plants and trees. That is to say, just as the trees and stars all perform particular forms of glorification, so do the earth and every part of the earth, and all the mountains and valleys, and the land and the sea, and the spheres of the firmament and the constellations in the heavens all perform universal forms of glorification. The earth possesses these thousands of heads containing thousands of tongues, and certainly has an angel appointed to it who translates and displays in the World of Similitudes the flowers of glorification and fruits of praise it performs with each, and who represents and proclaims them in the World of Spirits.

Indeed, if numerous things take on the form of a collectivity, a collective personality comes into being. If such a collectivity fuses and becomes a unity, it will have a collective personality and a sort of spirit which will represent it, and an appointed angel who will perform its duty of glorification. As an example, consider the plane tree in front of my room here, a mighty word in the mouth of Barla and the tongue of this mountain: see how many hundreds of tongues of smaller branches there are on the three heads of the three main branches of its trunk. Study carefully how many hundreds of words of well-ordered and balanced fruits it has, and how many hundreds of letters of well-proportioned winged seeds: just as you hear and see how eloquently it praises and glorifies the All-Glorious Maker, the Owner of the command of “‘Be!’, and it is”(36:82), so too the angel appointed to it represents its glorification with numerous tongues in the World of Meaning. Wisdom necessitates that it is so.

The Fourth

THE FOURTH: For example, consider the elevated truth expressed by such verses as:

Indeed, His command when He wills a thing, is, “Be!”, and it is.(36:82) ∗ And the decision of the Hour is as the twinkling of an eye.(16:77) ∗ And We are closer to him than his jugular vein.(50:16) ∗ The angels ascend to Him in a day the measure of which is fifty thousand years.(70:4)

The truth is this: the Absolutely Powerful One creates things with such ease and speed, with no direct or physical contact, that it appears that He creates with a mere command, and this is understood. Also, although the All-Powerful Maker is infinitely close to beings, they are infinitely distant from him. Furthermore, despite His infinite might and glory, He sets in order the most insignificant and lowly matters attaching importance to them, and does not deny them the beauty of His art. Thus, the perfect order within absolute ease observed in beings testifies to the existence of this Qur’anic truth. The following comparison demonstrates its meaning and wisdom. For example, “And God’s is the highest similitude”(16:60), despite