Fourteenth Word
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
الۤرٰ كِتَابٌ اُحْكِمَتْ اٰيَاتُهُ ثُمَّ فُصِّلَتْ مِنْ لَدُنْ حَكِيمٍ خَبِيرٍ
Alif Lam Ra [This is] a book whose verses are perfected, then set out clearly, from the One Who is All-wise, All-aware (Qur’an, 11: 1).
“As steps to help the hearts that are deficient in the submission and acquiescence needed to climb to the high and lofty truths of the Wisdomful Qur’an and the prophetic traditions, which are its true interpreters, we will point to some examples of those truths”
Click to listen to Episode 01, Episode 02, Episode 03, Episode 04 (about the purposefulness of death and calamities), Episode 05 (wisdom in disasters like earthquakes), and Episode 06 (on disasters and their cause).
Back to The Words.
ROUGH TRANSLATION from the RISALE-I NUR
translated by Dr. Mustafa Tuna
A rough translation of the section that is being discussed is posted below. This is a work in progress and should not be considered a finalized translation. It is only meant to help with understanding the recorded discussion.
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
الۤرٰ كِتَابٌ اُحْكِمَتْ اٰيَاتُهُ ثُمَّ فُصِّلَتْ مِنْ لَدُنْ حَكِيمٍ خَبِيرٍ
Alif Lam Ra [This is] a book whose verses are perfected, then set out clearly, from the One Who is All-wise, All-aware (Qur’an, 11: 1).
As steps to help the hearts that are deficient in the submission and acquiescence needed to climb to the high and lofty truths of the Wisdomful Qur’an and the prophetic traditions, which are its true interpreters, we will point to some examples of those truths. Then, a lesson with a moral and a secret of solicitude will be expressed in the concluding remarks. Because the ones among those examples that pertain to resurrection and the hour of destruction are mentioned in the Tenth Word, and especially in its Ninth Truth, there is no need for repetition here. However, we will mention Five Matters among other truths as samples.
First: For example, in order to develop full conviction about the lofty truth of خَلَقَ السَّمٰوَاتِ وَاْلاَرْضَ فِى سِتَّةِ اَيَّامٍ , which means “We created the heavens and the earth in six days (Qur’an, 7: 54),” and points out that the world of humans and the realm of animals will live six days according to the days of the Qur’an, which consist of a long time such as a thousand or perhaps fifty thousand years, we are showing for witnessing and consideration the ever-flowing realms, mobile universes, and temporary worlds that the Majestic One Who creates from nothing creates in every century, every year, and every day, each like a day in effect. Yes, it is as if the worlds, like human beings, are each a guest. In each season, the realm is filled then emptied with the command of the Majestic Entity.
Second: For example, to develop full conviction in the exalted truth that verses such as:
وَلاَ رَطْبٍ وَلاَ يَابِسٍ اِلاَّ فِى كِتَابٍ مُبِينٍ
وَكُلَّ شَىْءٍ اَحْصَيْنَاهُ فِىۤ اِمَامٍ مُبِينٍ
لاَ يَعْزُبُ عَنْهُ مِثْقَالُ ذَرَّةٍ فِى السَّمٰوَاتِ وَلاَ فِى اْلاَرْضِ وَلاَۤ اَصْغَرُ مِنْ ذٰلِكَ وَلاَۤ اَكْبَرُ اِلاَّ فِى كِتَابٍ مُبِينٍ
… And not a fresh or dried out thing that is not written in a Clear Book (Qur’an, 6: 59).
… We keep an account of everything in a Clear Record (Qur’an, 36: 12).
… Not even the weight of a speck of dust in the heavens or earth escapes His knowledge, nor anything smaller or greater. It is all recorded in a Clear Book (Qur’an, 34: 3)…
express and that means: “All things are written, will be written, and are being written in all their states before they come into existence, when they come into existence, and after they come out of existence,” we are showing for consideration how the Majestic Embroiderer packs and preserves in a metaphysical way, in kernels, seeds, and roots, the index of bodily existence, the biographies, and the regulatory principles of movement pertaining to the innumerable and orderly creatures that He replaces in every season, and especially the spring, on the page of the earth. It is as if every spring is attached on the face of the earth in an utmostly orderly and proportionate fashion like a flower, then detached – it is spread out, then folded away – by the hand of a beautiful and majestic One.
While this is the reality, it is among the human beings’ most amazing occasions of misguidance that they deem the creational inscription that is called the “nature” in the language of the people of heedlessness and that is an index of the lordly arts as a single instance of the manifestation of the Preserved Tablet, which is the page of the pen of divine determination… they deem this embroidery of art and these passive line markings of wisdom to be sources and active agents, calling them the “effective Nature.” اَيْنَ الثَّرَا مِنَ الثُّرَيَّا (Where is the Earth? Where are the Seven Sisters?). Where is reality? Where is what the people of heedlessness deemed to be true?
Third: For instance, in order to climb to the truth that expresses the reality about the Bearers of the Throne, the entrusted angels of the earth and the heavens, and other angels such as the one that the Veracious Reporter has described, for example, as having forty thousand heads with forty thousand tongues on each head and glorifying God in forty thousand ways on each tongue as well as their orderliness, universality, and the breadth of their worshipful slavehood, pay attention to this that the Majestic One clarifies with verses such as:
تُسَبِّحُ لَهُ السَّمٰوَاتُ السَّبْعُ وَاْلاَرْضُ وَمَنْ فِيهِنَّ
اِنَّا سَخَّرْناَ الْجِبَالَ مَعَهُ يُسَبِّحْنَ
اِنَّا عَرَضْنَا اْلاَمَانَةَ عَلَى السَّمٰوَاتِ وَاْلاَرْضِ وَالْجِبَالِ
The seven heavens and the earth and everyone in them glorify Him (Qur’an, 17: 44)…
We subjugated the mountains to glorify Us with him at sunset and sunrise (Qur’an, 38: 18).
We offered the Trust to the heavens, the earth, and the mountains (Qur’an, 33: 72)…
that even the biggest and most universal among existent beings glorify God in accordance with their universality and in a way that befits their tremendousness, and thus He shows us, and it appears to be such.
Yes, as the suns, moons, and stars are the words of glorification of these heavens, which are a glorifying ocean, so are the animals, plants, and trees the utterances of praise of this Earth, which is a glorifying and praising bird. In that case, as each tree and each star has a particular glorification, so do the Earth and all of its continents, all of its mountains and creeks, and its lands and oceans, and the heavens and all of their layers and constellations each have a universal glorification. This Earth with thousands of heads has an entrusted angel accordingly with hundreds of thousands of tongues on each of its heads who translates and demonstrates the hundreds of thousands of different types of glorification flowers and praise fruits in the realm of similitudes and represents and announces them in the realm of spirits.
Yes, if numerous things gather in a congregation, they will have a metaphysical personality. If that gathering merges and takes the form of unity, it will have a metaphysical personality that will represent it, a sort of metaphysical spirit, and an entrusted angel that will fulfill its duty of glorification.
Here look: As an example, look at this plane tree in front of our room, which is a tremendous word on this mountain tongue in this Barla mouth, and see. How many hundreds of branch tongues there are on each of the three heads of this tree. And on each tongue, look, there are how many hundreds of well-proportioned and orderly fruit words. And on each fruit, pay attention, as you see and hear how so many hundreds of winged and well-proportioned tiny seed letters are eloquently commending and lucidly glorifying their Majestic Artful Maker Who processes the command of “Be, and it is,” likewise an entrusted angel is accordingly representing its glorifications in multiple languages in the metaphysical realm, and that should be so according to wisdom.
Fourth: For example, the lofty reality that verses such as:
اِنَّمَاۤ اَمْرُهُ اِذَاۤ اَرَادَ شَيْئاً اَنْ يَقُولَ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ
When He wills something to be, His way is to say, “Be”— and it is! (Qur’an, 36: 82)
وَمَاۤ اَمْرُ السَّاعَةِ اِلاَّ كَلَمْحِ الْبَصَرِ
…The coming of the Hour of Judgement is like the blink of an eye (Qur’an, 16: 77)…
وَنَحْنُ اَقْرَبُ اِلَيْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ الْوَرِيدِ
…We are closer to him than his jugular vein (Qur’an, 50: 16).
تَعْرُجُ الْمَلٰۤئِكَةُ وَالرُّوحُ اِلَيْهِ فِى يَوْمٍ كَانَ مِقْدَارُهُ خَمْسِينَ اَلْفَ سَنَةٍ
…by which the angels and the Spirit ascend to Him, on a Day whose length is fifty thousand years (Qur’an, 70: 4).
express… That is, the Absolutely All-powerful One creates things with such ease and rapidity and without endeavor or physical engagement that it seems like He is bringing them into existence with a command alone; it is understood as such.
And while that All-Powerful Artful Maker is utmostly close to the artifacts, the artifacts are utmostly far from Him.
And while He has infinite grandeur, He does not leave even the most particular and lowly affairs without attentive organization and beautifully excellent artistry.
Thus as the most perfect orderliness within absolute ease that is observed among existent beings testifies to the existence of this Qur’anic reality, so does the following representation show the secret in its wisdom. For instance, وَ ِللهِ الْمَثَلُ اْلاَعْلٰى , the duties that appear as a result of lordly command and divine subjugation on the sun, which is in effect like a dense mirror of the name of Light among the beautiful names of the Majestic Artful Maker, render this reality more understandable. This is how:
While the sun, together with its loftiness, is utmostly close to all transparent and shiny objects, while in fact, it is closer than their essences, and it influences them through its reflection and similitude, and in many ways that are like disposal, those transparent things are far from it by thousands of years. They cannot influence it in any way and claim closeness.
It is understood from the appearance of the sun’s reflection and some type of its similitude in every transparent particle, according to the capacity and color of that particle, and in wherever its light enters that as if the sun is present and looking.
The encompassment and pervasiveness of the sun increases proportionate to the tremendousness of its luminosity. Not even the smallest, tiny things can hide and escape from it due to the tremendousness of luminosity.
In that case, with the secret of luminosity, the tremendousness of its grandeur does not cast particular and small things out, but to the contrary, takes them into the circle of its encompassment.
If – assuming the inconceivable – we assume the sun to be the choosing agent of the reflections and duties that appear on it, since, with divine permission, it is operating with such ease, speed, and broad reach on everything from particles and drops to the face of the sea and planets, it can be imagined that it is undertaking those tremendous disposals purely with a command. The particle and the planet are the same before its command. With perfect order, it gives to the particle the same outpouring benefits that it gives to the face of the sea in accordance with the particle’s capacity.
Thus, we see through observation that the sun, which is a radiant bubble on the face of the sea of the heavens and a tiny, dense mirror to the reflection of the Absolutely All-powerful One’s name the Light, is the locus of manifestation for the samples of the essences of these three realities. Of course, we believe with a certainty of faith at the level of witnessing and it is necessary to believe that the Majestic Entity Who is the Light of light, the Illuminator of light, and the Determiner of light, in comparison to Whose knowledge and power the light and heat of the sun is in effect like dense soil, is close to, present by, and observant over all things with His knowledge and power, that all things are utterly far from Him, that it is understood from the ease of way He does things without burden or endeavor that it is as if He is bringing things into existence with the speed and ease of pure command alone, and that nothing, whether particular or universal and small or big, is left outside of the circle of His power, His grandeur encompasses them all.
Fifth: To attain conviction in the high and profound reality of the wisdom that undergird the severe Qur’anic complaints, tremendous threats, and dreadful promises of punishment of the Sultan of pre-eternity and post-eternity, the boundaries of the tremendousness of Whose Lordship and the grandeur of Whose Divinity has seized from وَمَا قَدَرُوا اللهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ وَاْلاَرْضُ جَمِيعًا قَبْضَتُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَالسَّمٰوَاتُ مَطْوِيَّاتٌ بِيَمِينِهِ (These people have no grasp of God’s true measure. On the Day of Resurrection, the whole earth will be in His grip. The heavens will be rolled up in His right hand (Qur’an, 39: 67) …) all the way to وَاعْلَمُوۤا اَنَّ اللهَ يَحُولُ بَيْنَ الْمَرْءِ وَقَلْبِهِ (…Know that God comes between a man and his heart (Qur’an, 8: 24) …),
then from اَللهُ خَالِقُ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ وَهُوَ عَلٰى كُلِّ شَىْءٍ وَكِيلٌ (God is the Creator of all things; He has charge of everything (Qur’an, 39: 62)) all the way to يَعْلَمُ مَا يُسِرُّونَ وَمَا يُعْلِنُونَ ( … God is well aware of what they conceal and what they reveal (Qur’an, 2: 77)),
then fromخَلَقَ السَّمٰوَاتِ وَاْلاَرْضَ ([It is He] Who created the heavens and the earth (Qur’an, 6: 73)…) all the way toخَلَقَكُمْ وَمَا تَعْمَلوُنَ ([it is God] Who has created you and what you make? (Qur’an, 37: 96)),
and from مَا شَاۤءَ اللهُ لاَ قُوَّةَ اِلاَّ بِاللهِ (…“This is God’s will. There is no power not [given] by God.” (Qur’an, 18: 39)…) all the way to وَمَا تَشَاۤؤُنَ اِلاَّ اَنْ يَشَاۤءَ اللهُ (But you will only wish to do so if God wills (Qur’an, 76: 30)…), against these impotent, endlessly weak, endlessly poor, endlessly needy children of Adam, who are equipped with only partial volition and a weak ability to choose without any capacity to bring anything into existence, how we can see their suitability, and in what way they are appropriate take a look at these two representations to come:
First representation: Say there is a royal orchard with numerous fruit-bearing and flowering artifacts in it. Many servants have been appointed to supervise it. The duty of one of the servants is to open the lid on the waterway through which water comes to that orchard for distribution and drinking. Yet this servant was lazy and did not open the lid. The orchard’s growth into perfection was stunted or it completely dried out. Then, in addition to the lordly art of the Creator, the royal supervision of the Sultan, and the subservient service of light, air, and soil, all servants have a right to complain about that addlebrain. Because he caused their services to become fruitless or harmed them.
Second representation: Say, on a massive sultanic ship, the owner of the ship severely complains about a lowly man on behalf of all employees for having brought harm to the outcomes of the services of all of those employees by abandoning his small particular duty. This faulty person cannot say: “I am a lowly man; I do not deserve this severity as a result of my insignificant negligence.” This is because, one occasion of nonexistence results in innumerous occasions of nonexistence, but existence bears fruit according to its self. Because, while the existence of a thing depends on the existence of all conditions and causes, in the case of nonexistence and elimination, it becomes nonexistent from the point of view of its outcomes as a result of the elimination of one condition or the nonexistence of a single part. This is why that “harming is much easier than repairing” has become a well-known principle.
Since the essences of disbelief, misguidance, transgression, and sinfulness are denial, rejection, abandoning, and the absence of acceptance, they are elimination and nonexistence in reality, no matter how substantive and existent they look in external appearance. In that case, this is a crime that spreads and contaminates. It both harms the outcome of the acts of other existent beings and veils the beautiful reflections of divine names.
Thus, the Sultan of the existent beings complains tremendously about this rebellious human being on behalf of those existent beings who have a right to make this complaint. That He complains is very wisdom. Of course that rebellious one deserves severe threats, and without a doubt, dreadful promises of punishment are warranted for him.
Concluding Remark
This is a club descending on the heedless head and a moral lesson.
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
وَمَا الْحَيٰوةُ الدُّنْيَاۤ اِلاَّ مَتَاعُ الْغُرُورِ
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Mercy-giver
…What is the life of this world but an illusionary pleasure (Qur’an, 3: 185).
O my unfortunate lower soul that, having plunged into heedlessness, thought this world to be sweet, and forgotten the Hereafter, demands the world! Do you know what is the like of you? An ostrich! It sees the hunter, cannot fly; sticks its head in the sand so that the hunter will not see it. Its massive body is exposed outside; the hunter sees it. Yet having closed its eyes in the sand, it does not see anything.
O the lower soul! Look at this representation; see how limiting your gaze to the world transforms a cherished delight into an agonizing pain. For instance, assume there are two men in this village, that is, in Barla. Ninety-nine percent of the people that are beloved to the first one have gone to Istanbul; they live a pleasant life there. He remains here alone on his own. He too will go there. Hence, this man is yearning for Istanbul. He thinks of it and wants to be reunited with his beloved ones. Upon being told, “Go there,” he rejoices and goes with a smile on his face. As for the second man, ninety-nine percent of his friends have left this place. He presumes that some of them have perished and some have been hidden away in places where they neither see nor are seen, that they have all disappeared in misery. So, to find consolation, this helpless man wants to befriend one traveler [who is here] instead of all those [beloved ones]. He wants to cover up the agonizing pains of separation with him.
O the lower soul! All your beloved ones, beginning with the Beloved of God, are on the other side of the grave. If there are one or two who are left here, they too are departing. Do not turn your head away, fearing death and being scared of the grave. Look at the grave bravely; listen: what does it demand? Smile at death’s face in a manly manner; look: what does it want? By all means, do not be heedless and resemble the second man.
O the lower soul! Do not say, “The times have changed. This is a different century. Everybody have plunged into the world. They worship life and are drunk with the worries of livelihood.” Because, death does not change. Separation does not transform, turning into everlastingness. The impotance of the humankind and human poverty are not changing; they are increasing. The humankind’s journey is not coming to a stop; it is gaining speed.
Furthermore, do not say: “I am like everybody else.” Because everybody accompanies you up to the gates of the grave. The consolation of being together with everybody else in a calamity means nothing beyond the grave.
Furthermore, do not presume yourself to be free without any obligations, for if you look from the viewpoint of wisdom, you will not see anything left without order or purpose in this guesthouse of the world. How can you be left without order or purpose? These events of the universe such as the earthquake are not playthings of coincidence. For example, while you see that the utmostly orderly and utterly embroidered shirts from the vegetal and animal species that are donned on the earth are adorned and equipped with purposes and wisdoms from head to toe, and while you know that [the earth] is whirling and revolving like an ecstatic Mawlawi derwish in perfect orderliness with utmostly high purposes, how is it that they throw the agonizing losses of all those who are struck by calamity into dreadful despair by showing them – as a godless person published – to be scattered into futility without recompense by presuming the death-tainted lifeful events of the globe of the earth such as the earthquake, which is as if it is shaking off itself the metaphysical weight, which it does not like, of some of the heedless behaviors and attitudes of the children of Adam and especially of the believers, to be purposeless and coincidental [side note]. They are making a big mistake and perpetrating great oppression. In fact, under the command of an All-wise Mercy-giver, such events are to give everlastingness to the temporal property of the people of belief by rendering it charity in effect, and they are atonement for the sins that relate to the denial of blessings.
In the way that there will come a day, this subjugated earth will see the works of the humankind, which adorn its face, to be tainted with polytheism and devoid of gratitude, with a command of the Creator, it wipes and cleans all of its face with a massive earthquake, with God’s command, it pours the people of polytheism into Hell, and it tells the people of gratitude: “Go ahead, enter Paradise.”
Side note: This has been written in relation to the Izmir earthquake.
Addendum
اِذَا زُلْزِلَتِ اْلاَرْضُ زِلْزَالَهَا وَاَخْرَجَتِ اْلاَرْضُ اَثْقَالَهَا وَقَالَ اْلاِنْسَانُ مَالَهَا يَوْمَئِذٍ تُحَدِّثُ اَخْباَرَهَا بِاَنَّ رَبَّكَ اَوْحٰى لَهَا .. الخ
When the earth is shaken violently in its [last] quaking, // when the earth throws out its burdens // when man cries, ‘What is happening to it?’; // on that Day, it will tell all // because your Lord will inspire it [to do so]… (Qur'an, 99: 1-5)
This chapter of the Qur’an definitively expresses that the globe of the earth receives revelation and inspiration, and as it moves and quakes, it shakes under command. And sometimes it trembles.
[The answers to six to seven particular questions posed from a metaphysical direction and are of significance in relation to the current earthquakes came to the heart, again, with assistance from a metaphysical reminder. Although I intended several times to write it in detail, this was not permitted. It will only be written very briefly in summary.]
First question: What is the reason for the fear and despair arising from the continuation of this earthquake to ruin the nightly rest of most people in most regions and to cause a dreadful torment, which, as a metaphysical tribulation of this great earthquake, is more painful than the material tribulation it inflicts?
Again, a metaphysical response: It was said that the broadcast of utmostly licentious songs in an attractive way, in complete joy and happiness, as if in a state of drunkenness, and sometimes in the voice of young ladies during the tarawih prayers of this Noble Ramadan through radio to all corners of this blessed center of Islam resulted in the torment of this fear.
Second question: Why are these heavenly slaps not dealt at the disbelievers in their countries but visited on the helpless Muslims?
The answer: In the way that big mistakes and crimes are postponed to be handled in big centers and small crimes are dealt with expeditiously in small centers, due to a significant wisdom, the handling of the great majority of the crimes of disbelievers are postponed to the Supreme Court of Resurrection, yet the punishment for the mistakes of the people of belief is administered partly in this world (side note).
Side note: Because those like the Russians are abandoning a religion that is abrogated and distorted, this does not offend God’s ardent protectiveness to the degree that betraying a true and eternal religion that cannot be abrogated does; the earth is leaving them aside for now and showing its anger toward these.
Third question: What is the reason for this tribulation that has arisen from the mistakes of some persons to attain such a general form?
The answer: Per the fact that a general tribulation results from the the majority’s mistake, that most people participate in the actions of those wrongdoers by supporting them either actively, or by seeing their mistake as a matter of necessity, or by joining in that mistake causes a general tribulation.
Fourth question: If this tribulation of the earthquake is the result of mistakes and an atonement for the sins, why is it that the innocent ones and those without mistakes are also struck? How does divine justice permit this?
The answer, again from a metaphysical direction: Since this matter relates to the secret of divine determination, it will be referred to the Treaties on Divine Determination, and this much will be said here:
وَاتَّقوُا فِتْنَةً لاَ تُصِيبَنَّ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا مِنْكُمْ خَاصَّةً
That is: “Beware a tribulation that when it comes, it is not limited to the wrongdoers but strikes the innocent as well (Qur'an, 8: 25).”
The secret of this verse is this: This world is an arena of trial and testing and it is an abode of accountability and struggle. Trial and tribulation entail that the realities shall remain veiled, so that the Abu Bakrs rise to the highest of the high through competition and struggle and the Abu Jahls enter the lowest of the low. If these innocent ones were left unharmed in such tribulations, the Abu Jahls would submit just as the Abu Bakrs, and thus, the doors of struggle and metaphysical progress would be shut, the secret of accountability would be spoiled.
If divine wisdom requires that the innocent will be struck by tribulation alongside the wrongdoers, what is the share of those helpless innocent ones from mercy and justice than?
It was said in response to this question: Within the wrath and rage of that tribulation, there is a reflection of mercy for them. Because, in addition to the temporal property of those innocent ones becoming charity with respect to them and in effect turning into everlasting property, by reaching a degree that causes them to win the everlasting life through a kind of martyrdom in return for this temporal life, this earthquake, which causes their life to earn them a big and continual profit in return for a relatively small and temporary difficulty and torment, is mercy within very wrath for them.
Fifth question: Why is the Just, the Merciful, the All-powerful, and the All-wise not meting out specific punishments for specific mistakes but causing a mighty element to assault? How can this situation be compatible with the beauty of His mercy and the scope of His power?
The answer: The Majestic All-powerful One has given many duties to each element and has them yield many outcomes in each duty. Even if one outcome in one of the tasks of an element is ugly and evil and it is a tribulation, the other beautiful outcomes render this outcome in effect beautiful too. If that element raging against the human being was banned from that duty in order to prevent this ugly outcome from coming into existence, then many goods to the number of those beautiful outcomes would be abandoned. Since not doing a necessary good is evil, then, many evils to the number of those goods would have been committed in order to avoid a single evil, and this would be an utmostly ugly defect, contrary to wisdom, and contrary to reality. Divine power, divine wisdom, and reality are above and beyond defect. Since some mistakes are rebellions with a scope broad enough to cause the rage of the elements and the earth, and they are insulting infringements on the rights of many creatures, of course, in order to show the extraordinary ugliness of that crime, a mighty element will be commanded within the context of its universal duty: “Discipline them!” And this is very wisdom and justice as well as very mercy for the oppressed.
Sixth question: The people of heedlessness publicize that earthquake is the outcome of changes in the mineral masses of the globe of the earth, and they consider it as if it is coincidental, natural, and purposeless. They do not see the metaphysical causes and outcomes of this phenomenon, so that they would become awakened. Does the matter that they rely on have a reality?
Answer: It has no reality other than misguidance. Because, that the wing, which is one among the hundreds of organs of a single individual among the species of fly, which is one among the thousands of species on the globe of the earth, which changes more than fifty million embroidered and orderly shirts every year is the locus of appearance for the manifestation of purpose, will, divine designation, and wisdom, and that they do not remain indifferent to it and leave it alone shows that nothing – whether particular or universal – remains outside of divine will, volition, and intent, let alone the important actions and states of the massive globe of the earth, which is the cradle, mother, refuge, and protector of innumerable conscious beings. However, the absolute All-powerful One makes apparent causes a veil before his disposals as entailed by His wisdom. When he wills the earthquake, He sometimes commands a mineral into motion and fires it up.
Say, even if it is changes in the masses of mineral, that still takes place following the divine command and according to divine wisdom, it cannot be otherwise. For example, say a man shot someone with a rifle. What a foolishness and lunacy it would be if the man who shot is not considered at all, and the rights of the helpless victim who is murdered are completely wasted by focusing attention on the ignition of gunpowder in the bullet casing alone… In the same way, it is the ugliest of idiocy to forget the lordly command of “Ignite in order to awake the people of heedlessness and rebellion!” to a bomb that is enclosed with wisdom and will in the earth, which is a subjugated official, a boat, and an airplane of the majestic All-powerful One, and to stray into the Nature.
Completing remarks and a gloss on the sixth question
The people of misguidance and irreligiosity show such a strange level of obstinacy and such amazing idiocy in order to preserve their ideology and to take measures to prevent the awakening of the people of faith that one regrets being a human being. For example, even though the cosmos and the universal elements became angry because of humanity’s oppressive and dark rebelliousness that became generalized to some extent, and the Creator of the earth and the heavens showed in a very apparent fashion his wisdom, power, justice, sustaining, will, and sovereignty with His distinctive attribute of being the Lord and Sovereign of all the realms, through a universal and broad self-disclosure on the totality of the cosmos and the universal circle of lordship, in order to awaken the humankind, to dissuade them from their dreadful rebelliousness, and to make the Sultan of the cosmos, Whom they do not want to recognize, known, by slapping the general and dreadful calamities of the earthquake, hurricane, and the general war from water, air, and electricity in an unprecedented and incessant way, some idiotic satans who appear in the form of human beings respond to those universal lordly signs and divine disciplining in a state of foolish obstinacy and say: “It is the Nature, it is the explosion of a matter, it is coincidental. It is the Sun striking with its heat that stopped all machinery for five hours in America, that turned the sky red in the atmosphere and air of the city of Kastamonu and given it the form of a conflagration.” And they utter other meaningless nonsense.
They do not know because of an unlimited ignorance emanating from heedlessness and an ugly obstinacy issuing from irreligiosity that the causes are just some pretexts and veils. To weave and procure the equipment of a mountain-like pine tree, it [that ignorance] shows a tiny seed in place of a hundred factories and looms each as large as a village, saying: “Here, this tree has come out of this.” It points to some apparent causes as if denying the thousand miracles that the Artful Maker demonstrates on that pine. It reduces a great volitional and wise act of lordship that belongs to the Creator to nothing. Sometimes it gives a scientific name to a reality that is utterly deep, unknown, very significant, and full of wisdoms in a thousand ways. As if its quiddity is understood with that name and became ordinary, being left devoid of wisdom and meaning.
Here, come, look at the unlimited levels of foolishness and idiocy that they give a name to a deep and broad unknown reality which can only be known completely if described and its wisdoms are expounded in a hundred pages, and they say, “This is this,” as if it is a known thing. For instance: “This is a substance of the Sun, striking with electricity.”
Also, they reduce a specific and purposeful act of lordship to one of the laws of innate nature that are called “God’s custom” and are each an appellation for a universal will, a general choice, and sovereignty over a species. Through this reduction, they cut its relation to volitional will, then hand it over to coincidence or Nature. They demonstrate an ignorance that is way worse than that of Abu Jahl. They become a rebellious lunatic similar to the example of cutting a soldier’s or a battalion’s victorious battle from their commander, sultan, government, and purposeful action by attributing it to some order or a military law.
Also, similar to bringing a fruitful tree into existence from a fruit pit, if a miracle-working master makes a hundred okkas of various foods and a hundred arshins of various fabrics from a piece of wood as big as a fingernail, and someone pointed to that piece of wood and said, “These affairs result from this naturally and coincidentally,” and thus reduced the wondrous arts and skills of that master to nothing, what and idiocy that would be. In the same way…
Seventh question: How is it understood that this event of the earth looks to the Muslim population of this land and targets them? And why does it impact the vicinities of Erzincan and İzmir?
Answer: It is indicated by many symptoms, such as the occurrence of this event in severe winter, in the darkness of the night, in dreadful cold, and specifically in this land where people do not respect the Ramadan and the continuation of the earthquake lightly to wake those heedless people up when they are not awakened by its destruction, that this event targets the people of faith, looks to them, and shakes them to awaken them to perform their prayers and supplicate, and it tremors itself too.
That it shakes even more in places like helpless Erzincan has two aspects:
One: Because they have few faults, it is expedited for purification.
Second: It is possible that it dealt a slap on them first, because strong and truthful preservers of faith and defenders of Islam are either few in places like that or they are about to be defeated completely, giving opportunity to the people of irreligiosity to establish an influential center of activity.
لاَ يَعْلَمُ الْغَيْبَ اِلاَّ اللَّهُ
None knows the unseen other than God, Allah.
سُبْحَانَكَ لاَعِلْمَ لَنَاۤ اِلاَّ مَاعَلَّمْتَنَاۤ اِنَّكَ اَنْتَ الْعَلِيمُ الْحَكِيمُ
Glory be to you. We have no knowledge other than that which you have taught us. Indeed you are All-knowing, All-wise (Qur’an, 2: 32).