The Tenth Flash

The Tenth Flash

This epistle is about the Slaps of Divine Compassion.

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّح۪يمِ

يَوْمَ تَجِدُ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَا عَمِلَتْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ مُحْضَرًا وَمَا عَمِلَتْ مِنْ سُٓوءٍ تَوَدُّ لَوْ اَنَّ بَيْنَهَا وَبَيْنَهُٓ اَمَدًا بَع۪يدًا وَ يُحَذِّرُكُمُ اللّٰهُ نَفْسَهُ وَاللّٰهُ رَؤُفٌ بِالْعِبَادِ (a)

This flash expounds a secret of the verse above by revealing the slaps of Divine compassion my friends in the Qur’ānic service received as a result of their faults and mistakes in accordance with their human nature.

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a The Day every soul will find what it has done of good present [before it] and what it has done of evil, it will wish that between itself and that [evil] was a great distance. And Allāh warns you of (rebelling against) Himself, and Allāh is Kind to [His] servants." (Qur’ān: Āl ‘Imrān, 3:30)

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A chain of wonders of the Qur’ānic service and a type of wonder (karāmah) of al-Ghawthu’l-A‘ẓam [‘Abdu’l-Qādiri’l-Jīlānī] who supervises that sacred service, spiritually supports and helps by way of his prayers with the Divine permission - will be revealed. [We do unclose them] so that those who are in this sacred service should stay firm in their serious stance. The karāmah of this sacred service is of three sorts:

The first sort: This type of wonder (karāmah) is to prepare [the necessary environment of] the service [of the Qur’ān] and drive its servants to that service. 

The second sort: This type of wonders are there to fence off the obstacles and get rid of the evil-doings of the dangerous ones and fetch them a slap. This second type has abundant incidents and it would take so long to discuss here. Postponing this to another time, we now move forward to the third one which is the lightest type. 

The third sort is as follows: At a time when a notion of laxity occupies those who sincerely work in the service [of the Qur’ān], they are slapped with a compassionate slap, they delve back into that very service coming to their senses. These types of incidents are more than one hundred. Yet, out of twenty incidents, only thirteen or fourteen of them received slaps of compassion, the remaining six or seven of them got slapped with blows of prohibition (zajr).

The first of them: It is this helpless Sa‘īd. Whenever I fell in laxity in [my duties] to the service [of the Qur’ān] and acted indifferent to it saying “What is that to me?” and kept myself busy with my own personal affairs [rather than those of the Qur’ānic service], at that very moment I got slapped. What is more, I now am under the impression that I received slaps due to my neglect. It is so much so that I received slaps in a way [that made me lose my aim] that caused my ignorance as an exact opposite of my initial aim in the first place. 

As I carefully examine the slaps that other of my sincere friends received, I regard that whenever they become lax in their service of faith, just like myself, they have received blows of Divine compassion that constitute the opposite of the aims [that caused their laxness]. I thus became convinced that these events were wonders of the service of the Qur’ān.

For example, when I, poor Sa‘īd, was occupied with teaching the spiritual truths of Qur’ān in the city of Van, the paranoid government was unable to ever touch me throughout the days of the Shaykh Sa‘īd incident. (11) Yet as soon as I acted indifferent to [the service of the Qur’ān] saying "What is that to me?" and thought only about myself, and secluded myself in ruined places and the like of the cave in Mount Erek in order to save my soul in the Hereafter, they arrested me for no apparent reason, and exiled me. I was taken to Burdur. They did not harm me as long as I was engaged in the service to the Qur’ān again. 

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11. It is a rebellion started in 1925 and led by a Kurdish tribal leader called Sheikh Sa‘īd Piran against the abolishment of the caliphate by the irreligious government.

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At that time, although exiles were watched very intensively, and they were required to report themselves to the police every evening [at the police station], my sincere students and I were left exempted from this. I did not go to report myself [to the police] even once [so that my whereabouts could be verified] and I did not recognise the government. When Fevzi Pasha [the then Chief of the General Staff] came to that city, the governor complained about me, but Fevzi Pasha said "do not harm him and respect him."

It was the holiness of the service of the Qur’ān that caused him to speak these words. When the thought of saving myself and my Hereafter overwhelmed me, I became afflicted with a temporary laxity in the Qur’ānic service, and I received a slap that constituted the opposite of my aim, and was exiled from [that] exile to another place of exile - I was sent to Isparta.

There too I began to engage in my Qur’ānic service. After twenty days had passed there, certain timid individuals warned me, saying "the government might not be pleased with [what you are doing] - it would be better if you slow down a bit." 

Again, the thought of concerning myself with my own affairs grew stronger. I said to myself: “The public should not visit me!” Then, I was again exiled to a third place of exile - Barla. 

Whenever I was afflicted with laxness in Barla, and the thought of concerning myself only with my own affairs [again] grew strong, one of the snakes and hypocrites amongst the worldly people disturbed me. Since I spent eight years in Barla, I could relate eighty [similar] events that took place within the course of eight years, [but] I will stay brief fearing the weariness [of the reader].

O my brothers, thus! I have mentioned the slaps of Divine compassion that hit me, I will now mention the slaps of Divine compassion that happened to you, if you will permit and allow me to do so. Do not take offence! I will not mention the name of anyone who is offended. 

The second of them: My full-brother ‘Abdu’l-Majīd (Abdülmecid), the most sincere and most sacrificing of my students. He had a beautiful home in Van, and he was a teacher and well-off. 

Thinking that this was for my own interests, he did not agree and did not endorse the opinion of those who attempted - against my own will - that I should move to the border regions in which there was more demand for the service of the Qur’ān. 

In his mind, if I had been to the border areas, the Qur’ānic service would have been mixed up in politics, and would not have been as pure, and what is more, he assumed that they would have extracted him from Van - this was why he did not agree with them. He received a blow of Divine compassion that constituted the opposite of his aim and he was removed from Van, from his beautiful home and from his hometown, and was forced to go to Ergani.

The third of them: Hulusi Bey, an important, outstanding member of the Qur’ānic service. When he travelled from Eğirdir to his hometown, he found the complete means of worldly happiness, and circumstances had been readied for him that led to a certain extent of laxity in the sincere Hereafter-related service to the Qur’ān. For he had met with his parents, who he had not seen for a very long time, and he took delight in seeing his hometown [once more]. Moreover, he had travelled at a time [in his life] in which he had both renown and status; the world regarded him favourably, and appeared to him sweet. However, it is a necessary condition for anyone who serves the Qur’ān either that the world turns away from him, or he turns away from it, in order that he is able to serve the Qur’ān with sincerity and seriousness. Now, even though Hulusi's heart is unshakeable, this circumstance drove him to laxness in the service, and so he received a slap of Divine compassion. Over the course of two full years, certain hypocrites disturbed him. They made the pleasures of this world loathsome to him, and caused this world to turn away from him and him away from it. When this happened, he adhered very strongly to the spiritual duty, and held fast to it in the true sense of the word. 

The fourth of them: Muhājir Hafiz Ahmed, who speaks [of the matter] for himself, saying: "Yes, I admit that I made a mistake in my judgement in the Qur’ānic service, related to my [life in] the Hereafter, and I inclined towards something that caused me to become lax in my service; thus did I receive a blow of Divine compassion, yet it was a severe one that was an expiation [for what I had done] - the story runs as follows: 

Since my master [Bedī‘uz-zamān Sa‘īd Nūrsī] does not support innovated matters, in other words, innovations in religion (bid‘ah) that are in opposition to the sacred symbols of Islam, like the call to the Prayer being in Turkish and he does not give his approval to them, I [once] said to myself "my master lives next to the mosque in which I lead the prayer for people, and the three blessed months of Rajab, Sha‘bān and Ramaḍān are drawing near - if I leave the mosque, I will lose much spiritual reward, and the neighbourhood will grow accustomed to neglecting the Prayer - if I do not act in accordance with the new regulations, they will prevent me from [leading the Prayer].' In accordance with this judgement [of mine], I wished that my master, who is more beloved to me than my own self and spirit, would temporarily go to another town, yet I did not realise that were he to relocate and go to another town, the Qur’ānic service would be beset with a temporary decline.

It was at exactly this time that I received a blow [of Divine compassion]. It was severe, so severe that I couldn’t come to myself for three whole months; and praise be to Allāh, for my master was inspired, as he has conclusively reported to me, that every minute of that tribulation was like being engaged in worship for an entire day, and we cherish the hope, in the mercy of Allāh, that this is in fact the case, for this mistake of mine was not founded upon a bad intention or aim, but sprung rather only from my thinking of my [life in the] Hereafter.

The fifth of them: Hakkı Efendi - since he is not here at the moment, I will [speak] on his behalf, just as I did so for Hulusi, and I will say: At a time when Hakkı Efendi was fulfilling his duties most excellently, a new head official in the district was appointed, one with corrupt morals; [Hakkı] thus hid the copies he had made of the Book of Light, to protect himself and his master from being harmed, and he temporarily ceased [taking part in] the Service of Light. All of a sudden, a case was raised against him that cost him a thousand lira, like a slap of Divine compassion; he remained under this threat for an entire year, and he then came and met me here, and he returned to his vocation as a student of the Qur’ānic service; thus did the sway of the blow of Divine compassion lifted from him, and he was acquitted.

Moreover, when the students were granted a new task, calligraphing the Qur’ān in a new style - that is, in a form that would reveal the miracle of the congruous alignment (tawāfuq) [existing in the Qur’ān]. Hakkı Efendi was given a share of it. Lo and behold, the truth is that he took on his task and excelled in writing one thirtieth of the Qur’ān in a beautiful script. Yet [at that time he suddenly] saw himself, regarding his worries about making a livelihood, in a state of acute need, and he attempted to work as a lawyer without our knowing. It was then that he received another blow of Divine compassion. The finger with which he held the pen got temporarily twisted. He was then warned in the language of spiritual meanings that “there was no way he could work as a lawyer with the same fingers with which he wrote the Qur’ān!” We were wondering how his finger [got twisted], for we were not aware that he had applied to work as a lawyer. Yet it soon became clear to us that the sacred Qur’ānic service did not wish those sincere fingers, which were dedicated solely to it, to be involved in anything else. 

In any case, I have known Hulusi Bey like myself and spoken on his behalf. Hakkı Efendi is exactly like Hulusi Bey. If he is displeased with my representation, let him himself write about the blows of Divine compassion he received!

The sixth of them: Bekir Efendi - since he is not here - I will now speak on his behalf, just as I spoke on behalf of my brother ‘Abdu’l-Majīd (Abdülmecid), relying upon his trust in me and his loyalty to me, and upon what all of my beloved, close friends' opinions, like Hafiz of Damascus (Şamlı Hâfız) and Süleyman Efendi:

Bekir Efendi had already printed "the Tenth Word". When we sent him "the Twenty-fifth Word" that concerns the miraculous inimitability of the Qur’ān, in order that he be able to publish it before the new letters [Latin alphabet] were adopted; we wrote to him saying that we were going to send him money to cover the costs of printing this epistle, just as we had done so for "the Tenth Word"; yet he presumed that I was poor, and after he had determined that the cost of printing was four hundred lira, his soul tricked him into thinking that I might not be happy with him paying for it from his own pocket - and as a result, the epistle was not published. As a result, the Qur’ānic service was greatly harmed. Two months later, a thief stole nine hundred lira from him; thus did he receive an astonishing blow of Divine compassion; perhaps those lost liras will, with the permission of Allāh, come to be counted as charity. 

The seventh of them: Hafiz Tevfik of Damascus (Şamlı Hâfız Tevfik), who will himself tell his story: 

Yes, I admit that I received two slaps of Divine compassion because of actions of mine - due to my misjudging and unintentional doing - that put the Qur’ānic service in danger of decline, and I no longer have any doubt that those two blows came about because of that.

The first: Li’llāhi’l-ḥamd (His is the praise!), Allāh has bestowed upon me a type of good Arabic handwriting that to some degree befits the writing of the Qur’ān. My master had given me the first three parts of the muṣḥaf before everyone so that I could write them out, and had distributed the remaining parts to the rest of the brothers. My enthusiasm for the writing out of the muṣḥaf impeded my enthusiasm for writing out fair and rough copies of The Book of Light. I also acted in a boastful manner [becoming deluded that] I was going to tower above the rest of my brothers who were not proficient at writing the Arabic script. And even when my master gave me advice concerning the writing, [in my self-conceit] I said: “This is my job.” I arrogantly uttered words like “I know [what I am doing], and I am in no need of being given a lesson about it.” As a result of this error, I received a slap of Divine compassion whence I had never expected: I was unable to reach the level of the one who of all my brothers knew least about the Arabic script - Husrev - and we were all amazed - yet we have all now realised that my failure in this endeavour was a blow directed at me. 

The second: I have to admit that two conditions of mine were violating this [sacred] Qur’ānic service - a service that is done in perfect sincerity and purely for the sake of Allāh (li wajhi’llāh). Because of this, I received a severe blow of Divine compassion. In this district I am like a foreigner, indeed, I really am. What’s more, I do not say this as a complaint, I was once subjected to a state of poverty since I did not observe the principle of frugality and being satisfied with little, which is my master's most important principle. As I was forced to mix with selfish and self-conceited people, may Allāh forgive me, I was being compelled into ostentation (riyā') and open flattery (tabaṣbuṣ) by means of so-called favour and generosity. I was most regrettably unable to save myself from this, although my master warned, reminded and censured me much. Satans from amongst men and jinn took advantage of this state of mine, that was contrary to the spirit of the Qur’ānic service, just as it also caused coldness, inactivity and laxity in this service of ours. Now, as a result of this shortcoming of mine, I received a severe blow, yet with Allāh’s permission I hope that it was a blow of Divine compassion; I am no longer in any doubt that this blow came about because of this shortcoming of mine, and that blow constituted the following: 

Throughout the course of eight years I had been [personally] addressed by my master, and made rough and fair copies for him, yet for eight months I was unable to benefit from the lights of the Book of Light, and we were all very surprised by this, and my master and I attempted to find the cause; now, we know for certain that [it was because] the spiritual realities of the Qur’ān are light, and they cannot be combined with darknesses, ostentation, flattery and servility; this is why the meanings of the spiritual realities of these lights became foreign to me, as if they were moving away from me. In the aftermath of this, I beseech Allāh Most High to grant me sincerity befitting this service, and to save me from ostentation before and flattery of worldly people, and I ask for the prayers of my brothers, and foremost amongst them my master. 

Şamlı Hâfız Tevfik

The eighth of them: [This one is of] Seyrani. He was a student of mine who yearned for spiritual lights and had [strong] comprehension, like Husrev. I [once] consulted my students in Isparta about congruous alignment which is an important key to the secrets of the Qur’ān and to the science of the secret properties of letters, and they all contributed with great enthusiasm, except [Seyrani] - for he had other ideas. He had in him something that enkindled his interest in other things. Yet it was not just that - he wanted to turn me away from that reality, which I know with certitude [is real]. He wrote me a letter [about this], and that letter hurt me greatly. "Alas!" I said, "I have lost this student of mine." I wanted to illuminate his thought, but another meaning interfered with it. He received a slap of Divine compassion, and languished almost a year in seclusion - that is, in prison.

The ninth of them: Hafiz Zühtü Senior. When this brother was overseeing the students of the Book of Light in Ağras, he did not deem sufficient the spiritual honour of the students who had taken following the Lofty Sunnah and the shunning of reprehensible innovations as their path, and so he took on the teaching of a very dangerous innovation, hoping that he would thereby gain status in the eyes of the worldly. He thus committed an error totally incompatible with our path, and received a fearsome blow of Divine compassion. He was subjected to circumstances that almost ruined his and his family's honour; unfortunately, this painful circumstance also affected and harmed Minor Hafiz Zühtü (Küçük Hâfız Zühdü), who did not deserve a blow of Divine compassion. It is to be hoped that this event will have saved his heart from love of this world, by the permission of Allāh, and will have been like a successful operation, that will turn his heart to the Qur’ān alone. 

The tenth of them: This is a man called Hafiz Ahmed. This man enthusiastically worked making copies of the epistles [from the Book of Light], for two or three years - and moreover, he continued to benefit from [reading] it; then however, certain worldly individuals took advantage of his weak spot. His enthusiasm was blunted, for he became connected to worldly people. His hope was possibly not to be harmed by those worldly people, and to make them listen to him, and to gain status in their eyes, and he also desired to ease his rather tight livelihood. He thus received two slaps of Divine compassion because of the laxity and harm that beset the Qur’ānic service as a result of these actions of his: 

The first of them: Despite his tight budget, five more people were added to his household, and his misery multiplied. 

The second blow is as follows: This man was very sensitive when it comes to matters of honour and dignity and it was such that he wouldn't bear with a criticism from even a single person or a single objection to him. Certain devious people - unbeknown to him - used him as a cover for themselves in such a horrible way that his honour was tarnished, indeed he lost ninety per cent of it, and a great number of people turned against him. In any case, we ask that Allāh forgive him - hopefully, as a result of what happened to him, he will wake up taking a lesson from this, and again partially return to his duties, inshā'Allāh.

The eleventh of them: He has not been written about, as it is likely he would not be pleased. 

The twelfth of them: This is Ghālib the teacher (Muallim Galib). This brother did a lot of loyal and praiseworthy service making fair copies of the epistles, and never showed incompetence or weakness whatever problems [he faced]. Most days he would attend and listen to the lessons with fervour and yearning. He used to make copies of the epistles, but then he gave the complete "Words" and the "Letters" compilations to some other [brothers] in order that they write them out in return for thirty liras. 

His intention was to spread [these epistles] in his town, and he desired to illuminate his fellow townsmen. Later on, due to the result of certain ideas, he did not spread the epistles as he imagined and he left [the epistles that had been transcribed] in their box. For a whole year he suffered anxiety and worry, due to a painful event that took place all of a sudden, and [that resulted him] finding a great number of oppressive, unjust enemies in front of him, instead of a mere handful of officials [who would have enmity towards him] because of his spreading of the epistles; moreover, he lost certain of his friends. 

The thirteenth of them: Hafiz Khalid (Hâfız Halid), and he himself tells of what happened to him: 

Yes - I admit that during the time in which I was fervently making rough copies of the epistles in the service of the Qur’ān that my Master was distributing, a position as the Imam of a mosque in our neighbourhood became available. Wishing to again put on the old dress of the ulama and wear a turban, I became temporarily lax in my service to the Qur’ān, and [in fact] inadvertently withdrew from the service. Thus was it that I received a slap of Divine compassion that constituted quite the opposite of what I had aimed for and intended, in that I was not allowed to wear the turban despite the many promises the Mufti had given me, and despite the fact that I took on the imamate in the mosque for almost nine whole months. This left us in no doubt that this compassion-bearing slap came about as a result of that mistake [of mine]; I was someone who was directly addressed by my master and a maker of rough copies for him, and as a result of my withdrawal from the service he suffered major difficulties in the making of those copies. 

In any case, we have realised our mistake, and Allāh's is the praise! - and we have come to understand the immense sacredness of this service, and we have increased in certainty that we have a master like Shaykh al-Jīlānī [qs] supporting us like a protecting angel. 

Hâfız Halid

The fourteenth of them: Three small blows received by three people called Mustafa.

The first one is Sergeant Mustafa (Mustafa Çavuş). This brother looked after our own little mosque for eight years, and he used to tend even to the stove, the oil for the lamps, and [ensure there was always a supply of] matches. Indeed, we later found out that all that time he had supplied the oil and matches from his own pocket; he would never fail to appear in the congregation, and especially the Friday night congregation, unless there was some sort of emergency. 

Yet then, certain worldly individuals took advantage of the simpleness of his heart and they said: "[The authorities] are going to attack the turban of Hafiz, one of the scribes of "the Words". The adhan that is being secretly called must be temporarily abandoned. Tell the scribe that he should take off his turban before he is forced to do so." He didn't know that it would be extremely burdensome for the people of lofty spirit like Mustafa Çavuş to convey such a message on taking the turban off of a person who is in the service of the Qur’ān. Yet, he conveyed what they had asked.

On that very night I saw him in my dream: Mustafa Çavuş came to my room behind the local governor, with dirty hands. The next day, I said to him: "O Mustafa Çavuş! Who did you meet today? [In my dream] I saw you with filthy hands behind the governor." He responded: "Alas! The mayor of the village told me such words so that I should convey it to the scribe." [Unfortunately] I didn't understand what was behind it at all!" 

On the same day, Mustafa Çavuş brought almost a litre of oil to the mosque and something happened that had never happened before. The door of the mosque had been left open, and a young goat came in and left a mess near my prayer mat. [Seeing this], an old man came to clean the place, but thought that the oil that was in the jug was water, and he thus splashed the whole mosque with all of the oil. The strange is this that he did not smell it at all, the meaning of which is that it is as if the masjid was saying to Mustafa Çavuş, in the language of its state, "we have no need of your oil, and because of the error you have committed I will not accept your oil." An indication of this was that the man did not smell the oil. Moreover, Mustafa Çavuş was unable to catch the congregational prayers on Friday night and in certain of the Prayers that week despite his trying very hard to do so; yet after sincere regret and pure repentance, he returned to his original state of spiritual purity.

The second [and third] is [the story of] two Mustafas, that is, Mustafa from Kuleönü, who is one of my important, valuable and hardworking students and his sincere, loyal, sacrificing friend Hafiz Mustafa. I sent word to them that after eid they should “temporarily not attend [my gatherings]”, in order that the worldly people not bother us, and so that the service of īmān not be beset by a decline. I said "of anyone who wishes to visit us, let them visit us one by one." Yet, on one of the nights they came together, and alongside a third person. They had intended to return before the Dawn Prayer (fajr) if the weather suited it, and no one amongst us, neither myself nor Mustafa Çavus nor Suleyman Efendi, was able to think of taking an apparent precaution. We were made to forget. Each one of us was imprudent leaving it to each other to take precautions. They went out before fajr, and were hit by a severe storm for two hours straight. I was extremely worried about them, thinking that they would not make it out of the storm, for that whole winter there had been no storm like it. I have never felt such concern for anyone, and I wanted to send Suleyman behind them to make sure of their safety, as a punishment for his having not been cautious. Yet Mustafa Çavuş said to me "if he goes, he will also get caught in the storm, and I will then have to go out after him to search for him, and then Abdullah Çavuş will have to go out after me” - so we said تَوَكَّلْنَا عَلَي اللّٰهِ (we place our trust in Allāh!) and we waited. 

A question: You are saying that the tribulations that have descended upon your elect, close companions are "blows", and you count them as reprimands for their laxity in the Qur’ānic service, despite the fact that fierce enemies who display enmity towards the Qur’ānic service are safe and sound - why would these blows land on friends rather than enemies? 

The answer: This is because the error of friends is like a type of injustice to our service, and they are thus quickly subject to punishment and receive a slap of Divine compassion by the secret of اَلظُّلْمُ لَايَدُومُ وَالْكُفْرُ يَدُومُ "injustice does not persist, but disbelief persists." If they have sound minds, they take heed. The obstruction of enemies of the Qur’ānic service, on the other hand, and their standing against it is only for the sake of misguidance, and their assault towards our service, whether conscious or unconscious, is only for the sake of atheism - and since disbelief persists, most of the time they do not receive a slap quickly. 

Just as those who commit minor crimes are tried in local courts, and those who perpetrate major crimes are turned over to the high courts, so too are the people of faith and elect, close companions who commit minor mistakes punished for some of those mistakes quickly in this world, in order to rapidly cleanse them of them.

Yet because the crimes of the people of misguidance are so vast that the short life of this world cannot accommodate their punishment, they are turned over to the Supreme Court of Justice in the Ever-enduring World in accordance with the requirements of Divine justice. 

This is why most of the time they do not receive their punishment here. Now, the noble hadith اَلدُّنْيَا سِجْنُ الْمُؤْمِنِ وَجَنَّةُ الْكَافِرِ "this world is the prison of the believer and the paradise of the disbeliever", indicates this truth; for the believer to some degree receives punishment in this world for his mistakes and negligence, and so for him it is a kind of prison - and it is like a dungeon and a hell for him compared to his blissful life in the Hereafter; whereas since the disbelievers will never come out of Hell, and since they are recompensed for some of their good actions in this world, and the punishment for their major evil actions is delayed, this world is a paradise compared to their lives in the Hereafter. [Nonetheless], the truth is that in this world the believer is happier than the disbeliever, both in terms of spirituality and of reality, and it is as if the faith of a believer becomes a spiritual paradise in his spirit; but the unbelief of the disbelievers spiritually ignites the Fire of Hell in their very essences.

سُبْحَانَكَ لَاعِلْمَ لَنَٓا اِلَّا مَا عَلَّمْتَنَٓا اِنَّكَ اَنْتَ الْعَل۪يمُ الْحَك۪يمُ

Glory be to You! We have no knowledge, except that which You have taught us - surely You are the All-knowing, the Wise. (Qur’ān: al-Baqarah, 2:32)