| That is, the
one who gives death is He. It is
He Who grants life, so also the
one who takes life and grants
death is He. Indeed, death is not
only destruction and extinction
that it can be attributed to
causes or Nature. Just as a seed
superficially dies and rots while
inside it a shoot is being
kneaded and is coming to life,
that is, it is passing from the
particular life of a seed to the
universal life of a shoot, so too
although death seems apparently
to be disintegration and
banishment, in reality, for human
beings it is the title,
introduction, and starting point
of perpetual life. In which case,
the Absolutely Powerful One Who
grants and administers life must
certainly be the One Who creates
death. The following Points to a
mighty proof of this the greatest
degree in the profession Divine
Unity, contained in this phrase. As
was explained in the
Twenty-Fourth Window of the
Thirty-Third Letter, through
Divine will, all beings are
flowing. At its Sustainer’s
command, the universe is in
continuous motion. With Divine
permission, all creatures are
unceasingly following in the
river of time; they arc being
sent from the World of the
Unseen; they are being clothed
with external existence in the
Manifest world; then they are
being poured in orderly fashion
into the World of the Unseen, and
it is there that they alight.
And, at their Sustainer's
command, they continuously come
from the future stop by in
passing pausing for a breath, and
are poured into the past.
This flood of
creatures is being made from top
to bottom with instances of
wisdom, benefits, results, and
aims within the sphere of the
most wise mercy and munificence;
as is this constant traveling,
within the sphere of the most
knowledgeable wisdom and
orderliness; and this current,
within the sphere of the most
compassionate solicitude and
equilibrium. That is to say, an
All-Powerful One of Glory, an
All-Wise One of Perfection is
continuously giving life to and
employing the families of beings,
and the individuals within each
family, and the worlds which
those families form. Then, with
His wisdom He discharges them,
manifests death and despatches
them to the World of the Unseen.
He transfers them from the sphere
of power to the sphere of
knowledge.
And so, is it
at all possible that one who does
not have the ability to
administer the universe in its
totality, whose authority does
not stretch throughout time,
whose power is not sufficient to
make the world manifest life and
death like a single individual,
who cannot bestow life on the
spring as though it was a single
flowers attach it to the face of
the earth and then pluck it from
it with death and gather it up,
could such a one be the owner of
death and the granter of death?
Yes, the death of the most
insignificant animate being,
even, like its life, must
necessarily occur according to
the law of One of Glory in Whose
hand are all the truths of life
and varieties of death, and with
His permission, and at His
command, and through His power,
and with His knowledge.
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