First Aim
The First Aim explicates evidences (delâil) of the Maker. One proof (bürhan) of Him is Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace). The Maker’s existence and unity are beyond any need of proof. They are abundantly clear and obvious, especially for Muslims. As a consequence, I have directed my address to foreigners, and the Japanese in particular, for at one time they asked me some questions and I replied to them. Now I am going to recount briefly a part of my answer to only one or two of their questions.
One of their questions was: What is a clear proof of the existence of the Allah you are calling us to? What was creation out of? Was it ex nihilo, out of nothing? Or out of matter? Or from Himself? And other frequently asked questions. That is to say: Is there clear proof of the Maker’s existence?
Indication Knowledge of Allah the Most High, which is infinite, cannot be contained in limited words such as these. It is therefore to be hoped that any ambiguity in what I have to say will be excused.
Note The purpose of the following discussion is to point out the way to employ the reason and to weigh up matters so that the truth may become manifest in the whole. For, due to the mind’s particularity, if one seeks the conclusion of the whole in every part of it, it causes the surmising faculty to beset one and obscures the truth with its delusive notions amid uncertainties.
Premise
If you can comply with my conditions by restraining yourself from such things as the desire to oppose and taking the part of the opposer and considering yourself excused when ascribing baseless misgivings to some other person in order to justify yourself, and from seeing only faults like a customer, and making excuses like children, then listen to the following with an easy heart.
The First Aim
All the atoms in existence, while hesitant as regards essence, attributes and other aspects amid innumerable possibilities, take one way which results in wondrous benefits, thus testifying to the necessary existence of the Maker. This lights up from the subtle inner faculties of man – which are samples of the worlds of the unseen – the lamp of belief and proclaims the Maker.
Yes, just as each minute particle on its own proclaims the Maker; so too, all particles, by each preserving the balance of the general current in all its relationships at every stage of the ascending, intermingled compounds of the universe, which resemble concentric circles, and by producing different beneficial results with every relationship, recite and proclaim the Maker’s wisdom and purpose, thus showing that proofs of the Maker far exceed atoms in number.
If You Ask: Why doesn’t everyone see this with their minds?
The Answer: Because of its perfect clarity. Indeed, some things are so intensely evident, they reach the degree of invisibility. Like the body of the sun.
Ponder over the lines of the universe, for they are, Missives to you from the Sublime Assembly. That is, behold with the eye of wisdom the lines of successive events the Pre‑Eternal Inscriber has written on the outspread pages of the wide world. Embrace the idea of truth, then the continuous missives arriving from the Sublime Assembly may raise you up to the certainty of the highest of the high.
Indication By reason of the source of assistance and point of support in his heart, man’s conscience does not forget the Maker. Even if his mind ceases to work, his conscience does not; it is preoccupied with two important duties. It is like this: if one refers to his conscience, [he will see that] like the physical heart conveys life to all the parts of the body, knowledge of the Maker, the source of the heart’s vitality, spreads life to all his various desires and inclinations which arise from his unlimited abilities and potentialities; it affords them pleasure and value and expands and extends them. This is the point of assistance.
It is also knowledge of the Maker which is the only point of support against the calamities and troubles of the tumultuous world in which life – the field of conflict and struggle – is constantly under attack.
Yes, if a person does not believe in the All‑Wise Maker and His works, all of which are in accordance with wisdom and order, and blindly ascribes them to chance, and if he thinks of the total insufficiency of his power in the face of disaster, he will become more wretched than anything due to the resulting hellish, piteous state comprising terror, desolation, anxiety, and fear, and he will oppose the perfect order and regularity of the universe. This is the point of support; yes, his only refuge is knowledge of the Maker.
This means that since, to be dominant in the world’s order through these two points is the exclusive quality of the truth itself, from them the Maker’s existence is manifested in the conscience, for they are two windows. Even if the intellect does not see this, man’s essential nature does. The conscience is the observer and the heart, its window.
Note There are four methods by which to ascend to knowledge of the Maker, the throne of attainment and perfections:
The First is the way of the Sufi mystic‑scholars, which is based on purification and illumination.
The Second is the way of the scholars of the science of kalām, which is based on contingency and createdness. For sure these two ways have branched out from the Qur’an, but since human thought has poured them into different moulds, they have acquired lengthy glosses and annotations, making them onerous.
The Third is the way of the philosophers. These three are not free of the assaults of delusive notions.
As for the Fourth, it is the Qur’anic ascent, which proclaims the lofty rank of the Qur’an’s eloquence, and is the shortest and most direct, and in respect of clarity is the most comprehensive, embracing all humankind. We too have chosen this way. It is of two kinds:
THE FIRST is the proof of divine providence (delil‑i inâyet). All the Qur’anic verses that recount the benefits of things allude to this proof and they set it in order. Its essence is the following of benefits and instances of wisdom in the universe’s superlative order. This proves the Maker’s wisdom and purpose and banishes erroneous ideas about chance.
Premise For sure not everyone can perceive through induction the following of benefits and order in the world and not everyone can comprehend it. But thanks to the meeting of minds among men, a science has been and is being formed consisting of the regular, universal laws particular to each species and realm of beings in the universe.
On the other hand, if there is no order in a matter, since the proposition (hüküm) will not be in force universally, the law’s universality is evidence for the good order of the species. This means that by reason of the universality of their laws, through induction the physical sciences (fünun‑u ekvân) are each proofs producing (intâc) the perfect order. Yes, by showing the benefits and fruits hanging from the links of the chains of beings, and the instances of wisdom and advantages hidden in the intertwined revolutions of events, all the physical sciences both point to and testify to the Maker’s intention and wisdom, and each is a shooting star repulsing devilish delusions.
Indication If you detach yourself from familiarity, which leads one to view things superficially and gives rise to compounded ignorance, and you restrain your soul from perpetual argumentation, the nest of misapprehensions which block up the path to reason; you won’t be able to deceive yourself that the wondrous, miniscule, divine machine underlying the form of a microscopic organism came into being out of simple, lifeless, natural causes. For the causes lack intelligence, and their paths and trajectories are unlimited, and they possess nothing to cause either their existence or their non‑existence, and are the objects of that workbench. You won’t be able to convince yourself and feel assured.
Unless, after proving that each atom possesses the intelligence of Plato and the wisdom of Galen, you believe that each can communicate without means with all the other atoms, and you can remove the brand of impossibility from the snout of the combining of the powers of attraction and repulsion in the smallest indivisible atom, which is like the fundament of natural causes.
If your soul allows the possibility of all these impossibilities, it will erase you from the book of humanity. It is permissible, however, that attraction, repulsion, and motion, which they suppose to be the basis of everything, are each names for the laws of divine practice. We accept them only on condition the laws neither cease being laws nor become nature, and neither cease to be mental nor are given external existence, and neither cease to be theoretical nor are supposed to be actual, and neither cease being means nor are ascribed an actual effect.
Note Take a look around the world with the verse, So turn your gaze, do you see any flaw; Can you see any deficiency anywhere? Absolutely not! No one with sight can see any. If anyone did, he would have to be either blind or afflicted with myopia. If you wish, refer to the Qur’an; you will find there the proof of divine providence in its finest possible form. For just as it commands reflection on the universe, so it mentions the benefits and recounts the bounties. Such verses display the proof of divine providence. In brief it is as above, so hold on to it!
As for a detailed exposition, if divine will is manifested, it will be expounded in the three books which will be bound, by way of explicating the signs in the outer and inner worlds, to the sciences of the heavens, the earth, and humankind. Then this proof will appear to you in its entirety.
The Second Qur’anic Proof is the proof that things are given existence out of nothing (delil‑i ihtira’; Ar. ikhtirā‘). In summary it is this: it is the giving to all the species of creatures and all their members a body that will produce the particular works that are planned for those species and members, and is appropriate for the perfecting of their innate abilities. For no successive species is pre‑eternal. Contingency does not permit this. And necessarily, the createdness of some things is apparent through observation and the createdness of the rest is to seen by the intellect in respect of wisdom and purpose.
Misapprehension and Note Truth cannot be turned into its opposite (inkılab‑ı hakikat). The chains of intermediate species do not persist. The transformation or mutation of classes of beings (tahavvül‑ü esnaf) is not the same as the turning of realities into their opposites.
Indication Since all species have a progenitor and forefather, the false notion arising from the reproduction occurring in the chains of beings, may not be imputed to those progenitors and forefathers.
Yes, according to natural philosophy and the sciences of geology, biology, and botany, the number of species exceeds two hundred thousand. The origins of the species, which are like their ‘Adams’ or progenitors, each testify independently to createdness (hudûs; Ar. ḥudūth). Similarly, the natural laws, which are imaginary and theoretical, and natural causes, which lack intelligence, lack the ability to create and fashion the innumerable astonishing chains of beings and the countless, wondrous, divine machines which form the chains. Therefore, every single being and all the species proclaim independently and make known that they proceed from the All‑Wise Maker’s hand of power. Yes, the All-Glorious Maker put the stamp of contingency and createdness on the foreheads of all things.
Note When deeming possible such false questions as the pre‑eternity of matter and the formation of the species from the motion of particles, the intention is to persuade oneself by something else, so the error arises from giving those questions secondary importance then failing to perceive their fallacious principles. For if one addressed oneself to them in order to convince oneself, one would see that they are irrational and precluded. Supposing one did accept them, one could do so only out of the distress caused by forgetfulness of the Maker.
Note Being noble and honourable, by virtue of the human essence man always wants to buy what is right and always seeks the truth and his perpetual goal is happiness. But unsuspectingly, while seeking the truth, he obtains what is false and wrong. While digging the mine of truth, the false falls on his head. Or else, if forced to find the truth or he finds no part of it, his inborn nature, conscience, and mind are compelled to accept something he knows to be irrational and invalid, because he considers it superficially and in second place.
Now, keep this fact in view. You will see that the inborn natures of those who have mistaken ideas about the pre‑eternity of matter and motion due to their not heeding the order in the world, and imagine blind coincidence in the wondrous art and embroidery, which leaves all minds in astonishment, and who believe that lifeless causes have an actual effect despite the testimony of all the purposes and instances of wisdom, and find consolation by making imaginary, embodied nature the source due to misleading their souls and the seductions of unending delusions – you will see that their inborn natures surely reject all this.
But those baseless delusions assault them without warning from the sides of the road only because they are turned to the truth and their intention is to discover it. So for sure, the person who has fixed his gaze on his goal, looks at those false conjectures superficially and secondarily. He does not penetrate into the adorned lies. But if and when he considers them purposefully with the intention of buying them, he does not condescend to look at them even, let alone buy them.
Indeed, the conscience and reason see that such ugly things are impossible. The heart does not accept them either. Unless with squabbling and empty words they ascribe to every single particle the intellects of the philosophers and the politicking of the rulers so that each might unite with his brothers, consult concerning the general order, and communicate with each other.
An animal would not accept such a way, let alone a human being. But what can one do? A way necessitates whatever it necessitates. This way cannot be depicted in any other manner. Yes, the mark of fallaciousness is that whenever a matter is not given primary importance and is seen as secondary, it may appear to be valid; but if it is given full attention, the possibility of its validity disappears.
Indication What they call matter can never be abstracted from ever‑changing forms and the evanescent motion of events. This means that createdness (hudûs; Ar. ḥudūth) is certain. How astonishing it is! How is it that those who cannot fit in their minds the pre‑eternity of the necessarily existent Maker, which is a self-evident necessity, can fit into them the pre-eternity of matter, which is in every way contrary to pre-eternity? It really is astonishing. The more one thinks of it, the more it makes one regret one’s humanity that they should consider anomalous and deny the Maker, Who possesses all the attributes of perfection, and ascribe these wondrous artefacts to blind chance and the motion of particles.
Allusion In so far as they are accidents, the forces and forms which, it is claimed, are produced from the motion of particles cannot constitute the substantial differences in the species of beings. Accidents cannot be substances. Hence, all the families of the species and the distinguishing characteristics of substances are given existence (lit. invented; T. muhtera’ A. mukhtara‘) out of nothing. Successive generation is one of the theoretical habitual conditions in the chains of beings.
That, in brief, is the proof that things are given existence out of nothing (delil‑i ihtira’).
If you want a clear, detailed exposition, enter the garden of the Qur’an, for there is nothing fresh or dry in that place of promenading that is not found as a flower or a bud. If our allotted span permits, and divine will and assistance accompany us, the jewels which adorn this proof in the shells of the Qur’an’s words will be set out in the forthcoming books.
Misconception and Note If you ask: What is this nature that they’re always going on about? What are these laws and forces that they are always muttering about?
We answer as follows: There is the code of divine natural laws (şeriat‑ı fıtriye-i ilâhiye), which holds in order the acts of the elements and members of the body of creation, called the Manifest World (âlem‑i şehâdet). It is this code of natural laws which is called nature or the divine printing press. Yes, nature consists of the totality of the theoretical laws in force in the creation of the universe. Each of what they call forces is an article of the code of laws, and the things they call laws are each a matter of the code.
But because of the continuance of the code’s articles, and, because the abilities of those who perceive the imaginary to be truth have prepared saline ground, delusion and imagination have prevailed and this delusory nature has become established and embodied, and has assumed external existence and become a cliché rather than imaginary. Delusions and erroneous views play many tricks like this.
Indication Nature and the matters they call the general laws possess nothing at all to persuade the reason or make themselves agreeable to thought or appear familiar to the truth, and they lack the ability to be the source and original cause of the universe. Therefore, to consider the astounding works of divine power to proceed from the artistry of nature, which resembles a printing press, and to imagine nature to be the source rather than a pattern is the result of an absurd analogy that attempts to extrapolate a particular necessary consequence from the most general precedent, and is due solely to heedlessness of the Maker and the distress arising from the constraints of the cosmic order. This absurd analogy has opened up numerous paths to the valleys of misguidance and perplexity.
Elucidation Despite suffering much opposition and violation, the Shari‘a and laws, which set voluntary actions in order, have been imagined by many ignoramuses to be some sort of spiritual ruler; fancying the order to be a monarch, they suppose it possesses effectiveness. Yes, wouldn’t it be peculiar if a savage observed the regular actions of a regiment of soldiers and their uniform movements, and supposed those numerous individuals to be tied together with string? Or would one ever see a vagrant or rhymester attributing external existence to the system which endowed a large number of people with a pleasing arrangement, seeing the code of laws as a sort of leader? In which case, why should the code of divine natural laws which is linked to events in the cosmos and is called nature and is violated only to affirm the prophets and exalt the saints and is ceaseless, why should it be embodied due to delusions? Why should it be considered strange?
Misapprehension and Note Just as man’s mind, tongue, and hearing are particular and follow each other in succession, so are his thought and endeavour minor and particular. His attention can be focused on only one thing after another and he is busy with things one at a time. Also, man’s worth and nature are proportionate to his aspirations. And the degree of his aspirations are proportionate to his goals and what he is preoccupied with. Moreover, man becomes absorbed and lost in his aims and what he is turned to. It is because of this that lowly or minor matters are not ascribed to the great, for they would not condescend to them and their aspirations could not be contained in such petty matters. The balance would be broken because such aspiration is weighty, while petty matters are light. Also, whatever man beholds, he seeks its criteria and principles in himself. If he cannot find them there, he seeks them in his surroundings or in his fellow men. Even, if he ponders over the Necessary Existent, Who in no way resembles contingent beings, his surmising faculty wants to make its false conjectures into principles and telescopes.
Whereas the All‑Glorious Maker may not be beheld in this way. There is no limit to His power. His power, knowledge, and will are all-embracing and comprehensive like the light of the sun, and may not be restricted or measured. As they connect with the greatest thing, so they connect with the tiniest and lowliest. The measure of the grandeur and balance of their perfection is the totality of His works.
So to compare the Necessary Existent to contingent beings is absurd and a contrariety.
To reason in accordance with the above‑mentioned futile conjectures is pure error. It is due to the unfortunate results of this boorish error and delusive surmise that the Naturalists believed that causes have an actual effect, the Mu‘tazilites believed they created their voluntary actions, the philosophers denied that divine knowledge encompassed particulars, and the Zoroastrians ascribed the creation of evil to things other than Allah the Most High. As though according to them with His mighty grandeur the Maker would not condescend to busy Himself with lowly, particular matters. Pooh to their intelligences for becoming captive to such futile delusions!
Brother! Even if not by way of their beliefs, this delusory notion has assailed some believers due to the whisperings of Satan.
Indication If you say: The proof that things are given existence out of nothing (delil‑i ihtira’; Ar. ikhtirā‘) is the giving of existence. The giving of existence goes together with annihilation. But with our intelligences we cannot conceive of existence out of pure non‑existence and absolute non-existence out of pure existence.
My reply: Your surprise and supposing this to be difficult is the unfortunate result of a misleading analogy. For you are comparing divine creation and giving of existence with the art and acts (kisb, lit. acquisition) of His servants. Yet the servants’ power is insufficient to give existence to an atom even or to annihilate it. They have only some proficiency and acquisition in theoretical matters and in manipulating existent ones. This analogy is deceptive; one cannot save oneself from it [and make sense of it].
In Short: Man has never seen in the contingent beings in the universe a power and strength that might bestow pure existence and annihilate it. But essentially he always judges with his reason from what he observes. That is to say, he looks at the divine works by way of contingent beings. Whereas he should behold them by way of the Maker’s power, which is proven by its wonder‑provoking works. That is, he imagines the Maker within the imaginary power of the powers and forces that have no effect, for they are merely theoretical matters pertaining to the cosmos and His servants, and he considers this question from their point of view. He should, however, look at it from the side of the Necessary Existent and from the point of view of His absolute power.
Indication If one reasons about the works of a person, one has to take his characteristics into consideration. This has not been done in this question. For it has been looked at beneath the veil of parabolic analogies (kıyas‑ı temsilî) behind the powerlessness of the servants and by way of the power of contingent beings. Whereas, concerning the world’s being given existence, they have disregarded the fact that the perfection of divine power is demonstrated by some of the miracles of so many astonishing works being brought into existence without matter and others being compounded from matter. They have regarded the Necessary Existent in accordance with a limited rule, like making the false analogy of looking on the unseen as present and judging it as they judge their fellow‑men. Even, they imagine to be irrational many questions which sound minds consider reasonable.
Note Quite apart from existents from non‑being, if one beholds from the point of view of perfect divine power the astonishing laws of the luminescence of the world’s eye, which they call light and is the most obvious and luminous of works, as well as the astonishing laws of the eye’s light, which is the former’s fruit and a miniature sample of it, and if one compares them with matters that are imagined to be irrational and distant, they will appear more than familiar between the eyelashes of the mind’s eye.
Note Just as theoretical matters are deduced from necessary ones (zarûriyat), so too, the necessary matters of the Maker’s works are proof of the hidden matters of His art. Both prove this question together.
Allusion Can the mind conceive of anything finer, stranger, or more wondrous than the art in the world’s order and anything further from the power of contingent beings? It surely cannot. For the sciences necessarily testify to the Maker’s intention, art, and wisdom through the benefits and instances of wisdom they show, thus compelling the reason to accept them. If it had been left to the human intellect alone, it would not have accepted even the most minor of these self‑evident matters.
Why should it be considered strange that what is infinitely easier and lighter be ascribed to the Most Pure and Holy One Who upholds the earth and skies and employs the cosmic bodies within the universal order and none of Whose commands are disobeyed? It is pure sophistry to doubt that one who lifts a mountain cannot lift an inkwell.
In Short: Just as parts of the Qur’an expound other parts, so some of the lines of the book of the universe expound the art and wisdom that lie beyond them.
Indication If you say: Union, unification, and metempsychosis are apparent in what some of the Sufis have said. One might surmise from this a connection with the unity of existence (vahdetü’l‑vücûd), which is the way of some of the materialists.
The Answer: With their ecstatic, symbolic utterances, the Sufi verifiers of reality became immersed in beholding the Most Holy Existent and, withdrawing from contingent beings, saw the result in the evidence. That is to say, on the way they followed in beholding the Maker from the world, they gazed on the flowing manifestations in the streams of the world and the swirling effusions in the inner face of things and the manifestation of the divine names in the mirrors of beings, and used due the lack of words such terms as, ‘suffusing divinity’ (ulûhiyet‑i sâriye) and ‘suffusing life’ (hayat‑ı sâriye), but others did not understand the truths these expressed. Due to the misunderstanding, they applied the words and utterances of the Sufi mystics to the garbled nonsense that emerged from their own stunted abilities.
Pooh to their intelligences! The abstract ideas of the Sufi verifiers of reality, at the heights of the Pleiades, are infinitely distant from the lowly thoughts of the materialists’ imitators in the pits of the earth. Any attempt to correlate these two sets of ideas shows that the human mind has suffered an arrest at this time of progress and has fallen into the abyss of death! Observing this with regret, humankind is compelled to declare with the tongue of its investigative and progressive abilities: Absolutely not, by Allah! Is there any comparison between the Pleiades and the earth? Can an analogy be drawn between the shining light and pitch darkness?
Indication These are the followers of the unity of witnessing (ehl‑i vahdetü’ş-şuhûd), but metaphorically (mecâzen) they can be called the followers of the unity of existence. However, in reality, the unity of existence is the fallacious way of some ancient philosophers.
Note The leader and shaykh of the Sufis stated that those who made claims about union or unification or metempsychosis had apprehended nothing about the knowledge of Allah the Most High. Is union or unification with the Necessary Existent possible? Absolutely not! What value have contingent beings that the Necessary Existent should incarnate in them? Allah forbid! An emanation from the superabundance of divine munificence may be manifested in contingent beings.
Their way [the way of the Sufis’ leader and shaykh] has no relation or link with the other one. For since on their way the materialists concentrated solely on materiality and became immersed in it, their ideas grew distant from any idea of the divinity and were dissociated from it. They attached such importance to matter that the regretable way they adopted beheld matter alone and even combined divinity with it. However, the Sufi verifiers of reality who were followers of the unity of witnessing restricted their view to the Necessary Existent to such an extent that contingent beings ceased to have any value at all. They said: “All is one.”
Be reasonable! The Necessary Being and contingent beings are as far from each other as the ground is from the Pleiades! I swear by the All‑Glorious Creator Who creates matter with all its sorts and in all its forms, that there is no idea more ugly or base or ludicrous than this, which attempts to associate these two ways, thus proving that those who subscribe to it are utterly deranged.
Elucidation If the globe of the earth is imagined to consist of multicoloured, multifarious fragments of glass, each fragment will receive an emanation (feyz) from the sun relative to its colour, shape, and proportions. This imaginary emanation is neither the sun’s essence nor the essence of its light. Also, if the hues of these multicoloured blooms, which are the manifestation (tecellî) of the sun and the depiction of the seven colours in its light, were to speak, each would say: “The sun’s like me” or “The sun’s mine.”
Those imaginings which are the snare of the saints, Are the reflections of the moon‑faced beauties of the garden of Allah.
The way of the followers of the unity of witnessing, however, is the way of those who practise intoxication and self‑annihilation. The purest and best way is that of sobriety and separation.
Man is incapable of comprehending his own reality, so how can he comprehend the nature of the Pre‑Eternal Compeller, Who originated things and created them?
Note The above are proofs of the Maker’s existence in brief; detailed exposition will be the three books.
If You Say that you want a clear exposition of the proofs of divine unity here, even if only in summary,
I Would Say that they are so well‑known and so many that there is no need to mention them in this book. The proof tamānu’, which is hidden in the shell of the verse, Were there gods other than Allah in [the heavens and earth], both would have been spoiled, is a beaming lighthouse for this way. Yes, independence is an essential quality of the divinity, and necessary to Him.
Elucidation The similarity between works in the universe, and the various sides of it embracing each other, and their co‑operating to maintain the order, and their replying favourably to each other’s questions and cries for help, and their looking to one point, and their revolving around a single orbit all hint at the Maker’s unity, indeed they declare in all clarity the unity of the Pre-Eternal All-Wise One. For sure, a machine has only one maker and inventor.
In everything is a sign indicating that He is One.
Of limitless dimensions are the leaves of the book of the world,
Numberless are the works on the lines of the world of being.
Every being in the world is an embodied, meaningful word
Printed on the press of the preserved tablet of nature.
Hoca Tahsin uses “limitless” and “numberless” relatively here; he does not intend actually infinite numbers.
Indication However many the attributes of perfection, the All‑Glorious Maker possesses them all. For it is established that the traces of perfection in creatures are faint shadows derived from the Maker’s perfection. Hence, however much beauty, goodness, and perfection there are in the universe, the Maker possesses attributes of beauty and perfection at a level infinitely higher than all of them. Bounty is derived from and is evidence of riches, and the giving of existence is evidence of existence, and necessitating of necessity, and beautifying of beauty.
Moreover, the All‑Glorious Maker is free of every sort of defect. He utterly lacks the imperfections arising from the essential incapacity of material beings. He is exalted above the attributes intrinsic to the contingent natures of all beings.
There is nothing like unto to Him, May His glory be exalted.