Second part of the spark

 

 

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

 

KNOW, O FRIEND, that God orders the heavens and Earth, and wraps night and day around the head of Earth, our cradle, like a lined turban. How could He entrust some sections of creation to some poor, contingent beings? Can that which is not the Lord of the Throne dispose of what is under the Supreme Throne? It cannot, for the Power has control and authority over all things, and leaves no room for outside intervention. Besides, the honor and dignity of His absolute authority and independence, as well as His will to be known and loved, do not allow others to be a veil (between Him and His creation) or a nominal means to attract God’s servants to themselves.

Control over the whole and the part, of the species and the individual, occur simultaneously, one within and supporting the other. This activity cannot be shared between two agents, for the One Who ordered creation sustains, brings up, and directs humanity while simultaneously governing and conducting Earth. At the same time He conducts a species’ affairs, He makes human cells and creates particles—the smallest parts of things— with the same Power He uses to control creation. He controls and manages by putting in order; He sustains, trains, and brings up by controlling and managing; and He disposes and creates by sustaining, training, and rearing. The sun cannot illuminate the ocean’s face without simultaneously illuminating its bubbles’ cheeks, its eyes’ drops, and the pupils of the raindrops falling upon it.

That which is not the Power that wraps night and day around Earth cannot interfere even with a cell belonging to the smallest organ of any earthly inhabitant. The One Who made, fashioned, and ordered a fly’s mind and a microbe’s eye also has your actions recorded in a Manifest Book, and will call you to account for them.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that the absolute disposal, all-encompassing power, and all-seeing wisdom observed in every creature and particle—together with all they relate to and what happens around them—are clear evidences and manifest signs that the Maker of all things has no partner. There is no division, separation, or distribution in His Power. If a contingent being were the Maker, there would be division, separation, and sharing in his control and executing his power and will. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary that the Maker is One, and that His existence is Necessary. There is no limit to or division in His Power, which operates according to the measures of His Destiny and “writes” on Its lines.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that small animals are more intelligent, more sophisticated in structure, and more subtle in art than large ones. Despite this, their life is shorter and they seem to benefit from the world less than others. This clearly shows that the Maker can create everything with ease, and that He does not specially busy Himself with any of them. He only says: “Be!” and they are. Nothing can compel Him to do anything; He does what He wishes and acts as He wills. There is no god but He.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that the sun’s image reflected in a bubble is both a part (of the bubble) and a tiny, individual sun bearing the real sun’s attributes. These attributes give it the sun’s identity, but not its nature. In short, it is neither the sun itself nor something other than the sun. The shares of all other things in the sun, that is, the sun’s giving light and heat and color to the world, do not decrease the bubble’s share, for it makes no difference to the bubble whether all other things exist or not. The bubble can say: “The sun belongs to me exclusively, is contained in me, and exists for me.”

Know, O friend, that what recedes from the vastest sphere of the Name “the Outward” and sees itself as almost nothing before It, comes near and restricts itself to the relative or real sphere of the Name “the Inward.” In either case, God surrounds them all (85:20) through His Names and His Knowledge, Will, Power, and other Attributes. With their partial, limited minds lost in what they deal with, people viewing the Almighty’s Grandeur and administration of the planets think it unlikely that He concerns Himself with creating, for example, a fly. People compare the absolutely Necessary One with the poor and contingent—a comparison provoked by Satan that causes people to despise small creatures.

This is a great injustice, for everything glorifies its Creator. Nothing lowers itself to accept as its lord anything or anyone other than the One for Whom this world is but one of His houses, the sun but one of His lanterns, and the stars but a few of His lamps, as if there were nothing living in the world save He. A large thing has no right to see itself as greater than a small one and feel pride therein, for like right being right without any difference between large and small, the existence of a small thing is just as valuable as that of a large thing.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that everything, from the sun of suns to the fruits of trees, when viewed carefully is chosen and distinguished among that which is infinite. Only the One, the manifestations of Whose Attributes are limitless, can control that which is infinite.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that all-encompassing provision does not exclude particular provision. God’s bounties are not like rain or water, from which everyone can benefit without considering individual needs. Thus, individuals do not need to feel particular gratitude for them. Their needs are not like homemade pots to be filled with the Divine bounties they expect to pour in like rain. Rather, the real Giver of Bounties considers each individual comprehensively, makes a particular pot, and then fills it with His bounties. Just as giving thanks is incumbent on everyone for general favoring, it is incumbent on each individual for these particular bounties.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that most people do not give the proper respect due to the observed Book of the Universe and the Qur’an. Philosophers attribute to the Necessary Being a little part, a thin covering, a compound of nominal value, and then share the rest among causes—rather, among certain impossibilities and mere notions. God assail them! How they are perverted! (9:30). However, one who believes in His Unity says: “Whatever exists belongs to Him, has come from Him, is returning to Him, and subsists by Him.” Learned people, deceived by ideas and findings over time, wrong the Qur’an by ascribing only parts of the wording and meaning to the Lord of the Supreme Throne from that magnificent palace—the Qur’an. The rest of its firm foundations, well-established principles, golden building blocks, and blossoming trees they share among Earth’s inhabitants.

Those who think that humanity has some control over what happens in the universe are sorely mistaken. They are like those who give only a few bubbles to the one who fills the ocean, or who ascribes the ocean’s overflowing to a few bubbles. A truth-loving believer says: “Whatever is in the Qur’an is from God and belongs to Him.” The Qur’an is interwoven in styles that consider each audience’s level of understanding and temperament. Having come to us through 70,000 veils, it penetrates the depths of hearts and spirits, and spreads its blessings through all levels of human societies. Every era understands and knows it, every age acknowledges and accepts its perfection, every epoch makes friends with it and accepts it as its teacher, and every period needs and respects it to the degree it answers their specific needs. The Qur’an is not a superficial, shallow book; rather, it is a bottomless ocean, a shining sun, a profound guidance.

LOOK, O FRIEND, at water and air, how gentle and pervasive they are in creation. Glory be to Him Who provides and feeds both a microbe and an elephant. Look at the Owner of Power, how He makes food that both passes through a bee’s throat and fills an elephant’s mouth, which is not too big for a microbe’s mouth nor so small that a rhinoceros disdains it. An audible word is received by an atom’s ear and fills the sun’s ear. That word is so multiplied that a cave is filled with it and echoes it back to you, yet it is not too big for the cells of a gnat’s ear.

IMAGINE, O FRIEND, the Muslim world as a mosque at the times of daily prayers, with Mecca being the mihrab (where the imam stands), and the Ka‘ba as the mihrab’s central point. Generations pray in this mosque, which is continuously filled with and emptied of successive generations.

O SAID! If you would find happiness and maintain your dignity, leave today with honor and dignity what will leave you tomorrow, causing you humiliation and misery. If you abandon the world, you will save yourself from its evils and inherit its good. If the world abandons you, you will be devoid of its good and reap its evil.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that modern civilization, which is corrupt, has opened a door to such an enormous, disgusting show and hypocrisy that, in the name of fame and reputation, hypocrisy rules the individual and the nation. The mass media make these “famous” people known to everyone, and, as modern concepts of history and recently written history books acclaim them, they urge others to follow them. The lives of individuals are sacrificed for racial considerations under the guise of nationalism.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that if people come together to make a sound unity, a community of women can acquire firm manliness, while a weak unity of men becomes woman-like. The Qur’anic phrases women say (12:30) [the original Arabic verb has the masculine form, while according to Arabic grammar it should have been feminine], and the (male) Arabs of the desert say (48:14) [the original Arabic verb has the feminine form], point to this. The community of the weak is strong, while the community of the powerful is weak.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that by rejecting devils and overcoming them, the doors of Paradise are opened.

KNOW, O FRIEND, that Divine Unity is one of the clearest proofs of Muhammad’s Prophethood. Our master Muhammad raised the flag of Divine Unity above the heads of all beings and planted it at the peak of the universe. He also proclaimed Divine Unity, with all of its manifestations, to all beings and expounded what previous Prophets had left in an outlined and generalized form.

 

Said Nursi