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As for the circumambulation of the
House [Tawaf], realize that it is a ritual Prayer. You
should fill your heart with reverence, fear, hope, and
love. Know that in your circumambulation, you resemble
the angels near the Divine Presence, who ring the Throne
and circle around it.
Do not suppose the purpose to be
your bodily circumambulation of the House. Rather, the
true purpose is the circling of your heart in
remembrance of the Lord of the House, till remembering
begins with Him alone and ends with Him alone, just as
the circumambulation starts from the House and ends at
the House.
Know that the noble circumambulation
is the circling of the heart in the Divine presence, and
that the House is the external symbol in the visible
world for the unseen Divine court which lies in the
invisible universe.
For those to whom God opens the
door, the realm of earthly power and sense experience is
but the threshold of the invisible, angelic universe.
This parallel is suggested by the correspondence between
the House inhabited in the heavens and the Kabah.
The heavenly circling of the angels
is like the human circumambulation of this House, but
since most people are incapable of achieving that level
of circumambulation, they have been commanded to imitate
as best they can, with the promise that: Whoever
imitates a set of people is one of them.
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