Knowing God: Selections from “The Enclosed Garden of the Truth” by Sanai (vegetarian), Part 2 of 2

“By reason and thought and sense, no living thing can come to know God. When the glory of His nature manifests itself to reason, it sweeps away both reason and soul. Let reason be invested with dignity in the rank where stands the faithful Gabriel; yet before all His majesty a Gabriel becomes less than a sparrow through awe; reason arriving there bows down her head, the soul flying there folds her wing. The raw youth discusses the Eternal only in the light of his shallow sense and wicked soul; shall thy nature, journeying towards the majesty and glory of His essence, attain to a knowledge of Him?”

ON THE ASSERTION OF THE UNITY.

“He is One, and number has no place in Him; He is Absolute, and dependence is far removed from Him; not that One which reason and understanding can know, not that Absolute which sense and imagination can recognise. He is not multitude, nor paucity; one multiplied by one remains one. In duality is only evil and error; in singleness is never any fault.

While multitude and confusion remain in thy heart, say thou ‘One’ or ‘Two,’ what matter, for both are the same. Thou, the devil’s pasture, know for certain what, and how much, and why, and how! Have a care! His greatness comes not from multitude; His essence is above number and quality; the weak searcher may not ask ‘Is I’ or ‘Who’ concerning Him. No one has uttered the attributes of the Creator, HE, quantity, quality, why, or what, who, and where. His hand is power, His face eternity; ‘to come’ is His wisdom, ‘the descent’ His gift; His two feet are the majesty of vengeance and dignity, His two fingers are the effective power of His command and will. All existences are subject to His omnipotence; all are present to Him, all seek Him; the motion of light is towards light – how can light be separated from the Sun?

In comparison with His existence eternity began but the day before yesterday; it came at dawn, but yet came late. How can His working be bounded by eternity? Eternity without beginning is a houseborn servant of His; and think not nor imagine that eternity without end (is more), for eternity without end is like to eternity without beginning. […]”