THE SECOND TRUTH: the truth of Mercifulness

 

 

We see with our own eyes that there is One Who has covered the face of the earth with thousands of gifts of Mercy, turning it into a veritable feasting-place. He has laid it out as a table where hundreds of thousands of different delicious foods of Mercifulness are arranged. He has also made the inside of the earth a storehouse containing thousands of precious bounties of Compassion and Wisdom. Furthermore, He sends us the earth, with its annual revolution, like a commercial ship or train laden with hundreds of thousands of the finest vital human necessities that issue from the World of the Unseen. He also sends us the season of spring like a wagon carrying food and clothing for us. He nurtures us with utmost compassion. And in order for us to profit from these gifts and bounties, He has endowed us with hundreds or thousands of appetites, needs, feelings, sensations and senses.

As was explained in The Fourth Ray concerning the verse on God’s All-Sufficiency:

He has given us a stomach that is created in such a way that we are able to derive pleasure from infinite varieties of food which pass through it. He has granted us a life that is structured in such a way that, through its senses, we are able to derive benefit from His innumerable bounties in the vast corporeal world, which resembles a banqueting table. He has bestowed on us the gift of humanity, which is such that through instruments like the intellect and the heart we may take pleasure in the boundless gifts which come from both the Unseen and visible worlds. He has conveyed to us Islam as a way of life, which is such that it enables us to derive light from the unrestricted treasuries of the Unseen and visible worlds. He has guided us to a faith which is such that we are able to be illumined by and get benefit from the innumerable lights and gifts of this world and the Hereafter.

This universe is like a palace that has been furnished and adorned by Divine Mercy with innumerable antiques and valuable artifacts. The keys to open all of the chests and chambers in that palace have been placed in the hands of humanity, who has also been endowed with all of the needs and senses that they require to make use of them. Thus this Mercy Which embraces this world and the Hereafter with all they contain must without doubt be a particular manifestation of God’s Oneness within the overall manifestation of His Unity.

Just as the light of the sun is a parable of God’s Unity (Wahidiya)—His all-encompassing or overall manifestation of His Names—with respect to the fact that it comprehends all things that face it, the fact that every bright and transparent object which, in accordance with its capacity, receives an image of the sun or a reflection of it with its heat and light and the seven colors in its light is a parable of God’s Oneness (Ahadiya)—the particular manifestation of His Names in a particular thing or being. Hence, whoever sees its all-comprehending light will conclude that the sun of this earth is one. On seeing a reflection of the sun with its heat and light in all bright objects, and even in drops of water, they will say that a single sun is present with its attributes close to all things: it is at the mirror-like heart of all things.

Similarly, the fact that the extensive Mercy of the All-Merciful One of Beauty and Grace encompasses all things like a light demonstrates the Unity of that All-Merciful; it shows that He in no way could have any “partner.” Also, the fact that under the veil of that all-embracing Mercy the lights of most of the Names of the All-Merciful and a sort of manifestation of His Divine Essence are present in all things—humankind especially— and the fact that this gives each individual a comprehensive nature arising from life which causes it to have relations with the whole universe proves the Oneness of the All-Merciful: it demonstrates beyond all doubt that He is present with all things and does all things in all things.

Just as the All-Merciful shows the splendor of His Majesty in the whole of the universe and all over the earth through the unity and comprehensiveness of His Mercy, through the manifestation of His Oneness He also assembles in every member of every living species, and particularly that of every human individual, samples of all His bounties. These He arranges in the form of the tools and instruments of that living member, making the whole universe into a particular home for them, thus proclaiming the special tenderness of His Grace and Beauty and announcing that all the varieties of His bounty are concentrated in every member of humankind.

For example, a melon exists in a concentrated form in its seed; from this we can understand that the One Who makes the seed must necessarily be the One Who makes the melon. Then, with the special balance of His Knowledge and the particular law of His Wisdom, He draws the seed out from it and clothes it with a body. Nothing or no-one other than the One and Unique Master Craftsman Who makes the melon is able to make its seed. Similarly, since through the manifestation of Mercifulness the universe is like a tree or a garden, the earth is like a fruit or a melon, and every living being—a human being in particular—is like a seed, it follows that the Creator and Lord of the smallest living being must be the Creator not only of the whole earth but also the entire universe.

In short: just as the making and unfolding of the proportionate and orderly forms of all beings through the truth of the all-encompassing Divine Opening proves without doubt the truth of Divine Unity, the same is proven by the truth of all-embracing Mercifulness. For It nurtures all living beings that come into existence and enter the life of this world, particularly the newborn, with the utmost order and regularity, causing all that they require to reach them, without ignoring or forgetting any of them. The fact that Mercy reaches all individuals everywhere at the same instant demonstrates both Divine Unity and Divine Oneness along with Unity. Since the dimensions of the truth of Mercifulness have been expounded in other sections of the Risale-i Nur where the Names the All-Wise and the All-Compassionate are discussed, we will restrict ourselves here to this brief indication.

Said Nursi