THIRD FUNDAMENTAL

 

THIRD FUNDAMENTAL: Just as the Resurrection’s necessity and requirement is certain, so the One Who will bring it about can do so. As He has power over everything, everything is the same in relation to His Power. He creates the spring as easily as a flower. He is so powerful that creation bears witness to His Power and Majesty. Given this, how can you doubt that He can raise the dead for the Last Judgment? His Power is so great that He causes a new environment to come into existence each century, renews the universe every year, and creates a new world every day. He hangs many transient worlds upon the string of time as centuries, years, or even days pass for a perfect, definite purpose. He displays His Wisdom’s perfection and His art’s beauty by clothing Earth in the garment of spring as if it were a single flower, and then decorating and embellishing it with countless examples of resurrection.

Since He can do such things, how can you doubt His ability to bring about the Resurrection and replace this world with another? The verse: Your creation and your being raised up are as but the creation and raising up of a single soul (31:28) announces that the All-Powerful One is so powerful that nothing is difficult for Him, that creating innumerable individuals is as easy creating one.

Divine Power comes from the Divine Essence’s very nature, and so there can be no incapacity connected with It. As it operates the inner, immaterial dimension of existence, no obstacle can interfere with Its operation. In Its relation to things, Divine Power resembles the Divine laws of nature, which say that creating a universal thing is as easy as creating a particular thing. Consider the following arguments:

First argument: Eternal Power is essential to Divine Essence, for it is an indispensable attribute of Divinity. They are identical in one respect: Any incapacity is impossible, for this would presuppose the existence of two opposites in the Infinite Being. Since this is impossible, and since impotence cannot occur in the Divine Essence, nothing can interfere with Divine Power. Since impotence cannot be involved with Divine Power, it can have no degrees, for such degrees of a thing’s existence come about only through the intervention of opposites. Degrees of temperature occur because of cold’s intervention, and degrees of beauty exist because of ugliness’ intervention. This is true of all qualities in the universe. Contingent things and beings contain opposites, for they do not exist essentially of themselves and no undiluted quality is essential to their existence. As the World of Contingencies contains degrees and graduations, it is subject to change and transformation.

Since Eternal Divine Power contains no degrees, it is equally easy for it to create or bring into existence particles or galaxies. Resurrecting humanity is as easy for it as reviving one person, and creating spring is as easy as creating a flower. If creation or resurrection were ascribed to causes, creating a flower would be as difficult as creating spring. But if there is only One Creator, creating everything is as easy as creating one thing.

Second argument: Divine Power operates in the inner, spiritual dimension of things (the metaphysical kingdom). Like a mirror, the universe has two sides: corporeal (resembling a mirror’s colored face) and metaphysical (resembling the mirror’s shining face and looking to the Creator). Opposites exist in the corporeal side, which manifests beauty and ugliness, good and bad, big and small, difficulty and ease. The Majestic Creator of the universe veils His Power’s acts behind the veil of observed causes so that those who lack understanding do not regard His Power’s relation to simple things as unbecoming to Him. His Honor and Majesty require this. Causes have no real effect upon creation, for that would violate His Oneness and Unity. The metaphysical world, absolutely clear and transparent, contains none of the physical world’s grossness. As Divine Power operates directly there, cause and effect have no effect, obstacles cannot interfere, and creating a particle is as easy as forming a sun.

To conclude, Divine Power is simple, infinite, and an indispensable Attribute of Divine “Essence.” This Power operates directly in a realm that is clear, refined, and transparent, one in which there is nothing to oppose or intervene in it. Thus there is no difference between a community and an individual, particular and universal or big and small.

Third argument: Divine Power operates like a law that has the same relationship with everything. We shall make this subtle matter comprehensible through several comparisons or connections. Transparency, reciprocity, balance, orderliness, abstraction, and obedience are the phenomena in the universe that render many equal to few, and great equal to small.

First connection: Transparency. The same sun is reflected on the ocean’s surface and a drop of water. If Earth consisted of pieces of glass, each one would reflect the sun without hindrance and without one interfering with the other. If the sun were a conscious independent being with willpower that could reflect its own light, its giving of light to or being reflected in one particle or on the whole Earth would be equally easy.

Second connection: Reciprocity. If we stand with a lit candle in the center of a large circle of people, each of whom is holding a mirror, each mirror will hold the same reflection without any one hindering any other.

Third connection: Balance. If we weigh a pair of things with a balance that measures each item with perfect precision, any extra force exerted upon either scale would disturb the balance.

Fourth connection: Orderliness. We can steer a huge ship as easily as a small toy, for all the parts of its orderly system are interrelated.

Fifth connection: Abstraction or Incorporeality. A living creature’s size has no bearing on its real essence or nature, for these abstract and incorporeal features are the same for every creature. Differences in individualized forms do not cause confusion. For example, a minnow has the same essence or nature as a basking-shark (both are fish), and a micro-organism has the same essence as a rhinoceros (both are living animals).

Sixth connection: Obedience. A commander moves an army as easily as a single soldier by ordering it to march. The reality of obedience in the universe is as follows: Everything inclines toward its own perfection. An inclination grows into a need, an increased need becomes a yearning, and an increased yearning becomes an attraction. Inclination, need, yearning, and attraction work as Divine laws and operate in ways designed to lead things to realize their perfection. Creation’s final, absolute perfection occurs when it grows into absolute existence. A thing’s relative perfection is the relative existence that gives effect to all its potentialities. This is why the universe’s obedience to the Divine Command of “Be!” and it is (36: 82) does not differ from that of a particle.

Creation obeys this Divine Command, coming from the Creator’s Eternal Will, via the same forces of inclination, need, yearning, and attraction. All of these are urged to operate on all creatures by the same Divine Will. The power of this obedience is best seen in water, which cracks or even shatters iron when told to freeze.

Seeing that these defective, limited, weak, and non-creative contingent forces display such effects, everything is equally susceptible to the Divine Power’s order. This Power is infinite, eternal, absolutely perfect, and can bring the universe into existence from non-existence. It also can manifest Itself through those grand works that fascinate and astound us. Nothing is difficult for it. Considering these six connections does not pass any judgment upon Divine Power, as it is impossible for us to do so; rather, they enable us to have some grasp of the matter.

In sum: Divine Power is infinite, an indispensable Attribute of the Supreme Being that operates in the metaphysical sphere, which has no obstacle or particularity. This domain is in direct contact with Divine Power, within which the material existence or non-existence of anything is equally possible. It obeys all Divine laws of creation. Thus Divine Power can create everything with equal ease. For example, It can quicken creation on the Last Day as easily as It can revive an insect in spring. Given this, the Divine announcement of your creation and resurrection as a single soul is true and unexaggerated. This proves that the Agent Who will destroy and re-create the universe on the Last Day can do this.

 

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi