The Twenty-Eighth Flash

Bazı kısımları buraya dercedilen bu risalenin tamamı, Hatt-ı Kur’an Lem’alar mecmuasında neşredilmiştir.

SECOND POINT

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

I created not jinn and mankind except that they might worship me. * No sustenance do I require of them, nor do I require that they should feed me. * For God is He Who gives [all] sustenance—Lord of Power—Steadfast [for ever].(51:56-8)

For a long time these verses worried my mind, since according to many Qur’anic commentaries their apparent meaning did not reflect the Qur’an’s elevated miraculousness. I shall now explain briefly three aspects of their extremely beautiful and exalted meanings, which proceed from the effulgence of the Qur’an.

The First: Sometimes Almighty God attributes to Himself certain states that could pertain to His Messenger, so as to honour and exalt him.

Here too, the verses, “I created you for worship; not to give Me sustenance and feed me,” have this meaning: “My Messenger does not want a wage, recompense, or reward, or to be fed in return for his duty of messengership and conveying to you the obligations of worship;” they refer to the Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) being given food and sustenance. Otherwise it would be making known something self-evident and clear, and would be incompatible with the Qur’an’s miraculous eloquence.

The Second Aspect: Man is excessively preoccupied with his sustenance. So lest he is deluded into making his winning it a pretext for neglecting worship, or making it an excuse, the verse says: “You were created for worship. The result of your creation is worship. Winning sustenance is worship of a sort, from the point of view of its being a divine command. I have undertaken to provide your sustenance and that of your families and animals, my creatures; it pertains to me; you were not created to procure food and sustenance, for I am the Provider. I provide the sustenance of my servants, your dependants. So do not make it an excuse and give up worship!”

If its meaning is not this, it becomes a statement of the obvious, for to provide Almighty God with food and sustenance is self-evidently impossible. It is an established rule of rhetoric that if the meaning of a sentence is clear and obvious, it is not that meaning which is intended, but a meaning necessitated by it and dependent on it. For example, if you say to someone: “You are a hafiz,” it is stating the obvious. The intended meaning is “I know that you are a hafiz.” You are informing him because he did not know that you knew.

Thus, in consequence of this rule, the meaning of the verse, in which the prohibition of giving food to Almighty God is a metaphor, is this: “You were not created in order to produce food for My creatures, which are Mine and the providing of whose sustenance I have undertaken. Your fundamental duty is worship. But to strive to procure sustenance in accordance with My commands is also a sort of worship.”

The Third Aspect: In Sura al-Ikhlas the apparent meaning of,He begets not, nor is He begotten(112:3) is self-evident and obvious, hence another meaning is intended which is necessitated by it. That is to say, Almighty God states extremely clearly and self-evidently “He begets not, nor is He begotten,” meaning: “Anyone who has a father and mother cannot be a god,” and, “pre-eternal and post-eternal,” to deny the divinity of Jesus (UWP), and of Uzayr, and the angels, and stars, and other false gods. It is just the same with our example, the verse, “The All-Glorious Provider, your object of worship, does not require sustenance for Himself, you were not created to provide Him with food” means: “Things with the ability to receive sustenance and food cannot be gods and objects of worship,” meaning: “Beings that are in need of sustenance and being provided for are not worthy of worship.”

Said Nursî

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Or while they slept for their afternoon rest.(7:4)

This was written in connection with Re’fet being curious and asking about the word ‘qa’ilun – slept for their afternoon rest – in the verse, “Or while they slept for their afternoon rest” and to prevent his diamond-like pen becoming idle in prison, and lethargic, as a result of sleeping after the morning prayer like the others.

Sleep is of three sorts:

The First is Ghaylula. This is from pre-dawn to forty minutes or so after the sun has risen, the time when prayer is lawful but reprehensible.

Sleep at this time is contrary to the Practices of the Prophet (UWBP), since according to Hadiths, it leads to a decrease in livelihood and its being unfruitful. The most appropriate time for preparing to earn one’s living is when it is cool. One is overcome by lethargy when this has passed. It has been established by many experiences that this is both detrimental to the day’s labour and indirectly to one’s livelihood, and is the cause of unfruitfulness.

The Second is Faylula. This is from the afternoon prayer till sunset.

Sleep at this time leads to a diminution of life, that is, it makes life that day shorter and pass in a state of semi-sleep and drowsiness, thus causing a physical deficiency to life. Moreover, immaterially, since most of the day’s results, material and immaterial, become apparent after the afternoon prayer, to pass that time in sleep as though prevents the results being reaped and the day becomes as though unlived.

The Third is Qaylula, which is in accord with the Prophet’s (UWBP) practices.(*)

It is from mid-morning to just past noon. Such sleep is Sunna since it allows a person to rise at night to pray. So too it is the custom in the Arabian Peninsula to rest from work at noon when it is intensely hot, corroborating this practice of the Prophet (UWBP). This sleep augments both life and sustenance. For half an hour’s Qaylula sleep is the equivalent of two hours’ sleep at night. This means it adds one and a half hours’ to a person’s life every day. It saves one and a half hours from the hand of sleep, the brother of death, and gives it life, increasing the time of working for one’s livelihood.

Said Nursî

“This is good as well”

While reciting, “Endless blessings and endless peace be upon you, O Messenger of God!” in the tesbihat following the prayers, I saw from afar a subtle point which gradually unfolded. I was unable to grasp all of it, and shall recount one or two sentences by way of alluding to it.

I saw that the world of the night is like a newly opened dwelling of the world. I entered it during ‘Isha, the prayer at nightfall. Since man is connected to all the world, through an extraordinary expansion of the imagination I saw the mighty world that night as a dwelling. Living creatures and men became so tiny they were invisible. I observed with the imagination that the only thing that inhabited the dwelling and made it familiar, and filled it with light, was the collective personality of Muhammad (UWBP).

As a person greets those present when he enters a house, I was overwhelmed with the desire to say: “Endless peace be upon you, O Messenger of God!”(*)It was as though I was greeting him to the number of all men and jinn. That is to say, I offered greetings, meaning: I renew my allegiance to you, accept your mission, submit to the laws and commands you brought, and state through the greetings that they will be safe from our assaults, and making speak all the parts of my world and all jinn and men, all conscious beings, I offer greetings in their name.

As he illuminated my world through the light and gift he brought, so he illuminates and fills with bounties the worlds of everyone in this world. In grateful response for the gift, I exclaimed: “Endless blessings be upon you!” That is, “We cannot respond to this goodness of yours, so we show our gratitude to you by beseeching that mercy be bestowed upon you from our Creator’s treasury of mercy, to the number of the inhabitants of the heavens.” I perceived this meaning in my imagination.

In respect of his worship and on account of his being turned from creation to Creator, the person of Muhammad (UWBP) requires blessings which have the meaning of mercy. While in respect of his messengership and being the envoy sent from Creator to creation, he requires peace. He is worthy of peace to the number of jinn and men, and we offer a general renewal of our allegiance to their number.

So too he is worthy of blessings from the treasury of mercy to the number of the inhabitants of the heavens and in the name of all of them. For it was through the Light he brought that the perfections of all things became apparent, and the value of beings was made manifest, and the dominical duties of creatures could be observed, and the divine purposes in creatures were made known. Therefore, if all things uttered verbally what they express through their tongues of disposition, it is certain that they would declare: “Blessings and peace be upon you, O Messenger of God!”, and we say in the name of all of them: “Endless blessings and endless peace be upon you O Prophet of God, to the number of jinn and men, and of angels and stars!”

It is enough that Allah grants him blessings, And assigns him peace and benedictions.

Said Nursî

My Dear Brother!

You want an explanation of the Unity of Existence. In one of the Flashes of the Thirty-First Letter there is a very powerful and elucidating answer to Muhyiddin’s ideas concerning this matter. For now we just say the following:

Teaching this question of the Unity of Existence to people at the present time causes serious harm. Like when metaphors and similes pass from the hands of the learned to those of the common people and knowledge passes from scholars to the ignorant, they are thought to be literally true,(*)so when elevated truths such as the Unity of Existence pass to the heedless and to the common people submerged in causes, they are thought to be Nature, and cause three significant instances of harm.

The First: The way of the Unity of Existence is quite simply to deny the universe on account of Almighty God. Despite this, when it is adopted by the heedless common people and enters their ideas which are tainted by materialist thought in particular, it leads to denial of the Godhead on account of the universe and materiality.

The Second: The way of the Unity of Existence rejects the dominicality of anything other than God so vehemently that it denies everything other than God and removes duality. Since it does not recognize the independent existence of anything, let alone that of evil-commanding souls, with the predominance of the idea of nature at this time and pride and egotism inflating the evil-commanding soul and causing the hereafter and the Creator to be forgotten, to inculcate the Unity of Existence in people whose evil-commanding souls are small pharaohs and quite simply are disposed to taking their own selves as their objects of worship, so inflates the evil-commanding soul that – I seek refuge with God – it can no longer be contained.

The Third: While the All-Glorious One is free and exempt from, pure of and exalted above all change, alteration, division, and being comprehended in time or place, the Unity of Existence gives rise to conceptions that are not fitting for His necessary existence, holiness, and being free of all defect, and leads to false teachings.

Yes, if one who speaks of the Unit y of Existence rises in the mind from the ground to the Pleiades, leaves the universe behind and fixes his gaze on the sublime throne, ecstatically reckoning the universe to be non-existent, through the strength of his belief he may see everything to be directly from the Single One of Unity. But the person who stands behind the universe and looks at it, and sees causes before him and looks from the ground may possibly become submerged in causes and immersed in the swamp of nature.

The person who rises in the mind to the divine throne may say like Jalaluddin Rumi: “Listen! The words you hear uttered by everyone, you may hear as uttered by Almighty God, like natural gramophones.” But if you say to the one who cannot rise as high as Jalaluddin, nor see all beings from the ground to the divine throne in the form of mirrors: “Listen! You will hear the divine speech from everything,” he will in effect fall from the throne to the ground, and will also be afflicted by false imaginings contrary to the truth!

Say: “God [sent it down]”: then leave them to plunge in vain discourse and trifling.(6:91)

Glory be to the One whose Essence is holy above anything similar to It and whose attributes are free of anything resembling them, and whose signs testify to His dominicality, may His glory be exalted, for there is no god but He.

Said Nursî

The Answer to a Question

I do not have the time to weigh up the ideas of Mustafa Sabri(*)and those of Musa Bekûf.(*)I shall only say this much, that the one went to one extreme and the other, to the other extreme. Mustafa Sabri was right relatively to Musa Bekuf, but it is not right to denigrate someone like Muhyiddin who was a miracle of the Islamic sciences.

Yes, Muhyiddin was himself rightly-guided and acceptable, but should not be the guide and instructor with all his works. Since he very often proceeded in the realities without balance, he opposed the rules of the Sunnis and some of the things he said apparently denote misguidance. However, he himself was free of misguidance. A word may sometimes appear to be unbelief, but the one who speaks it is not an unbeliever.

Mustafa Sabri did not take these points into consideration; he was extreme concerning certain points of Sunni law, due to bigotry.

As for Musa Bekûf, he was excessively in favour of renewal; because of this and the concessions he made to modernity in respect of his ideas, he was very much in error. He corrupted some of the truths of Islam with his false interpretations. He went far to excess by maintaining that someone rejected like Abu’l-A‘la al-Ma‘arrê was superior to authoritative scholars, and favouring disproportionately matters stated by Muhyiddin which oppose the Sunnis because they suited his own ideas.

Muhyiddin said: “Other people who are not one of us and do not know our station should not read our books, for it may be damaging for them.” Yes, it is harmful to read Muhyiddin’s books at the present time, especially the matters related to the Unit y of Existence.

Said Nursî

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

I shall explain a matter that unfolded before the gaze of my imagination one glittering night of the festival, while watching from my prison window through the lens of prudence and foresight the laughter of mankind that would turn into tears.

As the lives of people of previous ages who lie in the graveyard may be seen in the cinema, so I as though saw the moving corpses of people who would inhabit it in the near future. I wept for those merry-makers. All of a sudden a feeling of desolation and pity came over me. I turned to my intellect and asked of reality: “What is this imagining?” Reality replied, saying:

In fifty years time, out of the fifty who are now laughing and enjoying themselves with such joy five will be bent and stooping seventy-year-olds, while forty-five will have rotted in the graveyard. Those beautiful features and joyful smiles will have been transformed into their opposites. According to the rule of “All that is coming is close,” since it is to some degree true that things that are going to happen in the near future are seen to have already arrived, then surely what you see is not imagination.

Furthermore, since the heedless laughter of this world veils bitter facts that thus turn it into tears, and is temporary and subject to decline, most certainly it is only thankful, innocent enjoyment within the bounds of the licit, which leads to awareness of God’s presence and dispels heedlessness, and pleasures that will be permanent by reason of their reward that will cause joy to wretched man’s eternity-worshipping heart and his spirit, which has an irresistible desire for immortality, and make them smile.

It is because of this that there are among the narrations many that strongly encourage thanks and remembrance of God at festival times, in order to prevent heedlessness from prevailing and deviation into the illicit. To do this at such times may transform the bounties of joy and happiness into thanks and make the bounty continue and increase it. For thanks increases bounty and dispels heedlessness.

Said Nursî

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

This(*)concerns one point contained in the verse, The [human] soul is certainly prone to evil,(12:53)

and in the Hadith the meaning of which is, “Your worst enemy is your soul.”(*)The person who loves himself – if his evil-commanding soul has not been purified – will love no one else. Even if he does apparently, he does not do so sincerely, but only for the pleasure of it or for some good he receives. He always tries to make himself liked. Also, he never ascribes faults to himself; he defends and exonerates himself like a lawyer. He praises himself, exaggerating and even lying, showing himself to be free of fault, as though sanctifying himself, and according to his degree receives a slap from the verse, Who takes as his god his desires.(25:43; 45:23) His self-praise and efforts to make himself liked have the reverse effect, for he attracts contempt and is treated coldly.

He also loses sincerity in his actions that look to the hereafter and they become mixed with hypocrisy. He is defeated by the emotions and desires of the soul, which are blind to the consequences, do not think of results, and are obsessed with present pleasure; he serves a year’s prison sentence due to one hour’s pleasure demanded by his emotions, which have gone astray. He pays ten years’ penalty on account of one minute’s pride or revenge. Quite simply like a silly child who sells the portion of the Qur’an he is learning to buy a single sweet, in order to flatter his emotions, gratify his senses, and satisfy his appetites, he makes his diamond-like good deeds the means to egotistical pleasures as insignificant as fragments of glass, and he loses out in profitable works.

O God! Preserve us from the evil of the soul and of Satan, and from the evil of jinn and men.

A Question How can incarceration in Hell for an infinite duration in return for unbelief for a short duration be justice?

The Answer: Reckoning a year to be three hundred and sixty-five days, the law of justice requires for a one-minute murder, seven million eight hundred and eighty-four thousand minutes’ imprisonment. So, since one minute’s unbelief is like a thousand murders, according to the law of human justice, someone who lives a life of twenty years in unbelief and dies in that state deserves imprisonment for fifty-seven billion, two hundred and on thousand two hundred million years. It may be understood from this how conformable with divine justice is the verse, They will dwell therein for ever.(33:65, etc.)

The reason for the connection between these two numbers, so far from one another, is this: since murder and unbelief are destruction and aggression, they have an effect on others. A murder which takes one minute negates on average at least fifteen years of the victim’s life, so the murderer is imprisoned in their place. While since one minute of unbelief denies a thousand and one divine names and denigrates their inscriptions, violates the rights of the universe and denies its perfections, and gives the lie to innumerable evidences of divine unity and rejects their testimony, the unbeliever is cast down to the lowest of the low for more than a thousand years, and “dwells” in imprisonment.

Said Nursî

A Meaningful and Subtle ‘Coincidence’

The ‘coincidence’(*)of Article 163,(*)under which the Risale-i Nur students were charged and sentenced, and the number of deputies, one hundred and sixty-three out of two hundred, who allotted one hundred and fifty thousand liras for the medrese(*)of the Risale-i Nur’s author in effect says this: the appreciative signatures of one hundred and sixty-three deputies of the government of the republic quashes the ruling of Article 163 of the Criminal Code concerning him.

Another subtle and meaningful ‘coincidence’ is this: the one hundred and twenty- eight parts of the Risale-i Nur are put together in one hundred and fifteen booklets. The number of days from when the Risale-i Nur students and its author were first arrested on 27th April, 1935 to the date on which the court passed judgement on 19th August, 1935 was one hundred and fifteen coinciding with the number of books of the Risale-i Nur. In addition, the one hundred and fifteen people found guilty coincides with the number exactly, showing that the calamity visited on the Risale-i Nur students and its author is being regulated by a Hand of Favour.(*)

Bu Lem’a’nın başında İmam-ı Ali (ra) Risale-i Nur’a işaret ettiğinden, bir kardeşimiz heyecanlı bir iştiyakla Risale-i Nur’a, Elmas Cevher Nur ismini takıp tekrar ederek yazmıştı. Bu Lem’a’nın âhirinde derci münasip görüldü:

Takva dairesinde bulunan talebe deli de olsa, acaba Risale-i Nur’un ve kıymetli elmasın nurundan ayrılabilir mi? Öyle tahmin ederim ki Risale-i Nur’un bu âciz talebeniz kadar kerametini, faziletini, lezzetini yiyen, tatlı meyvesinden koparan nadirdir. Hem bu kadar âcizliğim ile beraber, Risale-i Nur’a hizmet edemediğim halde göstermiş olduğunuz teveccühe medyun-u şükranım. Binaenaleyh Risale-i Nur’dan bendeniz değil, hiçbir talebeniz o mübarek elmastan ve lezzetten ayrılamaz.

Affınıza mağruren Risale-i Nur’un bu defaki taharriyatında iki kerameti meydana aynen çıkmıştır: Hapishane içerisinde polis, jandarma ve gardiyanlar müthiş arama yaparken, o esnada hiç kimse görmeden, yedi sekiz yaşında, hemşiremin mahdumu, mektep çantasının içerisine Risale-i Nur’un nüshalarını koyarak alıp gitmiştir.

Arama, bendenizin odasında idi. Çocuk odaya geldi, odada telaş görünce, odanın bir tarafında ayrıca duran Risale-i Nurları çantasına koydu ve içerideki memurların hiçbirisi farkına varmadı, çocuğa da bir şey demediler. Fedakâr çocuk doğruca validesine gidiyor. “Dayımın daima bize okuduğu Risale-i Nurları getirdim. Bunları alacaklarmış. Ben onların haberi olmadan, onlar başka mektup, kitap karıştırırlarken aldım, çantama koydum. Bunları iyice bir yere koyunuz, muhafaza ediniz. Ben bunların okunmasını çok seviyorum. Dayım bize bunları okuyordu. O okurken ben başka bir halet kesbediyordum.” diye validesine söylüyor ve mektebine avdet ediyor. Bu sayede Elmas Cevher Nurlar ele geçmemiş oluyor.

Bu keramet değil de nedir? Kur’anî bir mu’cize değildir de nedir? Acaba bu fazilet, acaba bu lezzet, acaba bu Elmas Cevher, hangi telifatta vardır ki bu Elmas Cevher Nurlar, şimdiye kadar hangi zatın ağzından dökülmüştür? Ben de hapis değil, bu Elmas Cevher Nurlar için her an her dakika her fedakârlığı memnuniyetle kabul ederim. Benden sonra bu Elmas Cevher Nurlar yoluna evladım Emin de bütün hayatını sarf etmeye hazırdır.

İşte bu Elmas Cevher Nur’un ikinci kerametini ispat ile üç yaşından sekiz yaşına kadar akrabalarım ve evladım, bu Elmas Cevher Nurlar için fedakârane ve bu yolda hayatlarını hiç düşünmeden feda edeceklerini ispat ederim. Çünkü bu Elmas Cevher Nur’u okurken hepsi başıma toplandı. Onları sevdim ve birer çay verdim, bu Elmas Cevher Nur’u okumaya devam ettim. Hepsi birden “Bu nedir? Bu yazı nasıl yazıdır?” sordular. Ben de dedim: “Bu Elmas Cevher Nur’dur.” diye bunlara okumaya başladım. Onuncu Söz’ü okurken saatler geçmiş. Çocuklar merakından, anlayamadıkları zaman hemen bendenize soruyorlardı. Ben de bu Elmas Cevher Nur’u onların anlayabileceği şekilde izah ederken çocukların renkleri, renk renk oluyordu ve güzelleşiyordu. Bendeniz de çocukların yüzüne baktıkça hepsinde ayrı ayrı nurlu Said görüyordum.

Suallerinde “Nur hangisi, Cevher hangisi ve Elmas hangisi?” diye sorduklarında; “Evet Nur, bunu okumaktır. Bak sizde bir güzellik meydana geldi.” Onlar da birbirinin yüzüne baktılar, tasdik ettiler. “Ya Elmas nedir?” “Bu sözleri yazmaktır. O zaman, yani yazdığınız zaman sizin yazılarınız elmas gibi kıymetli olur.” Tasdik ettiler. “Ya Cevher nedir?” “İşte o da bu kitaptan aldığınız imandır.” Hepsi birden şehadet getirdiler. Bu sohbette üç dört saat geçmiş, bendeniz farkına varmadım.

İşte “Elmas Cevher Nur budur.” dedim. Tasdik ettiler. Hepsi birden bana bakıyorlardı ve “Bunu kim yazdı?” diyorlardı.

Âciz talebeniz

Şefik

Zekâi’nin Rüyası

Bu sabah rüyamda, İstanbul’un Tophane sahiline benzer saf ve berrak bir deniz kenarındayım. Kuşluk zamanında olduğunu zannettiğim güneşin ziyası, o derya-yı azîmin üzerinde hoş parıltılar husule getiriyor. Ben deryaya müteveccihim. Denizin orta ve cenubu tarafından yüze yüze sahile gelen bir genç, omuzundaki bir sabanı sahile çıkardı. Orada bütün kardeşlerimize (tahliyeden sonra) istikbal edilmekteler iken, sahil boyunu takiben, garptan dolu dizgin iki atlı geliyor. “Üstad geliyor!” dediler. Bu izdiham yarıldı, hiç durmaksızın bu mühib yağız atlı ve esmer çehreli iki zat, şarka doğru uzaklaştılar. Ben, o deryaya dalmak üzere iken uyandım.

Zekâi

Tarafgirane ve Risale-i Nur’a rakibane söylenen sözlere mukabildir.

Ger medhetmekse tefahurla kendinizi maksadın

Risale-i Nur’un en sönük yıldızının peykisiniz

Zinhar seyyare zannetme kardeşim, Risale-i Nur’un

Arz değil, âfitab dahi peykidir onun

Pek yakında parlayacaktır âlemde Risale-i Nur

Sönmez, belki gizlenir, zira nurun alâ nur

Bir nur ki bahr-i hakikat ve mahz-ı hidayettir o

مَن۟ اَص۟حَابُ الصِّرَاطِ السَّوِىِّ وَ مَنِ اه۟تَدٰى yı oku.

Hak’tan olmaz şikâyet, belki maksat hikâyet

Şer’in üzere giderken Hakk’a malûm

Risale-i Nur’a ki eylemiştim hem de hizmet

Risale-i Nur ki Aliyyü’l-Murtaza ve Gavs-ı A’zam

Celcelutiye’de ve bazı kasaidde etmişler işaret

Risale-i Nur ki urvetü’l-vüska, lenfisam

Temessük etmiştim zira hem hidayet ve ayn-ı hakikat

Koydular bizleri ki orada durmuştu Yusuf aleyhisselâm

Hem de beraberimizde idi Hazret-i Üstad.

Halil İbrahim

The Twenty-Eighth Point of the Twenty-Eighth Flash

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

[So] they should not strain their ears in the direction of the Exalted Assembly, but be cast away from every side * Repulsed, for they are under a perpetual penalty, * Except such as snatch away something by stealth, and they are pursued by a flaming fire, of piercing brightness.(37:8-10) * And We have adorned the lowest heaven with lamps, and We have made them missiles to drive away the evil ones.(67:5)

An important point concerning verses like these will be explained in connection with criticisms made by the people of misguidance. It is as follows:

Spies from among the jinn and satans eavesdrop on events in the heavens, and like soothsayers, mediums, and some spiritualists, convey news from the World of the Unseen. So that their giving information about the Unseen should not give rise to any doubts when the Qur’an was first revealed, their continual espionage was prevented to a greater extent and they were repulsed by shooting stars. The following is a brief reply to an extremely important question in three parts concerning the above verses, which are about this subject.

Question: It is understood from verses like these that spying satans infiltrate the distant lands of the heavens in order to learn of some minor and even personal event in the Unseen. Rumours of such minor events as though spread everywhere in those vast lands, and any satan anywhere may hear a confused version of them and pass it on. However, reason and science cannot accept such a thing.

Also, it is said that some of the people of prophethood and some wonder-workers as though pluck the fruits of Paradise from nearby, which according to definite verses of the Qur’an, is above the heavens, and they sometimes gaze on Paradise from near at hand. This matter, which concerns infinite distance within infinite proximity, is not conformable with the understanding of the present age.

Also, the unimportant situation of an unimportant person being the subject of discussion in the Sublime Assembly in the universal, vast land of the heavens is not conformable with the wisdom of the utterly wise administration of the universe. Nevertheless, these three matters are considered to be among the truths of Islam.

The Answer:

Firstly: In the seven ‘Steps’ of the treatise called the Fifteenth Word, the repulsion and ejection with stars of diabolical spies from the heavens, expressed by the verse, And We have adorned the lowest heaven with lamps, and We have made them missiles to drive away the evil ones, is proved so certainly with seven premises that it convinces the obdurate materialist, silencing him and forcing him to accept it.

Secondly: We shall allude to those three truths which are supposed to be far from the reason with a comparison that will bring them close to narrow minds.

For example, if a state’s Army Office is in the east of the country, its Ministry of Justice in the west, its Education Ministry in the north, its Religious Affairs Department in the south, and its Civil Service in the centre, and each department and ministry communicates and is connected with the others by means of radio, telephone, and telegraph in most regular and orderly fashion, the whole country will quite simply be its Army Office the same as it is its Ministry of Justice, and will be its learned establishment as it is its Civil Service.

And for example, it sometimes happens that numerous countries and states whose capitals are different have sovereignty over a single country in different ways, through colonies, or concessions, or trade. Although the country’s subjects and nation are one, through its concessions, each state has connections with them. The affairs of those states, which are distant from one another, touch on each other; they come close to each other in all the houses of the country, and they share in each of its people. Its minor matters are seen in a minor sphere in its points of contact. For each minor matter is not taken from the universal sphere. But when those minor matters are discussed, they are mentioned as though they are taken from the universal sphere, since they are directly in accordance with the universal sphere’s laws; they are given the form of a matter discussed in that sphere.

Like these two comparisons, although the land of the heavens is extremely distant in respect of its centre and capital, it has immaterial telephones reaching the hearts of men in the land of the earth. Furthermore, it does not only look to the corporeal world, but in one respect encompasses the Manifest World since it comprises the Spirit World and World of the Inner Dimension of Things.

The sphere of influence of Paradise too, which is from the world of eternity and everlasting realm, stretches out and spreads in luminous fashion beneath the veil of the manifest, despite its infinite distance.

Just as although, through the wisdom and power of the All-Wise and Glorious Maker, the centres of the senses in man’s head are all different, each governs the body taking it under its disposal; so the universe, the macroanthropos, comprises thousands of worlds one within the other like concentric circles.

Sometimes the situations and events that occur in them are the object of attention in respect of their universality and particularity and insignificance and immensity; that is to say, those particulars are to be seen in particular, near places, while the universals and immense matters are seen in universal, vast stations.

However, sometimes a minor, particular event occupies a vast world.

In whichever corner of the world you listen, you will hear about it. And sometimes some vast mobilization is not against the enemy’s forces, but for a show of pomp and majesty. For example, the event of Muhammad (UWBP) and sacred occurrence of the Qur’an’s revelation were the most important events in the land of the heavens and were bruited in every corner of it. Then there were more falling stars, which was a dominical sign proclaiming the degree of splendour of the Qur’anic revelation and its glittering sovereignty and the degree of its truthfulness, which could be penetrated by no doubt, and was expressed and illustrated by the sentries posted on the distant, towering bastions of the vast heavens raining down missiles to drive off and repulse the devils. The Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition expounds and proclaims that cosmic proclamation, and alludes to those heavenly signs.

Yes, such a tremendous heavenly sign, and the spying satans, who being made to do battle with the angels although they could have been blown away at the puffing of an angel, was surely to show the majesty of the Qur’anic Revelation’s sovereignty.

Also, this splendid exposition of the Qur’an and vast heavenly mobilization indicate that there was nowhere the jinns and devils could interfere on the long way from the heart of Muhammad (UWBP) to the world of the heavens and the Sublime Throne, not that the jinns and satans possess some power which drove the inhabitants of the heavens to fight them and defend against them. The Qur’anic Revelation was a truth discussed by all the angels in the heavens; in order, the satans were compelled to rise to the heavens to draw close to it a little, but were not successful and were repulsed. This shows that the Revelation that came to the heart of Muhammad (UWBP), and Gabriel who came to his presence, and the truths of the Unseen which appeared to his gaze, were sound and straight and could be pierced by no doubts. The Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition tells this in miraculous fashion.

As for Paradise being seen from very close despite its great distance and being part of the World of Eternity, and sometimes fruits being plucked from it, this transient world and Manifest Realm is a veil to the World of the Unseen and Everlasting Realm as may be understood from the above two comparisons. Paradise may be seen everywhere by means of the mirror of the World of Similitudes, despite the distance of its supreme centre. So too, where there is belief at the degree of ‘absolute certainty’, Paradise may have sorts of colonies and ministries in this transient world – if there is no mistake in the comparison – and by means of the telephone of the heart, may communicate with elevated spirits, and its gifts may come to them.

As for a universal sphere being preoccupied with particular, personal matters; that is to say, satans rising to the heavens and eavesdropping in order to bring reports of the Unseen to soothsayers, and their bringing false, confused news, as is described in Qur’anic commentaries, it must be as follows:

it is not a question of their going as far as the capital of the land of the heavens and gathering particular news; but of there being certain places resembling police outposts – if the metaphor is not mistaken – in the country of the heavens, which encompasses the atmosphere. In these they have relations with the country of the earth. The satans eavesdrop on particular events in those particular places. The human heart even is one such place, where the angel of inspiration and personal devil do battle.

Also, however particular the truths of belief and the Qur’an and the events connected with Muhammad (UWBP), they are as though the greatest and most universal and important events and are published at the sublime throne and in the sphere of the heavens, the most universal sphere, in – if the comparison is not mistaken – the newspapers of the appointed events of the universe. They are discussed on every corner. Since from the heart of Muhammad (UWBP) to the sphere of the throne there is no way the satans can interfere, they do nothing apart from listening to the heavens. Thus, the verse proclaims and shows most eloquently, indeed, miraculously, how elevated and true are the Qur’anic revelation and prophethood of Muhammad (UWBP), and that it is in no way possible to oppose them or draw close to them with subterfuge or falsehood.

Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.(2:32)

Said Nursî

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The Twenty-Seventh Flash ⇐ | The Flashes | ⇒ The Twenty-Ninth Flash

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