Gleams of Truth

Flowers from the Seeds of Truth from between the Crescents of Ramadan and the Eid Day

This is a short “Mathnawi” on Islamic belief, thought, and action for students of the Risale-i Nur.

NOTE: In both its composition and subject-matter, this collection is unlike other mathnawis or compilations of poetry. It bears the title Lemeat (Gleams of Truth) and was written in order to explicate, to some degree, the writer’s previous work, Hakikat Çekirdekleri (Seeds of Truth); moreover, it is in prose form and does not contain entertaining images or unbalanced emotions. It was written as scholarly instruction for some of the students of Bediüzzaman, including his nephew, who was with him at the time of writing; in it are included the truths of the Qur’an and belief, entirely in accordance with logic. This is a lesson about the Qur’an and belief. As our master himself said, and as we can understand, Bediüzzaman had no predisposition to verse or poetry, and did not occupy himself with them.

Working for two or two and a half hours every day, Bediüzzaman wrote this work in versified form (though it was not poetry); the work was completed in twenty days during Ramadan. At that time, he was a member of the Darü’l-Hikmeti’l-İslamiyye (“The House of Islamic Wisdom”), and had numerous preoccupations. Although it was dictated “extempore” and completed very quickly, the work was not edited and was published as it was. In our opinion, it is a wonder, on account of its relation to the Risale-i Nur. No other compilation of poetry seems to be as remarkable as this one is, as easy to read as prose. God willing, this work will become a sort of Mathnawi for students of Risale-i Nur. It acts as a form of index for the Risale-i Nur, or a forerunner for it, as the Risale-i Nur appeared ten years later and was completed over twenty-three years.

The Risale-i Nur students, Sungur, Mehmed Feyzi, Hüsrev

REMINDER: AS THE SAYING GOES: “A person is hostile to what they do not know.” I have thought a great deal about poetry and rhyming simply because I do not know much about them. I have never wanted to change the reality of what I mean to fit into the demands of poetry.

So, in this book, I have dressed sublime truths in an inelegant garment that is bereft of rhyme or meter.

In the first place, I do not know any better way and am only thinking of conveying the meaning. Secondly, I wanted to give form to my criticism of those poets who chisel the body to suit the clothes. Thirdly, a childish style such as this is preferable and more suited to occupy the carnal soul and heart during Ramadan. But, my reader, I must confess I have made a mistake and want to alert you to avoid making the same – do not be misled by the poor style into being carelessly disrespectful of its exalted truths!

AN EXCUSE: O Reader! I confess at the beginning that I have worried about my abilities in the art of writing and versification. As for verse and rhyme, I had never been able to produce even one poem. But suddenly I felt a desire to put things in verse, a desire which has persisted. There is an epic in Kurdish about the expeditions of the Companions called Qawl-i Nawala Sisaban. My spirit enjoyed its natural cadence, which is similar to a hymn. So I chose to use its verse form, but in a way particular to myself. I made a composition which somehow resembled verse, although I took no pains with the meter. Anyone who wishes may read it as easily as prose, without thinking of its verse-like form. Indeed, it would be better to consider it as prose so that the meaning can be better understood. The verses of each section are interrelated in respect of meaning. Readers should not ask about rhyming. A fez can be without a tassel, and meter can be without rhyme, verse without rules. I think that if a composition draws attention to itself through its artistry, the mind is preoccupied then with the art. Therefore, a composition is better when artless, thus not distracting attention away from the meaning.

My teacher in this work was the Qur’an, my book was life, and the one I addressed was myself. And you, my reader, are an eavesdropper. Eavesdroppers have no right to criticize; they must take what pleases them and ignore what they do not like. It is my hope that the readers’ tongues will utter a prayer of forgiveness for me, or recite a Fatiha, God willing.

The Supplicant

I am a ruined grave, in which are piled up

Seventy-nine dead Saids with his sins and sorrows.

The eightieth is a gravestone for this grave;

All together they weep at the decline of Islam.

Together with my gravestone and the moaning grave of dead Saids

I advance toward my abode of tomorrow.

I am fully certain that the heavens and earth of the future

Will together surrender to Islam’s clear, shining hand.

For its strength lies in its belief and blessings,

It affords peace and security to all beings.

 

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

All praise and gratitude are for God; and may God’s blessings be upon the master of the Messengers and upon him Family and Companions, altogether.

Two supreme proofs of Divine Unity

With whatever is in it, the universe is a supreme proof; with its tongues of the unseen and manifest worlds, it declares God’s Unity and glorifies Him. Announcing the Unity of the All-Merciful, it continuously proclaims:

There is no deity but He!

All the atoms of its cells, all its parts and members, are tongues mentioning God. Together they pronounce in that resounding voice:

There is no deity but He!

The tongues are infinitely various, the voices are of differing pitch, but they are united on one point—the mention of Him, saying:

There is no deity but He!

The universe is the macro-human; it mentions God in a loud voice, while all its elements and atoms add to that loud voice their tiny voices, declaring in unison:

There is no deity but He!

The universe is a circle of God’s remembrance, reciting the Qur’an section by section. Its light comes from the Qur’an, and all beings with spirits reflect on the truth:

There is no deity but He!

The Qur’an, this Mighty, Glorious Criterion of Truth and Falsehood, is the most articulate proof of Divine Unity. All of its verses are truthful tongues, and rays from the lightning of belief. All together they declare:

There is no deity but He!

If you attach your ear to the bosom of that Criterion, in its profoundest depths you will hear clearly a heavenly voice which recites:

There is no deity but He!

Its voice is utterly exalted, utterly solemn, truly sincere, most friendly, utterly convincing, and equipped with proofs. Repeatedly it declares:

There is no deity but He!

All the six aspects of this proof of light are transparent: upon it is the flower and stamp of miraculousness and in it shines the light of guidance, which says:

There is no deity but He!

Beneath it lies subtly interwoven logic and proof; on its right the intelligence or reason is made speak and the mind completely affirms it, saying:

There is no deity but He!

On its left, identical to the right, the conscience is produced as a witness; before it lies pure good and its aim is happiness and prosperity, the key of which at every instant is:

There is no deity but He!

Its support beyond it, identical to “before it,” is heavenly, pure Divine Revelation. All these six aspects are luminous and manifested in the sign of each is:

There is no deity but He!

Can any lurking suspicion, any conceivable, piercing doubt, any treacherous deviance sneak into that resplendent, shining castle with its lofty walls of suras, every word of which is an angel uttering:

There is no deity but He!

The Qur’an of mighty stature is an ocean of Divine Unity. To take a single drop as an example from that ocean, look at only a single, slight allusion out of the short sura, Suratu’l-Ikhlas; there are innumerable allusions: its six phrases, three positive, three negative, refute all kinds of attribution of partners to God and prove Divine Unity in its seven aspects:

THE FIRST PHRASE: Say, He: it is a clear indication of Him, requiring no evidence. That is, it defines Him without considering Him with

His Names, Attributes, and acts. This definition indicates Him directly. That is:

There is no “he” but He!

This is an allusion to the experiential affirmation of Divine Unity. When a truth-seeing view becomes immersed in Divine Unity, it says:

There is nothing observed but He!

THE SECOND PHRASE: God, the absolutely One, the Unique is an explicit affirmation of God’s Unity as the Divine Being or of His Divinity. Reality declares in the tongue of truth:

There is nothing to be worshipped but He!

THE THIRD PHRASE: God, the Eternally Besought One. This is the shell of two pearls of Divine Unity. The first is God’s Unity as the Lord (of all creation). The order of the universe declares:

There is no creator but He!

The second pearl is God’s Unity as the Self-Subsistent, by Whom all subsist. The universe in its entirety declares through the language of absolute need for an Author, an Ultimate, Creative Cause, both for its coming into being and its continued existence:

There is no self-subsistent, by whom all subsist, but He!

THE FOURTH PHRASE: He begets not. This indicates God’s Unity as the All-Majestic One. It rejects all kinds of attribution of partners to God, and decisively refutes unbelief. That is, one who is subject to change or production or division can be neither Creator, nor Self-Subsistent, nor Deity.

The negating not (lam in the Arabic) decisively refutes the idea of begetting for the Divine Being. This kind of attribution of partners to God (that is, accepting paternity for the Divine Being) has made the majority of humankind sinful. It has given rise to creeds such as Jesus, Ezra, angels, or “the ten intellects” are offspring of the Divine Being.

THE FIFTH PHRASE: Nor is He begotten indicates God’s Unity as the All-Eternal. That is, one whose existence is not necessary, pre-eternal, or uncontained by time cannot be God. That is, one who came into existence within time, or was born of matter, or descended from a progenitor, cannot be the universe’s Refuge and Protector.

The attribution of existence to causes (causality), the worship of stars, idolatry, and naturalism are all varieties of associating partners with God, all pitfalls of misguidance.

THE SIXTH PHRASE: And comparable to Him there is none is a comprehensive phrase that expresses all aspects of Divine Unity. That is, the negating is none refers to God having no like, partner, or peer either in His Essence, or in His Attributes, or in His acts.

In meaning, each of these six phrases is both the result and proof of the others; proofs in sequence and the results arising from them in order are included in this sura to construct it as a fortress.

That is to say, included in Suratu’l-Ikhlas, appropriately to its stature, are thirty-six suras the parts of which are set in order to form both proofs and results of one another; this single sura is the horizon at which the thirty-six suras rise.

None knows the Unseen save God

 

Causes are purely apparent

Divine Grandeur and Dignity require that natural causes are, in the view of reason, a veil before the Hand of Power;

At the same time Divine Unity and Majesty require that natural causes have no hand in the coming into existence of the works of Power.

 

Existence is not restricted to the physical world

The unbounded forms of existence cannot be confined to this visible world;

it cannot contain them;

The physical world is but a lace veil over the radiating worlds of the

Unseen.

 

The universality of the Pen of Power demonstrates Divine Unity

The faultless works of art explicitly refute the creativity of causes at every point of origination;

The inscriptions of the Pen of Power necessarily reject the existence of intermediaries at every point of creation.

 

Nothing can exist without the existence of everything

Throughout the universe there is harmony and solidarity that is both concealed and observable—both in the inner and outer aspects of existence.

Both this solidarity and the cooperation—mutual assistance or reciprocal answering of needs—demonstrate that only an all-encompassing Power could do this: thus an atom is created and situated in a way appropriate for all its relations.

Every line and word of the book of the universe is animated; need urges them toward each other and acquaints them with each other.

Wherever it comes from, every call for help receives response: in the name of Divine Unity, all the surroundings are moved to help it in its need.

Every living word has a face that is turned and an eye that looks to all the sentences.

 

The sun’s motion is for gravity and gravity provides the stability of the solar system

The sun is a fruit-bearing body; it shakes itself so that its fruit—which are mobile—do not fall.

If it were to stop moving and come to rest, then gravity would cease and its ecstatic followers would scatter through space and weep.

 

Small things are interconnected to larger things

Certainly, the one who has created the eye of a mosquito has created both the sun and the Milky Way.

And the one who has ordered the flea’s stomach doubtlessly has set in order the solar system.

Also, the one who has given sight to the eye and need to the stomach has certainly adorned the eye of the sky with the kohl of light and spread a feast over the face of the earth.

 

There is a supreme miraculousness in the order of the universe

See, there is miraculousness in the organization of the universe; if to sup pose the impossible all natural causes were agents that are able to do whatever they will,

They would, confessing their utter impotence in the face of this miraculousness, prostrate before it and declare: “All-Glorified are You! We have no power! Our Lord, You are the Eternal, All-Powerful One of Majesty!”

 

Everything is equal before the Divine Power

Your creation and your resurrection are but as (the creation and resurrection of) a single soul. (31:28)

The Divine Power is essential to and inherent in the Divine Essence; impotence cannot access It.

There can be no degrees in Divine Power, nor can any impediment in any way obstruct It. Whether they be universal or particular, all things are the same in relation to It.

For everything is interconnected to and interdependent on everything else; one who cannot make everything can make nothing.

 

One who cannot hold the universe in his hand cannot create a particle

If one does not have a hand that is powerful enough to lift the earth, the suns, and the stars—those innumerable bodies—and string them in order like prayer-beads,

And place them on the head and breast of endless space, they cannot claim to create anything in the world; they have no right to claim to have invented anything.

 

Raising a species to life is the same as raising an individual to life

Just as revivifying a fly that has gone numb in the death-like sleep of winter is not difficult for the Divine Power,

Likewise, neither the death of the earth nor its resurrection will pose any difficulty for the Divine Power.

Nor will the raising to life of all beings with spirits present any greater problem.

 

Nature is Divine art

Nature is not the printer, it is something printed;

It is not the inscriber, but the inscription; it is not the doer or the agent, it is the recipient; it is not the source, but the pattern.

It is not the one who orders, it is the order; it is not the power, but the law; it is a set of laws that issue from the Divine Attribute of Will; it is not a reality that has a materialized self-existence.

 

The conscience recognizes God through its attraction

In the conscience there is an attraction, an infatuation; the conscience feels that it is constantly attracted by the pull of an attractive force.

If the All-Beautiful, Gracious One was to manifest Himself permanently without a veil, conscious beings would be overcome with ecstasy.

The consciousness—the human conscious nature—testifies decisively to a Necessarily Existent One, One of Majesty and Beauty and Grace;

The feeling of attraction is a testimony, and so too is the feeling of being attracted.

 

The innate disposition given by the Creator speaks the truth

A thing’s innate disposition or God-given nature does not lie; whatever this innate disposition says is the truth. Given an inclination to grow, the tongue of the seed says: “I will sprout and yield fruit,” and what it says is proven true.

The inclination toward life murmurs in the depths of the egg: “If God wills, I will be a chick.” What it says is true.

If a handful of water intends to freeze inside an iron cannon-ball when it is cold enough,

The inclination to expand within it says: “Expand! I need more space.” This command cannot be resisted.

Strong iron sets out to work, and does not prove it wrong; the water’s truthfulness and honesty split the iron.

All these inclinations are Divine creational commands and each is a Divine decree. They are all Divine laws of creation and life, all manifestations of Will.

Divine Will directs all beings in this way: all inclinations conform to the commands of the Lord.

The Divine manifestation in the conscience is the same; the feeling of attraction and the feeling of being attracted are two pure “souls;”

They are two polished mirrors in which are reflected the eternal

Beauty and the light of belief.

 

Prophethood is essential for humankind

The Divine Power, Which does not leave ants without a leader or bees without a queen

Surely would not leave humankind without a set of laws or a Prophet. The order of the universe self-evidently demands this.

The Ascension was for the angels what the splitting of the moon was for humankind

The angels saw in the Prophetic wonder of the Ascension a supreme sainthood within the undeniable Prophethood.

That shining person mounted Buraq (carrying him to heaven) and was like lightning; like the traveling moon, he saw the world of light throughout.

In the same way for humanity, which is scattered through this visible world, And the moon split (54:1) was an important, observable miracle;

So for the dwellers in the world of spirits, the Ascension, pointed out in, All-Glorified is He, He took His servant for a journey by night… (17:1) was the greatest miracle.

 

The proof of the affirmation of faith is within it

The affirmation of faith contains two sentences, each of which testifies to the other; one is an argument and proof for the other.

The first is the a priori argument for the second, and the second is the a posteriori argument for the first.

 

Life is a manifestation of unity

Life is a light of unity through which unity is manifested in this realm of multiplicity. Truly, a manifestation of unity unifies multiplicity, thus making it a unified entity.

Life causes a single thing to own all things together, while for a lifeless thing all things are non-existent.

 

The spirit is a law clothed in external existence

The spirit is a luminous law clothed in external existence and endowed with consciousness.

This spirit, which has a real, sensible existence, has become the brother, the companion, of that perceptible law.

Like established, constant natural laws, the spirit comes from the world of the Divine Command and the Attribute of Will.

The Power clothes it in a being with senses, attaches consciousness to its head, and makes an astral body the shell for that pearl.

If the Creator’s Power were to clothe the laws operating in species in external existence, each would become a spirit;

If the spirit was stripped of external existence and consciousness, it would become an undying law.

 

Existence without life is like non-existence

Both light and life are the causes for beings to reveal themselves and be known. See, if there is no light of life,

Existence will be stained with non-existence; indeed, it is like non existence. Even if it is the moon, it is a stranger and an orphan, unless it has life.

 

Thanks to life, an ant is greater than the earth

If you were to weigh an ant on the balance of existence, the universe to emerge from it could not be contained in our earth.

In my view, the earth is living. But if, according to what others suppose, you were to take the lifeless earth and place it in the other pan to the ant,

It would not amount to even half of the conscious head of the ant.

 

Christianity will follow Islam

Christianity will either become extinct or purified. It will surrender to

Islam and give up arms.

It was fragmented repeatedly until finally Protestantism appeared, but it was unable to find there what was necessary to rectify it.

The veil was again rent, it fell into absolute misguidance. However, a part of it approached the affirmation of Divine Unity; in that it will find salvation.

It is preparing to be torn again. If it does not become extinct, Christianity will be purified and join Islam.

In this lies a mighty mystery to which the Pride of the Messengers alluded when he said: “Jesus will come and follow my Shari‘a; he will be of my Community.”

 

A partial or indirect view sees the impossible as possible

It is a well-known incident: a large group of people were scanning the horizon for the crescent moon to establish the beginning of the eid, but no one could see anything.

Then an aged old man swore that he had seen it. But what he had seen was a curved white eyelash.

The eyelash became his crescent moon. But how can a curved eyelash become the crescent moon? If you have understood our parable:

The motion of atoms has become the eyelash over your reason – a dark eyelash that blinds the materialist eye.

It cannot see the One Who has formed all species of beings, so misguidance comes upon you.

How can that motion replace the One Who has created and ordered the universe? It is a compounded impossibility to suppose the former to be the latter.

 

The Qur’an requires mirrors, not someone to act as a deputy

Rather than rational arguments, it is the sacredness of the source which encourages the mass of the Muslim Community and the common people to obey it and urges them to follow it.

Ninety per cent of the Shari‘a is comprised of the obvious, indisputable matters and essentials of Religion, each of which is a diamond pillar.

The matters which are open to interpretation, controversial and secondary, only amount to ten per cent. One who has these ten gold pieces cannot own the ninety diamond pillars or put them in their purse, nor can they make them dependent on the gold pieces.

The source of the diamond pillars is the Qur’an and Hadith. The pillars are their property and should always be sought in them.

Books and interpretations of the Shari‘a should be mirrors of the Qur’an or telescopes through which the Qur’an is examined. That sun of miraculous exposition does not need shadows or anyone to act on its behalf!

 

The falsifier of the truth adopts the false as true

Since by nature humans are noble, their purpose is to find the truth. However, sometimes falsehood comes to their hands, and supposing it to be the truth, they keep it in their breast pocket.

While digging out the truth, misguidance comes upon them involuntarily; supposing it to be the truth, they wear it on their head.

 

The mirrors of the Divine Power are numerous

The Power of the All-Majestic One has numerous mirrors. They open up windows, each more transparent and subtle than the other, all looking onto the World of Representations or Ideal Forms.

Various mirrors from water to air, air to ether, ether to representations or ideal forms, ideal forms to spirits, spirits to time, time to imagination, and from imagination to the mind, all represent the manifestations of God’s acts. Turn your ear to the mirror of the air: a single word becomes millions!

The Pen of Power makes copies in an extraordinary way; this is the mystery of reproduction...

 

There are various sorts of representation

The image or reflection in a mirror is one of four sorts: it is either only the identity or the physical form of the thing reflected; or the identity together with the essential, living attributes; or both the identity and a ray from the thing’s nature; or both the nature and the identity.

If you desire examples: a human being, the sun, the angel, and the word. The images of solid things in mirrors are moving dead forms.

The images of a luminous body in its reflections are living and connected to it; even if it is not the spirit itself or identical to it, they are none other than this.

They are each an expanded light. If the sun had been a living being, its heat would be its life, and its light, its consciousness—its image in the mirror has these qualities (i.e., it has both heat and light).

This explains the following mystery: Archangel Gabriel is both at the Lote-tree185 and in the Prophet’s Mosque in the form of Dihya186 at the same instant—and who knows in how many other places!

Also, God knows how many places Azra’il can be present in simultaneously, taking the spirits of the dying.

At the same time, the Prophet appears to his Community both in the visions of the saints and in true dreams;

And on the Place of the Supreme Gathering on Judgment Day he will meet with all to intercede on their behalf.

The “substitutes” (abdal) of saints appear and are seen in numerous places at the same instant.

 

One qualified to make ijtihad may deduce a new law for himself, but he cannot be a law-giver

Anyone who has the competence to practice ijtihad may deduce new laws for himself in matters about which there are no explicit verdicts in the Qur’an or Sunna; these are binding on that person, but not on others.

He cannot make laws and call on the Muslim Community to obey them. His conclusions are regarded as belonging to the Shari‘a, but they cannot be included in the Shari‘a as being binding on all Muslims. He may be a mujtahid, but he cannot be a law-giver.

It is only the consensus of the majority of scholars which bears the stamp of the Shari‘a. The first condition for calling on others to accept an idea is acceptance by the majority.

Otherwise, such a call is innovation and must be rejected; it is kept in the throat, and must not be uttered!

 

The light of reason comes from the heart

Unenlightened intellectuals should know this principle: an idea cannot be enlightened without the light of the heart.

As long as the ray of the mind has not been combined with the light of the heart, the result is darkness, oppression and ignorance. It is darkness dressed up in a false light.

Your eye has a white part, which resembles daytime, but it is blind and dark. But there is a pupil in it, which is dark like the night, but illuminated.

Without the pupil, that piece of flesh is not an eye, and you can see nothing. An eye without insight is also worth nothing.

So, if the dark pupil of the heart is not present in the white of thought, the contents of the mind will produce no knowledge or insight. There can be no reason or intellect without the heart.

 

The levels of knowledge in the mind are variable and can be confused

There are levels of knowledge in the mind that can be confused with one another and whose results are different. One first imagines something, then conceives of it, and clothes it in a form.

Afterwards, one reasons and reflects on this thing, then confirms it, and then has full conviction of it. Then they fully support it; then they become committed or devoted to it.

Your commitment is different, and so is your support, each of which results in a different state or attitude:

Steadfastness arises from commitment or devotion, while adherence comes from support or advocacy. Compliance proceeds from conviction and partiality from reasoning, while no ideas are formed at the level of conception.

If you remain at the level of imagination, the result will be sophistry. A beautiful, scenic description of falsehood and deceptive things will both injure and mislead simple minds.

 

Undigested knowledge should not be imparted to others

The true, scholarly guide is like a sheep, not a bird; they provide knowledge altruistically.

For the sheep gives its lamb digested food in the form of pure milk, whereas the bird gives its chick regurgitated food.

 

Destruction is easy, thus the weak are destructive

The existence of something depends on the existence of all its parts, while its non-existence is possible through the non-existence of one of its parts; thus, destruction is easy.

It is because of this that the impotent person never inclines to do or produce something positive or constructive that will show their power and capability; they act negatively, and are always destructive.

 

Force must serve right

If the principles of wisdom, laws of the state, precepts of right, and rules of force do not help or support one another,

They will neither be fruitful nor effective among the mass of the people. The marks or public symbols of the Shari‘a will be neglected and fall into abeyance.

They will no longer be a point of support for people in their affairs, and people will no longer have confidence in or rely on them.

 

Sometimes opposites contain opposites

Sometimes opposites conceal their opposites within them. In the language of politics, the words are the opposites of their meanings.

Tyranny has donned the cap of justice. Treachery has found a cheap dress in patriotism. Jihad and war for God’s sake have been labeled aggression and a violation of human rights. Enslavement to animal passions and the despotism of Satan have been called freedom.

Things have become their opposites, forms have been exchanged, names have been swapped, positions and ranks have changed places.

 

Politics based on self-interest is bestial

The politics of the present, which is based on self-interest, is a rapacious beast.

If you show love to a ravenous beast, you will not attract its compassion, but will rather sharpen its appetite.

Then it will turn on you and demand from you payment for the use of its claws and teeth.

 

Since human faculties have not been restricted in creation, their crimes are great

Unlike the animals, the faculties of human beings have not been restricted in creation; the good and evil that proceed from them know no limits.

If the selfishness that issues from one faculty and the egotism that proceeds from another are combined with haughtiness and obstinacy, such sins will be committed that no name has as of yet been found for them.

As these sins are proofs of the necessity of Hell, so too their penalty can only be Hell.

For example, in order to justify just one of his lies, a man desires, from his heart, the downfall of Islam.

The present time has shown that Hell is not unnecessary and Paradise is not cheap.

 

Sometimes good leads to evil

While in reality the merits of the elite should give rise to modesty and self effacement in them, regrettably they have led to arrogance and oppression.

And while the destitution of the poor and the poverty of the common people should serve (as they do in reality) as means to arouse compassion and graciousness toward them, unfortunately they have now resulted in the abasement and servitude of the common people.

If honor and merit result from something, it is offered to the elite and leaders. But if vice and evil proceed from it, it is divided and distributed among the common people or employees and servants.

If a victorious tribe has won some honor, congratulations are offered to its Hasan Agha (the chief); but if some harm is obtained thenceforth, every curse is poured upon the members of the tribe. This is a sorry evil among humankind!

 

The absence of an objective strengthens egotism

If people have no goals to pursue, or if the main objective is forgotten or neglected, the minds turn to individual egos and revolve around them.

The ego thus becomes inflated, sometimes swelling with anger; it is not “pierced” or deflated so that it might become “we.” Those who love themselves love no other.

 

A life of revolutions has sprung from the death of Zakah and a life of usury

The origin of all revolutions, all anarchy and corruption, the root and source of all evils, vices, and corrupt traits, can be summed up in two short phrases:

The first is: “I am full, so what is it to me if others die of hunger?” And the second: “You suffer so I may be comfortable. You work so that I may eat. Food is for me, laboring is for you.”

There is one single cure for the lethal poison of the first word, which will sever it at the root and heal the situation:

That is the Zakah which is established by the Shari‘a, a pillar of Islam. In the second word is a tree of Zaqqum; what will uproot it is the prohibition of usury and interest.

If humankind desires salvation and loves its life, it must impose Zakah and abolish usury and interest.

 

If humankind prefers life, it must put to death usury of every sort

The bond of human relation that extends from the elite to the common people has been severed. So from below (the lower social strata) arise the cries of revolution, the shouts for revenge, the screams of grievance and envy.

From above descend fires of tyranny and scorn, the thunder of arrogance, and the lightning of oppression.

What should arise from below are love, respect, and accord. And from above should descend compassion and assistance, kindness and consideration.

If humankind desires these, it should hold fast to the Zakah and abandon usury and interest.

The Qur’anic justice stands at the door of the world, saying to usury and interest: “No entry! You have no right to enter!” They should retreat from this door and disappear from the world.

Humankind has not heeded this command and has thus received a severe blow; people should heed this call now before receiving another, more severe blow.

 

Humankind has demolished slavery; it will demolish wage-earning as well

In a dream I said the less severe wars between nations and states make way for fiercer wars between the social classes.

For in previous eras, humankind did not approve of slavery and crushed it with its blood. Now it has become a wage-earner; at the moment humanity is putting up with this burden, but this too will be crushed.

Humankind has grown old, having passed through four stages (of social progress): savagery, nomadism, slavery, and colonialism; now we are in the fifth age, that of wage-earning, but this too is passing.

 

An unlawful way leads to the opposite of what was intended

The murderer cannot inherit (from the one whom he has murdered); this is a very significant principle: “Someone who follows an unlawful way (in Islam) to reach his goal generally attains the opposite of what they intended in retribution.”

Love of (the second) Europe is not a lawful love in view of the Shari‘a; it is a blind imitation and disagreeable friendliness. Its consequence and recompense is the tyrannical hostility of the beloved and its crimes.

The sinner condemned to loss will find, in the end, neither pleasure nor salvation.

 

There is a grain of truth in both the Jabriyya and the Mu‘tazila

O seeker after truth! The past and calamities, and the future and sins are not the same in the view and consideration of the Shari‘a.

The past and calamities are considered from the perspective of Divine Destiny; for this, the fitting word is that of the Jabriyya, (who refer every event to Destiny).

Human accountability is taken into consideration about the future and sins; for this, the fitting word is that of the Mu‘tazila, (who deny the role of Destiny in human actions). The Mu‘tazila and Jabriyya are reconciled here.

There is a grain of truth in both of these false schools. Each has a particular situation; falsehood arises from a generalization that goes beyond a particular situation.

 

Only the incapable seek solace in impotence and complaints

If you want life, do not cling to impotence for things which have no solution;

If you want ease of mind, do not have recourse to regretful complaints about things for which there are no solutions.

 

Sometimes little things have greater outcomes

There are some circumstances in which a little action raises the performer of the action to the highest of the high;

Then there are circumstances where a slight action sends its doer to the lowest of the low...

 

For some people a moment is a year

Some innate capacities develop in an instant, while others are gradual, unfolding little by little. Human nature contains both of these.

They depend on conditions, and change accordingly. Sometimes they develop gradually. Sometimes they are like gunpowder – dark, suddenly exploding into glowing fire.

Sometimes a look transforms coals into diamonds. Sometimes a touch can change a stone into elixir.

A single look from the Prophet transformed an ignorant nomad into an enlightened one of knowledge in an instant.

If you want a comparison: ‘Umar before Islam, and ‘Umar after Islam. Compare the two: a seed and a tree. The seed instantaneously produced fruit. That look of Muhammad, the grace of the Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings,

Suddenly transformed the coal-like natures in the Arabian Peninsula into diamonds. He enlightened characters that were as black as gunpowder; they all became shining lights.

 

A lie is a word of unbelief

One grain of truth burns a million lies. A grain of reality destroys a castle of dreams. Truthfulness is a supreme principle, a shining jewel.

If speaking the truth may cause harm, silence can be preferred; but there is never a place for lies, even if they appear to have some use.

Whatever you say must be true, whatever judgment you give must be right, but you have no right to voice all that is true.

One should be well aware of this, and adopt it as one’s principle: “Take what is clear and untroubled, leave what is turbid and distressing.”

See the good side of things, so that you will have good thoughts. Know things to be good and think of them as good, so that you will find pleasure in life.

In life, hope and thinking well of things is life itself, while despair and thinking ill of others is the destroyer of happiness and killer of life.

 

In an assembly in the World of Representations or Ideal Forms

Comparisons between the Shari‘a and modern civilization, and between scientific genius and the guidance of the Shari‘a

In a true dream on a Friday night at the beginning of the period of truce following World War I, I was asked by a supreme assembly in the World of Representations and Ideal Forms:

“What will emerge in the Muslim world following the defeat?” I replied, as the representative of the present age, and they listened to me: From the times of its foundation, this State saw itself as duty-bound to sacrifice itself for the Islamic world and as the standard-bearer of the Caliphate,

And accordingly it undertook jihad, a collective religious obligation, to maintain Islamic independence and exalt the Word of God.

Over time, the calamity that has struck this State, this Muslim nation, will certainly bring prosperity and freedom to the Muslim world.

This present disaster will be compensated for in the future. One who loses three and gains three hundred in return makes no loss. As a zealous laborer, they change their present for a better future.

For this calamity has aroused compassion and Islamic solidarity and brotherhood, the yeast or catalyst of our lives, to an extraordinary degree; it has given a wonderful impetus to our brotherhood.

The present civilization, which is in fact meanness, will change form, and its system will be demolished; it is then that an Islamic civilization will emerge. Muslims will certainly be the first to enter it voluntarily.

If you want a comparison between the civilization of the Shari‘a and the present one, closely examine the principles of each and consider their consequences:

The principles of present-day civilization are negative. Its foundations and values are five negative principles. Its machinery is based on these.

Its point of support and reliance is might or force rather than right, and the basic characteristic of force is aggression and hostility, from which treachery arises.

Its goal is, instead of virtue, the gratification of mean self-interest, the essential characteristic of which is conflict and rivalry, and the consequence of which is crime.

Its law of life is conflict rather than cooperation and mutual helping; the essential characteristic of conflict is contention and mutual repulsion; the consequence is poverty.

Its basic bond between peoples is racism or racial discrimination, which develops to the detriment of others; it is nourished and strengthened by the right of others being devoured.

Negative nationalism or racism paves the way for constant, terrible clashes, disastrous collisions; the result is destruction.

The fifth is this: the enchanting service of the present civilization excites lusts and passions, facilitating the gratification of animal desires; the consequence is dissipation.

The basic characteristic of lusts and passions is always this: they transform humans into beasts, changing their character; they deform them, perverting their humanity.

Most of these civilized people—if you were to turn them inside out— would appear as apes and foxes, snakes, bears, and swine. Their characters have appointed their forms. They appear to the imagination in their furs and skins!

By contrast, the Shari‘a, is the balance of the earth. The mercy in the Shari‘a comes from the heaven of the Qur’an. The principles of the Qur’anic civilization are positive. Its mechanism for happiness turns on five positive principles:

Its point of support and reliance is right instead of might and the unchanging characteristic of right is justice and balance, which give rise to salvation, security and well-being, removing wretchedness and villainy.

Its aim is virtue instead of self-interest and the basic character of virtue is love and mutual attraction. Happiness arises from these, and enmity disappears.

Its principle in life is cooperation instead of conflict and killing, and the essential characteristic of cooperation is unity and solidarity; these enliven the community.

In place of lust and passion, its form of service is guidance and the essential characteristic of guidance is progress and prosperity in a way that is befitting to humanity, as well as enlightenment and perfection in a way that is required by the spirit.

While racism and negative nationalism destroy the point of unity among the masses, the bonds the Shari‘a establishes between peoples are those of religion, citizenship, profession, and the brotherhood of belief.

The basic characteristics of these bonds are sincere brother/sisterhood, and general salvation, security and well-being. The Shari‘a only demands self-defense in the case of external attacks.

Now you have understood why Muslims have remained distant from the present civilization without adopting it.

Up to the present, Muslims have not entered this present civilization voluntarily, it has not suited them; rather, on them have been clamped the fetters of bondage.

While it should have been the cure for humankind, this civilization has become the poison. It has cast eighty per cent of the population into destitution and misery and given false happiness to ten per cent.

The remaining ten per cent has been left uneasy, stranded between the two. The profits that come from trade have gone to the tyrannical minority. But true happiness is the happiness shared by all, or at least salvation for the majority. The Qur’an, revealed as a mercy for humankind, only accepts civilization of the kind

That brings happiness to all, or at least to the majority. In the present civilization, passions are unrestricted, impulses and fancies too are free; this is an animal freedom.

Passions dominate people, impulses and fancies too are despotic; they have made unnecessary needs essential ones, and banished ease and relief.

While in primitive life a person was in need of four things, civilization has made them needy of a hundred, and impoverished them.

Lawful labor is insufficient to meet the cost. This has driven humanity towards fraud and the unlawful. It is due to this that civilization has corrupted the essence of morality.

It has given certain wealth and glitter to society and the human species, but it has made the individual immoral and indigent. There are numerous testimonies to this.

All of the savagery and crimes in former times and all the cruelty and treachery have been vomited by this malignant civilization all at once, and its stomach is still retching.187

The fact that the Islamic world is able to remain aloof is both meaningful and noteworthy. It has been reluctant to accept this civilization, and has acted coldly.

Truly, the distinguishing quality of the Divine light in the illustrious Shari‘a is independence and self-sufficiency.

It is due to this quality that the light of guidance has never allowed the genius of Rome, the spirit of (European) civilization, to dominate it.

The guidance of the Shari‘a cannot be combined with the philosophy of the latter, nor be grafted onto it, nor follow it.

The compassion and the dignity of belief to be found in the spirit of Islam, and the truths of the Shari‘a which it has nourished—the Qur’an of miraculous exposition has been taken the truths of the Shari‘a in its shining hand;

Each of these truths of the Shari‘a is a Staff of Moses in that shining hand. In the future that sorcerer civilization will prostrate in wonderment before it.

Now, note this: there were two geniuses—Ancient Greece and Rome, those twins from a single stock. One was imaginative, the other materialist.

Like water and oil, they never combined. Such a phenomenon required time, civilization strove to do so and Christianity tried, but none has been able to combine them.

Both preserved their partial independence. They have remained as if two spirits (in a single body); now they have changed their bodies; one has become German, the other French.

They have experienced a sort of reincarnation. O my dream-brother! This is what time has shown. Those twin geniuses have rejected any moves to combine them;

They are still not reconciled. Since they are twins, they are brothers and friends, companions in progress; but they have fought and never made peace.

How could it therefore be that the light of the Qur’an and the guidance of the Shari‘a, when it has a completely different source, origin, and place of appearance, is reconciled with the genius of Rome, the spirit of modern civilization, and should join and combine with it?

That genius and this guidance – their origins are different: guidance descends from the heavens, genius emerges from the earth. Guidance works in the heart and genius works in the mind.

Genius works in the mind and confuses the heart. Guidance illuminates the spirit, making its seeds sprout and flourish; dark human nature is illuminated by it.

The capacity of guidance for perfection suddenly advances; it makes the carnal soul a docile servant; it gives zealous and endeavoring humans an angelic countenance.

As for genius, it focuses its attention primarily on the carnal soul and physical being; it comes into nature, making the soul an arable field and the carnal potentials develop and flourish;

It subjugates the spirit, causing the seeds to dry up; it displays satanic features in humankind. But guidance gives happiness to both lives—this and the next—and spreads light in both this world and the next, elevating humankind.

Genius, like Antichrist blind in one eye, sees only this life and this world; it is materialist and world-adoring. It turns humans into beasts.

Genius worships deaf nature and serves blind force. But guidance recognizes the conscious Art (manifested as nature) and turns to the wise Power (that gives existence to nature). Genius draws a veil of ingratitude over the earth while guidance scatters the light of thanks.

It is because of this that genius is deaf and blind, while guidance is hearing and seeing. In the view of genius, the bounties of the earth are ownerless booty;

It prompts the desire to usurp and steal them thanklessly, to savagely snap them off from nature.

In the view of guidance, the bounties scattered over the breast of the earth and the face of the universe are the fruits of Mercy; it sees a gracious hand beneath every bounty, and has kissed it in gratitude.

I cannot deny that there are numerous virtues in civilization, but they are neither the property of Christianity, nor the invention of Europe.

Nor are they the product of this century; they are the common property of humanity, produced as the result of the conjunction of thoughts and studies over time, from the laws of the revealed religions, and emerge out of innate need,

And particularly from the Islamic revolution brought about by the Shari‘a of Muhammad. No one can claim ownership of these.

The leader of the assembly from the World of Representations asked another question:

QUESTION: “Calamities are always the result of treachery but pave the way for reward. O man of the present century! Divine Destiny has dealt a blow and Divine Decree has passed sentence.

“What did you do so that both the Divine Decree and Destiny have so judged you – that the Divine Decree has sentenced you to this calamity and given you a beating?

“It is always the error of the majority which causes general disasters.” I said in reply:

ANSWER: Humankind’s misguided thinking, Nimrod-like obstinacy; Pharaoh-like haughtiness grew and grew on the earth until they reached the heavens. Humanity also offended the sensitive mystery of creation.

It caused the shudders of the last war to pour down from the heavens like the plague and deluge; it caused a heavenly blow to be dealt to the infidel.

This means, the calamity was the calamity of all humankind. The common cause, inclusive of all humankind, was the misguided thinking that arose from materialism – bestial freedom, the despotism of carnal desires and fancies.

Our share in it resulted from our neglect and abandonment of the pillars of Islam. For the Creator the All-Exalted wanted one hour out of the twenty-four.

He ordered us, willed that we, for our good, assign one hour for the five daily Prayers. But out of laziness we gave them up, neglected them in heedlessness.

So we received the following punishment: He made us perform Prayers of a sort during these last five years through a constant, twenty-four hour drill and hardship, keeping us ceaselessly moving and striving.

He also demanded of us one month a year for fasting, but we pitied our carnal souls, so in atonement He compelled us to fast for five years.

He wanted us to pay as Zakah either a fortieth or a tenth of the property He gave us, but out of miserliness we did wrong: we mixed the unlawful with our property, and did not give the Zakah voluntarily.

So He had our accumulated Zakah taken from us, and saved us from what was unlawful in our property. The deed causes the punishment of its kind. The punishment is of the same as the deed.188

Good, righteous acts are of two sorts: one positive and voluntary, the other negative and enforced. All pains and calamities are good deeds, but they are negative and enforced. The hadith that tells us of this offers consolation.189

This sinful nation has made its ablutions in blood; it has repented with deeds. As an immediate reward, four million, a fifth of this nation, were raised to the degree of sainthood through the rank of martyrdom or warring for God’s sake; this wiped out their sin.

The elevated assembly from the World of Representations appreciated these words.

I woke up suddenly; rather, this was a meeting in true wakefulness before I went to sleep. In my view, wakefulness is a dream and a dream is a sort of wakefulness.

There I was the representative of this age, and here I am Said Nursi!

 

Rust-covered guidance is still a diamond

The guidance of Islam has rusted, while the genius of the present civilization has been gilded with desires and passions.

Even if a peerless diamond has rusted, it is always preferable to a gilded piece of glass. That diamond has been engraved with a heavenly inscription; the eyes of materialists do not see that peerless inscription; nor can they read it.

Materialists seek everything in matter; their intelligence is in their eyes, they are blind to whatever is spiritual, for bodily eyes are blind to that.

 

Ignorance takes a metaphor for a fact

If a metaphor falls from the hand of knowledge to that of ignorance, it is transformed into fact, and opens the door onto superstition.

During my childhood I saw an eclipse of the moon. I asked my mother, and she said: “A snake has swallowed it.” I asked her: “Why is it visible, then?” She said: “The snakes there are semi-transparent.”

A metaphor like this is perceived as a reality: At a Divine command, with the earth interposing between the points of intersection of the orbit of the moon and the sun, known as “the head” and “the tail,” the moon is eclipsed.

The two hypothetical arcs that are formed and resemble two snakes were called “Tinninayn (two snakes).” The name was invented to explain an astronomical event figuratively and came to be taken to be in reality that with which it had been compared.

 

Exaggeration is implicit denigration

Whatever you describe, describe it as it really is. In my view, exaggerated praise is implicit denigration.

Seeing and showing someone or something as having more than what God has favored them with is, essentially, not a favor to them.

 

Fame is oppressive

Fame is a despot; it ascribes the property of others to the famous.

Of the witticisms attributed to the famous Nasreddin Hoja,190 only its zakah, that is, one-fortieth or at best one-tenth, can belong to him.

The imaginary renown of Rustam-i Sistani plundered an age of the glories of Iran.

His legendary image plundered the heroism of others, and was combined with superstition, thus carrying Rustam beyond the limits of humanity.

 

Those who suppose the Religion and life to be separable are the cause of disaster

The mistake of the Young Turks191 was that they did not know that our Religion is the basis of our life; they thought the nation and Islam were different from one another.

They imagined the present civilization would endure and dominate, and saw the happiness of life and prosperity as lying within it.

Now time has shown us that the system of civilization is corrupt and harmful;192 unequivocal experience has taught us this:

The Religion is the very life of life, its light and its foundation. The revival of this nation is possible only through the revival of the Religion. Muslims have understood this.

In contrast to other cultures, our nation is able to progress to the extent that we adhere to our Religion. It has declined to the degree we neglected it.

This is a historical fact, which we have pretended to forget.

 

Death is not as terrifying as imagined

It is an incorrect, misguided supposition that makes death terrifying. Death is a change of clothes, or a change of places. It leads from the dungeon to garden.

Whoever desires life should desire martyrdom. The Qur’an tells us that the martyrs are living. Martyrs, who do not experience the pangs of death, know and see themselves to be alive.193

But they find their new lives to be purer. They do not suppose that they have died. Note carefully the difference between them and the dead; it is as the following:

In a dream two persons are walking in a beautiful garden where there is every sort of delight. One knows it is only a dream and receives no pleasure from this.

It gives him no contentment; rather it fills him with regret. However, the other one knows that they are awake, and experiences true joy; this is real for them.

The dream is the shadow of the World of Representations, which is the shadow of the Intermediate Realm. It is due to this that their principles are like one another.

 

Politics is diabolical in people’s minds; one should seek refuge in God from this

Modern politics sacrifices the minority for the comfort of the majority. Worse than this, the despotic minority sacrifices the majority of people for itself.

Qur’anic justice never sees the life of a single innocent person as being expendable; it never allows an individual’s blood to be spilled, even for all humankind, let alone for the majority in a particular jurisdiction.

The verse, He who kills a person unless it be (in legal punishment) for murder… will be as if he had killed all humankind (5:32), lays two mighty principles before our eyes.

One is pure justice. This sublime principle is that just as the individual and the community are equal in relation to the Divine Power, the Divine Justice also sees no difference between them.

This is a permanent, established Divine and Prophetic principle and practice. An individual may sacrifice their rights themselves, but the law cannot sacrifice them, not even for all humankind.

The canceling of one’s rights, or the spilling of one’s blood, or the annulment of one’s innocence is equal to the canceling of the rights of all of humanity, or the annulment of the innocence of all of humankind.

The second principle is this: if a self-centered person can murder an innocent person out of greed or passion, he may destroy the whole world if capable of that, should it be an obstacle to the fulfillment of his desires, and annihilate all humanity.

 

Weakness emboldens the enemy; God may try His servants, but they cannot try Him

O fearful, weak one! Your fear and weakness are futile and harmful to you;

they embolden external influences and draw them toward you.

O you who suffer from doubts and delusions! A sure benefit should not be renounced for fear of potential harm. What you need is to take action; the outcome is with God.

One cannot interfere in God’s concerns. He takes His servant to the arena of trial and says: “If you do that, I’ll do this.”

But the servant can never try God. If he says, “Should God give me success, I’ll do this,” he is transgressing his limits.

Satan said to Jesus: “Since it is He Who does everything, and His Destiny does not change, then throw yourself down off the mountain, and see what He will do with you.”

Jesus replied: “O accursed one! God’s servants cannot put Him to the test!”194

 

Islamic politics should proceed from Islam; politics should not be instrumental for others; partisanship causes hearts to be divided, not united

The politics of Istanbul at the present time resembles the Spanish flu, infecting people; indeed, it sometimes causes delirium.

Political madness is the product of a Byzantine (i.e. deceitful and clan destine) mindset; politics does not go round and round by itself; rather it does so by means of an external orientation.

Europe hypnotizes politics and whispers in its ears. Thus, one can say a play is being staged here.

As the whisper comes from outside, if it is negative, it has, like individual letters, no value in itself; it is only beneficial when combined with others.

Our free will no longer has a part in it, so even if we are well-intentioned, our good intentions are of no use.

If the external whisper is positive, its value, like words in a sentence, is first for itself, and then, indirectly, for others.

The political divergences here go in opposite directions, and they have no point of intersection in the country; it is not possible for them to come together anywhere on the entire face of the wide earth.

Since this is so, those who take a positive, constructive way should be educated and follow knowledge. As the weak ones or the minority cannot guard the Qur’an, the powerful hand or the majority should guard it.

They should love and adhere to it, for the Religion cannot be used negatively or for a negative result. The 31-March Event195 showed this.

It showed that even the least negative use of the Religion in the home land yields a terrible result. Muslims came out of this as losers.

 

Do not overdo those things you like

The cure for one ailment may be harmful to another; what is an antidote for one becomes poison for another. If the cure is taken to excess, it causes illness and becomes fatal.

 

The eye of obstinacy perceives an angel as a devil

Obstinacy causes one to behave in this way: if a devil helps or supports one or their side, they hail them as “an angel” and call down blessings upon them.

But if they see an angel on the opposing side, they view them as a devil in the guise of an angel, and they call down curses on them out of enmity.

 

The catalyst of the life of a community is sound and sincere solidarity

A society in which there is solidarity is an instrument that has been created to stir up the inactive; while a community in which there is malicious envy is an instrument created to pacify the active.

If there is not a sound or sincere unity in a community, it will weaken as its numbers increase through mere population growth. It is like the multiplication of fractions. The number grows less in proportion to how many times they have been multiplied.

 

Even if non-acceptance is your right, refutation is not

O seeker after truth! If something is related to you (particularly concerning a truth of belief or in the form of a hadith (Prophetic Tradition),

What falls upon you is to accept it, if there is a proof for its accuracy. If there is not, you may avoid its acceptance, which is a doubt.

The non-existence of a proof is an argument for your non-acceptance of it, whereas your claim of its non-existence means refutation and denial, which requires proof.

Something which cannot be established with proof cannot be claimed to be non-existent without proof.

Non-acceptance of something’s existence is usually confused with the acceptance of its non-existence, though one is doubt and the other, denial. You have no right to denial.

It sometimes happens that there are many phrases related to the same incident and which are intended to convey the same meaning, or the meaning is something that has numerous indications or arguments.

If one or even ten of these are doubted or refuted, the existence of the narration and the intended meaning cannot thereby be refuted.

 

One should follow the majority of Muslims

O seeker after salvation and security! A hadith indicates that we should follow and keep the company of the majority of Muslims.196

The Umayyads were, in the beginning, not careful to follow the Religion, but after they joined the majority of the Muslim Community, they were eventually included among the Ahlu’s-Sunna wa’l-Jama‘a.

The Shi‘a were careful and steadfast in adherence to the Religion in the beginning, but a portion of them who were in the minority eventually formed the sect of Rafidis.

This is a significant, noteworthy reality.

 

After finding what is right, do not cause discord for the sake of something better

O seeker after truth! If there is consensus concerning what is good and true, and seeking what is better and truer causes disagreement and discord, then what is true is truer than what is truer, and what is good is better than what is better.

 

Islam is peace and reconciliation; It wants no dispute or hostility within

O World of Islam! Your life lies in unity, and if you want unity, your guiding principle should be the following:

You should adopt the principle, “This is true,” rather than “This alone is true;” and “This is the best,” rather than “This is what is exclusively good.”

Every Muslim should say about their own school and way: “This is true; I do not interfere with others. Even if the others are good too, mine is the best.”

They should not say: “This alone is true, the others are all false. Only mine is good, the others are all wrong and unpleasant.”

The mindset of exclusiveness arises from self-love. It eventually becomes a disease and leads to dispute.

If the existence of numerous ills and cures is a rightful reality, right will also multiply. The variation of needs and foods is right, and right becomes diverse.

The multiplication of capacities and education is right, and this right will also multiply. A single substance is both poison and the antidote.

The truth is not fixed in the secondary matters of the Religion; it is relative and compounded according to the differences of temperament and circumstance.

The temperaments of those responsible for the conduct of such matters have a share in them, and they are concluded and formed accordingly.

The founders of the schools of law made judgments in non-specific terms, leaving the specification of the limits of their schools to the various temperaments that followed.

Bigoted attachment to a school causes the rulings of that school to be generalized, and partisanship arising from this leads to dispute.

The deep rifts between the classes of humanity before Islam, and the great distance between peoples and places demanded the existence of numerous Prophets at any one time, and a variety of Shari‘as, and numerous sects.

Islam caused a revolution among humankind, and peoples drew closer to each other. The different Shari‘as were summed up in a single Shari‘a, and there was one Prophet.

But the levels of humankind were not the same, so the schools of law multiplied. If a single system of training and education were sufficient and proper for all, then the schools could unite.

 

There is great wisdom in the creation and combination of opposites: the sun and a minute particle are equal in the hand of Power

O brother with an alert heart! The Power manifests Itself in the combining of opposites. There is pain in pleasure, evil within good, ugliness within beauty, harm within benefit, trouble within bounties, fire within light… do you know why this is so?

It is thus, so that relative truths may be established and so there may be many things within a single thing, and numerous various incidents of existence become apparent.

Swift motion makes a point look like a line. The speed of spinning makes a point of light look like a luminous circle.

There must be relative truths so that seeds may sprout in this world. These constitute the clay of the universe, the bonds of its order, the connections among its inscriptions. These relative realities will become truths in the Hereafter.

The degrees of heat are due to the existence of cold. The degrees of beauty come about through the intervention of ugliness. The apparent cause becomes as if the ultimate cause or raison d’être.

Light is indebted to darkness, pleasure is indebted to pain; there is no consciousness of health without illness.

If there was no Paradise, perhaps Hell would not be torment. Hell cannot exist without extreme cold. If there were no extreme cold (besides its heat), Hell would not burn.

The Ever-Living Creator has demonstrated His Wisdom in the creation of opposites and His Majesty has become apparent.

That Everlasting All-Powerful One has displayed His Power in the combining of opposites, and His Grandeur has become manifest.

However, since the Divine Power is essential to and inherent in the Divine Essence, It can comprise no opposites and therefore impotence cannot intervene in It; there can be no degrees in It; nothing can be difficult for it.

The sun has become a niche for the light of His Power. The surface of the sea is a mirror to the light of that niche and the eyes of dewdrops are all tiny mirrors.

The sun, reflected by the broad surface of the sea, is also reflected by the drops on the wrinkles on its forehead. The tiny eye of the dewdrop also shines with it, like a star; they hold the same identity.

From the perspective of the sun, the dewdrop and the sea are the same;

its power makes them equal. The pupil of the dewdrop’s eye is a tiny sun.

The magnificent sun also is a tiny dewdrop; the pupil of its eye is a light received from the Sun of Power and it is the moon to that Power.

The heavens are an ocean; at a Breath of the All-Merciful, drops undulate in the wrinkles of its forehead, which are the stars and the suns.

The Power manifested Itself and scattered gleams on these drops. Every sun is a drop, every star a dewdrop;

Every gleam is a representation—that drop-like sun is a tiny reflection from this manifestation. It makes its polished glass a bulb for that gleam of manifestation, shinning like a pearl.

That dewdrop-like star has a place in its delicate eye for the gleam and the gleam becomes a lamp, with the filament as the eye— and its lamp is lit up.

 

Multiplicity manifests unity on either side of it

It is a manifestation of Divine Unity that the beginning and end of multiplicity are united at the same point, displaying the Divine Unity.

It is a manifestation of the Divine Power that the changeable power in the universe transforms unity into multiplicity;

Divine Power is distributed among particles and changes in nature, and it is from this that degrees or rays of gravity arise.

These rays are combined—the Maker makes them into a general gravity, which means multiplicity becomes unity.

 

If you have any merits or qualities, let them remain under the dust of concealment, so they may flourish

O one of renowned qualities! Do not be oppressive by exhibiting yourself; if you remain under the veil of concealment, you will be a source of favors and blessings for your brothers;

Also, you brothers will benefit from or have a share in your merits; it is even possible that every brother of yours will become like you—this will attract respect to each of them.

But if you emerge from concealment and exhibit yourself, although respected and magnanimous under it, you will become an oppressor in the open. There you were a sun, here you will overshadow others.

You will cause your brothers to lose respect. That means, self-manifestation and being distinguished individually are despotic attitudes.

If this is true of the manifestation of genuine qualities, what place remains for acquiring fame through lying artifice and hypocrisy? This is a profound mystery, and it is in accordance with this that the Divine Wisdom and the perfect order It has established

Draw the veil of concealment over an exceptional individual within their species, thus enhancing the value of the entire species and making it appreciable.

Examples for you: saints among humankind and the appointed hour within a lifetime are unknown, indefinite. Concealed within Friday is an hour when prayers are accepted.

Hidden in the month of Ramadan is the Night of Power and Destiny. Concealed among the All-Beautiful Names is the elixir of the Greatest Name.

It is their being undefined that creates the splendor in these examples—the splendor of the whole of humanity thanks to the saints among it, the whole day of Friday due to the hour when prayers are accepted, and the entire month of Ramadan due to the Night of Power and Destiny.

This beautiful mystery also is made manifest through being undefined and is established through concealment. For example:

There is a balance in the fact that the appointed hour being undefined: in whatever state you are, it always maintains the balance between the two pans of fear and hope, working for the next world and for this. And the imagined permanent existence imparts a pleasure to life.

For a life of twenty years with an unknown end is preferable to one of a thousand years with a known end. For after half of it which has passed, with every passing hour you are taking a new step towards the gallows.

Your suffering increases proportionately; there would be no imagined permanence which would afford you solace and you would find no peace.

 

It is mistaken to feel mercy or wrath greater than God’s

One should not feel or show greater mercy than God’s, nor should one feel wrath greater than that of God.

So leave matters to the All-Just, the All-Compassionate One, for excessive compassion causes pain and excessive wrath is wrongful and blameworthy.

 

Worldly recompense proves punishment in the Hereafter

Everyone has experienced this at least once in their lifetime and concludes: “That person has done that evil and has met with what they deserve.” This is a principle in life.

This meaningful sentence is frequently expressed by people. The common point in evils of great variety is the very nature of evil.

This means, that an evil, by virtue of its very nature, is subjected to and requires punishment. Minor evils are punished here, while major ones are referred to the Hereafter.

The worldly recompense for evils is a proof of punishment in the Hereafter.

 

The ease of humankind is inversely proportionate to one’s will and power; provision is a broad, gradually-assembled body

O humankind addicted to evildoing! Your free will and power have become the source and reason of your deprivation and troubles. Provision comes in proportion to weakness and impotence.

Once I saw an animal, which was pathetic, skin-and-bones. An able mother had given birth to it together with several others.

While itself could hardly find a morsel to eat, pleasant, nutritious sustenance flowed forth from its mother’s teats; the Divine Power provided that sustenance.

That animate being was extremely weak and impotent while motionless in its mother’s womb, but there too it received the best, perfect sustenance.

It came to the world while still weak and impotent, and its sustenance was good and relatively perfect.

It grew a little and began to feel it had a certain degree of will-power. It also began confronting troubles and difficulties, therefore parental com passion was still provided to help it.

But when it found itself to have some power along with will-power, it was set free and left to its own devices. Whatever it attempted to do of its own volition caused nothing but confusion.

When it had been unaware of volition, the mechanism of its body, accustomed to working with perfect regularity, caused no confusion, either in its home or in its town.

But when its will-power began to intervene, the order in its life was destroyed and its will-power left it defective. Therefore, we should always say: “Our Lord! Do not leave us to our own devices in provision during our adulthood!”

And power should always say: “O my Lord! I have put my trust in You both at the beginning and end of everything in my life!”

In the sight of the Divine Power, the provision of an animate being has the same value as its life.

Just as the Power finds an “excuse” and gives that being its life, It also creates its provision and pours it out.

It is as if the Power works with a constant, intense effort, changing and transforming the world of death into that of life, and the dense into the transparent.

Just as It scatters the gleams of life, even into the lowliest of sub stances, It also sows and stores up providence in everything.

The dead atoms are set to move to meet with the light of life. Some form real bodies, while others form figurative ones.

Provision comes and is united with them. Provision is scattered wide and it is a broad body. In short, life has two bodies,

One is produced and composed, the other scattered. Provision and life are twins, having the same value in the sight of the Power.

It is the Power Which brings forth everything out of non-existence; Destiny arranges the first body in which it is clothed.

The Divine Favoring collects the provisions, the scattered body, and sends this creature to the existent being to be fed.

There is a difference between these two bodies: since life, the first body of the existing being, is a composition, it is visible in its totality.

Whereas provision is scattered and comes in a gradual process, so humankind worries about it. Unless the wrongful will-power of humankind intervenes, the rule is certainly true:

“There is no dying of hunger; a lack of provision does not cause death.” There are many reserves deposited in the body, each of which is full.

Many things are deposited in the form of fat. But before this fat is used up, death comes. Therefore, the reason for death is not a lack of provision.

This sustenance is sufficient for a hundred days, but death can come in ten days.

Perhaps a disease arising from altering or abandoning routine nourishment came and caused death while there was still provision.

 

The lawful provision of carnivorous animals

There is an order and wisdom prevalent in everything; there is no room for chance, even though it appears to be thus due to our inability to comprehend this universal order which has been established by the Divine Wisdom.

Divine Wisdom has assigned as sustenance the numberless carcasses of wild animals for the flesh-eating ones in the animal kingdom.

It has invited these animals to eat these carcasses, so that they can both clean the surface of the earth and find their lawful provision.

So it is unlawful for them to kill a living one to eat in their way of their life. From elephants to vermin and insects,

Millions of beasts die every day, but none of their carcasses appear in the open. This is worth attention; consider the wisdom and the order of

How the originating Power and the profound Wisdom have made animals and humans needy of provision. They have put the halter of need and hunger on them.

They have put living beings in order through this halter, making them travel within the sphere of need, without allowing them to leave the order.

They both preserve the world from going into utter confusion and chaos and make need a springboard for progress in human life.

 

Wastefulness leads to dissipation, dissipation leads to poverty

My wasteful brother! Two morsels have the same amount and quality of nutrition, but one costs one kurush (cent), the other, ten;

They are also equal both before they enter the mouth and after they have passed down the throat. Only for a few seconds in the mouth do they give delight to the “intoxicated” sense of taste.

The only difference lies in their tastes, which is a cause of deception; the sense of taste is in fact a doorkeeper and inspector for the stomach.

But the deception causes its misuse. By only tipping the doorkeeper and gratifying it—giving a passing delight to the sense of taste,

One can confuse it in the fulfillment of its duty. Spending eleven kurush(cent) instead of one is a satanic habit.

It is one of the worst ways, one of the worst types of wastefulness: do not seek it.

 

The sense of taste is an informer; do not seduce it with pleasures

The Divine Lordship’s Wisdom and Favoring have made, with the mouth and nose, two centers within you, which form a frontier post. They also have appointed correspondents.

In this microcosm—human being, God has made the blood-vessels telephones and the nerves telegraphs, appointing the telephones as assistants to the sense of smell (nose) and the telegraphs to the sense of taste (mouth or tongue).

Out of His Mercy, that True Provider has embedded instructions in all kinds of food: flavor, color, and smell.

Thus, these three attributes are proclamations, invitations, permits, and heralds from the All-Providing: those who are needy and desire food are attracted through them.

He has given the senses of taste, sight, and smell to the animals needy of provision as tools. He has also adorned food with various decorations.

He soothes desirous souls, and attracts the indifferent and idle by exciting them.

When the food enters the mouth, the sense of taste immediately sends telegraphs to every part of the body. The sense of smell telephones, informing us about the type of the food.

The senses and organs that are needy of provision act each according to their need and make the necessary preparations—they either admit or refuse.

Since the sense of taste is a telegrapher, charged with sending telegraphs by Divine Favoring, do not seduce it with pleasures.

For then it will forget what true appetite is; false appetite emerges and pesters it, bringing illnesses and addictions as penalties.

True pleasure springs from true appetite, true appetite from true need; this essential pleasure is sufficient for king and beggar alike, and makes both equal.

Also, while a dirham (cent) suffices for that pleasure and soothes the pain of both need and appetite, spending a dinar (dollar) is wastefulness and its value is reduced to that of a dirham.

 

Like intention, point of view may transform habitual actions into worship

Note this point! Just as through the intention (to lead a life that is pleasing to God), permissible habitual actions may become worship, so too according to the correct point of view, the physical sciences may become knowledge of God.

If you study and reflect, that is, if you look at things as signifying one other—their Maker—and in respect of the art they contain, you will utter: “How beautifully the Maker has made this, how well He has done it!” instead of “How beautiful it is.”

If you look from this point of view at the universe, the gleams of purposes for its existence and of its perfection shining from the designing of the Eternal Designer, and the order and wisdom will illuminate your doubts;

And the sciences of the universe will become knowledge of God. But if you look at things as signifying themselves from the point of view of “nature,” and from the point of view of “How have they come into being by themselves?”—

If you look thus at the universe, all of your scientific knowledge will be only ignorance. Ownerless truths become thus worthless in worthless hands. The testimonies to this are many.

 

Merely naming something is sometimes a reason to substitute full knowledge of it

Here is a light, but it darkens or is illuminated darkness—in the present way of thinking, it transforms simple ignorance into compound ignorance.

They give a glittering name to something that is unknown and think that by so doing they have attained full knowledge of it.

Comparing this to other unknown things, they suppose that they have explained them, whereas defining and explaining something means having a full picture of it.

Giving a mere name—the one who gives it is ignorant, and although it appears to the eye to be bright and attractive, its aspect that is connected to the thing named is dark:

It is possible neither to define nor explain with it; only the mind is deluded. Examples of this are many, such as:

General gravity, magnetic force, electric power, telepathy, vibration, and magnetism…

 

At this time, the Shari‘a does not permit affluence

When pleasures call us, we should say: “Sanki Yedim (It is as if I have eaten it.)” For someone who made this a rule did not consume a mosque!

Formerly, most Muslims were not hungry, so ease and comfort were permissible to a certain extent.

Now, however, most have fallen hungry, and the Shari‘a no longer permits a pleasurable life.

The livelihood of the mass of Muslims, of the majority of the innocents, is simple. So following them in their simple life is a thousand times preferable

To being like the extravagant minority, or the few profligates, in their luxurious lives.

 

Your pleasure lies in your pain and your pain in your pleasure

O one stricken by calamity!

Pains should urge you to this: You should welcome and smile at temporary pains rather than temporary pleasures.

Pains resemble bees: if you disturb them, they crowd around you, but if you remain indifferent to them, they scatter around to their work.

Whoever “turns back” to think of their past life, their heart or tongue will utter either a sigh of grief or a sigh of relief or words of praise and gratitude for God.

It is a hidden pain in the spirit that is translated by a sigh of grief, while the sigh of relief or the utterance of praise and gratitude for God informs us of a bounty and pleasure in the heart.

The memory of pleasures that remained in the past cause both the heart and the tongue to utter sighs of grief.

For, in the same way that the cessation of pain is pleasure, the cessation of pleasure is pain. Even thinking of or remembering the cessation of pleasure gives the spirit unceasing pain.

It is because of this that each of figurative loves—love for the opposite sex—is a collection of laments, arising from the pain caused by the fear of their cessation.

But the cessation of past pains leads both the heart and the tongue to utter sighs of relief and words of gratitude for God.

The disappearance of a day’s pleasure is a perpetual pain, while the disappearance of a day’s pain is a perpetual pleasure in the spirit.

The human conscience or consciousness always desires unending pleasure and bounty. This lies in love and knowledge of God, reflection, and spiritual perfection;

It also lies in spiritual gifts that pour into the heart, in gleams of the truth, and in the pursuit of true happiness. These are all possible through, and are based on, belief and certainty of belief in and knowledge of God.

 

Sometimes the absence of bounty is a bounty

Memory is a bounty, but forgetfulness is preferable for an amoral, heedless person at times of calamity.

Forgetfulness is also a bounty; it allows one to suffer the pains of only the present day but makes one forget accumulated sorrows.

 

There is a bounty in every calamity

O calamity-stricken one! Within the calamity is a bounty. Look closely and you will see it!

Just as in everything there is a degree of heat, so too in every calamity there is a degree of bounty. Consider a worse calamity and then see the extent of the bounty in the lesser one,

And offer abundant thanks to God. For if you are scared by exaggerating it, and you inflate it with complaints, it will grow.

And as it grows it will worsen. If you worry about it, it will double. Its image in your heart will turn into fact.

Calamity will learn from reality, then turn on you and start striking at your heart...

 

Do not appear important, or you will be degraded

O you with an inflated ego and conceited head! You should understand and consider this criterion: in human society, in the social structure of the human community, everyone has a window, known as status, through which to see and be seen.

If the window is higher than a person’s height (stature or worth), they will, through pride, try to appear as tall (or taller). But if the window is lower than their height (their stature or the extent of their endeavors for God’s sake and for people), they will bend and bow down out of modesty.

In the mature and perfected person, the measure of greatness is to know oneself as low-ranking. While in the defective person, the measure of low-ranking is to feign greatness.

 

If qualities change places, their natures change

One quality—in different places is sometimes a demon, sometimes an angel, sometimes virtuous, sometimes wicked—some examples are as follows:

If an attribute which is regarded as dignity or self-respect for the weak before the strong or powerful is found in the latter, it is pride and arrogance.

If an attribute that is regarded as modesty for the strong or powerful before the weak is found in the weak, it is self-abasement and hypocrisy.

In his office, the gravity of a person of authority is dignity, and his feeling of self-nothingness is self-abasement. But in his house, his feeling of self-nothingness is modesty and his gravity, arrogance.

Forbearance or tolerance on one’s own account is good and public spiritedness, and sacrifice (of one’s own right) is also a good deed, a praise worthy quality.

However, when done on behalf of others, one’s tolerance is treachery, and one’s sacrifice is a wicked attribute or act.

Entrusting the accomplishment of an affair to God before taking all the necessary measures and making all necessary arrangements is laziness, while leaving the desired outcome’s realization to Him after doing all that should and can be done is reliance on Him as taught to us by the Shari‘a.

Contentment with one’s lot or with the results after having exerted one’s efforts is praiseworthy contentment, and encourages further effort, reinvigorating one’s energy.

But contentment with what one already has is not desirable contentment; rather, it is lack of the necessary endeavor. There are numerous other examples.

The Qur’an generally mentions good works and piety and righteousness without defining them. By leaving them undefined, it alludes to the defining importance of circumstances; its conciseness is in fact a detailed explanation and its silence, an expansive word.

 

“The truth prevails” is true both in itself and in respect of the consequences

Friend! A questioner once asked: “As ‘The truth prevails’ is the truth, why are the unbelievers triumphant over Muslims and force or might is triumphant over right?”

I replied: Consider these four points and your difficulty will be resolved. The first point is this. Every means to every truth and right may not be true and rightful at all times.

Similarly, not every means of every falsehood has to be false. The result is a means which (falsehood employs and) is true prevailing over a false means (which truth or right uses). In which case, a truth is overcome by falsehood. But this has occurred temporarily and indirectly, not essentially or permanently.

However, the final triumph is always that of the truth. (It should also not be forgotten that) force possesses a truth, and there is a purpose and meaning in its creation. The second point is this:

While it is obligatory that all attributes of all Muslims are Muslim, in reality this may not always be so.

Similarly, not all the attributes of all unbelievers have to be connected to unbelieving or arise from their unbelief.

In the same way, all the attributes of all sinful transgressors may not be sinful, nor do they need always arise from sinfulness.

This means that an unbeliever’s Muslim attribute prevails over a Muslim’s irreligious attribute. Indirectly and due to the means, the unbeliever can prevail over the believer.

Furthermore, in this world the right of life is all-embracing. Life—that meaningful manifestation of the universal Mercy—has an instance of wisdom, which unbelief cannot impede.

The third point is this: two of the All-Majestic One’s Attributes of perfection give rise to two sets of laws. One is the Shari‘a of life or of the creation and operation of the universe, which proceeds from the Attribute of Will;

And the other, the well-known Shari‘a, which proceeds from the Attribute of Speech.

Just as the commands or laws of the well-known Shari‘a are obeyed or disobeyed, so too do people obey or disobey the Shari‘a of life.

The reward and punishment for the former is received mostly in the Hereafter, while the penalties and rewards of the latter are suffered mostly in this world.

For example, the reward of patience is success, while the penalty for laziness is privation; and the reward of labor is wealth.

The reward of steadfastness is triumph. The punishment of poison is illness and the reward of its antidote is health.

Sometimes the commands of both Shari‘as are in force in a single thing; it has aspects pertaining to each.

That means, obedience to the rules of life is a truth, and obedience prevails, while disobedience to it is a false attitude.

If a truth has been the means to a falsehood, when it prevails it will be the true means to a falsehood. This is an example of truth being defeated by a falsehood owing to the means. It is not the defeat of the truth itself by falsehood.

In consequence, “The truth prevails” means: “The truth is triumphant essentially or in itself.” Also, the end or consequence is intended.

The fourth point is this: a truth has remained in potential or it is powerless, or adulterated or contaminated. It needs to be developed or given fresh strength.

In order to improve and brighten it, falsehood is temporarily allowed to attack it, so that however much pure gold of truth is needed will emerge unadulterated.

Even if in the beginning falsehood is victorious in this world, it cannot win the war. “The final (happy) outcome is in favor of the God-revering, pious,” will strike it a blow!

So falsehood is defeated. The truth of “The truth prevails” inflicts punishment on it. See: the truth is triumphant.

 

Some social principles

If you want some principles for social life: justice which is not egalitarian is not justice.

The same age and status or social standing cause rivalry and conflict. Being complementary and congruous is the basis of solidarity.

An inferiority complex provokes arrogance. A weak character is the source of haughtiness. Impotence gives rise to opposition.

Curiosity is the teacher of knowledge. Need is the master and wheel of progress. Boredom and distress are the teachers of dissipation.

Thus, the source of dissipation is distress and boredom. As for distress, its mine is despair, pessimism, and evil-suspicion, as well as misguidance in thought, darkness in the heart, and misuse of the body.

 

Low civilization has destroyed respect toward women

When foolish men become womanish by following their fancies,

Rebellious women become masculine through impudence.

 

Low civilization has turned women into common goods and destroyed respect toward them.

The Shari‘a of Islam mercifully says that it is (basically) their homes where women will enjoy true respect; in their homes, in family life, they are comfortable.

Cleanliness is their adornment, their magnificence lies in their good character, their gracious beauty is in their chastity, their true perfection lies in their compassion, and their children are their relaxation and entertainment.

In the face of so many means of corruption, one has to be as strong and unyielding as steel to remain uncorrupted.

If a beautiful woman enters a gathering of “brothers,” ostentation and rivalry and envy and selfishness are aroused. Sleeping fancies and passions suddenly awaken.

Uncontrolled freedom for women has caused a sudden awakening and increase of vices in humankind.

Those small dead bodies called pictures, those smiling corpses, have an important and terrible role in the spirit of modern man becoming cross and ill-tempered.197

The prohibited statue is either petrified tyranny, or embodied hypocrisy, or solidified passion. Or it is a talisman that attracts these wicked spirits.

 

Tendency toward expansion which does not exist in the pious is a tendency to corruption and destruction

O you who are seeking ijtihad (new legislation) in Islam to broaden its limits! Consider your body: if the tendency toward its expansion comes from within, it leads to its expansion; but if it comes from without, then it tears your skin.

Similarly, a person sincerely confirms and completely complies with the essential and basic injunctions of Islam: the tendency toward expansion in such a person is a tendency toward perfection.

However, the same tendency in another who is outside the sphere of obedience to Islamic essentials and indifferent to them is a tendency toward corruption and destruction.

At this time, repeatedly afflicted by “storms” and “quakes,” it is necessary not to open the door to new legislations, but rather to shut even the windows.

Those heedless and indifferent in belief and the practice of the Religion should not be indulged with dispensations; they should rather be warned strictly and aroused with heavier responsibilities and greater care.

 

The scope of Divine Power rejects intermediaries and helpers

For the All-Powerful One of Majesty, in relation to the scope of the control and operations of His Power, our sun is like a particle.

In order to have some glimpse of the vastness of the control and operations of His Power in a single realm of beings, take the gravity between two atoms, and then go and put it beside the gravity between the sun of suns and the Milky Way.

Bring an angel whose load is a snowflake to a sun-like angel who holds the sun; put a needle-fish beside a whale;

Then consider all at once the vast manifestation of the Eternal All Powerful One of Majesty and the infinitely perfect “workmanship” in things, from the smallest to the greatest.

The things in circulation such as gravity, conductivity, permeability or pervasiveness, and laws—these are only names for the manifestations of His Power and the instances of His Wisdom;

They can and indeed have no other meaning or function. Think of them together and you will necessarily understand that claiming the existence of efficient or creative causes and means and attributing to Him helpers and partners is all false,

All is illusory and deluding in the face of that Power. Life is the perfection of existence; its rank is great and important. Therefore, I say: why should the earth, our world, not be an obedient, subservient entity, like a docile animal?

The Eternal Sovereign has numerous flying animals of this sort in the arena of space, and they are splendid and beautiful.

He has dispersed them through the garden of creation, and set them in continuous motion. The songs of those in space and the activities of these in the world are all words of glorification, acts of worship of the One Who has no beginning and end, the Eternal All-Wise.

Our earth resembles an animate being that displays signs of life. If, to suppose the impossible, it were reduced to the size of an egg,

It would most probably become a tiny micro-organism. If a micro organism were enlarged to the size of the earth, most probably it would be just like the earth.

If the universe was reduced to the size of a human being, with its stars forming particles, it is possible it would become a conscious animal; reason does not deny this.

This means, the world with all its parts is a glorifying servant of the Ever-Living Creator, the Eternal All-Powerful One, obedient and subservient.

It is not necessary that a thing should be great in size in order to be great qualitatively, for a clock the size of a mustard-seed is more eloquent than a clock the size of Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia).

The creation of the fly is no less, indeed perhaps more, amazing than that of an imposing creature like the elephant.

If a Qur’an were to be written by the Pen of Power in atoms of ether on an atom from this world, in respect of the art it would contain, inversely proportional to its size,

It would be equal to a Qur’an written in the stars on the face of the heavens. The Eternal Inscriber’s art is of the utmost beauty and perfection everywhere.

Everywhere it is thus. Everything being of the same degree of perfection proclaims the unity of the Pen and therefore the Divine Unity. Study carefully this most meaningful piece!

The angels are a community charged with the Shari‘a of the creation and the operation of the universe

There are two Divine Shari‘as (sets of laws), proceeding from two Divine Attributes; two kinds of humans are addressed, one being responsible for each:

The Shari‘a of the creation and operation of the universe, which proceeds from the Attribute of Will, orders the circumstances and movements of the universe, the macro-human, which are not voluntary. It is the eternally determined system of the Lord, and it is what is wrongly termed “nature.”

The Shari‘a which proceeds from the attribute of Speech is the set of laws which orders the actions of humanity, the microcosm, which are voluntary.

The two Shari‘as sometimes are in force in the same kind of beings— God’s angels. They are a mighty community, a host of the All-Glorified One.

They are obedient servants and workers, who are responsible for the fulfillment of the first Shari‘a; they are representatives, (representing the worship of the inanimate, plant, and animal kingdoms in the Court of God).

Some of them are worshipping servants of God, others are absorbed in knowledge and love of God, stationed near to Him around His Supreme Throne.

 

The angels are a community charged with the Shari‘a of the creation and the operation of the universe

There are two Divine Shari‘as (sets of laws), proceeding from two Divine Attributes; two kinds of humans are addressed, one being responsible for each:

The Shari‘a of the creation and operation of the universe, which proceeds from the Attribute of Will, orders the circumstances and movements of the universe, the macro-human, which are not voluntary. It is the eternally determined system of the Lord, and it is what is wrongly termed “nature.”

The Shari‘a which proceeds from the attribute of Speech is the set of laws which orders the actions of humanity, the microcosm, which are voluntary.

The two Shari‘as sometimes are in force in the same kind of beings— God’s angels. They are a mighty community, a host of the All-Glorified One.

They are obedient servants and workers, who are responsible for the fulfillment of the first Shari‘a; they are representatives, (representing the worship of the inanimate, plant, and animal kingdoms in the Court of God).

Some of them are worshipping servants of God, others are absorbed in knowledge and love of God, stationed near to Him around His Supreme Throne.

 

As matter is refined, life is intensified

Life is fundamental, basic; matter is dependent on and subordinate to it, and subsists through it. If you compare a microscopic organism with its five senses, and the human senses,

You will see that however much larger a human being is than the microscopic organism, his senses are inferior to the same degree.

The organism hears its brother’s voice, sees its food. If it were enlarged to the size of a human being, its senses would be amazing, its life dazzling, and the sight of it like lightning flashing in the sky.

A person is not a living being composed of a dead mass, but a living human cell is composed of billions of living cells.

A human is like the large letters of Ya Sin, in which is inscribed Suratu Ya-Sin. So Blessed and Supreme is God, the Creator Who creates in the best and most appropriate form!

 

Materialism is a spiritual plague

Materialism is a spiritual plague. It has infected humanity with this terrible fever (WW1)—it has made it subject to Divine Wrath and punishment. Through insistent inculcation and imitation,

And in proportion to the growth of humankind’s ability to criticize, this plague has become severer and spreads ever wider.

It is inculcated by science and imitated in the name of civilization. Freedom has led to criticism, and misguidance has sprung from the pride civilization causes.

 

There is nothing idle in existence; an idle person works on account of non-existence

The most miserable, wretched, and distressed person is the one who is idle. For idleness is non-existence within existence, death within life.

Whereas exertion or working hard is the life of the body and the waking state of life!

 

Usury and interest are absolutely harmful to Islam

Usury causes idleness and extinguishes enthusiasm for work.

The profit of banks, which are the doors of usury and its containers, is always for the worst of humankind, the infidels.

Its profit for the infidels goes to the worst among them, that is, the oppressors.

The profit of the oppressors always goes to the worst among them; that is, the dissolute; it is absolutely harmful to the world of Islam.

The Shari‘a does not require nor does it take responsibility for the continual prosperity of all humankind at all costs. For an infidel at war with Islam and Muslims does not deserve respect or legal protection.

 

The Qur’an defends itself and perpetuates its authority

I saw a man who was stricken by despair and sick with pessimism. He said: “The scholars have decreased in number, and this decrease in quantity causes a decrease in quality. I fear our Religion will die out one day.”

I replied: So long as the universe is not extinguished, Islamic belief will not die out.

Also, so long as the public signs of Islam, the minarets of the Religion, the places of Divine worship, the teachings of the Shari‘a—all like stakes firmly placed in the earth—so long as they are not extinguished, Islam will always shine.

The mosques are instructors, teaching those who frequent them through their very existence and nature. The public signs of Islam have all become teachers: through the tongue of their very existence and nature, they never fail or forget to inspire the believers.

All the signs are learned teachers, continually teaching the spirit of Islam to those who look on them, causing the world to last through the centuries.

The lights of Islam are as though embodied in its public signs; and the pure water of Islam is as if solidified in its places of worship, each of which is an embodied pillar of belief.

The injunctions of Islam are as though embodied within the public signs; the pillars of Islam are settled solidly in its domains—each is a diamond pillar, and through them the earth and sky are bound together.

In particular, the Qur’an of miraculous exposition is an orator; it has continually been delivering a pre-eternal discourse—no village, no place at all has remained within the Muslim lands

Which has not listened to its address, nor not heard its teaching. According to the meaning of It is indeed We Who are its guardians and preservers (15:9), to be a memorizer of the Qur’an is a very high station. To recite it is worship for humankind and jinn.

Its continual recitation both teaches and repeatedly reminds of the explicit, incontestable essentials of Islam; it also causes the theoretical matters to become so explicit that they require no further explanation.

These essentials of the Religion have ceased being theoretical matters and have become explicit, easily understood realities. To mention them is sufficient; to remind of them is enough. The Qur’an is constantly a healer (healing the wounds in the minds, hearts, and spirits).

Also, through the constant mentioning and reminding of Islam’s essentials, and through the Islamic revival and social awareness they generate, the evidence for all these essentials is evidence for each.

Since social life began in Islam, an individual’s belief is not restricted to the proofs particular to themselves, nor is their conviction or conscience based on them alone. Rather, such are also based on innumerable proofs that are located in the common heart of the community.

It is worth noting that as time passes it is difficult to abolish even a weak school of thought. So what about Islam, which is based on the two firm foundations—the Revelation and innate human disposition—and which has ruled so effectively for so many centuries!

With its firmly rooted principles, its profound works, it has cohered to half the globe, becoming a natural spirit. How can it be eclipsed, especially when it has just emerged from a temporary eclipse?

Regrettably, certain abusive infidels have engaged in falsehoods to attack the firm foundations of this lofty palace whenever they found the chance.

They try to shake Islam’s foundations. But its principles cannot be attacked, or tampered with. Fall silent now, irreligion! That scoundrel is bankrupt. Enough now of this experiment of unbelief and lies!

The Islamic world’s advance-post against the world of unbelief was this Darulfünun.198 But due to our indifference and heedlessness, the snake-like enemy was able

To open up a breach behind the front; irreligion attacked and the nation was shaken. This advance-post, this Paradise-like “garden,” illuminated by the spirit of Islam,

Should be the firmest, and most truly awakened, in respect of Islam, or it cannot be an institution referred to as the House of Sciences. It must not deceive Islam.

 

The seat of belief is the heart; the mind is where the light of belief is reflected

The mind is sometimes a warrior (fighting falsehoods), sometimes it is a broom (removing doubts); if the doubts of the mind do not enter the heart, then the faith and the conscience will not be shaken.

If, as some people suppose, belief is in the mind, many baseless possibilities (circulating about in the mind) can become ruthless enemies to the certainty that is based on experience, which is the spirit of belief.

Heart and conscience are the seats of belief. Intuition and inspiration are evidence for belief. There is another sense199 which is a way to belief. Thought and intellect, or the mind, are the watchmen of belief.

 

Rather than instruction in theoretical matters, it is necessary to remind people of Islam’s explicit, incontestable essentials

The essentials of the Religion, the explicit, incontestable matters of the Shari‘a, are present in people’s hearts; people will be made fully conscious of these if they are continually reminded of them.

The desired result is thus obtained. The Arabic language performs this reminder in a more sublime fashion.

Instruction in theoretical matters is not required in the sermon. Moreover, Arabic discourse is an imprint of unity on the united face of Islam.

 

The Prophetic sayings (hadiths) say to the Qur’an’s verses: It is not possible to reach you!

If you compare the Qur’anic verses and the hadiths, you will see clearly that even the most eloquent of humankind, the conveyor of the Revelation, could not attain the level of the Qur’an in eloquence.

The Qur’an does not resemble his sayings. That means that all the words issuing from Muhammad’s tongue were not his.200

 

A concise explanation of the Qur’an’s miraculousness

Once I had a dream: I was at the foot of Mount Ararat. The mountain suddenly exploded, scattering rocks the size of mountains all over the world and shaking it.

Then suddenly, a man appeared at my side. He told me: “Explain the aspects of the Qur’an’s miraculousness known to you, concisely and precisely!”201

I thought of the dream’s meaning while I was still in the dream and told myself: the explosion here symbolizes a revolution in humankind.

As a result of this, the guidance of the Criterion of truth and falsehood (the Qur’an) will be exalted everywhere, and will rule. And the time will come to explain its miraculousness!

I said to the questioner in reply: The Qur’an’s miraculousness originates in seven universal sources or is composed of seven universal elements:

FIRST SOURCE: This is its brilliant manner of exposition that arises

from the fluency of its wording, the eloquence of its meanings, the originality of its concepts, the purity of its language, the beauty of its word-order, and the uniqueness of its styles.

All these elements combined, its miraculousness manifests an amazing embroidery of expressions, and an original linguistic art, thus its repetition never wearies or bores.

SECOND (SOURCE OR) ELEMENT: Formed of the unseen principles underlying cosmic events, and the unseen, mysterious Divine truths, and the unseen realities contained in the heavens, and the events that have become unseen behind the veil of the past, and the matters and events that remain unseen behind the veil of the future,

The Qur’an is the tongue of the Unseen; it speaks with the visible, corporeal world, revealing some matters of the Unseen with subtle, profound and symbolic expressions. It addresses humankind. This is another flash of its miraculousness.

THIRD SOURCE: The Qur’an has an extraordinary comprehensiveness in five aspects: in its wording, meanings, commands, and its knowledge, and the balance in its aims.

Its wording: There are many diverse ways of expression and various aspects in its wording, each being agreeable in the sight of eloquence, grammatically correct, and perfectly suitable for legislation.

Its meaning: The miraculousness of the Qu’ran’s exposition at once comprehends and contains the ways of all the saints, the illuminations of those versed in knowledge of God, the schools of those following the Sufi way, the ways of theologians, and the paths of the philosophers.

The extent and variety of what the Qur’an refers to, and the expanse of its meanings: if you look through this window, you will see how broad the arena is!

The scope of its commands: The wonderful Shari‘a has issued from the Qur’an; its pronouncements at the same time cover the principles necessary for happiness in both worlds, the means to salvation and security, the relations of social life, the methods of education, and responsiveness to circumstantial realities.

The profundity of its knowledge: The Qur’an mentions or alludes to, at different levels, and with signs and indications, both the physical sciences and the Divine sciences; the Qur’an brings together all the paradisal gardens of all types of knowledge within the castles of its suras.

In its aims and purposes, the Qur’an has perfect balance and regular sequence, and it fully conforms to and agrees with the principles of the original Divine pattern and system of creation, and it has preserved the balance thereof.

See the magnificent comprehensiveness in the extensiveness of its words, the breadth of its meanings, the scope of its commands, the profundity of its knowledge, and the balance of its aims.

FOURTH (SOURCE OR) ELEMENT: The Qur’an bestows bounteous, luminous gifts and blessings on every age in accordance with its capacity of understanding and literary degree and on all classes of people in accordance with their capacities and abilities.

Its door is open to every era and every class within each. It is as if this Speech of the All-Merciful is freshly revealed at every instant, in every place.

The Qur’an grows younger as time grows older; its allusions and symbols become clearer and more manifest; that Divine Address rends the veil of nature and causes (ascribing creativity to nature and “natural” causes).

The light of Divine Unity in the Qur’an constantly bursts forth from every verse. It raises the veil of the visible, corporeal world from the Unseen. The loftiness of its address invites humans to be attentive.

The Qur’an is the tongue of the Unseen, speaking to the visible, corporeal world. From this source proceeds its extraordinary freshness, its being an all-encompassing ocean of meaning.

The Qur’an includes Divine condescension to human minds so that they may be familiar with it. The fluency of its styles in various forms makes it lovely to humans and jinn.

FIFTH SOURCE: The Qur’an relates all its narrative accounts and the events they contain with their essential points and presents these in an original, meaningful style as though observing the events at first hand.

Through these narrative accounts of the past events, the Qur’an warns humankind. It relates or tells about former peoples and their experiences, future people and what they will experience, the secrets of Hell and the Gardens of Paradise,

And the truths of the Unseen, mysteries of the visible, corporeal world, the Divine mysteries, and the bonds of creation and the universe. Its styles of narration give the impression that the Qur’an relates what it sees.

Neither time nor the facts discovered over time have refuted the truths of the Qur’an, nor does logic ever contradict them. As for the other revealed Books, which are revered by the world,

The Qur’an relates the points on which they agree in a confirmatory manner, and mentions the subjects on which they differ in a corrective style. All this knowledge and these arguments are related or conveyed by someone “unlettered:” this is a wonder of all times!

SIXTH (SOURCE OR) ELEMENT: The Qur’an was the founder of the Religion of Islam and comprises it. If you reflect on time and place, neither was the past capable of producing the like of Islam, nor is the future.

It is a heavenly rope that holds the earth in its annual and daily orbits, rotating it. It rides upon and weighs down the earth, not allowing it to rebel (against its duty).

SEVENTH SOURCE: The six lights pouring forth from these six sources exist one within the other, and it is from these that a beauty arises, and it is from that beauty an intuition, a luminous means of understanding, emanates.

This produces a pleasure that serves the comprehensive pleasure of its miraculousness, but our language is inadequate to describe this, the mind is also insufficient. That celestial star (of the pleasure in its eloquence) is seen, but cannot be held in the hand.

For thirteen centuries the Qur’an’s enemies have desired to challenge it, while it has aroused in its friends a desire for imitation. This too is a proof of its miraculousness.

Millions of books have been written in Arabic as a result of these two intense desires, and have entered the library of existence.

If they are compared with the Qur’an, God’s Revelation, if they are weighed on a balance, not only the learned scholar, but even the most common people, who only judge by their eyes and ears, will declare: “This one is heavenly; those are human!”

They will also conclude: “It does not resemble them, it is not of the same class. It is either lower than all of them—and this is self-evidently not true—or

“It is superior to all of them.” During that long time from its revelation, the meanings of the Qur’an have always remained open to human kind; it has summoned to itself spirits and minds!

Humankind has employed these meanings, and has adopted them, but it still has not been able to oppose the Qur’an with its meanings; humanity will never be able to do this; now the time of testing has passed.

The Qur’an does not resemble other books; it cannot be compared to them. For due to Divine wisdom it was revealed part by part, over more than twenty years, in response to need and in miscellaneous parts.

The Qur’an was revealed on different occasions; to answer different and repeatedly asked questions, and to legislate judgments concerned with numerous and diverse occasions and circumstances. The times of its revelation were all different.

The conditions where the Qur’an was received and communicated were diverse and varied; the groups of those it was addressing were numerous and remote from one another; the targets of its guidance were numerous and of varying levels.

Based on these foundations, the Qur’an explains, teaches, answers, legislates, orders, forbids, advises, reminds, warns, praises, encourages, condemns, and restrains. Yet despite this, the Qur’an is perfect in eloquence, fluency, mutual proportion, and harmony. The sciences of rhetoric, eloquence, and fine arts testify to this.

The Qur’an has a unique characteristic; none of other forms of speech has it. If you listen to a speech, you will see the speaker (or writer) behind it, or you will find them within it: style is the mirror of the person who writes or speaks.

The Qur’an apparently points to the Prophet, its addressee, who is a veil before the Owner of the Speech. The Owner of the Speech is uniquely the Necessarily Existent Being, Whose words or discourses are infinite and innumerable.

He addresses all His uncountable addressees from eternity in the past to the eternity in the future; however, the Speech of the All-Eternal is only heard in embodied, finite speeches.

He could sum up all His discourse in a single manifestation of His Speech, if it had been possible for us to hear all His infinite words all at once, Or if all His addressees had been a single ear formed of all the particles of the universe—then that universal ear, that universal light of belief, that inspiration in conscience,

Would have seen the representation of the All-Glorified’s Speech behind or in infinite speeches or words in all Its majesty and grandeur.

This means that the variation in the styles of the Qur’an is because the Qur’an comprises God Almighty’s condescension and manifestations of His Names and Attributes. This is seen by looking with belief behind His speech embodied in the Qur’an.

Every person can say, “In the world, which was built and is heated and lit up as my home, the sun, that eye of the heavens, smiles at me.

“If God had given it consciousness and speech, that delicate, beautiful entity of the heavens would speak to me and a mirror would be the means of communication with it.”

The autonomy of mind gives every individual this right, so they can also say, “My Lord speaks to me from behind His speech, the Qur’an; I see an All-Merciful of Light with my belief.”

All beings with spirits, even the whole universe, can say this all together, because there is no congestion or blockage when communicating with Him, (as one’s benefiting from the sun does not prevent others from benefiting from it). No one can monopolize or restrict it. He is uncontained in time and space.

O dream-questioner! You asked for conciseness, so I have made an indication. If you want a detailed exposition, that is beyond my capability! A fly cannot watch and scan the sky.

For of its forty aspects of miraculousness, only one is the fluency of its word-order; this could not be explained fully in Isharatu’l-I‘jaz.202

This nearly two hundred-page commentary of mine has been insufficient for that. Rather, I want a detailed exposition from you, as your spirit inspirations are many.

 

The fanciful, lust-exciting, genius-impressing,

earthly hand of Western literature cannot equal the healing,

light-scattering, guiding, heavenly, eternal literature of the Qur’an

Anything pleasing to the elevated taste of the mature and perfected does not gratify childish fancies or dissolute natures.

It does not entertain them. For this reason, one who has grown amid and been fed with base, dissolute, carnal and lusty pleasures will not know spiritual pleasure.

Looking within a perspective fashioned by and based on novels, the present literature, which has issued from Europe, will neither see nor experience the elevated subtleties or the majestic virtues of the Qur’an.

This literature cannot weigh up or measure the Qur’an by its own scales. There are three arenas in which literature revolves; it roams within their bounds:

Either love and sorrow, or heroism and valor, or a depiction of reality. The Europe-based literature does not seek the truth or acclaim right in heroism; rather, it instills a desire for power by applauding the cruelties of oppressors.

As regards sorrow and love, this literature is not aware of true love; it injects into the soul a lust-exciting thrill.

In the matter of the depiction of reality, it does not look on the universe as Divine art; it does not see it as a painting of the All-Merciful.

Rather, this literature approaches the Qur’an from the point of view of “self-existent nature” or naturalism, and depicts it thus; it cannot free itself from this limitation.

For this reason, what such literature inculcates is a false love of nature. It implants in the heart feelings associated with materialism, from which it cannot easily save itself.

Furthermore, that unmannerly literature is only a sedative and narcotic for the distress of the spirit which arises from the misguidance resulting from materialism; it can provide no remedy.

It has found a single remedy, and that is in novels and fiction. Books are animated corpses, movie pictures are moving corpses. The dead cannot give life!

And the theater—it feels no shame at these three sorts of its fiction resembling “reincarnated” ghosts from the vast grave known as the past.

It has put a false, lying tongue in humankind’s mouth, attached a lustful eye to its face, clothed the world in a scarlet dress, and does not recognize pure beauty.

If literature indicates the sun, it puts in the reader’s mind a beautiful blonde actress; but it apparently says: “Dissipation is bad; it is not fitting for humanity.”

Literature indicates harmful consequences. But its depictions so incite dissipation that they make the mouth water and reason cannot maintain control.

They rouse appetite, excite desire, thus the emotions heed neither advice nor warnings. The literature of the Qur’an, however, stirs up no such desires;

It imparts love of and attachment to right, a passion for pure beauty and pleasure in it, and zeal to attain and establish the truth. It never deceives.

The Qur’an does not look at the universe from the point of view of “self-existent nature” or naturalism; it speaks of it as Divine art, as a painting of the All-Merciful. It does not confuse the mind.

It inculcates the light of knowledge of the Maker. It indicates His signs in all things. Both the literature of the Qur’an and that of the modern age can produce a touching pathos, but they do not resemble each other.

The literature born of Europe excites a pathetic sorrow that arises from a lack of friends, from being ownerless; this is not an elevated sorrow.

This literature is a despairing sadness inspired by a deaf nature and blind force. It knows and shows the world as a desolate wasteland, and not in any other way.

The literature depicts the world in this way, and it takes the sorrowful and places them, ownerless, among strangers, leaving them without hope.

Due to this emotional mood the literature has imbued them with, they gradually move to misguidance; thus the way is opened to atheism, from whence it is difficult to return. Perhaps they never will return.

As for Qur’anic literature, it produces a sorrow, but it is the sorrow of love, not of orphans. It arises from separation from friends, not from the lack of them.

Its view of the universe, in place of blind nature, is as conscious, merciful Divine art; it does not speak of “blind and deaf” nature.

Instead of blind force, the Qur’an describes the wise and gracious Divine Power. The universe, therefore, does not take on the form of a desolate wasteland.

Indeed, in the view of those with sacred sorrow to whom it is addressed, the Qur’an becomes a gathering of friends. On every side there is mutual love and responsiveness, which cause no distress.

There is friendliness at every corner, giving the sorrowful in that society a yearning sorrow, an elevated feeling, not a dejected grief.

Both give rise to eagerness. But through the eagerness that is provoked by alien literature, the carnal soul becomes excited, fanciful desires are stimulated; there is no joy to the spirit.

The Qur’an’s eagerness, however, excites the spirit, spurring one on to lofty aims. It is for this reason that the Shari‘a of Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, does not desire play nor pastime.

It has forbidden some (musical) instruments for amusement, and per mitted others. That is to say, instruments that produce Qur’anic sorrow and eagerness are not harmful.

But if such music produces the despairing grief of the orphan or carnal excitement and eagerness, then the instrument is prohibited. It changes from person to person, not everyone is the same.

 

There are two viewpoints, one dark, the other illuminating

There are two viewpoints, and two kinds of investigation. One is increasingly illuminated and brightened, while the other is increasingly drowned in doubts, with the result that the mind is darkened.

For example: There is delightful, sweet water, flowing from a source. It flows in thousands of canals. Foul things may mix with it in some places.

A person sees the source, tastes the water, and understands that it is sweet. They conclude that the foulness is not from the source.

Whenever one passes by a canal or waterway, the smallest sign that the water is pure and sweet convinces them of its original sweetness and purity.

Only an otherwise decisive, substantial proof can contradict such a sign. Then the person says: “Some other substance has become mixed with this pure, sweet water.”

This way of investigation strengthens belief, expands and exhilarates the heart, and develops and flourishes the truth. It is this splendid view point that is encouraged by the Qur’an.

The other viewpoint is faulty and harmful. A foolish one walks with it around the canals unconsciously, instead of beginning from the source.

Their eyes are fixed on the ground; whenever they encounter a canal and see a doubtful sign that the water is bitter,

They doubt that the water is sweet. In order to judge that it is sweet, they seek a conclusive proof.

They desire to base the overwhelming result produced from a huge, pure source on one very insignificant sign.

Their doubt increases (as they encounter some insignificant foulness mixed with the water from the outside), and they begin to lose their former conviction, and become a target of groundless suspicions. The recompense of such a viewpoint is an increase in error.

Their intellect is defective, the principles they follow are flawed, and their capacity for understanding is narrow.

If they cannot reach the truth, they return and say: “This is not the truth,” refuting and denying it.

There is a proverb among the Kurds: A bear stood under a vine, and not being able to reach the grapes, said, “Woe to these! They are foul and sour!”

 

Branches offer fruit in the name of Mercy

Apparently, the branches of the tree of creation extend the fruits of bounties to the hands of living beings on every side.

But in reality it is a Hand of Mercy, a Hand of Power, Which holds out to us these fruits on those branches.

You should kiss that Hand of Mercy in gratitude; you should thankfully proclaim the holiness of that Hand of Power.

 

An explanation of the three ways indicated at the end of Suratu’l-Fatiha

O brother full of aspirations! Taking your imagination with you, come with me. See, we are in a land, we look around. There is no one to see us.

A layer of black clouds has settled on the high mountains, which are like tent-posts. The clouds have also overshadowed the part of the earth where we are.

They form a solid ceiling over us, but some say its six sides are open and the sun is shining there. However, we are under the cloud and the darkness oppresses us.

The distress is suffocating; the lack of fresh air is killing us. Now three ways are open to us. One is an illuminated realm; I looked upon it once. I also came here once before; I have been to the third realm as well.

The first way extending before us is this: most people take it and it is the way through the world, inviting us to travel it.

See, we are on our way, going on foot. See the boiling sands of this desert, how they are scorching us with their anger, threatening us!

Look at the mountainous waves in that sea; they are furious with us too. Now thank God, we have reached the other side, we can see the sunlight.

But only we know the difficulties we have suffered. Alas! We have returned to this same wasteland, the dark ceiling of cloud hovering over us. What we need is a wonderful light-filled realm,

Which will brighten the eye of the heart; if you have the courage, we will enter this extremely risky way together to reach this destination.

Our second way: we will plunge through “nature,” and pass to the other side. Or we will go trembling through a natural tunnel.

I traveled this way once before, full of entreaties and prayers, without feigning reluctance before God. But on that occasion I had with me a sub stance to smelt and rend “nature.”

The Qur’an, the miraculous guide of the third way, gave it to me. Brother, stick close behind me, and have no fear!

See, here await tunnel-like caves and underground torrents. They will let us pass. Let neither nature nor these awesome lifeless beings frighten you in any way!

For behind its sour face the smiling Face of its All-Compassionate Owner—I perceived It through the light of that radium-like substance of the Qur’an.

How happy you are! Now we have come out into the light-filled world; see this graceful earth, this pleasant and lovely heaven.

Raise your head! See, this Touba-tree invites us—it grows high into the heavens, has rent the clouds, leaving them far below.

It is the Qur’an. It has spread its branches everywhere. We must hold onto this branch which is trailing down, so that it can raise us up.

One of the manifestations of that heavenly tree on earth is the Illustrious Shari‘a. This means we ascend to this world of light in that way without difficulty; we will not be shaken by distress.

As we have gone wrong, we will now return to our former place and find the right way.

See, our third way! Over the mountains hovers a Royal Falcon, reciting the adhan to the whole world.

See, the supreme muadhdhin (the caller to Prayer), Muhammadu’l-Ha shimi, upon him be peace and blessings, is calling humankind to the luminous world of light. He enjoins supplication and obligatory Prayers.

Look at those mountains of guidance! They have rent the clouds and have reached as high as the heavens. See those mountains of the Shari‘a, how they have adorned the face and eye of the earth!

Now we must take off from here in lofty aspiration and endeavor. For the light and breeze are up there; the radiant face of grace is there. Ah, now here is the Uhud of Divine Unity203, that mighty, beloved mountain.

Here is the Judi of Islam204, that mountain of salvation and safety. Here is the Mountain of the Moon205, which is the bright Qur’an; the “Nile,” the pure water of life and mercy, flows from that sublime source. Take a drink of its sweet water!

So Blessed and Supreme is God, the Creator Who creates in the best and most appropriate form! (33:14)

And their final call is “All praise and gratitude are for God, the Lord of the worlds!” (10:10)

Friend! Now cast away your imagination and don your reason! The first two ways are those of “those who have incurred Your wrath” and “those who are astray.”

Their perils are numerous. With these is perpetual winter, their whole year is winter. Only one out of a hundred is saved, like Plato and Socrates.

The third way is easy, and direct and straight. Weak and strong are equal. Everyone may take it. The easiest and safest is this: to be either a martyr or a “ghazi.”206

Now we come to the conclusion: the first two ways are the path and school of scientific materialism and philosophy. As for the guidance of the Qur’an, the third way is its straight path; it will take us to our destination.

O God! Guide us to the straight path. The path of those whom You have favored (with the blessing of guidance), not of those who have incurred Your wrath, nor of those who are astray.

 

All true pain is in misguidance, and all true pleasure in belief: a mighty truth dressed in imagination

Sensible fellow-traveler! O beloved friend! If you want to clearly perceive the differences between the luminous way of the Straight Path and the dark path of those who have incurred God’s wrath and those who are astray,

Come, take your fancy and mount your imagination, together we will go into the darkness of non-existence. We will visit that vast grave, that city full of the dead.

An Eternal All-Powerful One took us out of the darkness of non-existence with His hand of Power, mounted us on existence, and sent us to this world, this city without pleasures.

Now we have come to the world of existence, this fearful desert. Our eyes have opened and we have looked in the six directions.

Firstly, we look before us seeking mercy and help, but tribulations and pain attack us like enemies. We take fright at this and retreat.

We look to left and right to the natural elements, seeking help. But we see their hearts are hard and merciless. They grind their teeth, looking at us angrily and threateningly. They heed neither plea nor plaint.

Like helpless creatures, we despairingly lift our gazes upwards. Seeking help, we look to the heavenly bodies, but see them to be threatening.

As though each was a bomb; having shot from of their housings they are speeding through space. But somehow they do not touch one another.

If one confused its way accidentally, this visible, corporeal world would be blown to pieces; God forbid! They move dependent on chance; no good can come of them.

In despair we turn back our gaze from that direction, overcome by painful bewilderment. We bow our heads, bent over our breasts; we look to ourselves, pondering and studying our own selves.

Now we hear the shouts of myriad needs coming from our wretched selves. The cries of thousands of desires issue forth. While hoping for sol ace, we take fright.

No good comes from that either. Seeking refuge, we consult our con science or conscious nature; we look into it seeking a means and seeking help. Alas, again we are left unaided; we have to help our conscience or conscious nature.

For in it are thousands of aspirations, seething desires, wild emotions, all extending throughout the universe. We tremble with all of them, and cannot offer help.

Left unaided between existence and non-existence, these aspirations extend to eternity in the past on one side and eternity in the future on the other. They are so extensive. Even if the conscious nature were to swallow the world, it would still not be satisfied.

Whatever we have had recourse to on this painful path, we have encountered calamities. For the paths of those who have incurred God’s wrath and those who are astray are thus. It is chance and misguidance which lead us on these paths.

It is we who have allowed chance and misguidance to lead us, and so we have fallen into our present state. We are in such a state that we have forgotten the beginning of existence and the end of the world, as well as the Maker and the resurrection of the dead.

We are in a state that is worse than Hell; it scorches more terribly and it crushes our spirits. We had recourse to these six directions, but the result was this state.

It is a merciless state, comprising fear and terror, impotence and trembling, alarm and isolation, being orphaned and despair.

Now we will take up fronts opposite each of the directions (from where we had sought mercy and help, only to fall into a merciless state) and try to repulse them. Firstly, we have recourse to our own strength, but alas! We are powerless, weak.

Secondly, we turn to our souls, hoping their needs can be silenced. But alas! We see that they cry out unceasingly.

Thirdly, we cry out for help, seeking a savior; but there is no one to hear and respond. We think everything is hostile, everything strange. Nothing consoles our hearts; nothing gives a sense of security or true pleasure.

Fourthly, the more we look at the celestial bodies, the more they fill us with fear and awe. A feeling of terrifying loneliness, which vexes the con science, appears; it torments the mind and fills us with delusions.

Brother! That is the path of misguidance! On it we experienced all the darkness of unbelief. Come, now, my brother, we will turn again to non-existence.

Again we will come. This time our way is the Straight Path and the way of belief. Our guide and leader are Divine Grace and the Qur’an, the Falcon that flies over the centuries.

At one time, the Eternal Sovereign’s Mercy and Grace willed our existence, His Power brought us forth, graciously mounting us on the law of His Will, completing us stage after stage.

Then It compassionately clothed us in the garment of existence, bestowing on us the rank of undertaking the Supreme Trust,207 whose decorations are supplication and the obligatory Prayers.

All of these stages are mansions of bestowal on our long road. To make our journey easy, the Divine Destiny has inscribed a decree on the parchment of our foreheads;

Wherever we go, with whichever group we are guests, we are welcomed in truly brotherly fashion. We give of our belongings, and we receive from theirs: a delightful trade.

They nourish us, adorn us with gifts, then see us off on our way. Now at last we have come to the door of the world. We hear a noise.

See, we have arrived on the earth. We have set foot in the visible world. Here is a promenade and festival, organized by the All-Merciful for the clamorous habitation of humankind.

We know nothing at all, our guide and leader is the Will of the All Merciful. Our delicate eyes are the deputy of this guide. We open our eyes and look around. Do we recall the former time from where we came?

We were strangers, orphans, we had many enemies. We did not know who our protector was. Now, with the light of belief, which is a strong pillar, we find in us a point of support and a point of help against those enemies.

Our protector, belief in God, repulses our enemies. It is the light of our spirits, the light of our lives, and the spirit of our spirits. Now our hearts are easy and we disregard the enemies, not even recognizing them as such.

When on our former journey we consulted our conscious nature, we heard innumerable cries, laments, and complaints.

And so we were overcome by calamities. Now, our aspirations and desires, our capacity and senses, constantly desire eternity. But we did not know how to obtain it. We were ignorant of how to obtain it and our conscious nature lamented and cried.

However, all praise and gratitude be to God, this time we have found a point of help; it constantly gives life to our capacity and aspirations, making them take flight for eternity.

It shows them the way, and from that encouraging, mysterious point— belief in God—our capacity receives help, drinks the water of life, and races to its perfection.

The second pole of belief is affirmation of the Resurrection, the resurrection of the dead and eternal happiness. Belief is the pearl of this shell and the Qur’an is its proof. Human conscience is a mystery indicating it.

Now raise your head and take a look at the universe. Speak to it. On our former way how awesome it appeared. Now it is smiling on every side, gracefully winking and speaking.

Do you not see—our eyes have become like bees? They fly everywhere in the garden of the universe, around the multitude of flowers; each flower offers these bees delicious nectar.

Each flower also offers friendliness, solace, and love. Our eyes collect them and bring back the pollen of testimony. They make the most delicious honey flow forth.

As our gaze alights on the movements of the heavenly bodies—the stars, or suns—they give the Creator’s wisdom in its hands. Learning important lessons and the manifestation of His Mercy, it takes flight.

It is as though the sun is speaking to us, saying: “My brothers and sisters! Do not feel lonely or frightened. You are welcome, how good of you to have come! This dwelling place is yours; I am but a candle-holder.

“I am like you, naught but a pure, absolutely obedient servant. Out of His utter mercy, the Unique and Eternally Besought One has made me a servant of light for you. Light and heat are from me, supplication and Prayer from you!”

Now look at the moon! And the stars and the seas; each says in its own tongue: “Welcome! It’s good of you to have come! Do you not recognize us?”

Look through the mystery of cooperation, lend an ear to the signs of the order. Each says: “We are all servants, mirrors of the All-Majestic One’s Mercy; do not worry, do not become weary or fearful of us!

“Let not the roars of the thunder and cries of events rouse in you fear or suspicion, for within them reverberate Divine recitations, glorifications, supplications, and entreaties.

“The All-Majestic One, Who sent you to us, holds their reins in His hands. The eye of belief reveals the signs of Mercy on their faces; each pro claims It.”

O believer with a wakeful heart! Let our eyes rest a little; now in their place we will hand over our sensitive ears to the blessed hands of belief. We will send them to the world to listen to its delightful tune.

The voices and sounds that we thought were universal mourning and lamentations of death on our former way are in fact supplications and prayers, cries of glorification.

Listen to the murmuring of the air, the twittering of birds, the pattering of the rain, the splashing of the seas, the crashing of thunder, the crack ling of stones; all are meaningful sounds of prayer and glorification.

The melodies of the air, the roars of the thunder, the strains of the waves are all recitations of Divine Grandeur. The chanting of the rain, the chirruping of the birds are all glorifications of Mercy—indications of truth is uttered in their languages.

The sounds of things are all sounds of existence: “I too exist,” they say. The silent-seeming universe speaks uninterruptedly: “Do not suppose us to be lifeless, O chattering fellow!”

It is either the pleasure of bounty or the descent of mercy that makes the birds sing. With their different voices, their songs, they applaud mercy, alight on bounties, and take flight with thanks.

Implicitly they say: “Beings of the universe, O brothers and sisters! What fine conditions we live in; we are tenderly nourished, we are happy with our lot!” With beaks pointed to the heavens they send their cheerful songs through the air.

The universe is a lofty orchestra in its entirety; its recitations are heard through the light of belief. For wisdom rejects the existence of chance and the order in existence banishes any formation or event from being attributable to random coincidence.

Fellow-traveler! We are now leaving this world of representations, stepping down from the realm of images. We will stop in the field of reason, follow the ways we have traveled that lie before our eyes and com pare them.

Our first, painful way is that of those who have incurred God’s wrath, and those who are astray. It inflicts suffering on the conscience, in its innermost part; suffering and severe pain. Consciousness shows this; we traveled that way in opposition to our conscience.

We must be saved from it, we need to be—either the pain must be alleviated, or human feeling numbed—we cannot endure it otherwise, for our cries for help are not heeded.

Guidance is healing, but carnal tendencies and fancies block out the feelings. Submission to carnal tendencies and fancies requires solace, and solace requires forgetfulness, distraction, occupation, and entertainment

So that those elements of deception can fool the conscience and put the spirit to sleep, stopping it from feeling any pain. Otherwise, that grievous suffering scorches the conscience, the lamentation is unendurable and the anguish of despair cannot be borne.

This means, the farther one deviates from the Straight Path, the more one is stricken by this state, and the conscience cries out. Within every pleasure is a pain, which is a trace of this state.

This means that the glitter of civilization, which is a mixture of fancy, lust, amusement and dissipation, is a deceptive cure for the terrible distress that arises from misguidance; the glitter is a poisonous narcotic.

My dear friend! On our second way, that light-filled road, we perceived a state of mind in which life becomes a source of pleasure, and pain joy.

We understood that the second way imbues the spirit with a state that has various degrees according to the strength of belief. The body receives pleasure through the spirit and the spirit receives pleasure through the con science.

An immediate pleasure is felt in the conscience; a spiritual paradise is present in the heart. Reflective thought opens up that pleasure only to increase it, while consciousness unveils secrets.

The more the heart is aroused, the more the conscience is stimulated and the spirit stirred, the greater the pleasure; fire is transformed into light and winter into summer.

The doors of paradises open up in the conscience and the world becomes a paradise. Within it our spirits take flight, soaring like falcons and kites, entreating, praying.

Dear fellow-traveler! Farewell for now. Let us offer a prayer together and then we will part to meet again!

O God! Guide us to the Straight Path. Amen.

 

The answer to the Anglican Church

Once a fierce, pitiless enemy of Islam, a political intriguer, a scheming deceiver who desired to show themselves as superior, in the guise of a priest, with the intention of denial,

At a grievous time, squeezing our throat with its claws, they asked us four things in a spiteful manner, wanting us to answer in six hundred words.

We should have responded by spitting in the face of such spitefulness, and by keeping silent in resentment in the face of their intrigue, and by giving a silencing, resounding answer to their denial.

However, I will not stoop to speak to that enmity, but will give the following answer to a truth-seeking one:

The truth-seeking one asked: “What is the religion which Muhammad brought?” I answered:

“It is contained in the Qur’an. The basic purposes of the Qur’an are the six pillars of belief and the five pillars of Islamic life.”

His second question was: “What has it given to human thought and life?” I answered: “It has given unity to human thought and a straight direction to life. My witnesses to this are:

Say: “He, (He is) God, (Who is) the Unique One of absolute Oneness” (112:1), and Pursue, then, what is exactly right as you are commanded (11:112).

He also asked: “How does it heal the present diseases of humanity?” I answered: “Through the ban on interest and usury, and the obligation of Zakah. My witnesses to this are:

God deprives interest and usury of any blessing (2:176); God has made trading lawful and interest and usury unlawful (2:275); Establish the Prayer and pay the Zakah (the Prescribed Purifying Alms) (2:43).

Fourthly, he asked: “How does it view the tumults and revolutions in humanity?” I said in reply:

“Labor is essential, and wealth cannot be accumulated or held only in the hands of the rich and oppressors. My witnesses to this are:

Man has only that for which he labors (53:39); Those who hoard up gold and silver and do not spend it in God’s cause (to exalt His cause and help the poor and needy): give them the glad tidings of a painful punishment (9:34).

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

185 The Lote-tree (Sidratu’l-Muntaha in the Qur’an, 53:14) of the furthest limit; it signifies the boundary between the realm of Divinity and the realm of creation. (Tr.)

186 Dihyatu’l-Kalbi was one of Prophet Muhammad’s Companions. Archangel Gabriel sometimes came to the Prophet in his form. See, al-Bukhari, “Manaqib” 25; Muslim, “Iman” 271. (Tr.)

187 That is, the civilization will vomit more terribly. It has vomited in the form of the two world wars in such a fashion that it has soiled the air, ground, and sea, staining them with blood.

188 I did not mention the Hajj in the dream, for neglect of the Hajj and its wisdom drew not calamity, but Divine Wrath, and the punishment it incurred was not atonement for our sins but an increase in our sins. It was the neglect of the elevated Islamic policy, which exists in the Hajj and brings unity of views through mutual acquaintance and cooperation through mutual assistance, and it was neglect of the vast social benefits contained in the Hajj which have prepared the ground for the enemy to employ millions of Muslims against Islam. Those were Indian Muslims! Thinking that he was their enemy, they killed their father (the Ottoman State), and now they are weeping beside his dead body. There are the Tatars and the Caucasian peoples! They understood that the one in whose killing they had collaborated with the enemy was their poor mother, but it was too late! They are weeping at her feet. These are the Arabs! They mistakenly killed their heroic brother, and now in their bewilderment they do not even know how to weep. These are the Africans! They killed their brother unknowingly, now they are lamenting. This is the Muslim world; it heedlessly helped the enemy kill its standard-bearing son, now it is pulling its hair out, groaning and lamenting. Instead of hastening to the Hajj eagerly, which is pure good, millions of Muslims have been made to make long journeys under the enemy flag, which is pure evil. Ponder on this and take heed!

189 The Pride of humankind says: “In whatever circumstance a believer is, it is to his good. This is not so for anyone other than believers. For if something happy happens to him, he thanks God, and this is to his good. If some harm touches him, he remains patient, and this also is to his good.” (Muslim, “Zuhd” 64; ad-Darimi, “Riqaq” 61.) (Tr.)

190 Molla Nasraddin or Nasreddin Hoja was a thirteenth-century Muslim figure who was famous and remembered for his wisdom, legendary wit, funny stories and anecdotes. (Tr.)

191 The Young Turks were biased toward modern Western currents of thought and against the Ottoman administration. They struggled particularly against the government of Sultan Abdulhamid II. (Tr.)

192 This refers to the oppressive, anti-religious civilization, which is moving towards its demise.

193 The Qur’an declares: And say not of those who are killed in God’s cause: “They are dead.” Rather they are alive, but you are not aware (2:154). Do not think at all of those killed in God’s cause as dead. Rather, they are alive; with their Lord they have their sustenance, rejoicing in what God has granted them out of His bounty, and joyful in the glad tidings for those left behind who have not yet joined them, that (in the event of martyrdom) they will have no fear, nor will they grieve. They are joyful in the glad tidings of God’s blessing and bounty (that He has prepared for the martyrs), and in (the promise) that God never leaves to waste the reward of the believers. (3:169–171). (Tr.)

194 Ibnu’l-Jawzi, Talbisu Iblis, p. 344.

195 The 31 March Event was a revolt which broke out on April 13, 1909 in Istanbul. Its real nature and reasons have not yet been revealed. It resulted in the dethroning of Sultan Abdulhamid II and the coming into power of the Unity and Progress Party. (Tr.)

196 Muslim, “‘Imara” 59; at-Tirmidhi, “Fitan” 7; Abu Dawud, “Salah” 46.

197 Just as looking at the dead body of a woman with lust signifies an unparalleled vileness, so too looking desirously at the beautiful picture of a woman who is needy of compassion, which makes her similar to a corpse, extinguishes lofty feelings of spirit.

198 Darulfünun was the name of Istanbul University during the Ottoman period. This name literally means the House of Sciences. (Tr.)

199 By another sense Said Nursi means the “senses” or points of reliance and seeking for help that are ingrained in the human conscience; he refers to this in many places of the Risale-i Nur. That is, every human feels the existence of points of reliance or support and seeking help, through which they seek a power to rely on and receive help from particularly in the face of calamities and helplessness. The existence of these senses or points shows the existence of an All-Knowing and Powerful One. (Tr.)

200 That is, apart from his own sayings (hadiths), Prophet Muhammad was also the conveyor of the Qur’an, revealed by God. (Tr.)

201 By Volumes of books have been written on the inimitability of the Qur’an. What Said Nursi says here is a very brief summary. To a certain extent this was explained with examples in The Twenty-fifth Word. (Tr.)

202 Isharatu’l-‘I’jaz is Said Nursi’s commentary on Suratu’l-Fatiha (the Opening Chapter of the Qur’an) and the first 32 verses of Suratu’l-Baqara. It covers more than two hundred pages. It is a key to understanding and commenting on the Qur’an. (Tr.)

203 Mt. Uhud is a mountain in Medina, five kilometers north from the Prophet’s Mosque. A fierce battle took place before it between the Muslim army and the Meccan polytheists during the Prophet’s time, in 624. Once God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, said: “Uhud – it loves us much and we love it much too.” (al-Bukhari, “Fadailu’l-Medina” 6; Muslim, “Hajj” 462) (Tr.)

204 Mt. Judi is the mountain where the Ark of the Prophet Noah settled following the Flood. See, the Qur’an, 11:44. (Tr.)

205 The Mountains of the Moon are the mountain ranges in Ethiopia that were once believed to be the source of the White Nile. The writer likens belief, Islamic belief and life, and the Qur’an to certain mountains. (Tr.)

206 “Ghazi” is an Arabic term which means one who has warred in God’s cause. (Tr.)

207 The Supreme Trust is the human selfhood or being human or human nature as the focus of the manifestations of God’s Names that are manifested throughout the universe. (Tr.)