighted through their own unaided efforts, nor
can it ever be possible for the mirror to free itself from its dross. It
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