To God belongs all that is in the heavens, that is, all that is in the spiritual world in its entirety, His esoteric aspects, His attributes and the covers of His Unseen and the treasure-troves of His generosity, and all that is in the earth, that is, all that is in the corporeal world in its entirety, His exoteric aspects, His names and His acts witness the two worlds witness while He is witness of all things. Whether you disclose what is in your souls, He witnesses it through His names and His exoteric aspects and knows it and requites you for it, and if you hide it, He witnesses through His attributes and His esoteric aspects and knows it and requites you for it, then He will forgive whom He wishes, on account of that person's affirmation of [His] Oneness and the power of his certainty and that his misdeeds had been accidental and had not taken deep roots in his essence. God's wish is based on His wisdom; and He will chastise whom He wishes, on account of that person's corrupt inner conviction and his harbouring of doubt or the misdeeds that have taken deep root in his soul. And God has power over all things, and hence has the power to both to forgive and to chastise.
