The Tenth Word

Part two

Look upon imprints of God’s Mercy, how He revives the earth after its death. Surely He it is Who will revive the dead [in the same way], and He has full power over everything. (30:50)

This verse contains nine convincing arguments for the Resurrection. The first, concerning life and will be expounded upon below, is very clear and pointed to in:

Glory be to God, when you enter evening and when you enter morning. All praise is to Him in the heavens and on the earth and at nightfall and when you enter noon. He brings forth the living from the dead and the dead from the living, and revives the earth after its death. So you will be brought forth. (30:17–19)

It was also stated among the properties of life that life relates to the six pillars of belief and that it offers proof for them.

Indeed, since the most important result and fruit of the universe and the purpose of its creation is life, certainly that elevated reality cannot be restricted to this fleeting, brief, deficient, painful worldly life. The aim and result of the Tree of Life, and its fruit that is worthy of its tremendousness is the eternal life or the life of the Hereafter; it is the life in the realm of eternal, perfect happiness, the very stones, trees, and earth of which are alive. Or else, the tree of life, equipped with numerous significant members, would be without fruit, benefit, purpose, or any reality for conscious beings, including, in particular, humanity. Humanity, which in respect of its capital and faculties is, say, twenty times greater than a sparrow, and which is the most exalted and important creature in the universe, would fall twenty times lower than a sparrow with regard to the happiness of life, and become the most unhappy, the most debased of wretches. Furthermore, through preoccupation with the pains of the past and fears of the future, reason, the most precious of bounties, would continuously wound the human heart; because it muddies a single pleasure with nine pains, it would become the most calamitous affliction. So, the claim that there is no eternal life is a manifold falsehood. As a result, the life of this world, which every spring displays before our eyes hundreds of thousands of examples of the Resurrection, proves decisively the pillar of belief in the Hereafter.

Is it at all possible that the All-Powerful Disposer of Affairs, Who prepares with wisdom, grace, and mercy in your body, garden and country all the things and members that are necessary for your life, and makes them reach you just in time, Who knows and hears even the particular prayer for food offered by your stomach through its desire for maintenance, and Who shows that He accepts its prayer by gratifying it with innumerable delicious foods—is it at all possible that He does not see you or know you, or that He does not prepare all that is necessary for eternal life, humanity’s greatest goal, or that He does not accept humanity’s most urgent, important, general, and most necessary and proper prayers for eternity by not constructing the Hereafter and creating Paradise, or that He does not hold humanity, the ruler and result of the earth, as important as the stomach, that He ignores its most powerful, general prayer, which reverberates from the ground to the Divine Throne, thus causing His perfect Wisdom and endless Mercy to be denied? God forbid, a hundred thousand times, God forbid!

And is it at all possible that He should hear the most secret voice of the tiniest living creature, heed its plea, answer its need, nourish it with perfect care and concern, and cause even His large creatures to serve it, but should not hear the thunderous voice of the greatest, most valuable, immortal, and most delicate “life?” Is it possible that He does not take into consideration its extremely important plea and prayer for eternity? Is it possible that He should equip and maintain a mere soldier with the greatest care while ignoring a magnificent, obedient army? Is it possible that He should see an atom and not see the sun? Is it possible that He should hear the buzzing of a mosquito and not hear the roar of thunder? God forbid! A hundred thousand times, God forbid!

And could reason in any way accept that an All-Powerful and All-Wise One Who is infinitely merciful, loving, and affectionate, and Who greatly loves His own Art and makes Himself much loved and loves greatly those who love Him, would condemn to eternal non-existence both the life, which loves Him more than anything else and is lovable and loved and by nature adores its Maker, and the spirit, the essence and substance of life; thus making that beloved friend of His resentful of Himself for all eternity, and wounding it in such terrible fashion that He both denies and causes to be denied the essence and meaning of His Mercy and the light of His Love? A hundred thousand times, God forbid! The absolute Grace and Beauty Which adorns the universe with its manifestation and the absolute Mercy Which makes happy all creatures are most certainly free of such infinite ugliness; they are absolutely exalted above such complete wrong and mercilessness.

Conclusion: Since there is life in this world, certainly those who understand the mystery of life and do not misuse their lives will be favored with eternal life in the abode of eternal permanence and everlasting Paradise. In this we believe!

Transparent objects on the earth shine with the sun’s reflections, and bubbles on the surface of the sea and rivers glisten and die away with gleams of the sun’s light, while the bubbles that follow on after them act again as mirrors that reflect miniature suns. This obviously shows that those gleams, those reflected suns in transparent objects and bubbles are the reflected images of a single sun high above. They sing the sun’s existence with a myriad of voices, and point to it with their fingers of light.

In just the same way, through the all-comprehensive manifestation of the All-Living and Self-Subsistent One’s Name of the Giver of Life, the living creatures shine on the earth and in the sea through Divine Power, and then in order to make way for those to follow, utter, “O Living One!”, disap­pearing under the veil of the Unseen, thus indicating and testifying to the eternal Life and necessary Existence of the eternally All-Living and Self­Subsistent One. Likewise, all the evidence that bears witness to the Divine Knowledge Which the order of the universe manifests, and all the proofs that demonstrate the Divine Power Which controls the entire universe, all the realities that establish the Divine Will Which directs the universe, all the signs and miracles which prove the Prophetic missions as the channels of the Divine Speech and Revelations, and all the evidence that testifies to the seven Attributes of God Almighty45—all these unanimously indicate and bear witness to the Life of the All-Living, Self-Subsistent One. For something having sight is certain to have life; hearing is a sign of life; speaking indicates the existence of life; and will or free choice demonstrates life. Thus, all-encompassing Attributes such as absolute Power, all-inclusive Will, and all-embracing Knowledge, the existence of Which is evidently demonstrated by their work in the universe, together with all the evidence that establishes their existence, bear witness to the necessary existence of the All-Living, Self-Subsistent One and testify to His perpetual Life, Which illuminates the whole universe with just one of Its shadows, giving life to the entire realm of the Hereafter with all its particles with just one manifestation.

Life also relates to belief in the angels, and proves this belief indirectly. As the most important result in the universe is life; as living creatures are the most widely spread and most abundantly created beings because of their value, and they enliven the guesthouse of the earth with their coming and going in caravans; as the earth has been filled with so many varieties of living creatures and is continually being emptied and refilled owing to the Divine purposes for their constant renewal and multiplication; as even the rotting and corrupt substances become the media of the creation of numerous kinds of creatures, allowing the earth to become a place through which innumerable microorganisms swarm; and as consciousness and intelligence, which are the purest extracts of life distilled from life, and spirit, its most subtle and stable essence, are created in great abundance on the earth, with the result that the earth is revived with life, intelligence, consciousness, and spirits—because of all these it is not possible that the heavens, which are more refined and more spacious than the earth, should be left without life and consciousness. It is due to the meaning and purpose of life that there must be living, conscious beings who inhabit the heavens, suns, and stars particular to each, and so show them to be alive, and who display the result of the creation of the heavens, and receive Divine addresses. These beings are the angels.

The essential nature of life also relates to the pillar of belief in the Prophets, and proves it indirectly. Indeed, since the universe has been created to yield life; and since life is the greatest manifestation of the Eternal All-Living and Self-Subsistent One, as well as the most perfect embroidery of His and His most beautiful work of Art; and since the everlasting life demonstrates itself and is known through the sending of the Messengers and the revelation of the Divine Scriptures; and since speech shows that the one who speaks is alive—all these illustrate that it is the Prophets and the Divine Scriptures that were revealed to or sent through them that have made known the speeches of the One Who speaks, orders, and prohibits from beyond the realm of the Unseen veiled by the corporeal universe. Just as the life in the universe most certainly testifies to the necessary Existence of the Eternally Living One, so too does it also relate to pillars of the sending of the Prophets and the revelation of the Scriptures, which are rays, manifestations, and communications of that eternal life, and so too does it prove them allusively. In particular, the Messengership of Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, and the revelation of the Qur’an—since they are like the “spirit” and intelligence of life—can be said to be as certainly true as the existence of life.

Indeed, just as life is a pure extract distilled from the universe, just as con­sciousness and sense perception are extracts distilled from life, and intelligence is an extract distilled from consciousness and sense perception, and spirit is the pure essence of life—indeed, it is life itself stable and autonomous— so too is the physical and spiritual life of Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, the most refined extract distilled from the life and spirit of the universe. The Messengership of Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, is the purest extract distilled from the sense perception, consciousness, and intelligence of the universe. Indeed, as testified to by his works, accomplishments, and legacy, the physical and spiritual life of Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, the very life of the universe’s life, and his Messengership are the light and very consciousness of the universe’s consciousness. And the revelation of the Qur’an, as borne witness to by its ever alive truths, is the spirit of the universe’s life and the intelligence of its consciousness.

If the light of Muhammad’s Messengership, upon him be peace and blessings, one day leaves the universe, the universe will die; and if the Qur’an leaves it, the universe will go mad and the earth will lose its reason and strike its then unconscious head on a planet, causing the destruction of the world.

Life also relates to the pillar of belief in Divine Destiny and proves it allusively. This is because, as life is the light of the physical, visible world throughout which it permeates, and as it is the result of the aim of existence, and since it is the most comprehensive mirror to the Creator of the universe and the most perfect epitome and index of the acts of Divine Lordship, and—if we may say so—is like some sort of program for these acts, then certainly, life necessitates that the creatures in the worlds of the seen and Unseen, that is, in the past and in the future, should exist and be identified in an order, known, and predisposed to obey the rules of God Almighty’s creation and operation in the universe.

The original seed of a tree and its roots, as well as the seeds of its fruit, are all alive, just like the tree is itself as a whole entity; indeed, they follow the laws of life more subtle than those of the tree. Similarly, the seeds and roots left by the last autumn, as well as the seeds and roots that will be left to future springs after this spring has ended—they all have life, just like spring, and are subject to the laws of life. In just the same way, all the branches and twigs of the tree of the universe each has a past and a future. They have a chain of existence that consists of their past and future states and stages. The various, multiple existences and states of each species and each member of each species, which are contained in Divine Knowledge, form a chain of existences pertaining to or recorded in that Knowledge. Just like their external existence, their existence in Divine Knowledge bears a ray of immaterial life from the universal, all-encompassing life. All the states and stages of their material life occur according to these tablets of Divine Destiny, which are all alive.

The fact that the world of spirits, one form of the World of the Unseen, is full of spirits, which are life itself or the essences or substances of life, certainly requires that the past and future—which are another form and second section of the World of the Unseen46—should also be favored with some sort of life. Furthermore, the perfect order and the meaningful arrangement things display and their stages of life and fruits demonstrate that they have some sort of immaterial life in Divine Knowledge. So, life, which is a light from the Sun of the Eternal Life, cannot be restricted to the visible or physical world, this present time, or the observed, external existence. Rather, each world receives a manifestation from that light in accordance with its capacity, and the universe is alive and illuminated through it with all its worlds. Otherwise, as the misguided imagine, with the exception of this apparent, temporary (physical) life, each world would have been a vast and terrible corpse, a dark ruin.

Thus, the pillar of “belief in Divine Destiny and Decree” is understood in a broad sense through life and is established by it. That is, the orderli­ness of the visible world with whatever is in it and the results it produces manifest its life and vitality. Similarly, belonging to the World of the Unseen, the creatures of both the past and the future (which clearly indi­cate orderliness in their arriving in and departing from the world and through their worldly lives) have an immaterial living existence and an immaterial presence in God Almighty’s Knowledge. The trace of this life and presence is manifested and observed by means of the Tablet of Destiny and Decree and through all the stages of their worldly lives.

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

45 God has three kinds of Attributes: the Essential Attributes of the “Essence,” Affirmative Attributes, and Negative Attributes. His Affirmative Attributes refer to the assertion of His absolute Unity and to what God is; His Negative Attributes refer to the negation or what God is not. The Essential Attributes of the Essence are Existence, Having no beginning, Permanence, Dissimilarity to the Created, Oneness, and Self-Subsistence. The Affirmative Attributes are Life, Knowledge, Power, Will, Speech, Seeing, Hearing, and, according to some theologians, Creation. The Negative Attributes can be explained as follows: God cannot be described by any physical or anthropomorphic terms. He does not consist of body, color, and size. No person or thing can see Him, imagine, or conceive Him. He cannot be presented in the terms of substance or contingency of matter or form, localized in any part of space, confined to any part of time, or aligned and counted with any being. Nothing can be co-existent or co-extensive with Him. He never begets nor is begotten. And so on. (Tr.)

46 The original word corresponding to what we translate as “the Unseen” or “the world of the Unseen” is ghayb: that which we absolutely or relatively cannot penetrate with our five senses, or is absolutely or relatively invisible and unknown to us. That which is absolutely unknown to us is the” absolute Unseen,” while that which we can acquire some knowledge about is the “relative Unseen.” Like the World of Spirits that we cannot see, and the nature of which we cannot know through our senses, past and future are also unknown to us unless we somehow obtain knowledge of them. Past and future, being the two branches of time, is the “realm” where the World of the Absolutely Unseen manifests itself in the visible world, and may be regarded as its second form. (Tr.)