Consider this: were you to consider [the phrase] "who believe in the Unseen (alladhîna yu'minûna bi'l-ghayb)" in respect of its position, you would see that it should be concise, yet if you compare it to its synonym 'the believers' (al-mu'minûn), it will strike you as prolix. For the definite article "al" has been exchanged for "alladhîna - who," whose function as a relative pronoun is to qualify through the relative clause the noun it governs. [It is the relative clause then - not the relative pronoun - that has importance since it qualifies the subject. The construction here then draws attention] to belief, encouraging it and exalting it. This is a sign too that belief illuminates the one professing it like a lighthouse so that his other attributes wane and fade away. And "[they] believe (yu'minûna)" has been substituted for 'believers' (mu'minûn) in order to depict this praiseworthy situation for the imagination. It is also a sign that belief is renewed through its continued existence and is manifested through the succession of evidences, both exterior and interior. Yes, the clearer the evidences, the firmer is belief.

By "in the Unseen (bi'l-ghayb)" is meant that they believe with the heart, that is, sincerely without prevarication, even when alone. And they believe in what is unseen and in the World of the Unseen.

So know that belief is a light produced by affirming in detail all the essentials of religion brought by the Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace) and the rest in general.

• If you were to ask: Only one out of a hundred ordinary people are able to express the truths of belief clearly?

You would be told: The inability to state something clearly does not indicate its non-existence. Mostly, the tongue is incapable of interpreting the subtleties of what the mind conceives of. Similarly, the intellect cannot contemplate the hidden secrets ûf the conscience, so how should it interpret all of them? Don't you see that for all his intelligence, a genius and master of rhetoric like al-Sakkâkî failed to harvest the fine points produced spontaneously by a nomad like Imri' al-Qays,¹ or someone similar. In consequence, one can establish whether or not an ordinary person believes by questioning him and seeking an explanation. You can question him both positively and negatively, saying: "O you common man! Is it possible according to your way of thinking that the Maker in the grasp of Whose power are all six aspects of the world, should be present in just one place of it?" If he replies negatively, then the fact that Allâh is beyond the restrictions of space is firmly established in his conscience, and that is sufficient for him. You can think of further examples in the same way.

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¹Imri' al-Qays (7497-545 A.D.), the most famous of all Arab poets of the Jâhiliyya. He was the author of one of the Seven Hanging Odes, in the Ka'ba.