people are lazy because they lean on their elders and guides. They even sometimes say: “Our prayers have been performed.” (Like some ‘Alawis)

The Fourth Point. Another group would understand a sign from the Unseen from this verse, as follows: The Prophet’s male children would not remain at the degree of ‘men’ [rijāl]; in consequence of some wise purpose, his descendants would not continue as mere men. Since through the use of the term ‘rijāl’ it indicates that he is the father of women, his line would continue through women. Praise be to God, Fatima’s blessed descendants, Hasan and Husayn, the radiant moons of two luminous lines, continued the physical and spiritual line of the Sun of Prophethood.

O God, grant blessings to him and his Family.

(The First Light here reaches a conclusion with three Rays.)

Second Light

SECOND LIGHT

The Second Light comprises three Beams.

First Beam

FIRST BEAM: According to the testimony of thousands of brilliant scholars of the rhetorical sciences of figurative speech (ilm-i beyân) and the semantics of syntax (fenn-i ma‘ânî) like Zamakhshari, Sakkaki, and ‘Abd al-Qahir Jurjani, there is in the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition as a whole a pleasant fluency, a superior correctness, a firm mutual solidarity, and compact proportionateness, powerful co-operation between the sentences and parts, and an elevated harmony between the verses and their aims. Yet, while there are seven or eight significant factors that might mar or destroy the harmony, co-operation, and mutual support, and the fluency and correctness, they do not mar them, indeed, they give strength to the fluency, correctness, and proportionateness. Only, those causes have exerted an influence to some extent and taken others out of the veil of the order and fluency. But just as a number of bumps and excrescences appear on a tree, not to spoil the harmony of the tree but to produce fruit which will be the means for the tree reaching its adorned perfection and beauty; in just the same way, these factors stick out their knobbly heads in order to express meanings which will enhance the Qur’an’s fluent ordering and composition. Thus, although the Perspicuous Qur’an was revealed part by part like stars over twenty years in response to the circumstances and needs, it possesses such a perfect harmony and displays such a proportionateness that it is as though it was revealed all at once.

Furthermore, although the circumstances which prompted the Qur’an’s revelation were all different and various, its parts are so mutually suppor-