on a vast scale, making all things into the huge palace’s necessities; and His mercy, in respect of beauty (cemâl), bestows on all creatures with spirits, and even on the minutest animate creatures, the varieties of His bounties, ordering their beings with them. He adorns them from head to toe with the bounties, embellishing them abundantly, munificently. He has counterpoised the beauty of His mercy and that glorious majesty, those microscopic tongues and that vast tongue.
That is, while the huge heavenly bodies like the suns and constellations are proclaiming with the tongue of majesty: “O Glorious One! O Mighty One! O August One!”, those tiny animate creatures, like flies and fishes, are declaring, but with the tongue of mercy: “O Beautiful One! O Compassionate One! O Generous One!”; they are adding their gentle songs to that great orchestra, sweetening it.
Is it at all possible that anything other than the All-Glorious One of Beauty and All-Beauteous One of Glory could have any part in the creation of the macrocosm and microcosm? God forbid!
S i x t h S e c t i o n : “His majesty in the former testifies that He is One, while His bounty in the latter proclaims that he is Single.” Its meaning is this: just as the majesty of dominicality, which is manifested in the totality of the universe, proves and demonstrates divine unity (vahdâniyet), so dominical bounty, which bestows on the members of animate creatures their regular provisions, proves and demonstrates divine oneness (ehadiyet).
As for unity, it is to say that all those creatures belong to One and they look to One and they are the creation of One. Whereas by oneness is meant that most of the names of the Creator of all things are manifested in all beings. For example, the light of the sun may be seen as analogous to unity by reason of its comprehending the face of the earth. While the fact that its light and heat, the seven colours in its light and some sort of shadow of it are found in all transparent objects and drops of water makes them analogous to oneness. And the fact that most of the Maker’s names are manifested in each single thing, especially in each animate creature, and above all in man, points to oneness.
Thus, this section indicates that the majesty of dominicality (rubûbiyet), which has total disposal over the universe, makes the huge sun a servant, a lamp, and a stove for animate creatures on the face of the earth; and makes the mighty earth a cradle, a hostel, and place of trade for them; and fire, a cook and friend present everywhere; and clouds, strainers and wet-nurses; and mountains, storehouses and treasuries; and the air, a fan for animate creatures, for breathing in and out; and water, a nurse who suckles new