Mercy
...
“You thought it would come about through your own energy and
action and deeds. That is indeed a custom I have established, that is,
that what you have you should expend on Our behalf. Only then does Our
mercy come. We say to you, 'Travel this endless road on your own weak
legs.' We know that with your weak legs you will never be able to
finish the way—in a hundred thousand years you would not finish
even one stage of the way. Only when you make the effort and come onto
the road to fall down at last, unable to go another step, only then
will you be uplifted by God's favor. A child is picked up and carried
while it is nursing, but when it grows older it is left to go on its
own; so now when you have no strength left you are carried by God's
favor. When you had the strength and could expend your energy, from
time to time in a state between sleep and wakefulness, We bestowed upon
you grace for you to gain strength in your quest and to encourage you.
Now that you no longer have the means to continue, look upon Our grace
and favor and see how they swarm down upon you. For a hundred thousand
endeavors you would not have seen so much as an iota
of this. Now celebrate the praise of the Sustainer, and ask
pardon of Him. Seek forgiveness for your thoughts and realize
that you were only imagining that all this could come from your own
efforts. You did not see that it all comes from Us. Now that you have
seen that it is from Us, seek forgiveness.” He is
inclined to forgive.
[Fihi Ma Fihi #17]
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