Favours of the Gracious God — Page 74
FAVOURS OF THE GRACIOUS GOD Let it be known that, under the first kind of divine mercy, God Almighty is known as Rahmān [The Gra- cious], whereas under the second kind of divine mercy His name in the Arabic language is Rahim [The Ever Merciful]. It was to demonstrate this quality that I used the word Rahmān in the first line of the Arabic dis- course. Now, one can see based on this example that since the attribute of divine mercy, according to its ap- portionment, was based upon two types of the divine law of nature, two root words exist in the Arabic lan- guage for its expression¹. This principle will be very beneficial for a seeker of truth that in order to identify the minute differences [of meaning] in the Arabic language, the attributes and ac- 1 In the book, Dasātīr Majūs, the following sentence is written: بنام ایزد بخشا ئندہ بخشا ئس گر مہر بان دادگر With the name of God, Forgiving, Kind. ] While these words seem to resemble بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيم ]In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merci- ful] yet these [Persian] words are devoid of the wise distinction between the words Raḥmān and Rahīm, and the extensive mean- ings found within the word Allah, are certainly not found in the word ایزد. Therefore, this concoction of the Parsees bears no relation to بسم الله. Perhaps these words, indicating a sort of pla- giarism, were composed much later. In any case, this deficiency is indicative of the fact that this statement is of human origin. (Author) 74