Faces that day will be radiant, gazing upon their Lord. The servant with faith is like a falcon. When they catch a falcon and want to make it worthy for the hand of the king, they sew its eyes shut for a while. They put a tie on its foot and keep it in a dark house, separate from its mate. For a time they afflict it with hunger so that it becomes weak and emaciated. It forgets its homeland and gains the nature of being left aside. Finally they open up its eyes. They light a candle and beat a drum for it. They put a piece of meat in front of it and they make the hand of the king its resting place. The falcon says to itself, “In the whole world, who has this honor that I have? A candle before my eyes, the beating of a drum my tune, bird meat my food, the king's hand my place!” In a similar way, when they want to clothe the faithful servant in the robe of bosom friendship and let him drink the wine of love, they do so with the same practice. For a time they keep him in within the four walls of the grave. They take away his hands' holding and his feet's walking. They remove sight from his eyes and leave him in this state for some time. Then all of a sudden they beat the drum of the resurrection. The servant lifts his head from the dust of the grave, opens his eyes, and sees the light of paradise: Their light running before them [57:12]. He forgets this world, drinks the wine of union, and sits at the table of everlastingness. Just as the falcon opened its eyes and saw itself on the hand of the king, the faithful servant opens his eyes and sees himself in the seat of truthfulness [54:55]. He hears the greeting of the King and sees the vision of the King. The servant is happy and joyful in the midst of blessedness, nearness, and the most beauti- ful, gazing on the beauty and majesty of the Real. This is why the Lord of the Worlds says, “Faces on that day will be radiant, gazing upon their Lord.” The faces of the faithful and the obedient, the faces of the sincerely truthful and the witnesses, the faces of the passionate and the yearners, will be shining like the moon and sparkling like the sun.
