....The Knower answered: Surely God did not created the (human) creatures as fully grown men
and as (divine) knowers. He only created them as infants, small and ignorant, not knowing anything,
so that they only become big after having been small, and only come to be knowing after they were
ignorant. Thus their smallness is a precondition for their becoming big and their ignorance is a sign
pointing toward knowledge. The same is true of (spiritual) knowledge: One can only attain its essence
on the basis of preceding, lower form of knowledge which hearts can more quickly assimilate and the
understanding can more easily grasp, so that the first stage (of that process of spiritual growth) is
established in (people's) minds and they are humbled enough to carry out the duties (required by that),
and so that their hearts come to open up to the essence (of that knowledge) and their intellect are
able to bear its goal. That is God's accustomed way regarding His servants, So it is not necessary for us
to depart from the opinions of (this) religious community, nor do we need to follow other than (His)
accustomed way in our process of being guided........
(From JA'FAR B. MANSUR AL-YAMAN "Kitab al- Alim wa'l-ghulam" Edited and Translated
by James W. Morris)
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