“Every book which God has sent, Is received by the believing as revealing God’s perfection. Such is the _Tawrit_ (the Old Testament) this book of the Merciful, Which by tradition and writing came to Ibrahim. Another is the Gospel, which came down By the Messiah, and the psalms by Dáúd. A summary of all these four is the Koran, Which Muhammed has composed, The sense and the text of which is a wonder. When the eloquent men of Arabia united Breathe enchantment into the sounds of words, They become weak, defective, and vile Altogether, in comparison with the shortest Súrah.”[523]
As the book of God contains divine words, it is ancient, and the letters and sounds are new; the novelty of an old meaning is like a dress.
“If the dress be perpetually with the heart, How can the person who possesses the dress be disturbed?”
The Muhammedan religion is among the most excellent and most noble religions, and the father of this religion, the prophet of Arabia, is the best and the most eminent among the saints of the religions; there is a number of prophets, particularly the friends and the posterity of the prophet, but none is higher than he, the prophet.
“Among them all there was, in truth, None more apt for the khalifat than Sidík (Abu beker); And to succeed him, there was among the noble None more worthy of the office than Fárúk (Omar); After Fárúk, from none more than Zo-ul Narain (Osman) Did the state of religion find ornament; After them all, by knowledge and faith, Was Asad Allah (Ali) the seal of the khalifs.[524] Do not bestow veneration upon other names but theirs; To none offer greater honors than to them.”
When thou findest one of the people of the Kibla (the true faith) in a sin and fault, accuse him not of infidelity, and number him not among the people of damnation; in like manner, consider not a fit and good man, although he be removed from sins, as belonging to the inhabitants of heaven.
“Whoever is an unbeliever with a zunar, Do not consider him for certain as belonging to the inhabitants of hell.”
Having found the happy tidings that ten personages[525] have entered into heaven, do not however include him in their number.
“Because they are all formed of the pure offspring, They received also the happy tidings of going to heaven.”