Second station

 

 

In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.

God is the Creator of everything, and He is Guardian over everything; unto Him belong the keys of the heavens and the earth. (39:62)

So All-Glorified is He, in Whose hand is the absolute dominion of everything, and unto Whom you are being brought back. (36:83)

There is not a thing but its treasuries are with Us, and We send it down but in a due and certain measure. (15:21)

No moving creature is there but He holds it by its forelock. Surely my Lord is on a straight path. (11:56)

 

Introduction

In my “Qatra” (A Drop from the Ocean of Divine Unity’s Proofs), which discusses belief in God, the first and most important of the pillars of belief, I briefly explained that every creature shows and bears witness to God’s Existence and Unity in fifty-five ways. In my “Nuqta,” (A Point from the Light of Knowledge of God)113 I mentioned four universals out of the evidences for Almighty God’s Existence and Unity. In my around twelve Arabic treatises, I discussed hundreds of decisive proofs for All-Mighty God’s Existence and Unity. Thus I will not discuss the matter here in great depth, but only relate twelve gleams from the sun of belief in God. Once I wrote about these in Arabic briefly.

Twelve gleams

FIRST GLEAM: The affirmation of Divine Unity is of two sorts. For example, if an important, rich man’s goods arrive in a market or a town, their ownership can be known in two ways. One is a brief judgment: looking at the goods, an ordinary person concludes that only that rich man could own so many items. However, if one with such brief conclusion supervises them, much might be stolen or others might claim partial ownership. The second way is to read the label on every packet, recognize the stamp on every roll, and know the seal on every bill, and so conclude that everything belongs to that person. Everything in effect points to him.

Similarly, there are two kinds of affirmation of Divine Unity. One is the believer’s superficial and common affirmation: “God Almighty is One, without partner or like. This universe is His.” The other is the true affirmation. By seeing His Power’s stamp, His Lordship’s seal, and His Pen’s inscription on everything, one opens a window directly onto His light from everything. The person then confirms and believes, with almost the certainty coming from direct observation, that everything comes into existence by His Power’s hand, that He has no partner or helper in His Divinity and Lordship and His absolute Sovereignty. Through this, one attains a degree of permanent awareness of the Divine Presence. I will now mention some “rays” to demonstrate that true, established affirmation of God’s Unity.

NOTE: Divine Dignity and Grandeur require that material or natural causes should be a veil before the Power’s operations. The real agent acting in the universe is the Eternally Besought One’s Power. Divine Unity and Majesty, as well as God’s absolute independence and transcendence, require this. The Eternal Sovereign’s officials, all that conveys His commands (e.g., air, angels, or natural causes), are not executives through whom He exercises His Sovereignty, but heralds of His Sovereignty and, as with angels, observers and superintendents of His acts as Lord—Sustainer, Administrator, Upbringer, and Trainer—of the worlds. They exist because they make known the Power’s dignity and Lordship’s majesty, so that base and lowly things should not be attributed directly to Power.

Unlike a human king, who is essentially weak and destitute, God Almighty does not use officials to exercise His authority. Although everything seemingly occurs according to the principle of cause and effect, this is to preserve the Power’s dignity in the superficial view of the mind.

Like a mirror, everything has two faces. One looks to the visible, material world, resembles the mirror’s colored face, and may be a way to account for various “colors” and states. The other face is like the mirror’s shining face and looks to and consists of the inner dimension of things, where Divine Power operates directly. In the apparent, material face of things, there may be states that are seemingly incompatible with the dignity and perfection of the Eternally Besought One’s Power. In this face, Divine Power veils His operations behind cause and effect so that those states may be ascribed to causes. But in reality and with respect to the inner dimension of things, everything is beautiful and transparent. This dimension is fitting for the direct operation of Divine Power and that the Power should be associated with it. Whatever occurs in this dimension is not incompatible with Its dignity. Thus the function of causes is purely apparent and they have no effect in respect to this dimension.

Another reason for apparent causes is that people tend to judge superficially. They raise unjust complaints and baseless objections about things or happenings that they find disagreeable. Almighty God, Who is totally just, has put causes in this material dimension of existence as a veil between such things or happenings and Himself so that such comments should not be aimed at Him. The faults and mistakes that make things and events disagreeable essentially originate in people and things themselves.

Here is a meaningful illustration of this subtle point: Azrail, the Angel of Death, once said to God Almighty: “Your servants will complain about and resent me, for I take their souls.” God Almighty told him in the tongue of wisdom: “I will put the veil of disasters and illnesses between you and my servants so that they will complain of them and not resent you.” Thus illness is a veil to which people can attribute that which is disagreeable about death. However disagreeable in appearance, death in reality has many wise and beautiful aspects, and they are attributable to Azrail’s duty. But Azrail is also an observer, a veil to Divine Power, so that people should attribute to him those aspects of death that their superficial reasoning cannot reconcile with Divine Mercy’s perfection. Divine Dignity and Grandeur require that causes should be a veil before Divine Power’s hand, while Divine Unity and Majesty demand that causes withdraw their hands from the true effect.

SECOND GLEAM: Look at this garden of the universe, this orchard of the earth. Notice the heavens’ beautiful face, gilded with stars. You will see that each creature scattered and spread out in them bears a stamp unique to the Maker, the Creator of all things. Each species, “written” on the pages of night and day, spring and summer, and published by Divine Power’s Pen, bears illustrious and inimitable seals, all of which belong to the All-Majestic Maker, the All-Beautiful Creator. I will mention only a few as examples.

Of the innumerable stamps, consider this one out of many He has placed on life: He makes everything out of one thing and one thing out of many things. He makes the countless members and systems of an animal’s body out of fertilizing sperm-bearing fluid and also out of simple drinking water. To make everything out of one thing is surely the work of an Absolutely All-Powerful One. Also, One Who transforms with perfect orderliness all sub stances contained in innumerable kinds of vegetable or animal food into particular bodies, weaving from them a unique skin for each and various bodily members, is surely an All-Powerful and Absolutely All-Knowing One.114

The Creator of life and death manipulates life in this workshop of the world according to His Wisdom in such manner and uses such a miraculous law issuing from the realm of His Creative Commands, that only one Who holds the whole universe in the grasp of His administrative Power and absolutely unconditioned authority could apply that law and enforce it. Thus, if you can reason and have a heart that “sees,” you will understand that producing everything from one thing with perfect ease and order, and skillfully making many things into one thing with perfect harmony and orderliness, is a stamp unique to the Maker, the Creator of everything.

If you see that, together with weaving a hundred rolls of broadcloth and other materials like silk and linen from a single ounce of cotton, a wonder working one also makes many foods from it like halva and pastries; and if you see that he skillfully makes gold out of iron and stone, honey and butter, water and soil, which he holds in his hand, you will conclude that he has a special art, a particular way of working, and that all earthly elements and sub stances are subjugated to his command and authority. Truly, the manifestation of the Divine Power and Wisdom in life is far more wonderful and amazing than this example. This is only one out of many stamps on life.

THIRD GLEAM: Look at the living creatures moving in this ever-moving universe, in these revolving bodies. You will see that the All-Living, Self Subsistent One has placed many seals on each one. One of them is this: A living being, for example, a human being, is a miniature of the universe, a fruit of the Tree of Creation, and a seed of this world, for each human being comprises samples of most species of beings. It is as if each living being were a drop distilled from the universe with the most subtle and sensitive balance. So, to create a living being and be its Lord, one has to have full control over the universe.

If you are not lost in fancies and delusions, you will understand that to make a word of Power, for example, a honey-bee, a sort of small index of most things, to “write” on humanity (a page) most of the universe’s features, to include in a tiny fig seed (a point) an entire fig tree’s program, to exhibit in our heart (a letter) the works of all Divine Names manifested throughout the universe, to record in human memory, which is situated in lentil-sized place, enough “writings” to fill a library, and to include in it a detailed index of all events in the cosmos, is most certainly a stamp unique to the Creator of all things and the All-Majestic Lord of the universe.

Thus if one seal of Lordship on living beings displays its light and makes His signs read in such a fashion, if you were able to consider all those seals together, would you not proclaim: “All-Glorified is He Who is hidden by the intensity of His manifestation.”

FOURTH GLEAM: Look carefully at the various multicolored beings floating in the heavens’ “ocean” and scattered over the earth’s face. Each one bears the Eternal Sun’s inimitable signatures. Just as His seals on life and living beings are apparent, so are His signatures on His act of giving life. As comparisons make profound meanings more easily understood, I offer a suit able comparison. Consider the sun: From planets to drops of water, to fragments of glass and sparkling snowflakes, a signature from the sun’s image and reflection, a radiant work (effect) particular to the sun, is apparent. If you do not accept the tiny suns apparent in these innumerable things as manifestations of the sun’s reflection, you must be so foolish to accept that an actual sun exists in each drop of water, and in each fragment of glass and transparent object facing the sun.

Similarly, with respect to the giving of life from among the Eternal Sun’s manifestations, He has placed such a signature on each living being that even if all causes came together and each one was a free agent able to do whatever it wills, they could not imitate that signature. Living beings (miracles of Divine Power) are each a focal point for the Divine Names’ manifestations, which are like the Eternal Sun’s rays. If, therefore, that amazing inscription of art, that curious composition of wisdom, that manifestation of the mystery of Oneness displayed by living beings is not attributed to the Single and Eternally Besought One, it means falling into total misguidance and superstition. For it would mean giving each living creature an infinite creative power, an all-embracing knowledge, and an absolute will by which to govern the universe. In short, each one would have all the eternal attributes unique to the Necessarily Existent One. As such, each atom of any item would have to be divine, for each atom, especially seeds, are given such a character or properties that they take up a position in exact accordance with the system of the beings of which they are parts. Atoms and seeds are even in a position related to the whole species to which the living being growing from it belongs, for a seed seems to act in such a way that it is planted exactly in the place suit able for the continuation of its species and to plant the species’ flag.

We may even say that the seed takes up a position so that the living being can continue its transactions and relations with all the other creatures with which it is connected to receive its necessary sustenance. If, then, that seed or atom does not act under an Absolutely Powerful One’s command and its connection with Him is severed, it would have to have an eye with which to see all things and a consciousness encompassing all things.

In short, if the sun’s images or reflections in water drops, glass fragments, and multicolored flowers are not attributed to the sun, we must accept the existence of innumerable suns. This is an inconceivable superstition. Similarly, if everything that exists is not attributed to the Absolutely All-Powerful One, we must accept the existence of as many gods as atoms in the universe. Such an idea is clearly untenable.

In summary, then, each atom has three windows opening onto the Eternal Sun’s light of Unity and Necessary Existence.

FIRST WINDOW: A soldier has relations with all levels of an army, duties in accordance with those relations, and actions in accordance with those duties and army regulations. It is the same with each atom in your body. For example, an atom in your eye’s pupil has similar relations and duties with your eyes, head, powers of reproduction, attraction and repulsion; with your motor and sensory nerves, and veins and arteries, which circulate your blood and work your body; and with the rest of your body. This shows that each bodily atom is a work of an Eternal, All-Powerful One and operates under His command.

SECOND WINDOW: An air molecule may visit, enter, and work within any flower or fruit. If it were not subjugated to and working under an Absolutely All-Powerful One’s command, it would have to know all systems and structures of all flowers and fruits and how they are formed, down to their peripheral lines. So, that molecule shows the rays of a light of Divine Unity like a sun. The same holds true for light, soil, and water. Science says that the original sources of things are hydrogen, oxygen, car bon, and nitrogen. All of these are the components of soil, air, water, and light.

THIRD WINDOW: Like the seminal fluids of animals, which have the same composition and nature, the seeds of all flowering and fruit-bearing plants, made up of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen, have also the same composition and nature. The only basic difference is the program of their progenitor deposited in them by Divine Destiny. If we put different kinds of seeds in a pot filled with soil, which is composed of particular or certain elements, each plant will appear in its own wonderful form, shape, and amazing members. If the soil, air and water atoms were not subjugated to and under the command of One Who knows each thing with all its features, structures, lifecycles, and conditions of its life; One Who can endow everything with a suitable being and all that it needs; and to Whose Power everything is subjected without the least resistance, each soil atom would have to contain “immaterial factories” that determine all the plants’ future forms and lives as well as a number of workshops equal to all flowering and fruit-bearing plants, so that each could be the origin for these various plants that differ in form, taste, color, and members. Or each plant would have to have an all-encompassing knowledge and be able to form itself. In other words, if a being’s connection with Almighty God is severed, you must accept as many gods as the number of soil atoms. This is utterly untenable.

However, when you admit that the atoms are working under an All Powerful and All-Knowing One’s command, everything becomes very easy. An ordinary soldier, in the name of a powerful king and by relying and depending upon his power, can force a whole people to migrate, join two seas [by having them build a canal], or capture another king. Similarly, by the Eternal King’s command and permission, a fly may kill a tyrant, an ant may destroy another tyrant’s palace,115 and a fig seed may bear the load of a fig tree.

Each atom contains two further true witnesses to the Maker’s necessary Existence and Unity. Despite its absolute powerlessness, each atom performs many significant duties; despite its lifelessness, each atom acts in conformity with the universal order, which displays universal consciousness. Thus each atom testifies to the Absolutely All-Powerful One’s necessary Existence through its impotence and to His Unity by acting in conformity with the order of the universe.

Each living being also contains two signs that He is the Unique One of absolute Unity and the Eternally Besought One. In each is a seal of Divine Oneness and a stamp of His being the Eternally Besought One, for each living being reflects in the mirror of itself all the Divine Names manifested in most parts of the universe. Like a focal point, it reflects the supreme, most comprehensive manifestation of the All-Living, Self-Subsistent One. Since it reflects a display of the Oneness of the Divine Essence behind the veil of the Name the Giver of Life, it bears a stamp of Divine Oneness.

Again, since a living being is like a miniature of the universe and a fruit of the Tree of Creation, the easy satisfaction of its endless needs shows that God is the Eternally Besought One. That is, the being has such a Lord that He is concerned with it and always cares for it. Such concern and care is far more valuable for it than everything in the universe.

[God’s care] alone suffices a thing in place of everything,

While all things cannot substitute for even a single instance of His regard.

 

This shows that the Lord of all beings needs nothing, that satisfying their needs does not diminish His Wealth, and that nothing is difficult for His Power. This is a sort of stamp of His being the Eternally Besought One. Through the tongue of life, every living being recites: Say: “He—(He is) God, the Unique One of absolute Unity. God, the Eternally-Besought-of-All (Himself in no need of anything)” (112:1-2).

There are other significant windows or openings. They have been discussed elsewhere. Seeing that each atom opens up three windows and two openings on the Necessarily Existent One’s Oneness and that life opens two doors, understand how the levels of all beings radiate the light for knowing the All-Majestic One. From this you can understand the degrees of progress in knowledge of God and the degrees of awareness of His Omnipresence attained through it.

FIFTH GLEAM: One pen is enough to write a book by hand. To print it, however, as many metal “pens” as its letters must be arranged. Further, if most of the book is to be inscribed in an extremely fine script within certain letters, as Sura Ya Sin can (and has been) written within the initial two letters of Ya and Sin, smaller metal “pens” to the number of the book’s letters are necessary. Similarly, if you accept that this Book of the Universe belongs to the One Who has written it with His Power’s Pen, you follow a way so easy as to make the existence of the book necessary and inevitable. But if you attribute it to causality or nature, you follow a way so hard as to be impossible, and so riddled with superstition that even a most fanciful mind could not accept it.

Attributing existence no nature means that each soil atom, water drop, and air molecule contains millions of printing machines and innumerable immaterial factories [to substitute for Destiny in determining the forms and lives of all things in nature], so that nature could originate all flowering and fruit-bearing plants [and govern their lives]. Also, each air, water, and soil atom should be an all-encompassing knowledge and ability to do everything. For every piece of earth, water, and air can be the source of most plants. However, their formation and structure is so systematic, balanced and well ordered, and their forms are so unique, that a specific factory or “printing machine” would be necessary for each one. Therefore, to be able to originate existence, nature would have to contain in each piece all the machines necessary for the existence of everything. So, attribution of existence to nature is such a superstition that even most superstitious people cannot accept it.

In short, every letter of a book points to itself only to the extent of being a letter and to only one aspect of its existence and meaning. However, it describes its writer and shows him in many ways—for example: “The one who wrote me has fine hand-writing or penmanship. His pen is red.” Similarly, each letter of this vast Book of the Universe points to itself to the extent of its size and form, but describes the Eternal Designer’s Names as elaborately as an ode, and testifies to Him and points to His Names with its “index fingers” as many as its qualities and states. Thus nobody, not even foolish Sophists who deny themselves and the universe, can deny the All-Majestic Maker.

SIXTH GLEAM: [Like the sun being reflected with its light and heat in each bubble on the surface of an ocean or each fragment of glass,] the All Majestic Creator manifests certain of His Names on an individual creature or species of creatures and thus gives it its unique identity. So, each and every individual creature or species and each part of every creature bears the stamp of His absolute Oneness (Ahadiya). Also, [like she sun being reflected on the surface of the whole ocean or on the whole earth or the moon,] the Creator manifests certain or all of His Names on the wholes or universals or kingdoms of beings, and thus has numerous visible seals of His Unity (Wahidiya). Due to His Oneness and Unity, each and every individual being and each and every species and whole or universal, and the earth as a whole and the universe display unity, which demonstrates the Creator’s absolute Unity (Wahda). Out of His innumerable stamps or seals, let’s look at one placed on the earth’s face in spring.

In spring, the Eternal Designer resurrects countless plant and animal species with complete differentiation and specification, and perfect orderliness and separation amid infinite intermingling and confusion. This is a stamp of Divine Unity as evident and brilliant as spring. One with a bit of consciousness will perceive that raising dead soil to life in spring, showing with perfect order countless samples of resurrection, and writing on the earth’s page the individual members of countless species without fault or forgetting, mistake or deficiency, and in a most well-balanced and well-proportioned, well-ordered and perfect fashion, is a seal unique to One of Majesty, an All Powerful One of Perfection, an All-Wise One of Grace and Beauty, One Who has infinite Power, all-encompassing Knowledge, and a Will able to govern the universe. The wise Qur’an declares: Look upon the imprints of God’s Mercy, how He revives the earth after its death. He it is Who will revive the dead [in a similar way]. He has full power over everything. (30:50)

It will certainly be very easy for the Creative Power, Which displays countless examples of resurrection within a few days during the revival of the earth in spring, to revive the dead. For example, is it proper to ask a miracle working one who, at a sign, raises up Mount Ararat if he can remove a huge rock blocking your way? Similarly, is it proper to say (in a manner implying doubt) to an All-Wise and Powerful One, an All-Munificent and Compassionate One, Who created the firmaments, the earth and the mountains in “six days” and continuously fills and empties them: “Can you remove this layer of soil over us that is blocking our way to Your banquet You have prepared and laid out in eternity? Can you level it and let us pass across it?”

Surely you have observed unity on the earth’s face during summer and therefore witnessed the Unity of God. Now look! These most wise, insightful, and mighty operations on the earth’s face during spring also bears a seal of unity and therefore displays God’s Unity. For this activity is absolutely extensive, speedy, liberal or generous, and easy, and yet done in absolute orderliness and faultless differentiation, and exhibits a most perfect beauty of art and a most perfect form of creation. Thus only One with infinite knowledge and boundless power could own such a seal. That seal belongs to One Who, although nowhere, is all-present and all-seeing. Nothing is hidden from or difficult for Him. With respect to His Power, particles and stars are equal.

Once in a garden of the All-Compassionate One of Grace’s munificence, I counted bunches (of grapes) hanging from a grapevine that was two-fingers thick. They were like one little pip among the “bunches” of His miracles. There were 155 bunches, and one bunch contained about 120 grapes. I thought: If this grape vine were a tap from which honeyed water flowed ceaselessly, only then would the water be enough, in this heat, for the bunches on which hang those hundreds of little “pumps” of mercy’s sherbet. But this grapevine manages with only a little moisture, which it occasionally obtains. Therefore, the One Who does this must be powerful over all things. All-Glorified is He at Whose work minds are bewildered.

SEVENTH GLEAM: With a little care and effort, you can see the Eternally Besought One’s seals on the earth’s “page.” When you raise your head to look at the great Book of the Universe, you will see on it a seal of Divine Unity as big and clear as itself. For like a factory’s components or a palace’s building blocks, or a well-organized city’s part, all creatures support, aid, and work together—in perfect orderliness—to meet each other’s needs. Joining efforts, they serve living beings. Cooperating, they obey an All-Wise Administrator toward a goal. They follow the rule of mutual assistance, which is in force throughout the universe. For example, the sun, the moon, night and day, winter and summer, and plants come to the aid of needy animals; animals hasten to the help of needy humans; nutritious sub stances rush to the assistance of delicate, helpless infants and fruits; and particles of food move to assist the cells of bodies. This clearly shows that they act through the power of a single, All-Munificent Upbringer and at the command of a single, All-Wise Administrator.

Such mutual support and assistance, answering of each other’s needs, close cooperation, obedience, submission, and order testify that all creatures are administered through a single Administrator’s organization and directed by a single Upbringer. Also, the universal providence and favor included in the universal wisdom, which is clearly apparent in the purposeful creation of things, as well as the comprehensive mercy evident from the providence and the universal sustenance required by that mercy to feed all living beings, form a seal of Divine Unity so brilliant that anyone with sight and thought will see and understand it.

A fabric of wisdom showing intention, consciousness, and will covers the universe; a fine net curtain of providence and favor showing grace, adornment, embellishment, and kindness is placed above it; over that is spread a robe of mercy radiating the will of being known and loved, of favoring with bounties and gifts enveloping the universe; and over that is laid a table of provision for maintaining all creatures, which shows Lordship’s kindness, bestowal, benevolence, perfect caring, proper nurturing, grace, and favoring. All of this clearly shows an All-Gracious One Who is All-Wise, All Munificent, All-Compassionate, and All-Providing.

Is everything in need of sustenance? Yes, indeed. Like an individual being needing food to live, all beings, especially living beings, whether universal or particular or wholes or parts, have many material and immaterial demands and needs that must be met if they are to continue living. Although they cannot obtain even the smallest need, we see that all their needs are met, in an unexpected way and from an unexpected source, with perfect order, at the appropriate time, in a suitable fashion, and with perfect wisdom. Does this not clearly show an All-Wise Nurturer of Majesty, an All-Compassionate Provider of Grace?

EIGHTH GLEAM: Seeds sown in a field show that the field and the seeds belong to the one who owns both. Likewise, life’s fundamental elements (e.g., air, water, and soil), in which things are sown, are of similar, uncomplex nature and universal and omnipresent. Plants and animals, which are fruits of Mercy, miracles of Power, and words of Wisdom, also are of similar nature and found everywhere. This shows that they belong to and are under the command of a single miracle-displaying Maker. Every flower, fruit, and animal is a stamp, a seal, and a signature of that Maker. Regardless of location, each one proclaims in the tongue of its being: “The One Whose stamp I bear also made this location. The One Whose seal I carry also created this place as a missive. The One Whose signature I indicate also wove this land.” Only the One Who holds all elements in His Power’s grasp can own and sustain the least of creatures. Those who are not blind can see that only One Who exercises Lordship over all plants and animals can own, sustain, and govern the simplest one of them.

In the tongue of similarity to other individuals, each individual being says: “Only the one who owns my species can own me.” In the tongue of spreading over the earth’s face with other species, each species says: “Only the one who owns the earth’s face can be our owner.” In the tongue of being bound to the sun, with other planets, and of its mutual relations with the heavens, the earth says: “Only the one who owns the entire universe can own me.”

Suppose apples were conscious and that someone told one of them, “You are my work of art,” the apple would exclaim: “Be quiet! If you can form all apples on the earth; rather, if you have power over all fruit-bearing trees; rather, over all the gifts of the All-Merciful One proceeding from the treasury of Mercy in shiploads, only then can you claim to be my Lord!”

NINTH GLEAM: We have pointed out some of the seals, stamps, and signatures on particulars and parts, universals and wholes, as well as on the world, life, living beings, and on the giving of life. Now I will indicate one of the countless stamps on species.

Since a tree’s countless fruits depend on one law of growth from one center, they are as easy and cheap to raise a single fruit. This means multiple centers would require for a single fruit as much hardship, expenditure, and equipment as for a whole tree, just as manufacturing the needed military equipment for one soldier would require all factories for a whole army. So, if creation were dependent upon multiple centers, there would arise as many difficulties as the number of individuals. The extraordinary ease seen in all species coming into existence is therefore the result of the facility arising from unity.

In short, the correspondence and similarity in basic members between a species’ members and a genus’ divisions proves that they are works of a single Maker; they are “inscribed” with the same Pen and bear the same seal. The absolute ease of their creation, which makes their existence almost inevitable, requires that they be the work of One Maker. Otherwise, the ensuing difficulties would doom that genus and that species to non-existence.

Given this, attributing everything to Almighty God makes all things are as easy as one thing; when attributed to “natural” causes, one thing becomes as difficult as all things. Thus the extraordinary economy and ease seen in the universe, as well as the endless abundance, clearly show the stamp of Unity. If these abundant and cheap fruits did not belong to the One of Unity, we could not buy a pomegranate even if we gave the world in exchange.

TENTH GLEAM: Just as life, which manifests Divine Grace, is an argument and proof for Divine Oneness (Ahadiya), even a sort of manifestation of Divine Unity, death, which manifests Divine Majesty, is an argument and proof for Divine Unity (Wahidiya).

Consider this—The highest comparison is (and must be put forth) for God: Bubbles on a mighty river reflect the sun’s image and light, as do transparent objects glistening on the earth’s face. Both testify to the sun’s existence. Although the bubbles sometimes disappear (such as by passing under a bridge), successive troops of bubbles continue to show the sun’s reflection and display its light. This proves that the little images of the sun, which appear, disappear, and then reappear, point to an enduring, perpetual, single sun that continues to manifest itself from on high. Thus, just as through their appearance those sparkling bubbles demonstrate the sun’s existence, so through their disappearance and extinction they display its continuation and unity.

Similarly, through their existence and life, these beings in continuous flux testify to the Necessarily Existent Being’s necessary Existence and Oneness, while through their decay and death they bear witness to His eternity and permanence. The beautiful, delicate creatures that are renewed and recruited along with the alternation of day and night, summer and winter, and the passage of centuries and ages, show the Existence, Unity, and permanence of an elevated, everlasting One with a continuous display of beauty. Their decay and death, together with the apparent causes for their lives, show that (material or natural) causes are only veils. This proves that these arts, inscriptions, and manifestations are the constantly renewed arts, changing inscriptions, and moving mirrors of an All-Beautiful One of Majesty, all of Whose Names are sacred and beautiful. Also, they are His stamps that follow one after the other, and His seals that change through wisdom.

This Book of the Universe both instructs us in the signs of Divine Existence and Unity seen in the universe’s creation and operation, and bears witness to all the All-Majestic One’s Attributes of Perfection, Beauty, Grace, and Majesty. These signs also prove the essential Perfection of Divine Being, without fault and defect. For a work’s perfection points to the perfection of the act lying in that work’s origin. The act’s perfection points to the name’s perfection, which points to the attribute’s perfection, which points to the essential capacity’s perfection, which necessarily, intuitively, and evidently points to the perfection of the one with that essential capacity.

For example, a perfect palace’s perfect design and adornments show the perfection of a master-builder’s acts. The acts’ perfection shows the perfection of the eminent builder’s titles, which specify his rank. The titles’ perfection show the perfection of the builder’s attributes, which are the origin of the art. The perfection of the art and attributes show the perfection of the master’s abilities and essential capacity. The perfection of those essential abilities and capacity show the perfection of the master’s essential nature.

Similarly, the faultless works seen in the universe, about which the Qur’an asks: Can you see any flaw? (67:3), the art in the universe’s well ordered beings, points to an Effective, Powerful Agent’s perfect acts. The acts’ perfection point to the perfection of that All-Majestic Agent’s Names. The Names’ perfection points and testifies to the perfection of the Attributes of the All-Majestic One known with the Names. The Attributes’ perfection points and testifies to the perfection of the essential Character and Qualities of the Perfect One qualified by those Attributes. The perfection of the essential Character and Qualities point to the perfection of the One having such Character and Qualities with such certainty that all types of perfections observed throughout the universe are but signs of His Perfection, hints of His Majesty, and allusions to His Beauty in the forms of pale, weak shadows when compared to His Perfection.

ELEVENTH GLEAM AS RADIANT AS THE SUN: As shown in The Nineteenth Word, our master Muhammad the Trustworthy, upon him be peace and blessings, is the supreme sign of the great Book of the Universe, the “Greatest Name” of God manifested in that “Qur’an” of the cosmos, the seed and most illustrious fruit of the Tree of Creation, the sun of the palace of the world, the luminous full moon of the world of Islam, the herald of Divine Lordship’s sovereignty, and the wise discoverer of creation’s secret. He flies through the levels of truth on the wings of Messengership, which embraces all previous Prophets, and of Islam, which takes under its protection the world of Islam. With the support of all Prophets and Messengers, saints and truthful, truth-seeking scholars and purified ones, he attested to Divine Unity with all his strength and opened the way to the Divine Throne of Oneness. What fancy or doubt can divert belief in God, which he demonstrated, and close this way to Divine Unity, which he proved?

Since I described, to some extent, that clear proof and miracle-working being through fourteen droplets from the water of life of his knowledge in The Nineteenth Word, and through nineteen signs in The Nineteenth Letter (on his miracles), I conclude with calling God’s blessing on him as testimony to his truthfulness.

O God, bestow blessings on the one who leads to the necessity of Your Existence and Your Unity, and testifies to Your Majesty and Grace and Perfection; the truthful and confirmed witness, and the verified, articulate proof; the lord of Prophets and Messengers, the bearer of the meaning of their consensus, affirmation, and miracles; the leader of saints and fruitful ones, who has the meaning of their agreement, verifications, and wonder-working; and the one with evident miracles, clear wonders, and decisive proofs that corroborate and affirm him.

[O God, bestow blessings on] the one with exalted virtues in his person, elevated morals in his duty, and lofty qualities in his Shari‘a, perfect and free of all contradiction; the center where Divine

Revelation descended, as agreed upon by the One Who revealed, what was revealed, and the one who brought the Revelation to him; the traveler through the worlds of the Unseen and the inner dimensions of things; the observer of spirits, who conversed with angels; and the sample of all the perfections in creation, in regard to individuals, species, and genera (the Tree of Creation’s most illustrious fruit).

[O God, bestow blessings on] the lamp of truth, the proof of reality, the embodiment of mercy, the model of love, the discoverer of the secret of creation, the herald of the sovereignty of Divine Lordship, the one who demonstrated through the sublimity of his spiritual personality that he was before the “eyes” of the Author of the World at the creation of the universe, and the one who brought a Shari‘a that shows through the comprehensiveness and soundness of its principles that it is the order of the Composer of the world and established by the Creator of the universe.

The One Who composed the universe with this perfect order composed this religion [Islam] with its finest and most beautiful order. His Messenger is our master, master of the communities of the children of Adam; our guide to belief, the communities of believers, Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abdul-Muttalib, upon him be the best of blessings and the most perfect peace as long as the earth and the heavens subsist. As the leader of all other witnesses and instructor of all human generations, this truthful and confirmed witness witnessed and announced with all his strength, utmost solemnity, utter steadfastness, strength of certainty, and perfection of belief: “I bear witness that there is no deity but God, the One. He has no partner.”

TWELFTH GLEAM AS RADIANT AS THE SUN: This twelfth gleam is such an ocean of truths that all 22 Words are only 22 drops from it. It is such a source of light that they are only 22 rays from it. Each Word is only a ray from one of the stars of the verses shining in the heavens of the Qur’an. Each is a drop from the river of a verse flowing from that Ocean of the Distinguisher between Truth and Falsehood, a pearl from a verse, each of which is a chest of jewels in the greatest of treasuries: God’s Book.

This Word of God is defined a little in the 14th droplet of The Nineteenth Word. Originating in the Greatest Name of God, it descended from the Supreme Divine Throne as the greatest manifestation of Divine Lordship. So elevated and comprehensive as to encompass and then even transcend time and bind the ground to the Supreme Divine Throne, it repeatedly declares with all its strength and its verses’ absolute certainty:“There is no deity but God.” Making the universe testify to this, all of its contents sing in unison: “There is no deity but God.”

If you look at the Qur’an with the eyes of a sound heart, you will see that its six sides are so brilliant and transparent that no darkness and misguidance, doubt and suspicion, or deception can penetrate it. Nor is there a fissure through which such things could infiltrate into the sphere of its purity. Above it is the stamp of miraculousness, beneath it proof and evidence, behind it its point of support—pure Divine Revelation, before it happiness in this world and the next, on its right questioning human reason about its truth and ensuring its confirmation, and on its left calling the human conscience to testify to its truth and securing its submission. In its inside is the pure guidance of the All-Merciful, and on its outside is the light of belief.

Its fruits, with the certainty depending on observation, are the purified and truth-loving scholars and saints, adorned with all human perfections and attainments. If you listen to that Tongue of the Unseen—the Qur’an—you will hear from its depths a most familiar and convincing, an infinitely solemn and elevated, heavenly voice furnished with proofs that declares repeatedly: “There is no deity but He.” It states this with such absolute certainty depending on actual experience and complete conviction, that, concerning its truth, it gives you certainty of knowledge to the degree of the certainty coming from direct witnessing and observation.

In short, the Messenger and the Most Firm Criterion to distinguish between truth and falsehood (the Qur’an) are each a “sun.” The former, the tongue of the visible, material world, along with the support of a thousand miracles and confirmation of all Prophets and purified scholars, points with the fingers of Islam and Messengership to the truth of “There is no deity but God” and shows it with all his strength. The latter, the tongue of the Unseen world, having forty aspects of miraculousness and confirmed by Divine signs of creation and the operation of the universe, points to the same truth with the fingers of right and guidance, and shows it in a most solemn manner. Thus that truth is clearer than the sun and more manifest than daylight.

O obstinate one immersed in misguidance, who attempts to deny and annul the Qur’an! How can you oppose these suns with your mind’s dim lamp? How can you remain indifferent? Are you trying to extinguish them by blowing? Enough of your denying mind! How can you deny the words and claims spoken by the Qur’an and the Prophet in the Name of the Lord of the Worlds and Owner of the Universe? O you wretched one, more impotent that an fly! Who are you that you attempt to contradict the Majestic Owner of the universe?

 

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

113 Qatra and Nuqta are included in Mathnawi (“al-Mathnawi al-Nuri: Seedbed of the Light”), The Light, 2007. (Tr.)

114 Countless beings eat the same kinds of food and are composed of the same elements, and yet each one has a unique face, fingerprints, character, ambitions, feelings, and so on. This is irrefutable proof of the Existence and Unity of an All-Knowing and All-Powerful Creator Who has absolute Will and can do whatever He pleases in whatever way He wills. (Tr.)

115 A fly, entering Nimrod’s nose [a Mesopotamian king] and reaching his brain, caused him to die, and ants destroyed the palace of Pharaoh [Ancient Egypt’s king].