he said, 'My Lord, prison is dearer to me than that to which they are urging me. He said 'than that to which they are urging me', and supplicated to God to fend off their wiles from him with his words and if You do not fend off their wiles from me, then I shall tend towards them and become of the ignorant, because it is in her [the soul's] nature to incline to the lower aspect and to attract the heart to herself. The occasion for drawing him [the heart] down to her [the soul] so that he never disappears and her illumination by his light and her obedience to him is an accidental matter, one that does not last, while the heart always reinforces her in her deeds since he possesses two natures and two faces. With one of them he tends towards the spirit and with the other he tends towards the soul, and he turns with one face to that one and with the other face to this one. Thus there is nothing closer to his nature than this 'tending' to her [the soul] out of his ignorance, were it not for God's protection of him by causing the upper aspect to prevail [over the lower one] and reinforcing him with the lights of the higher [angelic] council, as the Prophet, peace be upon him, once said, 'O God, make my heart stand firm upon Your religion', whereupon it was said to him, 'You say that even though you are a prophet who receives revelationsḍ' He said, 'And what security is there for me against the fact that the heart is like a feather strewn in an open expanse, the winds blowing it around in every which way!' This supplication epitomises the heart's need [for God], which [state] is ever-obligatory for it.
