The wings of the human being
are aspiration.
A bird flies to its nest by means of wings: the wings of the human being are aspiration.
In the case of the lover who is soiled with good and evil, don't pay attention to the good and evil, pay attention to the aspiration. If a falcon is white and beyond compare, still it becomes despicable when it hunts a mouse; and if there is an owl that yearns for the king, it's as noble as the falcon's head: don't pay attention to its hood. The human being, no bigger than a wooden kneading trough, has surpassed in glory the heavens and the empyrean. Did heaven ever hear the words: We have honored -- which this sorrowful human being heard from God?!
[Mathnawi VI, 134-39]
Let us ask each day: To what do I aspire? How will I use this gift of humanness?
In what ways do I betray my aspiration?
Or make use of this prayer from the Qur'an:
O my Sustainer,
cause me to enter whatever I do in a manner true and sincere;
and cause me to finish whatever I do in a manner true and sincere,
and grant me power from You which will sustain me.
[Surah Al-Isra (The Night Journey), 17:80]
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