Chapter II: Foundation of Belief
SECTION 1
FOUNDATION OF BELIEF
Praise be to God, the Creator, the First, the Last, the Doer of whatever. He wills, who guides His servants towards the true path, who makes Himself known to men that He exists by Himself without any partner, He is single without any associate, the Eternal without any before Him and without any beginning, the Everlasting without any end. He is the First, the Last, the External and the Internal, the Al-Knowing. The following beliefs about God is necessary.
(1) To believe in His Transcendence. He is without body and form, free of restriction, limitation and resemblance, not divisible. Nothing is like Him and He is not like anything. He is not limited by measure, space and time. He is free from diligence, rest and change. Everything is in His grasp. He is above Arsn, above heaven and above everything. He is nevertheless below the deepes t depth. Yet He is near, very close to a thing, nearest to the jugular Vein of a man. He fs not in anything and nothing is in Him. He is beyond space and beyond time. He is now as He was before. He expresses Himself through. His creatures and not by existence. He is free from change, increase or decrease.
(2) To believe in His power and existence. He is Everliving, Al- powerful, Almighty, the great Destroyer. He.is free from faults and failures, slumber, sleep, disease, death. He is the Lord of the entire universe, angles and of everything. The heavens are rolled in His hands. He is unique in creation and unrivalled in ever new creations. He fixed the provision and death of created being and nothing can escape from His power. His power and might are above counting.
(3) To believe in His Knowledge. His knowledge is without limit and He knows everything. Whatever happens between the deepest abyss of the earth to the highest heaven is within His knowledge. The smallest atom in the earth or in heaven is not outside. His knowledge. He knows the creeping of an ant and on a solid stone in intense dark night or in the movement of a moste in the air. Everyting open and secret Is within His knowledge :
Every thought in mind, every contrivance of the devil and every
100 THE BOOK OF WORSHIP Vol-I
thought good or bad is within His knowledge. His knowledge is eternal and unlimited without any increase or decrease and without any defect.