Look from this point to the manifestation of the mystery of Self-Subsistence: it has  plucked all beings out of non-existence, and according to the meaning of the verse,

It is God who has raised the heavens without any supports that you can see,(13:2)

has caused each one of them to remain in infinite space. It has bestowed stability and permanence on them, and caused them all to display the manifestation of the myster y of Self-Subsistence. If not for this support, nothing at all could continue to exist of its own accord. Everything would topple over into the infinite void and tumble into non- existence.

Furthermore, just as all beings rely on the All-Glorious Self-Subsistent One for their existence, stability, and permanence, they continue in existence through Him, so according to the meaning of the verse,

And to Him goes back every affair,(11:123)

the tips of thousands of chains or lines in the states and conditions of beings are fastened to the mystery of Self-Subsistence, which, if the comparison is not mistaken, is like the centre or central pole of telephone and telegraph lines. If they did not rely on that luminous point of support, thousands of unending sequences of causes would be necessary, which according to  scholars is an impossible and false notion; in fact, there would have to be as many of these absurd unending sequences of causes as there are beings. For example, one thing – protection or light or existence or sustenance, for instance – in one respect relies on the next thing, and that on the next, and that on the next, until finally since it cannot be infinite, it has to come to an end.

Thus,  the  end  of  all  such  lines  and  sequences  lies  in  the  mystery  of  Self- Subsistence. But when this mystery has been understood, the links and the meaning of each  thing relying on the next in those imaginary sequences do  not remain, they disappear and everything is seen to look directly to the mystery of Self-Subsistence.

THIRD RAY

By means of one or two introductory points, we shall point out to a small degree the   disclosure  of  the  mystery  of  Self-Subsistence  within  divine  creativity  and dominical activity, which verses like the following allude to:

Every day He manifests Himself in yet another way.(55:29) * A sovereign doer of whatever He wills.(11:107) * He creates whatever he wishes.(30:34, etc.) * In Whose hand is the dominion of all things.(36:83) * So look to the signs of God’s mercy, how He restores the earth to life after its death.(30:50)

T h e  F i r s t : When we look at the universe, we see that one group of creatures, which are tossed around in the flood of time and follow on one after the other convoy after convoy, come for a second and then immediately vanish. Another group comes for a minute and then passes on. One species stops by in the Manifest Word for an hour, then enters the World of the Unseen. Some of them come and alight in the Manifest World for a day, some of them for a year, some for a century, and some for an age; they perform their duties and then depart.