some minor matter, some private need. The other, under the title of sublime sovereignty, supreme vicegerent, and universal rulership, is to speak with an envoy or high official for the purpose of making known and promulgating his commands, to make an utterance through an elevated decree proclaiming his majesty.

The Second: One man holds the mirror he is holding up to the sun. He receives light containing the seven colours according to the capacity of the mirror. He becomes connected to the sun through that relation and converses with it, and if he directs the light-filled mirror towards his dark house or his roofed garden, he will benefit, not in relation to the sun’s value, but in accordance with the capacity of the mirror. Another man, however, opens up broad windows in his house or in the roof over his garden. He opens up ways to the sun in the sky. He converses with the perpetual light of the actual sun and speaks with it, and says in gratitude through the tongue of his being: “O you beauty of the world who gilds the face of the earth with his light and makes the faces of the flowers smile! O beauty of the skies, fine sun! You have furnished my little house and garden with light and heat the same as you have furnished them with light and heat.” Whereas the man with the mirror cannot say that. The reflection and works of the sun are restricted and limited; they are in accordance with the restriction. Look at the Qur’an through the telescope of these two comparisons and see its miraculousness and understand its sacredness.

The Qur’an says: “If all the trees on the land were to become pens and all the seas were ink and they were to write the words of Almighty God, they would never come to the end of them.” Now, the reason the Qur’an has been given the highest rank among the infinite words of God is this: the Qur’an has come from the greatest divine name and from the greatest level of every name. It is God’s Word in respect of His being Sustainer of All the Worlds; it is His decree through His title of God of All Beings; an address in regard to His being Creator of the Heavens and the Earth; a conversation in regard to absolute dominicality; a pre-eternal address on account of universal divine sovereignty; a notebook of the favours of the Most Merciful One from the point of view of His all-embracing, comprehensive mercy; a collection of communications at the beginnings of which ciphers are sometimes found which are related to the sublime majesty of the Godhead; a wisdom-scattering holy scripture which, descending from the reaches of the greatest name, looks to and inspects the all-comprehensive domain of the supreme throne. It is for these reasons that the title of Word of God has been given with complete worthiness to the Qur’an.