rse these immeasurable distances, nor attain thy goal. Peace
be upon him whom the light of truth guideth unto all truth, and who, in
the name of God, standeth in the path of His Cause, upon the shore of true
understanding.

This is the meaning of the sacred verse: "But nay! I swear by the Lord of
the Easts and the Wests,"(29) inasmuch as the "Suns" referred to have each
their own particular rising and setting place. And as the commentators of
the Qur'an have failed to grasp the symbolic meaning of these "Suns," they
therefore were at pains to interpret the above-quoted verse. Some of them
maintained that owing to the fact that the sun each day rises from a
different point, the terms "easts" and "wests" have been mentioned in the
plural. Others have written that by this verse the four seasons of the
year are intended, inasmuch as the dawning and setting points of the sun
vary with the change of the seasons. Such is the depth of their
understanding! None the less, they persist in imputing error and folly to
those Gems of knowledge, those irreproachable and purest Symbols of
wisdom.

In like manner, strive thou to comprehend from these lucid, these
powerful, conclusive, and unequivocal statements the meaning of the
"cleaving of the heaven"--one of the signs that must needs herald the
coming of the last Hour, the Day of Resurrection. As He hath said: "When
the heaven shall be cloven asunder."(30) By "heaven" is meant the heaven
of divine Revelation, which is elevated with every Manifestation, and rent
asunder with every subsequent one. By "cloven asunder" is meant that the
former Dispensation is superseded and annulled. I swear by God! That this
heaven being cloven asunder is, to the discerning, an act mightier than
the cleaving of the skies! Ponder a while. That a divine Revelation which
for years hath been securely established; beneath whose shadow all who
have embraced it have been reared and nurtured; by the light of whose law
generations of men have been disciplined; the excellency of whose word men
have heard recounted by their fathers; in such wise that human eye hath
beheld naught but the pervading influence of its grace, and mortal ear
hath heard naught but the resounding majesty of its command--what act is
mightier than that such a Revelation should, by the power of God, be
"cloven asunder" and be abolished at the appearance of one soul? Reflect,
is this a mightier act than that which these abject and foolish men