SECOND RAY

This consists of two matters.

F i r s t  M a t t e r :

Neither sleep overcomes Him nor slumber.(2:255) * There is not a moving creature but He has grasp of its forelock.(11:56) * To Him belong the keys of the heavens and the earth.(39:63; 42:12)

These verses point to a greatest manifestation of the name Self-Subsistent. One aspect of the mighty truth that these and verses like them indicate is as follows:

The  existence,  continuance,  and  perpetuation  of  the  heavenly  bodies  in  the universe  are tied to the mystery of Self-Subsistence. If the manifestation of Self- Subsistence were to avert its face for a moment, millions of globes, some of them a thousand times larger than the earth, would be scattered into the infinite void of space, and colliding with one another would crash into nothingness.

For example, the power of the Self-Subsistence of the One who keeps thousands of stately palaces in place in perfect order and makes them travel like aircraft through space is  measured through the stability, order, and continuance of those palaces in space. So too a measure of the greatest manifestation of the name Self-Subsistent are the facts that the  All-Glorious and Self-Subsistent One bestows on the innumerable heavenly  bodies  within  ethereal  matter  a  stability,  permanence,  and  continuance within the utmost order and  balance through the mystery of Self-Subsistence; and together  with  upholding  without  prop  or  support  in the  void  millions  of mighty globes, some a thousand and some even a million times larger than the earth, entrusts them all with duties and causes them to submit in perfect obedience like a majestic army to the decrees proceeding from the command of “‘Be!’ and it is.” The particles of all beings also exist, like the stars, through the mystery of Self-Subsistence, and are permanent and continue through it.