ficient for the construction of Paradise, the creation of which is as easy for divine power as the creation of the spring. Yes, just as his messengership was the reason for the opening of this place of examination and trial, so too his worship and servitude to God were the reason for the opening of the next world.

Would the perfect order observed in the universe, which has caused scholars and the intelligent to pronounce: “There could be nothing more beautiful and perfect than what exists;” [^2] and the faultless beauty of art within mercy, the incomparable beauty of dominicality – would these permit the ugliness, the cruelty, the lack of order of its hearing and responding to the least significant, the least important desires and voices, and its considering unimportant the most important, the most necessary wishes, and its not hearing them or understanding them, and not carrying them out? God forbid! A hundred thousand times, God forbid! Such a beauty would not permit such an ugliness; it would not become ugly.

[^2]:al-Ghazālī, Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn, iv, 2509; Ibn al-’Arabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, iv, 154.

My imaginary friend! That is enough for now, we must return. For if we remain a hundred years in this age in the Arabian Peninsula, we still would only completely comprehend one hundredth of the marvels of that Being’s duties and the wonders he carried out, and we would never tire of watching him.

Now, come! We shall look at the centuries, turning above us. See how each has opened like a flower through the effulgence it has received from that Sun of Guidance! They have produced millions of such enlightened fruits as Abu Hanifa, Shafi‘i, Abu Bayazid Bistami, Shah Geylani, Shah Naqshband, Imam Ghazali, and Imam Rabbani. But postponing the details of our observations to another time, we must recite some benedictions for that displayer of miracles and bringer of guidance that mention a number of his certain miracles:

Endless peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad, to the number of the good deeds of his community, to whom was revealed the All-Wise Criterion of Truth and Falsehood, from One Most Merciful, Most Compassionate, from the Sublime Throne; whose Messengership was foretold by the Torah and Bible, and told of by wondrous signs, the voices of jinn, saints among men, and soothsayers; at whose indication the moon split; our master Muhammad! Peace and blessings be upon him thousands and thousands of times, to the number of the breaths of his community; at whose beckoning came