The Eighth Matter, which is the Eighth Part

[This matter consists of six questions comprising eight points.]

FIRST POINT

We have perceived many signs from the Unseen suggesting that we are being employed in the service of the Qur’an by a hand of favour, and some of these we have pointed out. Now, a new sign is this: most of the Words contain coincidences from the Unseen (tevâfukat-ı  gaybiye).[1] In short, it indicates  that a sort of manifestation  of miraculousness is embodied in the words “God’s Most Noble Messenger,” the phrase, “Upon whom be blessings and peace,” and in the blessed word “Qur’an.” However hidden and slight signs from the Unseen are, they indicate the acceptability of our service and rightness of the matters, and so in my opinion hold great importance and power. Furthermore, they break my pride and have demonstrated to me categorically that I am merely an interpreter. They leave nothing to cause me pride; they only show up things that prompt thanks. Since they pertain to the Qur’an and pass to the account of its miraculousness; and since our wills definitely do not interfere; and since they encourage  those  who  are  lazy in their  service,  and  afford  the conviction  that  the treatises are true; and since they are a form of divine bestowal to us, and to make them known is to make known a divine bounty, and to do so reduces to silence those obdurate people who understand only what they see; it is surely necessary to make them known; God willing, it causes no harm.

One  of  the  signs  from  the  Unseen  is  this:  out  of  His  perfect  mercy  and munificence, in order to encourage us in our service of the Qur’an and faith and put our hearts at rest, Almighty God bestowed  a subtle dominical  favour on us and a divine gift in all the treatises we have written, and particularly in The Miracles of Muhammad, The Miraculousness of the Qur’an, and Thirty-Three Windows, in the form of a sign from the Unseen indicating the acceptability of our service and that what we have written is the truth.

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[1] Coincidences indicate mutual correspondence, and mutual correspondence indicates agreement, and agreement is a sign of unity, and unity shows unification, that is, the affirmation of divine unity (tawhid), which is the greatest of the Qur’an’s four aims.