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THE TAHJUMAN AL-ASHWAQ (XXX) 115

her sucli delight as other ecstatics have enjoyed they
answer: ‘ Wilt not thou consider our faces how thej- are
turned towards thee and veiled from her ? ’ i.e. secondary
causes ^iVe merely aa affliction and probation tlirough wliich
you must pass, but if you remain with them you will receive
nothing except what their being can give, and you will
be veiled from the object of your desire.
‘ May not I ? ’ i.e. may not I attain to my Beloved ?
‘ He refuse.s,’ i.e. he excludes those who seek him bj'^
means of secondary caused. God is known only by means
of God. The scholastic theologian saj^s: ‘ I know God by
that wfiich He created,’ and takes as his guide something
that has no real relation to the object sought. He who
knows God by moans of phenomena, knows as much as
those phenomena give to him and no more.
31. ‘ The}^ go to the upland,’ i.e. the Divine realities
reveal themselves in imaginary bodies as Gabriel appeared
in the form of Dihya.
‘ To the lowland,’ i.e. they reveal themselves, like the
spirits of the prophets, in earthly bodies of the intermediate
world.
32. ‘ As often as it sees the footprints,’ etc. : cf.
Kor. XX, 96. He saj'^s: ‘ There is in me an aspiration with
which I revive those whom I resrard with favour, and those
whose growth is symmetrical, and those whose form is erect
(I mean in the earthly pilgrimage), and tho.se whose hearts
are prepared to receive the overflowing grace of the spirit;
and are under my care.’ He refers to the class of saints
and I breathe into them something of that which I have
gained from that footprint, and they are revived thereby

who have renounced the powers of ‘ control’
which God bestowed upon them, for one who abides with
the Primal Realities is more perfect in knowledge than one
who is veiled by such Divine gifts. Abu Yazid (al-Bistami)
•said : ‘ It is not I whom they are touching, but it is a robe
in which God clothed me: how, then, .should I hinder them
from that which belongs to another ? ’ Whoever sees the