is apprehended through it and what is apprehended from it. Whoever is given the Qurʾan has been given complete knowledge. No one in creation is more complete than the Muhammadans, who are “the best community brought forth for humankind” [Al ʿImran 3:110].
Then He made the sun a radiance for the spirit of life to exist throughout the world. Through life He had mercy upon the world. Life is the sphere of the mercy that encompasses everything. Likewise, the relation of life to the divine Essence is a condition for the validity of every relation attributed to God: knowledge, will, power, speech, hearing, sight, and perception. Were the relation of life to Him removed, all these relations would be removed. It is thus the essential mercy that encompasses all the names. It is the radiance of the essential light and the shade of the relational veil. The Deity is not conceived except through these relations, whereas the Essence is conceived as light apart from these relations. His being a Deity through these relations is therefore a veil over the Essence. Divinity is thus radiance itself, and therefore unveiling and knowledge themselves. It is the very shade in its relational aspect, and therefore mercy itself. Divinity thus combines knowledge and mercy with respect to engendered being, which is subject to divinity, and with respect to the divine names.
What this divine station bestows is the dominion of radiance, higher than the dominion of the heavens, the earth, and what lies between them. “But most
