Yirmi Sekizinci Mektup/en

[This letter consists of eight matters]

The First Matter, which is the First Part

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

If it be that you can interpret dreams.(12:43)

Secondly:You want me to interpret now the dream you had three years ago three days after meeting me, whose meaning has long since become apparent. That beautiful, happy, and auspicious dream has been consigned to the past, so I’m right to say the following regarding it, am I not?

I am neither the night nor a lover of the night; * I am a servant of the Sun; it is of the Sun that I speak.(*)

Those illusions which are the snare of the saints, * Are the moon-faced reflections of the garden of God.(*)

Yes, my brother, we have become accustomed to discussing with you teachings concerning pure reality (hakikat), but to study dreams, the doors of which are open to fancy and illusion in order to ascertain reality, is not completely in keeping with our way of researching into and verifying reality. So in connection with that minor incident of sleep, we shall explain six points about the reality of sleep, the small brother of death,(*)according to scholarly principles and from the angle indicated by verses of the Qur’an. In the seventh, we shall offer a brief interpretation of your dream.

The First

Just as an important element of Sura Yusuf is Yusuf’s dream, so the Qur’an indicates with many of its verses, such as:And We made your sleep for rest(78:9)that dreams and sleep may hold important, though veiled, truths.

The Second

Verifiers of reality do not favour trusting in the interpretation of dreams and taking of omens through the Qur’an. For the All-Wise Qur’an strikes at the unbelievers frequently and severely, and if such severit y is shown towards the person who takes omens, it causes him to despair and confuses his heart.

Dreams also, because although they are good they are thought to be evil and sometimes appear to be opposed to reality, may cause a person to fall into despair, destroy his morale, and make him think badly of things. There are many dreams the meanings and interpretations of which are very good although the form they take is terrifying, injurious, or unclean. Not everyone can discover the relation between the form a dream takes and its true meaning, so they become unnecessarily anxious, despairing, and unhappy.

It was only because of this aspect of dreams that, like Imam-i Rabbani and the verifiers of reality, I said at the beginning: “I am neither the night nor a lover of the night.”

The Third

An authentic Hadith states that one of the forty parts of prophethood was made manifest in the form of true dreams during sleep,(*)which means that true dreams are both valid and have a connection with the functions of prophethood. This Third Point is both important, and lengthy and profound, and related to prophethood, so I am postponing it to another time and not opening this door for now.

The Fourth

Dreams are of three sorts.(*)Two of them, in the words of the Qur’an, are “A confused medley of dreams”(12:44) and not worth interpreting. If they have any meaning, it is of no importance. Either due to some ailment, the power of imagination mixes things up and depicts them accordingly; or it recalls some stimulating event that happened to the person that day, or previously, or even at the same time a year or two earlier, and it modifies and reproduces it in some other form. These are both “A confused medley of dreams,” and not worth interpreting.

The third sort is true dreams. When the senses that bind man to the Manifest World and roam in it rest and cease their activity, the dominical subtle faculty in man’s make-up forms a direct relation with World of the Unseen and opens up a window onto it. Through the window, it looks on events that are in preparation; it comes face to face with the manifestations of the Preserved Tablet and some samples of the missives of divine determining; it beholds some true occurrences. Sometimes the imagination governs in such dreams, dressing them in the garments of form. There are numerous types and levels of this sort of dream. Sometimes they turn out exactly as dreamed; sometimes they turn out slightly obscured, as though under a fine veil; and sometimes they turn out heavily veiled.

It is narrated in Hadiths that the dreams God’s Most Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) had at the outset of the revelations turned out as true and clear as the breaking of morning.(*)

The Fifth True dreams are a higher development of premonitions. Everyone has premonitions to a greater or lesser degree. Animals even have them. At one time I discovered two senses including premonition scientifically, additional to the well- known external and inner senses such as the unconscious instinctive senses that impel and stimulate, and hearing and sight. Philosophers and the people of misguidance mistakenly and foolishly call those little known senses “natural instinct.” God forbid! They are not “natural” instinct; divine determining impels human beings and animals through a sort of innate inspiration.

For example, if some animals like cats lose their sight, through this impulse of divine determining, they go and find a plant that heals their eyes and rub it on them, and they get better.

Also, birds of prey like eagles, which, similarly to the public health officials of the earth are charged with the duty of removing the carcasses of nomadic animals, are informed through that impulse of divine determining, that inspiration of the sense of premonition, that divine drive, of animal remains a day’s distance away, and they go and find them.

Also, a young bee newly come into the world, flies a day’s distance when only a day old without losing its way, and through that drive of divine determining and inspiring impulse, returns to its hive.

Also, it happens frequently to everyone that while speaking of someone, the door opens and totally unexpectedly the same person enters. There is even a saying in Kurdish which goes: “Talk of the wolf and ready your gun, for it’s bound to appear.” That is to say, through a premonition, that dominical subtle faculty perceives the person’s arrival in summary fashion. But since the conscious mind does not comprehend it, it prompts him to speak of it, not intentionally but involuntarily.

Intuitive people sometimes say that someone is coming, almost miraculously. At one time I myself, even, was acutely sensitive in this way. I wanted to incorporate the condition into a principle, but was unable to adapt it and couldn’t. However, in righteous people, and particularly the people of sainthood, premonition develops to a high degree, showing its effects wondrously.

Thus, ordinary people even may manifest a sort of sainthood by virtue of which in true dreams, they dream of things appertaining to the Unseen and the future like the saints. Yes, for ordinary people, in respect of true dreams sleep may resemble a degree of sainthood. So too, it is for everyone a splendid dominical cinema. However, those with good morals think good thoughts, and someone who has good thoughts dreams of good things. But since those with bad morals think bad thoughts, they dream of bad things.

Furthermore, for everyone, true dreams are windows in the Manifest World that look onto the World of the Unseen. For restricted, ephemeral human beings, they are also an arena of infinite proportions manifesting a sort of eternity, and a place for gazing on the past and the future as though they were the present. They are also a resting-place for beings with spirits, crushed as they are beneath the responsibilities of life and who suffer great hardship.

It is for reasons similar to these that with verses like: “And We made your sleep for rest,”(78:9) the All-Wise Qur’an teaches about sleep (hakikat-i nevmiye), giving it importance.

The Sixth and Most Important

Having experienced them numerous times, true dreams have become for me decisive proofs at the degree of absolute certainty (hakkalyakîn) that divine determining encompasses all things.

Especially the last few years, these dreams have reached such a degree that they have made me certain that the most insignificant events and unimportant dealings and even the most commonplace conversations I will have the following day are written and ordained before they occur, and that by dreaming of them the night before, I have read them not with my tongue but with my eyes. Not once,not a hundred times, but perhaps a thousand times, the things I have said in my dreams or the people I have dreamt of at night, although I had not thought of them at all, have turned out exactly or with little interpretation the following day.

It means that the most trivial things are both recorded and written before they happen. That is to say, there is no chance or coincidence, events do not occur haphazardly, they are not without order.

The Seventh

Your beautiful, blessed, and auspicious dream was very good for the Qur’an and for us. Also, time has interpreted it and is interpreting it; there is no need for me to do so. Its partial interpretation also turned out well. If you study it carefully, you will understand. I shall point out only one or two aspects. That is, I shall explain a truth (hakikat). The visions you have had, which are like the true meanings (hakikat) of dreams, are the representations of those true meanings. It is like this:

That vast field was the world of Islam. The mosque at its end was the province of Isparta. The muddy water around it was the swamp of the dissoluteness, idleness, and innovations of the present time. Your swiftly reaching the mosque safely and without being contaminated by the mud was a sign that you took up the lights of the Qur’an before everyone else, and had remained unspoilt with your heart uncorrupted. The small congregation in the mosque consisted of some of the people who have taken the Words upon themselves, like Hakkı, Hulûsi, Sabri, Süleyman, Rüştü, Bekir, Mustafa, Ali, Zühtü, Lûtfi, Husrev, and Re’fet. As for the small platform, it was a small village like Barla. The loud voice was an allusion to the power and rapid spread of the Words. The place assigned to you in the first row, was that vacated for you by Abdurrahman. The indication and fact that the congregation, as though wireless receivers, wanted to make the whole world hear its teachings, will turn out at a later date, God willing. If the people now are like small seeds, with divine assistance, in the future they will all be like tall trees and telegraph offices. As for the turbanned youth, he is someone who will work together with Hulûsi, or even surpass him; he is destined to become one of the students and those who disseminate the Words. I can think of some of them, but I cannot say definitely. The youth is someone who will come into prominence through the power of sainthood. You can interpret the remaining points instead of me.

Speaking with friends like you is both agreeable and acceptable, so I have spoken at length about this brief matter, and perhaps I have been prodigal. But since I began with the intention of showing a way of expounding the Qur’an’s verses about sleep, God willing, my prodigality will be forgiven, or not be prodigality even.

The Second Part, which is the Second Matter

[This was written to put a stop to and solve a significant argument about the Hadith which describes how Moses (Upon whom be peace) struck Azra’il (Upon whom be peace) in the eye, and the rest of the story.(*)]

I heard a scholarly argument in Eğridir. It was wrong to hold such an argument especially at this time, but I did not know it was an argument. I was asked a question and shown a Hadith in a reliable book marked with a qaf, which signifies the agreement of the two Shaikhs [Bukhari and Muslim]. They asked me: “Is it a Hadith or isn’t it?”

I replied that one should have confidence in someone who, in a reliable book such as that, cites the agreement of the two Shaikhs concerning a Hadith; it means it is a Hadith. However, Hadiths may contain allegorical obscurities like the Qur’an, and only experts can ascertain their meanings. Even the literal meaning of this Hadith suggests that it may belong to the allegorical category of those obscure ones. If I had known that it was a point of argument, I would not have given such a short answer, and would have replied as follows:

Firstly:The primary condition for discussing matters of this sort is to argue fairly, intending to discover the truth. It is permissible for those who know about the subject to discuss it, so long as they do not do so stubbornly nor give rise to misunderstanding.

Evidence that such an argument is for the sake of the truth is that if the truth emerges through the opposite party, a person is not upset but pleased. For he will have learned something he did not know. If it had emerged through him, he would not have learned much and might well have become arrogant.

Secondly:If the argument is about a Hadith, the categories of Hadiths have to be known, as well as the types of implicit revelation, and the varieties of prophetic speech. It is not permissible to discuss ambiguous Hadiths among the ordinary people, and to show off and justify oneself like a lawyer, and to rely on egotism to support ones arguments rather than on truth and right.

The question being broached and argued about is having an adverse effect on the minds of the poor ordinary people. They cannot comprehend obscure allegorical Hadiths like these, and if they deny them, it opens the terrifying door to their also denying definite, unambiguous Hadiths that they cannot understand with their limited intelligences. If they take the Hadith on face value and accept the literal meaning and they spread it around, it paves the way for the people of misguidance to object to it and call it superstition.

Since attention has been attracted to this allegorical Hadith unnecessarily and harmfully, and there are many Hadiths of this sort, it is essential to offer an explanation that will remove their doubts. Whether or not the Hadith is certain, the following fact should be mentioned.

We may deem sufficient the detailed explanations in the treatises we have written; that is, the twelve principles in the Third Branch of the Twenty-Fourth Word, and in the Fourth Branch; and in one of the principles in the Introduction in the Nineteenth Letter about the sorts of revelation; and here indicate only briefly that truth. It is as follows:

The angels are not restricted to a having single form like human beings; although they are individual beings, they are also universals. Azra’il (Upon whom be peace) is the supervisor of the angels who are charged with taking possession of the spirits of the dying.

Question:“Does Azra’il (UWP) himself take possession of them, or do his helpers do this?” There are three “ways” in this matter:

The First Way:Azra’il (Upon whom be peace) takes possession of every dying person’s spirit. Nothing is an obstacle to another, for he is luminous. Something luminous can be present in innumerable places by means innumerable mirrors and appear in them. The similitudes of luminous beings possess their characteristics; they may be deemed the same as them and not other than them. The sun’s image in mirrors displays it’s light and heat. Similarly, the images of such spirit beings as the angels in the various mirrors of the World of Similitudes are the same as them; they display their characteristics. But they are represented in accordance with the capacities of the mirrors.

The same instant Gabriel (Upon whom be peace) appeared before the Companions in the form of Dihya, he appeared in different forms in thousands of places and was prostrating with his magnificent wings, which stretch from east to west, before the divine throne. His similitude was everywhere in accordance with the place’s capacity; at the same instant he was present in thousands of places.

According to this way, for the human and particular image of the Angel of Death represented in a human being’s mirror when he is taking possession of his spirit to receive the blow of a resolute, angry, awe-inspiring person like Moses (Upon whom be peace), and for that image-form, which resembled the Angel of Death’s clothes, to have his eye put out, would be neither impossible, nor extraordinary, nor irrational.

The Second Way:The archangels Gabriel, Michael, and Azra’il are like general supervisors. They have helpers that are similar to them in kind and resemble them, but are lesser than them. The assistants differ according to the sorts of creatures; those who take possession of the spirits of the righteous(*)are of one sort, while those who take possession of the spirits of the wicked are of another,(*)as the following verses point out:By the [angels] who tear out [the souls of the wicked] with violence; * By those who gently draw out [the souls of the blessed].(79:1-2)

In view of this way, it is perfectly reasonable that, because he was naturally awe- inspiring and brave, and was an acceptable suppliant of God, Moses (Upon whom be peace) should have dealt a blow not at Azra’il (Upon whom be peace), but at the wraith-like body of one of his helpers.(*)

The Third Way:As is explained in the Fourth Principle in the Twenty-Ninth Word and is indicated by some Hadiths, there are some angels who have forty thousand heads, and in each of their heads are forty thousand tongues, (which means that they also have eighty thousand eyes), and with each of those tongues they utter forty thousand divine glorifications. Yes, since the duties the angels are charged with are in accordance with the sorts of beings of the Manifest World, they represent those species’ glorifications in the Spirit World.

It is certain to be thus, for the globe of the earth is a creature; it glorifies Almighty God. It has not forty thousand, but perhaps a hundred thousand sorts of beings, which are like heads. Each sort has hundreds of thousands of individual members which are like tongues;and so on. That means the angel appointed to the earth must have not forty thousand heads but hundreds of thousands; and in every head must be hundreds of thousands of tongues; and so on.

Thus, according to this way, Azra’il (Upon whom be peace) has a face and an eye that looks to each person. When Moses (Upon whom be peace) struck Azra’il (Upon whom be peace), it was not directed at his essential self and his true form, and it was not an insult, or non-acceptance; he struck, and strikes, in the eye the being who drew attention to his death and wanted to prevent his work, because he wanted his duties of prophethood to continue for ever.

God knows best what is right. * None knows the Unseen save God. * Say: The knowledge is with God alone.

He it is Who has sent down to you the Book: in it are verses basic or fundamental [of established meaning]; they are the foundation of the Book; others are allegorical. But those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part thereof that is allegorical, seeking discord, and searching for its hidden meanings, but no one knows its hidden meanings except God. And those who are firmly grounded in knowledge say: “We believe in the Book; the whole of it is from our Sustainer;” and none will grasp the Message except men of understanding.(3:7)

The Third Piece, which is the Third Matter

[This matter consists of a private and particular answer to a general question asked by most of my brothers through the tongue of disposition, and by some of them verbally.]

Question:You say to everyone who visits you: “Don’t await any saintly intervention from me and don’t think of my person as being blessed. I have no spiritual rank. Like a common soldier may convey orders coming from the rank of field marshal, I convey the orders of just such a rank. And like a bankrupt can advertise the precious diamonds of a jeweller’s shop, I announce the wares of a sacred, Qur’anic shop.” However, our hearts desire an effulgence in the same way that our minds need knowledge, and our spirits seek a light, and so on; we want many things in many respects.

We came to visit you supposing you to be the person who will meet our needs. What we need is a saint, someone with saintly influence, someone of spiritual attainment, rather than a scholar. If the matter is really as you say, then perhaps we were wrong in visiting you? They ask this through the tongue of disposition.

The Answer:Listen to the following five points, then think about them and judge whether your visits are pointless or beneficial.

First Point

The common servant and wretched soldier of a king gives some generals and pashas royal gifts and decorations in the king’s name, and makes them grateful. If the generals and pashas ask: “Why are we demeaning ourselves before this common soldier and accepting these gifts and bounties from him?”, it will be arrogant foolishness. The soldier too, if, outside his duty, he does not stand up before the field marshal and recognize him as superior to himself, it will be stupid folly.

If one of the grateful generals thankfully condescends to visit the soldier’s humble dwelling, the king, who sees and knows of the situation, will send dishes from the royal kitchen for his loyal servant’s eminent guest, so the soldier will not be ashamed at having nothing to offer but dry bread.

Similarly, however lowly he may be, a loyal servant of the All-Wise Qur’an conveys its commands unhesitatingly and in its name to even the loftiest of people. With pride and independence, not abasing himself or begging, he sells the Qur’an’s precious diamonds to those who are rich in spirit. However lofty they are, they should not behave arrogantly towards the common servant while he is carrying out his duty. And if they apply to the servant, it should not make him proud either, or get above himself.

If some of the customers for the sacred treasure regard the wretched servant as a saint and look on him as exalted, certainly it is the mark of the Qur’anic truth’s sacred compassion to send them assistance, succour, and enlightenment from the divine treasury, without the servant being aware of it or intervening, so that he should not be ashamed.

Second Point

Imam-i Rabbani, the Regenerator of the Second Millennium, Ahmad Faruqi (May God be pleased with him), said: “In my opinion, the unfolding and clarification of a single of the truths of belief is preferable to thousands of illuminations and instances of wonder-working. Moreover, the aim and result of all the Sufi paths are the unfolding and clarification of the truths of faith.” Since a champion of Sufism like Imam-i Rabbani made such a pronouncement, surely the Words, which expound the truths of faith with perfect clarity and proceed from the mysteries of the Qur’an, may yield the results sought from sainthood.

Third Point

Thirty years ago dreadful blows descended on the heedless head of the Old Said and he pondered over the assertion “Death is a reality.” He saw himself in a muddy swamp. He sought help, searched for a way, tried to find a saviour. He saw that the ways were many; he was hesitant. He took an omen from the book Futuh al-Ghayb of Gawth al-A‘zam, Shaikh Gilani (May God be pleased with him). It opened at these lines:

“You are in the Dar al-Hikma, so find a doctor who will heal your heart.”

It is strange, but at that time I was a member of the Darü’l-Hikmeti’l-Islamiye. I was as though a doctor trying to heal the wounds of the people of Islam, but was sicker than they. A sick person should look firstly to himself, then to others.

The Shaikh was saying to me: “You yourself are sick; find a doctor for yourself.” So I said: “You be my doctor!” I took him as my doctor and read the book as though it were addressing me. But it was most severe. It smashed my pride in truly fearsome manner. It carried out drastic surgery on my soul. I could not stand it. I read half of it as though it were addressing me, but did not have the strength and endurance to finish it. I put the book back on the shelf. Then a week later the pain of that curative operation subsided and I felt pleasure instead. I again opened the book and read it right through; I benefited a lot from it, that book of my first master. I listened to his prayers and supplications, and profited abundantly.

Then I saw Maktubat (Letters) of Imam-i Rabbani and took it up. I opened it purely to take an omen. It is strange, but in the whole of Maktubat the word Bediuzzaman appears only twice and those two letters fell open for me at once. I saw that written at the head of them was: “Letter to Mirza Bediuzzaman,” and my father’s name was Mirza. “Glory be to God!” I exclaimed, “these letters are addressing me.” At that time the Old Said was also known as Bediuzzaman. Apart from Bediuzzaman Hamadani, I knew of no one in the last three hundred years famous with the name. Whereas in the Imam’s time there was such a person and he wrote him these two letters. His condition must have been similar to mine, for I found that these letters were the cure for my ills.

Only, the Imam persistently recommended in many of his letters what he wrote in these two, which was: “Make your qibla one.” That is, take one person as your master and follow him; do not concern yourself with anyone else. This most important recommendation did not seem fitting for my disposition and mental state. However much I pondered over which of them to follow, I remained perplexed and confused. They all had different qualities that drew me; one was not enough.

While thus bewildered, it was imparted to my heart by God’s mercy: “The All-Wise Qur’an is the head of these various ways and the source of these streams and the sun of these planets; the true single qibla is to be found in it. In which case, it is also the most elevated guide and holy master.” So I clasped it with both hands and clung on to it. Of course with my deficient, wretched abilities I could not absorb the effulgence – like the water of life – of that true guide as was its due, but still, through it, we can show that effulgence, that water of life, according to the degree of those who receive it, those who perceive the truth through their hearts and attain to certain spiritual states.

That is to say, the Words and those lights, which proceed from the Qur’an, are not only scholarly matters that address the intellect, they are matters of faith that look to the heart, the spirit, and spiritual states. They resemble most elevated, valuable knowledge of God.

Fourth Point

All the subtle inner faculties of those of the Companions and of the following two generations who possessed the very highest degree of the greater sainthood received their share from the Qur’an itself, and for them,the Qur’an was a true guide and sufficient for them. This shows that just as the All- Wise Qur’an states realities, so it emanates the effulgences of the greater sainthood to those capable of receiving them.

Yes, there are two ways of passing from the apparent to reality:

One is to enter the intermediate realm of Sufism, and to reach reality by traversing the degrees through spiritual journeying.

The Second Way is, through divine favour, to pass directly to realit y without entering the intermediate realm of the Sufi way. This is the elevated, direct way particular to the Companions and those who succeeded them.

That is to say, the lights which issue from the truths of the Qur’an, and the Words, which interpret those lights, may possess those characteristics, and do possess them.

Fifth Point

We shall demonstrate through five small examples that the Words both instruct in the realities, and perform the duty of guide.

First Example:

I myself have formed the conviction through experiencing, not ten or a hundred times but thousands of times, that just as the lights proceeding from the Words and the Qur’an give instruction to my mind, so do they induce a state of belief in my heart and produce the pleasure of belief in my spirit, and so on.

The same goes for worldly matters: just as the follower of a wonder-working shaikh awaits saintly assistance from him to answer his needs; so I have awaited from the wondrous mysteries of the All-Wise Qur’an that they answer my needs, and this has been achieved for me on numerous occasions in ways I had not hoped or anticipated. The following are only two minor examples:

The First: As is described in detail in the Sixteenth Letter, a large loaf of bread appeared in an extraordinary way to a guest of mine called Süleyman, at the top of a cedar tree. For two days the two of us fed off that gift from the Unseen.

The Second Example: I shall recount a very insignificant yet gratifying incident that occurred recently. It was this:

Before dawn the thought came to me that some things had been said about me in a way that would cast suspicion into a certain person’s heart. I said to myself: “If only I had seen him and had dispelled the disquiet from his heart.” At that moment, I needed part of one of my books which had been sent to Nis, and I said to myself: “If only I had got it back.” Then after the morning prayer I sat down and lo and behold!, that same person entered the room with that very part of the book in his hand. I said to him: “What is it you are holding?” He answered: “I don’t know. Someone gave it to me outside my house saying that it had come from Nis; so I brought it to you.” “Glory be to God!” I exclaimed, “it does not look like chance this man coming from his house at this time of day and this part of the Words arriving from Nis.” And thinking: “It was surely the All-Wise Qur’an’s saintly influence that gave a man such as this a piece of paper such as that at the same moment and sent it to me,” I exclaimed: “All praise be to God! One who knows the smallest, most secret, least significant desire of my heart, will certainly have compassion on me and protect me; in which case, I owe the world nothing whatsoever!”

Second Example:

My nephew, the late Abdurrahman, had a much higher opinion of me personally than was my due, despite his having parted from me eight years previously and having been tainted by the heedlessness and worries of the world. He wanted such help and assistance from me as I did not have and could not give. But the All-Wise Qur’an’s saintly influence came to his assistance: the Tenth Word about the resurrection of the dead came into his possession three months before his death. It cleansed him of his spiritual dirt and doubts and heedlessness. Quite simply as though he had risen to the degree of sainthood, he displayed three clear instances of wonder-working in the letter he wrote me before he died. It is included among the pieces of the Twenty-Seventh Letter and may be referred to.

Third Example:

I had a brother of the hereafter and student who was one of those who approach reality with their hearts, called Hasan Efendi from Burdur. He had an excessively good opinion of me, far better than I deserved, and expected assistance from my wretched person as though awaiting the grace and influence of a great saint. Suddenly, in completely unrelated fashion, I gave the Thirty-Second Word to someone to study who lived in one of the villages of Burdur. Later I remembered Hasan Efendi and I said: “If you go to Burdur, give it to Hasan Efendi, and let him peruse it for five or six days.” The man went and gave it to him straight away. It was only a month of so till Hasan Efendi died. He cast himself on the Thirty-Second Word just like a man suffering a terrible thirst casts himself on the sweet water of Kawthar if he happens upon it. He studied it continuously and received its effulgence, especially the discussion on the love of God in the Third Stopping-Place, till he was completely cured of his ills. He found in it the enlightenment he would have expected from the greatest spiritual pole. He went to the mosque in good health, performed the prayer, and there surrendered his spirit to the Most Merciful (May God have mercy on him).

Fourth Example:

As is testified to by Hulûsi Bey’s piece in the Twenty- Seventh Letter, he found in the light-filled Words, which interpret the mysteries of the Qur’an, assistance and succour, effulgence and light greater than in the Naqshi way, which is the most important and influential Sufi order.

Fifth Example:

My brother Abdülmecid suffered terribly at the death of Abdurrahman (May God have mercy on him) and at other grievous events. He also awaited from me assistance and influence I was unable to give. I was not corresponding with him. Suddenly I sent him some of the main parts of the Words. After studying them, he wrote to me and said: “Praise be to God, I have been saved! I would have gone mad. Each of those Words has become like a spiritual guide for me. I had parted from one guide, but I suddenly found lots of them all at once, and was saved!” I realized that truly Abdülmecid had embarked on a good way and had been saved from his previous difficulties.

There are numerous examples like these five which show that if the sciences of belief are experienced directly as cures from the mysteries of the All-Wise Qur’an in consequence of need and as healing for wounds, those sciences and spiritual cures are sufficient for those who perceive their need and make use of them with earnest sincerity. Whatever the chemist and herald is like who sells and announces them – be he commonplace, or bankrupt, or rich, or a person of rank, or a servant – it does not make much difference.

There is no need to have recourse to candlelight while the sun shines. Since I am showing the sun, it is meaningless and unnecessary to seek candlelight from me, especially since I have none. Others should rather assist me with prayers, spiritual assistance, and even saintly influence. It is my right to seek help and assistance from them, while it is incumbent on them to be content with the effulgence they receive from the lights of the Risale-i Nur.

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 to our master Muhammad that will be pleasing to You and fulfilment of his truth, and to his Family and Companions, and grant them peace.

[A short, private letter that may be added as a supplement to the Third Matter of the Twent y-Eighth Letter.]

My Brothers of the Hereafter and Hard-Working Students, Husrev Efendi and Re’fet Bey!

We perceived three instances of Qur’anic wonder-working in the lights of the Qur’an known as the Words. Now through your effort and enthusiasm, you have caused a fourth to be added. The three I know are these:

The Firstis the extraordinary ease and speed in their writing. The Nineteenth Letter was written in two or three days working for three or four hours each day making a total of twelve hours, without any other book, in the mountains and orchards. The Thirtieth Word was written in five or six hours at a time of illness. The Twenty-Eighth Word, the discussion on Paradise, was written in one or two hours in Süleyman’s garden in the valley. Tevfik, Süleyman and I were astonished at this speed. And so on.

And just as there is this wonder of the Qur’an in their composition

The Second,… so too in their being written out and copied there is an extraordinary facility, enthusiasm, and lack of boredom. One of these Words appears, and suddenly, although there are many things at this time to weary the mind and spirit, people in many places start to write it out with total enthusiasm. They prefer it to anything else despite other pressing occupations. And so on.

The Third Qur’anic Wonder:The reading of the Words does not cause boredom either. Especially when one feels the need for them; the more one reads them, the more pleasure one receives, feeling no weariness.

Now you have proved a fourth Qur’anic wonder. A brother like Husrev who was lazy and although for five years he had heard about the Words, did not start writing them seriously, in one month wrote out fourteen books beautifully and carefully, which was doubtless the fourth wonder of the Qur’an’s mysteries. He perfectly appreciated the value of the Thirty-Three Windows in particular, the Thirty-Third Letter, since it was written out most beautifully and carefully.

Yes, it is a most powerful, brilliant piece for gaining knowledge of God and belief in God. Only, the first Windows are very concise and abbreviated, while the subsequent ones gradually unfold and shine more brilliantly. Contrarily to other writings, most of the Words start off concisely and gradually expand and illuminate.

The Fourth Matter, which is the Fourth Part

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

[The answer written for my brothers to a question about a minor, though alerting, incident.]

Dear Brothers!

You ask:On the arrival of a blessed guest, your mosque was raided on the night before Friday. What really happened? Why did they bother you?

The Answer:I shall explain four points, necessarily in the tongue of the Old Said. Perhaps it will be the means of alerting my brothers, and you too will receive your answer.

First Point

In reality the incident was a satanic plot and an act of aggression carried out by dissemblers on account of atheism in a way that was a violation of the law and purely arbitrary, in order to alarm us on the eve of Friday, destroy the congregation’s enthusiasm, and prevent me from meeting with people. It was strange, but that day, that is, Thursday, I had gone somewhere to take some air. When returning, a long black snake that looked like two snakes joined together appeared from my left, and passed between me and the friend who was with me. Meaning to ask my friend if he had been terrified at the snake, I asked him:

“Did you see it?”

He replied: “What?”

I said: “That terrible snake.”

He said: “No, I didn’t see it and I can’t see it.”

“Glory be to God!”, I exclaimed, “Such a huge snake passes between us and you didn’t see it! How is that?”

At the time nothing occurred to me. Then later this was imparted to my heart: “It was a sign for you. Watch out!” I thought it was like one of the snakes I used to see at night. That is, whenever an official visited me with a malicious intention, I would see him in the form of a snake. In fact, one time I said to the District Officer: “Whenever you come intending evil, I see you as a snake. Be careful!” I saw his predecessor many times like that.

It means that the snake I saw clearly was a sign that their treachery would not only remain intentional but would take the form of actual aggression. For sure, this time their aggression was apparently minor and they wanted to minimize it, but encouraged and joined by an unscrupulous teacher, the District Officer ordered the gendarmes: “Bring the visitors here!” We were reciting the tesbihat following the prayers in the mosque. Anyway their intention was to make me angry so that I would react in the vein of the Old Said and drive them out in the face of such unlawful, purely arbitrary treatment. But the wretch did not know that Said would not defend himself with the broken piece of wood in his hand while on his tongue he had a diamond sword from the workbench of the Qur’an, indeed, he would have used the sword like that. But the gendarmes were sensible, and since no state, no government at all, disturbs people in the mosque during prayer while performing their religious duties, they waited till the prayers and tesbihat were finished. The Officer was angry at this and sent the rural watchman after them saying: “The gendarmes don’t pay any attention to me.” But Almighty God did not force me to struggle with them.

So I make this recommendation to my brothers: so long as there is no absolute necessity, don’t bother yourselves with them. In keeping with the saying: “The best answer for the stupid is silence,” do not stoop to speak with them.

But watch out, for like showing weakness before a savage animal emboldens its attack, to show weakness by being sycophantic towards those with the consciences of beasts, encourages them to be aggressive. Friends must be alert so that the supporters of atheism do not take advantage of other friends’ indifference and heedlessness.

Second Point

The verse:And incline not towards those who do wrong, or the Fire will seize you(11:113)threatens in awesome and severe fashion not only those who support and are the tools of tyranny, but also those who have the slightest inclination towards it. For like consenting to unbelief is unbelief, so is consenting to tyranny and wrongdoing, tyranny and wrong.

One of the people of attainment perfectly interpreted as follows one of the many jewels of the above verse:

One who assists tyranny is the world’s most despicable being;

He is a dog, who receives pleasure from serving the unjust.

Yes, some of them are snakes, some are dogs. The one who spied on us on that blessed night when, with a blessed guest we were reciting blessed prayers, and informed on us as though we were commiting some crime, and raided us, certainly deserves the blow dealt by the above poem.

Third Point

Question:Since you rely on the Qur’an’s saintly influence and its effulgence and light to reform and guide the most obstinate of the godless, and you actually do this, why do you not call to religion those aggressive people that are around you, and guide them?

The Answer:An important principle of the Shari‘a is “The person who knowingly consents to harm should not be condoned.”

Relying on the strength of the Qur’an, I say that on condition even the most obdurate irreligious person is not utterly vile and does not enjoy spreading the poison of misguidance like a snake, if I do not convince him in a few hours, I am ready to try.

However, to speak of truth and realit y to a conscience that has fallen to the very lowest degree of baseness, to snakes in human form that have reached such a degree of hypocrisy that they knowingly sell religion for the world and knowingly exchange the diamonds of reality for vile and harmful fragments of glass, would be disrespectful towards those truths.

It would be like the proverb “Casting pearls before swine.” For those who do these things have several times heard the truth from the Risale-i Nur, and they knowingly try to refute its truths before the misguidance of atheism. Such people receive pleasure from poison, like snakes.

Fourth Point

The treatment I have received this seven years has been purely arbitrary and outside the law. For the laws concerning exiles and captives and those in prison are clear. By law, they can meet with their relatives and they should not be prevented from mixing with people. In every country, with every people, worship and prayer are immune from interference. Others like me stayed together with their friends and relations in towns. They were prevented neither from mixing with others, nor from communicating, nor from moving about freely. I was prevented. And my mosque and my worship even were raided. And while it is Sunna according to the Shafi‘i School to repeat the words, “There is no god but God” in the prayers following the prescribed prayers, they tried to make me give them up.

Even, one of the old exiles in Burdur, an illiterate called Şebab, and his mother-in-law, came here for a change of air. They visited me because we come from the same place. They were summoned from the mosque by three armed gendarmes. The official then tried to hide that he had made a mistake and acted unlawfully, and apologized, saying: “Don’t be angry, it was my duty.” Then he gave them permission and told them to go. Comparing other things and treatment with that incident, it is understood that the treatment accorded to me is purely arbitrary, and that they inflict vipers and curs on me. But I don’t condescend to bother with them. I refer it to Almighty God to ward off their evil.

In fact, those who instigated the event that was the cause of the exile are now back in their own lands, and powerful chiefs are back at the heads of their tribes. Everyone has been discharged. They made me and two other people exceptions, although I have no connection with their world; may it be the end of them! But one of those two was appointed Mufti somewhere and can travel everywhere outside his own region, including to Ankara. And the other was left in Istanbul in the midst of forty thousand people from his native region, and he can meet with everyone. Moreover, those two persons are not alone and with no one, like me; they are very influential, with God’s permission.

And so on and so forth. But they put me in a village and set those with the least conscience on me. I have only been able to go to another village twenty minutes away twice in six years, and they did not give me permission to go there for a few days’ change of air, crushing me even more under their tyranny. Whereas whatever form a government takes the law is the same for all. There cannot be different laws for villages and for different individuals. That is to say, the law as far as I am concerned is unlawfulness.

The officials here utilize government influence for their own personal grudges. But I offer a hundred thousand thanks to Almight y God, and by way of making known His bounties, I say this: All this oppression and tyranny of theirs is like pieces of wood for the fire of ardour and endeavour which illuminates the lights of the Qur’an; it makes them flare up and shine. And those lights of the Qur’an, which have suffered this persecution of theirs and have spread with the heat of endeavour, have made this province, indeed, most of the country, into a medrese in place of Barla. They supposed me to a prisoner in a village. On the contrary, in spite of the atheists, Barla has become the teaching desk, and many places, like Isparta, have become the medrese.

All praise be to God, this is a bounty from my Lord and Sustainer.

The Fifth Matter, which is the Fifth Part

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

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.

Will they not then give thanks?(36:35, 73) * Will they not then give thanks? * And we shall surely reward those who give thanks.(3:145) * If you give thanks, I shall increase [my favours] to you.(14:7) * Worship God and be of those who give thanks.(39:66)By repeating verses like these, the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition shows that thanks is what the Most Merciful Creator wants most from His servants. The Qur’an, the All-Wise Distinguisher between Truth and Falsehood, calls on men to offer thanks, giving it the greatest importance.

It shows ingratitude to be a denial of bounties and in Sura al-Rahman utters a fearsomely severe threat thirty-three times with the verse,So which of the favours of your Sustainer do you deny?(55:13, etc.)

It shows ingratitude to be denial and negation. Indeed, just as the All-Wise Qur’an shows thanks to be the result of creation; so the universe, which is a mighty Qur’an, shows the most important result of the world’s creation to be thanks.

For if the universe is observed carefully, it is seen from the way it is arranged that everything results in thanks; each looks to thanks to an extent and is turned towards it. It is as though thanks is the most important fruit of the tree of creation, and gratitude is the most elevated product of the factory of the universe. The reason for this is as follows:

We see in the creation of the world that its beings are arranged as though in a circle with life as its central point. All beings look to life, and serve life, and produce the necessities of life. That is to say, the One who created the universe chose life from it, giving it preference.

Then we see that He created the animal kingdom in the form of a circle and placed man at its centre. Simply, He centred the aims intended from animate beings on man, gathering all living creatures around him and subjugating them to him. He made them serve him and him dominant over them. That is to say, the Glorious Creator chose man from among living beings, and willed and decreed this position for him in the world. Then we see that the world of man, and the animal world too, are disposed like circles with sustenance placed at their centre. He has made mankind and the animals enamoured of sustenance, has subjugated them to it, and made them serve it. What rules them is sustenance. And He has made sustenance such a vast, rich treasury that it embraces all His innumerable bounties. Even, with the faculty called the sense of taste, He has placed on the tongue sensitive scales to the number of foods so that they can recognize the tastes of the many varieties of sustenance. That is to say, the strangest, richest, most wonderful, most agreeable, most comprehensive, and most marvellous truth in the universe lies in sustenance.

Now we see that just as everything has been gathered around sustenance and looks to it, so does sustenance in all its varieties subsist through thanks, both material and immaterial and that offered by word and by state; it exists through thanks, it produces thanks, its shows thanks. For appetite and desire for sustenance are a sort of innate or instinctive thanks. Enjoyment and pleasure also are a sort of unconscious thanks, offered by all animals. It is only man who changes the nature of that innate thanks through misguidance and unbelief; he deviates from thanks and associates partners with God.

Furthermore, the exquisitely adorned forms, the fragrant smells, the wonderfully delicious tastes in the bounties that are sustenance invite thanks; they awake an eagerness in animate beings, and through eagerness urge a sort of appreciation and respect, and prompt thanks of a sort. They attract the attention of conscious beings and engender admiration. They encourage them to respect the bounties; through this, they lead them to offer thanks verbally and by act, and to be grateful; they cause them to experience the highest, sweetest pleasure and enjoyment within thanks.

That is, they show that, as well as a brief and temporary superficial pleasure, through thanks, these delicious foods and bounties gain the favours of the Most Merciful One, which provide a permanent, true, boundless pleasure. They cause conscious beings to ponder over the infinite, pleasurable favours of the All-Generous Owner of the treasuries of mercy, and in effect to taste the everlasting delights of Paradise while still in this world.

Thus, although by means of thanks sustenance becomes such a valuable,rich, all-embracing treasury, through ingratitude it becomes utterly valueless.

As is explained in the Sixth Word, when the sense of taste in the tongue is turned towards sustenance for the sake of Almighty God, that is, when it performs its duty of thanks, it becomes like a grateful inspector of the numberless kitchens of divine mercy and a highly-esteemed supervisor full of praise.

If it is turned towards it for the sake of the soul, that is, without thinking of giving thanks to the One who has bestowed the sustenance, the sense of taste is demoted from being a highly-esteemed supervisor to the rank of a watchman of the factory of the stomach and a doorkeeper of the stable of the belly. Just as through ingratitude these servants of sustenance descend to such a level, so does the nature of sustenance and its other servants fall; they fall from the highest rank to the lowest; they sink to a state opposed to the Creator of the universe’s wisdom.

The measure of thanks is contentment, frugality, and being satisfied and grateful.

While the measure of ingratitude is greed, wastefulness and extravagance; it is disrespect; it is eating whatever one comes across, whether lawful or unlawful.

Like ingratitude, greed causes both loss and degradation. For example, it is as though because of greed that the blessed ant even with its social life is crushed underfoot. For although a few grains of wheat would suffice it for a year, it is not contented with this and collects thousands if it can. But the blessed honey-bee flies overhead due to its contentment, and at a divine command bestows honey on human beings for them to eat.

The name of All-Merciful – the greatest name after the name of Allah, which signifies the divine essence and is the greatest name of the Most Pure and Holy One – looks to sustenance, and is attained to through the thanks provoked by sustenance.

Also, the most obvious meaning of All-Merciful is Provider.Moreover, there are different varieties of thanks, the most comprehensive of which are the prescribed prayers.

The prescribed prayers are a universal index of the sorts of thanks.Furthermore, thanks comprises pure belief and a sincere affirmation of God’s unity. For a person who eats an apple and utters, “Praise be to God!” is proclaiming through his thanks: “This apple is a souvenir bestowed directly by the hand of power, a gift directly from the treasury of mercy.” By saying this and believing it, he is ascribing everything, particular and universal, to the hand of power. He recognizes the manifestation of mercy in everything. He announces through thanks, his true belief and sincere affirmation of divine unity.

The heedless man incurs serious loss through ingratitude for bounties. We shall describe only one of its many aspects. It is as follows:

If someone eats a delicious bounty and gives thanks, by virtue of his thanks the bounty becomes a light and a fruit of Paradise in the hereafter. If, because of the pleasure, he thinks of it as the work of Almighty God’s favour and mercy, it yields a true, lasting delight and enjoyment. He sends kernels and essences of its meanings and immaterial substances like these to the abodes above, while the material husk-like residue, that is, the matter that has completed its duty and now is unnecessary, becomes excreta and goes to be transformed into its original substances, that is, into the elements.

If he fails to give thanks, the temporary pleasure leaves a pain and sorrow at its passing, and itself becomes waste. Bounty, which is as precious as diamonds, is transformed into coal.

Through thanks, ephemeral sustenance produces enduring pleasures, everlasting fruits.

While bounty that is met with ingratitude is turned from the very best of forms into the most distasteful. For according to the heedless person, after producing a fleeting pleasure, sustenance ends up as waste- matter.

Sustenance is indeed in a form worthy of love, and this form is to be seen through thanks. However, the passion of the misguided and heedless for sustenance is animality. You can make further comparisons in this way and see what a loss the heedless and misguided suffer.

Among animate species, man is the most needy for all the varieties of sustenance. Almighty God created man as a comprehensive mirror to all His names; as a miracle of power with the capacity to weigh up and recognize the contents of all His treasuries of mercy; and as His vicegerent on earth possessing the faculties to draw to the scales and evaluate all the subtleties of His names’ manifestations. He therefore made man utterly resourceless, rendering him needy for the endless varieties of sustenance, material and immaterial. Thanks is the means of raising man to “the best of forms,” which is the highest position in accordance with this comprehensiveness. If he does not give thanks, he falls to “the lowest of the low,” and perpetrates a great wrong.

In Short:Thanks is the most essential of the four fundamental principles of the way of worship and winning God’s love, the highest and most elevated way. These four principles have been defined as follows:

“Four things are necessary on the way of the impotent, my friend:

“Absolute impotence, absolute poverty, absolute fervour, and absolute thanks, my friend.”

O God, through Your mercy, appoint us among those who give thanks, O Most Merciful of the Merciful!

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, master of those who offer thanks and praise, and to all his Family and Companions. Amen.

And the close of their cry will be, “All praise be to God, Sustainer of All the Worlds.”(10:10)

The Sixth Matter, which is the Sixth Part

This was included in another collection and not included here.

The Seventh Matter, which is the Seventh Part

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

Say: “In the bounty of God, and in His mercy, in that let them rejoice;” that is better than the [wealth] they hoard.(10:58)

This matter consists of seven “Signs,”

but firstly, in order to recount a number of divine bounties, we shall explain seven “Reasons,” which disclose the meanings of several divine favours.

First Reason:

Before the Great War, or around the beginning of it, I had a true vision. In it, I was under the famous mountain of Ağrı›, known as Mount Ararat. The mountain suddenly exploded with a terrible blast. Pieces the size of mountains were scattered all over the world. I looked and saw that in that awful situation, my mother was beside me. I said to her: “Don’t be frightened. This is happening at Almight y God’s command, and He is All-Compassionate and All-Wise.” Suddenly, while in that situation, I saw that a person of importance was commanding me: “Expound the Qur’an’s miraculousness!”

I awoke and I understood that there was going to be a great explosion and upheaval, and that following it the walls surrounding the Qur’an would be destroyed. The Qur’an would then defend itself directly. It was going to be attacked and its miraculousness would be its steel armour. And in a way surpassing his ability, someone like myself would be appointed at this time to reveal one sort of its miraculousness; I understood that I had been designated.

Since the Qur’an’s miraculousness has been expounded to an extent in the Words, to set forth the divine favours received in our service, which are sorts of blessings and emanations of its miraculousness, will surely assist it and pass to its account, and should therefore be set forth.

Second Reason:

The All-Wise Qur’an is our guide, master, and leader, and shows us the way in all our conduct. So since it praises itself, following its instruction, we shall praise its commentary.

Furthermore, since the Words that have been written are a sort of commentary on the Qur’an, and its treatises are the property of the Qur’an’s truths and its realities; and since in most of its Suras, and particularly in the Alif. Lam. Ra.’s and Ha. Mim.’s, the All-Wise Qur’an displays itself in all its magnificence, tells of its own perfections, and praises itself in a way of which it is worthy; certainly we are charged with making known the flashes of the Qur’an’s miraculousness that are reflected in the Words, and the dominical favours that are a sign of that service’s acceptance. For our master does this and teaches us to do it.

Third Reason:

I do not say this about the Words out of modesty but in order to explain a truth, that the truths and perfections in the Words are not mine; they are the Qur’an’s and they have issued from the Qur’an. The Tenth Word, for instance, consists of a few droplets filtered from hundreds of verses, and the rest of the treatises are all like that.

Since I know it is thus and since I am transient, I shall depart, of course something, a work, which is enduring should not, and must not, be tied to me. And since it is the custom of the people of misguidance and rebellion to refute a work that does not suit their purposes by refuting its author, the treatises, which are bound to the stars of the skies of the Qur’an, should not be bound to a rotten post like me who may be the object of criticism and disapproval, and may fall.

Also, it is generally the custom to search for the merits of a work in the qualities of its author, whom people suppose to be the work’s source and origin. To attribute those elevated truths and brilliant jewels to a bankrupt like me in keeping with that custom, and to my person, who could not produce one thousandth of them himself, is a great injustice towards the truth. I am therefore compelled to proclaim that the treatises are not my property; they are the Qur’an’s property, and issuing from the Qur’an, they manifest its virtues.

Yes, the qualities of delicious bunches of grapes should not be sought in their dry stalks. I resemble such a dry stalk.

Fourth Reason:

Sometimes modesty suggests ingratitude for bounties, indeed, is ingratitude for bounties. Then sometimes recounting bounties is a cause of pride. Both are harmful. The only solution is for it to be neither. To admit to virtues and perfections, but without claiming ownership of them, is to show them to be the works bestowed by the True Bestower.

For example, suppose someone were to dress you in a robe of honour embroidered and encrusted with jewels and you became ver y beautiful. The people then said to you: “What wonders God has willed! How beautiful you are! How beautiful you have become!”, but you modestly replied: “God forbid! Don’t say such a thing! What am I? This is nothing!” To do this would be ingratitude for the bounty and disrespectful towards skilful crafts man who had dressed you in the garment. While if you were to reply proudly: “Yes, I am very beautiful. Surely there is no one to compare with me!”, that would be conceited pride.

In consequence, to avoid both conceit and ingratitude one should say: “Yes, I have grown beautiful. But the beauty springs from the robe, and thus indirectly from the one who clothed me in it; it is not mine.”

Like this, if my voice were strong enough, I would shout out to the whole earth: “The Words are beautiful; they are truth, they are reality; but they are not mine. They are rays shining out from the truths of the Noble Qur’an.”

In accordance with the principle of:I cannot praise Muhammad with my words, rather my words become praiseworthy through Muhammad,

I say:

I cannot praise the Qur’an with my words, rather my words become praiseworthy through the Qur’an.

That is to say, I did not beautify the truths of the Qur’an’s miraculousness, I could not show them beautifully; rather, the Qur’an’s beautiful truths made my words beautiful and elevated them.

Since it is thus, it is acceptable to recount divine bounties and to make known in the name of the beauty of the Qur’an’s truths, the beauties of its mirrors known as the Words, and the divine favours which comprise those mirrors.

Fifth Reason:

A long time ago I heard from one of the people of sainthood that he had divined from the obscure allusions of the saints of old – received from the Unseen – that a light would appear in the East that would scatter the darkness of innovation. He was certain of this. I have long awaited the coming of the light, and I am awaiting it. But flowers appear in the spring and the ground has to be prepared for such sacred flowers. I understood that with this service of ours we are preparing the ground for those luminous people.

So to proclaim the divine favours which pertain not to us but to the lights called the Words should lead not to pride or conceit but to praise and thanks, and to recounting the divine bounties.

Sixth Reason:

Dominical favours, which are an immediate reward for our serving the Qur’an by means of the Words, and an encouragement, are a success granted by God. And success should be made known. If they surpass success, they become a divine bestowal. To make known divine bestowal infers thanks. If they surpass that too, they become wonders of the Qur’an with no interference on the part of our wills; we have merely manifested them. It is harmless to make known wonders of this sort, which occur unheralded and without the intervention of will. If they surpass ordinar y wonders,they become rays of the Qur’an’s miraculousness.

And since miraculousness may be made known, the making known of what assists the miraculousness passes to the account of the miraculousness and cannot be the cause of any pride or conceit; it should rather be the cause of praise and thanks.

Seventh Reason:

Eighty per cent of mankind are not investigative scholars who can penetrate to reality, recognize reality as reality and accept it as such. They rather accept matters by way of imitation, that they hear from acceptable and reliable people, in consequence of their good opinions of them. In fact, they look on a powerful truth as weak when in the possession of a weak man, while if they see a worthless matter in the possession of a worthy man, they deem it valuable.

Because of this, in order not to reduce the value of the truths of faith and the Qur’an in the eyes of most people since they are in the hands of a weak and worthless wretch like myself, I am compelled to proclaim that outside our knowledge and will, someone is employing us;

we are not aware of it, but he is making us work. My evidence is this: outside our wills and consciousness, we manifest certain favours and facilities.

In which case, we are compelled to shout out and proclaim those favours.

In consequence of the above seven reasons, we shall point out several signs of universal dominical favours.

FIRST SIGN

Explained in the First Point of the Eighth Matter of the Twenty-Eighth Letter, are the ‘coincidences’ (tevâfukat).

For example, in the Nineteenth Letter, about the miracles of Muhammad (UWBP), in a copy written by a scribe who was unaware of this factor, on sixty pages – with the exception of two – from the Third to the Eighteenth Signs, more than two hundred instances of the phrase “God’s Noble Messenger, Upon whom be blessings and peace” look to each other corresponding perfectly. Anyone fair who looks at two pages would confirm that they are not the product of mere chance. If many instances of the same word corresponded to each other on the same page, half would be chance and half coincidence; it would only be wholly coincidence if this occurred on more than one page. So if two, three, four, or even more instances of the phrase “God’s Noble Messenger, Upon whom be blessings and peace” correspond to each other perfectly on all the pages, it surely is not possible for it to be chance. It shows too that a coincidence that eight different scribes have been unable to spoil is a powerful sign from the Unseen.

Although the various degrees of eloquence are to be found in the books of the scholars of rhetoric and eloquence, the eloquence of the All-Wise Qur’an has risen to the degree of miraculousness and it is in no one’s power to reach it. Similarly, the ‘coincidences’ in the Nineteenth Letter, which is a mirror of the miracles of Muhammad (UWBP), and in the Twenty-Fifth Word, which is an interpreter of the miracles of the Qur’an, and in the various parts of the Risale-i Nur, which is a sort of commentary on the Qur’an, demonstrate a degree of singularity surpassing all other books. It is understood from this that it is a sort of wonder of the miraculousness of the Qur’an and the miracles of Muhammad (UWBP) which is manifested and represented in those mirrors.

SECOND SIGN

The second of the dominical favours pertaining to the service of the Qur’an is this: Almighty God bestowed on someone like me who has difficulty in writing, is semi-literate, alone, in exile, and barred from mixing with people, brothers as helpers who are strong, earnest, sincere, enterprising, and self-sacrificing, and whose pens are each like diamond swords. He placed on their powerful shoulders the Qur’anic duty that weighed heavily on my weak and powerless ones. Out of His perfect munificence, He lightened my load.

In Hulûsi’s words, that blessed community is like a collection of wireless and telegraph receivers, and in Sabri’s, like the machines producing the electricity of the light factory. With their different virtues and worthy qualities, again in Sabri’s words, manifesting a sort of coincidence proceeding from the Unseen, they spread the mysteries of the Qur’an and lights of faith all around reflecting each other’s enthusiasm, effort, enterprise, and seriousness, making them reach everywhere. At this time, that is, when the alphabet has been changed, and there are no printing-presses, and everyone is in need of the lights of belief, and there are numerous things to dispirit a person and destroy his enthusiasm, their unflagging service and sheer fervour and endeavour are directly a wonder of the Qur’an and a clear divine favour.

Yes, just as sainthood has its wonders, so does a pure intention. So does sincerity. Especially serious, sincere solidarity between brothers and brotherhood purely for God’s sake – they produce numerous wonders. In fact, the collective personality of such a community may achieve the perfection of a saint and manifest divine favours.

My brothers and my friends in the service of the Qur’an! Just as it is unjust and wrong to give all the glory and all the booty to the sergeant of a company that conquers a citadel, so you should not ascribe the divine favours in the victories won through the strength of your collective personality and your pens to an unfortunate like myself! In fact, there is another indication of the Unseen in such a blessed community, more powerful than the ‘coincidences’ proceeding from the Unseen and I can see it, but I may not point it out to everyone at large.

THIRD SIGN

The fact that the various parts of the Risale-i Nur prove the principal truths of belief and the Qur’an in brilliant fashion to even the most obdurate person is a powerful sign from the Unseen and divine favour. For among those truths are some that Ibn Sina, who was considered the greatest genius, confessed his powerlessness to understand, saying: “Reason cannot solve these.” Whereas the Tenth Word explains what he could not achieve with his genius to ordinary people, or even to children.

And for example, a learned scholar like Sa‘d al-Din Taftazani could only solve the mystery of divine determining and man’s will in forty to fifty pages with the famous Muqaddimat-i Ithna ‘Ashar in his work Talwihat. Those same matters, which he set out for the elite alone, are explained completely in two pages in the Second Topic of the Twenty-Sixth Word, which is about divine determining, in a way that everyone can understand; if that is not a mark of divine favour, what is?

There are also what are known as the mystery of world’s creation and the riddle of the universe, which have perplexed everyone and no philosophy has been able to solve: through the miraculousness of the Qur’an of Mighty Stature, that abstruse talisman and astonishing riddle are solved in the Twenty-Fourth Letter, and in the Allusive Point towards the end of the Twenty-Ninth Word, and in the six instances of wisdom in the transformations of minute particles explained in the Thirtieth Word. They have disclosed and explained the mystery of the astonishing activity in the universe, and the riddle of the universe’s creation and its end, and the meaning and instances of wisdom in the motion and transformations of particles; they are there for all to see and may be referred to.

Furthermore, the Sixteenth and Thirty-Second Words explain with perfect clarit y the partnerless unity of dominicality, through the mystery of divine oneness, together with the astonishing truths of infinite divine proximity and our infinite distance from God. While the exposition of the phrase “And He is Powerful over all things” in the Twentieth Letter and its Addendum which contains three comparisons demonstrate self-evidently that minute particles and the planets are equal in relation to divine power, and that at the resurrection of the dead, the raising to life of all beings with spirits will be as easy for that power as the raising to life of a single soul, and that the intervention of any partner to God in the creation of the universe is so far from reason as to be impossible, thus disclosing a vast mystery of divine unity.

Furthermore, although in the truths of belief and the Qur’an there is such a breadth that the greatest human genius cannot comprehend them, the fact that they appeared together with the great majority of their fine points through someone like me whose mind is confused, situation wretched, has no book to refer to, and who writes with difficulty and at speed, is directly the work of the All-Wise Qur’an’s miraculousness and a manifestation of dominical favour and a powerful sign from the Unseen.

FOURTH SIGN

Fifty to sixty treatises were bestowed in such a way that, being works that could not be written through the efforts and exertions of great geniuses and exacting scholars, let alone someone like me who thinks little, follows the apparent, and does not have the time for close study, they demonstrate that they are directly the works of divine favour. For in all these treatises, the most profound truths are taught by means of comparisons to the most ordinary and uneducated people. Whereas leading scholars have said about most of those truths that they cannot be made comprehensible and have not taught them to the elite, let alone to the common people.

Thus, for these most distant truths to be taught to the most ordinary man in the closest way, with wondrous ease and clarity of expression, by someone like me who has little Turkish, whose words are obscure and mostly incomprehensible, and for many years has been famous for complicating the clearest facts and whose former works confirm this ill-fame, is certainly and without any doubt a mark of divine favour and cannot be through his skill; it is a manifestation of the Noble Qur’an’s miraculousness, and a representation and reflection of the Qur’an’s comparisons.

FIFTH SIGN

The fact that although generally speaking the treatises have been widely distributed, and classes and groups of people from the loftiest scholars to the uneducated, and from great saints from among those who approach reality with their hearts to the most obdurate irreligious philosphers, have seen them and studied them and have not criticized them, despite some of them receiving blows through them; and the fact that each group has benefited from them according to its degree; is directly a mark of dominical favour and a wonder of the Qur’an. And although treatises of that sort are written only after much study and research, these were written with extraordinary speed and at distressing times when my mind was contracted,confusing my thought and understanding, which is a mark of divine favour and a dominical bestowal.

Yes, most of my brothers and all the friends who are with me and the scribes know that the five parts of the Nineteenth Letter were written referring to no book at all in several days working for two or three hours each day making a total of twelve hours; and the Fourth Part, which is the most important and displays a clear seal of prophethood in the phrase “God’s Noble Messenger, Upon whom be blessings and peace,” was written from memory in three or four hours in the rain in the mountains; and that the important and profound treatise of the Thirtieth Word was written in six hours in an orchard; and that as with the Twenty-Eighth Word, which was written finally in two hours in Süleyman’s garden, most of them were written in such conditions; my close friends know also that for many years, when I suffer difficulties and my mind is contracted, I cannot explain even the plainest facts, indeed, I do not even know them. Then especially when illness aggravates the distress, It prevents me from teaching and writing even more. Yet despite this, the most important of the Words and their treatises were written when I was suffering most difficulty and illness, and with the most speed. If this was not a direct divine favour and dominical bounty and wonder of the Qur’an, what was it?

Furthermore, whatever book it may be, if it discusses the divine truths and realities of faith, it will certainly be harmful for some people, and for this reason all the matters it contains should not be taught to everyone. However, although I have asked many people, up to the present time these treatises have caused no harm to anyone; they have caused no ill effects or unfavourable reaction, nor have they disturbed anyone’s mind. It absolutely certain in my opinion that this is a direct sign of the Unseen and dominical favour.

SIXTH SIGN

It has now become absolutely clear in my view that most of my life has been directed in such a way, outside my own will, ability, comprehension, and foresight, that it might produce these treatises to serve the All-Wise Qur’an. It is as if all my life as a scholar had been spent in preparation and preliminaries, the result of which was the exposition of the Qur’an’s miraculousness through the Words.

I have no doubt even that these seven years of exile, and the situation imposed on me whereby I have been isolated for no reason and against my wish, living a solitary life in a village in a way opposed to my temperament, and my feeling disgust at and abandoning many of the ties and rules of social life to which I had long grown accustomed, was in order to make me carry out this duty to serve the Qur’an directly and in purely sincere fashion.

I am of the opinion that the ill-treatment was very often visited on me by a hand of favour under the veil of unjust oppression, compassionately, in order to focus my thought on the mysteries of the Qur’an and restrict it and not allow my mind to be distracted.

And being prevented from studying all other books, despite formerly having great desire to study, I felt an aloofness towards them in my spirit. I understood that I had been made to give up studying, which would have been a solace and familiar in my exile, so that the verses of the Qur’an should be my absolute master directly.

Furthermore, the great majority of the works that have been written, the treatises, have been bestowed instantaneously and suddenly in consequence of some need arising from my spirit, not from any outside cause. Then when afterwards I have shown them to friends, they have said that they are the remedy for the wounds of the present time. And having been disseminated, I have understood from most of my brothers that they meet the needs of the times exactly and are like a cure for every ill.

I have no doubt therefore that the above-mentioned points and the course of my life and my involuntarily studying fields of learning opposed to normal practice, outside my own will and awareness, were a powerful divine favour and dominical bounty bestowed to yield sacred results such as these.

SEVENTH SIGN

In the course of our work over the past five to six years, without exaggeration we have seen with our own eyes a hundred instances of divine bestowal and dominical favour and wonders of the Qur’an. We have pointed out some of them in the Sixteenth Letter, and others we have described in the various matters of the Fourth Topic of the Twenty-Sixth Letter, and in the Third Matter of the Twenty-Eighth Letter. My close friends know these, and Süleyman Efendi, my constant friend, knows many of them. We experience an extraordinary and wondrous ease in spreading the Words in particular and other treatises, and in correcting them, and putting them in order, and in the rough and final drafts. I have no doubt that this is a wonder of the Qur’an. There have been hundreds of instances of it.

Furthermore, we are nurtured with great tenderness in our daily lives with the Gracious One who employs us bestowing on us the least desires of our hearts in ways entirely outside the ordinary in order to gratify us. And so on.

This situation is a truly powerful sign from the Unseen that we are being employed; we are being made to serve the Qur’an both within the sphere of divine pleasure, and through divine favour.

All praise be to God, this is a bounty from my Lord and Sustainer!

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 to our master Muhammad that will be pleasing to You and fulfilment of his truth, and to his Family and Companions, and grant them peace. Amen.

The Answer to a Confidential Question

[This instance of divine favour was written some time ago confidentially and was added to the end of the Fourteenth Word. However, most of the scribes have forgotten it and not written it. That is to say, the appropriate place for it must have been here, since it remained unknown.]

You ask me:“How is it that in the Words you have written from the Qur’an are a power and effectiveness rarely to be found in the words of Qur’anic commentators and those with knowledge of God? Sometimes a single line is as powerful as a page, and one page as effective as a book?”

The Answer:A good answer: since the honour belongs to the Qur’an’s miraculousness and not to me, I say fearlessly: it is mostly like that for the following reason: The Words that have been written are not supposition, they are affirmation; they are not submission, they are belief; they are not intuitive knowledge (marifet), they are a testifying and witnessing; they are not imitating, they are verification; they are not taking the part of something, they are comprehension of it; they are not Sufism, they are reality (hakikat); they are not a claim, they are the proof within the claim.

The wisdom in this is as follows: Formerly, the fundamentals of belief were protected, submission was strong.Even if the intuitive knowledge of those with knowledge of God lacked proof, their expositions were acceptable and sufficient. But at this time, since the misguidance of science has stretched out its hand to the fundamentals and pillars [of belief], the All- Wise and Compassionate One of Glory, who bestows a remedy for every ill, in consequence of my impotence and weakness, want and need, mercifully bestowed in these writings of mine which serve the Qur’an a single ray from the comparisons of that Noble Qur’an, which are a most brilliant manifestation of its miraculousness.

All praise be to God, distant truths were brought close through the telescope of the mystery of comparisons.

Through the aspect of unity of the mystery of comparisons, truly disparate matters were collected together.

Through the stairs of the mystery of comparisons, the highest truths were easily reached.

Through the window of the mystery of comparisons, a certainty of belief in the truths of the Unseen and fundamentals of Islam was obtained close to the degree of witnessing (şuhûd). The intellect, as well as the imagination and fancy, and the soul and caprice, were compelled to submit, and Satan too was compelled to surrender his weapons.

In Short:Whatever beauty and effectiveness are found in my writings, they are only flashes of the Qur’anic comparisons. My share is only my intense need and my seeking, and my extreme impotence and my beseeching. The ill is mine, and the cure, the Qur’an’s.

The Conclusion of the Seventh Matter

[This is to banish any doubts that have arisen or may arise concerning the signs from the Unseen apparent in the form of the above eight divine favours, and describes a further divine favour and its mighty mystery]

This conclusion consists of four points.

FIRST POINTWe claimed in the Seventh Matter of the Twenty-Eighth Letter that we saw a sign from the Unseen, called the Eighth Favour, which we perceived in the seven or eight universal, immaterial divine favours, and a manifestation of that sign in the embroideries known as the coincidences (tevâfukat). And we claim that those seven or eight universal divine favours are so powerful and certain that each on its own proves those signs from the Unseen. If, to suppose the impossible, some appear weak, or are denied even, it will not damage the certainty of that sign from the Unseen. A person who cannot deny the divine favours, cannot deny the signs.

But because people differ in respect of their level, and because the most numerous level, the mass of people, rely mostly on what they see, since the coincidences are not the most powerful but the most apparent of the eight divine favours – certainly the others are more powerful but since this is more general – I have been compelled to expound a truth by way of comparing them, with the intention of dispelling those doubts. It is like this:

We said concerning the apparent divine favour that so many coincidences appeared in the word “Qur’an” and the phrase “God’s Noble Messenger, Upon whom be blessings and peace” in the treatise we had written that no doubt remained that they had been ordered intentionally and given mutually corresponding positions. Our evidence that the will and intention is not ours is that we became aware of them only three or four years later. In which case, as a work of divine favour, the will and intention pertain to the Unseen. This singular situation was bestowed solely to corroborate the miraculousness of the Qur’an and of Muhammad (UWBP), and in the form of the coincidences involving those two words.

In addition to the blessedness of these two words being a ratifying stamp of the Qur’an’s miraculousness and the miracles of Muhammad (UWBP), the great majority of similar phrases manifest coincidences, but they appear only on a single page, while the two above phrases appear throughout the two treatises and in most of the others. We have said repeatedly that essentially coincidences may be found in other books, but not to this extraordinary extent, which demonstrates an elevated will and intention.

Now, although it is not possible to refute what we claim, there are one or two ways that it might appear to be thus if glanced at superficially.

One is that they may say: “You had these coincidences in mind and brought them about in this way.

It would be easy to do that intentionally.” In reply we say this: in any matter two truthful witnesses are sufficient, but in this case a hundred truthful witnesses may be found who will testify that our will and intention played no part and that we became aware of it only three or four years later.

I want to say in this connection that this wonder of the Qur’an proceeding from its miraculousness is not similar in kind to its miraculous eloquence, or equal in degree. For that is beyond human power. But this wonder of its miraculousness could not occur through human power either; human power could not intervene in such a matter. If it did, it would be artificial and spoil it.(*)

Third PointIn connection with particular signs and general signs, we shall indicate a fine point of dominicality and mercifulness:

One of my brothers said something very good; I shall make it the subject here. What he said was this: one day I showed him a clear example of a coincidence and he said: “That’s good! In fact all truths and realities are good, but the coincidences in the Words and its success are even better.”

“Yes,” I said, “everything is in reality good, or in itself good, or good in respect of its results. And this goodness looks to general dominicality, all-embracing mercy, and universal manifestation. Like you said, the sign from the Unseen in this success is even better. This is because it takes the form of a particular mercy and particular dominicality and particular manifestation.” We shall make this easier to understand with a comparison. It is like this:

Through his universal sovereignty and law, a king may encompass all the members of his nation with his royal mercy. Each receives the king’s favour and is subject to his rule directly. The members all have numerous particular connections within the universality.

The second aspect are the king’s particular bounties and particular orders: above the law, he bestows favours on persons and gives his orders.

Like this comparison, everything receives a share of the general dominicality and all-encompassing mercy of the Necessarily Existent One, the All-Wise and Compassionate Creator. He has disposal over everything through His power, will, and all-embracing knowledge; He intervenes in the most insignificant matters of all things; His dominicality embraces them. Everything is in need of Him in every respect. All of their works are performed and ordered through His knowledge and wisdom. Neither nature has the ability to hide within the sphere of disposal of His dominicality, or have any effect or intervene, nor can chance interfere in the works of His wisdom and its fine balance. We have refuted chance and nature in twenty places in the Risale-i Nur with decisive proofs, executing them with the sword of the Qur’an; we have demonstrated their interference to be impossible.

But the people of neglect have called “chance,” matters they do not know the wisdom of and reason for in the sphere of apparent causes within universal dominicality. They have been unable to see some of the laws of the divine acts concealed beneath the veil of nature, the wisdom and purposes of which they do not comprehend, and they have recourse to nature.

The second is His particular dominicality and particular favours and merciful succour, through which the names of Merciful and Compassionate come to the aid of individuals unable to bear the constraints of the general laws; they assist them in particular fashion and save them from those crushing constraints. Therefore, all living beings and especially man may seek help from Him at all times, and receive succour.

Thus, the favours in this particular dominicality cannot be hidden under chance by the people of neglect, nor be ascribed to nature.

It is in consequence of this that we have considered and believed the signs from the Unseen in The Miraculousness of the Qur’an and The Miracles of Muhammad to be particular signs, certain that they are a particular succour and particular divine favour showing themselves against the obdurate deniers. So we have proclaimed them purely for God’s sake. If we were mistaken in doing so, may God forgive us. Amen.

O our Sustainer, do not take us to task if we forget or do wrong.(2:286)

Sözler’in tebyizinde kıymettar hizmeti sebkat eden Muallim Ahmed Galib’in fıkrasıdır.

“Elde Kur’an gibi bürhan-ı hakikat varken

Münkiri ilzam için gönlüme sıklet mi gelir?”

Sözün özdür ey can, tekellüf değil

Ledün ilminin zübde-i pâkidir

Bu, sümme’t-tedarik tasannuf değil

Bu bir hikmet-i nur-u irfandır

Ki ehva ve lağv ve tefelsüf değil

Müzekkî-i nefis ve musaffi-i ruh

Mürebbi-i dildir, tasavvuf değil

O Sözler bütün marifet şemsidir

Sözüm doğrudur, bir teellüf değil

İçin nurudur, lafza akseylemiş

Bir iki satırda teradüf değil

Mutabık lafızlar birbirine

Bu aslâ tasannu, tesadüf değil

Dizilmiş nizamla bütün harfleri

Tevafuktur, aslâ tehalüf değil

Bu bir cilve-i sırr-ı i’cazdır

Ki Kur’an’dandır, tecevvüf değil

Bu hüsn-ü tesadüf güzeldir güzel

Bu babda ne dense tezauf değil

Said-i Bediüzzaman-ı Nursî

Beyanı bedî’dir, taattuf değil

Teselliye ermemiş elinde kalem

Eder arz-ı dîdar, taharrüf değil

İsabet buna savb-ı Hak’tan gelir

Bu kasdî değildir, tasarruf değil

Bunu görmeyen bed nazarlar için

Telehhüf derim ben, teessüf değil

Ki var manevî hayretim galiben

Beyanım bu yolda tazarruf değil

Tevafuk, sözünde ona çok mudur

Tefevvuk, onun için teşerrüf değil

Çok işte Hak onu muvaffak ede

Tevafuk, makam-ı tevakkuf değil!

Ahmed Galib

(Rahmetullahi aleyh)

Merhum Binbaşı Âsım Bey’in fıkrasıdır.

Kasem ederim, doğrudur sözü özüyle beraber

Bu hakikati kabul ve tasdik etmeyen bed-mâyeler

Kalır dalalet ve vâdi-i hüsranda nice seneler

Bunları irşad edip kurtarmaktır hüner

Hidayet erişse eğer, o vakit boyun eğer

Cümlenin ıslahını niyaz edip Hâlık’a yalvaralım

Hep envar-ı Kur’aniye olan Sözler’i okuyup anlatalım

Bu yolda bizler de feyz alıp dilşâd olalım

Fenayı bekaya tebdilde rıza-yı Bâri’ye kavuşalım

Sad-hezar tahsine lâyık bîbaha fıkra-i Galib

Bu hakikatleri söylemekle olur şüphesiz galip.

Binbaşı Âsım

(Rahmetullahi aleyh)

The Eighth Matter, which is the Eighth Part

[This matter consists of six questions comprising eight points.]

FIRST POINT

We have perceived many signs from the Unseen suggesting that we are being employed in the service of the Qur’an by a hand of favour, and some of these we have pointed out. Now, a new sign is this:

most of the Words contain coincidences from the Unseen (tevâfukat-ı gaybiye).(*)In short, it indicates that a sort of manifestation of miraculousness is embodied in the words “God’s Most Noble Messenger,” the phrase, “Upon whom be blessings and peace,” and in the blessed word “Qur’an.”

However hidden and slight signs from the Unseen are, they indicate the acceptability of our service and rightness of the matters, and so in my opinion hold great importance and power.

Furthermore, they break my pride and have demonstrated to me categorically that I am merely an interpreter.

They leave nothing to cause me pride; they only show up things that prompt thanks.

Since they pertain to the Qur’an and pass to the account of its miraculousness; and since our wills definitely do not interfere; and since they encourage those who are lazy in their service, and afford the conviction that the treatises are true; and since they are a form of divine bestowal to us, and to make them known is to make known a divine bounty, and to do so reduces to silence those obdurate people who understand only what they see; it is surely necessary to make them known; God willing, it causes no harm.

One of the signs from the Unseen is this: out of His perfect mercy and munificence, in order to encourage us in our service of the Qur’an and faith and put our hearts at rest, Almighty God bestowed a subtle dominical favour on us and a divine gift in all the treatises we have written, and particularly in The Miracles of Muhammad, The Miraculousness of the Qur’an, and Thirty-Three Windows, in the form of a sign from the Unseen indicating the acceptability of our service and that what we have written is the truth. That is, He causes the same words on a page to face one another.

In this is a sign from the Unseen that they are ordered by an unseen will which says: “Don’t rely on your own wills and comprehension. Without your knowing or being aware of it, wondrous embroideries and arrangements are being made.”

The words “God’s Most Noble Messenger” and “Upon whom be blessings and peace” in The Miracles of Muhammad in particular are like mirrors showing clearly the signs of those coincidences from the Unseen. In a copy written by a new, inexperienced scribe, on all the pages other than five, more than two hundred “Upon whom be blessings and peace”s face one another in lines.

These coincidences are not the work of chance, which might unconsciously give rise to one or two out of ten, neither do they spring from the thought of an unfortunate like myself, who is unskilled in art, and, concentrating only on the meaning, dictates thirty to forty pages at great speed in one hour, not writing himself but getting others to write.

I became aware of them only after six years through the guidance of the Qur’an and the coinciding of nine instances of the pronoun “inna” in the Qur’anic commentary, Isharat al-I’jaz (Signs of Miraculousness). The copyists were astounded when they heard about them from me.

The words “God’s Noble Messenger” and “Upon whom be blessings and peace” in the Nineteenth Letter were like a small mirror reflecting one of Muhammad’s (UWBP) miracles. Similarly, the word “Qur’an” in the Twenty-Fifth Word, The Miraculousness of the Qur’an, and in the Eighteenth Sign of the Nineteenth Letter, manifested a sort of miracle: of the forty classes of humanity, a kind of the Qur’an’s miraculousness was manifested before the class of people who rely on what they see with their eyes, in all the treatises in the form of coincidences from the Unseen, which is only one sort of the forty sorts of that kind of miraculousness. And of its forty types, it was manifested through the word “Qur’an.” It was as follows:

The word “Qur’an” was repeated a hundred times in the Twenty-Fifth Word and in the Eighteenth Sign of the Nineteenth Letter; it did not conform only rarely, once or twice; all the rest look to each other.

For example, on page forty-three in the Second Ray, the word “Qur’an” appears seven times and they all face each other. On page fifty-six, eight instances of it face each other; only the ninth is an exception.

The five instances of the word on page sixt y-nine, now open before me, face each other. And so on. On all the pages the instances of the word “Qur’an” correspond. Out of five or six only rarely does one remain outside the pattern.

As for other words, on page thirty-three – now open in front of me – the word “am” (or) is repeated fifteen times and fourteen of them face each other. And on this page there are nine instances of the word “iman” (faith or belief); they face each other. Only, because the scribe left a large space, one of them has deviated a little. On the page now open before me, the word “mahbub” (beloved) is repeated twice; one on the third line and one on the fifteenth; they look to each other in perfectly balanced fashion. Between them, four instances of the word “aşk” (love) have been arranged looking to each other. Other coincidences from the Unseen may be compared to these.

Whoever the scribe, and whatever form their lines and pages take, these coincidences are bound to occur to such an extent that it cannot be doubted that they are neither the work of chance nor the creation of the author and scribes. However, they are more striking when written by some of them. This means there is a handwriting that fits these treatises. Some of the scribes approach it. It is strange, it appears most not with the most skilful of them but with the most inexperienced.

It is understood from this that the art, grace, and virtues of the Words, which are a sort of commentary on the Qur’an, are not anybody’s; the garments of the harmonious, well-ordered style, which fit the blessed stature of the orderly, beautiful Qur’anic truths, are not measured and cut out voluntarily and consciousnessly by anyone. It is that their stature requires them to be thus; it is an unseen hand that measures them and cuts them according to the stature, and clothes it in them. As for myself (lit. us), I am an interpreter among them, a servant.

FOURTH POINT

In your first question, you ask five or six questions: “What will the Great Gathering and Last Judgement be like? Will everyone be naked? How shall we find our friends there, and how shall we find God’s Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) in order to avail ourselves of his intercession? How will innumerable people meet with a single person? What will the garments of the people of Paradise and those of Hell be like? And who will show us the way?”

The Answer:The answers to these questions are given most clearly and explicitly in the books of Hadith. Here we shall mention only one or two points related to our way and method. As follows:

Firstly:It is explained in a letter(*)that the field of the resurrection is within the earth’s annual orbit. Just as it now sends its immaterial produce to the tablets of that field, so with its annual rotation it defines a circle, and through the produce of that existent circle is a source for the formation of the field of the resurrection. The Lesser Hell at the centre of this dominical ship known as the earth will be emptied into the Greater Hell, so too its inhabitants will be emptied into the field of the resurrection.

Secondly:The occurrence of the resurrection, as well as the existence of the field where it will take place, have been proved decisively chiefly in the Tenth and Twenty-Ninth Words, and in others of the Words.

Thirdly:As for meeting with people, it is proved conclusively in the Sixteenth, Thirty-First, and Thirty-Second Words that through the mystery of luminosity a person may be present in thousands of places at the same instant, and may meet with millions of people.

Fourthly:It is required by the name of All-Wise that at the Great Gathering and resurrection of the dead, having been stripped of artificial clothes, Almighty God will clothe men in natural garments, just as He now clothes beings with spirits, other than man, in natural garments. In this world, the wisdom in artificial clothes is not restricted to protection against heat and cold, adornment, and covering the private parts; another important instance of wisdom is their resembling an index or list indicating man’s power of disposal over the other species of beings, and his relationship with them, and commandership over them. He might otherwise have been clothed in cheap and easy natural dress. For if it had not been for this wisdom, man would have draped himself in various rags, becoming the laughing-stock of conscious animals and a buffoon in their eyes; he would have make them laugh. At the resurrection of the dead this relation will not be present, nor will the instance of wisdom, so neither should the list be present.

Fifthly:When it comes to having someone to show the way, for those like yourself who have entered under the light of the Qur’an, it will be the Qur’an. Look at the start of the Suras which begin Alif. Lam. Mim., and Alif. Lam. Ra., and Ha. Mim.: you will see and understand how acceptable an intercessor is the Qur’an, how true a guide, how sacred a light!

Sixthly: As for the garments of the people of Paradise and the people of Hell, the principle in the Twenty-Eighth Word explaining why the houris wear seventy dresses is applicable here too. It is as follows:

A person of Paradise will of course want to benefit continuously from all the varieties of beings there. The good things of Paradise will vary greatly. He will all the time communicate with all the varieties of its beings. In which case, he will clothe himself and his houris in samples, in small amount, of the good things of Paradise, and they will each become like small Paradises.

For example, a person collects together in his garden samples of the flower species dispersed throughout the country, making it a miniature specimen of it; and a shopkeeper collects samples of all his wares in a list; and a man makes for himself a garment and everything necessary for his house from samples of all the species of creatures in the world, which he governs, has disposal over, and with which he is connected.Similarly, a person whose abode is Paradise – especially if he used all his senses and non-physical faculties in worship and has gained the right to experience the pleasures of Paradise – will himself and his houris be clothed by divine mercy in a sort of garment that will show every one of all the varieties of the wonders of Paradise, so as to gratify all his senses, please all his members, and delight all his subtle faculties.

Evidence that those numerous garments will not all be of the same kind or sort is the Hadith: “The houris will be dressed in seventy garments, yet the marrow in their leg bones will still be visible.”(*)That is to say, from the top garment to the innermost one, there will be degrees gratifying and delighting all the senses and members with different subtle wonders in different ways.

As for the people of Hell, since they committed sins in this world with their eyes, their ears, their hearts, their hands, and their minds, and so on, it does not seem contrary to wisdom and justice that in Hell they will be made to wear a garment made up of various pieces that will be a small Hell, and will cause them torment and pain in accordance with their sins.

FIFTH POINT

You ask if in that period between prophets the forefathers of the God’s Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) belonged to a religion and were religious.

The Answer:There are narrations stating that they were religious, adhering to the vestiges of the religion of Abraham (Upon whom be peace),(*) which, under the veils of heedlessness and spiritual darkness, persisted in certain special people. Certainly, the persons who formed the luminous chain stretching from Abraham (Upon whom be peace) and concluding in the Most Noble Messsenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) were not indifferent towards the light of the true religion and were not defeated by the darkness of unbelief.

But in accordance with the verse,Nor would We visit with Our wrath until We had sent a prophet [to give warning],(17:15)people who live at a time between prophets will be saved. It has been stated unanimously that they will not be punished for their mistakes in secondary matters. According to Imam Shafi‘i and Imam Ash‘ari, even if they are deniers and do not believe in the fundamentals of belief, they will still be saved. For accountability to God is established with the sending of prophets, and when prophets are sent people become accountable by knowing about their mission. Since heedlessness and the passage of time had obscured the religions of the former prophets, they could not provide the proof for the people of that time. If the people obeyed the former religion, they will receive reward; if they did not, they will not be punished. For since it was hidden, it could not be a proof.

SIXTH POINT

You ask: “Were there any prophets among the forefathers of God’s Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace)?”

The Answer:There is no certain narration that there were any after Isma‘il (Upon whom be peace). Only two prophets appeared, called Khalid b. Sinan(*)and Hanzala,(*)who were not his ancestors. But one of his forefathers, Ka‘b b. Lu’ayy, composed the following famous and explicit poem, as though quoting scripture:

“The Prophet Muhammad will suddenly appear * Giving tidings most true,”(*)which resembles prophetic and miraculous utterance. Relying on both evidence and illumination, Imam-i Rabbani said: “Numerous prophets appeared in India, but some of them had no followers or only a few people, so they did not become well-known or were not called prophets.”(*)

According to this principle of the Imam, it is possible there were prophets of this kind among the Prophet’s (UWBP) forefathers.

SEVENTH POINT

You ask:“Which of the narrations mentioning the faith of the Messenger’s (Upon whom be blessings and peace) parents, and that of his grandfather ‘Abd al-Muttalib, is the most authentic and sound?”

The Answer:For ten years the New Said has had no book with him other than the Qur’an, which he says is sufficient for him. I do not have the time to study all the books of Hadith about secondary matters such as that, and write which is the soundest and most authentic. I will only say this much, that the Noble Messenger’s (Upon whom be blessings and peace) parents were believers and will be saved and go to Paradise.(*)Surely Almighty God would not wound His Noble Beloved’s blessed heart with its filial tenderness.

If it is asked:“Seeing that it is thus, why weren’t they able to believe in God’s Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace)? Why didn’t they live to see his mission?”

The Answer:Out of His munificence, in order to gratify the Messenger’s (Upon whom be blessings and peace) filial sentiments, Almighty God did not put his parents under any obligation to him. His mercy required that to make them happy and to please His Noble Beloved, He did not take them from the rank of parenthood and put them in that of spiritual offspring; He did not place his parents and grandfather among his outward community. However, He bestowed on them the merit, virtues, and happiness of his community.

If an exalted field marshal’s father, who has the rank of captain, entered his son’s presence, he would be overwhelmed by two opposing emotions. So, compassionately, the king does not post the father to the retinue of his elevated lieutenant, the field marshal.

EIGHTH POINT

You ask:“What is the most authentic narration concerning the faith of his uncle, Abu Talib?”

The Answer:The Shi‘a agree that he believed, while most of the Sunnis do not agree. But what occurs to my heart is this: Abu Talib loved most earnestly, not the Most Noble Messenger’s (Upon whom be blessings and peace) messengership, but his person and his self. That most earnest personal love and tenderness surely will not go for nothing.

Yes, Abu Talib loved Almighty God’s Noble Beloved sincerely and protected and supported him; it was because of feelings like shame and tribal solidarity that he did not believe in him in acceptable fashion, not out of denial and obduracy. If due to this he goes to Hell, God Almighty may create a sort of particular Paradise for him, in reward for his good actions. As He sometimes creates the spring during winter, and for people in prison by means of sleep transforms the prison into a palace, so too He may turn a particular Hell into a sort of particular Paradise...

The knowledge of it is with God alone. * None knows the Unseen save God.

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

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The Twenty-Seventh Letter ⇐ | The Letters | ⇒ The Twenty-Ninth Letter

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