him be peace), but
rather We have made manifest a spray from the Ocean of Life which was
deposited in his words, that by it those who advance may live and be aware
of what hath befallen the trusted ones of God on the part of an evil and
most reprobate people. And today We see the people censuring those who
acted unjustly of yore, while they oppress more vehemently than those
oppressed, and know it not. By God, I do not desire sedition, but the
purification of [God's] servants from all that withholdeth them from
approach to God, the King of the Day of Invocation.

"I was asleep on My couch: the breaths of My Lord the Merciful passed over
Me and awakened Me from sleep: to this bear witness the denizens [of the
realms] of His Power and His Kingdom, and the dwellers in the cities of
His Glory, and Himself, the True. I am not impatient of calamities in His
way, nor of afflictions for His love and at His good pleasure. God hath
made affliction as a morning shower to this green pasture, and as a match
for His lamp whereby earth and heaven are illumined.

"Shall that which anyone hath of wealth endure unto him, or avail him
tomorrow with him who holdeth his forelock? If any should look on those
who sleep under slabs and keep company with the dust, can he distinguish
the bones of the king's skull from the knuckles of the slave? No, by the
King of Kings! Or doth he know governors from herdsmen, or discern the
wealthy and the rich from him who was without shoes or carpet? By God,
distinction is removed, save for him who fulfilled righteousness and
judged uprightly. Where are the doctors, the scholars, the nobles? Where
is the keenness of their glances, the sharpness of their sight, the
subtlety of their thoughts, the soundness of their understandings? Where
are their hidden treasures and their apparent gauds, their bejeweled
thrones and their ample couches? Alas! All have been laid waste, and the
decree of God hath rendered them as scattered dust! Emptied is what they
treasured up, and dissipated is what they collected, and dispersed is what
they concealed: they have become [such that] thou seest naught but their
empty places, their gaping roofs, their uprooted beams, their new things
waxed old. As for the discerning man, verily wealth will not divert him
from regarding the end; and for the prudent man, riches will not withhold
him from turning toward [God] the Rich, the Exalted. Where is he who held
dominion over all whereon the