Elucidation of Objectives — Page 47
Tau di h-e-Mar a m 47 things on earth—our habitat. He singles them out by swearing by them and invokes the person of the Perfect Man to bring home to us the fact that the Perfect Man is the embodiment of the myriads of excellences found individually and severally in all other things and by which God swears. If it is asked why God should swear by what is His own creation which in comparison with the Divine is so insignificant and almost non-existent, the answer is that throughout the Holy Qur’ a n it is the usual Divine style and practice that for the affirmation and demonstration of certain subtle principles, God refers to such phenomena as contain clear, open and self-evident proof of their characteristics. For instance, no one would doubt that the Sun is very much there and sunshine too; so is the Moon and the moonlight which it derives from the Sun; also, the daylight which all can see and the night which is also visible to all. Likewise the vacant expanse of the skies is there too for all to witness, and also the earth which is the habitat of humans. Now all these phenomena have definite exis- tence and qualities of their own which admit of no doubt whatsoever. But the human self is something so latent and inferential that its very existence has given rise to a host of controversies. There are schools of thought which refuse to believe that there is such an entity as the human self or soul which is permanent with an existence of its own and which continues to