11th Word: Introduction to the Parable and the Sultan's Purpose

The Eleventh Word

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّح۪يمِ

وَالشَّمْسِ وَضُحٰيهَا ٭ وَالْقَمَرِ اِذَا تَلٰيهَا ٭ وَالنَّهَارِ اِذَا جَلّٰيهَا ٭ وَ الَّيْلِ اِذَا يَغْشٰيهَا ٭ وَ السَّمَٓاءِ وَمَا بَنٰيهَا ٭ وَ الْاَرْضِ وَمَا طَحٰيهَا ٭ وَ نَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوّٰيهَا ٭ الخ

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

By the sun and its glorious splendour; * By the moon as it follows it; * By the day as it shows [the sun's] glory; * By the night as it conceals it; * By the firmament and its wonderful structure; * By the earth and its wide expanse; * By the nafs and the order and proportion given it. (91:1-7)

Brother! If you want to understand a little about the talisman of the world's purpose and the riddle of man's creation and the mystery of the reality of the prescribed prayers, then consider this short comparison together with my own nafs.

One time there was a king. As wealth he possessed numerous treasuries containing diamonds and emeralds and jewels of every kind. Besides these he had other, hidden, wondrous treasuries. By way of attainment he had consummate skill in strange arts, and encompassing knowledge of innumerable wondrous sciences, and great erudition in endless branches of abstruse learning. Now, like every possessor of beauty and perfection wants to see and display his own beauty and perfection, that glorious king wanted to open up an exhibition and set out displays within it in order to make manifest and display in the view of the people the majesty of his rule, his glittering wealth, the wonders of his art, and the marvels of his knowledge, and so that he could behold his beauty and perfection in two respects:

The First Respect: so that he himself could behold his beauty and perfection with his own discerning eye.

The Other: so that he could look through the view of others.