On the Existence of the Creator

 

By Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

 

In this world, many kinds and colours and varieties of beauty are exhibited. Looking closely, we see that all things, and in particular all living beings, are in a movement to satisfy their recurrent needs and wishes; we see that whatever they need and desire reaches them in unexpected ways at most proper times and from places which it is impossible for themselves to reach.

For example, the cells of a body are supplied with the sustenance they need without wilful questing; the young of living creatures are nourished with an extraordinarily wonderful food first in their mothers’ wombs and then after their birth. It is impossible for either to obtain the least of their needs through their own power and faculties. Consider your own case: with respect to your inner and external senses and organs, what innumerable needs you have, none of which you can provide by yourself although they are indispensable to your life.

Who created the sun and hung it above you as a source of light and colour and warmth? Can you give existence to a single flower, which you need to satisfy your sense of smell? Do you have any part in the creation of a single molecule of air, which is so vital for you? Who established the relation between your body and senses and the world around you? You see that human intervention in the natural world can destroy the ecological balance in it so as to make it lethal to you, even though human beings are the most conscious and knowledgeable of creatures.

Have you ever pondered how much a single apple really costs? For an apple to come into being is it not absolutely necessary to have the harmonious and justly proportioned collaboration of the sun (the source of heat and light), of the air, of moisture, of soil, with the seed of the apple tree? Seeing that you-even though you are one of the most powerful and knowledgeable of creatures-are unable to create even a particle of earth, a molecule of air, a beam of light and a tiny seed, do you not also see, and see clearly, that concepts like chance, necessity or ‘natural causes’, to which people import creativity, although these are altogether lacking in consciousness or power or knowledge or free will, cannot really be the originators of those things?

Also, you see that everything is interconnected to everything in the universe; all things are interrelated to a single thing, which is, in turn, interrelated to all things. The whole of the universe needs every single part of it for its existence; the deformation of a single cell in your body can lead to the death of the whole body. So, are all of these factors not enough to explain the existence and Unity of One, Who is absolutely Knowledgeable and absolutely Powerful. Who created the whole of the universe, as well as each tiny particle in it? Who created each single cell of our body, as well as the whole of it?

Thus, the provision of your needs and the needs of all creature indicates a most Compassionate, All-Generous and Sustaining One, Who directs each thing to a final point of perfection particular to itself. How else can you explain all these acts, each and all fully realized, of innumerable purposive consequences within an infinite compassion and miraculous orderliness? Is your need to understand satisfied by appeals to blind and deaf nature, to unconscious forces, aimless chance, lifeless causes?

 

Fountain Magazine: Issue 12 / October - December 1995