avenly Dominion and the inmates of the Kingdom on high,
and yet they departed veiled therefrom, and hearkened rather unto the
voice of him who is but a servant of God and a mere creation of His Will.
Thus do We impart unto you that which shall guide you towards the path of
God's favoured ones.

79 How many those who entered within the Abode of Paradise, the Seat
wherein the throne of God had been established, and stood before their
Lord, the Most Exalted, the Most Great, only to inquire about the four
Gates or of some Imam of the Islamic Faith!(9) Such was the state of these
souls, if ye be of them that comprehend. It is even as ye witness in the
present day: those who have disbelieved in God and joined partners with
Him cling to a single one of Our Names, and are debarred from recognizing
Him Who is the Creator of all Names. We testify that such men are of a
truth amongst the people of the Fire. They ask the sun to expound the
words of the shadow, and the True One to explain the utterances of His
creatures, could ye but perceive it! Say: O people! The sun offereth
naught save the effulgence of its own light and that which appeareth
therefrom, whilst all else seek illumination from its rays. Fear God, and
be not of the ignorant! Among them also were those who inquired of the
darkness about the light. Say: Open thine eyes, that thou mayest behold
the brightness which hath visibly enveloped the earth! This, verily, is a
light which hath risen and shone forth above the horizon of the Dayspring
of divine knowledge with manifest radiance. Would ye ask the Jews whether
Jesus was the True One from God, or the idols if Muhammad was an Apostle
of His Lord, or inquire from the people of the Qur'an as to Him Who was
the Remembrance of God, the Most Exalted, the Most Great?

80 Say: O people! Cast away, before the splendours of this Revelation, the
things that ye possess, and cleave to that which God hath bidden you
observe. Such is His command unto you, and He, verily, is best able to
command. By My Beauty! My purpose in revealing these words is to cause all
men to draw nigh unto God, the All-Glorious, the All-Praised. Beware lest
ye deal with Me as ye dealt with My Herald. Do not object, when the verses
of God are sent down unto you from the Court of My favour, saying, "these
do not proceed from an innate and untaught nature", for that nature itself
hath been created by My word and circleth round Me, if ye be of them that
apprehe