When I saw the animal world it appeared to me as truly dark and grievous due to the animals’ endless needs and acute hunger, and their weakness and impotence. Then suddenly the name of Most Merciful rose like the shining sun in the sign of (that is, meaning)  Provider,  gilding that world from top to bottom with the radiance of its mercy.

Then  within  the  animal  world  I  beheld  another  world  in  which  young  and offspring were struggling in their weakness, helplessness, and need within a grievous darkness that would fill anyone with pity. Suddenly the name of All-Compassionate rose in the sign of clemency,  illuminating  that  world  in so beautiful  and sweet  a fashion that it transformed the complaint, pity, and tears of sorrow into joy, happiness, and tears of pleasurable thanks.

Then a further veil was lifted, as though revealing a cinema screen, and the world of man appeared to me. But it appeared to be so dark, so oppressive, so terrible that in anguish I cried out “Alas!” For I saw that men had desires and hopes that stretched to eternity,   and   thoughts   and   imaginings   that  encompassed   the  universe,   and   a disposition and abilities that most earnestly yearned for eternity and everlasting happiness and Paradise, and wants and needs that were directed towards endless goals and  aims.  Yet  they  were  weak  and  impotent,  and  exposed  to  the  attacks  of innumerable calamities and enemies; they lived tumultuous lives for a brief span in the greatest hardship and difficulties. Amid the continuous tribulations of decline and separation, a most grievous state for the heart, they were looking towards the grave, which for the heedless and neglectful is the door to everlasting darkness; singly and in groups, they were being cast into that dark well.

The moment I saw this world in the midst of the darkness, my heart, spirit, and mind, and all my human faculties, indeed, all the particles of my being, were ready to weep and cry out in pain. But suddenly Almighty God’s name of All-Just rose in the sign of All-Wise, the name of Most Merciful rose in the sign of Munificent, the name of All-Compassionate rose in the sign of (that is, meaning) All-Forgiving, the name of Resurrector in the sign of Inheritor, the name of Giver of Life rose in the sign of Bountiful, and the name of Sustainer rose in the sign of Owner. They gilded and filled with light many worlds within the world of humanity. Opening up windows onto the luminous world of the hereafter, they scattered lights over the dark human world.

Then another, vast, veil was folded back and the world of the earth appeared. Philosophy’s dark laws of science showed a terrifying world to the imagination. The situation appeared to me of wretched humankind journeying  through  infinite  space  on the  aged  earth,  which  covers  in  one  year  a distance of twenty-five thousand years moving seventy times faster than a cannon- ball, and whose inside is in a state of upheaval ever ready to split up and disintegrate.