material power, he will not appoint persons like the general, field marshal and lieutenant as his representatives but will himself be present everywhere in person. He will give his orders directly, merely from behind certain veils and individuals, themselves of rank. In fact, there are narrations relating that certain kings who were saints of the highest level executed their affairs in many spheres in the form of different individuals.

Concerning the truth we looked at in this comparison, since the commander-in-chief was in no way impotent, the order and command came directly from him in every sphere. Affairs were executed through his command, will, and power.

As in this comparison, the commands and authoritative functions of the Sovereign of Pre-Eternity and Post-Eternity, Who is the Ruler of the heavens and the earth, Owner of the command of “‘Be!’, and it is”(36:82) and the Absolute Commander, are in force in all the levels of creatures and are conformed to with perfect obedience and order. Each appears as a sphere of dominicality, a level of rulership in the levels of creatures and classes of beings, which stretch from particles to the planets and from flies to the heavens, and which, great and small, particular and universal, are all different but are such that they look one to the other.

Now, the way to understand the exalted aims and mighty results of the entire universe and to see all the different duties of worship of all its levels; and, through observing the sovereignty of the Supreme Being’s dominicality and the splendour of His rule, to understand what is pleasing to Him; and to be the herald of His sovereignty, one should make a journey through all those levels and spheres as far as the sublime throne, which is the title of the greatest sphere; as far as “The distance of two bow-lengths,”(53:9) to meet there with the All-Glorious and Beauteous One. This journey is the reality of the Ascension.

Just as ordinary human beings travel in the mind with the speed of imagination, and saints journey in the heart with the speed of lightning, and angels, which are luminous bodies, circulate with the speed of spirit from the throne to the earth and from the earth to the throne; and the people of Paradise will rise to Paradise from the resurrection with the speed of Buraq across a distance greater than five hundred years; [^5] so, of a certainty, the body of Muhammad (UWBP) went together with his elevated spirit as far as the divine throne. For Muhammad’s (UWBP) body was the treasury of the faculties of Muhammad’s (UWBP) spirit, and the means by which its duties

[^5]:See, Tirmidhī, Tafsīr al-Qur’ān, 19; Dārimī, Riqāq, 89; al-Ḥākim, al-Mustadrak, iv, 542; al-Ṭabarānī, al-Mu‘jam al-Kabīr, ix, 356.