About the Risale-i Nur, The Words, and their Author (2)

The Twenty-Fourth Word
[This Word consists of Five Branches. Study the Fourth Branch carefully. And hold on to the Fifth Branch and climb it, then pluck its fruits!]
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.God, there is no god but He; His are the Most Beautiful Names.We shall indicate five branches of one of the many truths from the luminous tree of this glorious verse.
FIRST BRANCH
A sultan has different titles in the spheres of his government, and different styles and attributes among the classes of his subjects, and different names and signs in the levels of his rule, for example, Just Judge in the judiciary, Sultan in the civil service, Commander-in-Chief in the army, and Caliph in the learned establishment. If, making an analogy with these, you know the rest of his names and titles, you will understand that a single sultan may possess a thousand names and titles in the spheres of his rule and levels of government. It is as if, through his corporate personality and telephone, the ruler is present and knowing in every sphere; and through his laws and regulations and representatives, sees and is seen; and behind the veil in every degree, disposes and sees, governs and observes through his decree, knowledge, and power. And it is exactly the same for the Sustainer of All the Worlds, Who is the Ruler of Pre-Eternity and Post-Eternity; in the degrees of His Dominicality He has attributes and designations which are all different but which look to each other; and in the spheres of His Godhead He has names and marks which are all different but which are one within the other; and in His magnificent activities He has representations and appellations which are all different but which resemble each other; and in the disposals of His power He has titles which are all different but which hint of one another; and in the manifestations of His attributes He has sacred appearances which are all different but which show one another; and in the displays of His acts He has wise disposals which are of numerous sorts but which complete one another; and in His multicoloured art and varieties of creatures, He has magnificent aspects of Dominicality which are all different but which look to one another. And together with this, in every world, in every realm of beings, the title of one of the Most Beautiful Names is manifested. In each sphere one Name is dominant and the other Names are subordinate to it, rather, they are there on account of it.Furthermore, in every level of beings, many or few, great or small, particular or general, He has an appearance through a particular manifestation, a particular Dominicality, a particular Name. That is to say, although the Name in question is general and encompasses everything, it is turned towards a thing with such intention and importance that it is as if it is special to that thing alone. And moreover, although the All-Glorious Creator is close to everything, there are almost seventy thousand luminous veils. You can compare how many veils there are from the particular degree of creativity of the Name of Creator which is manifested on you to the greatest degree and supreme title which is Creator of all the universe. That means, on condition you leave the whole universe behind you, from the door of creativity you may reach the limits of the Name of Creator and draw close to the sphere of attributes.Since the veils have windows which look to one another, and the Names appear one within the other, and the acts look to one another, and the similitudes enter one within the other, and the titles hint of one another, and the manifestations resemble each other, and the disposals assist and complete one another, and the various dispositions of Dominicality help and assist one another, it surely necessitates not denying the other titles, acts, and degrees of Dominicality when Almighty God is known through one of His Names, titles, or degrees of Dominicality. Indeed, if a transition is not made from the manifestation of any one Name to the other Names, it is harmful. For example, if the works of the Names, All-Powerful and Creator are seen, and not the Name of All-Knowing, a person may fall into heedlessness and the misguidance of Nature. He should always keep in view and recite: He!" and:"He is God!" He should listen, and hear from everything:"Say, He is God, the One!" His tongue should utter and proclaim: "All the world declares: there is no god but He!" Thus, through the decree of, God, there is no god but He; His are the Most Beautiful Names, the Qur'an points to these truths that we have mentioned.If you want to observe these elevated truths from close to, go and ask a stormy sea or the quaking earth: "What are you saying?" You will hear that they are saying: "O Glorious One! O Glorious One! O One of Might, All-Compelling!" Then ask the small animals and their young being raised with kindness and compassion in the sea and on the land: "What are you saying?" For sure they will say: "O Beauteous One! O Beauteous One! O Most Compassionate and Merciful One!"2 Then listen to the skies; they say: "O Glorious One of Beauty!" And give your ear to the earth; it says: "O Beauteous One of Glory!" Listen carefully to the animals; they are saying: "O Most Merciful One! O Provider!" And ask the spring; you will hear many Names like: "O Gentle One! O Most Merciful One! O Most Compassionate One! O Most Generous One! O Gracious One! O Benevolent One! O Giver of Forms! O Giver of Light! O Bestower! O Adorner!" And ask a human being who is a true human, and see how he recites all the Most Beautiful Names and how they are written on his forehead. If you look carefully, you too may read them. It is as if the universe is a huge orchestra celebrating the Divine Names. By mixing the tiniest song with the most powerful refrains, it produces a sublime and subtle harmony. You may make further analogies in the same way.For sure, man is the place of manifestation of all the Names, but the Names being various, which has resulted in the universe's variety and the differences in the angels' worship, has also caused variety to a degree among men. The different laws of the Prophets, the different ways of the saints, and the different paths of the purified scholars has arisen from this mystery. For example, together with the other Names, the Name of All-Powerful was predominant in Jesus (Upon whom be peace). And in those who follow the path of love, the Name of Loving One prevails, and in those who follow the path of contemplation and reflection, the Name of All-Wise.Thus, if someone is both a teacher, and a policeman, and a clerk of the court, and an inspector in the civil service, in each office he has both relations, and duties, and obligations, and salaries, and responsibilities, and promotion, and enemies and rivals who are the cause of his failures. And he appears before the king, and he sees the king, with many titles. And he seeks help from him with many tongues. And he has recourse to many of the ruler's titles, and seeks his help in many forms in order to be saved from the evil of his enemies.In just the same way, man, who manifests many Names and is charged with many duties and afflicted with many enemies, invokes many of the Names in his prayers and supplications. Like Muhammed the Arabian (Blessings and peace be upon him), the cause of pride of mankind and truly the most perfect man, supplicated with a thousand and one Names in his prayer, Jaushan al-Kabir. And so, it is due to this mystery that the Sura,Say, I seek refuge with the Sustainer and Cherisher of men, * The Sovereign of men, * The God of men, * From the evil of the whispering, elusive tempter3commands that we take refuge with God through three titles, and,In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionateshows the seeking of help through three Names.
SECOND BRANCH
This explains two mysteries which comprise the keys to many further mysteries.
FIRST MYSTERY: "Why do the saints differ greatly in their visions and illuminations although they are unanimous on the principles of belief? Why are their illuminations, which are at the degree of witnessing, sometime opposed to reality and contrary to the truth? And why in their ideas which they consider to be the the truth, establishing them through decisive proofs, do thinkers and scholars see and show reality in a way that contradicts one another? Why does one truth take on numerous colours?"
SECOND MYSTERY: "Why did the early Prophets leave some of the pillars of belief like bodily resurrection in brief form to a degree and not explain them in detail like the Qur'an, so that in the future some of their communities went as far as denying some of those concise pillars? Also, why did some of the saints only advance in the affirmation of Divine Unity, and although they even progressed as far as the degree of 'absolute certainty' in Divine Unity, some of the pillars of belief appear in their paths very little and in summary form? And as a result, those who followed them in the future did not give the necessary importance to the pillars of belief, and some of them even fell into error? Since true perfection is found through the unfolding of all the pillars of belief, why did some of the mystics advance greatly in them, while some remained very backward, whereas the Most Noble Prophet (Blessings and peace be upon him), who manifested all the Divine Names at their maximum degree and was the chief of the Prophets, and the All-Wise Qur'an, which is the luminous chief of all the Sacred Scriptures, described in detail all the pillars of belief, clearly, and in most serious manner and deliberate way?"Because in reality the most true and complete perfection is thus. Yes, the wisdom in these mysteries is this: for sure man is the place of manifestation of all the Names, but since his power is slight, his will partial, his abilities various, and desires, different, he searches for reality among thousands of veils and barriers. And so, in uncovering reality and witnessing the truth, barriers intervene. Some people cannot by-pass the barriers. Their abilities are all different. The abilities of some cannot support the unfolding of some of the truths of belief. Moreover, the colours of the manifestations of the Names vary according to the place where they are manifested; they become all different. Some people who manifest them cannot be the means to the complete manifestation of a Name. Also, the manifestation of the Names takes on different forms in respect of universality, particularity, shadow, or originality. Some capacities cannot transcend particularity. And some cannot emerge from the shadow. And according to some capacities, sometimes one Name is predominant, and it carries out its word and rules in that capacity. And so now we shall make a few indications to this profound mystery and this extensive wisdom with an enigmatical, comprehensive, true, but somewhat complex, comparison.For example, let us suppose an adorned flower, a living droplet enamoured of the Moon, and a translucent atom which looks to the Sun. Each of these possesses consciousness and some perfection, and each has a yearning for that perfection. Together with indicating many truths, these three things also allude to the spiritual voyaging of the soul, the mind, and the heart. And they also correspond to three levels of those who investigate reality.
The First indicates those who follow the path of reflection; those who follow the path of sainthood; and those who follow the path of prophethood.
The Second corresponds to those who approach reality by striving for perfection through the bodily systems; and those who approach it by striving through employing the mind and refining the soul; and those who approach it through belief, submission, and purifying the heart.
The Third is the comparison of those who do not give up egotism, are plunged in works, and approach reality through deduction and reasoning only; and of those who search for reality through knowledge and science, reason and learning; and those who approach reality swiftly through belief and the Qur'an, poverty and worship. These comparisons point to the wisdom in the differences between the three groups, whose capacities are also different.Thus, under the titles of Flower, Droplet, and Atom, we shall show by means of a comparison the mystery and extensive wisdom in the progress of the three groups. For example, through its Creator's permission and at His command, the Sun has three sorts of manifestation, reflection and radiance: one is its reflection on flowers, one its reflection on the Moon and the planets, and one its reflection on shining objects like glass and water.
The First is in three ways:
One is a universal and general manifestation and reflection whereby its radiance encompasses all flowers at once.
Another is a special manifestation whereby it has a special reflection for each species.
Another is a particular manifestation whereby its effulgence is in accordance with the individuality of each flower. This comparison of ours is according to an assertion which is this: the adorned colours of flowers arises from the changing reflections of the seven colours in the Sun's light. And according to this assertion, flowers too are sorts of mirrors to the Sun.
The Second is the light and effulgence which, with the All-Wise Creator's permission, the Sun gives to the Moon and planets. After this universal and extensive light and effulgence, the Moon, whose light is like a shadow of that light, profits from the Sun in a universal fashion. Then is its radiance and effulgence in a special way on the seas and air and shining earth, and in a particular form on the bubbles on the sea and translucent particles of the earth and the molecules of the air.
The Third: Making the air and the surface of the seas into mirrors, through the Divine command, it is a reflection of the Sun which is pure, universal, and without shadow. Then the Sun gives to each of the bubbles on the sea, the droplets of water, molecules of air, and snow-flakes, a particular reflection and tiny image of itself. Thus, in the face of every flower, the Moon, and all droplets and atoms the Sun has an effulgence and favouring in the three forms mentioned above. And these in turn are each in two ways:
The First Way is direct, and without barrier or veil. This way represents the way of Prophethood.
The Second Way: In this, barriers intervene. The capacities of the mirrors and places of manifestation add colour to the Sun's manifestations. This way represents the way of sainthood.Thus, on the First Way, 'Flower', 'Droplet', and 'Atom' can each say: "I am a mirror to the Sun of all the world." But on the Second Way they cannot say that; they can rather say: "I am the mirror to my own Sun, or the mirror to the Sun which is manifested in my species." For that is the manner in which they know the Sun. They cannot see a Sun which looks to the whole world. Whereas the Sun of that individual or species or genus appears to it within narrow confines and under limiting restrictions. And it cannot ascribe to that restricted Sun the works of the unrestricted, unconfined, absolute Sun. For it cannot attribute to the Sun within those narrow restrictions and limited confines with the certain witnessing of the heart its majestic works like furnishing the whole face of the earth with light and heat, stirring the lives of all plants and animals, and making the planets revolve around it. Indeed, even if those three things, which we suppose to have consciousness, ascribe those wondrous works to the Sun which they see under those restrictions, they can only do so with the mind and through belief, and through submitting to the fact that that restricted thing is absolute. Whereas these judgements of 'Flower', 'Droplet', and 'Atom', which we suppose to possess reason like a human being, that is, their ascribing mighty works to the Sun, is through the mind and reason, it is not through illumination. Indeed, sometimes their judgements concerning belief clash with their illuminations concerning the cosmos. They can only believe them with great difficulty.Now the three of us must enter into this comparison, which is narrow for reality and in some of the corners of which the members of reality are to be seen and which is mixed with reality. The three of us shall suppose ourselves to be 'Flower', 'Droplet', and 'Atom'. For the consciousness which we suppose to be in them is insufficient. We must add our reasons to their's. That is to say, just as they receive effulgence from their physical Sun, we too shall receive effulgence from our immaterial Sun, and must understand it.And so, my friend, who has not forgotten the world, is preoccupied with materiality, and whose soul is dense! You be 'Flower'. 'Flower' takes on a colour dissolved from the Sun's light, and it mixes the Sun's image within that colour and clothes itself in an adorned form. For your capacity resembles it as well. Then let this philosopher who has studied secular science and is plunged in causes like the Old Said be 'Droplet', which is enamoured of the Moon. For the Moon affords him the shadow of light it has received from the Sun, and it gives a light to the pupil of his eye. And 'Droplet' too shines with the light, but he can only see the Moon with it, he cannot see the Sun. Rather, he can only see it through his belief. Then, let this poor man be 'Atom', who knows everything to be directly from Almighty God and considers causes to be a veil. He is such an 'Atom' that knows himself to be poor in his own self. He has nothing on which to depend so as to rely on himself like 'Flower'. He possesses no colour that he should appear through it. And he does not recognize other things that he should turn towards them. He has a sheer purity by which he holds the Sun's image directly in the pupil of his eye. Now, since we have taken the place of these three things, we must consider ourselves. What do we have? What must we do?Thus, we look and see that through his favours a Most Munificent One is adorning, illuminating, and nurturing us. And as for man, he worships one who bestows favours on him. And he wants to be close to one worthy of being worshipped, and desires to see him. In which case, in accordance with our capacities, each of us journeys through the attraction of that love. You who is like 'Flower', you are going, but go as a flower. See, you have gone. You have advanced and advanced till you have reached a universal degree, as though you have become like all flowers. But 'Flower' is a dense mirror; it dissolves and refracts the seven colours in light; it conceals the Sun's reflection. You will not be successful in seeing the face of the Sun which you love, for the colours and characteristics, which are restricted, disperse it, draw a veil over it and obscure it. In this situation, you cannot be saved from the separation which arises with the interposing of barriers. However, you can be saved on one condition, which is that you raise your head which is sunk in love of your own soul, and withdraw your gaze which glories and takes pleasure in its own merits, and cast it at the face of the Sun in the sky. And on condition you turn your face looking down to the earth to gain your livelihood, up to the Sun. For you are its mirror. Your duty is to act as a mirror to it. Whether you know it or not, your sustenance will come from the earth, the door to the treasury of mercy. Yes, a flower is a miniscule mirror to the Sun, and the Sun too is merely a drop-like flash manifesting in the seas of the skies the Name of Light of the Pre-Eternal Sun.O heart of man! Know from this of what a Sun you are the mirror. After fulfilling this condition, you will find your perfection. But just as in actual reality you cannot see the Sun in that way, so also you cannot understand this truth naked. Rather, the colours of your attributes give it a colour and your cloudy telescope attaches a form to it, and your limited capacity restricts it.And now, wise philosopher who has entered into 'Droplet'! You have advanced as far as the Moon with the telescope of your droplet of thought and by the stairway of philosophy. You have entered the Moon. Look, of itself the Moon is dense and dark; it has neither light nor life. Your endeavour has all been in vain, and your knowledge has proved to be profitless. You can only be saved from the darkness of despair, the desolation of loneliness, the pestering of evil spirits, and the horrors of that bleakness through these conditions: that you give up the night of Nature and turn to the Sun of reality, and you believe with complete certainty that the light of this night are the shadows of the lights of Sun of daytime. After fulfilling these conditions, you will find your perfection. You will find the majestic Sun in place of the poor and darksome Moon. But like your previous friend, you will not be able to see the Sun clearly. You will rather see it beyond the veils with which your reason and your philosophy are familiar and conversant, and behind the screens woven by science and learning, and within a colour conferred by your capacity.And now our Atom-like third friend, who is both poor and colourless. He swiftly evaporates in the Sun's heat, abandons his egotism, mounts the steam, and rises into the air. The dense matter within him takes fire with the flame of love and is transformed into light and radiance. He adheres to a ray proceeding from the manifestations of that light, and draws close to it. O you who resembles 'Atom'! Since you act as a direct mirror to the Sun, at whatever degree you are, you will find an opening, a window, looking purely at the Sun itself in a fashion that affords absolute certainty. And you will experience no difficulty in attributing to the Sun its wondrous works. Without hesitation you will be able to ascribe to it the majestic attributes of which it is worthy. Nothing will be able to take you by the hand and make you forego ascribing to it the awesome works of its essential sovereignty. Neither the constriction of barriers, nor the limitations of your capacity, nor the smallness of mirrors will confuse you, nor impel you contrary to the truth. Because, since you look at it purely, sincerely, and directly, you have understood that what appears in the places of manifestation and is observed in the mirrors, is not the Sun, but manifestations of it of a sort, and coloured reflections of it of a sort. For sure those reflections are its titles, but they do not display all the works of its splendour.Thus, in this comparison, which is mixed with reality, perfection is reached by means of three ways which are all different, and which are different in the virtues of those perfections and in the details of the degrees of witnessing. But in conclusion and in submitting to the Truth and confirming the reality, they are in agreement. Just as a man of the night who has never seen the Sun and has only seen its shadow in the mirror of the Moon, cannot squeeze into his mind the resplendent light and awesome gravity particular to the Sun, and rather submits to those who have seen it and imitates them, in the same way, one who cannot attain to the maximum degrees of Names like All-Powerful and Giver of Life through the legacy of Muhammed (PBUH), accepts the Resurrection of the Dead and Great Gathering imitatively, and declares that it is not a matter that can be understood through the reason. For the reality of the Resurrection and Last Judgement is the manifestation of the Greatest Name and of the supreme degree of certain other Names. Whose-ever gaze cannot rise there is compelled to believe it by way of imitation. While whose-ever mind can enter there, sees the Resurrection and Last Judgement as easily as day and night, and spring and winter, and accepts it with ease of mind.Thus, it is due to this mystery that the Qur'an speaks of the Resurrection and Great Gathering at the highest level and in the most perfect detailed manner, and our Prophet (Blessings and peace be upon him), who manifested the Greatest Name, taught it thus. And as required by the wisdom of guidance, the former Prophets did not teach their communities, which were at a somewhat simple and primitive level, about the Resurrection of the Dead at the highest level and with the most extensive details. And it is also due to this mystery that some of those who followed the path of sainthood did not see or could not demonstrate some of the truths of belief at the greatest degree. And it is also due to this mystery that there are great differences in the degrees of those who have knowledge of God. And numerous other mysteries like these unfold from this truth. Now, since both this comparison hints at the truth a little, and the truth is extremely extensive and profound, we also shall content ourselves with the comparison, and not attempt mysteries which are beyond our limit and capacity.
THIRD BRANCHSince the Hadiths that speak of the signs of the Last Day, the events at the end of time, and the merits and rewards of certain actions have not been well understood, some scholars who rely on their reason have pronounced some of them to be either weak or false. And some of the scholars whose belief was weak but whose egotism was strong have gone as far as denying them. For now we shall not attempt any detailed discussion, but shall only explain 'Twelve Principles'.
FIRST PRINCIPLE: This is a matter which we have explained in the question and answer at the end of the Twentieth Word. Its summary is this: Religion is an examination, a test, which distinguishes elevated spirits from base ones. It therefore speaks of matters that everyone shall see with their eyes in the future in such a way that they remain neither altogether unknown, nor self-evident so that everyone would be compelled to confirm them. They open the door to the reason but do not take the will from the hand. Because if a sign of the Last Day appeared completely self-evidently and everyone was compelled to affirm it, then a disposition like coal would remain equal to one like diamonds. The mystery of obligation and results of examination would be lost. Thus, it is because of this that there has been much dispute over many matters like that of the Mehdi and Sufyan. Also, the narrations differ greatly; they have become pronouncements which contradict one another.
SECOND PRINCIPLE: There are levels in the matters of Islam. If one requires certain proof, for another the prevailing opinion is sufficient. While others require merely assent and acceptance and not to be rejected. In which case, secondary matters or particular events in time which are not among the bases of belief do not require certain compliance and definite proof, rather, just not to be rejected and to be submitted to, and not to be interfered with.
THIRD PRINCIPLE: In the time of the Companions of the Prophet (PBUH) most of the Jewish and Christian scholars entered Islam, and their former knowledge became Muslim together with them. Some of their former knowledge which was contrary to the truth was imagined to belong to Islam.
FOURTH PRINCIPLE: Some of the words of the narrators of Hadith or the meanings they deduced were considered to be part of the texts of the Hadiths. However, since man cannot be free of fault, some of the deductions or words which were contrary to the truth were supposed to be Hadiths and were pronounced to be weak.
FIFTH PRINCIPLE: According to the meaning of: Among my community are transmitters of Hadiths, that is, meaning, who are inspired, some of the meanings which were obtained through the inspirations of scholars of related Hadiths who followed the path of illumination and sainthood were supposed to be Hadiths. Whereas, due to certain obstructions, the inspiration of saints may be in error. Thus, some that are contrary to the truth may arise from this.
SIXTH PRINCIPLE: There are certain stories which, having become universally known, have become like proverbs. Their true meanings are not considered. For whatever purpose they were spread, that is what is considered. Thus, some stories and fables which have become well-known among people in this way, the Most Noble Prophet (Blessings and peace be upon him) told in the form of comparisons and metaphors for the purpose of guidance. If there is any error in the true meanings of this sort of matters, it pertains to the customs and traditions of the people, and the way they have been passed among them.
SEVENTH PRINCIPLE: There are many similes and parables that with the passage of time or with passing from the hand of learning to the hand of ignorance have been supposed to be physical fact, and have become mistaken. For example, two angels of God in the World of Similitudes called 'The Ox' and 'The Fish', who are among the supervisors of the animals of the land and the sea and are represented as an ox and fish, were imagined to be huge ox and a physical fish, and the Hadith was wrongly interpreted. And for example, one time in the presence of the Prophet a deep rumbling was heard. The Most Noble Prophet (Blessings and peace be upon him) decreed: "That is the sound of a rock that has been rolling down for seventy years and only now has hit the bottom of Hell." Thus, someone hearing this Hadith who has not arrived at the truth may deviate into denial. But then, twenty minutes after the Hadith was spoken, it was definitely established, for someone came and told the Most Noble Prophet (Blessings and peace be upon him): "The famous dissembler died twenty minutes ago." The Most Noble Prophet (Blessings and peace be upon him) had described most eloquently that the whole life of the dissembler, who was seventy years old, had been as a stone of Hell descending continuously to the lowest of the low in unbelief. And Almighty God had made that rumbling heard at the moment of his death and given him a sign.
EIGHTH PRINCIPLE: In this arena of trial and realm of examination, Almighty God, the Absolutely Wise One, conceals most important things in the midst of numerous others, and that concealment is tied to many purposes, benefits, and instances of wisdom. For example, He has hidden the Night of Power in the whole of Ramadan, and the hour when prayers are answered in the whole of Friday, and well-accepted saints among the people generally, and the appointed hour in a person's whole life-time, and the time of Doomsday in the life of the world. For if the time of man's death had been specified, the first half of his life would be passed in absolute heedlessness and the second, in terror, like going step by step to the gallows. Whereas the benefit of preserving the balance of this world and the hereafter, and all the time remaining between hope and fear, requires that living and dying are possible every moment. In which case, twenty years of life which is uncertain is preferable to a thousand years of life that is specified. Thus, the Last Day is the appointed hour of the world, the macroanthropos. If the time had been specified, all the early and middle ages would have been plunged into absolute heedlessness, and the latter centuries, into terror. Just as in his personal life man is connected with the continuation of his home and his village, so too in his social life and as a member of mankind he is connected with the continued existence of the earth and the world. The Qur'an says,The Hour has drawn nigh.5That is, Doomsday is near. It still not having come after a thousand or this many years does not injure its closeness. Because Doomsday is the appointed hour of the world, and in relation to the life of the world one or two thousand years are like one or two minutes in relation to a year. The Hour of Doomsday is not only the appointed hour of mankind that it should be related to it and seen as distant. Thus, it is because of this that the Absolutely Wise One conceals Doomsday in His knowledge among the 'Five Hidden Things'. Thus, it is due to the mystery of this vagueness that every age including the Age of the Bliss, the Age of the Prophet, they have always been frightened of the end of the world. Some of them even said that the conditions had all but appeared.Thus, unfair people who do not know this truth say: "Why did the Companions of the Prophet with their vigilant hearts and keen sight, who had been taught all the details of the hereafter, suppose a fact that would occur one thousand four hundred years later to be close to their century, as though their ideas had fallen a thousand years from the truth?"The Answer: Because, through the effulgence of the Prophet's conversation, the Companions thought of the hereafter more than anyone, and knowing the transience of the world and understanding the Divine wisdom in the hour of Doomsday being vague, they assumed a position of always awaiting the world's appointed hour and worked seriously for the hereafter. The Most Noble Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace) repeating: "Expect Doomsday. Wait for it" was Prophetic guidance arising from this wisdom, it was not a pronouncement of Revelation concerning the specific time of its occurrence and far from the truth. The cause is one thing and the wisdom is another. Thus, these sort of sayings of the Prophet (PBUH) arise from the wisdom in certain things being indefinite. It is also due to this mystery that they expected the individuals who will come at the end of time like the Mehdi and Sufyan long beforehand, and even in the time of the generation succeeding the Prophet, and hoped to live long enough to see them. Some of the saints, even, said that they had passed. Like the end of the world, Divine wisdom requires that the times of these individuals are not specified either. Because every age is in need of the meaning of the Mehdi, who will strengthen their morale and save them from despair. Each century has to have a share of this meaning. And so that people should not heedlessly conform to evil things and the reins of the soul should not be left free in indifference, every century the fearsome individuals who come to lead strife must be shrunk from and feared. If they had been specified, the benefits of general guidance would have been lost.Now, the difference in the narrations about individuals like the Mehdi, and their meaning, is this: those who expounded Hadiths applied the text of the Hadiths to their own deductions and commentaries. For example, since the centre of power at that time was Damascus or Medina, they imagined the events connected with the Mehdi and Sufyan in places like Basra, Kufa, and Syria, which were in the region of those centres, and expounded them accordingly. Moreover, they imagined the mighty works pertaining to the collective identity or community which those individuals represent to be in their persons and expounded them in that way, so that they ascribed a form to them whereby when those extraordinary individuals appear, everyone will recognize them. However, as we said, this world is an arena of trial. The door is opened to the reason, but the will is not taken from the hand. So, when those individuals, and even the terrible Dajjal, appear, many people and himself even will not know to start with that he is the Dajjal. Rather, those individuals of the end of time will be known through the insight of the light of belief.It is narrated in a Hadith about the Dajjal, who is one of the signs of the end of time: "His first day is like a year, his second day like a month, his third day like a week, and his fourth day like other days. When he appears the world will hear. He will travel the world in forty days." Some unfair people have said about this narration that it is impossible, God forbid, and have gone as far as denying and declaring it null. Whereas, And the knowledge of it is with God, the reality of it must be this:It indicates to the appearance of an individual from the North who will pass to the head of a great current issuing forth from the Godless ideas of Naturalism, in the North, where the world of unbelief is at its densest, and who will be atheist. And within this indication is a sign of wisdom, for in the latitudes close to the North Pole, the whole year is one day and one night; there are six months of night and six months of day. "One day of the Dajjal is a year" alludes to his appearance close to those latitudes. What is meant from "His second day is a month" is that passing in this direction from the North, it sometimes happens that for a month in the summer the sun does not set. And this indicates that the Dajjal will emerge in the North and invade southwards towards the civilized world. By attributing the day to the Dajjal, it points to this. The further he comes in this direction, the sun does not set for a week, and so it continues until there are three hours between its rising and setting. While being held as a prisoner-of-war in Russia, I was in such a place. Close to us was a place where the sun did not set for a week. They used to go there to watch it. And as for the part, "When the Dajjal appears, all the world will hear of it," the telegraph and radio have solved this. And his travelling in forty days, the railway and aeroplane, which are his mounts, have solved. Deniers who formerly considered these two statements to be impossible, now see them as commonplace!Since in a treatise I have written in detail to a degree about Gog and Magog and the Barrier, which are among the signs of the end of the world, I refer readers to those, and here only say this: there are narrations stating that the tribes known as the Manchurians and Mongols, who threw human society into chaos and were the cause of the building of the Great Wall of China, will again overturn human civilization close to Doomsday with an idea like anarchy.Some atheists say: "Where are the tribes that perform these extraordinary acts and that will perform them?"The Answer: A calamity like locusts appear in one season in enormous numbers, then on the change of the seasons, those numerous tribes which disrupt the country hide their reality in a few limited individuals. And again when the time comes, at the Divine command, great numbers from those limited individuals start the same corruption. As though the reality of their national identity is fined down, but not broken, and when the time arrives, it reemerges. In just the same way, those same tribes which overturned the world at one time will when the time comes again overturn human civilization with Divine permission. But what impels them will appear in different form.None knows the Unseen save God.
NINTH PRINCIPLE: The results of some of the questions of belief look to this restricted and narrow world, while others look to the world of the hereafter, which is broad and absolute. In order to give the appropriate effect of either encouraging or restraining, some Hadiths about the merits and rewards of actions are in an eloquent style, and some unthinking people have supposed them to be exaggerated. However, since they are all pure truth and reality, there is no exaggeration or overstatement in them. For instance, there is this Hadith which has worried the heads of the unfair more than any. Its meaning is: "If the world had as much value as a fly's wing for Almighty God, the unbelievers would not have had so much as a mouthful of water from it." The reality of it is this: the phrase for Almighty God refers to the eternal realm. Yes, since a light from the eternal realm to the extent of a fly's wing is everlasting, it is greater than a temporary light that fills the face of the earth. That means it is not to say that the huge world is equal to a fly's wing, but that everyone's private world which is situated within their short lives is not equal to an everlasting Divine effulgence and bounty to the extent of a fly's wing from the eternal realm. Furthermore, the world has two faces, indeed, three faces. One is the mirrors to Almighty God's Names, another looks to the hereafter and is its arable field, and the third looks to transience and non-existence. This is the world of the people of misguidance which is not in accordance with the things that please God that we know. That is to say, it indicates that not the huge world which is the mirror to the Most Beautiful Names, and missives of the Eternally Besought One, and the tillage of the hereafter, but the world of those who worship the world, which is opposed to the hereafter and source of all wrongs and spring of calamities, is not worth one everlasting particle which will be given to the believers in the hereafter. Thus, how can the meaning understood by the unfair atheists be compared with this most true and serious truth? What has the meaning which those atheists supposed to be the most exaggerated and overstated to do with this?And, for example, others which the unfair atheists supposed to be exaggeration and even impossible exaggeration and overstatement are narrations about the reward for actions and merits of some of the Qur'an's Suras. For example, there are narrations that, "The merit of Sura al-Fatiha is equal to that of the Qur'an." And, "Sura al-Ikhlas equals a third of the Qur'an", "Sura al-Zilzal, a quarter", "Sura al-Kafirun, a quarter", "Sura Ya Sin, ten times the Qur'an." Unjust and unthinking people have said that these are impossible because within the Qur'an are Sura Ya Sin and the other meritorious Suras, which makes it meaningless.The Answer: The reality of it is this: for each of the All-Wise Qur'an's letters is a merit. Each is a good deed. Out of Divine grace the merits of those letters sprout and sometimes yield ten, sometimes, seventy, and sometimes, seven hundred, merits, like the letters of Ayat al-Kursi. And sometimes they yield one thousand five hundred, like the letters of Sura al-Ikhlas, and sometimes ten thousand, like verses recited on Leyla al-Beraet and those that coincide with other acceptable times. And sometimes they yield thirty thousand, like verses recited on the Night of Power, which are like poppy seeds in their multiplicity. And it is understood from the indication that that night is the equivalent to a thousand months, that on that night one letter has thirty thousand merits. For example, let us suppose a field planted with maize, one thousand plants of it. If we suppose that some seeds produce seven shoots, and from each shoot a hundred grains, then a single seed becomes the equivalent of two thirds of the whole field. For example, if one seed produces ten shoots, and each yields two hundred grains, then a single seed is the equivalent of twice the original field. You can make further analogies in the same way.Now, let us imagine the All-Wise Qur'an to be a luminous, sacred, heavenly field. Each of its letters together with its original merit is like a seed. Their shoots will not be taken into consideration. They may be compared with the Suras and verses about which are narrations concerning other Suras like Ya Sin, Ikhlas, Fatiha, Kafirun, Zilzal, and their merits. For example, since the Qur'an has three hundred thousand six hundred and twenty letters, Sura al-Ikhlas together with Bismillah is sixty-nine. Three times sixty nine is two hundred and seven letters. Thus, if Sura Ya Sin's letters are reckoned and compared with all the letters of the All-Wise Qur'an, and then multiplied ten times, it produces the following result: each letter of Sura Ya Sin has close on five hundred merits. That is, that many good deeds may be reckoned. And so, if you apply the others to this, you will understand what a subtle, fine, true, and unexaggerated truth it is.
TENTH PRINCIPLE: Like in most of the other sorts of creatures, in mankind are certain individuals who are extraordinary in regard to acts and deeds. If those individuals have advanced in good deeds, they have been the cause of pride of mankind. Otherwise, they have been the cause of their shame. Also, they are hidden. It is as though each becomes a collective identity, an imaginary goal. Other individuals try to be them, and it is possible. That means a perfect extraordinary individual such as those being absolute and indefinite and present everywhere is possible. In regard to this indefiniteness, according to logic, his universality may be posited in the form of a possible proposition. That is, each act producing the following such result is possible: for example, "Whoever performs two rak'ats of prayers at such and such a time has performed the equivalent of the Hajj." Thus, it is the truth that at certain times two rak'ats of prayers are the equivalent of a Hajj. Through universality, this meaning is possible in all prayers of two rak'ats. That means the occurrence of what narrations of this sort refer to is not in fact continuous and universal. Because since there are conditions of acceptance, it disallows it being continuous and universal. Rather, it is either in fact temporary and absolute or possible and universal. That is to say, the universality in this sort of Hadith is in regard to possibility. For example, "Backbiting is like murder." That means that in backbiting exists an individual who is more harmful than deadly poison, like a killer. And for example, "A good word takes the place of a good deed of large proportions like freeing a slave."Now, through showing for the purpose of encouragement and restraining the possibility of that indefinite perfect individual being present everywhere in absolute form as though it is actually the case, it arouses eagerness for good and disgust for evil. Furthermore, the things of the eternal world cannot be measured with the scale of this world. The greatest thing of here cannot equal to the least thing of there. Because the merits of actions look to that world, our worldly view is narrow for them. We cannot fit them into our minds. For example, Whoever reads this is given the reward of Moses and Aaron. That is to say:All praise be to God, Sustainer of the heavens and Sustainer of the earth * Sustainer of all the worlds, His is the might in the heavens and the earth, and He is the Mighty, the Wise. * All praise be to God, Sustainer of the heavens and Sustainer of the earths, * Sustainer of all the worlds, and His is the sublimity in the heavens and the earth, and He is the Mighty, the Wise. * And His is the dominion, Sustainer of the heavens, and He is the Mighty, the Wise. *What has most attracted the attention of the unfair and the unthinking is narrations like these. The reality of the matter is this:With our narrow views and short minds in this world we know how much we imagine to be the the rewards of Moses and Aaron (Upon whom be peace). The reality of the reward the Absolutely Compassionate One will give to a servant of His in infinite need, in the world of eternity and everlasting happiness, in return for a single invocation may be equal to the reward of those two, but equal to the rewards which enter the sphere of our knowledge and conjecture. For example, there is a primitive, uncouth man who has never seen the king and who does not know the majesty of his rule. However he imagines a lord in a village, with his limited ideas, he thinks of the king as a greater version of the lord. Long ago with us even there was a simple-minded tribe who used to say: "Our lord knows what the Sultan does as he cooks his bulgur soup on his own stove in a saucepan." That is to say, they imagined the Sultan in such a narrow situation and so common a form that he cooked his own wheat soup; they supposed him to have the majesty of a captain. Now, if someone was to say to one of that tribe: "If you do this work for me today, I'll give you as much majesty as you think the Sultan has, and give you a rank as high as a captain." To say that is right, because, of the majesty of kingship, what enters the narrow sphere of his ideas is only the majesty of a captain.Thus, with our worldly views and narrow minds, we cannot think as much as that primitive man of the true rewards turned to the hereafter. It is not the equivalent of the true rewards of Moses and Aaron (Peace be upon them), for according to the rule of similes and comparisons, the unknown is compared to the known, rather, the true reward, which is unknown, for an invocation of a believing servant of God is compared with the rewards that we know and that we surmise. Moreover, the surface of the sea and the heart of a droplet are equal is holding the complete reflection of the sun. The difference is only in regard to quality. The nature of the reward reflected in the mirrors of the ocean-like spirits of Moses and Aaron (Peace be upon them) is of exactly the same nature as the reward that a believing servant, who is like a droplet, receives from a Qur'anic verse. They are the same as regards nature and quantity, while their quality is dependent on capacity. Also, it sometimes happens that a single word, a single glorification, opens such a treasury of happiness that has not opened with sixty years of service. That is to say, it sometimes happens that a single verse may afford as much advantage as the Qur'an. Also, the Divine effulgence which the Most Noble Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace), who manifested the Greatest Name, received in a single verse, may have been as much as the whole effulgence one of the other Prophets received. If it is said that a believer, who through the legacy of Prophethood manifests the shadow of the Greatest Name, receives, in regard to his own capacity and in regard to quantity, a reward as great as a Prophet's effulgence, it would not be contrary to the truth. Furthermore, reward and merit are from the world of light, and one world from that world may be contained in a speck. Just as the heavens and all its stars may appear in a tiny fragment of glass, so too luminous reward and merit like the heavens may be situated in an invocation or verse which acquires transparency through pure intention.Conclusion: O unfair, unthinking, self-centred, cavilling man whose belief is weak and philosophy, strong! Consider these Ten Principles, then do not make a narration you thought to be contrary to the truth and definitely opposed to reality the pretext, and point the finger of objection at Hadiths thus indirectly slighting the degree of purity of the Most Noble Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace)! Because, firstly, the ten spheres of these Ten Principles will make you forego denial; they say: "If there is a real fault, it is our's," it may not be referred to the Hadiths. And they say: "If the fault is not real, it pertains to your misunderstanding." In short; if denial and rejection are embarked on, these Ten Principles have first to be denied and shown to be false. Now, if you are fair, after pondering over these Ten Principles with complete attention, do not attempt to deny a Hadith your reason sees as being contrary to the truth! Say, "There is either an explanation, or an interpretation, or an exegesis of this", and do not criticize it.
ELEVENTH PRINCIPLE: Just as the Qur'an has obscure verses which are in need of interpretation or else require absolute submission, Hadiths also have difficulties like the obscurities of the Qur'an. They are sometimes in need of extremely careful expounding and interpretation. The above examples may be sufficient for you.Indeed, just as someone who is awake interprets the dream of another who is sleeping, so too, sometimes one who is sleeping hears the words spoken by those near him who are awake, but he gives them a meaning and interprets them in a way that applies to his own world of sleep. And so, O man stupified in the sleep of heedlessness and philosophy! Do not deny in your dream what One saw, who manifested the meaning of, His eye never wavered nor did it swerve, and My eye sleeps, but my heart sleeps not, and who was truly awake and aware, interpret it. Yes, if a mosquito bites someone who is asleep, he sometimes dreams, which has a reality in sleep, that he has received terrible wounds in war. If he was to be questioned, he would say: "Truly I have been wounded. Guns and rifles were fired at me." Those sitting by him laugh at his anguish in sleep. Thus, the sleep-stained view of heedlessness and thought of philosophy certainly cannot be the criterion for the truths of Prophethood.
TWELFTH PRINCIPLE: Since the view of Prophethood, the affirmation of Divine Unity, and belief look to Unity, the hereafter, and Divinity, they see truth and reality in accordance with those. While the view of philosophers and scientists looks to multiplicity, causes, and Nature, and sees in accordance with them. Their points of view are extremely distant from one another. The greatest aim of the people of philosophy is small and insignificant to the degree of being imperceptible among the aims of the scholars of religion and theology.Thus, it is because of this that scientists have advanced greatly in detailed explanation of the nature of beings and their minutest states, but they are so far behind the exalted Divine sciences and sciences concerned with the hereafter, which are true wisdom and knowledge, that they are more backward than a simple believer. Those who do not understand this mystery suppose the scholars of Islam to be relatively backward to the philosophers. But how can those whose minds see no further than their eyes and who are submerged in multiplicity reach those who attain to elevated sacred aims through the legacy of Prophethood?Furthermore, when anything is looked at with the two views, they show two different truths. And both of them may be the truth. No certain fact of science can touch the sacred truths of the Qur'an. The short hand of science cannot reach up to its pure sublimity. We shall mention an example to illustrate this: For example, if the globe of the earth is considered with the view of the people of science, its reality is this: as a middle-sized planet, it revolves around the sun among countless stars; it is a small creature in relation to the stars. But if it is considered with the view of the people of the Qur'an, as is explained in the Fifteenth Word, its reality is this: since man, the fruit of the world, is a most comprehensive, most wondrous, most impotent, most weak, and most subtle miracle of Power, despite its smallness and lowliness in relation to the heavens, the earth, his cradle and dwelling-place, is in regard to meaning and art, the universe's heart and centre; it is the display and exhibition of all the miracles of Divine art; the place of reflection and point of focus of all manifestations of all the Divine Names; the place of display and reflection of infinite Dominical activity; the means and market of boundless Divine creativity and especially the munificent creation of the numerous species of plants and small animals; and the place in small measure of samples of the creatures of the most broad worlds of the hereafter; the rapidly working loom weaving everlasting textiles; the swiftly changing place producing views for eternal panoramas; and the narrow and temporary arable field and seed-bed producing at speed the seeds for everlasting gardens.Thus, it is because of this vastness of meaning and importance of art of the earth that the All-Wise Qur'an holds it - like a tiny fruit of the vast tree of the heavens - equal to all the heavens, like holding a tiny heart equivalent to a huge body. It places it in one pan of a scales and places all the heavens in the other, and repeatedly says: Sustainer of the heavens and the earth. And so, compare other matters with this and understand that the soulless, dim truths of philosophy cannot clash with the brilliant, living truths of the Qur'an. Since the point of view is different, they appear differently.
FOURTH BRANCH
Are you not aware that before God prostrate themselves all that are in the heavens and all that are on earth - the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the mountains, and the trees, and the beasts, and a great number among mankind? But a great number are such as are fit for punishment; and such as God shall disgrace, none can raise to honour; for, verily, God does what He wills.
We shall point out only a single jewel from the treasure of this extensive and mighty verse. It is as follows:The All-Wise Qur'an states clearly that everything, from the heavens to the earth, from the stars to flies, from angels to fishes, and from planets to particles, prostrates, worships, praises and glorifies Almighty God. But their worship varies according to their capacities and the Divine Names that they manifest; it is all different. We shall explain one of the varieties of their worship with a comparison.For example, And God's is the highest similitude, when a mighty lord of all dominion builds a city or splendid palace, he employs four categories of workers.
THE FIRST CATEGORY are his slaves and bondsmen. This sort receive no wage or remuneration, but, for each item of work that they carry out through their lord's command, they experience a most subtle pleasure and pleasant eagerness. Whatever they utter by way of praise and description of their lord increases their pleasure and eagerness. Knowing their connection with their holy lord to be a great honour, they content themselves with that. Also they find pleasure from looking to their work with the view of their lord, and for his sake and in his name. They are not in need of a wage, or rank, or remuneration.
THE SECOND CATEGORY are ordinary servants. They do not know why they are working, indeed, they are being employed by the glorious lord. He causes them to work through his own ideas and knowledge and gives them an appropriate and small wage. These servants are unaware of what various and comprehensive aims and exalted matters result as a consequence of their work. And some of them even imagine that their work concerns themselves only and has no aim besides that wage.
THE THIRD CATEGORY: the lord of all dominion has some animals and he employs them in different work in the construction of the city and palace. He only gives them fodder. And, their working in jobs that are suitable for their abilities gives them pleasure. For, if a potentiality and ability are realized in action and work, there is a breathing in and expansion and this results in pleasure. The pleasure to be had from all activity stems from this. The wage and remuneration of this sort of servant, then, is only fodder and that pleasure.
THE FOURTH CATEGORY are such workers that know what they are doing, and why and for whom they are working, and why the other workers are working, and what the purpose of the lord of all dominion is, and why he is causing them to work. Thus, workers of this category are bosses and supervisors of a sort over the other workers. They receive remuneration that is graded according to their rank and degree.In exactly the same way, the Sustainer of All the Worlds, Who is the All-Glorious Lord of the heavens and the earth and the All-Beauteous Builder of this world and the hereafter, employs both angels, and animals, and inanimate beings and plants, and human beings in the palace of this world, in this realm of causality. He employs them not out of need, for the Creator of everything is He, but for certain instances of wisdom, like the functioning of His might, sublimity, and Dominicality. He causes them to worship and has charged these four categories with different duties of worship.
The First Category is the angels who are represented in the comparison by the slaves. And with the angels there is no endeavour and progress, rather, each of them has a fixed station and determined rank, but receives a particular pleasure from the work itself and an emanation from the worship. That is to say, the reward of these servants is found within their duties. Just as man is nourished by air, water, light, and food, and receives pleasure from them, so are the angels nourished by the varieties of remembrance, glorification, praise, worship, knowledge, and love of God, and take pleasure in them. For, since they are created out of light, light is sufficient for their sustenance. Fragrant scents, even, which are close to light, are a sort of nourishment for them which they enjoy. Indeed, good spirits take pleasure at sweet smells.
Furthermore, there is in the tasks that the angels perform at the command of the One Whom they worship, in the work they accomplish for His sake, in the service they discharge in His name, in the supervision they execute through His favour, in the honour they gain through their connection with Him, in the immaculateness they attain through studying His dominion in both its outer face and its face which looks to Him, and in the ease they find through beholding the manifestations of His Beauty and Glory, such sublime bliss that the human mind cannot comprehend it, and one who is not an angel cannot perceive it.
One sort of angels are worshippers, and the worship of another sort is in work. Of the angels of the earth, the sort that are workers have a kind of human occupation. If one may say so, one type are like shepherds and another type are like farmers. That is to say, the face of the earth is like a general farm and an appointed angel supervises all the species of animals within it through the command of the All-Glorious Creator, and with His permission, for His sake and through His power and strength. And for each species of animal there is a lesser angel who is is appointed to act as a special shepherd.
The face of the earth is also a place of cultivation; all plants are sown in it. There is an angel charged with supervising all of them in the name of God Almighty and through His power, and there are angels who are lesser than him and who worship and glorify God each by supervising a particular species. The Archangel Michael (Upon whom be peace), who is one of the bearers of the throne of sustenance, is the most important overseer of these.
The angels who are in the position of shepherd and farmer do not bear any resemblance to human beings, for their supervision is purely for the sake of Almighty God, and in His name and through His power and command. Rather, their supervision of animals only consists of beholding the manifestations of Dominicality in the species where he is employed; studying the manifestations of power and mercy in it; making known to that species the Divine commands by way of a sort of inspiration; and in some way ordering the voluntary actions of the species.
Their supervision of the plants in the field of the earth in particular consists of representing the plants' glorification in the angelic tongue; proclaiming in the angelic tongue the salutations the plants offer to the All-Glorious Creator through their lives; and employing the faculties given to plants correctly and directing them towards certain aims and ordering them to some extent. These duties of the angels are meritorious actions of a sort by reason of the angels' faculty of will. Indeed, they are a kind of worship and adoration. But the angels have no real power of disposal, for on everything is a stamp peculiar to the Creator of all things. Another's hand cannot interfere in creation. That is to say, this sort of work of the angels forms their worship. It is not a custom like with human beings.
The Second Category of workers in this palace of the universe are animals. Since animals also have an appetitive soul and faculty of will, their work is not 'purely for the sake of God'; to some extent, they take a share for their souls. Therefore, since the Glorious and Munificent Lord of All Dominion is all-generous, He bestows a wage on them during their work in order to give a share to their souls. For example, the All-Wise Creator employs the famous nightingale,8 renowned for his love of the rose, for five aims.
First Aim: It is the official employed to proclaim in the name of the animal species the intense relationship that exists between them and the plant species.
Second Aim: It is a Dominical orator from among the animals, who are like guests of the All-Merciful One needy for sustenance, employed to acclaim the gifts sent by the All-Generous Provider and to announce their joy.
Third Aim: It is to announce to everyone the welcome offered to plants, which are sent as a succour to his fellow animals.
Fourth Aim: It is to announce, over the blessed heads and to the beautiful faces of plants, the intense need of the animal species for them, which reaches the degree of love and passion.Fifth Aim: It is to present with a most acute yearning a most graceful glorification inspired by a most delicate face like a rose to the Court of Mercy of the All-Glorious and Beauteous and Munificent Lord of All Dominion.
There are further meanings similar to these five aims. These meanings and aims are the aims of the deeds that the nightingale performs for the sake of the Truth (All glory be unto Him and may He be exalted). The nightingale speaks in his own tongue and we understand these meanings from his plaintive words. If he himself does not altogether know the meaning of his own song like the angels do, it does not impair our understanding. The saying, 'One who listens understands better than the one who speaks' is well-known. Also, the nightingale does not show that he does not know these aims in detail, but this does not mean that these aims do not exist. At least he informs you of these aims like a clock informs you of the time. What difference does it make that he does not know? It does not prevent you from knowing.
However, the nightingale's small wage is the delight he experiences from gazing on the smiling, beautiful roses, and the pleasure he receives from conversing with them and pouring out his woes. That is to say, his sorrowful song is not a complaint arising from animal grief, it is rather thanks arising from the gifts of the Most Merciful One. Compare the bee, the spider, the ant, creeping insects, the male animals that are the means of reproduction, and the nightingales of all small creatures, with the nightingale: the deeds of each of them have many aims. And for them, too, a particular pleasure, like a small wage, has been included in their duties. Through that pleasure, they serve the important aims contained in Dominical art. Just as an ordinary seaman acts as helmsman on an imperial ship and receives a small wage, so do the animals employed in duties of glorification each receive a small wage.
An Addendum to the Discussion on the Nightingale: However, do not suppose this proclaiming and heralding and these songs of glorification are peculiar to the nightingale. Indeed, in most species there is a class similar to the nightingale that consists of a fine individual or individuals which represent the finest feelings of that species with the finest glorification and finest poetry. The nightingales of flies and insects, in particular, are both numerous and various. They cause all animals with ears, from the largest to the smallest, to hear their glorifications by means of their humming poetry and give them pleasure.
Some of them are nocturnal. These poetry-declaiming friends of all small animals are their sweet-voiced orators when all beings are plunged into the silence and tranquillity of the night. Each is the centre of a circle of silent recollection, an assembly in solitude, to which all the others listen, and, in a fashion, recollect and extol the All-Glorious Creator in their own hearts.
Another sort are diurnal. By day, in spring and summer, they proclaim the mercy of the Most Merciful and Compassionate One to all animate beings from the pulpits of the trees with their ringing voices, subtle songs, and poetic glorifications. It is as if, like the leader of a gathering for the recitation of God's Names induces the ecstasy of those participating, all the creatures listening start to praise the All-Glorious Creator each in its own special tongue and with a particular chant.
That is to say, every sort of being, and even the stars, have a chief-reciter and light-scattering nightingale. But the most excellent, the most noble, the most luminous, the most dazzling, the greatest and the most honourable nightingale, whose voice was the most ringing, whose attributes the most brilliant, whose recitation the most complete, whose thanks the most universal, whose essence was the most perfect, and whose form the most beautiful, who brought all the beings of the heavens and the earth in the garden of the universe to ecstasy and rapture through his subtle poetry, his sweet song, his exalted glorification, was the glorious nightingale of human kind, the nightingale of the Qur'an: Muhammed the Arabian, Upon whom and upon whose Family and those who resemble him be the best of blessings and peace.
To Conclude: The animals, who serve in the palace of the universe, conform with complete obedience to the commands that bring them into existence and perfectly display in the name of Almighty God the aims included in their natures. The glorification and worship they perform by carrying out the duties pertaining to their lives in this wonderful fashion through the power of God Almighty are gifts and salutations which they present to the Court of the All-Glorious Creator, the Bestower of Life.
The Third Category of Workers are plants and inanimate creatures. Since they have no faculty of will, they receive no wage. Their work is 'purely for the sake of God', and in His name, on His account, and through His will, power and strength. However, it may be perceived from their growth and development that they take a sort of pleasure at their duties of pollination and producing seeds and fruits. But they do not experience pain at all. Due to their will, animals experience pain as well as pleasure. Since will does not enter into the work of plants and inanimate beings, their work is more perfect than that of animals, who have will. Among those who possess will, the work of creatures like the bee which are enlightened by revelation and inspiration is more perfect than the work of those animals which rely on their faculty of will.
Each species of plant in the field of the face of the earth prays and asks of the All-Wise Creator through the tongue of its being and potentiality: "O our Sustainer! Give us strength so that, through raising the flag of our species in every part of the earth, we may proclaim the splendour of Your Dominicality; and grant us prosperity so that we may worship You in every corner of the mosque of the earth; and bestow on us the power to spread and travel in order to exhibit through our own tongue the embroideries of Your Most Beautiful Names and Your wonderful and antique arts."
The All-Wise Creator answers their silent prayer and bestows on the seeds of one species tiny wings made of hair: they fly away spreading everywhere. They cause the Divine Names to be read in the name of their species. (Like the seeds of most thorned plants and some yellow flowers.) And He gives to some species beautiful flesh that is either necessary or pleasant for human beings. He causes man to serve them and plant them everywhere. And to some He gives, covering a hard and indigestible bone, flesh that animals eat so that they disperse the seeds over a wide area. And on some He bestows small claws that grip onto all who touch them; moving onto other places, they raise the flag of the species and exhibit the antique art of the All-Glorious Maker. And to some species, like to the bitter melon, He gives the force of a buckshot rifle so that, when the time is ripe, the small melons which are its fruits, fall and fire out their seeds like shot to a distance of several metres, and sow them. They work so that numerous tongues will glorify the All-Glorious Creator and recite His Beautiful Names. And you may think of other examples in the same way.
The All-Wise Creator, Who is All-Powerful and All-Knowing, has created everything beautifully and with perfect order. He has fitted them out beautifully, turned their faces towards beautiful aims, employed them in beautiful duties, caused them to utter beautiful glorifications and to worship beautifully. O man! If indeed you are a human being, do not confuse Nature, chance, futility, and misguidance with these beautiful matters. Do not make them ugly. Do not act in an ugly fashion. Do not be ugly.
The Fourth Category is human beings. Human beings, who are a sort of servant in the palace of the universe, resemble both angels and animals. They resemble angels in universality of worship, extensiveness of supervision, comprehensiveness of knowledge, and in being heralds of Divine Dominicality. Indeed, man is more comprehensive in his worship, but since he has an appetitive soul that is disposed towards evil, contrary to the angels, he is subject to progress and decline, which is of great importance. Also, since in his work man seeks pleasure for his soul and a share for himself, he resembles an animal. Since this is so, man receives two wages: the first is insignificant, animal, and immediate; the second, angelic, universal, and postponed.Now, man's duty and his wages, and his progress and decline, have been discussed in part in all thirty-three of the Words. And they have been explained in greater detail in the Eleventh and Twenty-Third Words in particular. Therefore, we shall cut short the discussion and close the door. And beseeching the Most Merciful to open to us the gates of His Mercy, and seeking forgiveness for our faults and errors, we conclude it here.
FIFTH BRANCH
The Fifth Branch has Five Fruits.
FIRST FRUIT
O my self-worshipping soul! O my world-worshipping friend! Love is the cause of the universe's existence, and what binds it; and it is both the light of the universe and its life. Since man is the most comprehensive fruit of the universe, a love that will conquer the universe has been included in his heart, the seed of that fruit. And so, one worthy of such an infinite love may only be one possessing an infinite perfection.
O soul and O friend! Two faculties, the means to fear and love, have been included in man's nature. In any event, that love and fear will be turned towards either creatures or Creator. But fear of creatures is a grievous affliction, and love for them too is a calamitous tribulation. For you are frightened of such ones that will either not pity you or not accept your pleas for mercy. So fear is a grievous calamity. And as for love, the one you love will either not recognize you or will depart without saying good-bye. Like your youth and property. Or else he will despise you because of your love. Have you not seen that in ninety-nine out of a hundred metaphorical loves, the lover complains about the beloved. For to worship idol-like worldly beloveds with the inner heart, which is the mirror of the Eternally Besought One, is oppressive in the beloved's view, and he finds it disagreeable and rejects it. Because man's nature rejects and casts away things that are contrary to it and unworthy of it. (Physical loves are outside our discussion.)
That is to say, the things you love either will not recognize you, or they will scorn you, or they will not accompany you. They will part from you in spite of you. Since this is so, direct the fear and love to such a One by Whom your fear will become a pleasurable abasement, and your love, a shadowless happiness. Yes, to fear the Glorious Creator means to find a way to His compassionate mercy, and to take refuge in it. Fear is a whip; it drives you into the embrace of His mercy. It is well-known that a mother gently scares her infant, for example, and draws it to her breast. The fear is most pleasurable for the child, because it draws him to her tender breast. Whereas the tenderness of all mothers is one flash of Divine mercy. That means there is a supreme pleasure in fear of God. If there is such a pleasure in fear of God, it is clear what infinite pleasure there is to be found in love of God. Moreover, one who fears God is saved from the calamitous and distressing fear of others. Also, because it is for God's sake, the love he has for creatures is not tinged with sorrow and separation.
Indeed, man loves firstly himself, then his relations, then his nation, then living creatures, then the universe, and the world. He is connected with all these spheres. He may receive pleasure at their pleasure and pain at their pain. However, since nothing in this world of upheavals and revolutions swift as the wind is stable, man's wretched heart is ever wounded. The things that his hands cling onto tear at them as they depart, and even sever them. He remains in perpetual distress, or else becomes drunk through heedlessness. Since it is thus, my soul, if you have any sense, gather together all those loves and give them to their true owner; be saved from those calamities. These infinite loves are particular to One possessing an infinite perfection and beauty. When you give it to its true owner, then you will be able to love everything in His name and as His mirrors without distress. That means this love should not be spent directly on the universe. Otherwise, while being a delicious bounty, love becomes a grievous affliction.
There is another aspect besides, O soul! and it is the most important. You spend all your love on yourself. You make your soul your object of worship and beloved. You sacrifice everything for your soul. Simply, you ascribe to it a sort of Dominicality. Whereas the cause of love is either perfection, because perfection is loved for itself, or it is benefit, or it is pleasure, or it is goodness, or causes like these. Now, O soul! In several of The Words we have proved decisively that your basic nature is kneaded out of fault, deficiency, poverty, and impotence, and like the relative degree of darkness and obscurity shows the brightness of light, with regard to opposites, you act as a mirror through them to the perfection, beauty, power, and mercy of the Beauteous Creator. That means O soul, that it is not love you should have for your soul, but enmity, or you should pity it, or after it is at peace, have compassion on it. If you love your soul because it is the source of pleasure and benefit and you are captivated by the delights of pleasure and benefit, do not choose the pleasure and benefit of the soul, which is like a jot, to infinite pleasure and benefits. Do not be like a firefly. For it drowns all your friends and the things you love in the darkness of desolation and suffices with a tiny glimmer in itself. You should love a Pre-Eternal Beloved on Whose gracious favouring are dependent all the pleasures and benefits of your soul together with all the benefits and bounties and creatures of the universe with which you are connected and from which you profit and through whose happiness you are happy, so that you can take pleasure at both your own and their happiness, and so that you can receive an infinite pleasure from the love of the Absolutely Perfect One.
Anyway, your intense love for yourself and your soul is love pertaining to the Divine Essence which you misuse and spend on your own self. In which case, rend the egotism in your soul and show Him. All your loves dispersed through the universe are a love given for His Names and attributes. You have used it wrongly and you are suffering the penalty. For the penalty for an illicit, mis-spent love is merciless torment. For sure, one particle of the love of a Pre-Eternal Beloved Who, through the Names of Most Merciful and Compassionate, has prepared for your bodily desires a dwelling encompassing all your wishes like Paradise adorned with Houris, and through others of His Names has prepared for you in that Paradise everlasting favours that will gratify the desires of your spirit, heart, mind, and other subtle inner faculties, and Who in all His Names has many treasuries of grace and munificence - one particle of His love may take the place of the whole universe. But the universe cannot take the place of even a particular manifestation of His love. In which case, heed this Pre-Eternal Decree which that Pre-Eternal Beloved caused His own Beloved to speak, and follow it:
If you love God, follow me, and God will love you.
SECOND FRUIT
O soul! Worship is not the introduction to additional rewards, but the result of previous bounties. Yes, we have received our wage, and in accordance with it we are charged with the duties of service and worship. Because, O soul!, since the All-Glorious Creator, Who clothed you in existence which is pure good, has given you a stomach and appetite, through His Name of Provider, He has placed before you all foods on a table of bounties. Then, since He has given you a life decked out with senses, life too requires sustenance like a stomach; all your senses like eyes and ears are like hands before which He has placed a table of bounties as broad as the earth. Then, because He has given you humanity, which requires many immaterial foods and bounties, He has laid out before that stomach of humanity, in so far as the hand of the mind can reach, an extensive table of bounties as broad as the worlds of both the inner and outer dimensions of things. Then, since He has given Islam and belief, which require infinite bounties and are nourished through countless fruits of mercy and are supreme humanity, He has opened up before you a table of bounties, pleasure, and happiness which includes the sphere of contingency together with the sphere of His sacred Names and attributes. Then, through giving you love, which is a light of belief, He has bestowed on you an endless table of bounties, happiness, and pleasure. That is to say, with regard to your corporeality you are an insignificant, weak, impotent, base, restricted, limited particular, but from being an insignificant particular, through His favour, You have as though become a universal and luminous whole. For by giving you life, He has raised you from particularity to a sort of universality; and by giving you humanity, to true universality; and by giving you Islam, to an elevated and luminous universality; and by giving you knowledge and love of Him, He has raised you to an all-encompassing light.
And so, O soul! You have received this wage, and you are charged with a pleasurable, bountiful, easy, and light duty like worship. But you are lazy in this too. If you perform it half-heartedly, it is as though the former wages are not enough for you, and you are overbearingly wanting greater things. Also, you are complaining: "Why was my prayer not accepted?" But your right is not complaint, it is supplication. Through His pure grace and munificence, Almighty God bestows Paradise and eternal happiness. So always seek refuge in His mercy and munificence. Trust in Him and heed this decree:
Say: "In the bounty of God, and His mercy - in that let them rejoice;" that is better than the [wealth] they hoard.
If you say: "How can I respond to these countless, universal bounties with my limited and partial thanks?"
The Answer: With a universal intention and boundless belief... For example, a man enters a king's presence with a gift worth five cents, and he sees that other gifts worth millions have arrived from acceptable people, and have been lined up there. It occurs to him: "My present is nothing. What shall I do?" And he says suddenly: "My Lord! I offer you all these valuable gifts in my name. For you are worthy of them. If I had the power, I would have given you gifts equal to them." Thus, the king, who has need of nothing and accepts his subjects' gifts as a sign of their loyalty and respect, accepts that wretched man's great and universal intention and wish, and the worthiness of that fine and exalted belief like the greatest gift.
In exactly the same way, while performing the five daily prayers, an impotent servant of God's declares: "Salutations be to God!" That is, "I offer You on my own account all the gifts of worship all creatures offer you through their lives. If I had been able, I would have offered You as many salutations as them. And You are worthy of them, and worthy of more than them." Thus, this intention and belief is most extensive universal thanks. The seeds and grains of plants are their intentions.
And for example, the melon utters a thousand intentions in its heart in the form of the nuclei of its seeds: "O my Creator! I want to proclaim the embroideries of Your Most Beautiful Names in many places on the earth." Since Almighty God knows how future things will come about, He accepts their intention as actual worship. The rule, 'A believer's intention is better than his actions' alludes to this mystery. And the wisdom in offering glorifications in infinite numbers is understood from this mystery, like:
Glory and praise be unto You to the number of Your creatures, that may be as pleasing to You as the extent of Your Throne and the ink of Your words, and we glorify You with all the glorifications of Your Prophets and saints and angels.
And just as an officer offers all the duties of all his soldiers to the king in his own name, so too, man, who acts as officer to other creatures, commands the animals and plants, has the ability to be God's vicegerent over the beings of the earth, and in his own world considers himself to represent everyone, says:
You alone do we worship, and from You alone do we seek help;
He offers the worship and seeking of help of all creation to the All-Glorious True Object of Worship in his own name. He also says:
O God! Grant blessings to Muhammed to the number of the particles in existence and all their compounds!
He offers benedictions for the Prophet (PBUH) in the name of everything. Because everything is connected with the Muhammedan Light. And so, you may understand the wisdom in the countless numbers in the glorifications and benedictions for the Prophet (PBUH).
THIRD FRUIT
O soul! If, in a brief life, you want an action that will profit you infinitely in the hereafter, and you want every moment of your life to be as beneficial as a whole life, and if you want to transform your habits into worship and your heedlessness into awareness of the Divine presence, follow the Illustrious Practices of the Prophet. For when you apply your actions to the rulings of the Shari'a, it affords a sort of awareness of God's presence; it becomes a sort of worship and yields many fruits for the hereafter. For example, you bought something. The moment you applied what is acceptable and required by the Shari'a, that ordinary act of shopping acquired the value of worship. Recalling the injunctions of the Shari'a calls to mind Revelation. And through thinking of the Giver of the Law that in turn causes you to turn towards God. And that affords awareness of His presence. That means, by applying the Illustrious Sunna to actions, advantages are obtained by which this fleeting life becomes the means to an everlasting life producing eternal fruits. Heed the decree:
So believe in God and His Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, who believes in God and His Word: follow him that you may be guided.
Try to be a comprehensive place of reflection for the effulgence and manifestation of each of the Most Beautiful Names within the ordinances of the Shari'a and Illustrious Sunna...
FOURTH FRUIT
O soul! Do not look at the worldly, and especially the dissipated and the unbelievers, and be deceived by their superficial glitter and deceptive illicit pleasures; do not imitate them. For even if you do imitate them, you will not be like them; you will decline immeasurably. And you cannot even be an animal. For the intellect in your head becomes an inauspicious tool which constantly beats you over the head. For example, there is a palace and in one of its large apartments is a powerful electric lamp. Small electric lights which branch out from it and are attached to it have been divided among small apartments. Now, someone touches the switch of the big electric light and turns it off; all the apartments are plunged into deep darkness and desolation. In another palace in all its apartments are small electric lights not connected to the large light. If the owner of the first palace presses the switch of the large electric light and turns it off, there still may be lights in the other apartments, by which he may carry out his work, and which will not allow thieves to profit by the darkness.
And so, O soul! The first palace is a Muslim and the Prophet Muhammed (Upon whom be blessings and peace) is the large electric light in his heart. If he forgets him, or, (I seek refuge with God from Satan the Accursed) he expels him from his heart, he will accept none of the other Prophets, indeed, no place for any perfection will remain in his spirit. He will not even recognize His Sustainer. All the apartments and subtle faculties in his nature will be plunged into darkness, and there will be a terrible destruction and desolation in his heart. What, then, will he be able to gain in the face of this destruction and desolation, with what will he become familiar? What benefit will he find which will repair the damage? However, Europeans resemble the second palace, who, even if they cast out from their hearts the light of the Prophet Muhammed (Blessings and peace be upon him), some sorts of lights may remain, or they suppose they remain. They may continue to have a sort of belief in their Creator and in Moses and Jesus (Upon whom be peace), which will be the means to their moral attainments.
O my evil-commanding soul! If you say: "I am not a European and I want to be an animal", how many times have I told you: "You cannot be an animal. For there is reason in your head, and it strikes your face, eyes, and head with the pains of the past and fears of the future, and beats you. It adds a thousand pains to one pleasure. As for animals, they receive enjoyment without pain, and take pleasure. So first extract your reason and throw it away, then be an animal. And also receive the chastening slap of:
Like cattle, nay, they are further astray."
FIFTH FRUIT
As we have stated repeatedly, since man is the fruit of the tree of creation, he is a creature which, like a fruit, is the furthest and most comprehensive and looks to everything, and bears the seed of a heart which holds within it the aspects of unity of everything, and whose face looks to multiplicity, transience, and the world. As for worship, it is a line of union which turns his face from transience to permanence, from creation to Creator, from multiplicity to unity, and from the extremity to the source, or it is a point of union between the source and the extremity. If a valuable, conscious fruit which will form a seed looks to the living creatures beneath the tree, and relying on its beauty throws itself into their hands; if being heedless, it falls; it will fall to their hands and be smashed, and will go for nothing like a common fruit. But if the fruit finds its point of support, and it is able to think that by the seed within it holding the aspects of unity of the whole tree, it will be the means of tree's continuance and the continued existence of the tree's reality, then a single seed within that single fruit will manifest a perpetual universal truth within an everlasting life.
In the same way, if man plunges into multiplicity, is drowned in the universe and intoxicated by love of the world, is deceived by the smiles of ephemeral beings and casts himself into their arms, he certainly falls into infinite loss. He falls into both transitoriness, and ephemerality, and non-existence. And in effect he sentences himself to death. If he listens with the ear of his heart to the lessons in belief from the tongue of the Qur'an and raises his head and turns towards Unity, he may rise through the ascension of worship to the throne of perfections. He may become an eternal man.O my soul! Since the reality is thus, and since you are a member of the nation of Abraham (Upon whom be peace), like Abraham, say: I do not love those that set.14 Turn your face to the Eternal Beloved and weep the following lines like me: The Persian verses to be included here have been included in the Second Station of the Seventeenth Word, and have not been repeated here.
***
The Twenty-Fifth Word
The Miraculousness of The Qur'an

"While there is a perpetual miracle like the Qur'an, searching for further proof appears to my mind as superfluous;
"While there is a proof of reality like the Qur'an, would silencing those who deny it weigh heavily on my heaff?"
A REMINDER
[At the start, we intended to write this Word as Five Lights, but at the end of the First Light, we were compelled to write extremely fast in order to print it in the old [Ottoman] script. On some days even we wrote twenty to thirty pages in two or three hours. Therefore, writing three Lights in a brief and concise manner, we have for now abandoned the last two. I hope that my brothers will look fairly and with tolerance at the faults and defects, difficulties and mistakes, which may be attributed to me.]
Most of the verses in this treatise of The Miraculousness of the Qur'an have either been the cause of criticism by atheists, or have been objected to by scientists, or have been the subject of doubt and misgiving by satans among jinn and men. Thus, this Twenty-Fifth Word has explained the truths and fine points of those verses in such a way that the points which the atheists and scientists imagined to be faults have been proved according to scholarly principles to be flashes of miraculousness and the sources of the perfections of the Quaur'ans eloquence. In order not to cause aversion, decisive answers have been given without mentioning their doubts. Only, in the first Station of the Twentieth Word, their doubts have been stated concerning three or four verses, like, And the mountains [its] pegs[l], and, And the sun runs its course.[2]
[1] Qur¹an, 78:7.
[2] Our'an, 36:38.
Also, although this treatise of The Miraculousness of the Qur'an was written very concisely and with great speed, with regard to the science of rhetoric and sciences of Arabic, it is explained in a way so learned and pro- found and powerful that it has caused wonder to scholars. Although every- one who studies it will not understand all the matters discussed, there is a significant share for everyone in this garden. In spite of the defects in the phraseology and manner of expression due to its being written very fast and under confused conditions, it explains the truth and reality of most important matters.
Said Nursi
The Miraculousness of The Qur'an
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Say: If all mankind and all jinn were to come together to produce the like of this Qur'an, they could not produce the like of it, even if they were to help and support each other.[3]
[Of the innumerable aspects of the miraculousness of the All- Wise Qurtan of Miraculous Exposition - the treasury of miracles and greatest miracle of Muhammed (Peace and blessings be upon him), I have pointed out close on forty in my Arabic treatises, in the Arabic Risale-i Nur, in my Qur'anic commentary called Signs of Miraculousness, and in the preceding twenty-four Words. Now I shall explain to a degree only five of those aspects and include within them briefly the other aspects, and with an Introduction, give a definition of the Qur'an and point to its nature.]
[3] Qur'an 17:88
INTRODUCTION
The Introduction consists of Three Parts.
FIRST PART: WHAT IS THE QUR'AN? How is it defined?
Answer: As is explained in the Nineteenth Word and proved in other Words, THE QUR'AN is the pre-eternal translator of the mighty Book of the Universe, and the post-eternal interpreter of the various tongues reciting the verses of creation, and the commentator of the book of the Worlds of the Seen and the Unseen, and the revealer of the treasuries of the Divine Names hidden in the heavens and on the earth, and the key to the truths concealed beneath the lines of events, and the tongue of the Unseen World in the Manifest World, and the treasury of the post-eternal favor of Divine Mercy and of the pre-eternal addresses of Divine Glory, which come from the World of the Unseen beyond the veil of this Manifest World; it is the sun, foundation, and plan of the immaterial world of Islam, and the sacred map of the worlds of the hereafter, and the expounding word, lucid exposition, decisive proof, and clear interpreter of the Divine Essence, Attributes, Names, and functions; it is the instructor of the world of humanity, and the light and water of Islam - the macroanthropos, and the true wisdom of mankind, and the true guide and leader urging humanity to prosperity and happiness, and it is a both a book of law, and a book of prayer, and a book of wisdom, and a book of worship, and a book of command and summons, and a book of invocation, and a book of thought, and a unique, comprehensive Sacred Book, comprising many books, to which recourse may be had for all the needs of all mankind. And it is a Revealed Scripture like a sacred library offering treatises suitable for all the various ways and different paths of the all the saints and the veracious ones and the wise and the learned, which is appropriate for the illuminations of each way and enlightens it, and is suitable for the course of each path and depicts it.
SECOND PART and complement to the definition:
As is explained and proved in the Twelfth Word, since THE QUR'AN has come from the Sublime Throne, and the Greatest Name, and from the highest degree of each Name, it is God's Word in regard to the Sustainer of All The Worlds. And it is God's decree through the title of God of All Beings. And it is an address in the name of the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. And it is a conversation in respect of Absolute Dominicality. And it is a pre-eternal discourse on account of universal Divine Sovereignty. And it is a notebook of the favors of the Most Merciful One in regard to all- embracing, all-encompassing Divine Mercy. And it is a collection of ad- dresses at the start of which are certain ciphers in respect of the tremendous- ness of Divine Majesty. And through its descent from the comprehensive- ness of the Greatest Name, it is a Sacred Book full of wisdom which looks to and inspects all sides of the Sublime Throne.
It is because of this mystery that with complete fitness the title of The Word of God has been given to the Qur'an, and is always given. After the Qurtan comes the level of the Books and Scriptures of the other prophets. But the other innumerable Divine Words are each in the form of inspiration made manifest through a special regard, a partial title, a particular manifestation, a particular Name, a special Dominicality, a particular sovereignty, a special Mercy. The inspirations of the angels and man and the animals vary greatly with regard to universality and particularity.
THIRD PART: THE QUR'AN is a Revealed Scripture which comprises in summary the Books of al1 the prophets, whose times were al1 different the writings of all the saints, whose paths are all different, and the works of all the purified scholars, whose ways are all different. Its six aspects are all brilliant and refined of the darkness of doubts and scepticism; its point of support is certain heavenly revelation and the pre-eternal Word; its aim and goal is self-evidently eternal happiness; its inner aspect is clearly pure guidance; its upper aspect is necessarily the lights of belief; its lower aspect is undeniably evidence and proof; its right aspect is evidently the surrender of the heart and conscience; its left aspect is manifestly the subjugation of the reason and intellect; its fruit is indisputably the Mercy of the Most Merciful One and the realm of Paradise; and its rank and desirability are assuredly accepted by the angels and man and the jinn.
Each of the attributes in these Three Parts concerning the Qurtan's definition have been proved decisively in other places, or they will be proved. Our claims are not isolated; each may be proved with clear Proofs.
FIRST LIGHT
This Light consists of Three Rays.
FIRST RAY: This is the eloquence of the Qurtan, which is at the degree of miraculousness. Its eloquence is a wonderful eloquence born of the beauty of its word order, the perfection of its conciseness, the marvels of its style, its singularity and pleasantness, the excellence of its expression, its superiority and clarity, the power and truth of its meanings, and from the purity and fluency of its language, which for one thousand three hundred years has challenged the most brilliant men of letters of mankind, their most celebrated orators, and the most profoundly learned of them, and invited them to dispute it. It has provoked them intensely. And although it has invited them to dispute it, those geniuses, whose heads touch the skies in their pride and conceit, have been unable to so much as open their mouths to do so, and have bowed their heads utterly put down. Thus, we shall point to the miraculousness in its eloquence in Two Aspects.
First Aspect: It possesses miraculousness and its miraculousness exists for the following reasons. The great majority of the people of the Arabian Peninsula at that time were illiterate. Due to this, in place of in writing, they preserved the sources of their pride, historical events, and stories which assisted good morality, by means of poetry and eloquence. Through the at- traction of poetry and eloquence, meaningful sayings would remain in people's memories and be passed down the generations. And so, in consequence of this innate need, the goods most in demand in the immaterial market of that people was eloquence. An eloquent literary figure of a tribe, even, was like its greatest national hero. It was through him that they gained their greatest pride. Thus, that intelligent people who ruled the world through their intelligence after the establishment of Islam were, among the peoples of the world, at the highest and most advanced degree of eloquence. It was the thing most in demand among them, was their cause of pride, and the thing for which they had greatest need. Eloquence had such high value that two tribes would do battle at the word of a literary figure, and they would make peace at his word. They even wrote in gold on the walls of the Ka'ba the seven qasidas of seven poets called the Muallaqat-i Sebta, and took great pride in them. Thus, it was at such a time when eloquence was the thing most sought after that the Qurtan was revealed. Just as at the time of Moses (Peace be upon him) it was magic that was most sought after and at the time of Jesus (Peace be upon him), it was medicine. The most important of their miracles were in those fields.
And so, the Qur'an invited the Arabian orators of that time to reply to even one of the shortest of the Suras. It challenged them with the decree of:
And if you are in doubt about what We have revealed to Our servant, then produce a Sura resembling it.[4]
And it also said: "If you do not believe, you shall be damned and shall go to Hell." It provoked them intensely. It smashed their pride in a fearsome manner. It was contemptuous of their arrogant minds. It condemned them firstly to eternal extinction and then to eternal extinction in Hell, as well as to worldly extinction. It said: "Either dispute me, or you and your property shall perish."
4. Qur'an, 2:23.
Thus, if it had been possible to dispute it, is it at all possible that, while there was an easy solution like disputing the Qur'an with one or two lines and nullifying the claim, they should have chosen the most dangerous and most difficult, the way of war? Yes, is it at al1 possible that that clever people, that politically-minded nation, who at one time were to govern the world through politics, should have abandoned the shortest, easiest, and most light way, and chosen the most dangerous, which was going to cast their lives and ail their property into peril? For if their literary figures had been able to dispute it with a few words, the Qurtan would have given up its claim, and they would have been saved from material and moral disaster. Whereas they chose a fearsome and long road like war That means it was not possible to dispute in by word; it was impossible. Therefore they were compelled to fight it with the sword.
Furthermore, there are two most compelling reasons for the Qur'an being imitated. The first is its enemies' ambition to dispute it, the other, its friends' pleasure at imitating it. Through these two impelling causes, millions of books in Arabic have been written, but not one of them resembles the Qur'an. Whether learned or ignorant, whoever looks at it and at them most certainly says: "The Qur'an does not resemble these. Not one of them has been able to imitate it." Therefore, the Qur'an is either inferior to all of them, and according to the consensus of friend and foe alike, this is completely non-valid and impossible, or the Qur'an is superior to all of them.
If you say: "How do you know that no one has tried to dispute it, and that no one has had sufficient confidence to challenge it, and that no one's help for anyone else was of any avail?"
The Answer: If it had been possible to dispute it, most certainly it would have been attempted. For it was a question of honor and pride, and life and property were at risk. And if it had been attempted, most certainly there would have been many to support such an attempt. For those who obstinately oppose the truth have always been many. And if it had had many supporters, they surely would have found fame. For insignificant contests, even, attract the wonder of people and find fame in stories and tales. So an extraordinary contest and event such as that could not have remained secret. The most ugly and infamous things against Islam have been related and become famous. Whereas, apart from one or two stories about Museylima the Liar, nothing has been related. Museylima was very eloquent, but when compared with the exposition of the Qurtan, which possesses infinite beauty, his words passed in the chronicles as nonsense. Thus, the miraculousness of the Qur'an's eloquence exists as certainly as twice two equals four; the matter is thus.
S e c o n d A s p e c t: We shall now explain in Five Points the wisdom of the Qur'an's miraculousness contained in its eloquence.
First Point: There is a wonderful eloquence and purity of style in the Qur'an's word order. From beginning to end, Signs of Miraculousness demonstrates this eloquence and conciseness in the word order. The way the second, minute, and hour hands of a clock each complete the order of the others, that is the way the entire work explains the order in each sentence and passage of the All-Wise Qur'an, and in each of its words, and in the or- der in the relationships between the sentences. Whoever wishes may look at that and see this wonderful eloquence in the word order. Here, we shall mention one or two examples in order to demonstrate the word order in the parts of a sentence as a whole. For example:
But if a breath of your Sustainer's punishment touches them.[5]
[5] Our'an. 21:46.
In this sentence, it wants to point out the punishment as terrible through showing the severity of the least amount. That is to say, it expresses little- ness or fewness, and all the parts of the sentence look also to this littleness Or fewness and reinforce it. Thus, the words, But if signify doubt, and doubt looks to littleness or fewness. The word touches means to touch lightly and expresses a small amount. And just as the word a breath is merely a whiff, so too is it in the singular form. Grammatically it is a masdar-i merre and signifies once. Also the tenvin indicating indefiniteness in a breathe expresses littleness or fewness and means it is so insignificant that it can scarcely be known. The word of signifies division or a part; it means a bit and indicates paucity. The word punishment points to a light sort of punishment in relation to chastisement (nekal) or penalty (i'qab), and suggests a small amount. And by alluding to compassion and being used in place of Subduer, All-Compelling, or Avenger, the word Sustainer indicates to little- ness or fewness. It says, if the small amount of punishment suggested in all this paucity has such an effect, you can compare how dreadful Divine chastisement would be. How much then do the small parts of this sentence look to one another and assist one another. How each reinforces the aim of the whole. This example looks to the words and aim in one degree.
Second Example:
And spend [in God's way] out of what We have bestowed on them as sustenance.[6]
[6] Qur'an, 2:3.
The parts of this sentence point out five of the conditions which make alms- giving aeceptable.
First Condition: This is to give only so much alms as will not cause the giver to be in need of receiving alms himself. It states this condition through the division or parts signified by out of in the words out of what.
Second Condition: It is not to take from Ali and give to Vali, but to give out of a person's own property. The words We have bestowed on them as sustenance express this condition. It means: "Give out of the sustenance that is yours."
Third Condition: This is not to place an obligation on the recipient. The word We in We have bestowed on them as sustenance states this condition. That is to say: "I give you the sustenance. When you give some of My pro- perty to My servant, you cannot place them under an obligation."
Fourth Condition: You should give it to a person who will spend it on his livelihood, for alms given to those who will squander it idly is-not acceptable. The word spend points to this condition.
Fifth Condition: This is to give in God's name. The words We bestow on them as sustenance states this. That is to say: "The property is Mine; you should give it in My name."
These conditions may be extended. That is, what form should almsgiving take, with what goods. It may be given as learning and knowledge. It may be given as words, or as acts, or as advice. The word what in out of what indicates to these various sorts through its generality. Furthermore, it indicates to them itself in this sentence, because it is absolute, it expresses universality. Thus, in this short sentence describing almsgiving it opens up to the mind a broad sphere with these five conditions, and grants it to it through its parts. And so, in the sentence as a whole the word order has many aspects.
In the same way, between words the word order is within a broad sphere and has many aspects. And between phrases. For example, in, Say: He is God, the One[7] there are six sentences. Three of them are positive and three negative. It proves six degrees of Divine Unity and at the same time refutes six ways of associating partners with God. Each sentence is both the proof of the other sentences and the result. For each sentence has two meanings. Through one meaning it is the result, and through the other the proof. That is to say, within Sura al-lkhlas there are thirty suras composed of proofs demonstrating one another as well-ordered as Sura al-lkhlas. For example:
Say, He is God, because He is One, because He is the Eternally Besought, because He begets not, because He is not begotten, because there is none that is equal to Him.
And:
And there is none that is equal to Him, because He is not begotten, be- cause He begets not, because He is Eternally Besought, because He is One, because He is God
And:
He is God, so He is One, so He is the Eternally Besought, so He be- gets not, so He is not begotten, so there is none that is equal to Him.
You can continue in the same way.
A further example:
Alif. Lam. Mim. This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those who fear God. [8]
[7]Qur'an. 112:1
[8] Qur'an2:1-2
Each of these four phrases has two meanings. With one meaning it is a proof of the other phrases, with the other, it is their result. From the sixteen threads of their relationships, a miraculous word order embroidery is produced. It is described in that way in Signs of Miraculousness. Also, as is explained in the Thirteenth Word, it is as though each of the verses of the Qur'an has an eye that sees most of the other verses and a face that looks to them, so that each extends to the others the immaterial threads of relationship. Each weaves a miraculous embroidery. Signs of Miraculousness expounds this beauty and eloquence of the word order from beginning to end.
Second Point:
This is the wonderful eloquence in its meaning. Consider this example, which is explained in the Thirteenth Word. For example, if you want to taste the eloquence of the verse,
All that is in the heavens and on the earth extols and glorifies God, for He is the Tremendous, the Wise,[9]
imagine yourself in the Age of Ignorance in the deserts of barbarism before the Light of the Qurtan. Then, at a moment everything is swathed in the darkness of ignorance and heedlessness and enveloped in the lifeless veils of nature, you hear verses from the heavenly tongue of the Qurtan like:
All that is in the heavens and on the earth extols and glorifies God,
or,
The heavens and the earth and all within them extol and glorify Him.[10]
Now look! See how the dead or sleeping creatures in the world are raised to life in the minds of listeners at the sound of extols and glorifies Him; how they become conscious, and rise up and recite God's Names. And how at the cry and light of extols and glorifies Him the stars, which had been lifeless lumps of fire in the black skies, each appear in the view of those who hear it as a wisdom-displaying word in the mouth of the sky and a truth - pronouncing light, and in place of desolation the earth is seen to be a head with the land and sea each as tongues and animals and plants each as words of glorification and praise.
And now consider this example, which is proved in the Fifteenth Word. Listen to these verses. What do they say?
Oh you company of jinn and men! If you can pass beyond the regions of the heavens and the earth, pass beyond them! But you will not be able to pass beyond them save with authority [given by God]. * Which then, of the blessings of your Sustainer do you deny? * A flash of fire, and smoke, will be sent on you, and no succour shall you have. * Which then of the blessings of your Sustainer do you deny? [11 ]
And We have adorned the skies nearest the earth with lamps, and made them missiles to drive away the evil ones. [12]
[9]Qur'an, 57:1; 59:1; 61:1.
[10] Qur'an, 17:44.
[11] Qur'an, 55:33-6.
[12] Our'an. 67:5.
These verses say: "Oh men and jinn, arrogant and refractory in your impotence and baseness, and rebellious and obstinate in your weakness and poverty! If you do not obey My commands, pass beyond the boundaries of My dominions - if it is in your power to do so! How can you dare to oppose the commands of a Monarch Whose commands the stars, moons, and suns obey as though they were soldiers bearing orders? In your rebelliousness you oppose an All-Wise and Glonous One Who has obedient soldiers which are thus awesome. Suppose your satans were to resist, these soldiers could rain down stones on them like cannonballs. And in your godlessness you revolt in the lands of an All-Glorious Sovereign Who is such that among His forces are those who, it is not insignificant powerless creatures like you, but supposing the impossible you were each infidel enemies the size of mountains or the globe of the earth, they could hurl down stars and flaming missiles that size on you and rout you. And you infringe a law to which beings such as those are bound; if it was necessary, they could hurl the globe of the earth in your face and rain down on you stars and heavenly bodies as though they were missiles, with God's permission." You can compare the power, eloquence, and elevated manner of expression of the meanings of other verses with these.
Third Point: This is the wonderful uniqueness of its style. Indeed, the Qur'an's style is both strange, and original, and wonderful, and convincing. It has imitated nothing and no one. And no one has been able to imitate it. Its style has always preserved the freshness, youth, and singularity it possessed when first revealed and continues to preserve it. For instance, the unique style of the cipher-like muqatta'at, the 'disjointed letters', like, Alif: Lam. Mim., Alif: Lam. Ra., Ta. Ha., Ya. Sin., Ha. Mim. 'Ayn. Sin. Qaf:, at the beginning of some of the Suras. We have described five or six of the flashes of miraculousness they comprise in Signs of Miraculousness.
For example, these letters at the start of certain Suras have taken half of each category of the many well-known categories of letters, like the emphatic letters (Alif; jim, dal, ta, ba), the sibilants, the stressed letters, the soft letters, the labiolinguals, and kalkale letters (qaf; ta, dal, jim, ba). Taking more than half from the light letters and less than half from the heavy letters, neither of which are divisible, it has halved every category. Although the human mind would be capable of it, halving all those categories overlapping one within the other, hesitant among two hundred possibilities, in the only way possible, which was hidden to the human mind and unknown to it, and organizing all the letters on that way, over that broad distance, was not the work of the human mind. And chance could not have interfered in it. Thus, in addition to these letters at the beginning of the Suras - Divine ciphers - displaying five or six further flashes of miraculousness like this, scholars versed in the mysteries of the science of letters and the authorities from among the saints have deduced many secrets from these muqe~tta'at. They have discovered such truths that according to them, on their own these letters form a most brilliant miracle. Since we are not party to their secrets and also we cannot provide proofs that all eyes can see, we cannot open that door. So we shall make do with referring readers to the five or six flashes of miraculousness explained concerning them in Signs of Miraculousness.
Now we shall point out the Qur¹anic styles with regard to Sura, aim, verse, phrase, and word.
For example, if the Sura, About what are they disputing?[l3] is studied carefully, it shows the conditions of the Hereafter, the Resurrection of the Dead, and Paradise and Hell with such a wonderful and unique style that it proves the Divine acts and Dominical works in this world as though looking at each of those aspects of the Hereafter, and convinces the heart. To ex- pound the style of this Sura fully would be lengthy, so we shall just indicate to one or two points. As follows:
At the start of the Sura, to prove the Resurrection, it says: "We have made the earth a beautifully decked-out cradle for you, and the mountains masts and poles full of treasure for your house and your lives. And We have made you as couples, loving and close to one another. And We have made the night a coverlet for the sleep of your comfort, the daytime the arena in which to gain your livelihood, the sun a light-giving, heat-supplying lamp, and from the clouds We pour down water as though they were a spring producing the water of life. And We create easily and quickly from the simple water the various flower-bearing and fruit-bearing things which bear all your sustenance. Since this is so, the Day of Resurrection, the Day of Separating Good and Evil, awaits you. It is not difficult for Us to bring about that Day." Thus, it points in a veiled way to proofs that after this at the Resurrection, the mountains will be dispersed, the skies shattered, Hell readied, and the people of Paradise given gardens and orchards. It says in effect: "Since He does these things in regard to the mountains and the earth in front of your eyes, He shall do things resembling these in the Hereafter also." That is to say, the 'mountain' at the beginning of the Sura looks to the state of the mountains at the Resurrection, and the garden to the gardens and paradises in the Hereafter. Thus, you may compare other points to this and see what a beautiful and elevated style it has.
And, for example:
Say: Oh God, Holder of All Power! You grant dominion to whomever You wish and You remove dominion from whomever You wish. You exalt whomever You wish and You bring low whomever You wish. In Your hand is all good. Indeed, You are Powerful over all things. * You enter the night into the day and enter the day into the night, and You bring forth the living from the dead and bring forth the dead from the living, and You grant sustenance to whomever You wish without measure. 14
[13] The Great News, Sura 78.
[14] Qur¹an, 3:26-7.
These verses describe the Divine acts in human kind, and the Divine manifestations in the revolutions of night and day, and the Dominical acts of disposal in the seasons of the year, and the Dominical deeds in life and death on the face of the earth and in the resurrections in this world in a style so elevated that it captivates the minds of the attentive. As its brilliant, elevated, and wide-reaching style is clear with little study, we shall not open that treasury for now.
And for example,
When the sky is rent asunder * Heeding [the command of,7 its Sustainer, as in truth it must. * And when the earth is levelled * And casts out what is within it and becomes empty * And it heeds [the command of] its Sustainer, as in truth it must.[l5]
This explains the degree of submission and obedience of the skies and the earth to Almighty God's command in a most elevated style as follows: just as a commander-in-chief forms and opens two offices to accommodate the matters necessary for fighting, like one for strategy and one for the enroll- ment of soldiers, and when those matters and the fighting are over, he ad- dresses himself to those two offices in order to transform them into some- thing else and use them for some other business, each of those offices says, either through the tongues of those employed in it or through its own tongues: "Oh Chief! Give us a short respite so that we can clean up the bits and pieces of the former business and throw them out, then you honour us with your presence. There, we have thrown them out, we await your command. Order what you wish. We obey your command. Everything you do is true, good, and beneficial."
In the same way, the heavens and the earth were opened as two arenas of obligation, trial, and examination. After the allotted period is finished, they will put aside the things pertaining to the arena of trial and say: "Oh our Sustainer! The command is Yours, employ us now in whatever You wish. Our right is to obey You. Everything You do is right." Look at and consider carefully the majesty of the style in those sentences!
And for example,
Then the word went forth: 'Oh earth, swallow up your water! And oh sky withhold [your rain]!' And the water abated and the matter was ended. The ark rested on Mount Judi, and the word wentforth: 'Away with all those who do wrong!'[l6]
[15] Qur'an, 84:1-5.
[16] Our'an, 11:44.
In order to point to a mere drop from the sea of eloquence of this verse, we shall display an aspect of its style in the mirror of a comparison. On the victory being won in a great war, the commander says, "Cease fire!' to one firing army and, "Halt!" to another, assaulting, army. He gives the com- mand, and at that moment the firing ceases and the assault is halted. He says: "It is finished, we have beaten them. Our flag is planted at the top of the high citadel at the enemies' centre. Those mannerless tyrants have met with their reward and fallen to the lowest of the low."
In just the same way, the Peerless Sovereign gave the command to the heavens and the earth to annihilate the people of Noah. When they had carried out their duty, He decreed: "Drink up your water, oh earth! Cease from your work, oh skies. It is finished. Now the waters are receding. The Ark, which is a Divine official performing its duty as a tent, is settled on the top of the mountain. The wrongdoers have met with their reward." Thus, the style here alludes to the fact that the universe becomes angry at man's rebellion. The heavens and the earth become incensed. And through this allusion it says: "One Whose commands the skies and the earth obey like two obedient soldiers may not be rebelled against", restraining in a most awesome fashion. Thus, it describes a universal event like the Flood with all its consequences and truths in a few sentences in a concise, miraculous, beautiful, and succinct manner. You can compare this drop with other drops from this ocean. Now consider the style displayed by the window of the words.
For example, consider the words like an old date-stalk, withered and curved in,
And the moon We have determined mansions for till it returns like an old date-stalk, withered and curved;[l7]
see what a subtle style it displays. It is like this: one of the moon's mansions is in the Pleiades. The Qur'an likens the moon when it is a crescent to a withered and whitened old date-stalk. It shows through this simile to the eye of the imagination that it is as though there is a tree behind the green veil of the skies, and one of its white, curved, luminous branches has rent the veil and raised its head, and that the Pleiades are like a bunch of grapes on the branch and the other stars are each luminous fruits of that hidden tree of creation. If you have any discernment, you will understand what an appropriate, graceful, subtle, and elevated style and manner of expression this is in the view of the desert-dwellers for whom the date-palm is the most important means of livelihood.
And for example, as is proven at the end of the Nineteenth Word, the words runs its course in,
And the sun runs its course to a place appointed l[18]
[17] Qur'an, 36:39.
[18] Our'an. 36:38.
opens a window onto an elevated style, as follows: through the words runs its course, that is, 'the sun revolves', it makes known the Maker's tremendousness through bringing to mind the well-ordered disposals of Divine Power in the revolutions of winter and summer and day and night, and turns the gaze to the letters of the Eternally Besought One written by the pen of Power on the pages of the seasons. It proclaims the wisdom of the All- Glorious Creator.
And through the word lamp in,
And set the sun as a lamp,[l9 ]
it opens a window on the style like this: by making known the Maker's majesty and Creator's bounty through recalling that the world is a palace and the things within it are adornments and food and necessities prepared for man and living creatures and that the sun also is a subservient candle, it shows that the sun is an evidence of God's Unity, that the idolators' most important, most brilliant object of worship is a subservient lamp, an inanimate creature. That is to say, the word lamp brings to mind the Creator's Mercy within the grandeur of His Dominicality. It makes known the Divine favour within the breadth of Mercy, and in so doing informs of the munificence within the majesty of His sovereignty, thereby proclaiming Divine Unity, and in effect saying: "An inanimate and subservient lamp is in no way fit to be worshipped."
And in the course of runs its course it calls to mind the wondrous orderly disposals of Divine power in the revolutions of night and day and winter and summer, and in so doing makes known the grandeur of a single Maker's Power in His Dominicality. That is to say, it turns man's mind from the points of the sun and moon to the pages of night and day and winter and summer, and draws his attention to the lines of events written on those pages. Indeed, the Qur'an does not speak of the sun for the sake of the sun, but for the One Who illuminates it. Also, it does not speak of the nature of the sun, of which man is not in need, but of the sun's duty, which is that of a spring for the order of Dominical art, and a center for the order of Dominical creativity, and a shuttle for the harmony and order of Dominical art in the things the Pre-Eternal Inscriber weaves with the threads of day and night. You can compare other words of the Qur'an with these. While each is a simple, ordinary word, it performs the duty of a key to treasuries of subtle meanings.
Thus, it is because the Qur'an's style is for the greater part elevated and brilliant in the ways described that on occasion an Arab nomad was captivated by a single phrase, and without being a Muslim would prostrate. One nomad prostrated on hearing the phrase:
Therefore proclaim openly what you are commanded 20
[19]. Qur'an, 71:16.
[20]. Qur'an, 15:94.
When asked: "Have you become a Muslim?", he replied: "No. I am prostrating at the eloquence of these words."
Fourth Point:
This is the wonderful eloquence in its wording, that is, in the words employed. Indeed, just as the Qur'an is extraordinarily eloquent in regard to its style and manner of exposition, so too is there a most fluent eloquence in its wording. Clear evidence to the existence of this eloquence is the fact that it does not bore or cause weariness, and the testimony of the brilliant scholars of the sciences of rhetoric forms a decisive proof of the wisdom of the eloquence.
Indeed, it does not weary even if repeated thousands of times; it gives pleasure rather. It is not burdensome for the memory of a small and simple child; children can memorize it easily. It is not unpleasant to the ear, pained by the slightest word, of someone extremely ill; it is easy on it. It is like sherbet to the palate of one in the throes of death. The recitation of the Qur¹an gives sweet pleasure to the ear and mind of such a person just like Zamzam water to his mouth and palate. The reason for its not causing boredom, and the wisdom of it, is this: the Qur'an does not cause weariness because it is food and sustenance for the heart, strength and wealth for the mind, water and light for the spirit, and the cure and remedy for the soul. Everyday we eat bread, yet we do not tire of it. But if we eat the choicest fruit every day, it does cause boredom. That means it is because the Qur¹an is truth and reality and truthfulness and guidance and wonderfully eloquent that it does not cause weariness and preserves its freshness and agreeableness as though preserving a perpetual youth. One of the Qurayshi leaders even - an expert orator - was sent by the idolators to listen to the Qur¹an. He went and listened to it, then returned and said to them: "These words have such a sweetness and freshness that they do not resemble those of men. I know the poets and soothsayers; these words do not resemble theirs. The best we can do in order to deceive our followers is to say it is magic." Thus, even the All-Wise Qur'an's most obdurate enemies were amazed at its eloquence.
It would be most lengthy to explain the sources of the All-Wise Qur'an's eloquence in its verses and words and sentences, therefore we shall keep the explanation brief and show by way of example the fluency and eloquence of the wording in one sentence obtained through the portion of the letters and a single flash of miraculousness that shines forth from that positioning. Take the verse:
Then after the distress He sent down on you a feeling of peace and drowsiness, which overcame a group of you....21 [to the end of the verse]
[21]. Qur'an, 3:154.
In this verse, all the letters of the alphabet are present. But, see, although all the categories of emphatic letters are together, it has not spoiled the on smoothness of style. Indeed, it has added a brilliance and harmonious, congruent melody of eloquence issuing from varied strings. Also, note carefully the following flash of eloquence: of the letters of the alphabet, Alif and Ya, since they are the lightest and have been transposed with one another like sisters, they have each been repeated twenty-one times. And since Mim and Nun 22 are sisters and have changed places, they have each been mentioned thirty-three times. And since Shin, Sin, and Sad are sisters in regard to articulation, quality, and sound, each has been mentioned three times. And although 'Ayn and Ghayn are sisters, since 'Ayn is lighter, it is mentioned six times, while because Ghayn is harsher, it is mentioned half as many, three times. And since Zay, Dhal, Za, and Ta are sisters in regard to articulation, quality, and sound, each is mentioned twice, while Lam and Alif in the form of LA have united and Alif 's share in the form of LA is half that of Lam, Lam is mentioned forty-two times and as a half of it Alif twenty-one times. Since Hamza and Ha are sisters in regard to articulation, Hamza 23 is mentioned thirteen times and being a degree lighter Ha is mentioned fourteen times. And Kaf, Fa and Qaf are sisters; since Qaf has an additional point, it is mentioned ten times, Fa, nine times, Kaf nine times, Ba nine times, and Ta twelve times. Since Ta comes third, it is mentioned twelve times. Ra is Lam's sister, but according to their numerical value, Ra is two hundred, and Lam thirty. Since it has risen six times more, it has fallen six. Also, since Ra is repeated on pronunciation, it becomes emphatic and is only mentioned six times. And because Dad, Tha, Ha, and Kha are emphatic and possess certain qualities in connection with other letters, they have each been mentioned only once. Since Vav is lighter than Ha and Hamza, and heavier than Ya and Alif, it is mentioned seventeen times, four times more than heavy Hamza and four times less than light Alif.
Thus, the extraordinary positioning of the letters in the passage mentioned here and their hidden relationships, and the beautiful order and fine and subtle regularity and harmony show as clearly as twice two equals four that it would not be within the limits of human thought to have composed it. As for chance and coincidence, it is impossible that it should have interfered. And so, just as the strange and wonderful order and regularity in the position of these letters is the means to a fluency and eloquence in the words, so also may there be many other secret instances of wisdom. Since an order such as this has been observed in the letters, for sure, in the words, sentences and meanings such a mysterious order, such a luminous harmony has been observed that should the eye see it, it would declare: Ma'shallah!, and should the reason comprehend it, it would exclaim: Barekallah!
[22]. Tanvin is also a Nun.
[23]. Pronounced and unpronounced, Hamza is twenty-five, and three more than Hamza's silent sister Alif, because its points are three.
Fifth PointThis is the excellence in its manner of exposition. That is to say, the superiority, conciseness, and grandeur. Just as there is eloquence in the word order, the wording, and the meaning, and a uniqueness in its style, so too in its manner of exposition is there a superiority and excellence. Indeed, all the categories and levels of speech and address, like encouragement and deterring, praise and censure, demonstration and guidance, explaining and silencing in argument, are at the highest degree in the Qur'an's exposition.
Of the innumerable examples of its manner of exposition 24 in the category of encouragement and urging is that in Sura, Has there not been over man a long period of time when he was nothing - [not even] mentioned?;25 this is as sweet as the water of Kauthar and flows with the fluency of the spring of Selsebil, it is as fine as the raiment of the Houris.
Of the numerous examples in the category of deterring and threatening is the start of Sura, Has the story reached you of the Overwhelming Event? 26 Here the Qur'an's exposition has an effect like lead boiling in the ears of the people of misguidance, and fire burning in their brains, and zaqqum scalding their palates, and Hell assaulting their faces, and like a bitter thorny tree in their stomachs. For sure, an official like Hell charged by someone with torment and torture in order to demonstrate his threats, and its splitting apart with rage and wrath, and its saying: well-nigh bursting with fury 27 show how awesome and dreadful that person's threats are.
Of the thousands of examples in the category of praise, the Qur'an's manner of exposition in the five Suras starting Alhamdulillalh is brilliant like the sun,25 adorned like the stars, majestic like the heavens and the earth, lovable like the angels, compassionate like tenderness towards young in this world, and beautiful like Paradise in the Hereafter.
Of the thousands of examples in the category of censure and restraint, in the verse, Would any among you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother,29 it censures six times, even. It restrains from backbiting forcibly six times over. It is like this: as is known, the Hamza at the beginning of the verse is interrogative. This passes to all the words in the verse like water. Thus, with the first Hamza it asks: Have you no reason, the seat of question and answer, that you do not understand how ugly a thing this is?
With the second, it asks with the word like: Is your heart, the seat of love and hate, so corrupted that it loves the most despicable thing?
[24]. The style here has slipped into the clothes of this Sura's meaning.
[25], Qur'an, 76:1.
[26]. Qur'an. 88:1.
[27]. Qur'an, 67:8.
[28]. In these phrases is an allusion to the matters discussed in these Suras.
[29]. Qur'an, 49:12.
With the third, it asks with the words one of you: What has happened to your social life and civilization, which takes its life from the community, that it finds acceptable an act which thus poisons your life?
With the fourth, it asks with the words to eat the flesh: What has happened to your humanity that you tear apart your friend like a savage beast?
With the fifth, it asks with the words your brother: Have you no compassion and fellow-feeling that you unjustly tear with your teeth at the character of one injured who is your brother in thus many respects? Have you no reaction that you bite a your own limbs like a madman?
And with the sixth it asks with the word dead: Where is your conscience? Is your nature so corrupted that you do the most repulsive thing to the most respected person, your brother, like eating his flesh? That is to say, backbiting is censured and despised by the reason, the heart, humanity, the conscience, human nature, and social and national solidarity. So see! How this verse restrains from this crime in six concise degrees, in six miraculous levels!
Of the thousands of examples of the category of proof and demonstration, in the verse:
So consider the signs of God's Mercy; how He gives life to the earth after its death. Indeed, it is He Who gives life to the dead, for He is powerful over all things,30
its exposition is such that in order to prove resurrection and remove doubts, it could not be more clearly demonstrated. It is like this: it says that, as is demonstrated and explained in the Ninth Truth of the Tenth Word and in the Fifth Flash of the Twenty-Second Word, since every spring examples of resurrection are provided in three hundred thousand ways in the manner of the earth being raised to life, with the utmost order and differentiation despite those innumerable species being all mixed up together in total confusion, it is clear to human observation that the Resurrection of the Dead would not be difficult for the One who does this. Also, to write without fault or error with the pen of Power hundreds of thousands of species on the page of the earth, all together and one within the other, is the seal of the Single One of Unity; so together with demonstrating Divine Unity as the clearly as the sun, it proves with this verse the Resurrection of the Dead as easily and decisively as the rising and setting of the sun. Thus, the Qur'an demonstrates this truth in regard to manner, as described by the word how, just as it mentions it in detail in many Suras.
And for example, in Sura, Qaf. By the Glorious Qur'an,31 it proves Resurrection in such a brilliant, fine, sweet, and exalted manner that it convinces as certainly as the coming of spring. Look: in answer to the unbelievers denying the raising to life of decomposed bones and saying: "This is extraordinary; it could not be!", it decrees:
[30]. Qur'an, 30:50
[31]. Qur'an, 50:1.
Do they not look to the skies above them; how we have made them and adorned them and how there is no flaw in them.... until: ... and thus will be the Resurrection.32
The manner of its exposition flows like water, and shines like the stars. It gives both pleasure and delight to the heart like dates. And it is sustenance.
And in one of the most subtle examples of the category of demonstration, it says:
Ya. Sin.* By the All-Wise Qur'an * Indeed you are one of the Messengers.33
That is, "I swear by the Wise Qur'an that you are one of the Prophets." This oath indicates that the proof of Prophethood is so certain and true, and in justice has risen to the rank of honour and respect, that it is sworn by. Thus through indicating this, it says: "You are the Prophet, because in your hand is the Qur'an. As for the Qur'an, it the truth and it is the word of Truth. For in it is true wisdom, on it is the seal of miraculousness."
And one of the concise and miraculous examples of the category of proof and demonstration is this:
He says: Who will raise to life these bones when they are rotted? * Say: He will raise them Who created them in the first instance, for He has full knowledge of every kind of creation. [Qur'an, 36:78-79]
That is, man asks: "Who will resurrect decayed bones?" You say: "Whoever made them in the first place and gave them life, He will resurrect them." As was depicted in the third comparison of the Ninth Truth in the Tenth Word, if someone re-forms a large army in one day before your eyes, and someone else says: "This person gathered together at the sound of a bugle the members of a battalion who had dispersed to rest; he is able to bring the battalion under order", and you say, oh man: "I do not believe it", you can see what a foolish denial it would be.
In just the same way, the All-Powerful and All-Knowing One enrolls and unites anew with the command of 'Be!' and it is, and with perfect order and the balance of wisdom, the particles and subtle faculties of the battalion-like bodies of all the animals - which are like an army - and other living creatures, and creates every century, and every spring even, all the hundreds of thousands of army-like species and sorts of living creatures on the face of the earth. Can it be questioned then how He can gather together at one blast of Israfil's trumpet the fundamental parts and particles of a battalion-like body, which are already familiar with one another, through taking them under order? Can it be considered unlikely? If it is considered unlikely, that is a mindless foolishness.
In the category of guidance, the Qur'an's manner of exposition is so moving and tender, and familiar and gentle that it fills the spirit with ardour, the heart with delight, the mind with interest, and the eyes with tears. Of thousands of examples is this verse:
And yet after all this your hearts hardened and became like rocks, or even harder... to the end of the verse. [Qur'an, 2:74]
As is proved and explained in the discussion of the third verse in the First Station of the Twentieth Word, it says to the Children of Israel: "What has happened to you that although hard rock shed tears from twelve springs like eyes before a miracle like the Staff of Moses (Upon whom be peace), you remain indifferent in the face of all his miracles, with your eyes dry and tearless and your hearts hard and without fervour?" Since this meaning of guidance is explained there, we refer you to that Word, and cut this short here.
Of thousands of examples in the category of making understood and silencing in argument, consider only the following two:
If you have doubts about the Qur'an We have revealed to Our servant Muhammed, then produce a Sura similar to it. And call upon all your helpers besides God to bear witness for you, if what you say is true. [Qur'an, 2:23]
That is, "If you have any doubts, summon all your elders and supporters to help you and testify for you, then compose the like of a single Sura." Since this has been explained and proved in Signs of Miraculousness, here we shall only point out a brief summary of it. It is as follows:
The Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition says: "Oh men and jinn! If you have any doubts that the Qur'an is the Word of God and imagine it to be man's word, then come on, here it is, let's see! You bring a book like this Qur'an from someone unlettered, who does not know how to read and write like the one you call Muhammed the Trustworthy, and get him to compose it! If you cannot do this, then he need not be untaught, let him be a famous man of letters and learned. And if you are not able to do this, alright, not on his own, take all the finest works of all your orators and men of eloquence, and indeed of all the literary geniuses of the past and all those of the future, and the assistance of all your gods. Work with all your strength, compose the like of this Qur'an. And if you cannot do this, leave aside the Truths of the Qur'an and its many miraculous aspects, which it is not possible to imitate, and compose a work which is its equal in only the eloquence of its word order!"
Through the silencing words of
Bring then ten Suras forged, like it, [Qur'an, 11:13]
it says: "Come on, I do not want its true meaning from you, let it be fabrications and lies and false tales. And you will not be able to do this. So it need not be as much as the whole Qur'an, just bring ten Suras like it. And you will not be able to do this either, so bring a single Sura. This will be too much as well. So alright, make it the equivalent of a short Sura. And you will not be able to do this either, although the need for you to do so is so great. For your honour and self-respect, your dignity and religion, your tribal honour and pride, your life and property, and your lives in this world and the next will all be saved by producing the like of it. Otherwise in this world you will remain in abasement, without honour, dignity, religion, or pride, and your lives and property will be destroyed and will perish, and in the hereafter, as is indicated by the verse,
Then give heed to Hell-fire, whose fuel is men and stones, [Qur'an, 2:24}]
you will be condemned to everlasting incarceration in Hell; together with your idols you will be fuel to its fires. Since your need is thus great, and since you have now understood your impotence in eight degrees, for sure, you should know eight times over that the Qur'an is a miracle. So either believe in it, or be silent and go to Hell!" And so, see the way the Qur'an forces them to accept the argument in this category of silencing in argument which is within that of making understood, and say: "There is no manner of exposition better than that of the Qur'an!" Indeed, no need remains for further exposition after that of the Qur'an.
Here is a second example:
Exhort then [Oh Prophet], for by your Sustainer's grace you are neither a soothsayer nor a madman * Or do they say: A poet! - let us wait and see what time will do! * Say: Wait then, I too shall wait with you. * Is it that their faculties of understanding urge them to this, or are they but a people transgressing all bounds. * Or do they say: He fabricated this [Message]? Nay, they do not believe. * Let them then produce a recital like unto it - if they speak the truth. * Or were they created of nothing, or were they themselves the creators? * Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Nay, they have no firm belief. * Or are the treasuries of your Sustainer with them, or are they the managers [of affairs]? * Or have they a ladder by which they can [climb up to heaven and] listen [to its secrets]? Then let [such a] listener of theirs produce a manifest proof. * Or has He only daughters and you have sons? * Or is it that you ask for a reward, so that they are burdened with a load of debt? * Or that the Unseen is in their hands, and they write it down? * Or do they intend a plot [against you]? But those who defy God are themselves involved in a plot! * Or have they a god other than God? Exalted is God far above the things they associate with them. [Qur'an, 52:29-43]
Here we shall explain only one of the thousands of truths of these verses as a further example of the category of silencing in argument. It is as follows: with the word, Or....Or..., it silences every group of the people of misguidance with a rhetorical question expressing surprise and stops up all the sources of their doubts. It leaves no satanic chink through which doubts might enter and hide themselves; it closes them all. It leaves no veil of misguidance under which they might creep and lurk; it rends all of them. It leaves not one of their lies; it crushes them. In each sentence it either demolishes the essence of the blasphemous ideas of one group with a short phrase, or since the falsity is obvious, it exposes it by silence, or since it is refuted in detail in other verses, it here alludes to it briefly. For example, the first sentence alludes to the verse:
And We have not instructed him poetry, nor is it meet for him. [Qur'an, 36:69]
While the fifteenth sentence points to the verse:
Were there gods other than God in the heavens and earth, there surely would have been confusion in both. [Qur'an, 21:22]
You can make further examples from the other sentences like these. It is like this: it says at the start: Announce the Divine decrees. You are not a soothsayer, for the words of soothsayers are confused and conjectural, while yours are true and certain. And you are not mad; your enemies even attest to your perfect sanity.
Or do they say: A poet - let us wait and see what time will do! [Qur'an, 52:30]
Do they call you a poet, like the unreasoning, common infidels? Are they waiting for you to perish? You say to them: "Wait! I shall wait with you!" Your vast and brilliant truths are free of the imaginings of poetry and independent of their fancies.
Or is it that their faculties of understanding urge them to this? [Qur'an, 52:32]
Or like unreasoning philosophers who rely on their reasons, do they hold back from following you, saying: "Our faculties of reason are sufficient." Whereas, reason commands that you are followed, because everything you say is reasonable. But again the reason on its own cannot reach it.
Or are they but a people transgressing all bounds? [Qur'an, 52:32]
Or is the reason for their denial their not submitting to Almighty God like wicked tyrants? But the ends of the Pharaohs and Nimrods, who were the leaders of arrogant oppressors, are known.
Or do they say: He fabricated this [Message]? Nay, they do not believe. [Qur'an, 52:33]
Or like lying dissemblers without conscience do they accuse you saying: "You have made up the Qur'an!"? But up to this time they have known you to be the most truthful among them and have called you Muhammed the Trustworthy. It means that they have no intention to believe. Otherwise let them find the like of the Qur'an among the works of men.
Or were they created of nothing? [Qur'an, 52:35]
Or like the absurd philosophers who believed the universe to be without purpose and in vain, do they suppose themselves to be aimless and without wisdom, purpose, duty, or Creator? Have they become blind that they do not see that the universe is adorned from top to bottom with instances of wisdom and bears the fruit of aims, and that beings from particles to the suns are charged with duties and are subjugated to the Divine commands?
Or were they themselves the creators? [Qur'an, 52:35]
Or do they imagine like the pharaoh-like Materialists that "They came into being by themselves, feed themselves, and themselves create everything they need", so that they hold back from believing and worship? That means that each of them supposes himself to be the Creator. Whereas, the Creator of one thing has to be the Creator of everything. That is to say, their pride and conceit have made them so utterly stupid that they imagine to be a Possessor of Absolute Power one who is absolutely impotent and may be defeated by a fly or a microbe. Since they have abdicated their reason and humanity to this degree and have descended lower than the animals and even inanimate beings, do not be saddened at their denial. Consider them to be a variety of harmful animal and filthy matter! Ignore them and give them no importance!
Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Nay, they have no firm belief! [Qur'an, 52:36]
Or, like the mindless, confused Mu'tazilites, who denied God all attributes and denied the Creator, do they deny God and not heed the Qur'an? In which case, let them deny the existence of the heavens and the earth, or let them say: "We created them!" Let them lose their minds altogether and begin uttering the frenzied ravings of lunacy. For in the heavens as many proofs of Divine Unity are apparent and are recited as the stars, and on the earth as many as the flowers. That means they have no intention to obtain certain knowledge and find the truth. Otherwise how do they suppose to be without inscriber the Book of the Universe, in one word of which is written a whole book, although they know that a letter cannot exist without the one who wrote it.
Or are the treasuries of your Sustainer with them? [Qur'an, 52:37]
Or, like one group of misguided philosophers who denied Almighty God the power of choice, or like the Brahmans, do they deny the source of prophethood so that they do not come to believe in you? In which case, let them deny all the traces of wisdom and purpose, all the order and fruits which are apparent in all beings and demonstrate will and choice, let them deny all the works of mercy and grace, and all the miracles of all the prophets! Or let them say: "All the treasuries of the bounties given to creatures are with us and under our control." Let them prove they are not fit to be addressed! And do not be grieved at their denial, say: "God's unreasoning animals are many!"
Or are they the managers [of affairs]? [Qur'an, 52:37]
Or, like the arrogant Mu'tazilites, who made the reason dominant, do they imagine themselves to be rivals to and inspectors of the Creator's works, and want to hold the All-Glorious Creator responsible? Beware, do not lose heart! Nothing can come of the denials of self-centred people like that! You do not be deceived either!
Or have they a ladder by which they can [climb up to heaven and] listen [to its secrets]? Then let [such a] listener of theirs produce a manifest proof! [Qur'an, 52:38]
Or, like the spiritualists and phony soothsayers, do they follow Satan and the jinn and suppose they have found another way to the World of the Unseen? In which case, have they a ladder by which to ascend to the heavens which are closed to the satans? Do they imagine that they can give the lie to your news from the heavens? The denials of such charlatans is worth nothing!
Or has He only daughters and you have sons? [Qur'an, 52:39]
Or, like the polytheist philosophers who ascribed partners to God under the name of 'the ten intellects' and 'the masters of the species', and the Sabeans, who attributed a sort of godhead to the stars and the angels, do they ascribe offspring to Almighty God? Like the heretics and misguided, do they ascribe a son to Him, which is contrary to the necessary existence, Unity, eternity, and absolute self-sufficiency of the Single and Eternally Besought One? Do they ascribe femininity to that offspring, which is opposed to the angels' worship, purity, and kind? Do they suppose it to be an intercessor for them, so that they do not follow you? Generation is the means of multiplying, mutual assistance, perpetuation, and life for creatures like man, who is contingent, transitory, and in need of perpetuating the species, is corporeal and divisible, capable of multiplying, impotent and needy for an heir to help him. So to ascribe offspring - and a sort of offspring that those impotent, contingent, wretched men did not themselves like and could not equate with their arrogant pride, that is, female offspring - to the All-Glorious One, Whose existence is necessary and perpetual, Who endures from pre-eternity to post-eternity, Whose essence is utterly remote from and exalted above corporality, Whose being is free of and exempt from division and multiplication, and Whose Power is far above and beyond all impotence, is indeed such a delirium, such a lunatic raving that the lies and denials of those wretches who subscribe to such an idea are worth nothing. You must not be deceived. The scatter-brained nonsense, the delirious ravings of every crazy lunatic should not be heeded!
Or is it that you ask for a reward, so that they are burdened with a load of debt? [Qur'an, 52:40]
Or, like the rebellious, overweening worshippers of this world, who have made a habit of greed and miserliness, do they find what you propose burdensome, so that they flee from you? Do they not know that you seek your wage and recompense from God alone? Is it a burden to give to their own poor one fortieth of the property given to them by God Almighty, or a part of it, and as a consequence both receive plenty, and be saved from the envy and curses of the poor? Do they consider the command to give zekat burdensome and therefore hold back from Islam? Their denials bear no importance, and what they deserve is a slap, not an answer...
Or is it that the Unseen is in their hands, and they write it down? [Qur'an, 52:41]
Or, like Buddhists, who claim to be familiar with the Unseen, or the brainless who imagine their conjectures about its affairs to be certain, do they not approve of your news about the Unseen? In which case, they imagine that the World of the Unseen, which is disclosed to no one apart from prophets - who receive revelation - and which no one has the ability to enter, is present and open before them, and that they obtain information from it and write it down. So do not let the lies of these arrogant braggarts who have overstepped their mark to an infinite degree dishearten you! For in a short while your truths will rout their imaginings!
Or do they intend a plot [against you]? But those who defy God are themselves involved in a plot! [Qur'an, 52:42]
Or, like two-faced dissemblers and cunning atheists, whose natures are corrupted and consciences rotted, do they want to deceive and turn the people from the guidance which they cannot obtain, to trick them, so that they call you either a soothsayer, or possessed, or a sorcerer? Do they want to make others believe what they do not believe themselves? Do not think of these insidious charlatans as human beings, do not be saddened at their wiles and denials, and lose heart. Rather, increase your efforts! For they only trick their own souls and harm themselves. And their successes in evil are temporary; it is a Divine stratagem, drawing them to perdition by degrees.
Or have they a god other than God? Exalted is God far above the things they associate with Him! [Qur'an, 52:43]
Or, like the Magians, who imagined two separate gods called the Creator of Good and the Creator of Evil, or like the idolators and worshippers of causes, who attribute a sort of godhead to different causes and imagine each of them to be a source of support for them, do they rely on other gods and contest you? Do they consider themselves free of any need of you? That means they have become blind and do not see the perfect order and flawless harmony throughout the universe, which is as clear as day. For in accordance with the decree,
Were there gods other than God in the heavens and the earth, there surely would have been confusion in both, [Qur'an, 21:22]
if there are two headmen in one village, or two governors in one town, or two kings in one country, order is turned upside down and harmony destroyed. But from the wing of a fly to the lamps in the heavens, such a fine order has been observed that it leaves not so much space as that of a fly's wing for partners to be associated with God. Since these act in a manner so opposed to reason, wisdom, feeling, and what is obvious, do not let their lies put you off proclaiming the Message!
Thus, of the hundreds of jewels of these verses forming a series of truths, we have briefly explained only a single jewel of the Qur'an's manner of exposition in the category of making understood and silencing in argument. If I had had the power and shown a few more jewels, you too would have said: "These verses are a miracle just on their own." But the Qur'an's manner of exposition in making to understand and instruction is so wonderful, so subtle, and so fluent that the most simple ordinary person easily comprehends a most profound truth from the way it explains it. Yes, the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition simply and clearly expresses and teaches most abstruse truths in a way that caresses the view of the generality of people, and neither hurts their feelings, nor irritates their minds, nor tires them. Just as when speaking with a child, childish words are used, in the same way the Qur'anic styles come down to the level of those it addresses - called in the terminology of the scholars of theology, 'Divine condescension to the mind of man' - and speaks in that way; through comparisons in the form of allegories, it makes understood to a completely unlettered common person abstruse Divine truths and Dominical mysteries which the thought of the most learned philosophers cannot reach.
For example, by means of a comparison, the verse,
The Most Merciful One on the Throne established [Qur'an, 20:5]
shows Divine Dominicality as though it were a kingdom, and the degree of His Dominicality as though He were a King seated on the throne of his sovereignty and exercising His rule. Indeed, as the speech of the All-Glorious Creator of the universe, the Qur'an proceeds from the ultimate degree of His Dominicality, passes over all the other degrees guiding those who rise to them, and passing through seventy thousand veils, it looks to each and illuminates it. It scatters its radiance and spreads its light to the thousands of levels of those it addresses, the understanding and intelligence of whom are all different. And although it has lived through ages and centuries which in regard to capacity are all different, and has broadcast its meaning with this great abundance, it has not lost an iota of its perfect youth and juvenility, and retaining its extreme freshness and delicacy, it teaches each ordinary person in a most easy, skilful, and comprehensible manner. Whatever aspect of a wonder-displaying book which thus teaches, convinces, and satisfies with the same lesson, the same words, numerous levels of people whose understanding and degrees are all different - whatever aspect of such a book is studied, a flash of miraculousness will surely appear.
In Short: Just as when some words of the Qur'an like "All praise and thanks be to God" are recited, they fill a cave, which is the ear of a mountain, in the same way that they fill the tiny ears of a fly, so too, the Qur'an's meanings satisfy ears like mountains in the same way that with the same words they teach and satisfy tiny simple minds, like a fly. For the Qur'an calls to belief all the levels of men and jinn. And it teaches the sciences of belief to all. In which case, the most lowly of the common people kneels shoulder to shoulder with the most elevated of the elite, and together they listen to the Qur'an's teachings and benefit from them. That is to say, the Holy Qur'an is a heavenly repast that is such that the thousands of different levels of minds, intellects, hearts, and spirits find their nourishment at that table. Their desires are brought about and their appetites are satisfied. Even, numerous of its doors remain closed and are left to those who will come in the future. If you want an example of this category, the Qur'an forms examples of it from beginning to end. Indeed, all the Qur'an's students and those who listen to its teachings, like the interpreters of the law, the veracious ones, the Islamic philosophers, the sages, the scholars of jurisprudence and scholars of theology, the saintly guides of those seeking knowledge of God, the spiritual poles of the lovers of God, the learned and exacting scholars, and the mass of Muslims, unanimously declare: "We understand thoroughly what the Qur'an teaches us." In short, flashes of the Qur'an's miraculousness sparkle in the category of making understood and instruction just as they do in the other categories.
SECOND RAY
This Ray is the Qur'an's extraordinary comprehensiveness. It consists of Five Flashes.
First Flash: This is the comprehensiveness in the words. This comprehensiveness is clearly apparent from the verses mentioned both in all the previous Words, and in this Word. Indeed, as the Hadith: Each verse has an outer meaning, an inner meaning, a limit, and an aim, and each has roots, and boughs, and branches indicates, the words of the Qur'an have been positioned in such a way that each phrase, each word even, and even each letter, and sometimes even an omission has many aspects. It gives to each of those it addresses his share from a different door.
Take, for example, the verse,
And the mountains [its] pegs, [Qur'an, 78:7]
a phrase which says, "I made the mountains as stakes and masts for that earth of yours." An ordinary person's share from this phrase would be this: he sees the mountains which appear like stakes driven into the ground, thinks of the benefits and bounties in them, and offers thanks to his Creator.
A poet's share from this phrase: he imagines the earth as the ground, on which is pitched in a sweeping arc the dome of the heavens as a mighty green tent adorned with electric lamps, and he sees the mountains skirting the base of the heavens to be the pegs of the tent. He worships the All-Glorious Maker in wondering amazement.
The share of a tent-dwelling literary man from this phrase: he imagines the face of the earth to be a desert and wasteland, and the mountain chains as the multifarious tents of nomads, as if the soil layer had been cast over high posts and the pointed tips of the posts had raised up the cloth of the soil, which he sees as the habitation of numerous different creatures looking one to the other. He prostrates in wonder before the Glorious Creator, Who placed and pitched so easily these august and mighty beings like tents on the face of the earth.
The share of a geographer with a literary bent from this phrase: he thinks of the globe of the earth as a ship sailing the oceans of the air or of the æther, and the mountains as masts and posts driven into the ship for its balance and stability. He declares: "Glory be unto You! How sublime is Your glory!" before the All-Powerful One of Perfection, Who makes the mighty globe of the earth like an orderly ship, places us within it, and makes it travel through the far reaches of the world.
A sociologist and philosopher of human society's share of this phrase: his thoughts would go like this: the earth is a house, and the supporting post of the life of that house is animal life, while the supporting post of animal life are water, air, and earth, the conditions of life. And the supporting post of water, air, and earth are the mountains. For the mountains are the reservoirs for water, the combs for the air - they precipitate the noxious gases and purify it, and the earth's preserver -they preserve it from being transformed into a swamp, and from the encroachment of the sea. They are furthermore the treasuries for other necessities of human life. In utter reverence he offers praise and thanks to the Maker of Glory and Kindness, Who made these great mountains as posts for the earth - the house of our life - in this way, and appointed them as the keepers of the treasuries of our livelihood.
The share of a scholar of natural philosophy from this phrase would be this: he would think of the earthquakes and tremors which occur as the result of upheavals and fusions in the heart of the earth being calmed with the appearance of mountains, and that the cause of its stability on its axis and in its orbit and its not deviating in its annual rotation as a result of the convulsions of earthquakes is the emergence of mountains, and that the anger and wrath of the earth is quieted through it breathing through the vents in the mountains. He would come to believe completely, and would exclaim: "All wisdom is God's!"
Another example:
The heavens and the earth were joined together before We clove them asunder. [Qur'an, 21:30]
A scholar untainted by the study of philosophy would explain the words joined together like this: while the skies were shining and cloudless, and the earth dry and without life and incapable of giving birth, the skies were opened up with rain and the earth with vegetation, and all living beings were created through a sort of marriage and impregnation. To do this was the work of One so Powerful and Glorious that the face of the earth is merely a small garden of His, while the clouds veiling the face of the skies, sponges for watering it. The scholar` understands this and prostrates before the tremendousness of His Power.
A searching philosopher would explain the same words in this way: while at the start of creation the heavens and earth were a formless mass, each consisting of matter like wet dough without benefit, offspring, or creatures, the All-Wise Creator rolled them out and expanded them both into a beautiful, beneficial form, and made them the source of adorned and numerous creatures. The philosopher would stand in wonder before the breadth of His wisdom.
A modern philosopher would explain the words thus: at first, our globe and the other planets which form the solar system were fused together in the form of an undifferentiated dough. Then the All-Powerful and Self-Subsistent One rolled out the dough, and placed each of the planets in its position; leaving the sun where it was and bringing the earth here, He spread earth over the globe of the earth and sprinkled it with rain from the skies, scattered light over it from the sun, and inhabited it placing us on it. The philosopher would pull his head out of the swamp of nature, and declare: "I believe in God, the One, the Unique!"
And another example:
And the sun runs its course to a place appointed. [Qur'an, 36:68]
The Lam, translated here as 'to', expresses also the meaning of 'in'. Thus, ordinary believers see it as meaning 'to' and understand that the sun, which is a mobile lamp providing light and heat for them, will certainly conclude its journeying and reach its place of rest, then take on a form which will no longer be beneficial. And pondering over the great bounties the All-Glorious Creator has attached to the sun, they declare: "Glory be to God! All praise and thanks be to God!"
A learned scholar would also show the Lam as meaning 'to', but he would think of it not only as a lamp, but also as a shuttle weaving the tapestries of the Sustainer on the loom of spring and summer, as an ink-pot whose ink is light for the letters of the Eternally Besought One written on the pages of night and day. And thinking of the order and regularity of the world, of which the apparent movement of the sun is a sign and to which it points, he would exclaim before His wisdom: "What wonders God has willed!" , and before the All-Wise Maker's art: "How great are His blessings!", and he would bow in prostration.
A geographer and philosopher would explain the Lam as meaning 'in', like this: through the Divine command and with a spring-like motion on its own axis, the sun orders and propels the solar system. Exclaiming in wonder and amazement before the All-Glorious Maker Who thus creates and sets in order this mighty clock: "All mightiness is God's, and all power!", he would cast away philosophy and embrace the wisdom of the Qur'an.
A precise scholar would consider this Lam as both causal and adverbial, and would explain it like this: "Since the All-Wise Maker has made apparent causes a veil to His works, through a Divine law of His called gravity, He has tied the planets to the sun like stones in a sling, and causes them to revolve with different but regular motions within the sphere of His wisdom, and in order to give rise to the gravity, He has made the sun's spinning on its own axis an apparent cause. That is, the meaning of (to) a place appointed, is 'it is in motion in its own appointed place for the stability of the solar system.' For like motion apparently gives rise to heat, and heat to force, and force to gravity, it is a Divine rule, a Dominical law." Thus, on understanding this from a single letter of the Qur'an, the philosopher would declare: "All praise and thanks be to God! It is in the Qur'an that true wisdom is to be found, I consider philosophy to be worth virtually nothing!"
And the following idea would occur to a thinker of poetic bent from this Lam and the stability mentioned above: "The sun is a luminous tree, and the planets are its mobile fruits. But contrary to trees the sun shakes itself so the fruits do not fall. If it did not shake itself, they would fall and be scattered." And then he would think to himself: "The sun is an ecstatic leader of a group reciting God's Names. He recites in ecstasy in the centre of the circle and causes the others to recite." In another treatise, I described this meaning as follows:
Yes, the sun is a fruit-bearing tree; it shakes itself, so that the planets fall not, its fruits.
If it rested in silence, the attraction would cease; and they would weep through space, its ecstatics.
A further example:
It is they who shall prosper. [Qur'an, 2:5]
This verse is general and unspecific, it does not specify in what way they shall be successful, so that each person may find what he wants in it. Its words are few, so that they may be long. For the aim of some of those it is addressing is to be saved from the Fire. Others think only of Paradise. Some desire eternal happiness. Yet others seek only God's pleasure. While others know their aim and desire to the vision of God. And so on. In numerous places, the Qur'an leaves the words open like this, so that they may be general. It leaves things unsaid, so that it can express many meanings. It makes it brief, so that everyone may find his share. Thus, it says, who shall prosper. It does not determine how they shall prosper. It is as if with this omission it is saying: "Oh Muslims! Good news! Oh you who fear God! You shall find prosperity through being saved from Hell. Oh righteous one! You shall find prosperity in Paradise. Oh you who seeks knowledge of God! You will attain God's pleasure. Oh lover of God! You will experience the vision of God." And so on.
Thus, out of thousands we have offered one example of each of the phrases, words, letters, and omissions demonstrating the comprehensiveness of the words of the Qur'an. You may compare its verses and stories with these by analogy.
Another example, the verse,
Know then that there is no god but God, and ask forgiveness for your fault. [Qur'an, 47:19]
This verse contains so many aspects and degrees that all the levels of saints have met their needs from it in all their spiritual journeyings and in all their degrees, and have found spiritual sustenance and a fresh meaning from it appropriate for they own level. For, since the Name of 'Allah' is a comprehensive Name, there are aspects of Divine Unity within it to the number of the Most Beautiful Names: "There is no provider but Him! There is no creator but Him! There is no merciful one but Him!" And so on.
And, for example, of the stories of the Qur'an, the story of Moses (Upon whom be peace) contains thousands of benefits, just like the Staff of Moses. There are numerous aims and aspects in the story, like consoling and comforting the Prophet Muhammed (Upon whom be blessings and peace), and threatening the unbelievers, and censuring the dissemblers, and rebuking the Jews. For this reason it is repeated in many Suras. Although it expresses all the aims in each place, only one is the main aim, and the others are secondary.
If you say: "How can we know all the meanings in the examples you have given, which the Qur'an intends and points to?
We would reply: Since the Qur'an is a pre-eternal address, and sitting above and beyond the centuries, which, layer upon layer, are all different, addresses and instructs all of mankind lined up within them, for sure, it will include and intend numerous meanings according to those varying understandings, and will make allusions to what it intends. The numerous meanings in the words of the Qur'an similar to those mentioned here have been proved in Signs of Miraculousness according to the rules of Arabic grammar, and the sciences of rhetoric, semantics, and eloquence and their rules. According to the consensus of those qualified to interpret the Holy Law and the Qur'anic commentators and scholars of theology and jurisprudence, and according to the testimony of their differences, on condition they are considered correct by the sciences of Arabic and right by the principles of religion, all the aspects and meanings which are found acceptable by the science of semantics, and appropriate by the science of rhetoric, and desirable by the science of eloquence, are among the meanings of the Qur'an. The Qur'an has placed allusions to each of those meanings according to its degree. They are either literal or significative. If significative, an allusion points to each of them from either the preceding context or the after context or from another verse. Some of them have been expounded in Qur'anic commentaries of twenty, thirty, forty, sixty, and even eighty volumes, written by exacting scholars, which are clear and decisive proofs to the extraordinary comprehensiveness of the Qur'an's words. However... if in this Word we were to demonstrate the allusion pointing to each meaning together with its rules, the discussion would become extremely prolonged. So we cut it short here, and for part of it, refer you to Signs of Miraculousness.
Second Flash: This is the extraordinary comprehensiveness in its meaning. Indeed, together with bestowing from the treasuries of its meaning the sources for all the interpreters of the Divine Law, the illuminations of all those seeking knowledge of God, the ways of all those seeking union with God, the paths of all the perfected from among mankind, and the schools of all the scholars, the Qur'an has at all times been the guide of all of them and directed them in their progress, and it is verified unanimously by all of them that it has illuminated their ways from its treasuries.
Third Flash: This is the extraordinary comprehensiveness in its knowledge. Indeed, the Qur'an has caused to flow forth from the oceans of its own knowledge, the numerous and various sciences of the Shari'a, the multifarious sciences of reality (hakikat), and the innumerable different sciences of the religious orders (tarikat). And so too has it made flow forth in abundance and good order the true wisdom of the sphere of contingency, the true sciences of the sphere of necessity, and the enigmatic knowledge of the sphere of the Hereafter. It would be necessary to write a whole volume to provide examples of this Flash, and so, as mere samples, we point to the twenty-five Words so far written. Yes, the veracious truths of all twenty-five Words are only twenty-five drops from the ocean of the Qur'an's knowledge. If there are errors in those Words, they spring from my defective understanding.
Fourth Flash: This is the extraordinary comprehensiveness of the subjects it puts forward. Indeed, together with bringing together the extensive subjects of man and his duties, the universe and the Creator of the universe, the heavens and the earth, this world and the hereafter, the past and the future, and pre-eternity and post-eternity, it explains all the essential and important topics from man's creation from seminal fluid till when he enters the grave; from the correct conduct of eating and sleeping to the matters of Divine Decree and Determining; from the creation of the world in six days, to the duties of the wind blowing indicated to by the oaths of,
By the [winds] that scatter, [Qur'an, 51:1]
and,
By the [winds] sent forth; [Qur'an, 77:1]
from His intervention in man's heart and will, indicated to by,
comes between a man and his heart, [Qur'an, 8:24]
and,
But you will not except as God wills, [Qur'an, 76:30]
to,
And the heavens rolled up in His right hand, [Qur'an, 39:67]
that is, to His holding all the heavens within His grip; from the flowers, and grapes, and dates of the earth described in,
And We produce therein gardens of date-palms and vines, [Qur'an, 36:34]
to the strange truth expressed by,
When the earth is shaken to its utmost convulsion; [Qur'an, 99:1]
from the state of the skies in,
Then He directed [His will] towards the skies and they were smoke, [Qur'an, 41:11]
to their being rent with smoke and the stars falling and being scattered in infinite space; from the world's being opened for test and examination, to its closing; from the grave, the first dwelling of the hereafter, and then from the Intermediate Realm, the Resurrection, and the Bridge, to eternal happiness; from the events of the past, and the creation of the body of Adam and the dispute of his two sons, to the Flood, and the drowning of the people of Pharaoh, and the major events of most of the prophets; and from the pre-eternal circumstance alluded to by,
Am I not your Sustainer? [Qur'an, 7:172]
to the post-eternal occurrence expressed by,
Some faces that day will beam in brightness * Looking towards their Sustainer; [Qur'an, 75:22-3]
all these fundamental, important subjects are explained in a way befitting the All-Glorious One Who administers the whole universe as though it was a palace, and opens and closes this world and the hereafter like two rooms, and regulates the earth as if it was a garden and the heavens as though they were a roof adorned with lamps, and beholds the past and the future as though they were two pages present in His sight like a single night and day, and looks on pre-eternity and post-eternity as though they were yesterday and tomorrow, in a form in which the two sides of a chain of events are joined together and touching like in present time. Like a master builder speaks of two houses he has constructed and arranged, and makes out the programme and list and index of the matters involved, so also the Qur'an is in a form appropriate to the One Who makes the universe and arranges it, and writes out and displays the list and index and - if one may say so - the programme of the matters concerned with it. There is no sign of any artificiality or false display. And just as there is no trace of imitation or hint of any fraud, like speaking on behalf of someone else or supposing itself to be in someone else's place and speaking, so also with all its seriousness, all its purity, all its sincerity, the Qur'an's pure, shining, brilliant exposition declares: "I am the word and exposition of the Creator of the world", just as the light of day declares: "I came from the sun."
Indeed, apart from the Maker Who adorns this world with antique arts and fills its with delicious bounties and scatters bountifully over the face of the world together with these wonders of His art so many valuable gifts, and setting them in orderly lines spreads them out over the face of the earth, apart from this Bestower of Bounties, who else could the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition be fitting for - the Qur'an which fills the world with this clamour of salutation and acclaim, this resounding praise and thanks, and transforms the earth into a place for the recitation of God's Names, a mosque, and place for gazing on the Divine works of art? Whose speech could it be apart from His? Who can claim ownership of it apart from Him? Whose word could it be other than His? Whose light could the exposition of the Qur'an be, which solves the talisman of creation and illuminates the world, other than the Pre-Eternal Sun's? Who has the ability to produce the like of it, and imitate it? In truth, it is impossible for the Artist Who adorns this world with His arts not to speak with man, who appreciates His art. Since He makes and knows, He surely speaks. And since He speaks, for sure it is the Qur'an which is appropriate to His speech. How should a Lord of All Dominion Who is not indifferent to the way a flower is ordered remain indifferent to a discourse which brings all His dominion to a clamour of salutation and praise? Would He permit it to be attributed to others and be made as nothing?
Fifth Flash: This is the wonderful comprehensiveness of the Qur'an's style and conciseness. It consists of five 'Glows'.
First Glow: The Qur'an's style has a comprehensiveness so wonderful that a single Sura contains the ocean of the Qur'an, which in turn contains the universe. And a single of its verses contains the treasury of the Sura. And most of the verses are each a short Sura, while most of the Suras are each a short Qur'an. Thus, this is a great favour and guidance and facilitating arising from its miraculous conciseness. For although everyone has need of the Qur'an all the time, either due to foolishness or for some other reason, they do not have the time to read all of it, or they do not have the opportunity. So in order that they should not to be deprived of it, each Sura is like a short Qur'an, and each long verse even has the rank of a Sura. Those who penetrate to the inner meaning of things agree that the Qur'an is contained in the Sura al-Fatiha, even, and the Fatiha in the Bismillah. The proof of this fact is the consensus of the scholars who have investigated it.
Second Glow: The verses of the Qur'an are comprehensive through their denoting and indicating all the categories of speech and true knowledge and human needs, like command and prohibition, promise and threat, encouragement and deterring, restraint and guidance, stories and comparisons, the Divine ordinances and teachings, the sciences related to the universe, and the laws and conditions of individual human life, social life, the life of the heart, spiritual life, and the life of the hereafter. So that the truth of the saying, "Take whatever you want from the Qur'an for whatever you want" has become accepted to such a degree by the people of truth that it has become proverbial among them. There is such a comprehensiveness in the verses of the Qur'an that they may be the cure for every ill and the sustenance for every need. Yes, they have to be like that, because it is essential that the absolute guide of all the levels of the people of perfection, who continually rise in the degrees of progress, possesses this property.
Third Glow: This is the Qur'an's miraculous conciseness. It sometimes happens that the Qur'an mentions the two ends of a long chain in such a way that it shows clearly the whole chain. And sometimes it happens that it includes explicitly, implicitly, figuratively, and allusively many proofs of an assertion in one word. For example, in the verse:
And among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variations in your tongues and in your colours, 74
by mentioning the beginning and end of the chain of the universe's creation, which forms the chain of signs and indications of Divine Unity, it shows the second chain. It makes the first chain read it out. Indeed, the first degree of the pages of the world which testify to an All-Wise Maker is the origin of the heavens and the earth, their creation. Next is the heavens being adorned with stars and the earth made to rejoice with living beings. Then the change of the seasons through the subjugation of the sun and the moon. Then is the change and alternation of day and night, and the chain of events within these. And so it goes on as far as the characteristics and distinguishing individual features on faces and in voices, the most widely spread loci of multiplicity. Thus, since there is an astonishing and wise order in the characteristics of individual faces, which are the furthest from order and most subject to the interference of chance, if it is shown that the pen of a most wise craftsman works there, for sure the other pages, whose order is clear, will themselves be understood and display their Inscriber. And since the works of art and wisdom of a Maker are apparent in the original creation of the mighty heavens and earth, Who positions them with wisdom as the foundation stones of the palace of the universe, the works of His art and the impress of His wisdom will surely be most clear in His other beings. Thus, by exposing the concealed and concealing the obvious, this verse expresses a most beautiful succinctness.
And so too in the verses from:
So give glory to God when you reach eventide .... till
And to Him belongs the loftiest similitude in the heavens and the earth; for He is Exalted in Might, Full of Wisdom, 75
the chain of proofs which begins six times with the words, And among His signs..., And among His signs, is a chain of jewels, a chain of light, a chain of miraculousness, a chain of miraculous conciseness. I wish from the heart to display the hidden diamonds in these treasuries, but what can I do, the discussion here does not support it. So postponing it to another time, I am not opening that door for now.
And for example:
...Send me therefore * Oh Joseph! Oh Man of truth! 76
Between ..send me therefore and Oh Joseph! are these words: ...Joseph, that I may ask him to interpret the dream. So I sent him, and he went to the prison and said to Joseph... That is to say, although five sentences have been abbreviated and summarized in one sentence, it does not mar the clarity or hinder the understanding.
And, for example:
Who produces for you fire from the green tree. 77
Here the Qur'an is saying in the face of rebellious man's denials, who is as though challenging the Qur'an by saying, Who will raise to life rotten bones?, "Whoever created them in the first place, He will raise them to life. And that Creator knows every single thing in every aspect of its being. Furthermore, He who provides fire for you from the green tree, is able to give life to dry bones." Thus, this sentence looks in numerous ways to the assertion that man will raised to life and proves it.
Firstly, with these words the Qur'an starts the chain of bounties it lays before man, moves its forward, and calls it to mind. Since it describes it in detail in other verses, it cuts short the description here, and refers it to the reason. That is, you cannot flee from the One Who gives you fruit and fire from trees, sustenance and seeds from plants, cereals and grains from the earth, and also makes the earth a fine cradle for you filled with all your sustenance, and the world a palace in which is found all your needs - you cannot be independent of Him, nor go to non-existence and hide there. You cannot be without duties and enter the grave to sleep in comfort not to be awoken.
Then it points out one evidence of this assertion. With the words, the green tree, it implies: "Oh you who deny resurrection! Look at the trees! One Who raises to life and makes green in spring numberless trees which are dead in winter and like bones, and in each single tree even shows three examples of resurrection through the leaves, blossoms, and fruit - the Power of such a One cannot be challenged with denial or considering resurrection improbable."
Then it points out another evidence, saying: "How do you deem it unlikely that One Who extracts for you out of dense, heavy, dark matter like a tree, subtle, light, luminous manner like fire should give life like fire and consciousness like light to bones which are like wood?"
Then it states another evidence explicitly; it says: "One Who creates the famous tree which, while green produces fire for nomads in place of matches when two of its branches are rubbed together, and combines two opposites like the green and damp and the dry and hot, and makes them the source of the fire - everything, even the fundamental elements, looks to His command and acts through His power. It cannot be considered unlikely of the One Who demonstrates that none of these is independent and acts of its own accord that He should raise man from the earth once again, who was made from earth and later returned to the earth. He may not be challenged with rebellion."
Then, through recalling Moses's (Upon whom be peace) famous tree, it shows that this claim of Muhammed's (Upon whom be blessings and peace) is also that of Moses (Upon whom be peace). Lightly alluding to the consensus of the prophets, it adds one subtle point more to the phrase.
Fourth Glow: The Qur'an's conciseness is so comprehensive and wonderful that when studied carefully it becomes apparent that sometimes, through some simple detail or particular event, it compassionately shows to simple and ordinary minds most extensive, lengthy, universal rules and general laws, like showing an ocean in a ewer. We shall point out only two examples of this out of thousands.
First Example: This is the three verses expounded in detail in the First Station of the Twentieth Word, which describe under the name of 'the teaching of the Names' to the person of Adam, the teaching of all the sciences and branches of knowledge with which the sons of Adam have been inspired. And through the angels prostrating before Adam and Satan not prostrating, they state that most beings from fish to angels are subjugated to human kind, just as harmful creatures from snakes to Satan do not obey man and are hostile to him. And through the people of Moses (Upon whom be peace) slaughtering a cow, they state that the concept of cow-worship - which was taken from the worship of cows in Egypt and showed its effect in 'the event of the calf' - was slaughtered by Moses' knife. And through water gushing forth from the rock and springs flowing out and spreading, they also state that the rock layer which is under the soil layer acts as the source of both water springs and the soil.
Second Example: This is the whole and the parts of the story of Moses (upon whom be peace), which is frequently repeated in the Qur'an, and each of the repetitions of which is shown as the tip of a universal rule, each repetition stating the rule in question. For example:
Oh Haman! Build me a lofty palace.78
Pharaoh is commanding his minister: "Build me a high tower so that I can take a look at the heavens and observe them. I wonder if there is a God who governs in the skies like Moses claims, that can be seen from their disposition?" Thus, through the word 'palace' and this minor incident, it states a strange rule dominant in the traditions of the Egyptian Pharaohs, who, because they lived in the desert with no mountains, wanted mountains, and because they did not recognize the Creator, were worshippers of Nature and claimed godhead, and worshipping fame, through displaying the works of their dominion perpetuated their name and constructed the famous mountain-like pyramids, and agreed to magic and metempsychosis, and had their corpses mummified and preserved in their mountain-like tombs.
And, for example:
This day We shall save you in your body.79
By saying to Pharaoh, who is drowning: "Today I am going to save your body which will drown", it is expressing a death-tainted, exemplary rule of the Pharaohs' lives, which was, as a consequence of the idea of metempsychosis and mummifying the bodies of all of them, to take them from the past and send them to be viewed by the generations of the future. And so too this present century a body was discovered which was the very body of Pharaoh, thrown up on the seashore where he drowned. The verse thus states a miraculous sign of the unseen, that the body was to be borne on the waves of the centuries and cast up from the sea of time onto the shore of this century.
And, for example:
They slaughtered your sons and let your women-folk live.80
Through an event in the time of a Pharaoh, the slaughtering of the sons of the Children of Israel and the sparing of their women and daughters, it states the numerous massacres which the Jewish nation has suffered every age, and the role their women and girls have played in dissolute human life.
And you will indeed find them, of all people, most greedy of life.81 * And you see many of them racing each other in sin and rancour, and their eating of things forbidden. Evil indeed are the things they do.82 * But they [ever] strive to do mischief on earth. And God loves not those who do mischief.83 * And We gave [clear] warning to the Children of Israel in the Book, that twice they would do mischief on the earth.84 * And do no evil nor mischief on the earth.85
These two statements of the Qur'an directed at the Jews, comprise the two fearsome general rules, that that nation hatches plots in human social life with their trickery, which shake human society. They state that just as it was that nation which made labour and endeavour contest with capital, and through usury and compounded interest, made the poor clash with the rich, and caused the establishment of the banks, and amassed wealth through wiles and fraud, so also it was again that nation who, in order to take their revenge on the victors and governments from which they always suffered deprivation and oppression, were involved in every sort of corrupting committee and had a finger in every sort of revolution.
And, for example:
Then seek ye for death 86
That is, "If what you say is true, seek death. But you won't seek for it!" Thus, through a minor incident in a small gathering in the presence of the Prophet (PBUH), it states that the Jewish nation, which is most famous among the nations of mankind for greed for life and fear of death, will not seek death till Doomsday, according to the tongues of its disposition, and will not give up its greed for life.
And, for example:
Thus they were stamped with humiliation and indigence.87
Through this, it describes that nation's future destiny in a general way. Thus, it is because of these fearsome rules included in the destiny and character of this nation that the Qur'an acts so severely against them. It deals them awesomely punishing slaps. And so, from these examples draw analogies with the other stories and pieces about Moses (Upon whom be peace) and the Children of Israel. Now, there are very many flashes of miraculousness behind the simple words and particular subjects of the Qur'an like the flash of miraculousness in this Fourth Glow. A hint is enough for the wise.
Fifth Glow: This is the extraordinary comprehensiveness of the Qur'an in regard to its aims and subjects, meanings and styles, and its subtle qualities and fine virtues. Indeed, if the Suras and verses of the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition are studied carefully, and especially the openings of the Suras, and the start and finish of the verses, it will be seen that although it gathers together all the categories of rhetoric, all the parts of fine speech, all the classes of elevated styles, all the sorts of fine morality, all the summaries of the sciences relating to the universe, all the indexes of Divine knowledge, all the beneficial rules for individual and human social life, and all the luminous laws of the exalted physical sciences, not a trace of confusion is apparent. In truth, to gather together in one place this many different categories of knowledge and not to cause any dispute or difficulty can only be the work of an overwhelming miraculous order.
And together with this order within this comprehensiveness - as is expounded and proved in the previous Twenty-Four Words, to rend the veils of the habitual and commonplace, which are the source of compounded ignorance, and to draw out the wonders concealed beneath them and display them; to smash with the diamond sword of proof the idol of nature, which is the source of misguidance; to scatter with trumpet-blasts like thunder the dense layers of the sleep of heedlessness; and to uncover and reveal the obscure talisman of being and the strange riddle of the creation of the world, before which human philosophy and science have remained impotent, is most surely only the wondrous work of a wonder-worker like the Qur'an - the Qur'an, which sees reality, is familiar with the Unseen, bestows guidance, and shows the truth.
Indeed, if the Qur'an's verses are considered carefully and fairly, it will be seen that they do not resemble a gradual chain of thought, following one or two aims, like other books. Rather, the Qur'an's manner is sudden and instantaneous; it is inspired on the moment; it has the mark that all its aspects which arrive together come independently from somewhere distant, a most serious and important discourse which comes singly and concisely.
Yes, who is there apart from the universe's Creator that can make a discourse concerned to this degree with the universe and the Creator of the universe? Who could step beyond his mark to an infinite degree and make the All-Glorious Creator speak at his own whim, then make the universe speak the truth? Yes, in the Qur'an, the universe's Maker is seen to be speaking and making speak most seriously and truthfully and in elevated and true fashion. There is no sign at all to suggest imitation. He speaks and makes speak. To suppose the impossible, if someone like Museylima was to step beyond his mark to an infinite degree, and by way of imitation make the All-Glorious Creator, the Sublime and Majestic One, speak according to his own ideas, and the universe as well, of course there would be thousands of signs of imitation and indications of falsehood. For when the most base assume the manner of the most elevated, their every action shows up their simulation. And so, consider carefully these verses, which proclaim this fact with an oath,
By the star when it goes down! * Your companion is neither astray nor being misled * Nor does he say [aught] of [his own] desire * It is no less than revelation inspired! 88
THIRD RAY
This is the miraculousness of the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition which is its giving news of the Unseen, preserving its youth in every age, and being appropriate to every level of person. This Ray has three 'Radiances'.
First Radiance: This is its giving news of the Unseen. It consists of three 'Glistens'.
The First Glisten is its giving news of the past, one part of the Unseen. Indeed, the All-Wise Qur'an mentions through the tongue of one whom everyone agreed was both unlettered and trustworthy the important events and significant facts concerning the prophets from the time of Adam till the Era of Bliss in a way which, confirmed by scriptures like the Torah and the Bible, tells of them with the greatest power and seriousness. It concurs with the points on which the former Books were agreed, and decides between them on the points over which they differed, pointing out the truth of the matter. That is to say, the Qur'an's view which penetrates the Unseen sees the events of the past in a way over and above all the previous scriptures, and pronounces them right and confirms them in the matters on which they are agreed, and acts as arbiter between them, correcting in matters concerning which they are at variance.
However, the facts the Qur'an relates about the events and happenings of the past are not things that could be obtained through the exercise of reason, so that they could be communicated by the reason, they are rather transmitted knowledge, dependent on the heavens, on revelation. And as for transmitted knowledge, it is the domain of those who know how to read and write. And they were revealed to one known by friend and foe alike as knowing neither how to read nor write, and as being trustworthy; someone described as unlettered.
Also, the Qur'an tells of those events of the past as though it had actually seen them. For it takes the spirit and source of life of a lengthy event, and makes them the introduction to its aim. That is to say, the summaries and extracts which are in the Qur'an show that it sees all the past together with all its events. For just as someone who is an expert in some science or craft shows his skill and proficiency through some succinct words or a concise statement, so too the summaries and spirits of events mentioned in the Qur'an show that the one who said them comprehends all events and sees them, and, if one can say so, relates them with extraordinary skill.
The Second Glisten is its giving news of the future, which is another part of the Unseen. There are many sorts of this. The first sort is particular, and special to the saints and those who uncover the mysteries of creation. For example, Muhyiddin al-Arabi discovered numerous instances of the Qur'an's giving news of the Unseen in the Sura,
Alif. Lam. Mim. * The Roman Empire has been defeated.89
And Imam-i Rabbani saw many signs of the events of the Unseen and the communicating of them through the 'disjointed letters' at the start of some Suras, and so on. For scholars of the Batiniye school, the Qur'an consisted from beginning to end of giving news of the Unseen. But we shall indicate to some which are general. It too has many levels, one of which we shall discuss. Thus, the All-Wise Qur'an says to the Most Noble Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace): [Since these verses which give news of the Unseen have been expounded in numerous Qur'anic commentaries, and also due to the haste imposed on the author by his intension to have this work printed in the old (Ottoman) script, they have not been explained here and those valuable treasuries have remained closed.]
So patiently persevere, for God's promise is true.91 * You shall enter the Sacred Mosque if God wills, with minds secure, heads shaved, hair cut short, and without fear; * He it is Who sent His Prophet with guidance and the religion of truth, so it should prevail over all religion.92 * But they, after this defeat of theirs will soon be victorious, * within a few years. With God is the decision.93 * Soon will you see, and they will see * which of you is afflicted with madness.94 * Or do they say: 'A poet! We await for him some calamity [hatched] by time?' * Say: 'Wait, then. And I shall wait with you!'95 * And God will defend you from men.96 * But if you cannot, and of a surety you cannot.97 * But they will never seek it.98 * We shall show them Our signs on the furthest horizons and in their own selves, so that it becomes clear to them that this is the Truth.99 * Say: If the whole of mankind and the jinns were to come together to produce the like of this Qur'an, they could not produce the like thereof, even if they backed up each other with help and support.100 * God will produce a people whom He will love as they will love Him, lowly with the believers, mighty against the rejecters, fighting in the way of God, and never afraid of the reproaches of such as find fault.101 * And say: Praise be to God, Who will show you His signs, so that you shall know them.102 * Say: 'He is the Most Merciful; we have believed in Him, and in Him have we put our trust. Soon you shall know which [of us] it is that is in manifest error.'103 * God has promised to those among you who believe and act righteously that He will of a surety grant them inheritance [of power] in the land, as He granted it to those before them; that He will establish in authority their religion, which He has chosen for them; and that He will change [their state] after their fear, to one of security and peace.104
The information about the Unseen which many verses like these give turned out to be exactly true. And so, because it was given by one who was subject to many criticisms and objections and could have lost his cause through the tiniest mistake, and was spoken unhesitatingly, and with absolute seriousness and confidence in a way that confirmed its authenticity, this news of the Unseen demonstrates with certainty that the one who gave it had received instruction from the Pre-Eternal Master, and then he spoke.
The Third Glisten is its giving news of the Divine truths, cosmic truths, and the matters of the hereafter. Indeed, the Qur'an's expositions of the Divine truths, and its explanations of the cosmos, which solve the talisman of the universe and riddle of creation, are the most important of knowledge concerning the Unseen. For it is not reasonable to expect the human reason to discover those truths about the Unseen and follow them without deviating amid innumerable ways of misguidance. It is well-known that the most brilliant philosophers of mankind have been unable to reach the most insignificant of those matters by use of the reason. Furthermore, it is after the Qur'an has explained those Divine truths and cosmic truths, which it points out, and after the heart has been cleansed and the soul purified, and after the spirit has advanced and the mind been perfected that the human mind affirms and accepts those truths, and says to the Qur'an: "How great are God's blessings!" This section has been in part explained and proved in the Eleventh Word, and there is no need to repeat it. But when it comes to facts concerning the hereafter and Intermediate Realm, the human mind for sure cannot reach and see them on its own. However, it can prove them to the degree it sees them through the ways shown by the Qur'an. It is explained and proved in the Tenth Word how right and true are these utterings of the Qur'an concerning the Unseen.
Second Radiance: This is the Qur'an's youth. It preserves its freshness and youth every age as though newly revealed. Indeed, it is necessary for the Qur'an to have a perpetual youth since as a pre-eternal address, it addresses at once all the levels of mankind in every age. And that is how it is seen and appears. Even, although all the centuries are different with regard to ideas and capacity, it is as though it looks to each of them particularly, and teaches it. Man's works and laws grow old like man, they change and are changed. But the rulings and laws of the Qur'an are so firm and well-established that they increase in strength as the centuries pass. Indeed, this present age and the People of the Book this age, who have more than any other relied on themselves and stopped up their ears to the words of the Qur'an, are so in need of its guiding address of,
Oh People of the Book! Oh People of the Book!
that it is as if it addresses this age directly, and the phrase Oh People of the Book! comprises also the meaning of Oh People of the Modern Science Books! 105 It sends out its shout of,
Oh People of the Book! Come to common terms as between us and you106
to the ends of the world through all its strength, all its freshness, all its youth.
For example, modern civilization, which is the product of the thought of all mankind and perhaps the jinn as well, has taken up a position opposed to the Qur'an, which individuals and communities have failed to dispute. It disputes the Miraculousness of the Qur'an with its sorcery. Now, in order to prove the claim of the verse:
Say: if the whole of mankind the jinns were to gather together...,107
we shall compare the foundations and principles which civilization has laid in the form of dispute with the principles of the Qur'an.
At the First Degree: The comparisons and balances which form all the Words from the First to the Twenty-Fifth, and the verses at their heads which form their truths all prove with the certainty that two and two equals four the Qur'an's miraculousness and supremacy in the face of civilization.
At the Second Degree: Like the proofs in the Twelfth Word, it is to summarize a number of principles. By reason of its philosophy, present-day civilization accepts 'force' as the point of support in human social life. It takes as its aim 'benefits', and knows the principle of its life to be 'conflict'. It considers the bond between communities to be 'racialism and negative nationalism'. While its aim is to provide certain 'amusements' for gratifying the appetites of the soul and increasing man's needs. But the mark of force is aggression. And since the benefits are not sufficient to meet every need, their mark is that everyone tussles and jostles over them. The mark of the principle of conflict is contention, and the mark of racialism, aggression, since it thrives on devouring others. Thus, it is because of these principles of civilization's that despite all its virtues, it has afforded a sort of superficial happiness for only twenty per cent and cast eighty per cent into distress and poverty.
The wisdom of the Qur'an, however, takes as its point of support 'truth' in stead of force, and in place of benefit takes as its aim 'virtue and God's pleasure'. It considers fundamental in life 'the principle of mutual assistance', rather than the principle of conflict. In the ties between communities it accepts 'the bonds of religion, class, and country', in place of racialism and nationalism. Its aims are to place a barrier before the illicit assaults of the soul's base appetites and to urge the spirit to sublime matters, to satisfy the elevated emotions and encourage man towards the human perfections. And as for the truth, its mark is concord, and the mark of virtue is mutual support, and the mark of mutual assistance, hastening to help one another. The mark of religion is brotherhood and attraction. And the result of reining in and tethering the evil-commanding soul and leaving the spirit free and urging it towards perfection is happiness in this world and the next. Thus, despite the virtues that present-day civilization has obtained from the guidance of the Qur'an in particular, and from the preceding revealed religions, in the view of truth it has thus suffered defeat before the Qur'an.
Third Degree: Of thousands of matters, we shall point out only three or four by way of example. Indeed, since the Qur'an's principles and laws have come from pre-eternity, they shall go to post-eternity. They are not condemned to grow old and die like civilization's laws. They are always young and strong. For example, despite all its societies for good works, all its establishments for the teaching of ethics, all its severe discipline and regulations, civilization has been unable to contest the All-Wise Qur'an on two of its matters, and has been defeated by them. These two matters are:
Be steadfast in performing the prayers, and give zekat, 108
and,
God has permitted trade and forbidden usury.109
We shall describe them, this miraculous victory, by means of an introduction. It is like this:
As is proved in Signs of Miraculousness, just as the source of mankind's revolutions is one phrase, so too one phrase is the origin of all immorality.
First Phrase: "So long as I'm full, what is it to me if others die of hunger."
Second Phrase: "You work so that I can eat."
Yes, the upper and lower classes in human society, that is, the rich and the poor, live at peace when in equilibrium. The basis of that equilibrium is compassion and kindness in the upper classes, and respect and obedience in the lower classes. Now, the first phrase has urged the upper classes to oppression, immorality, and mercilessness. And like the second phrase has driven the lower classes to hatred, envy, and to contend the upper classes, and has negated man's tranquillity for several centuries, so too this century, as the result of the struggle between capital and labour, it has been the cause of the momentous events of Europe well-known by all. Thus, together with all its societies for good works, all its establishments for the teaching of ethics, all its severe discipline and regulations, it could not reconcile these two classes of mankind, nor could it heal the two fearsome wounds in human life. The Qur'an, however, eradicates the first phrase with its injunction to pay zekat, and heals it. While it uproots the second phrase with its prohibition on usury and interest, and cures that. Indeed, the Qur'anic verse stands at the door of the world and declares usury and interest to be forbidden. It reads out its decree to mankind, saying: "In order to close the door of strife, close the door of usury and interest!" It forbids its students to enter it.
Second Principle: Civilization does not accept polygamy. It considers the Qur'an's decree to be contrary to wisdom and opposed to man's benefits. Indeed, if the purpose of marriage was only to satisfy lust, polygamy would have been contrary to it. But as is testified to by all animals and corroborated by plants that 'marry', the purpose and aim of marriage is reproduction. The pleasure of satisfying lust is a small wage given by Divine mercy in order to cause the duty to be performed. Since in truth and according to wisdom, marriage is for reproduction and the perpetuation of the species, since women can give birth only once a year, and can be impregnated only half the month, and after the age of fifty fall into despair, and men can impregnate till a hundred years old, and thus one woman is insufficient for one man, civilization has been compelled to accept numerous houses of ill repute.
Third Principle: Unreasoning civilization criticizes the Qur'anic verse which apportions to women one third [in inheritance]. Whereas most of the rules in social life exist because of their prevalence in regard to the majority, and mostly a women finds someone to protect her. As for the man, she will be a burden on him and will have to combine efforts with someone else who will leave her her means of subsistence. Thus, in this form, if a woman takes half of the father's legacy, her husband makes up her deficiency. But if the man receives two parts from his father, one part he will give to maintaining the woman he has married, thus becoming equal with his sister. The justice of the Qur'an requires it to be thus. It has decreed it in this way. [This part of my court defence, which was the supplement for the Appeal Court, and which silenced the court. It is appropriate as a footnote for this passage. I told the court of law: Surely if there is any justice on the face of the earth, it will reject and quash an unjust decision which condemns someone who expounds a most sacred and right Divine rule governing in the social life of three hundred and fifty million people in the year one thousand three hundred and fifty, and in every country, relying on the confirmation and consensus of three hundred and fifty thousand Qur'anic commentaries, and following the beliefs of our forefathers of one thousand three hundred and fifty years.]
Fourth Principle: Just as the Qur'an forbids in severe fashion the worship of idols, so also it forbids the worship of forms, which is a sort of imitation of idol-worship. Whereas civilization counts forms as one of its virtues, and has wanted to dispute the Qur'an on this matter. But forms, whether images or concrete, are either embodied tyranny, or embodied hypocrisy, or embodied lust; they excite lust and encourage man to oppression, hypocrisy, and licentiousness. Moreover, the Qur'an compassionately commands women to wear a veil of modesty, so that they will be treated with respect and those mines of compassion will not be abased beneath the feet of low desires, and will not become like worthless goods for the excitement of lust. [The Twenty-Fourth Flash of the Thirty-First Letter about the veiling of women has proved most decisively that Islamic dress is natural for women, and that to cast it aside is contrary to women's nature.] However, civilization has drawn women out of their homes, rent their veils, and corrupted mankind. For family life continues through the mutual love and respect of man and wife. But immodest dress has destroyed sincere respect and affection, and has poisoned family life. And the worship of forms in particular has shaken morality in appalling fashion and caused the abasement of man's spirit, which may be understood from the following: just as looking with lust and desire at the corpse of a beautiful woman needy for pity and compassion destroys morality, so too looking lustfully at the forms of dead women, or the forms of living women, which are like little corpses, shakes to the very base the elevated human emotions, and destroys them.
Thus, together with serving to attain human happiness in this world, each of thousands of matters of the Qur'an like these three examples serve also eternal happiness. You can compare other matters to these.
Just as present-day civilization stands defeated before the Qur'anic principles concerning human social life and is in reality bankrupt before the Qur'an's miraculousness, so too, it has been proved decisively in the twenty-five Words up to here through the comparisons of European philosophy and human science, which are the spirit of civilization, and the wisdom of the Qur'an that philosophy is impotent and the wisdom of the Qur'an miraculous. The impotence and bankruptcy of philosophy and miraculousness and wealth of Qur'anic wisdom have been proved in the Eleventh and Twelfth Words; you may refer to those.
Furthermore, just as present-day civilization is defeated before the miraculousness of the Qur'an's wisdom in regard to learning and actions, the same is true for literature and rhetoric. The comparison of the literature and rhetoric of civilization and those of the Qur'an is that of the dark grief and hopeless wailing of a motherless orphan and the low and uproarious song of a drunkard, and the yearning, hopeful sorrow of an elevated lover arising from a temporary separation and patriotic songs urging victory or war and high self-sacrifice. For in regard to the effects of its styles, literature and rhetoric produce either sorrow or joy. And sadness is of two sorts. It is either a dark sorrow arising from the lack of friends, that is having no friends or owner, which is the sorrow produced by the literature of civilization, which is stained by misguidance, enamoured of Nature, tainted by heedlessness, or it is the second sorrow. This arises from the separation of friends, that is, the friends exist, but their absence produces a yearning sorrow. This is the guidance-giving, light-scattering sorrow which the Qur'an produces. Joy, too, is of two sorts. One stimulates the desires of the soul. It is the mark of civilization's literature in the fields of theatre, cinema, and the novel. While the other joy silences the soul, and is subtle and mannerly, innocently urging the spirit, heart, mind, and subtle faculties to attain to sublime matters, to their original home and eternal abode, and their companions of the hereafter; it is the joy the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition produces. It fills man with eagerness for Paradise and eternal happiness and the vision of God's Beauty.
Thus, the vast meaning and mighty truth which the verse,
Say: If the whole of mankind and the jinns were to gather together to produce the like of this Qur'an, they could not produce the like thereof, even if they backed up each other with help and support 112
expresses, is imagined by those of scant intelligence to be an impossible supposition for the purposes of an exaggerated piece of eloquence. God forbid! It is not an exaggeration, nor is it an impossible supposition; it is an absolutely truthful piece of rhetoric, and a possible and actual supposition.
One aspect of the supposition is this: it means, if all the fine words of man and jinn which do not issue from the Qur'an and do not belong to the Qur'an were to be gathered together, they could not imitate the Qur'an. And they have not been able to imitate it, for they have not been able to show it. The second aspect is this: civilization, and science and philosophy and European literature, which are the products of the thought and efforts of mankind and the jinn and even satans, are in the very pits of impotence before the decrees, wisdom, and eloquence of the Qur'an. Just as we showed in the examples.
Third Radiance: It is as though the All-Wise Qur'an is every century turned directly towards each of the classes of humanity, and addresses each particularly. Indeed, it is essential that the Qur'an, which summons all mankind with all its classes and instructs them in belief, the highest and most subtle science, and in knowledge of God, the broadest and most luminous branch of learning, and in the laws of Islam, which are the most important and various of the sciences, should instruct every class and group appropriately. What it teaches, however, is the same; it does not differ. In which case, there have to be different levels in the same lesson. According to its degree, each class takes its share from one of the veils of the Qur'an. We have given many examples of this fact, and they may be referred to. Here we shall only point out one or two minor points, and the share of understanding of one or two classes. For example:
He begets not, nor is He begotten * And there is none like unto Him.113
The share of understanding from this of the ordinary people, which forms the most numerous class: "Almighty God is above having mother and father, relatives or wife." While the share of a middle class: "It is to deny the divinity of Jesus (upon whom be peace), and the angels, and things which have been born." For although denying something impossible is apparently purposeless, according to rhetoric, a necessary statement is intended, which gives it purpose. Thus, the aim of denying son and begetter, which are particular to corporality, is to deny the divinity of those who have offspring and parents and equals. And it is to show that they are not worthy of being worshipped. It is because of this that Sura al-Ikhlas may be beneficial for everyone all the time. The share of a class a bit more advanced: "Almighty God is above all ties which suggest giving birth and being born. He is exempt from all partners and helpers and fellows. Rather His ties with all beings are those of Creator. He creates through His pre-eternal Will with 'the command of Be!, and it is.' He is beyond any tie which is contrary to perfection, is compelling, necessitating, or involuntary." And the share of understanding of a higher class: "Almighty God is pre-eternal and post-eternal, He is the First and the Last. Neither in His essence, nor in His attributes, nor in His actions, has He in any way any equal, peer, like, or match, or anything similar, resembling, or analogous to Him. Only, in His acts, there are comparisons expressing similarity:
And God's is the highest similitude."114
You can draw analogies with these classes for other classes, which all take different shares, like those who have attained to knowledge of God, the lovers of God, and the truly sincere.
A Second Example:
Muhammed is not the father of any of your men.115
The share of understanding from this of the first class: "Zeyd, the Most Noble Prophet's (Upon whom be blessings and peace) servant, whom he also addressed as 'my son', divorced his stately wife because he did not find himself equal to her. On God's command, the Most Noble Prophet (PBUH) took her. The verse says: 'If the Prophet calls you son, it is in respect of his prophethood. In regard to his person, he is not your father, so that the women he takes should be unsuitable for him.'"
The second class's share is this: "A great ruler looks on his subjects with paternal compassion. If he is a spiritual monarch ruling both outwardly and inwardly, then since his compassion goes a hundred times beyond that of a father, his subjects look on him as a father and on themselves as his real sons. A father's view cannot be transformed into that of a husband, and a daughter's view cannot be easily transformed into the view of a wife, so since the Prophet's taking the believers' daughters would seem inappropriate, the Qur'an says: 'The Prophet (PBUH) acts kindly towards you with the eye of Divine compassion, and treats you in a fatherly manner. In the name of his prophethood, you are like his children. But with regard to his human person, he is not your father so that his taking a wife from you should be unfitting.'"
The third group would understand it like this: "You should not be connected to the Prophet (PBUH), and relying on his perfections and trusting in his fatherly compassion, commit errors and faults." Yes, there are many who relying on their elders and guides are lazy. They even sometimes say, "Our prayers have been performed." (Like some Alevis)
The Fourth Point. Another group would understand a sign from the Unseen from this verse, as follows: The Prophet's male children would not remain at the degree of 'men' [rijal]; as a consequence of some wise purpose, his descendents would not continue as men. Since through the use of the term 'rijal' it indicates that he is the father of women, his line would continue through women. And, Praise be to God, Hazret-i Fatima's blessed descendents, like Hasan and Husayn, the light-giving moons of two luminous lines, continue the material and spiritual line of the Sun of Prophethood.
Oh God, grant blessings to him and his Family.
(The First Light here reaches a conclusion with Three Rays.)
SECOND LIGHT
The Second Light comprises Three Beams.
FIRST BEAM: According to the testimony of thousands of brilliant scholars of rhetoric and the science of rhetorical style like Zamakhshari, Sekkaki, and Abdu'l-Qahir Jurjani, there is in the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition as a whole a pleasant fluency, a superior correctness, a firm mutual solidarity, and compact proportionateness, powerful co-operation between the sentences and parts, and an elevated harmony between the verses and their aims. And yet, while there are seven or eight significant causes that might mar and destroy the harmony, co-operation, and mutual support, and the fluency and correctness, they do not mar them, rather, they give strength to the fluency, correctness, and proportionateness. Only, those causes have exerted an influence to some extent and taken others out of the veil of the order and fluency. But just as a number of bumps and excrescences appear on a tree, not to spoil the harmony of the tree, but to produce fruit which will be the means for the tree reaching its adorned perfection and beauty, in just the same way, these causes also stick out their knobbly heads in order to express meanings valuable to the Qur'an's fluent word order. Thus, although the Perspicuous Qur'an was revealed part by part like stars over twenty years in response to the circumstances and needs, it possesses such a perfect harmony and displays such a proportionateness that it is as though it was revealed all at once.
Furthermore, although the circumstances which prompted the Qur'an's revelation were all different and various, its parts are so mutually supportive that it is as though it was revealed in response to only one of them. And although the Qur'an came in response to different and repeated questions, it displays the utmost blending and unity, as though it was the answer to a single question. And although the Qur'an came to explain the requirements of numerous diverse events, it displays such a perfect order that it is as though it explains a single event. And although the Qur'an was revealed through Divine condescension in styles appropriate to the understanding of the innumerable people it would address, whose circumstances were different and diverse, it displays such a fine correspondence and beautiful smoothness of style that it is as though the circumstances were one and the level of understanding the same; it flows as smoothly as water. And although the Qur'an addresses numerous classes distant from one another, it possesses such an ease of exposition, such an eloquence in its word order, such a clarity in its manner of expression that it is as though it is addressing a single class. Even, each class supposes that it alone is being addressed. And although the Qur'an was revealed in order to guide and lead to various aims, it possesses such an perfect integrity, such a careful balance, such a fine order that it is as though the aim was one.
Thus, while these are all causes of confusion, they have been employed in the Qur'an's miraculous manner of exposition, in its fluency and proportionateness. For sure, everyone whose heart is without disease, whose mind is sound, whose conscience is not sick, whose taste is unimpaired sees in the Qur'an's manner of exposition a beautiful smoothness of style, a graceful harmony, a pleasing proportionateness, a unique eloquence. And all those with clear sight see that the Qur'an possesses an eye that sees the whole universe together with its outer and inner aspects clearly before it as though it was a page; that it turns the page as it wishes, and tells the page's meanings as it wishes. Several volumes would be necessary if we were to explain the meaning of this First Beam together with examples, so making do with the explanations concerning the proofs of this fact in my Arabic treatises and in Isharatu'l-I'jaz, and in the twenty-five Words up to here, I have shown here these features of the Qur'an in it as whole.
SECOND BEAM
This concerns the miraculous qualities in the Qur'an's unique style in regard to the summaries and Most Beautiful Divine Names which the All-Wise Qur'an shows at the ends of its verses.
REMINDER: There are many verses in this Second Beam. These are not only examples for the Second Beam, but also for all the preceding examples and Rays. It would be extremely lengthy to explain them all giving them due, so for now I am compelled to be brief and succinct. Therefore, we have indicated in most concise fashion to each of the verses which are examples of this mighty mystery of miraculousness, and have postponed the detailed explanation of them to another time.
Thus, the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition mostly mentions certain summaries at the conclusion of its verses which either contain the Divine Names or their meanings, or which refer the verse to the reason in order to urge it ponder over it, or they comprise a universal rule from the aims of the Qur'an in order to corroborate and strengthen the verse. Thus, in the summaries there are certain indications from the Qur'an's exalted wisdom and certain droplets from the water of life of Divine guidance, and certain sparks from the lightening of the Qur'an's miraculousness. Now we shall mention briefly only ten of those numerous indications. And we shall only indicate to a concise meaning of one truth each of numerous truths, which are each one example out of many. Most of these ten indications are found together in compact form in most verses and form a true embroidery of miraculousness. Furthermore, most of the verses we give as examples are examples of most of the indications. We shall point out only one indication for each verse. And we shall just point lightly to the meanings of those verses given as examples which have been discussed in the preceding Words.
First Quality of Eloquence: With its miraculous exposition, the All-Wise Qur'an lays out, spreads out before the eyes the acts and works of the All-Glorious Maker. Then it draws out the Divine Names in those works and acts, or it proves the basic aims of the Qur'an like the resurrection of the dead and Divine Unity. An example of the first meaning is this:
He it is Who has created for you all things that are on the earth, then He turned His will to the heavens and ordered them as the seven heavens, for He has knowledge of all things.116
And an example of the second part:
Have We not made the earth as a resting place * And the mountains as pegs? * And [have We not] created you in pairs? * .... until, Verily the Day of Sorting Out is a thing appointed.117
In the first verse it describes in detail the Divine works, and lays out the mightiest of them which testify through their order and aims to Knowledge and Power like the introductions to a result, to a momentous aim. They draw out the Name of All-Knowing. And in the second verse, as is explained to some degree in the Third Point of the First Ray in the First Light, by mentioning Almighty God's mighty acts and works, it mentions the resurrection of the dead, which is the Day of Sorting Out, as the result.
Second Point of Eloquence: The Qur'an unrolls the woven fabrics of Divine art and displays them to the human gaze. Then, in the summaries it passes over the weaving, within the Divine Names, or else refers them to the reason.
The first example of these:
Say: who is it that sustains you from the sky and from the earth? Or who is it that has power over hearing and sight? And who is it that brings out the living from the dead and the dead from the living? And who is it that rules and regulate all affairs? They will say, "God". Say: Will you not then show piety [to Him]? * This is God, your Sustainer, The Truth..118
Thus, at the start it asks: "Who is it that readies the skies and the earth as though they were two storehouses for your sustenance, and causes one to produce rain and the other, seeds? Is there anyone other than God Who could make the mighty skies and earth like two subservient storekeepers? In which case, thanks should be offered to Him alone."
In the second phrase, it asks: "Who is the owner of your eyes and ears, the most precious of your members? From which workshop or shop did you obtain them? It is only your Sustainer that could give you these subtle and valuable eyes and ears. It is He Who creates and raises you, and gave you them. In which case, the only Sustainer is He. And the only one fit to be worshipped is He."
In the third phrase, it says: "Who is it that resurrects the dead earth and raises to life hundreds of thousands of sorts of dead beings? Who could bring this about apart from the True God and Creator of all the universe? It is surely He Who brings it about, He raises them to life. Since He is The Truth, He will not violate rights; He will send you to a Supreme Tribunal. He will raise you to life just as He raises to life the earth."
In the fourth phrase, it asks: "Who other than God can administer and regulate this vast universe with perfect order as though it was a palace or a city? Since it can be none other than God, the Power which administers with extreme ease the vast universe and all its heavenly bodies is so faultless and infinite that it can have no need of partner or associate, assistance or help. The One Who administers the vast universe will not leave small creatures to other hands. That means you will be obliged to say: 'God'".
Thus, the first and fourth phrases say "God", the second, "Sustainer", and the third, "The Truth". So understand how miraculously apt are the words: This is God, your Sustainer, The Truth.." It mentions Almighty God's vast disposals, the significant weavings of His Power. Then through mentioning the Names of "God", "Sustainer", and "Truth", it shows the source of those vast disposals of Divine Power.
An example of the second:
Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the night and the day; in the sailing of the ships through the oceans for the profit of mankind; in the rain which God sends down from the skies, and the life He gives therewith to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; in the disposal of the winds and the clouds subjugated between the sky and the earth, indeed are signs for people who think.119
First this enumerates the manifestation of Divine sovereignty in the creation of the heavens and the earth, which demonstrates Almighty God's perfect power and the vastness of His Dominicality, and testifies to His Unity; and the manifestation of Dominicality in the alternation of night and day, and the manifestation of Divine Mercy through the subjugation of the ships in the sea, the most important means of transport in human social life; and the manifestation of the tremendousness of Divine Power, which sends the water of life to the dead earth from the skies and raises to life hundreds of thousands of species and makes it like a exhibition of wonders; and the manifestation of Mercy and Power in the creation of infinite numbers of different animals on the earth from simple soil; and the manifestation of Wisdom and Mercy in the employment of the winds in important duties like assisting in the pollination and respiration of plants and animals and in the impelling and regulating of them so as to make them suitable to perform those duties; and the manifestation of Dominicality in the subjugation in gathering together the clouds, the means of Mercy, suspended between the skies and the earth in great strange masses, and dispersing them, as though dispersing an army for rest and then summoning them back to their duties. Then, in order to urge the mind to ponder over their details and essential truths, it says: Indeed are signs for people who think. In order to rouse minds with it, it refers it to the reason.
Third Quality of Eloquence: Sometimes the Qur'an explains Almighty God's acts in detail, then it sums them up with a summary. It convinces with the details and commits and binds it to the memory by summarizing it. For example:
Thus will your Sustainer choose you and teach you the interpretation of events and perfect His favour to you and to the posterity of Jacob - even as He perfected it to your fathers Abraham and Isaac aforetime; indeed, your Sustainer is All-Knowing, All-Wise.120
With this verse, it points out the bounties bestowed on the Prophet Joseph and his forefathers. It says: ennobling you among all mankind with the rank of prophethood, and tying all the lines of prophethood to your line, and making it the chief of all lineages among mankind; and making your family a cell of instruction and guidance in the Divine sciences and Dominical wisdom, and uniting in you through that knowledge and wisdom, prosperous worldly dominion and the eternal happiness of the hereafter, and through it making you both a mighty ruler of Egypt, and a high prophet, and a wise guide, Divine favour has distinguished you and your forefathers with knowledge and wisdom. It mentions and enumerates these Divine bounties. Then it says: Indeed, your Sustainer is All-Knowing, All-Wise. "His Dominicality and wisdom require that He made manifest in you and your fathers and forefathers the Divine Names of All-Knowing and All-Wise." Thus, it sums up those detailed bounties with this summary.
And, for example:
Oh God! Lord of All Dominion, You give power to whom You will.121
This verse shows Almighty God's disposals in mankind's social life in such a way that glory and abasement, poverty and riches are tied directly to Almighty God's will and wish. It means, "Everything as far as the disposals most dispersed in the levels of multiplicity is through Divine will and determining. Chance and coincidence cannot interfere." After making this statement, it mentions the most important matter in human life, man's sustenance. This verse proves with one or two introductory phrases that man's sustenance is sent directly from the True Provider's treasury of Mercy. It is like this: "Your sustenance is tied to the earth's life. And the earth's being raised to life looks to the spring. And the spring is in the hands of the One Who subjugates the sun and the moon, and alternates the night and the day. In which case, only the One Who fills the whole face of the earth with all the fruits can give an apple to someone as true sustenance. And only He can be his true Provider." Then it says:
And You give sustenance to whom You please without measure.122
It summarizes and proves those detailed acts in this sentence. That is, "The One Who gives you unlimited sustenance is He Who performs these acts."
Fourth Point of Eloquence: It sometimes happens that the Qur'an mentions the Divine creatures with a particular arrangement of the sentence, then through showing that the creatures are within an order and balance and that they are its fruits, affords a sort of transparency and brilliance. This transparency and brilliance then shows the Divine Names the manifestation of which is from that mirror-like arrangement. It is as though the above-mentioned creatures are words, and the Names are their meanings, or the seeds of the fruits, or their essences. For example:
Man We did create from quintessence of clay * Then We placed him as [a drop of] sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed; * Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a [foetus] lump; then We made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then We developed out of it another creature. So blessed be God, the Best of Creators! 123
Thus, the Qur'an mentions and arranges those wonderful, strange, amazing, well-ordered and well-balanced stages of man's creation in such a mirror-like fashion that
So blessed be God, the Best of Creators!
appears of itself within them and makes itself be uttered. Even, one scribe of the Revelation while writing this verse said the words before coming to them, and wondered to himself: "Has revelation come to me as well?" Whereas it was the perfection of the order and transparency of the preceding words and their coherence which had showed the final words before coming to them.
And for example:
Your Sustainer is God, Who created the heavens and the earth is six days, and is firmly established on the Throne [of authority]; He draws the night as a veil over the day, each seeking the other in rapid succession; He created the sun, the moon, and the stars, [all] subject to His command. Is it not His to create and to command? Blessed by God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds! 124
In this verse, the Qur'an shows the sublimity of Divine Power and the sovereignty of Dominicality. It shows an All-Powerful One of Glory established on the throne of His Dominicality, Who, with the sun, moon and stars like soldiers under orders awaiting his command, rotates the night and day one after the other like two lines or two ribbons, one white and one black, and writes the signs of His Dominicality on the pages of the universe, in such a way that when every spirit hears it, it feels the desire to exclaim: Blessed be God! What wonders God has willed! So Blessed be God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds! That is to say, Blessed be God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds is like the summary, the seed, the fruit, and water of life, of what has preceded it.
Fifth Quality of Eloquence: The Qur'an sometimes mentions material, particular matters which are subject to change and are the means of various qualities, then in order to transform them into the form of constant truths, summarises them with constant, luminous, universal Divine Names, and ties them up. Or it concludes with a summary which encourages thought and the taking of lessons. An example of the first meaning:
And He taught Adam the Names, all of them, then placed them before the angels, and said: "Tell me the Names of these if you are right." * They said: "Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed You are All-Knowing , All-Wise!" 125
First of all this verse mentions a particular matter, which is, "In the question of Adam's succession, it was knowledge that was the means of his superiority over the angels." Then within this event it mentions the event of the angels' defeat before Adam in regard to knowledge. Then it summarizes these two events with two universal Names: Indeed You are All-Knowing, All-Wise. That is: since You are All-Knowing and Wise, You instructed Adam and he prevailed over us. And since You are All-Wise, You treated us according to our abilities and gave him preference in accordance with his abilities.
An example of the second meaning:
And verily in cattle you will find an instructive sign. From what is within their bodies, between excretions and blood, We produce for your drink, milk, pure and agreeable for those who drink it...
until,
Wherein is healing for men; indeed in this is a sign for a people who thinks.126
Thus, after pointing out that Almighty God makes His creatures like sheep, goats, cattle, and camels into springs of pure, delicious milk for man, and artefacts like grapes and dates into cauldrons and trays laden with fine, sweet, delicious bounties for him, and tiny miracles of His Power like the honey bee into makers of sweet and health-giving sherbet, these verses conclude with the words, Indeed in these are signs for a people who thinks, in order to urge man to think and take lessons and compare these with other things.
Sixth Quality of Eloquence: It sometimes happens that a verse spreads out Dominical decrees over a great multiplicity of things, then it unifies them with a tie of unity which is like a point of unity, or it situates them within a universal rule. For example:
His Throne does extend over the heavens and the earth, and He feels no fatigue in preserving them, for He is the Most High, the Supreme.127
Thus, together with proving with ten phrases in Ayatu'l-Kursi ten levels of Divine Unity in varying hues, with the phrase,
Who is there that can intercede in His presence except as He permits?,
it rejects utterly and vehemently the associating of partners with God and interference of others and casts them away. Also, since this verse manifests the Greatest Name, its meanings concerning the Divine Truths are at a maximum degree, so that it demonstrates the Dominical acts of disposal at a maximum degree. Furthermore, after mentioning the Divine regulation of all the heavens and the earth and a preservation encompassing all things at the maximum degree, a tie of unity and point of unity summarize the sources of those maximum manifestations with the phrase,
For He is the Most High, the Supreme.
And, for example:
It is God Who has created the heavens and the earth and sends down rain from the skies, and with it brings out fruits therewith to feed you; made subject to you the ships, that they may sail through the sea by His command; and the rivers [too] He has made subject to you; * and He has made subject to you the sun and the moon, both diligently pursuing their courses; and the night and the day has He [also] made subject to you; * And He gives you of all that you ask for. But if you count the favours of God, never will you will able to number them.128
These verses describe how Almighty God created the huge universe as a palace for man, and sending the water of life from the skies to the earth, made the skies and the earth two servants producing food for him. So too He made ships subject to man so that all men might benefit from the fruits of the earth found in every part of it, and also exchange the fruits of their labours and secure their livelihoods in every respect. That is, He made the winds as a whip, ships as horses, and the seas like a desert beneath their hooves. And in addition to connecting man with every region of the earth by means of ships, He also as though subjugated the rivers, great and small, to him by making them a means of transport. And causing the sun and moon to travel, the True Bestower of Bounties alternates the seasons and makes them two obedient servants in order to offer to man His multicoloured bounties which change with the seasons, and He created them like two steersmen in order to turn that mighty wheel. And He made the night and day subject to man; that is, He made the night as a veil for his sleep and repose, and the day like a place of trade for his livelihood.
Thus, after enumerating these Divine bounties, with the summary:
And He gives you of all that you ask for. But if you count the favours of God, never will you will be able to number them,
it points out the extensiveness of the bounties bestowed on man, and their abounding profusion and abundance. That is, whatever man asks for through the tongue of his innate needs and abilities, they have all been given him. An end can never be reached in counting the Divine bounties bestowed on man nor can they be exhausted. Certainly, since the heavens and the earth are a table of bounties for man, and things like the sun and the moon and night and day some of the bounties on the table, the bounties directed towards man are most surely beyond count and calculation.
Seventh Mystery of Eloquence: It sometime happens that in order to dismiss apparent causes from the ability to create and to show their distance from this, a verse points out the aims and fruits of the effects, so that it may be understood that causes are only an apparent veil. For to will the following of most wise and purposeful aims and obtaining of important results is of necessity the work of one who is most Knowing and Wise. And causes are lifeless and without intelligence. So by mentioning the aims and results, such verses show that although causes are superficially and as beings joined to and adjacent to their effects, in reality there is a great distance between them. The distance from the cause to the creation of the effect is so great that the hand of the greatest of causes cannot reach the creation of the most insignificant of effects. And so, it is within this long distance between cause and effect that the Divine Names each rise like stars. The place of their rising is this distance. Just as to a superficial glance mountains on the horizon appear to be joined to and contiguous with the skirts of the sky, although from the mountains to the sky is a vast distance in which the stars rise and other things are situated, so too the distance between causes and effects is such that it may be seen only with the light of the Qur'an through the telescope of belief. For example:
Then let man consider his sustenance. * For that We pour forth water in abundance. * And We split the earth into fragments. * And We produce therein corn, * And grapes and nutritious plants, * And olives and dates, * And enclosed gardens, dense with lofty trees, * And fruits and fodder, * For use and convenience to you and your cattle.129
By mentioning miracles of Divine power in a purposeful sequence, this verse ties causes to effects and points to an aim at its conclusion with the words, For use and convenience to you. This aim proves that within the sequence of all the causes and effects is a hidden disposer who sees and follows the aim, and that the causes are a veil to him. Indeed, with the phrase, For use and convenience to you and your cattle, it dismisses all the causes from the ability to create. It is in effect saying: Rain comes from the sky in order to produce food for you and your animals. Since water does not possess the ability to pity and feel compassion for you and produce food, it means that the rain does not come, it is sent. And the earth produces plants and your food comes from there. But lacking feelings and intelligence, it is far beyond the ability of the earth to think of your sustenance and feel compassion for you, so it does not produce it itself. Furthermore, since it is remote from plants and trees to consider your food and compassionately produce fruits and grains for you, the verse demonstrates that they are strings and ropes which One All-Wise and Compassionate extends from behind the veil, to which He attaches His bounties and holds out to animate creatures. And so from this explanation numerous Divine Names rise, like All-Compassionate, Provider, Bestower, and All-Generous.
And another example:
Do you not see that God makes the clouds move gently, then joins them together, then makes them into a heap? - then will you see rain issue forth from their midst. And He sends down from the sky mountain [masses of clouds] wherein is hail; He strikes therewith whom He pleases and He turns it away from whom He pleases. The vivid flash of His lightening well-nigh blinds the sight. * It is God Who alternates the night and the day; indeed in these things is an instructive example for those who have vision. * And God has created every animal from water; of them are some that creep on their bellies; some that walk on two legs; and some that walk on four. God creates what He wills; for verily God has power over all things.130
This verse explains the wondrous disposals in the formation of clouds and causing of rain to fall, which is one of the most important miracles of Dominicality and strangest veil of the treasury of mercy. Like soldiers who have dispersed to rest gather together at the call of a bugle, clouds gather and form at the Divine command when their parts have been dispersed and hidden in the atmosphere. Then, like an army is formed of small groups, the pieces of cloud come together and form masses - which are vast and towering, moist and white, and contain snow and hail like the moving mountains at the resurrection - from which the water of life is sent to living beings. But in its being sent a will and purpose is apparent, it comes in accordance with need. This means it is sent. While the skies are clear and empty, the mountainous pieces of cloud do not gather together of their own accord into a great gathering of wonders, they are rather sent by One Who knows the living creatures. In this distance, then, Divine Names rise, like, All-Powerful, All-Knowing, Disposer, Designer, Nurturer, Succourer, and Giver of Life.
Eighth Quality of Eloquence: It sometimes happens that in order to make the heart accept Almighty God's wondrous works in the hereafter and make the mind affirm them, the Qur'an mentions His amazing works in this world by way of preparation, or it mentions the wondrous Divine works of the future and hereafter in such a way that we acquire firm conviction of them through similar things which we observe here. For example:
Does man not see that We created him from sperm, and behold, he stands forth an open adversary?131... to the end of the Sura.
In this discussion of the question of the resurrection of the dead, the Qur'an proves the resurrection in seven or eight different ways. Firstly it draws attention to the first creation, saying: "You see your creation from sperm to a blood-clot, from a blood-clot to a foetus lump, and from that to the human creation, so how is it that you deny the second creation, which is like it or even easier?"
And with the words:
Who produces for you fire out of the green tree, 132
Almighty God indicates the mighty favours He bestows on man, saying: "The One Who bestows such bounties on you will not leave you at liberty to enter the grave and sleep not to rise again." And by allusion it says: "You see the dead trees come to life and grow green, but you do not draw conclusions from their bones springing to life when like dry fire-wood, and so deem man's rising again unlikely. Also, would the One Who creates the heavens and the earth remain impotent before the life and death of man, the fruit of the heavens and the earth? Would the One Who administers the mighty tree attach no importance to its fruit and allow others to claim it? Do you suppose that with abandoning the result of all the tree, He would make purposeless and in vain the tree of creation which together with all its parts is kneaded with wisdom?" It says: "The One Who will raise you to life at the resurrection is such that the whole universe is like a soldier under His orders." It is utterly submissive before His 'command of Be! and it is'. It is as easy for Him to create the spring as to create a flower. He is One for Whose power it is as easy to create all animals as to create a fly. Such a One may not be challenged with the words:
Who can give life to [dry] bones?,133
and His power belittled. Then, with the phrase:
So glory be unto Him in Whose hand is the dominion of all things,134
it says: "He is an All-Powerful One of Glory in Whose hands are the reins of all things, with Whom are the keys to all things; Who alternates winter and summer as easily as turning the pages of a book, and opens and closes this world and the hereafter as though they were two houses." Since it is thus, the conclusion of all these evidences is:
And to Him will you all be brought back.135
That is, "He will raise you to life from the grave and bring you to the resurrection, where you will be called to account in the presence of the Almighty."
Thus, all these verses have prepared the mind to accept the resurrection, and so also have they prepared the heart, for they have pointed out similar deeds in this world.
And it sometimes happens that the Qur'an mentions Almighty God's deeds of the hereafter in such a way that makes understood things similar to them in this world, so that no possibility remains to deny them or deem them unlikely. An example is the Suras which begin:
When the Sun is folded up136 * When the sky is cleft asunder137 * When the sky is rent asunder138
In these Suras it mentions the mighty revolutions and Dominical acts of disposal in the resurrection and Great Gathering in such a way that, since man sees things similar to them in this world, for example, in the autumn and spring, he accepts those revolutions easily, which cause dread to the heart and cannot be comprehended by the mind. To provide even a summary of the meaning of these three Suras would be very lengthy, so for now we shall point out a single phrase by way of example.
For example, the phrase:
When the pages are laid open139
expresses the following: at the resurrection all the deeds of everyone will be published written on a page. Since on its own this matter is very strange, the mind cannot grasp it. But as the Sura indicates, the same way as in the resurrection of the spring there are things similar to other points, the things similar to this laying open of the pages are quite clear. For all fruit-bearing trees or flowering plants have deeds, acts, duties, and in whatever way they display the Divine Names and glorify God, they perform worship. And all these deeds are written in their seeds together with their life histories, and emerge in another spring in another place. Just as they mention most eloquently the deeds of their mothers and stock through the tongues of the shapes and forms they display, so also they publish the pages of their deeds through their branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits. Thus, the One Who carries out this Wise, Preserving, Planned, Nurturing, Benevolent work, is He Who says:
When the pages are laid open.
You can make analogies with other points from this and deduce them if you can. To help you, I shall say the following: just as the phrase:
When the sun is folded up
indicates a brilliant metaphor meaning 'rolling up' and 'gathering up', so also it alludes to things similar to it.
The First: Almighty God drew back the veils of non-existence, the ether, and the skies, and taking from the treasury of His mercy a lamp like a sparkling brilliant to illuminate the world, displayed it to the world. When the world is closed, He shall wrap up that brilliant in its veils again and remove it.
The Second: The sun is an official charged with spreading out the wares of its light and wrapping the head of the earth alternately in light and darkness. Each evening it gathers up its wares and conceals them, and sometimes it does little business due to the veil of a cloud, and sometimes the moon draws a veil over its face and hinders its transactions to a degree, then it adjusts the account books of its wares and transactions. So too a time will come when this official will resign from its post. And even if there is no cause for its dismissal, due to the two black spots on its face growing, as they have begun to do so, with Divine permission the sun will take back the light that it spreads at a Dominical command and wrap it around its own head. It will be told: "No work remains for you on earth. Go to Hell and burn those who worshipped you and insulted an obedient official like you by inferring you were disloyal!" It will read out the decree of When the Sun is folded up through its black-spotted face.
Ninth Point of Eloquence: It sometimes happens that the All-Wise Qur'an mentions certain particular aims, then in order to impel the mind by means of them, confirms, establishes, verifies, and proves the particular aim through the Divine Names, which are like universal rules. For example:
God has indeed heard the statement of the woman who pleads with you concerning her husband and carries her complaint to God; and God [always] hears the arguments between both sides among you; for God is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.140
Here the Qur'an is saying: "Almighty God is absolutely All-Hearing; He hears everything. He even hears through the Divine Name of Truth a wife arguing with you and complaining about her husband, which is a most insignificant matter. And since women manifest the subtlest manifestations of mercy and are mines of a most self-sacrificing compassion, He hears through the Name of Most Compassionate the rightful claim of a woman and her complaint to Him and heeds it as a matter of the greatest importance, and through the Name of Truth considers it seriously." Thus, in order to make this particular aim universal, One outside the sphere of contingency of the universe Who hears and sees the most minor incident among creatures, must of necessity hear and see all things, and One Who is Sustainer of the universe of necessity sees the suffering of wronged insignificant creatures within the universe and hears their cries. One who does not see their suffering and does not hear their cries for help cannot be the Sustainer. In which case, it establishes two mighty truths with the phrase,
For God is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.
And, for example:
Glory be to [God] who did take His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless, in order that We might show him some of Our signs, for He is indeed All-Hearing, All-Seeing.141
Here, after mentioning the Most Noble Prophet's (Upon whom be blessings and peace) journey from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to the Farthest Mosque in Jerusalem, which was the start of his Ascension, the Qur'an says: for He is indeed All-Hearing, All-Seeing. The pronoun He refers to either Almighty God or to the Prophet. If it refers to the Prophet, it is like this: "There was within this particular journey a general journey and universal ascension, during which, as far as the Farthest Lote-tree and distance of two bow-strings, he heard and saw the Dominical signs and wonders of Divine art which were apparent to his eyes and ears in the universal degrees of the Divine Names." It shows that that particular and insignificant journey was like a key to a universal journey which was a gathering together of wonders.
If the pronoun refers to Almighty God, it is like this: "He invited a servant of His to journey to His presence, and in order to entrust him with a duty, sent him from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, where He caused him to meet with the prophets who were gathered there. Then after showing that he was the absolute heir to the principles of the religions of all the prophets, made him travel through His realms in their inner and outer aspects as far as 'the distance of two bow-lengths'."
He was certainly a servant and he journeyed on an ascension that was particular, but together with him was a trust pertaining to the whole universe, and a light which would change the colour of the universe. And since together with him was a key to open the door to eternal happiness, Almighty God described this Being with the attributes of hearing and seeing all things, so that he could demonstrate the world-embracing purposes and instances of wisdom of the trust, the light, and the key.
And, for example:
Praise be to God, Creator of the heavens and the earth, Who made the angels messengers with wings, two, three, or four [pairs]: He adds to creation as He pleases, for God is Powerful over all things.142
In this Sura, the Qur'an says: "By adorning the heavens and the earth in such a way and showing the works of His perfection, their All-Glorious Creator causes innumerable spectators to extol and praise Him. And He decks them out with uncountable bounties so that the heavens and the earth praise and extol unendingly the Most Merciful Creator through the tongues of all the bounties and those who receive them." After this it shows that since the Creator has given men and the animals and birds members and wings with which to travel through the towns and lands of the earth, and since that All-Glorious One has also given wings to the angels, the inhabitants of the realm of the heavens, in order to fly and travel through the heavenly palaces of the stars and lofty lands of the constellations, He is certainly powerful over all things. The One Who gives a fly wings to fly from fruit to fruit, and a sparrow wings to fly from tree to tree is the One Who gives the angels wings to fly from Venus to Jupiter. Furthermore, the angels are not restricted to particularity like the dwellers of the earth; they are not confined by a specific place. With the words: two, three, or four [pairs], it suggests that at one time they may be present on four or more stars; it gives details. Thus, through describing "the arraying of the angels with wings", which is a particular event, it points to a most universal and general workshop of the tremendousness of Divine power, and verifies and establishes it with the summary: For God is Powerful over all things.
Tenth Point of Eloquence: It sometimes happens that a verse mentions man's rebellious acts, then restrains him with severe threats. Then, so that the severity of the threats should not cast him into despair and hopelessness, it concludes with some Divine Names which point to His mercy, and console him. For example:
Say: if there had been [other] gods with Him - as they say- behold they would certainly have sought out a way to the Lord of the Throne! * Glory be to Him! He is high above all that they say! - Exalted and Great [beyond measure] * The sevens heavens and the earth, and all beings therein declare His glory; there is not a thing but celebrates His praise; and yet you understand not how they declare His glory! Indeed, He is Oft-Forbearing, Most Forgiving! 143
This verse says: "Say: if, like you say, there had been partners to God in his sovereignty, there would surely have been disorder to the degree of a sign of a hand being apparent which stretched up to the Throne of His Dominicality and interfered. But each creature, universal or particular, great or small, from the seven levels of the heavens to microscopic organisms, glorifies through the tongue of the manifestations and inscriptions of the Divine Names which it manifests, the All-Glorious One signified by those Names, and declares Him to be free of partners or like.
Indeed, just as the heavens declare Him to be All-Holy through the light-scattering words of the suns and stars, and through the wisdom they display and their order, and testify to His Unity, so too the atmosphere glorifies and sanctifies Him through the voice of the clouds and words of the thunder, lightening, and rain, and testifies to His Unity, and so too the earth glorifies and declares to be One the All-Glorious Creator through its living words known as animals, plants, and beings, and so does it also glorify Him and testify to His Unity through the words of all its trees and their leaves, blossoms, and fruits. In the same way, together with their smallness and insignificance, the smallest creatures and most particular beings glorify the All-Glorious One signified by the numerous universal Names they display, and testify to His Unity through the inscriptions they bear.
And so, this verse states how ugly and deserving of punishment is the unbelief and associating partners with God of man - the extract and result of the universe, and God's vicegerent on earth, and its delicate fruit - which is counter and contrary to the whole universe, which altogether glorifies unanimously, with one tongue, its All-Glorious Creator and testifies in its own way to His Unity, and performs the duty of worship with which it is charged carrying it out in perfect submission. But in order not to cast him into despair and to show the wisdom in the All-Glorious Subduer's permitting such an infinitely ugly rebellion and not destroying the universe around mankind, it says:
Indeed, He is Oft-Forbearing, Most Forgiving!
It shows with this summary the wisdom in His postponing it, and leaves a door open for hope.
Thus, you may understand from these ten indications of miraculousness that in the summaries at the conclusions of verses are numerous sprinklings of guidance and flashes of miraculousness. The greatest geniuses among the scholars of rhetoric have bitten their fingers in absolute wonder and admiration at these unique styles, and declared: "THIS IS NOT THE WORD OF MAN", and have believed with absolute certainty that
It is no less than revelation inspired.144
This means that together with the above-mentioned indications, numerous further qualities not included in our discussion are contained in other verses in the arrangement of which such an impress of miraculousness is apparent that even the blind may see it...
THE THIRD BEAM of The Second Light
The Qur'an cannot be compared with other words and speech. This is because speech is of different categories, and in regard to superiority, power, beauty and fineness, has four sources: one is the speaker, another is the person addressed, another is the purpose, and another is the form. Its source is not only the form as literary people have wrongly shown. So consider in speech, "Who said it? To whom did they say it? Why did they say it? In what form did they say it?" Do not consider only the words and stop there. Since speech draws its strength and beauty from these four sources, if the Qur'an's sources are studied carefully, the degree of its eloquence, superiority, and beauty will be understood. Indeed, since speech looks to the speaker, if it is command and prohibition, it comprises also the speaker's will and power in accordance with his degree. Then it eliminates resistance; it has an effect like physical electricity and increases in proportion to the speech's superiority and power. Take, for example, the verse:
O earth! swallow up your water. And O sky! withhold [your rain].145
That is, "O earth! Your duty is completed, swallow your water. O skies! No need now remains, cease giving rain." And for example:
And He said to it and to the earth: Come together willingly or unwillingly. They said: We do come [together] in willing obedience.146
That is, "O earth! O skies! Come whether you want to or not, you are anyway submissive to my wisdom and power. Emerge from non-being and come to the exhibition-place of my art in existence." And they replied: "We come in perfect obedience. Through Your power, we perform every duty that You have shown us." And so, consider the power and elevatedness of these true, effective commands, which comprise power and will, then look at words of men like the following nonsensical conversation with inanimate beings:
Be stationary, O earth! Be cleft, O skies! O resurrection, break forth!
Can the two commands be compared? Yes, is there are any comparison between wishes arising from desires and officious commands arising from those wishes, and the command of a commander of real authority? Can there be any comparison between such words and the effective command, "Forward march!" of a mighty commander to a vast army? For if a command such as that is heard from a common soldier, while the two commands are the same in form, in meaning they are as different as a common soldier and the commander of an army.
And for example the verses:
Indeed, His command when He wills a thing is "Be!", and it is,147
and,
And on Our saying to the angels: Prostrate before Adam.148
Look at the power and elevatedness of these two verses, then look at man's speech in the form of commands. Is the latter not like a firefly in relation to the sun? Like in order to describe his act to both eye and ear, a true owner describes his act while performing it, and a true artist explains his art as he works it, and a true bestower explains his bounties as he bestows them, that is, in order to combine both word and act, each says: "Look! I have done this and I am doing this in this way. I did that for this reason, and this will be thus, and I am doing this so it will be like that."
And for example:
Do they not look at the sky above them? How We have made it and adorned it, and there are no flaws in it? * And the earth - We have spread it out, and set thereon mountains standing firm, and produced therein every kind of beautiful growth [in pairs] - * As an insight and reminder for all [God's] servants who turn unto Him. * And We send down from the sky rain charged with blessing, and We produce therewith gardens and grain for harvests; * And tall [and stately] palm-trees, with shoots of fruit-stalks, piled one over another; - * As sustenance for [God's] servants; - And We give [new] life therewith to land that is dead: thus will the coming-forth [from the grave].149
Can there be any comparison between these descriptions, these acts, which shine like star-like fruits of Paradise in the constellation of this Sura in the skies of the Qur'an, and this mentioning many levels of proofs within them by means of the order of rhetoric, and this proving the resurrection of the dead, its conclusion, with the phrase thus will be the coming-forth, thus silencing those at the start of the Sura who deny resurrection - can there be any comparison between this and the discussions of men about meddlesome acts which have little connection with them? It is not even the comparison of pictures of flowers by way of copying, and real living flowers. To fully explain the meaning from Do they not look to Thus will be the coming-forth would be very lengthy, so we shall just pass over it with a brief indication, like this:
Since, at the start of the Sura, the unbelievers deny resurrection, the Qur'an has a long introductory passage in order to compel them to accept it. It says: "Do you not look at the skies above you, which we have constructed in such a well-ordered and magnificent fashion? And do you not see how We have adorned it with stars and the sun and the moon, and how We have allowed no fault or defect? And do you not see how We have spread out the earth for you and with what wisdom We have furnished it? We have fixed mountains on it and protected it from the encroachment of the sea. And do you not see how We have created every variety of plant and growing thing on the earth, beautiful and of every colour, and how We have made beautiful every part of it with them. And do you not see how we send down bounteous rain from the skies, and with it create gardens and orchards, and grains, and tall, fruit-bearing trees like the delicious date, and how I cause them to grow and send My servants sustenance with them? And do you not see that I raise to life the dead country with the rain? I create thousands of worldly resurrections. Just as I raise up with My Power these plants out of this dead country, that is how your coming-forth will be at the resurrection. At the resurrection, the earth will die and you will come forth alive." Thus, can there be any comparison between the eloquent explanations these verses set forth in proving resurrection - only one thousandth of which we have been able to indicate, and the words man puts forward to support a claim?
From the beginning of this treatise up to here, in endeavouring to make an obstinate enemy accept the Qur'an's miraculousness by way of impartial reasoning, known as ascertaining the truth, we have left secret many of the Qur'an's rights. We have brought that Sun in among candles and drawn comparisons. We have carried out the duty of ascertaining the truth, and proved its miraculousness in brilliant fashion. Now, in one or two words, not in the name of 'ascertaining the truth', but in that of 'reality', we shall point to the Qur'an's true station, which is beyond comparison.
Indeed, the comparison of other speech to the Qur'an is that of minuscule reflections of stars in pieces of glass. For sure, how can the Qur'an's words, each of which depict and show a constant truth, be compared with the meanings man depicts through his words in the minute mirrors of his thoughts and feelings? How can the angel-like, living words of the Qur'an, which inspire the lights of guidance and are the speech of the All-Glorious Creator of the sun and the moon, be compared with man's biting words with their bewitching substance and sham subtleties for arousing base desires? Yes, the comparison of poisonous vermin and insects, and blessed angels and luminous spirit beings, is that of man's words and those of the Qur'an. The Twenty-Fifth Word together with the previous twenty-four Words have proved these truths. This claim of ours is not unsubstantiated; its proof is the above-mentioned conclusion. Indeed, how can the words of the Qur'an, which are each the shells of jewels of guidance, and each a source of the truths of belief and a spring of the fundamentals of Islam, and have come directly from the Throne of All-Merciful One, and above and beyond the universe look to man and descend to him, and comprise Divine Knowledge, Power, and Will, and are the pre-eternal address - how can its words be compared with man's vain, fanciful, futile, desire-nurturing words?
Yes, how can the Qur'an, which is like a tree of Tuba, and spreads in the form of leaves the world of Islam with all its qualities, marks, and perfections, all its ordinances and principles, and displays as fresh and beautiful through its water of life its purified scholars and saints, each like a flower, and produces all perfections and cosmic and Divine truths as fruits, and again like a fruit-bearing tree produces numerous seeds within its fruits each like a principle and programme for actions and displays truths in continuous succession - how can this be compared with man's speech, which we know about? Where is the ground and where are the Pleiades?
Although for one thousand three hundred and fifty years, the All-Wise Qur'an has set forth and displayed all its truths in the market of the universe, and everyone, all nations, all countries have taken some of its jewels and its truths, and they do take them, neither the familiarity, nor the abundance, nor the passage of time, nor the great changes have damaged its valuable truths and fine styles, or caused it to age, or desiccated it, or made it lose its value, or extinguished its beauty. This situation on its own is an aspect of miraculousness.
If someone was to come forward now and put some of the truths the Qur'an brought into a childish order according to his own whims, and if he was to compare these with some of the Qur'an's verses in order to contest them, and say "I have uttered words close to the Qur'an's", it would be utterly foolish, like in the following example: if a common man, a builder of ordinary houses, incapable of understanding the elevated inscriptions of a master who has built a splendid palace the stones of which are various jewels, and decorated it with harmonious inscriptions which look to the elevated inscriptions of all the palace and their relation to the stones, if that common man who had no share in all the jewels and adornment of the palace was to enter the palace, destroy the elevated inscriptions of the valuable stones and give it a form, an order, similar to that of an ordinary house in accordance with his childish desires and attach a few beads pleasing to his childish view, and then say, "Look! I have greater skill and wealth and more precious adornments than the builder of the palace", the comparison would be that of the art of a forger who was raving crazily.
THIRD LIGHT
The Third Light consists of three Gleams.
FIRST GLEAM: An important aspect of the Qur'an of Miraculous Expositions's miraculousness was explained in the Thirteenth Word. It has been included here in order to take its place among the other aspects of miraculousness, its brothers. It is as follows: if you want to see and appreciate how, like shining stars, each of the Qur'an's verses scatters the darkness of unbelief by spreading the light of miraculousness and guidance, imagine yourself in the age of ignorance and desert of savagery where everything was enveloped in lifeless veils of nature under the darkness of ignorance and heedlessness. Then suddenly from the elevated tongue of the Qur'an, you hear verses like:
Whatever is in the heavens extols and glorifies God, for He is the Mighty, the Wise.150 * Whatever is in the heavens and earth extols and glorifies God, the Sovereign, the Most Holy One, the Mighty, the Wise.151
See how those dead or sleeping creatures of the world spring to life in the minds of those listening at the sound of extols and glorifies, how they awake, spring up, and mention God's Names! And at the sound of,
The seven heavens and the earth and all within them extol and glorify Him,152
the stars in those black skies, each a lifeless piece of fire, and the wretched creatures on the face of the earth present the following view to those listening: the sky appears as a mouth and the stars each as wisdom-displaying words and truth-uttering lights. The earth appears as a head, the land and sea each as tongues, and all animals and plants as words of glorification. Otherwise you will not appreciate the fine points of the pleasure at looking from this time to that. For if you look at each verse as having scattered its light since that time, and having become like universally accepted knowledge with the passage of time, and as shining with the other lights of Islam, and taking its colour from the sun of the Qur'an, or if you look at it through a superficial and simple veil of familiarity, you will not truly see what sort of darkness each verse scatters or how sweet is the recital of its miraculousness, and you will not appreciate this sort of its miraculousness among its many sorts. If you want to see one of the highest degrees of the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition's miraculousness, listen to the following comparison:
Let us imagine an extremely strange and vast and spreading tree which is concealed beneath a veil of the unseen and hidden in a level of concealment. It is clear that there has to be a relationship, harmony, and balance between a tree and all its members like its branches, fruits, leaves, and blossom, the same as between man's members. Each of its parts takes on a form and is given a shape in accordance with the nature of the tree. So if someone appears and traces a picture on top of the veil corresponding to the members of the tree, which has never been seen, then delimits each member, and from the branches to the fruit, and the fruit to the leaves draws a form proportionately, and fills the space between its source and extremities, which are an infinite distance from one another, with drawings showing exactly the shape and form of its members, certainly no doubt will remain that the artist sees the concealed tree with an eye that penetrates and encompasses the unseen, then he depicts it.
In just the same way, the discriminating statements of the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition concerning the reality of contingent beings (that is, concerning the reality of the tree of creation which stretches from the beginning of the world to the farthest limits of the hereafter, and spreads from the earth to the Divine Throne and from minute particles to the sun) have preserved the proportion between the members to such a degree and have given each member and fruit a form so suitable that at the depictions of the Qur'an, all exacting scholars have declared at the conclusion of their investigations: "What wonders God has willed! How great are God's blessings!" They have said: "It is only you who solves and unravels the talisman of the universe and riddle of creation, Oh All-Wise Qur'an!"
And God's is the highest similitude153 - and there is no error in the comparison - let us represent the Divine Names and attributes, and Dominical acts and deeds as a Tuba-tree of light, the sphere of whose grandeur stretches from pre-eternity to post-eternity, and the limits of whose vastness spread through infinite, endless space and encompass it, and the limits of whose deeds stretch from,
It is God Who splits the seed-grain and date-stone,154 and, Comes between man and his heart,155
to,
Who created the heavens and the earth in six days,156 and, And the heavens rolled up in His right hand.157
The All-Wise Qur'an has described that luminous reality, the truths of those Names and attributes, and acts and deeds, together with all their branches and twigs and aims and fruits in a way so harmonious, so fitting for one another, so appropriate for one another, without marring one another or spoiling the decree of one another, or their being remote from one another, that all those who have penetrated to the reality of things and penetrated the mysteries, and all the wise and the sage who have journeyed in the realm of the inner dimension of things, have declared: "Glory be to God!" in the face of that Discriminating Exposition, and have affirmed it, saying: "How right, how conformable with reality, how fine, how worthy!"
Take, for example, the six pillars of belief, which are like a single branch of those two mighty trees which look to the entire sphere of contingency and sphere of necessity: it depicts all the branches and boughs of those pillars - as far as the furthest fruits and flowers - observing such a harmony and proportion between them, and describes them in a manner so balanced, and illustrates them a way so symmetrical that the human mind is powerless to perceive it and stands astonished at its beauty. And the proof that a beauty of proportion and perfect relation and complete balance have been preserved between the five pillars of Islam, which are like one twig of the branch of belief, down to the finest details, smallest point of conduct, furthest aims, most profound wisdom, and most insignificant fruits, is the perfect order and balance and beauty of proportion and soundness of the Greater Shari'a of Islam, which has emerged from the decisive statements, senses, indications, and allusions of the comprehensive Qur'an; they form an irrefutable and decisive proof and just witness that cannot be doubted. This means that the expositions of the Qur'an cannot be attributed to man's partial knowledge, and particularly to the knowledge of someone unlettered. They rest rather on a comprehensive knowledge and are the word of One Who is able to see all things together and observe in one moment all truths between pre-eternity and post-eternity. In this we believe...
SECOND GLEAM: Since just how far the human philosophy which challenges Qur'anic wisdom has fallen in the face of that wisdom has been explained and illustrated with comparisons in the Twelfth Word and proved in the other Words, we refer readers to them and for now offer a further comparison from another point of view. It is as follows:
Human science and philosophy look at the world as fixed and constant. And they discuss the nature of beings and their characteristics in detail; if they do speak of their duties before their Maker, they speak of them briefly. Quite simply, they speak only of the decoration and letters of the Book of the Universe, and attach no importance to its meaning. Whereas the Qur'an looks at the world as transient, passing, deceptive, travelling, unstable, and undergoing revolution. It speaks briefly of the nature of beings and their superficial and material characteristics, but mentions in detail the worshipful duties with which they are charged by the Maker, and how and in what respects they point to His Names, and their obedience before the Divine creational commands. And so, we shall look at the differences between human philosophy and Qur'anic wisdom in regard to this matter of looking at things either briefly or in detail, and shall see which is pure truth and reality.
Just as a watch in our hand appears to be constant, but its inside is in perpetual upheaval through the motion of the workings and the constant anguish of the cogwheels and parts, in just the same way, together with its apparent stability, this world, which is a huge clock of Divine Power, is perpetually revolving within upheaval and change, transience and evanescence. Indeed, since time has entered the world, night and day are like a two-headed hand counting the seconds of that huge clock. The years are are like a hand counting its minutes, while the centuries count its hours. Thus, time casts the world on the waves of death and decline. It assigns all the past and the future to non-existence, and leaves only in existence present time.
Together with this form which time gives the world, with regard to space also it is like an unstable clock undergoing revolution. For since the space of the atmosphere changes swiftly and quickly passes from one state to another, through being filled and emptied with clouds sometimes several times a day, it causes change like a hand counting the seconds. And the space of the earth, which is like the floor of the house of the world, since with life and death and the animals and plants its face changes very rapidly, like a minute-hand it shows that this aspect of the world also is transient. And just as the earth is like this in regard to its face, so too through the revolutions and upheavals within it, and the mountains emerging as a result and disappearing, this aspect of the world is slowly passing also, like an hour-hand. And through change like the movements of the celestial bodies, the appearance of comets, the occurrence of solar and lunar eclipses, and falling stars, the space of the heavens too, which is like the ceiling of the house of the world, shows that the heavens also are not stable and constant, but are going towards old age and destruction. Its change is slow and tardy like the hand counting the days in a weekly clock, but in every respect it demonstrates that it is transient and passing and heading for destruction.
Thus, the world, in regard to the world, has been constructed on these seven pillars. These pillars perpetually shake it. But when the world which is thus in motion and being shaken looks to its Maker, the motion and change is the working of the Pen of Power in order to write the missives of the Eternally Besought One. And those changing states are the mirrors of the Divine Names, which, being ever-renewed, display with ever-differing depictions the manifestation of the Names' qualities.
And so, in respect of the world, the world is both transient and hastens towards death, and is undergoing revolution. Although in reality it is departing like flowing water, to the heedless eye it appears to be frozen; through the idea of Nature, it has become dense and turbid, and become a veil concealing the hereafter. Thus, through philosophical investigation and natural science, and the seductive amusements of dissolute civilization and its intoxicated passions, sick philosophy has both increased the world's frozen state and inaction, and made denser heedlessness, and increased its opaqueness and turbidity, and caused the Maker and the hereafter to be forgotten. Whereas, with its verses,
By the Mount [of Revelation]. * By a Book inscribed.158 * When the Event Inevitable comes to pass.159 * The [Day of] Noise and Clamour, * What is [the Day of] Noise and Clamour?,160
the Qur'an cards the world in regard to the world like cotton, and casts it away. Through its expositions like,
Do they see nothing in the government of the heavens and the earth?161 * Do they not look at the sky above them? - How We have made it.162 * Do the unbelievers not see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, before We clove them asunder?,163
it gives the world a transparency and removes its turbidity. Through its light-scattering illuminations like,
God is the Light of the heavens and the earth.164 * What is the life of this world but play and amusement?,165
it melts the frozen, inactive world. Through its death-tainted expressions like,
When the sun is folded up.166 * When the sky is cleft asunder.167 * When the sky is rent asunder.168 * And the trumpet will be sounded, and all that are in the heavens and all that are on earth will fall down senseless, except such that it pleases God [to exempt],169
it smashes the delusion that the world is eternal. Through its thunder-like blasts, like,
He knows what enters within the earth and what comes forth out of it, what comes down from the skies and what mounts up to them. And He is with you wheresoever you may be. And God sees all that you do.170 * And say: Praise be to God, Who will show you His signs, so that you shall know them. And your Sustainer is not unmindful of all that you do,171
it scatters the heedlessness born of the notion of 'Nature'.
Thus, from beginning to end the Qur'an's verses which are turned towards the universe proceed according to this principle. They reveal and display the reality of the world as it is. Through showing just how ugly the ugly world is, it turns man's face from it, and points out the beautiful world's beautiful face, which looks to the Maker. It fastens man's eye on that. It instructs in true wisdom and knowledge, teaching the meanings of the Book of the Universe, and looking little at the letters and decorations. It does not cause the meaning to be forgotten like drunken philosophy, nor make man enamoured of the ugly and waste his time on meaningless things due to the decoration of the letters.
THIRD GLEAM: In the Second Gleam we pointed to the fall of human philosophy before Qur'anic wisdom and to the miraculousness of Qur'anic wisdom. Now, in this Gleam, we shall show the degree of the wisdom and science before Qur'anic wisdom of the purified scholars, the saints, and the enlightened among philosophers, the Ishrâqiyyun, who are all students of the Qur'an, and shall make a brief indication to the Qur'an's miraculousness in this respect.
A most true indication to the elevatedness of the All-Wise Qur'an, and a most clear proof of its truth and justice, and a most powerful sign of its miraculousness is this: preserving all the degrees of all the areas of Divine Unity together with all their necessities, and explaining them, it has preserved their balance and not spoilt it. And it has preserved the balance of all the exalted Divine truths. And it has brought together all the ordinances dictated by the Divine Names, and preserved their mutual proportion. And it has brought together the Dominical and Divine acts with perfect balance. Thus, this preserving and balance and bringing together is a characteristic which certainly is not present in man's works nor in the products of the thought of the great among mankind. It is to be found nowhere in the works of the saints who have penetrated to the face of beings which looks to their Creator, nor in the books of the Ishrâqiyyun who have passed to the inward, hidden meaning of things, nor in the knowledge of the spiritual who have penetrated the World of the Unseen. As though they have practised a division of labour, it is as if each group adheres to only one or two branches of the mighty tree of reality; each busies itself with only its fruit or its leaves. They either know nothing of the others, or else do not concern themselves with them.
Indeed, absolute reality cannot be comprehended by restricted views. A universal view like the Qur'an is necessary in order to comprehend it. For sure they are instructed by the Qur'an, but with a particular mind they can only see completely one or two sides of universal reality, are preoccupied with them, and imprisoned in them. They spoil the balance of reality through either excess or negligence and mar its proportion and harmony. This truth was explained with an unusual comparison in the Second Branch of the Twenty-Fourth Word, and now we shall point to the matter with another comparison.
For example, let us suppose there is some treasure under the sea, full of innumerable jewels of various kinds. Divers are plunging the depths to search for the jewels of the treasure. Since their eyes are closed, they understand what is there through the dexterous use of their hands. A longish diamond comes into the hand of one of them. The diver assumes that the whole treasure consists of a long diamond like a pillar. When he hears of other jewels from his companions, he imagines that they are subsidiary to the diamond he has found, and are facets and embellishments of it. Into the hand of another passes a round ruby, while another finds a square piece of amber, and so on, each of them believes that the jewel he sees with his hand is the essential, major part of the treasure, and supposes that the things of which he hears are additional parts and details of it. So then the balance of the truths is spoilt, and the mutual proportion too is marred. The colour of many truths changes, and in order to see the true colour of reality they are obliged to resort to forced interpretation and elaborate explanations. Sometimes even they go as far as denial and rejection. Anyone who studies the books of the Ishrâqiyyun philosophers and the works of Sufis who rely on illuminations and visions without weighing them on the scales of the Sunna will doubtless confirm this statement of ours. That is to say, although their works concern truths similar to those of the Qur'an and are taken from the Qur'an's teachings, because they are not the Qur'an, they are thus defective. The Qur'an's verses also, which are oceans of truths, are divers for that treasure under the sea. But their eyes are open and encompass the treasure. They see what there is in the treasure and what there is not. They describe and expound it with such harmony, order, and proportion that they show the true beauty and fineness. For example, just as they see the vastness of Dominicality expressed by the verses,
And the whole of the earth will be but His handful, and the heavens will be rolled up in His hand.172 * The Day that We roll up the heavens like a scroll rolled up for books [completed],173
so too they see the all-encompassing Mercy expressed by these:
God, there is nothing hidden from Him on the earth or in the heavens * He it is Who shapes you in the wombs as He pleases.174 * There is not a moving creature, but He has grasp of its forelock.175 * How many are the creatures that carry not their own sustenance? It is God who feeds [both] them and you.176
And just as they see and point out the vast extent of the creativity expressed by,
Who created the heavens and the earth and made the darkness and the light,177
so too they see and show the comprehensive disposal and encompassing Dominicality expressed by,
But God has created you and what you do.178
They see and point out the mighty truth expressed by,
He gives life to the earth after its death,179
and the magnanimous truth expressed by,
And your Sustainer inspired the bee,180
and the sovereign and commanding vast truth expressed by,
The sun and the moon and the stars subjugated to His command.181
They see and show the compassionate, regulating truth expressed by,
Do they not observe the birds above them, spreading their wings and folding them in? None can uphold them except the Most Merciful; indeed He sees all things,182
and the vast truth expressed by,
His Throne extends over the heavens and the earth, and He feels no fatigue in preserving them,183
and the guarding truth expressed by,
And He is with you wherever you may be,184
and the all-encompassing truth expressed by,
He is the First and the Last and the Outward and the Inward, and He is Knowing of All Things,185
and the proximity expressed by,
It was We Who created man, and We know what dark suggestions his soul makes to him; for We are nearer to him that his jugular vein,186
and the elevated truth indicated by,
The angels ascend to Him in a day the measure of which is fifty thousand years,187
and the all-embracing truth expressed by,
God commands justice, the doing of good, and liberality to kith and kin, and He forbids all shameful deeds, and injustice and rebellion .188
The Qur'an's verses see and show in detail each of the six pillars of belief in respect of this world and the hereafter, action and knowledge. They see and show intentionally and seriously each of the five pillars of Islam, and all the principles which ensure happiness in this world and the next. They preserve their balance, perpetuate their proportion, and a form of the Qur'an's miraculousness comes into being from the source of the beauty which is born of the mutual proportion of the entirety of those truths.
It is due to this great mystery that although the scholars of theology are students of the Qur'an and one section of them has written thousands of works of ten volumes each on the pillars of belief, because like the Mu'tazilites they preferred the reason to transmitted knowledge, they have not been able to express with clarity so many as ten of the Qur'an's verses, or prove them decisively, or convince seriously concerning them. It is quite simply as though they have dug tunnels under distant mountains, taken pipes with the chains of causes to the ends of the world, there cut the chains, and then demonstrated knowledge of God and the existence of the Necessarily Existent One, which are like the water of life. The Qur'an's verses, however, can each extract water from every place like the Staff of Moses, open up a window from everything, and make known the All-Glorious Maker. We have actually proved and demonstrated this fact in the Arabic treatise, Katre, and in the other Words, which flow forth from the ocean of the Qur'an.
It is also due to this mystery that since all the leaders of the heretical groups who have passed to the inward nature of things (bât>n), who, not following the Sunna of the Prophet (PBUH) and relying on their visions, have returned having gone half way, and becoming leaders of a community have formed sects, have been unable to preserve the proportion and balance of the Qur'anic truths, they have fallen into innovation and misguidance and impelled a community of people down the wrong road. Thus, the complete impotence of all these demonstrates the miraculousness of the Qur'an's verses.
***
Conclusion 
Two flashes of the Qur'an's miraculousness mentioned in the Fourteenth Drop of the Nineteenth Word are its repetitions, which are imagined to be a fault, and its brevity concerning the physical sciences, both of which are sources for flashes of miraculousness. Also, a flash of the Qur'an's miraculousness which shines on the miracles of the prophets in the Qur'an is demonstrated clearly in the Second Station of the Twentieth Word. And like in these, numerous flashes of miraculousness have been mentioned in the other Words and in my Arabic treatises. And so, deeming those to be sufficient, here we shall only say this, that a further miracle of the Qur'an is that just as all the miracles of the prophets demonstrate an impress of the Qur'an's miraculousness, so too, with all its miracles, the Qur'an is a miracle of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH). And all the miracles of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) are a miracle of the Qur'an which demonstrate the Qur'an's relation with Almighty God. And with the appearance of that relation each of its words becomes a miracle. For then a single of its words may contain the meaning of a tree of truths, like a seed; and may be connected with all the members of a mighty truth, like the centre of the heart; and since its relies on an all-encompassing knowledge and infinite will, may look to innumerable things together with their letters, totalities, situations, and positions. Thus, it is because of this that the scholars of the science of letters claim that they have found a pageful of secrets in a single of the Qur'an's letters, and they prove what they claim to adepts of that science.
Now, gather together in your mind's eye all the Lights, Rays, Flashes, Beams, and Gleams from the start of this treatise up to here and consider them all together! As a decisive conclusion, they recite and proclaim in a loud voice the claim made at the beginning, that is,
Say: If all mankind and the Jinn were to gather together to produce the like of this Qur'an, they could not produce the like thereof, even if they backed up each other with help and support.189
Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.190
O our Sustainer! Do not call us to task if we forget or do wrong.191 * O my Sustainer! Expand for me my breast, * And make easy for me my task, * And remove the impediment from my speech, * So that they may understand what I say.192
O God! Grant blessings to our master Muhammed that will be pleasing to You and will be fulfilment to his truth, and to his Family, his Companions, and his brothers, and grant them peace.
O our Sustainer! Let not our hearts deviate after you have guided us, and grant us Mercy from Your Presence, for You are the Granter of bounties without measure.193 * And the close of their prayer will be, All praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds.194 Amen. Amen. Amen. 
***
First Addendum
[Of the Addenda added to the Twenty-Fifth Word, this First Addendum consists of the Seventeenth Degree of the First Station of the Seventh Ray, The Supreme Sign, on account of its Station.]
Knowing the aim of life in this world, and the life of life, to be belief, the tireless and insatiable traveller through the world who was questioning the universe concerning his Sustainer then said to himself: "Let us refer to the book called the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition, which is known as the word and speech of the One we are seeking, and is the most famous, brilliant, dominant book in the world, challenging everyone in every century who does not submit to it. But first we must prove that it is the book of our Creator." And he started to search.
Since the traveller lived at this time, he looked first at the Risale-i Nur, which consists of flashes of the Qur'an's miraculousness, and saw that its one hundred and thirty parts are fine points and lights of the verses of that Distinguisher between Truth and Falsehood, and authentic explanations of them. And although through striving and endeavour the Risale-i Nur has spread the Qur'anic truths everywhere in an age as obstinate and atheistic as this, the fact that no one has opposed it successfully proves that the Qur'an, which is its master, source, authority, and sun, is heavenly and revealed, and not man's word. Only one proof of the Qur'an out of the hundreds of the Risale-i Nur, the Twenty-Fifth Word together with the last part of the Nineteenth Letter, has proved so decisively that the Qur'an is miraculous in forty aspects that everyone who has seen them, rather than criticizing or objecting to them, has been full of wonder at their proofs, appreciating and praising them. So referring it to the Risale-i Nur to prove the Qur'an's miraculous aspects and its being the Word of God, the traveller only noted with brief indications several points demonstrating its greatness.
First Point: Just as with all its miracles and all its truths, which are an indication of its veracity, the Qur'an is a miracle of Muhammed (Peace and blessings be upon him), so too, with all his miracles and the indications of his prophethood and perfections of his knowledge, Muhammed (PBUH) is a miracle of the Qur'an, and a decisive proof that it is the Word of God.
Second Point: The Qur'an caused a transformation in social life in this world in so luminous, happy, and truthful a fashion, and brought about such a revolution in both men's souls, and hearts, and spirits, and minds, and in their personal lives, social lives, and political lives, and continued and directed that revolution, that every minute for fourteen centuries its six thousand six hundred and sixty-six verses have been recited with deep reverence by the tongues of at least one hundred million men, and it has trained men, purified their souls and cleansed their hearts, and it has caused spirits to unfold and progress, given direction and light to minds, and life and happiness to life. For sure, such a book has no like; it is a wonder, a marvel, a miracle.
Third Point: The eloquence the Qur'an has demonstrated from that age till now has been such that it caused Lebid's daughter to remove from the walls of the Ka'ba the famous verses written in gold of the most celebrated poets called 'the Seven Hanging Poems', and to declare while doing so: "Beside the verses of the Qur'an these no longer have any value!"
Also, when a bedouin poet heard the verse,
Therefore expound openly what you are commanded
being recited, he bowed down in prostration. When asked if he had become a Muslim, he replied: "No, I was prostrating before the eloquence of this verse."
Also, thousands of brilliant scholars and learned literary figures like the geniuses of the science of rhetoric, Abdu'l-Qahir Jurjanî, Sekkâkî, and Zamakhsharî, all reached the conclusion that, "The Qur'an's eloquence is beyond man's power, he could not achieve it."
Also, although from that time it has continuously issued a challenge provoking conceited and egotistical orators and poets, proclaiming in a way which will sting their pride: "Produce the like of one single Sura or be resigned to ignominy and ruin in this world and the next!", the obdurate orators of that time gave up disputing it verbally, the short way of producing the like of one Sura, and chose the way of the war, which was lengthy and threw their lives and property into peril, thus proving that it was not possible to take the short way.
Also, millions of Arabic books are in circulation, written since that time by the Qur'an's friends through the desire to resemble and imitate it, and by its enemies, driven to combat and criticize it, and such works are being written and have improved through the meeting of minds and ideas, but if even the most common man should listen to them, he would declare that none of them have reached it, saying: "The Qur'an does not resemble these and is not of their level. It is either lower than all of them or higher. No one in the world, no unbeliever, nor an idiot even, can say that it is lower, which means that the degree of its eloquence is above all of them."
One time, a man recited the verse,
All that is in the heavens and the earth extols and glorifies God,
and said: "I can't see the eloquence in this, which is considered wonderful." So it was said to him, "You return to that time like the traveller, and then listen to it." And imagining himself to be there before the Qur'an was revealed, he saw the beings of the world to be lifeless, without consciousness and duties, wretched and obscure in an unstable, transitory world in the middle of limitless, empty space. Suddenly, listening to this verse from the tongue of the Qur'an, he saw that it drew back a veil from the universe and face of the world, illuminating it. He saw that this pre-eternal address and eternal decree instructs the conscious beings lined up in the centuries, revealing the universe to be like a huge mosque, and foremost the heavens and the earth, and all beings, to be employed in the glorification and remembrance of God, contentedly performing their duties overflowing with joy and eagerness. He perceived the degree of eloquence of this verse, and comparing the others to it, understood one of the thousands of instances of wisdom in the recitation of the Qur'an's eloquence overspreading half the earth and a fifth of mankind, and, being held in utter veneration, perpetuating its sublime sovereignty for fourteen centuries without break.
Fourth Point: The Qur'an displays an agreeableness so true that for those who recite it, its many repetitions, which are the cause of even the sweetest things being wearied of, do not cause weariness, rather for those whose hearts are not corrupted and taste spoilt, the repetitions increase its agreeableness. Since early times this has been accepted by everyone and become proverbial. Furthermore, it demonstrates such a freshness, youth, and originality that although it has lived for fourteen centuries and has been met eagerly by everyone, it has preserved its freshness as though newly revealed. Each century has seen it to be young as though it was addressing that century in particular. And although in order to benefit from it all the time, all the branches of scholars have always had copies of it present with them in large numbers and have followed and emulated its style and manner of expression, it has preserved the originality in its style and manner of exposition exactly.
Fifth Point: One wing of the Qur'an is in the past, and one is in the future, and like its root and one wing are the agreed truths of the former prophets, and it confirms and corroborates them, and they too confirm it with the tongue of unanimity, so too all the true Sufi paths and ways of sainthood whose fruits like the saints and purified scholars, who receive life from the Qur'an, show through their vital spiritual progress that their blessed tree is living, effulgent, and the means to truth, and who grow and live under the protection of its second wing, testify that the Qur'an is pure truth and the assembly of truths and in its comprehensiveness, a matchless wonder.
Sixth Point: The Qur'an's truthfulness and veracity show that its six aspects are luminous. Indeed, the pillars of argument and proof beneath it; the flashes of the stamp of miraculousness above it; the gifts of happiness in this world and the next before it, its goal; the truths of heavenly revelation, the point of support behind it; the assent and evidence of innumerable upright minds to its right; and the true tranquillity, sincere attraction, and submission of sound hearts and clean consciences on its left all prove that the Qur'an is a wondrous, firm, unassailable citadel of both the heavens and the earth.
So too from these six levels, the Disposer of the universe has set His seal on its being sheer truth and right, and not being man's word, and its containing no error - the Disposer, Who has made it His practice to always exhibit beauty in the universe, protect good and right, and eliminate imposters and liars, has confirmed and set His seal on the Qur'an by giving it the most acceptable, highest, and most dominant place of respect and degree of success in the world.
And so too the one who is the source of Islam and interpreter of the Qur'an - his believing in it and holding it in greater respect than everyone else, and being in a sleep-like state when it was revealed, and other words and speeches not resembling or coming near it, and that Translator's describing without hesitation and with complete confidence through the Qur'an true cosmic events of generally the past and the future from behind the veil of the Unseen, and no trickery or fault being observed in him while being under the gazes of the sharpest eyes, and his believing and affirming every pronouncement of the Qur'an with all his strength and nothing shaking him, is a stamp confirming that the Qur'an is revealed and true and the blessed Word of his own Compassionate Creator.
Also a fifth of mankind, indeed the greater part of it, being drawn to the Qur'an and bound to it in religion and giving ear to it eagerly desirous of the truth, and according to the testimony of many indications and events and illuminations, the jinn, angels, and spirit beings also gathering around it in truth-worshipping fashion like moths whenever it is recited is a stamp confirming the Qur'an's acceptance by all beings and that it occupies a most high position.
Also, all the classes of mankind from the most stupid and lowly to the cleverest and most learned taking their full share of the Qur'an's instruction and their understanding its most profound truths, and all branches of scholars like the great interpreters of the Greater Shari'a in particular, and hundreds of Islamic sciences and branches of knowledge, and the brilliant and exacting scholars of theology and the principles of religion extracting from the Qur'an all the needs and answers for their own sciences is a stamp confirming that the Qur'an is a source of truth and mine of reality.
Also, although the the Arab literary figures, who were the most advanced in regard to literature, - those of them who were not Muslims - had the greatest need to dispute the Qur'an, their avoiding producing the like of only a single Sura and its eloquence, eloquence being only one aspect of the seven major aspects of the Qur'an's miraculousness, as well as the famous orators and brilliant scholars up to the present who have wanted to gain fame through disputing it being unable to oppose a single aspect of its miraculousness and their remaining silent in impotence is a stamp confirming that the Qur'an is a miracle and beyond the powers of man.
Yes, the value, superiority, and eloquence of a speech or word is apparent through knowing, "from whom it has come and to whom, and for what purpose;" the Qur'an then can have no like, and none can reach it. For the Qur'an is a speech and address of the Sustainer of all the worlds and Creator of the whole universe and a dialogue in no way hinting of imitation and artificiality. It is addressed to the one sent in the name of all men, indeed of all beings, the most famous and renowned of mankind, the strength and breadth of whose belief gave rise to mighty Islam and raised its owner to the level of the Distance of Two Bow-strings and returned him as the addressee of the Eternally Besought One. It describes and explains the matters concerning happiness in this world and the next, the results of the creation of the universe, and the Dominical purposes within it. It expounds also the belief of the one it addresses, which was the highest and most extensive of belief and bore all the truths of Islam. It turns and shows every side of the huge universe like a map, a clock, or a house, and teaches and describes it in the manner of the Craftsman Who made them - to produce the like of this Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition is not possible; the degree of its miraculousness cannot be attained to.
Also, thousands of precise and learned scholars of high intelligence have each written commentaries expounding the Qur'an, some of which are of thirty, forty, or even seventy volumes, showing and proving through evidence and argument the innumerable qualities, fine points, characteristics, mysteries, elevated meanings, and numerous indications concerning every sort of hidden and unseen matter in the Qur'an. And the one hundred and thirty parts of the Risale-i Nur in particular, each of which proves with decisive arguments one quality, one fine point of the Qur'an. Each part of it - like the Miraculousness of the Qur'an, and the Second Station of the Twentieth Word, which deduces many things from the Qur'an concerning the wonders of civilization like the railway and the aeroplane, and the First Ray, called Signs of the Qur'an, which makes known the indications of verses alluding to the Risale-i Nur and electricity, and the eight short treatises called The Eight Signs, which show how well-ordered, full of meaning, and mysterious are the words of the Qur'an, and the small treatise proving in five aspects the miraculousness of the verses at the end of Sura al-Fath in regard to their giving news of the Unseen - each part of the Risale-i Nur shows one truth, one light of the Qur'an. All this forms a stamp confirming that the Qur'an has no like, is a miracle and a marvel, and that it is the tongue of the World of the Unseen in the Manifest World and the Word of One All-Knowing of the Unseen.
Thus, due to these qualities and characteristics of the Qur'an indicated above in six points, six aspects, and six levels, its sublime, luminous sovereignty and sacred, mighty rule has continued with perfect splendour illuminating the faces of the centuries and the face of the earth for one thousand three hundred years. And also on account of these qualities of the Qur'an, each of its letters has gained the sacred distinction of yielding at least ten rewards, ten merits, and ten eternal fruits, and the letters of certain verses and Suras yielding a hundred or a thousand fruits, or even more, and at blessed times the light, reward, and value of each letter rising from ten to hundreds. The traveller through the world understood this and said to his heart: "The Qur'an, which is thus miraculous in every respect, through the consensus of its Suras, the agreement of its verses, the accord of its lights and mysteries, and the concurrence of its fruits and works, so testifies with its evidences in the form of proofs to the existence, Unity, attributes, and Names of a Single Necessarily Existent One that it is from its testimony that the endless testimony of all the believers has issued forth."
Thus, in brief indication to the instruction in belief and Divine Unity that the Traveller received from the Qur'an, it was said in the Seventeenth Degree of the First Station:
There is no god but God, the One and Unique Necessary Existent, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity points the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition, the book accepted and desired by all species of angel, men and jinn, whose verses are read each minute of the year, with the utmost reverence, by hundreds of millions of men, whose sacred sovereignty over the regions of the earth and the universe and the face of time is permanent, whose spiritual and luminous authority has run over half the earth and a fifth of humanity, for more than fourteen centuries, with the utmost splendour. Testimony and proof is also given by the unanimity of its sacred and heavenly Suras, the agreement of its luminous, divine verses, the congruence of its mysteries and lights, the correspondence of its fruits and effects, by witnessing and clear vision.
***
THE TENTH MATTER OF THE FRUITS OF BELIEF, THE ELEVENTH RAY
A Flower of Emirdag
[An extremely powerful reply to objections raised against repetition in the Qur'an.]
My Dear and Loyal Brothers!
Due to my wretched situation, this Matter is confused and graceless. But I knew there to be definitely beneath the confused wording a most valuable sort of miraculousness, though unfortunately, I was not capable of expressing it. But however dull the wording, since it concerns the Qur'an, it is both worship in the form of reflection, and the shell of a sacred, elevated, shining jewel. The diamond in the hand should be looked at, not its torn clothes. Also, I wrote it in one or two days during Ramadan while extremely ill, wretched, and without food, of necessity very concisely and briefly, and including many truths and numerous proofs in a single sentence. Let its deficiencies, then, not be considered. [As the Tenth Matter of the fruit of Denizli Prison, it is a small shining flower of Emirdag and of this month of Ramadan. By explaining one instance of wisdom in the repetitions of the Qur'an, it dispels the poisonous, putrid illusions of the people of misguidance.]
My True and Loyal Brothers! While reading the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition in Ramadan, whichever of the thirty-three verses came up that in the First Ray describe the indications to the Risale-i Nur, I saw that the page and story of the verse also look to the Risale-i Nur and its Students to a degree - from the point of view of taking a share from the story. Particularly the Light Verses in Sura al-Nur, just as they point to the Risale-i Nur with ten fingers, so too the Darkness Verses following it point directly at those opposing it; these afford a further share. Quite simply, I understood that this 'station' rises from particularity to universality and that one part of that universality is the Risale-i Nur and its Students.
Indeed, in regard to the breadth, exaltedness, and comprehensiveness that the Qur'an's address receives from first the extensive station of the universal Dominicality of the Pre-Eternal Speaker, and from the extensive station of the one addressed in the name of mankind, indeed of all beings, and the most extensive station of all mankind's guidance in all the centuries, and from the station of the most elevated comprehensive expositions of the Divine laws concerning the regulation of this world and the hereafter, the heavens and the earth, pre-eternity and post-eternity, and the Dominicality of the Creator of the universe, and of all beings, this Address displays such an elevated miraculousness and comprehensiveness that both its apparent and simple level, which flatters the simple minds of ordinary people, the most numerous group the Qur'an addresses, and its highest level, partakes of it.
It is as though, addressing every age and every class of people, not as one share of the story or one lesson from an historical story, but as parts of a universal principle, it is newly revealed. And particularly its often repeated threats of the wrongdoers, the wrongdoers, and its severe expositions of calamities visited on the heavens and the earth, the punishment for their wrongdoing - through these and the retribution visited on the Ad and Thamud peoples and on Pharaoh, it draws attention to the unequalled wrongs of this century, and through the salvation of prophets like Abraham (PUH) and Moses (PUH) gives consolation to the oppressed believers.
Indeed, all past time and the departed ages and centuries, which in the view of heedlessness and misguidance form a ghastly and fearsome place of non-existence and a grievous, ruined graveyard, the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition shows to every century and class of people in the form of living instructive pages, strange worlds, living and endowed with spirits, and existent realms of the Sustainer which are connected with us; with an elevated miraculousness, it sometimes conveys us to those times, and sometimes brings those times to us. Infusing with life the universe, which in the view of misguidance is lifeless, wretched, dead, and a limitless wasteland revolving amid separation and decline, with the same miraculousness this same Qur'an of Mighty Stature raises to life those dead beings, makes them converse with one another as officials charged with duties and hasten to the assistance of one another; it instructs mankind, the jinn, and the angels in true, luminous, and pleasurable wisdom.
For sure, then, it gains sacred distinctions, like there being ten merits in each of its letters, and sometimes a hundred, a thousand, or thousands of merits; and if all men and jinn were to gather together, their being unable to produce the like of it; and its speaking completely appropriately with all mankind and all beings; and its all the time being inscribed with eagerness in the hearts of millions of hafizes; and its not causing weariness through its frequent and numerous repetitions; and despite its many obscure places and sentences, its being settled perfectly in the delicate and simple heads of children; and its being agreeable like zemzem water in the ears of the sick, the dying, and those distressed by a few words; and its gaining for its students happiness in this world and the next.
And its smoothness of style, which, observing exactly its translator's being unlettered, allows for no bombast, artificiality, or affectedness, and its descending directly from the heavens demonstrate a fine miraculousness. And so too it shows a fine miraculousness in the grace and guidance of flattering the simple minds of ordinary people, the most numerous of the classes of men, through the condescension in its expression, and mostly opening the clearest and most evident pages like the heavens and earth, and teaching the wondrous miracles of power and meaningful lines of wisdom beneath those commonplace things.
And in order to make known that it is also a book of prayer and summons, of invocation and Divine Unity, which require repetition, it demonstrates a sort of miraculousness through making understood in a single sentence and a single story through its agreeable repetitions numerous different meanings to numerous different classes of people. And so too, in order to make known that the most minor and unimportant things in ordinary, commonplace events are within its compassionate view and the sphere of its will and regulation, it demonstrates a sort of miraculousness in attaching importance to even the minor events of the Companions of the Prophet in the establishment of Islam and codification of the Shari'a, and both in those minor events being universal principles, and, in the establishment of Islam and the Shari'a, which are general, their producing most important fruits, like seeds.
With regard to repetition being necessary due to the repetition of need, the repetition of certain verses which, as answers to numerous repeated questions over a period of twenty years, instructs numerous different levels of people is not a fault - indeed, to repeat certain sentences so powerful they produce thousands of results and a number of verses which result from countless evidences, which describe an infinite, awesome, all-embracing revolution which, by destroying utterly the vast universe and changing its shape at Doomsday, will remove the world and found the mighty hereafter in its place, and will prove that all particulars and universals from atoms to the stars are in the hand and under the disposal of a single Being, and will show the Divine wrath and Dominical anger - on account of the result of the universe's creation - at mankind's wrongdoing, which brings to anger the earth and the heavens and the elements, to repeat such verses is not a fault, but most powerful miraculousness, and most elevated eloquence; an eloquence and lucid style corresponding exactly to the requirements of the subject.
For example, as is explained in the Fourteenth Flash of the Risale-i Nur, the sentence,
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,
which forms a single verse and is repeated one hundred and fourteen times in the Qur'an, is a truth which binds the Divine Throne and the earth, and illuminates the cosmos, and for which everyone is in need all the time; if it was repeated millions of times, there would still be need for it. There is need and longing for it, not only every day like bread, but every moment like air and light.
And, for example, the verse,
And verily your Sustainer is Exalted in Might, Most Compassionate,
which is repeated eight times in Sura Ta Sin Mim.2 Repeating on account of the result of the universe's creation and in the name of universal Dominicality, the salvation of the prophets whose stories are told in the Sura, and the punishments of their peoples, in order to teach that that Dominical dignity requires the torments of those wrongdoing peoples and Divine Compassion also requires the prophets' salvation, is a concise, miraculous, and elevated miraculousness, for which, if repeated thousands of times, there would still be need and longing.
And, for example, the verse,
Then which of the favours of your Sustainer will you deny?
which is repeated in Sura al-Rahman, and the verse,
Woe that Day to the rejecters of truth!,
in Sura al-Mursalat4 shout out threateningly to mankind and the jinn across the centuries and the heavens and the earth, the unbelief, ingratitude, and wrongdoing of those who bring the universe and the heavens and earth to anger, spoil the results of the world's creation, and deny and respond slightingly to the majesty of Divine rule, and aggress against the rights of all creatures. If a general lesson thus concerned with thousands of truths and of the strength of thousands of matters is repeated thousands of times, there would still be need for it and its awe-inspiring conciseness and beautiful, miraculous eloquence.
And, for example, the repetition of the phrase,
Glory be unto You! There is no god but You: Mercy! Mercy! Save us, deliver us, preserve us, from Hell-fire!
in the supplication of the Prophet (PBUH) called Jaushan al-Kabir, which is a true and authentic supplication of the Qur'an and a sort of summary proceeding from it. Since it contains the greatest truth and the most important of the three supreme duties of creatures in the face of Dominicality, the glorification and praise of God and declaring Him to be All-Holy, and the most awesome question facing mankind, his being saved from eternal misery, and worship, the most necessary result of human impotence, if it is repeated thousands of times, it is still few.
Thus, repetition in the Qur'an looks to principles like these. Sometimes on one page, even, with regard to the requirements of the position and the need for explanation and the demands of eloquence, it expresses the truth of Divine Unity perhaps twenty times explicitly and by implication. It does not cause boredom, but gives a power to it, and eagerness. It has been explained in the Risale-i Nur with proofs how appropriate, fitting, and acceptable with regard to rhetoric are the repetitions in the Qur'an. The wisdom and meaning of the Meccan and Medinan Suras in the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition being different in regard to eloquence, miraculousness, and detail and brevity is as follows:
In Mecca, the first line of those it was addressing and those opposed to it were the Qurayshi idolators and untaught tribesmen, so a powerful and elevated style in regard to rhetoric was necessary, and a miraculous, convincing, persuasive conciseness, and in order to establish it, repetition was required. Thus, in most of the Meccan Suras, repeating and expressing the pillars of belief and degrees in the affirmation of Divine Unity with a most powerful, elevated, and miraculous conciseness, it proved so powerfully the first creation and the Resurrection, God and the hereafter, not only in a single page, verse, sentence or word, but sometimes in a letter, through grammatical devices like changing the places of the words or sentences, making a word indefinite, and omissions and inclusions, that the geniuses and leaders of the science of rhetoric met it with wonder. The Risale-i Nur, and the Twenty-Fifth Word and its Addenda in particular, which prove in summary forty aspects of the Qur'an's miraculousness, and the Qur'anic commentary, Ishârâtu'l-I'jaz, from the Arabic Risale-i Nur, which in wondrous fashion proves the aspect of the Qur'an's miraculousness that is in its word order, have demonstrated in fact that in the Meccan Suras and verses are the highest styles of eloquence and the most elevated, concise miraculousness.
As for the Medinan Suras and verses, since the first line of those they were addressing and who opposed them were the People of the Book, like the Jews and Christians who affirmed God's existence, what was required by eloquence and guidance and for the discussion to correspond to the situation, was not explanation of the high principles of religion and pillars of belief in a simple, clear, and detailed style, but the explanation of particular matters in the Shari'a and its injunctions, which were the cause of dispute, and the origins and causes of secondary matters and general laws. Thus, in the Medinan Suras and verses, through explanations in a detailed, clear, simple style, in the matchless manner of exposition peculiar to the Qur'an, it mostly mentions within those particular secondary matters, a powerful and elevated summary; a conclusion and proof, a sentence relating to Divine Unity, belief, or the hereafter which makes the particular matter of the Shari'a universal and ensures that it conforms to belief in God. It illuminates the passage, and elevates it. The Risale-i Nur has proved the qualities and fine points and elevated eloquence in the summaries and conclusions, which express Divine Unity and the hereafter, and come mostly at the end of verses, like:
Indeed, God is Powerful over all things. * Verily God has knowledge of all things. * And He is the Mighty, the Wise.* And He is Exalted in Might, Most Compassionate.
In explaining in the Second Beam of the Second Light of the Twenty-Fifth Word, ten out of the many fine points and qualities of those summaries and conclusions, it has proved to the obstinate that there is in them a supreme miracle.
Yes, in expounding those secondary matters of the Shari'a and laws of social life, the Qur'an at once raises the views of those it addresses to elevated and universal points, and transforming a simple style into an elevated one and instruction in the Shari'a to instruction in Divine Unity, it shows it is both a book of law and commands and wisdom, and a book of the tenets of faith and belief, and of invocation and reflection and summons. And through teaching many of the aims of Qur'anic guidance in every passage, it displays a brilliant and miraculous eloquence different to that of the Meccan Suras.
Sometimes in two words, for example, in Sustainer of All the Worlds and Your Sustainer, through the phrase, Your Sustainer, it expresses Divine Oneness, and through, Sustainer of All the Worlds, Divine Unity. It expresses the Divine Oneness within Divine Unity. In a single sentence even it sees and situates a particle in the pupil of an eye, and with the same verse, the same hammer, it situates the sun in the sky, and makes it an eye to the sky. For example, after the verse,
Who created the heavens and the earth,
following the verse,
He merges the night into the day, and He merges the day into the night,
it says:
And He has full knowledge of all that is in [men's] hearts.
It says: "Within the vast majesty of the creation of the earth and the skies, He knows and regulates also the thoughts of the heart." And through an exposition of this sort, transforms that simple and unlettered level and particular discussion which takes into account the minds of ordinary people, into an elevated, attractive, and general conversation for the purpose of guidance.
A Question: "Because an important truth is sometimes not apparent to superficial views, and in some positions the connection is not known in expressing an elevated summary concerning Divine Unity or a universal principle out of a minor and ordinary matter, it is imagined to be a fault. For example, mentioning the extremely elevated principle: And over all endued with knowledge, One Knowing,7 in Joseph (Upon whom be peace) taking his brother through subterfuge, does not appear to be in keeping with eloquence. What is its meaning and the wisdom in it?"
The Answer: In most of the long and middle-length Suras, which are each small Qur'ans, and in many pages and passages, not only two or three aims are followed, rather, the Qur'an's nature comprises many books and teachings like being a book of invocation, belief, and reflection, and a book of law, wisdom, and guidance. And so, since it describes the majestic manifestations of Divine Dominicality and its encompassing all things, being a sort of recitation of the Mighty Book of the Universe, in every discussion and sometimes on a single page, the Qur'an follows many aims; while instructing in knowledge of God, the degrees in Divine Unity, and the truths of belief, with an apparently weak connection it opens another subject of instruction in the following passage, and joins powerful connections to that weak one. It corresponds perfectly to the discussion and raises the level of eloquence.
A Second Question: "What is the wisdom and purpose in the Qur'an proving and drawing attention to the hereafter, Divine Unity, and man's reward and punishment thousands of times, explicitly, implicitly, and allusively, and teaching them in every Sura, on every page, and in every discussion?"
The Answer: To instruct in the most important, most significant, and greatest of awesome matters in the sphere of contingency and in the revolutions in the universe's history concerning man's duty, the means to his eternal misery or happiness, - man who undertook the Divine vicegerency of the earth - and to remove his countless doubts, and to smash his violent denials and obduracy, indeed, to make man confirm those awesome revolutions and submit to those most necessary essential matters which are as great as the revolutions, if the Qur'an draws his attention to them thousands, or even millions of times, those discussions in the Qur'an are read. They do not cause boredom, and the need does not cease.
For example, since the verse,
For those who believe and do righteous deeds are gardens beneath which rivers flow, * They will dwell there for ever,
shows the truth of the good news of eternal happiness, which "saves from the eternal execution of the reality of death, which every moment shows itself to wretched man, both himself, and his world, and all those he loves, and gains for them an everlasting sovereignty", if it is repeated thousands of millions of times and given the importance of the universe, it still is not excessive and does not lose its value. As so, in teaching the innumerable, valuable matters of this sort, and endeavouring to persuade, convince, and prove the occurrence of awesome revolutions which will destroy the present form of the universe and change it as though it was a house, the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition certainly draws attention to these matters thousands of times times explicitly, implicitly, and allusively, and this is not excessive, but renews the bounty like the essential needs of bread, medicine, air, and light are renewed.
And, for example, as is proved decisively in the Risale-i Nur, the wisdom in the Qur'an repeating severely, angrily, and forcefully, threatening verses like,
For wrong-doers there is a grievous penalty. *But for those who reject [God] - for them will the Fire of Hell.
is that man's unbelief is such a transgression against the rights of the universe and most creatures that it makes the heavens and earth angry and brings the elements to anger so that they deal blows on those wrong-doers with tempest and storm. According to the clear statement of the verses,
And when they are cast therein, they will hear the [terrible] drawing-in of its breath as it blazes forth * Almost bursting with fury,
Hell so rages at those iniquitous deniers that it reaches the degree of disintegrating with fury. Thus, through the wisdom of showing, not from the point of view of man's smallness and insignificance before such a general crime and boundless aggression, but the importance of the rights of the Monarch of Universe's subjects before the greatness of the wrongful crime and the awesomeness of the unjust aggression, and the boundless ugliness in the unbelief and iniquity of those deniers - in accordance with the wisdom of showing this, if repeating in His decree most wrathfully and severely that crime and its punishment, thousands, millions, or even thousands of millions of times, it still would not be excessive and a fault, because for a thousand years thousands of millions of people have read such verses everyday, not with boredom, but with perfect eagerness and need.
Indeed, every day, all the time, for everyone, one world disappears and the door of a new world is opened to them. Through repeating There is no god but God a thousand times out of need and with longing in order to illuminate each of those transitory worlds, it makes There is no god but God a lamp for each of those changing veils. In the same way, in accordance with the wisdom of appreciating through reading the Qur'an the penalties of those crimes and the severe threats of the Pre-Eternal Monarch, which smash their obduracy, and of working to be saved from the rebellion of the soul, so as not to plunge into darkness those multiple, fleeting veils and renewed travelling universes, and not to make ugly their images which are reflected in the mirrors of their lives, and not to turn against them those guest views which may testify in favour of them, the Qur'an repeats them in most meaningful fashion. And even Satan flees from imagining to be out of place these so powerful, severe, and repeated threats of the Qur'an. It shows that the torments of Hell are pure justice for the deniers who do not heed them.
And, for example, in repeating many times the stories of Moses (Upon whom be peace), which contain many instances of wisdom and benefits like the Staff of Moses, and of the other prophets (Upon whom be peace), it demonstrates that the prophethoods of all the other prophets are a proof of the Prophethood of Muhammed (PBUH). In accordance with the undeniable wisdom for the point of view of reality of this Being's Prophethood and since everyone does not always have the time or capability to read the whole Qur'an, like the important pillars of belief, it repeats those stories in order to make all the long and middle-length Suras each like a small Qur'an. To repeat them is not excessive, indeed, it is required by eloquence, and teaches that the question of Muhammed (PBUH) is the greatest question of mankind and the most important matter of the universe.
It has been demonstrated decisively in the Risale-i Nur with many proofs and indications that through giving the highest position to the person of Muhammed in the Qur'an and including him in the four pillars of belief and holding Muhammed is the Prophet of God equal to the pillar of There is no god but God, that the Prophethood of Muhammed (PBUH) is the greatest truth in the universe, and that the Person of Muhammed is the most noble of creatures, and his universal collective personality and sacred rank, known as the Muhammedan Truth, is the most radiant Sun of the two worlds. And his worthiness for this extraordinary position has also been proved. One of these proofs is this:
According to the principle of 'the cause is like the doer', with the equivalent of all the good works performed by all his community at all times entering his book of good works; and the light which he brought illuminating all the truths of the cosmos; and his gratifying not only the jinn, mankind, and animate beings, but also the universe and the heavens and earth; and the supplications of plants, offered through the tongue of disposition, and the supplications of animals offered through the tongue of their innate need, and the righteous of that Being (PBUH)'s community every day bequeating to him their benedictions and supplications for mercy and spiritual gains, whose millions - and together with spirit beings, even, millions of millions - of unrejectable supplications are accepted, as we actually witness with our eyes; and since each of the three hundred thousand letters of the Qur'an yield from a hundred to a thousand merits, with infinite numbers of lights entering the book of his deeds, only with regard to the recitation of the Qur'an by all his community, the One All-Knowing of the Unseen saw and knew that the Muhammedan (PBUH) Reality, which is his collective personality, would in the future be like a Tuba-tree of Paradise. It was in accordance with that position that He gave him such supreme importance in the Qur'an, and in His Decree showed the following of him and receiving of his intercession through adhering to his Illustrious Sunna to be one of the most important matters concerning man. And from time to time He took into consideration his human personality and human state in his early life, which was a seed of the majestic Tuba-tree.
Thus, since the truths repeated in the Qur'an are of this value, all sound natures will testify that in its repetitions is a powerful and extensive miracle. Unless, that is to say, a person is afflicted with some sickness of the heart and malady of the conscience due to the plague of materialism, and is included under the rule,
Man denied the light of the sun due to disease of the eye,
The mouth denied the taste of water due to sickness.
***
TWO ADDITIONS, WHICH FORM A CONCLUSION
TO THE TENTH MATTER.
THE FIRST: Twelve years ago I heard that a most fearsome and obdurate atheist had instigated a conspiracy against the Qur'an through having it translated. He said: "The Qur'an should be translated so that just what it is can be known." That is, saying, let everyone see its unnecessary repetitions and let its translation be read in its place, he hatched a dire plan. However, the irrefutable proofs of the Risale-i Nur proved decisively that "A true translation of the Qur'an is not possible, and other languages cannot preserve the Qur'an's virtues and fine points in place of the grammatical language of Arabic. Man's trite and partial translations cannot be substituted for the miraculous and comprehensive words of the Qur'an, every letter of which yields from ten to a thousand merits; they may not be read in its place in mosques." Through spreading everywhere, the Risale-i Nur made the fearsome plan come to nothing. I surmise that it was due to the idiotic and lunatic attempts of dissemblers to extinguish the Sun of the Qur'an on account of Satan by puffing at it like silly children, having taken lessons from that atheist, that I was inspired to write this Tenth Matter while under great constraint and in a most distressing situation. But I do not know the reality of the situation since I have been unable to meet with others.
SECOND ADDITION: After our release from Denizli Prison, I was staying on the top floor of the famous Sehir Hotel. The most subtle and graceful dancing of the leaves, branches, and trunks of the many poplar trees in the fine gardens opposite me, each with a rapturous and ecstatic motion like a circle of dervishes at the touching of the breeze, pained my heart, sorrowful and melancholy at being parted from my brothers and remaining alone. Suddenly the seasons of autumn and winter came to mind and a heedlessness overcame me. I so pitied those graceful poplars and living creatures swaying with perfect joyousness that my eyes filled with tears. With this reminder of the separations and non-being beneath the ornamented veil of the universe, the grief at a world-full of deaths and separations pressed down on me. Then suddenly, the Light the Muhammedan (PBUH) Truth had brought came to my assistance and transformed that grief and sorrow into joy. Indeed, I am eternally grateful to the Muhammedan Being (PBUH) for the assistance and consolation which touched that situation at that time, only a single instance of the boundless effulgence of that Light for me, like for all believers and everyone. It was like this.
By showing those blessed and delicate creatures to be without function or purpose, and their motion to be not out of joy, but as though trembling at non-existence and separation and tumbling into nothingness, that heedless view so touched the feelings in me of desire for permanence, love of good things, and compassion for fellow-creatures and life that it transformed the world into a sort of hell and the mind into an instrument of torture. Then, just at that point, the Light Muhammed (Peace and blessings by upon him) had brought as a gift for mankind raised the veil; it showed in place of extinction, non-being, nothingness, purposeless, futility, and separations, meanings and instances of wisdom to the number of the leaves of the poplars, and as is proved in the Risale-i Nur, results and duties which may be divided into three sorts:
The First Sort looks to the All-Glorious Maker's Names. For example, if a master craftsman makes a wondrous machine, everyone applauds him, saying: "What wonders God has willed! Blessed be God!" And so too, the machine congratulates the craftsman through the tongue of its disposition, through displaying perfectly the results intended from it. All living beings and all things are machines such as that; they applaud their Craftsman through their glorifications.
The Second Sort of Instances of Wisdom looks to the views of living creatures and conscious beings. Beings each become an agreeable object of study, a book of knowledge. They leave their meanings in the sphere of existence in the minds of conscious beings and their forms in their memories, and on the tablets in the World of Similitudes, and in the notebooks of the World of the Unseen, then they leave the Manifest World and withdraw to the World of the Unseen. That is, they leave an apparent existence and gain many existences, pertaining to meaning, the Unseen, and knowledge. Yes, since God exists and His knowledge encompasses everything, in the view of reality, in the world of believers there is surely no non-being, extinction, nothingness, annihilation, and transitoriness, while the world of unbelievers is full of non-existence, separation, nothingness, and transience. The saying, which is on everyone's lips, "For those for whom God exists, everything exists; and for those for whom He does not exist, nothing exists; for them there is nothing", teaches this fact.
IN SHORT: Just as belief saves man from eternal annihilation at the time of death, so too, it saves everyone's private world from the darknesses of annihilation and nothingness. Whereas unbelief, and especially if it is absolute unbelief, both sends man and his private world to non-existence with death, and casts him into Hell-like darknesses. It transforms the pleasures of life into bitter poisons. Let the ears of those ring who prefer the life of this world to that of the hereafter! Let them come and find a solution for this, or else let them enter belief and be saved from these dreadful losses!
Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.
From your brother who is in much need
of your prayers and misses you greatly,
SAID NURSI
The Twenty-Sixth Word
THE TREATISE ON DIVINE DETERMINING
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
And there is not a thing but its [sources and] treasures [inexhaustible] are with Us, but We only send down thereof in due and ascertainable measures. * And of all things have We taken account in a Clear Book.
[Divine Determining [Divine Determinig (Qadar) is sometimes known as fate or destiny {Tr.}] and the power of choice [The power of choice or faculty of will {juz'î irâda, juz'i ikhtiyarî}, also known as free will {Tr.}] are two important matters. We shall try to disclose a few of their mysteries in Four Topics.]
FIRST TOPIC
Divine Determining and the power of choice are aspects of a belief pertaining to state and conscience which show the final limits of Islam and belief; they are not theoretical and do not pertain to knowledge. That is to say, a believer attributes everything to Almighty God, even his actions and self, till finally the power of choice confronts him and he is not saved from obligation and responsibility. It tells him: "You are responsible and under obligation." Then, so that he does not become proud due to the good things and perfections which issue from him, Divine Determining confronts him, saying: "Know your limits; the one who does them is not you." Yes, Divine Determining and the power of choice are at the final degrees of belief and Islam; the former has entered among the matters of belief to save the soul from pride, and latter, to save it from lack of responsibility. To cling to Divine Determining so that obdurate evil-commanding souls may save themselves from the responsibility of the evils they have committed, and to take pride and become conceited on account of the virtues bestowed on them and to rely on the power of choice, are actions totally opposed to the mystery of Divine Determining and wisdom of the power of choice; they are not matters pertaining to knowledge which give rise to such actions.
Indeed, among ordinary people who have not progressed spiritually there are occasions when Divine Determining may be used, but those are calamities and disasters when it is the remedy for despair and grief. It should not be used for rebellion and in matters of the future so that it becomes a cause of dissipation and idleness. That is to say, the question of Divine Determining has not entered belief to save people from obligation and responsibility, but to save them from pride and conceit. While the power of choice has entered among the tenets of faith to be the source of evils, not to be the source of virtues, so that people become Pharaohs.
Yes, as the Qur'an states, man is completely responsible for his evils, for the one who wishes the evils is he. Since evils are destruction, man may perpetrate much destruction with one evil act, and he becomes deserving of an awesome punishment - like burning a house with one match. However, he does not have the right to take pride in good deeds; his right in them is extremely small. For what wants and requires the good deeds is Divine Mercy, and what creates them is Dominical Power. Both request and reply, reason and cause, are from God. Man only comes to have them through supplication, belief, consciousness, and consent. But what wants evil acts is man's soul, either through capacity or through choice. Like in the white and beautiful light of the sun some substances become black and putrefy, and the blackness is related to their capacity. But the one who creates the evils through a Divine law which comprises numerous benefits is again Almighty God. That is to say, the cause and the request are from the soul, so that it is the soul which is responsible. And as for the creation and bringing into existence, which belong to Almighty God, since they have other results and fruits which are good, they are good.
It is for the above reason that to commit or desire evil is evil, but the creation of evil is not evil. A lazy man who receives damage from rain, which comprises many instances of good, may not say that the rain is not Mercy. Yes, together with a minor evil in the creation and giving of existence are numerous instances of good. To abandon that good for a minor evil becomes a greater evil. Therefore, a minor evil becomes like good. There is no evil or ugliness in Divine creation. They rather pertain to His servant's wish and to his capacity.
Furthermore, just as Divine Determining is exempt from evil and ugliness with regard to results and fruits, so too it is free from tyranny and ugliness with respect to reason and cause. Because Divine Determining looks to the true reasons and acts justly. Men construct their judgements on reasons which they see superficially and fall into wrong within the pure justice of Divine Determining. For example, a judge finds you guilty of theft and sends you to prison. You are not a thief, but you have committed a murder which no one knows about. Thus, Divine Determining also sentenced you to imprisonment, but it sentenced you for the secret murder and acted justly. Since the judge sentenced you for a theft of which you were innocent, he acted unjustly. Thus, in a single thing the justice of Divine Determining and Divine creation and the wrong of man's acquisition were apparent in two respects; you can make analogies with it for other things. That is to say, with regard to origin and end, source and branch, cause and results, Divine Determining and creation are exempt from evil, ugliness, and tyranny.
If it is said: "Since the power of choice does not have the ability to create and man has nothing apart from inclination or desiring, which are as though theoretical, how is it that in the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition, man is showed to be rebellious and hostile before the Creator of the heavens and the earth, Who complains greatly about him; He mobilizes Himself and all His angels to assist His believing servants against the rebellious, and attaches the greatest importance to them?"
The Answer: Because unbelief, rebellion, and evil are destruction and non-existence. However, great destruction and innumerable instances of non-existence may result in a single theoretical matter and instance of non-existence. Just as, through the helmsman of a large ship abandoning his duty, the ship may sink and the labour of all those employed on it go for nothing, and all those instances of destruction result in a single instance of non-existence, so too, since unbelief and rebellion are non-existence and destruction, the power of choice may provoke them through a theoretical matter and cause awesome consequences. For although unbelief is only one evil, since it insults the whole universe as being worthless and futile, and denies all beings, which display proofs of Divine Unity, and is contemptuous towards all the manifestations of the Divine Names, Almighty God's uttering severe complaints and awesome threats about the unbelievers in the name of the universe and all beings and the Divine Names is pure wisdom, and to give eternal punishment is pure justice. Since through unbelief and rebellion, man goes toward destruction, with a small act of service, he may perform a great many works. For this reason the believers are in need of Almighty God's boundless grace in the face of them. For if ten strong men undertake the protection and repair of a house, in the face of one troublesome child who is trying to burn it down, they may be obliged to beseech and have recourse to the child's parents, or even the king. In the same way the believers are in need of many Divine favours in order to withstand the unmannerly people of rebellion.
In Short: If the one speaking of Divine Determining and the power of choice has perfect belief, he attributes the universe and himself to Almighty God and knows them to be under His disposal. Then he has the right to speak of them. For since he knows himself and everything to be from Almighty God, relying on his power of choice, he undertakes the responsibility. He accepts that it is the source of evils and proclaims his Sustainer free of fault. He remains within the sphere of worship and undertakes the obligations with which he is charged by Almighty God. Moreover, in order not to become proud at the perfections and good deeds which issue from him, he looks to Divine Determining, and offers thanks rather than taking pride in them. He sees Divine Determining in the calamities that befall him, and endures them in patience.
However, if the one speaking of Divine Determining and the power of choice is one of the heedless and neglectful, then he has no right to speak of them. For, impelled by heedlessness or misguidance, his evil-commanding soul attributes the universe to causes and divides up God's property among them. And he attributes the ownership of himself to himself. He ascribes his acts to himself and to causes. His responsibility and faults, he refers to Divine Determining. So then the discussion of the power of choice, which will finally be ascribed to Almighty God, and of Divine Determining, which will be considered last of all, becomes meaningless. It is only a trick of the soul which is entirely contrary to the wisdom in them, in order to be saved from responsibility.
SECOND TOPIC
This is a minute and scholarly investigation particular to scholars.5
If you say: "How is Divine Determining compatible with the power of choice?"
The Answer: In seven ways...
. The First: The All-Just and Wise One, to Whose wisdom and justice the universe testifies with the tongue of order and balance, gave to man a power of choice of unknown nature which would be the means of reward and punishment for him. Just as we do not know many of the numerous aspects of the All-Just and Wise One's wisdom, our not knowing how the power of choice is compatible with Divine Determining does not prove that it is not so.
. The Second: Of necessity everyone perceives in himself a will and choice; he knows it through his conscience. To know the nature of beings is one thing, to know they exist is something different. There are many things which although their existence is self-evident for us, their true nature is not known by us... Thus, the power of choice may be included among these. Everything is not restricted to what we know. Our not knowing does not prove they do not exist.
. The Third: The power of choice is not opposed to Divine Determining, indeed, Divine Determining corroborates the power of choice. Because Divine Determining is a sort of Divine Knowledge. Divine Knowledge is connected with our will and choice, in which case it corroborates it, it does not nullify it.
. The Fourth: Divine Determining is a sort of knowledge. Knowledge is dependent on the thing known. That is, it is connected with however it will be. The thing known is not dependent on knowledge. That is, the principles of knowledge are not fundamental in order to direct the thing known from the point of view of external existence. Because the essence of the thing known and its external existence looks to will and relies on power. Also, pre-eternity is not the tip of a chain reaching into the past which may be taken as fundamental in the existence of things and a compulsion imagined in accordance with it. Rather, pre-eternity holds the past, the present, and the future all at once, looking at them from above like a mirror. In which case, to imagine an end to past time which stretches back within the sphere of contingency, to call it pre-eternity, and to suppose that things enter that knowledge of pre-eternity in sequence, and that oneself is outside it, and to reason in accordance with that is not right. Consider the following example in order to explain this mystery:
If there is a mirror in your hand and the space to your right is supposed to be the past and the space to your left, the future, the mirror only holds what is opposite it. Then with a movement it holds both sides, but it cannot hold the greater part of them. However low the mirror is held, to that extent less will appear in it. But the higher it rises, the extent of what is opposite it expands, until it can hold both sides in their entirety at the same time. Thus, whatever occurs in the spaces depicted in the mirror in this position cannot be said to precede and follow one another, or to conform to or oppose one another. And so, Divine Determining is from pre-eternal knowledge, and in the words of the Hadith, pre-eternal knowledge is At an elevated station which from an elevated view-point encompasses everything that has been and will be from pre-eternity to post-eternity. We and our reasoning cannot be outside of it so we can be like a mirror to the space of the past.
. The Fifth: Divine Determining has a connection with cause and effect. That is, this effect will occur through this cause. In which case, it may not be said that "Since so-and-so's death is determined at such-and-such a time, what fault has the man who fired the rifle through his power of choice, for if he had not fired it, he still would have died?"
Question: Why may it not be said?
The Answer: Because Divine Determining specified that so-and-so's death would occur through the man's rifle. If you suppose that he did not fire the rifle, then you are supposing that Divine Determining had no connection with it, so with what would you decree his death? If you imagine cause and effect to be separate like the Jabriyya, or you deny Divine Determining like the Mu'tazilites, you leave the Sunni School and enter among the heretics. In which case, we people of truth say: "If he had not fired the rifle, we do not whether he would have died." The Jabriyya say: "If he had not fired it, he still would have died." While the Mu'tazilites say: "If he had not fired it, he would not have died."
. The Sixth: [This is a truth particular to precise and exacting scholars] According to Maturidî, inclination, the essence and foundation of the power of choice, is a theoretical matter and may be attributed to God's servants. But since Ash'arî considered it to have existence, he did not attribute it to them. However, according to Ash'arî, the power of disposal in the inclination is a theoretical matter, in which case, the inclination and the disposal are a relative matter. They do not have a definite external existence. As for theoretical matters, they do not require total causes through which, for their existence, necessity would intervene and remove the will and power of choice. Rather, if the cause of the theoretical matters acquires the weight of preference, the theoretical matter may become actual and existent. In which case, at that juncture, it may be abandoned. The Qur'an may say to a person at that point: "This is evil; do not do it." Indeed, if God's servants had been the creators of their actions and had had the power to create, then their wills would have been removed. For an established rule in the sciences of religion and philosophy is: "If a thing is not necessary, it may not come into existence [of itself]." That is, there has to be a cause, then it may come into existence. The cause necessarily requires the effect. Then the power of choice would not remain.
If you say: Preference without a cause or attribute to cause the preference is impossible. Whereas the theoretical matter we call human acquisition sometimes does a thing and sometimes does not; if there is nothing to cause the preference, preference without something to cause it would be necessary. As for this, it demolishes one of the most important bases of theology?
The Answer: Preference without a cause or attribute to cause the preference is impossible. That is, a being preferable or superior without a cause or attribute to make it so is impossible. But preference without something to cause it is permissible and occurs. Will is an attribute, and its mark is to perform a work such as that.
If you say: "Since the one who creates the murder is Almighty God, why do you call me a murderer?"
The Answer: Because according to the rules of grammar, the active participle is derived from the infinitive, which is a relative matter. But it cannot be split from the verbal noun, which is an actual or existent matter. The infinitive is our acquisition; and we take the title of murderer. The verbal noun is Almighty God's creature. Something which gives an inkling of responsibility cannot be derived from the verbal noun.
. The Seventh: For sure, man's faculty of will and power of choice are weak and a theoretical matter, but Almighty God, the Absolutely Wise One, made that weak and partial will a condition for the connection of His universal will. That is to say, He in effect says: "My servant! Whichever way you wish to take with your will, I will take you on that way. In which case the responsibility is your's!" If the comparison is not mistaken: you take a powerless child onto your shoulders and leaving the choice to him, tell him you will take him wherever he wishes. The child wants to go to a high mountain so you take him there, but he either catches cold or falls. So of course you reprimand him, saying, "You wanted to go there", and give him a slap. Thus, Almighty God, the Firmest of Judges, makes His servant's will, which is utterly weak, a condition, and His universal will has it in view.
In Short: O man! You have a will known as the power of choice which is extremely weak, but whose hand in evil acts and destruction is extremely long, and in good deeds extremely short. Give one of the hands of that will of yours to supplication, so that it may reach Paradise, a fruit of the chain of good deeds, and stretch to eternal happiness. And give its other hand to the seeking of forgiveness so that it may be short for evil deeds and will not reach the Zakkum-tree of Hell, which is one fruit of that accursed tree. That is, just as supplication and reliance on God greatly strengthen the inclination to good, so too repentance and the seeking of forgiveness cut the inclination to evil and break its transgressions.
THIRD TOPIC
Belief in Divine Determining is one of the pillars of belief. That is: "Everything is determined by Almighty God." The certain proofs for Divine Determining are so numerous that they cannot be calculated. We shall show in an Introduction, in a simple and obvious way, how strong and broad this pillar of belief is.
Introduction:
Numerous verses of the Qur'an, like,
Nor anything fresh or dry [green or withered] but is [inscribed] in a Clear Book,
state clearly that before it comes into existence and after it passes from existence, everything is written. And through its creational signs like the order, balance, regularity, adornment, and the giving of form and distinction, the verses, the signs, of the mighty Qur'an inscribed by Divine Power and called the universe confirm these statements of the Qur'an. Indeed, the well-ordered missives and finely balanced verses of the Book of the Universe testify that everything is written. And the indication that everything is determined and written before it comes into existence are all beginnings, seeds, measured proportions, and forms; each of these testifies to this. For seeds and grains are subtle containers appearing from the workbench of Be! and it is in each of which is deposited a tiny index traced by Divine Determining. Divine Power employs minute particles according to that plan of Divine Determining, and constructs the mighty miracles of Power on the seeds. That is to say, everything that will happen to the tree is as though written in its seed. For in regard to their substance seeds are simple and the same as one another; materially they are nothing.
Furthermore, the well-measured proportions of everything clearly show Divine Determining. Yes, whatever living creature is considered, it is apparent that each has a form and measure as though it has emerged from a most wisely and skilfully wrought mould. To receive such a measure, form, and shape, there either has to be a truly wondrous and infinitely intricate physical mould, or else Pre-Eternal Power cuts out the form and shape according to a well-proportioned immaterial mould that exists in knowledge and comes from Divine Determining, and clothes it in it. For example, look carefully at this tree or that animal, you will see that the particles, which are lifeless, deaf, blind, unconscious, and similar to one another, are in motion in its growth and development. In some of their intricate extremities, the particles halt, as though seeing, knowing and recognizing the place of fruits and benefits. Then in another place they change their direction as though following some important aim. That means they are in motion in accordance with the immaterial measured proportions of the tree or animal, which come from Divine Determining, and the immaterial commands of those proportions.
Since there are the manifestations of Divine Determining to this extent in physical and visible things, for sure, the forms with which things are clothed with the passing of time and the states acquired through the motions they perform will also be dependent on the ordering of Divine Determining. Indeed, in a seed there are two manifestations of Divine Determining; one is self-evident and points to and tells of The Clear Book, which is a title of will and the creational commands; the other is theoretical, and alludes to and tells of The Clear Record, which is a title of Divine knowledge and the Divine command. Self-evident Divine Determining is the physical nature, states, and parts of the tree which the seed comprises. While theoretical Divine Determining is the stages, states, forms, motions, and glorifications which the tree will undergo and perform in the period of its life, and which are in the seed and will be created from it; these stages, states, forms, and acts, which constantly change and are called its life-history, each have a regulated measure in accordance with Divine Determining, like the tree's branches and leaves.
Since there is such a manifestation of Divine Determining in the most common and simple of things, it surely states that all things are written before they come into existence; this may be understood with small attention. Now, the evidence that the story of everything's life is written after its existence is all fruits, which tell of The Clear Book and The Clear Record in the world, and all faculties of memory in man, which point to and tell of The Preserved Tablet; each of these hints and testifies to them. Indeed, all the appointed events of a tree's life are written in its seeds, which are like the hearts of its fruits. And man's life-history together with some of the past events of the world are written in his memory in such a way that, as though copying out with the hand of power and pen of Divine Determining in a faculty as tiny as a mustard seed a small note from the page of his actions, the memory gives the note to man's hand and puts it in the pocket of his mind, so that at the time of reckoning he will call his actions to mind with it. And so too he may be confident that within this transience and death and these upheavals, there are numerous mirrors pertaining to eternity in which the All-Powerful and Wise One depicts and makes permanent the identities of transient beings. And there are truly numerous tablets pertaining to eternity in which the All-Knowing Preserver writes the meanings of transitory beings.
In Short: Since plant life, the simplest and lowest level of life, is dependent on Divine Determining to this degree, for sure, human life, the highest level of life, has been drawn in all in its details according to the measuring of Divine Determining. Yes, just as raindrops tell of clouds, and drops of water point to the existence of a water-source, and notes and portfolios to the existence of a large ledger, so too, the evident Divine Determining which we observe and which is the physical order in living beings, shows the notebook of will and creational commands known as The Clear Book, and the fruits, seeds, grains, forms, and shapes, which are like the droplets, notes, and portfolios of theoretical Divine Determining, which is the immaterial order and pertains to life, shows The Preserved Tablet, one office of Divine Knowledge, which is called The Clear Record.
To Conclude: We see clearly that at the time of their growth and development the particles of all living beings go to the intricate extremities and halt, then they change their path. At each of the extremities they produce the fruits of benefits, uses, and instances of wisdom. Self-evidently, the apparent measures of those things are drawn with a pen of Determining. Thus, observable, evident Divine Determining shows that in the immaterial states of living beings also are well-ordered, fruitful extremities and limits drawn with the pen of Divine Determining. Divine Power is the source, Divine Determining is the pattern. Power writes the meaningful book on that pattern. Since we understand clearly that the fruitful limits and purposeful extremities have been drawn with the pen of Divine Determining, material and immaterial, for sure, the states and stages which all living beings undergo in the course of their lives are also drawn with that pen. For their life-stories follow a course with order and balance; they change forms and receive shapes. Since the pen of Divine Determining thus rules in all living beings, surely the life-history of man, the world's most perfect fruit and Divine vicegerent on earth and bearer of the Supreme Trust, is more than anything dependent on the law of Divine Determining.
If you say: "Divine Determining has bound us like this. It has negated our freedom. Isn't belief in it a burden and irksome for the heart and spirit, which yearn for expansion and to roam freely?"
The Answer: Absolutely not! Just as it is not burdensome, so too it affords a light and joy which produce a lightness, ease, spirit, and sustenance, and ensure confidence and security. Because if man does not believe in Divine Determining, he is compelled to bear a burden as great as the world on the shoulders of his spirit within a narrow sphere, insignificant independence, and temporary freedom. For man is connected with the whole universe. He has infinite aims and desires. And since his power, will, and freedom are insufficient for a millionth of these, it may be understood how awesome and dreadful is the burden of the distress he suffers. Thus, belief in Divine Determining throws that burden in its entirety onto the ship of Divine Determining, and allows him to roam free within its perfections with perfect ease and perfect freedom of spirit and heart. It only negates the petty freedom of the evil-commanding soul and smashes its Pharaoh-like tyranny, its dominicality, and its acting as it wishes. Belief in Divine Determining is so full of pleasure and happiness it is beyond description. We shall just point to that pleasure and happiness with the following comparison.
Two men travelled to the seat of government of a king, and there entered his private palace, a place of strange wonders. One of them did not recognize the king and laying hands on everything and stealing them, wanted to settle there. However, he experienced difficulties and hardships like having to administer and manage the park and palace, and oversee its revenues, work its machines, and feed the strange animals; he suffered constant distress. The paradise-like park became like Hell for him. He pitied everything. He could not govern them. He passed his time regretfully. And then this thieving, unmannerly man was cast into prison as a punishment. The second man recognized the king and knew himself to be his guest. He believed that all the matters in the park and palace occurred through the regulation of the law, and that everything functioned with perfect ease in accordance with a programme. Leaving the difficulties and hardships to the king's law, he benefited with complete enjoyment from all the pleasures of that Paradise-like garden, and relying on the king's mercy and the fineness of the administrative laws, he saw everything as agreeable and passed his life with perfect pleasure and happiness. He understood the meaning of the saying: He who believes in Divine Determining is saved from grief.
FOURTH TOPIC
If you say: "In the First Topic you proved that everything about Divine Determining is good and beautiful. Even the evil that comes from it is good, and the ugliness, beautiful. But the disasters and tribulations in this world refute that statement."
The Answer: O my soul and my friend who feel severe pain out of intense compassion! The fact that all virtues and perfections return to existence and that the basis of all rebellion, calamities, and defects is non-existence is a proof that existence is pure good and non-existence, pure evil. Since non-existence is pure evil, circumstances that either result in non-existence or give an inkling of it, also comprise evil. Therefore, life, the most brilliant light of existence, revolving in different circumstances, finds strength. It enters varying situations and is purified, and it takes on numerous qualities and produces the desired results, and enters many stages and displays comprehensively the impresses of the Bestower of Life's Names. Thus, it is due to this fact that certain situations occur concerning living creatures in the form of griefs, calamities, difficulties, and tribulations whereby the lights of existence are renewed for their lives, and the darkness of non-existence draws distant and their are lives purified. Because arrest, repose, silence, idleness, rest, and monotony, are in quality and as conditions all non-existence. Even the greatest pleasure is reduced to nothing by monotony.
In Short: Since life shows the impress of the Most Beautiful Names, everything that happens to life is good. For example, an extremely rich and infinitely skilful person who is proficient in many crafts, for an hour and in return for a wage, clothes a miserable wretch in a bejeweled, artistically fashioned garment he has made. This garment he made in order to make the miserable man act as a model and to display the works of his art and his valuable wealth. He works the garment on the man, gives it various forms, and alters it. And in order to display every variety of his art, he cuts it, changes it, and lengthens and shortens it. If the poor man receiving the wage says to the person: "You are giving me trouble. You are making me bow and stand up. By cutting and shortening this garment which makes me more beautiful, you are spoiling my beauty", can he be justified? Does he have the right to tell him: "You are acting unkindly and unfairly"? Thus, like him, the All-Glorious Maker, the Peerless Creator, alters within numerous circumstances the garment of existence He clothes on living creatures, bejeweled with senses and subtle faculties like eyes, ears, the reason, and the heart, in order to display the impresses of His Most Beautiful Names. He changes it within very many situations. In order to show the meanings of some of His Names, there are circumstances in the form of suffering and calamity, and rays of Mercy within flashes of wisdom, and subtle instances of beauty within those rays of Mercy.
***
Conclusion
[Five Paragraphs which silenced the Old Said's rebellious, proud, vain, conceited, and hypocritical soul, and compelled it to submit.]
FIRST PARAGRAPH: Since things exist and they are full of art, they surely have a maker. As is most decisively proved in the Twenty-Second Word, if everything is not one person's, then each thing becomes as difficult and problematical as all things. Since someone made the earth and the heavens and created them, for sure, that most wise and skilful Being would not leave to others living beings, which are the fruits, results, and aims of the heavens and the earth, and spoil his work. Making it futile and without purpose, He would not hand over to other hands all His wise works and reduce them to nothing; He would not give their thanks and worship to others.
SECOND PARAGRAPH: O my conceited soul! You resemble a grape-vine. Do not become proud! The vine itself did not attach the bunches of grapes. Someone else attached them to it.
THIRD PARAGRAPH: O my hypocritical soul! Do not become vain, saying: "I have served religion." According to the meaning of the saying, God strengthens this religion by means of sinful men, it was because you were not purified. Indeed, you should know yourself to be such a sinful man, and that your duty and worship is thanks for past bounties, the function of your nature, the obligation of your creation, and the result of art; know this and be saved from vanity and hypocrisy!
FOURTH PARAGRAPH: If you want knowledge of reality and true wisdom, gain knowledge of Almighty God. For the true realities of all beings are the rays of the Divine Name of Truth and the manifestations of His Names and attributes. The reality of everything, material, immaterial, essential, nonessential, and the reality of all human beings, is based on a Name and relies on its reality. They are not merely insignificant forms without reality. There is a brief discussion concerning this mystery at the end of the Twentieth Word. O soul! If you long for the life of this world and flee death, know certainly that the conditions you suppose to be life are only the minute in which you are. All the time previous to the present minute and the things of the world within that time are dead in the present minute. And all the time subsequent to the present minute and all it contains is non-existent in it, and nothing. That means the physical life on which you rely is only one minute. Some of the learned, even, said it was a tenth of a minute, rather, the passing instant. Thus, it is due to this mystery that certain saints stated that with regard to this world, this world is non-existent. So, since it is thus, give up the physical life of the soul. Rise to the level of life of the heart, spirit, and inner faculties; see what a broad sphere of life they have. For them, the past and the future, which for you are dead, are Living; they are existent and full of life. O my soul! Like my heart, you too weep and cry out and say:
I am ephemeral; I do not want another who is thus.
I am impotent; I do not want another who is thus.
I have surrendered my spirit to the Most Merciful; I do not want another.
I want another, but let him be an eternal friend.
I am a mere atom, but I desire an Everlasting Sun.
I am nothing, yet I wish for these beings, all of them.
FIFTH PARAGRAPH: Since this paragraph occurred to me in Arabic, it was written thus. Also, this Arabic paragraph indicates one of the thirty-three degrees of reflection in the recitation, God is Most Great.
God is Most Great! The Eternal, All-Knowing, All-Wise, Most Generous, Most Compassionate, All-Beauteous, the Inscriber, the Pre-Eternal! What is the reality of the universe in its entirety and in its parts, and its pages and levels, and what is the reality of these beings altogether and singly, in their existence and continuation, but the lines of the pen of His Determining and Decree, and His setting in order and determining with knowledge and wisdom; and the skilful inscriptions of His knowledge and wisdom and regulating and forming, with art and favour; and the adornments of the shining hand of His art and favour and embellishing and illuminating, with grace and munificence; and the flowers of the subtleties of His favour and munificence and making known and loved, with mercy and bounty; and the fruits of the effusions of His mercy and bounty and pity and compassion, with beauty and perfection; and the flashes and manifestations of His Beauty and Perfection through the testimony of the transience of the mirrors and the ephemerality of the places of manifestation and the permanence of that transcendent, eternal Beauty, and Its constant manifestation and appearance throughout the passage of the seasons, centuries, and ages, and the perpetual bestowal of bounties throughout the passage of the creatures and days and people.
Indeed, a perfect work points to one possessing intellect who performs a perfect act, and the perfect act points to one with understanding who possesses perfect names, and the perfect names point self-evidently to perfect attributes, and perfect attributes point necessarily to perfect qualities, and the perfect qualities point certainly to the perfection of the essence from which they proceed, and this is absolutely certain.
Indeed, the ephemerality of the mirrors and death of creatures together with the perpetual manifestation and constant effulgence is the clearest of proofs that the apparent beauty does not belong to the places of manifestation; it is the most eloquent statement and clearest argument for a transcendent beauty, and renewed bestowal, to the Necessary Existent, to the Enduring One, the Loving One...
O God! Grant blessings to our master Muhammed from pre-eternity to post-eternity to the number of things encompassed by Divine Knowledge, and to his Family and Companions, and grant them peace.
***
Addendum
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
[This short Addendum has great importance; it is beneficial for everyone.]
The ways leading to Almighty God are truly numerous. While all true ways are taken from the Qur'an, some are shorter, safer, and more general than others. Of these ways taken from the Qur'an is that of impotence, poverty, compassion, and reflection, from which, with my defective understanding, I have benefited.
Indeed, like ecstatic love, impotence too is a path which, by way of worship, leads to winning God's love; but it is safer. And poverty too leads to the Divine Name of All-Merciful. And, like ecstatic love, compassion also leads to the Name of All-Compassionate, but it is a sharper and broader path. And also like ecstatic love, reflection leads to the Name of All-Wise, but it is a richer, broader, and more brilliant path. This path consists not of ten steps like the 'ten subtle faculties' of some of the tariqats employing silent recollection, nor of seven stages like the 'seven souls' of those practicing public recitation, but of Four Steps. It is reality [haqiqat], rather than a tariqat. It is Shari'a.
However, let it not be misunderstood. It means to see one's impotence, poverty and faults before Almighty God, not to fabricate them or display them to people. The method of this short path is to follow the Practices of the Prophet (PBUH), perform the religious obligations and give up serious sins. And it is especially to perform the prescribed prayers correctly and with attention, and following them to say the tesbihat.
The verse, Therefore, do not justify yourselves, points to the First step.
The verse, And be not like those who forget God, and He therefore makes them forget their own selves, points to the Second Step.
The verse, Whatever good happens to you is from God, but whatever evil befalls you is from yourself, points to the Third Step.
The verse, Everything will perish save His countenance, points to the Fourth Step.
A brief explanation of these Four Steps is as follows:
THE FIRST STEP: As the verse, Therefore, do not justify yourselves suggests, it is to not purify the soul. For on account of his nature and innate disposition, man loves himself. Indeed, he loves himself before anything else, and only himself. He sacrifices everything other than himself to his own soul. He praises himself in a manner befitting some object worthy of worship. He absolves and exonerates himself from faults in the same way. As far as he possibly can, he does not see faults as being appropriate for him, and does not accept them. He defends himself passionately as though worshipping himself. Even, using on himself the members and faculties given him as part of his nature in order to praise and glorify the True Object of Worship, he displays the meaning of the verse, Who takes as his god his own desires. He considers himself, he relies on himself, he fancies himself. Thus, his purification and cleansing at this stage, in this step, is to not purify himself; it is not to absolve himself.
SECOND STEP: As the verse, And be not like those who forget God, and He therefore makes them forget their own selves teaches, man is oblivious of himself, and is not aware of himself. If he thinks of death, it is in relation to others. If he sees transience and decline, he does not attribute them to himself. And his evil-commanding soul demands that when it comes to inconvenience and service of others, he forgets himself, but when it comes to receiving his recompense, and to benefits and enjoyment, he thinks of himself, and takes his own part fervently. His purification, cleansing, and training at this stage is the reverse of this state. That is to say, when oblivious of himself, it is not to be oblivious. That is, to forget himself when it comes to pleasure, and ambition and greed, and to think of himself when it comes to death and service of others.
THIRD STEP: As the verse, Whatever good happens to you is from God, but whatever evil befalls you is from yourself teaches, the nature of the evil-commanding soul demands that it always considers goodness to be from itself and becomes vain and conceited. Thus, in this Step, a person sees only faults, defects, impotence, and poverty in himself, and understands that all his good qualities and perfections are bounties bestowed on him by the All-Glorious Creator. He gives thanks instead of being conceited, and offers praise instead of boasting. According to the meaning of the verse, Truly he succeeds who purifies it,13 his purification at this stage is to know his perfection to lie in imperfection, his power in impotence, and his wealth in poverty.
FOURTH STEP: As the verse, Everything will perish save His countenance teaches, the evil-commanding soul considers itself to be free and independent and to exist of itself. Because of this, man claims to possess a sort of dominicality. He harbours a hostile rebelliousness towards his True Object of Worship. Thus, through understanding the following fact, he is saved from this. The fact is this:
According to the apparent meaning of things, which looks to each thing itself, everything is transitory, lacking, accidental, non-existent. But according to the meaning that signifies something other than itself and in respect of each thing being a mirror to the All-Glorious Maker's Names and charged with various duties, each is a witness, it is witnessed, it gives existence, and it is existent. The purification and cleansing of a person at this stage is as follows:
In his existence he is non-existent, and in his non-existence he has existence. That is to say, if he values himself and attributes existence to himself, he is in a darkness of non-existence as great as the universe. That is, if he relies on his individual existence and is unmindful of the True Giver of Existence, he has an individual light of existence like that of a fire-fly and is submerged in an endless darkness of non-existence and separation. But if he gives up egotism and sees that he is a mirror of the manifestations of the True Giver of Existence, he gains all beings and an infinite existence. For he who finds the Necessary Existent One, the manifestation of Whose Names all beings manifest, finds everything.
Conclusion
The Four Steps in this way of impotence, poverty, compassion, and reflection have been explained in the twenty-six Words so far written, which are concerned with knowledge of reality, the reality of the Shari'a, and the wisdom of the Qur'an. So here, we shall allude briefly to only one or two points, as follows:
Indeed, this path is shorter, because it consists of four steps. When impotence removes the hand from the soul, it gives it directly to the All-Powerful One of Glory. Whereas, when the way of ecstatic love, the sharpest way, takes the hand away from the soul, it attaches it to the metaphorical beloved. Only after the beloved is found to be impermanent does it go to the True Beloved.
Also, this path is much safer, because the ravings and high-flown claims of the soul are not present on it. For, apart from impotence, poverty, and defect, the soul possesses nothing so that it oversteps its mark.
Also, this path is much broader and more universal. For, in order to attain to a constant awareness of God's presence, a person is not compelled to imagine the universe to be condemned to non-existence and to declare: "There is no existent but He", like those who believe in 'the unity of existence', nor to suppose the universe to be condemned to imprisonment in absolute oblivion and to say, "There is nothing witnessed but He", like those who believe in 'the unity of witnessing'. Rather, since the Qur'an has most explicitly pardoned the universe and released it from execution and imprisonment, one on this path disregards the above, and dismissing beings from working on their own account and employing them on account of the All-Glorious Creator, and in the duty of manifesting the Most Beautiful Names and being mirrors to them, he considers them from the point of view of signifying something other than themselves; and being saved from absolute heedlessness, he enters the Divine presence permanently; he finds a way leading to the Almighty God in everything.
In Short: Dismissing beings from working on account of other beings, this way is to not look at them as signifying themselves.
***
The Twenty-Seventh Word
TREATISE ON INDEPENDENT JUDGEMENTS OF THE LAW (Ijtihad)
[Five or six years ago in an Arabic treatise, I wrote concerning a matter to do with independent judgements on points of the Shari'a. Now, at the request of two of my brothers, this Word was written about that matter in order to put in his place someone who had overstepped the mark in his attacks on it.]
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
If they had only referred it to the Prophet, or to those charged with authority among them, the proper investigators would have tested it from them [direct].
The door of independent judgements on the Law is open, but at the present time there are Six Obstacles to entering it.
THE FIRST: In winter when the storms are fierce even small holes are blocked up, and it is in no way reasonable to open up new doors. And under the onslaught of a mighty flood, to make openings in the wall in order to repair it leads to being drowned. In just the same way, at this time of denial and the assault of the customs of Europe and the legion of innovations and the destruction of misguidance, to open up new doors in the citadel of Islam in the name of ijtihad, and make openings that will be the means of those bent on destruction scaling the walls and entering it, is a crime against Islam.
THE SECOND: The essential teachings of religion demand that independent judgements do not enter them, for they are specified and definite. Moreover, they are like basic food and sustenance. At this time while all effort and endeavour should be expended on their being upheld and raised to life, they are being abandoned and degraded. So to give them up, despite their being among the theoretical matters of Islam and due to being the pure and sincere interpretations of the first generations of Islam are not inadequate for the needs of all times, and to make new interpretations of the Law in arbitrary fashion, is an innovation and betrayal of Islam.
THE THIRD: Just as varying goods in the market are sought after according to the season; they are in demand one after the other, so too, in the display of the world and market of human society and civilization, each century different goods are sought after and are in demand; they are displayed in the market, demand attracts them, gazes are turned on them, minds are drawn by them. Like at the present time the goods of politics and securing the life of this world and the demand of philosophy are sought after, for example. And in the age of the righteous ones of the first generations of Islam and in the market of that time, deducing from the Word of the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth His wishes and what He wants of us were the most sought-after goods, and obtaining the means to gain through the light of prophethood and the Qur'an eternal happiness in the world of the hereafter, which had been revealed to such a degree it could not be concealed.
At that time, since minds, hearts and spirits were turned with all their strength to understanding the wishes of the Sustainer of the Heavens and the Earth, the discussions, conversations, events, and circumstances of man's social life all looked to that. Since they occurred in accordance with those wishes, whoever had high ability, his heart and nature unconsciously received instruction in knowledge of God from everything. He received knowledge from the circumstances, events, and discussions that took place at that time. As though everything became a teacher for such a person, and inculcated in his nature and disposition the preparatory knowledge for independent judgements. That natural instruction illuminated him to such a degree that he was almost capable of interpreting the Law without acquiring the knowledge, to be illuminated without fire... Thus, when someone capable who received such natural instruction in this way began to work at interpreting the Law, his capacity which had become like a match manifested the mystery of Light upon Light; he became qualified to interpret it (mujtehid) swiftly and in a brief time.
At this time, however, due to the domination of European civilization and the supremacy of natural philosophy and the preponderance of the conditions of worldly life, minds and hearts have become scattered, and endeavour and favour divided. Minds have become strangers to non-material matters. Thus, it is because of this that if someone now was to memorize the Qur'an at the age of four and have the intelligence of a mujtehid like Sufyan ibn-i Uyeyne, who held discussions with religious scholars at an early age, he would need ten times longer than Sufyan to become qualified to interpret the Law. If Sufyan acquired the learning in ten years, this man would need one hundred years. Because the period of Sufyan's natural study began at the age of reason. His disposition and abilities were slowly prepared and illuminated; they took lessons from everything and became like a match. But his counterpart at the present time, since his thought is submerged in philosophy, his mind plunged in politics, and his heart is giddy at the life of this world, his disposition and abilities have grown distant from interpretation of the Law. For sure, they have become distant from interpretation of the Shari'a to the degree they have been preoccupied with the modern sciences, and have remained backward in regard to it to the extent he has become learned in the physical sciences. Therefore, he may not say: "I am as intelligent as him. Why can't I on a level with him?" He does not have the right to say this, and he cannot be on a level with him.
THE FOURTH: Just as within a body is the inclination to expand, for its growth and development. And, since it is from within, the inclination to expand is a being perfected for the body. Whereas if it is an inclination for expansion from outside it, it is to rip the body's skin; to destroy it; it is not expansion. In the same way, when the inclination to expand and will to interpret the Law were present in those within the sphere of Islam through the door of perfect taqwa and the way of conforming to the essential teachings of Islam, like the righteous early generations, that was a perfection and a being perfected. But if such an inclination and desire come from those who give up the essentials, prefer the life of this world to that of the hereafter, and are tainted with materialist philosophy, it is the means of destroying the body of Islam and casting off the chain of the Shari'a from the neck.
THE FIFTH: Three points of view make interpretation of the Law earthly at this time, and remove it from being heavenly. Whereas the Shari'a is heavenly, revealed, and since they make known its hidden ordinances, interpretations of the Shari'a also are heavenly.
THE FIRST: The wisdom of an ordinance is one thing, while the reason for it is something different. Wisdom and benefit are the cause of its choice, not the means of its being necessitated and created. And the reason is the means for its existence. For example, the obligatory prayers are shortened while travelling; two rak'ats are performed. The reason for this permission of the Shari'a is the journey, while its wisdom is the hardship. If there is the journey and no hardship, the prayers are still shortened. For there is the reason. But if there is no journey and still hardship, it may not be the reason for shortening the prayers. Thus, contrary to this fact, the view at this time sets up the benefit and wisdom in place of the reason, and makes its judgement in accordance with that. Such an interpretation is certainly earthly, not heavenly.
THE SECOND: The view at the present time looks primarily to worldly happiness, whereas the view of the Shari'a looks primarily to happiness in the hereafter, and to happiness in this world in second place and indirectly as the means to the hereafter. That is to say, the view of this time is a stranger to the spirit of the Shari'a; in which case, it may not make interpretations in its name.
THE THIRD: There is a rule: Necessity makes permissible what is forbidden. This rule is not universal. So long as it is not by way of what is forbidden, necessity causes what is forbidden to be licit. But if something has become a necessity due to abuse and for illicit reasons, it may not the means to ordinances permitting it, and may not form an excuse. For example, if, through ill choice someone makes himself drunk in an unlawful way, according to scholars of the Shari'a, his actions act against him and may not be counted as excused. If he divorces his wife, the divorce is in force. And if he commits a crime, he receives the punishment. But if it is not through ill choice, the divorce is not in force, neither does he receive punishment. And, for example, even if an alcoholic is addicted to alcohol to the degree of necessity, he may not say: "It is a necessity, and lawful for me."
Thus, at this time there are many matters which have reached the degree of necessity and have taken on the form of a general calamity afflicting people, and which, since they have arisen from ill choice, illicit desires, and forbidden acts, may not be the means of ordinances permitting them and making what is unlawful lawful. However, since those who make interpretations at the present time make those necessities the means to ordinances of the Shari'a, their interpretations are earthly, the products of their own fancies, tainted by philosophy, and cannot be heavenly or revealed, or in accordance with the Shari'a. However, if exercise of authority concerning the Divine ordinances of the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth and interference in the worship of His servants is without the Creator's permission, that exercise of authority and interference are rejected. For example, a number of the heedless and neglectful approve the changing of some of the marks of Islam like the Friday Sermon, and substituting the language of each country for Arabic, for two reasons:
The First: "So that in that way the mass of Muslims will understand current politics." But current politics has become so intermixed with lies and trickery and evil that it has become like the very whisperings of Satan. And the pulpit is the seat of delivering Divine revelation, thus, political whisperings do not have the right to rise to that high position.
The Second: "The Friday Sermon is for understanding the admonitions of certain Suras of the Qur'an." Yes, if the majority of the Islamic nation conformed to the essential teachings and incontestable matters of Islam and the ordinances which are well-known and carried them out, then the reading of the Sermon in the known language and the translation of the Qur'an, if it was possible, might have been desirable, in order to understand the theoretical matters of the Shari'a and its subtle matters and abstruse teachings. But the well-known, definite ordinances of Islam like the five daily prayers, fasting in Ramazan, and Zekat, and the unlawfulness of murder, fornication, and wine are neglected. The ordinary people are not in need of learning their necessity or unlawfulness, but through encouragement and warning, to be reminded of those sacred decrees, and, through their sense of belief and vein of Islam being stirred, to be prompted, encouraged, and reminded to conform to them. And however lowly and ignorant they may be, they understand the following brief meaning from the Qur'an and Arabic Sermon: "The preacher and the reciter of the Qur'an are recalling the pillars of belief and Islam which are known by me and everyone, and teaching us, and reciting them." A longing for them is born in their hearts. What words are there in the universe which can be compared with the miraculous, instructive reminders, warnings, and encouragement of the All-Wise Qur'an, which comes from the Sublime Throne?
THE SIXTH: Since the great interpreters of the Law among the righteous early generations of Islam were close to the time of the Companions of the Prophet, the age of light and age of truth, they were able to receive a pure light and make pure interpretations. But the interpreters of the Law at this time look at the book of reality from behind so many veils and from such a long distance that they can see even its clearest letters only with difficulty.
If you say: "The Companions also were human beings and not free of error and differences, while the means of interpretation of the Law and the ordinances of the Shari'a is the justice and truthfulness of the Companions, on which the Islamic community have agreed, saying: "All the Companions were just and all spoke the truth."
The Answer: Yes, the absolute majority of the Companions of the Prophet were lovers of the truth, truthfulness, and justice. For in that age, the ugliness of lies and falsehood was shown in all its ugliness and the beauty of right and truthfulness was shown in all its beauty in such a way that the distance between them was as far as from the ground to the Divine Throne. A separation between them was apparent from the depths of Musaylima the Liar at the lowest of the low to the degree of truthfulness of the Prophet Muhammed (Peace and blessings be upon him) at the highest of the high. Indeed, just as it was lying that brought Musaylima to the lowest of the low, so too it was truthfulness and right which raised Muhammed the Trustworthy to the highest of the high.
Thus, the Companions, who held elevated sentiments and worshipped good morals and were illuminated with the light of the conversation of the Sun of Prophethood, did not stretch out their hands to the buffoonery and filth of the lying in Musaylima's shop, which was so ugly and the cause of descent, and shrank from unbelief. And so too they shrank from lying, the friend of unbelief, and sought as far as they were able - and especially in relating the ordinances of the Shari'a and propagating them - truth, truthfulness, and right, which are so fine and the means of pride and glory, ascent and progress, and were the thing most in demand from the elevated treasury of the Glory of Prophethood, and which illuminate man's social life with their beauteous splendour, and they were in conformity with them and desirous of them; this is certain, definite, and necessary. Whereas at this time, the distance between truth and lying has become so narrow that they are now quite simply shoulder to shoulder. It is extremely easy to pass from truthfulness to lying. Lying is even preferred to truthfulness due to the propaganda of politics and diplomacy. And so, if the most ugly and the finest things are sold in the same shop for the same price, for sure, the jewel of truthfulness and right, which is most elevated and passes to the essence of reality, will not be obtained blindly relying on the word and skill of the shopkeeper.
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Conclusion
Sacred Laws change according to the ages. Indeed, in one age different prophets may come, and they have come. Since subsequent to the Seal of the Prophets, his Greater Shari'a is sufficient for all peoples in every age, no need has remained for different Laws. However, in secondary matters, the need for different schools has remained to a degree. Just as clothes change with the change of the seasons and medicines change according to dispositions, so too, Sacred Laws change according to the ages, and the ordinances change according to the capacities of peoples. Because the secondary matters of the ordinances of the Shari'a look to human circumstances; they come according to them, and are like medicine.
At the time of the early prophets, since man's classes were very distant from one another, and their characters both somewhat coarse, and violent, and their minds, primitive and close to nomadism, the Laws at that time came all in different forms in ways appropriate to their conditions. There were even different prophets and laws in the same continent in the same century. Then, since with the coming of the Prophet of the end of time, man as though advanced from the primary to the secondary stage, and through numerous revolutions and upheavals reached a position at which all the human peoples could receive a single lesson and listen to a single teacher and act in accordance with a single Law, no need remained for different Laws, neither was there necessity for different teachers. But because they were not all at completely the same level and did not proceed in the same sort of social life, the Schools of Law became numerous. If, like students of a school of higher education, the vast majority of mankind were clothed in the same sort of social life and attained the same level, then all the schools could be united. But just as the state of the world does not permit that, so too the Schools of Law cannot be the same.
If you say: The truth is one; how can the different ordinances of the four and twelve schools be true?
The Answer: The same water governs in five different ways in five ill people of different disposition, thus: for one, the water is a cure for his illness, and according to medicine, necessary. For another, it is like poison for his sickness and harmful, and medically prohibited. For another, it causes a small amount of harm, and is reprehensible medically. For another the water is beneficial and without harm; according to medicine that is sunna for him. And for yet another it is neither harmful nor beneficial; he can drink it with good health, and for him it is medically permissible. Thus, here the truth has become numerous; all five are true. Are you able to say: "The water is only a cure, only necessary, and it governs in no other way."
And so, like this, impelled by Divine wisdom, the Divine ordinances change according to the Schools of Law and those who follow them, and they change as truth, and each is true and right. For example, since, in accordance with Divine wisdom and determining, the majority of those who follow Imam Shafi'i are closer to village life and nomadism than the Hanefis, and are lacking in social life, which makes the community like a single body, each recites the Fatiha behind the prayer-leader so as to himself express his pains at the Court of the Dispenser of Needs and utter his private wishes. And this is absolutely right and pure wisdom. However, through most Islamic governments having favoured the School of Imam-i A'zam, the great majority of those who follow that School are closer to civilization and town life and more fitted for social life. Thus, the community becomes like a single individual and one man speaks in the name of all; all affirm him with their hearts and bind their hearts to his and his word becomes the word of all; according to the Hanefi School, the Fatiha is not recited behind the prayer-leader. And its not being recited is absolutely right and pure wisdom.
And, for example, since through forming a barrier against the assaults of nature, the Shari'a modifies it and trains the evil-commanding soul, according to the Shafi'i School, most of whose followers are villagers, semi-nomadic, and occupied in manual labour: "Ablutions are spoilt by touching a woman; the slightest uncleanliness is harmful." While according to the Hanefi School, since the great majority of those who participate in it have entered social life and become 'semi-civilized': "Touching women does not spoil the ablutions; there is licence for a small amount of uncleanliness."
And so, we shall consider a manual worker and a gentleman. Due to his craft and the manner of his livelihood, a worker is afflicted with mixing with and being in contact with women who are canonically strangers to him. And, sitting at the same hearth, and being involved with unclean things, nature and his evil-commanding soul find the field empty and may attack him. Therefore, in order to form a barrier against such attacks, the Shari'a states concerning them: "Your ablutions will be spoilt; do not touch the women. Your prayers will be invalid; do not be tainted." A heavenly voice rings in his spiritual ears. Whereas, in accordance with social custom and in the name of common morality, the gentleman - on condition he is honourable - is not afflicted with being in contact with women who are canonically strangers to him, and in the name of cleanliness of civilization, he is not tainted to any degree with unclean things. Therefore, in the Hanefi School, the Shari'a has not shown him harshness and censure; it has shown its permissive side, and lightened it. "If your hand has been touched, your ablutions are not spoilt. If you are ashamed and do not perform the istinja in public, there is no harm in it. A small amount of uncleanliness is permitted." It saves him from scruples. Thus, two drops from the ocean as examples for you. Make analogies with them, and if you can, balance them on the scales of the Shari'a in this way, with the balance of Mizan-i Shârânî.
Glory be unto You, we have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.
O God! Grant blessings and peace to the one who embodied in his being the lights of Your love through the beauty of Your attributes and Names, a comprehensive mirror to the manifestations of Your Most Beautiful Names; in whose being was focussed the rays of Your love towards the art in Your creatures, the most perfect and wonderful of Your artefacts, and was a sample of the perfections of Your art and an index of the beauties of Your inscriptions. and who displayed in his being the subtleties of Your love and Your desire that Your art be appreciated, the most elevated herald of the fineness of Your art, who proclaimed in the loudest voice admiration for the beauty of Your inscriptions, the most wonderful praiser of the perfections of Your art; who gathered together in his being the varieties of Your love and Your appreciation for the good morals of your creatures and the subtleties of the attributes of Your artefacts, comprehending all good morality through Your favour and the subtleties of fine attributes through Your grace. who was the superior criterion and measure of everything You mention in Your Criterion of Truth and Falsehood, the Qur'an, those whom You love from among the righteous, the patient, the believers, those who fear You, who turn to You, and who repent, and all the classes of those whom You infuse with life and honour through Your love in Your Criterion of Truth and Falsehood, until they become as the leader of those whom You love; the master of those beloved by You and chief of Your beloveds; and grant blessings and peace to all his Family and Companions and brothers. Amen. Through Your Mercy, O Most Merciful of the Merciful!
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Addendum to the Twenty-Seventh Word
On the Companions of the Prophet (PBUH)

Like Mevlana Jami, I too say,
O Prophet of God! If only like the dog of the Companions in the Cave,
I could be in Paradise among your Companions.
Is it right that their dog is in Paradise while I am in Hell?
He was the dog of the Companions of the Cave, I am the dog of your Companions.
In His Name, be He glorified * And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Muhammed is the Prophet of God, and those who are with him are strong against the unbelievers, [but] compassionate amongst each other.....
You Ask: There are some narrations which say: "At a time when innovations are rife, some of the righteous from among the believers and those who fear God will be on a level with the Companions, or of even greater virtue." Are these narrations sound? And if so, what is their true meaning?
The Answer: The consensus of the Sunnis, the Ahl-i Sunna va Jama'at, that after the prophets the most virtuous of mankind are the Companions, is a certain proof that those that are sound out of those narrations refer to minor virtues. For in minor virtues and particular perfections a quality may be deemed preferable over that which is superior and in fact preferable. But from the point of view of general virtue the Companions cannot be reached, who are the subject of Divine praise at the end of Sura al-Fath, and are praised and applauded in the Torah, Gospels, and Qur'an. For now, we shall explain three points of wisdom concerning this truth, which comprise three reasons, out of very many reasons and instances of wisdom.
First Instance of Wisdom: The conversation of the Prophet is such an elixir that someone who experiences it for one minute receives lights of reality equivalent to years of spiritual voyaging. For in conversation there is reflection and a being coloured. It is well-known that through reflection and following and imitating, and through the Sublime Light of Prophethood, a most high level may be reached. Like a sultan's servant, through allegiance to his sovereign and following him, rises to a position that is such that a king cannot rise to it. It is due to this mystery that the greatest saints cannot reach the level of the Companions. Even saints like Jalâluddin Suyûtî, who while awake conversed many times with the Prophet, even if they meet with the Most Noble Prophet (PBUH) while awake, they still cannot reach the Companions. For the Companions' conversation, through the light of the Prophethood of Muhammed (PBUH), is with him as Prophet. While the saints seeing the Most Noble Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) is after his death and is conversation through the light of the Sainthood of Muhammed (PBUH). That is to say, the Most Noble Prophet (PBUH)'s being represented and appearing to them is in regard to the Sainthood of Muhammed (PBUH), not in regard to prophethood. Since that is so, however much higher the level of prophethood is over that of sainthood, it is necessary to differentiate between the two conversations to that degree.
It may be understood through the following to what a degree the conversation of the Prophet is a luminous elixir: a primitive man so hard-hearted and savage he buried his daughter alive would come and be honoured with the conversation of the Prophet for an hour, and would acquire such kindness and compassion that he would not step on an ant. And an ignorant savage would converse with the Prophet for a day, then go to lands like China and India and instruct civilized peoples in the realities and guide them in perfections.
Second Reason: As is explained and proved in the discussion of interpretation of the Law in the Twenty-Seventh Word, the vast majority of the Companions were at the highest level of human perfections. For at that time in the mighty revolution of Islam, good and truth appeared in all their beauty, and evil and falsehood, in all their ugliness, and they were felt physically. Such a difference was apparent between good and evil and such a distance opened up between truth and falsehood that they drew as apart and distant from one another as belief is from unbelief, and even Hell is from Paradise. For sure, the Companions, who by nature possessed elevated emotions, were captivated by the highest morality, and inclined towards dignity and virtue, would not voluntarily stretch out their hands to evil and falsehood and fall to the level of Musaylima the Liar and his ridiculous utterances, who was the herald of falsehood, evil, and lies, and their embodiment. Their characters demanded that looking to the rank at which were the perfections of God's Beloved (PBUH) at the highest of the high, who was the herald and embodiment of truthfulness, good, and right, they hastened in that way with all their strength and endeavour.
For example, it sometimes happens that in the market of human civilization and shop of human social life, let alone buying them, everyone flees in disgust from the fearsome results and ugly consequences of certain things, like from a deadly poison, while the beautiful results and valuable consequences of certain other things and of immaterial goods attract the general view and demand to themselves like a universal panacea and a sparkling brilliant; everyone tries their utmost to buy them. In just the same way, in the Era of Bliss in the market of human social life, since goods like lying, evil, and unbelief gave rise to results like everlasting misery and base buffoons like Musaylima the Liar, it is certain and clear that the Companions, who were captivated by elevated characteristics and love of exalted things, would flee from them with loathing as from fatal poison. And of a necessity, the Companions, with their pure natures and praiseworthy characteristics, would, with all their strength, emotions, and faculties, be desirous of and customers for truth, truthfulness and belief, which yielded results like eternal happiness and luminous fruits like the Most Noble Prophet (PBUH), as though for the most beneficial panacea and most valuable diamond. However, after that time, the distance between truthfulness and lying has gradually and by degrees diminished, until they have become shoulder to shoulder. Having begun to be sold together in the same shop, social morality has become corrupted. The propaganda of politics has caused greater demand for lying. At a time when the awesome ugliness of lying has begun to be concealed and the shining beauty of truthfulness has begun not to be apparent, who can attain to the strength, constancy, and taqwa of the Companions in the matters of justice, truthfulness, exaltedness, and right, or surpass their level? I shall explain something which occurred to me which will illuminate this to a degree. It was like this:
One time, it occurred to me, why could wondrous individuals like Muhyiddin al-Arabi not attain to the levels of the Companions? Then, while saying, Glory be to my Sustainer, the Most High during the prayers, the meaning of the phrase was unfolded to me. Not in its complete meaning, but its reality in part became apparent to me. I said in my heart: If only I could perform one of the five daily prayers in the same way as this phrase, it would be better than a year's worship. After the prayers I understood that that thought and state was guidance indicating that the Companions' degree in worship could not be reached. In that mighty social revolution brought about by the lights of the Qur'an, while opposites were separated from one another, and evils together with all their darkness, details and all who followed them, and good and perfections together with all their lights and results came face to face - at such an exciting time, all glorifications of God and recitations of His Names expressed all the levels of their meanings freshly and newly and in a young and fresh fashion. So too, under the crashing of that mighty revolution all the senses and subtle inner faculties of people were awakened, even senses like those of fancy and imagination, in an awakened and aware state, received the numerous meanings of those recitations and glorifications in accordance with their own perceptions, and absorbed them.
Thus, due to this wisdom, when the Companions, whose senses were awakened and subtle faculties, alert, uttered those blessed words comprising the lights of belief and glorification, they did so in all their meaning and they partook of them with all their senses. However, after that revolution and upheaval, the subtle faculties have gradually sunk into sleep and the senses fallen from that point of realities into heedlessness; like fruits, under the veil of familiarity, those blessed words have gradually lost their delicacy and freshness. Simply, as though drying up through the air of superficiality, only a little freshness remains, and this may be restored to its former state only through drastic surgery of a reflective and reasoning kind. Thus, it is because of this that another can reach the virtue and level the Companions attained to in forty minutes, only in forty years.
Third Reason: As is proved in the Twelfth, Twenty-Fourth, and Twenty-Fifth Words, the comparison of prophethood and sainthood is that of the sun itself and the sun's image as it appears in mirrors. And so, however much higher the sphere of prophethood is than that of sainthood, the servants of the sphere of prophethood and the Companions, the stars of that Sun, have to be superior to the righteous in the sphere of sainthood to that degree. The legacy of prophethood and veracity, which is the supreme sainthood, is the sainthood of the Companions; even if a saint attains to this, he still cannot reach the level of the Companions, the first rank. We shall explain three out of the numerous aspects of this Third Reason.
First Aspect: The Companions cannot be reached in interpretation of the Law, that is, in deducing its ordinances, that is, in understanding what pleases Almighty God from His Word. Because that mighty Divine revolution revolved on understanding the Dominical wishes and Divine ordinances. All minds were turned towards deducing the Divine ordinances. All hearts were eager to know "What does our Sustainer want from us?" All that happened at that time did so in a way that made this known and understood. The discussions of the time concerned them. And so, since everything and all situations and discussions and conversations and stories occurred in such a way as to give instruction in these meanings to a degree, and since this perfected the Companions' capacities and illuminated their minds, and since their ability to interpret the Law and deduce its ordinances was ready to be lit up like a match, someone at this time of the intelligence and capacity of the Companions could not reach in ten years or perhaps in a hundred, the level of deduction and interpretation they reached in a day or a month. Because now, worldly happiness is the object of attention in place of eternal happiness. Mankind's attention and view is turned to different goals. Since the struggle for livelihood together with lack of reliance on God has bewildered the spirit, and Naturalist and Materialist philosophy has blinded the intellect, just as man's social surroundings do not strengthen a person's mind and capacity in the matter of interpreting the Divine Law, so also it confuses and scatters them. We proved in the discussion on interpretation of the Law in the Twenty-Seventh Word in the comparison between Sufyan ibn-i Uyeyne and someone of his intelligence that the other person could not gain in a hundred years what Sufyan gained in ten.
Second Aspect: The level of the Companions with regard to closeness to God cannot be attained with the feet of sainthood. For Almighty God is infinitely close to us; closer to us than everything, but we are infinitely distant from Him. Divine proximity may be gained in two ways:
The First is through the unfolding of Divine immediacy to which the Divine proximity in prophethood looks, and which the Companions manifested through the legacy of prophethood and conversation of the Prophet.
The Second Way is to traverse the degrees of our distance from God and be honoured to a degree with Divine proximity. Most of the spiritual voyaging of sainthood is according to this, and illumination through the self and through the outside world proceeds in this way.
Thus, the first way is purely given, it is not acquired; it is attraction, the drawing of the Most Merciful One, and it is being loved by Him. The path is short, but very severe, very elevated, very pure, and without shadow. The other is acquired, long, and in shadow. Even if its strange wonders are many, it cannot attain to the first in regard to quality and Divine proximity. For example, there are two ways of reaching yesterday. The first is not to be subject to the course of time. Through a sacred power, it is to rise above time, and see yesterday as present like today. The second is to traverse the distance of a year, to travel and turn, and come to yesterday. But still yesterday cannot be held; it leaves the person and departs. In just the same way, there are two ways of passing from the apparent to reality. The first is to be carried away directly on the attraction of reality, and, without entering the intermediate realm of the Sufi way, to find reality within the apparent itself. The second is to pass through many levels through spiritual journeying. For sure, the saints are successful in annihilating the soul and kill the evil-commanding soul, but they still cannot reach the Companions. Because, since the Companions' souls had been purified and cleansed, through the many faculties within the soul, they manifested to a greater degree the varieties of worship, and thanks, and praise. After the soul has been annihilated, the worship of the saints acquires a simpleness and plainness.
Third Aspect: The Companions cannot be reached in regard to virtuous actions, good deeds, and virtue pertaining to the hereafter. Because, just as in certain conditions in a frightening and important position, a soldier may gain in one hour's watch the virtue of a year's worship, and by being hit by a bullet may rise in one minute to a station similar to a degree of sainthood which can only by gained in at least forty years, so too, the Companions' service in the establishment of Islam and propagating the decrees of the Qur'an and their declaring war on the whole world for Islam was so elevated that others cannot reach one minute of it in a year. It may even be said that in that sacred service all their minutes were like that one minute of the soldier who was a martyr. All their hours were like the one hour's watch of a faithful soldier in some fearsome position in which the acts are few, the recompense great, and the value high.
Indeed, since the Companions formed the first rank in the establishment of Islam and spreading of the lights of the Qur'an, in accordance with the rule, The cause is like the doer, a share of all the good works of all the Islamic community passes to them. The Islamic community saying, O God! Grant blessings to our master Muhammed and to his Family and Companions shows that the Companions receive a share of the good works of their whole community.
Furthermore, just as an insignificant characteristic in the root of a tree takes on a large form in the tree's branches, and is larger than the largest branch; and just as a small protuberance at the beginning gradually forms a mass; and just as an excess the size of a needle point at a central point may become more than a metre at the circumference of the circle, just like these four examples, since the Companions were from the roots and foundations of the luminous tree of Islam, and were at the beginning of luminous lines of the structure of Islam, and were from among the leaders of the Islamic community and were the first of their number, and since they were close to the centre of the Sun of Prophethood and Lamp of Reality, a few of their actions were many and their small acts of service, great. To reach their level necessitates being a true Companion.
O God! Grant blessings to our master Muhammed, who said: "My Companions are like the stars, whichever of them you follow, you will be rightly guided", and, "The best of centuries is my century", and to his Family and Companions, and grant them peace.
Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.
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QUESTION: It is said, the Companions saw the Most Noble Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him), then they believed. However we have believed without seeing him, in which case our belief is stronger. Also, are there not narrations pointing to the strength of our belief?
THE ANSWER: At that time, when all ideas were opposed and hostile to the truths of Islam, the Companions formed such a belief - sometimes only seeing the human form of the Most Noble Prophet (PBUH) and without miracles - that all the generally held ideas in the world did not shake it. Let alone doubts, they did not even cause the slightest anxiety or scruple to some of them. You are comparing your belief with that of the Companions, but what is the comparison between your belief, which, despite your seeing with the mind's eye, not the Most Noble Prophet (PBUH)'s humanity and bodily form, which was the seed of the Tuba-tree of his prophethood, but through all the lights of Islam and truths of the Qur'an, his luminous, magnificent collective personality encompassed by a thousand miracles, falls into doubt and wavering at the word of a European philosopher, and the belief of the Companions, who did not waver in the face of the attacks of the entire world of unbelief and of the Christians, Jews, and philosophers? And what is the comparison between the intense fear of God of the Companions and their complete righteousness, which demonstrated the strength of their belief and proceeded from it, and your dull belief, which due to your extreme weakness does not display even the obligatory practices completely, O you who make such a claim? However, the Hadith the meaning of which is: "Those at the end of time who do not see me and believe, are more acceptable," refers to particular virtues. It concerns certain special individuals. Our discussion, however, is in regard to general virtue and the majority.
SECOND QUESTION: They say that the saints and possessors of perfection abandoned the world. It even says in a Hadith: "Love of this world is the source of all error." Whereas the Companions were very involved in the world. It was not abandoning the world, rather, some of the Companions were ahead of the civilized of that time even. How is it that you say that even the least of such Companions was of greater worth than the greatest saint?
THE ANSWER: It has been proved most decisively in the Second and Third Stopping-Places of the Thirty-Second Word that to love the face of the world which looks to the hereafter and that which looks to the Divine Names is not the cause of loss, but the means to perfection and attainment, and however far one goes in those two faces, the further one goes in worship and knowledge of God. The world of the Companions was in those two faces. They saw this world as the arable field of the hereafter, and sowed and reaped it. They saw beings as the mirrors of the Divine Names, and gazed on them yearningly. As for the transience of the world, it is its transitory face, which looks to man's base desires.
THIRD QUESTION: The Sufi paths are the ways of reality. Some of the heroes and leaders of the Naqshbandi path, which is claimed to be the most famous, the most elevated, and the highway among the Sufi ways, defined its basis as follows. They said: On the Naqshbandi way four 'abandonings' are necessary: abandoning the world, abandoning the hereafter, abandoning existence, and abandoning abandoning. That is to say, on the Naqshi way one has to give up four things: both give up this world; and, on account of the soul, not make even the hereafter the true aim; and forgets one's existence; and in order not to become vain and proud, not think about these acts of renunciation. That means true knowledge of God and human perfections are attained through giving up what is other than God?
THE ANSWER: If man only consisted of a heart, it would be necessary to give up everything other than God, and to leave behind even the Divine Names and attributes and bind the heart to the Divine Essence alone. But man possesses many senses and subtle faculties charged with duties, like the mind, spirit, soul, and others. The perfect man is he who, driving all those subtle senses towards reality on the different ways of worship particular to them, marches heroically like the Companions in a broad arena and rich fashion towards the goal with the heart like a commander and the soldiers of the subtle faculties. For the heart to abandon its soldiers in order to save only itself and to proceed on its own is not the cause of pride, but the cause of distress.
FOURTH QUESTION: Where does the claim of the Companions' superiority spring from? And who put it forward? Why should this matter be made the subject of discussion at this time? Also, why is there this claim of equality with the great interpreters of the Law?
THE ANSWER: There are two groups who say these things. Some are the sincere religious scholars and men of religion who, seeing certain Hadiths, open up such discussions in order to encourage and hearten the pious and the upright at this time. We do not have anything to say to them. They are anyway few and are quickly made aware. The other group, however, consists of most fearsome, conceited people who want to spread their denial of the Schools of Law by claiming equality with the great interpreters of the Law, and to further their irreligion by claiming equality with the Companions. Because firstly, those people of misguidance have become depraved, and have become addicted to depravity, and cannot carry out the obligations of the Shari'a, which are an obstacle to that depravity. In order to find a pretext for themselves, they say: "These questions may be interpreted. The Schools of Law are opposed to each other in these matters. And the interpreters of the Law are human beings like us, and may make mistakes. In which case, like them we too shall interpret the Divine Law and perform our worship as we wish. Why should we be compelled to follow them?" Thus, due to these Satanic wiles, these wretches remove their heads from the chain of the Schools of Law. Since it is demonstrated clearly in the Twenty-Seventh Word just how baseless and rotten these claims are, we refer you to that.
Secondly; that group of the people of misguidance saw that the matter does not end with the interpreters of the Law. What is on their shoulders is only the theoretical matters of religion. Whereas this group wants to give up and change the essential teachings of religion. If they say: "We are better than them", the matter does not finish there. For the interpreters of the Law may interfere in theoretical matters and in secondary matters which are not categorical, but these people of misguidance who follow no School of Law want to mix their ideas in the essentials of religion as well, and to change matters which are not capable of being changed, and to oppose the definite pillars of Islam. And so they are bound to attack the Companions, who are the bearers and supports of the essentials of religion. Alas! It has been proved most decisively in the Twenty-Seventh Word that not animals in human form like them, but true human beings and the greatest of the saints even, who are the most perfect of true human beings, cannot win the case claiming equality with the least of the Companions.
O God! Grant blessings and peace to Your Prophet, who said: Do not insult my Companions! Do not insult my Companions! By the One in Whose hand is my self, if one of you were to spend gold equivalent to Mt. Uhud, he could not attain to the equivalent of two handfuls of one of them, or even half that.
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The Twenty-Eighth Word
[This Word is about Paradise and consists of two Stations. The First indicates some of the subtle wonders of Paradise. However, it does not prove the existence of Paradise, since this has been proved in most brilliant fashion with the twelve decisive Truths in the Tenth Word and with the most firm and clear consecutive arguments in Arabic which form the basis and summary of the Tenth Word and form the Second Station of this Word. This Station rather discusses a number of the aspects of Paradise which have been the cause of criticism, and of question and answer. If Divine assistance is forthcoming, a great Word will later be written about that mighty truth. God willing.]
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
And give glad tidings to those who believe and act righteously that their's shall be gardens beneath which flow rivers. Everytime they are fed with fruits therefrom, they will say: " Why, this is what we were fed with before." For they will be given things in similitude. And they shall have therein spouses pure, and shall abide there for ever.
The brief answers to a number of questions about eternal Paradise.
The descriptions of the verses of the Qur'an about Paradise, which are more beautiful than Paradise, more lovely than the Houris, and sweeter than the water of Selsebil, leave nothing to be said about it so that anyone should say it. However, in order to bring closer to the understanding those shining, pre-eternal, post-eternal, elevated and exquisite verses, we shall mention a number of steps, and, as samples of that Qur'anic Paradise, a number of fine points which are like samples of its flowers. We shall point to these through five allusive questions and answers. Indeed, Paradise is the means to all spiritual and non-physical pleasures, and so too it is the means to all physical pleasures.
QUESTION: What connection with eternity and Paradise has faulty, deficient, changing, unstable, and suffering corporeality? Since the spirit has elevated pleasures, that is sufficient. Why is bodily resurrection necessary for bodily pleasures?
THE ANSWER: Because, just as in relation to water, air, and light, earth is dense and dark, but since it is the source and means of all the varieties of Divine artefacts, in meaning it rises above the other elements, and just as in regard to the mystery of its comprehensiveness and on condition it is purified, the human soul, which is also dense, rises above all the other human subtle faculties, so too corporeality is the richest and most comprehensive and all-embracing mirror to the manifestation of the Divine Names. All the tools and instruments for measuring the contents of the treasuries of Mercy and reckoning their balance are in corporeality. For example, if the sense of taste in the tongue was not the source for scales to the number of the sorts of foods and their pleasures, it could not experience each and recognize them, and taste and measure them. Also, the instruments for experiencing and knowing the manifestations of most of the Divine Names, and tasting and recognizing them, are again in corporeality. And the faculties for experiencing the most various and infinitely different pleasures are also in corporeality.
Since, as is proved in the Eleventh Word, it is understood clearly from the disposition of the universe and man's comprehensiveness that the universe's Maker wants to make known all the treasuries of His Mercy, and all the manifestations of His Names, and to make experienced all the varieties of His bounties, for sure, the abode of bliss, which is a mighty pool formed from the flood of the universe and a great exhibition of the textiles woven on the loom of the universe and an everlasting store of the crops produced in the arable field of this world, will resemble the universe to a degree. And it will preserve all its fundaments, both corporeal and spiritual. And its All-Wise Maker, the Most Compassionate One, will give as recompense for the duties of the physical tools and instruments, pleasures worthy of them; and to His servants, as a wage and as a reward for the particular worship of each. Otherwise a situation would occur that was contrary to His wisdom, justice, and mercy, which is in no way fitting for the Beauty of His Mercy and Perfection of His Justice, and in no way compatible with it.
QUESTION: If a body is living, its parts are constantly being formed and dissolved; it is doomed to extinction and cannot be eternal. And eating and drinking are for the perpetuation of the individual, and sexual relations are for the perpetuation of the species. These are fundamental to this world, but there is no need for them in the world of eternity and hereafter. So why have they taken their place as the greatest pleasures of Paradise?
THE ANSWER: Firstly, the bodies of living creatures being doomed to extinction and death in this world arises from an imbalance in what is taken in and what is expended. From childhood until maturity much is taken in, and after this what is expended increases; the balance is spoilt, and so the body dies. In the world of eternity, however, the particles of the body remain constant and are not subject to formation and dissolution, or else the balance remains constant. [In this world, the bodies of humans and animals are like guest-houses, barracks, and schools for particles. The lifeless particles enter them and acquire worthiness to be particles for the everlasting realm, which is living and they then leave them. In the hereafter, however, according to the verse, The Abode of the Hereafter, that is life indeed, the light of life is general. There is no necessity for that travelling, drill, and instruction in order to be illuminated. Particles will remain constant as old timers.] Like a closed circle or perpetual motion, the body of the living creature becomes eternal together with the functioning of the machine of bodily life for pleasure. Although in this world eating and drinking and sexual relations arise from need and perform a function, various delights and pleasures have been left within them as an immediate wage for the duty performed, which are superior to other pleasures. Since in this abode of sorrows eating and sexual relations are the means to this many wonderful and various pleasures, for sure, in Paradise, which is the abode of pleasure and bliss, those pleasures will take on a most exalted form, and adding to them as pleasure the recompense of the duties pertaining to the hereafter performed here and adding also the worldly need in the form of an agreeable, otherworldly appetite, they will become an all-embracing, living source of pleasure worthy of Paradise and suitable to eternity. Indeed, according to the meaning of the verse,
And what is the life of this world but amusement and play? But indeed the Abode of the Hereafter, that is life indeed,
substances, matters, which are inanimate, and without consciousness and life in the abode of this world, there, are living and conscious. Like human beings and animals here, the trees and stones there will understand commands and carry them out. If you tell a tree to bring you such-and-such a fruit, it will bring it. And if you tell such-and-such a stone to come, it will come. Since stones and trees will take on an elevated form to this degree, it surely necessitates that, together with preserving their bodily realities, eating, drinking, and sexual relations also will take on a form higher than their worldly form, higher to the degree that Paradise is higher than this world.
QUESTION: According to the meaning of:
Everyone will be together with those he loves,
in Paradise, friend will be together with friend. So, a love for the sake of God is born in a simple nomad in one minute's conversation with the Prophet (PBUH), through which he has to be at the Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace)'s side in Paradise. But how can the effulgence of the Most Noble Prophet (PBUH), who receives limitless effulgence, be united with that of a simple nomad?
THE ANSWER: We shall point to this elevated truth with a comparison. For example, a magnificent personage set up a vast banquet and finely-adorned spectacle in a fine and splendid garden, and he prepared it in such a way that it included all the delicious foods that the sense of taste can experience, and all the fine things that please the sense of sight, and all the wonders that amuse the faculty of imagination, and so on; he included in it everything that would gratify and give pleasure to all the external and inner senses. Now, there were two friends and they went together to the banquet. They sat at a table in a pavillion. But the sense of taste of one of them was very limited, so he received only minor pleasure. His eyes could see only a little, and he had no sense of smell, and he could not understand the wondrous arts nor comprehend the marvels. In relation to his capacity, he could only benefit from and take pleasure at a thousandth or even a millionth of that beautiful place. The other man however had developed his outer and inner senses, his mind, heart, emotions, and subtle faculties so perfectly and to such a degree that, although he was next to his friend, he could perceive and experience all the subtleties and beauties and marvels and fine things in the exhibition, and receive their different pleasures.
Since this confused, sorrowful, and narrow world is thus, and although the greatest and the least are together, the difference between them is as great as from the ground to the Pleiades, for sure, in Paradise, the realm of bliss and eternity, while friend is together with friend, each will receive his share from the table of the Most Merciful and Compassionate One in accordance with his capacity and to the degree of his abilities. Even if the Paradises in which they are found are different, it will not be an obstacle to their being together. For although the eight levels of Paradise are one above the other, the roof of all of them is the Sublime Throne. If there are walled circles round a conical mountain, one within the other and one above the other from its foot to the summit, the circles are one over the other and look to one another, but do not prevent each other seeing the sun. So too there are various narrations of Hadiths indicating that the Paradises are in a manner close to this.
QUESTION: It is said in Hadiths: "Although the Houris are clothed in seventy garments, the marrow of their leg-bones may be seen." What does this mean? What sort of meaning can it have? What sort of beauty is this?
THE ANSWER: Its meaning is most beautiful and its beauty is most lovely. It is like this: in this world, which is ugly, inanimate, lifeless, and for the most part just a husk, beauty and loveliness only appear beautiful to the eye, and so long as familiarity is not an obstacle, that is sufficient. Whereas in Paradise, which is beautiful, living, brilliant, and entirely the essence without the husk and the kernel without the shell, like the eye, all man's senses and subtle faculties will want to receive their different pleasures and various delights from the Houris, the gentle sex, and from the women of this world, who will be like Houris and even more beautiful. That is to say, the Hadith indicates that from the beauty of the top garment to the marrow in the bone, each will be the means of pleasure to a sense and a subtle faculty. Yes, by saying, "The Houris wear seventy garments and the marrow of their leg-bones can be seen," the Hadith points out that however many senses, feeling, powers, and faculties man has which are enamoured of beauty, worship pleasure, are captivated by ornament, and yearn for loveliness, the Houris comprise every sort of adornment and exquisite loveliness, physical and spiritual and immaterial, which will please and satisfy all of them, and gratify and make happy each of them.
That is to say, since the Houris are of seventy of the varieties of the adornment of Paradise, and not of one sort, as they are clothed in garments which do not conceal one another, they display from their beings and selves and bodies, perhaps more than seventy of the different sorts of its beauty and loveliness. They demonstrate the truth indicated by the verse:
There will be there all that the souls could desire and all that the eyes could delight in.
Moreover, the Hadith indicates that since in Paradise there are no unnecessary, extraneous, waste-matters, the people of Paradise will not excrete waste after eating and drinking. Since in this lowly world, trees, the most ordinary of living beings, do not excrete despite taking in much nourishment, why should not the people of Paradise, who are the highest class of life, not excrete waste?
QUESTION: It says in Hadiths: "Some of the people of Paradise are given a place as large as the world, and thousands of palaces and hundreds of thousands of Houris are bestowed on them." What need has a single person of all these things, what necessity is there for them? How can this be and what does it mean?
THE ANSWER: If man was only a lifeless being, or was only a vegetable creature consisting of a stomach, or consisted only of a limited, heavy, temporary, and simple corporeality or animal body, he could not own many palaces and Houris, or be fit for them. But man is such a comprehensive miracle of power that even in this transitory world and brief life, if he is given the rule of all the world and its wealth and pleasures, in regard to the need of some of his subtle faculties which have not developed here, and even his ambition, he cannot be satisfied. Whereas, that a person possessing an infinite capacity in an eternal abode of bliss who knocks on the door of an infinite mercy with the hand of infinite desires and the tongue of infinite needs will receive the Divine bounties described in Hadiths, is reasonable, right, and true. We shall observe this elevated truth through the telescope of a comparison. It is as follows:
Although, like this valley garden,5 each of these gardens and vineyards of Barla has a different owner, each bird, each sparrow, each honey-bee in Barla, who possesses with regard to food only a handful of grain, may say: "All the gardens and orchards of Barla are my pleasant places of promenading and recreation." Each may take possession of Barla and include it in his property. Others sharing it does not infringe its rule. Also, a man who is a true human being may say: "My Creator made this world a house for me. The sun is my lamp, the stars my electric lights. The face of the earth is my resting-place spread with flowered carpets." And he offers thanks to God. The other creatures sharing it does not negate this statement of his. On the contrary, the creatures adorn his house and are like its decorations. And so, if in regard to his humanity, man in this narrow brief world - and even a bird - claims a sort of power of disposal over such a vast sphere and receives such a vast bounty, how can it be deemed unlikely that he is given the ownership of a property stretching a distance of five hundred years in a broad and eternal abode of bliss?
Moreover, just as in this dense and dark narrow world the sun is present in the same way at the same moment in numerous mirrors, so too, as is proved in the Sixteenth Word, a luminous being may be present in many places in the same way at the same moment. For example, Gabriel (Upon whom be peace) being on a thousand stars at the same moment, and at the Divine Throne, and in the presence of the Prophet (PBUH), and in the Divine Presence; and the Prophet Muhammed (Upon whom be blessings and peace) meeting with most of the righteous of his community at the resurrection of the dead at the same moment and appearing in this world in innumerable places at the same moment; and a strange group of the saints known as abdal, appearing at the same time in many places; and ordinary people sometimes carrying out as much as a year's work in one minute in a dream and observing this; and everyone being in contact with and concerned with numerous places at the same moment in regard to heart, spirit, and imagination - all these are well-known and may be witnessed. And so, most certainly, in Paradise, which is luminous, unrestricted, broad, and eternal, the people of Paradise, whose bodies are of the strength and lightness of the spirit and of the swiftness of imagination, being in hundreds of thousands of places at the same time, and conversing with hundreds of thousands of Houris, and receiving pleasure in hundreds of thousands of ways, is fitting for that eternal Paradise, that infinite mercy, and as told by the Bringer of Sure News (PBUH), is reality and the truth. Nevertheless, these vast truths cannot be weighed on the scales of our tiny minds.
This tiny mind cannot perceive the true meanings,
For such a scale cannot bear such a weight.
 
Glory be unto to You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.
O our Sustainer! Do not call us to task if we forget or fall into error.7
O God! Grant blessings to Your beloved, who opened the doors of Paradise through being Your beloved and through his prayers, and You confirmed its opening for his community due to their benedictions for him, on him be blessings and peace.
O God! Enter us into Paradise among the righteous, through the intercession of Your beloved, the chosen one. Amen.
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A Short Addendum to the Word On Paradise
[On Hell]
As is proved in the Second and Eighth Words, belief bears the seed of a sort of Paradise, while unbelief conceals the seed of a sort of Hell. Just as unbelief is a seed of Hell, so too, Hell is one of its fruits. Just as unbelief is the cause of Hell being entered, so too it is the cause of Hell's existence and creation. For if an insignificant ruler of small dignity, small pride, and small loftiness is told impudently by some unmannerly person: "You may not punish me and you cannot", for sure, if there is no prison in that place, the ruler will have one built for him and will throw him in it. However, by denying Hell, the unbeliever is giving the lie to One of infinite dignity, pride, and glory, Who is most great and infinitely Powerful, and is accusing Him of impotence, lying, and powerlessness; he is severely insulting His dignity and offending His pride in awesome manner. He is rebelliously causing affront to His Glory. Certainly, to suppose the impossible, there was no reason for Hell's existence, it would be created for unbelief, which comprises denial and ascribing impotence to this degree, and such an unbeliever would be cast into it.
Our Sustainer! You did not create that in vain. Glory be unto You! Save us from the penalty of the Fire!
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