The Thirteenth Word

He: A point of Divine Unity

In His Name, All-Glorified is He.

There is nothing but it glorifies Him with His praise.

My dear and faithful brothers and sisters!

While reflecting on air during a mental journey, a subtle point related to Divine Unity suddenly became clear to me in the word He in “There is no deity but He” and “Say: He is God.” I saw that the way of belief is so easy as to be necessary, and that the way of misguidance and associating partners with God is so hard as to be inconceivable. I will explain this comprehensive matter briefly.

A handful of soil serves as a flowerbed for hundreds of flowers. If this process is attributed to nature or causality, each handful must contain hundreds of minute machines or factories [to produce the flowers] and an immaterial factory [to determine and govern their lives in place of Divine Knowledge and Destiny]. Or, each atom of dust must know how to make each flower’s different characteristics and living elements. Thus each atom would have infinite knowledge and power, which are unique to God.

Similarly,  each  air molecule  (a  conductor  of Divine  Will  and Command), each shift of air making the sound He, must have minute centers, exchanges, receivers, and transmitters of all human means of communication so that each air molecule can perform those countless acts at the same time. Or, each atom or molecule must have all the relevant faculties and capacities of all who speak or communicate through means of communication, know their languages, and transmit their words to other atoms at the same time. Thus, there are as many impossibilities and inconceivabilities in the way of naturalists and materialists as atoms of air.

If attributed to the Majestic Maker, however, all air atoms become soldiers under His Command. Through their Creator’s permission and Power, and due to their connection to and reliance on Him, they perform innumerable universal duties as easily as if they were doing only one duty of one atom. They perform them instantly and with the ease of uttering He and the movement of air. Air becomes a “page” for the Pen of Power’s endless, wonderful, orderly inscriptions. Its atoms become the Pen’s ribs, and their duties, the points inscribed by the Pen, Which works with the same ease as the movement of a single atom.

While observing and studying the world of air during my reflection on “There is no deity but He” and “Say: He is God,” I saw this truth clearly and in detail. I realized with a certainty based on knowledge that just as the word “He” has a brilliant proof of Divine Unity manifested by the whole universe, so is there in its meaning and indications a radiant manifestation of Divine Oneness displayed by each individual thing. Since that proof contains a powerful indication to the identity of the One to Whom the indefinite, third-person, singular pronoun He refers, I also came to know that both the Qur’an of miraculous exposition and those who regularly mention God with His Names frequently repeat this sacred word to express Divine Unity.

If several points are jumbled around one on a piece of paper, it is almost impossible to distinguish that point. If you do several jobs simultaneously, you will be confused. If a living creature is loaded with many burdens at once, it will be crushed. If you listen to or say many words simultaneously, they become confused and muddled. However, although thousands of points, letters, and words are deposited in each air molecule—even in each atom—they are conveyed without confusion or irregularity. Also, the air performs all its duties simultaneously and without confusion. Each air molecule or atom bears heavy burdens without lagging behind or displaying any weakness. Also, countless words enter ears and come up to mouths with perfect order. In performing all of its extraordinary duties, each atom and air molecule says in the tongue of its being and functioning, in ecstasy and perfect freedom, and through its testimony: “There is no deity but He” and “Say: He is God, the One.” All of them travel among air-clashing waves like lightning and thunderstorms in perfect order and harmony, without one task of them hindering the other.

Given this, either each atom or air molecule necessarily has infinite wisdom, knowledge, will, power, and all qualities needed to dominate all other atoms so that it can perform those functions—which is so absurd and inconceivable that even Satan could imagine it—or, from a position of certainty based on knowledge, clear observation, and personal experience, air functions as a changing “page” for the Pen of Power and Destiny, used by the All-Majestic One with infinite knowledge and wisdom, and as a signboard (a kind of Tablet of Effacement and Confirmation) reflecting a changeable copy of the Divine decrees preserved on the Supreme Preserved Tablet.

In addition to showing a manifestation of Divine Oneness and the impossibility of misguided assertions in its duty of transmitting sound, the element of air simultaneously performs other duties (e.g., transmitting such subtle forces as electricity and light, attraction and repulsion), and carries to all plants and animals the substances essential for their life (e.g., for respiration and pollination) with perfect order. Thus, it decisively proves that it is an important means of conveying the decrees of Divine Will, and random chance, blind force, deaf nature, confused and aimless causality, or powerless, lifeless, and unknowing matter have no part in the fulfillment of its duties. I understood that each atom and air molecule proclaims in the tongue of its being and functioning: “There is no deity but God” and “Say: He is God, the One.” Just as I witnessed these wonders in the physical aspect of air with the key of He, so air itself became a key, like He, to the World of Ideal Forms or Representations and the World of Meaning.

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi