The Thirteenth Word
Each science speaks of God in its own tongue
[NOTE: The following is a brief indication to one of the thousands of the universal proofs of the pillar of belief in God, many of which, together with explanations, are in the Risale-i Nur.]
In Kastamonu, some high-school students came to me and asked: “Tell us about our Creator, for our teachers do not speak of Him.” I replied as follows: Each science you study continuously speaks of God, the Creator, and makes Him known in its own tongue. So, listen to them, not your teachers. For example, a well-equipped, well-designed pharmacy which has many medicines and pills composed of different precisely measured components certainly indicates an extremely skillful and learned pharmacist. In the same way, to the extent that it is bigger and more perfect than this pharmacy, the pharmacy of the earth, which has countless life-giving cures and medicaments implanted within all plant and animal species, shows and makes known even to blind eyes, through the science of medicine, the All-Wise One of Majesty, Who is the Pharmacist of the largest pharmacy on the earth. Another example: A wonderful factory which weaves thousands of different cloths from a simple material undoubtedly makes known a manufacturer and skillful mechanical engineer. Likewise, to the extent that it is bigger and more perfect than this factory, with its countless parts, each having hundreds of thousands of machines, this traveling machinery or factory of the Lord which we call the earth shows and make known its Manufacturer and Owner through the science of engineering.
A store or shop that serves as a well-organized storage place for numerous varieties of provisions brought from all sides shows that it has a wonderful proprietor, preparer, and distributor of provisions and foodstuffs. In the same way, this All-Merciful One’s food-store known as the earth; this vessel of the All-Glorified, which annually traverses a wide orbit and, while passing through seasons, fills spring, like a huge wagon, with uncountable different provisions and brings them to innumerable living creatures which it houses and whose sustenance was exhausted during winter; this depot or shop of the Lord, which holds vast varieties of goods, equipment, and conserved food— to whatever degree it is bigger and more perfect than the store mentioned, it makes known, through the measure of the science of economics which you study, its Owner, Manager, and Organizer, and makes Him loved.
To take another example: Imagine an army of tribes and nations, each one requiring unique provisions, weapons, uniforms, drills, and demobilization. If its miracle-working commander meets all their needs on his own, without forgetting and confusing any of them, surely the army and camp will point to him and make him loved and appreciated. In the same way, every spring a single Commander-in-Chief provides a newly recruited army of countless animal and plant species with uniforms, rations, weapons, training, and demobilizations in a perfect and regular fashion. He forgets nothing and does not become confused. To the extent that they are vaster and more perfect the human army and its camp, this Divine army of spring and its camp make known, through military science, to the attentive and sensible, the Ruler of the earth, its Lord, Administrator, and All-Holy Commander, generating admiration and acclaim, and makes Him loved, praised, and glorified.
Imagine a magnificent city illuminated by millions of mobile and fixed electric lamps with an inexhaustible fuel and power source. This makes known a wonder-working artisan and an extraordinarily talented electrician, who manages the electricity, makes the lamps, establishes the power source, and brings the fuel. Such a person is admired, congratulated, and loved by others. In just the same way, some lamps (stars and planets) in this palace of the world’s roof, in this city of the universe, are far larger than the earth and move with amazing speed. Still they move in a very delicate order without colliding with each other, and are not extinguished, or run out of fuel. The science of astronomy, which you study, say that our sun, a lamp and stove in the All-Merciful One’s guest-house, is several billion years old and a million times larger than the earth. To keep burning, each day it needs as much oil as the seas of the earth, as much coal as its mountains, or as many logs and wood as ten earths.
So, such lamps point with their finger of light to an infinite Power and Sovereignty that, in turn, illuminates the sun and other similar stars without oil, wood, or coal. It does not allow them to be extinguished and makes them travel with great speed without colliding with each other. However much greater in size and more perfect in management from the lamps in the example are these lamps of the palace of the world in the magnificent city of the universe, through the science of electricity and through the testimony of those radiant stars, they make known the Sovereign, Illuminator, Director, and Maker of the biggest exhibition of the universe, and make Him loved, glorified, and adored.
Imagine a marvelous book. A different book is finely written within each line, and a sura is inscribed in each word with a fine pen. This book is most meaningful and expressive, and all of its subjects corroborate each other. Such a book shows without doubt and as clearly as daylight that it is the product of a particular artist or author possessed of extraordinary perfections, arts, and skills. It makes him appreciated with such phrases as: “What wonders God has willed!” and “May God bless him!”
The same is true of the “macro-book” of the universe. We see a pen at work, inscribing on the earth’s face, one of its sheets, countless plant and animal species, which are like hundreds of thousands of volumes. They are inscribed all together, one within the other, without error or confusion and so perfectly and finely that an ode is compressed in a word like tree, and a book’s complete index in a seed-sized point. To the extent that this infinitely meaningful compendium of the universe, this macro-Qur’an of the cosmos, in each word of which are numerous instances of wisdom, is greater and more perfect and meaningful than the book in the example, through the extensive measure and telescopic vision of the science of nature that you study, and the sciences of reading and writing that you practice at school, it makes known its Inscriber and Author with His infinite Perfections. In the meaning of “God is the All-Great,” it makes Him known. In the glorification of “All Glorified is God,” it describes Him. Through praises like “All praise and gratitude are for God,” it makes Him loved.
Like those mentioned, through its extensive measure, particular mirror, far-reaching view, and searching and instructing perspectives, each of the sciences makes the Majestic Creator of the universe known by His Names, and makes known His Attributes and Perfections. It is in order to teach this decisive proof explained, which is a magnificent and brilliant proof of Divine Oneness, that the Qur’an of miraculous exposition frequently describes our Creator through such phrases as “the Lord of the heavens and the earth” and “He has created the heavens and the earth.”
This is what I told the students, who accepted and affirmed it, saying: “Endless thanks be to God; we have received a true, sacred lesson. May God be pleased with you.” I added:
Each of us is a living machine subject to many sorrows and capable of knowing many pleasures. Although wholly impotent, we have infinite physical and spiritual enemies. Although wholly destitute, we have infinite outer and inner needs and suffer continual blows of decay and separation. Yet if, through belief and worship, we can establish connection to the Sovereign of Majesty, we find a point of support against all of our enemies and a source of help for all of our needs. Everyone takes pride in the honor and rank of his master to whom he is attached. So, if one establishes connection to the infinitely Powerful and Compassionate Sovereign through belief, enters His service through worship, and (in doing so) changes the announcement of their execution at the appointed hour of death into welcome discharge papers—you can understand by comparison the degree of the contentment, thankfulness, and pride they will feel.
I repeat to the calamity-stricken prisoners what I said to the school boys: Those who recognize and obey Him are prosperous even if they are in prison, while those who forget Him are wretched and imprisoned even if they live in palaces. Once a wronged but fortunate [due to his belief and being martyred] man said to the wretched wrongdoers who were executing him: “I am not being executed; rather, I am being discharged from my duties and going to eternal happiness. Moreover, as I can see you even now condemned to eternal punishment, I am taking complete revenge on you.” He then said: “There is no deity but God,” and died happily.
All-Glorified are You. We have no knowledge save what You have taught us. Surely You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi