Thirteenth Word
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Mercy-Giver
وَنُنَزِّلُ مِنَ الْقُرْاٰنِ مَا هُوَ شِفَاۤءٌ وَرَحْمَةٌ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ
And we send down from the Qur’an that which is healing and mercy to those who believe (Qur’an, 17: 82)
وَمَا عَلَّمْنَاهُ الشِّعْرَ وَمَا يَنْبَغِى لَهُ
We have not taught the Prophet poetry, nor could he ever have been a poet (Qur’an, 36: 69).
If you want to compare the products of the wisdoms of the Wisdomful Qur’an and the sciences of philosophy as well as the lessons of their teachings and the levels of their knowledge, pay attention to the words to come.
Click to listen to Episode 01, Episode 02 (Wisdom of the Qur’an and wisdom of philosophy), Episode 03 (Advice to youth), Episode 04 (Advice to youth), Episode 05 (Advice to prison inmates), Episode 06 (Advice to prison inmates and guards), and Episode 07 (Advice to people suffering from enmities), Episode 08 (Recognition of world’s transience at times of crisis), Episode 09 (Conveying the message of the Qur’an to people in need), Episode 10 (On sciences informing about God), Episode 11 (On sciences informing about God), Episode 12 (Wondrousness of a piece of air), and Episode 13 (Wondrousness of a piece of air).
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
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Mercy-Giver
وَنُنَزِّلُ مِنَ الْقُرْاٰنِ مَا هُوَ شِفَاۤءٌ وَرَحْمَةٌ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ
And we send down from the Qur’an that which is healing and mercy to those who believe (Qur’an, 17: 82)
وَمَا عَلَّمْنَاهُ الشِّعْرَ وَمَا يَنْبَغِى لَهُ
We have not taught the Prophet poetry, nor could he ever have been a poet (Qur’an, 36: 69).
If you want to compare the products of the wisdoms of the Wisdomful Qur’an and the sciences of philosophy as well as the lessons of their teachings and the levels of their knowledge, pay attention to the words to come.
Here is that of the Qur’an of Miraculous Elucidation… With its sharp statements, it tears apart the veil of custom and familiarity from over the existing beings that are called by the name of “ordinary beings” yet are each extraordinary and a miracle of power. It reveals those amazing truths before conscious beings, draws to itself the sights that are open to lessons, and opens up an unending treasure of sciences for the intellects.
As for the wisdom of philosophy, it conceals the miracles of power that are all extraordinary under the veil of ordinary custom and moves over them ignorantly and indifferently. It only presents to the attention of sights those individuals that fall beneath extraordinary, diverges from the orderliness of creation, and descends beneath the perfection of innate nature. It presents them to conscious beings each as a wisdom full of lessons. For instance, it considers the creation of the human being, who is a most comprehensive miracle of power, to be ordinary and looks at it with indifference. However, with a fuss of amazement, it displays a human being who has diverged from the perfection of human creation, with three feet or two heads, to sights that are open to lessons. For instance, it pulls the veil of disbelief and denial over the orderly provision of all infants from the treasure of the unseen, which is a most subtle and general miracle of mercy. However, it sees the provision with a green leaf of an insect, which, having fallen under the sea, has become an exception to the order, separated from its tribe, and become a stranger in foreign lands. It wants to make all the present fishermen weep over witnessing the favor and munificence that is manifest in this (sidenote)
sidenote: In America, this event has taken place exactly as narrated.
Yes, see the wealth and sufficiency of the Noble Qur’an from the point of view of knowledge, wisdom, and divine gnosis and the poverty and bankruptcy of philosophy from the point of view of knowledge, moral lesson, and the gnosis of the Maker… Take your lesson!
It is among the aspects of this secret that because the Wisdomful Qur’an is endlessly brilliant and gathers elevated truths, it is self-sufficient above the fanciful imageries of poetry. Yes, one of the reasons for the Qur’an of Miraculous Elucidation not being versified despite the miraculous degree of its perfect order and orderliness and despite that it interprets the orderliness of artistry in the book of the cosmos in a well-ordered style is this:
Each of the stars of its verses avoids being restricted by poetic rhythm so that it can be a focal center for and brother to most other verses, and it draws connecting lines to the verses in that circle to serve as bonds for the metaphysical relationship that exists between them. It is as if each free verse has an eye looking to most other verses and a countenance facing them. There exist thousands of Qur’ans in the Qur’an and it gives theirs to the people of each disposition. This is similar to the way, as explained in the Twenty Fifth Word, that there is a treasure of the science of monotheism in the Chapter of Ikhlāṣ (Qur’an, 112) that is composed of the combinations of the six, each multi-faceted sentences to the number of and entailing thirty-six Chapters of Ikhlāṣ.
Yes, how, from the point of view of the seeming lack of orderliness among the disorderly stars on the sky, each star avoids restriction and being a center for most stars, they each extend a connecting line to every star in their circumference one by one, which is a signifier of the hidden relationship among existent beings. It is as if each single star has an eye looking to all stars, like the stars of verses, and a countenance facing them.
Thus, see the perfection of orderliness within lack of orderliness, receive your lesson from it. Know one of the secrets of “We have not taught the Prophet poetry, nor could he ever have been a poet (Qur’an, 36: 69).”
Furthermore, understand the secret of the verse of “nor could he ever have been a poet (Qur’an, 36: 69)” in this way that: The characteristic of poetry is that it wants to ornament small and dim realities with great and brilliant imagery and thus have people like them. Nevertheless, the realities of the Qur’an are so great, elevated, brilliant, and exquisite that, compared to those realities, even the greatest and most brilliant imagery would remain small and dim. For example, witnesses to this are many of its realities such as:
يَوْمَ نَطْوِى السَّمَاۤءَ كَطَىِّ السِّجِلِّ لِلْكُتُبِ
On that Day, We shall roll up the skies as a writer rolls up scrolls… (Qur’an, 21: 104)
يُغْشِى الَّيْلَ النَّهَارَ يَطْلُبُهُ حَثِيثاً
…He makes the night cover the day in swift pursuit… (Qur’an, 7: 54)
اِنْ كَانَتْ اِلاَّ صَيْحَةً وَاحِدَةً فَاِذَا هُمْ جَمِيعٌ لَدَيْنَا مُحْضَرُونَ
It was just one single blast and then— lo and behold!— they were all brought before Us (Qur’an, 36: 53).
If you want to see and taste how each and every verse of the Qur’an dispels the darkness of disbelief like a “piercing star (Qur’an, 86: 3),” by spreading the light of miraculousness and guidance, assume yourself in that age of ignorance and on that desert of Bedouins that while everything is covered by the darkness of ignorance and heedlessness and wrapped in the lifeless veil of the nature, hear suddenly from the Qur’an’s lofty tongue:
يُسَبِّحُ ِللهِ مَا فِى السَّمٰوَاتِ وَمَا فِى اْلاَرْضِ الْمَلِكِ الْقُدُّوسِ الْعَزِيزِ الْحَكِيمِ
Everything in the heavens and earth glorifies God, the King, the Holy One, the Almighty, the Wise (Qur’an, 62: 1).
See how, in the minds of the listeners, those deceased and sleeping existent beings of the realm come to life with the sound of يُسَبِّحُ (…glorifies...), how they are awakened, and how they stand in remembrance. Then, those stars, which are each a lifeless piece of fire in that dark sky, and the miserable creatures on earth… with the cry of تُسَبِّحُ لَهُ السَّمٰوَاتُ السَّبْعُ وَاْلاَرْضُ (The seven heavens and the earth glorify Him… (Qur’an, 17: 44)), each present their countenance in the sight of those who hear: the sky in the form of a mouth, each star a word of wisdom and a light of truth, the earth in the form of a head, the seas and the lands each as tongues, and each animal and plant an ever-glorifying word. Otherwise, you cannot see the subtle details of the taste that is mentioned above by looking from this time to that time.
Yes, if you look with a state that has been spreading its light since that time, that has become a known thing with the passage of time, and that assumes the color of the day from the sun of the Qur’an and shines with other luminations of Islam, or if you look with a superficial veil of familiarity, of course you cannot truly see how each verse dispels various kinds of darkness with such a sweet recital of miraculousness and you cannot taste this miraculousness among many types of miraculousness.
If you want to look at a most high degree of the Qur’an of Miraculous Elucidation’s miraculousness, look through the binoculars of this representation:
So: Let’s assume a very tall and marvelous tree spreading wide. It is hidden under the veil of the unseen in the layer of concealment. As you know, similar to the bodily organs of a human being, all organs of a tree, such as its branches, fruits, leaves, and flowers, have to have a certain connection as well as harmony and proportionality among them. Every one of the tree’s parts takes shape and is given a form in accordance with the quiddity of that tree. Now, if someone draws a picture corresponding to each of the organs of that tree that has never been seen – and is not seen now either – outlines its borders and sketches a matching figure of it from the branches to the fruits, then from the fruits to the leaves, if he fills in between the beginning and the end of the tree that are endlessly distant from one another with congruent figures that show the exact shape and image of its organs, then no doubt would be left that this painter sees that tree of the unseen with a sight familiar with the unseen, has a grasp of the entirety the tree, and then he depicts it.
In the same way, the elucidations of the Qur’an of Miraculous Elucidation, the Criterion, about the realities of possible beings, which is the reality of the tree of creation that extends from the beginning of the world to the end of the Hereafter and spreads from the earth to the Throne and from particles to the sun, preserves congruence to such an extent and provides each organ and fruit with such a fitting figure that all verifiers of Reality have said “mā shāʾ ʾAllah, bāraka ʾAllah” upon their examination of the Qur’an’s depictions and concluded: “You are the only one that unveils and opens up the code of the cosmos and the enigma of creation, oh the Wisdomful Qur’an!”
وَ ِللهِ الْمَثَلُ اْلاَعْلٰى (And to God is the highest similitude (Qur’an, 16: 60), no defect shall be sought in allegorical analogy, let’s depict the divine names and attributes and the lordly conducts and acts as a Tuba-tree of light that the circle of the tremendousness of that luminous tree extends from pre-eternity to post-eternity. Its great boundaries spread through and encompass the endlessly spreading space. It has elucidated the luminous reality the limits of whose execution extend from the boundary of:
يَحُولُ بَيْنَ الْمَرْءِ وَقَلْبِهِ
…God comes between a man and his heart… (Qur’an, 8: 24)
فَالِقُ الْحَبِّ وَالنَّوٰى
It is God who splits open the seed and the fruit stone… (Qur’an, 6: 95), and
هُوَ الَّذِى يُصَوِّرُكُمْ فِى اْلاَرْحَامِ كَيْفَ يَشَاۤء
It is He who shapes you all in the womb as He pleases… (Qur’an, 3: 6)
to the boundary of:
وَالسَّمٰوَاتُ مَطْوِيَّاتٌ بِيَمِينِهِ
…The heavens will be rolled up in His right hand… (Qur’an, 39: 67)
خَلَقَ السَّمٰوَاتِ وَاْلاَرْضَ فِى سِتَّةِ اَيَّامٍ
… He created the heavens and earth in six days… (Qur’an, 7: 54, etc.), and
وَسَخَّرَ الشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَر
… He has subjected the sun and the moon… (Qur’an, 13: 2)
with all of its branches and knots, ends and fruits included in such a way that is so harmonious, so suitable and fitting for one another, without breaking one another and annulling each other’s rulings, without being alienated from one another… it has elucidated the realities of those names, attributes, conducts, and acts in such a way that before the elucidations of that Criterion, all people of unveilings and reality, all the companions of gnosis and wisdom who stroll in the Circle of Domination, affirm it saying “Subḥān ʾAllah (Glory be to God!)” and “How accurate, how in correspondence, how beautiful, how fitting!”
For example, the six pillars of faith that face the entire circle of possibility and the circle of necessity and that are in effect one branch of those two tremendous trees as well as the branches and knots of those pillars depict the finest fruits and flowers in a way that preserves harmony between them to such a degree, in a form with such proportionality, and with a style that reaches such a level of harmony that human intellect is left incapable of comprehension and amazed before its beauty.
And as for evidence for the fact that a beautiful harmony, perfect connection, and complete proportionality are preserved among the five pillars of Islam, which are in effect like a knot of the branch of faith, all the way to their finest details, smallest etiquettes, furthest ends, deepest wisdoms, and most particular fruits…. an irrefutable just witness and undoubtable definitive demonstration to that is the perfect orderliness and proportionality and beautiful harmony and soundness of the Great Shariah of Islam that emerges from the scriptures, various aspects, indications, and allusions of that comprehensive Qur’an.
In that case, the elucidations of the Qur’an cannot rely on the partial knowledge of human beings, and especially an illiterate one. In fact, it relies on an all-encompassing knowledge. It is the speech of an Entity Who sees all things together and observes all reality between pre-eternity and post-eternity at once.
اَلْحَمْدُ ِللهِ الَّذِۤى اَنْزَلَ عَلٰى عَبْدِهِ الْكِتَابَ وَلَمْ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ عِوَجًا
Praise be to God, who sent down the Scripture to His servant and made it unerringly straight (Qur’an, 18: 1)
points to this reality.
اَللّٰهُمَّ يَا مُنَزِّلَ الْقُرْاٰنِ بِحَقِّ الْقُرْاٰنِ وَبِحَقِّ مَنْ اُنْزِلَ عَلَيْهِ الْقُرْاٰنُ نَوِّرْ قُلُوبَنَا وَقُبوُرَنَا بِنُورِ اْلاِيمَانِ وَالْقُرْاٰنِ اٰمِينَ يَا مُسْتَعَانُ
Oh God Who sent down the Qur’an! For the sake of the Qur’an and the one to Whom the Qur’an was sent, illuminate our hearts and graves with the light of faith and the Qur’an. Amin oh the One from Whom solicitude is sought!
Second Station
A conversation with some youths who are going through a seductive tribulation and have not yet lost their intellects.
Some youths asked for help from the Risale-i Nur, inquiring “How are we going to save our Hereafter” from the attacks of the deceptive and seductive imagery and desires of the present time. I told them in the name of the metaphysical personality of the Risale-i Nur : The grave exists, nobody can deny that. Everybody will enter it whether they want to or not. And to enter, there is no way other than these three types of ways:
First way: For the people of faith, that grave is the gate of a realm more beautiful than this world.
Second way: For those who affirm the hereafter but follow a path of dissipation and misguidance, it is an eternal and lonely prison isolated from all friends, it is the gate of solitary imprisonment. Because he sees, has conviction for, and believes as such but does not act accordingly, he will be treated in this way.
Third way: A gate of condemnation to eternal nonexistence for the people of denial and misguidance who do not believe in the hereafter… That is, a gallows tree that will execute both themselves and their loved ones. Since that is what they hold to be true, they will be experiencing exactly as such as a punishment. These two options are self-evident. They do not need evidence. They are visible for all to see.
Since the appointed time is hidden, death can come anytime to sever your head, and it does not differentiate between young and old… Of course, for the helpless man standing with such a great and dreadful matter before his eyes at all times, searching for a way of salvation from that eternal condemnation to nonexistence, from that bottomless and endless solitary imprisonment and converting the gates of the grave into an everlasting realm, eternal felicity, and a gate opening to a realm of light for himself is a matter for that man as great as the world itself.
A hundred and twenty four thousand veracious reporters are reporting that this definitive reality exists in these three ways and that these three ways are real; prophets with miracles as their marks of confirmation in their hands, the testimony of a hundred and twenty four million saints who confirm based on their unveilings, tastings, and witnessings and sign their names under the same report that those prophets are reporting and of innumerable verifiers of Reality (One among them is the Risale-i Nur. It is there for all to see.) who prove with their definitive proofs rationally, at the level of the knowledge of certainty, the same report that those prophets and saints are conveying report with agreement that with a definitive possibility of ninety nine percent “salvation from eternal condemnation to nonexistence and dungeon and directing that path toward eternal felicity is only with faith and obedience.”
One wonders, while the words of one reporter are taken into consideration to avoid a dangerous path that contains a possibility of destruction and a person who does not heed the reporter’s words and proceeds on that path loses the appetite to eat because of the metaphysical pains of the worry of destruction… and while hundreds of thousands of such veracious and verified reporters both report and show signs and indications that with a hundred percent possibility, misguidance and dissipation are definite causes of ending up on the gallows tree of the grave that is before our eyes and in eternal solitary imprisonment and that with a hundred percent possibility, faith and worshipful slavehood remove that gallows tree, close the solitary prison, and convert this grave that is before our eyes into the gates of an eternal treasury and a palace of felicity… can a helpless person and especially Muslim – if he does not have faith and worship – standing before this amazing, strange, dreadful, and tremendous matter before the eyes carry the painful pain arising from the worry of waiting his turn to be called over there? I ask from you.
Since old age, sickness, calamities, and death everywhere bring about that dreadful pain and remind about it, of course, even if those people of misguidance and dissipation are enjoying a hundred thousand delights and pleasures, a metaphysical hell will still live in their hearts and burn. Yet a thick stupor of heedlessness prevent its perception temporarily.
Since for the people of faith and worshipful exertion that grave before the eyes is the gate to an eternal treasury and unending bliss, and since with the certificate of faith, they have won a ticket that will earn them billions of gold and diamonds in the lottery of pre-eternal determinations, the profound, substantive, and true delight and metaphysical pleasure of waiting to be called “Come! Take your ticket!” at any moment is such a delight that, if it materialized and if that seed became a tree, it would become a private paradise for those people, and one who forsakes that tremendous pleasure and delight as a result of the temptations of youth and chooses instead a temporary and illicit delight of dissipation and desire, which is like a poisonous honey containing innumerable pains, falls a hundred times beneath animals. He cannot be like the irreligious people of Europe either. Because, if they deny the Prophet, they can recognize other ones. If they do not know the prophets, they can still recognize God. If they do not know God, there can still be some beautiful qualities that will bring about perfection. Yet a Muslim knows the prophets, his Lord, and all perfections through Mohamed the Arabian, blessings and peace be upon him. The one who leaves his teachings and breaks out of his chain cannot recognize any other prophet (peace be upon them) and cannot know God either. He cannot recognize any principles to preserve perfections in his spirit either. Because, one who forsakes the essential teachings and the principles of the religion of the last and greatest of the prophets whose religion and invitation address the entire humanity, who has preeminence over all others in terms of miracles and religion, who is a teacher for the entire humanity with regard to all truths and who has proven them brilliantly for fourteen centuries, and who is a source of pride for the humankind, of course, he cannot find any light and any perfection anywhere. He is condemned to absolute fall.
Yes, oh the helpless ones who are addicted to the pleasures of worldly life and are struggling to secure their future and livelihood while afflicted with the worries of the future! If you want the delight, pleasure, felicity, and comfort of the world, make do with the leisure within the circle of that which is licit. That is sufficient for your leisure. You have of course understood from the previous elucidations that a thousand pains are contained in a delight that is outside of that circle, in the circle of that which is illicit. If the states of the future, let’s say fifty years from now, were shown in a movie, in the way that the past, that is, the events of the past times, are shown, the people of dissipation would hate their present laughing a hundred thousand times and cry. It is incumbent upon the one who wants eternal and continual bliss in this world and the Hereafter to accept the Muhammadan teachings, peace be upon him.
A reminder, lesson, and warning given to a few helpless youths.
One day a few bright youths came to visit me. To these youths, who wanted an effective warning to guard themselves from the dangers of the life, the youth, and the desires, I said, as I used to say to the youths who sought help from the Risale-i Nur in the past: The youth you have will certainly depart. If you do not remain within the circle of what is licit, that youth will be wasted and will bring troubles and pains much greater than its pleasures to you in this world, in the grave, and in the Hereafter. If, you follow Islam’s upbringing and spend it in a state of chastity, purity, and obedience, as a mark of gratitude for the blessing of youth, that youth will gain everlastingness in a metaphysical sense, and it will be the cause of earning an eternal youth.
As for life, in the absence of faith, or if faith remains ineffective as a result of rebelliousness, together with some superficial and most brief pleasure and delight, it will yield pains, sorrows, and grief that exceed that pleasure and delight thousands of times. Because, since human beings possess intellect and thought, unlike animals, they are preoccupied with the past and future times in addition to the present. They can be pained and delighted by those times too. Since animals have no thought, the sorrows of the past and the fears and concerns of the future do not ruin their present delight. If the human beings fall into misguidance and heedlessness, on the other hand, the sorrows of the past and the concerns of the future that mix into their present delight seriously embitter and ruin that present. Especially if illicit things are involved, in effect, it is entirely like poisonous honey. This causes one to fall a hundred times beneath the animals from the point of view of the delights of life. In fact, the life, the existence, and the universe of the people of misguidance and heedlessness consist of the present day alone. All past times and universes are condemned to nonexistence; they are dead from the point of view of misguidance, and because of its involvement with them, the intellect leads one to pitch black darknesses. As for the future times, they too are condemned to nonexistence since this person does not believe in them. The eternal separations that result from nonexistence continually give darknesses to his life through his thoughts. If faith becomes the life of life, then both the past and future times become illuminated with the light of faith, and they acquire existence. Thanks to faith, they give lofty and metaphysical pleasures as well as existential lights to one’s spirit and heart, just like the present time does. There is an explanation of this truth in the “Seventh Hope” of the Treatise on the Elderly. You should look at that.
So, this is how life is. If you want the delight and pleasures of life, give life to your life with faith, adorn it by performing the obligatory acts of religion, and protect it by abstaining from sins. As for the dreadful reality of death, which the instances of dying that take place everyday, everywhere, and at all times show, I will elucidate it to you with a representation, which I had already mentioned to some other youths.
Imagine a gallows tree erected before your eyes. There is a lottery office next to it that gives out tickets for a really big prize. The ten of us here will be invited there under all circumstances, whether we want or not. There is no other way. They will summon us. And since the time of this summoning is hidden, as we wait in expectation of being told either “Come, take your ticket of execution and climb the gallows tree!” or “Come, your ticket has won millions of gold in the lottery, come and take it!” at any moment, suddenly two persons appear at the door. One is a half-naked deceitful woman carrying an outwardly very sweet but actually poisonous dessert. She wants to bring and feed it to you. The other is an undeceiving and undeceivable serious man. He entered after that woman. He said: “I brought a code and a lesson for you. If you read this and do not eat that dessert, you will be saved from that gallows tree. You can receive that matchless prize ticket with this code. Here, you see on this gallows tree with your own eyes that those who eat the honey go there, and until the time that they go, they suffer from dreadful stomach aches because of the poison of the dessert. True that the recipients of that prize ticket are not seen and they too appear to be climbing that gallows tree on the face of it. However, there are millions of witnesses who report that they are not hung, in fact, they use it as an easy step to enter the prize office. Here, look out the windows. The greatest officials and great people who are involved in this affair are announcing loudly and reporting: ‘As you see those who climb the gallows tree with your eyes at the level of the vision of certainty, know definitely like daylight, without a doubt or misgiving, that those who take the code receive the prize ticket.’”
So, as it is the case in this representation, because the pleasures of youthful dissipation in the circle of what is illicit, which are in effect like poisonous honey, causes the loss of faith, which is the ticket and entry document of an eternal treasure and perpetual felicity, as a result of that, in the same way as seen outwardly, one falls into death, in effect, like a gallows tree and the calamity of the grave as the gate of eternal darknesses. And since the appointed time is hidden, the executioner of the appointed time may come at any moment to cut the head off without distinguishing between young or old. Along with a hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets, peace be upon them, innumerable saints and verifiers of truth report in agreement and show signs that one who leaves those illicit desires that are in effect like poisonous honey and acquires faith, which is a Qur’anic code, and the obligatory acts will receive the ticket of the treasure of eternal felicity from the extraordinary lottery of the pre-determinations of humanity.
In conclusion, youth will depart. If it departs in dissipation, it results in thousands of troubles and pains both in this world and in the Hereafter. If you want to understand this and that those youths will overwhelmingly end up in hospitals due to diseases which arise from abuses and wastefulness and are aggravated by groundless illusions, or in prisons and other places of misery because of their excesses, or in alehouses because of the distress of metaphysical pains… then ask this from hospitals, prisons, and graveyards. For sure, as you will hear moans and woes of sickness arising from the abuses of youth in the tongue of the state of most hospitals, you will hear from the prisons the regrets of unfortunate youths receiving the slaps of their illicit acts resulting from the excesses of youth. Then, you will know that most torments in the graveyard and in that intermediate realm, the gates of which continuously open and close for those who enter, result from the abuses of youth, according to the observations of those to whom the states of the graves are unveiled and the confirmation and testimony of all the people of truth. Furthermore, ask from the elderly and the sick who constitute the majority of humankind. For sure, overwhelmingly, they will say in regret and grief: “Woe, we have wasted our youth in vain, or in fact in the way of harm. Beware, do not do as we have done.” Because, although the person who suffers many years of woe and sorrow in this world, torment and harm in the intermediate realm, and troubles of the Hell and scorching hellfire is in a most pitiable situation, he cannot deserve to be pitied at all in accordance with the secret of: “One who consents to harm is not to be taken into consideration.” Because, one who enters harm with consent is not to be shown mercy, he is not worthy of it. May the Sublime Real save you and us from the alluring tribulation of this time, may He protect from it. Amin…
A Footnote to the Second Station of the Thirteenth Word which is among the scales of the Risale-i Nur
بِاسْمِهِ سُبْحَانَهُ
In His name, glory be onto Him!
Prison inmates are very much in need of the true consolation that is in the Risale-i Nur. Particularly those who have suffered from the blows of youth and are spending their youthful and lovely lives in prison need the Lights as much as they need bread. Yes, the temperament of youth gives heed to emotions more than the intellect. Emotions and desires are blind; they do not think about the eventual outcome. They prefer an ounce of ready pleasure over pounds of future pleasure. They murder for a minute of the pleasure of revenge, then suffer eighty thousand hours of the pains of imprisonment. Because of enjoying an hour of dissipation – in a matter of honor – their life’s felicity is ruined due to the distress of both imprisonment for thousands of days and of worrying about one’s enemies. Similar to these, the helpless youths run into such scrapes that they turn their sweetest lives into most bitter and pitiable lives. Especially a huge state in the north is shaking this age with its storms by capitulating on the desires of youth. Because, it makes the beautiful girls and women of the people of honor permissible to the youths driven by blind desire that does not see the eventual outcome. In fact, considering that at their bathhouses, they allow men and women enter together and naked, it encourages such lewdness. Furthermore, it makes the property of those who are rich lawful for the vagabonds and the poor that the entire humanity is trembling in the face of such a calamity.
So, it is necessary and indispensable that the Muslim and Turkish youths of this time should act heroically and respond to this danger that attacks from two sides with the sharp swords of the Risale-i Nur such as the “Fruit [Eleventh Ray]” and “A Guide for the Youth.” Otherwise, that helpless youth will ruin both his worldly future and happy life and his felicity in the hereafter and everlasting life by turning them into torments and pains, and he will fall into hospitals because of abuses in dissipation and into prisons because of the excesses of his emotions. He will cry a lot with woes and regret in his old age. If he preserves himself with the teachings of the Qur’an and the truths of the Light [Risale-i Nur], then he becomes a complete heroic youth, perfect human being, felicitous Muslim, and a sort of sultan over other possessors of life and animals.
Yes, if a youth spends one hour of his twenty-four hour prison life on his obligatory prayers every day and, in addition to the prison preventing most sins, he repents turning to God from the mistake that has caused his calamity and abstains from other harmful and painful sins, then besides being of great benefit to his life, his future, his country, his nation, and his relatives, all the heavenly books and scrolls, with the Qur’an of Miraculous Elucidation coming first among them, report and give the glad tidings that he will earn an eternal, bright, and everlasting youth in return for five to ten years of temporal youth. Yes, if he shows gratitude in return for the lovely and beautiful blessing of the youth by staying on the straight path and through obedience, that blessing will increase and become everlasting and more delightful. Otherwise, it turns into a troublesome, worrisome, and nightmarish dream. Moreover, it causes him to become in effect a vagabond who harms his relatives, country, and nation.
If this prison inmate is unjustly sentenced, on condition that he prays his obligatory prayers, each one of his hours in effect become like a day of worship, and he can be counted among the secluded righteous of the past times who would enter caves to worship, as that prison becomes like a recluse’s cell for him. If he is poor or elderly or sick and yearning for the truths of faith, on condition of praying the obligatory prayers and repenting, each one of their hours become twenty hours of worship and the prison becomes a place of rest, a place of love among friends who attend to him with compassion, and a place of training and lessons for him. While in that prison, he can like it more than the freedom outside where the sins attack him from all sides. Then he receives a complete training from the prison, and when he leaves, he does so not as a murderer or seeker of revenge but as a repentant, experienced, and improved man. So much so that some people who have seen those among the inmates of the Denizli prison who received the extraordinary lesson of good character from the Lights have said: “Receiving the lessons of the Risale-i Nur for fifteen weeks reforms them more than throwing them into prison for fifteen years for improvement.”
Since death is not dying and the appointed time is hidden, it may come at any time, and since the grave is not closing, all who come in convoys enter there and disappear, since this worldly life is passing with utmost rapidity, and since the Risale-i Nur has shown like the sun relying on the truths of the Qur’an that for the people of faith death is converted into a document for salvation from eternal condemnation to nonexistence. And for the people of misguidance and dissipation, it is eternal condemnation to nonexistence and a separation from all of their beloveds and all existent beings, as seen by the eye. Certainly and certainly there’ll be no doubt left that the most fortunate person is the one who shows gratitude in patience and benefits completely from time in prison, receives his lesson from the Lights, and tries to serve his faith and his Qur’an within the confines of the straight path.
Oh man who is afflicted with pleasures and delights! I am seventy. I have recognized through thousands of experiences and evidences at the level of the vision of certainty that true pleasure, painless delight, grief-free joy, and the felicity of life are only in faith, and they are found within the circle of the truths of faith. Otherwise, there are many pains for each worldly delight. It gives you a piece of grape to eat, then delivers ten slaps on the face and drives away all life’s pleasures.
Oh the helpless ones who have fallen into the calamity of imprisonment! Since your world is crying and your sweet life became bitter, try so that your Hereafter does not cry as well, so that your everlasting life laughs and becomes sweet. Take advantage of the prison. In the way that sometimes an hour of keeping guard under heavy conditions in the face of the enemy can turned into a year of worship in effect, likewise, your one hour of exertion to worship under heavy conditions becomes many hours and turns exertions into blessings of mercy.
بِاسْمِهِ سُبْحَانَهُ اَلسَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَ رَحْمَةُ اللّٰهِ وَ بَرَكَاتُهُ
In His name, glory be onto Him! Peace, God’s mercy, and blessings be upon you!
My dear, veracious brothers!
In “Three Points,” I will elucidate a powerful consolation for those who have fallen into the calamity of imprisonment as well as those who compassionately and faithfully supervise their provisions and assist them.
First point: the days of life spent in prison can each cause acquiring ten days’ worth of worship, convert temporal hours into metaphysically everlasting hours from the point of view of their fruits, and be the cause of being saved from millions of years of eternal imprisonment in return for five to ten years of punishment. For the people of faith, the condition for this great and very precious gain is praying the obligatory prayers, repenting from the sins that have caused imprisonment, and showing gratitude in a state of patience. The prison prevents many sins anyway; it blocks their way.
Second point: As there is pain in the cessation of delight, there is delight in the cessation of pain. Yes, whoever thinks of the delightful and joyful days of the past says “Woe to me!” feeling the metaphysical pains of sadness and longing, yet upon remembering the calamitous and painful days of the past, he feels a spiritual delight and says “Praise be to God, I am grateful that that trouble departed leaving its spiritual rewards behind.” He breathes a sigh of relief in joy. In that case, an hour of temporary pain leaves a metaphysical delight in the spirit, while a delightful hour leaves pain. Since this is the reality, since the past times of calamity are doomed to extinction along with their pains, they have disappeared, and the calamitous days of the future are extinct as of now, they do not exist, then there is no pain in that which does not exist and pain does not arise from that which is doomed to extinction. For example, how much of a lunacy it is to continually eat bread and drink water because of the possibility of becoming hungry and thirsty a few days from now, just in the same way, it is lunacy to think of the painful hours of the past and the future – which are nothing, are doomed to nonexistence, and have disappeared – and show impatience at the present and say, “Of, of!” as if complaining about God while leaving one’s faulty lower soul aside. If a person does not scatter his power of patience left and right, that is, to the past and to the future, and uses it for the present hour and day, it will completely suffice. The distress is reduced from ten to one. So much so that, may it not be understood as complaint, during my few days at this third Madrasa of Yusuf (as), at a time of calamity caused by sickness and my material and metaphysical distress, the like of which I have not seen in my life before, especially while the despair and the distresses of the heart and the spirit arising from my being deprived of the service of the Light have been crushing me, divine solicitude showed this aforementioned truth. And I became content with my distressful sickness and imprisonment. Because, I became grateful that for a helpless person like myself who waits at the gates of the grave, making an hour of his life that can be spent in heedlessness into ten hours of worship is a great profit.
Third point: There is significant gain in return for a little deed in assisting the inmates by compassionately serving them, handing the provisions that they need to them, and soothing their metaphysical wounds with consolation. By giving the food that comes to them from outside, the worth of exactly that food is written in the book of deeds of that prison guard – in effect, like giving charity – as well as of those who work inside and outside the prison. Especially if the calamity-stricken person is old or sick or poor or a stranger, the spiritual reward of this metaphysical charity increases by a lot.
Now, the condition for this precious gain is praying the obligatory prayers, so that that service is for God. And another condition is rushing to their assistance faithfully, compassionately, and cheerfully, in such a way as to not make them feel obliged.
بِاسْمِهِ سُبْحَانَهُ وَاِنْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ اِلاَّ يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِ
اَلسَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَ رَحْمَةُ اللّٰهِ وَ بَرَكَاتُهُ اَبَدًا دَائِمًا
In His name, glory be to Him! And there is nothing that does not glorify Him with praise!
Peace and God’s mercy and blessings be upon you continually to eternity!
Oh my prison friends and brothers in religion!
My heart was inspired to explain to you a reality that will save from both the torment of this world and the torment of the Hereafter. And that is this:
Say, someone has murdered the brother or a relative of someone else. A murder committed for the pleasure of a minute of vengeance causes millions of minutes of distress in the heart and dooms one to suffer the torment of prison. And the relatives of the murdered person also lose the delight of their life and the pleasures of their time in this world because of the worry of vengeance and the thought of their enemies before them. One suffers from both fear and rage. This has only one solution. And that is to make peace and reconcile as the Qur’an commands and as it is what truth, reality, common good, humanity, and Islam necessitate and encourage.
Yes, reality and common good is in peace. This is because, the appointed time is fixed and does not change. Because his appointed time had arrived, that murdered person was not going to live any longer under any circumstances. As for that murderer, he has become the means for the realization of that divine decree. In the absence of reconciliation, both parties will continually suffer from fear and vengeance. This is why Islam commands that “a believer should not forsake another believer for more than three days.” If that murder is not the outcome of an enmity or a vengeful grudge but a hypocrite has caused it, then making peace is absolutely necessary. Otherwise that small and particular calamity grows and continues. If they make peace, if the murderer repents and prays for the murdered person at all times, in that case, both parties gain a lot and become like brothers. In the place of one brother that is lost, they acquire a few pious brothers. They forgive their enemies submitting to divine decree and determination. And especially, since they have listened to the lessons of the Risale-i Nur, of course common good, personal and general wellbeing, and the brotherhood in the circle of the Light entails putting aside the animosity that exists between them.
As all the inmates who were enemies with one another at the Denizli prison became each other’s brothers with the lessons of the Lights, as they became a cause for our acquittal and even caused the irreligious people and the vagabonds say “mā shāʾ Allah, bāraka Allah” about those inmates, and as those inmates took a sigh of relief… I noticed here that a hundred men are distressed and avoid going out to the yard for recreation because of one man. This is oppression for them. A manly believer with good conscience does not cause hundreds of harms to the believers for a small and particular mistake or benefit. If one makes a mistake and does cause that, it behooves him to repent immediately.
بِاسْمِهِ سُبْحَانَهُ وَاِنْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ اِلاَّ يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِ
In His name, glory be to Him! And there is nothing that does not glorify Him with praise!
My dear new brothers and longtime prisoners!
I am definitely convinced that from the point of view of divine solicitude, one of the causes of our entry into this place is you: that is, for the Lights to save you with their consolations and the truths of faith from the distresses of this calamity of imprisonment and many worldly harms, your life that is moving away futilely in woes and sorrows from uselessness and being wasted for nothing, and your Hereafter from crying in the way that your world is crying and thus, to give you a complete consolation. Since this is the reality, of course you too should become brothers with one another like the Denizli inmates and the students of the Light. You see that they feel through all of your belongings coming from outside as well as your food, bread, and soup in order for a knife not to make its way to you and for you not to attack one another. The prison guards who are serving you faithfully are going through a lot of trouble. Moreover, you are not going out to the yard for recreation together. As if you will be attacking each other like wild beasts... So now, new friends, who carry the temperament of heroism in their innate nature, tell the administration with what would be a great metaphysical heroism at this time: “Forget a knife, even if a Mauser rifle or revolver is given to us and furthermore, we are commanded to do so, we will not hurt these helpless friends of ours who are calamity stricken like us. We decided upon the command and guidance of the Qur’an, of faith, brotherhood in Islam, and our common good that even if we had a hundred enmities and animosities in the past, we will forgive those and try not to offend them.” And thus, turn this prison into a blessed place of study.
An Important Matter Inspired on the Night of Power
بِاسْمِهِ سُبْحَانَهُ
وَاِنْ مِنْ شَىْءٍ اِلاَّ يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِ
اَلسَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ أَبَدًا دَاۤئِمًا
In His name, glory be to Him!
And there is nothing that does not glorify Him with praise!
Peace and God’s mercy and blessings be upon you continually to eternity!
First: we will very briefly point to a quite long and broad reality that was inspired to the heart on the Night of Power. So:
As the humankind recognizes as a result of its most severe oppressions and despotism, merciless destruction, and the bringing of hundreds of innocent ones to ruin because of an enemy in this last general war [World War II], of the dreadful despair of the defeated and the dreadful panicky rush of the victors, of the dreadful compunction arising from maintaining their rule yet not being able to repair their great destructions, of it becoming apparent to most that the life of this world is temporal and temporary and the fantasies of civilization are deceptive and sedative, of the high aptitude in the innate human nature and the quiddity of humanity becoming largely wounded in a dreadful way, of the emotions that revere eternity and pertain to everlastingness and the natural love of humanity becoming awakened in excitement, of heedlessness, misguidance, and the most rigid and deaf Nature shattering under the diamond sword of the Qur’an, of the very ugly and brutal true face of politics, which is the most drowning, most deceptive, and the widest veil causing heedlessness and misguidance on the face of the earth, becoming visible that worldly life, which is the humankind’s metaphorical beloved, is so ugly and transient, certainly, certainly and as its signs are becoming apparent in the north, in the west, and in America, there is no doubt that the humankind will seek with its entire strength the everlasting life that humans truly love out of innate nature.
And since the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, which has had three hundred and fifty million disciples over 1360 years in every century, the rulings and the cause of which millions of people of truth have affirmed and endorsed with their signatures, which exists in the hearts of millions of memorizers with sanctity and gives lessons to humans through the tongues of those memorizers at every minute, which gives the glad tidings of everlasting life and eternal felicity to humans in a way the similitude of which does not exist in any book and thus heals the wounds of human beings… since this Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition gives the glad tidings of everlasting life and teaches about eternal felicity, which it claims explicitly and by implication perhaps tens of thousands of times, with its forceful, powerful, and oft-repeated verses and unshakeable definitive proofs, of course and there is no doubt that unless the humankind totally loses its mind and a material and metaphysical doomsday erupts over its head, the broad masses and governments of the face of the earth will search for the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, similar to the famous literati of Sweden, Norway, Finland, and England who are working for the acceptance of the Qur’an and the very important society in America that is searching for true religion, and once they understand its [the Qur’an’s] truths, they will embrace it with spirit and soul. Because, there is nothing like the Qur’an from the point of view of this reality, nor can there be, and nothing can replace this greatest miracle.
Second: Since the Risale-i Nur has served like a diamond sword in the hands of that great miracle, has shown [the Qur’an’s miraculousness], and has compelled even the most obstinate enemies to admitting so… Since the Risale-i Nur, which is a metaphysical miracle of the Qur’an that announces the Qur’anic treasure in a way that illuminates the heart, the spirit, and the emotions and that offers the Qur’an’s remedies, and which knows no other reference or recourse other than the Qur’an is fulfilling that duty… And since it [the Risale-i Nur] has emerged completely victorious over utmostly obstinate deniers of religion and over the dreadful bouts of propaganda against it, since it has smashed Nature, the firmest and strongest fortress of misguidance, into pieces with the Treatise on Nature, and since it has dispelled heedlessness and shown the light of monotheism in the thickest, most drowning, and broadest horizons of heedlessness and the widest veils of science with the Sixth Matter and the First, Second, Third, and Eighth Demonstrations of The Fruit in the Staff of Moses… of course, as it is now officially permitted to open private study centers for religious instruction, which are necessary for us and essential for the nation, the disciples of the Light should each open a tiny Study Center of Light everywhere as much as possible. It is true that everybody benefits to some extent on their own, but not everybody can understand every matter that is in it completely. Furthermore, since these are explanations of matters of faith, they are knowledge, gnosis, and worship at the same time (sidenote). God willing, corresponding to the five to ten years spent in the old madrasas, the Madrasas of Light will secure the same results in five to ten weeks, and they have been so doing for twenty years.
sidenote: If one knows and is not in need of learning, he is in need of worship, he is either yearning for gnosis or wants presence. It is because of this that this is a lesson with benefit for all.
Moreover, for the sake of their worldly and political lives as well as their Hereafter, it is essential for them not to interfere with after all but to work for the promotion and publication of these flashes of the Qur’an, which have many benefits for this government, this nation, and this country, and of the Risale-i Nur as their announcer, so that this can be an atonement for the dreadful sins of the past and a wall before dreadful calamities to come and before anarchy.
Third: I was much in need of reading the Qur’an with delight and enthusiasm in this Honorable Ramadan. Yet I panicked under the influence of a painful sickness, material and metaphysical troubles, fatigue, and many chores. Then, all at once, I started to read the miraculous parts [of the Qur’an] written miraculously in Hüsrev’s agreeable pen and the bright Hizbü’l-Ekber-i Kur’ânî that is full of divine favors and that earned much spiritual rewards for Hâfız Ali and Tâhirî one after the other. This gave me such a delight and enthusiasm that all my tiredness disappeared. As I was listening to the Qur’an’s lesson from them in a most bright way without the interference of any obsessive thoughts, I desired with my entire spirit, intended, and made a determination to have our miraculous Qur’an printed in the same way that we have had the Hizbü’l-Ekber-i Kur’ânî printed, and we will do so God willing.
اَلْبَاقِى هُوَ الْبَاقِى
The Everlasting One, He is the Everlasting One.
Your brother,
Said Nursi
Meyve Risalesi'nden Altıncı Mes'ele
[This is a short reference to one of the demonstrations among thousands of universal demonstrations of faith in God, for which there are innumerable and definitive evidences in many parts of the Risale-i Nur.]
Some of the high school students in Kastamonu came to visit me. They said: “Inform us about our Creator; our teachers do not talk about God.” I said: “Each science among the sciences that you study talk about God and introduce the Creator with their specific tongues all the time. Listen to them and not to the teachers.”
For instance: In the way that a perfect pharmacy filled with jars each containing living mixtures and antidotes prepared with wondrous and sensitive scales shows without a doubt an utmostly skillful and wise pharmacist who knows chemistry… Likewise, considering the living mixtures and antidotes in the jars of four hundred thousand different types of plants and animals that exist in the pharmacy of the face of the earth and to the extent that that pharmacy of the earth is more perfect and bigger than this pharmacy in this marketplace, the science of medicine that you study shows even to blinded eyes and introduces the All-Wise Possessor of Majesty, Who is the Pharmacist of this great pharmacy of the globe of the Earth.
Then for instance: In the way that a wondrous factory that weaves thousands of various fabrics from a simple material informs with no room for uncertainty about a factory owner and a skillful machine operator… Likewise, through the measures of the science of machinery that you study, this mobile lordly machine – called the globe of the Earth – with hundreds of thousands of heads and hundreds of thousands of perfect factories on each head, informs about and introduces the operating master and owner of the globe of the Earth to the extent that it is bigger and more perfect then this human-built factory.
Then for instance: In the way that a storage, a warehouse for food supplies, or a store where thousands of different types of provisions are gathered from around, stacked in an orderly fashion, and prepared informs, without any room for uncertainty, about a possessor and owner of food supplies and provisions as well as an officer in charge of them… Likewise, in the way that this warehouse of the Mercy Giver for food supplies called the globe of the Earth, the ship of the Glorious One, this storage carrying thousands of different types of equipment, merchandise, and canned goods, and this lordly store that travels in an orderly fashion through a circle that spans a distance of twenty-four thousand years, takes and transports convoys that each demand different provisions, stops by the seasons on its journey, fills the Spring with thousands of different food items like a giant railway car, and brings it to the helpless living beings that run out of provisions over the winter… informs about, introduces, and endears the owner, disposer, and administrator of the storage of the globe of the Earth, with a certainty and degree to the extent that it is bigger and more perfect than that storage, through the measures of the science of food supply that you study and will study.
Then, in the way that an amazing army and military encampment, containing four hundred thousand nations that each demand separate provisions, use separate weapons, wear separate clothes, have separate instructions, and are discharged in separate ways… in the way that the separate provisions, various arms, clothes, and equipment of those different nations are given by a miraculous commander without forgetting any one of them or mixing up… in the way that this shows that wondrous commander self-evidently and without a doubt and endears him with appreciation… Likewise, to the extent that the military encampment of the globe of the Earth in the Spring, where various clothes, provisions, weapons, training, and discharge of four hundred thousand different species of plants and animals are taken care of on the encampment of the face of the earth with a freshly conscripted new army of the Glorious One in every Spring… to the extent that it is bigger and more perfect from the above-mentioned human army and military encampment, it shows in a state of amazement and sanctification the Ruler, Lord, Administrator, and Most Sacred Commander of the globe of the Earth and endears Him with praise and glorification to those who are attentive and in possession of their intellect through the measures of the science of military that you will study.
Then, in the way that millions of wondrous electric lamps move around and visit every part of a city as if the fuel of those lamps and of the power station never finishes introduce a miraculous master who manages the electricity, produces the moving lamps, builds the factory, and brings the material for kindling and an electrician with extraordinary powers with amazement and congratulations, without any room for uncertainty, and self-evidently and it endears him with hurrahs… Just in the same way, some of the star lamps on the ceiling of the world palace in this city of the realm – according to what astronomy says – are a thousand times bigger than the globe of the Earth and move seventy times faster than cannon ball, yet they stay in order, do not clash, do not extinguish, and their fuel does not finish. In order for our Sun, which, according to the astronomy you study, is a million times bigger than the globe of the Earth and has lived more than a million years, and which is a lamp and a heater in the guesthouse of the Merciful One, to continue to burn, as much kerosene as the oceans of the globe of the Earth, as much coal as its mountains, or as much wood as a thousand Earths is needed every day, so that it does not extinguish. And to the extent that these electric lamps and the management of the world palace in this magnificent city of the cosmos that show with their fingers of light an unending capacity and royal power that makes the Sun and similar lofty stars burn without kerosene, wood, or coal, does not let them extinguish, and moves them around rapidly and does not allow them to collide is greater and more perfect than that example… to that extent according to the measures of the science of electricity that you have studied and will study, they introduce the Sultan, Illuminator, Administrator, and Artful Maker of this most tremendous display hall of the cosmos, holding the luminous stars as witnesses. They endear Him with glorifications and sanctifications and cause Him to be worshipped.
Then for example, in the way that if there existed a book, an amazing compilation such that a separate book is written in fine print in each of its lines and a chapter of the Qur’an is inscribed in each of its words with a fine pen, it is utmostly meaningful, all of the points of discussion in it confirm one another, and it shows its author to be extraordinarily skillful and to have extraordinary powers and capacities… without any room for uncertainty and clearly like daylight, this book informs about and introduces its scribe and compiler with his perfections and skills, it causes him to be appreciated with the pronouncement of the statements of “Mā shāʾ Allah” and “Bāraka Allah…” Likewise, to the extent that this great book of the cosmos… this endlessly meaningful compilation of the cosmos with many wisdoms in each of its words and this embodied Most Great Qur’an of the Realm that on only one of its pages, which is the face of the Earth, and in only one of its fascicules, which is the spring, we see with our eyes that a pen works, writing three hundred thousand vegetal and animal groups, which are in effect like distinct books, together, within each other, without mistakes and errors, without mixing up or confusing anything, perfectly and in an orderly fashion, and sometimes fitting an ode within a single word, like a tree, or the entire outline of a book within one dot, like a seed… to the extent that it is greater, more perfect, and more meaningful than the book in the example we mentioned before, to that extent it introduces the Embroiderer and Scribe of this book of the cosmos with His endless perfections through the broad measures and telescopic eyes of the science of the wisdom of things [natural sciences] that you study as well as of the sciences of reading and writing that you are actively involved with at school. It informs about Him with the statement of “Allahu akbar!” (God is the greatest!) it describes Him with the sanctification of “Subḥān Allah!” (Glory be to God!) and it endears Him with the praises of “Al-ḥamdu lillāh!” (Praise be to God!).
So similar to these sciences, each science out of hundreds of sciences makes the Majestic Creator of this cosmos known and introduces His attributes and perfections through its broad measures, specific mirror, telescopic eye, and its gaze full of meaningful lessons.
So it is to teach this aforementioned proof, which is a magnificent and bright demonstration of entitative oneness, that the Qur’an of miraculous exposition introduces our Creator to us especially with the much repeated verses of:
رَبُّ السَّمٰوَاتِ وَاْلاَرْضِ ٭ خَلَقَ السَّمٰوَاتِ وَاْلاَرْض
The Lord of the heavens and the Earth… He created the heavens and the Earth…
And thus I said to those young scholars. They too accepted and confirmed completely and said: “Unlimited thanks be to our Lord that we received an absolutely sacred and truthful lesson. May God be pleased with you.” Then, I said:
“While man is a lifeful machine that is pained by thousands of different types of pain and that receives pleasure from thousands of kinds of pleasures and while together with his utter impotence, endless material and metaphysical enemies, endless poverty, endless outer and inner needs, it is a creature continually receiving the slaps of extinction and separation… with faith and worship, at once he relates to such a Majestic Sultan and finds a point of support against all of his enemies and a point of help in the face of all of his needs… and thus, as everybody finds pride in the honor and station of their master to whom they relate, if man relates to such an endlessly powerful and mercy-giving Sultan with faith, enters in His service through worshipful slavehood, if he turns the appointed time’s declaration of condemnation to nonexistence into a discharge document for himself… you figure out by comparing to this how pleased and grateful he would be and how much pride he can find in it in a state of thankfulness.”
As I said to those young scholars, I say with repetition to the calamity-stricken prisoners: Whoever knows and obeys Him is fortunate even if he is in prison. Whoever forgets Him is in prison and unfortunate even if he lives in palaces. So much so that at the time his execution, a fortunate oppressed person has said to the unfortunate oppressors: “I am not being executed [condemned to nonexistence]. In fact, I am being discharged and moving on to felicity. But I am taking perfect revenge from you as I see you condemned to eternal execution [nonexistence].” Declaring “Lā ilāha illa Allah!” (There is no god, but God, Allah!), he surrenders his spirit happily.
سُبْحَانَكَ لاَ عِلْمَ لَنَا اِلاَّ مَا عَلَّمْتَنَا اِنَّكَ اَنْتَ الْعَلِيمُ الْحَكِيمُ
Glory be to You! We have no knowledge other than that which You have taught us. Indeed, You are the All-Knowing and All-Wise.
The Subtle Point of Huwa
بِاسْمِهِ سُبْحَانَهُ وَاِنْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ اِلاَّ يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِ
اَلسَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَ رَحْمَةُ اللّٰهِ وَ بَرَكَاتُهُ اَبَدًا دَائِمًا
In His name, glory be to Him! And there is nothing that does not glorify Him with praise!
Peace and God’s mercy and blessings be upon you continually to eternity!
My very dear and veracious brothers!
(My brothers, during a journey of imagination and contemplation while examining the page of the air from its material point of view alone, an elegant subtle point of monotheism appeared suddenly, and I witnessed in the utterance of هُوَ (huwa) in لاَ اِلهَ اِلاَّ هُوَ (There is no god other than He [huwa].) and قُلْ هُوَ اللّٰهُ (Say “He [huwa] is God”) that our path of faith is boundlessly easy and the path of misguidance and polytheism is boundlessly problematic; it is filled with thousands of prohibitively inconceivable assumptions. I am going to expound that long subtle point by pointing to it in a fairly short way.)
If a handful of soil that hosts hundreds of flowers as those flowers take turns in its pot is attributed to the nature and causes, this requires the existence of hundreds or, in fact, to the number of the flowers of small-scale metaphysical machines and factories in that pot. Or all the particles in that small amount of soil have to know how to make each of those discrete flowers with their varying qualities and lifeful equipment; they have to have unlimited knowledge and endless power, almost like a deity. In the same way, in the air, which is a throne of divine command and will, and in each part of the wind, the air of the utterance of هُوَ [huwa], the volume of which is small like a single breath or a piece of fingernail, has to contain the centers, switchboards, receivers, and transmitters of all the telephones, telegraphs, radios, and all the unlimited and various conversations in the world, and it has to handle all those unlimited tasks together, in a single moment. Or each part of the air in that هُوَ [huwa], rather, each particle in each part of the element of air has to have as many discrete metaphysical personalities and capacities as all the phone callers, telegraphers, and radio speakers… it has to know all of their languages and, at the same time, convey that to other particles for broadcasting. That situation is partly visible in actuality, after all, and each particular component of the air has that capacity.
So, not only one but numerous impossibilities, inconceivable assumptions, and problems to the number of the quantity of all particles are being clearly seen in the path that the followers of disbelief, naturalism, and materialism have taken. If it is given to the Majestic Artful Maker, the air, together with all of its particles, becomes an obedient soldier of His. With the permission and power of its Creator, by entering under the command of and relying on the Creator, and thanks to the reflection of its Artful Maker’s power, the air’s unlimited and universal tasks are done in the blink of a moment, fast as lightning, with the ease of pronouncing the word هُوَ [huwa] and the vibration of air, as easy as a single and well-ordered task that pertains to a single particle. That is, the air becomes an unlimited, wondrous, and well-ordered page for the inscriptions of the pen of power, its particles become the tips of that pen, and the tasks of those particles become the dots of the pen of predestination. It functions as easy as the movement of a single particle.
Yes, as I journeyed with a movement of contemplation in لاَ اِلهَ اِلاَّ هُوَ and قُلْ هُوَ اللّٰهُ, viewing the realm of air and reading through the page of that element, I witnessed this summarized reality in complete clarity and detail at the level of the vision of certainty, and I recognized at the level of the knowledge of certainty that as there is such a brilliant demonstration and flash of divine unity in the utterance and air of هُوَ [huwa], so is there a luminous instance of the manifestation of divine singularity and a very strong evidence of monotheism in the meaning and signification of that utterance along with circumstantial evidence specifying who is referenced in the absolute and obscure signification of the pronoun هُوَ [huwa], and it is because of this that both the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition and the people of remembrance repeat this sacred word often at the metaphysical station of monotheism.
Yes, for instance, if two to three dots are put on a piece of white paper, they get mixed up. A person gets confused if he attends to several different tasks simultaneously. If a possessor of life is burdened with too much load, it is crushed. If numerous words enter the ear or come out of the tongue simultaneously, the order is lost and it becomes messy. But I saw with the vision of certainty that in the element of air in which I journeyed with the key and compass of هُوَ [huwa], thousands of differing dots, letters, and words were put and could be put in every one of its parts and even particles without causing confusion or losing order. Even though they attended to many discrete tasks, those tasks were fulfilled without any confusion. Even though many heavy loads were placed on those parts and particles, they carried those loads without any sign of being weakened, without delay, and in an orderly fashion. Even though thousands of different words entered and came out of those most tiny ears and tongues in several different fashions, they entered and came out in perfect order, they went into those most tiny ears and came out of those most thin tongues without any confusion or distortion. And as each particle and small part attended to these tasks, they also roamed around perfectly free and in a state of ecstasy, saying لاَ اِلهَ اِلاَّ هُوَ and قُلْ هُوَ اللّٰهُ with the tongue of their state and the testimony and tongue of the aforementioned reality, they preserved their orderliness and tasks without confusion amid waves that caused the air clash, such as storms, lightning, thunder, and the roars of the sky, without one thing standing in the way of another.
In that case, either every particle and part of the air has endless wisdom, endless knowledge and will, and endless force and power, and they each have a quality that enables them to rule over all particles… But not even one of the satans can think of this. In that case, it is intuitively clear to the degrees of the truth of certainty, vision of certainty, and knowledge of certainty that this page of the air is a continuously changing page of the pen of power and predestination that the majestic Divine Entity operates with His unlimited and endless wisdom, and that page is like a writing and erasing slate of the Preserved Tablet in the realm of alterations, named the “Tablet of Erasure and Confirmation,” and of His ever-replaced conducts.
And so, besides the fact that in the task of transmitting sounds alone, the element of air demonstrates the aforementioned reflection of entitative oneness and the aforementioned amazing things and thus shows the endless inconceivability of misguidance, another one of the important tasks of the element of air is the transmission of subtle things such as electricity, magnetic attraction, magnetic repulsion, and light in an orderly fashion without mixing them up. As it attends to its task in transmitting sounds and also fulfills these tasks, at the same time, it also transports the things needed for the functions of life such as inhalation and pollination in time and with perfect order. It definitively proves that it is a throne of the divine command and will. And I was fully convinced that it proves at the level of the vision of certainty that vagrant coincidence, blind force, deaf nature, messy and aimless causes, or the impotent, lifeless, and ignorant matters cannot interfere in the inscriptions on this air page or in its tasks. I knew that each and every particle and part recites with the tongue of their states لاَ اِلهَ اِلاَّ هُوَ and قُلْ هُوَ اللّٰهُ, and as I saw these amazing things on the material aspect of air with this key of هُوَ [huwa], the element of air also became a هُوَ [huwa] and turned into a key to the realm of similitudes and the metaphysical realm.
There was no permission to write the rest for now. Greetings of peace to all.
Your Brother,
Said Nursi
[i] The “Preserved Tablet” is mentioned in the Qur’an. “This is truly a glorious Qur’an // [written] on a preserved Tablet (Qur’an, 85: 21-22).”