The Book of Wisdom - Chapter 2

17. He who wishes that there appear, at a given moment, other than what God has manifested in it, has not left ignorance behind at all!

18. Your postponement of deeds till the time when you are free is one of the frivolities of the ego.

19. Do not request Him to get you out of a state so as to make use of you in a different one; for, were He desire so, He could make use of you as you are, without taking you out!

20. Hardly does the intention of the initiate want to stop at what has been revealed to him, than the voices of Reality call out to him:
“That which you are looking for is still ahead of you!”
And hardly do the exterior aspects of created beings display their charms, than their inner realities call out to him: “We are only a trial, so disbelieve not!”

21. Your requesting Him is suspecting Him.
Your seeking Him is due to your absence from Him.
Your seeking someone else is because of your immodesty toward Him.
Your requesting someone else is on account of your distance from Him.

22. Not a breath do you expire but a Decree of Destiny makes it go forth.

23. Do not look forward to being free of alterities, for that is indeed what cuts you off from vigilant attention to Him in that very state He has assigned to you.

24. So long as you are in this world, be not surprised at the existence of sorrows. For, truly, it manifests nothing but what is in keeping with its character or its inevitable nature.

25. No search pursued with the help of your Lord remains at a standstill, but any search pursued by yourself will not be fruitful.

26. Among the signs of success at the end is the turning to God at the beginning.

27. He who is illumined at the beginning is illumined at the end.

28. Whatever is deposited in the invisible world of innermost hearts is manifested in the visible world of phenomena.

29. What a difference between one who proceeds from God in his argumentation and one who proceeds inferentially to Him! He who has Him as his starting-point knows the Real as It is, and proves any matter by reference to the Being of its Origin.
But inferential argumentation comes from the absence of union with Him.
Otherwise, when was it that he became absent that one has to proceed inferentially to Him? Or when was it that He became distant that created things themselves will unite us to Him?

30. Those who are united with Him:
“Let him who has abundance spend out his abundance.”
Those who are voyaging toward Him:
“And whoever has his means of subsistence straitened…”

31. Those who are voyaging to Him are guided by the lights of their orientation, whereas those who are united to Him have the lights of face-to-face confrontation. The former belong to the latter, for they belong to God and to nothing apart from Him. “Say: Allah! Then leave them prattling in their vain talk.”