contest you? Do they consider themselves free of any need of you? That means they have become blind and do not see the perfect order and flawless harmony throughout the universe, which is as clear as day. For in accordance with the decree,

Were there gods other than God in the heavens and the earth, there surely would have been confusion in both,(21:22)

if there are two headmen in a village, or two governors in a town, or two kings in a country, its order is turned upside down and its harmony, spoilt. But from a fly’s wing to the lamps in the heavens, such a fine order has been observed that it leaves not so much space as a fly’s wing for partners to be associated with God. Since the above act in a manner so opposed to reason, wisdom, feeling, and what is obvious, don’t let their lies put you off proclaiming the message!

Thus, of the hundreds of jewels of these verses, which constitute a series of truths, we have briefly explained only a single jewel of the Qur’an’s manner of exposition in the category of giving to understand and silencing in argument. If I had had the power and shown a few more jewels, you too would have said: “These verses are a miracle just on their own.” But the Qur’an’s manner of exposition in making understood and instruction is so wonderful, subtle, and fluent that even a simple ordinary person easily comprehends a profound truth from the way it explains it. Yes, the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition simply and clearly teaches most abstruse truths in a way that caresses the view of people in general, and neither hurts their feelings, nor irritates their minds, nor tires them. Just as when speaking with a child, childish words are used, in the same way the Qur’anic styles come down to the level of those it addresses – called in the terminology of the scholars of theology, “divine condescension to the mind of man” – it addresses them in that way; through comparisons in the form of allegories, it allows an illiterate common person to understand abstruse divine truths and dominical mysteries which the minds of learned philosophers cannot rise to.

For example, by means of a comparison, the verse,

The Most Merciful One on the Throne established (20:5)

depicts divine dominicality as a kingdom, and the degree of that dominicality as that of a king seated on the throne of his sovereignty exercising His rule. Indeed, as the speech of the All-Glorious Creator of the universe, the Qur’an proceeds from the ultimate degree of His dominicality, passes over all the other degrees guiding those who rise to them, and passing through seventy thousand veils, it looks to each and illuminates it. It scatters its