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therefore, God Most High were to reveal to His servants those particular
points and the mysteries which are peculiar to His own nature, even then we
should not be able to apprehend them properly. Nay more, it is not possible
that, while we are in this world, such mysteries should be made quite clear and
plain to us, since their analogues are not visible here so as to enable us by
beholding them to form some idea, however imperfect, of these mysteries. For
example, a man blind from birth must be quite unaware of what the light of the
sun is; and, if to the best of our ability and as clearly as possible we
describe to him the sun and the sunlight, yet he will not properly understand
the explanation, nor is it possible that he should correctly conceive of the
sun, or light, or sight, though from the analogy of his other senses he may gain
some faint idea of these things. But were he, because of his own blindness, to
deny that sight existed in other men, and that they could behold the light and
know something of what was so mysterious to him, he would not thereby prove his
keenness of intellect but his folly. Still, that would not justify us in leaving
him exposed to danger, if we could in any manner by warning and guidance enable
him to escape it. As the poet says:
If I see a blind man and a well,
It is wrong to sit silent, nor tell.1
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It is evident to all that the most holy nature of the invisible God has
nothing on earth exactly similar to it, nothing that is strictly analogous.
Hence we cannot fully comprehend even what the word of God
(كلام
اْلله) has revealed to us
on this subject. Yet, were such knowledge unnecessary for us, we may be sure
that the All-Wise God would not have given us any such teaching. Hence, as such
teaching as that which the holy Scriptures contain regarding Christ's Deity and
the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity in Unity in the divine nature has been
bestowed by God upon His servants, it is clear that it is profitable and even
necessary for us to learn it. Doubtless these holy mysteries are above our
finite understanding, but let us never fall into the error of fancying that they
are therefore opposed to reason. This they cannot be, for they have been
revealed by Him who is the Author of reason itself.
If, therefore, any one deny these mysteries on the plea that they cannot be
discovered by man's reason, he is truly like a blind man who denies the
existence of the sun because he cannot see it and cannot understand it. The man
who denies the things which his intellect cannot fully understand, and who
rejects those doctrines of God's holy word which are beyond reason and superior
to human understanding, prefers his own imperfect reason and intellect to God's
word. Nay more, in his boundless arrogance, he elevates himself above God |
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