vant of God; in regard to worship he describes his Sustainer so that he is like the envoy of his community at the court of Almighty God. He is also God’s Messenger; with regard to messengership he conveys his Sustainer’s decrees to men and the jinn by means of the Qur’an.

This happy community heeded the Messenger and listened to the Qur’an. They saw themselves invested with the prescribed prayers, which are the index of all the varieties of worship, and numerous subtle duties within elevated stations. Indeed, they saw in detail the duties and stations which the prayers point to with their various formulas and actions. It was like this:

Firstly: Since they observed the divine works, and in the form of relations with someone unseen, saw themselves in the station of observing the wonders of the sovereignty of dominicality, they performed the duty of extolling and glorifying God, declaring: “God is Most Great!”

Secondly: Being seen in the station of herald of His brilliant and wonderful works, which are the manifestations of the sacred divine names, they exclaimed: “Glory be to God! All Praise be to God!”, so performing the duty of hallowing and praising God.

Thirdly: In the station of perceiving and understanding with their inner and outer senses the bounties stored up in the treasuries of divine mercy, they started to carry out the duty of thanks and praise.

Fourthly: In the station of weighing up with the scales of their spiritual faculties the jewels in the treasuries of the divine names, they began the duty of praise and declaring God to be free of all fault.

Fifthly: In the station of studying the Sustainer’s missives, written with the pen of power on the plan of divine determining, they began the duty of contemplation and appreciation.

Sixthly: On beholding the subtle, delicate, fine beauties in the creation of things and in the art in beings, in the station of declaring God to be free of all defect, they took up the duty of love and yearning for their All-Glorious Creator, their All-Beauteous Maker. That is to say, after observing the universe and works and performing the duties in the above-mentioned stations in the form of relations with an unseen object of worship, they rose to the degree of beholding too the dealings and acts of the All-Wise Maker, whereby, in the form of relations in the presence of the person concerned, they responded with knowledge and wonder in the face of the All-Glorious Creator’s making Himself known to conscious beings through the miracles of His art, and declared: “Glory be unto You! How can we truly know you? What makes You known are the miracles of Your works of art!”