The Thirty-second Word

Second station

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.

Say: “He—(He is) God, the Unique One of Absolute Oneness. God—(is He Who is) the Eternally Besought (Himself in no need of anything).

This Station consists of three Aims.

FIRST AIM: Having been cast down by a star, the representative of those attributing partners to God gave up the attempt to find a part of creation that would accept him or her as God’s partner. However, to incite doubt about God’s Unity, he or she sought to arouse suspicions in the minds of its adherents by asking three questions.

Question: In the language of the irreligious, he or she asks: “I have found no evidence to prove my cause. But how can you prove the existence of a single One of infinite power? How do you reject everything but His Power in the universe’s creation and operation?

Answer: As argued convincingly in The Twenty-second Word, from atoms to stars, each creature is a clear proof for the Necessarily Existent Being, the Absolutely Powerful One’s necessary existence. Each link in the chain of creation proves His Unity. Among the many Qur’anic arguments, particularly like: If you ask them who has created the heavens and the earth, they will certainly say: God (39:38); and Among His signs are the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variety of your tongues and colors (30:22), the creation of the heavens and the earth is presented as a proof of God’s Existence and Unity. Conscious people who consider the creation of the heavens and the earth must confirm the Majestic Creator’s existence. When asked who their creator is, they will answer: “God.”

In The First Station, we started from an atom and showed the stamp of Divine Unity on every object as far as the heavens and the stars. The Qur’an rejects any form of partnership with God. This means that the Absolutely Powerful One, Who has created the heavens and the earth in perfect order, must hold the amazing solar system in His Power’s grasp. Since that absolutely All-Powerful One holds the sun and its planets in His Power’s grasp, managing it and regulating its movements, the earth must be in His Power’s grasp and management. Given this, all of its creatures, which are its fruits and may be regarded as the goal of its existence, are in His Lordship’s grasp (raising, administering, and sustaining). Since all creatures, spread over the earth singly or in groups and replaced after adorning it for a while, fill and empty the earth in a continuous cycle, are in the grasp of His Power and Knowledge and are managed and arranged according to the measure of His Justice and Wisdom, for sure, each member of each species, each of which is a well-designed and perfectly formed miniature of the universe, a pattern or specimen of its species, and a tiny index of the book of the universe, are in His grasp of Lordship, invention, raising, and management.

Given this, each living being’s cells, corpuscles, limbs, and nerves are under His command, at His disposal, and move according to His laws. Since this is so, all particles or atoms, the essential building blocks constituting all creatures and their parts as well as being the means for their design and formation, are in His Power’s grasp and His Knowledge’s sphere. They move most regularly and perform perfect duties by His command, permission, and strength.

Since every atom moves and functions by His law, permission, and command, then most certainly, it is His Knowledge and Wisdom that distinguish each face by making it unique, their sounds and tongues differ. Consider this verse that, in mentioning only the first and most universal link and the last and most individualized one, points to this chain of creation and the series of His signs in creation: Among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variety of your languages and colors. Indeed, in this are signs for those who know (30:22).

Now we say: “O representative of those associating partners with God! These evidences are as strong as the chains of creation, which point to an Absolutely Powerful One and prove His Unity.”

Since the creation of the heavens and the earth shows an All-Powerful Maker and His boundless and infinitely perfect Power, certainly, He is absolutely independent of partners. While He has no need for them, why do you follow the dark way of associating partners with Him? As He has no partners in His Divinity, any partnership in His Lordship and creativity is impossible. The Power of the Maker of the universe and the earth is bound less and infinitely perfect, and everything is equal before It. If there were a partner, this would require that a limited power defeat a boundless and infinitely perfect power, or somehow limit it and infect it with incapacity. Such assertions are completely untenable.

There is no need for partners, and their supposed existence is inconceivable. Therefore, claiming partnership is no more than forced and arbitrary judgments that cannot be substantiated by reason or logic. It is a principle of theology and methodology that any probability or possibility not arising from evidence cannot be considered, and that it does not injure conviction or certainty based on knowledge. For example, it is theoretically conceivable that Lake Egridir might change into oil or grape juice or a heavy syrup. But since this is a mere possibility raised on the basis of no circumstantial evidence, it does not harm our certainty that the lake is water.

Similarly, we have asked each part of the universe: from atoms to stars in the First Station, and from the creation of the heavens and the earth to the variety of tongues and uniquely identification of each face in the Second Station. Each part testified to God’s Oneness and shows the stamp of His Unity. Therefore there is no circumstantial sign upon which any partnership with God could be found. Given that this claim is forced, meaningless, and insubstantial, all such claims are clear nonsense and pure ignorance.

Question: Those who reject Divine Unity raise another objection: Everything depends on a cause and takes place according to the cycle of cause and effect. Since causality is apparent throughout the universe, causes must have a part in the creation and operation of things. If they have a part, they may be partners.

Answer: As required by Divine Will and Wisdom, and as the Divine Names tend to manifest themselves, results are made dependent on causes. However, as is convincingly argued in the Risale-i Nur, causes have no creative effect. Here we add the following:

Conscious beings are the most effective causes in bringing about effects. Humanity, which has a free and most comprehensive willpower and a vast field in which to exercise it, is the most elevated conscious being. Speaking, thinking, and eating are the most apparent acts arising from our free will. They include numerous well-ordered chains of events, but only one is directly connected to our free will. For example, out of all the processes related to eating from the formation of food to its becoming nourishment in cells, only chewing them depends on free will. In the case of speaking, free will is limited to inhaling and exhaling the air needed by the vocal organs to produce sounds. A word is like a seed in the mouth, becomes like a tree when uttered, produces millions of fruits that resemble that single word, and enters millions of ears. We can only imagine this multiplication, free will has nothing more to do with it after it has been said.

If humanity, the most honored cause and agent, the freest in using will, has no part in creation, how can nature (e.g., inanimate objects, elements, plants, animals) have any real effect or part in creation? How can natural laws, which have no consciousness, will, or knowledge and only a nominal existence, originate such a miraculous system as the universe, the creation and operation of which require infinite knowledge, will, and power? How can they create a miraculous living, conscious, speaking, reasoning, thinking, and learning organism like a man or a woman?

Together with causes, nature is only an envelope for the Lord’s creatures, a tray for the All-Merciful One’s gifts. The tray bearing the gift, the cloth in which it is wrapped, even the one who brings it, cannot be a partner in the king’s sovereignty. One who does not understand this is blinded by delusion. In the same way, apparent causes and means have no part in Divine Lordship; their only duty is to worship.

SECOND AIM: In despair of proving the existence of any partners with God, this being tries to demolish belief in Divine Unity through doubt, and asks another question:

Question: You argue that the universe’s Creator is absolutely One and the Eternally Besought, Who needs nothing while everything else is absolute need of Him. He is Single yet has absolute and free control of everything. He exercises His absolute authority over all things simultaneously and can do innumerable things at the same time, without doing one thing hindering Him from doing another thing simultaneously. How can we believe such a bewildering assertion? How can one being do countless things in countless places at the same instant and without difficulty?

Answer: Our answer requires that we analyze an extremely profound and subtle, as well as very elevated and comprehensive, mystery of God’s being One and the Eternally Besought. The mind can discern that mystery only by comparison. Although His Essence and Attributes have no like or equal and are not comparable, His acts may be considered through comparison.

First comparison: As argued convincingly in The Sixteenth Word, a single thing can acquire universality through various mirrors. While being particular in essence, it can be universal by having numerous aspects at the same time. Just as a single corporeal thing acquires universality through reflection in things like glass and water, which mirror corporeal things, more refined and transparent matters (e.g., air, ether, certain objects from the World of Representations and Ideal Forms) become like mirrors to bodies of light and spirit beings. Such matters transport them, allowing them to travel in such clear realms as air or ethereal arena with the speed of lightning and imagination.

Seated on them, these bodies of light and spirit beings can be present in thousands of places at once. Since they are of light and their reflections are identical with themselves and have exactly the same qualities, they act in every place as if they were personally present. The reflections of solid, corporeal bodies are not identical with themselves and, not having the same qualities as themselves, are lifeless.

For example, the sun is a concrete particular object that acquires universality by shining on transparent objects. It lends its reflections and images to all shining things on the earth according to each one’s capacity. Even a drop of water and a piece of glass reflect the sun’s image. The sun is present, through its light, heat, image, or the seven colors in its light, in every trans parent or shining object on the earth. If it had knowledge and consciousness, each object, especially shining and transparent ones, would be like a seat or chair through which it could contact everything. It also would be able to communicate with all conscious beings, through mirrors or each one’s eye, while communicating with all others. While present and acting everywhere on the earth through its knowledge, power, and other attributes, it would be nowhere in person.

If the sun, which is like a solid, particular, and lifeless mirror to only the Name the Light out of the All-Majestic Being’s one thousand and one Names, can therefore display such universal activity, should the All Majestic Being, with the Oneness of His Essence, be unable to do countless things at the same time?

Second comparison: Since the universe is like a tree, each tree may be an example of the universe’s realities. Taking the huge tree in front of my room as a tiny specimen of the universe, we will demonstrate Divine Oneness’ manifestation in the universe. This tree has at least a thousand fruits, and each fruit has at least a hundred seeds. All fruits and seeds were created at the same time. However, that tree has the same single node of its nucleus of life in its single original seed. This node contains the laws of the entire tree’s formation issuing from Divine Will and Divine Command, and permeates all parts of the tree by being present in its roots and trunk, as well as in each branch, blossom, leaf, fruit and seed, without being divided or fragmented.

Unlike light, heat, and air, this nucleus of life, which is a single display of Divine Will and a law of Divine Command, does not dissipate but it is present in every part. Its manifold actions are not contrary to its singleness. In fact, the manifestation of Divine Will, that law of Divine Command and nucleus of life, may be present in each part and nowhere at the same time. It is as if that law of Divine Command had as many eyes and ears as that magnificent tree’s fruits and seeds. Or it is as if each part of the tree had a control center for the “senses and feelings” of that law of Divine Command. The tree’s veins and parts, such as branches, are like telephone wires in facilitating that law’s operation or functioning, rather than forming obstacles, and the farthest become like the nearest through them.

Given that a single particular manifestation of God’s Attribute of Will is observably the means of millions of acts in millions of places at the same time, we are convinced, as if seeing it with our own eyes, that the All Majestic Being controls the tree of creation and all of its parts and atoms through the manifestation of His Power and Will.

As convincingly argued in The Sixteenth Word, such single, fixed, and helpless luminaries as the sun, restricted by matter, and His laws of Command and manifestations of His Will, such as those comprising the nucleus of that tree’s life and that are like its spirit, can be present, through luminosity, in many places and perform numerous tasks simultaneously. Although each such object is a particular thing restricted by matter, it resembles a universal thing and can accomplish many things at once. You see this with your own eyes, and so cannot deny it.

The All-Sacred Being is absolutely free of matter, exempt from restrictions and the darkness of density. All lights and luminaries, as well as all creatures of pure light, are a single shadow of His Sacred Names’ lights. The whole existence and life, as well as the worlds of spirits and ideal forms or representations and the Intermediary World of the grave are semi-transparent mirrors of His All-Pure “Face.” His Attributes and essential Qualities are all encompassing, and all His manifestations or operations upon things individually and collectively are underlain or underpinned by His universal Will, absolute Power, and all-encompassing Knowledge. How can therefore something hide from or escape the manifestation or operation of His Oneness— the concentrated manifestation or operation of His Names? What can be hard for or concealed from Him? Who can be far from Him or draw near to Him without acquiring universality? What can prevent Him from doing something else?

As Ibn ‘Abbas, may God be pleased with Him, pointed out, why should He not have immaterial “eyes” and “ears” to see and hear every individual creature? Why should chains of things not be like veins or wires that quickly convey His laws and commands? Why should things that are considered obstacles and impediments not be the means of His free disposition of creation? Why should causes and means not be only apparent veils (to His direct control of the universe and free operation)? Why should He not be present everywhere while being nowhere? Why should He need to reside in a certain place? Why should distance, size, or veils of the levels of existence be obstacles to His nearness to things, or to seeing and controlling them as He wills?

Why should change, alteration, containment by space, and division (all intrinsic qualities of physical, restricted, contingent, solid, and multi plying beings) be accidental or necessary to the Sacred Being, the Light of Lights, the Single One of Unity, the Necessarily Existent One, Who is free of matter and restriction, exempt from defect and fault? Does impotence ever befit Him? Does defect ever appear in His Honor and Dignity?

Conclusion of the Second Aim: Reflecting on God’s Oneness displayed by each individual thing while looking at the fruit tree in front of my room, a series of reflections occurred to me. I relate them below.

All-Glorified is Him Who has made His garden of earth a display hall of His Art, an exhibition of His Wisdom, a manifestation of His Power, a flower garden of His Mercy, the arable field of His Paradise, a place where His creatures come and depart in floods and each with its particular life and features. Adorned animals, ornamented birds, fruit bearing trees, and flowering plants are all miracles of His Knowledge, wonders of His Art, gifts of His Munificence, and offerings of His Favoring. Flowers smiling because of beautiful fruits, birds singing at the dawn breeze, raindrops glittering on flowers’ cheeks, and mothers’ compassion for their infants—all this is because the All-Loving One wills to make Himself known, the All-Merciful One wills to make Himself loved, the All-Compassionate One wills to make His Compassion known, and the All-Favoring One wills to make His Affection recognized by humanity, jinn, angels, and other spirit beings.

Each fruit and seed is a miracle of Divine Wisdom, a wonder of Divine Art, a gift of Divine Mercy, a proof of Divine Oneness, and a sign of God’s bounties in the Hereafter. They are true witnesses that their Creator has full power over everything and full knowledge of everything. All fruits and seeds are mirrors to His Oneness in this world of multiplicity, for in the tongue of its being, each one says: “This elaborate tree is included in me. Don’t be absorbed in its elaboration. All its parts and features are encapsulated in me.” A seed is like the fruit’s heart, a mirror to Divine Oneness. In the tongue of its being, it “recites” in its heart the Divine Names recited by the entire tree loudly.

Seeds are also signs of Divine Destiny and embodied symbols of Divine Power. Through them, Destiny indicates and Power alludes to the fact that each elaborate tree has grown from one seed and so points to its Maker’s Oneness, Who has no partner in His creation and fashioning. After it has grown and elaborated itself fully, it encapsulates all its laws, realities, and life-history in a fruit. As all of its meaning contained in a seed, it shows the All-Majestic Creator’s wisdom in His creation and government. As in the case of that tree, Oneness also is the source of the tree of creation’s existence and growth. Similarly, being the fruit of the universe, humanity points to Unity in the multiplicity of beings, and the human heart sees the meaning of Unity in multiplicity with the eye of belief.

These fruits and seeds are also tablets of Divine Wisdom through which Wisdom speaks to conscious beings like this: This tree’s life and the efforts spent for its growth are aimed at its fruits, which represent it and is the aim of its growth. Its life is aimed at the seeds, because each seed is an index bearing the tree’s entire meaning. Thus, the One Who creates the tree and the necessary conditions for its growth aims all manifestations of His Names concerned with the tree’s life at the fruit, the reason for its existence. Furthermore, that huge tree is sometimes pruned to control its growth and make it yield better fruits for many years; they cut off some parts of it so that it may rejuvenate.

Similarly, as humankind is the tree of creation’s fruit, we are the reason for the universe’s creation and existence, and the human heart is the most illumined and comprehensive mirror of the Maker of the universe. Because of this, humanity undergoes frequent pruning in the form of convulsions, revolutions, upheavals, and physical and social change, and it will cause the destruction and re-construction of the universe. The door of this world will be closed and the door of a new one be opened for its judgment.

Here it is appropriate to explain a point showing the eloquence and force of Qur’anic expressions dealing with the Resurrection. As argued above, the universe must be destroyed and a new one built for the judgment and eternal happiness of humanity. There is a Power that will do this. However, the Resurrection will be done in stages. We must believe in and acquire knowledge of some of those stages. In order to perceive and acquire knowledge of other stages, we must evolve spiritually and intellectually. To prove the simplest stage, the Qur’an draws our attention to a Power that will open up the Resurrection’s broadest sphere.

This is the simplest stage that all people must know and believe in: When people die, their spirits go to other abodes. Their bodies rot underground, but a tiny part (a seed) remains intact. During the Resurrection, God re-creates us from it and returns the spirit to it.

This stage is so easy that countless examples of it are seen every spring. Many Qur’anic verses call our attention to the operations of the Power Which will gather and then disperse all atoms. Sometimes they show the works of a Power and Wisdom that will send creation into non-existence and then re-create it, or rend the heavens asunder and scatter the stars.

They also show the operations and manifestations of a Power and Wisdom that will cause to die and then revive all living creatures at once through a single call, or the works of a Power and Wisdom that will toss mountains into the air, completely level and then re-shape the world in a new and more beautiful form. This means that, together with the phase in which all people will be re-created and which all people must believe in and have knowledge of, Almighty God will perform all tasks connected with the Resurrection with the same Power and Wisdom.

Question: You often use analogies in the form of comparisons or parables in The Words. According to logic, such analogies do not offer certainty, and issues requiring conviction for belief must be based on logical proofs. Analogy is used in jurisprudence for potential solutions and for cases in which a fairly certain presumption is enough. Furthermore, you set forth analogies and comparisons as parables, which by definition are not real.

Answer: According to logic, analogies in the form of comparisons do not offer certainty. But one type of analogy is stronger than logical proof and gives greater certainty than induction: You point to the tip of a universal truth through a particular analogy based on concrete facts and base your conclusion on that truth. To teach that mighty truth and deal with particular incidents and realities in accordance with it, you show the general or universal law on which the truth is based in a certain, particular thing or event. For example, through the analogy that the sun is a single body that can be present in all shining objects at once because it emits light, we show the law of a truth: Light and things of light are not restricted. Distance, size, and quantity make no difference to such items, and they cannot be contained in space.

Another example: A tree’s leaves and fruits are formed easily and perfectly at the same time and in the same center through a law of Divine Command. This shows the tip of a mighty truth and a universal law, and proves that truth and law. Like a tree, this vast universe is the result of that law and the manifestation of oneness. All analogies and comparisons in The Words are of this kind. They offer greater conviction and certainty than logical proofs.

As for the second part of the question, according to the science of eloquence, a metaphor is a word or phrase used to suggest or express a meaning other than its original one. In such statements, the metaphorical (and not the original) meaning is considered. If the metaphorical meaning conforms to reality, you are saying the truth. For example, height can be conveyed by the phrase: “The sheath of so-and-so’s sword is long.” If that man is tall, this statement is true whether or not he has such a sword. If he is not tall, this statement is false even if he has such a sword, for the phrase is only figurative in meaning.

Such parables as those in the Tenth and Twenty-second Words contain realities that are to be sought in metaphors. Their original meanings are like telescopes through which to see the truth being discussed. We speak in parables so that readers may understand subtle realities through such comparisons. However, to make them understandable to everyone, states and dispositions are presented in the forms of speeches, and the community’s character is presented as a particular individual.

THIRD AIM: Receiving a convincing answer to the second question (discussed at the beginning of the Second Aim), the misguided one asks:

Question: Qur’anic expressions like the Best of Creators and the Most Merciful of the Merciful suggest the existence of other creators and merciful ones comparable to God. Also, you assert that the Creator of the universe has infinite perfections by encompassing the highest degree of all perfections. But perfections are judged by way of contrast. Pleasure’s perfection cannot be perceived without pain, light cannot be recognized without darkness, and union gives no pleasure if there is no separation.

Answer: We answer the first part through five indications.

First indication: Being a book that emphasizes Divine Unity, the wise Qur’an could not have used those phrases as you understand them. Rather, the Best of Creators means that the Creator has the highest rank of creativity. This does not suggest the existence of other creators for, like other Attributes, Creativity has ranks of manifestation. Thus this phrase means that He is the All-Majestic Creator having the ultimate rank of creativity.

Second indication: Such phrases as the Best of Creators do not suggest a plurality of creators. Rather, they relate to species of beings or the variety of being created and mean that He is the Creator Who creates everything in the best and most appropriate fashion. This is the same meaning as that which is expressed by verses like He Who makes excellent everything that He creates (32:7).

Third indication: Such phrases as the Best of Creators, God is the Greatest, the Best of Judges, and the Best of the Benevolent do not compare those acts and Attributes of God that are manifested in the universe with those of creatures. [Whatever beings have is a gift from God. We see because God is All-Seeing, and hear because He is All-Hearing.] All perfections shared by humanity, angels, and jinn are only indistinct shadows in relation to His, which are beyond compare.

People, especially the misguided, cannot measure God properly and are usually forgetful of Him. For example, a private pays his corporal perfect respect and attributes to him whatever good he enjoys. He is oblivious of the king; even if he remembers him, it is still to the corporal that he shows gratitude in return for any good he receives. Such a private should be warned: “The king is greater and more benevolent than your corporal, so you must thank the king.” This does not mean to compare the king’s actual, magnificent commandership with the corporal’s—such a comparison would be meaningless. What is meant is to warn the private who prefers the corporal in gratitude and forgets the king.

Similarly, means, nature, and causes blind heedless people to the True Bestower of bounties. They attribute the bounties which they receive to means and nature and creativity to causes, as if they were the actual sources, and praise and thank them. Therefore, the Qur’an warns: Almighty God is much greater and a far better Creator and Benefactor (actually meaning that He is the sole Creator and Benefactor). Regard Him and thank Him.

Fourth indication: Just as actually existent things may be compared with each other and preferred over each other, so possible, and even hypothetical things may also be compared with and preferred over each other. Since there are numerous grades or degrees in qualities and natures, people may imagine infinite grades in the essences and manifestations of Divine Names and Attributes. Almighty God is, however, of the highest, most perfect, and most beautiful of all grades that His Names and Attributes are imagined to have. The universe bears witness to this. His description of all His Names as the best or most beautiful, as in: His are the Most Beautiful Names (20:8), points to this fact.

Fifth indication: Such phrases also should be considered from the following viewpoint. Almighty God has two kinds of Attributes and ways of manifestations. In the first one (Wahidiya), in the form of an all-encompassing law, He manifests His Names and exercises His authority throughout the universe from behind apparent means and causes. In the second one (Ahadiya), He focuses His manifestations on one being without any means or veils. When shown in this second way, His kindness, creation, and grandeur are brighter, more beautiful and splendid than their manifestations in the first way.

Suppose a saintly king executes his authority directly, with all his officials and commanders being only veils or screens. His execution of his authority is in two ways: by some general laws he has established and using officials and governors in every office, or through direct governance by being present everywhere at the same time in different forms and without officials. This second way is better and more excellent in the sight of his subjects. Similarly, the Creator of the universe, the Eternal Sovereign, uses means and causes to veil or screen His rule and to demonstrate His Lordship’s majesty in this life. However, He also has installed a “private telephone” in His servants’ hearts so that, leaving all means and causes behind, they can contact Him and declare: You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help (1:5). Phrases like the Best of Creators, the Most Merciful of the Merciful, and God is the Greatest also underline this fact.

As for how we can judge something as perfect if it has no opposites, consider the following five points:

FIRST POINT: One who asks such a question is unaware of true perfection and imagines relative perfections to be true. Any virtue, perfection, or superiority that manifests itself in comparison to or in contrast with others is not true; rather, it is of relative value and significance. Thus losing its opposite causes it to lose its value.

For example, heat is desired over severe cold and food is delicious in pro portion to one’s hunger. Without cold and hunger, heat and food have no or little value. True pleasure, love, perfection or virtue do not show themselves in comparison with others or in proportion to their opposites’ degree—they are by and of themselves, and so are substantial and constant realities.

Existence, life, love, knowledge (especially knowledge of God), belief, permanence, mercy, compassion or affection, as well as light, sound sight and hearing, eloquence, munificence, good conduct or moral virtues, appropriate form, and the perfections any people have either in their persons or characters and attributes or acts—these are all virtues by their very nature. With or without opposites, they are virtues and perfections in themselves. Neither they themselves nor their pleasure and beauty do not need comparisons or opposites to perceive and appreciate. Thus, all perfections of the All-Majestic Maker, the All-Gracious and Beautiful Originator and the Creator of Perfection are true in and of themselves. Whatever other than Him can have no effect on Him. The perfections in creation are only their reflections according to the capacity of each being.

SECOND POINT: In Sharhu’l-Mawaqif, Sayyid Sharif al-Jurjani writes: “The cause of love is either pleasure or benefit or sexual or natural inclination or perfection. Perfection is loved because of itself.” In other words, you love something or someone either because of the pleasure you find in them or their benefit or your sexual or natural (e.g., fatherly, motherly, filial, etc.) inclination, or its perfection. If love arises from perfection, there is no need to search for another cause. For example, people tend to love people of perfection and of perfect virtue although they have no relation to them whatsoever.

Thus, as they are true, indisputable, and infinite, all of Almighty God’s Perfections and His All-Beautiful Names are loved because of themselves. The All-Majestic Being, Who is absolutely worthy of love and is the True Beloved One, loves His Perfections and the beauties of His Names and Attributes in a manner appropriate to Himself. He also loves the works of His Art and the beauties in His creatures, which mirror His Perfections. He loves His Prophets and saints, particularly His noble beloved, the lord of Messengers and master of saints—Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings.

Due to His love for His Own Beauty, He loves His beloved, who mirrors that Beauty. Due to His love for His Own Names, He loves His beloved, who manifests those Names in a most comprehensive way, as well as all other Prophets. Due to His love for His Art, He loves His beloved, who displays that Art, and those who are like him (the other Prophets). Due to His love for His creatures, He loves His beloved, who welcomes those creatures with due appreciation and applause, saying: “What wonders God has willed! God bless them! How beautifully they have been created!” and those who follow him. Due to His love for the beauties of His creatures, He loves His beloved, who is the most comprehensive embodiment of all those beauties and all moral virtues shared by them, and his followers.

THIRD POINT: All perfections in the universe are signs of an All Majestic One’s Perfections and indications of His Beauty. In relation to His Perfection, all beauty and perfection in the universe is an indistinct shadow. I now present brief pointers to five evidences of this reality.

First evidence: A splendid, perfectly built and decorated palace points to perfect engineering, architecture, and joinery. This perfect engineering, architecture, and joinery point to one worthy of called by such titles as builder, engineer, architect, decorator, and joiner. These titles show the perfection of the builder’s artistry, which points to his competence. This perfect competence shows that the builder is a perfect one of a most sublime nature.

Similarly, this world, a perfectly built and decorated palace, points to the perfection of Acts, for a perfect work results from perfect acts. Perfect acts point to such perfect Names as the All-Organizing, the All-Fashioning, the All-Wise and the All-Decorating, Which are involved in building the palace. Perfect Names and Titles show perfect Qualities or Attributes, for if the latter are imperfect, the Names originating from them also are imperfect. Perfect Attributes demonstrate the inherent, perfect Competence, Which, in turn, shows that the One Who built that palace is perfect. Although His Perfection is manifested through the veils of Essential Competence, Attributes, Names, Acts, and works, it still reveals the faultless perfection and beauty seen everywhere.

After you see that infinite Perfections originating in the Essence of the One Who has them, you may understand how imperfect and dim are the relative perfections manifested in comparison to others or by way of contrast.

Second evidence: When viewed with attentive eyes and considered reflectively, the universe reveals to the heart and sound conscience that the One Who has made it so beautiful and decked it out with such varieties of adornment has such infinite beauty and perfection that He has made it so.

Third evidence: Perfect and well-proportioned works of art depend on perfect planning that, in turn, is based on comprehensive knowledge, a productive mind, intellectual refinement, and spiritual purity. It is the spirit’s purity that shows itself in the work through knowledge. So, with all its material beauties, this universe consists of the drops issuing from an infinite knowledge belonging to One Who has infinite and eternal beauty and perfection.

Fourth evidence: As you know, something which gives light must have light, and that which illuminates must be luminous. Similarly, benevolence comes from wealth and generosity and grace originates from a gracious one. Since this is so, like light pointing to the sun, all the beauty and perfection observed in the universe point to a perpetual beauty. Like a mighty river glittering with reflections of the sun’s light, creatures flow over the earth’s face glittering with reflections of beauty and perfection. Just as reflections of light in bubbles on a river’s surface do not originate from the bubbles themselves, so the beauties and perfections glittering temporarily on the flood of creatures do not belong to the creatures themselves; rather, they are reflections of the lights of an Eternal Sun’s Names.

The disappearance of mirrors and the death of creatures, in contrast to the perpetual reflections in them of inseparable grace and beauty, are among the most manifest proofs that the apparent beauty does not belong to those reflecting it, and that there is One with pure beauty and ever-manifested kindness and grace, One Whose existence is absolutely necessary, Who is Eternal and All-Loving.

Fifth evidence: If several people coming from the same place through different ways report the same event, it means that the event occurred. In the same way, all people who can uncover hidden truths and are as sure of them as if they had seen them with their own eyes, whether truth-seeking purified scholars or saints belonging to different spiritual orders or sages belonging to different schools of thought, regardless of time, place, or capacity, have agreed that the beauties and perfections seen in the mirrors of the universe’s creatures are reflections of the Perfection of a Single Necessarily Existent One and manifestations of the beauty of His Names. This consensus is an unshakable and decisive testimony.

FOURTH POINT: A person’s or a thing’s pleasure, good, and beauty are judged according to those who receive and manifest them, not according to their opposites. For example, generosity is a beautiful and praiseworthy virtue. Generous people receive far greater pleasure from the happiness of those whom they have favored than from their superiority to others in generosity. Caring and compassionate people feel greater pleasure in proportion to the comfort of those for whom they feel compassion. For example, a mother’s compassion for her children causes her to have such a great and strong pleasure in her children’s happiness and well-being that she nearly sacrifices her life for them. The pleasure of such compassion even causes a hen to attack a dog to protect her young.

Thus, since the true pleasure, beauty, and perfection of laudable virtues and praiseworthy qualities are judged according to that with which they are related, not to their likes or opposites, for sure, the beauty of the Mercy of One of Beauty, Grace and Perfection, the All-Living and Self Subsistent, the All-Kind and Caring, the All-Bounteous and Favoring, the All-Merciful and the All-Compassionate, should be considered in view of those toward whom He has mercy. According to the degree of happiness and well-being of those whom He favors with His mercy, particularly their enjoyment of His bounties in Paradise, the All-Merciful and All Compassionate One feels what we call sacred love, sacred pleasure, sacred exhilaration, and sacred joy. All of these accord with His Holy, Transcendent Being, and are infinitely greater, as well as more sacred, elevated, and refined, than their counterparts in creation.

You may see one manifestation of this mighty truth’s comprehensive meaning via the following comparison: Suppose a kind, compassionate, and generous man wills to feed some very poor, hungry, and destitute people. So, he prepares a banquet on his fine ship and watches them from above while they eat. You may understand how much their enjoyment of the food in gratitude and their happiness in praise and thankfulness please and exhilarate that noble and generous person.

Similarly, the All-Merciful and All-Compassionate One has spread out a vast food-laden table on the face of the earth, which He causes to travel in the space with all of its inhabitants. He feeds all living beings, primarily including humanity, jinn and animals, from the food on this table and invites His hungry and needy servants to Paradise’s everlasting gardens. He prepares each gar den as if it were a magnificent table laid out with all kinds of food and drink, which are of pure pleasure and delight. Consider the pleasure and happiness that the above-mentioned person feels at his guests’ enjoyment, although he is not the true owner of what he offers, and then compare it with the indescribable sacred love and pleasure felt by the All-Merciful One.

Also consider this: A skillful technician invents something like a gramophone which plays without records. If it works and gives the desired results perfectly, how proud its inventor will feel and how pleased he will be. He will but utter, “How beautiful! May God bless this!” The All Majestic Maker has invented the vast universe (in general) and the earth with each creature in it (in particular), especially our head, as such a Divine gramophone or orchestra that science should be lost in admiration. Each creature displays the expected results to the utmost degree and in a very beautiful way. Their obedience to God’s laws of creation and life, which comprise their worship, glorification, and specific praise and exaltation of Him, as well as the attainment of Divine purposes for their lives, please Him to a degree beyond our comprehension.

Or, say a just judge receives great pleasure from doing and establishing justice, and becomes extremely happy when able to restore the rights of the oppressed. Compare with this the sacred meanings arising from the reality that the Absolutely Just Ruler, the All-Majestic Overwhelming One, gives all creatures the right of existence and protects and maintains their existence and lives against aggression, restores rights in the universe, and acts with justice. Compare with this especially the sacred meanings to arise from the fact that He will judge humanity and jinn in the Hereafter and establish absolute justice.

As in the examples above, each Divine Name contains many sorts or degrees of beauty, grace, and perfection, as well as many levels of love, pride, honor, and grandeur. This is why exacting saintly scholars honored with the manifestation of the Divine Name the All-Loving, have concluded: “The essence of the universe is love. All creatures move with the motive of love. All laws of attraction, rapture, and gravity originate in love.” One of them even said:

The spheres are intoxicated, and so are angels and stars;

The heavens, the sun, the moon, and the earth are all intoxicated.

Intoxicated are the elements and plants, and trees and human beings.

All animate beings are intoxicated, and so are all atoms of creation.

 

Every creature is intoxicated, according to its capacity, with the “wine” of Divine love. People love those who are kind to them as well as true perfection and transcendent beauty. They also love those who are kind to those whom they love and for whom they have mercy.

Given this, we can understand that the All-Gracious and Beautiful One of Majesty, the All-Loved of Perfection, in each of Whose Names are innumerable treasuries of kindness, Who makes all those whom we love happy with His favors and is the source of countless perfections and levels of beauty and grace, is worthy of infinite love and the creation’s intoxication with His love. This is why some saints who have been honored with the manifestation of the Divine Name the All-Loving have said: “We do not even want Paradise. A gleam of the Divine love is eternally sufficient for us,” and why, as Prophet Muhammad said: “A single minute spent in beholding the Divine Beauty in Paradise excels all the bounties of Paradise.”

So, perfect love and perfections attained through love are possible within the spheres of the Divine Unity and Oneness, displayed, respectively, through the universal manifestations of Divine Names on beings as a whole and their particular manifestations on individuals. Any perfections imagined outside those spheres are false.

FIFTH POINT: The representative of the misguided says: “Your Traditions condemn the world, describing it as flesh. Also, all people of truth and saint hood deplore it, considering it evil and foul. But you say it is the means for the manifestation of all Divine perfections, and speak of it like a lover.”

Answer: The world has three facets or aspects. The first facet is concerned with Almighty God’s Names and shows their inscriptions and activity; it mirrors them. This facet is the Eternally Besought’s collection of innumerable “letters.” Therefore it is extremely beautiful and worthy of love. The second facet relates to the Hereafter. It is the field to sow for the Hereafter, the tillage of Paradise, the flowerbed of Divine Mercy. Like the first one, it is beautiful and worthy of love.

The third facet is a veil of heedlessness, a plaything for human fancy and desire. This facet is ugly because it is mortal, painful, and deceptive, and thus condemned by the Traditions and disliked by the people of truth. The Qur’an praises creation and attaches importance to it due to the first two facets of the world. The Companions and other saints sought these two facets.

Four groups of people condemn and deplore the world. The first group, those with knowledge of God, condemn the world because it builds a barrier in front of the knowledge, love, and worship of Almighty God. The second group consists of those who aim solely at the Hereafter. They abhor the world because its affairs and occupations prevent them from striving for the Hereafter seriously, or because their firm belief and conviction show it to be very ugly when compared with Paradise’s beauties and perfections. Just as all men are ugly when compared with Prophet Joseph, upon him be peace, all the world’s beauties and charms mean nothing when compared with those of Paradise. The third group, those who cannot conquer the world, condemn it out of their love for—not their dislike of—the world. The fourth group condemn the world because whatever its members grasp slips out of their grasp. They become angry and console themselves by declaring the world ugly. Such condemnation also arises from love of the world. Agreeable condemnation comes from those who love the Hereafter and knowledge of God.

For the sake of the master of Messengers, may Almighty God include us among the first two groups. Amin.

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi