In the name of God, merciful and compassionate

«Praise be to God, Who has created the heavens and the earth and made darkness and light. Yet those who do not believe ascribe equals to their Lord.»

And praise be to God for Whose acts of grace no one can be thankful save through another act of His grace, which, through its bestowal on one giving thanks for past acts of grace, constitutes a new act of grace for which He must be thanked.

Those who seek to describe Him do not capture the magnitude of His greatness, He Who is as He has described Himself and is above His creatures’ description of Him.

I praise Him as befits His honor and sublime glory.

I, a creature without power or strength save through Him, seek His assistance.

I beseech Him for His guidance, through which none on whom He bestows it goes astray.

I seek His pardon for what I will do and for what I have already done, a pardon for one who affirms his own servitude and who knows that none can forgive his sin or save him, save Him.

I witness that there is no god but God, alone, Who has no partner; and that Muhammad is His servant and Emissary.

God sent Muhammad while people were of two classes:

One class comprised the people of scripture, who exchanged His rulings for others and disbelieved in God. They concocted a lie that they fashioned with their tongues, and mixed it together with the truth that God had revealed to them.