15 Preface إِنَّهُم يَكيدونَ كَيدًاYusuf AliAs for them,1 they are but plotting a scheme, Though God in His Mercy has provided a piercing light to penetrate our spiritual darkness, and made our beings responsive to the growth of spiritual understanding, just as the hard earth is responsive to the sprouting of a seed or the gushing of a stream, yet there are evil, unregenerate men who plot and scheme against the beneficent purpose of God. But their plots will be of no avail, and God’s Purpose will prevail. It happened so with the Quraish who wanted to thwart the growth of Islam. It will be so in all ages.