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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
· A'I'N 77. HIS MAJESTY AS THE SPIRITUAL GUIDE OF THE PEOPLE.
God, the Giver of intellect and the Creator of matter, forms mankind as He pleases, and gives to some comprehensiveness, and to others narrowness of disposition. Hence the origin of two opposite tendencies among men, one class of whom turn to religious (dín), and the other class to worldly thoughts (dunyá). Each of these two divisions select different leaders", and mutual repulsiveness grows to open rupture. It is then that men's blindness and silliness appear in their true light; it is then discovered how rarely mutual regard and charity are to be met with.
But have the religious and the worldly tendencies of men no common ground? Is there not everywhere the same enrapturing beauty 2 which beams forth from so many thousand hidden places ? Broad indeed is the carpet" which God has spread, and beautiful the colours which He has given it.
The Lover and the Beloved are in reality one *; Idle talkers speak of the Brahmin as distinct from his idol. There is but one lamp in this house, in the rays of which, Wherever I look, a bright assembly meets me.
1 As prophets, the leaders of the Church; and kings, the leaders of the State.
2 God. He may be worshipped by the meditative, and by the active man. The former speculates on the essence of God, the latter rejoices in the beauty of the world, and does his duty as man. Both represent tendencies apparently antagonistic; but as both strive after God, there is a ground common to both. Hence mankind ought to learn that there is no real antagonism between din and dunyú. Let men rally round Akbar, who joins Gufic depth to practical wisdom. By his example, he teaches men how to adore God in doing one's duties; his superhuman knowledge proves that the light of God dwells in him. The surest way of pleasing God is to obey the king.
of plethe woreutic 1
4 These Çufic lines illustrate the idea that the same enrapturing beauty' is everywhere. God is everywhere, in everything: hence every
