Addendum

Details: Published: Monday, 30 November -0001 00:00

Addendum

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

All praise be to God for His favoring us with the Qur’an, and for His mercy manifested by sending the master of creation, Muhammad, upon him and his Family be peace and blessings.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that the All-Wise Creator has made the plant and animal kingdoms—particularly the small ones—one of the broadest arenas for displaying His Power and manifesting His Attributes in the greatest abundance, and one of the fields containing most of the “mirrors” reflecting His Names. He has done this for certain wise, lofty purposes, some of which are as follows:

Vegetables or plants serve as seeds for Earth, and animals are fruits of the world. A seed is a miniature tree, and its fruit is its miniature index. Whatever is manifested in a tree is manifested in the seed and the fruit. The purpose for existence and life is to receive and reflect the manifestations of the Names of the All-Majestic and Beautiful One of absolute Perfection. Divine Favoring manifests itself through the elaboration and reproduction of plants and animals, especially with their most delicate parts and individual members. This is most suitable to the eternal Wisdom.

It is narrated that Prophet Moses complained to God about the abundance of gnats attacking him and asked: “What is the wisdom of creating so many of them?” God revealed that: “The gnat asks: ‘Why have you created human beings, who are so large? They are unaware and heedless of You. If you had made their heads of gnats, [in return for each,] You would have had tens of thousands of those praising, mentioning, and glorifying You, and displaying Your Names’ manifestations and Your art’s embroideries through their tongues and disposition.’” True! While the invisible Qur’an inscribed in the ink of stars on the sheets of the heavens shows you the signs of creation’s grandeur and splendor, the Qur’an inscribed in the ink of subatomic particles or the atoms in your eye reads the signs of Knowledge and Wisdom.

The former says: “Glory be to Him. How splendid are His Essential Qualities,” while the latter says: “Glory be to Him. How delicate is His Wisdom, how subtle His art.” Although both Qur’ans have the same value and significance, since observers and watchers derive no benefit from multiplying the large one, multiplying the small one is of great importance to those numberless angels and jinn, people and others who study it and reflect on it. When it is multiplied, it will not remain the same, single book; rather, it will be a book of endless variations containing different uses and meanings, one that has increased greatly in beauty and purity of expression. Furthermore, when many chapters of the small Qur’an and its copies are inserted in some of the letters of the large one, the small Qur’an excels the large one to the degree of its smallness.

Another wise purpose for creating many animals and plants is that the most perfect Divine manifestation is that God manifests Himself with all His Names focused on a single being. Art becomes most perfect when the greatest thing, with all of its embroideries, is inserted in the smallest. The seed and fruit with respect to the tree, the plant and animal with respect to Earth, humanity and the Prophet with respect to the universe, and the heart and innermost human sense or faculty with respect to humanity— these are essential, compact samples receiving and reflecting all of the Names manifested on the originals growing from them.

For example a fruit, part of the tree (which represents the whole) points to Unity—the manifestation of Divine Names on all fruits and trees. However, being a sample of the tree (containing whatever is in the tree) and the tree representing the total growing from it and resulting in it, a fruit indicates Divine Oneness—the manifestation of Divine Names as focused on the fruit.70

For example, the sunlight illuminating the world in daytime is a manifestation of Unity, while the sun’s image reflected in each transparent object is an example or analogy for the manifestation of Oneness. When you see the sun in your mirror as having taken on the mirror’s color and attributes and then see it in other mirrors, you understand and witness what Oneness or Unity means. It is the same (and only) sun manifested in all mirrors that announces: “We speak in different tongues, but Your Beauty is one and the same.”

Whatever exists points to that Beauty. We understand from this that the All-Wise Creator, with glorified Wisdom and delicate art, turns with His subtle Power, complete Favoring, perfect Mercy, and sensitive Wisdom from creation to Earth, and then, in succession, to living beings, humanity, and one’s heart; from humanity to its heart; and finally to the heart of creation and its seed from which the universe, as well as its illustrious fruit, the final purpose for its creation, and the embodiment of the Creator’s love and Mercy, was created. That exalted, noblest, pure, unblemished heart is Muhammad, our master and the master of creation, upon him be peace and blessings to the number of the Tree of Creation’s fruits.

KNOW, O ONE WHO THINKS that some creatures exist in nature over abundantly and in vain. Creation’s perfect order and balance refute this, for the order is a design interwoven by the raison d’être of all parts, particulars or individuals, and details in creation. One cannot observe the purposes of all details of a palace, nor neglect the main purpose of why it was built. Since the main purpose is considered while building it with all its parts, the secondary purposes expected of the details are thus observed, for there are subtle purposes behind everything related with the All-Living, Self-Subsistent Owner in proportion to His Ownership and disposal, and the extent of His Names’ manifestation on that thing. The purposes related to the thing itself are also in proportion to its life and existence.

Everything has been entrusted with a goal in life, which is studied by intelligent beings. If one cannot discern it, others can. Each thing contains numerous benefits. God has uncountable hosts. None knows the hosts of your Lord but He (74:31). Innumerable beings focus their attentive gaze on all things that exist. Among them are angels glorifying and exalting God, jinn observing creation in amazement and reflecting on it, and spirit beings extolling God and proclaiming His Unity, for whom the solidity of things does not conceal what is in them and who can observe many things at once. Above all, the Maker of all things looks on the works of His art. Many awake and enlightened believers, as well as many animals moved by their perceptions, also look on God’s works of art.

QUESTION: The signs in the Book of the Universe point to the existence of non-human creatures who gaze on and study them in amazement and reflection and then glorify God. Which line indicates this?

ANSWER: The order on the line of balance in the page of wisdom indicates it. When you enter a theater where a play is being performed, you see many marvels that amaze the audience, as well as pleasing melodies and many types of charms in which minds and imaginations take pleasure. There are also many other things that give pleasure to your innumerable faculties, feelings, and senses. Then you look at the spectators’ hall and see a few paralyzed, deaf, and blind children. You will conclude that behind the veils hanging in front of the walls are various intelligent beings with different tastes and temperaments who have come for innocent amusement and are pleased with and want to see every novelty in the play. They see you and the play from where you cannot see them.

If you understand this comparison, look at those creatures and their world. You see “carpets” spread, “couches” raised, “raiments” worn, and “sheets” unrolled. There are flowers and fresh fruits inviting living, needy beings to themselves with their color, taste and smell, and appealing to those who understand such things with their design, decoration, and art. Plants climb straight up their stalks to fulfill their duty of creation, and animals stand on their legs to do their duty of worship. Most of these creatures are not conscious of the astonishing, pure beauty and excellent faculties lodged in their creation, for they are for other creatures who can see and hear.

Despite this attractive majesty, charming adornment, kinds of favoring, things and events arousing curiosity to know and feelings of love for the One behind them; despite all undertakings, intentions and decisions, self-ornamentation, smiles, beckonings, and flirtations; and despite many similar attractions and charms that almost start to talk and tell their meanings, it appears that only two kinds of intelligent, living beings of understanding can appreciate all of this: humanity and jinn. However, most of them are heedless and are like deaf and blind children with paralyzed minds in the darkness of materialism and naturalism. This shows that apart from humanity and jinn, the universe is full of beings with spirit who reflect on existence and glorify God: The seven heavens and Earth, and whoever is in them, glorify Him; there is nothing that does glorify Him with praise but you do not understand their glorification (17:44).

KNOW, O FRIEND, that the vaster the control of Divine Power in particulars is, and the more numerous those similar to them are, the greater the favoring on an individual. Do not say: “I am a drop in an ocean to be forgotten because of the ocean’s vastness.” No! Rather, as the ocean testifies, you are under the protection of the firm order prevailing, with all its strength, in all the things like you in proportion to the expanse of your environment. For the smaller, more concealed, and more strictly surrounded a thing is, the greater care it is given and the less neglected and more protected it is against the interference of others and the tricks of those who believe in coincidence. It becomes more favored as a created thing. The center is more guarded against assault, the seed is under greater protection against the tricks of those who believe in coincidence and the harassment of storms, and the seed is given greater care.

O HUMANITY! You are Earth’s seed and Earth is the universe’s egg. This is why the Qur’an frequently mentions the creation of the heavens and Earth together, and means by this the creation of all things.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that favoring’s perfection comes through wisdom’s perfection (favoring can be perfect if wisdom is perfect), wisdom’s perfection comes through order’s perfection, and order’s perfection is through the perfection of balance or measure. One example is the five human senses, which the Creator created so that people could sense the features and qualities of all fruits, flowers, sounds, smells, and so on. This is why the sense of taste has so many delicate, well-ordered pieces, which equal the varieties of all fruits, food, and drink. The sense of hearing can receive and distinguish among innumerable sounds. Compare with these the other external senses and the more numerous and richer inner ones. This comprehensive nature has made human beings what they are: able to receive and reflect endless kinds of manifestations of the Creator’s Names and taste endlessly varieties of His bounties.

Human beings are like a telephone switchboard that has a central key to make connections within a city. Each person has a central sense to taste all of God’s bounties, as well as special keys attached to his or her head and faculties to experience the pleasure of receiving and reflecting all His manifestations. Use those keys in accordance with the Shari‘a’s guidelines to please your Originator.

How people use these keys determine to what degree they will experience Paradise’s pleasures. Although the promise that you will be together with the one you love in Paradise brings the highest and lowest together in the same place, (your experiencing these depend on how and to what extent you used your senses, feelings, and faculties in this world).71

KNOW, O FRIEND, that the apparent confusion and commingled state of things does not mean that they are playthings of chance. Rather, they are the most delicate embroideries of the general design of the Book of the Universe. However, that design cannot be easily discerned with a superficial, untrained look at reflections in the mirror of illusion. Do you not see that commingled seeds of different plants scattered at random display a perfect order when they grow? The Pen of Destiny puts them in that amazing order.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that a decisive proof that Muhammad is the seal of Prophets is that he so extended religion’s bounds in all respects that no one can imagine a more comprehensive and perfect order. For example, concerning Divine Unity and Lordship, he says: In His hand is the dominion of all things (36:83); He grasps everything by the forelock (11:56); The heavens are rolled up in His right hand (39:67); He forms you in the wombs as He wills (3:6); He is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward; and He has perfect knowledge of all things (57:6); You will not unless God wills (76:30); and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein (50:16).

Also, the religion revealed to Muhammad decrees that all things are equal and obey their Creator’s commands, Who does not share their qualities or needs. What Islam teaches about the Resurrection and Divine Unity cannot be surpassed. So it is in every other respect, for it is already complete and perfect, and therefore deserves to be eternal, to continue until the Last Day.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that moved by the environment’s touching appearance, I cried. The tears I shed are as follows:

I am mortal, but I do not want the mortal.

I am impotent, so I do not desire the impotent.

I surrendered my spirit to the All-Merciful One,

so I desire none else.

I want only One Who will remain my friend forever.

I am but an insignificant particle,

but I desire an everlasting sun.

I am nothing in essence,

but I wish for the whole of creation.

* * *

Do not invite me to the world;

I came and found it evil and mortal.

Heedlessness was a veil;

I saw the light of Truth concealed.

All things, the whole of creation,

I saw were mortal and full of harm.

Existence, indeed I put it on.

Alas! It was non-existence; I suffered much.

As to life, I experienced it;

I saw it was torment within torment.

Intellect became pure retribution;

I saw permanence to be tribulation.

Life was like a wind, it passed in whims;

I saw perfection to be pure loss.

Deeds were only for show;

I saw ambition to be pure pain.

Union was in fact separation;

I saw the cure to be the ailment.

These lights became darkness;

I saw these friends to be orphans.

These voices were announcements of death;

I saw the living to be dead.

Knowledge changed into whim;

I saw in science thousands of ailments.

Pleasure became unmixed pain;

I saw existence to be compounded non-existence.

I have found the True Beloved;

Ah! I suffered much pain because of separation.

I have finally found God:

(You will never be able to find Him

save only by renouncing worldly things.)

With this light I have found Paradise in the world;

The dead have started to be revived.

I have seen that voices are glorifications

of God and recitations of His Names.

Things have become familiar.

Pleasure lies in suffering and pain.

Life has become a mirror reflecting the lights of the Truth.

Permanence, I have seen, lies in self-annihilation.

All particles recite God’s Names.

Everything bears witness to the Truth.

* * *

In everything there is a sign

Pointing to the fact that He is One.

O YOU WHO THINK that the world’s pleasure and happiness lie in heedlessness and ignoring religion’s restrictions. I once tested my carnal self. I saw myself on a bridge between two mountain peaks, under which was a deep valley. There was darkness everywhere. I looked right (into the past) and saw only frightening levels of darkness. I looked left (into the future) and again saw only terrifying darkness. I looked down and saw a deep, bottomless precipice. I looked up and saw dark, deaf, and mute clouds sending down sorrow and grief, despair and harm. Afterwards I looked ahead and saw, amidst darkness, the most malicious demons and scorpions, lions and wolves with teeth ready to tear. When I looked back, I saw neither help nor helper.

While hopeless and tired of being tested, Divine guidance helped me. I saw the moon of Islam rise over creatures, and the sun of the Qur’an illuminate all sides. I saw the bridge (of life) as a road extending between the Glorified One’s bounties and the All-Merciful’s Paradise. To my right extended gardens (of the past) full of the flowers of the righteous and illustrious fruits of Prophets and saints, under which flowed rivers of time carrying them to eternity.

To my left were gardens where the flowers of ambition and expectation opened by the Mercy of the All-Affectionate, All-Bounteous. Above me hovered clouds of mercy sending down the water of life profusely. In the middle of these clouds, the sun was smiling with the light of guidance and eternal happiness. In the fields extending in front of me were my brothers and sisters, friends, and tame animals that the darkness of misguidance had showed me as wild, harmful beasts.

To understand this vision, read the verse: God is the protecting friend of those who believe. He brings them out of the levels of darkness into the light. As to the unbelievers, their protecting friends are those leading unbelief and rebellion. They bring them out of the light into the levels of darkness (2:257).

O Light of Lights. For the sake of Your Name the Light, bring us from the levels of darkness into the light. Amen.

KNOW, O WRETCHED SAID! You are like a silly child sitting on the seashore, who cries without stopping when bubbles reflecting the sun disappear. The child cries as each bubble pops, thinking that the sun’s smiling image reflected in it will be lost forever. The child cries as the bubbles become turbid and unpleasant with the mixture of solid things, and does not look up until he or she understands that all these reflections are manifestations of the sunlight renewed on the sea’s surface, the waves’ cheeks, in the drops’ eyes.

The sun does not disappear when the mirror reflecting it does so. Therefore, the disappearance of some bubbles and their images must not engender any painful decay or distressing separation. With its radiant face and beauty and the perfection of its majesty, the perpetual sun’s manifestations in the multiplicity of the mirrors (where it is reflected) are renewed continuously. The mirrors and other objects receiving the sun’s manifestations fulfill their tasks cheerfully and, when they complete their tasks, hide smilingly.

You sit on the shore of the ocean of life and cry over the setting of beings of perfection, beauty and grace, and the decay of the fruits of Divine blessing when their time is finished. You think that beauty belongs to the beautiful things and fruit to trees. Storms of chance blow and snatch them away, and you think they disappear into the darkness of eternal non-existence. But, remember that the One Who illuminated the things you love with the light of beauty is also He Who illuminated all flowers in the garden of the universe, and stirs the hearts of loving nightingales toward them.

O WRETCHED ONE! How much longer will you cry because the fruit in your hand has disappeared? Consider the continual bounty of the Splitter of the Grain and Seed by maintaining the tree of those fruits. If that tree stops yielding fruit, consider the extent of His favoring throughout the world, where innumerable trees of the same kind are found. If there is a shortage of fruit this year, consider the extent of His favoring renewed with the renewal of seasons and years. Then consider the extent of His favoring continuing in the World of Symbols or Immaterial Forms, and in the Intermediate World with the likes of what you see in this world. Finally, consider the extent of His most vast, eternal sphere of the Hereafter, where you will find the likes of what you have made friends with in this world’s garden.

If you think about bounties but are indifferent to the act of bestowing them, your only choice is to weep. See the act of bestowing and its continuance in the bounties themselves. In the act of bestowing, see the Bestower together with His comprehensive pouring out of His bounties freely and the perfection of His Mercy. Smile with gratitude to Him, and be relieved by His graciousness.

When your eyes and heart weep over the loss of decaying beautiful things, consider the multiplicity and vastness of the spheres one within the other containing all that you love. The pleasure of their renewal in their likes will cause you to forget the pain of separation. All those spheres are mirrors that reflect the manifestations of the shadows of the lights belonging to the Beauty of the All-Majestic, Munificent One, Eternal, Perpetual, Self-Subsistent, Permanent, Who has no beginning or end, and does not change in any way.

What is reflected in the mirror is not owned by the mirror, so there is no reason for you to weep over it if the mirror ceases to exist. Detach your attention from the world and turn to the mirror of your heart so that you may see the Sun of Beauty and come to know that whatever you see and love in the world is a sign of Him.

Among the signs of His Grace and Beauty is that He decorated the heavens with lamps and Earth with flowers. Among the signs of His Beauty is that He created humanity in the best pattern and of the fairest stature, and wrote the Book of the Universe in the most marvelous letters. Among the signs of His excellence is that He made the Prophets’ spirits shining and brilliant, illuminated the saints’ inner senses, and decorated the hearts of those knowing Him with the lights of His Beauty.

KNOW, O HAUGHTY EGO, possessor of absolute impotence and poverty, confined within so many limitations and restrictions. There is no comparison between you and Him, Who has limitless Power and Wealth, Whose Names and Attributes are unrestricted. All creation is in His Power’s grasp, and the heavens are rolled up in His “right hand.” No particle moves without His permission. He has no partner in His Sovereignty and Divinity, and no one can contend with Him in His dominion and Lordship. There is no god but He.

If you were to enter into partnership with your Creator in His Lordship, there would have to be a comparable relationship between you and Him. But there is not, nor can there ever be, such a relationship. How can a gnat weave those richly decorated garments for those worlds according to each one’s size? Your duty is to be a worshipping servant, for therein lies the perfection of your potential. Servanthood is based on and flourishes by humility and acknowledgment of one’s being nothing before God. It begins with this acknowledgment and ends in being a beloved of God, which yields the fruit of being loved by God. As servanthood is the opposite of Lordship and Sovereignty, there can be no comparison between them. You are loved by God and deserve His Mercy based on your awareness of your distance from His Lordship and Sovereignty.

Like a black page showing the letters written on it in light, servanthood reflects and shows Lordship through contrast. The blacker a page is, the more clearly and radiantly it shows Lordship. The more conscious beings are of their nothingness before God, the more radiantly and apparently they reflect the manifestations of the Necessarily Existent Being’s existence. There is no god but He.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that some Prophetic sayings exaggerate the virtues of religious deeds. Some narrations say that whoever does certain virtuous deeds will receive as much reward as that of all humanity and jinn. Some say that such narrations only seek to encourage people to do them; others say that they show how meritorious these deeds are. However, it is possible to gain the promised reward if certain conditions are met. It is enough to establish their truth that some, but not all, who do such deeds may gain the promised reward—not when they perform them, but only in certain circumstances.

Such narrations convey the idea of potential reward in such deeds. However, the reward cannot be obtained by everyone or whenever those deeds are done, as gaining it requires utmost sincerity and God’s acceptance. Also, any reward comes from His overflowing Grace and Munificence, and the servant will feel infinite need for reward in the everlasting abode. Thus, a servant cannot comprehend what is given by Him Whose overflowing kindness to such infinitely needy servants has no limit.

God’s kindness, when considered from the viewpoint of God Himself, denotes infinity and so is beyond the servant’s knowledge. For example, it is narrated that whoever recites a particular supplication will be given a reward equal to that given to Moses and Aaron. The reward given for reading a certain verse does not increase, in your limited view, in this limited world. However, when approached with respect to God’s infinite kindness, the reward promised depends on the intention’s sincerity or purity and its being acceptable by God. Also, the comparison in the narration expresses quantity, not quality. A drop containing the sun’s image can say to the sea: “Your face is vast, but my eye can receive the sunlight and its colors.”

The reward promised in the Prophetic sayings in question relates to the World of Unconditioned Existence. A minute particle of that world can contain a world from this material realm, just as the smallest piece of glass can contain the heavens. Sometimes, one easily opens a treasury of Mercy with a good word in a blessed, auspicious state. People (look at everything through their own mirrors, and) tend to judge the absolute and universal by their partial, individual criteria. However, true knowledge is with the Knower of the Unseen and the Converter of hearts.72

To conclude:

Your livelihood comes to you either as a result of some other’s choice or without the intervention of free choice.
Your need and desire are infinite, and so you have connections with everything in this world and the next.
The stupidest person is one who, not recognizing the real sun, loves and tries to preserve the mirror in which it is reflected.
The All-Wise Creator has implanted in human nature numerous faculties for specific purposes.
The manifestations of the Divine Name the All-Recording and Preserving are pointed to in: Whoever does an atom’s weight of good shall see it, and whoever does an atom’s weight of evil shall see it.
Why do you set your heart on temporary things that eventually will abandon you?
It is a Qur’anic principle that you consider Him, the Glorious One, as greater than you and worthy of your worship. He has dominion over everything; you have dominion over nothing.
Every human being will be resurrected on the Judgment Day with his or her exact identity and body, title and form.
The phrases or sentences usually coming at the end of Qur’anic verses have connections with the verses themselves, the subject matter discussed, the sura and the whole Qur’an.
Satan deceives you through your egotism and formidable conceit.
There are two Europes. One has used the religion of Jesus and Islamic civilization to make our life more comfortable, while the other has used naturalism and materialism to bring about most of our suffering.
Students of modern civilization and those of the Qur’an.
Islamic and modern civilization.
Why are there so many unbelievers?
Those who call Muslims to the worldly life.
Out of His perfect Mercy, God has included part of the reward of service in serving, and part of the reward of action in acting.
Those who rely on themselves, causes, and the world.
The Book of the Universe (the Book of Power) is inscribed according to the measures of the Manifest Book (the Book of Knowledge and Destiny), which is like a sheet of lined paper placed under the former to be written in exact measures.
The Prophet and his Prophethood represent the highest level of human perfection and good.
The three categories of witnesses and evidence of knowledge of God.

The plant and animal kingdoms are among the broadest arenas for His Power’s disposals and His Attributes’ manifestations, and contain most of the “mirrors” reflecting His Names.
The reason why there are sometimes “too many” members of a species.
The vaster the disposal of Divine Power in particulars is, and the more in number those similar to them are, the greater the favoring on an individual.
Favoring’s perfection is through wisdom’s perfection, wisdom’s perfection is through order’s perfection, and order’s perfection is through the perfection of balance or measures. An example of this is the art found in the five human senses.
Muhammad is the seal of Prophets because he so extended the bounds of religion that a more comprehensive or perfect one is impossible.
The world of the misguided and that of the rightly guided.
Those who think that pleasure and happiness in this world come from ignoring religious obligations.
Your ego only possesses absolute impotence and poverty, and is confined within so many limitations and restrictions that it can do nothing.
Why do some Prophetic sayings seem to exaggerate the virtues of religious deeds?

Said Nursi

70 The manifestation of Oneness (Ahadiya) and Unity (Wahidiya), part (juz’) and whole (kull); sample, particular, or individual (juz’i); and total (kulli) are important points requiring explanation. For example, an arm, a leg, or a head is part of one’s body, the body being the whole. But that person is a sample or individual representing humanity, whereas humanity is the total. Whatever is in the whole is not found in the part, just as whatever is in a person is not found in his or her arm, leg, or head. But whatever is in the total is found in the sample. The Divine Names manifested on the whole (a person) are not to be sought in a part, but the Names manifested on the total (humanity) are manifested on the sample (a person). The Divine Names’ manifestation on the total or the whole is called tajalli-i wahidiya (manifestation of Unity), while Their manifestation on the total, as focused on the part or individual, is called tajalli-i ahadiya (manifestation of Oneness). (Tr.)

71 Bukhari, “Adab,” 96; Muslim, no. 2640.

72 Another point the writer mentions in this respect is: The reward promised in such narrations also should be considered from the viewpoint of our imagining. Imagine a primitive, uncultured person who has never seen the king and thus is unaware of his kingdom’s splendor. This person imagines a lord in a village and, with his narrow experience, thinks of the king as a bit greater than that lord. Among the tribes living in the East there were once people who used to say: “Our lord knows what the Sultan does, while he cooks his bulgur soup in a saucepan over the fire.” In other words, they imagined the Sultan as someone greater than an ordinary man, who cooked his own soup. If someone were to say to one of these people, “If you do this work for me today, I’ll reward you with as much splendor as you think the Sultan has,” he would be promising the man as much splendor as he could imagine—namely, what the Sultan has. Thus, with our worldly views and narrow minds, we cannot think, even as much as the person in the example of the Sultan’s lifestyle, of the actual rewards related to the Hereafter. What the Traditions in question state is to compare the unknown reward for a righteous of a believing servant of God. See Said Nursi, The Words, The Light, Inc., New Jersey: 2005. (Tr.)