Sixteenth Word
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
اِنَّمَاۤ اَمْرُهُ ۤ اِذَاۤ اَرَادَ شَيْئًا اَنْ يَقوُلَ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ فَسُبْحَانَ الَّذِى بِيَدِهِ مَلَكُوتُ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ وَاِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ
This treatise is a commentary on the verses: "When He wills something to be, His way is to say ‘Be’ and it is! // So glory be to Him in Whose Hand lies domination over all things. It is to Him that you will all be brought back (Qur’an, 36: 82-83)." It offers beautiful insights that resolve some complicated but important aspects of our understanding of God and His divine lordship. Ustad Nursi writes the following at the beginning of the treatise: "Written to afford some inner sight to my blinded lower soul by showing Four Rays from the luminous light of this verse that should be a source of reassurance for my soul and dispel darkness."
Click to listen to Episode 1 (First Ray), Episode 2 (Second Ray), Episode 3 (Third Ray), and Episode 4 (Fourth Ray).
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
اِنَّمَاۤ اَمْرُهُ ۤ اِذَاۤ اَرَادَ شَيْئًا اَنْ يَقوُلَ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ فَسُبْحَانَ الَّذِى بِيَدِهِ مَلَكُوتُ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ وَاِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Mercy-giver
When He wills something to be, His way is to say ‘Be’ and it is! // So glory be to Him in Whose Hand lies domination over all things. It is to Him that you will all be brought back (Qur’an, 36: 82-83).
Written to afford some inner sight to my blinded lower soul by showing Four Rays from the luminous light of this verse that should be a source of reassurance for my soul and dispel darkness.
First Ray
O the ignorant lower soul! You say: “The singularity of the Divine Entity and the universality of His acts, the unity of His Person and the generality of His unassisted lordship, His individuality and the extensiveness of His disposals that accept no partners, His presence everywhere while He is transcendent over occupying space, His closeness to everything while He is endlessly lofty, and that He holds all affairs in His hand [of power] directly Himself while He is One are among the truths of the Qur’an. The Qur’an is wise. One who is wise does not impose on the intellect what the intellect would not accept. And yet the intellect is noticing an apparent contradiction. I want an explanation that will guide the intellect to submission.”
Response: Since this is the case, if you want this for reassurance, then, relying on the Qur’an’s effusion, we say: the divine name of Light has resolved many complicated matters for us, and God willing, it will resolve this one too. Choosing the method of analogy which should be clarifying for the intellect and illuminating for the heart, we say like Imam Rabbani (may God be pleased with him):
نَه شَبَمْ نَه شَبْ پَرَسْتَمْ مَنْ غُلاٰمِ شَمْسَمْ اَزْشَمْسِ مِى گُويَمْ خَبَرْ
I am not the night, nor do I worship it,
I am the Sun’s servant, I inform about it.
Since analogy is a most brilliant mirror of the Qur’an’s miraculousness, we too will look at this secret with an analogy. It is as follows:
A single person can attain universality by means of various mirrors. While he is a particular being in reality, he becomes, in effect, a universal being capable of conducts with a general reach. For example, while the Sun is a personified particular, by means of transparent things, it attains in effect such universality that it fills the face of the earth with its similitudes, with its reflections. It even has as many individual reflections as the number of drops and shiny particles. When the Sun’s heat, radiant light, and the seven colors in its light each cover the things facing them in an all-encompassing, general, and extensive way, every transparent thing holds heat, radiance, and the seven colors in the pupil of its eye along with the Sun’s similitude; they make their pure hearts a throne for it.
Thus, as the Sun encompasses all things that face it with its distinguishing property of oneness, from the point of view of singularity, it is present in each thing with many of its qualities, with a sort of the reflection of its entity. Since we moved from analogy (tamthīl) to a discussion of the reflection of similitude (tamatthul), among the many types of the reflection of similitudes, we will point to the following three that relate to this matter.
First: This is the reflection of dense and material things. These reflections are both other than the reflected thing, i.e. not the very reflected thing, and they are dead, without life. They do not possess any of the distinguishing properties of the reflected thing other than the form of what it is. For example, if you enter a storehouse of mirrors, one Said becomes thousands of Saids, but only you are alive. The others are dead. They do not have the properties of life.
Second: These are the reflections of material things with luminosity. This reflection is neither the very reflected thing nor other than it. The quiddity is different, but it possesses most of the distinguishing properties of that luminous thing. It is considered alive like the thing that is being reflected.
For example, when the Sun enters the world and shows its reflection on every mirror, the heat, the light, and the seven colors of light, which are in effect the Sun’s distinguishing properties, are present in each one of those reflections. If, let us assume, the Sun had consciousness – if its heat was its very power, its light its very knowledge, and its seven colors its very seven attributes – then, that single and unique Sun would be present in every mirror and render each one of those mirrors a kind of throne and telephone for itself. One thing would not prevent another. It could communicate with each one of us by means of our mirrors. While we would be far from it, it would be closer to us than us.
Third: This is the reflection of luminous spirits. This reflection is both alive and the very reflected thing itself. However, because it appears in accordance with the capability of mirrors, the quiddity of that spirit in Reality itself is not matched completely.
For example, our Master Gabriel, peace be upon him, would be prostrating before the Tremendous Throne with his sublime wings while he was in the presence of the Prophet in the form of Diḥyah, and at that very moment, he would be present in innumerable places conveying divine commands. One of these affairs would not prevent the other.
Hence, it is due to this secret that Our Master the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, simultaneously hears the salutations of his entire community of believers in the world and simultaneously meets with all the pure ones on the Day of Rising. One does not prevent the other. Apparently, some among the saints of God who acquire exceeding luminosity and are called “substitutes” (abdal) are even observed simultaneously in multiple locations, and the same person takes care of several different affairs.
Yes, in the way that things like glass and water become mirrors for bodily objects, likewise, the air, the athar, and some beings of the realm of similitudes are in effect mirrors for spiritual beings and serve as vehicles of journeying and traveling for them at the speed of lightning or imagination. And those spiritual beings travel through those pure mirrors and subtle rest stations at the speed of imagination. They enter thousands of places all at once.
Since, thanks to the secret of luminosity, impotent and subjugated creatures like the Sun and half-luminous artifacts that are limited with matter like spiritual beings can be in one place yet present in multiple locations; while a limited particular, they become absolute universals in effect; and since they can take care of many different affairs all at once with a single partial choice; wonder then, for a Most Sacred Entity Who is free from and elevated above matter, Who is transcendent above and clear from the limitation of restrictions and darkness of density, a dense shadow of the lights of Whose sacred names are these lights and all luminous things, a half-transparent mirror of Whose beauty that entire existence, all life, the realm of the spirits, and the realm of similitudes are, Whose attributes are all-encompassing and Whose conducts are universal… what can remain hidden from Him when He turns to something with His singularity through the manifestation of His attributes and the reflection of His acts with universal will, absolute power, and all-encompassing knowledge? Which affair can be too heavy for Him? What can be concealed from Him? Which individual can keep a distance from Him? And which person can draw closer to Him without acquiring universality?
Yes, although the Sun is closer to you with its unrestricted light and immaterial reflection than the pupil of your eye, because you are restricted, you are utmostly far from it. To approach it, you would be required to transcend above many restrictions and go through many universal levels. In a way, you can directly approach the true level of the Sun to some extent and meet with it without a veil only after growing as big as the world and rising as high as the moon in a metaphysical sense. In like fashion, the Majestic Possessor of Beauty and the Beautiful Possessor of Perfection is utmostly close to you; you are utmostly far from Him. If you have the heart’s strength and the intellect’s loftiness, try to apply the points of the analogy to Reality.
O the senseless lower soul! You say 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)” and
اِنْ كَانَتْ اِلاَّ صَيْحَةً وَاحِدَةً فَاِذَا هُمْ جَمِيعٌ لَدَيْناَ مُحْضَروُنَ
“It was just one single blast and then – lo and behold! – they were all brought before Us (Qur’an, 36: 53)” show that things come into existence with a command alone and instantaneously, while verses such as:
صُنْعَ اللهِ الَّذِۤى اَتْقَنَ كُلَّ شَىْءٍ
“…This is the artistry of God Who has perfected all things with mastery… (Qur'an, 27: 88)” and
اَحْسَنَ كُلَّ شَىْءٍ خَلَقَهُ
“[Such is He] … Who made everything with the most beautiful excellence (Qur'an, 32: 7)” show that things come into existence gradually, with tremendous power shrouded in knowledge and fine artistry shrouded in wisdom. How can these be reconciled?
Response: We say relying on the Qur’an’s effusion:
First: There is no contradiction. Some are like that, such as bringing into existence for the first time. Some are like this, such as returning its similitude to a thing.
Second: The utmost orderliness, utter mastery, beautifully excellent artistry, and the perfection of the act of creation within ease, rapidity, multitude, and expansiveness that are witnessed in existence definitively bear witness to the existence of the realities of these two types of verses. In that case, it is futile to discuss whether these [verses] correspond to external reality. Rather, it can only be asked: “What is the secret in their wisdom?” In that case, we too will point to this wisdom with an example of analogical reasoning.
For example, in the way that an artist such as a tailor brings an artful thing into existence with much burden and skill, and he makes a model for it. After that, however, he can make its similitudes quickly and without burden. Sometimes, he reaches such a level of ease that as if he gives a command and it is made. He acquires such powerful orderliness – like a clock – that as if things are woven and they operate with the touch of a command.
Likewise, having made this palace of the Realm together with everything in it in a marvelous form, the all-wise Artful Maker and the all-knowing Engraver has given to everything – particular and universal, part and whole – a divinely determined order and a designated measure that serve as a model. Here, look, that pre-eternal Engraver is making each century a model and donning an ornamented and fresh realm on it with the miracles of His power. He is making each year a standard for measurements and sewing an artful and fresh universe according to that year’s stature with the wonders of His mercy. He is making each day a line and inscribing adorned and renewed existent beings on it with the fine aspects of His wisdom.
Furthermore, as that absolutely All-powerful One has made every century, every year, and every day a model, He has made the face of the earth, each mountain and desert, each orchard and garden, and each tree a model too. With the passage of every frame of time, He sets up a fresh universe on earth, brings a new world into existence, takes a realm away and brings another orderly one in its place. With the passage of every season, He shows the miracles of His power and the gifts of His mercy in every orchard and garden; [here] He is writing a new book that is a display of wisdoms, He is setting up His kitchen of mercy, and He is donning everything in a new outfit that is a display of arts. In every spring, He is donning each tree in a fresh and silky raiment, adorning it with pearl-like ornaments, and filling its hands with star-like gifts of mercy.
Thus, of course, this Divine Entity, Who does all these things with utmostly beautiful excellence of artistry and with perfect orderliness, Who replaces these traveling realms, which are hung on the string of time coming one after the other, with utmost wisdom and solicitude and perfect power and artistry, is All-powerful and All-wise to the furthest degree and He is All-seeing and All-Knowing at the utmost level. Coincidence cannot meddle in His affairs.
Here, it is this majestic Divine Entity Who is decreeing:
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 اَوْ هُوَ اَقْرَبُ
“…The coming of the Hour of Judgement is like the blink of an eye, or it is closer than that… (Qur’an, 16: 77),” and thus, He is both proclaiming the perfection of His power and expounding that Resurrection and the Rising in relation to His power are utterly easy and burdenless. He is decreeing with the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition that His command of creation entails power and will, that all things are utterly subjugated and subordinated to His commands, and that He is doing things with a command alone, which expresses that He creates without physical engagement or endeavor and brings into existence with absolute ease.
In conclusion: Some verses proclaim the furthest degree of beautifully excellent artistry and the utmost perfection of wisdom in things, especially in their being brought into existence for the first time. Some others expound the furthest degree of ease and rapidity and the utmost degree of subordination and lack of burden in things, especially in bringing them into existence after the first time and in their return.
Third Ray
O the ever-whispering lower soul which has transgressed its limits! You say: “Verses such as:
بِيَدِهِ مَلَكُوتُ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ
‘…in Whose Hand lies domination over all things… (Qur’an, 36: 83)’
مَا مِنْ دَاۤبَّةٍ اِلاَّ هُوَ اٰخِذٌ بِنَاصِيَتِهَا
‘…There is no moving creature which He does not grasp by its forelock… (Qur’an, 11: 56)’
وَنَحْنُ اَقْرَبُ اِلَيْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ الْوَرِيدِ
‘…We are closer to him than his jugular vein (Qur’an, 50: 16)’
show the utmost closeness of God, while:
وَاِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ
‘…It is to Him that you will all be brought back (Qur’an, 36: 83).’
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),’
as well as truths such as ‘The Sublime Real is behind seventy thousand veils’ and the Prophetic Ascension as it has reached us in prophetic traditions show our utmost distance [from God]. I want an explanation that will bring this confusing secret closer to my understanding.”
Response: Then listen.
First: We had said at the end of the first ray: In the way that while the Sun is closer to you with its unrestricted light and from the point of view of its immaterial reflection than the pupil of your eye, which is your spirit’s window and the Sun’s mirror, you are utterly far from it because you are restricted and imprisoned in matter. You can contact some of its reflections and shadows only, communicate with some kinds of its reflections and particular manifestations, and come close to its colors, which, in effect, are a type of its attributes, and its rays and the loci of its appearance, which, in effect, are a group of its names. If you want to come close to the Sun’s true level and communicate with it directly, then it would be required that you free yourself from many restrictions and traverse many universal levels. It is as if you can have a claim to communicating with it directly without a veil and coming close to it to some extent only after growing as big as the globe of the Earth, expanding spiritually like air, rising as high as the moon, and facing it like a full moon. In that case, that completely perfect Majestic One, that peerlessly Beautiful One, that Necessarily Existent One, that Creator Who brought all existent beings into existence, that Sun of perpetuity, and that Sultan of pre-eternity and post-eternity is closer to you than you. You are endlessly far from him. If you have the capacity, apply the truths of the analogy to this.
Second: For instance,وَ ِللهِ الْمَثَلُ اْلاَعْلٰى (And to God is the highest similitude (Qur’an, 16: 60), among the many names of a monarch, his name the “Commander” appears in many concentric circles. It has appearances and manifestations in all universal and particular, and broad and narrow circles, from the universal circle of the commander in chief to those of a lieutenant general, the captain, and even the sergeant. Now, in his military service, a private soldier relates to the particular point of command appearing on a sergeant’s rank and contacts and engages his tremendous commander through that particular manifestation of the name “Commander.” If he wants to contact the commander and communicate with him in his true name, if he wants to meet him with that title, then, the soldier would be required to ascend from the sergeant’s rank all the way to the universal rank of the commander in chief.
In that case, that monarch is utterly close to that soldier with his name, rule, law and knowledge, telephone, administration, and – if he is a luminous one among the saints of “substitutes” (abdal) – directly with his presence. Nothing can prevent it and keep it apart, yet that soldier is utterly distant. He is apart by thousands of levels and separated by thousands of veils. However, sometimes, the monarch shows his mercy, and contrary to custom, he brings a soldier to his presence and graces him with his benevolence.
Likewise, the Majestic Entity, Who is the possessor of the command of “Be and it is” and Whose obedient soldiers, in effect, the suns and stars are, is closer to everything than everything, but everything is endlessly far from Him. If one wanted to enter His presence of grandeur without veils, one would have to cross seventy thousands of veils of darkness and light, that is to say, matter and creation, and names and attributes. One would have to climb through each name’s thousands of specific and universal degrees of manifestation, then pass through the utterly lofty layers of His attributes in order to ascend to His Tremendous Throne, which is the locus of appearance of His Tremendous Name, and thus, toil and journey for thousands of years unless His divine attraction and benevolence are involved. For example, if you want to draw close to Him with His name the “Creator,” you would need to have a relationship with Him through the specifics of Him being your Creator, then as the Creator of all people, then with the title of the Creator of all living beings, then with the name of the Creator of all existent beings. Otherwise, you remain in the shadow and find only a particular single reflection.
A Reminder: Out of his impotence, the monarch in the analogy has placed intermediaries, such as a commander in chief or a lieutenant general, at the various levels of his name. However, the Absolute All-Powerful One بِيَدِهِ مَلَكُوتُ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ (in Whose Hand lies domination over all things) is self-sufficient above intermediaries. Intermediaries are only apparent. They are veils of dignity and tremendousness. They are the public criers and spectators of the royal power of His lordship in a state of worshipful slavehood, bewilderment, impotence, and sense of destitution. They are not His assistants; they cannot be partners of the royal power of lordship.
So my lazy soul! The reality of prayer, which is in effect a kind of ascension (miʿrāj), is your admission – owing to untainted mercy – to the presence of the majestic Entity Who has beauty and the beautiful Worshipped One Who has majesty, similar to the admission of the private soldier in the previous analogy to royal presence owing to untainted favor. It is to say “God is the greatest;” to put both worlds behind metaphysically, in imagination, or by intention; to be freed from the restrictions of materiality; to ascend to a universal level of worshipful slavehood, or a shadow of that universality, or a form of it; to be honored by a kind of audience in presence; and thus, to receive a tremendous grace by becoming a locus of appearance in accordance with each person’s capacity for the address of اِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ (You alone do we worship (Qur'an, 1: 4)). It is as if saying “God is the greatest!” while performing the motions of prayer signifies the covering of levels, metaphysical progression, and one’s ascension from particularity to the circles of universality by saying “God is the greatest!,” and it is an abridged title of the perfections of His grandeur which lies beyond our gnosis. As it were, each “God is the greatest!” is a signifier for one covering yet another step in ascension. Hence, being graced even with a shadow or ray of this reality of prayer metaphysically, by intention, through conceptualization, or in imagination is a great felicity.
So, saying “God is the greatest!” many times over during Hajj is due to this secret. Because, the noble Hajj is in and of itself a form of worship at the level of universality. In the way that on a special day such as a holiday, a private soldier attends the festivities of a king in the circle of a lieutenant general like a lieutenant general and receives the king’s favors, in the same way, regardless of how ordinary he is, a Hajj pilgrim faces his Lord as the bearer of the title of the tremendous Lord of all regions of the Earth, like a saint who has covered levels, he is honored by universal worshipful slavehood. Of course, the universal levels of Lordship that open with the Hajj’s key, the horizons of the tremendousness of Divinity that one sees through its binoculars, the circles of worshipful slavehood that expand in one’s heart and imagination with its rites, and the heat, bewilderment, dread, and awe of Lordship that are experienced before the levels of grandeur and the horizon of manifestation can be calmed down with “God is the greatest! God is the greatest!” And with it, can those unveiling levels that are witnessed or conceptualized be proclaimed.
After Hajj, this lofty and universal meaning exists in the eid prayer, the prayer of rain, the prayers of lunar and solar eclipse, and congregational prayers. Thus, the importance of the rites of Islam, even if they are Sunnahs, is due to this secret.
سُبْحَانَ مَنْ جَعَلَ خَزَاۤئِنُهُ بَيْنَ الْكاَفِ وَالنُّونِ
Glory be to the One Who placed His treasures between “kaf” and “nun.”
فَسُبْحَانَ الَّذِى بِيَدِهِ مَلَكوُتُ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ وَاِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ
So glory be to Him in whose Hand lies control over all things (Qur'an, 36: 83).
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).
رَبَّناَ لاَ تُؤٰاخِذْنَاۤ اِنْ نَسِينَآ اَوْ اَخْطَاْناَ
Our Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or make mistakes (Qur’an, 2: 286).
رَبَّناَ لاَ تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ اِذْ هَدَيْتَناَ وَهَبْ لَنَا مِنْ لَدُنْكَ رَحْمَةً اِنَّكَ اَنْتَ الْوَهَّابُ
Our Lord, do not let our hearts deviate after You have guided us. Grant us Your mercy: You are the Ever Giving (Qur'an, 3: 8).
وَصَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ عَلٰى رَسُولِكَ اْلاَ كْرَمِ مَظْهَرِ اِسْمِكَ اْلاَعْظَمِ وَعَلٰۤى اٰلِهِ وَاَصْحَابِهِ وَاِخْواَنِهِ وَاَتْباَعِهِ اٰمِينَ يَا اَرْحَمَ الرَّاحِمِينَ
And send blessings and greetings of peace to Your most honored messenger, the locus of appearance of Your greatest name, and on his family, companions, brothers, and followers. Amin, o the Most Merciful of the mercy givers.