The Eighth Proof:
A supplication
O God, O my Lord!
I see with the eyes of belief, and through the instruction and light of the Qur’an, and the teaching of God’s noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, and the guidance of the Divine Name the All-Wise that:
There is not a single movement in the heavens that does not indicate
Your Existence through its orderliness;
There is not a single heavenly body that does not indicate or testify to Your Lordship and Unity by performing its duties without noise and standing without support;
There is not a single star that it does not indicate or testify to Your Unity and the magnificence of Your Divinity through its most proportionate structure, exactly ordered position, bright countenance, or its resemblance to all other stars;
There is not a single one of the twelve planets that does not testify to Your absolutely necessary Existence nor indicate the dominion of Your Divinity through its wise movement, obedient subjugation to Your law, orderly duties, and important satellites.
Indeed, just as with all inhabitants each of the heavens testifies to Your absolutely necessary Existence, so also O Creator of the heavens and earth, with their totality, they bear witness to the absolutely necessity of Your Existence so obviously, and O One Who governs all particles or atoms together with the compounds they form, and has subjugated all the planets to His command, making them revolve with their satellites, they testify to Your Unity and Oneness so powerfully that as many luminous proofs as the stars in the heavens confirm their testimony.
With their extraordinarily large bodies, which move with an extraordinary speed, these pure heavens display the scene of an orderly army and a fireworks celebration illuminated by electric lamps. They clearly indicate the magnificence of Your Lordship and the grandeur of the Power of You Who invents everything; they indicate the limitless expanse of Your Dominion, Which dominates all the heavens, and of Your Mercy, Which embraces all living creatures; they certainly testify to the all-encompassing nature of Your Knowledge, Which penetrates and orders all the acts and states of the heavenly creatures, and to the comprehensiveness of Your Wisdom. This testimony and indication are so clear that it is as if the stars are the words of testimony of the heavens and their embodied luminous proofs.
As for the stars, which give the impression of being obedient soldiers, orderly ships, extraordinary planes, and astonishing lamps, they exhibit the splendor of the dominion of Your Divinity. As displayed by the duties that the sun, which is a member of the army of stars, performs in our globe and other satellites of its, some of the stars which are friends of the sun have a relationship with the worlds of the Hereafter, and they may be the suns of the worlds which are permanent.
O Necessarily Existent One, O the Single, Unique One!
Those wonderful stars, those breathtaking suns and moons have been subjugated, ordered and entrusted with various duties in Your domain, in Your heavens through Your Command, Power, Rule, and Management. All those celestial bodies glorify the sole Creator Who has created them, Who administers them, and makes them revolve; they magnify Him, and say with the tongue of their disposition, “All-Glorified are You,” “God is the All-Great.” I too declare You to be the All-Holy through their glorifications.
O the All-Powerful One of Majesty, Who is hidden due to the intensity of His manifestation and concealed because of His Grandeur!
I have understood through the teaching of the Qur’an and the instruction of God’s noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, that:
In the same way that together with all their stars the heavens bear witness to Your Existence and Unity, the atmosphere also testifies to your absolutely necessary Existence and Unity through its clouds, lightning, thunder, wind, and rain. It is as follows:
Indeed, it is only by Your Mercy and Wisdom that the lifeless and unconscious cloud sends rain, which is the water of life, to the aid of living creatures that are in need of it; chance has not the least part in it.
Also, being the brightest and most powerful of electricity, urging us to benefit from it on account of its quality of illuminating, lightning sheds light on Your power in the heavens.
In addition, the thunder, which gives good tidings of the coming of rain, makes the vast heaven speak, and the roaring voice of its glorification resounds in the sky, declaring You to be the All-Sacred with the tongue of its disposition, testifying to Your being the Lord of the whole creation.
Again, entrusted with many duties, such as bringing living beings their most necessary sustenance and causing them to respire and refresh themselves, winds transform the atmosphere into some sort of tablet of effacement and confirmation due to certain Divine purposes. As they indicate the activities of Your Power and testify to Your Existence, so too does rain, which is the embodiment of mercy and is sent to the living beings through Your Mercy, bear witness to the comprehensiveness of Your Mercy and Affection through its orderly drops.
O the Ever-Active One Who controls everything, and the All-Transcending Bestower of abundant bounties!
As the clouds, thunder, wind, and rain each testifies to the absolute necessity of Your Existence independently, so too, through their helping one another and existing together despite their differences of nature, do they powerfully indicate Your Unity and Oneness. They also testify to the magnificence of Your Lordship, Which makes the vast sky a display of extraordinariness and fills and empties it a few times on some days, and to the greatness and comprehensiveness of Your Power, Which uses the atmosphere as if a tablet of effacement of confirmation and a sponge by means of which You water the garden of the earth, and to the boundless vastness and all-encompassing nature of Your Mercy and Dominion, Which embrace and maintain all creatures.
The employment of air in such wise duties and the employment of the clouds and rain for such knowledge-based benefits as require an all-embracing wisdom and an all-encompassing knowledge demonstrates that this employment is in no way possible without Your Wisdom or Knowledge.
O the One Who always does whatever He wills!
Your Power, Which performs actions such as continuously displaying samples of the Resurrection in the atmosphere, changing summer into winter and vice versa, and bringing forth a new world and sending another to the Realm of the Unseen all within an hour, gives signs of changing the world into the Hereafter and showing therein Your unending activity.
O the All-Powerful One of Majesty!
Air, clouds, rain, and thunder in the atmosphere are subservient and dutiful in Your domain, through Your Command, and by Your Power. Those atmospheric creatures, which differ in nature, declare You to be the All-Sacred, the Commander and Sovereign, Who makes them obey immediate and quick commands, and they praise Your Mercy.
O the All-Majestic Creator of the heavens and the earth!
Through the instruction of Your wise Qur’an and the teaching of the noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, I have believed in and know what follows:
In the same way that the heavens, through their stars, and the atmosphere, through its elements, testify to the absolute necessity of Your Existence and Your Oneness, the earth too bears witness to Your Existence and Oneness through all its creatures and circumstances to their number.
There are no transformations on the earth nor any changes—whether of universal or particular nature—in its plants, trees, and animals such as changing their garments every year, that do not bear witness to Your Existence and Oneness.
There is not a single animal that does not bear witness to Your Existence and Oneness through its sustenance given to it compassionately and in proportion to its need and weakness, and through being wisely equipped with the members necessary for its life.
Also, there is not a single plant or animal that is resurrected or originated before our eyes every spring which does not make You known through its remarkable art, fine organs, distinguishing features, and the perfect order and proportion in its composition and life.
All these plants and animals that fill the face of the earth as miracles of Your Power are created with perfect differentiation and rich adornment, and with no faults or flaws at all from the eggs or seeds that resemble one another and which are made up of almost the same substances. Their testimony to the Existence, Oneness, Wisdom and boundless Power of their All-Wise Maker is such that it is more powerful and brilliant than the testimony of light to the sun.
Also, there is no element, such as air, water, light, fire, or soil, that does not bear witness to Your Existence and Oneness by performing duties that require a perfect consciousness despite their unconsciousness, or by bringing perfectly formed fruits and crops of all kinds from the treasury of the Unseen, despite their distribution throughout a vast area or their invasion of the same.
O All-Powerful Originator, O All-Knowing and All-Opening, and O All-Acting and All-Creating!
In the same way that the earth testifies, with all its inhabitants, that its Creator is the Necessarily Existent One, so too O Single and Unique One, O All-Kind and All-Benevolent, and O All-Bestowing and All-Providing One, through the stamp on its face and the stamps on the faces of its inhabitants, and through the concentric manifestations of Your Names as their Lord, which cause their harmonious co-existence and mutual assistance despite vast distribution, the earth self-evidently testifies to Your Unity and Oneness to the number of the creatures on it.
Also, the fact that the hundreds of thousands of plant and animal divisions which form the global army that is encamped and performing drills on the earth are provided in perfect order with the exact members or equipment necessary for each demonstrates the magnificence of Your Lordship and demonstrates that Your Power commands everything at the same time. Similarly, it shows the all-encompassing nature of Your Mercy and Dominion that innumerable living creatures are compassionately and munificently provided with their sustenance just on time from simple soil, and that all of them obey the orders of Your Lordship with the utmost subservience.
Also, it is only possible through an all-encompassing knowledge and all-administering wisdom that all the convoys of creatures and all instances of death and life are made to follow one another on the earth in such perfect orderliness, and that all the plants, trees, and animals are administered so perfectly and regularly. This obviously indicates the all-encompassing nature of Your Knowledge and Wisdom.
Also, although humans are entrusted with limitless duties and are provided with such capacity and equipment as if they were to live eternally on the earth, and although they are allowed to command and control earthly creatures, they remain on the earth only very briefly. Therefore, such great importance given to them, and such limitless expenditure made for them, and such boundless manifestations of the Divine Lordship observed on them, and such endless addresses of the All-Glorified One, and such infinite Divine bounties conferred on them certainly cannot be for this brief, fleeting, painful, and calamity-stricken life on this transient barracks of the world or for this temporary encampment of the global army. Rather, as they can essentially be for another eternal life and for permanent happiness in another, everlasting realm, they indicate, indeed, testify to the otherworldly bounties in the realm of eternity.
O Creator of all things!
All the creatures of the earth are subservient to and administered by Your Strength, Power, Knowledge, Will, and Wisdom on Your earth, which is Your property. And Your Lordship—creation, maintenance, provision, rearing, and administration—the activities of Which are observed on the earth, display such vastness and comprehensiveness, and the administration, provision, and raising of this Lordship are so perfect and sensitive, and Its actions and operations exhibit such unity, resemblance, and coordination, that It is clearly an indivisible and universal Lordship. Furthermore, with all its inhabitants and through countless tongues more articulate than human verbal speeches, the earth glorifies its Creator and declares Him to be the All-Sacred, and through the tongue of His limitless bounties, it praises its All-Providing Majesty.
O the All-Sacred One Who is hidden due to the intensity of His manifestations and concealed because of His Grandeur!
With all the earth’s glorifications of You and its declarations of You as the All-Sacred, I declare You to be absolutely exalted above any faults, impotence, or having partners, and I praise You and offer thanks to You with all their praises.
O the Lord of the land and the sea!
I have understood through the instruction of the Qur’an and the teaching of the noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, that just as the heavens, atmosphere, and the earth bear witness to Your Existence and Oneness, the rivers, springs, and streams also clearly testify to the absolute necessity of Your Existence and Your Oneness.
Indeed, there is not a single creature, indeed, not a single drop of water in the seas, which are the source of marvels and like steam boilers, that does not make its Creator known through its existence, orderliness, position, and the benefits it causes.
There is not a single member of the amazing creatures, the sustenance of which is provided through simple sand or simple water, or of sea animals created in an extremely orderly fashion, or in particular, of fish, which inhabit the seas, each laying one million eggs, that does not indicate its Creator or testify to its Provider through its creation, duties, administration, maintenance, and provision.
Also, there is not one single precious or ornamented substance in the sea with distinguishing features that does not make You known through its fine and fascinating creation or its beneficial character.
All those creatures mentioned testify to You individually. Also, although they exist in extremely wide varieties and great numbers and all are mixed with one another, their easy creation and the stamp of unity displayed by their creation bear witness to Your Unity. Furthermore, the earth remains suspended in space and revolves around the sun at great speed without its lands or seas mixing with each other or its seas invading the lands. Also, all of its minerals, substances, and marine and terrestrial life are well formed and extremely varied; these are created from simple water or soil and all those creatures are administered and nurtured perfectly and in perfect orderliness. Moreover, despite their extremely abundant existence and the fact that everyday countless numbers die, none of their corpses remains on the earth or in sea for long, with the result that both the face of the earth and the seas are always clean and pure. So, through all these clear facts, the earth testifies to the number of its creatures to Your Existence and that You are the Necessarily Existent Being. In the same way that all these creatures obviously indicate the splendor of Your Lordship’s dominion and the immensity of Your Power, Which encompasses all things, they also point to the boundless comprehensiveness of Your Mercy and Dominion, Which embrace everything from the extremely large stars in the heavens above to the tiny fish at the bottom of the sea. Also, through their perfect organization and ordered existence and life, and through the benefits they give and the instances of wisdom they display, and through their well-proportioned structure and composition, they indicate Your all-encompassing Knowledge, and all-embracing Wisdom.
You have such pools of mercy in this guesthouse of the world for the travelers and You have subjugated these pools for their benefit and so that they can travel on ships. This indicates that these pools, the seas, are only very small and transitory samples of the gifts of He Who offers such innumerable marine gifts to His guests who stay only one night in that guesthouse standing on the way to eternity—He is One Who certainly has such eternal treasures of seas in His eternal domain of sovereignty. Thus, the keeping of the seas around the lands in such an extraordinary fashion and the wonderful maintenance of the creatures self-evidently demonstrate that they are subservient to Your command and that they are exclusively in Your domain and only are controlled through Your Will, Power, and Government. Through the tongue of all these facts, they declare You to be the All-Sacred as their Creator and say, “God is the All-Great.”
O the All-Powerful One of Majesty, Who has made mountains as treasure-laden masts for the ship of the earth!
I have understood from the instruction of God’s noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, and from the teachings of the Qur’an that just as the seas recognize You and make You known through their marvels, so too do the mountains recognize You and make You known through the instances of wisdom in their existence and the services they offer. For example, they serve the earth, keeping it solid and preserving its stability despite the stormy movements within it, and they are unperturbed by the invasion of the seas. They also purify the air of harmful gases, serve to store and preserve water, and function as storehouses for minerals and metals that are necessary for living beings.
Indeed, there is not a single one of the rocks or precious stones in mountains, or any of the innumerable varieties of substances that are used as medication or ingredients for medication, or any of the extremely diverse kinds of minerals or metals that are vital for living beings, including in particular humanity, or the varieties of plants and trees that adorn the mountains, plains, and fields with their flowers, making them prosperous with their fruits—there is not a single one of these that does not clearly testify to the absolute necessity of the Existence of an infinitely Powerful, Compassionate, and Munificent Maker through their instances of wisdom, fine arrangement and composition, fine creation, benefits, and the extreme diversity of the taste of the fruits or such minerals as salt, citric acid, quinine sulphate, or alum, despite their apparent similarity. Also, in addition to bearing witness to the Maker through their extreme variety and multifarious blossoms and fruits, despite growing in simple, uniform soil and being nurtured with the same, simple water, trees and flowers also testify to His Unity and Oneness through the unity of their administration, maintenance, origin, habitat, creation, and art, and through their abundance and cheapness despite their great worth, and the ease and speed of their creation despite each being a marvel of art.
Also, the fact that the mountains all over the world have almost the same composition, and that all kinds and species of beings are made perfectly, with no faults, in the same way, in a short time, without any confusion with other kinds or beings or without one deed impeding another indicate the magnificence of Your Lordship and the immensity of Your Power, for Which nothing is difficult. In addition, the mountains being full of large varieties of plants, trees, and minerals which gratify the endless needs of innumerable kinds of living creatures, and their different tastes and appetites, and the provision of the necessary medications for their countless kinds of illnesses indicate the boundless extensiveness of Your Mercy and the infinite vastness of Your Dominion. Although the seeds of all of these plants and trees and all the minerals exist hidden under the ground in darkness and all mixed with one another, they are grown and prepared in perfect orderliness and based on a vast knowledge and all-encompassing sight. All these facts indicate the comprehensiveness of Your Knowledge, Which encompasses everything, and the all-embracing nature of Your Wisdom, Which arranges everything perfectly. In addition, through the preparation of medications and the depositing of minerals and metals in them, mountains obviously indicate the beauties of Your Lordship’s compassionate and munificent actions and the precautionary subtleties of Your benevolence.
Again, Your making these huge mountains the well-made warehouses of supplies for the future needs of Your visiting guests in this guesthouse of the world and the perfectly arranged store of many treasures of vital importance for the lives of the guests indicate, indeed, testify to the fact that a Maker so munificent and hospitable, so wise and caring, and so powerful and nurturing certainly has eternal treasures of everlasting bounties for these guests, whom He loves very much in an eternal world. The stars there will perform the duties of the mountains here in the world.
O the One powerful over everything!
The mountains are subservient in the service of humanity in Your domain by Your Power, Knowledge, and Wisdom, and so are the creatures that are in them. They glorify and declare to be All-Sacred their Creator, Who has made them subservient and dutiful in this manner.
O the All-Merciful Creator and All-Compassionate Lord!
I have understood from the instruction of God’s noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, and the teaching of the wise Qur’an that in the same way that through their creatures and contents the heavens, the earth, the seas, and mountains recognize You and make You known, so too do all the plants and trees on the earth obviously know You and Make You known through their leaves, flowers, and fruits.
The leaves of all plants and trees, which make enraptured movements of remembrance of their Creator, and their flowers, which describe and define the Names of their Maker through their adornments, and their fruits, which attractively smile due to the manifestation of His Mercy—each of these leaves, flowers, and fruits self-evidently testifies to the absolute necessity of the Existence of an infinitely Compassionate and Munificent Maker through its perfect, extraordinarily artistic formation, and through the perfect balance and proportion in its formation, and the adornment that accompanies the balance and proportion, and the embroideries that contribute to the adornment, and the fine and different scents that are added to the embellishments, and the diverse tastes of the fruits together with their scents. In addition, in their totality, through their resemblance in their creation, and the relationship between their growth and provision, and the concentricity among the Divine acts and Names relating to their existence and maintenance, and through the administration of the uncountable individual members of their hundreds of thousands of varieties without any confusion, they obviously bear witness to the Unity and Oneness of that necessarily existent Maker.
In the same way that these testify to the absolute necessity of Your Existence and Your Unity, the perfect and distinctive maintenance of countless members of the host of the living beings that are formed of hundreds of thousands of “nations” on the earth indicates the splendor and uniqueness of Your Lordship, and the immensity of Your Power, Which encompasses everything and creates a spring as easily as a flower. Moreover, the preparation of countless substances of the numerous varieties of their food for innumerable animals and humans distributed throughout the earth indicates the boundless comprehensiveness of Your Mercy; the perfect order in the performance of all those acts of providing, administering, and maintaining, and the subservience and obedience of everything, indeed, of all particles or atoms to these acts and the commands concerning their accomplishment certainly testify to the all-encompassing nature of Your Dominion. Similarly, the fact that whatever relates to the existence, growth, and maintenance of each of the leaves, flowers, fruits, roots, branches, and twigs is done based on certain knowledge and insight and for many wise purposes and benefits obviously indicates the all-encompassing nature of Your Knowledge and Wisdom. And all of these, together with the acts relating to them, praise the beauty of Your infinitely perfect Art and the perfection of Your infinitely beautiful bountifulness.
In addition, such invaluable bounties and gifts offered, and such extraordinary expenditure made, and such wonderful munificence displayed, through the hands of trees and plants in this transitory guesthouse within a very short time indicates, indeed, bears witness to the fact that the All-Compassionate, Powerful, Munificent One has certainly prepared fruit-bearing trees and blossoming plants that are suited for the perpetual Gardens of eternal Paradise out of His eternal treasures of Mercy for His servants whom He will favor with eternity in an everlasting realm. This is because He never wants, in a manner which will be contrary to His will to make Himself known and loved through all His bestowals, to cause His loving friends to complain, saying, “He has made us taste of them but then sent us to eternal non-existence without allowing us to eat of them to full satisfaction.” Nor does He want to reduce the infinite value of the dominion of His Divinity or cause His loving friends to deny His endless Mercy, thus changing their love to enmity. All the fruit-bearing trees and blossoming plants in the world are only examples of their eternal counterparts to be displayed to their customers.
Just as the trees and plants glorify and praise You and declare You to be the All-Sacred through all their leaves, flowers, and fruits, so too do each of these “words” proclaim Your absolute sacredness. The glorifications the fruits make through the tongue of their disposition—that is, through their attractive shapes, through their many different and fascinating colors, through their edible parts of numerous variety, through their marvelous seeds and through being offered to the guests of this guesthouse of the world from the hands of the trees or plants—manifest themselves as if verbally. All of them are subjugated in Your domain through Your Power, Will, Benevolence, Mercy, and Wisdom, and obedient to all of Your commands.
O the All-Wise Maker, the All-Compassionate Creator, Who is hidden due to the intensity of His manifestation and concealed because of His Grandeur!
I declare You to be absolutely exalted above any defect, impotence, and having partners, and praise You with the voices of all trees and plants and with all their leaves, flowers, and fruits; I praise you to the number of all of them.
O the All-Powerful Originator, the All-Wise Administrator, the All-Compassionate Governor!
I have understood from the instruction of God’s noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, and from the teaching of the wise Qur’an, and believe that in the same way that plants and trees recognize You and make known Your all-sacred Attributes and All-Beautiful Names, there is not a single animal or human that does not testify to the absolute necessity of Your Existence and to Your Attributes through their perfectly and artistically made bodies or their equipment with extremely delicate and well functioning “instruments” that have the finest order and equilibrium, and through all of their internal and external organs, which are made to operate in perfect sensitivity and orderliness, and their members and senses that are established in their bodies with perfect balance and arrangement and for extremely important benefits. For it is absolutely impossible that any blind force or unconscious “nature” or random chance should take part in the art that is delicate and wise to such degree, or in the wisdom that requires such a degree of care and consciousness, or in the perfect balance that is sensitive and purposeful to such an extent. As for their self-formation, it is a hundred times more impossible and inconceivable. For their self-formation would require that each of their particles or atoms should be as knowledgeable and powerful as if a deity so that each is able to perfectly know and create itself and all other atoms with their relations to one another, and all the universal elements having share in their existence and operation.
And the observable unity in their administration and maintenance as a whole, and the exact similarities among members of each species, as well as between species themselves, and the stamp of unity observed in their creation and nourishment, and in the fact that each of them has eyes, ears, mouths, and so on, and that each is directed towards similar goals—every one of these and similar other instances of unity decisively bear witness to Your absolute Unity. In the same way that all of Your Names are manifested in the universe, thus indicating Your Unity, they are also manifested in each of them, displaying Your Oneness.
Also, like humanity, hundreds of thousands of animal species distributed throughout the world are equipped, trained, obedient, and subjugated like a well-organized army, and the commands of Your Lordship operate in perfect orderliness in their kingdom. While this indicates how magnificent Your Lordship is, their extreme value despite their abundance, their perfect composition and organization despite their quick origination, and the perfect, peerless art they contain despite their easy creation indicate the grandeur of Your Power. As from microbes, which exist everywhere—from the east to the west and from the south to the north—to rhinoceroses, and from the tiniest flies to the largest birds, their exact provision or nourishment decisively indicates the endless comprehensiveness of Your Mercy, so too does each of them perform its vital duties without any faults; the earth, functioning like a ground for their mobilization in spring and for their demobilization in fall and winter, indicates the boundless vastness of Your Dominion.
Also, every animal is made like a miniature sample of the universe through an extremely profound knowledge and fine wisdom and without allowing any confusion in the appointment or placement of any of its atoms, compounds, members, or organs, one within the other and in complex relationships with one another. Again, each animal is given a different body and distinguishing features that have no defects, confusions, or faults at all. As these facts indicate Your all-encompassing Knowledge and Your all-embracing Wisdom to the numbers of animals, so too does the creation of each, so artistic and wise that it could but have emerged as a miracle of art and a marvel of wisdom, indicate the perfect beauty of Your Lordship’s Art, Which You love very much and will to be exhibited. Also, through their delicate nourishment and the gratification of their needs and desires, all of them, in particular the young among them, endlessly indicate the extreme beauty of Your Benevolence.
O the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate, O the All-Truthful absolutely true in His promise, and O the Master of Judgment Day!
I understood from the instruction of Your noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, and the teaching of Your Wise Qur’an the following: Since the ultimate result of the universe is life, and the ultimate result of life is the spirit, and the ultimate choice among beings with spirit are the conscious, and the most comprehensive among the conscious is humanity; and since the whole universe serves life, and living beings are sent to the world to serve those with spirit among them and the beings with spirit are put in the service of humanity among them and help humans; and since humans love their Creator very seriously by nature and their Creator both loves them and makes Himself loved by them by every means; and since the capacities and immaterial faculties given to humanity are primarily directed towards the eternal life, and their hearts and consciousness desire eternity with all their strength, and their tongues entreat their Creator with endless prayers for eternity; then certainly the One Who loves and is much loved will never distress humans, whom He loves and by whom He is loved and whom He has created for eternal love, by making them die eternally without revival, thus transforming their love into eternal enmity. Rather, humans are sent to this world to strive for and earn an eternal life of happiness in another realm. They will be favored with the eternal manifestations of the Divine Names, Which they mirror in this fleeting, short life.
Indeed, the faithful friend of the Eternal One will be eternal, and the conscious mirror of the Everlasting One must be everlasting.
As can be understood both from authentic Prophetic Traditions and as required by reality and Divine Wisdom, Mercy, and Lordship, the spirits of animals will also remain permanently and such special members of them as the hoopoe and the ant of the Prophet Solomon, upon him be peace, and the she-camel of the Prophet Salih, upon him be peace, and the dog of the People of the Cave will go to the eternal world with their bodies and spirits, and each animal species will continue to exist as a single, representative body for occasional employment.15
O the All-Powerful and Self-Subsistent One!
All living creatures, spirit-possessing beings, and conscious beings have been made subservient to the commands of Your Lordship and entrusted with duties according to the nature of each in Your domain through Your Power, Will, Administration, Mercy, and Wisdom. Some among them have been put in the service of humanity not because of the power and domination of humanity, but due to their weakness and impotence. By glorifying their Maker and declaring Him to be absolutely exalted above any defects, faults, or having partners, and praising Him and thanking Him for His bounties both verbally and through the tongue of their disposition, each performs its particular form of worship.
O the All-Sacred One, hidden because of the intensity of His manifestation and veiled due to His Grandeur!
With the intention of declaring You to be the All-Sacred through the glorifications of all spirit-possessing beings, I say: All-Glorified are You, O the One Who has made every living thing from fluid!
O the Lord of all the worlds! O the Deity of all those who have come and to come! O the Lord of the heavens and the globes!
I have understood and believe from the instruction of God’s noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, and the teaching of the wise Qur’an as follows:
Just as with all their members, parts, and atoms, the heavens, atmosphere, earth, land and sea, trees, plants, and animals recognize You and indicate and testify to Your Existence and Oneness, so too do the living beings, which are the essence of the universe, and humankind, which is the essence of living beings, and the saints, pure and saintly scholars, and the Prophets tell of and bear witness to the absolute necessity of Your Existence and Your Unity and Oneness through the observations and unveilings of their intellects and hearts, and through their inspirations and spiritual discoveries. Their testimony has the certainty of the consensus of hundreds of different specialist groups with absolutely true, expert knowledge, and hundreds of chains of transmitters of knowledge who have never lied during their lives. They also prove the information they provide with their miracles, wonders, and decisive proofs.
Not once is there an occurrence to sound hearts which has its source from or relates to the One Who imparts reminders to them through the veil of the Unseen that does not indicate or testify to the absolute necessity of Your Existence, all-sacred Attributes, Unity and Oneness; not once is there a single true inspiration that focuses attention on the One Who inspires, not once is there a certified creed that discovers the all-sacred Divine Attributes and the all-beautiful Divine Names with a certainty based on experience, not once is there a pure, illuminated heart, peculiar to the Prophets and saints, which observes the lights of the Necessarily Existent Being with the clarity of eyesight, not once is there an enlightened intellect, particular to the truthful, pure and saintly scholars, which confirms, based on a certainty of knowledge, the signs of the necessary Existence of the Creator of everything and the proofs of His Oneness—not once is there a single occurrence, a true inspiration, a certified creed, a pure and illuminated heart, or an enlightened intellect that does not indicate or testify to the absolute necessity of Your Existence, all-sacred Attributes, Unity, and Oneness.
And in particular, there is not a single clear miracle that confirms the tidings of the most noble Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, who is the leader, head, and essence of all the Prophets, saints, saintly and pure scholars and those who are most advanced in truthfulness; there is not a single exalted truth that shows his absolute truthfulness; there is not a single Divine-Unity-demonstrating verse of the Qur’an of miraculous exposition, which is the essence of all sacred Scriptures and books of truth; and there is not a single sacred matter and truth of belief it contains—there is not a single one of these miracles, truths, verses, or matters that does not indicate or testify to the absolute necessity of Your Existence, Your all-sacred Attributes, Names, Unity, and Oneness.
Also, in the same way that there are hundreds of thousands of truthful ones who bear witness to Your Existence and Oneness based on their miracles, wonders, and proofs, so too do they unanimously proclaim and prove the magnificence of Your Lordship, Which has perfect knowledge of and control over everything, large or small, from the universal affairs that relate to Your Supreme Throne to the most secret occurrences of the heart and its most hidden desires and prayers; they proclaim the grandeur of Your Power, Which invents countless things simultaneously and instantly before our eyes, and accomplishes the greatest thing as easily as the smallest one, without one impeding the other.
With their miracles and other proofs, all these truthful ones also show and demonstrate the limitless comprehensiveness of Your Mercy, Which has made this universe a perfect palace for spirit-possessing beings, and in particular humanity, and prepares Paradise and eternal happiness for the jinn and humans, and does not forget even the least being, and gratifies the most powerless heart. They also demonstrate the boundless vastness of Your Dominion, Which has subjugated all kinds of creatures from particles to galaxies, and entrusted them with certain duties, causing them to obey Your commands. Moreover, these same unanimously indicate and testify to the all-encompassing nature of Your Knowledge, Which has made the universe a cosmic book which contains as many books as there are particles and compounds in the universe, and recorded all instances of the lives of all creatures in the Manifest Record and the Manifest Book, which are the registers of the Supreme Preserved Tablet; and Which inscribes the contents and programs of all trees in each of their seeds, and the entire life histories of conscious beings in their memories. They also decisively point to and bear witness to Your all-embracing nature of Your Wisdom, Which attaches to each creature numerous instances of wisdom, such as causing each tree to yield results to the number of its fruits, and following in each living being as many benefits as its members, indeed, as its compounds and cells, and equipping the human tongue with the instruments to the number of tastes in addition to entrusting it with many duties. Furthermore, they unanimously indicate and bear witness to the fact that Your Names of Majesty and Grace, Whose exemplary manifestations are observed in this world, will continue to manifest themselves in the abode of eternity in a much brighter fashion; they testify that Your bestowals, the samples of which are experienced in this fleeting world, will last in the eternal realm of happiness in a more glittering fashion, and that the lovers of these bestowals who experience them in this world will accompany them to all eternity.
Also, based on Your promises and threats that You frequently repeat in all the Scriptures You revealed, including primarily the wise Qur’an, and relying on the dignity of Your Majesty and the dominion of Your Lordship, and on Your all-sacred Attributes and essential Qualities such as Power, Mercy, Favoring, Wisdom, Majesty, and Grace, and through spiritual unveilings and observations, and with convictions that arise from certain knowledge, all of the Prophets with luminous spirits, including first and foremost God’s noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, and the saints with illuminated hearts, and the pure, saintly scholars with enlightened intellects, all give the jinn and humankind the glad tidings of eternal happiness, and warn that there is Hell for the misguided, themselves believing in them first and foremost of all.
O the All-Powerful, All-Wise One, O the All-Merciful, All-Compassionate One, O the All-Munificent One absolutely truthful in His promises! O the All-Overwhelming One of Majesty with dignity, grandeur, and majesty!
You are infinitely free of and exalted above not bringing about the Resurrection, which would mean contradicting so many truthful friends of Yours, breaking Your vehemently repeated threats and promises, negating Your sacred Attributes and essential Qualities, annulling the decisive requirements of the dominion of Your Lordship, and rejecting the prayers of innumerable servants of Yours whom You love and who make themselves loved by You by confirming and obeying You. You are also infinitely free of and exalted above confirming the people of unbelief and misguidance in their rejection of the Resurrection, who through unbelief and disobedience and by contradicting You in Your promises insult Your Grandeur, attack the dignity of Your Majesty, offend the honor of Your Divinity, and disparage the compassion of Your Lordship. I declare Your infinite Justice, Grace, and Mercy to be absolutely free of such limitless ugliness and wrong. I wish to recite the verse, All-Glorified is He, and absolutely exalted, immeasurably high above all that they say (17: 43), as many times as there are particles in my body. These truthful Messengers of Yours and heralds of Your dominion point to and bear witness to Your treasures of mercy and benevolence and the extraordinarily beautiful manifestations of Your All-Beautiful Names in the world of permanence with both a certainty of experience and a certainty of observation and a certainty of knowledge. They also believe and teach others that the greatest ray of Your Name, the Ultimate Truth and Ever--Constant, Which is the origin, sun, and preserver of all truths, is this greatest truth of Resurrection.
O the Lord of the Prophets and those most advanced in truthfulness after the Prophets!
All these beloved friends of Yours are subjugated and dutiful in Your domain through Your Command, Power, Will, Administration, Knowledge, and Wisdom. Through their glorification, praise, and declarations of Your Oneness and that You are absolutely exalted above any defects, faults, or having partners, they have displayed this world as the vastest house of remembrance, and the universe as the vastest place of worship.
O my Lord, and O the Lord of the heavens and the globes! O my Creator and the Creator of everything!
For the sake of Your Power, Will, Wisdom, Sovereignty, and Mercy, Which subjugate the heavens with their stars and the earth with all its contents, and all creatures with all their states, make my carnal soul subservient to me, and subjugate my desires to me. Subjugate people’s hearts to the Risale-i Nur purely for the service of the Qur’an and belief. And bestow on me and my brothers and sisters the perfect belief and a good end (going to the other world with perfect belief). Subjugate the hearts and intellects to the Risale-i Nur, just as You subjugated the sea to the Prophet Moses, upon him be peace, as you subjugated the fire to the Prophet Abraham, upon him be peace, the mountains and iron to the Prophet David, upon him be peace, the jinn and humans to the Prophet Solomon, upon him be peace, and the sun and the moon to the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings. And preserve me and the students of the Risale-i Nur from the evil of the carnal soul and Satan, and from the torments of the grave and Hellfire, and make us happy in Jannat al-Firdaws (the highest level of Paradise)! Amen! Amen!
All-Glorified are You! We have no knowledge save what You have taught us. Surely You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
And their invocation will close with, “All praise and gratitude are for God, the Lord of the worlds!”
If I have erred by offering this lesson, which I have taken from the Jawshan al-Kabir (“The Great Shield”), a supplication of God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, to the Court of my All-Compassionate Lord as a reflective act of worship, O my Lord, I entreat Your Mercy to forgive me for the sake of the Qur’an and the Jawshan al-Kabir.
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi
15 al-Baghawi, Ma‘alim at-Tanzil, 3:154; al-Alusi, Ruh al-Ma‘ani, 15:226. (Tr.)