O idle man who does not know the pleasure of effort and happiness of work! Know that out of His perfect munificence, Almighty God placed the reward for work within it. He included the wage for work within the work itself. It is for this reason that in their particular duties, which are called creative commands, beings, and even from one point of view inanimate creatures, conform to the dominical commands with complete eagerness and a sort of pleasure. Everything from bees, flies, and chickens to the sun and the moon carry out their duties with perfect pleasure. That means there is an enjoyment in their work so that they perform it perfectly, although they do not think of the results and consequences since they do not possess intelligence.

I f y o u s a y : “Living creatures have the ability to receive pleasure, but how can inanimate beings experience eagerness and enjoyment?”

T h e A n s w e r : Inanimate beings desire and seek a position, a rank, perfection, beauty, and order, not on their own accounts, but on account of the Divine Names manifested on them. They become illumined and progress because in performing their natural duties, they each become like mirrors and places of reflection of the Names of the Light of Lights.

For example, if, although they are unimportant and of themselves without light, a droplet of water or fragment of glass are turned with their pure hearts to the sun, they become sorts of thrones to the sun and smile at you. Similarly, through being mirrors in respect of their duties to the Names of the All-Glorious One, Who possesses absolute beauty and perfection, like the droplet and fragment of glass, particles and beings rise from a very lowly position to a most elevated degree of manifestation and illumination. Since in regard to their duties they rise to a most luminous and exalted rank, it may be said that if it is possible and they have the capacity to receive pleasure, that is, if they receive a share of general life, they perform their duties with perfect pleasure.

For clear evidence that there is pleasure to be found in the performance of duties consider your own members and emotions. Each receives different pleasures in performing the duties for your personal survival and the survival of the human race. The duties themselves are like a means of enjoyment for them, while to give up a duty is a sort of torment for a member.

Another clear evidence is the self-sacrifice and courage which animals like cocks and hens with chicks display in performing their duties: even if it is hungry, the cock prefers the hens to itself, summoning them to eat. It does not eat itself but allows them to do so. And it is clear that it feels pleasure, pride and enjoyment in carrying out this duty. This means it receives greater pleasure from doing that than from eating. The hen too, will sacrifice its life for its chicks, throwing itself at a dog. And it will remain hungry and give them to eat. That is to say, it receives such pleasure in its duty that it makes preferable the pains of hunger and pangs of death.

Animal mothers receive pleasure in trying to protect their young, it is their duty when the young are small. When they are grown, the duty ceases and so does the pleasure. The mothers beat their children and take the grains of feed from them. Only, for human mothers the duties continue for some time, because in regard to their weakness and impotence, humans are always children in one respect, and are all the time in need of compassion.

And so, consider the males and females of the animal species, like the mother hen and the cock, which acts as shepherd, and understand that they do not perform these duties on their own account, in their own names, or for their own perfections. For if it is necessary to sacrifice their lives in the course of their duties, they do so. They rather perform them on account of the Munificent Bestower of Bounties, the All-Glorious Creator, Who employs them in their duties, in which, through His mercy, He includes pleasure.

And evidence that the wage is present in the duty itself is this: plants and trees conform to the Glorious Creator’s commands in a manner that implies eagerness and pleasure. For the fragrant scents they disperse, and their being adorned with decorations that attract the looks of their customers, and their sacrificing themselves for their shoots and fruits until they rot, shows to the attentive that they receive such pleasure in conforming to the Divine commands that it rots and destroys them.

Look, fruit-bearing trees like the coconut, which bears so many cans of milk on its head, and the fig, request through the tongue of disposition the finest food like milk from the treasury of mercy; they receive it and give it to their fruits to eat, while they content themselves with muddy water.

In seeds also a longing is clearly apparent in their duty of germinating and sending out shoots. Like someone imprisoned in a constricted place longs to go out into a garden or open space, such a longing, such a joyful state, is also apparent in seeds, in their duty of sprouting.

Thus, it is because of this long and mysterious principle, which is in force in the universe and is called “Divine practice,” that those idle and lazy people who live in ease and affluence for the most part suffer more trouble and distress than those who strive and work. For the idle always complain about their lives, and want to pass them quickly through indulging in amusements. Whereas the one who works and strives is thankful and offers praise and does not want his life to pass quickly. “The one who lives in idleness and ease complains about his life, while the hard working striver is thankful” is a universal principle. It is also for this reason that the saying “Ease lies in hardship, and hardship in ease” has become proverbial.

Indeed, if inanimate creatures are studied carefully, it will be seen that on the innate capacities and abilities of those which have not developed expanding from the potential to the actual through great effort and exertion, a state in accordance with the above-mentioned Divine practice is apparent. This state indicates that in the natural duty is an eagerness and pleasure. If the inanimate creature partakes of general life, the eagerness is its own; otherwise it pertains to the thing which represents and supervises the inanimate creature. It may even be said as a consequence of this that when subtle, delicate water receives the command to freeze, it conforms to the command with such intense eagerness that it splits iron, breaking it into pieces. That is to say, in conveying the dominical command of “Expand!” with the tongue of freezing sub-zero temperature to the water in a closed iron container, it breaks the container with its intense eagerness. It splits the iron and itself becomes ice.

You can make analogies with this for everything. From the rotations of the suns and their journeyings and peregrinations to the spinning and turning and vibrations of minute particles like Mevlevi dervishes, all striving and motion in the universe turns on the law of Divine Determining and proceeds from the hand of Divine Power and is manifested through the creative command which comprises Divine Will, Knowledge, and Command.

Each particle, each being, each living being, even, resembles a soldier who has different relations with all the sections of the army and different duties in each; all particles and living beings are similar to that. For example, a particle in your eye has a relation with the cells of the eye, with the eye, the facial nerves, and the blood vessels of the body; and it has duties in accordance with those relations, and yields benefits in accordance with each of those duties. And so on, you can compare everything with this. Thus, everything testifies to the Necessary Existence of the Pre-Eternal All-Powerful One in two respects:

T h e F i r s t : By carrying out duties far exceeding its own power, everything testifies to the All-Powerful One’s existence.

T h e S e c o n d : Through acting in conformity with the laws that form the order of the world and principles which perpetuate the balance of beings, everything testifies to that All-Knowing and All-Powerful One. For lifeless things like particles, and tiny animals like bees cannot know order and balance, which are the subtle, important matters of the Clear Book. How can a lifeless particle and tiny bee read the subtle, significant matters of the Clear Book, which is in the hand of the All-Glorious One, Who opens and closes and gathers up the levels of the heavens as though they were the pages of a notebook? If you crazily suppose the particle to possess an eye capable of reading the fine letters of that book, then you can try to refute the particle’s testimony!

Yes, the All-Wise Creator summarizes the principles of the Clear Book in most beautiful form and abbreviated fashion and with a particular pleasure and through a special need, and includes them in beings. If everything acts thus with a particular pleasure out of a particular need, it unknowingly conforms to the principles of the Clear Book. For example, the minute the mosquito with its proboscis comes into the world, it emerges from its house, and not stopping, attacks man’s face; it strikes it with its long staff causing the water of life to spurt out, and it drinks it. It shows the skill of a practised warrior in dodging blows directed at it. Who taught the tiny, inexperienced, newly born creature the science of war and art of extracting water? And where did it learn it? I, that is, this unfortunate Said, confess that if I had been in the place of that mosquito with its proboscis, I could only have learnt this art, this warfare of attack and retreat, this extracting of water, only after lengthy instruction and much experience.

And so, compare animals like the bee, who receives inspiration, the spider, and the nightingale, who weaves his nest like a stocking, with the mosquito, and you can even compare plants to these animals in just the same way. Yes, the Absolutely Generous One (May His glory be exalted) has given each living being a memorandum written with the pen of pleasure and ink of need, and with it has deposited in the being the programme of the creative commands and index of its duties. See how the All-Wise One of Glory has written on a receipt the amount concerning the bee’s duties, from the principles of the Clear Book, and placed it in the coffer in the bee’s head. And the key to the coffer is the pleasure particular to the diligent bee. With it, it opens the coffer, reads the programme, understands the command, and acts. It proclaims the meaning of the verse,

And your Sustainer has inspired the bee.⁵

If you have listened to the whole of this Eighth Note and understood it completely, through the intuition of belief, you will understand one meaning of,

And His mercy embraces all things,

and one truth of the verse,

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise,⁶

and one principle of the verse,

Verily when He intends a thing, His command is “Be!” and it is,⁷

and one point of the verse,

So glory to Him in Whose hands is the dominion of all things; and to Him will you all be brought back.⁸