The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 94
PREFACE ESSENCE OF ISLAM 93 Spirit, enters into the breasts and hearts and brains and limbs of those who, after attaining the station of baqā and liqā, are considered wor- thy of the perfect love of God Almighty, with all its blessings descend- ing upon their absolutely pure and radiant love. When that Holy Spirit descends, it develops person, a bond with the being of that which is akin to the relationship of the soul with the body. It becomes the power of vision functioning in the eyes and—donning the AUTHOR'S MARGIN NOTE The light of the Holy Spirit remains constantly with perfect men and permeates throughout all their faculties. garment of the faculty of hearing-bestows spiritual sense upon the ears. It becomes the speech of the tongue, the righteousness of the heart, and the alertness of the mind. It flows through the hands and also exerts an influence over the feet. In short, it lifts all darkness from their being and illumines them from the hair on their head down to the toenails on their feet. Were it to depart even for a moment, darkness would immediately take its place. However, the perfect people have been granted such a good companion that he does not depart from them even for a moment, and to imagine that he can depart from them would amount to a confession that, after entering into light, they fall again into darkness and that, after having been made pure and safe, their nafs-e-ammārah [self that incites to evil] reverts to them and that the spiritual senses that were bestowed upon them are all rendered use- less and suspended. So―O people who reject this verity and deny this point of wisdom!-make no hasty demands of me. Seek testimony from the light of your own heart, whether it is really true that the light of the elect sometimes leaves them entirely and completely. Is this true that, even in a state of perfect faith, all the marks of enlightenment are some- times lost by the perfect believers? If you reply, 'Where and when did we say that sometimes the spiritual light of the elect leaves them altogether and they are com- pletely surrounded by darkness?”, my reply is that this is indeed the