THE SECOND DEGREE

God is Most Great, may His glory be exalted; He is greater than everything in power  and knowledge. He is the Creator, All-Knowing, the Maker, All-Wise, Most Merciful, All-Compassionate. For the beings of the earth and the lofty celestial bodies in the garden of the universe are self-evidently miracles of an All-Knowing Creator’s power; and the adorned,  multicoloured plants laid out in the park of the face of the earth and the many varieties of animals displayed and dispersed through the park are necessarily the wonders of art of an  All-Wise Maker; and the smiling flowers and decorated fruits in the gardens of this park are clearly the gifts of One Most Merciful and Compassionate. These miracles of power and wonders of art and gifts of mercy testify, call out, and proclaim that their Creator, Fashioner, and Bestower is powerful over all things, and knowing of all things, that His mercy and knowledge encompass all things. In relation to His power particles and stars are equal; few  and many are equal; small and great, finite and infinite are equal. All the events of the past and its strange happenings, which are miracles of an All-Wise Maker’s art, testify that the Maker is powerful over all the possibilities of the future and its strange events, for He is an All-Knowing Creator, Exalted, All-Wise.

Glory be to the One who made the earth the exhibition of His art, the gathering place of His creatures, the manifestation of His power, the means of His wisdom, the garden  of  His  mercy,  the  arable  field  of  His  Paradise,  the  place  of  passage  of creatures, the river-bed through which beings flow, the measure of His artefacts.

The  embellished  animals,  the  decorated  birds,  the  fruitful  trees,  the  flower- adorned plants are all miracles of His knowledge, marvels of His fashioning, gifts of His munificence, proofs of His grace.

Blossoms smiling with the adornment of fruits, birds singing in the early morning breeze,  rain pattering  on  the  petals  of flowers,  mothers  tenderly embracing their young, all make known One All-Loving, make loved One Most Merciful, Most Kind and Generous to jinn and man, to spirit beings, the angels, and to animals.

Grains and fruits, seeds and flowers are miracles of wisdom, marvels of art, gifts of mercy, proofs of unity; they testify to His grace in the realm of the hereafter. They are truthful witnesses testifying that their Creator is powerful  over  all  things,  and  knowing  of  all  things;  that  with  His  mercy  and knowledge and creativity, planning, art, and fashioning He encompasses all things. In relation to His creation, planning, art, and fashioning, the sun is a tiny seed; a star, a flower; the earth, a grain.