The third luminous aspect of God’s Sufficiency

 

 

Having found my attachment to the world severed on account of the oppression of exile and illness, the reality of belief brought it home to me that I was destined for perpetual happiness in an eternal world, an everlasting realm. At this point I abandoned those old sighs of regret, which only caused more grief, and became cheerful and happy. However, I also knew that this ideal, this goal of the spirit and ultimate result of human nature could be realized only through the infinite Power of an Absolutely All-Powerful One, Who knows and records the action, inaction, behavior and states, be they in word or deed, of all His creatures, and through His conferring limitless favor and importance on humans, whom He takes as His friends and addressees, and to whom He has given a rank superior to all beings, despite their absolute impotence. Reflecting on these two points— namely, the activity of such a Power and the very real importance of apparently impotent and insignificant human beings—I sought an explanation that would strengthen my belief and satisfy my heart. Again I had recourse to the verse, God is sufficient for us; how excellent a Guardian He is! This time it told me to note the Arabic suffix “-na,” (“us”) and to be attentive to the beings that join me in saying “God is sufficient for us,” be it verbally or through the mute eloquence of their disposition.

Immediately I saw that innumerable birds and flies—which are like birds in miniature—and innumerable animals, plants and trees were, like me, reciting the verse God is sufficient for us; how excellent a Guardian He is! through the language of their disposition. They remind everyone of the fact that they have such a Guardian with all-majestic Power Who guarantees all essential necessities of their life that every spring in particular, He creates before our very eyes countless species of animals and different varieties of plants and trees in a most balanced and well-ordered fashion, in utmost abundance and on a vast scale, with the greatest ease and the utmost artistry, and in forms which differ one from the other. This He does with no defect, flaw or confusion, producing them from eggs, grains, seeds and drops of fluid that resemble one another and whose component elements are the same. That these beings resemble one another despite the infinite differences between them demonstrates to us His Unity and Oneness, and shows clearly there cannot be any interference or participation in those acts of His Lordship and Creativity by “partners.”

Then I noted the “I”, that is, my soul, included in the first person plural “us” in the verse God is sufficient for us. I saw that among the animate beings, He has created me from a drop of fluid in miraculous fashion. He has opened my ears and positioned my eyes. Also, He has placed in my head a brain, in my breast a heart and in my mouth a tongue; and in each He has created a plethora of tiny weighing scales and measuring instruments with which I am able to weigh, measure and come to understand all of the gifts that He has stored up in the treasuries of Divine Mercy. He has also created in them thousands of instruments to unlock and recognize the treasures of the limitless manifestations of His All-Beautiful Names, and appointed all the smells, tastes and colors as instructions for the assistance of those instruments.

Furthermore, in addition to including with perfect order in this body all those numerous sensitive feelings and senses, and those subtle, nonphysical faculties and inner senses, He has created with perfect wisdom all the parts, systems and members of my body necessary for life; this He has done so simply that He might allow me to recognize and experience all the varieties of His bounties, and so that He might allow me to know and experience the myriad of manifestations of His Names. As with the bodies of all believers, He has made this poor, apparently insignificant body of mine into a sort of cosmic calendar or diary; an illuminated, compressed copy of the macrocosm; a miniature sample of the world; a manifest miracle for all His other creatures; a desire-driven seeker of all kinds of Divine bounties and the means of their creation; the pivot upon which the laws and practices of His Lordship are primarily concentrated; an inventory or garden in miniature of the gifts and flowers of His Wisdom and Mercy; and an understanding addressee of His Divine pronouncements. He also has given me existence—the greatest of His bounties—and life, through which my existence may be expanded. For through life, my existence may swell to the outermost reaches of this visible, physical world.

And He has bestowed humanity on me, through which the favor of existence may expand in the physical and spiritual realms, allowing me to benefit—through the senses particular to humankind—from the vast tables of bounties He has prepared. He has also bestowed Islam on me, through which the favor of existence broadens to the extent of the visible world and the World of the Unseen. He has also favored me with true and verifiable belief, through which the favor of existence encompasses both this world and the next. He has favored me with knowledge and love of God that stem from belief, through which He has given me the capacity to stretch out my hands and, through praise and glorification, reach benefits that exist on all levels of creation from the sphere of contingency to the Necessary Realm and the sphere of the Divine Names. In particular, He has also given me knowledge of the Qur’an and the wisdom of belief, through which He has bestowed on me superiority over many creatures.

In short, the nature that He has given me is so comprehensive that it has the capacity to be a perfect mirror to His Oneness and Eternal Besoughtedness, and to respond to His universal, sacred Lordship with extensive worship. Furthermore, as decreed unanimously in all the holy Scriptures and Books that He has sent to humankind by means of His Messengers, and as confirmed with one voice by all the Prophets, saints, and purified scholars, He buys from me my existence, my life and my self—as stated in verses of the Qur’an—which have been given to me in trust. I have understood with a certainty of knowledge and a firm belief that He will save them from being lost and amounting to nothing; indeed, He will preserve them, as He has promised repeatedly and categorically, and He will provide eternal happiness and Paradise as the reward.

Thus, I was taught by the verse God is sufficient for us; how excellent a Guardian He is! that I have a Lord of absolute Majesty and Munificence, One Who “opens up” through His Name the All-Opening the forms of hundreds of thousands of varieties of animals and plants from limited, near identical seeds and drops of fluid with the utmost facility, speed and perfection, and, as we learned earlier, gives humanity this astonishing importance, making them the chief pivot of the works of His Lordship. The verse also taught me that He would bring about the Resurrection, bestow Paradise, and create eternal happiness as easily and certainly as He will create next spring. If I had been able to do so, I would have pronounced through the tongues of all creatures “God is sufficient for us; how excellent a Guardian He is!” Instead I utter it with that intention and through my thought and imagination, and I want to repeat it through all eternity.

Said Nursi