has a particular object of attachment through the descriptions and attributes God has mentioned in His Book. It is a mercy included in His saying, “Our Lord, You encompass everything in mercy and knowledge” [Ghafir 40:7]. The extent of His knowledge is the extent of His mercy in what receives mercy, and everything other than God receives it without doubt.
Among the universality of His mercy and abundant mercy are the Breath of the All-Merciful and the removal from Him of the wrath such that He has never been similarly angry before it and will never be similarly angry after it—if He becomes angry—as those who convey from Him, the Messengers, blessings and peace be upon them, testify in authentic transmission.
This presence is named by an intensive expression because of its universality and everything’s inclusion within it. Since its attachments are as numerous as the possible things in the individuals of every possible, and as the correspondences that entail composition—which are without end—God’s mercy is without end.
From it the possible things issued, and from it divine wrath issued. When wrath issued from it, it did not return to it, for it issued in a departure of separation, so that mercy might be pure and unmixed. For this reason the two raced one another. They raced only through distinction and separation. Everything other than divine wrath came into being from mercy within the very mercy: it never left it.
God’s mercy admits no limit,
and everything with it is prepared.
Whoever strays from its guidance
is brought back toward it.
