The conclusion of the discourse

Perhaps at that point you grow slack and say: this is a prophet, a chosen one, with those attributes, a mirror for the sight of God; so it is far from me that I should arrive, and impossible for me that I should reach that lofty degree.

Yes — and even if it be so, still your striving and your earnestness in the imitation give you a degree higher than the one you now hold, quite apart from your being commanded to take him as a model: “You have indeed in the Messenger of God a goodly example.” And if you strive and die while still exerting yourself, that is better than that you should die slack, wishing wishes upon God, seated on the carpet of ease, reclining on the cushion of contentment with the character you already have: “And whoever goes out from his house, emigrating to God and His Messenger, and then death overtakes him — his reward has fallen due upon God.” God does not let go to waste the reward of one who does good work. And since the pen has run on, and the field of dictation, and we add nothing but concision, and in what has gone before there is sufficiency — then hear the conclusion of the discourse.

The Conclusion of the Discourse

It is that you should know that you have a term and a beginning, an end and a thing set before you in your creation, being aware of your spirit (rūḥ) and of that which sustains it — since it has no motion of its own such that it might suffice unto itself; and that you should ascertain that you were not created in order to add, to the individuated matter which bears your spirit, another matter out of the world of generation and corruption — for the two are perishable and have no permanence — until your spirit attaches itself to its own world and arrives at its abode. Rather, that you should know that the world, from its throne to its floor, is made subservient to your body: sun and moon, and rivers and cloud,