HIS is the PRAISE

When we look at the universe, it appears to us in the form of a park set with gardens, its roof gilded with lofty stars, its ground inhabited by ornamented beings. And when we see it thus, we see that the well-ordered, luminous, lofty heavenly bodies and purposeful and ornamented earthly beings in this park are saying all together, each in its particular tongue: "We are the miracles of power of an All-Powerful One of Glory; we testify to the Unity of an All-Wise Creator arid an All-Powerful Maker."

And we look at the globe of the earth within the park of the universe and we see it in the form of a garden in which hundreds of thousands of varieties of multicolored and beautifully adorned flowering plants have been laid out and through which hundreds of thousands of different species of animals have been scattered. And so, in this garden of the earth, all these adorned plants and ornamented animals proclaim through their well-ordered forms and balanced shapes: "We are each of us a miracle, a winder of art, created by a Single All-Wise Artist, and each of us is a herald, a witness, to his Unity."

Moreover, looking at the trees in the garden, we see fruits and flowers in various forms which have been made knowingly, wisely, generously, subtly, and beautifully to the utmost degree. And these are all proclaiming with one tongue: "We are the miraculous gifts of a Compassionate One of Beauty, a Merciful One of Perfection; we are wondrous bounties."

And so, the heavenly bodies and beings in the park of the universe, and the plants and animals in the garden of the earth, and the blossom and fruits on its trees and plants, testify and proclaim with an infinitely resounding voice: "Our Creator and Fashioner, the All-Powerful One of Beauty, the Peerless All-Wise One, the All-Generous Granter of Favours, Who bestowed us as gifts, is powerful over all things. Nothing at all is difficult for Him. Nothing at all is outside the sphere of His power. In relation to His power minute particles and stars are equal. A universal is as simple as a particular. A particular is as valuable as a universal. The largest is as easy as the smallest in relation to His power. The small is as full of art as the large, rather, as far as art is concerned the small is greater than the large.

"All the occurrences of the past, which are wonders of His power, testify that the Absolutely Powerful One is also powerful over the wonders of the contingencies of the future. Just as the one who brought about yesterday will bring about tomorrow, the All-Powerful One Who created the past will also create the future. The All-Wise Maker Who made this world, will also make the Hereafter.

"Indeed, the only one truly deserving, of worship is the All-Powerful One of Glory; the one deserving of praise is again Him. As worship is exclusively His, so are praise and laudation special to Him.”

Is it at all possible that an All-Wise Maker Who created the heavens and the earth would leave without purpose human beings, who are the most important result of the heavens and the earth and the most perfect fruit of the universe? Is it at all possible that He would hand them over to causes and chance, that He would transform His self evident wisdom into futility? God forbid! And is it at all possible that the One Who is All-Wise and All-Knowing, having planned and then formed a tree, giving it the utmost importance, and having administered it and sustained it with the greatest wisdom, would ignore the fruits, which are the aim and benefit of the tree? Is it all possible that He would attach no importance to them; that He would leave them either to the ands of thieves or to rot scattered on the ground? Of course, it could not be that He would ignore them or attach no importance to them. It is because of the fruit that importance is given to the tree.

The universe's conscious being, therefore, and its most perfect fruit, result, and aim is man. Is it possible that the All-Wise Maker of the universe would give to others the praise and worship, thanks and love, which are the fruits of those conscious fruits, and thus cause His self-evident wisdom to be nullified, His absolute power transformed into impotence, and His all-encompassing knowledge converted into ignorance? God forbid! A hundred thousand times!

Since conscious creatures are the pivot of the Dominical aims in the palace of the universe, and man is the most eminent of conscious creatures, is it at all possible that the thanks and worship which he manifests in response to the bounties he receives should go to one other than the Maker of the palace? And that the Glorious Maker would permit the thanks and worship due to Him, which are the ultimate aim of man's creation, to go to another?

Moreover, is it at all possible that He would make Himself loved by conscious beings through the endless varieties of His bounties, and that He would make Himself known to them through the innumerable miracles of His art, and then, attaching no importance to them, abandon to causes and Nature their thanks and worship, their praise and love, their recognition and gratitude. Is it at all possible that He would make His absolute wisdom denied and the sovereignty of His Dominicality nullified? God forbid! A hundred thousand times, God forbid!

Is it at all possible that one who cannot create a spring, and cannot create all fruits, and cannot create all the apples on earth, the stamp on which is the same, could create one apple, which is a miniature specimen of all of them, and give it to someone to eat as a bounty? Is it possible that he should claim thanks for it, and thus share in the praise duo to one absolutely deserving of praise? God forbid! For whoever creates one apple is the one who creates all the apples produced in the whole world; for their stamp is the same.

Moreover, whoever creates all the apples is again the one who creates all the seeds and fruits in the whole world, which are the means of food. That is to say, the one who gives a most insignificant bounty to a most insignificant animate creature is directly the Creator of the universe and its Glorious Provider. Since this is so, thanks and praise belong directly to Him. And since this is so, the reality of the universe says unceasingly with the tongue of truth: "His is the praise from every single being from pre-eternity to post-eternity."