﴿ تَنزِيلَ ٱلْعَزِيزِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ﴾

“by [virtue of] what is being bestowed from on high by the Almighty, the Dispenser of Grace,”

The sending down of the Exalted, the Ever-Merciful. This Qur'an has been sent down by a Lord whose name is the Exalted and the Ever-Merciful. The Exalted is He whom it is difficult to perceive. God is exalted in the sense that there is no perceiving Him; understandings and imaginations do not reach the core of His majesty. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O found without being perceived and O face-to-face without be- ing seen! O apparent in hiddenness and hidden in apparentness! Finding You is a day that comes forth suddenly by itself. He who finds You busies himself with neither happiness nor grief. Com- plete for us the work that cannot be expressed!” The sending down of the Exalted, the Ever-Merciful. He is both exalted and ever-merciful- exalted for the estranged and ever-merciful toward the faithful. Were He exalted and not ever- merciful, no one would ever find Him, and were He ever-merciful and not exalted, everyone would find Him. He is the exalted so that the unbelievers will not know Him in this world and the ever- merciful so that the faithful will see Him in the afterworld.