16 THE KEY OF MYSTERIES

that men could see, would not be rightly considered a sage by either Muslims or Christians.

Once more, we know that the food we eat, if it be wholesome and if we be in good health, strengthens and refreshes our bodies and supplies to each limb and member the special power it requires. Able doctors say that they can now explain the process of digestion and tell us how the food produces this effect; but the effect was produced thousands of years before the explanation was known, even if we suppose that its method is fully understood by physicians now. What should we think of the man who said that he would never eat a morsel until he thoroughly comprehended the whole process of digestion and assimilation? For many ages the greatest sage could not tell us how it was that the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars, in spite of their enormous bulk and weight, remained suspended in space, and how they continued to revolve so regularly that, from the very first day of their creation, they had never left their appointed track. Now men who have studied the science of Astronomy, and have 'thought God's thoughts after Him', know many of the laws which these heavenly bodies obey and by which the Almighty Creator still preserves them in their orbits. But our knowledge of the fact of their preservation is by no means dependent upon our acquaintance with those laws, nor does knowledge of these laws enable us to comprehend all the great purposes for which their

INTRODUCTION 17

creator made the orbs of heaven and gave them laws which they should not break. Are we justified, therefore, by our reason in refusing to believe that the earth revolves round the sun, because we cannot fully understand those properties of matter upon which depends obedience to the laws of gravity and of centrifugal force on the part of all the planets of our solar system? There are many mysteries inherent in the mighty. works of God in creation (الموجودات) which man's finite intellect can never hope in this world fully to comprehend, for it seems impossible for man to endeavour to grasp what are styled 'final causes'. God has shown us, therefore, that in the leaves of the Book of Nature, of which He is the Divine Author, He has judged it fitting to inscribe innumerable deep mysteries that pass man's understanding. It is, therefore, no matter for surprise if the All-Wise God has in His inspired word also stated certain mysteries which are beyond our comprehension. At any rate, any person who disbelieves God's revealed mysteries, because he does not fully understand them, and who refuses to accept the word of God because such mysteries are stated therein, acts very foolishly as well as very sinfully. May such unwisdom and arrogance be far from every reasonable and sensible truth-seeker; It suffices him to know that God the All-Knowing and All-Wise has revealed in His own word certain mysteries connected with His most holy nature, and that, therefore, it is the bounden duty of His