There is no god but You, Glory be unto You! Indeed I was among the wrongdoers

and understand with full certainty that it is only He who can repel from us the harm of the future, this world, and caprice of our souls, united against us because of our neglect and misguid­ance. For the future is subject to His orders, the world to His commands, and our soul to His rule.

What cause is there other than the Creator of the Heavens and Earth who can know the most subtle and secret thoughts of our heart; who can lighten the future for us by establishing the Here­after; who can save us from the myriad over whelming waves of the world? No, outside that Necessarily Existent One, there is nothing that can in any way give aid and effect salvation except by His consent and command.

This being the case, considering that as a result of his supplication, the fish became for Hazrat Yunus a vehicle, or a submarine, and the sea, a peaceable plain; and the night became gently lit for him by the moon, so too, we should make the same supplication:

There is no god but You, Glory be unto to You! Indeed I was among the wrongdoers. With the sentence There is no god but You we draw the gaze of mercy upon our future; with the word Glory be unto to You! we draw it upon our world; and with the phrase Indeed 1 was among the wrongdoers, we draw it upon our soul. Thus our future is illumined with the light of faith and the moonlike luminosity of the Qur'an, and the awe and terror of the night are transformed into tranquillity and joy. Then too, embarking on the ship of the truth of Islam, fashioned in the dock­yard of the Most Wise Qur'an, we may pass safely over the sea of this earthly abode, where corpses unnumbered are bome on the waves of the years and centuries, of the ceaseless alterna­tion of life and death, down to destruction. Once aboard that ship we may reach the shore of salva­tion and fulfil our life's duty. The tempest and surging of the sea will appear a series of pleasing images on a screen, and instead of inspiring terror

and dread, will delight, caress and illumine the reflective and the meditative gaze. By virtue of the mystery of the Qur'an, and the effect of that Book of Discernment, our soul will ride no longer us, but instead become our mount. As we ride it, it will be for us a powerful means for the attain­ment of life everlasting.

To Conclude: Man, in accordance with the comprehensive nature of his being, as he suffers and shakes with malaria, so also will he suffer from the shaking and tremors of the earth, and the supreme convulsion of all beings of the Day of Resurrection. As he fears the infinitesimal microbe, he will also fear the shooting star that appears among the heavenly bodies. As he loves his home, he will also love the wide world. As he loves his little garden he will also ardently love infinite and eternal paradise. The object of wor­ship, the Sustainer, refuge, saviour, and goal of man must then of necessity be the One in the palm of whose power all beings lie, to whose command atom and planet both will submit of necessity. Man should then constantly say like Hazrat Yunus (Upon whom be peace):

There is no god but You, Glory be unto to You! Indeed I was among the wrongdoers.

Glory be unto to You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.²

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2. Qur'an. 2:32.