The Twelfth Letter

 

 

• Why Adam was sent out of Paradise

• Why Satan was created

• Why God afflicts the innocent with misfortune

 

In His Name, Glory be to Him.

There is nothing that does not glorify Him with His praise.

Peace be upon you and your friends.

 

Dear Brothers,

THAT NIGHT YOU ASKED ME THREE QUESTIONS, BUT I DID NOT answer because you discussed them in an improperly disputatious way. Matters of belief cannot be a subject of dispute. Now, I write brief answers to those questions. You can find detailed answers in

The Words—I indicated which ones to our brother the pharmacist. But I forgot to mention The Twenty-sixth Word, which is about Divine Destiny and human free will. Read it as well, but not as you would a newspaper. I want him to study these Words, because doubt in some matters of religion are due to weak belief in the pillars of belief, and those Words prove those pillars decisively.

YOUR FIRST QUESTION: Why was Adam sent out of Paradise, and why will some people be thrown into Hell?

ANSWER: Humanity has a unique duty in the universe. Adam was sent to Earth with so sublime a duty that humanity was made the object of an infinite spiritual evolution, a comprehensive mirror in which all Divine Names are reflected. This duty enabled humanity to develop its full potential. If Adam had stayed in Heaven, his rank would have been fixed and humanity’s full potential would not have developed. Humanity was not created to worship God in the manner of angels, whose worship does not cause them to evolve spiritually. Divine Wisdom must have required a different world in which humanity could attain the highest ranks and fully develop its potential. This is why Adam was sent to Earth after he lapsed, which, in fact, was what fulfilling human nature requires.

As this expulsion was a mercy for humanity and in complete accord with wisdom, it is absolutely right and just to throw unbelievers into Hell. At first, it might seem improper for wisdom and justice to condemn unbelievers to eternal punishment because of their unbelief during their short lives here. But in reality it is fully just and right that the All-Overwhelming One of Majesty puts them in Hell forever, for unbelief insults and degrades creation and denies and contradicts all creatures’ witnessing to God’s Oneness. Moreover, it falsifies God’s Beautiful Names, which are reflected continually in the mirrors of all living and non-living things. Therefore unbelief is an infinitely great crime, and God will call unbelievers to account and punish them for treating creation so unjustly.22

YOUR SECOND QUESTION: Why was Satan created? Why does evil exist, when creating evil is itself an evil, and creating ugliness is ugly?

ANSWER: Creating or conferring existence on evil is not an evil, for people have free will. God gives objective existence to our willed actions. People will and do something, and God creates it. And so it is our own willing and doing of evil that is evil and ugly, not God’s giving objective existence to it. If God did not create what we will and do, our free will would be annulled.

Also, God’s creation involves the universe, not just one act, and should be evaluated on results and not only on the acts themselves. For example, rain produces many results, almost all of which are beneficial. If some people are harmed due to water’s misuse, they cannot argue that rain’s creation is anything but a grace. Fire also has many benefits. If some people are harmed by it through their own ill-will and misuse, they cannot claim that fire’s creation is something other than wholly good. As fire was not created to burn one’s hand, those who accidentally burn their hands have no right to conclude that creating fire is evil.

In short, a lesser evil is not resisted for the sake of a greater good. If people do not agree to endure a lesser evil in return for a much greater good, they will suffer a greater evil. For example, people may not want to fight for Islam since doing so endangers their lives and possessions. But such a holy fight has great benefits: Muslims are saved from invasion and Islam continues to bless them in both worlds. If Muslims renounce such a fight on the pretext of suffering loss, they will experience even greater loss. A gangrenous finger must be amputated, although it seems an evil, or else one day the whole hand will have to be cut off (an even greater evil).

Thus it is not an evil that God created and creates devils and apparently evil and disastrous acts, for they produce good and important results. For example, angels do not rise to the higher spiritual ranks because devils cannot tempt them into deviation. Animals have fixed stations, and so cannot rise to higher stations or fall to lower ones. But human beings can acquire endless ranks or stations, all the way from the top to the bottom. There is an infinitely long line of spiritual evolution between the ranks of the greatest Prophets and saints and such people as Pharaoh and Nimrod.

Thus this world is the field, and this life the term, in which people are tested so that elevated diamond-like spirits may be distinguished from base coal-like ones. This is why devils were created and Prophets were sent with Divine commandments. Without such testing, good and evil could not be distinguished and would be treated equally: The spirit of Abu Bakr, who rose to the highest level after the Prophets, would remain at the same level as that of Abu Jahl, who fell to the lowest level.23 Thus the creation of devils and evil is wholly good, for they cause good and universal results to be achieved. Those who suffer because of them do so because of their own weakness, misuse of their free will, or some external circumstances that they caused to appear. As a result, all evil and misfortune that happen to people lie in themselves, not in God’s creation of them.

IF YOU ASK: As sending Prophets has caused many or even most people to become unbelievers because of Satan’s seduction, how can you say that creating evil things and acts is good, that raising Prophets is a mercy for humanity?

ANSWER: As quality is always far more important than quantity, we should consider only qualitative values in making our judgment. To cite an example: 100 date-stones are worth only 100 cents until they are planted and grow into palm trees. But if only 20 grow into trees and the remaining 80 rot because of over-watering, how can you say it is an evil to plant and water them? Everyone would agree that it is wholly good to have 20 trees at the expense of 80 date-stones, since 20 trees will give 20,000 date-stones. Again, 100 peacock eggs are worth maybe 500 cents. But if she sits on the eggs and only 20 hatches, who can say it is an evil that 80 eggs were spoiled in return for 20 peacocks? On the contrary, it is wholly good to have 20 peacocks at the expense of 80 eggs, because the 20 peacocks will be worth far more than the eggs and will lay more eggs.

And so it is with humanity. Our being raised up by Prophets, as well as our fight against Satan and our carnal self, result in the loss of animal like people, unbelievers, and hypocrites (more in number but poorer in quality) in exchange for hundreds of thousands of Prophets, millions of saints, and billions of people of wisdom and sincerity—the suns, moons, and stars of the human world.

YOUR THIRD QUESTION: Is it just for God to afflict innocent people and animals with misfortune and suffering?

ANSWER: No injustice can be attributed to Him, for He owns all of creation and so can do with it as He wills. Consider this analogy: A skillful clothes designer pays you to serve as a model to display his artistry. He fashions the jeweled garment he has made you wear as he wills, and tells you to sit and stand. How can you say: “You cause me trouble by making me sit and stand. Also, you have damaged this cloth that makes me look beautiful.” Such objections would be sheer impertinence.

God, the Majestic Creator, dresses you in an artistically fashioned garment (e.g., the body, jeweled with eyes, ears, a nose, and a tongue, etc.). To show His Beautiful Names’ works, He makes you ill, hungry, and thirsty, and afflicts you with misfortune. He exposes you to various conditions so that you may be perfected and His Beautiful Names may be manifested. Given this, your objection will cause many instances of wisdom to silence you.

Monotony and inertia are a kind of non-existence, while activity and alteration mature life through suffering and misfortune. Life grows stronger and purer and develops fully through the Divine Beautiful Names’ operation. Ultimately, life becomes the pen with which people determine and write their own fate. Thus they fully deserve their reward (or punishment) in the Afterlife.

This is my brief answer to your three questions over which you disputed.

My dear brother, read this letter to the pharmacist and to those who were present during the disputation whom you think should hear it. Give my greetings to my disciple the pharmacist, and tell him that it is not permitted in religion to dispute in public such subtle matters of belief as mentioned above. Such disputes, having no basis in any established sense of proportion and balance of judgment, damage Islam and harm the participants and audience. Such matters should be discussed soberly and to exchange views.

Please tell him that he should write to me about any doubts he may have about such matters. His dream about his deceased father can be interpreted as follows: His father, who was a doctor, God’s mercy be upon him, must have done much good to many godly persons by curing them, and the souls of those persons, who welcomed him, showed themselves to his son as birds when his father died.

I pray to God for all friends who were present here that night, and greet them.

The Everlasting: He is the Everlasting.

Said Nursi

22 In other works, Said Nursi presents additional arguments for God’s condemning unbelievers to eternal punishment, such as: Unbelief is destruction and negation. A palace that took hundreds of workers years to build can be destroyed by one person striking a match. Imagine a garden with flowers and trees on which birds sing and in which animals live. They all subsist on the water reaching them through canals, which has been entrusted to one person. What kind of sentence should this person receive if he or she neglects his or her duty to irrigate the garden by letting the water flow, and so causes all of the garden’s inhabitants to die? Unbelief is equivalent to this, but on a far larger scale—that of creation itself.

In addition, unbelievers who deserve eternal punishment would not have abandoned their unbelief even if they were to live on Earth forever. In that sense and because of such people’s intention, unbelief is infinite and not restricted to their short life here. As warnings make no difference to such unbelievers, God seals their hearts and hearing, and covers their eyes. These people’s arrogance, sinfulness, and intention to pursue unbelief forever cause them to lose the ability to believe. (Tr.)

23 Abu Bakr (d. 634): One of the first Muslims, the Prophet’s companion during his migration to Medina, and the first caliph after the Prophet’s death; Abu Jahl (lit. Father of Ignorance): One of the Prophet’s main opponents who fought him at every turn. He was killed during the Battle of Badr (624). (Ed.)