"Gradualness is characteristic of that King"

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Wasn't God able to create heaven in one moment by the word "Be"?
Without a doubt He was.
Why, then, O you who seek to be taught,
did He extend the time to six days—
every day as long as a thousand years?
Why is the creation of a child completed in nine months?
Because gradualness is characteristic of the action of that King.

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Haqq nah qâder bud bar khalq-e falak
dar yeki lahzeh be- "Kun"*? Bi hich shakk
Pas cherâ shesh ruz ân-râ dar keshid
koll yawm alf `âm ay mostanid
Khalqat-e tefl az cheh andar noh mah ast
zânkeh tadrij az she`âr-e ân Shah ast

-- Mathnawi VI: 1213-1215
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

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"Gradualness is characteristic of that King"