The Dabistan

252

low; by the exigency of its united properties, at
times drowned in the ocean of unity, man is bewil-
dered ; and, at times, yielding to this prevailing
nature, he associates with women. Know what
Shaikh Aziz Nasfy says: Men, devoted to God's
unity declared, regarding the expression tdi asmavat?
" the folding up heaven/' that " heaven" signifies
something that is high and of a bountiful expan-
sion1 with respect to those who are below it, and
this? causing a bountiful communication, may take
place either in the spiritual or in the material world;
the bestower of the bountiful communication maybe
from the latter, he may be from the former, world.
Further, any thing may be either terrestrial or hea-
venly. If thou hast well conceived the sense of the
heavenly and terrestrial, know that mankind has
four nishd, " stages/'2 in like manner as the blasts
of the trumpet are four times repeated: because
death and life have four periods. In the first stage,
man is living under the form of a thing; but, with
respect to qualities and reason, he is a dead thing.
In the second stage, under the form of mind, he is
a living thing, but, with respect to qualities and rea»
son, a dead thing. In the third stage, under the

1 (ja^ Silvestre de Sacy translates " emanation, overflowing."—
(Journal des Savans, dtic., 1821, p. 733.)

2 Uu> is Interpreted in the dictionary: growing, producing, being
borne upward, etc.; above it can but signify " a condition of being."