Thus, when the universe is considered from the point of view of wisdom, it is seen to bear the meaning of a mighty tree. For just as a tree has branches, leaves, blossom and fruit, so in this lower world, which is one part of the tree of creation, there are elements, which are like its branches; plants and trees, which are like its leaves; animals, which are like its flowers; and man, which is like the fruit.

Furthermore, the Divine Name of All-Wise requires that a law of that All-Glorious Maker which is in force in trees generally will also be in force in the mighty tree of creation. Since this is so, wisdom requires that the tree of creation also be formed from a seed, and such a seed that contains the essentials and principles of other worlds besides the corporeal world. For the fundamental and original seed of the universe, which comprises thousands of different worlds, cannot be a scrap of desiccated matter.

Since before the tree of the universe there was no tree of the same kind, it is also a requirement of the Name of All-Wise that meaning and light, which are like a source and seed to it, should be clothed with the garment of a fruit on the tree of the universe. For a seed cannot remain permanently unclothed. And since at the beginning of creation it was not clothed in the garment of a fruit, it would surely be clothed in it at the end. And since that fruit is mankind; and since, as was proved above, the most famous fruit and sublime result from among mankind, who attracted the attention of all and confined to himself the gaze of a fifth of mankind, and with his moral and spiritual qualities caused the world to consider him with either feelings of love or of wonder, is the Person of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), most certainly, light, which was the seed from which the universe was formed, would become clothed in corporeality in his person and would appear in the form of an ultimate fruit.

O listener! Do not consider it improbable that this strange and mighty universe is created from the particular essence of a human being! Why should the All-Powerful One of Glory, Who creates a huge pine-tree —a sort of world— from a seed the size of a grain of wheat, not create the universe from 'the Light of Muhammad' (Peace and blessings be upon him)?¹⁶ Why should He not be able to do so?

Since, like the Tree of Tuba, the tree of the universe has its roots and trunk above and branches below, there is a luminous connecting line from the level of the fruit below to that of the original seed. Thus, the Ascension is the sheath and form of that connecting line, the way of which Muhammad (Peace and blessings by upon him) opened up. He went through his sainthood, returned through his messengership, and left the door open. The saints of his community following after him, travel that luminous highway with the heart and spirit in the shadow of the Prophet's Ascension, and according to their abilities, rise to elevated ranks.

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16. Suyüti, al-Háwi li'l-Fatawa, ii, 545; Qastalani, al-Mawahib al-Ladunniyya, i, 25-83.