The Fifteenth Word

The clash between angels and devils in the heavens

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All Compassionate. Indeed, We have adorned the lowest (world’s) heaven with lamps, and We have made (out of) them missiles to drive away devils. (67:5)

Let’s climb a seven-step stairway to understand this verse.

Seven steps

FIRST STEP: Just as the earth has its own inhabitants, reality and wisdom require that the heavens have theirs. In Islam, such beings are called angels and spirit beings.

Reality requires it to be so, for despite its small size and relative insignificance, the earth is filled with, emptied of, and replenished with living and conscious beings. Thus the well-decorated castle-like heavens having magnificent towers must have conscious and percipient beings.

Like humanity and jinn, those beings observe the world, study the Book of the Universe, and herald the Divine Lordship’s sovereignty. For the universe’s Master has embellished and ornamented it with infinite decorations, beauties, and inscriptions, all of which require the existence of contemplative and appreciative eyes to observe and be delighted. Beauty requires a lover, and food is given to the hungry. Humanity and jinn per form only a minute portion of this boundless duty, glorious viewing, and comprehensive worship. Therefore, these infinite and diverse duties and acts of worship require the existence of countless angels and spirit beings.

Prophetic Traditions suggest, and the wisdom in the universe’s order indicates, that certain kinds of angels use moving bodies, from planets to drops of rain, to tour and view the visible, material world.65 In addition, certain kinds of animal bodies, from the “green birds” of Paradise66 to flies, serve as “aircraft” for one kind of spirits. Spirits who enter such bodies by God’s command view the physical miracles of creation through those beings’ senses. The Creator, Who continuously creates subtle life and enlightened, percipient beings from dense soil and turbid water, must have created innumerable conscious beings from light, even from darkness, which are worthier of a life and spirit.

SECOND STEP: the earth and the heavens are like two countries, under one government, that conduct important relations and transactions. For example, things necessary for the earth like light, heat, blessings, and forms of mercy (like rain) are sent from the heavens. Also, as all Revealed religions confirm and as all saintly scholars who unveil creation’s secret truths based on what they have witnessed agree, angels and spirit beings descend to the earth from the heavens. Thus we may deduce that there is a way for the earth’s inhabitants to ascend to the heavens.

Just as people can travel to the heavens through their mind, vision, and imagination, so, freed from or purified of their carnal and material being’s gross heaviness, the spirits of Prophets and saints travel in such realms by God’s leave; the spirits of ordinary believing people do so after death. Since those who are “lightened” and have acquired “subtlety” and spiritual refinement travel there, certain inhabitants of the earth and the air may go to the heavens if they are clothed in an “ideal” body, energetic envelope, or immaterial body or form, and are light and subtle like spirits.

THIRD STEP: The heavens’ silence and tranquility, order and serene regularity, and vastness and radiance show that their inhabitants differ from those of the earth: They obey God and do not quarrel or dispute among themselves, for they are innocent, their realm is vast, their nature is pure, and their stations are fixed. This differs from the earth, where opposites exist side by side, evil is mixed with good, and disputes arise, and the result is conflict and suffering. Conscious beings are tested and set to compete, which results in progress or regress. This is so for the following reason: Humanity is the fruit of the Tree of Creation. The fruit of something is its furthest, most delicate and important part. Thus we are the fruit of the universe; a most comprehensive, wonderful, impotent, weak, and subtle miracle of Power. Given this, the earth, despite its small size and insignificance when compared with the heavens, is the universe’s heart and center with respect to the meaning and art it contains, for it is our cradle and dwelling place. Moreover, it is the place where God’s miracles of Art are exhibited and the manifestations of Divine Names are concentrated. It reflects God’s infinite activity as the Lord (Master, Sustainer, Trainer, and Ruler) of all beings. It also is the center and pivot of the endless Divine creativity displayed in infinite liberality, especially in the numerous small plant and animal species, as well as the place where samples of creatures of the broadest worlds of the Hereafter are shown in small scale. It is the speedily operating workshop for eternal textiles, the fast-changing place of copies of eternal scenes, and the narrow, temporary field and tillage rapidly producing seeds for permanent gardens (in the Hereafter).

It is because of this greatness of the earth with respect to its meaning and its importance in regard to art, the wise Qur’an puts it on a par with the heavens, although it is like a tiny fruit of a huge tree when compared with the heavens. It places the earth in one pan of a pair of scales and the heavens in the other, and repeatedly mentions them together, saying, the “Lord of the heavens and the earth.”67

The rapid and constant changes and transformations on the earth require that its inhabitants undergo corresponding changes. As this bounded earth is the object of Divine Power’s countless miracles, the faculties of humanity and jinn are essentially unrestricted, thereby allowing infinite progress and regress. A great field of trial and testing has opened for everyone, from Prophets and saints to Nimrods and devils. Thus the endless evil of Pharaoh-like devils will make them attack the heavens and its inhabitants.

FOURTH STEP: The All-Majestic One, the Master, Administrator, and Creator of all worlds, has many Titles and Beautiful Names that issue various decrees and perform different tasks. For example, the Title or Name requiring the angels to help the Companions fight the unbelievers also requires battle between angels and devils, and struggle between the heavens’ good and the earth’s evil inhabitants. Certainly the All-Powerful One of Majesty, Who holds the unbelievers’ souls within His Power’s grasp, does not eradicate them with a command or trumpet blast. Having the Title of the Lord of the whole creation, and as the requirements of His Names the All-Wise and Administrator, He opens a field of testing and contest.

Consider this: A king has many names and titles with respect to the different areas of his rule. For example, in the department of justice he is known as Just Ruler, in the armed forces as Supreme Commander, in the office of religious affairs as Caliph (or Supreme Head of the Church), and in the civil service as Ruler. His obedient subjects call him Gracious Sovereign, while the rebellious call him Overwhelming Ruler.

That exalted king, who enjoys absolute sovereignty, does not order rebels to be executed; rather, as a requirement of his title Just Ruler, they are sent to court. Similarly, he does not reward honest, capable officials by personally admitting or directly phoning them. Instead, under his titles relating to the majesty of sovereignty and expedients of government, he opens a field of competition to show how much the officials deserve the reward, and commands his ministers to invite the people to watch. He organizes a welcoming ceremony and, after a magnificent royal testing, publicly rewards and proclaims the winners’ worthiness.

Thus—The highest comparison is (and must be put forth) for God—the Eternal King has numerous Beautiful Names. Through the manifestations of His Majesty and His Grace, He has many Titles and Qualities essential to His Divine Being. Whichever Title and Name requires the existence of light and darkness, summer and winter, and Paradise and Hell, also require that the law of contest should be universal, like the laws of generation and mutual assistance. From the contest of angelic inspirations and satanic whisperings around the heart to the contest between angels and devils in the vast realm of the heavens, they require that law to be all-embracing.

FIFTH STEP: Beings travel between the earth and the heavens, and important necessities for the former are sent from the latter. Given that pure spirits travel to the heavens, evil spirits attempt to do likewise, as they are physically light and subtle. But they are driven off, for they are by nature evil and unclean. There must certainly be in the visible, material world a sign of this important interaction and contest. For the wisdom of Divine Lordship’s sovereignty requires that it should place a sign on His important disposals in the invisible realm for conscious beings, particularly for humanity, whose most important duty is observing, witnessing, supervising, and acting as a herald to, those disposals; in the same way that He has made rain a sign for us to explain, in physical terms, His countless miracles in spring. He has made apparent (natural) causes point to His Art’s wonders, so that He may attract the attentive gaze of the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth to witness that amazing exhibition. He displays the vast heavens as a castle, a city arrayed with towers on which sentries are posted, so that the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth may reflect on His Lordship’s majesty.

Since wisdom requires the announcement of this elevated contest, there will be a sign for it. Accordingly, other than shooting stars, no atmospheric or “heavenly” event seems appropriate to this announcement. These stellar events are perfectly suitable for repulsing devils; they resemble missiles and signal rockets fired from the formidable bastions of high castles, and, unlike other “heavenly” events, no other function is known for such events. Moreover, this function has been widely known since the time of Adam and witnessed by those who know the reality of things and events.

SIXTH STEP: Since humanity and jinn are potentially inclined to and capable of endless evil and dispute, they recognize no bounds to opposition, rebellion, and transgression. Thus the wise Qur’an restrains them with such miraculous eloquence, sublime and clear styles, and exalted and evident comparisons and parables that the universe trembles. For example, listen to the awesome warning, fearsome threat, and severe restraining in:

O company of jinn and humanity! If you are able to penetrate and pass beyond the spheres of the heavens and the earth, then penetrate and pass beyond (them). You will not penetrate and pass beyond them save with an authority. Which then of the blessings of your Lord do you deny? There will be sent on you a flash of fire, and smoke, and no help will you have. (55:33-36)

This suggests: “If you, humanity and jinn, can ignore My Commands, pass beyond My Kingdom’s bounds, if you are able to.” With such miraculous eloquence, it breaks their conceited opposition, and shows how helpless and wretched they are in relation to the immense grandeur of the sovereignty of God’s Lordship. Such verses, as well as: We have made them missiles for the devils (67:5), in effect say:

 

O humanity and jinn, conceited and refractory despite your abjection, and disobedient and obdurate despite your destitution and weakness. How dare you rebel against the commands of so glorious a King that the stars, moons, and suns obey His commands like orderlies at the service of an officer. You oppose such a Majestic Ruler that He commands soldiers so awesome and obedient that were your devils to stand against them, they would stone them to death with mountain-sized cannon balls. Your ingratitude causes you to revolt in the realm of such a Majestic Sovereign that He has such servants and troops that, it is not insignificant impotent creatures like you, but if were each infidel enemies the size of mountains or the earth, they could hurl at you mountain-sized or even the earth-sized stars, blazing projectiles, and flames of fire and smoke, and rout you. If necessary, they could throw the earth in your face and rain down the earth-sized stars like cannon balls on you.

The Qur’an concentrates on certain important points not because of the enemies’ strength but to display Divine Majesty and exhibit the enemies’ wickedness. Sometimes it mobilizes the greatest and most powerful causes or means against the least and weakest thing to show the perfect order, infinite justice, boundless knowledge, and power of wisdom [displayed in it, the universe, and the human social system it builds]. By doing so, the Qur’an also seeks to prevent injustice and aggression. For example:

If you support each other against him [the Prophet], truly God is his Guardian, and Gabriel and the righteous among the believers, and furthermore, the angels, are his supporters. (66:4)

What great respect it expresses for the Prophet, and how considerate it is for his wives’ rights. This emphasis is only to express the great respect for the Prophet, the importance of two weak beings’ (the women) com plaints, and to remind others to observe their rights in a way to arouse com passion for them.

SEVENTH STEP: There are many kinds of stars. Everything that shines in the sky can be called a star. The All-Majestic Creator, the All-Gracious Maker, created them as jewels in the sky, shining fruits of a vast tree, or floating fishes in an infinite ocean. He made them places of excursion, mounts, or dwelling places for angels. One sort of small stars was created to drive off and kill devils. Thus, firing shooting stars to repulse devils may mean:

• A sign that the law of contest also exists in the heavens.
• The heavens contain watchful guards and obedient inhabitants, Divine forces, who do not like earthly evil-doers mixing with and eavesdropping on them.
• Spying devils, representatives of the filth and wickedness on the earth, try to dirty the clean and pure realm of the heavens inhabited by pure beings, and spy on their talk in the name of evil spirits.68 Shooting stars drive them from the heavens’ doors.

So, those of you who shut your eyes to the Qur’an’s sun and rely on your mind’s dim light, open your eyes and climb these seven steps. In the light of the Qur’an’s miraculousness, as bright as daylight, see the meaning of the verse cited at the beginning. Taking stars of truth from the heavens of that verse, hurl them at the devils in your minds and kill them. We too should do the same and say: “My Lord, I seek refuge in You from the evil suggestions of Satan.”

God’s is the perfect proof and the decisive wisdom.

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

65 at-Tirmidhi, “Zuhd” 9; Ibn Maja, “Zuhd” 19. (Tr.)

66 Muslim, “‘Imara” 121; Abu Dawud, “Jihad” 25. (Tr.)

67 The earth may be regarded as equal to the heavens, for it may be argued that “a constant spring is greater than a lake with no inlet.” Likewise, a bushel, used to measure grain, may be seen to be in balance with a hill-sized amount of grain that has been measured with it and heaped somewhere. It is exactly the same with the earth: God Almighty created it to exhibit the works of His Art and manifest His Power, as a garden where His Mercy flowers and as a field to cultivate the seeds of Paradise. It functions as a measure to fill and empty the universe of countless worlds of creation, and resembles a spring flowing into the “seas” of the past and the World of the Unseen. Consider the “shirts” woven of creatures in countless forms that the earth changes each year, and the ever-renewed worlds with which the earth is filled each time and then pours into the past into the world of the Unseen. Consider all of these as present before your eyes, and then compare the earth with the somewhat monotonous and plain heavens. You will see that even if the earth does not weigh more than the heavens, it certainly does not weigh less. From this, you may understand the meaning of the Lord of the heavens and the earth.

68 Disbelieving jinn and their human companions trying to mislead people, especially through sorcery, mediumship, and soothsaying. (Ed.)