And if we say the second—meaning that He is capable of manifesting His Essence to His creation, but He refrained from manifesting to them—we would by this saying of ours attribute His action to something other than wisdom.

This is because within His manifestation, the Exalted, to His servants—especially the believers among them—there is a tranquility and a pleasure that no other pleasure matches. And is there any pleasure for the ecstatic lover that surpasses the pleasure of seeing his beloved? Furthermore, within His manifestation to those who love Him, there is a drawing of their love and their actions toward good and virtue, and a filling of their hearts with faith and their faces with bashfulness.

[39] On the authority of our master Al-Rida, Ali bin Musa—His might was mighty—that he said: “The Master only manifested Himself to you so that you may take on His manners.”