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[This explains two fine points related to the Qur’an, and was written in connection with two minor questions put by Re’fet Bey.(*) ]

In His Name, be He glorified!

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

Peace be upon you, and on your brothers, and God’s mercy and blessings!

My Dear, Loyal Brother, Re’fet Bey,

Your questions at this difficult time put me in a difficult position. On this occasion they are both unimportant, but they did seem to me to be significant since they are related to two points of the Qur’an and your question about the globe of the earth touches on criticisms about the seven levels of the earth and the heavens made by geography and astronomy. So disregarding the unimportant nature of the questions, I shall explain two fine points about two verses of the Qur’an, in a scholarly and general way.

FIRST TOPIC

This consists of two points.

First Point:

According to the verses,How many are the creatures that carry not their own sustenance? It is God who feeds [both] them and you.(29:60) * For God is He who gives [all] sustenance – Lord of Power, Steadfast [for ever],(51:58) sustenance is supervised by the All-Powerful One of Glory and comes directly from the treasury of His mercy. Since the sustenance of all living creatures is guaranteed by the Sustainer, none should die of hunger. Whereas apparently many do die of it and of lack of food. This is a fact on the one hand and a mystery on the other, and may be solved as follows:

The Sustainer’s guarantee is true; none die of hunger. For that All-Wise One of Glory stores up some of the food He sends to the bodies of living creatures as fat, as reserves. In fact, He stores up a part of the sustenance He sends to each cell, in the cell, like a reserve stock to be spent when no food comes from outside. The creatures die before the store is finished.

That is to say, death in such cases is not from lack of sustenance; the creatures die from mistakenly acquired habits and due to illness resulting from the desire for the wrong things and the giving up of habit.

Yes, the natural sustenance stored up in the bodies of living creatures in the form of fat generally lasts perfectly well for forty days. It may even last twice that long in cases of illness or certain ecstatic states. It was written in the newspapers thirteen years ago (and now it is thirty-nine) that out of extreme stubbornness, a man in prison in London managed to live quite healthily for seventy days eating nothing at all.

Since the natural sustenance lasts from forty days to seventy or eighty; and since the manifestation of the divine name of Provider is apparent on the face of the earth truly extensively; and since foods flow forth from breasts and from wood even in completely unexpected fashion; if man so full of evil does not interfere with his mistaken choices and confuse things, that name comes to the assistance of the living creature before the natural sustenance is consumed, preventing death from starvation.

In which case, if those who die of hunger do so in less than forty days, it is definitely not from lack of sustenance. Rather, in accordance with the saying, “the abandoning of habit is fatal,” it occurs either from a bad habit or from illness resulting from the giving up of habits. In which case it may be said that there is no death from hunger.

Indeed, observedly, sustenance is in inverse proportion to power and will. For example, when still in the womb, young are completely deprived of power and will yet are fed to repletion.

Then when they come into the world they still lack power and will, but since they have some sort of abilit y and potential senses, needing only to fasten their mouths to the breast, the most perfect, nutritious and easily digestible food is given to their mouths from those fountains, in the gentlest form and strangest way.

Then as they acquire a little amount of power and will, that readily available, fine food starts to be withdrawn from them. The fountains of the breasts dry up and the infants’ food is sent from elsewhere. However, since their power and will are still insufficient to search for it, so the Munificent Provider sends their parents’ tenderness and compassion to assist them.

Whenever their power and will are perfected, then their sustenance does not hasten to them and is not made to do so. The sustenance remains in its place, saying: “Come and search for me and take me!”

That is to say, sustenance is in inverse proportion to power and will. We have indeed explained in many parts of the Risale-i Nur that animals most lacking in will and power are better nourished and live better than those with greater will and power.

Second Point:

There are different sorts of possibility, like reasonable possibility, customary possibilit y, and ordinary possibility. If an event is not within the bounds of reasonable possibility, it is rejected, and if it is not within the bounds of customary possibility, it is a miracle but may not easily be wonder-working. If there is nothing similar to it, either according to common usage or in principle, it can only be accepted through a categorical proof as clear as witnessing.

In consequence of this, the extraordinary states of Sayyid Ahmad Badawi,(*) who for forty days refrained from eating bread even, are within the bounds of customary possibility. It may have been both wonder-working and an habitual practice out of the ordinary. Yes, there are numerous unanimous reports concerning Sayyid Ahmad Badawi’s (May his mystery be sanctified) wondrous states and absorption in ecstasy. On occasion, he ate only once in forty days, but he did not do that all the time; he achieved it sometimes as an instance of wonder-working. It possibly became a habit for him because he did not feel the need to eat while in a state of ecstasy. Wonders of this sort have been reliably narrated about many saints of his kind.

As we proved in the first Point, stored-up sustenance remains undepleted for more than forty days, and it is possible not to eat for that length of time through habit, and such a state has been reliably reported about people who were out of the ordinary. It therefore cannot be denied.

Two important matters will be explained in connection with the second question, for the sciences of geography and astronomy have criticized the verse and foolishly even tried to deny it, because with their abbreviated laws and narrow principles and tiny scales they have been unable to ascend to the heavens of the Qur’an, and have been unable to discover the seven levels of meanings in the stars of its verses.

FIRST IMPORTANT MATTER

This is about the earth having seven levels like the heavens. This matter appears to the philosophers of the present time to be untrue; their sciences about the earth and heavens find it unacceptable, and making it a pretext, they oppose some of the truths of the Qur’an. We shall point out concisely a few points about this.

The First:

Firstly, the verse’s meaning is one thing and the parts of the meaning and points confirming it, another. The meaning cannot be denied if one of the many parts of the universal meaning is absent. Of the numerous parts of the universal meaning concerning the seven levels of the heavens and seven layers of the earth, seven points confirming it are clearly apparent.

Secondly, the verse does not explicitly state that “the earth has seven layers.”

The apparent meaning of the verse is, God is He Who created seven heavens and of the earth what is similar... [to the end of the verse]:(65:12) “He created the earth like the seven heavens, and made it a dwelling place for His creatures.” It does not say: I created it in seven levels. Its being similar is in regard to createdness and being the habitation of creatures.

The Second:

The globe of the earth is certainly very small in relation to the heavens, but as the exhibition, display, gathering place and centre of countless divine artefacts, as the heart and immaterial centre of the vast, endless heavens, it is equivalent to them, like the heart may be seen as equivalent to the body.

For this reason, the earth having seven(*) climes,

as was supposed from early times; also the well-known seven continents,

Europe, Africa, Oceania, the two Asias, and the two America’s; also together with the seas, the East, West, North, and South, the well- known seven regions of this face and on the face of the New World;

also the various, contiguous seven levels from the centre to the outer crust, which have been established by science;

and the famous seven universal elements called the seven levels, which comprise the seventy simple elements that are the means of perpetuating animate creatures’ lives;

also the four elements of water, air, fire, and earth, together with the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, making seven levels and realms;

also the seven realms of the earth verified by those who uncover the secrets of creation and the people of witnessing, who are very numerous, their testimony that they are the worlds and habitations of jinns, demons, and other various sentient and living creatures;

also the seven levels indicating that seven further globes exist resembling our globe, and that they are the dwelling places of living creatures – from these indications it has been understood from verses of the Qur’an that the earth too has seven levels.

It thus becomes clear that the earth has seven sorts of levels that exist in seven ways. The eighth, which is the final meaning, is important from another point of view; it is not included in the seven.

The Third:

Since the Absolutely Wise One wastes nothing and creates nothing in vain; and since creatures exist for conscious beings and find their perfection by means of conscious beings and rejoice through them and are saved from futility by means of them; and since observedly the Absolutely Wise One, the All- Powerful One of Glory, fills the element of air, and world of water, and layer of earth with innumerable living beings; and since just as air and water are not an obstacle to the movement of animals, so dense matter like earth and stone do not form obstacles to the passage of matter like electricity and X-rays;

for sure the All-Wise One of Glory, the Undying Maker, will not leave empty and uninhabited the broad spaces and worlds and caves and seven contiguous layers from the centre of our globe to the outer crust, which is our habitation and centre. He has certainly populated them and created and settled there conscious beings appropriate to those worlds. Since those sentient creatures must be angels and spirit beings of a sort, the densest and hardest layer even will be to them as the sea is to fish and the air is to birds. The awesome heat at the centre of the earth even must be for those conscious creatures like the sun’s heat is for us. Created from light, for those sentient spirit beings fire is like light.

The Fourth:

Mentioned in the Eighteenth Letter is a comparison about the depictions made by the people of illumination of the strange wonders of the earth’s levels, which are outside the bounds of reason. A summary is this: In the Manifest Realm the globe is a seed, while in the World of Similitudes and Intermediate Realm it is so vast as to be equal to the heavens. If the people of illumination have seen a level of the earth particular to demons which has a breadth of a thousand years, it is not in the seed of the earth that pertains to the Manifest World; but is a manifestation of its branches and levels in the World of Similitudes.

Since an apparently insignificant level of the earth has such a vast manifestation in another world, surely it may be said that it has seven levels which are the equivalent of the seven levels of the heavens. In order to call to mind the above points, the Qur’an’s verses allude to them by showing in a miraculously concise way that the tiny earth is the equivalent of the seven levels of the heavens.

SECOND IMPORTANT MATTER

The seven heavens and the earth and all that is in them extols and glorifies Him [to the end of the verse](17:44) *

And has applied His design to the heavens and fashioned them into seven heavens, and He has full knowledge of all things.(2:29)

Numerous verses like these depict the heavens as sevenfold. It is appropriate to write here only a summary of this matter, which of necessity we expounded extremely briefly in the commentary Isharat al-I’jaz (Signs of Miraculousness), while on the front in the first year of Great War. It is as follows:

Ancient philosophy conceived of the heavens as being nine in number; accepting in the tongue of the Shari‘a the throne of God and seat of God together with the seven heavens, they depicted the heavens in strange manner. The glittering terms of the philosophers held mankind under their sway for many centuries. In fact, many Qur’anic commentators were compelled to make the apparent meanings of verses conform to their school. In this way the All-Wise Qur’an’s miraculousness was veiled to an extent.

As for the new philosophy, called modern science, in the face of the excesses of ancient philosophy about the heavens it went to the other extreme and quite simply denied the heavens’ existence. The former went to excess and the latter was deficient; they were unable to portray reality in its entirety.

As for the sacred wisdom of the All-Wise Qur’an, it left aside such excess and deficiency, and choosing the middle way said that the All-Glorious Maker created the seven levels of the heavens. The planets swim in the heavens like fish and glorify God. It says in a Hadith: “The skies are waves held back.”(*) That is, the heavens are an ocean the waves of which are stationary.

We shall prove this Qur’anic truth extremely briefly with rules and seven aspects of meaning.

First Rule:

It is established by science and philosophy that limitless space is not an infinite vacuum, but is filled with matter called ether.

The Second:

It is established by science and reason, indeed by observation, that a matter which fills space is the bond of the laws governing the heavenly bodies like those of attraction and repulsion, and is the conductor and transmitter of such forces in matter as light, heat, and electricity.

The Third:

It has been established empirically that while remaining as ether, it has various forms and formations like other matter. Just as there are three states of the same matter, liquid, gas and solid, for instance, steam, water, and ice; so there is nothing to reasonably prevent ether having seven states or levels; it cannot be objected to in any way.

The Fourth:

If the heavenly bodies are studied carefully, it will be seen that there is a difference in the levels. The level that contains the vast nebular sphere called the Milky Way of course does not resemble the level of the fixed stars. It is as if those stars have ripened and matured like the fruits of summer, while the uncountable stars apparent in the form of a cloud in the Milky Way are constantly emerging and beginning to mature. According to accurate conjecture, the level of fixed stars also appears different to the level of the solar system. And so on. One may adduce seven systems and seven levels which differ from one another.

The Fifth:

It is established by conjecture, sense, inductive reasoning, and experience that if a material is given order and form and if other artefacts are made from the material, it is transformed into various levels and forms.

For example, when a diamond mine is worked, from the material, ashes, coal, and diamonds are produced. And when fire is lit, it separates into the levels of flame, smoke, and embers. And when water and oxygen are combined, levels like water, ice, and steam are formed.

That is to say, when a single substance is worked, it may separate into levels. In which case, when Creative Power started to work in the substance called ether, in accordance with the verse, “And fashioned them into seven heavens,” it created from it seven sorts of heavens as differing levels.

The Sixth:

The above indications necessarily indicate both the existence, and the plurality, of the heavens. Since the heavens are certainly numerous, and the Bringer of Sure News (UWBP) stated in the tongue of the Qur’an that they number seven, for sure they are seven.

The Seventh:

Since in Arabic, terms like seven, seventy, and seven hundred express multiplicity, those universal seven levels may comprise multiple levels.

In Short: The All-Powerful One of Glory created the seven heavens from ether, and forming it into levels, ordered it with a truly fine and wondrous order and sowed the stars in it. Since the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition is a pre-eternal address speaking to all the classes of all mankind and the jinn, for sure each of those classes will receive its share from the Qur’an’s verses and its verses will contain various and numerous meanings, both explicit and implicit, in a way that will satisfy the understanding of each. Yes, the breadth of the Qur’anic address and the comprehensiveness of its meanings and indications and its conforming to and flattering all the degrees of understanding from the most uneducated common people to the highest of the elite shows that all its verses have an aspect which looks to each class.

Thus, in consequence of this mystery, as an example, seven classes of men understand as follows the meaning of seven various levels from the universal meaning “seven heavens:”

A short-sighted and narrow-minded class of men understands the atmosphere from the verse “and fashioned them into seven heavens.”

While another class of men befogged by astronomy understands the famous stars known popularly as the seven planets, and their orbits.

Yet another group understands seven celestial globes resembling our globe, which are inhabited by living creatures.(*)

A further group of men understands the solar system being separated into seven levels, and seven solar systems together with our system.

And yet another group undertands the ether being separated into seven levels.

Another class of men with broader ideas counts all the visible skies gilded with stars as a heaven, and saying that it is this world’s heaven, understands that there are six levels of heavens besides it.

And mankind’s seventh and highest class do not consider the seven heavens to be restricted to the Manifest World, and understands that the Worlds of the Hereafter and the Unseen, and this world, and the World of Similitudes all have seven heavens, each of which is an encompassing container and roof.

Ve hâkeza bu âyetin külliyetinde mezkûr yedi kat tabakanın yedi kat manaları gibi daha çok cüz’î manaları vardır. Herkes fehmine göre hissesini alır ve o maide-i semaviyeden herkes rızkını bulur.

Madem o âyetin böyle pek çok sadık mâsadakları var. Şimdiki akılsız feylesofların ve serseri kozmoğrafyalarının, inkâr-ı semavat bahanesiyle böyle âyete taarruz etmesi, haylaz ahmak çocukların semavattaki yıldızlara bir yıldızı düşürmek niyetiyle taş atmasına benzer. Çünkü âyetin mana-yı küllîsinden bir tek mâsadak sadıksa, o küllî mana sadık ve hak olur. Hattâ vakide bulunmayan fakat umumun lisanında mütedavil bulunan bir ferdi, umumun efkârını müraat için o küllîde dâhil olabilir. Halbuki, hak ve hakiki çok efradını gördük.

Ve şimdi bu insafsız ve haksız coğrafyaya ve sersem ve sermest ve sarhoş kozmoğrafyaya bak! Nasıl bu iki fen hata ederek, hak ve hakikat ve sadık olan küllî manadan gözlerini yumup ve çok sadık olan mâsadakları görmeyerek; hayalî bir acib ferdi, mana-yı âyet tevehhüm ederek âyete taş attılar; kendi başlarını kırdılar, imanlarını uçurdular!

Elhasıl: Kıraât-ı seb’a, vücuh-u seb’a ve mu’cizat-ı seb’a ve hakaik-i seb’a ve erkân-ı seb’a üzerine nâzil olan Kur’an semasının o yedişer tabakalarına, cin ve şeyatîn hükmündeki itikadsız maddî fikirler çıkamadıklarından âyâtın nücumunda ne var ne yok bilmeyip yalan ve yanlış haber verirler. Ve onların başlarına o âyâtın nücumundan mezkûr tahkikat gibi şahaplar inerler ve onları yakarlar.

Evet, cin fikirli feylesofların felsefesiyle o semavat-ı Kur’aniyeye çıkılmaz. Belki âyâtın yıldızlarına, hikmet-i hakikiyenin mi’racıyla ve iman ve İslâmiyet’in kanatlarıyla çıkılabilir.

اَللّٰهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلٰى شَم۟سِ سَمَاءِ الرِّسَالَةِ وَ قَمَرِ فَلَكِ النُّبُوَّةِ وَ عَلٰى اٰلِهٖ وَ صَح۟بِهٖ نُجُومِ ال۟هُدٰى لِمَنِ اه۟تَدٰى

سُب۟حَانَكَ لَا عِل۟مَ لَنَٓا اِلَّا مَا عَلَّم۟تَنَٓا اِنَّكَ اَن۟تَ ال۟عَلٖيمُ ال۟حَكٖيمُ

اَللّٰهُمَّ يَا رَبَّ السَّمٰوَاتِ وَ ال۟اَر۟ضِ زَيِّن۟ قُلُوبَ كَاتِبِ هٰذِهِ الرِّسَالَةِ وَ رُفَقَائِهٖ بِنُجُومِ حَقَائِقِ ال۟قُر۟اٰنِ وَ ال۟اٖيمَانِ اٰمٖينَ

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