“O God! You are our Sustainer, for we are mere slaves; we are powerless to sustain and raise ourselves. That is to say, the One who sustains us is You! And it is You who is the Creator, for we are creatures, we are being made! And it is You who is the Provider, for we are in need of provision, we have no power! That is to say, the One who creates us and bestows on us our provisions is You! And it is You who is the Owner, because we are totally owned property; someone other than us has power of disposal over us. That is to say, it is You who is our Owner! And You, You are Mighty! You possess grandeur and sublimity! As for us we look to our baseness and see that on us are manifestations of a mightiness. That is to say, we are mirrors to Your mightiness! And it is You who possesses Absolute Riches, because we are utterly wanting and riches are bestowed on us that our indigent hands could not obtain. That is to say, it is You who is rich, the One who gives is You! And You, You are Ever-Living, Ever-Enduring, because we, we are dying, and in our dying and in our being resurrected we see the manifestation of a perpetual giver of life! Yes, You, You are Ever-Enduring, because we see Your continuation and perpetualness in our demise and transience! And the One who responds to us and answers us, the Granter of Gifts is You. For all of us beings, we are ever crying out and requesting, entreating, imploring by tongue and by state. And our desires are brought about, our aims are achieved. In other words, the One who answers us is You!...” And so on.
All creatures, universal and particular, act as mirrors in a way that, like Uways al-Qarani, has the meaning of supplication. All proclaim divine power and perfection through their impotence and poverty and deficiency.
THE NINTH PHRASE: “All good is in His hand”
That is to say, all good things are in His hand, all good deeds are in His account book, all beneficence is in His treasury. Since this is so, those desiring good must seek it from Him, those wishing for what is best must beseech Him. In order to demonstrate the truth of this phrase conclusively, we shall point out signs and flashes from one of the many far-reaching evidences of divine knowledge, as follows:
The Maker who controls and creates with the acts that are apparent in the universe has all-encompassing knowledge, and such knowledge is His particular, inherent and necessary quality. Its separation from Him is impossible. In the same way that it is not possible for the sun to exist but for its light not to exist, it is also not possible, though thousands of times