2 Preface الحَمدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ العالَمينَYusuf AliPraise be to God, the Cherisher and Sustainer1 of the worlds;The Arabic word Rabb, usually translated Lord, has also the meaning of cherishing, sustaining, bringing to maturity. God cares for all the worlds He has created. There are many worlds,— astronomical and physical worlds, worlds of thought, spiritual world, and so on. In every one of them, God is all in all. We express only one aspect of it when we say: “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” The mystical division between (1) Nāsūt, the human world knowable by the senses, (2) Malakūt, the invisible world of angels, and (3) Lāhūt, the divine world of Reality, requires a whole volume to explain it.