qualities. Therefore, some philosophers denying divine will, and some of those who favour innovation denying divine determining, and some of the people of misguidance claiming that God is not concerned with minor matters, and the naturalists attributing some things to nature and causes, are lies multiplied to the number of beings and a lunacy of misguidance compounded to the number of those beings’ attributes. For whoever denies the innumerable instances of their veracious witnessing is telling a lie of infinite proportions.
So, you can see for yourself just how mistaken and contrary to the truth it is to say of events, all of which come into existence through divine will, “Naturally, naturally,” instead of, “God willing, God willing.”
THE TENTH PHRASE: “And He is powerful over all things”
That is to say, absolutely nothing at all is difficult for Him. However many things there are in the sphere of contingency, He is able to clothe all of them in existence most easily. It is so simple and easy for Him that according to the meaning of,
His command is only, when He wills a thing to be, He but says to it, “Be!” and it is, (36:82)
He only has to command and it is done.
As soon as a skilful artist puts his hand to his work, it functions smoothly like a machine. One could say in order to express his speed and skill, that the work of art is so closely under his control that it is as if at his command, at his touch, the pieces appear, the works of art come into existence. In the same way, the verse states: “His command is only, when He wills a thing to be, He but says to it ‘Be!’, and it is,” alluding to the absolute subjugation and obedience of all things to the power of the All-Powerful One of Glory, and the absolute ease and lack of trouble with which His power functions. We shall elucidate in five points five of the innumerable mysteries contained in this mighty truth.
T h e F i r s t
In relation to divine power the greatest thing is as easy as the smallest. The creation of a species with all of its members is as easy and trouble-free as the creation of a single member. It is as easy to create Paradise as the spring and it is as easy to create the spring as a flower.
This mystery has been explained and proved with the six comparisons – the Mystery of Luminosity, the Mystery of Transparency, the Mystery of Reciprocity, the Mystery of Balance, the Mystery of Order, the Mystery of Obedience, and the Mystery of Disengagedness – at the end of the Tenth