The Clear Record and the Clear Book are repeated in several places in the All-Wise Qur’an. One group of commentators on the Qur’an maintained that they are the same, while others stated that they are different from one another. Their explanations as to their true meanings were diverse, but in short they agreed that they are both titles to describe Divine knowledge. However, through the effulgence of the Qur’an, I came to the conclusion that the Clear Record, which looks more to the World of the Unseen than to the Manifest World, was a title for one aspect of God’s knowledge and His command. That is to say, it looks more to the past and future than to present time. It looks more to the origin and progeny and to the roots and seeds of everything, rather than to them in their visible existence. It is a notebook for Divine Determining. The existence of this notebook has been proved in the Twenty-Sixth Word and also in the footnote of the Tenth Word.

Yes, this Clear Record is a sort of title for the knowledge and commands of God. That is to say, the origins, sources and roots from which things are brought into existence with perfect order and art show that they must be arranged in accordance with a notebook of the principles of Divine knowledge. And because the results, progeny, and seeds of things contain the indexes and programmes of beings which will come into existence subsequently, they indicate that they must be a small register of Divine commands.

For example, a seed may be seen as the programme and index that will give form to the structure of the whole tree, and, furthermore, as the tiny embodiment of the commands that cause the tree to come into existence and determine its programmes and indexes. In short, the Clear Record is like an index and programme of the tree of creation, which spreads its branches through every part of the past and the future, and of the World of the Unseen. In this sense, the Clear Record is a notebook and register of the principles of Divine Determining. Through the dictation and requirement of those principles, particles are employed in their duties and motion in things, as those things come into existence.

As for the Clear Book, it looks more to the Manifest World than to the World of the Unseen. That is to say, it looks more to present time than to the past and the future. It is a title, a notebook, a book of the will and power of God, rather than of His knowledge and commands.