“‘I sat spellbound by His utterance, oblivious of time and
of those who awaited me. Suddenly the call of the muadhdhín, summoning the
faithful to their morning prayer, awakened me from the state of ecstasy into
which I seemed to have fallen. All the delights, all the ineffable glories,
which the Almighty has recounted in His Book as the priceless possessions of
the people of Paradise—these I seemed to be experiencing that night. Methinks I
was in a place of which it could be truly said: “Therein no toil shall reach
us, and therein no weariness shall touch us”; “No vain discourse shall they
hear therein, nor any falsehood, but only the cry, ‘Peace! Peace!’”; “Their cry
therein shall be, ‘Glory be to Thee, O God!’ and their salutation therein,
‘Peace!’ And the close of their cry, ‘Praise be to God, Lord of all
creatures!’”
“‘Sleep had departed from me that night. I was enthralled by
the music of that voice which rose and fell as He chanted; now swelling forth
as He revealed verses of the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá,
again acquiring ethereal, subtle harmonies as He uttered the prayers He
was revealing. At the end of each
invocation, He would repeat this verse: “Far from the glory of thy Lord, the
All-Glorious, be that which His creatures affirm of Him! And peace be upon His
Messengers! And praise be to God, the Lord of all beings!” [Qur’an 37:180]
- Mulla Husayn
(Quoted by Nabil in chapter 3 of ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)
