Third aim:

(Receiving a convincing answer to the second question, the misguided one asks:)

Question: Qur'anic expressions like the Best of Creators and the Most Merciful of the Merciful suggest the existence of others. Also, you assert that the Creator of the universe has infinite perfections by encompassing the highest degree of all perfections. But perfections are judged by way of contrast. Pleasure's perfection cannot be perceived without pain, light cannot be recognized without darkness, and union gives no pleasure if there is no separation.

Answer: We answer the first part through five indications.

First indication: Being a book that emphasizes Divine Unity, the Qur'an could not have used those phrases as you understand them. Rather, the Best of Creators·means that the Creator has the highest rank of creativity. This does not suggest the existence of other creators for, like other Attributes, creativity has ranks of manifestation. Thus this phrase means that He is a Majestic Creator having the ultimate rank of creativity.

Second indication: Such phrases as the Best of Creators do not suggest a plurality of creators. Rather, they relate to species of beings and mean that He is a Creator Who creates everything in the best and most appropriate fashion. Verses like He creates everything in the best form (32:7) have the same meaning.

Third indication: Such phrases as the Best of Creators, God is the Greatest, the Best of Judges, and the Best of the Benevolent·do not compare those acts and Attributes of God that are manifested in the universe with those of creatures, who manifest only their shadowy reflections. Whatever beings have is a gift from God. [We see because God is All-Seeing, and hear because He is All-Hearing.] All perfections shared by humanity, angels, and jinn are only indistinct shadows in relation to His, which are beyond compare.

People, especially the misguided, cannot measure God properly and are usually forgetful of Him. For example, a private respects his corporal but is oblivious of the king when he thanks the corporal for anything. Such a private should be warned: "The king is greater than your corporal, so you must thank the king." Actually, everything ultimately comes from the king; the corporal is only an envoy. The king's actual, magnificent command cannot be compared with the corporal's. The only purpose for the warning, which contains a comparison, is to warn the private who prefers the corporal in gratitude and forgets the king.

Similarly, means, nature, and causes blind heedless people to the True Bestower of Bounties. They attribute the bounties which they receive to means and nature and creativity to causes, as if they were the actual sources, and praise and thank them. This is a sure path to associating others with God, and so the Qur'an warns: Almighty God is much greater and a far better Creator and Benefactor (actually meaning that He is the sole Creator and Benefactor). Regard Him and thank Him.

Fourth indication: Comparisons may be made between actually existent, possible, and even imagined things. People may imagine infinite grades in the Divine Names' and Attributes' essence. Almighty God is, however, of the highest, most perfect, and most beautiful of all grades that His Names and Attributes are imagined to have. The universe bears witness to this. His description of all His Names as the best or most beautiful, as in: His are the Most Beautiful Names·(20:8), points to this fact.

Fifth indication: Such phrases also should be considered from the following viewpoint. Almighty God has two kinds of Attributes and ways of manifestations. In the first one (Wahidiya), the form of an all-encompassing law, He shows His Names throughout the universe from behind apparent means and causes. In the second one (Ahadiya), He focuses His manifestations on one being without any means or veils. When shown in this second way, His kindness, creation, and grandeur are brighter, more beautiful and splendid than their manifestations in the first way.

Suppose a saintly king executes his authority directly. He can do so in two ways: by some general laws he has established and using officials and governors in every office, or through direct governance by being present everywhere at the same time in different forms and without officials. This second way is better and more excellent. Similarly, the Creator of the universe, the Eternal King, uses means and causes to veil His rule and to demonstrate His Lordship's majesty in this life. However, He also has installed a "private telephone" in His servants' hearts so that, leaving all means and causes behind, they can contact Him and declare: You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help (1:5). Phrases like the Best of Creators, the Most Merciful of the Merciful, and God is the Greatest·also underline this fact.

As for how we can judge something as perfect if it has no opposite, consider the following five points:

First point: One who asks such a question is unaware of true perfection and imagines relative perfections to be true. Any virtue, perfection, or superiority that manifests itself in comparison to or in contrast with others is not true; rather, it is of relative value and significance. Thus losing its opposite causes it to lose its value.

For example, heat is desired over severe cold and food is delicious in proportion to one's hunger. Without cold and hunger, heat and food have no value. True pleasure, love, perfection, or virtue do not show themselves in comparison with others or in proportion to their opposites' degree—they are by and of themselves, and so are realities unto themselves.

Life contains realities that do not need comparisons or opposites to perceive or appreciate: the pleasure of existing, life, mercy, compassion, belief, love, knowledge, and life's continuance; the beauty of light, countenance, moral virtues, and good conduct; the delight and beauty of seeing and hearing; and the perfection of Divine Essence, Attributes, and acts, which do not change. With or without opposites, they are virtues and perfections in themselves. Thus all perfections of the Majestic Maker, the Author of Grace and Beauty, and the Creator of Perfection are true in and of themselves. The perfections in creation are their reflections according to the capacity of each being.

Second point: In Sharh al-Mawaqif, Sayed Sharif al-Jurjani writes: "Love is caused by pleasure, benefit, sexual or natural inclination, or perfection. Perfection is loved because of itself." In other words, you love something or someone due to the resulting pleasure or benefit, your sexual or natural (e.g., fatherly, motherly, filial, etc.) inclination, or its perfection. If perfection arouses love, there is no need to search for another cause. For example, people tend to love people of perfection and of perfect virtue although they have no relation to them whatsoever.

So as they are true, indisputable, and infinite, all of Almighty God's perfections and His Most Beautiful Names are loved because of themselves. The Majestic Being, Who is absolutely worthy of love and is the True Beloved One, loves His perfections and the beauties of His Names and Attributes. These are true and exist in a manner suitable to Him. He loves the works of His art, which mirror His perfections, and the beauties of His creatures. He loves His Prophets and saints, particularly His noble beloved, the lord of Messengers and master of saints—Prophet Muhammad.

Due to His love for His Own Beauty, He loves His beloved, who mirrors that Beauty. Due to His love for His Own Names, He loves His beloved, who manifests those Names in a most comprehensive way, as well as all other Prophets. Due to His love for His art, He loves His beloved, who displays that art, and those who are like him (the other Prophets). Due to His love for His creatures, He loves His beloved, who welcomes those creatures with due appreciation and applause, saying: "What wonders God has willed! God bless them! How beautifully they have been created!" and those who follow him. Due to His love for the beauties of His creatures, He loves His beloved, who is the most comprehensive embodiment of all those beauties and all moral virtues shared by them, and his followers.

Third point:·All perfections in the universe are signs of a Majestic One's perfections and indications of His Beauty. In relation to His Perfec-tion, all beauty and perfection is an indistinct shadow. I now present brief pointers to five evidences of this reality.

First evidence: A splendid, perfectly built and decorated palace points to perfect engineering, architecture, and joinery. This perfect engineering, architecture, and joinery point to one worthy of called by such titles as builder, engineer, architect, decorator, and joiner. These titles show the perfection of the builder's artistry, which points to his competence. This perfect competence shows that the builder is a perfect one of a most sublime nature.

Similarly this world, a perfectly built and decorated palace, points to the perfection of acts, for a perfect work results from perfect acts. Perfect acts point to such perfect Names as Organizer, Fashioner, Wise, Decorator, and Builder, which are involved in building the palace. Perfect Names and Titles show perfect qualities or Attributes, for if the latter are imperfect, the Names originating from them also are imperfect. Perfect Attributes demonstrate perfect competence that, in turn, shows that the One Who built that palace is perfect. Although His Perfection is manifested through the veils of Essential Competence, Attributes, Names, acts, and works, it still reveals the faultless perfection and beauty seen everywhere.

After you see that infinite perfection originating in the Essence of the One Who has it, you may understand how imperfect and dim are the relative perfections manifested in comparison to others or by way of contrast.

Second evidence: When viewed with attentive eyes and considered reflectively, the universe reveals to the heart and sound conscience that the One Who has made it so beautiful and decked it out with such varieties of adornment has such infinite beauty and perfection that He has made it so.

Third evidence: Perfect and well-proportioned works of art depend on perfect planning that, in turn, is based on comprehensive knowledge, a productive mind, intellectual refinement, and spiritual purity. The spirit's purity shows itself in the work through knowledge. So, with all its material beauties, this universe consists of the drops issuing from an infinite knowledge belonging to One Who has infinite beauty and perfection.

Fourth evidence: As you know, a being of light diffuses light and illuminates, and benevolence coming from wealth and grace originates from a gracious one. Since this is so, like light pointing to the sun, all the beauty and perfection observed in the universe point to a perpetual beauty. Like a mighty river glittering with reflections of the sun's light, creatures flow over Earth's face, glittering with reflections of beauty and perfection. Just as reflections of light in bubbles on a river's surface do not originate from the bubbles themselves, so the beauties and perfections glittering temporarily on the flood of creatures do not belong to the creatures themselves; rather, they are reflections of the lights of an Eternal Sun's Names.

The disappearance of mirrors and the death of creatures, in contrast to the perpetual reflections in them of inseparable grace and beauty, are among the most manifest proofs that apparent beauty does not belong to those reflecting them, and that there is One with ideal beauty and ever-manifested kindness and grace, One Whose existence is absolutely necessary, Who is Eternal and All-Loving.

Fifth evidence:·If several people coming from the same place through different ways report the same event, it means that the event occurred. In the same way, all people who can uncover hidden truths and are as sure of them as if they had seen them with their own eyes, whether truth-seeking purified scholars, saints belonging to different spiritual orders, or sages belonging to different schools of thought, regardless of time, place, or capacity, have agreed that the beauties and perfections seen in the mirrors of the universe's creatures are reflections of the Perfection of a Single Necessarily Existent One and manifestations of the beauty of His Names. This consensus is an unshakable and decisive testimony.

Fourth point: A person's or a thing's pleasure or beauty are judged according to those who receive and manifest them, not according to their opposites. For example, generosity is a beautiful and praiseworthy virtue. Generous people receive far greater pleasure from the happiness of those whom they have favored than from their superiority to others in generosity. Caring and compassionate people feel greater pleasure in proportion to the comfort of those for whom they feel compassion. For example, a mother's compassion for her children causes her to have such a great and strong pleasure in her children's happiness and well-being that she nearly sacrifices her life for them. The pleasure of such compassion also causes a hen to attack a dog to protect her young.

True pleasure, beauty, and perfection of laudable virtues and praiseworthy qualities are judged according to that with which they are related, not to their likes or opposites. Given this, the Beauty of the Perfect and All-Gracious One's Mercy, the All-Living, Self-Subsistent, All-Benevolent, All-Caring, All-Merciful, and All-Compassionate should be considered in view of those toward whom He has mercy. According to the degree of happiness and well-being of those whom He favors with His Mercy, particularly their enjoyment of His bounties in Paradise, the All-Merciful and All-Compassionate One feels what we call sacred love, sacred pleasure, sacred exhilaration, and sacred joy. All of these accord with His Holy, Transcendent Being, and are infinitely greater, as well as more sacred, elevated, and refined, than their counterparts in creation.

You may see one manifestation of this mighty truth's comprehensive meaning via the following comparison: Suppose a kind, compassionate, and generous man wills to feed some very poor, hungry, and destitute people. So, he prepares a banquet on his fine ship and watches them from above while they eat. You may understand how much their enjoyment of the food in gratitude and their happiness in praise and thankfulness please and exhilarate that noble and generous person.

Similarly, the All-Merciful and Compassionate One has spread out a vast food-laden table on Earth's face and causes Earth to travel in the space with all of its inhabitants. He feeds them from the food on this table and invites those of His servants who are infinitely hungry and destitute to Paradise's everlasting gardens. He prepares each garden as if it were a magnificent table laid out with all kinds of food and drink, which are of pure pleasure and delight. Consider the pleasure and happiness that the above-mentioned person feels at his guests' enjoyment, although he is not the true owner of what he offers, and then compare it with the indescribable sacred love and pleasure felt by the All-Merciful One.

Consider this. If a skillful technician invents something that works as intended, he or she will be pleased and say: "What wonders God has willed." The Majestic Maker has invented the vast universe. He has made Earth (in general) and each creature in it (in particular), especially our head, in such a way that science should be lost in admiration. Each creature displays the expected results to the utmost degree and in a very beautiful way. Their obedience to God's laws for the universe's creation and operation, which comprise their worship, glorification, and specific praise and exaltation of Him, as well as the attainment of Divine purposes for their lives, please Him to a degree beyond our comprehension.

Or, say a just judge receives great pleasure from doing and establishing justice, and becomes extremely happy when able to restore the rights of the oppressed. Compare with this the sacred meanings arising from the reality that the Absolutely Just Ruler, the Majestic Overwhelming One, gives all creatures the right of existence. He gives animate beings the right of life, protects and maintains their existence and lives against aggression, restores all rights in the universe, acts with absolute justice, and will judge humanity and jinn in the Hereafter and establish absolute justice.

As in the examples above, each Divine Name contains many sorts of beauty, grace, and perfection, as well as many levels of love, pride, honor, and grandeur. This is why exacting saintly scholars, who manifest the Divine Name the All-Loving, have concluded: "The essence of the universe is love. All creatures move with the motive of love. All laws of attraction, rapture, and gravity originate in love." One of them even said:

The spheres are intoxicated,
angels are intoxicated, and so are stars.
The heavens, the sun, the moon,
and Earth are intoxicated.
Intoxicated are the elements and plants
and trees and human beings.
All animate beings are intoxicated,
and so are all atoms of creation.

Every creature is intoxicated, according to its capacity, with the "wine" of Divine love. People love those who are kind to them as well as true perfection and transcendent beauty. They also love those who are kind to those whom they love and for whom they have mercy.

Given this, we can understand that the Majestic and Beautiful, the Most Beloved of Perfection, in each of Whose Names are innumerable treasuries of kindness, Who makes all those whom we love happy with His favors and is the source of countless perfections and levels of beauty and grace, is worthy of infinite love and the creation's intoxication with His love. This is why some saints who have manifested the Divine Name the All-Loving have said: "We do not even want Paradise. A gleam of the Divine love is eternally sufficient for us," and why, as Prophet Muhammad said: "A single minute spent in beholding the Divine Beauty in Paradise excels all the bounties of Paradise."

So, perfect love and perfections attained through love are possible within the spheres of the universal manifestations of Divine Names on beings as a whole (Unity) and the spheres of their particular manifestations on individuals (Oneness or Uniqueness). Any perfections imagined outside those spheres are false.

Fifth point:·The representative of the misguided says: "Your Traditions condemn the world, describing it as flesh. Also, all people of truth and sainthood deplore it, considering it evil and foul. But you say it is the means for showing all Divine perfections, and speak of it like a lover."

Answer: The world has three facets. The first facet is concerned with Almighty God's Names and shows their inscriptions and functions as mirrors to them. This facet is the Eternally-Besought-of-All's collection of innumerable "letters." Therefore it is extremely beautiful and worthy of love. The second facet relates to the Hereafter. It is the field to sow for the Hereafter, the tillage of Paradise, the flowerbed of Divine Mercy. Like the first one, it is beautiful and worthy of love.

The third facet is a veil of heedlessness, a plaything for human fancy and desire. This facet is ugly because it is mortal, painful, and deceptive, and thus condemned by the Traditions and disliked by the people of truth. The Qur'an praises creation and attaches importance to its first two facets. The Companions and other saints sought these two facets.

Four groups of people condemn and deplore the world. The first group, those with knowledge of God, condemn the world because it builds a barrier in front of the knowledge, love, and worship of Almighty God. The second group consists of those who aim solely at the Hereafter. They abhor the world because its affairs and occupations prevent them from striving for the Hereafter seriously, or because their firm belief and conviction show it to be very ugly when compared with Paradise's beauties and perfections. Just as all men are ugly when compared with Prophet Joseph, all the world's beauties and charms mean nothing when compared with those of Paradise. The third group, those who cannot conquer the world, condemn it out of their love for—not their dislike of—the world. The fourth group condemns the world because whatever its members grasp slips out of their grasp. They become angry and console themselves by declaring the world ugly. Such condemnation also arises from love of the world. Agreeable condemnation comes from those who love the Hereafter and knowledge of God.

For the sake of the Master of Messengers, may Almighty God include us among the first two groups. Amin.