The Thirteenth Word

The fruits of the Qur’an’s wisdom and modern scientific thought and philosophy

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. We send down [stage by stage], of the Qur’an, that which is a healing and a mercy for the believers. (17:82)

We have not taught him poetry; it is not seemly for him. (36:69)

 

If you want to compare the fruits of the Quran’s wisdom and modern scientific thought and philosophy, as well as their instructions, teaching, and degrees of knowledge, consider this: With its profound explanations, the Qur’an of miraculous exposition rends the veils of familiarity and habit over all creatures and events, which are considered ordinary but are miracles of Divine Power. Revealing these astonishing wonders [of Divine creation] to conscious beings and attracting their gaze to them opens up an inexhaustible treasury of knowledge.

Philosophy conceals the Power’s extraordinary miracles within veils of familiarity and overlooks them in ignorance and indifference. It calls attention to aberrations that, outside creation’s order and thus deviated from their perfect true natures, are no longer extraordinary. It offers such things to conscious beings as objects of wise instruction. For example, philosophy considers our creation commonplace, although we are a most comprehensive miracle of Divine Power, and looks at us indifferently. But it is amazed by a three-legged or two-headed person, who is no longer within creation’s perfection, and considers it an object of amazing instruction. It sees the regular sustenance of all infants and young from the Unseen’s treasury, a most subtle and universal miracle of Mercy, as ordinary and draws a veil of ingratitude over it. But when it sees an insect left alone under water and isolated from its fellows, yet feeding upon a green leaf, it tries to make fishermen weep for it because of the favor and grace manifested in it.

Reflect on the noble Qur’an’s wealth and riches with respect to its wisdom and knowledge of God, and on philosophy’s poverty and bankruptcy with regard to learning, instruction, and knowledge of the Maker, and take a lesson.

It is because of this, because the wise Qur’an encompasses infinite brilliant and exalted truths, it is free from and high above the fancies of poetry. Another reason why the Qur’an of miraculous exposition is not in strict verse despite its perfect order and arrangement and its expounding of the Book of the Universe’s artistic beauty and order with its well-ordered styles is that free from the constraints of poetry, it allows each of its verses to be a sort of center to many of its verses and thus there is a connection among all verses within an encompassing context. It is as if each verse has an eye looking to most other verses and a face turned toward them.

Thus there is thousands of Qur’ans within the Qur’an, each being adopted by a different path or school in Islam. For example, and as described in The Twenty-fifth Word, Suratu’l-Ikhlas contains a treasury of knowledge of Divine Unity provided by thirty-six Suratu’l-Ikhlases, each one formed of a combination of six sentences and each having many aspects. This is com parable to the way each star, apparently at random, extends as if from a center a line of connection to every other star in the surrounding area. Such a network also indicates the hidden relation between all creatures. It is as if, like the stars of Qur’anic verses, each star has an eye looking to and a face turned toward all stars. Reflect on the perfect order in apparent disorder, and take a lesson. Understand one meaning of: We have not taught him poetry; it is not seemly for him (36:69).

Understand also from the meaning of it is not seemly for him that poetry tends to adorn insignificant and dull facts with grand, shining images and fancies to make them attractive. But the Qur’anic truths are so great and elevated, so brilliant and splendid, that even the greatest and most brilliant poetic imaginings appear dull and insignificant. For example, innumerable truths like: On the day when We will roll up the heaven as written scrolls are rolled for books (21:104); He covers the day with night, each pursuing the other urgently (7:54); and It is but one single blast, and see, they are all arraigned before Us (36:53) testify to this.

If you want to see and appreciate how each star-like Qur’anic verse re moves the darkness of unbelief by spreading the light of miraculousness and guidance, imagine yourself in pre-Islamic Arabia. Everything in that time of ignorance and desert of savagery was enveloped in the veil of lifeless nature amidst the darkness of ignorance and heedlessness. Suddenly, you hear from the Qur’an’s sublime tongue such verses as: All that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth glorifies God, the Absolute Sovereign, the All-Holy and All-Pure, the All Glorious and Mighty, the All-Wise (62:1). See how those creatures, considered lifeless and unfeeling, spring to life in the audience’s minds at the sound of glorifies, how they awaken, spring up, and begin to extol God by praising His Names! At the sound of, The seven heavens and the earth glorify Him (17:44), the dark heaven appears to those who hear it as a mouth, with each star being a wisdom-displaying word and a truth-radiating light; and the earth as a head, with the land and sea each a tongue, and all animals and plants words of glorification.

If you consider these verses from a modern viewpoint, if you look at it through a superficial veil of familiarity, after the darkness of the ignorance of the pre-Islamic age has long been changed into the “already known” by the Qur’an’s “sun” and Islam’s light, you cannot see what sort of darkness each verse removes in a sweet melody of miraculousness, and so cannot appreciate this aspect of its miraculousness.

If you want to see one of the Qur’an’s highest degrees of miraculousness, consider the following parable: Imagine an extremely vast and spreading tree hidden behind a veil of the Unseen. You know that just as between the members of a human body, there has to be and is a harmony and balance between various parts of a tree—between its branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits— and each part has its proper form and shape according to the tree’s nature. If someone draws an exact replica of that hidden tree, correctly displaying all its parts, relationships, and proportions without seeing it, no one can doubt that the artist sees and depicts the hidden tree with an eye penetrating the Unseen.

In the same way, the Qur’an’s explanations on the reality of things, namely, the reality of the Tree of Creation stretching from the beginning

of creation to eternity, from the earth to the Divine Throne,58  from particles to the sun, maintain the proportion between all parts to such a degree, and give each part and fruit such a suitable form that all exacting and truth seeking scholars have concluded: “What wonders God has willed. May God bless it. Only you, O wise Qur’an, solve the mystery of creation.”

The highest comparison is (and must be put forth) for God—let us represent His Names and Attributes, as well as His Lordship’s acts and qualities, as a tree of light so vast and great that it stretches through eternity. It encompasses the whole universe and includes Divine acts in an infinitely vast sphere stretching from: He intervenes between a person and his heart (8:24), Surely God is the Splitter of the seed-grain and the date-stone (6:95), and: It is He Who fashions you in the wombs as He wills (3:6) to: And the heavens rolled up in His Right Hand (39:67), and He has created the heavens and the earth in six days (7:54), and: He made the sun and the moon subservient to His command (13:2). The wise Qur’an describes this radiant reality, the truths of those Names, Attributes, Qualities, and acts in all of their ramifications and results in so harmonious, fitting, and appropriate a way that all who have penetrated the reality of things and discovered the hidden truths, as well as all sages journeying in the Realm of the Inner Dimension of Existence, have declared: “All-Glorified is God. How right, how conform able with reality, how beautiful, and how fitting.”

Take the six pillars of belief59, which relate to both the Sphere of Contingency (the Realm of Creation) and the Sphere of Necessity (the Realm of Divine Existence), and may be regarded as a branch of these two mighty “trees.” The Qur’an describes these six pillars of belief with all their elements and furthest fruits and flowers such proportionately, observes their harmony to such a degree, and presents them in such a balanced and well measured way that we are amazed and scarcely able to grasp its beauty. It also observes the perfect relationship, complete balance, and amazing harmony among the five pillars of Islam, which form a twig of the branch of belief, down to the finest details, most insignificant points of conduct, furthest aims, most profound wisdom, and most particular fruits. With its perfect order and balance,  as well as its due proportion and soundness, the supreme Shari‘a, which originated from the comprehensive Qur’an’s decisive statements, different aspects or dimensions of wording and meaning, indications, and allusions, is an irrefutable and decisive proof, and just and undeniable witness for this.

Given this, the Qur’an’s explanations could not have issued from any human being’s knowledge, especially from that of an unlettered person. Rather, its explanations rest on an all-comprehensive knowledge and is the Word of One Who sees all things together like a single thing, Who simultaneously observes all truths between two eternities. The verse: All praise and gratitude are for God, Who has sent down unto His servant the Book, and has allowed no crookedness therein (18:1) expresses this reality.

O God, O One Who sent down the Qur’an. For its sake, and for the sake of the one to whom You sent it down, illumine our hearts with the light of belief and the Qur’an. Amin, O One from Whom help is sought.

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

58 The nature of the Divine Throne (Arabic: ‘Arsh) is unknown to us. Elsewhere, Said Nursi writes that the Divine Throne is a composition of the Divine Names the First, the Last, The All-Outward, and the All-Inward. He also writes that the earth is the Throne of Life (‘Arshul-Hayah), and water is the Throne of Mercy (‘Arshur-Rahmah). (Tr.)

59 The six pillars of belief are: belief in God, belief in angels, belief in God’s Books, belief in God’s Messengers, belief in the Hereafter, and belief in Divine Destiny and Decree The five pillars of Islam are: Confession of the pillars of belief, performing the Prescribed Prayers, paying the Prescribed Alms, Fasting during Ramadan, Pilgrimage to Makah. (Tr.)