And We did not send before you [any messengers] save men inspired by revelation, that is, individuals in whom some remnant of manliness subsisted, from among the people of the towns of the attributes and the stations, and not from Egypt of the essence, for the subsistence that is actualised for the folk of fixity can only be in the measure in which they are annihilated and have returned to creation and can only be commensurate with the ascension. Complete annihilation and perfect ascension can only be in the case of the pole who possesses the perfect preparedness, who attains every single level, and in whose case must be the complete return that subsumes all of the differentiations of the attributes upon subsistence: that person is the 'seal' (khātam), That is why the Prophet said: 'It is as though the edifice of prophethood has been completed and built with only one brick remaining to be put in place: I am that [final] brick'. It is to this meaning that he alluded in his statement, 'I was sent to complete the noble character traits (makārim al-akhlāq)'. Have they not travelled, in the land of their preparedness, and seen the nature of the, final, consequence for, the affair of, those who were before them, and the ultimate end of their perfection so that they might attain the full extent of their progress and actualise [the like of] their perfections in accordance with their [individual] preparednesses. For every person there is a specificity and his specific preparedness entails a specific felicity which will be his final sequel, and by acquiring awareness of the specificities of souls and the ultimate ends of their wayfaring there is actualised for the soul from those perfections a unifying configuration which is the perfection of the Muḥammadan community in accordance with their varying preparednesses, and this is the abode of the Hereafter, which is better for those who guard against the attributes of their souls which constitute the veils of [their] preparednesses. Will you not understandḍ, that this station is better than this perishing abode and its enjoyments that you pursue, for, [the Hereafter] it is indeed the [true] Life, if they only knew [Q. 29:64].
