The Twenty-Sixth Letter

First Topic

In His Name, be He Glorified!

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.(17:44)

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

And if a suggestion from Satan assails your mind, seek refuge with God; for

He is All-Hearing and All-Knowing.(41:36)

A Proof of the Qur’an Against Satan and His Party

This first Topic defeats in argument the Devil, silences the rebellious, and strikes them dumb by refuting in the most clear manner a fearsomely cunning stratagem of the Devil, which is to be unbiased. It concerns an event part of which I described in summary form ten years ago in my work entitled Lemeât. It is as follows:

Eleven years before this treatise was written, I was listening in the month of Ramadan  to  the  Qur’an  being  recited  in  Bayezid  Mosque  in  Istanbul.  Suddenly, although I could see no one, I seemed to hear an unearthly voice which captured all my attention. I listened with my imagination, and realized that it was saying to me:

“You consider the Qur’an to be extremely elevated and brilliant. Be unbiased for a minute and consider it again. That is, suppose it to be man’s word. I wonder whether you would still see the same qualities and beauty in it?”

In truth, I was deceived by the voice; I thought of the Qur’an as being written by man.  Just  as  Bayezid  Mosque  is  plunged  into  darkness  when  the  electricity  is switched off, I observed that with that thought the brilliant lights of the Qur’an began to be extinguished.