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

 

 

O God, All-Merciful and All-Compassionate, Unique, All-Living and Self-Subsistent, All-Judging and All-Just, and All-Pure. For the sake of Your Greatest Name and Your wisest Criterion (the Qur’an), bestow uncountable blessings on our master Muhammad, your noblest Messenger. Send down on us, the publishers of this book, and all other true believers the peace of reassurance, tranquility, and conviction, as You did for the Companions and Family of Your chosen Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings. Send down on us and on other believing servants of Your religion the peace of reassurance and sincere belief, perfect certainty and pure intention, and perfect firmness in the service of the Qur’an and belief.

Secure us against our fears by removing all anti-religious elements found in the principles and public symbols of Islam, and give us relief by declaring the essentials of Islam throughout the world as soon as possible. Employ us in this sacred service. Secure us, our religion and its sincere servants, and all true believers against the attacks of heretics. Provide us and all sincere servants of Your religion with security and safety in religion and in both this and the other world. Cure our diseases, and make the Qur’an a cure for all our diseases and theirs as well. Include us and them among those who always praise and thank You.

Amen. All praise be to God. May God bestow blessings on our master Muhammad and on his Family and Companions. Amen.

 

To conclude:

 

• No one has the right to complain about and object to the Maker of the universe.
• The One operating in a body’s cell operates in the whole body.
• He records and preserves your deeds. These are the seeds of the trees that will yield their fruit in the Hereafter, as you were a bearer of His trust and His vicegerent on Earth.
• A thing’s material meaning may change and be effaced, but the meaning remains. Thus your soul will not die and, freed from its hooks and stripped of its body, will continue its journey to eternity. The strong tendency of material things (subject to decay) to remain and survive shows that such simple things as meaning, light, and spirit (inclined to permanence) will remain eternally.
• The grandeur of God’s Divinity requires that everything be under His control.
• As material, solid things get larger, they lose their sensitivity to delicate, subtle things. However, when light expands and spreads, it becomes more pervasive and penetrates deeper into hidden and subtle things.
• The Qur’an, addressing itself to common people, was revealed in the language most appropriate for their level of understanding.
• A major cause of misguidance is that we think we “know” familiar and common things, and so forget that they are really miracles of Divine Power.
• The One Who prepares food for you to eat is more aware of your need to eat and of what pleases your conscience than you are.
• The human ego is the key of creation. When you fully understand its nature, creation is opened to you.
• Good deeds acquire vitality through sincere intention, and are corrupted through show, ostentation, and hypocrisy. Feelings for and (natural) tendencies toward good are ingrained in the human conscience, but lose their purity through conscious or purposeful intention.
• The universe is a tree: The basic elements like earth and water, air and fire are its branches; plants its leaves; animals its flowers; and humanity its fruits.
• The meaning of: We have made them (shooting stars) missiles for devils.
• Things are recorded before and during their physical existence.
• God destines and decrees, executes His decrees, and forgives and withdraws the execution of His decrees.
• Why many Qur’anic verses end with Divine Names.
• One’s acknowledgement of his or her innate helplessness before God, a path of four steps, leads to God more directly and safely than love.
• Worship is the result and price of what humanity has been given already, not a cause for future, expected reward.
• The infinite number of perfectly made and ordered creatures, especially small ones, shows that there are no limits to the Maker’s manifestations, that He is absolutely different, and that all things are the same in relation to His Power and Necessary Existence.
• The One with the All-Beautiful Names manifests Himself in the departments of His Sovereignty with His Names. Only One Name or a few Names are dominant in a department, while the others are subordinate.
• The All-Wise Creator included in our primordial nature innumerable meters to measure what is stored in His Mercy, and countless faculties to understand what is contained in the treasuries of His All-Beautiful Names.
• Differences among creatures show purpose and reject chance.
• God gives respite to unbelievers so that they unconsciously may manifest some of His blessings and unknowingly display the Divine art’s beauty and excellence to humanity.
• The Qur’an and the Prophet do not view the universe as do modern science and philosophy.
• Those suffering misfortune should not weaken their patience by confronting past and present misfortunes and those that might come in the future.
• Traditions dismissed as being exaggerated contain valuable truths.
• Those enamored of themselves and relying on their physical existence are content with feeble shadows of reality.
• Every conscious being must pay attention to certain awesome issues.
• The meaning of a “letter” and a “name,” and the difference between a universal having particulars or individuals and a whole formed of parts.
• When you fear or love the created, fear becomes a pain and love an affliction.
• Although humanity, the fruit or seed of the Tree of Creation, is physically weak, impotent, and small, the All-Wise Maker has favored it with a universal disposition.
• Love of God and love of all else save Him.
• Human beings, who would give almost anything to learn about the moon and other planets, must pay attention to what the Prophet says of their future.
• The All-Wise Maker’s acts contain no waste or futility. Everything that exists has a function and a purpose.
• Why the All-Wise Maker makes members of the same animal species vary greatly in size.
• Most plant and animal species try to cover as much land as possible so they can use it as a place of worship by manifesting the their Creator’s Names.
• The Qur’an sometimes mentions why a certain thing exists in relation to humanity. However, it was created for many more purposes than just those mentioned.
• Glory be to Him Who has absolute power to make all things from one thing and one thing from all things.
• A brief explanation of: Or are We the sowers? (56:64).
• One of our tasks is to use our attributes and essential qualities to perceive the Creator’s Essential Qualities and Attributes.
• An address to those who invite Muslims to the worldly life and to abandon their public symbols of Islam and their own traditions.
• As human beings need all things, they should worship only God, for only He possesses and controls everything.
• Life’s two roads.
• A parable on how people spend their lives.
• A parable on truths pertaining to the world and the religious life.
• The results of conceit and pride.
• That which exists only does so because all its parts and necessary conditions also exist. It ceases to exist if one part or condition no longer exists.
• Paradise is purely out of His Grace, and Hell is purely out of His justice.
• An answer to those who claim their prayers are not answered, and the meaning of answering.
• Such verses as: To Him is the homecoming (5:18) and unto Him is return (13.36) threaten the rebellious and provide good news and great consolation for the believers.
• Divine Destiny and human free will.
• Humility sometimes contradicts people proclaiming God’s blessings upon themselves. What is the proper way to do this?
• Rivalry and jealousy in religious service indicate insincerity, impure intention, and a desire for worldly rewards.
• The difference between miracles (karama) and extraordinary things (istidraj).
• Every creature’s glorification and worship, conscious or otherwise, have innumerable aspects.

 

Said Nursi