Thus do I say: There is no power or might save in God, the Protector, the
Self-Subsistent.(114)




The Fourth Valley


If the mystic knowers be of those who have reached to the beauty of the
Beloved One (Mahbúb), this station is the apex of consciousness and the
secret of divine guidance. This is the center of the mystery: “He doth
what He willeth, ordaineth what He pleaseth.”(115)

Were all the denizens of earth and heaven to unravel this shining
allusion, this darksome riddle, until the Day when the Trumpet soundeth,
yet would they fail to comprehend even a letter thereof, for this is the
station of God’s immutable decree, His foreordained mystery. Hence, when
searchers inquired of this, He made reply, “This is a bottomless sea which
none shall ever fathom.”(116) And they asked again, and He answered, “It
is the blackest of nights through which none can find his way.”

Whoso knoweth this secret will assuredly hide it, and were he to reveal
but its faintest trace they would nail him to the cross. Yet, by the
Living God, were there any true seeker, I would divulge it to him; for
they have said: “Love is a light that never dwelleth in a heart possessed
by fear.”

Verily, the wayfarer who journeyeth unto God, unto the Crimson Pillar in
the snow-white path, will never reach unto his heavenly goal unless he