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76chapter twofrom the other messages and prophecies that have previously beenrevealed. We believe that the special nature of the Book lies in itssacredness as the last and final revelation. But what do we mean bysacredness?We take our clue from one of the ninety-nine names of Allah inthe Book, al-qudus, which we translate as ‘the one who governs overthe living’. We read in the Book:We also gave Jesus, son of Mary, clear signs and strengthened himwith the [råh al-qudus] 4 ( Al-Baqara 2:87)We know that the miraculous ability to reanimate the dead was oneof God’s gifts to Jesus. We infer from this that ‘holy’ or ‘sacred’(muqaddas) means to live, and that a sacred text is a text that showssigns of life or is living. Accordingly, the Book is a sacred text becauseit is a living text, a text of life, and a text for the living, not the dead.Even if we find in the Book things about people who belong to a differenthistorical period, and who were therefore subject to the‘becoming’ and ‘progressing’ of their times, it can still be read as ifthey belonged to the time of our reading of the text—as if the Bookwas revealed only yesterday! How is this possible?We find the answer in the ontological quality of the text as ‘being’in-and-for-itself, and of being originated in Allah who is also pure‘being’ in-and-for-itself. Both God and text can only be understoodby looking at their outward signs and external manifestations, by theninety-nine names that manifest themselves in the externalities ofour existence. As created beings, we will never fully understand theentirety of this universe because only God can do this. What we cando is to gradually comprehend it by a continuous ‘becoming’ of ourrelative and contingent knowledge. The ultimate aim is to comecloser to God even though we will never fully reach Him. But tofacilitate this process of coming near Him we are allowed to makeeverything in nature subservient, whether we use it wisely and for4RåÈ al-qudus is usually rendered as ‘the Holy Spirit’, see YA, AA, AH, MF,including MP who glosses ‘a term for the angel Gabriel’; different but not better AB:‘the Purest Ruh’ and AhA: ‘divine grace’; Ambros (Ambros, Dictionary, 221) says:qudus is from Syriac qudà§, in 2:87 means ‘holiness’. Still, it does not provide theintended sense of ‘life-creating’. The best phrase to capture MS’s intention is torender it as ‘the spirit of life’ or, perhaps Pneuma Kyriou, ‘Spirit of the Lord’ (as in NT)that provides the way to (eternal) life.