Special Mercy as the Foundation for Divine Knowledge

Although the precedence of mercy over teaching is merely verbal, it reveals the special planning and design of God the Glorious. When the Most Holy Divine Essence wishes to make someone a messenger, prophet, leader (imām), successor (khalīfa), or divine authority (walī), a special mercy follows the absolute mercy with the mission to design and plan, to determine the structure of his creation, to place him in pure loins and purified wombs, and to make his time and land good and pure, so that person, after the engineering of special mercy, may attain divine knowledge. Therefore, if someone wishes to become like Khiḍr, they must be blessed with special and most specific mercy.