Now there has come to you a Messenger from among yourselves; what troubles you is difficult for him; eagerly desirous is he for you, clement and ever-merciful toward the faithful. He is in contact with you through mortal nature, but he is different from you in election. " O MuḤammad, keep on saying, 'I am a mortal like you' [18:110]. I will keep on saying, 'Did He not find thee an orphan and shelter thee?' [93:6]. You are the orphan pearl, the like of whom is no other. How can a mortal reach the forefront of the Real's acceptance such that He puts up with his disdain? By thy life! [15:72]. How can a mortal be worthy for the grasp of the attributes to explain the polish of his heart's mirror by virtue of solicitude? Did We not expand for thee thy breast? [94:1]. How can a mortal be such that the auditor of the beginningless and endless register turns over the acceptance and rejection of the creatures to his threshold? Whatever the Messenger gives you, take; whatever he prohibits you, forgo [59:7]. O Muhammad! You are something dif- ferent, and your work is different! " You are a tongue other than the speech of every mouth, you are a soul other than the gentleness of anyone else. You are a thought other than in anyone's mind. How can they reach you? You are indeed another world. It has been said that in friendship are both separation and union. In the era of the Beginningless, when love was apportioned, the wail of separation's pain rose up from the house of Abū Jahl, and the glitter of union's sun shone from the chamber of MuḤammad the Arab. From that separation was created a hell in the heart of the estranged, and from this union was affirmed a paradise in the breast of the friends. After the sun of union shone on that paragon, the world's folk were bewildered in his work. The wish for his beauty and for following him rose up in the prophets. Moses the Speaking Com- panion said, " Lord God, make me one of his community! " Jesus the Spirit of God said, " Lord God, make me the door-keeper of his threshold! " [Abraham] the Bosom Friend said, " Lord God, make my mention flow on the tongue of his community! " More wonderful than all this is that the paragon himself became bewildered in the steps of his own path. This is just like Majnūn and Laylā. He said, " The means of my knowledge are lost in the ends of your tresses! " She said, " O Majnūn, that is not such a great claim, for my tresses are themselves lost in my work! " That chevalier said it beautifully in this poem: O you who are bewildered in yourself, what image is this? O candle of the beauties, what union is this? O you like whom is none in the world, what perfection is this? O our candle and lamp, what beauty is this? Ibn ʿAṬāÌ said, " His soul was in conformity with the souls of the creatures in created nature, but different from them in reality, for it was hallowed by the lights of prophecy, confirmed by the con- templation of the Haqiqah, and fixed in the closest locus and the highest station: The eyesight did not swerve, nor did it trespass [53:17]. " Take care not to say that his pure soul was like the souls of others. If one speck of his soul's shining were to shine forth on the …