“Allahu Akbar”s and Eid-ul Adha!
It was the Eid-ul Adha Feast of Sacrifices/Qurban while this ‘station’ was being written
One fifth of mankind, three hundred million(1) people, together declaring:
• • “Allah is Most Great! Allah is Most Great! Allah is Most Great!”; and in relation to its size the globe broadcasting to its fellow planets in the skies the sacred words of ; and the more than twenty thousand pilgrims performing the Hajj, on ‘Arafat and at the Eid/Festival, together declaring: are all a response in the form of extensive, universal worship to the universal manifestation of Divine Dominicality (Rubûbiyet-i İlâhîye) through Allah’s sublime titles of The Lord/Sustainer of the Earth and The Lord/Sustainer of All The Worlds, and are a sort of echo of the spoken and commanded one thousand three hundred years ago by Allah’s Noble Messenger (Peace and blessings be upon him) and his Family and Companions. This I imagined and felt and was certain about.
Then I wondered if the sacred phrase has any connection with our matter. It suddenly occurred to me that foremost this phrase and many others of these marks of Islam like There is no god but Allah, All praise be to Allah!, and Glory be to Allah!, which bear the title of “enduring good works” (bâkiyat-ı sâlihat) recall particular and universal points about the matter we are discussing, and infer its realization.
For example, one aspect of the meaning of is that Divine Power and Knowledge are greater than everything; nothing at all can quit the bounds of Allah’s knowledge, nor escape or be saved from the disposals of His Power. He is greater than the things we fear most. This means He is greater than bringing about the resurrection of the dead, saving us from non-existence, and bestowing eternal happiness. He is greater than any strange or unimaginable thing, so that, as explicitly stated by the verse,
Your creation and your resurrection are but as a single soul. (2)
The resurrection of mankind is as easy for His power as the creation of a single soul. It is in connection with this meaning that when faced by serious disasters or important undertakings, everyone says: “Allah is Most Great! Allah is Most Great!”, making it a source of consolation, strength, and support for themselves.
As is shown in the Ninth Word, the above phrase and its two fellows, that is,
form the seeds and summaries of the ritual prayers —the index of all worship— and in order to corroborate the meaning of the prayers, are repeated in the tasbihat following them. They provide the powerful answers to the questions arising from the wonderment, pleasure, and awe man feels at the strange, beautiful, extraordinary things he sees in the universe, which cause him to offer thanks and to feel awe at their grandeur. Moreover, at the end of the Sixteenth Word, it is described how at the festival a private soldier and a field marshal enter the king’s presence together, whereas at other times the soldier has contact with the field marshal only through his commanding officer. Similarly, somewhat resembling the awliya, a person making the Hajj begins to know Allah through His titles of . With its repetition, it is again that answers all the feverish bewildered questions that overwhelm his spirit as the levels of grandeur unfold in his heart. Furthermore, at the end of the Thirteenth Flash, it is described how it is again that replies most effectively to Satan’s cunning wiles, cutting them at the root, as well as answering succinctly but powerfully our question about the hereafter.
The phrase also reminds us of resurrection. It says to us: “I would have no meaning if there was no hereafter. For I say: to Allah is due all the praise and thanks that have been offered from pre-eternity to post-eternity, whoever they have been offered by and to whom, for the chief of all bounties and the only thing that makes bounty true bounty and saves all conscious creatures from the endless calamities of non-existence, is eternal happiness; it is only eternal happiness that can be equal to that universal meaning of mine.”
Yes, every day all Mu’mins (believers) saying at least one hundred and fifty times after the obligatory prayers: • , as enjoined by the Shari‘a, and its being the expression of praise and thanks which extend from pre-eternity to post-eternity, can only be the advance price and immediate fee for Jannah/Paradise and eternal happiness. They offer thanks since bounties are not restricted to the fleeting bounties of this world, which are tainted by the pains of transience, and see them as the means to eternal bounties.
As for the sacred phrase, ; with its meaning of declaring Allah free of all partner, fault, defect, tyranny, impotence, unkindness, need, and deception, and all faults opposed to His perfection, beauty, and glory, it recalls eternal happiness and the realm of the hereafter and Jannah, which are the means to His glory and beauty and the majesty and perfection of His sovereignty; the phrase alludes to them and indicates them. For, as has been proved previously, if there was no eternal happiness, both His sovereignty, and His perfection, glory, beauty, and mercy would be stained by fault and defect.
Like these three sacred phrases, , and other blessed phrases are all seeds to the pillars of faith. Like the meat essences and sugar concentrates that have been discovered recently, they are summaries of both the pillars of belief, and the truths of the Qur’an. The three mentioned above are both the seeds of the five daily prayers, and they are the seeds of the Qur’an, sparkling like brilliants at the beginning of a number of shining suras. So too are they the true sources and bases of the Risale-i Nur, many of whose inspirations first came while I was reciting the tasbihat following the prayers; they are the seeds of its truths. In respect of the walâyat-i Ahmadiye and worship of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), these phrases are the invocations of the Muhammadan (PBUH) way which, following each of the five daily prayers, more than one hundred million believers repeat together in a vast circle of remembrance. Their beads in their hands, they declare thirty-three times, thirty-three times, and thirty-three times.
You have surely understood now the great value of reciting thirty-three times after the five daily prayers, in such a splendid circle for the remembrance of Allah, each of those three blessed phrases, which as explained above, are the summaries and seeds of both the Qur’an, and belief, and the prayers. You have understood too the great reward they yield.
[The First Topic at the beginning of this treatise forms an excellent lesson about the obligatory five daily prayers. Then, although I did not think of it, involuntarily the end here became an important lesson about the tesbihat following the prayers.]
Praise be to Allah for His bounties.
Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed You are All-Knowing, All-Wise. (3)
(11th Ray, Risale-i Nur)
(1) Today, the population of Muslims is 1.6 billion and is 1/4 of the world.
(2) Qur’an, 31:28.
(3) Qur’an, 2:32.