[He Who assigned to you the earth for a couch and heaven for an edifice; and sent down from the heaven water, wherewith He brought forth fruits for your provision] He has assigned the earth to them for a couch so that it might be their resting place and their domicile, and He has assigned [to them] the heaven for an edifice so that it might shelter them, and He has sent down water from the heaven and therewith brought forth plants from the earth so that this might be provision for them [drawing them thereby] to Himself, that they might beware of attributing the act to other than Him and thus rise above associating acts [with any other than Him] when they witness that these are all from God. That is why He mentions what results from these anteceding [graces] using [the coordinating particle] fāÌ, saying: so set not up compeers to God, while you know, what we have mentioned in the way of things given, as though He were saying that He was the one who has performed these acts and so worship can only be truly for Him and should not be assigned to any other than Him. Do not therefore set up a compeer to Him by attributing the act to this [compeer] that this [latter] would then deserve to be worshipped by you and that you then worship this [compeer] even as you are aware of [the transgression involved in] that. Their worship should only be for the Maker. Their Lord is the one who discloses Himself in the form of maker, since every servant only worships what he knows and he can only know God in the measure that he finds divinity in himself. They can only find the Doer, freely chosen [by them] and so they worship Him. The ultimate goal of such worship is to arrive at Paradise, which is the perfection of the world of acts. God has made smooth the earths of their souls and constructed upon them the heavens of their spirits, sending down from these heavens the water of the science of declaring the unity of [His] acts, therewith bringing forth from that earth the plants of submission as well as works, acts of obedience, and virtuous character traits so that from these He might provide for their hearts the fruits of certainty, as well as the states and the stations such as patience, gratitude and reliance.
