What is the Wisdom in the Ascension?

 

The wisdom in the Ascension is so elevated that human minds cannot reach it. It is so profound that the mind cannot comprehend it, and so subtle and fine that the intellect cannot grasp it. However, even if we cannot know the reality of the wisdom in the Ascension or the exact Divine purposes for it, we can nevertheless, by means of some indications, show the existence of some of those purposes. They are as follows.

In order to demonstrate the light of all of His Names throughout the universe and the concentration of the manifestations of His Names on certain beings and thereby show His Unity or Oneness, the Creator of this universe distinguished an eminent individual with an Ascension in the form of a link between the furthest limit of the realm of multiplicity and corporeality and the starting point of the dominion of pure unity and spirituality. Addressing him on behalf of all the creatures, He explained all the Divine purposes to him in the name of conscious beings and made them known through him. He also willed to observe through his sight the beauty of His art and the perfection of His Lordship in the mirrors of His creatures, and also to cause them to be observed by others.

Furthermore, as is testified by His works, the Maker of the world has infinite beauty and perfection. Both beauty and perfection are loved because of themselves. Since this is so, the One with infinite beauty and perfection has a boundless love for His beauty and perfection. That boundless love manifests itself in many ways in the works of His art. He loves His works of art because He sees His beauty and perfection in them. The most lovable and elevated among His works of art are animate beings. The most lovable and elevated among animate beings are conscious beings, and by virtue of their comprehensiveness, the most lovable among conscious beings are to be found among human beings. The most loveable individual among human beings is the one who has most fully developed his potentiality and manifested the samples of the perfections observed in all the creatures.

Thus, in order to see at one point and in one mirror all the manifestations of His Love pervading all of the creatures, and to display all the varieties of His beauty, focused on one individual, the Maker of beings chose one among human beings who is of the quality of an illustrious, enlightened fruit of the tree of creation and whose heart is like a seed containing the essential elements of that tree. Then, in order to demonstrate how He loves that individual in the name of the universe, He drew him to His presence through an Ascension, which is like a thread linking the seed, which is the origin, with the fruit, which is the end, and honored him with the vision of His Essential Beauty. In order that the others could copy him in his holiness and excellence, He favored him with His Word and entrusted Him with His Decree.

In order to comprehend this exalted wisdom, we shall observe it through the telescope of two comparisons.

First comparison: As is explained in detail in the parable of The Eleventh Word, suppose there is a glorious king who has vast treasuries full of many varieties of jewels. He has great skill in strange crafts, comprehensive knowledge of innumerable curious arts, and profound learning in numberless sciences. Since anyone with beauty and perfection wants both to see and display his beauty and perfection, of course that skilful king too will wish to set up an exhibition where he will reveal before the people’s eyes the majesty of his dominion, the glitter of his wealth, the wonderful works of his art and the marvels of his skills. By doing so, he also wants to observe his own beauty and perfection in two ways: he wants both to see them with his own eyes penetrating as far as the fine, delicate points, and also to observe them through the sight of others.

So, the king begins to build an imposing, magnificent, extensive palace. He divides it into apartments and mansions in an amazing way. Then, He adorns it with jewels of great variety from his treasures, and decorates it with the finest, the most beautiful works of his art. He furnishes it with the most delicate works of his knowledge and science, and decks it out and completes it with the miraculous works of his learning. Next, he spreads tables with varieties of bounties and the most delicious of foods worthy for each group and prepares a general banquet. Then, in order to show his perfection, he invites his subjects both to eat of the foods and to see the palace with everything in it.

Then he appoints one among his subjects as representative and accords him the highest rank with himself. He invites him up from the bottom floor to tour all the mansions and floors one after or above the other. Showing him the successive machinery and all the workshops of his wonderful art and the storehouses for the produce coming from below, he brings him up to his own private apartment. There, he honors him with his presence and the vision of his blessed person, who is the origin of all those perfections, He informs him of the true nature of the palace and of his own perfections. Appointing him as a guide for the rest of his subjects, he sends him back to describe to the people the maker of the palace by means of its contents, inscriptions, and wonders. The guide will also inform them of the meanings of the inscriptions, what the works of art and well-proportioned and well-arranged furniture and decorations signify, and how they point to the perfections and skills of the palace’s owner. Again he will teach them the correct behavior and formalities in visiting the palace and beholding the exhibition in it, and describe the protocol and ceremonies that are in accordance with the pleasure and desires of the learned and skilful king, who does not appear to them.

In exactly the same way (God’s is the highest comparison) the Majestic Maker, Who is the Lord of Eternity, desired to see and display His infinite Beauty and perfections. So He made the palace of this world in such a fashion that each creature voices His perfections in numerous tongues and points to His Beauty with many signs. Through all the beings in it, this universe shows how numerous immaterial treasuries are hidden in each of His Most Beautiful Names and how many subtleties are concealed in each of His sacred titles. It shows this in such a way that although together with all their laws and principles all sciences have studied this book of the universe since the time of Adam, they have not yet been able to discover one-hundredth of the meanings and signs which that book contains concerning the Divine Names and perfections.

Thus, the Wisdom of the Majestic One of Beauty, the Beautiful One of Majesty, the Maker having perfection, Who has made that palace of the universe like an exhibition to see and display His perfections and transcendent Beauty, requires that He should inform someone of the meanings of His signs contained in that palace so that they do not remain vain and without benefit for conscious beings on the earth. His Wisdom really requires that He should have someone to travel through the exalted worlds, which are the sources of the wonders in that palace and the storehouses where the results of their lives accumulate; that He should raise him above all others, honor him with nearness to Him in His presence and get him to tour the worlds of the Hereafter, and entrust him with many duties such as being a teacher to all His servants, a herald of the sovereignty of His lordship, a conveyor of the things pleasing to Himself, and an expander of His signs in the creation and operation of the palace of the universe; that He should show his pre-eminence through the decorations of the miracles which He would enable him to work, and that He should proclaim through a decree like the Qur’an that that person is a truthful personal interpreter of the Majestic One.

We have so far demonstrated through the telescope of this comparison a few of the instances of wisdom in the Ascension only as examples. You may infer others by analogy.

Second comparison: Suppose there is a knowledgeable, skilful person. If that person wants to write a miraculous book, on each page of which are as many truths as would fill a hundred books, and in each line of which are as many subtle meanings as would fill a hundred pages, and in each word of which as many truths as would fill a hundred words, and if all the meanings and truths of that book point to the transcendent perfections of its miracle-displaying writer, he most certainly would not leave such a treasury closed and thereby make it worthless. He would surely teach it to some others so that such a valuable book would not remain meaningless and vain. He would teach it so that his hidden perfections would be unveiled and his beauty (his intellectual and spiritual excellence) would be seen; and so that he should himself be pleased and make himself loved. To this end, he would have someone go through that wonderful book from the first page to the last and instruct him in all its meanings and truths so that that person would then teach them to others.

In exactly the same way, in order to display His perfections, Beauty and the truths of His Names, the Eternal Inscriber has ‘written’ the universe in such way that all creatures proclaim and express in innumerable ways His infinite perfections, Names and Attributes. Of course, if the meaning of a book is not known, then it would have no value. But a book(such as the universe(each letter of which contains thousands of meanings cannot be reduced to nothing, nor are they allowed to do so. That being the case, the One Who has written that book will certainly make it known and cause each group of creatures to explain a part of it according to capacity. He will also teach the whole of it to an individual who has the most comprehensive view, the most universal consciousness, and the greatest capacity. However, to teach the whole of such a book with all its universal truths requires that, starting from the furthest limits of the levels of multiplicity (the corporeal world) which is the first page of the book, as far as the realm of Unity, which is the final page, the individual should be taken on a most elevated and universal journey. Thus, thorough this comparison, to a degree you can look at the exalted instances of wisdom in the Ascension.

 

This article has been adapted from Risale- i Nur Collection.