Letters ( revised ) | The Twenty-Ninth Letter | 451
(447-527)

And for example, through the verse,

 

And among His signs is this, that heaven and earth stand by His command; then  when  He  calls  you,  by  a  single  call,  from  the  earth,  behold,  you [straight away] come forth,(30:25)

 

Almighty God shows the magnificence of the sovereignty of His dominicality in the following elevated manner:

At a single command or a signal like a bugle, the beings in the heavens and earth, which are like two obedient barracks or two orderly army headquarters, will spring up with alacrity and perfect obedience from their sleep in the veils of transience and non- existence. Declaring: “At your service!”, they will assemble on the field of the resurrection and last judgement.

With what miraculous and elevated style it describes the resurrection of the dead and Great Gathering! It points to the following convincing proof contained in its assertion: observedly, seeds concealed as though dead in the darkness of the earth and drops of water hidden and dispersed, non-existent, in the atmosphere are raised to life swiftly and with perfect order every spring. They emerge onto the field of trial and examination, perpetual examples of resurrection. At the supreme resurrection, beings will emerge with same ease. Since  you observe the one here, you cannot deny the other. And so on. You can compare the degree of eloquence in other verses with this one. Would it be possible to do a true translation of this sort of verse? Surely it would not! At best it would be an abbreviated meaning, or an interpretation, with five or six lines for each phrase.

 

FIFTH POINT

 

For example, “All praise be to God” (al-hamdulillah) is a Qur’anic phrase. Its briefest  meaning,  required  by the  rules  of  grammar  and  rhetoric,  is  this:  “Each individual instance of all the sorts of praise that has been offered by whatever to whatever since pre-eternity and will be offered to post-eternity is particular to and due to the Necessarily Existent One alone, who is named Allah.” It is as follows: “Each individual instance of all the sorts of praise” is the consequence of the definite article “al” in “al-hamd.” As for the qualification of “that has been offered by whatever,” since “praise” (hamd) is the verbal noun and the active participle has been omitted, it expresses generality in that sense. By omitting the passive participle it again expresses universality and generality, and therefore expresses the qualification  “to whatever.” As  for  the  qualification  of  “from  pre-eternity  to  post-eternit y,”  it  expresses  this meaning  because  the  rule  of  transposing  from  a  verbal  clause  to  a  noun  clause indicates continuity. The prepositional “lam” in “lillah” [to God], expresses the meaning of sole possession and worthiness.

No Voice