h no beginning until the end that
hath no end. My creatures, however, have been oblivious of My power, have
repudiated My sovereignty, and contended with Mine own Self, the
All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

76 Say: Of all that lieth between heaven and earth, naught can stir except
by My leave, and unto My Kingdom none can ascend save at My behest. My
creatures, however, have remained veiled from My might and My sovereignty,
and are numbered with the heedless. Say: Naught is seen in My revelation
but the Revelation of God, and in My might but His Might, could ye but
know it. Say: My creatures are even as the leaves of a tree. They proceed
from the tree, and depend upon it for their existence, yet remain
oblivious of their root and origin. We draw such similitudes for the sake
of Our discerning servants that perchance they may transcend a mere
plant-like level of existence and attain unto true maturity in this
resistless and immovable Cause. Say: My creatures are even as the fish of
the deep. Their life dependeth upon the water, and yet they remain unaware
of that which, by the grace of an omniscient and omnipotent Lord,
sustaineth their very existence. Indeed, their heedlessness is such that
were they asked concerning the water and its properties, they would prove
entirely ignorant. Thus do We set forth comparisons and similitudes, that
perchance the people may turn unto Him Who is the Object of the adoration
of the entire creation.

77 O people! Fear God, and disbelieve not in Him Whose grace hath
surrounded all things, Whose mercy hath pervaded the contingent world, and
the sovereign potency of Whose Cause hath encompassed both your inner and
your outer beings, both your beginning and your end. Stand ye in awe of
the Lord, and be of them that act uprightly. Beware lest ye be accounted
among those who allow the verses of their Lord to pass them by unheard and
unrecognized; these, truly, are of the wayward.

78 Say: Would ye worship him who neither heareth nor seeth, and who is of
a truth the most abject and wretched of all God's servants? Wherefore have
ye failed to follow the One Who hath come unto you from the Source of
Divine Command bearing the tidings of God, the Most Exalted, the Most
Great? O people! Be not like unto those who presented themselves before
Our throne, and yet failed to perceive or comprehend; these are indeed a
contemptible people. We recited unto them verses that would enrapture the
dwellers of the he