As to those persons who, here and there, are considered leaders of the
people: because this is only the beginning of the new administrative
process, they are not yet sufficiently advanced in their education to have
experienced the delights of dispensing justice or to have tasted the
exhilaration of promoting righteousness or to have drunk from the springs
of a clear conscience and a sincere intent. They have not properly
understood that man’s supreme honor and real happiness lie in
self-respect, in high resolves and noble purposes, in integrity and moral
quality, in immaculacy of mind. They have, rather, imagined that their
greatness consists in the accumulation, by whatever means may offer, of
worldly goods.
A man should pause and reflect and be just: his Lord, out of measureless
grace, has made him a human being and honored him with the words: “Verily,
We created man in the goodliest of forms”(11)—and caused His mercy which
rises out of the dawn of oneness to shine down upon him, until he became
the wellspring of the words of God and the place where the mysteries of
heaven alighted, and on the morning of creation he was covered with the
rays of the qualities of perfection and the graces of holiness. How can he
stain this immaculate garment with the filth of selfish desires, or
exchange this everlasting honor for infamy? “Dost thou think thyself only
a puny form, when the universe is folded up within thee?”(12)
Were it not our purpose to be brief and to develop our primary subject, we
would here set down a summary of themes from the Divine world, as to the
reality of man and his high station and the surpassing value and worth of
the human race. Let this be, for another time.
The highest station, the supreme sphere, the noblest, most sublime
position in creation, whether visible or invisible, whether alpha or
omega, is that of the Prophets of God, notwithstanding the fact that for
the most part they have to outward seeming been possessed of nothing but
their own poverty. In the same way, ineffable glory is set apart for the
Holy Ones and those who are nearest to the Threshold of God, although such
as these have never for a moment concerned themselves with material gain.
Then comes the station of those just kings whose fame as protectors of the
people and dispensers of Divine justice has filled the world, whose name
as powerful champions of the people’s rights has echoed through creation.
These give no thought to amassing enormous fortunes for themselves; they
believe, rather, that their own wealth lies in enriching their subjects.
To them, if every individual citizen has affluence and ease, the royal
coffers are full. They take no pride in gold and silver, but rather in
their enlightenment and their determination to achieve the universal good.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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