The Sixth Treatise

 

A grain contained by a fruit in the garden of the Qur’an

 

 

The grain says:

I am a tree branch laden with the fruits of Divine Unity, or a drop from the sea full of the pearls of praise unto Him.

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

Praise be to God for Islam and the perfection of belief. May God’s blessings and peace be upon Muhammad, the center of the circle of Islam and the source of the lights of belief, and on all his Family and Companions so long as days and nights continue and the sun and moon move in their courses.

 

KNOW, O FRIEND, THAT IF YOU SEE THE UNIVERSE AS A GREAT BOOK, you will see the light of Muhammad as the ink with which that book has been written. If you see the universe as a tree, you will see his light as originally its seed and consequently its fruit. If you

see the universe as an animate being, you will see his light as its soul. If you see the universe as a macro-human, you will see his light as its intellect. If you see the universe as a flower garden, you will see his light as its nightingale.

If you see the universe as a lofty, richly decorated castle with many rooms and apartments displaying the splendor of the Eternal Sovereign’s sovereignty, the marvels of His Glory, the beautiful manifestations of His Grace, and the wonderful designs of His Art, you will see the light of the Prophet Muhammad as a spectator. He first views them on His behalf and then announces: “O people. Come and look at these pleasant sights. Hasten to receive your share in them—love, amazement, refreshment, appreciation, enlightenment, reflection, and many other lofty things.” He shows all these to them; he observes them and has others observe them. As he himself is amazed by them, he causes others to be amazed by them. He loves their Owner and makes Him loved by others. As he is illumined through them, he has others illumined. He benefits from them and makes others benefit.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that humanity is the fruit of the Tree of Creation. A fruit is a tree’s most perfect part and the farthest from the roots. It also is the most comprehensive of those parts and has the properties of the whole tree. There must be one human being from whom the All-Powerful One grew this Tree of Creation. The Creator made that individual the tree’s fruit, and then, as the All-Merciful One, made this illustrious fruit the seed of the tree of Islam, the lamp of its world, the sun of its system.

What is necessary for a tree is also necessary for its seed. The tree being so large and the seed so small does not require that the tiny seed should be exempt from this rule. There is a grain also within humanity. If humanity had been a fruit, this grain would have been its seed. This grain is the heart.

Due to the variety of human needs, human beings have relations with all species and individual parts of creation. Due to the intensity of their need and poverty, they have connections with all lights of the Divine Beautiful Names. It is as if they have as many needs as there are parts of creation. People have world-filling adversities and hostilities, and are satisfied only with one who can make them independent of, and protect them from, everything.

Like a map, an index, or a sample, each person can include or represent all of creation. They have a seed that only accepts the One, the Single. They are content only with what is eternal and perpetual. This seed is the grain of the heart, which is to be watered by Islam and receive light from belief. If, in the soil of servanthood and purity of intention, it is watered by Islam and awakened to life by belief, it grows into such an illustrious spiritual tree that it becomes its corporeal body’s spirit. If it is not watered, it remains a dried seed having to burn in fire until it acquires the quality of light.

The seed contains very subtle, delicate things like nerves, each of which, if it germinates properly, fulfills an important duty. Also, the grain of the heart has inactive servants that, when activated and developed with the life of the heart, travel through the gardens of the universe like birds. Consequently, this grain expands to the degree that one says: “Praise be to God for all His creatures, for all of them are bounties conferred on me.” (This grain expands to the degree that), for example, imagination, the heart’s weakest and feeblest servant, is burdened with a strange duty. Through it human beings, who are confined in a narrow place, enter an exhilarating garden and, while praying in the remotest eastern or western corner, put their heads under the Black Stone of the Ka‘ba, entrusting to it their testifying (to God’s being their Lord).

Grain is threshed on the threshing-ground and preserved. In the same manner, the Plain of Resurrection is the ground awaiting humanity, the fruit of creation, [to separate the grain from the chaff].

KNOW, O FRIEND, that everyone has a particular world identical with the outer world, except that its center is that particular individual and not the sun. Its keys are in that person’s hands, and are connected with his or her senses and faculties. This world takes its color from the individual and, based on this same individual, is either prosperous and beautiful or ugly, illumined or dark. Just as a garden’s reflection and the changes it displays depend on the mirror, every person’s world depends on its owner’s views and characteristics. Your small bodily size is not an excuse for the insignificance of your sins. A negligible amount of darkness or hardness in your heart may extinguish all the stars of your particular world.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that for 30 years I have struggled against two “rebels”: the ego within human beings, and nature in the outer world. I have seen the former as a shadowy mirror reflecting someone else. Nevertheless, humanity views it as having an independent existence, showing itself, and therefore becoming an unbending tyrant in rebellion against its Creator.

I have seen nature as a work of Divine Art, a painting of the All-Merciful. However, due to their viewing it heedless [of the Creator], materialists regard it as a deity, as self-originated and existing by itself, and as an excuse for ingratitude. This has resulted in unbelief.

Thanks be to God and praise be to Him, for by the help of the One, Eternally-Besought-of-All and by the enlightenment of the glorious Qur’an, my struggle has ended in the death of these two rebels, the smashing of these two idols. As discussed in many other sections in this book, a work of Divine art, a collection of the Divine laws of creation and operation of the universe, has appeared behind the veil of nature. Ego has broken into pieces, and behind it has emerged the One like Whom there is nothing. May His Majesty be exalted!

KNOW, O EGO, that there are nine things of whose nature and consequences you are unaware:

FIRST: Your body is like a fresh, pleasant, and enjoyable fruit in summer, but dried and rotten in winter.

SECOND: Your animal quality. See how quickly decay and death come to animals.

THIRD: Your human quality, which vacillates between extinction and purification, decay and permanence. Preserve that which is inclined to remain forever through constant remembrance of the Permanent One.

FOURTH: Your short and limited lifespan, which lasts only until the hour appointed for it, is neither antedated nor postponed. So do not grieve for it, be anxious about it, or burden it with worldly ambitions that cannot be achieved while you are alive.

FIFTH: Your material existence is in the hand of the True Owner of all things, Who cares for it much more than you do. If you interfere in it without His permission, you will harm it. Do you not see how avarice brings despair and disappointment, how insistence on sleeping causes sleeplessness and restlessness?

SIXTH: The misfortunes befalling you are not really bitter, for they disappear quickly. The pleasure of their disappearance is followed by fortune. Besides, they cause you to turn from what is fleeting to what is permanent through the Permanent One.

SEVENTH: You are a guest wherever you are. Guests do not set their hearts upon what does not concern them or accompany them on their trip. You will depart from here soon, and from this town—you will either go out of it or be buried in it. You will leave this transient world or be expelled from it. So abandon and renounce it, with honor and dignity, before you are expelled in humiliation.

EIGHTH: You should sacrifice your material existence to the One Who has given it to you, for He buys it for a very high price. Make haste to sell it, rather, to sacrifice it. For, first of all, it goes away for nothing. Second, it belongs to Him and will be returned to Him. Third, your reliance on it causes you to fall into non-existence, for your existence is a door opened onto Him. If you open that door through renunciation, you will find permanent existence. Fourth, if you cling to it, only a point-sized part of it remains in your hand and you will be enveloped by a thick darkness of “non-existence.” If you blow off that part, the lights of existence will surround you.

NINTH: Worldly pleasure or enjoyment. Whatever Destiny has for you will come to you, so do not worry about it. Sensible people do not set their hearts upon fleeting things. However your own particular world ends, you should renounce worldly pleasure. If it ends in happiness, you can attain happiness by renouncing pleasure. If it ends in misery, how can one waiting to be hanged get pleasure from a decorated gallows? Even unbelievers who think they are headed for absolute non-existence—I seek refuge with God from such a supposition!—should renounce worldly pleasure, for the continual disappearance of such pleasure brings a continual feeling of the pain of the absolute non-existence they suppose to follow death. Such pain is much more acute than the pleasure they find in life.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that your likeness, when stricken with a misfortune thrown by Destiny, is that of sheep trying to enter a public pasture. The shepherd seeks to turn them aside by throwing stones at them. The sheep struck by the stones turn back, as if saying: “We are under the shepherd’s command. He knows us better than ourselves, so we must return.”

KNOW, O MY SOUL, you are not more astray than the sheep. When stricken with misfortune, say: “We belong to God and are bound to return to Him.”

KNOW, O FRIEND, that out of innumerable evidences that the heart was not created to be occupied primarily with worldly affairs, heed the following: When the heart is attached to something, it becomes strongly attached. It sets upon it too zealously and, seeking permanence and eternity, is completely lost. When the heart stretches out its “hand” to grasp it, it tries to get as much as possible. However, it can only get that which is no bigger than a hair, or nothing at all. The heart is the mirror reflecting the Eternally-Besought-of-All. It does not admit an idol carved out of stone, for that stone breaks it. A lover mostly suffers at the beloved’s hand, because the beloved unconsciously rejects what does not belong to him or her, as the lover is not worthy to reside in the beloved’s heart.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that a heavenly table was sent along with the Qur’an. On it, people can find whatever their intellectual appetites need. The food is arranged in a certain order. First is the food for ordinary people, who form the great majority of humanity. For example, their share in: The heavens and Earth were at first one piece, then We parted them (21:30) is: There was no relationship between the heavens and Earth. The heavens were clean and without clouds, unable to send rain, while Earth was dried and barren. Then, by the Almighty’s Will and permission, a relationship (a contract) was established between them. So when the heavens gave birth to rain, Earth began to bring forth its produce. The part of the verse just following the sentences above, and We have made every living thing from water, alludes to this.

The meaning inferred by those with a higher level of understanding is: The sun and planets were separated from the matter that was created from the light of the chief of all creation, and [that matter] could assume any shape, like dough. This is indicated by the hadith: “What God created first is my light.”61

Consider: Were we then worn out by the first creation? Yet they are in doubt about a new creation (50:15). From this verse, ordinary people understand that those who cannot admit the Resurrection affirm their creation, which they ought to recognize as much more astonishing. They regard the Resurrection as improbable, although it will be easier. Beyond this level of understanding lies a bright evidence for the perfect ease of the Resurrection: O deniers of the Resurrection. You are revived and resurrected many times in your life, nay, annually, nay, daily. Like changing clothes in the morning and evening, you put on and then discard your bodies daily.

KNOW, O MY FRIEND, how foolish the human ego or selfhood is. It sees in itself the imprints, traces, and signs of an absolutely Free, All-Wise Lord’s making, sustaining, and administering, and discerns that this is true of all other individual beings, species, and kinds as a universal, all-encompassing rule. It therefore must be convinced of this as an undeniable reality confirmed by creation. Yet the foolish ego deceives itself by seeing such an overall and universal manifestation of the Divine Beautiful Names, which also are manifested on it, as a sign of (Divine) neglect of it, a veil under which it can hide from [the Lord’s] watching and inspection. These manifestations’ universality and intensity lead it to suppose that no one is watching it. Even Satan is ashamed of such a sophistry.

KNOW, O DISTRESSED, RESTLESS SOUL. Like sun’s rising in the morning and setting in the evening, whatever happens to you and all your conditions has been predetermined by the Pen of Destiny and inscribed on your forehead. Your distress and depression will only increase if you criticize destiny; this will be no different from striking your head against an anvil willfully. One who cannot penetrate the regions and depths of the heavens and Earth must consent willingly to the Lordship of the One Who created everything and decreed its destiny.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that if the maker of a thing were within it, he or she would be of the same nature as it, and there would have to be as many makers as the things made. For example, look at this book. It is written with one pen, but printed by using all letters of the alphabet. [Or someone types it by pressing many keys on a typewriter.] The designs or embroideries in a work of art are not made by that work, a tree’s fruits are not made by that tree, and a page’s letters are not produced by that page. Otherwise, order would be destroyed and everything would descend to chaos. But we see that there is a perfect order and stability in the creation, for everything is inscribed by the Pen of the Divine Power on the lines of Destiny.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that intellect, which comprehends the universe and goes so far beyond it, is sometimes drowned in a drop, disappears in an atom, is lost in a hair, and restricts existence to what it is lost in, wishing to include all that it comprehends in that which has swallowed it.

If you had the power to possess and control this material domain, if it really belonged to you, your fear and anxiety about maintaining it would make it very hard for you to benefit from it. However, the All-Munificent Bestower of Bounties agrees to provide whatever you need. All you have to do is to eat from the table of His favors and thank Him. Thanking Him will cause Him to increase His favors upon you, for it means seeing the act of favoring or giving bounties. Seeing this act removes the grief arising from the bounties’ disappearance, for this disappearance is not eternal. Like fruits eaten this year being succeeded by new ones next year, it means departing to make room for something new. Thus, it gives you the delight of ever renewed pleasure. Their latest call: All praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds (10:10), indicates that praising is itself a pleasure. Praising means that you see the tree of [Divine] favoring in the favor of fruits. It removes the pain arising from the thought of their disappearance, and becomes the pleasure itself.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that information provided by materialistic science and philosophy about the outer world cannot always be free of doubt and error. But information based on one’s sound conscience is mostly free of doubt and trouble. So look from your inner world, your conscience, toward the outer world if you want to avoid error.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that as this civilization has made the world into a small town, people know and hear from one another through the media, help each other commit sins, and pursue what does not benefit them. This leads them to sin and thickens their heedlessness [of belief and religious life]. Only a mighty effort and struggle can rend this veil. This civilization has made innumerable openings to the world in our souls. Only God’s special mercy can close them.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that a minute, transparent particle contains the sun’s image, although it cannot hold two particles of its own size and nature. Raindrops [and bubbles on an ocean’s face] shine with the sun’s images. Similarly, the universe’s constituent particles and compounds can receive the manifestations of the luminous, absolute, and eternal Divine Power, accompanied by the eternal, infinite Divine Knowledge and Will. A constituent particle of a cell in your eye cannot be the origin of the power, consciousness, and will that it needs to fulfill its functions in your veins, arteries, and nervous system, and in your powers of seeing, hearing, thinking, and describing.

This perfect and astounding art, this fully decorated and orderly design, and this profound and subtle wisdom can be explained in two ways. Either each of the universe’s constituent particles and compounds is the origin of the perfect, absolute, and all-encompassing attributes [such as power and will, knowledge and consciousness], or each is an object receiving and reflecting the radiations of the Eternal “Sun,” which actually has all such attributes.

The first alternative has as many impossibilities as the number of the universe’s particles and compounds. Accepting it means that a bee can carry the Ararat and Suphan mountains on its wings,62 and that the Nile and Euphrates rivers can flow from a gnat’s eyes. But in reality, every particle cannot bear whatever is beyond its power and so testifies that there is no creator, sustainer, upbringer and administrator, no owner, self-subsistent, or deity save God. The universe’s particles and compounds announce in different tongues and bear witness in different ways:

Our expressions differ, but You are always the One of the same beauty;

so whatever exists points to that All-Beautiful “Face.”

 

Every letter of the Book of the Universe points to its own existence only in one way and in its capacity of being a letter, while it indicates its Writer and Artist in numerous ways. It sings a long poem of praise in the tongue of the Names manifested on it.

 

Reflect upon the lines of the [Book of the] Universe,

for they are letters to you from the Highest Realm.

 

KNOW, O FRIEND, that many “mirrors” reflect the Divine manifestations: glass, water, air, the World of Symbols or Immaterial Forms, the spirit, the intellect, imagination, time, and many other things that we do not know. The reflections of solid, material things are dead, separated, or disconnected from themselves. They do not have the essential characteristics of their originals and therefore are not identical with them. This is indicated when their pictures are taken: They are seen only with their outer, physical forms.

The reflections of luminous things, however, are connected to their originals and bear their characteristics or attributes. [Although not exactly identical with their originals,] they are not other-than-them either. If the Creator had made the sun’s heat its soul, its light, its consciousness, and the sun’s colors its light and its senses, it would have spoken to you through the “heart” of the mirror in your hand. It would be like talking to you through your telephone or your heart’s “mirror.” For, according to its capacity, the sun’s image in the mirror would have had the heat of life, the light of consciousness, and the colors of senses. Due to this fact, the Prophet, who is luminous in identity, becomes aware of all blessings called upon himself at the same moment. This is a key to many mysterious truths.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that Glory be to God and Praise be to God describe the Almighty with His Attributes of Majesty and Grace. Glory be to God implies your contingent nature and distance from God, the Necessarily Existent One, the High and Grand. Praise be to God implies His nearness to you and His creatures with His Mercy and Grace. Consider: The sun is near to you, its heat and light reach you, and it has a certain control over you by its Creator’s leave. Thus it functions as a mirror to manifest the Divine Name “the Light” and as a receptacle of His bounties of heat and light. But you are very far from it and can do nothing to it. If affects you, but you cannot influence on it.

Similarly, God is near to us so that we praise Him, and we are distant from Him so that we glorify Him. Praise Him, for He is near to you with His Mercy. Glorify Him, for you are distant from Him. Do not confuse His nearness to you with your distance from Him, lest you become bewildered. If you do not confuse these two things, consider His nearness from the viewpoint of your distance and your distance from the viewpoint of His nearness. Then, combine these two considerations and say: “Glory be to God with His praise.”

KNOW, O FRIEND who strives for the world. Renounce the world for the following four reasons:

FIRST: It goes swiftly and decays. The pain arising from decay and separation remove the pleasure of attainment of, or union with, something subject to decay.

SECOND: Only pain and grief is left after pleasure.

THIRD: The grave, which waits for you and toward which you travel, is the door to the other world. It does not accept your ornaments of the world as gifts, for in the other world they will change into error and sin.

FOURTH: [To understand the difference between this world and the Hereafter, reflect on] the difference between staying for an hour among enemies and vermin or among your most beloved friends and elders for years. The Lord of earthly and spiritual dominion calls you to abandon that hour of pleasure so that you may have perfect comfort and satisfaction in the company of your beloved ones in those years. So answer His call before you are sent to Him fettered.

All glory be to God, how great are His Mercy and Favor toward humanity. He buys the property that He has entrusted to us for a very high price, and preserves it permanently for us. If we claim ownership of it and do not sell it to God, we are exposed to great calamity and misfortune, as our power is so small and insufficient that we cannot preserve and carry it. If we try to carry it, it will prove too heavy for us to carry. It will disappear swiftly and go for nothing, leaving to us only our sins.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that it is as if the following couplet were said about me:

 

My eyes were in sleep during the night of my youth;

They woke up only when it was the morning of old age.

 

What I regarded as the greatest wakefulness in my youth was in fact the deepest sleep. So what modernists describe as enlightenment and wakefulness must resemble my youthful wakefulness. They are like people who dream that they wake up and tell it to others, when in reality they only have entered a deeper state of sleep. How can such people, resembling the dead, wake up those who are awake? How can sleeping people make themselves heard from behind the thick veils of sleep?

O sleeping ones who think they are awake. Do not approach modern, corrupted people by making concessions and trying to resemble them in religion. You cannot build a bridge or fill up the valley between them and us in such a manner. The distance between believers and unbelievers is too great to remove, and the intervening valley is too deep to fill up. (If you try to do so,) probably you will join them or greatly deviate from the right path.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that there is the seed of unbelief in the essence of sins, especially frequently committed ones, for such sins make people indifferent and become addictions that only abandonment can cure. Such people hope that there will be no punishment for their sins, and so unconsciously look for an excuse to believe in the non-existence of torment in the eternal world. This continues until they deny the abode of punishment. As the shame arising from sinning is not followed by remorse and asking forgiveness from God, sinners begin to deny that their sins are really sins, and then begin to deny the existence of those—like guarding angels—who oversee them and are aware of their sins. Due to this intense shame, they hope that there will be no reckoning in the other world. When they encounter even a false argument for its non-existence, they take it as a strong proof and deny the final reckoning. Consequently, their hearts become even darker. May God save us from such a consequence! Amen.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that there are about 40 kinds of radiations belonging to the Qur’an’s miraculousness. The following are only some of the many aspects of its eloquence:

It has a pure, genuine fluency and is free of all defects in wording and meaning. Its sentences and paragraphs, which corroborate one another, have a firm solidarity and are perfectly proportional. Although revealed in parts over 23 years on different occasions, the sciences of rhetorical style and semantics testify that the cohesion and accord among its verses and purposes are so firm that it is as if the Qur’an had been revealed all at once. Although many parts of it came to answer different questions, it contains no contradiction in meaning, and there is such agreement and harmony among those parts that it is as if it had come as the answer to only one question.

It came to explain and judge vastly different events, but its order is such that it could have been revealed to judge only one event. In the Qur’an, God speaks in styles suited for all levels of understanding. It came down, first of all, to the Prophet, in his different moods. However, its parts show such smoothness and correspondence that it could have been revealed when he was always in the same mood. Although it addresses all peoples of all times, it speaks so smoothly and fluently, so orderly and clearly, that it seems to address only one level of understanding. (It speaks in such a way that) each group of people whom it addresses thinks that it addresses them directly and primarily.

The Qur’an guides everyone and enables them to attain guidance, but is so balanced, orderly, and straightforward that it is as if it pursued a single purpose. However, it primarily has four or five purposes: Divine Unity, Prophethood, Resurrection, justice, and worship or devotion to God in belief and one’s daily life. Since the Qur’an concentrates primarily on Divine Unity, it is perfectly coherent and harmonious, consistent and orderly.

Whoever has eyes will see that the Qur’an has an eye seeing all of creation like a single, clear page. It repeats itself to establish its purposes in minds and hearts, and repeatedly narrates stories of certain Prophets to reinforce its warnings and lessons. However, its repetitions do not tire or spoil its listeners’ taste for it. Like musk giving more scent as it is worn away, the more the Qur’an repeats a subject, the more it exudes perfume and the more “breaths of the All-Merciful” are diffused from it.

The more you read it, if you have good taste and a sound heart, the more delight you find in it, for it nourishes the heart and gives health and strength to the spirit. Such essential bodily nourishment as air, water, and bread does not displease when taken repeatedly; rather, the body needs them all the time. We need air at every instant, water a few times a day, and food at least once a day. We also need light. Since we need these basic nourishments all the time, taking them repeatedly gives us ever-renewed pleasure instead of boredom. Similarly, the Qur’an meets all the intellectual and spiritual needs of human life. We need some of its elements, like He ... God at every instant, for they refresh our spirit; some like In the Name of God every hour; and still some others daily, according to the degree of our need for it. So, the Qur’an repeats itself in accordance with the need felt for it by the heart.

For example, since He ... God or In the Name of God is like fresh air that refreshes the body and gives oxygen to the blood, it must be repeated all the time. Each time the Qur’an mentions the same event, it does so from a different perspective and thus points to certain universal principles. For instance, the phrases and sentences used to tell Moses’ story are more beneficial to us than his staff, and their benefits are not limited to a certain time and people.

In sum: The Qur’an is a book of recitation of Divine Names, reflection, legislation, knowledge, truths, and law; a cure for what is in human hearts; and a pure guidance and mercy for believers.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that human beings have a very strange nature: Through heedlessness, they confuse the functions of their physical senses and organs, and of their intellectual and spiritual faculties. They are like those who, because of the nearness between their eyes and hands, try to grasp whatever they can see. Unaware of the difference between what is Divine and what is human, [as they see both side by side, even mixed, in their being and in the outer world], they try, in their vanity, to interfere with God’s control of the universe, even though they can do nothing by themselves.

Although there is not much physical difference between people, the difference in their natures is as immense as that as seen in an atom, the sun, and “the sun of suns.” Fish and birds have great physical differences, but in their being “animals” they are almost the same. As for human beings, they stand at the top central point of the “cone of existence,” and everything that exists has the same distance from them. This is because their faculties or powers—lusts, anger, intellect, and so on—are not restricted. Egotism and vanity reduce them to the lowest ranks, while abandoning these two things and worshipping and serving God elevates them to the highest ranks, to the degree of being “the sun of suns” like Prophet Muhammad.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that the Eternal One does not allow things to pass into absolute non-existence. Even things that decay swiftly or disappear, like spoken words and momentary ideas, are preserved. However, they may assume different forms according to where they are preserved. It is as if things are charged with preserving a thing either in its exact form and nature or with one aspect only. Although scientists have discovered this reality, they still do not comprehend it perfectly. They continue to attribute, mistakenly, such chemical processes as combination, composition, and dissolution to things themselves and thus ascribe eternity to matter. But matter cannot be eternal, for God Almighty dissolves, compounds, and composes things, and He creates and makes them die. He acts as He wishes, and ordains and judges as He wills.

O WRETCHED SAID! The grave is a door—inside it is mercy and happiness; outside it lie suffering and wretchedness. Almost all of your loved ones and friends dwell on the other side of this door. Is it not time for you to want to join them and their world? Purify yourself [of your sins]; otherwise they will be disgusted with you.

If you were told that Imam Rabbani Ahmad al-Faruqi, may God bless him, was living in India, surely you would leave your homeland and risk all to visit him. But there are thousands of stars called Ahmad round the “sun” mentioned as Ahmad in the Bible, Ahyad in the Torah, and Muhammad in the Qur’an. And there are millions called Muhammad. All are inside the door of the grave, enveloped by the Mercy of God. Therefore always bear in mind the following principles:

If you are a good servant wholly submitted to God, everything is subjugated to you. If you have not submitted to God, everything is hostile to you. Everything is preordained, so be satisfied with what comes to you so that you may be at rest. Otherwise you are exposed to suffering after suffering. Your life and body belong to God but have been entrusted to you. However, He wishes to buy them from you to preserve them for you permanently. If they are left with you, they will go for nothing. You need Him in every respect and under all circumstances. You are surrounded on all sides and being driven to the grave awaiting you. The heart does not derive pure pleasure from what is impermanent. You are decaying, as is your world and the world of all other people.

The universe will be stripped of its present cloth and dressed in another garment, as if it were a huge clock whose hands have finally reached the appointed hour. So do not attach importance to your works and traces in this fleeting world, for they will not benefit you in the Hereafter.

Do not view His disposition of creation with mercy and favoring from the perspective of your smallness and distance from Him, and of His Grandeur and Might. [In other words, do not think that creation’s distance and insignificance, in relation to Him, prevents Him from treating it with favor and mercy, and do not ask why He should condescend to favor you and meet your needs.] His relation with creation requires you to glorify Him, as He deserves.

Do not view His Attributes of Majesty from the perspective of His nearness to creation and enveloping it with His Knowledge and Mercy, and of your being His creature included in His favoring and munificence. This will cause suspicion and misconception [about His Might and Grandeur] to attack you.

Glory be to Him Who cannot be comprehended by minds and intellects, and praise be to Him Whose Mercy encompasses all things. There is no deity save He, One, and He has no partners. His is the dominion of all things and all praise is His; He gives life and causes to die. In His hand is all good, and He is powerful over all things.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that when people with “living” hearts turn their attention to the universe, they see mighty, comprehensive affairs beyond their understanding and are astonished. To find a cure for this pain of astonishment, like a thirsty person hurrying to sweet water, they cannot help but utter: “Glory be to God.” They see the subtlety of Divine Favoring and experience the pleasure that compels them to express delight. They desire more pleasure by discerning the act of favoring in the bounties they consume, and also discerning the Giver of Bounties in the act of favoring. Then like one who has discovered a buried treasure, they are relieved by saying: “All praise be to God.”

When they see strange and remarkable creatures that they cannot describe, the desire to know the truth about them occupies their minds, and they find relief only in saying: “God is the Greatest.” That is, their Creator is incomparably and immeasurably great, and can create and govern them with ease. Such people are like those who are greatly astounded at the moon’s rotating or frightened when a mountain rises out of the ground during an earthquake. They are saved from the “burden” of astonishment and fright by putting them on the “ship” of the All-Powerful, All-Strong, All-Firm.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that your sins and evil cannot harm God; they only harm you. For example, God has no partners. Your ascribing a partner to Him does not affect His perfect, absolute sovereignty and rule over the universe. This only hurts you, for it will lead you to destruction.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that whoever relies on God finds that God is sufficient for him or her. So, say: God is sufficient for me, what an excellent guardian He is.

FIRST: God is absolutely perfect. Absolute perfection is loved for its own sake, and great things are sacrificed for it.

SECOND: Since He is loved for His own sake, He is the true beloved, and love requires sacrifice.

THIRD: He is the Necessarily Existent One. In His nearness originate the lights of existence, while absence from Him brings the darkness of extinction or non-existence, and causes the human soul incurable pain by extinguishing its aspirations.

FOURTH: He is the refuge of the human soul suffocated within material existence’s narrow confines, suffering from the world’s deceit, crushed by the pain arising from its affection for creation.

FIFTH: He is the Permanent, by Whom things become permanent and without Whom things decay and are extinguished, which cause grief and sorrow. Without Him pain accumulates in the human soul, whereas light pours from everywhere over one who finds and trusts in Him.

SIXTH: He is the sole Owner of existence. He wants to bear your burdens of life and bodily existence that He has entrusted to you, as you cannot carry them and suffer if you think you own them. If you desire their permanence and His continued favoring, do not be grieved when He takes them from you. Bubbles containing the sun’s images do not grieve when they disappear, and gladly sacrifice their apparent forms for the renewal of the sun’s reflections. Fruits do not grieve when they are separated from their tree, and seeds do not grieve over the fruit’s disintegration in the ground, for its disintegration means the growth of a new tree that will yield many fruits. You are also a fruit, an embodiment, of His favoring.

SEVENTH: He is the All-Wealthy and Giver of Wealth, and in His hand are the keys to everything. If you become His sincere servant and then look at the universe, you will see your Master’s sovereignty and magnificence and find relief. You will come to view the universe as if it were your property that you own without trouble, and the disappearance of which would not grieve you. A sincere servant of the King who is annihilated in His love becomes proud of whatever belongs to Him.

EIGHTH: He is the Lord of all Messengers and Prophets, saints and God-conscious people, all of whom are happy in His mercy. If you have a sound, uncorrupted heart, your knowledge of their happiness must give you happiness and pleasure.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that if your intellect is sound, you should not rejoice or grieve, be angry or complain, about anything you gain or lose here, for this world is decaying, as is your own world and you. You are not [created] to stay here permanently, nor are you made of iron or wood so that you can stay longer. You are made of ever-renewed flesh and blood and delicate limbs, and are vulnerable to everything. One part or component of you breaks, another freezes, and still another dissolves through its atoms’ disintegration. Old age has covered half of your head like a white shroud. The diseases visiting and intending to visit you are forerunners of death and destroyers of [this life’s] pleasures. Eternal life is before you. Although your comfort and happiness in the Hereafter depend on what you do here, your avarice is so great that you think you can stay here forever. Awake before the throes of death awaken you.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that when you turn to the Almighty supposing that He is One known and recognized, He will become unknown and unrecognized, for your supposition is based on a commonplace, imitative knowledge about Him. In most cases, such knowledge has nothing to do with truth. The meaning it conveys to your mind is far from explaining the absolute Divine Attributes. But if you turn to the Almighty, accepting Him as One existent but unknown, then rays of true knowledge of Him will be revealed and the all-encompassing, absolute Divine Attributes manifested in the universe will appear in the light of this knowledge.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that it is enough for you, as a limitless source of pride, that you have a Master, an Owner, One powerful over all things. He is such a Powerful One that on Doomsday the heavens will be rolled up in His “right hand” and Earth will be His handful. He brings up, trains, and sustains you with a caring and compassion much more perfect than that of your parents. You are like a drop in the sea, the sea is like a point in the known part of the universe, and that part is like a minute particle among His huge creatures. He is the Light of Lights, the Knower of all secrets.

If a king is not occupied with his kingdom’s affairs, it is not because he is too great but because he cannot do so. By contrast, due to the Eternal Sovereign’s grandeur, He inscribes His Divinity’s signs on the page of the sky with the pen of His making in the ink of pearl-like stars. At the same time, He inscribes His Lordship’s signs on the page of the eye’s pupil with the same pen in the ink of atoms.

Glory be to Him for Whose Divinity and Grandeur all heavenly objects and pearl-like planets are bright proofs, and for Whose Lordship all those smiling, luminous stars are rays of witnesses.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that like the seven-colored light, Divine Beautiful Names contain, imply, testify to, are the result of, and are reflected in one another. They may be recited simultaneously as if they were both the analogies and the conclusions reached through them, or both the arguments and the conclusions reached through them. Each Greatest Name contains all other Names to the greatest degree. Some may reach the light of the Greatest Name via some other Name or Names, and what the Greatest Name is differs according to one who tries to discover and reach it. God knows the truth.

 

Said Nursi

61 Al-‘Ajluni, Khasf al-Khafa’, 1:205.

62 Ararat and Suphan are two mountains in eastern Turkey. (Tr.)