RITES 131

“Allah’s are the Fairest Names : invoke Him by them”
(VII, 180). “O ye who believe! When ye meet a
(hostile) band be firm and remember God often in order
that ye may succeed”” (VIII, 45). The esoteric meaning
of this “band” is “‘the soul which incites to evil” (an-
nafs al-ammarah) and with this goes a transposition of
the literal meaning, which concerns the ‘“lesser holy
war”’ (al-jihad al-asghar), to the level of the ‘‘greater
holy war”’ (al-jihad al-akbar). ““Those who believe and
whose hearts rest in security in the recollection (or : the
invocation) of God ; Verily is it not through the recol-
lection of God that their hearts find rest in security ?
(XIII, 28). By implication the state of the soul of the
profane man is here compared to a disturbance or
J agitation through its being dispersed in multiplicity,
which is at the very antipodes of the Divine Unity.—
“Say : Call on Allah (the synthesis of all the Divine
Names which is also transcendent as compared with
their differentiation) or call on Ar-Rahman (the Bliss-
with-Mercy or the Beauty-with-Goodness intrinsic in
God) ; in whatever manner ye invoke Him, his are the
most beautiful Names.”” (XVII, 110)—“In the Messen-
ger of God ye have a beautiful example of him whose
hope is in God and the Last Day and who invokes God
much” (XXXIII, 21); “O ye who believe, invoke
God with a frequent invocation™ (dhikran kathira)
(XXXIII, 41).—*“And call on God with a pure heart (or:
with a pure religion) (mukhlisina lahu-d-din) . ..” (XL,
14).—*Your Lord has said: Call Me and I will answer
you...” (XL, 60).—*“Is it not time for those who believe