The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 239
238 Ā'ĪNA-E-KAMĀLĀT-E-ISLĀM―DĀFI‘UL-WASĀWIS a human being, he is granted two eyes, two ears, a heart, a mind and all other essential faculties and organs. And, in accordance with the verse: 1 أَشِدَّاءُ عَلَى الْكُفَّارِ رُحَمَاءُ بَيْنَهُم he starts showing firmness or leniency as demanded by the occasion. That is, each moral quality is exhibited at its proper time and the manners of following the right path are safeguarded. Every deed and every statement is carried out according to its appropriateness—leni- ency when leniency is required, firmness at the time when firmness is required, and lowliness or standing upright as appropriate for the occasion. Similarly, he employs all limbs as appropriate for the occa- sions. This stage is similar to the stage of the foetus when it advances from the stage of ä[muḍghah-piece of flesh] to assume a complete human shape—the bone appears where a bone is needed, and the flesh remains flesh where flesh is needed and does not turn into bone. All the organs develop their distinctive shape. But at this stage there is no beauty, freshness, or balance in the organs. It is just a skeleton, visible only with minute observation. Thereafter, the favour of Allah raises him by making him used to repeated opportunities and purification of the self, to the ultimate point of annihilating the self for the sake of Allah—thereby covering the skeleton with the flesh of a wide variety of blessings, and making his face and the entire structure lustrous. Then his face shines with the light of the perfection of faith and his body shows the full lustre of having attained the perfection of faith. This stage resembles the stage of the foetus when its bones are covered with the skin and beauty and due proportions of the body parts are manifested. Thereafter comes the sixth stage of spiritual development, which is exemplified by the verse: 1. Hard against the disbelievers, tender among themselves (Surah al-Fatḥ, 48:30). [Publisher]