The Fountain of God’s Unity — Page 7
were God Almighty not Merciful (25) and Benevolent (5), it was quite possible that man would be crushed to pieces and given a punishment from which there could be no re- demption. Yet, it is His mercy that has spared humanity thus far. God Almighty has stated that those who commit shirk are the followers of Satan the accursed; the very Satan who said [to God] that he would influence a group from among His people, that is, reserve them for himself, who would become heedless of God and use the ploy of shirk against them. [Satan added that] he would attack them from front and behind, even from the right and the left and he would strike them from beneath their feet with this stratagem; he would mislead them, entice them with greed and order them to cut off the ears of the animals, reserving the creatures of God [in order to offer them] to -7-