Fifth Matter

 

 

Just as a speech is composed in a way to express the basic idea for which it has been made, so too its beauty and depth of meaning lie in setting secondary or additional meanings and purposes to act with the help of the style that contains such literary arts as allusion, indirect reference, suggestion, and indication. With all its elements, the style stirs up the faculty of the imagination to move in various directions, and arouses feelings of appreciation in distant corners of the heart or mind. Allusions, suggestions, and indications are not intended to be the main focus; they are not made to serve the basic purpose. For this reason, a speaker is not held responsible for what allusions, suggestions, and indications are brought to mind. If you would like to, enter into the following couplets, where there are things worthy of looking on.

Look within the beard of the old man who, seated on the back of his fleet horse, desires to appear young before a young woman:

She said, “You are old and your beard has grown white.”

I answered, “It is the dust from the events of time.”

 

You can also look into some other couplets:

Let not my beard glistening with grey hair frighten you;

For it is the smile of considered views and maturity.

 

Another:

Your eyes went into deep sleep in the night of youth;

They could not wake up until the morning of old age.

 

Another one:

It was as if the morning had slapped my horse in the eyes;

My horse set off racing to reach it to avenge itself; it reached it and knocked it down with joy.

 

Another one:

My heart rustles as her belt rustles while she walks;

But her heart resembles her bracelet, which is unmoved in its place.

 

In the couplet above, the poet is saying that his heart beats with love for a lady but there is no love in her heart for him. He also suggests that her waist is slender and wrists are plump and round.

Another couplet:

 

The flood cast its load upon the desert of Ghabt,

As if a Yemeni merchant passed with a load of cloth.

 

If a Yemeni merchant comes to a village in the evening and the villagers buy his multi-colored cloth, everyone will go out next morning adorned in a different color. The herdsman of the village even wears a kerchief on his head. Likewise, when a flood casts its load upon a desert, the result of natural processes, which may be likened to an unseen biochemistry, is that multi-colored clothing is sewn for the elegant flowers. Even the cactus, which may be thought of as the shepherd of flowers, turns red.

Another:

Faithfulness has been drawn (in a cave) and disappeared, and wronging has roared and overflowed;

This is why there is a great distance between words and actions.

 

If you do not want to go further, you can take a look at the end of the first part of this book. You will find many examples of this matter. In short, the key to the miraculousness of the Qur’anic verses is Arabic eloquence; it is not ancient Greek philosophy. Or you can look at the Indication at the end of the First Matter included in the Twelfth Premise in the first part. The Divine laws of the creation and operation of the universe have stipulated that this guesthouse—the earth, which revolves in ecstasy like a Mawlawi dervish—stand in the line of the planets and obey the sun. For together with its friend—the heavens—they told God: “We have come in willing obedience.” (41:11)50 Obedience and worship are better when carried out in congregation. Now, think over the examples given above. In addition to the meanings they contain, they also contain several connotations.

Said Nursi

50 See footnote 37.