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ISLĀM
35
reflexion.
Thou art the eye of the reflexion, while He [God] is
the light of the eye;
By means of that eye the Eye of God beholds itself.
The world is a man, and man is a world.
No clearer explanation than this is possible : When thon lookest well to the root of the matter He is both the Seer and the Eye and the Vision.* And then listen how in the 13th century Sufism taught the truth of evolution which Darwin (taught) Christendom in the 19th:
I died from the mineral, and became a plant. I died from the plant, and reappeared in an animal. I died from the animal and became a man. Wherefore then should I fear? When did I grow
less by dying?
Next time I shall die from the man,
That I may grow the wings of the angel.
From the angel, too, must I seek advance, "all things shall perish save His Face".
Once more shall I wing my way above the
angels;
I shall become that which entereth not the imagination.
Then let me become nanght, naught; for the harpstring
Cryeth unto me: "Verily, unto Him shall we return."+
*Gulshan-i-Raz
The Mesnavi a compilation of the sayings of the Dervish Jelāl.
