thus urging man to think and take lessons and compare these with other things.
Sixth Quality of Eloquence: It sometimes happens that a verse spreads out dominical decrees over a great multiplicity of things, then it unifies them with a tie of unity resembling an aspect of unity, or it situates them within a universal rule. For example:
His Throne does extend over the heavens and the earth, and He feels no fatigue in preserving them, for He is the Most High, the Supreme.1
Thus, together with proving with ten phrases in Ayat al-Kursi ten levels of Divine unity in varying hues, with the phrase,
Who is there that can intercede in His presence except as He permits?,
it rejects utterly and vehemently the associating of partners with God and interference of others, and casts them away. Also, since this verse manifests the Greatest Name, its meanings related to the Divine truths are at a maximum degree, so that it demonstrates the dominical acts of disposal at a maximum level. Furthermore, after mentioning the Divine regulation of all the heavens and the earth and a preservation encompassing all things at the maximum degree, a tie of unity and aspect of unity summarize the sources of those maximum manifestations with the phrase,
For He is the Most High, the Supreme.
And, for example:
It is God Who has created the heavens and the earth and sends down rain from the skies, and with it brings out fruits therewith to feed you; made subject to you the ships, that they may sail through the sea by His command; and the rivers [too] He has made subject to you; * and He has made subject to you the sun and the moon, both diligently pursuing their courses; and the night and the day has He [also] made subject to you; * And He gives you of all that you ask for. But if you count the favours of God, never will you will able to number them.2
These verses describe how Almighty God created the huge universe as a palace for man, and sending the water of life from the skies to the earth, made the skies and the earth two servants producing food for him. Similarly, He made ships subject to men so that they might benefit from the fruits of the earth found in every part of it, and also exchange the fruits of their labours and secure their livelihoods in every respect. That is, He made the winds as whips, ships as horses, and the seas as a desert beneath their hooves. And besides connecting man with every region of the earth by means of ships, He
Qur’an, 2:255.
Qur’an, 14:32-4.