THE TWENTY-FIFTH WORD
The Miraculous Qur’an
While there is a permanent miracle like the Qur’an,
my mind considers it unnecessary to search for further proof.
While there is an evidence of truth like the Qur’an,
would it be heavy for my heart to silence those who deny?
NOTE: Most of the verses discussed in this treatise are those that have either been criticized by heretics or questioned by certain people of sciences or made the subject of doubt by satanic people and jinn. Their truths are herein explained in such a way that the very points that have been made the subject of criticism and doubt are proved to be, in reality, the rays of miraculousness and the sources of the Qur’an’s eloquence.
However, since this treatise was composed quickly and amid troubled circumstances, there may be some defects in the expression of ideas. However, it explains several issues that have great scientific importance, and so may be of use even in its present form.
— Said Nursi
In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.
Say: “If humanity and jinn banded together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they would never produce its like, even though they backed one another.” (17:88)
(Out of countless aspects of the Qur’an’s miraculousness, which is a store of miracles and the greatest miracle of Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, I have so far mentioned about forty in my Arabic treatises, Isharatu’l-I‘jaz (Signs of Miraculousness, an introductory commentary on the Qur’an) and in the previous 24 Words. I will explain only five here, which briefly mention the others, following an introductory definition of the Qur’an.)
Introduction
The introduction consist of three parts.
FIRST PART:
Question: What is the Qur’an? How can it be defined?
Answer: As explained in The Nineteenth Word and argued elsewhere, the Qur’an is an eternal translation of the great Book of the Universe and everlasting translator of it multifarious tongues reciting the Divine laws of the universe’s creation and operation; the interpreter of the books of the visible, material world and the World of the Unseen; the discloser of the immaterial treasuries of the Divine Names hidden on the earth and in the heavens; the key to the truths lying behind events; the World of the Unseen’s tongue in the visible, material one; the treasury of the All-Merciful One’s favors and the All-Glorified One’s eternal addresses coming from the World of the Unseen beyond the veil of this visible world; the sun of Islam’s spiritual and intellectual world, as well as its foundation and plan; the sacred map of the worlds of the Hereafter; the expounder, lucid interpreter, articulate proof, and clear translator of the Divine Essence, Attributes, Names and essential Qualities; the educator and trainer of the world of humanity and the water and light of Islam, which is the true and greatest humanity; and the true guide of humanity leading them to happiness.
For humanity, it is both a book of law, and a book of prayer, and a book of wisdom, and a book of worship and servanthood to God, and a book of command and call to God, and a book of invocation, and a book of thought and reflection. It is a comprehensive, holy book containing books for all spiritual needs of humanity; a heavenly book that, like a sacred library, offers numerous booklets from which all saints, eminently truthful people, all discerning and verifying scholars, and those well-versed in knowledge of God have derived their own specific ways, and which illuminate each way and answer their followers’ needs.
SECOND PART: To complete the definition: Having come from God’s Supreme Throne, originated in His Greatest Name, and issued from each Name’s most comprehensive rank, and as explained in The Twelfth Word, the Qur’an is God’s Word on account of God’s being the Lord of the Worlds, and His decree on account of His having the title of Deity of all creatures. It is a discourse in the Name of the Creator of the heavens and the earth; a speech and conversation in regard to His absolute Lordship; an eternal sermon on behalf of the All-Glorified One’s universal Sovereignty. It is also a register of the All-Merciful One’s favors from the viewpoint of His all embracing Mercy; a collection of messages or communications that sometimes begin with ciphers in respect of His Divinity’s sublime majesty; and a wisdom-infusing holy Scripture that, having descended from the Divine Greatest Name’s all-comprehensive realm, looks over and surveys the circle surrounded by His Supreme Throne.
This is why the title “the Word of God” has been and will always be given to the Qur’an. After the Qur’an come the Scriptures and Pages or Scrolls sent to other Prophets. Some of the other countless Divine words are conversations in the form of inspirations coming as particular manifestations of a particular aspect of Divine Mercy, Sovereignty, and Lordship under a particular title and with a particular regard. The inspirations coming to angels, human beings, and animals vary greatly with regard to their universality or particularity.
THIRD PART: The Qur’an briefly contains all Scriptures revealed to previous Prophets, and the works of all saints and purified, discerning scholars following different ways of thought and paths to God. Its six sides are bright and absolutely free of doubt and whimsical thought. Its point of support is certainly Divine Revelation and the Divine eternal Speech; its aim is self-evidently eternal happiness; its inside is clearly pure guidance; it is necessarily surrounded and supported from above by the lights of belief, from below undeniably by proof and evidence, from the right evidently by the heart’s submission and the conscience, and from the left by the admission of reason and other intellectual faculties. Its fruit is most certainly the All-Merciful’s mercy and Paradise. It has been accepted and promoted by angels and innumerable people and jinn throughout the centuries.
All of these qualities mentioned above have either been proven in other places or will be proved in the following pages depending on decisive proofs.
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi