SUFI INTERPRETATION OF THE QURAN 45

“night” into which no distinctive knowledge pene-
trates : manifestation is here compared to day. This
state is also ‘““peace’ because of the Divine Presence
which comprehends in their immutable plenitude all the
first realities of things—all the Divine ‘‘ commands.”

““In truth, We (God) have made it (the Quran) to
descend in the night of predestination.

And what shall teach you what is the night of pre-
destination (since reason cannot conceive it) ?

The night of predestination is better than a thou-
sand months (that is, better than an indefinite
duration);

- (In that night) the Angels and the Spirit (ar-Riuth)
descend with the permission (or the full autho-
rity) of their Lord for every commandment
(amr) (to regulate all things).

It is peace, even till the coming of dawn.”
(Quran, XCVII)

The state of total knowledge, which was hidden in
the ““night of predestination ”” unfathomable by thought,
was later translated into words as external events actua-
lised one or another aspect of it, and thus arises the
fragmentation of the text into a great many parts and
also the repetition, with ever new variations, of the same
essential truths which are both simple and rationally
inexhaustible. Moreover this translation into words
was made through a cosmic necessity, just as the lightn-
ing flashes from supersaturated clouds, and without any
discursive elaboration, and this gives the form its direct