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FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY
shoes".[1] The devotee, who listening with rapture, suddenly saw as it were a flash of lightning, there appeared working the pen which writes on hearts-formless. "A thousand blessings on thee, O knowledge, who hast saved me from falling into the abysm of anthropomorphism (Tashbih). "I thank thee from the bottom of my heart, I tarried long, but now, adieu".
The devotee then resumed his journey. Halting in the presence of the invisible pen, politely he asked the same question. "You know my reply" answered the mysterious pen, "You cannot have forgotten the reply given to you by the pen in the terrestial world". "Yes, I remember," replied the devotee, "but how can it be the same reply, because there is no
- ↑ Quran XX 12. It is generally supposed that Moses was ordered to take off his "leather shoes" out of respect for the sacred place. But Razi in his Commentary calls it an idiom and says that the Arabs used the word Naʾal (shoe) wife and family. The command to put off the shoes is therefore a metaphorical expression for making the heart vacant from care of family. See Tafsir-i-Razi vol. VI, 10. Stamboul edition.
