Yirminci Mektup/en

In His Name, be He glorified!

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

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. There is no god but God, He is One, He has no partner; His is the dominion, and His is the praise; He alone grants life, and deals death, and He is living and dies not; all good is in His hand, He is powerful over all things, and with Him all things have their end.(*)

This sentence expressing divine unity, which is recited following the morning and evening prayers, possesses numerous merits(*)and according to an authentic narration bears the degree of the Greatest Name.(*) It consists of eleven phrases each of which conveys both some good tidings, and a degree in the unity of dominicality (tevhid-i rubûbiyet), and an aspect of the grandeur and perfection of divine unity from the point of view of a Greatest Name.

[Referring a full explanation of these vast, elevated truths to other parts of the Risale-i Nur, in fulfilment of a promise we shall for now write a brief, index-like summary of them in two “Stations” and an “Introduction.”]

Introduction

Be certain of this, that the highest aim of creation and its most important result is belief in God.

The most exalted rank in humanity and its highest degree is the knowledge of God contained within belief in God.

The most radiant happiness and sweetest bounty for jinn and human beings is the love of God contained within the knowledge of God.

And the purest joy for the human spirit and the sheerest delight for man’s heart is the rapture of the spirit contained within the love of God.

Yes, all true happiness, pure joy, sweet bounties, and untroubled pleasure lie in knowledge of God and love of God; they cannot exist without them.

The person who knows and loves God Almighty may receive endless bounties, happiness, lights, and mysteries.

While the one who does not truly know and love him is afflicted spiritually and materially b y endless misery, pain, and fears.

Even if such an impotent, miserable person owned the whole world, it would be worth nothing for him, for it would seem to him that he was living a fruitless life among the vagrant human race in a wretched world without owner or protector.

Everyone may understand just how forlorn and baffled is man among the aimless human race in this bewildering fleeting world if he does not know his Owner, if he does not discover his Master.

But if he does discover and know Him, he will seek refuge in His mercy and will rely on His power. The desolate world will turn into a place of recreation and pleasure, it will become a place of trade for the hereafter.

First Station

Each of the eleven phrases of the above-mentioned sentence affirming divine unity contains some good news. And in the good news lies a cure, while in each of those cures a spritual pleasure is to be found.

THE FIRST PHRASE:

“There is no god but God”

This phrase conveys the following good news to the human spirit, suffering as it does countless needs and the attacks of innumerable enemies. On the one hand the spirit finds a place of recourse, a source of help, through which is opened to it the door of a treasury of mercy that will guarantee all its needs. While on the other it finds a support and source of strength, for the phrase makes known its Creator and True Object of Worship, who possesses the absolute power to secure it from the evil of all its enemies; it shows its master, and who it is that owns it. Through pointing this out, the phrase saves the heart from utter desolation and the spirit from aching sorrow; it ensures an eternal joy, a perpetual happiness.

THE SECOND PHRASE:

“He is One”

This phrase announces the following good news, which is both healing and a source of happiness:

Man’s spirit and heart, which are connected to most of the creatures in the universe and are almost overwhelmed in misery and confusion on account of this connection, find in the phrase “He is One” a refuge and protector that will deliver them from all the confusion and bewilderment.

That is to say, it is as if “He is One” is saying to man: God is One. Do not wear yourself out having recourse to other things; do not demean yourself and feel indebted to them; do not flatter them and fawn on them and humiliate yourself; do not follow them and make things difficult for yourself; do not fear them and tremble before them; for the Monarch of the universe is One, the key to all things is with Him, the reins of all things are in His hand, everything will be resolved by His command. If you find Him, you will be saved from endless indebtedness, countless fears.

THE THIRD PHRASE:

“He has no partner”

Just as in His divinity and in His sovereignty God has no partner, He is One and cannot be many; so too He has no partner in His dominicality and in His actions and in His creating. It sometimes happens that a monarch is one, having no partner in his sovereignty, but in the execution of his affairs his officials act as his partners; they prevent everyone from entering his presence, saying: “Apply to us!” However, God Almighty, the Monarch of Pre-Eternity and Post-Eternity, has no partner in His sovereignty, just as He has no need for partners or helpers in the execution of His dominicality. If it were not for His command and will, His strength and power, not a single thing could interfere with another. Everyone can have recourse to Him directly. Since He has no partner or helper, no one seeking recourse can be told: “Stop! It is forbidden to enter His presence!”

This phrase, therefore, delivers the following joyful announcement to the human spirit:

the human spirit which has attained to faith may, without let or hindrance, opposition or interference, in any state, for any wish, at any time and in any place, enter the presence of the All-Beauteous and Glorious One, the One of power and perfection, who is the Pre-Eternal and Post-Eternal Owner of the treasuries of mercy, the treasuries of bliss, and may present its needs. Discovering His mercy and relying on His power, it will find perfect ease and happiness.

THE FOURTH PHRASE:

“His is the dominion”

That is to say, ownership is altogether His. As for you, you are both His property, you are owned by Him, and you work in His property.

This phrase announces the following joyful and healing news:

O man! Do not suppose that you own yourself, for you have no control over any of the things that concern you; such a load would be heavy. Also, you are unable to protect yourself, to avoid disasters, or to do the things that you must. In which case, do not suffer pain and torment without reason, the ownership is another’s. The Owner is both All-Powerful and All-Merciful; rely on His power and do not cast aspersions on His mercy! Put grief behind you, be joyful!

Discard your troubles and find serenity! It also says: You love and are connected to the universe, which is the property of the All-Powerful and Merciful One, yet although it grieves you by its wretchedness, you are unable to put it right. So hand over the property to its Owner, leave it to Him. Attract His pleasure, not His harshness. He is both All-Wise and All-Merciful. He has free disposal over His property and administers it as He wishes. Whenever you take fright, say like İbrahim Hakkı: “Let’s see what the Master does; whatever He does, it is best;” understand this thoroughly and do not interfere!

THE FIFTH PHRASE:

“His is the praise”

Praise, laudation, and acclaim are proper to Him, are fitting for Him. That is to say, bounties are His; they come from His treasury. And as for the treasury, it is unending.

This phrase, therefore, delivers the following good news:

O man! Do not suffer and sorrow when bounties cease, for the treasury of mercy is inexhaustible. Do not dwell on the fleeting nature of pleasure and cry out with pain, because the fruit of the bounty is the fruit of a boundless mercy. Since its tree is undying, when the fruit finishes it is replaced by more. If you thankfully think of there being within the pleasure of the bounty a merciful favour a hundred times more pleasurable, you will be able to increase the pleasure a hundredfold.

An apple an august monarch presents to you holds a pleasure superior to that of a hundred, indeed a thousand, apples, for it is he that has bestowed it on you and made you experience the pleasure of a royal favour. In the same way, through the phrase “His is the praise” will be opened to you the door of a spiritual pleasure a thousand times sweeter than the bounty itself.For the phrase means to offer praise and thanks; that is to say, to perceive the bestowal of bounty. This in turn means to recognize the Bestower, which is to reflect on the bestowal of bounty, and so finally to ponder over the favour of His compassion and His continuing to bestow bounties.

THE SIXTH PHRASE:

“He alone grants life”

That is to say, He is the giver of life. And it is He who causes life to continue by means of sustenance. He also supplies the necessities of life. And it is to Him that the exalted aims of life pertain and its important results look, and His are ninety-nine out of a hundred of its fruits.

Thus, this phrase calls out in this way to ephemeral, impotent man, it makes this joyful announcement:

O man! Do not trouble yourself by shouldering the heavy burdens of life. Do not think of the transience of life and start grieving. Do not see only its worldly and unimportant fruits and regret that you came to this world. For the life-machine in the ship of your being belongs to the Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One, and it is He who provides for all its expenses and requirements. Also, your life has a great many aims and results, and they pertain to Him, too. As for you, you are just a helmsman on the ship, so do your duty well and take the wage and pleasure that come with it. Think of just how precious is the life-ship and how valuable its benefits; then think of just how Generous and Merciful is the Owner of the ship. So rejoice and give thanks and know that when you perform your duty with integrity, all the results the ship produces will in one respect be transferred to the register of your actions, that they will secure an immortal life for you, will endow you with eternal life.

THE SEVENTH PHRASE:

“And deals death”

He is the one who causes death. He discharges you from the duty of life, changes your abode from this transitory world, and releases you from the labour of service. That is, He takes you from a transient life to an immortal one. This phrase, then, shouts out the following to ephemeral jinn and man:

Here is good news for you! Death is not destruction, or nothingness, or annihilation; it is not cessation or extinction; it is not eternal separation, or non- existence, or a chance event; it is not authorless obliteration. Rather, it is to be discharged by the Author who is All-Wise and All-Compassionate; it is a change of abode. It is to be despatched to eternal bliss, to your true home. It is the door of union to the Intermediate Realm, which is where you will meet with ninety-nine per cent of your friends.

THE EIGHTH PHRASE:

“And He is living and dies not”

That is to say, the Possessor of a beauty, perfection, and munificence that are infinitely superior to the beauty, perfection, and munificence to be seen in the creatures of the universe, and that arouse love; and an Eternal Object of Worship, an Everlasting Beloved, a single manifestation of whose beauty is sufficent to replace all other beloveds, has an enduring life through pre-eternity and post-eternity – a life free from any trace of cessation or ephemerality and exempt from any fault, defect, or imperfection.

Thus, this phrase proclaims to jinn and man, to all conscious beings, and the people of love and ardour:

Here is good news for you! There exists an Everlasting Beloved who will cure and bind the wounds caused you by countless separations from the ones you love. Since He exists and is undying, whatever happens do not fret over the others. Furthermore, the beauty and generosity, virtue and perfection to be seen in them, the cause of your love, are, passing through many veils, the shadows of the palest of shadows of the manifestation of the Ever-Enduring Beloved’s ever-enduring beauty. Do not grieve at their disappearance, for they are mirrors of a sort. The mirrors being changed renews and embellishes the manifestation of the Beauty’s radiance. Since He exists, everything exists.

THE NINTH PHRASE:

“All good is in His hand”

Every good action you perform is transferred to His register. Every righteous deed you do is recorded with Him.

Thus, this phrase calls out to jinn and mankind with the following good news:

O wretched ones! When you journey to the grave do not cry out in despair, “Alas! Everything we owned is destroyed, all our efforts are wasted; we have left the beautiful broad earth and entered the narrow grave,” for everything of yours is preserved, all your actions written down, every service you have rendered recorded. A Glorious One in whose hand is all good and who is able to bring all good to fruition, will reward your service: drawing you to Himself, He will keep you only temporarily under the ground. Later, He will bring you to His presence. What happiness for those of you who have completed their service and duty; your labour is finished, you are departing for ease and mercy! Service and toil are over, you are going to receive your wage!

The All-Powerful One of Glory preserves seeds and grains, which are the pages of the register of last spring’s deeds and the deposit-boxes of its services, and publishes them the following spring in glittering fashion, indeed, in a manner a hundred times more plentiful than the originals. The results of your life He is preserving in the same way, and will reward your service in a truly abundant fashion.

THE TENTH PHRASE:

“And He is Powerful over all things”

He is One, He is Unique, He has power over everything. Nothing at all is difficult for Him. To create the spring is as easy for Him as to create a flower, and He creates Paradise with as much ease as He creates the spring. The innumerable artefacts which He continuously creates every day, every year, every century, witness with numberless tongues to His boundless power.

Thus, this phrase too delivers good news:

O man! The service you have offered and the worship you have performed are not for nothing. A realm of reward, an abode of bliss, has been prepared for you. An unending Paradise is awaiting you in place of this fleeting world of yours. Have faith and confidence in the promise of the Glorious Creator whom you know and whom you worship, for it is impossible for Him to break His promise. In absolutely no respect is there any deficiency in His power; impotence cannot impede His works. Just as He creates your tiny garden, so He is able to create Paradise for you, and He has created it and promised it to you. And because He has promised, He shall, of course, admit you to it!

We observe every year on the face of the earth that He gathers together and disperses with perfect order and balance, with perfect timing and ease, more than three hundred thousand species and groups of animals and plants. Most certainly such an All-Powerful One of Glory is capable of carrying out His promise.

Since, being thus absolutely Powerful He creates samples of the resurrection and Paradise in thousands of forms every year; and since, promising eternal bliss through all His revealed scriptures, He gives the glad tidings of Paradise; and since all His actions and deeds are carried out with truth, veracity, and seriousness; and since, through the testimony of all His works of art, all perfections point to and testify to His infinite perfection, there being in absolutely no respect any defect or fault in Him; and since the breaking of a promise, lying, falsehood, and deception are the ugliest of qualities besides being defects and faults;

then most decidedly and most certainly that All-Powerful One of Glory, that All-Wise One of Perfection, that All-Merciful One of Beauty, will carry out His promise; He will open the gate to eternal bliss; He will admit you, O people of faith, to Paradise, which was the original home of your forefather Adam.

THE ELEVENTH PHRASE:

“And with Him all things have their end”

Human beings are sent to this world, the realm of trial and examination, with the important duties of trading and acting as officials. After they have concluded their transactions, accomplished their duties, and completed their service, they will return and meet once more with their Generous Master and Glorious Creator who sent them forth in the first place. Leaving this transient realm, they will be honoured and elevated to the presence of grandeur in the realm of permanence. That is to say, being delivered from the turbulence of causes and from the obscure veils of intermediaries, they will meet with their Merciful Sustainer without veil at the seat of His eternal majesty. Everyone will find his Creator, True Object of Worship, Sustainer, Lord, and Owner and will know Him directly.

Thus, this phrase proclaims the following joyful news, which is greater than all the rest:

O man! Do you know where you are going and where you are being driven? As is stated at the end of the Thirt y-Second Word, a thousand years of happy life in this world cannot be compared to one hour of life in Paradise. And a thousand years of life in Paradise cannot be compared to one hour’s vision of the sheer loveliness of the Beauteous One of Glory. You are going to the realm of His mercy, and to His presence. The loveliness and beauty in all the creatures of this world and in those worldly beloveds by which you are so stricken and obsessed and for which you are so desirous, are but a sort of shadow of the manifestation of His beauty and of the loveliness of His names; and all Paradise with all of its subtle wonders, a single manifestation of His mercy; and all longing and love and allurement and captivation, but a flash of the love of the Eternal Worshipful One and Everlasting Beloved. You are going to the sphere of His presence. You are being summoned to Paradise, which is an eternal feasting place. Since this is so, you should enter the grave not weeping, but smiling in expectation.

The phrase announces this good news as well:

O man! Do not be apprehensive, imagining that you are going to extinction, non-existence, nothingness, darkness, oblivion, decay, and dissolution, and that you will drown in multiplicity. You are going not to extinction, but to permanence. You are being impelled not to non- existence, but to perpetual existence. You are going to enter not darkness, but the world of light. And you are returning to your true owner, to the seat of the Pre-Eternal Monarch. You will not drown in multiplicity, you will take your rest in the realm of unity. You are bound not for separation, but for union.”

Second Station

[The Second Station proves divine unity at the level of the Greatest Name, briefl y and in summary form.]

THE FIRST PHRASE:

“There is no god but God” In this phrase is an affirmation of the unity of the Godhead and of the True Object of Worship. An extremely powerful proof of this degree is as follows:

A most orderly activity is apparent on the face of the universe, especially on the page of the earth. And we observe there a most wise creativit y. And we clearly see a systematic unfolding; that is, everything being expanded and revealed and given an appropriate shape and form. Furthermore, we see a most compassionate, generous, and merciful munificence and bountifulness. Since this is so, it of necessity proves, indeed provokes awareness of, the necessary existence and unity of an Active, Creative, Opening, and Munificent Possessor of Glory.

Indeed, the constant evanescence and renewal of beings demonstrate that those beings are the manifestations of the sacred names of an All-Powerful Maker, and are shadows of the lights of His names;

that they are works of art produced by His actions, and impressions and pages inscribed by the pen of divine determining (kader) and power; that they are mirrors reflecting the beauty of His perfection. Just as the Owner of the universe proves this mighty truth and exalted degree of the affirmation of His unity with all the scriptures and sacred books that He has revealed, so have the people of truth and the perfected members of the human race proved it through their investigations and discoveries.

The universe too points to this degree through the unceasing testimonies of the miracles of art, wonders of power, and treasuries of wealth that it displays, despite its impotence and poverty. That is to say, the scriptures and books of the Pre-Eternal Witness, and the investigations and unveilings of the people of witnessing, and the orderly states and wise and purposeful functions of the Manifest World are united in their agreement on this degree of the affirmation of divine unity.

Those who do not accept the Single One of Unity (Vâhid-i Ehad), therefore, must either accept innumerable gods, or else like the foolish Sophists, deny both their own existence and that of the universe.

THE SECOND PHRASE:

“He is One”

This phrase demonstrates an explicit degree of the affirmation of divine unity. A convincing and comprehensive argument proving it is as follows:

When we open our eyes, when the universe fastens our gaze on its face, the first thing to attract our attention is a universal and perfect order; we see that there is a comprehensive, sensitive equilibrium; everything exists within a precise order and delicate balance and measure.

When we look a little more carefully, a continual ordering and balancing strike our eye. That is to say, someone is changing the order with regularity and renewing the balance with measuredness. Everything is a model and is clothed in a great many orderly balanced forms.

When we study it even more closely, a wisdom and justice appear behind the ordering and balancing. A purpose and benefit are considered, a truth, a usefulness are followed in the motion of everything, even the minutest particles.

When we study it with even greater attention, what strikes the gaze of our consciousness is the demonstration of a power within an extremely wise activity, and the manifestation of a comprehensive knowledge that encompasses all things together with all their attributes.

That is to say, the order and balance in all beings show us plainly a universal ordering and balancing; and the ordering and balancing show us a universal wisdom and justice; and the wisdom and justice in turn show us a power and knowledge. That is, it is apparent that behind these veils is One Powerful over all things who has Knowledge of all things.

Furthermore, we look to the beginning and end of everything, and we see, particularly in animate creatures, that their beginnings, origins, and roots are such that it is as if their seeds contain all the systems and members of those creatures, each in the form of an instruction sheet and timetable. Then their fruits and results are such that the meanings of those animate creatures are filtered and concentrated in them; they bequeath their life histories to them. It is as if their seeds are collections of the principles according to which they were given existence, and their fruits and results a sort of index of the commands that brought them into existence. Then we look to the outer and inner faces of those animate creatures: the free disposal of an utterly wise power and the fashioning and ordering of an utterly effective will are apparent. That is, a strength and power create; a command and will clothe with form.

Thus, when we study beings attentively, we observe that their beginnings are instruction sheets prepared by One Possessing Knowledge, and that their ends are plans and manifestos of a Maker; that their outer faces are beautifully proportioned dresses of artistry devised by One who Chooses and Wills, and their inner faces, well-designed machines of an All-Powerful One.

This situation, therefore, necessarily and self-evidently proclaims that no time and no place, absolutely nothing, can be outside the grip of power of one single Glorious Maker. Each thing and all things together with all of their attributes are planned and directed within the grip of power of an All-Powerful Possessor of Will; they are made beautiful through the ordering and graciousness of a Merciful and Compassionate One; and they are embellished with the adorning of a Loving Benefactor.

Indeed, for anyone who is intelligent and has eyes in his head, the order and equilibrium, and ordering and adorning in the universe and in the beings within it demonstrate, at the degree of unity, One who is Single, Sole, Solitary, Unique, All- Powerful, Possessing of Will, All-Knowing, and All-Wise.

Assuredly, there is a unity in everything, and as for unity, it points to one. For example, the whole world is illuminated by one lamp, the sun; in which case, the world’s Owner is One and the same. And, for example, all the animate creatures on the earth are served by air, fire, and water, which are the same. Since this is so, the One who employs them and subjugates them to us is also One.

THE THIRD PHRASE:

“He has no partner”

This phrase is proved cogently and brilliantly in the First Station of the Thirty- Second Word, so we refer you to that. It cannot be more clearly elucidated; there is no need for further explanation.

THE FOURTH PHRASE:

“His is the dominion”

That is, every creature from the face of the earth to the Divine Throne, from the ground to the Pleiades, from the minutest particles to the heavenly bodies, everything from pre-eternity to post-eternity, the heavens and the earth, this world and the hereafter, belongs to Him.

His is the highest degree of ownership in the form of the greatest affirmation of divine unity (tevhid-i âzam). A mighty proof of this was imparted to this powerless one’s mind in Arabic at a pleasant time in pleasant circumstances. For the sake of that pleasant memory we shall note down those same phrases, then write their meanings:

His is the dominion because: the macrocosm is similar to the microcosm; what is fashioned by His power is a missive expressing His determining;

His creating the macrocosm makes it as a place of prostration, while His giving of existence to the microcosm makes it as prostrating; His bringing the former into being makes it as a property, while His giving of existence to the latter makes it as owned; His art in the former displays it as a book, while His colouring in the latter shines through speech; His power in the former reveals His majesty, while His mercy in the latter arrays His bounty; His majesty in the former testifies that He is One, while His bounty in the latter proclaims that He is Single, Undivided;

His stamp on the former is on all things, universal and particular, while His seal on the latter is on the body and on the limbs.

First Section:

“The macrocosm is similar to the microcosm; what is fashioned by His power is a missive expressing His determining.” That is to say, the macrocosm, which is called the universe, and the microcosm, which is its miniature specimen and is called man, point to evidences of divine unity, both within man’s self and outside it, that are written by the pens of divine power and divine determining.

There is within man the sample, on a very small scale, of the orderly art which is in the universe. And as the art that is present in the vast sphere testifies to the Single Maker, so the microscopic art which is on a tiny scale in man points to the Maker and demonstrates His unity.

Moreover, as man is a meaningful missive inscribed by his Sustainer, and a well-composed ode written by divine determining, so is the universe a well-composed ode written by that same pen, but on a vast scale.

Is it at all possible that anything other than the Single One of Unity could have a hand in placing the stamp of uniqueness on men’s faces, which, although they resemble one another, all have their distinguishing marks; and have a hand in setting the seal of unity on the universe, all of whose creatures co-operate, helping and supporting one another? Could anything interfere in this?

Second Section:

“His creating the macrocosm makes it as a place of prostration, while His giving of existence to the microcosm makes it as prostrating.” It has this meaning: the All-Wise Maker created the macrocosm in such a novel, wonderful form, inscribing on it the signs of His grandeur, that He transformed it into a mighty mosque. And He created man in this way: giving him intellect and causing him to prostrate in wonderment with it at those miracles of His art and at His wondrous power, He caused him to read the signs of His grandeur. Thus girding him ready for worship in that mighty mosque, He created him as a prostrating slave.

Is it at all possible that the true object of worship of those prostrating worshippers in this mighty mosque could be other than the One, Single Maker?

Third Section:

“His bringing the former into being makes it as a property, while His giving of existence to the latter makes it as owned.” It has this meaning: the Glorious Lord of All Dominion created the macrocosm, and especially the face of the earth, so that it resembles countless concentric circles or spheres. Every sphere is like an arable field where, minute by minute, season by season, century by century, He sows, reaps, and harvests crops. He continuously administers His property, and works it.

He has made the world of minute particles, the largest sphere, into a field. With His power and with His wisdom, He unceasingly sows crops in it to the extent of the universe, and reaps and harvests them. He despatches them from the Manifest World to the World of the Unseen; from the sphere of power to the sphere of knowledge.

Next He has made the face of the earth, which is a medium sphere, a place of cultivation in exactly the same way, where, season by season, He plants worlds, species, and reaps and harvests them. His immaterial crops too He sends to the immaterial worlds, to the Worlds of the Unseen, and the hereafter, and the World of Similitudes.

A garden, too, which is a smaller sphere, He fills hundreds and thousands of times with power and empties with wisdom.

And from the even smaller sphere of an animate creature, a tree or a human being, for example, He harvests crops that are a hundred times greater than the being itself.

That is to say, the Glorious Lord of All Dominion creates all things, great and small, universal and particular, as models, and clothes them in hundreds of ways in the weavings of His art, which are embroidered with continuously renewed inscriptions; He displays the manifestations of His names, the miracles of His power. He has created everything in His property as a page; He writes meaningful letters in hundreds of ways on each page; He displays His wisdom, His signs, and He invites intelligent creatures to read them.

In addition to bringing the macrocosm into being in the form of a cultivated property, He has created man and has given him such tools and abilities, senses, feelings, and especially such a soul, such desires, needs, appetities, greed and claims, that in that extensive property he is like a totally owned creature who is in need of all of it.

Is it therefore at all possible that anything apart from the Glorious Lord of All Dominion, who makes everything from the vast world of minute particles to a fly, as a field and cultivated property, and makes insignificant man a spectator, inspector, tiller, merchant, herald, worshipper, and slave in that vast property and takes him as an honoured guest and beloved addressee of Himself – could anything other than Him have free disposal over the property and be lord over the totally owned slave?

Fourth Section:

“His art in the former displays it as a book, while His colouring in the latter shines through speech.” Its meaning is this: the Glorious Maker’s art in the macrocosm is so meaningful that because it is manifested in the form of a book, thus making the universe into a huge volume, the human intellect has extracted the library of true natural science and philosophy from it and has written the library accordingly. And that book of wisdom is bound to reality and draws assistance from reality to such a degree that it has been proclaimed in the form of the All-Wise Qur’an, which is a copy of that huge manifested book.

Moreover, just as His art in the universe is in the form of a book, describing its perfect orderedness, so too His colouring and the inscription of His wisdom in man has opened the flower of speech. That is, His art is so meaningful, sensitive, and beautiful that it has caused the components of that animate machine to speak as though they were gramophones. It has given man such a dominical colouring in his “fairest of forms” that the flower of speech and expression, which is immaterial, insubstantial and living, has opened in his material, corporeal and solid head. And it has equipped the power of speech and expression, which is situated in man’s head, with such exalted tools and abilities that it has caused it to develop and progress to a degree whereat he becomes the addressee of the Pre-Eternal Monarch. That is, the dominical colouring in man’s essential nature has opened the flower of divine address.

Is it at all possible that anything other than the Single One of Unity could interfere in that art in creatures, which is so high as to be in the form of a book, and in that colouring in man whereby he attains to the station of speech and address? God forbid!

Fifth Section:

“His power in the former reveals His majesty, while His mercy in the latter arrays His bounty.” It has this meaning: divine power in the macrocosm demonstrates the majesty of His dominicality, whereas dominical mercy arrays His bounties in man, who is the microcosm.

That is, the Maker’s power, in respect of grandeur and glory (celâl), creates the universe in the form of a palace so magnificent that its sun is a mighty electric light, its moon, a lamp, and its stars, candles, gilded fruits and scattered lights. While the face of the earth is a laden table, an arable field, a garden, a carpet; and its mountains, each a storehouse, a mast, a fortress; and so on. He demonstrates the majesty of His dominicality in brilliant fashion by, on a vast scale, making all things into the huge palace’s necessities;

and His mercy, in respect of beauty (cemâl), bestows on all creatures with spirits, and even on the minutest animate creatures, the varieties of His bounties, ordering their beings with them. He adorns them from head to toe with the bounties, embellishing them abundantly, munificently. He has counterpoised the beauty of His mercy and that glorious majesty, those microscopic tongues and that vast tongue.

That is, while the huge heavenly bodies like the suns and constellations are proclaiming with the tongue of majesty: “O Glorious One! O Mighty One! O August One!”, those tiny animate creatures, like flies and fishes, are declaring, but with the tongue of mercy: “O Beautiful One! O Compassionate One! O Generous One!”; they are adding their gentle songs to that great orchestra, sweetening it.

Is it at all possible that anything other than the All-Glorious One of Beauty and All-Beauteous One of Glory could have any part in the creation of the macrocosm and microcosm? God forbid!

Sixth Section:

“His majesty in the former testifies that He is One, while His bounty in the latter proclaims that he is Single.” Its meaning is this: just as the majesty of dominicality, which is manifested in the totality of the universe, proves and demonstrates divine unity (vahdâniyet), so dominical bounty, which bestows on the members of animate creatures their regular provisions, proves and demonstrates divine oneness (ehadiyet).

As for unity, it is to say that all those creatures belong to One and they look to One and they are the creation of One.

Whereas by oneness is meant that most of the names of the Creator of all things are manifested in all beings.

For example, the light of the sun may be seen as analogous to unity by reason of its comprehending the face of the earth. While the fact that its light and heat, the seven colours in its light and some sort of shadow of it are found in all transparent objects and drops of water makes them analogous to oneness. And the fact that most of the Maker’s names are manifested in each single thing, especially in each animate creature, and above all in man, points to oneness.

Thus, this section indicates that the majesty of dominicality (rubûbiyet), which has total disposal over the universe, makes the huge sun a servant, a lamp, and a stove for animate creatures on the face of the earth; and makes the mighty earth a cradle, a hostel, and place of trade for them; and fire, a cook and friend present everywhere; and clouds, strainers and wet-nurses; and mountains, storehouses and treasuries; and the air, a fan for animate creatures, for breathing in and out; and water, a nurse who suckles new arrivals to life and a seller of sweet drinks who supplies animals with the water of life; this divine dominicality demonstrates divine unity most lucidly.

Indeed, who other than the One Creator could subjugate the sun so that it is a servant of the inhabitants of the earth? And who other than the Single One of Unity could take the wind in His hand entrusting it with a great many duties and employing it as a swift and agile servant on the face of the earth? And who apart from the Single One of Unity would have the ability to make fire a cook, and to cause a tiny flame the size of a match-head to consume thousands of tons of goods? And so on. Every single thing, every single element, every single heavenly body, points to the All-Glorious One of Unity, at the degree of the majesty of dominicality.

Thus, as divine unity is apparent in respect of glory and majesty, so bounty and munificence proclaim divine oneness in respect of beauty and mercy. This is because, within this all-embracing art, animate creatures and especially man possess the faculties and abilities to understand, accept, and desire the infinite varieties of bounties, and to reflect all the divine names manifested in the universe. Simply, like a point of focus, man displays all the Beautiful Names together by means of his mirror- like essence, and through it, proclaims God’s oneness.

Seventh Section:

“His stamp on the former is on all things, universal and particular, while His seal on the latter is on the body and on the limbs.”

Its meaning is this: just as the Glorious Maker has a mighty stamp on the macrocosm as a whole, so He has put a stamp of unity on each of its parts and species. And just as he has set the seal of unity on the face and body of each human being, the microcosm, so on each of their limbs is a seal of His unity.

Indeed, the All-Powerful One of Glory has placed on everything, on universals and on particulars, on stars and on particles, a stamp of unity which bears witness to Him. On each he has set a seal of unity which points to Him. This greatest of truths having been elucidated and proved most brilliantly and decisively in the Twenty- Second Word, the Thirty-Second Word, and the Thirty-Three Windows of the Thirty- Third Letter, we refer you to those and cutting short the discussion, conclude it here.

THE FIFTH PHRASE:

“His is the praise”

Since the perfections found in all being, which are the cause of acclaim and tribute, are His, praise too belongs to Him. All acclaim and laudation belongs to Him, from whomever to whomever it has come and will come from pre-eternity to post- eternity. For bounty, munificence, perfection, and beauty, which are the causes of acclaim, and everything that gives rise to praise, are His, they belong to Him.

Indeed, as the Qur’an indicates, worship, glorification, prostration, supplication, and praise and laudation rise continuously, unceasingly, from all beings to the divine court. The following is a comprehensive proof which sets forth this truth affirming divine unity.

When we look at the universe, it appears to us in the form of a park set with gardens, its roof gilded with lofty stars, its ground inhabited by ornamented beings. When we see it thus, we observe that the orderly, luminous, lofty heavenly bodies and purposive, ornamented earthly beings in this park are all saying, each in its particular tongue: “We are the miracles of power of an All-Powerful One of Glory; we testify to the unity of an All-Wise Creator, an Omnipotent Maker.”

Then we look at the globe of the earth within the park of the universe and we see it in the form of a garden in which uncountable varieties of multicoloured, beautifully adorned flowering plants have been laid out and through which innumerable species of animals have been scattered.

In this garden of the earth, all these adorned plants and decorated animals proclaim through their well-ordered forms and balanced shapes: “We are each of us a miracle, a wonder of art, created by a Single All-Wise Maker; each of us heralds His unity and is a witness to His unity.”

Moreover, looking at the trees in the garden, we see fruits and flowers in various forms which have been made knowingly, wisely, generously, subtly, and beautifully to the utmost degree. And they are proclaiming unanimously: “We are the miraculous gifts of a Compassionate One of Beauty, a Merciful One of Perfection; we are wondrous bounties.”

Thus, the heavenly bodies and beings in the park of the universe, and the plants and animals in the garden of the earth, and the blossom and fruits on its trees and plants, testify and proclaim in an infinitely resounding voice:

“Our Creator and Fashioner, the All-Powerful One of Beauty, the Peerless All-Wise One, the All- Generous Granter of Favours, who bestowed us as gifts, is powerful over all things. Nothing at all is difficult for Him. Nothing at all is outside the bounds of His power. In relation to His power minute particles and stars are equal. A universal is as simple as a particular, while a particular is as valuable as a universal. The largest is as easy as the smallest in relation to His power, and the small is as full of art as the large; indeed, as far as art is concerned, the small is greater than the large.

“All the occurrences of the past, which are wonders of His power, testify that that Absolutely Powerful One is also powerful over the wonders of the future and its contingencies. Just as the one who brought about yesterday will bring about tomorrow, so the All-Powerful One who created the past will also create the future. The All-Wise Maker who made this world, will also make the hereafter. “Yes, just as the All-Powerful One of Glory is the only one truly deserving of worship; so He is the only one deserving of praise. Just as worship is exclusively His, so are praise and laudation His alone.”

Is it at all possible that an All-Wise Maker who created the heavens and the earth would leave without purpose human beings, who are their most important result and the most perfect fruit of the universe? Is it at all possible that He would hand them over to causes and chance, that He would transform His self-evident wisdom into futility? God forbid!

Is it at all possible that having planned then formed a tree, giving it the utmost importance, and having administered it and raised it with the greatest wisdom, someone who was wise and knowing would ignore its fruits, which are its aim and purpose? Would he attach no importance to them, and leave them either for thieves or to rot scattered on the ground? Of course it would be impossible. It is because of its fruit that the tree is given importance.

Now, man is the intelligent being of the universe and its most perfect fruit, result, and aim. Is it possible that the universe’s All-Wise Maker would give to others the praise and worship, and thanks and love, which are the fruits of its intelligent and conscious fruits, thus causing His self-evident wisdom to be nullified, His absolute power transformed into impotence, and His all-encompassing knowledge converted into ignorance? God forbid! A hundred thousand times!

Since intelligent beings are the pivot of the dominical aims in the palace of the universe, and man is the most eminent of intelligent beings, is it at all possible that the thanks and worship he offers in response to the bounties he receives should go to anyone other than the palace’s Maker, and that the Glorious Maker would permit the thanks and worship due to Him, which are the ultimate aim of man’s creation, to go to another?

Moreover, is it at all possible that He would make Himself loved by intelligent beings through the endless varieties of His bounties, and that He would make Himself known to them through the innumerable miracles of His art, and then, attaching no importance to them, abandon to causes and nature their thanks and worship, their praise and love, their recognition and gratitude. Is it at all possible that He would make His absolute wisdom denied and the sovereignty of His dominicality nullified? God forbid! A hundred thousand times, God forbid!

Is it at all possible that one who cannot create a spring, and cannot create all fruits, and cannot create all the apples on earth, the stamp on which is the same, could create one apple, which is a miniature specimen of all of them, and give it to someone to eat as a bounty? Is it possible that he should claim thanks for it and thus share in the praise due to the one absolutely deserving of praise? God forbid! For whoever creates one apple is he who creates all the apples produced in the whole world; for their stamp is the same.

Moreover, whoever creates all the apples is again the one who creates all the seeds and fruits in the world, which are the source of food. That is to say, the one who gives the tiniest bounty to the least significant animate creature is directly the universe’s Creator and its Glorious Provider. Since this is so, thanks and praise are His directly. Since this is so, the reality of the universe declares unceasingly with the tongue of truth:

“All the praise offered by all beings from pre-eternity to post-eternit y is due to Him alone!”

THE SIXTH PHRASE:

“He grants life”

That is, it is He alone who gives life, in which case it is also He alone who creates all things. For life is the spirit, light, leaven, foundation, result, and summary of the universe, so whoever grants life must also be the universe’s Creator.

It must be He who grants life, then, the Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One. We therefore point out as follows a mighty proof of this degree of the affirmation of divine unity: As has been explained and proved in another part of the Risale-i Nur, we see before us the magnificent army of animate beings with their tents pitched on the plain of the face of the earth. Every spring we behold a new army emerging from the World of the Unseen, freshly mobilized; one of the innumerable armies of the Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One. Observing this army, we see within it more than two hundred thousand different nations from the plant families, and more than one hundred thousand from the animal tribes. Although the uniforms of each tribe and family, as well as their provisions, drill, discharge, arms, and period of service are all different, anyone who has eyes in his head will see, and having seen will be unable to deny, that a commander-in-chief provides all these different needs with perfect orderliness and precise balance at exactly the right time; and he does this through his infinite power and wisdom, his boundless knowledge and will, his unending mercy, his inexhaustible treasuries, without forgetting a single one of them, or confusing or mixing-up or delaying any of them.

Is it at all possible, then, that anything could meddle, interfere, or have a share in this giving of life and administering, in this nurturing and sustaining, other than one who possesses knowledge comprehensive enough to encompass the army together with all of its affairs, and the absolute power to manage it in addition to providing all its necessities? God forbid! A hundred thousand times!

It is obvious that if there are ten tribes in one battalion, impotent human beings would be compelled to equip them in a single fashion because to equip them all separately would be as difficult as equipping ten battalions. The Ever-Living and Self- Subsistent One, however, provides the equipment necessary for the lives of the more than three hundred thousand different tribes within that magnificent army. And He does this with no trouble or difficulty, in a light and easy manner, most wisely and maintaining orderliness. He causes the mighty army to declare with one tongue: “It is He Who gives life,”(23:80) and the vast congregation in the mosque of the universe to recite: God, there is no god save Him, the Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One. Neither slumber overtakes Him nor sleep. His is all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth. Who is there that could intercede with Him, except by His leave? He knows all that lies open before men and all that is hidden from them, whereas they cannot attain to aught of His knowledge save that which He wills. His Throne extends over the heavens and the earth, and He feels no weariness in preserving them. And He alone is Truly Exalted, Tremendous.(2:255)

THE SEVENTH PHRASE:

“And deals death”

It is He who causes death. That is, just as it is He who grants life, so it is again He who takes life and grants death. Indeed, death is not only destruction and extinction that it may be attributed to causes or nature. Just as a seed superficially dies and rots while inside it a shoot is being kneaded and is coming to life, that is, it is passing from the particular life of a seed to the universal life of a shoot; so too, although death is apparently disintegration and banishment, in reality, for human beings it is the sign, introduction, and starting point of perpetual life. In which case, the Absolutely Powerful One who grants and administers life must certainly be the One who creates death.

The following points to a might y proof of this, the greatest degree of the affirmation of divine unity, contained in this phrase.

As is explained in the Twenty-Fourth Window of the Thirty-Third Letter, through divine will, all beings are flowing. At its Sustainer’s command, the universe is in continuous motion. With divine permission, all creatures are unceasingly flowing in the river of time; they are being sent from the World of the Unseen; they are being clothed in external existence in the Manifest world; then they are being poured in orderly fashion into the World of the Unseen, and it is there that they alight. At their Sustainer’s command, they continuously come from the future, stop by in passing pausing for a breath, and are poured into the past.

This flood of creatures is being made from top to bottom with instances of wisdom, benefits, results, and aims within the sphere of a most wise mercy and munificence; as is this constant travelling, within the sphere of a most knowledgeable wisdom and orderliness; and this current, within the sphere of a most compassionate solicitude and equilibrium.

That is to say, an All-Powerful One of Glory, an All-Wise One of Perfection, is continuously giving life to and employing the families of beings, and the individuals within each family, and the worlds that those families form. Then, with His wisdom He discharges them, manifests death and despatches them to the World of the Unseen. He transfers them from the realm of power to the realm of knowledge.

Is it then at all possible that one who does not have the ability to administer the universe in its totality, whose authority does not stretch throughout time, whose power is not sufficient to make the world manifest life and death like a single individual, who cannot bestow life on the spring as though it were a single flower, attach it to the face of the earth and then pluck it from it with death and gather it up, could such a one be the owner of death and the granter of death? Yes, the death of the lowliest animate being, even, like its life, must necessarily occur according to the law of the Glorious One in whose hand are all the truths of life and varieties of death, and with His permission, and at His command, and through His power, and with His knowledge.

THE EIGHTH PHRASE:

“And He is living and dies not”

That is, His life is perpetual, it is pre-eternal and post-eternal. Death and evanescence, non-existence and cessation, cannot befall Him. He who is pre-eternal must certainly be post-eternal.

He who is sempiternal must certainly be eternally enduring. He who is necessarily existent, must certainly be without beginning or end.

How could non-existence touch a life of which all existence, in all its varieties, is its shadow?

Non-existence and ephemeralit y and cessation could in no way encroach on a life through whose manifestation all lives continuously come into being, on which all the stable truths of the universe are dependent, and through which they subsist.

Yes, one flash of that life’s manifestation accords a unity to the multiplicity of things, all of which are subject to decline and decease, and makes them display permanence; it saves them from dispersal, preserves their existence, manifests in them a sort of continuance.

That is, life accords a unity to multiplicity; it makes it permanent. If life departs, the unity disintegrates, it ceases. Most certainly, ephemerality and transience cannot impinge on that necessary life, from a single manifestation of which all those innumerable flashes of life proceed.

Decisive witnesses to this truth are the transience and ephemerality of the universe. That is, through their existence and lives,(*)beings bear witness to and point to the life of the Undying Ever-Living One and to the necessary existence of His life, and through their deaths and their ephemerality they bear witness to and point to the perpetuity of His life and its eternity. For the fact that on the demise of beings others follow on after them, manifesting life like them and taking their places, demonstrates that there is an unceasingly living being who continuously renews life’s manifestation.

Bubbles on the surface of a flowing river sparkle in the sun and disappear. Troop after troop of bubbles appear, following on one after another. They display the same sparkle, are extinguished and vanish. Sparkling and being extinguished in this way, they point to the continuance of an elevated, enduring sun. Similarly, the alternation of life and death in these constantly moving beings testifies to the continuance and perpetualness of an Ever-Living Ever-Enduring One.

Yes, beings are mirrors. As darkness is the mirror to light, showing up the light’s brilliance to the degree of its intensity, so due to the contrast of opposites beings act as mirrors in many respects. For example, beings act as mirrors to the Maker’s power through their impotence and to His riches through their poverty; similarly, they act as mirrors to His everlastingness through their ephemerality. Through their povert in wintertime and glittering wealth and riches in springtime, trees and the face of the earth act as mirrors in most unequivocal fashion to the power and mercy of an Absolutely Powerful One, a Possessor of Absolute Riches.

It is as though all things are making supplication together with Uways al-Qarani through the tongues of their beings, and are saying:

“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!

That is to say, the One who creates us and bestows on us our provisions is You! And it is You who is the Owner, because we are totally owned property; someone other than us has power of disposal over us.

That is to say, it is You who is our Owner! And You, You are Mighty! You possess grandeur and sublimity! As for us we look to our baseness and see that on us are manifestations of a mightiness. That is to say, we are mirrors to Your mightiness!

And it is You who possesses Absolute Riches, because we are utterly wanting and riches are bestowed on us that our indigent hands could not obtain. That is to say, it is You who is rich, the One who gives is You!

And You, You are Ever-Living, Ever-Enduring, because we, we are dying, and in our dying and in our being resurrected we see the manifestation of a perpetual giver of life!

Yes, You, You are Ever-Enduring, because we see Your continuation and perpetualness in our demise and transience!

And the One who responds to us and answers us, the Granter of Gifts is You. For all of us beings, we are ever crying out and requesting, entreating, imploring by tongue and by state. And our desires are brought about, our aims are achieved. In other words, the One who answers us is You!...” And so on.

All creatures, universal and particular, act as mirrors in a way that, like Uways al- Qarani, has the meaning of supplication. All proclaim divine power and perfection through their impotence and poverty and deficiency.

THE NINTH PHRASE:

“All good is in His hand”

That is to say, all good things are in His hand, all good deeds are in His account book, all beneficence is in His treasury. Since this is so, those desiring good must seek it from Him, those wishing for what is best must beseech Him.

In order to demonstrate the truth of this phrase conclusively, we shall point out signs and flashes from one of the many far-reaching evidences of divine knowledge, as follows:

The Maker who controls and creates with the acts that are apparent in the universe has all-encompassing knowledge, and such knowledge is His particular, inherent and necessary quality. Its separation from Him is impossible. In the same way that it is not possible for the sun to exist but for its light not to exist, it is also not possible, though thousands of times more so, for the knowledge of the Being who creates these well-ordered beings to be separated from Him. Such all-comprehending knowledge is necessary to that Being; it is also necessary to all things in so far as they are connected to Him. That is to say, it is not possible for anything to be hidden from Him. Just as it is not possible for objects on the face of the earth to face the sun with no barrier and not see it, so is it a thousand times less possible, it is impossible, for things to be hidden from the light of the All- Knowing One of Glory’s knowledge.For they are in his presence. That is, everything is within the range of His sight, is before Him, is within the compass of His witnessing; He penetrates into all things.If such possessors of light as the inanimate sun, impotent man, and unconscious X-rays can see and penetrate everything that faces them although they are contingent, defective and accidental, surely nothing at all can remain hidden from or be beyond the light of pre-eternal knowledge, which is necessary, all-encompassing, and essential.

The universe contains incalculable signs and marks pointing to this truth, as may be seen in the following examples:

All the instances of wisdom apparent in beings point to such knowledge.

For He who performs His works kindly and graciously must know; He must know what He is doing.

And all well-ordered beings, each with balance, and all finely balanced and measured shapes and forms, each with order, also indicate such all-encompassing knowledge. For to carry out work with wisdom means to do it with knowledge. And all favour and adornment point to such knowledge.

For he who works skilfully and in a measured and balanced way is surely relying on a powerful knowledge. And the regular measuredness apparent in beings, their shapes cut out with a view to purposes and benefits, and the fruitful situations and assemblages as though arranged according the principles of divine decree and the compasses of divine determining, all demonstrate an all-embracing knowledge. For sure, it is by virtue of all-encompassing knowledge that each thing is given an ordered, distinct form, as well as a particular shape that is appropriate and beneficial to its life and existence; it could not occur any other way.

Also, it is only through all-embracing knowledge that the sustenance of animate creatures is provided in a suitable form, at the appropriate time, from unexpected places. Because, since the One who sends the sustenance knows and recognizes those who are in need of it, and the appropriate time to send it, and perceives their need, He is able to provide their sustenance in a suitable form.

Also, although it is not clear to the creatures themselves, the appointed hour of their deaths, which is tied to a law of determination, demonstrates a comprehensive knowledge. For although its time does not appear to be determined, the death of all groups and individuals is appointed within a period of time with a beginning and an end. The fact that the seeds, fruits and results of a thing are preserved at the time of death, since they will continue its duties after it and are the means of its transformation into a new life, demonstrates an all-encompassing knowledge.

Also, mercy’s benevolence, which encompasses all beings and is in a form appropriate to each, demonstrates all-embracing knowledge within vast mercy. For the One who feeds the offspring of animate creatures with milk, for example, and assists the plants of the earth needy for water with rain, most certainly knows the young and their needs, and sees the plants, perceives how necessary rain is for them and then sends it; and so on. All the manifestations of wise kindly mercy demonstrate all-comprehensive knowledge.

Also, the care and attention, the artistic fashioning and skilful decoration and art in all things demonstrate all-embracing knowledge. For it is only through a profound knowledge that an orderly, adorned, artistic, and purposeful state can be chosen from among thousands of possible states. The choice apparent in all beings demonstrates all-encompassing knowledge.

Also, the total ease in the creation and origination of things points to perfect knowledge. For the facility in achieving a certain situation is commensurate with the degree of knowledge and skill. However well it is known, it will be achieved with that degree of ease.

Thus, we see that beings, every one of which is a miracle of art, are created easily, without trouble or confusion, in a short period of time, in a wondrous, yet miraculous, fashion. That is to say, there is infinite knowledge, since it finds expression through infinite ease; and so on.

There are thousands of veracious signs like those mentioned in the examples above indicating that the Being who has free disposal over the universe possesses all- encompassing knowledge; that He knows all the attributes of all beings, then he acts.

Since the universe’s Owner has such a knowledge, He surely sees human beings and their actions, and He knows what human beings deserve and what is appropriate for them. And He deals with them and will deal with them in accordance with the requirements of wisdom and mercy.

O man! Come to your senses! Think carefully of just what sort of Being it is who knows you and watches you; think of it and pull yourself together!

If it is asked:Knowledge alone is not sufficient; will is also necessary. If there were no will, knowledge would be insufficient, wouldn’t it?

The Answer:All beings both indicate and testify to all-encompassing knowledge, and they point to the comprehensive will of the one possessing that knowledge. It is as follows:

While hesitating among great numbers of possibilities, an ordered individuality is given to all things, especially to animate beings, through a determined probability from among a great host of muddled probabilities, and through a productive way from among a great many fruitless ways.

This demonstrates a universal will of many facets. Measured shapes and well-ordered identities have been given to all things in a most sensitive, delicate measure and with a most fine and subtle order. They have been given these from among the inanimate elements which flow without balance in confused, monotonous floods, and from among the barren, fruitless paths and endless possibilities that surround all beings. This necessarily and self-evidently demonstrates that they are the works of a comprehensive will.

For choosing innumerable states occurs by means of a designation, a choice, a purpose, and a will. Deliberate intention and desire specify them. Specifying requires a specifier and choice requires a chooser. And that specifier and chooser is will.

For example, the creation of a being like man, who resembles a machine assembled from hundreds of different components and systems, from a drop of water; and the creation of a bird with its hundreds of different members out of a simple egg; and the creation of a tree, which is separated into hundreds of different parts, out of a simple seed – the creation of these testify to power and knowledge, just as they indicate decisively and necessarily their Maker’s universal will. And with that will He gives a distinct, particular shape to every component, every member, every part. He clothes them in a chosen state.

In Short:Just as there are between different things many resemblances and coincidences with regard to their essentials and results, for example, between the major members and organs of animals’ bodies, and they display a single stamp of unity, indicating decisively that all animals have the same Maker who is One, Single, and possesses Unity; so too the different identities and distinct features of the animals, all determined in accordance with wisdom and purpose, shows that their Single Maker acts with choice and will. He does what He wishes to do, He does not do what He does not wish to do; He acts with intention and will.

There are as many indications of and attestations to divine knowledge and dominical will as there are beings, indeed as the beings’ attributes and qualities. Therefore, some philosophers denying divine will, and some of those who favour innovation denying divine determining, and some of the people of misguidance claiming that God is not concerned with minor matters, and the naturalists attributing some things to nature and causes, are lies multiplied to the number of beings and a lunacy of misguidance compounded to the number of those beings’ attributes. For whoever denies the innumerable instances of their veracious witnessing is telling a lie of infinite proportions.

So, you can see for yourself just how mistaken and contrary to the truth it is to say of events, all of which come into existence through divine will, “Naturally, naturally,” instead of, “God willing, God willing.”

THE TENTH PHRASE:

“And He is powerful over all things”

That is to say, absolutely nothing at all is difficult for Him. However many things there are in the sphere of contingency, He is able to clothe all of them in existence most easily. It is so simple and easy for Him that according to the meaning of,

His command is only, when He wills a thing to be, He but says to it, “Be!” and it is, (36:82) He only has to command and it is done.

As soon as a skilful artist puts his hand to his work, it functions smoothly like a machine. One could say in order to express his speed and skill, that the work of art is so closely under his control that it is as if at his command, at his touch, the pieces appear, the works of art come into existence.

In the same way, the verse states: “His command is only, when He wills a thing to be, He but says to it ‘Be!’, and it is,” alluding to the absolute subjugation and obedience of all things to the power of the All-Powerful One of Glory, and the absolute ease and lack of trouble with which His power functions. We shall elucidate in five points five of the innumerable mysteries contained in this mighty truth.

The First

In relation to divine power the greatest thing is as easy as the smallest. The creation of a species with all of its members is as easy and trouble-free as the creation of a single member. It is as easy to create Paradise as the spring and it is as easy to create the spring as a flower.

This mystery has been explained and proved with the six comparisons – the Mystery of Luminosity, the Mystery of Transparency, the Mystery of Reciprocity, the Mystery of Balance, the Mystery of Order, the Mystery of Obedience, and the Mystery of Disengagedness – at the end of the Tenth Word, which is about the resurrection of the dead, and in the discussion also about the resurrection in the Second Aim of the Twent y-Ninth Word, which is about the angels, the immortality of man’s spirit, and the resurrection. It has been demonstrated in these that in relation to divine power the stars are as easy as atoms and that innumerable individuals are created as easily as one individual. Since these mysteries have been proved in those two Words, we refer you to them and cut short the discussion here.

The Second

A decisive, self-evident proof that everything is equal in relation to divine power is this:

we see with our own eyes in the creation of animals and plants the highest degree of mastery and exquisiteness of art despite the infinite multiplicity and liberality;

and the greatest distinction and differentiation within the utmost confusion and intermingling;

and the highest worth as regards art and supreme beauty as regards creation within the greatest abundance and profusion.

While needing much equipment and much time, they are created with the utmost ease and speed with the greatest art. Simply, those miracles of art come into existence suddenly and out of nothing.

Thus, by observing this activity of power every season on the face of the earth, we see that it establishes irrefutably that the greatest thing is as easy as the smallest in relation to the power that is the source of those actions, and that the creation and administration of innumerable individuals is as easy as the creation and administration of a single individual.

The Third

The vastest whole is as easy as the smallest part in relation to the power of the All-Powerful Maker who rules in the universe with actions, direction, and disposal that are clearly to be seen. The creation of a universal consisting of a multiplicity of individuals is as easy as the creation of a single particular, and in an insignificant particular, art of the highest worth may be displayed. This mystery and the wisdom in it arise from three sources:

Firstly: from the assistance of unity (vâhidiyet).

Secondly: from the facility of unity (vahdet).

Thirdly: from the manifestation of oneness (ehadiyet).

The Assistance of Unity, which is the first source: That is, if all things are the property of a single being, then as a result of unity, he can concentrate the power of all things behind any single thing and all can be administered as easily as one thing. We shall explain this mystery with a comparison in order to make it easier to understand:

For example, if a country has a single ruler, by reason of the law of his sole sovereignty (vahdet-i saltanat), he is able to mobilize the moral strength of the whole army behind every single soldier. And because he is able to do this, a single soldier is able to capture a king and have command over him in the name of his monarch. Furthermore, just as the monarch may employ and direct a single soldier and a single official, by reason of the mystery of sole sovereignty, he is able to direct the whole army and all his officials. It is as if, by reason of the mystery of sole sovereignty, he is able to send everyone, everything, to the assistance of one individual.Every single individual, therefore, will rely on the combined strength of all the individuals; that is, each will receive assistance from all.

If the rope of sole sovereignty were to be unfastened and they become irregular soldiers, then each soldier, suddenly losing a boundless strength, would fall from a high position of influence to that of a common man. And to command and employ them would beget difficulties to the number of individuals.

In exactly the same way, “And God’s is the highest similitude,”(16:60) since the universe’s Maker is One, He assembles His names, which look to all things, before each single thing, and He creates with infinite art, in a valuable way. If there is need for it, He looks to a single thing by means of all things, He causes them to look to it; He gives assistance and strengthens it. Also, by reason of the mystery of unity, He creates, disposes, and administers all things as though they were a single thing.

It is due to the mystery of this assistance of unity that in the universe a certain quality is apparent which is exalted and sublime to the utmost degree as regards its art and value, and this within the utmost abundance and profusion.

The Facility of Unity, which is the second source: that is, matters which occur according to the principles of unity, in one centre, from one hand, according to one law, occur with the greatest ease. If they are distributed among numerous centres, numerous laws, and numerous hands, it engenders difficulties.

For example, if the equipment of all the soldiers of an army is manufactured in one centre, according to one law, and at the command of one commander-in-chief, it is as easy as equipping one soldier. If on the other hand, all their equipment is made in different factories, in different centres, then all the military factories necessary to equip an army are necessary to equip one soldier. That is to say, if unity is relied upon, an army is as easy as a single soldier. Whereas, if there is no unity, as many difficulties arise in equipping one soldier as in equipping an army.

Furthermore, if with regard to unity, the elements necessary for life are given to a tree’s fruits, relying on one centre, one law, and one root, thousands of fruits are as easy as a single fruit. If, on the other hand, each fruit is bound to a different centre and all their vital necessities are sent to them separately, each fruit will give rise to as many difficulties as the whole tree. For the elements necessary for the life of the whole tree will be necessary for each fruit.

Thus, like these two comparisons, “And God’s is the highest similitude,”(16:60) because the universe’s Maker is the Single One of Unit y, He acts with unity (vahdet), and because He acts with unity all things are as easy as one thing. Moreover, He is able to make a single thing as valuable as all things as regards its art. And creating innumerable individuals in a most valuable form, He demonstrates absolute liberality through the tongue of the limitless abundance and endless profusion of beings, and He manifests boundless generosity and infinite creativity.

The Manifestation of Oneness, which is the third source:that is, since the All-Glorious Maker is not physical or corporeal, time and space cannot restrict Him, creation and place cannot obtrude on His presence and witnessing, means and mass cannot veil His actions. There is no fragmentation or division in His regarding and acting towards creation. One thing cannot be an obstacle to another. He performs innumerable acts as though they were a single act. For this reason, in the same way that, as far as its meaning is concerned, a huge tree can be encapsulated in a seed, a world also can be contained within a single individual, and the whole world can be encompassed by the Hand of Power.We have explained this mystery in others of the Words like this:

the sun is to an extent unrestricted with regard to its luminosity, so its image is reflected in every burnished and shining object. If thousands and millions of mirrors are exposed to its light, the manifestation of its likeness will be found in each one of them without being divided. If the capacities of the mirrors are such, the sun will be able to demonstrate its effects in them in all their magnitude. One thing will not be an obstacle to another. Thousands of things will enter thousands of places with the ease of one thing entering one place. Each place will display the sun’s manifestation as much as thousands of places display it.

Thus, “And God’s is the highest similitude,”(16:60) the manifestation of the universe’s All-Glorious Maker is such, with all His attributes which are light and with all His names which are luminous, that through the mystery of the regard of oneness, although He is not in any place, He is all-present and all-seeing in all places. There is no division in His regarding and acting towards the creation. He performs every task at the same time, in all places, without difficulty, without hindrance.

Thus, it is through these mysteries of the assistance of unity, facility of unity, and manifestation of oneness, that when all beings are attributed to a single Maker, the creation of all of them becomes as simple and easy as that of a single being. And each being can be as valuable as all beings as regards the fineness of its art. This truth is demonstrated by there being within the boundless plenitude of beings endless subtleties of art in every one of them.

If the beings are not attributed directly to a single Maker, each becomes as problematical as all beings and the value of all of them decreases, it falls to that of a single being. If it were the case, either nothing would come into existence, or if it did, it would be without value, worthless.

This mystery led the Sophists, who were the most advanced philosophers, to realize that the path of associating partners with God was infinitely more difficult than the way of truth and path of affirming divine unity; that it was irrational to the utmost degree. So because they had averted their faces from the way of truth and looked to that of unbelief and misguidance, they were compelled to renounce their reasons and deny the existence of everything.

The Fourth

The creation of Paradise is as easy as that of the spring in relation to the All- Powerful One’s power, who administers the universe with acts that are plain to see. The creation of spring is as easy as that of a flower. The loveliness of a flower’s art and the fineness in its creation may be as beautiful and valuable as the spring. The mystery of this truth is threefold:

First: the necessity and total detachment of the Maker.

Second: the complete otherness of His essence and His unrestrictedness.

Third: His not being bound by space and His indivisibility.

First Mystery:The fact that necessity and total detachment give rise to infinite ease and facility is an extremely profound mystery. We shall facilitate understanding of it with the following comparison:

The degrees of existence are different. And the worlds of existence are all different. Because they are all different, a particle from a level of existence that is deeply rooted in existence is as great as a mountain from a less substantial level; it contains the mountain.

For example, the faculty of memory, which is the size of a mustard-seed in a head from the Manifest World, takes on an existence the size of a library from the World of Meaning. And a mirror the size of a fingernail from the external world encompasses a mighty city from the level of the World of Similitudes. If the memory and the mirror from the external world had possessed consciousness and creative power, they would have been able to bring about endless transformations and activit y in the Worlds of Meaning and Similitudes through the power of their minute existences in the external world.

That is to say, when existence is firmly established, power increases; what is only a little becomes much. Especially if having acquired complete stability existence is disengaged and detached from materiality and is not restricted, only a partial manifestation of it will be able to transform many worlds of other less substantial levels of existence.

Thus, “And God’s is the highest similitude,”(16:60) the universe’s Glorious Maker is Necessarily Existent. That is, His existence is essential, it is pre-eternal and post-eternal, its non-existence is impossible, its cessation is impossible; it is the most firmly rooted, the most sound, the strongest, and the most perfect of the levels of existence. In relation to His existence, the other levels of existence are like extremely pale shadows. The degree of Necessary Existence is so stable and real, and contingent existence is so insubstantial and pale that many of those who have investigated creation, such as Muhyi al-Din al-‘Arabi, have relegated the other levels of existence to the level of delusion and imagination; they said: “There is no existent save Him.” That is, things should not be ascribed existence relatively to the Necessary Existence. They asserted that they do not deserve to be called existent.

Thus, for the Necessarily Existent One’s power, which is both necessary and essential, contingent beings’ both created and accidental existences and both unstable and powerless realities are infinitely easy and simple. To raise all human beings to life and then judge them at the Great Gathering is as easy as resurrecting leaves, flowers and fruits in the spring, indeed, in a garden, or on a tree.

Second Mystery:Easiness in regard to the complete otherness of His Essence and His unrestrictedness arises from this:

most certainly, the universe’s Maker is not of the same kind as the universe. His Essence resembles no other essence at all. Since this is so, the obstacles and restraints within the sphere of the universe cannot hinder Him, they cannot restrict His actions. He has complete disposal over the universe and is able to transform all of it at the same time. If the disposal and actions that are apparent in the universe were to be attributed to it, it would cause so many difficulties and such confusion that neither would any order remain nor would anything continue to exist; indeed, nothing would ever come into existence.

For example, if the masterly art in vaulted domes is attributed to the stones of the domes, and if the command of a battalion, which properly belongs to its officer, is left to the soldiers, either neither of them would ever come into existence, or with great difficulty and confusion they would achieve a state completely lacking in order. Whereas, if in order for the situation of the stones in the dome to be achieved, it is accorded to a master who is not a stone himself, and if the command of the soldiers in the regiment is referred to an officer who possesses the essential quality of officership, both the art is easy and the command and organization are easy. This is because, while the stones and the soldiers are obstacles to each other, the master and the officer can look from every angle, they command without obstacle.

Thus, “And God’s is the highest similitude,”(16:60) the sacred Essence of the Necessarily Existent One is not of the same kind as contingent beings’ essences. All the truths of the universe are rays from the name of Truth, which is one of the Beautiful Names of His Essence. Since His sacred Essence is Necessarily Existent and completely detached from materiality and different from all other essences, it has no like, no equivalent, no equal. So, most certainly, the administration and sustaining of the universe is as easy for that All-Glorious One’s pre-eternal power as that of the spring, indeed, of a tree; and the creation of the resurrection of the dead, the realm of the hereafter, and Heaven and Hell, is as easy as the resurrection in spring of a tree which had died the previous autumn.

Third Mystery:The fact that indivisibility and not being bound by space result in the utmost facility has this meaning:

since the All-Powerful Maker is free of the restrictions of space, He may be thought of as being present everywhere through His power. And since there is no division or fragmentation in regard to His Essence, He can regard and act towards all things with all of His names. And since He is present everywhere and acts towards everything, beings and intermediaries and mass cannot hinder and prevent His actions, indeed there is no necessity for them to do so. Let us suppose there was some necessity, then things like electric wires, the branches of trees, and veins in human beings, would resemble means of facilitation, of the arrival of life, and of swiftness in actions. So, let us ignore the idea of hindering, restricting, preventing, and intervening, and say that they are means of facilitating, expediting, and uniting.

That is to say, from the point of view of the obedience and submission of all things to the domination of the All-Powerful and Glorious One’s power, there is no need for them. If there were some need for them, it would be as a means of facilitating.

In Short:The All-Powerful Maker creates everything in an appropriate form without trouble, without undergoing any process, swiftly and easily.

He creates universals as easily as particulars. He creates particulars as full of art as He does universals. Indeed, whoever creates universals and the heavens and the earth must necessarily be the one who creates the particulars and animate individuals contained in the heavens and earth; it could be nothing other than him. For those tiny particulars are the fruits, seeds, and the miniature specimens of universals.

Furthermore, whoever creates the particulars must also be the one who creates the elements and heavens and earth, which encompass the particulars. For we see that particulars are each like a seed and tiny copy in relation to universals. Since this is so, the universal elements and the heavens and earth must be in the hand of the One who creates those particulars so that, according to the principles of His wisdom and the balances of His knowledge, He can insert the gist, the meanings, the samples, of those universal and all-encompassing beings in those particulars, which are like their miniature specimens.

Indeed, from the point of view of the wonders of art and marvels of creativeness, particulars are not behind universals; neither are flowers lower than the stars, nor seeds inferior to trees. Indeed, the tree’s meaning, which is the inscription of divine determining and is in the seed, is more wonderful than the physical tree, which is the weaving of divine power and is in the garden.

And the creation of man is more wonderful than the creation of the universe. If a Qur’an of Wisdom were to be written in particles of ether on an atom, it would far surpass in value a Qur’an of Grandeur written in stars on the face of the heavens. Similarly, there are minute particulars which are superior to universals as regards the miraculousness of their art.

The Fifth

We have demonstrated to an extent in our explanations above, the infinite ease, utmost speed, extreme swiftnesss of actions, and boundless facility apparent in the creation of beings, together with the mysteries and instances of wisdom in their creation.

The existence of things with this utmost speed and utter facility, therefore, has given the people of guidance the following firm conviction, that in relation to the power of the One who creates beings, Paradises are as easy as the spring, the spring as easy as gardens, and gardens as easy as flowers.

According to the meaning of,The creation of you all and the resurrection of you all is but like that of a single soul,(31:28) the resurrection of all humankind is as easy as causing one person to die and raising him to life again.

And according to the explicit statement of,Nothing will there have been but one single blast, and lo! before Us will all of them be arraigned,(36:53)to raise to life all human beings at the resurrection is as easy as calling together with the sound of a bugle an army that has dispersed to rest.

Although this infinite speed and boundless ease are decisive proofs and certain arguments for the self-evident perfection of the Maker’s power and for everything being easy for Him, in the view of the people of misguidance, the formation and creation of things by that power, which is so easy as to be necessary, gave rise to the notion that things form themselves, which is utterly impossible, and thus became the cause of confusion. That is to say, because they see that some ordinary things come into existence very easily, they imagine that they are formed spontaneously. That is, they are not created, but come into existence of their own accord.

There, look at this sheer stupidity! The people of misguidance make what is the proof of an absolute power, the proof of its non-existence; they open the door to innumerable impossibilities. For if it were the case, such attributes of perfection as infinite power and all-encompassing knowledge, which are necessary to the Maker of the universe, would have to be ascribed to every particle of every creature so that each could form itself.

THE ELEVENTH PHRASE:

“And with Him all things have their end”

That is to say, everything will return to the realm of permanence from the transient realm, and will go to the seat of the Sempiternal Ever-Enduring One’s post- eternal sovereignty. They will go from the multiplicity of causes to the domain of the All-Glorious One of Unity’s power, and will be transferred from this world to the hereafter. Your place of recourse is His Court, therefore, and your place of refuge, His mercy. And so on.

There are a great many truths which this phrase and those like it state. One is that you will return to eternal bliss and Paradise. This has been proved so decisively by the irrefutable certainty of the twelve arguments of the Tenth Word, and by the six “Principles” that comprise the numerous cogent proofs of the Twenty-Ninth Word, that they leave no need for further explanation. Those two Words have proved with the certainty of the sun rising in the following morning after having set the previous day,

that life too, which has the meaning of the sun in this world, will rise in an eternal form in the morning of the resurrection after its setting with the destruction of the world. Since the Tenth and Twenty-Ninth Words have proved this truth to perfection, we refer you to them and here only say this:

Further to what has been proved decisively above, the universe’s All-Wise Maker, who possesses boundless all-embracing power, limitless universal will, and infinite all-encompassing knowlege – the all-Merciful Creator of human beings – has promised in all His heavenly books and decrees Paradise and eternal bliss to those of mankind who believe in Him. Since He has promised, He will most certainly bring it about, for it is impossible for Him to break His promise. Also, not to carry out a promise is an extremely ugly fault, and the One of Absolute Perfection is totally exempt and free from all fault. Failure to fulfil a promise arises either from ignorance or from impotence. However, since it is impossible for ignorance or impotence to be ascribed in any way to that Absolutely Powerful One, the One Knowing of All Things, His breaking of a promise is impossible.

Moreover, first and foremost the Pride of the Worlds (Upon whom be blessings and peace), and all the prophets, saints, purified scholars, and people of belief, continuously request and implore, desire and beseech the All-Generous and Compassionate One for the eternal bliss they have been promised. They beseech it through all His Most Beautiful Names. For foremost His compassion and mercy, and justice and wisdom, His names of All-Merciful and Compassionate, and All-Just and Wise, and His dominicality and sovereignty, and most of His names including Lord and Sustainer (Rabb) and Allah, require and necessitate the realm of the hereafter and eternal happiness, and they testify and point to its realization. Indeed, all beings with all of their truths point to the hereafter.The All-Wise Qur’an, the greatest of the revealed books, also demonstrates and teaches this truth with thousands of its verses; with clear evidences and conclusive, veracious proofs.

The Most Noble Beloved One, too, who is the cause of pride for the human race, relying on thousands of dazzling miracles taught this truth throughout his life, with all his strength; he proved it, proclaimed it, saw it, and demonstrated it.

O God, grant blessings and peace and benedictions to him and to his Family and Companions to the number of the breaths of the people of Paradise; and resurrect us and resurrect him and his friends and Companions to bliss, and our parents and brothers and sisters under his banner, and grant us his intercession, and allow us to enter Paradise with his Family and Companions, through Your mercy, O Most Merciful of the Merciful.

Amen. Amen.

O our Sustainer! Do not take us to task if we forget or unwittingly do wrong.(2:286)O our Sustainer! Let not our hearts swerve from the truth after You have guided us; and bestow upon us the gift of Your mercy; indeed, You are the Giver of Gifts.(3:8)O my Sustainer! Open up my heart * And make my task easy for me * And loosen the knot from my tongue * That they might fully understand my speech.(20:25-8)O our Sustainer! Accept this from us, indeed You are All-Seeing, All- Knowing. * And forgive us, indeed You are the Accepter of Repentance, the Compassionate.(2:127-8)

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

Addendum to the Tenth Phrase of the Twentieth Letter

In His Name, be He glorified! And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.

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

For verily, in the remembrance of God hearts do find their rest.(13:28) *

God sets forth a parable: A man belonging to many partners [all of them] at variance with one another.(39:29)

Question:You have said in many places that in divine unity there is an infinite facility and in multiplicity and associating partners with God, endless difficulties; that there is such ease in divine unity that it is necessary and such difficulty in associating partners with God that it is impossible. Whereas, the difficulties and impossibilities that you demonstrate are also present with unity. For example, you say that if particles were not officials, it would be necessary for either all-encompassing knowledge or absolute power or innumerable immaterial machines and printing-presses to be present in every particle. This of course is completely impossible. Even if those particles were divine officials, it would still be necessary for them to bear the same qualities so that they would be able to accomplish their endless orderly duties. Could you unravel this problem for me?

The Answer:We have expounded and proved in many Words that if all beings are attributed to a single Maker, they become as easy and effortless as a single being. If they are attributed to numerous causes and to nature, a single fly becomes as difficult and arduous as the heavens, a flower as the spring, a fruit as a garden. Since this mattter has been proved in other Words, we refer you to them and here only explain three comparisons, by means of three indications, which will reassure the soul and set the mind at rest in the face of that truth.

First Comparison:

For example, a tiny transparent glistening speck cannot of its own accord situate itself within a light the size of a match-head even, and neither can it be the source of it. It is able to have as much light, in its own right, as a tiny particle, in accordance with its capacity and to the extent of its own mass. But if the speck is connected to the sun, if it opens its eyes and looks at it, it will be able to comprehend the immense sun together with its light, seven colours, heat, and even its distance; it will display a sort of greater manifestation. That is to say, if the particle remains on its own, it will be able to perform a function only to the extent of a particle, whereas if it is deemed to be an official of the sun, and is connected to it and is a mirror to it, it will be able to demonstrate certain partial examples of the sun’s functioning, the same as the sun itself.

Thus, “And God’s is the highest similitude,”(16:60) if all beings, all particles, are attributed to multiplicity, causes, nature, themselves, or to anything other than God, then each of them must either possess all-embracing knowledge and absolute power, or innumerable immaterial machines and printing-presses must take form within each, so that it can carry out its wonderful duties.

However, if the particles are attributed to the Single One of Unity, each of them, each artefact, becomes connected to Him; it is as though each becomes His official. Its connection allows it to display His manifestation. And through this connection and state of being a manifestation, it relies on an infinite knowledge and power. Thus, by reason of the mystery of the connection and its reliance, it performs functions and duties far beyond its own power, through the power of its Creator.

Second Comparison:

For example, there were two brothers, one brave and self- reliant, the other patriotic and devoted to his country. When a war broke out, the one who relied on himself did not form any connection with the state; he wanted to perform his service on his own. He was compelled therefore to carry his own sources of power, and to transport, as far as his strength allowed, his equipment and ammunition. In accordance with his petty individual strength, he was only able to fight with one corporal of the enemy army; to do more was beyond him.

The other brother did not rely on himself; he knew himself to be weak and powerless so established a connection with the king and was enrolled in the army. Through this connection, the huge army became a source of support for him. And because of this support, he was plunged into war with the moral strength of an army behind him under the auspices of the king. So when he encountered an eminent field marshal of the defeated enemy army’s king, he declared in the name of his own king: “I take you prisoner! Quick march!” He captured him and handed him over.

The meaning of this situation and the wisdom in it is this:

Since the first, independent, man, was compelled to carry his equipment and sources of strength himself, the service he was able to perform was extremely insignificant. Whereas the one who was an official did not have to carry his source of strength; indeed, the army and the king carried him.Just like connecting his receiver to existing telegraph and telephone lines with a tiny wire, the man, through the connection he formed, connected himself to an infinite power.

Thus, “And God’s is the highest similitude,”(16:60) if all creatures, all particles, are attributed directly to the Single One of Unity and if they are connected to Him, through the power of the connection and through of its Lord, at His command, an ant can demolish the Pharaoh’s palace; a fly can kill off Nimrod and consign him to Hell; a germ can despatch an iniquitous tyrant to the grave; a seed the size of a wheat grain becomes the workshop and machinery for producing a pine-tree the size of a mountain; and a particle of air is able to operate efficiently and systematically in the different functions and structures of all flowers and fruits. All this ease and facility self-evidently arise from the connection and state of being an official.

If the being in question reverts to independence, if it is left to causes, multiplicity, and to itself, if it travels the road of associating partners with God, then the service it will be able to perform will be only to the extent of its physical entity and to the degree of its consciousness.

Third Comparison:

For example, there were two friends who wanted to write a geographical and statistical work on a country they had never seen.

One of them formed a connection with the king and entered the telegraph and telephone office. With a piece of wire worth a few kurush, he connected his own telephone receiver to the state lines and was able to communicate with everywhere and receive information. He wrote a perfectly composed and well-arranged work of geography and statistics.

As for the other man, either he would have had to travel continuously for fifty years and see everywhere and learn of every event with great difficulty, or else, spending millions of liras he would have had to become the owner, like the king, of a telegraph and telephone system as extensive as that of the state so that he could write a perfect work like his friend.

Similarly, “And God’s is the highest similitude,”(16:60) if innumerable things and creatures are attributed to the Single One of Unity, through the connection, each becomes a place of manifestation. Through displaying the manifestation of the Pre- Eternal Sun, it acquires a connection with the laws of His wisdom, the principles of his knowledge, and the decrees of His power. Then, through divine strength and power, it displays such a dominical manifestation that it acquires an eye that sees all things, a face that looks to all places, and words that have weight in all matters.

If the connection is severed, the thing will also be cut off from everything else, it will be squeezed into the smallness of its own bulk. In which case, it would have to possess absolute divinity so that it could perform the functions described above.

In Short:The easiness and facility on the way of divine unity and belief make it necessary, while the difficulties on the way of causes and assigning partners to God make it impossible. For one person may, without trouble, put numerous objects into a single situation and obtain one result. But if it is left to the objects themselves to bring about the situation and obtain the result, they could do so only with great trouble and much activity.

For example, as is stated in the Third Letter, every night, every year, a glittering expedition and passage glorifying God is accomplished through setting in motion the army of the stars in the field of the heavens under the command of the sun and the moon. This is the alluring and captivating situation of the heavens. The alternation of the seasons and other momentous affairs are brought about; and this is the exalted and purposeful result of the motion of the earth. If the situation of the heavens and result of the revolving earth are ascribed to divine unity, the Pre-Eternal Monarch may easily appoint a soldier like the globe of the earth as commander of the heavenly bodies for the situation and the result to be achieved. After it has received its order, the earth will rise up with joy at its appointment to whirl and mention God’s names like a Mevlevi dervish. With slight expense that graceful situation will be obtained and the significant result come about.

However, if it is said to the earth: “You stop where you are, do not interfere!”; and if to obtain the result and situation, it is referred to the heavens; and if the road of multiplicity and associating partners with God is taken rather than that of divine unity, it will be necessary, every day and every year, to set in motion millions of stars which are thousands of times larger than the globe of the earth and to cover a distance of millions of years in twenty-four hours and a year.

Conclusion:

The Qur’an and the believers ascribe limitless creatures to One Maker. They attribute every matter directly to Him. They travel a road so easy as to be necessary, and urge all towards it. While the people of rebellion, who ascribe partners to God, by attributing a single creature to innumerable causes, travel a road so beset with dificulties as to be impossible. In which case, those on the way of the Qur’an are together with all creatures, and those on the way of misguidance, with a single creature. Or to put it another way, the issuing of all things out of one is infinitely easier than the issuing of one thing out of many. In the same way that an officer commands a thousand soldiers as easily as one soldier, if the command of one soldier were to be assigned to a thousand officers, it would become as difficult as commanding a thousand soldiers, it would cause chaos.

Thus, this mighty verse hurls this truth at those who assign partners to God, shattering their unbelief:

God sets forth a parable: A man belonging to many partners [all of them] at variance with one another, and a man belonging wholly to one person: can the two be deemed equal as regards their condition? [Nay] all praise is due to God [alone]; but most of them do not understand this.(39:29)

All 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 to the number of the particles of the universe, and to all his Family and Companions. Amen. And all praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds.

O God! O Unique One! O Single One! O Eternally Besought One! Other than You there is no god, You are One, You have no partner! Yours is the dominion and the praise! Granter of life and Dealer of death! All good is in Your hand! O One powerful over all things! It is with You that all things have their end! Through the truth of the mysteries of these phrases, appoint the propagator of this treatise and his friends and companions to bliss among the perfected affirmers of divine unity and the strictly veracious scholars and the believers conscious of God. Amen.

O God! Through the truth of the mystery of Your oneness make the disseminator of this book disseminate the mysteries of the profession of Your unity and make his heart a place of manifestation for the lights of faith and his tongue speak of the truths of the Qur’an.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

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The Nineteenth Letter ⇐ | The Letters | ⇒ The Twenty-First Letter

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