The disciple should ever practise the formula: "There is no God except =Allâh="--vocally or inaudibly, whether he be alone or in company. Let him not for a moment step out of this fort. The fort is made of the negative "no God" and the affirmative "except =Allâh=" phrases; and it protects the pilgrim entering therein against the two highway robbers: the desire-nature and Satan. When the disciple unfolds the inner eye in the plane of Unity, he transcends affirmation and denial, as they are inconsistent with Unity. Affirmation and denial inhere in the nature of man, and a disciple does not attain to Unity unless he goes beyond human nature. Affirmation and denial are in themselves a form of polytheism, since a valid affirmation and a valid denial each need three elements--the affirmer, the affirmation and the affirmed; the denier, the denial and the denied. When a believer in _two_ is a polytheist, how can a believer in _six_ be a monotheist? When the non-God has no existence, what is to be denied? When thou thyself art not, how canst thou affirm?... This is the zenith of Unity, and the stage of the Perfect Ones.... He who sees with the eye of Unity finds the non-God non-existent.... Whenever Mohammad, transcending the realm of His mission, looked with the inner eye into the realm of Unity, He eagerly and yearningly wished His personality blotted out, the dividing line erased, and the human limitation cast away. But the Compassion of the Beloved would ever intervene, and bring Him back to the realm of His mission for the delivery of the message.--_Letter 40._ THE NAKED FAITH. Intellect is a bondage; Faith, the liberator. The disciple should be stripped naked of everything in the Universe in order to gaze at the beauty of Faith. But thou lovest thy personality, and canst not afford to put off the hat of self-esteem and exchange reputation for disgrace.... All attachments have dropped from the Masters. Their garment is pure of all material stain. Their hands are too short to seize anything tainted with impermanence. Light has shone in Their hearts enabling Them to see God. Absorbed in His Vision are They, so that They look not to Their individualities, exist not for Their individualities, have forgotten Their individualities in the ecstasy of His Existence, and have become completely His. They speak, yet do not speak; hear, yet do not hear; move, yet do not move; sit, yet do not sit. There is no [individual] being in Their being, no speech in Their speech, no hearing in Their hearing. Speakers, They are dumb; hearers, They are deaf. They care little for material conditions, and think of the True One [alone]. Worldly men are not aware of Their whereabouts. Physically with men, They are internally with God. They are a boon to the Universe--not to themselves, for They _are not_ themselves....