Favours of the Gracious God — Page 122
122 have gone astray, became apparent to me. By God, I did not achieve this understanding, through taxing my own mind, or through any great effort on my part, or through sleepless nights, nor did I drive the camel of investigation through the hours of the night. Instead, these favours were bestowed upon me by God Almighty, Who short - ened my dark night, and fulfilled my longing through His decree; there was not a night when I had to lay awake [investigating this matter]; nor did I have to gather my argumentation from elsewhere; to the extent that my ul - timate goal was brought close to me, the tree bore fruit, and its branches were lowered to me by God Almighty. By God, this success is from the hand of my Lord. Therefore, I praise Him and invoke salutations upon that Arabian Prophet s as , through whom all blessings have de - scended, and the entire warp and woof is due to him. It is God, who prepared for me my roots and branches, and He is the One Who caused my seedlings to sprout and crop to grow, and He is the Best of Growers. How could it have been within my power to reduce the ene - mies to dust? And it was not I who smote with the stick when I smote, rather it was Allah Who smote. I did not experience the severity of self-exertion, nor did I need to emaciate my she-camel, nor did I need to race the pow -