| When we open
our eyes, when the universe
fastens our gaze on its face, the
first thing to attract our
attention is a universal and
perfect order; we see that there
is a comprehensive and sensitive
equilibrium. Everything exists
within a precise order and
delicate balance and measure. When
we look a little more carefully,
a continual ordering and
balancing strikes our eye. That
is to say, someone is changing
the order with regularity and
renewing the balance with
measuredness. Everything is a
model and is clothed in a great
many well-ordered and balanced
forms.
And when we
study it even more closely, a
wisdom and justice appear behind
the ordering and balancing. A
purpose and benefit are
considered, a truth, a usefulness
are followed in the motion of
everything, even the minutest
particles.
And when we
study it with even greater
attention, what strikes the gaze
of our consciousness is the
demonstration of a power within
an extremely wise activity, and
the manifestation of a most
comprehensive knowledge which
encompasses all the attributes of
all things.
That is to
say, this order and balance which
are in all beings show us plainly
a universal ordering and
balancing, and the ordering and
balancing, a universal wisdom and
justice; and the wisdom and
justice in turn show us a power
and knowledge. That is, One
Powerful over all things and with
Knowledge of all things, reveals
Himself to the mind behind these
veils.
Furthermore,
we look to the beginning and end
of all things, and we see,
particularly in animate
creatures, that their beginnings,
origins, and roots are such that
it is as if their seeds contain
all the systems and members of
those creatures, each in the form
of an instruction sheet and
timetable. And again, their
fruits and results are such that
the meanings of those animate
creatures are filtered and
concentrated in them; they
bequeath their life histories to
them. It is as if their seeds are
collections of the principles
according to which they are
created, and their fruits and
results a sort of index of the
commands of their creation. Then
we look to the outer and inner
faces of those animate creatures:
the free disposal of an utterly
wise power and the fashioning and
ordering of an utterly effective
will are apparent. That is, a
strength and power creates; a
command and will clothes with
form.
Thus, when we
study all beings carefully, we
observe that their beginnings are
instruction sheets prepared by
One Possessing Knowledge, and
that their ands are plans and
manifestos of a Maker; that their
outer faces are most skillful and
beautifully proportioned dresses
of artistry devised by One Who
Chooses and Wills, and their
inner faces, the most
well-ordered machines of an
All-Powerful One.
This
situation therefore, necessarily
and self-evidently proclaims that
no time and no place, absolutely
nothing, can be outside the grip
of power of one single Glorious
Maker. Each thing and all things,
together with all of their
attributes, are organized and
directed within the grip of power
of an All-Powerful Possessor of
Will; and they are made beautiful
through the ordering and
graciousness of a Merciful and
Compassionate One; and they are
embellished with the adorning of
a Loving Benefactor.
Indeed, for
anyone who is conscious and has
eyes in his head, the order and
equilibrium, and ordering and
adorning that there are in the
universe and in the beings within
it, demonstrate, in the degree of
Unity, One Who is Single, Sole,
Solitary, Unique, All-Powerful,
Possessing of Will, All-Knowing,
and All-Wise.
Assuredly,
there is a unity in everything;
and as for unity, it points to
one. For example, the whole world
is illuminated by one lamp, the
sun; in which case, the Owner of
the world is One as welt. And,
for example, all the animate
creatures on the earth are served
by air, fire, and water, which
are the same. Since this is so,
the One Who employs them and
subjugates them to us is also
One.
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