Showing that the System of the Universe originates in the Self, and that the continuation of the life of all individuals depends on strengthning the Self.

The form of existance is an effect of the Self, whatsoever thou seest is a secret of the Self.

When the Self awoke to conciousness, it revealed the universe of thought.

A hundred worlds are hidden in its essence, Self-affirmation brings no-self to light.

By the Self the seed of hostility is sown in the world, it imagines itself to be other than itself.

It makes from itself the forms of others, in order to multiply the pleasure of strife.

It is slaying by the strength of its arm That it may become conscious of its own strength.

Its self-deceptions are the essence of Life; Like the rose, it lives by bathing itself in blood.

For the sake of a single rose it destroys a hundred rose-gardens And makes a hundred lamentations in quest of a single melody.

For one sky it produces a hundred new moons, And for one word a hundred discourses.

The excuse for this wastefulness and cruelty Is the shaping and perfecting of spiritual beauty.

The loveliness of Shírín justifies the anguish of Farhád,The fragrant navel justifies a hundred musk-deer. Shírín was loved by the Persian emperor Khusrau Parwíz. Farhád fell in love with her and cast himself down a precipice on hearing a false rumour of her death.

Tis the fate of moths to consume in flame: The suffering of moths is justified by the candle.

The pencil of the Self limned a hundred to-days In order to achieve the dawn of a single morrow.

Its flames burned a hundred Abrahams That the lamp of one Mohammed might be lighted. Abraham is said to have been cast on a burning pile by order of Nimrod and miraculously preserved from harm.

Subject, object, means, and causes— They all exist for the purpose of action.

The Self rises, kindles, falls, glows, breathes, Burns, shines, walks, and flies.

The spaciousness of Time is its arena, Heaven is a billow of the dust on its road.

From its rose-planting the world abounds in roses; Night is born of its sleep, day springs from its waking.

It divided its flame into sparks And taught the understanding to worship particulars.

It dissolved itself and created the atoms, It was scattered for a little while and created the sands.

Then it wearied of dispersion And by re-uniting itself it became the mountains.

Tis the nature of the Self to manifest itself: In every atom slumbers the might of the Self.

Power that is unexpressed and inert Chains the faculties which lead to action.

Inasmuch as the life of the universe comes from the strength of the Self, Life is in proportion to this strength.

When a drop of water gets the Self's lesson by heart, It makes its worthless existence a pearl.

Wine is formless because its self is weak; It receives a form by favour of the cup.

Although the cup of wine assumes a form, It is indebted to us for its motion.

When the mountain loses its self, it turns into sands And complains that the sea surges over it.

But the wave, so long as it remains a wave in the sea's bosom, Makes itself a rider on the sea's back.

Light has been a beggar since the eye first rolled And moved to and fro in search of beauty.

But forasmuch as the grass found a means of growth in its self, Its aspiration clove the breast of the garden.

The candle too concatenated itself And built itself out of atoms.

Then it made a practice of melting itself away and fled from its self Until at last it trickled down from its own eye, like tears.

If the bezel had been more self-secure by nature, It would not have suffered wounds.

But since it derives its value from the superscription, Its shoulder is galled by the burden of another's name.

Because the earth is firmly based on self-existence, The captive moon goes round it perpetually.

The being of the sun is stronger than that of the earth: Therefore is the earth bewitched by the sun's eye.

The glory of the plane fixes our gaze, The mountains are enriched by its majesty.

Its raiment is woven of fire, Its origin is one self-assertive seed.

When Life gathers strength from the Self, The river of Life expands into an ocean.