Yirmi Dokuzuncu Mektup/en

[The Twenty-Ninth Letter consists of nine sections. ]

This, the First Section,

contains nine points.

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

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise!(17:44)

My Dear, Loyal Brother and True Friend in the Service of the Qur’an!

This time in your letter you want an answer to an important question which neither my time nor my state of mind permit me to answer.

My brother! Praise be to God, this year the numbers of those writing out the treatises have grown considerably. The copies come to me for the second correction and I am busy doing them speedily from morning to evening. Other important jobs remain undone but I consider this duty to be far more important. The heart predominates over the reason in the months of Sha‘ban and Ramadan in particular, and the spirit becomes animated. So I shall postpone this important matter to another time and write to you about it gradually whenever my heart is inspired by Almighty God’s mercy. For now I shall explain three points.(*)

FIRST POINT

The idea expressed as: “The All-Wise Qur’an’s mysteries are not known; the Qur’anic commentators have not understood its reality” has two aspects, and there are two groups of people who say it:

The Firstare the people of truth and the exacting scholars. They say: “The Qur’an is an unending, inexhaustible treasury. Every era both submits to and accepts its established, incontestible matters, and receives its share of its hidden truths as a sort of supplement; it cannot trespass on the shares of other ages which are concealed.”

Yes, that is to say, as time passes the All-Wise Qur’an’s truths are increasingly disclosed. But not, God forbid! so as to cause doubt concerning the self-evident Qur’anic truths that previous generations have expounded. For belief in them is obligatory; they are established, definite, fundamental, and basic.

The verse, “A perspicuous Arabic Qur’an”(16:103) states that its meaning is clear. From beginning to end, the divine address revolves around those meanings, corroborating them and making them clear. Not to accept those authoritative meanings suggests, God forbid!, denying Almighty God and insulting the Messenger’s (UWBP) understanding.

That is to say, those authoritative meanings have been taken successively from the source of Messengership. Ibn Jarir al-Tabari wrote his great commentary relating all the meanings of the Qur’an through chains of authentic transmission to the source of Messengership.

The Second Groupare either foolish friends who cause harm and make matters worse, or they are diabolically cunning enemies who want to oppose the rulings of Islam and truths of belief. They want to find a way into the fortified Suras of the All- Wise Qur’an, which, in your words, are each like steel strongholds. People like that spread about ideas like the above in order, God forbid!, to excite doubts about the truths of belief and the Qur’an.

SECOND POINT

Almighty God swears by many things in the Qur’an. The Qur’anic oaths contain numerous mysteries and significant points.

For example, the oath in “By the Sun and its [glorious] splendour”(91:1) forms the basis of the splendid comparison in the Eleventh Word; it depicts the universe as a palace and a city.

The oath of “Ya. Sin. * By the Qur’an full of wisdom”(36:1-2) calls attention to the sacredness of the Qur’an’s miraculousness, and indicates that it is so worthy of veneration it can be sworn by.

The oaths in “By the star when its goes down,”(53:1) and “Furthermore I call to witness the setting of the stars, * And that is indeed a mighty adjuration if you but knew”(56:75-6) indicate that falling stars are a sign that jinns and devils have been prevented from receiving news from the Unseen so that they cannot cause doubts about revelation. They also point to the vast power and perfect wisdom in the awesomely vast stars being set in their places in perfect order and in the planets being made to revolve in wondrous manner.

With the oaths, “By the [winds] that scatter and broadcast;”(51:1) * “By the [winds] sent forth,”(71:1) it attracts attention to the angels appointed to the winds, in order to call to mind the significant instances of wisdom in the disposal of the air and its movement in waves. For the elements, which are supposed to be governed by chance, perform important duties for most subtle purposes; and so on. All the oaths and their positions contain different points and different purposes.

For now, since the time is inconvenient, I shall indicate briefly only one fine point out of many in the oath, “By the fig and the olive,”(95:1) as follows:

By swearing by the fig and the olive, Almighty God calls to mind the immensit y of His power and the perfection of His mercy and His extensive bounties, in order to redirect those people who are heading for the lowest of the low, showing that they may progress spiritually, through thanks, reflection, belief, and good works as far as the highest of the high.

The reason for specifying the fig and the olive is that as fruits they are most blessed and beneficial, and their creation comprises many notable things and bounties. For the olive is utilized for illumination and food, and is a basic commodity in social and commercial life. The fig is the same; it displays in its creation a miracle of power by encapsulating in its miniscule seed all the members of the huge fig-tree, and is a divine bounty both in its being a food, and its uses, and contrary to other fruits its continuity, and many other advantages. It calls all this to mind with the oath and instructs man to draw lessons from them so as to believe and perform good works, and not to fall to the lowest of the low.

THIRD POINT

The disjointed letters at the start of some Suras are a divine cipher. Almighty God makes allusion to matters of the Unseen with them for His special servant. The key to the cipher is with that servant, and with his heirs. The All-Wise Qur’an addresses all eras and all the groups of mankind. It contains numerous different aspects and meanings that comprise the share of every class in every age. The purest share was that of the righteous first generations of Islam, and they expounded it. The people of sainthood and the verifiers of realit y have found in their writings numerous allusions to the matters of the Unseen pertaining to spiritual journeying. We have discussed them to a small extent from the point of view of the miraculousness of the Qur’an’s eloquence in the commentary called Isharat al-I’jaz (Signs of Miraculousness), at the start of Sura al-Baqara; it may be referred to.

FOURTH POINT

The Twenty-Fifth Word has proved that a true translation of the All-Wise Qur’an is not possible. Also, the elevated style of its miraculousness cannot be translated. It would be extremely difficult to express and make understood the pleasure and reality arising from the elevated style in the miraculousness of its meanings (mânevî i’caz). However, we shall allude to one or two aspects of it in order to show the way, as follows:

And among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variations in your languages and your colours.(30:22) * And the heavens will be rolled up in His right hand.(39:67) * He creates you in the wombs of your mothers in stages, one after another, in three veils of darkness.(39:6) * Who created the heavens and the earth in six days.(7:54, etc.) * Comes in between a man and his heart.(8:24) * From whom is not hidden the least little atom.(34:3) * He merges night into day, and He merges day into night; and He has full knowledge of the secrets of [all] hearts.(57:6)Through verses like these, with a wondrously elevated style and miraculous comprehensiveness, the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition depicts the reality of creativity for the imagination, indicating the following:

“With whichever hammer the universe’s builder, who is the Maker of the world, fastened the sun and moon in their places, with the same hammer and at the same instant He fixes atoms in their places, for example in the pupils of living creatures’ eyes. And with whichever measure, whichever immaterial instrument, He arranged the heavens and unfolded them, at the same instant and with the same arrangement, He opens up the eye removing its veils; He makes it, orders it, and situates it. And with whichever immaterial hammer of His power, the All-Glorious Maker fastens the stars to the skies, with that same hammer He fastens man’s innumerable distinguishing marks on his countenance and his external and inner senses in their places.”

That is to say, in order to show His works to both the eye and the ear while He is at work, the All-Glorious Maker strikes a hammer on an atom with the verses of the Qur’an, and with another word of the same verse strikes the hammer on the sun; with an elevated style as though striking it right in the centre, He demonstrates His unity within His oneness, and His infinite glory within His infinite beauty, and His infinite tremendousness within His infinite concealedness, and His infinite breadth within His infinite precision, and His infinite majesty within His infinite mercy, and His infinite distance within His infinite proximity. The Qur’an expresses the ultimate degree of the combining of opposites, which is considered to be impossible, in a way that is necessary; it proves this and demonstrates it.

Thus, it is this sort of exposition and style that causes the most wondrous literary genius to prostrate before its eloquence.

And for example, through the verse,And among His signs is this, that heaven and earth stand by His command; then when He calls you, by a single call, from the earth, behold, you [straight away] come forth,(30:25)Almighty God shows the magnificence of the sovereignty of His dominicality in the following elevated manner:

At a single command or a signal like a bugle, the beings in the heavens and earth, which are like two obedient barracks or two orderly army headquarters, will spring up with alacrity and perfect obedience from their sleep in the veils of transience and non- existence. Declaring: “At your service!”, they will assemble on the field of the resurrection and last judgement.

With what miraculous and elevated style it describes the resurrection of the dead and Great Gathering! It points to the following convincing proof contained in its assertion:

observedly, seeds concealed as though dead in the darkness of the earth and drops of water hidden and dispersed, non-existent, in the atmosphere are raised to life swiftly and with perfect order every spring. They emerge onto the field of trial and examination, perpetual examples of resurrection. At the supreme resurrection, beings will emerge with same ease. Since you observe the one here, you cannot deny the other. And so on. You can compare the degree of eloquence in other verses with this one.

Would it be possible to do a true translation of this sort of verse? Surely it would not! At best it would be an abbreviated meaning, or an interpretation, with five or six lines for each phrase.

FIFTH POINT

For example, “All praise be to God” (al-hamdulillah) is a Qur’anic phrase. Its briefest meaning, required by the rules of grammar and rhetoric, is this:

كُلُّ فَر۟دٍ مِن۟ اَف۟رَادِ ال۟حَم۟دِ مِن۟ اَىِّ حَامِدٍ صَدَرَ وَعَلٰى اَىِّ مَح۟مُودٍ وَقَعَ مِنَ ال۟اَزَلِ اِلَى ال۟اَبَدِ خَاصٌّ وَمُس۟تَحِقٌّ لِلذَّاتِ ال۟وَاجِبِ ال۟وُجُودِ ال۟مُسَمّٰى بِاللّٰهِ

“Each individual instance of all the sorts of praise that has been offered by whatever to whatever since pre-eternity and will be offered to post-eternity is particular to and due to the Necessarily Existent One alone, who is named Allah.”

It is as follows: “Each individual instance of all the sorts of praise” is the consequence of the definite article “al” in “al-hamd.” As for the qualification of “that has been offered by whatever,” since “praise” (hamd) is the verbal noun and the active participle has been omitted, it expresses generality in that sense. By omitting the passive participle it again expresses universality and generality, and therefore expresses the qualification “to whatever.” As for the qualification of “from pre-eternity to post-eternity,” it expresses this meaning because the rule of transposing from a verbal clause to a noun clause indicates continuity. The prepositional “lam” in “lillah” [to God], expresses the meaning of sole possession and worthiness. As for the qualification of “the Necessarily Existent One, who is named Allah,” since necessary existence is the necessary requisite of the Godhead and a term signifying the All-Glorious Essence; comprising all the divine names and attributes and being the greatest name, the name of “Allah” necessarily indicates both the necessary existence and the title of “Necessarily Existent One.”

If the shortest apparent meaning of the phrase “All praise be to God” on which all the scholars of Arabic are agreed is thus, how could it be translated into another language with the same miraculousness and power?

Furthermore, among all the languages of the world, there is only one that can compare with Arabic in being the language of grammar, and that can never achieve the comprehensiveness of Arabic. Is it possible for translations into other composite and inflectional languages by people whose understanding is partial, comprehension short, ideas confused, and hearts dark, to take the place of the sacred words of the Qur’an, which have emerged in miraculous fashion in that comprehensive and wondrous grammatical language through an all-encompassing knowledge that knows all its aspects at once and wills them.

I can even say, and perhaps prove, that all the Qur’an’s words are like treasuries of truths, with sometimes a single letter teaching a page of truths.

SIXTH POINT

I shall recount a luminous experience and true vision I had for the purpose of illucidating the above. It was as follows:

One time, I was pondering over the use of the first person plural in the verse “You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help,”(1:4) and my heart was seeking the reason for the first person singular being transposed into the first person plural of “we worship”(na‘budu). Suddenly from that “Nun” the mystery and virtues of performing the prayers in congregation were unfolded to me.

I saw that my participating in the congregation in Bayezid Mosque, where I was performing the prayer, made each member of the congregation a sort of intercessor for me who testified to and affirmed each of the statements I pronounced while reciting the prayers. In the midst of the great, multiple worship of the congregation, I felt the courage to offer my deficient worship to the divine court.

Then a further veil was lifted. That is, all the mosques of Istanbul were added. The city became like Beyazid Mosque. Suddenly I felt as though I were receiving their prayers and affirmation.

Then within that, I saw myself in the mosque of the face of the earth, in the circular rows around the Ka‘ba. I declared: “All praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds! I have intercessors to this great number; they are all reciting exactly the same words as I am saying, confirming me.” As this veil was raised by my imagination, the Noble Ka‘ba appeared to be the mihrab. Seizing the opportunity, I called on the ranks of the congregation to testify and entrusted to the Black Stone the interpreter of faith, that is, “I testify that there is no god but God, and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God.” While pronouncing this, a further situation was laid open before me: I saw that the congregation of which I was a part was divided into three circles:

The First Circle was the vast congregation of believers and those who affirm divine unity on the face of the earth.

The Second Circle:I looked and saw that I was part of a congregation consisting of all beings, all of which, performing prayers and glorification, were occupied with the benedictions and glorification particular to its group and species. Their worship consists of the activities we observe, called “the functions of things.” Declaring: “God is Most Great!” before this, I bowed my head in wonderment, and looked at myself:

Within a Third Circle I saw an astonishing microcosm which was apparently and qualitatively small, but in reality, number, and duties, great. This, from the particles of my being to my external senses was a congregation in which every group was preoccupied with duties of worship and thanks. In this circle, the dominical inner faculty in my heart was declaring: “You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help” in the name of the congregation. Just as in the two former congregations my tongue had said it, having formed the intention to say it in their names.

In Short:The “Nun” of “na‘budu” indicates these three congregations.

While pondering over this, the collective personality of God’s Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace), the Interpreter and Herald of the All-Wise Qur’an, was suddenly embodied in all its majesty in his immaterial pulpit in Medina. Like everyone, I as though heard his address of “O you people! Worship your Sustainer,”(2:21) and everyone in those three congregations responded like me, saying, “You alone do we worship.” In accordance with the rule, “If something is established, it is established together with the things that necessitate it,” the following truth was imparted to my mind:

Taking mankind as His addressee, the Sustainer of All the Worlds speaks with all beings, and His Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) conveys that lofty address to mankind, indeed, to all beings with spirits and consciousness. All the past and the future have become like the present; the address is being delivered to mankind, all of which is in a single gathering, in the form of a congregation the rows of which all differ.

I then saw that each Qur’anic verse possesses an elevated power, eloquence, and beauty which it had received from the grandeur and compass of its station, its extremely numerous, various, and significant addressees, from the Pre-Eternal Speaker, the One of infinite glory and grandeur, and from its exalted Interpreter, who is at the rank of God’s beloved; I saw each verse bathed in a brilliant, truly brilliant, light of miraculousness. Then, not the whole Qur’an, or a Sura, or a verse, but all its words seemed to be miracles.

“All praise be to God for the light of belief and the Qur’an,” I declared.

I emerged from my imagining, which was pure reality, the same as I had entered the “Nun” of “na‘budu,” and I understood that not only the Qur’an’s verses and words, but some of its letters, like the “Nun” of “na‘budu,” are luminous keys to important truths.

After my heart and imagination had emerged from the “Nun” of “na‘budu,” my mind came forward and said: I want my share too. I cannot fly like you; my feet are evidences and proofs. The way leading to the Creator, the Worshipped One and One from whom help is sought, has to be pointed out in the same “na‘budu” and “nasta’in” (“You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help”), so that I can accompany you.

It then occurred to my heart to say the following to my bewildered mind:

Consider all the beings in the universe; whether living or inanimate, in perfect order and obedience they all have their worship which is in the form of duties. Although some of them lack feelings and intelligence, they perform their duties in conscious, orderly, and worshipful fashion. This means there is a True Object of Worship, an Absolute Commander, who impels them to worship and employs them.

Now consider too the beings and particularly the living ones; while each has extremely numerous and various needs, which have to be met for its continued existence, its hands cannot reach the smallest of them; its power is insufficient. Yet they all receive their innumerable needs regularly, from unexpected places, at the appropriate time; this is clearly to be seen.

Thus, these boundless needs and this boundless want of beings and that extraordinary assistance from the Unseen and merciful succour self-evidently demonstrate that the beings have a Protector and Provider who possesses absolute riches, is Absolutely Generous and Absolutely Powerful; it is from Him that everything and all living beings seek help and await succour, in effect saying: “From You alone do we seek help.”

So then my mind declared: “We believe in this and assent to it!”

SEVENTH POINT

Then, when I said:Guide us to the Straight Path, * The path of those on whom You have bestowed Your bounty,(1:5-6)I saw among the convoys of mankind that were travelling towards the past, was the luminous, radiant caravan of the prophets, the veracious ones, the martyrs, the saints, and the righteous. They were scattering the darkness of the future and travelling the road to post-eternity on a straight way, a direct highway. The phrase was showing me the way to join the caravan, indeed, it was joining me to it.

Suddenly I exclaimed: “Glory be to God! Anyone with an iota of intelligence must know what a loss it is not to join that long, light-scattering caravan which is illuminating the future and travelling in perfect safety. Where can one who deviates from it by creating innovations find a light; which road can he take?”

Our guide, God’s Most Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) decreed:

كُلُّ بِد۟عَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلُّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِى النَّارِ

“All innovations are misguidance, and all misguidance is in Hell-fire.”(*)What advantage do those wretches worthy of the epithet “corrupt religious scholars” find in the face of this certain statement? What fatwa do they issue so that unnecessarily and harmfully they oppose the clear matters of the marks of Islam (şeâir-i İslâmiye), and deem it possible to change them? It must be that a temporary awakening caused by a fleeting manifestation of meaning deceived those corrupt scholars.

For example, if an animal or fruit is stripped of its skin, it briefly appears to be fresh, but quickly the delicate flesh and delicious fruit go black and rot, with their skins now estranged, withered, thick, and extraneous.

In exactly the same way, the prophetic and divine phrases of the marks of Islam are like a living, meritorious skin. On being stripped away, the luminosity of the meanings is temporarily naked and somewhat visible. But like a fruit that has been peeled of its skin, the spirit of those blessed meanings flies away leaving behind the human skin in darkened hearts and minds. The light flies away; just the smoke lingers. However…

EIGHTH POINT

A principle concerning reality needs to be explained, which is related to this. It is as follows:

Just as there are two sort of rights, personal rights and general rights, which are held to be God’s rights of a sort; so too among the matters of the Shari‘a, some concern individual persons and others, with regard to generality, concern the public. These latter are called “the marks of Islam.” These marks concern everyone and everyone participates in them. To interfere in them without the consent of the public is an infringement of the public’s rights.

The most minor of those marks (one which has the status of Sunna) is equal in importance to the greatest matter. They concern the whole world of Islam directly. Those who are trying to break the luminous chain to which all the great figures of Islam since the Era of the Prophet till now have been bound, and to destroy it and corrupt it, and those who assist them, should dwell on what a ghastly error they are making. If they possess the smallest grain of intelligence, they should tremble!

NINTH POINT

Some matters of the Shari‘a, concerning worship, are not linked to rational thinking; they are performed because they are commanded.

The reason for them is the command.There are others, the reason for which can be understood rationally. That is, they comprise some wisdom or benefit due to which they have been incorporated into the Shari‘a.

But that is not the true reason or cause; the true reason is divine command or prohibition. Instances of wisdom or benefits cannot change the marks of Islam related to worship; the aspect of them related to worship preponderates and they may not be touched. They may not be changed, even for a thousand benefits. Similarly, it is not right to claim that the uses of the marks of Islam are limited to their well-known purposes. It is a false idea. Such purposes are only one out of many.

For instance, someone may say: “The wisdom in and purpose of the call to prayer is to summon Muslims to prayer; in which case, it would be enough just to fire a rifle.” However, the foolish person does not know that the summons is only one purpose out of the thousands. Even if the sound of a rifle shot serves the purpose, how, in the name of mankind, or in the name of the people of the town, can it substitute the call to prayer, which is a means of proclaiming worship before divine dominicality and heralding divine unity, the supreme results of the creation of the universe and of mankind?

In Short:Hell is not unnecessary; there are many things which cry out “Long live Hell!” with all their strength. Paradise is not cheap, either; it demands a high price.

Not equal are the Companions of the Fire and the Companions of the Garden; it is the Companions of the Garden who will achieve felicity… (To the end of the verse.)(59:20)

The Second Section, which is the Second Treatise

On the Month of Ramadan

Since at the end of the First Section brief mention was made of the marks of Islam, this Second Section discusses Ramadan the Noble, the most brilliant and splendid of the marks.

It consists of nine points which explain nine of the numerous instances of wisdom in the month of Ramadan.

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

It was the month of Ramadan in which the Qur’an was bestowed from on high as a guidance unto man and a self-evident proof of that guidance, and as the standard to discern true from false.(2:185)

First Point

The fast of Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam; it is also one of the greatest of the marks and observances of Islam.

There are many purposes and instances of wisdom in the fast of Ramadan which look to both God Almighty’s dominicality, and man’s social life, and his personal life, and the training of his instinctual soul, and his gratitude for divine bounties.

One of the many instances of wisdom in fasting in respect of God Almighty’s dominicality is as follows:

God Almighty creates the face of the earth in the form of a table laden with bounties, and arranges on the table every sort of bounty as an expression of “From whence he does not expect.”(65:3) In this way He states the perfection of His dominicality and His mercifulness and compassionateness. People are unable to discern clearly the reality of this situation while in the sphere of causes, under the veil of heedlessness, and they sometimes forget it.

But during the month of Ramadan, the people of faith suddenly appear as a well-disciplined army: as sunset approaches, they display a worshipful attitude as though, having been invited to the Pre-Eternal Monarch’s banquet, they await the command of “Fall to and help yourselves!” They respond to that compassionate, illustrious, and universal mercy with comprehensive, exalted, and orderly worship. Do those people who fail to participate in such elevated worship and noble bounties deserve to be called human beings?

Second Point

One of the many instances of wisdom in the fast of the blessed month of Ramadan with respect to thankfulness for God Almighty’s bounties is as follows:

As is stated in the First Word, a price is required for the foods a tray-bearer brings from the royal kitchen. But to look on those priceless bounties as valueless while tipping the tray-bearer, and not to recognize the one who bestowed them is the greatest foolishness. God Almighty has spread innumerable sorts of bounties over the face of the earth for mankind, in return for which He wishes thanks, as the price of those bounties. The apparent causes and holders of the bounties resemble tray-bearers. We pay a certain price to them and are indebted to them, and even though they do not merit it are over- respectful and grateful to them. Whereas the True Bestower of Bounties is infinitely more deserving of thanks than those causes which are merely the means of the bounty.

To thank Him, then, is to recognize that the bounties come directly from Him; it is to appreciate their worth and to perceive one’s own need for them.

Fasting in Ramadan, then, is the key to true, sincere, extensive, and universal thankfulness. For at other times of the year, most people whose circumstances are not difficult do not realize the value of many bounties since they do not experience real hunger. If their stomachs are full and especially if they are rich, they do not understand the degree of bounty present in a piece of dry bread. But when it is time to break the fast, the sense of taste testifies that the dry bread is a precious divine bounty in the eyes of a believer. During Ramadan, everyone from the monarch to the destitute manifests a sort of gratitude through understanding the value of those bounties. Furthermore, since eating is prohibited during the day, they say: “Those bounties do not belong to me. I am not free to eat them, for they belong to someone else and are his gift. I await his command.” They recognize the bounty to be bounty and so give thanks.

Thus, fasting in this way is in many respects a key to gratitude; gratitude being man’s fundamental duty.

Third Point

One of the many instances of wisdom in fasting from the point of view of man’s social life is as follows:

Human beings have been created differently with regard to their livelihoods. In consequence of this, God Almighty invites the rich to assist the poor, so that through the hunger experienced in fasting, they can truly understand the pains and hunger which the poor suffer. If there were no fasting, many self-indulgent rich would be unable to perceive just how grievous are hunger and poverty and how needy of compassion are those who suffer them. Compassion for one’s fellow men is an essential part of true thankfulness. Whoever a person is, there will always be someone poorer than himself in some respect. He is enjoined to be compassionate towards such a person.

If he were not himself compelled to suffer hunger, he would be unable give the person – through compassion – the help and assistance he is obliged to offer. And even if he were able, it would be deficient, for he would not have truly experienced hunger himself.

Fourth Point

One instance of wisdom in fasting in Ramadan with respect to training the instinctual soul is as follows:

The instinctual soul wants to be free and independent, and considers itself to be thus. According to the dictates of its nature, it even desires an imaginary dominicalit y and to act as it pleases. It does not want to admit that it is being sustained and trained through innumerable bounties. Especially if it possesses worldly wealth and power, and if heedlessness also encourages it, it will devour God’s bounties like a usurping, thieving animal.

Thus, in the month of Ramadan, the instinctual soul of everyone, from the richest to the poorest, may understand that it does not own itself but is totally owned; that it is not free, but is a slave. It understands that if it receives no command, it may not do the simplest and easiest thing; it cannot even stretch out its hand for water. Its imaginary dominicalit y is therefore shattered; it performs its worship and begins to offer thanks, its true duty.

Fifth Point

One of the many instances of wisdom in fasting in Ramadan from the point of view of improving the conduct of the instinctual soul and giving up its rebellious habits is as follows:

Due to its heedlessness the human soul forgets itself; it cannot see its utter powerlessness, want, and deficiency and it does not wish to see them. It does not think of just how weak it is, and how subject to transience and to disasters, nor of the fact that it consists merely of flesh and bones, which quickly decay and fall apart. Simply, it assaults the world as though it possessed a body made of steel and imagined itself to be undying and eternal. It hurls itself on the world with intense greed and voracity, and passionate attachment and love. It is captivated by anything that gives it pleasure or that profits it. Moreover, it forgets its Creator, who sustains it with perfect compassion, and does not think of the consequences of its life and its life in the hereafter. Indeed, it wallows in dissipation and misconduct.

However, fasting in the month of Ramadan awakens even the most heedless and obstinate to their weakness, impotence, and want. Hunger makes them think of their stomachs and they understand the need therein. They realize how unsound are their weak bodies, and perceive how needy they are for kindness and compassion. So they abandon the soul’s pharaoh-like despotism and recognizing their utter impotence and want, perceive a desire to take refuge at the divine court. They prepare themselves to knock at the door of mercy with the hands of thankfulness – so long as heedlessness has not destroyed their hearts, that is.

Sixth Point

One of the many instances of wisdom in fasting in Ramadan from the point of view of the revelation of the All-Wise Qur’an, and the month of Ramadan being the most important time in its revelation, is as follows:

Since the All-Wise Qur’an was revealed in the month of Ramadan, to shun the lower demands of the soul and trivialities and to resemble the angelic state by abstaining from food and drink in order to greet that heavenly address in the best manner, is to attain to a holy state. And to read and listen to the Qur’an as though it were just revealed, to listen to the divine address in it as if it were being revealed that very instant, to listen to that address as though hearing it from God’s Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace), indeed, from the Angel Gabriel, or from the Pre-Eternal Speaker Himself, is to attain to that same holy state.To act in this way is to act as an interpreter and to cause others to listen to it and in some degree to demonstrate the wisdom in the Qur’an’s revelation.

Indeed, it is as if the world of Islam becomes a mosque during the month of Ramadan in every corner of which millions of those who know the whole Qur’an by heart make the dwellers on the earth hear the heavenly address. Each Ramadan proclaims in luminous shining manner the verse “It was the month of Ramadan in which the Qur’an was bestowed from on high;” it proves that Ramadan is the month of the Qur’an. Some of the members of the vast congregation listen to the reciters with reverence, while others read it themselves.Following the appetites of the base instinctual soul while in that sacred mosque, and quitting that luminous condition through eating and drinking is truly loathsome and makes such a person the target of the aversion and disgust of the congregation in the mosque. People who oppose those fasting during Ramadan are to the same extent the target of the aversion and disgust of the whole world of Islam.

Seventh Point

One of the many instances of wisdom in the fast of Ramadan with respect to man’s gain and profit, who comes to this world to cultivate and trade for the hereafter, is as follows:

The reward for actions in the month of Ramadan is a thousandfold. According to Hadith, each word of the All-Wise Qur’an has ten merits; each is counted as ten merits and will yield ten fruits in Paradise. While during Ramadan, each word bears not ten fruits but a thousand, and verses like Ayat al-Kursi(2:255) thousands for each word, and on Fridays in Ramadan it is even more. And on the Night of Power, each word is counted as thirty thousand merits.

Indeed, the All-Wise Qur’an, each of whose words yield thirty thousand eternal fruits, is like a luminous Tree of Tuba that gains for believers in Ramadan millions of those eternal fruits. So, come and look at this sacred, eternal profitable trade, then consider it and understand the infinite loss of those who do not appreciate the value of its words.

To put it simply, the month of Ramadan is an extremely profitable display and market for the trade of the hereafter. It is an extremely fertile piece of land for the crops of the next world. For the growth and flourishing of actions it is like April showers in the spring. It is a brilliant holy festival for the parade of mankind’s worship in the face of the sovereignt y of divine dominicalit y. Since it is thus, mankind has been charged with fasting in order not to heedlessly indulge the animal needs of the instinctual soul like eating and drinking, nor to indulge the appetites lustfully and in trivialities. For, by temporarily rising above animality and quitting the calls of this world man approaches the angelic state and enters upon the trade of the hereafter. By fasting, he approaches the state of the hereafter and that of a spirit appearing in bodily form. It is as if man then becomes a sort of mirror reflecting the Eternally Besought One.

Indeed, the month of Ramadan comprises and gains a permanent, eternal life in this fleeting world and brief transient life.

Certainly, a single Ramadan can produce fruits equal to that of a lifetime of eighty years. The Qur’an stating that the Night of Power is more auspicious than a thousand months is a decisive proof of this.

Evet, karanlıklı bu hayat-ı dünyeviyenin en nurani Leyle-i Kadri ramazandır.

For example, a monarch may declare certain days to be festivals during his reign, or perhaps once a year, either on his accession to the throne or on some other days that reflect a glittering manifestation of his sovereignty. On those occasions he favours his subjects, not within the compass of his laws generally but with his special bounties and favours through his unveiled presence and his wondrous activities. He favours with his especial regard and attention those of his nation who are completely loyal and worthy .

In the same way, the All-Glorious Monarch of eighteen thousand worlds, who is the Sovereign of Pre-Eternity and Post-Eternity, revealed in Ramadan the illustrious decree of the All-Wise Qur’an, which looks to the eighteen thousand worlds. It is a requirement of wisdom, then, that Ramadan should be like special divine festival, a dominical display, and a spiritual gathering. Since Ramadan is such festival, God has commanded man to fast, in order to disengage him to a degree from base, animal activities.

The most excellent fasting is to make the human senses and organs, such as the eyes, ears, heart, and thoughts, fast together with the stomach. That is, to withdraw them from unlawful things and from trivia, and to urge each of them to their particular worship.

For example, to ban the tongue from lying, back-biting, and obscene language and to make it fast; and to busy it with such activities as reciting the Qur’an, praying, glorifying God’s Names, asking for God’s blessings for the Prophet Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace), and seeking forgiveness for sins;

and for example, to prevent the eyes looking at members of the opposite sex outside the stipulated degrees of kinship, and the ears from hearing harmful things, and to use the eyes to take lessons and the ears to listen to the truth and to the Qur’an, is to make other organs fast too. As a matter of fact, since the stomach is the largest factory, when it has an enforced holiday from work through fasting, the other small workshops are made to follow it easily.

Eighth Point

One of the many instances of wisdom in Ramadan from the point of view of man’s personal life is as follows:

It is a healing physical and spiritual diet of the most important kind. When man’s instinctual soul eats and drinks just as it pleases, it is both harmful for man’s physical life from the medical point of view, and when it hurls itself on everything it encounters whether licit or illicit, it quite simply poisons his spiritual life. Further, it is difficult for such a soul to obey the heart and the spirit; it wilfully takes the reins into its own hands and then man cannot ride it, it rather rides man.

But by means of fasting in Ramadan, it becomes accustomed to a sort of diet. It tries to discipline itself and learns to listen to commands. Furthermore, it will not invite illness to that miserable, weak stomach by cramming it with food before the previous consignment has been digested. And by abandoning even licit actions as it is commanded, it will acquire the ability to listen to the commands of the Shari‘a and the reason, and so to avoid illicit actions. It will try not to destroy his spiritual life.

Moreover, the great majority of mankind frequently suffer from hunger. Man, therefore, needs hunger and discipline, which train him to be patient and forbearing. Fasting in Ramadan is patient endurance of a period of hunger that continues for fifteen hours, or for twenty-four if the pre-dawn meal is not eaten, and it is a discipline and training. That is to say, fasting is also a cure for impatience and lack of endurance, which double man’s afflictions.

Futhermore, the factory of the stomach has many workers, and many of the human organs are connected to it. If the instinctual soul does not take a rest from activity during the day for a month, it makes the factory’s workers and those organs forget their particular duties; it busies them with itself so that they remain under its tyranny. Also, it confuses the rest of the organs in the human body with the clangour and steam of the factory’s machinery. It continuously attracts their attention to itself, making them temporarily forget their exalted duties. It is because of this that for centuries those closest to God have accustomed themselves to discipline and to eating and drinking little in order to be perfected.

Through fasting in Ramadan the factory’s workers understand that they were not created for the factory only. While the rest of the organs, instead of delighting in the lowly amusements of the factory, take pleasure in angelic and spiritual amusements, and fix their gazes on them. It is for this reason that in Ramadan the believers experience enlightenment, fruitfulness, and spiritual joys which differ according to their degrees. Their subtle faculties, such as the heart, spirit, and intellect, make great progress and advancement in that blessed month through fasting. They laugh with innocent joy inspite of the stomach’s weeping.

Ninth Point

One of the instances of wisdom in fasting in Ramadan with regard to shattering the instinctual soul’s imaginary dominicality and making known its worship through pointing out its impotence is as follows:

The instinctual soul does not want to recognize its Sustainer; it wants its own lordship, like Pharaoh. However much torment it suffers, it retains that vein. Hunger, however, destroys it. Hence, fasting in Ramadan strikes direct blows at the soul’s pharaoh-like front, shattering it. It demonstrates its impotence, weakness, and want. It makes it realize that it is a slave.

Among the narrations of Hadith is the following:

“God Almighty said to the instinctual soul: ‘What am I and what are you?’

The soul replied: ‘I am myself and You are Yourself.’ So He punished it and cast it into Hell, then asked it again.

Again it replied: ‘I am myself and You are Yourself.’ However He punished it, it did not give up its egoism. Finally He punished it with hunger; that is, He made it go hungry.

Then again He asked it: ‘Who am I and who are you?’

And the soul replied: اَن۟تَ رَبِّى الرَّحٖيمُ ، وَاَنَا عَب۟دُكَ ال۟عَاجِزُ

‘You are my Compassionate Sustainer and I am your impotent slave!’”

O God! Grant blessings and peace to our master Muhammad that will be pleasing to You and fulfilment of his truth to the number of the merits of the words of the Qur’an in the month of Ramadan, and to his Family and Companions, and grant them peace.

Limitless in His glory is your Sustainer, the Lord of Almightiness, [exalted] above anything that men may devise by way of definition! * And peace be upon all His message-bearers.

And all praise is due to God alone, the Sustainer of All the Worlds!(37:180-2)

APOLOGY: This Second Section was written at speed when both myself and the rough-copy scribe were ill; it is bound therefore to contain disorder and defects. We await from our brothers that they look on it with tolerance. They may correct it as they think fit.

The Third Section, which is the Third Treatise

[I wrote this section in order to present an important intention of mine to my brothers of the hereafter for their consideration. It concerns the writing of a Qur’an in a way that will show one of the two hundred sorts of the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition’s miraculousness – a sort pertaining to its patterns – with the pages specified in accordance with the style of Hafiz Osman and taking the Mudayana Verse(2:282) as the measure, and taking Sura al-Ikhlas as the standard for the lines. This Third Section, which I wrote to consult them concerning this matter and to learn their ideas, and also as a reminder to myself, consists of nine matters.]

FIRST MATTER

It is established with proofs in the Twenty-Fifth Word, called The Miraculousness of the Qur’an, that the varieties of the Qur’an of Mighty Stature’s miraculousness number forty. Some of these are demonstrated in detail, and some briefly, so as to convince even the obdurate.

Also, the different sorts of miraculousness the Qur’an shows to each of forty of the classes of humanity were explained in the Eighteenth Sign of the Nineteenth Letter, and the shares received by ten of those groups were proved. The remaining thirty classes consist of the followers of all the different ways of sainthood and the scholars of all the various sciences, who demonstrated their certain, verified belief to the degrees of knowledge of certainty, vision of certainty, and absolute certainty that the Qur’an is the true Word of God. That is to say, each of them discerned a different aspect of its miraculousness in a different way.

Yes, just as the miraculousness a saint who seeks knowledge of God understands will not the same as the beauty of the miraculousness a saint who is a lover of God witnesses, so the manifestations of the beauty of its miraculousness var y according to the different ways and paths. And the aspect of miraculousness a profound scholar of the principles of religion sees will not be the same as that seen by an authoritative interpreter of the secondary matters of the Shari‘a sees; and so on.

I am not able to show in detail all these different aspects; my compre hension cannot encompass them; my view falls short of them. For this reason only ten classes were explained and the rest were alluded to briefly. Now, of those, two that were inadequately described in The Miracles of Muhammad although they needed to be elucidated, were the following:

The First Class is the uneducated mass of people, whom we call “the listening class;” they only listen to the Qur’an, understanding its miraculousness by means of their ears. They say: “The Qur’an, which I hear, does not resemble any other books, so it must either be inferior to all of them, or superior. No one could say that it is inferior, nor have they said it, nor could the Devil even say it. So it must be superior to all of them.”

It was written briefly like this in the Eighteenth Sign and is further explained in the First Topic of the Twenty-Sixth Letter, called A Dispute with the Devil, which illustrates and proves that class’s understanding of the miraculousness.

The Second Class is “the seeing class.” That is to say, it is claimed in the Eighteenth Sign that an aspect of the Qur’an’s miraculousness which may be seen with the eyes looks to the uneducated common people or to materialists whose minds see no further than their eyes. This claim needs much explanation in order to elucidate and prove it. It was not explained there due to an important instance of dominical wisdom which only now we understand. Only a few very minor particulars were pointed out.

The wisdom in in this is now understood and we are certain its postponement was preferable. In order to facilitate this class’s understanding, we had a Qur’an written that shows this observable aspect, one of the forty aspects of its miraculousness.

[The remaining matters of this Third Section together with the Fourth Section are about coincidences (tevâfukat). They have been included in the Index and not repeated here. Included here are only a reminder concerning the Fourth Section and its Third Point.]

Reminder:One hundred and sixty verses were written in explanation of the important point concerning the word “Messenger.” In addition to these verses having a glorious quality, they form a Qur’anic supplication for those who want to memorize or recite different verses since they prove and complete one another with regard to the meaning and their meanings are very profound.In degree, eloquence and beauty of the sixty-nine verses in the explanation of the sublime point concerning the word “Qur’an” is also most wondrous and elevated. This may be recommended to our brothers as a second Qur’anic supplication.

In regard to the word “Qur’an,” it was present in the seven lines of the word, which included all of them with the exception of two, and since these latter had the meaning of qira’at, their remaining outside the pattern strengthened the point.

As for the word “Messenger,” since the Suras most connected with the word are Sura Muhammad and Sura al-Fath, and since we limited it to the lines of the word appearing in those two Suras, the instances of the word outside those have not been included. If time permits, the mysteries these hold will be explained, God willing.

The Third Point consists of four points.

First Point The word “Allah” is mentioned two thousand eight hundred and six times. Including in the Bismillah’s (In the Name of God’s), the word “Merciful (Rahman)” one hundred and fifty-nine; “Compassionate (Rahim),” two hundred and twenty; “Forgiving (Ghafur),” sixty-one; “Sustainer (Rabb),” eight hundred and forty-six; “Wise (Hakim),” eighty-six; “Knowing (‘Alim),” one hundred and twenty-six; “Powerful (Qadir),” thirty-one; the “He (Hu)” in “There is no god but He,” twenty-six times.(*)The number of times the word “Allah” is repeated contains many mysteries and subtle points.

For instance, the number of times “Merciful,” “Compassionate,” “Forgiving,” and “Wise,” which are the most mentioned after “Allah” and “Sustainer,” are repeated together with the word “Allah,” is equal to half the number of the Qur’an’s verses. And repetitions of “Allah,” together with “Sustainer,” which is mentioned instead of the word “Allah,” again equal half the number of the Qur’an’s verses. The word “Sustainer” is mentioned eight hundred and forty-six times, but if these are studied carefully, it will be seen that around five hundred of them are mentioned in place of the word “Allah,” while around two hundred are not.

Also, repetitions of “Allah” together with “Merciful,” “Compassionate,” “Knowing,” and the “He” of the phrase “There is no god but He” are again equal in number to half of the verses; the difference is only four. And together with “All- Powerful” instead of “He,” they again equal half the number of verses; the difference here is nine. There are numerous subtle points in the total number of time the word “Allah,” but for now we deem this point to be sufficient.

Second Point This is in respect of the Suras, and it too contains many subtle points. It contains coincidences (tevâfukat) in a way that points to an order, intention, and will.

In Sura al-Baqara, the number of instances of the word “Allah” and the number of the verses is the same. There is a difference of four, but four “He’s” replace the word “Allah,” like the “He” in “There is no god but He” and they correspond exactly.

In Sura Al-i ‘Imran, again the word “Allah” and the number of verses coincide and are equal. Only, “Allah” is mentioned two hundred and nine times and there are two hundred verses, making a difference of nine. But small differences do not mar the fine points of eloquence and literary merits such as these; an approximate coincidence is enough.

The total number of verses of Suras al-Nisa, al-Ma’ida, and al-An‘am coincides with the total number of instances of the word “Allah:” the number of verses is four hundred and sixty-four, and the number of instances of the word “Allah” four hundred and sixt y-one; with the “Allah” of the Bismillahs, it coincides exactly.

And for example, the number of instances of the word “Allah” in the first five Suras is twice the number of the word in Suras al-A‘raf, al-Anfal, al-Tawba, Yunus, and Hud. That is, the second five are half the first five. Then the number of instances of the word in the following suras, Yusuf, al-Ra‘d, Ibrahim, al-Hijr, and al-Nahl, is half that, and in the following Suras, al-Isra, al-Kahf, Maryam, Ta. Ha., al-Anbiya, and al-Hajj, it is again halved.(*)And so it continues to decrease in approximately the same ratio in the following groups of. five Suras. There are, however, some differences and deficiencies but they cause no harm in such stations of address. For example, some are one hundred and twenty-one, others are one hundred and twenty- five, others are one hundred and fifty-four, and yet others are one hundred and fifty- nine.

Then, the five Suras which begin with Sura al-Zukhruf decrease to an eighth. And in the five beginning with Sura al-Najm, it is a sixty-fourth, but this is approximate. Differences arising from small errors do not harm stations of address such as these. The subsequent three groups of five short Suras contain only three instances each of the word “Allah.”

And this shows that chance has not interfered at all in the number of the word; the numbers of it have been specified in accordance with wisdom and order.

The Third Point is about the word “Allah”This concerns its relation to the pages and is as follows:

The number of instances of the word on one page looks to that page’s reverse side, and that page sometimes looks to its facing page, and sometimes to the left-hand facing page and to the reverse face of the facing page. I studied a coincidence in my own copy of the Qur’an and observed what was generally a very fine numerical relationship. I marked them in my copy. Very often they are equal, and sometimes they are a half or a third. Their positioning tells of a wisdom, purpose, and order.

Fourth PointThis concerns coincidences on a single page.

My brothers and I compared three or four different copies and we came to the conclusion that the coincidences were intended in all of them. However, since copyists for printed copies had different aims in view, the coincidences lost their order to a degree. But if they were set in order, coincidences would become apparent to the number of the two thousand eight hundred and six instances of the word Allah in the whole Qur’an with only rare exceptions.

A light of miraculousness shines in this, because the human mind could not encompass a page as extensive as this and interfere in it. And the hand of chance could not reach up to such a situation, so full of meaning and wisdom.

We are having a new Qur’an written in order to demonstrate this Fourth Point to a degree, which together with preserving the pages and lines of the most widely used copies of the Qur’an, will set in order the places that have lost their order due to the slackness of calligraphers, and will display the true order of the coincidences, God willing. Indeed, it was displayed.

O God! O Revealer of the Qur’an! For the sake of the Qur’an, allow us to understand its mysteries so long as the spheres revolve. And grant blessings and peace to the one to whom You revealed the Qur’an, and to all his Family and Companions. Amen.

The Fifth Section, which is the Fifth Treatise

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. God is the Light of the heavens and the earth.(24:35) While in a spiritual state during the month of Ramadan, I perceived one light of the many luminous mysteries of this light-filled verse; I saw it as though from afar. It was like this:

I had a vision of the heart and imagination which afforded me the conviction that, as in the famous supplication of Uways al-Qarani,O God! You are our Sustainer, for we are mere slaves; we are powerless to sustain and raise ourselves. That is to say, the One who sustains us is You! And it is You who is the Creator, for we are creatures, we are being made! And it is You who is the Provider, for we are in need of provision, we have no power!,all living creatures are offering supplications to Almighty God, and that a divine name illuminates each of the eighteen thousand worlds. It was like this:

I saw that within this world are thousands of worlds enwrapped in veil after veil,one within the other like a rose-bud with numerous petals. As each veil was unfolded I saw another world. It was like that depicted by the verse following the Light Verse: Or [the unbelievers’ state] is like the depths of darkness in a vast deep ocean, overwhelmed with billow topped with billow, topped by [dark] clouds; depths of darkness, one above the other; if a man stretches out his hand, he can hardly see it; for any to whom God gives not light, there is no light;(24:40)it appeared to me in darkness, desolation, and terrible blackness. Suddenly, the manifestation of a divine name appeared like a refulgent light, illuminating it. Whichever veil was folded back another world appeared before my mind. But while appearing dark due to heedlessness, a divine name would be manifested like the sun, filling that world with light from top to bottom. And so on. This journey of the heart and imagination continued for a long time. In short:

When I saw the animal world it appeared to me as truly dark and grievous due to the animals’ endless needs and acute hunger, and their weakness and impotence.

Then suddenly the name of Most Merciful rose like the shining sun in the sign of (that is, meaning) Provider, gilding that world from top to bottom with the radiance of its mercy.

Then within the animal world I beheld another world in which young and offspring were struggling in their weakness, helplessness, and need within a grievous darkness that would fill anyone with pity.

Suddenly the name of All-Compassionate rose in the sign of clemency, illuminating that world in so beautiful and sweet a fashion that it transformed the complaint, pity, and tears of sorrow into joy, happiness, and tears of pleasurable thanks.

Then a further veil was lifted, as though revealing a cinema screen, and the world of man appeared to me. But it appeared to be so dark, so oppressive, so terrible that in anguish I cried out “Alas!”

For I saw that men had desires and hopes that stretched to eternity, and thoughts and imaginings that encompassed the universe, and a disposition and abilities that most earnestly yearned for eternity and everlasting happiness and Paradise, and wants and needs that were directed towards endless goals and aims. Yet they were weak and impotent, and exposed to the attacks of innumerable calamities and enemies; they lived tumultuous lives for a brief span in the greatest hardship and difficulties. Amid the continuous tribulations of decline and separation, a most grievous state for the heart, they were looking towards the grave, which for the heedless and neglectful is the door to everlasting darkness; singly and in groups, they were being cast into that dark well.

The moment I saw this world in the midst of the darkness, my heart, spirit, and mind, and all my human faculties, indeed, all the particles of my being, were ready to weep and cry out in pain. But suddenly Almighty God’s name of All-Just rose in the sign of All-Wise, the name of Most Merciful rose in the sign of Munificent, the name of All-Compassionate rose in the sign of (that is, meaning) All-Forgiving, the name of Resurrector in the sign of Inheritor, the name of Giver of Life rose in the sign of Bountiful, and the name of Sustainer rose in the sign of Owner. They gilded and filled with light many worlds within the world of humanity. Opening up windows onto the luminous world of the hereafter, they scattered lights over the dark human world.

Then another, vast, veil was folded back and the world of the earth appeared. Philosophy’s dark laws of science showed a terrifying world to the imagination. The situation appeared to me of wretched humankind journeying through infinite space on the aged earth, which covers in one year a distance of twenty-five thousand years moving seventy times faster than a cannon- ball, and whose inside is in a state of upheaval ever ready to split up and disintegrate. My head started spinning and my eyes darkened.

Then suddenly the names of Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, All-Powerful, All-Knowing, Sustainer, Allah, Sustainer of the Heavens and the Earth, and Subduer of the Sun and Moon rose in the signs of Mercy, Tremendousness, and Dominicality. They illuminated that world so that I saw the globe of the earth to be a safe liner, well-ordered, subjugated, perfect, and agreeable, all decked out for voyages of pleasure and trade.

In Short:Each of the thousand and one divine names turned towards the universe appeared like a sun, illuminating a world and the worlds within that world, and with respect to divine oneness (ehadiyet), within the manifestation of each of them the manifestations of the rest of the names appeared to a degree.

Then my heart espied a different light behind all the darknesses and felt an appetite for travel. It wanted to mount the imagination and rise to the heavens. At that point, a further, most extensive, veil was folded back, and my heart entered the world of the heavens.

It saw that the stars larger than the earth, which appeared as twinkling smiles, were spinning and journeying faster than the earth one within the other. If any of them confused its motion it would clash with another causing such a blast the universe would explode causing the whole world to fall apart. They were scattering fire, not light, and were regarding me not with smiles, but with savagery. I saw the heavens within endless, all-enveloping, empty, awesome, terrifying darkness. I was sorry a thousand times over that I had come.

Suddenly the names of Lord of the Heavens and the Earth and Sustainer of the Angels and Spirits appeared with their manifestations in the sign of “He has subjected the sun and the moon,”(13:2, etc.) and, “And We adorned the lower heaven with lights.”(41:12) The stars, which in accordance with the former meaning had collapsed into darkness, each received a flash from that mighty light and lit up that world of the heavens like shining electric lamps. The heavens too, which had seemed empty and uninhabited, filled with angels and spirit beings. I saw that the suns and moons, which were in motion like an army of the Monarch of Pre-Eternit y and Post-Eternity – one of His innumerable armies – were with their lofty manoeuvres displaying the majesty and magnificent dominicality of that All-Glorious Sultan.

I declared with all my strength, and had it been possible with all the particles of my being, and if they had listened to me with the tongues of all creatures:

God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His Light is as if there were a niche and within it a lamp; the lamp enclosed by glass; the glass as it were a brilliant star; lit from a blessed tree, an olive, neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched it; Light upon Light! God guides to His Light whom He will.(24:35) I recited this verse in the name of all creatures. Then I returned, descended to the earth, and awoke. “All praise be to God for the light of belief and the Qur’an,” I exclaimed.

The Sixth Section, which is the Sixth Treatise

[This was written to warn students and servants of the All-Wise Qur’an, so that they should not be deceived.]

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. And incline not towards those who do wrong, or the Fire will seize you.(11:113)

God willing, this Sixth Section will confound six stratagems of satans among jinn and men, and block up six of their ways of attack.

FIRST STRATAGEM

In consequence of the instruction they have received from satans among the jinn, human satans want to deceive, by exciting the desire for rank and position, the self- sacrificing servants of the party of the Qur’an, and to make them give up their sacred service and elevated jihad of the word. It is as follows:

Present in most people is a hypocritical desire to be seen by people and hold a position in the public view, which is ambition for fame and acclaim, and self- advertisement; it is present to a lesser or greater extent in all those who seek this world. The desire to accomplish this ambition will drive a person to sacrifice his life even. Such ambition is exceedingly dangerous for those who seek the hereafter, and even for those who seek this world it is a rough road. It is also the source of many bad morals and is man’s greatest weakness. A person only has to gratify this ambition to gain control over someone and draw him to himself; it ties the man to him, and he is overcome.

My greatest fear for my brothers is that the atheists may take advantage of this weak vein of theirs. It has caused me much thought. For they did attract in this way some unfortunates who were not truly friends, drawing them into a dangerous situation.(*)

My brothers and friends in the service of the Qur’an! Say the following to the secret agents of the cunning ‘worldly,’ or the propagandists of the people of misguidance, or the students of Satan, for they all try to deceive you by exciting the desire for rank:

“Firstly, divine pleasure, the favours of the Merciful One, and dominical acceptance are a position so high that beside them the attention and admiration of men are worth virtually nothing. To receive divine mercy is sufficient. The regard of men is acceptable in that it is the reflection and shadow of the regard of divine mercy; otherwise it is not desirable. For it is extinguished at the door of the grave, so is worth nothing!”

If the desire for rank and position cannot be silenced and eliminated, it should be directed towards something else:

as in the following comparison, the emotion may have a licit side; if it is for reward in the hereafter, or with the intention of being prayed for, or for making one’s work effective.

For example, at a time Aya Sophia Mosque is filled with eminent and blessed people, virtuous and excellent, one or two idle youths and immoral loafers are hanging around the entrance, while next to the windows a few Europeans are watching for amusement. A man enters the mosque and joins the congregation, then recites a passage from the Qur’an beautifully in a fine voice; the gazes of thousands of the people of truth are turned on him and they gain reward for him through their regard and prayers. This does not please the idle youths and heretic loafers and the one or two Europeans.

If when the man had entered the blessed mosque and joined the huge congregation, he had shouted out lewd songs, and danced and jumped around, it would have made the idle youths laugh, have pleased the dissolute loafers since it encouraged immorality, and made the Europeans smile mockingly, since they are gratified at seeing any faults in Islam. But it would have attracted looks of disgust and contempt from the vast and blessed congregation; in its view, the man would have fallen to the very lowest of the low.

Exactly like this example, the World of Islam and Asia is a huge mosque, and the people of belief and truth within it are the respected congregation in the mosque. The idle youths are the childish sycophants. The dissolute loafers are those villains who follow Europe and have no nation or religion. While the European spectators are the journalists who spread the ideas of the Europeans. All Muslims, especially the virtuous and perfected ones, have a place in the mosque according to their degree; they are seen and attention is paid to them.

If they perform actions and works as taught by the injunctions and sacred truths the All-Wise Qur’an in accordance with the sincerity and divine pleasure which are a fundamental of Islam, and if through the tongue of disposition they recite Qur’anic verses, they will then be included in the prayer: “O God, grant forgiveness to all believing men and to all believing women,” which is constantly uttered by everyone in the World of Islam. They will have a share of it and will become connected to all the others in brotherly fashion. However, the value of this will not be apparent to some of the people of misguidance who are like harmful beasts and to some idiots who are like bearded children.

If a man disowns all his forefathers, the source of honour, and all the past, the cause of pride, and abandons in the spirit the luminous highway of his righteous predecessors, which they considered to be their point of support, and if he follows his own whims and passions hypocritically seeking fame and following innovations, he will fall to the very lowest position in the view of all the people of truth and belief.

In accordance with: “Beware the insight of the believer, for he sees with the light of God,”(*)however common and ignorant a believer may be, even if his mind does not realize it, his heart looks coldly and in disgust on such boastful, selfish men.

And so, the man carried away by love of position and rank and obsessed by the desire for fame – the second man, descends to the very lowest of the low in the view of that numberless congregation. And he gains a temporary, inauspicious position in the view of a few insignificant, mocking, raving loafers.

In accordance with the verse,Friends on that Day will be foes, one to another – except the righteous,(43:67) he will find a few false friends who will be harmful in this world, torment in the Intermediate Realm, and enemies in the hereafter.

As for the first man, even if he does not expunge the desire for position from his heart, on condition he takes sincerity and divine pleasure as his guiding principles and does not make rank and position his goal, he will attain a sort of spiritual rank, and a glorious one at that, which will perfectly satisfy that desire of his. The man will lose something insignificant, very insignificant, and find in place of it many, very many, valuable and harmless things. Indeed, he will chase away a few snakes and find numerous blessed creatures; he will become close friends with them. Or he will ward off stinging wild hornets and attract blessed bees, the sherbert-sellers of mercy. He will eat honey at their hand, and through their prayers find friends from all parts of the Islamic world through whom his spirit will receive effulgences like the water of Kawthar, and these will pass to his book of good deeds.

At one time, when through perpetrating a great wrong due to the desire for fame, a little man who was occupying a high worldly position became a laughing-stock in the eyes of the World of Islam, I spoke to him teaching him the meaning of the above comparison; I hit him over the head with it. He was badly shaken, but because I myself had not been saved from the desire for rank and position, my warning did not arouse him.

SECOND STRATAGEM

One of the strongest and most basic emotions in man is the sense of fear. Scheming oppressors profit greatly from the vein of fear. They restrain the pusillanimous with it. The agents of the worldly and propagandists of the people of misguidance take advantage of this vein of the common people and of the religious scholars in particular. They frighten them and excite their groundless fears.

For example, in order to scare a coward who is on a roof and put him in danger, a scheming man shows him something which he supposes is harmful; he excites his fear and draws him gradually towards the edge of the roof; then he makes him fall and break his neck. In exactly the same way, they make people sacrifice most important things due to most unimportant fears. Trying to avoid a mosquito bite, they flee into the dragon’s mouth.

One time, an eminent person – May God have mercy on him – was frightened of climbing into a rowing-boat. One evening, we walked together to the Bridge in Istanbul. We had to board a boat; there was no carriage and we were going to Eyüp Sultan. I insisted. He said: “I’m frightened. Perhaps it’ll sink!” I said to him: “How many boats do you reckon there are, here on the Golden Horn?” He replied: “Perhaps a thousand.” So I asked him: “How many boats sink in a year?” He said: “One or two. Perhaps none at all.” I asked him: “How many days are there in a year?” “Three hundred and sixty,” he replied. So I said to him: “The possibility of sinking, which provokes these groundless fears and makes you anxious, is one in three hundred and sixty thousand. Someone who is frightened at such a possibility is not a human being, he couldn’t even be an animal!”

Then I asked him: “How long do you reckon you will live?” He replied: “I am old; perhaps I’ll live another ten years.” So I said to him: “The appointed hour of death is secret, so we could die any day. In which case, you might die on any day of the three thousand six hundred. You see, there is a one in three thousand possibilit y that you might die today rather than one in three hundred thousand like the boat; so tremble and weep, and write your will!”

He came to his senses, and I got him, trembling, to board the boat. When on board, I told him: “Almighty God gave the sense of fear to preserve life, not to destroy it! He did not give life so that it would be burdensome, difficult, painful, and torment. If fear is caused by a possibility of one in two, three, or four, or even one in five or six, it is a precautionary fear and may be licit. But to fear a possibility of one in twenty, thirty, or forty, is groundless, and makes life torture!”

My brothers! If those who toady to the atheists attack you by frightening you into giving up your sacred jihad of the word, say to them:

“We are the party of the Qur’an. According to the verse,We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it,(15:9)we are in the citadel of the Qur’an. The verse,For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs(3:173)is a firm bastion surrounding us. Utilizing fear at a one in thousands possibility of some minor harm coming to our fleeting transient lives here, you cannot drive us through our own wills down a way on which there is a hundred per cent possibility of its causing thousandfold harm to our eternal lives!”

And say too: “Is there anyone who has suffered harm due to Said Nursi, our friend in the service of the Qur’an and Master and foreman in running this sacred work, or from people of truth like us who are his companions on the way of truth? Is there anyone who has been caused any trouble at the hand of his close students, that we might be caused it too? So should we be anxious at the possibility of suffering it? This brother of ours has thousands of friends and brothers of the hereafter. Although for twenty to thirty years he played an influential role in the social life of this world, we have not heard that a single of his brothers suffered harm because of him, and at that time he was brandishing the club of politics. Now he holds the light of reality rather than the club. For sure, long ago they mixed him up in the Thirty-First of March Incident and they crushed some of his friends, but it later became clear that others had instigated the affair. His friends suffered misfortune, not because of him but because of his enemies. Moreover, at that time he saved very many of his friends. So satans like you shouldn’t get it into their minds to make us throw away an eternal treasury out of fear at a danger the possibility of which is not one in a thousand but in thousands.” You should say that and hit those toadies of the people of misguidance in the mouth, and drive them away!

And tell them this:“And if the possibility of death is not one in hundreds of thousands but a hundred per cent probability, if we have a jot of sense, we will not be frightened and abandon him and flee!”

For it has been seen through repeated experiences, and it is seen, that the calamity which is visited on those who betray their elder brother or their Master in times of danger, strikes them first. And they are punished mercilessly and they are looked down upon contemptuously. Both physically dead and their spirits abased, they are in effect dead. Those who torment them feel no pity for them, for they say: “Since they betrayed their Master who was loyal and kind to them, they must be completely despicable and deserve contempt, not pity!”

Yes, the reality is this. Also, if a tyrannical, unscrupulous man throws someone to the ground and stands over him certain to crush his head with his foot, and the man on the ground kisses that savage oppressor’s foot, due to his abasement his heart will be crushed before his head, and his spirit will die before his body. He will lose his head, and his self-respect and pride will be destroyed. By displaying weakness before the savage tyrant without conscience, he encourages him to crush him. But if the oppressed man spits in the tyrant’s face, he will save his heart and his spirit, and his body will be a wronged martyr. Yes, spit in the shameless faces of the oppressors!

One time when the British had destroyed the guns on the Bosphorus and occupied Istanbul, the head clergyman of the Anglican Church, the main religious establishment of that country, asked six questions of the Shaikh al-Islam’s Office. I was a member of the Darü’l-Hikmeti’l-Islamiye at the time.

They asked me to answer them, saying that they wanted a six-hundred-word reply to their six questions. But I told them: “I’ll answer them not with six hundred words, or even with six words, or even a single word, but with a mouthful of spit! For you can see that government; the moment it set foot on our Bosphorus, its clergyman arrogantly asked us six questions. Faced with this, we should spit in his face. So spit in the pitiless faces of those tyrants!” And now I say:

My brothers! At a time a tyrannical government like the British had occupied us the protection of the Qur’an was enough for me, although it was a hundred per cent certain that harm would come to me from confronting them in this way through the tongue of the press, so it is definitely a hundred times more sufficient for you in the face of the harm that may come to you at the hand of these insignificant bullies, which is only a one in a hundred possibility.

Furthermore, my brothers! Most of you have done your military service. Any who haven’t, have certainly heard this. And any who haven’t heard it, let them hear it now from me: “The people who receive most wounds are those who abandon their trenches and run away. While the people who receive fewest wounds are those who persevere in their trenches!” The allusive meaning of the verse,

Say: “The death from which you flee will truly overtake you”(62:8) shows that those who run away are more likely to meet death through their flight!

THIRD SATANIC STRATAGEM

They hunt many people through greed.

We have proved in many treatises with certain proofs that have issued forth from the clear verses of the All-Wise Qur’an that licit sustenance comes not in accordance with power and will, but proportionately to powerlessness and want.

There are numerous signs, indications, and evidences demonstrating this truth. For instance:

There are numerous signs, indications, and evidences demonstrating this truth. For instance: Trees, which are animate beings of a sort and in need of sustenance, remain in their places and their sustenance comes hastening to them. While since animals chase after it greedily, they are not nurtured as perfectly as trees.

Also, although fishes are the most stupid and powerless of the animals and are found in sand, their being the best nourished and generally appearing fat while intelligent and capable animals like the monkey and fox are weak and thin from their scanty sustenance, shows that need is the means of sustenance, not power.

Also, the fine sustenance of all young, whether human or animal, and milk, the delicate gift of the treasury of mercy, being bestowed on them in an unexpected way out of compassion for their weakness and impotence, and the difficult circumstances of wild animals, show that impotence and want are the means of licit sustenance rather than intelligence and power.

Also, among the nations of the world there is none that pursues sustenance more than the Jewish nation, which is notorious for its intense greed. But they have suffered more than any from poor livelihoods amid degradation and poverty. Even the rich among them live in lowly fashion. In any event, the possessions they have acquired by such illicit means as usury do not comprise licit sustenance that it might refute our discussion here.

Also, the poverty of many literary figures and scholars, and the wealth and riches of many stupid people show that the means of attracting sustenance is not intelligence and power, but impotence and want; it is submitting to God while relying on Him, and supplication by word, state, and deed.

The verse,For God is He Who gives [all] sustenance, Lord of Power, and Steadfast [for ever],(51:58) proclaims this truth, and is a powerful, firm proof of this assertion of ours, which all plants and animals and young recite. Every group of creature that seeks sustenance recites this verse through the tongue of disposition.

Since sustenance is appointed and bestowed and it is Almighty God who gives it, and since He is both All-Compassionate and Munificent, those who degrade themselves by making illicit gains in such a way as to cast aspersions on His mercy and insult His munificence, and give their consciences and even certain sacred matters as bribes and accept things which are unlawful and inauspicious – they should ponder over just what compounded lunacy this is.

Yes, ‘the worldly’ and especially the people of misguidance do not give away their money cheaply; they sell it at a high price. Sometimes something which may help a little towards a year of worldly life is the means of destroying infinite eternal life. And with that vile greed, the person draws divine wrath on himself and tries to attract the pleasure of the people of misguidance.

Yes, my brothers! If those who toady to ‘the worldly’ and the dissemblers among the misguided lay hold of you due to this weak vein in human nature, think of the above truth and take this poor brother of yours as an example. I assure you with all my strength that contentment and frugality ensure your life and sustenance more than does a salary. As for any unlawful money that is given you, they will want a price a thousand times higher in return. It may also hinder your service of the Qur’an, which may open for you an everlasting treasury, or it may make you slack in that service. And that would be such a loss and emptiness that even if they gave you a thousand salaries every month, they could not fill its place.

Warning: The people of misguidance are not able to defend themselves and reply to the truths of belief and the Qur’an which we take from the All-Wise Qur’an and disseminate, therefore, through intrigue and dissembling they employ snares of deception and wile. They want to deceive my friends through the desire for position, greed, and fear, and to refute me by ascribing certain things to me. We always act positively in our sacred service, but unfortunately, sometimes the duty of removing the obstacles in the way of some good matter impels us to act negatively. It is because of this that I am warning my brothers concerning the above- mentioned three points, in the face of the cunning propaganda of the dissemblers. I am trying to rebuff the attacks that are levelled at them.

The most significant attack now is at my person. They say: “Said is a Kurd. Why do you show him so much respect, and follow him?” So I am forced to mention the fourth satanic stratagem in the language of the Old Said although I do not want to, in order to silence such villains.

FOURTH SATANIC STRATAGEM

In order to deceive my brothers and excite their nationalist feelings, certain irreligious people who occupy high positions attack me with their propaganda. At the promptings of Satan and suggestions of the people of misguidance, they say: “You are Turks. Thanks be to God, among the Turks are religious scholars and people of perfection of every sort. Said is a Kurd. To work along with someone who does not share your nationality is unpatriotic.”

The Answer:You miserable person without religion! All praise be to God, I am a Muslim. At all times there are three hundred and fifty million members of my sacred nation. I seek refuge with God a hundred thousand times from sacrificing for the idea of racialism and negative nationalism three hundred and fifty million brothers who enjoy an eternal brotherhood and who help me with their prayers and among whom are the vast majority of Kurds. And I seek refuge with God from gaining in place of those innumerable blessed brothers a few who have embarked on a way that is without religion or belongs to no school of law, who bear the name of Kurd and are reckoned to belong to the Kurdish people.

O you without religion! There would have to have been some idiots like you who would abandon the everlasting brotherhood of a luminous beneficial community of three hundred and fifty million true brothers, to gain the brotherhood – which even in this world is without benefit – of a handful of Hungarian infidels or Europeanized Turks who have lost their religion.

Since, in the Third Matter of the Twenty-Sixth Letter we have shown together with the evidences the nature of negative nationalism and its harms, we refer you to that, and here only explain a truth which was mentioned briefly at the end of the Third Matter. It is as follows:

I say to those pseudo-patriotic irreligious deviants who hide under the veil of Turkism and in reality are enemies of the Turks: “I am closely and truly connected by means of an eternal, true brotherhood with the nation of Islam, with the believers of this country who are called Turks. On account of Islam, I have a proud and partial love for the sons of this land who for close on a thousand years victoriously carried the banner of the Qur’an to every corner of the world.

As for you, you pseudo-patriotic imposters! You possess in a way that will make you forget the true national pride of the Turks, a metaphorical, racial, temporary, and hateful brotherhood.

I ask you: does the Turkish nation consist only of heedless and lustful youths between the ages of twenty and forty? And is what is beneficial for them and will serve them – as demanded by nationalist patriotism – an European education which will only increase their heedlessness, accustom them to immorality, and encourage them in what is forbidden? Is it to amuse them temporarily and so make them weep in old age? If nationalist patriotism consists of this, and this is progress and the happiness of life, yes, if you are a Turkist and nationalist like that, I flee from such Turkism, and you can flee from me, too!

If you have even a jot of patriotism, intelligence, and fairness, consider the following divisions of society and give me an answer. It is like this:

The sons of this land known as the Turkish nation consist of six parts.

The first part are the righteous and the pious. The second are the sick and those stricken by disaster. The third are the elderly. The fourth are the children. The fifth are the poor and the weak. And the sixth are the young.

Are the first five groups not Turks? Do they have no share of nationalist patriotism? Is it nationalist patriotism to vex those five groups, spoil their pleasure in life, and destroy those things that console them in order to give drunken enjoyment to the sixth group? Or is it enmity towards the nation? According to the rule “The word is with the majority,” that which harms the majority is inimical, not friendly!

I ask you, is the greatest benefit of the believers and the pious, the first group, to be found in a European-type civilization? Or is it to be found in thinking of eternal happiness through the truths of belief, in travelling the way of truth, for which they are most desirous, and in finding a true solace?

The way the misguided and bogus patriots like you have taken extinguishes the spiritual lights of the pious people of belief, destroys their true consolation, and shows death to be eternal nothingness and the grave to be the door to everlasting separation.

Are the benefits of the disaster-stricken, the sick, and those who have despaired of life, who form the second group, to be found in the way of a European-type, irreligious civilization? For those unfortunates want a light, a solace. They want a reward in return for the calamities they have suffered. They want to take their revenge on those who have oppressed them. They want to repulse the terrors at the door of the grave, which they are approaching.

Through their false patriotism, people like you plunge a needle into the hearts of those unhappy victims of disaster who are much in need of compassion, soothing, and healing, and deserving of them. You hit them over the head! You mercilessly destroy all their hopes! You cast them into absolute despair! Is this nationalist patriotism? Is that how you provide benefits for the nation?

The elderly, the third group, forms a third. They are approaching the grave, drawing close to death, growing distant from the world, coming close to the hereafter. Are their benefits, lights, and consolation to be found in listening to the cruel adventures of tyrants like Hulagu and Jenghiz? Do they have a place in your modern- type movements which make the hereafter forgotten, bind a person to the world, are without result, and have the meaning of decline while being superficially progress? Is the light of the hereafter to be found in the cinema? Is true solace to be found in the theatre?

If nationalist patriotism is in effect to slaughter them with an immaterial knife, and give them the idea that “you are being impelled towards everlasting nothingness,” and to transform the grave, which they consider to be the gate of mercy, into the dragon’s mouth, and to breathe in their ears: “You too will enter there!” – if, while these unhappy elderly people want respect from patriotism, this is what it consists of, I seek refuge with God a hundred thousand times from such patriotism!

The fourth group are the children. They want kindness from nationalist patriotism; they await compassion. Also, in respect of their weakness, impotence, and powerlessness, their spirits may expand through knowing a compassionate and powerful Creator; their abilities may unfold in a happy manner. If instilled with the reliance on God that springs from belief and with the submission of Islam that may withstand the awesome fears and worldly situations of the future, these innocents may look eagerly to life. Will this be achieved by teaching them things about the progress of civilization, with which they have little connection, and the principles of lightless materialist philosophy, which destroys their morale and extinguishes their spirits?

If man consisted only of an animal body and he had no mind in his head, perhaps these European principles which you fancifully call civilized education and national education could have afforded these innocent children some worldly benefit in the form of temporary childish amusement. Since they will be cast onto the surging tumult of life, and since they are human beings, they will certainly have far-reaching desires in their small hearts and large goals will be born in their little heads.

Since the reality is thus, compassion requires that in the face of their infinite want and impotence an extremely powerful support and inexhaustible place of recourse are placed in their hearts, and these are belief in God and belief in the hereafter. This is kindness and compassion for them. It otherwise means slaughtering those wretched innocents with the drunkenness of nationalist patriotism, like a crazy mother slaughtering her child with a knife. It is a savage cruelty and wrong, like pulling out their brains and hearts and making them eat them to nourish their bodies.

The fifth group are the poor and the weak. The poor, who, because of their poverty, suffer greatly at the heavy burdens of life, and the weak, who are grieved at life’s awesome upheavals – do they receive no share from nationalist patriotism?

Is it to be found in the movements you have instituted under the name of European-style, unveiled, Pharaoh-like civilization, which only increase their despair and suffering? The salve for the wound of indigence may be found in the sacred pharmacy of Islam, not in the idea of racialism. The weak receive no strength and resistance from the philosophy of naturalism, which is dark, lacks consciousness, and is bound to chance; they may receive them from Islamic zeal and the sacred nationhood of Islam!

The sixth group is the youth. If the youth of these young people had been perpetual, the wine you have given them to drink through negative nationalism would have had some temporary benefit and use. But when they painfully come to their senses as they advance in years, when they awaken from that sweet sleep in the morning of old age, their distress at the pleasurable drunkenness of youth will make them weep, and the passing of their pleasant dream will cause them much grief. It will make them exclaim: “Alas! Both my youth has gone and my life has departed, and I am approaching the grave bankrupt; if only I had used my head!” Is the share of nationalist patriotism for this group to enjoy themselves briefly and temporarily, and to be made to weep regretfully for a very long time?

Or is their worldly happiness and pleasure in life to be found in making their fleeting youth permanent through worship and by spending that fine, sweet bounty, not on the way of dissipation but on the straight path in the form of offering thanks so as to gain eternal youth in the Realm of Bliss? You say, if you possess even a grain of intelligence!

In Short:If the Turkish nation consisted only of young people, and if their youth was perpetual, and they had no place other than this world, your European-style movement under the screen of Turkism might have been counted as nationalist patriotism. You might have been able to say about me as someone who attaches little importance to the life of this world, considers racialism to be “the European disease,” tries to prevent young people pursuing illicit amusements and vices, and came into the world in another country: “He is a Kurd. Don’t follow him!” Perhaps you would have been right to say it.

But since, as explained above, the sons of this land, who go under the name of Turks, consist of six groups, to cause harm to five of the groups and spoil their pleasure in life, and to afford a temporary, worldly pleasure the consequences of which are bad, to only one group, rather, to intoxicate them, is scarcely friendship to the Turkish nation; it is enmity.

Yes, according to race, I am not counted as a Turk but I have worked with all my strength, with complete eagerness, in compassionate and brotherly fashion, for the groups among the Turks of the God-fearing, the disaster-stricken, the elderly, the children, and the weak and the poor. I have worked for the young people as well, who are the sixth group; I want them to give up any unlawful acts that will poison their worldly life, destroy their lives in the hereafter, and for one hour’s laughter, produce a year of weeping. The works I have taken from the Qur’an and published in the Turkish language – not only these six or seven years, but for twenty years – are there for everyone to see.

Yes, praise be to God, through these works derived from the All- Wise Qur’an’s mine of lights, the light is shown which the group of the elderly wants more than anything; the most efficacious remedies for the disaster-stricken and the sick are pointed out in the sacred pharmacy of the Qur’an; the door of the grave, which causes more thought to the elderly than anything else, is shown to be the door of mercy, not the door leading to execution. A truly powerful point of support in the face of the calamities and harmful things confronting the sensitive hearts of children, and a place of recourse to meet all their hopes and desires, have been extracted from the mine of the All-Wise Qur’an, and they have been demonstrated and profited from in fact. And the heavy obligations of life, which crush most the poor and weak, have been alleviated by the truths of belief of the All-Wise Qur’an.

Thus, these five groups are five out of the six parts of the Turkish nation, and we are working for their benefit. The sixth group are the young people. We feel a powerful brotherhood with the good ones from among them. But between those like you who have deviated from the straight path, and us, there is no friendship at all! Because we do not recognize as Turks those who embrace misguidance and want to abandon Islamic nationhood, which holds all the true causes of pride of the Turks. We consider them to be Europeans hiding behind the screen of Turkishness! Because even if they claim to be Turkists a hundred thousand times over, they could not deceive the people of truth. For their actions and works would give the lie to what they claim.

O you who follow European ways! And you deviants who with your propaganda try to make my true brothers look coldly on me! How do you benefit this nation? You extinguish the lights of the first group, the pious and the righteous. You scatter poison on the wounds of the second group, who deserve kindness and care. You destroy the solace of the third group, who are most worthy of respect, and you cast them into despair. You destroy completely the morale of the fourth group, who are truly in need of compassion, and you extinguish their true humanity. You make fruitless the hopes and calls for help of the fifth group, who are most needy for assistance, help, and solace, and in their eyes, you turn life into something more ghastly than death. And to the sixth group, who need to be warned and to come to their senses, you give such a heady wine to drink in the sleep of youth that its hangover is truly grievous and terrible.

Is this your nationalist patriotism for the sake of which you sacrifice so many sacred things? Is this what Turkism has to offer the Turks? I seek refuge with God from it a hundred thousand times!

Sirs! I know that when you are defeated in the face of truth, you have recourse to force. In accordance with the fact that power lies in the truth, not in force, you can set fire to the world around my head, but this head, which has been sacrificed for the truth of the Qur’an, will not bow before you. And I tell you this, that not a limited number of people like you who are in effect despised by the nation, but if thousands like you were physically hostile to me, I would pay them no attention, attaching no more value to them than to injurious animals.

Because what can you do to me? All you can do is to either bring my life to an end, or spoil my work and service. I am attached to nothing in the world apart from these.

As for the appointed hour which befalls life, I believe as certainly as witnessing it that it does not change, it is determined. Since this is so, if I die as a martyr on the way of truth, I do not hang back from it, I await it longingly. Moreover, I am old and I find it hard to believe that I shall live for more than another year. To transform one year’s apparent life into everlasting eternal life through martyrdom is an exalted aim for people like me.

As for my work and service, through His mercy, Almighty God has given such brothers in the service of belief and the Qur’an that through my death it will be carried out in numerous centres instead of one. If my tongue is silenced by death, powerful tongues will speak in its place, continuing my work. I can even say that just as a single seed produces the life of a shoot by entering the earth and dying, and a hundred seeds perform their duties in place of one, so I nourish the hope that my death will be the means to service greater than was my life!

FIFTH SATANIC STRATAGEM

Profiting from egotism, the supporters of the people of misguidance want to draw my brothers away from me. Truly, egotism man’s most dangerous vein. It is his weakest vein, too. They can make people do terrible things by encouraging it. My brothers! Beware, do not let them strike you with egotism, do not let them hunt you with it!

You should know that this century the people of misguidance have mounted the ego and are galloping through the valleys of misguidance. The people of truth have to give it up if they are to serve the truth. Even if a person is justified in making use of the ego, since he will resemble the others and they too will suppose he is self- seeking like them, it will be an injustice to the service of the truth. In any event, the service of the Qur’an around which we are gathered does not accept the ‘I’, it requires the ‘we.’ It says: “Don’t say ‘I’, say ‘we.’”

Of course, you have realized that this poor brother of yours did not set out with the ‘I’. And he did not make you serve it. Indeed, he showed himself to you as an ego- free servant of the Qur’an. He does not care for himself and has made it his practice not to take the part of his ego. In any case, he has proved to you with decisive evidence that the works that have been presented for general benefit are common property; that is, they have issued from the All-Wise Qur’an. Nobody can claim ownership of them egotistically. Even if, to suppose the impossible, I did claim them as my own because of my ego, as one of my brothers said: since this door of Qur’anic truth has been opened, the scholars and those seeking perfection should not look at my defects and insignificance and hold back from following me; they should not deem themselves self-sufficient.

For sure, the works of the former righteous and exacting religious scholars are a huge treasury sufficient for every ill, but it sometimes happens that a key holds more importance than the treasury. For the treasury is closed and a key may open lots of treasuries. I reckon that those who are excessively egotistical in regard to their learning have understood that the published Words are each keys to the truths of the Qur’an and diamonds swords smiting those who try to deny those truths. The people of virtue and perfection and those who are strongly egotistical in regard to their learning should know that the students are students not of me but of the All-Wise Qur’an, and that I study along with them.

If, to suppose the impossible, I claimed to be the master, since we have a way of saving all the classes of the people of belief – from the common people to the elite – from the doubts and scepticism to which they are exposed, then let those scholars either find an easier solution, or let them take the part of our solution and teach it and support it.

The corrupt religious scholars are faced with a grave threat; religious scholars have to be especially careful at this time. So suppose, like my enemies, that I perform a service like this for the sake of egotism. Since a large number of people give up their egotism and gather around a Pharaoh- like man with complete loyalty for some worldly and national aim and carry out their work in complete solidarity, does this brother of yours not have the right to ask for your solidarity around the truths of belief and the Qur’an by giving up egotism, like those corporals of that worldly society, so long as he conceals his egotism? If even the greatest of the scholars among you were not to agree, wouldn’t they be in the wrong?

My brothers! The most dangerous aspect of egotism in our work is jealousy. If it is not purely for God’s sake, jealousy interferes and spoils it. Just as one of a person’s hands cannot be jealous of the other, and his eye cannot envy his ear, and his heart cannot compete with his reason, so each of you resembles a sense, a member, of the collective personality of the body we constitute. Your essential duty springing from the conscience is not to compete with one another, but to take pride and pleasure in each other’s good qualities.

One other thing remains and it is the most dangerous: for yourselves and your friends to be jealous this poor brother of yours. There are scholars of standing among you, and some scholars are egotistical when it comes to their learning. In that respect they egotistical even if they themselves are modest. They cannot easily give it up. Whatever their hearts and minds may do, their evil-commanding souls seek pre- eminence and to sell themselves, and even to dispute the treatises that have been written. Although their hearts love the treatises and their minds appreciate them and recognize their worth, out of jealousy arising from the egotism of learning, their souls want to decry the value of the Words, as though nurturing implicit enmity towards them, for then the products of their own thought can compete with them and be sold like them. But I have to tell them this:

Even if the members of this circle of Qur’anic teaching are leading scholars and authorities on the Law, their duties in respect of the sciences of belief are only to make explanations and elucidations of the Words that have been written, or to set them in order. For I have understood through many signs that we have been charged with the duty of issuing fatwas concerning these sciences of belief. If someone within our circle writes anything more than this due to a feeling in his soul arising from the egotism of learning, it will be like a cold dispute or a deficient plagiarism. For it has been established through numerous evidences and signs that the parts of the Risale-i Nur have issued from the Qur’an. In accordance with the rule of the division of labour, each of us has undertaken a duty, and we convey those distillations of the water of life to those who are in need of them!

SIXTH SATANIC STRATAGEM

It is this: they take advantage of the human traits of laziness, the desire for physical comfort, and attachment to other duties. Yes, satans among jinn and men attack from every angle. When they see those of our friends whose hearts are stout, intentions pure, loyalty strong, and enterprise, elevated, they attack from other sides. As follows:

In order to put a stop to our work and discourage from our service, they profit from those friends’ laziness, desire for physical comfort, and attachment to other duties. They keep people from the service of the Qur’an with every kind of trick so that without their being aware of it, more work is found for some of them. Then they cannot find the time to serve the Qur’an. And to others, they show the enticing things of this world so that arousing their desires, they become slack in their service; and so on.

These ways of attack are numerous, so cutting them short, we refer them to your perspicacious understanding.

My brothers, take great care! Your duty is sacred and your service, elevated. Every hour of your time may be as valuable as a day’s worship. Be aware of this and don’t waste any of them!

O you who believe! Persevere in patience and constancy; vie in such perseverance, strengthen each other; and fear God, that you may prosper.(3:200) * And sell not My signs for a miserable price.(5:44)

• Glory to your Sustainer, the Lord of Honour and Power! [He is free] from what they ascribe [to Him]! * And peace be on the prophets! * And praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds.(37:180-2)

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

O God! Grant blessings and peace to our master Muhammad, the Beloved Unlettered Prophet, of Mighty Stature and Exalted Rank, and to his Family and Companions. Amen.

A Sacred Date

The date a significant mystery of the All-Wise Qur’an became clear was again contained in the word “Qur’an.” It was like this:

According to the abjad system the numerical value of the word “Qur’an” is three hundred and fifty-one. It contains two alifs; if the concealed alif is read alfun, it is alfun with the value of a thousand.(*)That is to say, the year one thousand three hundred and fifty-one may be called the Year of the Qur’an, for during it the strange mystery of the ‘coincidences’ in the word “Qur’an” became apparent in the parts of the Risale-i Nur, which is the Qur’an’s commentary. The miraculous mystery of the coincidences of the word “Allah” in the Qur’an appeared the same year. A Qur’an showing the miraculous patterns, arranged in a new way, was written the same year. That year students of the Qur’an endeavoured to preserve the Qur’anic script with all their strength in the face of its being changed. Important aspects of the Qur’an’s miraculousness became apparent that same year. And the same year numerous events occurred which were related to the Qur’an, and it seems they will continue to occur.

Addendum to the Sixth Section, which is the Sixth Treatise

This addendum was written in order to avoid the disgust and insults that will levelled at us in the future. That is to say, it was written so that when it is said: “Look at the spineless people of that age!”, their spit should not hit us in the face, or else to wipe it off.

[Let the ears ring of the leaders of Europe, savage beneath their humanitarian masks! And let this be thrust in the unseeing eyes of those unjust oppressors who inflicted these unscrupulous tyrants on us! It is a petition with which to hit over the head the followers of modern low civilization, who this century have a hundred thousand times over necessitated the existence of Hell.]

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. No reason have we why we should not put our trust on God. Indeed He has guided us to the way we [follow]. We shall certainly bear with patience all the hurt you may cause us. For those who put their trust should put their trust on God.(14:12)

Recently the concealed aggression of the irreligious has taken on a most ugly form; tyrannical aggression against the unfortunate people of belief and against religion. Our private and unofficial call to prayer and iqama1 was interrupted during the private worship of myself and one or two brothers in the mosque I myself repaired. “Why are you reciting the iqama in Arabic and making the call to prayer secretly?” they asked. My patience is exhausted by keeping silent, so I say, not to those unscrupulous vile men who are not worth addressing, but to the heads of the Pharaoh-like society who with arbitrary despotism play with the fate of this nation:

O you people of innovation who have deviated from the straight path of religion, I want the answer to six questions.

The First Every government in the world, every people which rules, and even cannibals or the chief of a band of brigands, have some principle, some law, by which they rule. So according to which principle do you carry out this extraordinary aggression? Show your law! Or do you accept as the law the arbitrary whims of a handful of contemptible officials? Because no law can interrupt private worship in that way; there cannot be such a law!

The Second On what force do you rely that you are so bold as to violate the principle of freedom of conscience, which governs almost everywhere in mankind, especially in this age of freedom and in civilized circles, and to treat it lightly and so indirectly to insult mankind and dismiss their objections? What power do you have that you attack religion and the people of religion in this way as though you had taken irreligion as a religion for yourselves in bigoted fashion, although by calling yourselves secular you proclaim that you will interfere with neither religion nor irreligion? Such a thing will not remain secret! You will have to answer for it! So what answer will you give? Although you could not hold out against the objections of the smallest of twenty governments, you try to violate by force freedom of conscience, as though you completely disregard the objections of twenty governments.

The Third According to what principle do you propose to people like me who follow the Shafi‘i school of law, the Hanafi school, in a way opposed to the elevatedness and purity of that school, due to the false fatwas of certain corrupt religious scholars who have sold their consciences to gain the world? If, after abrogating the Shafi‘i school, which has millions of followers, and making them all follow the Hanafi school, it is forcibly proposed to me in tyrannical fashion, it may perhaps be said that it is a principle of irreligious people like you. Otherwise it is arbitrary and despicable, and we do not follow the whims of people such as that, and we do not recognize them!

The Fourth In accordance with which principle do you propose through a corrupt, innovating fatwa, to “perform the iqama in Turkish” in a way completely contrary to Turkish nationalism, which is sincerely religious and sincerely respectful towards religion and has since early times blended and united with Islam, in the name of Turkism, which has the meaning of Europeanism, to those like me who belong to another nation? Yes, although I have friendly and brotherly relations with true Turks, I have in no respect any relation with the Turkism of imitators of Europe like you. How can you propose such a thing to me? Through which law?

Perhaps, if you abolish the nationhood of the Kurds, of whom there are millions and who for thousands of years have not forgotten their nationhood and language, and are the true fellow-citizens and companions in jihad of the Turks, and make them forget their language, then perhaps your proposal to those like me who are reckoned to be of a different race would be in accordance with some sort of savage principle. Otherwise it is purely arbitrary. The arbitrary whims of individuals may not be followed, and we do not follow them!

The Fifth A government may apply all laws to its citizens and to those it accepts as its citizens, but it cannot apply its laws to those it does not accept. For they are able to say: “Since we are not citizens, you are not our government!”

Furthermore, no government can inflict two penalties at the same time. It either imprisons a murderer, or it executes him. To punish by both imprisonment and capital punishment is a principle nowhere!

However, despite the fact that I have caused no harm whatsoever to this country and nation, for eight years you have held me in captivity in a way not inflicted on even a criminal belonging to the wildest and most foreign nation. Although you have pardoned criminals, you have negated my freedom and deprived me of all civil rights. You have not said: “He too is a son of this land,” so in accordance with what principle and law do you propose, contrary to the wishes of your nation, these freedom- destroying principles to someone like me who is a foreigner to you in every respect?

Since in the Great War you have counted as nothing all the heroic deeds to which this person was the means and were testified to by the Army’s commanders, and considered his self-sacrficing struggles for the sake of this country to be crimes; and since you deemed his preserving the good morality of this unfortunate nation and his serious and effective work to secure its happiness in this world and the next to be treason; and since you have punished for eight years (and now the punishment has been for twenty-eight years) someone who does not for himself accept your injurious, dangerous, arbitrary principles, which in reality are without benefit and spring from unbelief and from Europe; the punishment is the same. I did not accept its application so you made me suffer it. So according to what principle is it to enforce a second punishment?

The Sixth In view of the treatment you have meted out to me, according to your belief, I oppose you in general fashion. You are sacrifing your religion and life in the hereafter for the sake of your lives in this world. According to you, due to the opposition between us and contrary to you, we are all the time ready to sacrifice our life in this world for our religion and for the hereafter. To sacrifice two or three years of humiliating life under your domination in order to gain sacred martyrdom, is like the water of Kawthar for us.

However, in order to make you tremble, relying on the effulgence and indications of the All-Wise Qur’an, I tell you this with certainty:

You shall not live after killing me! You shall be driven out of the world, your paradise and your beloved, by an irresistible hand, and swiftly cast into everlasting darkness. Behind me, your Nimrod-like chiefs will be quickly killed and sent to me. In the divine presence I shall grasp hold of them by their collars, and on divine justice casting them down to the lowest of the low, I shall take my revenge!

O you miserable wretches who sell religion and your lives in the hereafter for this world! If you want to live, do not interfere with me! I hope from divine mercy that my death will serve religion more than my life and will explode over your heads like a bomb, scattering you! Cause me trouble if you have the courage! If you do anything, you shall see! With all my strength I proclaim this verse in the face of all your threats:

Men said to them: “A great army is gathering against you;” and frightened them; but it only increased their faith. they said: “For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs.”(3:173)

Seventh Section The Seven Signs

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. So believe in God and His Apostle, the unlettered Prophet, who believes in God and His Words; follow him that [so] you may be guided.(7:158) * Fain would they extinguish God’s Light with their mouths, but God will not allow but that His Light should be perfected, even though the unbelievers may detest [it].(9:32)

[These seven signs are the answers to three questions. The first question consists of four signs.]

FIRST SIGN

Like all the bad things they do, the arguments which those people who are attempting to change the marks of Islam cite to support themselves spring from their blind imitation of Europe. They say:

“In London, Europeans who have embraced Islam translate many things like the call to prayer and iqama into their own languages in their own country. The World of Islam says nothing in the face of this and does not object. That must mean it is permissible according to the Shari‘a, since they are silent?”

The Answer:There is such a glaring difference here that no conscious being could make such a comparison and imitate them. For the European lands are called the Abode of War in the terminology of the Shari‘a, and there are numerous things that are permissible in the Abode of War that are not lawful in the Abode of Islam.

Furthermore, the lands of Europe are the realm of Christendom. They are not an environment that communicates and instils the meanings of the terms of the Shari‘a and concepts of the sacred words, so necessarily the sacred meanings have been preferred to the sacred words; the words have been abandoned for the meaning; the lesser of two evils has been chosen.

In the Abode of Islam, however, the very environment teaches the people of Islam the abbreviated meanings of those sacred words. The conversations of Muslims about Islamic traditions and Islamic history and the marks of Islam and the pillars of Islam, all continuously instil in them the concise meanings of those blessed words. In this country, besides the mosques and the medreses, even the gravestones in the graveyards inculcate those sacred meanings in believers like teachers and recall them to them.

If for some worldly advantage, someone who calls himself a Muslim learns fifty words a day from a French dictionary, and then in fifty years does not learn the sacred phrases “Glory be to God,” “All praise be to God,” “There is no god but God,” and “God is Most Great,” which are repeated fifty times daily, does he not fall lower than an animal? These sacred words cannot be translated and corrupted and deported for such beasts! To change and deport them means erasing all the gravestones; it means turning all the dead in the graveyards against them, trembling at such an insult.

In order to deceive the nation, corrupt religious scholars who have been misled by the irreligious, say that contrary to the other Imams, Imam-i A‘zam(*)said:

“If the need arises in distant countries, it is permissible for those who know no Arabic at all to recite the Fatiha in Persian.”(*)We are in need of this, so can we recite it in Turkish?

The Answer:The most important of the leading authorities as well as the other twelve leading mujtahids have given fatwas opposing this fatwa of Imam-i A‘zam. The great highway of the World of Islam is their highway; the Muslim community may follow it. Those who drive the community towards another, special and narrow, way are leading it astray. Imam-i A‘zam’s fatwa is particular in five respects:

Firstly:It addresses people who are far from the centre of Islam.

Secondly:It is in consequence of real need.

Thirdly:According to one narration, it refers only to translations into Persian, which is supposed to be a language of the people of Paradise.

Fourthly:The ruling is limited to the Fatiha, so that those who do not know it will not give up performing the obligatory prayers.

Fifthly:Permission was given so that the sacred meanings could be understood by the ordinary people whose Islamic zeal arose from their powerful belief. But to translate them and discard the Arabic original due to weakness of belief, negative nationalism, and hatred for the Arabic language, driven by a destructive urge, will cause people to renounce religion.

SECOND SIGN

The people of innovation who have changed the marks of Islam first of all sought fatwas from corrupt religious scholars. They had previously pointed out that the fatwa we explained was particular in five respects.

Secondly, the people of innovation adopted the following inauspicious idea from the European reformists: being dissatisfied with the Catholic Church foremost the revolutionaries, reformists, and philosophers, who were innovators according to the Church, favoured Protestantism, which was considered to Mu‘tazilite, and taking advantage of the French Revolution they partially destroyed the Catholic Church and proclaimed Protestantism.

Then the pseudo-patriots here, who are accustomed to imitating blindly, said:

“A revolution like that came about in the Christian religion. At first the revolutionaries were called apostates, then later they were again accepted as Christians. So why shouldn’t there be a similar religious revolution in Islam?”

The Answer:The difference here is even greater than in the false comparison in the First Sign. Because in the religion of Jesus (Upon whom be peace), only the fundamentals of religion were taken from him. Most of the injunctions relating to social life and the secondary matters of the law were formulated by the disciples and other spiritual leaders. The greater part were taken from former holy scriptures. Since Jesus (Upon whom be peace) was not a worldly ruler and sovereign, and since he was not the source of general social laws, the fundamentals of his religion were as though clothed with the garment of common laws and civil rules taken from outside, having been given a different form and called the Christian law. If this form is changed and the garment transformed, the fundamental religion of Jesus (Upon whom be peace) may persist. It does not infer denying or giving the lie to Jesus himself (Upon whom be peace).

However, the Glory of the World (Upon whom be blessings and peace) was the founder of the religion and Shari‘a of Islam. He was the sovereign of this world and the next, and the East and West and Andalusia and India were his seat of rule. He himself therefore both taught the fundamentals of the religion of Islam, and brought its secondary matters and other injunctions, including even minor matters of conduct; he himself taught them; he commanded them.

That is to say, the secondary matters of Islam are not like a garment capable of change, so that if they are changed, the essential religion will persist. They are rather a sort body for the fundamentals of religion, or at least a skin. They have blended and combined with it and cannot be separated. To change them infers direct denial and contradiction of the one who brought the Shari‘a.

As for the differences in the schools of law, this has arisen from differences in ways of understanding the theoretical principles shown by the Shari‘a’s owner. Principles called “the essentials of religion,” which are not open to interpretation, and those called “incontrovertible” cannot be changed in any way and may not be interpreted. Anyone who does change them quits the religion and is included under the rule: “They renounce religion as the arrow flies from the bow.”(*)

The people of innovation have found the following pretext for their irreligion and deviation from the straight path. They say:

“The French Revolution was the cause of a sequence of events in the world of humanity; the clergy and spiritual leaders and the Catholic Church, which was their Church, were attacked and eliminated. Later the Revolution was condoned by a lot of people; also, the French made greater progress. Is this not so?”

The Answer:Like with the previous comparisons, the differences here are clear. For in France, the Christian religion and particularly the Catholic Church had for a long time been a means of domination and despotism in the hands of the upper and ruling classes. It was the means by which they perpetuated their hold over the ordinary people. And since it was through the Catholic Church that the patriots were oppressed, who among the common people were awakened and were called “Jacobins,” and the freedom-seeking thinkers were persecuted, who attacked the despotism of the upper class tyrants; and since for nearly four hundred years the Catholic Church had been an imputed cause, through revolutions in Europe, of overturning the stability of social life, it had been attacked, not in the name of irreligion, but by the other Christian sects. A feeling of indignation and enmity arose among the common people and the philosophers as a result of which the above- mentioned historical event took place.

However, no oppressed person and no thinker has the right to complain about the religion of Muhammad (UWBP) and the Shari‘a of Islam. For it does not injure them, it protects them. Islamic history is there for all to see. Apart from one or two incidents, no internal wars of religion have occurred. Whereas the Catholic Church caused four hundred years of internal revolutions.

Furthermore, Islam has been the stronghold of the common people rather than of the upper classes. Through enjoining the payment of zakat and prohibiting usury and interest, it has made the upper classes not despots over the common people but servants in a way! It says: “The master of a people is its servant.”(*) And, “The best of people is the one most useful to people.”(*) Also, through sacred phrases like,So will they not think?(6:50) * So will they not reflect on it?(4:82) * So will they not reason?(2:44),the All-Wise Qur’an calls on the intellect to testify; it warns, refers to the reason, it urges investigation.

Through this, it accords scholars and the people of reason a position; it gives them importance. It does not dismiss the reason like the Catholic Church; it does not silence thinkers, or require blind imitation of them.

Since the fundamentals of, not true Christianity, but the present-day Christian religion and the fundamentals of Islam have parted on another important point, they go their separate ways in many respects like the above-mentioned differences. The important point is this:

Islam is the religion of the true affirmation of divine unity (tevhid-i hakikî) so that it dismisses intermediaries and causes. It breaks egotism and establishes sincere worship. It cuts at the root every sort of false dominicality, starting from that of the soul, and rebuffs it. It is because of this that if a person of high position from the upper class is going to be completely religious, he will have to give up his egotism. If he does not give up egotism, he will lose his strength of religion and to an extent give up his religion.

As for the Christian religion of the present day, since it has accepted the belief of Jesus (Upon whom be peace) being the Son of God, it ascribes an actual effect to causes and intermediaries. It cannot break egotism in the name of religion. Rather, saying that egotism is a holy deputy of Jesus (Upon whom be peace), it ascribes it a sacredness. For this reason, members of the Christian upper classes who occupy the highest worldly positions may be completely religious. In fact, there are many like the former American President, Wilson, and the former British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, who were as religious as bigoted priests.

But any Muslims who rise to those positions rarely remain completely religious and firm in their religion, for they cannot give up their pride and egotism. And true taqwa cannot be combined with pride and egotism.

Yes, just as the religious bigotry of the Christian upper class and slackness in religion of the Muslim upper class demonstrate an important difference, so the fact that the philosophers who emerged from Christianity were Furthermore, generally, ordinary Christians who have fallen on hard times or are sent to prison cannot expect assistance from religion.

Formerly, most of them became irreligious. In fact, the revolutionaries famous in history who instigated the French Revolution and were called “irreligious Jacobins,” were mostly disaster-stricken common people. Whereas in Islam, the great majority of those who suffer disaster or imprisonment await succour from religion and they become religious. This situation too, demonstrates an important difference.

THIRD SIGN

The people of innovation say:

“Religious bigotry made us backward. Living this age necessitates giving up bigotry. Europe advanced when it abandoned it. Isn’t this so?”

The Answer:You are wrong and you have been deceived! Or else you are deceiving, for Europe is bigoted in religion. Tell an ordinary Bulgar or an English soldier or a French Jacobin: “Wear this turban, or else you’ll be thrown into prison!”, and their bigotry will force them to reply: “Not prison, if you kill me even, I won’t insult my religion and nation in that way!”

Also, history testifies that whenever the people of Islam have adhered to their religion, they have advanced in relation to the strength of their adherence. And whenever they have become less firm in their religion, they have declined. Whereas with Christianity, it is the opposite.

This too arises from an essential difference. Also, Islam cannot be compared with other religions; if a Muslim abandons Islam and gives up his religion, he will not accept any other prophet; indeed, he will not acknowledge Almighty God either nor probably recognize anything sacred. He will have no conscience that will allow him moral and spiritual attainment; it will be corrupted. Therefore, in the view of Islam, in wartime, an unbeliever has the right to life. His life is protected according to Islam if he is outside the country and makes peace, or if he is inside the country and pays the head-tax. But an apostate does not have the right to life. For his conscience is corrupted and he becomes like poison in the life of society.

But a Christian may still contribute to society, even if he is irreligious. He may accept some sacred matters and may believe in some of the prophets, and may assent to Almighty God in some respects.

I wonder, what advantage do these innovators, or more accurately deviants or heretics, find in this irreligion? If they are thinking of government and public order, to govern ten irreligious anarchists who do not know God and to repulse their evils is much more difficult than governing a thousand people with religion.

If they are thinking of progress, such irreligious people are an obstacle to progress, just as they are harmful for the administration and government. They destroy security and public order, which are the basis of progress and commerce. In truth, they are destructive due to the very way they have taken. The biggest fool in the world is one who expects progress, prosperity, and happiness from irreligious anarchists like them.

One of those fools who occupied a high position, said: “We said ‘Allah! Allah!’ and remained backward. Europe said ‘Guns and cannons,’ and advanced.”

According to the rule, “A fool should be answered with silence,” the answer for such people is silence. But because behind certain fools there are inauspicious clever people, we say this:

O you wretches! This world is a guesthouse. Every day thirty thousand witnesses put their signature with their corpses to the decree “Death is a reality” and they testify to it. Can you kill death? Can you contradict those witnesses? Since you can’t, death makes people say: “Allah! Allah!” Which of your guns and cannons can illuminate the everlasting darkness confronting someone in the throes of death in place of “Allah! Allah!”, and transform his absolute despair into absolute hope? Since there is death and we shall enter the grave, and this life departs and an eternal life comes, if guns and cannons are said once, “Allah! Allah!” should be said a thousand times. And if it is in Allah’s way, the gun also says “Allah!”, and the cannon booms “Allahu Akbar!” It breaks the fast with “Allah,” and starts it.

FOURTH SIGN

The destructive innovators are of two kinds:

The First Kind say as though on account of religion and out of loyality to Islam, as though to strengthen religion with nationalism: “We want to plant the luminous tree of religion, which has grown weak, in the earth of nationalism, in order to strengthen it.” They appear to be supporting religion.

The Second Sort say in the name of the nation and on account of nationalism, in order to strengthen racialism, say: “We want to graft Islam onto the nation,” thus creating innovations.

To the First Sort, we say:O unhappy, corrupt scholars of religion who confirm the saying “loyal fools,” or ecstatic, unthinking, ignorant Sufis! The Tuba-tree of Islam, whose roots are founded in the reality of the universe and whose branches spread through the truths of the universe, cannot be planted in the earth of imaginary, temporary, partial, particular, negative, indeed, baseless, rancorous, tyrannical, and dark racialism! To try to do so is to attempt something foolish, destructive, and innovative.

To the Second Sort of nationalists, we say this: O you drunken pseudo-patriots! Perhaps the previous century could have been the age of nationalism. This century is not the age of racialism! Communism and socialism pervade everything, destroying the idea of racialism. The age of racialism is passing. Eternal, permanent Islamic nationalism cannot be bound onto temporary unstable racialism and grafted onto it. And even if it were to be, it would corrupt the Islamic nation, but it would not reform racialist nationalism. Yes, there appears to be a pleasure and temporary strength in a temporary graft, but it is very temporary and the consequences are dangerous.

Furthermore, it would open up a split in the Turkish people that could not be healed in all eternity. Then the nation’s strength would be reduced to nothing, since one section would have broken the power of the other. If two mountains are placed in the two pans of some scales, a few pounds weight can move the two, raising one, and lowering the other.

The Second Question consists of two signs:

===The First is the FIFTH SIGN,=== and is a very brief answer to an important question:

Question:There are numerous authentic narrations about the appearance of the Mahdi at the end of time and his putting the world to rights, which will have been corrupted. However, the present time is the time of the group or social collectivity, not of the individual. However great a genius an individual person is, even a hundredfold genius, if he is not the representative of a group and if he does not represent a group’s collective personality, he will be defeated in the face of the collective personality of an opposing group. At this time, however exalted the power of his sainthood, how can he reform the world amid the widespread corruption of a human group such as that? If all the Mahdi’s works are wondrous, it would be contrary to the divine wisdom and laws in the world. We want to understand the reality of this matter of the Mahdi. How can we?

The Answer:Out of His perfect mercy, every time the Muslim community has been corrupted, Almighty God has sent a reformer, or a regenerator, or a vicegerent of high standing, or a supreme spiritual pole, or a perfect guide, or blessed persons resembling a Mahdi, as a mark of His protecting the Shari‘a of Islam until eternity; they have removed the corruption, reformed the nation, and preserved Muhammad’s (UWBP) religion.

Since His custom has always been thus, certainly at the time of greatest corruption at the end of time He will send a luminous person as both the greatest interpreter of the Law, and the supreme renewer, and ruler, and Mahdi, and guide, and spiritual pole, and that person will be from the Prophet’s (UWBP) Family.

Almighty God fills and empties the world between the heavens and earth with clouds, and in an instant stills the storms of the sea, and in an hour in spring creates samples of the summer and in an hour in summer creates a winter storm. Such an All-Powerful One of Glory can also scatter the darkness covering the World of Islam by means of the Mahdi. He has promised this and certainly He will carry out His promise.

If considered from the point of view of divine power, it is most easy. And if thought of from the point of view of causes and divine wisdom, it is again so reasonable and necessary that thinkers have asserted that even if it had not been narrated from the Bringer of Sure News (UWBP), it still should be thus. And it will be. It is like this: All praise be to God, the prayer, “O God, grant blessings to our master Muhammad and to the Family of our master Muhammad, as you granted blessings to Abraham and to the Family of Abraham, in all the world; indeed You are worthy of all praise, exalted!,” which is repeated by the Muslim community five times every day in all the obligatory prayers, has self-evidently been accepted. For like the Family of Abraham (Upon whom be peace), the members of Muhammad’s (Upon whom be blessings and peace) Family stand as commanders at the heads of all blessed chains of spiritual authorities in the assemblies of all the regions of the world in all centuries.(*)They are so numerous that together they form a mighty army.

If they took on physical form and with their solidarity were formed into a division, if they awakened the religion of Islam and bound it together in unity and established a sort of sacred nationhood, the army of no other nation could withstand them.

Thus, that numerous, powerful army is the Family of the Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace), the Mahdi’s most select army.Yes, today in the world there is no family distinguished by such high honour and elevated qualities and nobility in its descendants, in unbroken succession and well- documented genealogy, which is as powerful and important as the line of Sayyids of the Family of the Prophet (UWBP). Since early times it is they who have been at the heads of all the groups of the people of truth, and they who have been the renowned leaders of the people of perfection. Now it is a blessed line numbering millions. Vigilant and circumspect, their hearts full of belief and love of the Prophet (UWBP), they are distinguished by the honour of their world- renowned lineage.

Momentous events shall occur which will awaken and arouse that sacred force within the vast community. Certainly, the elevated ardour in that huge force will surge up and the Mahdi shall come to lead it, guiding it to the way of truth and reality. We await from the divine law and divine mercy that it should be such, and its being such, like we await the coming of spring after winter; and we are right to await it.

The Second Sign, that is, the SIXTH SIGN

The Mahdi’s luminous community will repair the destruction of the innovative regime of the secret society of the Sufyan, and will restore the Prophet’s (UWBP) glorious Sunna. That is to say, the secret society of the Sufyan will try to destroy the Shari‘a of Muhammad (UWBP) in the World of Islam with the intention of denying his messengership, and will be killed and routed by the miraculous immaterial sword of the Mahdi’s community.

Moreover, in the world of humanity, the secret society of the Dajjal will overturn civilization and subvert all mankind’s sacred matters, with the intention of denying the Godhead. A zealous, self-sacrificing community known as a Christian communit y but worthy of being called “Muslim Christians,” will work to unite the true religion of Jesus (Upon whom be peace) with the reality of Islam and will kill and rout that society of the Dajjal under the leadership of Jesus (UWP), thus saving humanity from atheism.

This important mystery is very lengthy. Since we have discussed it briefly in other places, here we make do with this indication.

SEVENTH SIGN

That is, the Third Question.

They say: “Your former refutations and strivings in the way of Islam were not in your present style. Also you do not defend Islam against Europe in the manner of the philosophers and thinkers. Why have you changed the style of the Old Said? Why do you not act in the same way as those who strive for the cause of Islam by non-physical means?

The Answer:The Old Said and certain thinkers in part accepted the principles of human and European philosophy, and contested them with their own weapons; they accepted them to a degree. They submitted unshakeably to some of their principles in the form of the physical sciences, and therefore could not demonstrate the true worth of Islam. It was quite simply as though they were grafting Islam with the branches of philosophy, the roots of which they supposed to be ver y deep; as though strengthening it. But since this method produced few victories and it reduced Islam’s worth to a degree, I gave it up,

and I showed in fact that Islam’s principles are so profound that the deepest principles of philosophy cannot reach them; indeed, they remain superficial beside them. The Thirtieth Word, Twenty- Fourth Letter, and Twenty-Ninth Word have demonstrated this truth with proofs.

In the former way, philosophy was supposed to be profound and the matters of Islam, external; it was supposed that by binding it with the branches of philosophy, Islam would be preserved and made to endure. As if the principles of philosophy could in any way reach the matters of Islam!

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

And they shall say: “Praise be to God, Who has guided us to this [felicity]; never could we have found guidance, had it not been for the guidance of God; indeed, it was the truth that the prophets of our Sustainer brought to us!”(7:43)

O God! Grant blessings to our master Muhammad and to the Family of our master Muhammad, as you granted blessings to our master Abraham and to the Family of Abraham, in all the worlds; indeed, You are worthy of all praise, exalted!

The Eight Symbols, Which is the Eighth Section

This treatise consists of eight symbols, that is, eight short treatises. The basis of these symbols is coincidence (tevafuk), which is an important principle of the science of jafr, and a valuable key to the occult sciences, and to some of the Qur’an’s mysteries pertaining to the Unseen.

It has not been included here since it is to be published in another collection.

The Ninth Section Nine Allusions

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Behold! Verily on the friends of God there is no fear, nor shall they grieve.(10:62)

[This section is about the paths of sainthood, and consists of nine allusions.]

First Allusion

Underlying the terms Sufism, path, sainthood, and spiritual journeying is an agreeable, luminous, joyful, and spiritual sacred truth. This truth has been proclaimed, taught, and described in thousands of books written by authoritative scholars among the people of illumination and unveiling, who have told the Muslim community and us about it.

May God reward them abundantly! Now, because of some compelling circumstances at this time, we shall point out a few droplets, like sprinklings, from that vast ocean.

Question?What is the Sufi path?

The Answer:The aim and goal of the Sufi path is – knowledge of God and the unfolding of the truths of faith – through a spiritual journeying with the feet of the heart under the shadow of the Ascension of Muhammad (UWBP), to manifest the truths of faith and the Qur’an through tasting and certain enhanced states, and to an extent through direct vision; it is an elevated human mystery and perfection called the Sufi path or Sufism.

Yes, since man is a comprehensive index of the universe, his heart resembles a map of thousands of worlds. For innumerable human sciences and fields of knowledge show that man’s brain in his head is a sort of centre of the universe, like a telephone and telegraph exchange for innumerable lines. Similarly, the millions of light-scattering books written by incalculable saints show man’s heart in his essential being to be the place of manifestation of innumerable cosmic truths, and to be their pivot, and seed.

Since the human heart and brain are thus central, and comprise the members of a mighty tree in the form of a seed, and within them are encapsulated the parts and components of an eternal, majestic machine pertaining to the hereafter, certainly the heart’s Creator willed that it should be worked and brought out from the potential to the actual, and developed, and put into action, for that is what He did. Since He willed it, the heart will certainly work like the mind. And the most effective means of working it is to be turned towards the truths of faith on the Sufi path through the remembrance of God in the degrees of sainthood.

Second Allusion

The keys and means of this journeying of the heart and spiritual progress are remembrance of God and reflective thought. Their virtues are too numerous to be described. Apart from uncountable benefits in the hereafter and human attainments and perfections, a minor benefit pertaining to this tumultuous worldly life is as follows:

everyone wants a solace and seeks enjoyment in order to be saved a little from the upheavals of life and its heavy burdens, and to take a breather; everyone searches out something friendly to banish the loneliness. For one or two people out of ten, the social gatherings in civilized life offer a temporary, but heedless and drunken familiarity, intimacy, and solace. But eighty per cent live solitary lives in mountains or valleys, or are driven to distant places in search of a livelihood, or due to such agencies as calamities or old age which recall the hereafter, they are deprived of the companionship of human groups and societies. Their circumstances allow them no familiarity, friendliness, or consolation.

For such a person, true solace, intimacy, and sweet pleasure are to be found in addressing his own heart in those distant places and desolate mountains and distressing valleys, in working it through remembrance of God and reflection. Calling on God Almighty, he may become intimate with Him in his heart, and by virtue of that intimacy think of the things around him, which were regarding him savagely, as smiling on him familiarly. He will say: “My Creator, whom I am recollecting, has innumerable servants here in my place of solitude, just as He has everywhere. I am not alone; loneliness has no meaning.” Thanks to his faith, he receives pleasure from that sense of familiarity. He grasps the meaning of life’s happiness, and he offers thanks to God.

Third Allusion

Sainthood is a proof of divine messengership; the Sufi path is a proof of the Shari‘a. For the truths of belief which messengership preaches, sainthood sees and confirms with a sort of direct vision with the heart and tasting with the spirit at the degree of the vision of certainty. Its confirmation is a certain proof of the veracity of messengership. Through the experiential knowledge of the Sufi path and its unveilings, and through its benefits and effulgences, it is a clear proof of the truths and the matters which the Shari‘a teaches; it demonstrates that they are the truth and that they come from the truth.

Yes, just as sainthood and the Sufi path are evidence and proof of divine messengership and the Shari‘a, so they are a perfection of Islam and a means of attaining to its lights, and through Islam, a source of humanity’s progress and moral enlightenment.

Although this vast mystery holds such importance, certain deviant sects have tended to deny it. They have been deprived of those lights and they have caused others to be deprived.

The most regretable thing is that making a pretext of abuses and faults they have seen committed by the followers of the Sufi path, some literalist Sunni scholars and some neglectful politicians who are also Sunnis are trying to close up that supreme treasury, indeed, to destroy it, and to dry up that source of Kawthar which distributes a sort of water of life.

However, there are few things and ways and paths that are without fault and are good in every respect. They are bound to contain some faults and abuses. For if the uninitiated embark on something, they are sure to misuse it. But as with the accounting of deeds in the hereafter, Almighty God demonstrates His dominical justice through the weighing up of good deeds and bad deeds. That is to say, if good deeds preponderate and weigh heavier, He accepts them and grants reward; whereas if evil deeds preponderate, he punishes for them and rejects them. The balancing of good and evil deeds looks to quality rather than quantity. It sometimes happens that a single good deed will weigh heavier than a thousand evils, and cause them to be forgiven.

Divine justice judges thus and reality too considers it right. Thus, the evidence that the good deeds of the Sufi path – that is, paths within the bounds of the Prophet’s (UWBP) practices – definitely preponderate over their evils is that those who follow them preserve their belief when attacked by the people of misguidance. A sincere ordinary follower of the Sufi path preserves himself better than a superficial, apparent Muslim with a modern, scientific background. Through the illumination of the Sufi path and the love of the saints, he saves his faith. If he commits grievous sins, he becomes a sinner but not an unbeliever; he is not easily drawn into atheism. No power at all can refute the chain of shaikhs he accepts, with a strong love and firm belief, to be spiritual poles.And because no power can refute it, his confidence in them cannot be shaken. And so long as his confidence is not shaken, he will not accept atheism. In the face of the atheists’ stratagems at the present time, it has become difficult for a person unconnected with the Sufi path, whose heart has not been brought to action, to preserve himself completely, even if he is a learned scholar.

There is another thing; the Sufi path should not be condemned because of the evils of some orders that have adopted practices outside the bounds of taqwa, and even of Islam, and have wrongfully called themselves Sufi paths.

Quite apart from the elevated religious and spiritual fruits of the Sufi path and those that look to the hereafter, Sufi orders were the first, and most effective and ardent, means of spreading and strengthening brotherhood, the sacred bond of the Islamic world. They were also one of the three unassailable strongholds of Islam, which held out against the awesome attacks of the world of unbelief and the politics of Christendom.

What preserved Istanbul, the centre of the Caliphate for five hundred and fifty years against the whole Christian world, were the lights of belief that poured out of five hundred places in Istanbul and the powerful faith of those who recited “Allah! Allah!” in the tekkes behind the big mosques, which were a firm source of support for the people of belief in that centre of Islam, and their spiritual love arising from knowledge of God, and their fervent murmurings.

O you unreasoning pseudo-patriots and false nationalists! What evils are there in the Sufi paths that can negate all this good in the life of your society? You say!

Fourth Allusion

Together with being very easy, the way of sainthood is very difficult. Together with being very short, it is very long. In addition to being most valuable, it is very dangerous. And together with being very broad, it is very narrow.

It is because of these points that some of those who take the path drown, others become harmful, and yet others return and lead other people astray.

In Short:There are two ways on the Sufi path, known by the terms of inner journeying and outer journeying.

The Inner Way starts from the self, and drawing the eyes away from the outer world, looks to the heart. It pierces egotism, opens up a way from the heart, and finds reality. Then it enters the outer world. The outer world then looks luminous. The journey is completed quickly on this way. The reality seen in the inner world, is seen on a large scale in the outer world. Most of the paths that practise silent recollection take this way. Its essential principles are breaking the ego, renouncing the desires of the flesh, and killing the evil-commanding soul.

The Second Way starts from the outer world; it gazes on the reflections of the divine names and attributes in their places of manifestation in the greater sphere, then it enters the inner world. It observes their lights on a small scale in the sphere of the heart and opens up the shortest way within them. It sees that the heart is a mirror to the Eternally Besoughted One, and is united with the goal it is seeking.

If people who travel the first way are unsuccessful in killing the evil- commanding soul, and if they cannot give up the desires of the flesh and break the ego, they fall from the rank of thanks to that of pride, then descend from pride to conceit. If such a person feels the captivation of love and becomes intoxicated by it, he will make high-flown claims far exceeding his mark, called ecstatic utterances. This is harmful both for himself and for others.

For example, if a lieutenant becomes conceited out of pleasure at his position of command, he will suppose himself to be a field marshal and will confuse his small sphere with the universal one. He will confuse a sun that appears in a small mirror with the sun whose manifestation appears in all its splendour on the surface of the sea, due to their similarity in one respect.In just the same way, there are many people of sainthood who, resembling the difference between a fly and a peacock, see themselves as greater than those who in reality are greater than them to the same degree; that is how they see it and they think they are right.

I myself even saw someone whose heart had just been awakened and had faintly perceived in himself the mystery of sainthood; he supposed himself to be the supreme spiritual pole and assumed airs accordingly. I said to him: “My brother, just as the law of sovereignty has particular and universal manifestations from the office of Prime Minister down to that of District Officer, so sainthood and the rank of spiritual pole have varying spheres and manifestations. Each station has many shades and shadows. You have evidently seen the manifestation of the rank of supreme spiritual pole, the equivalent of Prime Minister, in your own sphere, which is like that of a District Officer, and you have been deceived. What you saw was right, but your judgement of it was wrong. To a fly, a cup of water is a small sea.” The person came to his senses, God willing, as a result of this answer of mine, and was saved from the abyss.

I have also seen many people who thought themselves to be Mahdis of a sort, and they proclaimed their Mahdiship. Such people are not liars and deceivers, they are deceived. They suppose what they see to be reality. As the divine names have manifestations from the sphere of the Sublime Throne down to an atom, and their places of manifestation differ to the same degree; so the degrees of sainthood, which consist of manifesting the names, differ in the same way. The most important reason for the confusion is this:

In some of the stations of the saints, the characteristics of the Mahdi’s function may be observed, or a special relation may be formed with the Supreme Spiritual Pole, or with Khidr; certain stations are connected with certain famous persons. In fact, the stations are called the station of Khidr, the station of Uwais, or the station of the Mahdi.

Because of this, people who attain to these stations or to minor samples or shadows of them, suppose themselves to be the famous persons connected with them. They suppose themselves to be Khidr, or the Mahdi, or the Supreme Spiritual Pole.

If such a person’s ego does not seek rank and position, he is not condemned to the state. His excessively high-flown claims are deemed ecstatic utterances for which he is probably not responsible.

But if his ego is secretly set on acquiring rank and position, and if he defeated by it and leaves off thanks and becomes proud, from there he will gradually fall into arrogance, or descend to the depths of madness, or deviate from the path of truth. For he reckons the great saints to be like himself and his good opinion of them is spoiled, for however arrogant a soul is, it still perceives its own faults. Comparing those great saints with himself, he imagines them to be at fault. His respect towards the prophets diminishes, even.

Those suffering from this should hold fast to the balance of the Shari‘a, and adopt the rules of the scholars of the principles of religion, and take as their guides the instructions of such authoritative scholars from among the saints as Imam Ghazali and Imam-i Rabbani. They should constantly accuse their own souls, and attribute nothing to themselves other than fault, impotence, and want.

Ecstatic utterances made by followers of this way arise from love of self, for love-filled eyes see no faults. Because of his self-love, such a person supposes a faulty, unworthy fragment of glass to be a brilliant or a diamond.

The most dangerous of all these faults is that he imagines the partial meanings which occur to his heart in the form of inspiration to be “God’s Word,” and he calls them “verses (âyât).” This infers disrespect towards divine revelation, which is at the most holy and exalted degree. Yes, all inspirations from the inspirations of bees and animals to those of ordinary people and the elite among men, and from the inspirations of ordinary angels to those of the sublime cherubim, are divine words of a sort. But they are dominical speech in conformity with the capacity of the places of manifestation and their stations; they are the varying manifestations of dominical address shining through seventy thousand veils.

However, it is absolutely wrong to use the proper nouns “revelation” and “divine speech” for such inspirations, and the word “verse,” which is a noun proper to the stars of the Qur’an – the most evident exemplification of God’s Word. As is explained and proved in the Twelfth, Twenty-Fifth, and Thirty-First Words, the relation between the inspiration in the hearts of those making the above claims and the verses of the sun of the Qur’an, which is divine speech directly, resembles the relation between the tiny, dim, obscure image of the sun appearing in the coloured mirror in your hand and the sun in the sky. Yes, if it is said that the sun’s reflected images appearing in all mirrors are the sun’s and are related to it, it would be right, but the globe of the earth cannot be attached to the suns in those tiny mirrors, nor be bound by their attraction.

Fifth Allusion

An extremely important way within Sufism is the Unity of Witnessing, which is another name for the Unity of Existence. This restricts the gaze to the existence of the Necessarily Existent, and sees other beings to be so weak and shadow-like in relation to Him that it declares that they do not deserve the name of existence. It envelops them in veils of imagination, and in the station of abandoning all things other than God, counts them as nothing. It even imagines them to be non-existent, and goes so far as to belittle the manifestations of the divine names, saying they are mere imaginary mirrors.

A significant fact about this way is that due to the powerful faith it inculcates and the elevated sainthood of those on it advancing to the degree of absolute certainty, the existence of contingent beings is so diminished that nothing remains in its view other than imagination and non-existence; it is as though it denies the universe on account of the Necessarily Existent One.

But this way holds dangers, the first of which is this: there are six pillars of faith, and such pillars as belief in the Last Day and belief in God require the existence of contingent beings. These firmly-founded pillars of belief cannot be constructed on imagination! For this reason, when a person following this way re-enters the world of sobriety from the worlds of ecstasy and intoxication, he should not bring them with him, nor should he act in accordance with them.

Furthermore, he should not convert this way, which pertains to the heart and to illuminations and certain states, into a form that pertains to the reason, knowledge, and words. For the laws and principles related to reason, knowledge, and speech, which proceed from the Qur’an and the practices of the Prophet (UWBP), cannot sustain that way and are inapplicable to it. For this reason, the four Rightly-Guided Caliphs, and the leading authorities and interpreters of the law, and the authorities of the first generations of Islam were not seen to practise it.

This means that it is not the most elevated way. It may be elevated, but it is also deficient. It is very important, but it is also very perilous and difficult. Yet, it is still very pleasurable. Those who embark on it for the pleasure, do not want to leave it, and because of their self-centredness, they suppose it to be the highest degree.

We have explained the basis and nature of this way to an extent in the treatise called Nokta Risalesi, and in some of the Words and Letters, and shall suffice with them. Here, we shall describe one of the serious hazards on that important way. It is as follows:

For the highest of the elite, who pass beyond the sphere of causes and renouncing everything other than God, sever their attachment to contingent beings and enter a state of complete absorption in God, this way is a righteous way. But, to present it in terms of intellectual knowledge to those who are submerged in causes, are enamoured of the world, and are plunged into materialist philosophy and nature, will drown them in nature and materiality and distance them from the reality of Islam.

For those who love the world and are attached to the sphere of causes want to ascribe a sort of permanence to this transitory world. They do not want to lose their beloved. On the pretext of the Unity of Existence, they imagine it to have permanent existence. On account of the world, their beloved, and by ascribing permanence and eternity to it, they make it an object of worship; and, I seek refuge with God, this paves the way to the abyss of denying God.

This century, materialism is so widespread, materiality is thought to be the source of everything. If in such an age, the elite believers consider materiality to be so unimportant as to be non-existent, thus furthering the way of the Unity of Existence, the materialists will lay claim to it, saying: “We say the same thing.” Whereas, among all the ways in the world, the one furthest from that of the materialists and nature- worshippers, is the way of the Unity of Existence. For the followers of the Unity of Existence attach such importance, due to their belief, to the divine existence that they deny the universe and beings. Whereas the materialists attach so much importance to beings that on account of the universe they deny God. How can the two come together or be compared?

Sixth Allusion

This consists of three points.

First Point:

Among the ways of sainthood, the finest, straightest, richest, and most brilliant is following the practices (Sunna) of the Prophet (UWBP). That is, to think of the practices in one’s actions and deeds, and to follow and imitate them. In conduct and dealings with others, it is to think of the rulings of the Shari‘a and take them as one’s guide.

When followed in this way, daily conduct, dealings, and habitual acts become worship, and thinking of the practices and Shari‘a in one’s actions, recalls the injunctions of the Shari‘a. This causes a person to think of the Shari‘a’s owner. By thinking of him, it brings to mind Almighty God, and that induces a sort of sense of His presence. This may transform all the moments of the person’s life into worship in the divine presence. This great highway is the highway of the Companions and the righteous of the first generations of Islam, who received the legacy of prophethood, the greater sainthood.

Second Point:

Sincerity is the basis of the ways of sainthood and of the branches of the Sufi path, for through sincerity a person may be saved from implicitly associating partners with God. One who does not obtain sincerity cannot travel those ways. The most powerful force of those ways is love. Yes, love does not seek pretexts for its beloved and does not wish to see the beloved’s faults. It looks on frail signs of its beloved’s perfection as powerful proofs, and always takes the part of its beloved.

It is because of this that those who are turned towards knowledge of God with the feet of love, do not give ear to doubts and objections; they are easily saved. Even a thousand satans can not negate a hint of their true beloved’s perfection. If they do not possess such love, they would struggle desperately in the face of their souls and Satan and the objections of the outside devils. They would have to have heroic fortitude and strength of belief and an attentive gaze in order to save themselves.

It is because of this that in all the degrees of sainthood, the chief leaven and elixir is the love arising from knowledge of God. But love leads to an abyss, which is this: it jumps from beseeching and self-effacement, which are the essence of worship, to complaint and claims and to imbalanced actions. When regarding things other than God, a person ceases to see how they point to their Maker and starts to see them as signifying themselves alone, so while being the cure, love becomes poison. That is to say, although when loving things other than God, the person should fix his heart on them for God’s sake and in His name and because they are mirrors reflecting His names, sometimes he loves them for themselves and on account of their personal perfections and own beauty. He loves them with no thought for God and His Messenger (UWBP). Such love does not lead to love of God; it obscures it. Whereas if the person loves those things as signifying their Maker, it leads to love of God; indeed, such love may be said to be its manifestation.

Third Point:

This world is the realm of wisdom, the realm of service; it is not the realm of reward and recompense. The wage for deeds and acts of service here is given in the Intermediate Realm and the hereafter. Acts here produce fruits there. This being the truth of the matter, the results of actions that look to the hereafter should not be sought in this world. If they are given, they should be received not gratefully, but regretfully. For in Paradise, the more fruits are picked the more they grow. So it is hardly sensible to consume in this world in fleeting fashion the fruits of actions that pertain to the hereafter, which are lasting. It is like exchanging a permanent lamp for one that will last a minute and then flicker out.

It is because of this that the people of sainthood look on service, difficulty, misfortune, and hardship as agreeable. They do not complain and lament, but say: “All praise be to God for all situations!”

When illuminations and wonders, unfoldings and lights are bestowed on them, they accept them as divine favours, and try to conceal them. They do not become proud, but offer more thanks and worship. Many of them have wanted those states to be concealed or to cease, lest they spoil the sincerity of their actions.

Yes, the highest divine favour for an acceptable person is not to make him realize the favour, so that he does not give up beseeching and offering thanks, or become complacent and start complaining.

It is because of this truth that if those who seek sainthood and follow the Sufi path do so for illuminations and wonders, which are some of the emanations of sainthood, and they are turned towards those and receive pleasure from them, they as though consume in transient fashion in this transient world the enduring fruits of the hereafter. This too opens up the way to loss of sincerity, the leaven of sainthood, and to sainthood eluding them.

Seventh Allusion

This consists of four points.

First Point:

The Shari‘a is directly, without shadow or veil, the result of the divine address, through the mystery of divine oneness in respect of absolute dominicalitY. The highest degrees of the Sufi path and of reality are like parts of the Shari‘a. Or they are always like its means, introduction, and servant. Their results are the incontrovertible matters of the Shari‘a.

That is to say, the ways of the Sufi orders and of reality are like means, servants, and steps for reaching the truths of the Shari‘a, till at the highest level they are transformed into the meaning of reality and essence of the Sufi way, which are at the heart of the Shari‘a. So then they become parts of the Greater Shari‘a.

It is not right to think of the Shari‘a as an outer shell and reality as its inner part and result and aim, as some Sufis do.

Yes, the Shari‘a unfolds according to the levels of men. It is wrong to suppose that what the mass of people imagine is the external aspect of the Shari‘a is its reality, and to give the names of reality and Sufi path to the degrees of the Shari‘a that are disclosed to the elite. The Shari‘a has degrees which look to all classes.

It is in consequence of this that the further the Sufis and those who seek reality advance, their longing for the truths of the Shari‘a increases, as does their captivation by them and their following them. They consider the most minor aspect of the Prophet’s (UWBP) practices to be their greatest aim, and strive to follow them and imitate them. For however higher divine revelation is than inspiration, the conduct of the Shari‘a, which is the fruit of revelation, is higher to the same degree than the conduct of the Sufi path, the fruit of inspiration. Therefore, following the Prophet’s (UWBP) practices is the basis and principal element of the Sufi path.

Second Point:

The Sufi path and way of reality should not exceed being means. If they are made the ultimate aim, the incontrovertible teachings and actions of the Shari‘a and following the practices of the Prophet (UWBP) become merely a matter of form, while the heart looks beyond them. That is to say, such a person thinks of his circle for the remembrance of God rather than the obligatory prayers; he is drawn more to his recitations and supplications than to his religious obligations; he is more concerned with avoiding offending against his order’s rules of behaviour than with avoiding grievous sins. Whereas the recitations of the Sufi path cannot be the equivalent of the obligatory acts that constitute the incontestible matters of the Shari‘a; they cannot take their place.

The etiquette of the Sufi path and its invocations should be a solace and a way of obtaining true pleasure from the obligatory acts; they should not themselves be the source. That is, the tekke should lead a person to perform the five daily prayers assiduously in the mosque. If he performs them there hurriedly as a formality, thinking that he will find true pleasure and perfection in the tekke, he is drawing away from reality.

Third Point:

It is sometimes asked: “Can there be any Sufi path outside the practices of the Prophet (UWBP) and matters of the Shari‘a?”

The Answer:There are some such paths, and there are not. There are, because some of the highest saints were executed by the sword of the Shari‘a. And there are not, because the authoritative scholars among the saints have agreed on this rule of Sa‘di-i Shirazi:

“It is impossible, Sa‘di, to be victorious on the way of felicity, except by following the Chosen One.”

That is, it is impossible for one outside the highway of God’s Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace), who does not follow him, to attain the true lights of reality. The meaning of this is as follows:

God’s Messenger (Peace and blessings be upon him) was the Seal of the Prophets and the addressee of God in the name of all mankind; mankind, therefore, cannot advance outside his highway; it is essential to be under his banner.

But since ecstatics and those immersed in divine contemplation are not responsible for their opposition; and since man possesses certain subtle faculties that are not held accountable, and when such faculties dominate a person, he cannot be held responsible for opposing the obligations of the Shari‘a; and since man possesses subtle faculties that just as they are not accountable, so they are not under the jurisdiction of the will and cannot be controlled by the mind, for they do not heed the heart or the mind; certainly, when those faculties dominate in a person, – but only at that time – he does not fall from the rank of sainthood by opposing the Shari‘a, he is held excused. On condition, however, that he does not deny or insult the truths of the Shari‘a and rules of belief, or display contempt towards them. Even if he does not carry out the injunctions, he has to acknowledge that they are right. But if he is overcome by that state and assumes a position, I seek refuge with God, which infers denial and giving the lie to those incontestible truths, it is the sign that he has deviated from the path!

In Short:There are two groups that follow the Sufi path outside the bounds of the Shari‘a.

One group:As described above, these people are either overwhelmed by their mental state, immersion, or ecstasy or intoxication, or they are dominated by some of their subtle faculties that do not heed the injunctions of religion nor listen to the will; they therefore transgress the bounds of the Shari‘a.

But this is not due to their disliking its rulings or not wanting to follow them; they are rather compelled to, involuntarily. Among this group are people of sainthood some of whom have even been temporary saints of high rank. But the authoritative scholars from among the saints have ruled that of these some have been not only outside the bounds of the Shari‘a, but outside the bounds of Islam. But they are considered to be people of sainthood on condition they have not denied any of the injunctions brought by Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him). It is that they do not think of them, or cannot keep them in view, or are not aware of them. They cannot not accept them if they are aware of them.

As for the Second Group,they are carried away by the brilliant pleasures of the Sufi path and way of reality, and since they cannot attain to the pleasures of the truths of the Shari‘a, which are far more elevated, they suppose them to be dull formalities and are indifferent towards them. They gradually accept the idea that the Shari‘a is an external shell, and that the reality they have found is the essential goal. They say: “I have found it; it is enough for me,” and act in a way contrary to the injunctions of the Shari‘a. Any in this group who are in their right minds are responsible; they stray from the path, indeed, become the playthings of Satan to an extent.

Fourth Point:

Some persons who belong to the divisions of the people of misguidance and innovation are found acceptable by the Muslim community, while others, just like them and not apparently different, are rejected. I always used to wonder about this.

For example, although someone like Zamakhshari was one of the most bigoted members of the Mu‘tazilite sect, the authoritative Sunni scholars did not pronounce him an unbeliever or misguided, despite his severe objections; they rather searched for a way to exonerate him. But then they held that Mu‘tazilite authorities like Abu ‘Ali Jubba’i, who was far less bigoted than Zamakhshari, should be rejected and refuted.

I was curious about this for a long time. Then through divine grace I understood that Zamakhshari’s objections about the Sunnis arose from his love of his way, which he looked on as right.That is to say, for example, in his view God could be truly declared free of all fault and defect by saying that animals create their own actions. It was out of love for declaring God free of all fault that he did not accept the Sunnis’ principles concerning the creation of actions. Whereas the other Mu‘tazilite authorities were rejected because their inadequate intelligences could not aspire to the elevated principles of the Sunnis and they could not fit the Sunnis’ extensive laws within their own narrow ideas, and so denied them.

In the same way that the Mu‘tazilites opposed the Sunnis in theology, so the opposition of some followers of the Sufi path outside the Prophet’s (UWBP) practices is of two kinds:

The first:Like Zamakhshari, out of love for their way or state, they remain somewhat indifferent towards the conduct of the Shari‘a, because through it they cannot obtain the same degree of pleasure.

As for the other kind:God forbid! They think the conduct of the Shari‘a is unimportant relatively to the principles of the Sufi path. For their narrow understandings cannot comprehend those broad pleasures, and their short stations cannot attain to that elevated conduct.

Eighth Allusion

This describes eight abysses.

The First:

Some people who embark on spiritual journeying do not conform completely to the Prophet’s (UWBP) practices, and fall into the abyss of preferring sainthood to prophethood.

It is proved in the Twenty-Fourth and Thirty-First Words how elevated is prophethood, and how dull sainthood is in relation to it.

The Second:

Some of followers of the Sufi path fall into the abyss of preferring extremist saints to the Prophet’s (UWBP) Companions and even of believing those saints to be prophets.

It is proved decisively in the Twelfth and Twenty-Seventh Words and in the Addendum on the Companions, that the Companions acquired such qualities through conversation with the Prophet (UWBP) that cannot be attained through sainthood, and that the Companions cannot be surpassed, and that the saints can never reach the degree of the Companions.

The Third:

Some of those who are excessively bigoted concerning the Sufi path oppose the practices of the Prophet (UWBP) and give them up because of their preference for the customs, conduct, and recitations of the Sufi way, which they never give up. In this way, they become slack in practising the conduct of the Shari‘a, and fall into that abyss.

As is proved in many of the Words, and as veracious authorities of the Sufi path like Imam Ghazali and Imam-i Rabbani said: “The degree of acceptance gained by following a single of the Prophet’s (UWBP) practices cannot be won through a hundred personal practices and supererogatory acts of worship. And just as a single obligatory act is superior to a thousand acts taken from the Prophet’s practices, so a single of those practices is superior to a thousand practices of Sufism.”

The Fourth:

Some extremist Sufis suppose inspiration to be like divine revelation and of similar kind to revelation, and fall into an abyss.

It has been proved most definitely in the Twelfth Word and in the Twenty-Fifth Word about the miraculousness of the Qur’an, how elevated, universal, and sacred is divine revelation, and how insignificant and dull inspirations are in comparison.

The Fifth:

Some Sufis who do not understand the essence of the Sufi path, in order to strengthen the weak, encourage the slack, and to lighten the hardships and weariness arising from strenuous service, find the lights, illuminations, and wonders, which are not sought but given, to be pleasurable, and they become captivated by them and fall into the abyss of preferring them to worship, acts of service, and recitation of supplications.

It is mentioned briefly in the Third Point of the Sixth Allusion in the present treatise and proved decisively in others of the Words that this world is the realm of service and not the realm of reward. People who seek their recompense here, both transform enduring, perpetual fruits into a transitory, temporary form, and find permanence in this world pleasing, so they do not yearn for the Intermediate Realm. Quite simply, they love the life of this world in one respect, since they find a sort of hereafter within it.

The Sixth:

Some of those who embark on spiritual journeying fall into an abyss by confusing the shades and shadows and partial samples of the stations of sainthood with its fundamental, universal stations.

As is proved clearly in the Second Branch of the Twenty-Fourth Word and in others of the Words, the sun becomes numerous by means of mirrors and thousands of its similitudes possess light and heat like the sun itself, despite their paltriness in relation to the actual sun. In exactly the same way, the stations of the prophets and the great saints possess shades and shadows. Those who journey with the spirit enter these, and see themselves as greater than those great saints, or even to have advanced further than the prophets, and so fall into an abyss.

However, the way to avoid this is to always take the principles of belief and fundamentals of the Shari‘a as one’s basis and guide, and to look on one’s illuminations and visions as opposed to them.

The Seventh:

Some of the people of illumination and ecstasy fall into an abyss in their spiritual journeyings by preferring pride, complaint, ecstatic utterances, public regard, and being referred to, to offering thanks and supplication, beseeching Almighty God, and self-sufficiency.

Whereas the highest degree is Muhammadan worship, which is termed “belovedness.” The basis and essence of worship is to manifest the perfection of that reality b y supplicating and beseeching Almighty God, showing deep humility before Him, offering thanks, and through impotence and want, and by displaying self-sufficiency in the face of others. Some of the great saints have involuntarily and temporarily become proud and made complaints and ecstatic utterances, but they should not be followed voluntarily on such points; they are rightly-guided but not the guide; their way may not be taken!

The Eighth Abyss:

Some of those who journey spiritually are self-centred and precipitate and want to consume in this world the fruits of sainthood, which will be given in the hereafter; they fall into an abyss by seeking them on their spiritual journeyings.

But, as such verses as,“The life of this world is but goods and chattels”(3:185)proclaim, and as is proved decisively in many of the Words, a single fruit in the realm of eternity is superior to a thousand gardens in this fleeting world. For this reason, those blessed fruits should not be consumed here. If without being sought they are given to eat here, they should be thanked for, and deemed divine favours bestowed, not as reward, but for encouragement.

Ninth Allusion

Here we shall describe briefly nine out of the truly numerous fruits and benefits of the Sufi path.

The First

is the unfolding and clarification, by means of the Sufi paths that are on the straight way, of the truths of faith, which are the keys, sources, and springs of the eternal treasuries of everlasting happiness; it is their manifestation at the degree of the vision of certainty.

The Second:

Since the Sufi path is a means of working the heart, the mainspring of the human machine, and of causing it to stir the other subtle faculties into motion, it drives them to fulfil the purposes of their creation and thus makes a person into a true human being.

The Third:

On the journey to the Intermediate Realm and the hereafter, it is to join one of the lines of the Sufi orders, and become a member of its luminous caravan on the road to eternity. The person is thus saved from loneliness and finds the friendship of the other members in this world and in the Intermediate Realm; and relying on their consensus and accord in the face of the attacks of doubts and fears, and seeing each of their masters as a powerful support and proof, he repulses through them those doubts and instances of misguidance.

The Fourth

is to understand by means of the pure Sufi way the knowledge of God to be found in belief in God, and the pleasure of love of God within the knowledge of God, and by so understanding, to be saved from the desolation of this world and man’s exile in the universe.

We have proved in many of the Words that the happiness of both worlds, and pain-free pleasure, and intimacy untainted by loneliness, and true delight, and untroubled happiness are all to be found in faith and the reality of Islam. As is explained in the Second Word, faith produces the seed of a Tuba-tree of Paradise. It is through the training and nurturing of the Sufi path that the seed grows and develops.

The Fifth

is to perceive through an awakening of the heart elicited by the Sufi path and remembrance of God, the subtle truths contained in the obligations of the Shari‘a, and to appreciate them. Then the person obeys and performs his worship, not under compulsion, but with longing.

The Sixth

is to rise to the station of reliance on God and the rank of submission to Him and winning His pleasure, which are the means of obtaining true delight, real solace, painfree pleasure, and friendship untainted by loneliness.

The Seventh

The Seventh is, through sincerity, which is the essential precondition for travelling the Sufi way and its most valuable result, to be delivered from base qualities like implicitly associating partners with God, hypocrisy, and artificiality. It is also to be saved, through purifying the soul, which is like the surgical operation of the Sufi path, from the dangers of the evil-commanding soul and the perils of egotism.

The Eighth:

Through the regard, sense of the divine presence, and powerful intentions of the Sufi path, gained by recalling God with the heart and reflecting on Him with the mind, this is to transform customary actions into worship and make mundane dealings into actions benefiting the hereafter. Utilizing the capital of life, it is to make all its minutes into seeds that will produce the shoots of eternal happiness.

The Ninth

is to struggle to be a perfect human being through journeying with the heart and striving with the spirit and spiritual progress; that is to say, to be a true believer and total Muslim; that is, to gain not superficial belief, but the reality of belief and the reality of Islam; that is, to be directly the bondsman of the Glorious Creator of the Universe, in the universe and in one respect as the universe’s representative, and to be His addressee, and friend, and beloved, and to be a mirror to Him; and through showing man to be on the best of patterns, it is to prove man’s superiority to the angels. It is to fly through the lofty stations with the Shari‘a’s wings of faith and works, and to behold eternal happiness in this world, and even to enter upon it.

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

O God! Grant blessings and peace to the Supreme Help in every age and the Sublime Spiritual Pole at all times, our master Muhammad, the magnificence of whose sainthood was manifested in his Ascension, as was the station of his being the beloved of God, and under the shadow of whose Ascension are included all sainthoods, and to all his Family and Companions. Amen. And all praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds.

Addendum

[This short addendum has great importance;]

it is beneficial for everyone.

The ways leading to Almighty God are truly numerous. While all true ways are taken from the Qur’an, some are shorter, safer, and more general than others. Of these ways taken from the Qur’an is that of impotence, poverty, compassion, and reflection, from which, with my defective understanding, I have benefited.

Like ecstatic love, impotence is a path which, by way of worship, leads to winning God’s love; but it is safer.

Poverty too leads to the divine name of All- Merciful.

And, like ecstatic love, compassion leads to the name of All- Compassionate, but it is a swifter and broader path.

Also like ecstatic love, reflection leads to the name of All-Wise, but it is richer, broader, and more brilliant path.

This path consists not of ten steps like the ten subtle faculties of some of the Sufi paths employing silent recollection, nor of seven stages like the seven souls of those practising public recitation, but of four steps. It is reality (hakikat), rather than a Sufi way (tarikat). It is Shari‘a.However, let it not be misunderstood. It means to see one’s impotence, poverty and faults before Almighty God, not to fabricate them or display them to people.

The method of this short path is to follow the practices of the Prophet (UWBP), perform the religious obligations and give up serious sins. It is especially to perform the prescribed prayers correctly and with attention, and following them to say the tesbihat.

The verse, “Therefore, do not justify yourselves,”(53:32) points to the first step.

The verse, “And be not like those who forget God, and He therefore makes them forget their own selves,”(59:19) points to the second step.

The verse, “Whatever good happens to you is from God, but whatever evil befalls you is from yourself,”(4:79) points to the third step.

The verse, “Everything will perish save His countenance,”(28:88) points to the fourth step.

A brief explanation of these four steps is as follows:

First Step

As the verse, “Therefore, do not justify yourselves” suggests, it is to not purify the soul. For on account of his nature and innate disposition, man loves himself. Indeed, he loves himself before anything else, and only himself. He sacrifices everything other than himself to his own soul. He praises himself in a manner befitting some object worthy of worship. He absolves and exonerates himself from faults in the same way. As far as he possibly can, he does not see faults as being appropriate for him, and does not accept them. He defends himself passionately as though worshipping himself. Even, using on himself the members and faculties given him as part of his nature in order to praise and glorify the True Object of Worship, he displays the meaning of the verse,“Who takes as his god his own desires.”(25:43; 45:23)He considers himself, he relies on himself, he fancies himself.

Thus, his purification and cleansing at this stage, in this step, is to not purify himself; it is not to absolve himself.

Second Step

As the verse, “And be not like those who forget God, and He therefore makes them forget their own selves” teaches, man is oblivious of himself and not aware of himself. If he thinks of death, it is in relation to others. If he sees transience and decline, he does not attribute them to himself. His evil-commanding soul demands that when it comes to inconvenience and service of others, he forgets himself, but when it comes to receiving his recompense, and to benefits and enjoyment, he thinks of himself and takes his own part fervently.

His purification, cleansing, and training at this stage is the reverse of this. That is to say, when oblivious of himself, it is not to be oblivious. That is, to forget himself when it comes to pleasure, and ambition and greed, and to think of himself when it comes to death and service of others.

Third Step

As the verse, “Whatever good happens to you is from God, but whatever evil befalls you is from yourself” teaches, the nature of the evil-commanding soul demands that it always considers goodness to be from itself and it becomes vain and conceited. Thus, at this step, a person sees only faults, defects, impotence, and poverty in himself, and understands that all his good qualities and perfections are bounties bestowed on him by the All- Glorious Creator. He gives thanks instead of being conceited, and offers praise instead of boasting.

According to the meaning of the verse,Truly he succeeds who purifies it,(91:9)his purification at this stage is to know his perfection to lie in imperfection, his power in impotence, and his wealth in poverty.

Fourth Step

As the verse, “Everything will perish save His countenance” teaches, the evil- commanding soul considers itself to be free and independent and to exist of itself. Because of this, man claims to possess a sort of dominicality. He harbours a hostile rebelliousness towards his True Object of Worship. Thus, through understanding the following fact, he is saved from this.

The fact is this:According to the apparent meaning of things, which looks to each thing itself, everything is transitory, wanting, accidental, non-existent. But according to the meaning that signifies something other than itself and in respect of each thing being a mirror to the All-Glorious Maker’s names and charged with various duties, each is a witness, it is witnessed, and it is existent.

The purification and cleansing of a person at this stage is as follows: In his existence he is non-existent, and in his non-existence he has existence. That is to say, if he values himself and attributes existence to himself, he is in the darkness of non-existence as great as the universe. That is, if he relies on his individual existence and is unmindful of the True Giver of Existence, he has an individual light of existence like that of a fire-fly and is submerged in an endless darkness of non- existence and separation. But if he gives up egotism and sees that he is a mirror of the manifestations of the True Giver of Existence, he gains all beings and an infinite existence. For he who finds the Necessary Existent, the manifestation of whose names all beings manifest, finds everything.

Conclusion

The four steps in this way of impotence, poverty, compassion, and reflection have been explained in the twenty-six Words so far written, which are concerned with knowledge of reality, the reality of the Shari‘a, and the wisdom of the Qur’an. So here, we shall allude briefly to only one or two points, as follows:

This path is shorter, because it consists of four steps. When impotence causes a person to give up the soul, it turns him directly to the All-Powerful One of Glory. Whereas when a person on the way of ecstatic love, the swiftest way, gives up the soul, his way directs him to a temporary beloved. Only when he discovers the beloved’s impermanence does he turn to the True Beloved.

Also, this path is much safer, because the ravings and high-flown claims of the soul are not present on it. For apart from impotence, poverty, and defect, the soul possesses nothing so that it oversteps its mark.

Also, this path is much broader and more universal. For in order to attain to a constant awareness of God’s presence, a person is not compelled to imagine the universe to be condemned to non-existence and to declare: “There is no existent but He,” like those who believe in the Unity of Existence, nor to suppose the universe to be condemned to imprisonment in absolute oblivion and to say, “There is nothing witnessed but He,” like those who believe in the Unity of Witnessing. Rather, since the Qur’an has most explicitly pardoned the universe and released it from execution and imprisonment, the person on this path disregards the above, and dismissing beings from working on their own account and employing them on account of the All- Glorious Creator, and in the duty of manifesting the Most Beautiful Names and being mirrors to them, he considers them from the point of view of signifying something other than themselves; and being saved from absolute heedlessness, he enters the divine presence permanently; he finds a way leading to the Almighty God in everything.

In Short:Dismissing beings from working on account of other beings, this way is to not look at them as signifying themselves.

---

TheTwenty-Eighth Letter ⇐ | The Letters | ⇒ Seeds of Reality

---