were conversing with him, he referred to the above-quoted tradition. He
said: “Inasmuch as fasting causeth the heat of the body to increase, it
hath therefore been likened unto the light of the sun; and as the prayer
of the night-season refresheth man, it hath been compared unto the
radiance of the moon.” Thereupon We realized that that poor man had not
been favoured with a single drop of the ocean of true understanding, and
had strayed far from the burning Bush of divine wisdom. We then politely
observed to him saying: “The interpretation your honour hath given to this
tradition is the one current amongst the people. Could it not be
interpreted differently?” He asked Us: “What could it be?” We made reply:
“Muḥammad, the Seal of the Prophets, and the most distinguished of God’s
chosen Ones, hath likened the Dispensation of the Qur’án unto heaven, by
reason of its loftiness, its paramount influence, its majesty, and the
fact that it comprehendeth all religions. And as the sun and moon
constitute the brightest and most prominent luminaries in the heavens,
similarly in the heaven of the religion of God two shining orbs have been
ordained—fasting and prayer. ‘Islám is heaven; fasting is its sun, prayer,
its moon.’”

This is the purpose underlying the symbolic words of the Manifestations of
God. Consequently, the application of the terms “sun” and “moon” to the
things already mentioned hath been demonstrated and justified by the text
of the sacred verses and the recorded traditions. Hence, it is clear and
manifest that by the words “the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall
not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven” is intended the
waywardness of the divines, and the annulment of laws firmly established
by divine Revelation, all of which, in symbolic language, have been
foreshadowed by the Manifestation of God. None except the righteous shall
partake of this cup, none but the godly can share therein. “The righteous
shall drink of a cup tempered at the camphor fountain.”(26)