50 Preface قُل لا أَقولُ لَكُم عِندي خَزائِنُ اللَّهِ وَلا أَعلَمُ الغَيبَ وَلا أَقولُ لَكُم إِنّي مَلَكٌ ۖ إِن أَتَّبِعُ إِلّا ما يوحىٰ إِلَيَّ ۚ قُل هَل يَستَوِي الأَعمىٰ وَالبَصيرُ ۚ أَفَلا تَتَفَكَّرونَYusuf AliSay: “I tell you not that with me are the treasures of God,1 nor do I know what is hidden, nor do I tell you I am an angel. I but follow what is revealed to me.” Say: “can the blind be held equal to the seeing?”2 Will ye then consider not?Literally, it might mean that the men of God are not like vulgar soothsayers, who pretend to reveal hidden treasures, or peer into the future, or claim to be something of a different nature from men. But the meaning is wider: they deal out God’s great treasures of truth, but the treasures are not theirs, but God’s; they have greater insight into the higher things, but that insight is not due to their own wisdom, but to God’s inspiration; they are of the same flesh and blood with us, and the sublimity of their words and teachings arises through God’s grace-to them and to those who hear them.Therefore compare not the men of God (“the seeing”) with ordinary men (“the blind”). The men of God, although they be but men, have the higher light with them; therefore do not exact of them petty ephemeral services. Though they are men, they are not as other men, and are entitled to reverence.