The Seventh Ray

The Supreme Sign

(*)

AN IMPORTANT WARNING AND STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Not everyone will be able to understand all the matters discussed in this most significant treatise, but equally nobody will remain portionless. If somebody enters a garden, he will find that his hands cannot reach all the fruit it contains, but the amount that falls within his grasp will be enough for him. The garden does not exist for him alone; it exists also for those whose arms are longer than his.

There are five causes making difficult the understanding of this book.

The First:I have written down my own observations, according to my own understanding, and for myself. I have not written according to the understanding and conceptions of others, as is the case with other books.

The Second: Since the true affirmation of Divine unity is set forth in this book, in the most comprehensive form, by virtue of a manifestation of the Supreme Name, the subjects discussed are extremely broad, extremely profound and sometimes extremely long. Not everyone can comprehend these matters all at once.

The Third: Since each matter constitutes a great and extensive truth, a single sentence will sometimes stretch out over a whole page or more, in order not to fracture the truth in question. A single proof requires copious preliminaries.

The Fourth: Since most of the matters contained in the book have numerous proofs and evidences, the discussion sometimes becomes prolix through the inclusion of ten or twenty proofs by way of demonstration. Limited intelligences cannot understand this.

The Fifth: It is true that the lights of this treatise came to me from the effulgence of Ramadan. Nonetheless, I was distraught in a number of respects, and I wrote the book hastily at a time my body was wracked by several illnesses, without revising the first draft. I felt, moreover, that I was not writing with my own will and volition, and it seemed inappropriate to rearrange or correct what I had written, according to my own thoughts. This, too, resulted in rendering the book difficult of comprehension. In addition, a number of sections in Arabic crept in, and the First Station, written entirely in Arabic, was removed and made into a separate work.

Despite the defects and difficulties arising from these five causes, this treatise has such an importance that Imam ‘Ali (May God be pleased with him) miraculously foresaw its composition and gave it the names “Supreme Sign” and “Staff of Moses.” He looked upon this part of the Risale-i Nur with special favour, and directed man’s gaze toward it.(*)

The Supreme Sign is a true exposition of the Supreme Verse,(*)and it constitutes at the same time the Seventh Ray, designated by the Imam as the Staff of Moses.

This treatise consists of an Introduction and two Stations. The Introduction sets forth four important matters; the First Station contains the Arabic portion of the exposition of the Supreme Verse; and the Second Station consists of the translation of that expostion together with the accompanying proofs.

Too much has been explained in the following Introduction, but it was not my intention to lengthen it thus. The fact that it was written at this length indicates the existence of a need. Indeed, some people may regard it as too short, despite its length.

Said Nursî

Introduction

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

I created not jinn and mankind except that they might worship me.(*)

According to the meaning of this mighty verse, the purpose for the sending of man to this world and the wisdom implicit in it, consists of recognizing the Creator of all beings and believing in Him and worshipping Him. The primordial duty of man and the obligation incumbent upon him are to know God and believe in Him, to assent to His Being and unity in submission and perfect certainty.

For man, who by nature desires permanent life and immortal existence, whose unlimited hopes are matched by boundless afflictions, any object or accomplishment other than belief in God, knowledge of God and the means for attaining these, which are the fundament and key of eternal life — any such object or accomplishment must be regarded as lowly for man, or even worthless in many cases.

Since this truth has been proven with firm evidence in the Risale-i Nur, we refer exposition of it to that, setting forth here, within the framework of four questions, only two abysses that shake certainty of faith in this age and induce hesitation.

The means for salvation from the first abyss

are these two Matters:

The First Matter: As proven in detail in the Thirteenth Flash of the Thirty-First Letter, in general questions denial has no value in the face of proof and is extremely weak.

For example, with respect to the sighting of the crescent moon at the beginning of Ramadan the Noble, if two common men prove the crescent to have emerged by their witnessing it, and thousands of nobles and scholars deny it, saying: “We have not seen it,” their negation is valueless and without power to convince. When it is a question of proof each person strengthens and supports the other, and consensus results. But when it is a question of negation, there is no difference between one man and a thousand. Each person remains alone and isolated.

For the one who affirms looks beyond himself and judges the matter as it is. Thus in the example we have given, if one says “The moon is in the sky,” and his friend then points his finger at the moon, the two of them unite and are strengthened.

The one who engages in negation and denial, however, does not regard the matter as it is, and is even unable to do so. For it is a well-known principle that “a non- particularized denial, not directed to a particular locus, cannot be proven.” For example, if I affirm the existence of a thing in the world, and you deny it, I can easily establish its existence with a single indication. But for you to justify your negation, that is to establish the non-existence of the thing — it is necessary to hunt exhaustively through the whole world, and even to examine every aspect of past ages. Only then can you say, “It does not exist, and never has existed.”

Since those who negate and deny do not regard the matter as it is but judge rather in the light of their own souls, and their own intelligence and vision, they can in no way strengthen and support each other. For the veils and causes that prevent them from seeing and knowing are various. Anyone can say, “I do not see it; therefore, in my opinion and belief, it does not exist.” But none can say, “It does not exist in actuality.” If someone says this —particularly in questions of belief, which look to all the universe— it is a lie as vast as the world itself, and he who utters it will be incapable both of speaking the truth and of being corrected.

In Short: The result is one and single in the case of affirmation, and every instance of affirmation supports all other instances. Negation by contrast is not one, but multiple. Multiplicity arises through each person’s saying concerning himself, “In my opinion and view,” or “In my belief,” and leads to multiplicity of result. Hence each separate instance cannot support all other instances.

Therefore, with respect to the truth with which we began, there is no significance in the multiplicity and apparent predominance of the unbelievers and deniers who oppose belief. Now it is necessary to refrain from introducing any hesitation into the certainty and faith of a believer, but in this age the negations and denials of the philosophers of Europe have induced doubt in a number of unfortunate dupes and thus destroyed their certainty and obliterated their eternal felicity. Death and the coming of one’s appointed hour, which afflict thirty thousand men each day, are deprived of their meaning of dismissal from this world and presented as eternal annihilation. The grave with its ever-open door, constantly threatens the denier with annihilation and poisons his life with the bitterest of sorrows. Appreciate then how great a blessing is faith, and the very essence of life.

The Second Matter: With respect to a problem subject to discussion in science or art, those who stand outside that science or art cannot speak authoritatively, however great, learned and accomplished they may be, nor can their judgements be accepted as decisive.

They cannot form part of the learned consensus of the science. For example, the judgement of a great engineer on the diagnosis and cure of a disease does not have the same value as that of the lowliest physician. In particular, the words of denial of a philosopher who is absorbed in the material sphere, who becomes continually more remote from the non-material or spiritual and cruder and more insensitive to light, whose intelligence is restricted to what his eye beholds — the words of such a one are unworthy of consideration and valueless with respect to non- material and spiritual matters.

On matters sacred and spiritual and concerning the Divine unity, there is total accord among the hundreds of thousands of the People of Truth, such as Shaykh Gilani (May his mystery be sanctified), who beheld God’s Sublime Throne while still on the earth, who spent ninety years ad-vancing in spiritual work, and who unveiled the truths of belief in all three stations of certainty. This being the case what value have the words of philosophers, who through their absorption in the most diffuse details of the material realm and the most minute aspects of multiplicity are choking and dazed? Are not their denials and objections drowned out like the buzzing of a mosquito by the roaring of thunder?

The essence of the unbelief that opposes the truths of Islam and struggles against them is denial, ignorance, and negation. Even though it may appear to be an affirmation of some kind and a manifestation of being, it is in reality negation and non- being.

Whereas belief is knowledge and a manifestation of being; it is affirmation and judgement. Every negating aspect of belief is the gate to a positive truth or the veil covering it.

If the unbelievers who struggle against faith attempt, with the utmost difficulty, to affirm and accept their negative beliefs in the form of acceptance and admission of non-being, then their unbelief may be regarded in one respect as a form of mistaken knowledge or erroneous judgement. But as for non-acceptance, denial, and non-admission —something more easily done— it is absolute ignorance and total absence of judgement.

In Short: The convictions underlying unbelief are then of two kinds:

The First pays no regard to the truths of Islam. It is an erroneous admission, a baseless belief and a mistaken acceptance peculiar to itself; it is an unjust judgement. This kind of unbelief is beyond the scope of our discussion. It has no concern with us, nor do we have any concern with it.

The Second Kind opposes the truths of belief and struggles against them. It consists in turn of two varieties.

The First is non-acceptance. It consists simply of not consenting to affirmation. This is a species of ignorance; there is no judgement in-volved and it occurs easily. It too is beyond the scope of our discussion.

The Second variety is acceptance of non-being. It is to consent to non-being with one’s heart, and a judgement is involved. It is a conviction and a taking the part of something. It is on account of this partiality that it is obliged to affirm its negation.

The negation comprises two types:

The First Type says: “A certain thing does not exist at a certain place or in a particular direction.” This kind of denial can be proved, and it lies outside of our discussion.

The Second Type consists of negating and denying those doctrinal and sacred matters, general and comprehensive, that concern this world, all beings, the hereafter, and the succession of different ages. This kind of negation cannot in any fashion be substantiated, as we have shown in the First Matter, for what is needed to substantiate such negations is a vision that shall encompass the whole universe, behold the hereafter, and observe every aspect of time without limit.

The Second Abyss and the means for escaping from it:

This too consists of two matters.

The First: Intelligences that become narrowed by absorption in neglect of God and in sin, or the material realm, are unable to comprehend vast matters in respect of sublimity, grandeur, and infinity; hence taking pride in such knowledge as they have, they hasten to denial and negation. Since they cannot encompass the extremely vast, profound and comprehensive questions of faith within their straitened and dessicated intellects, their corrupt and spiritually moribund hearts, they cast themselves into unbelief and misguidance, and choke.

If they were able to look at the true nature of their unbelief and the essence of their misguidance they would see that, compared to the reasonable, suitable and indeed necessary sublimity and grandeur that is present in belief, their unbelief conceals and contains manifold absurdity and impossibility.

The Risale-i Nur has proven this truth by hundreds of comparisons with the same finality that “two plus two equals four.” For example, one who does not accept the Necessary Being, the pre-eternity, and the comprehensiveness of attribute of God Almighty, on account of their grandeur and sublimity, may form a creed of unbelief by assigning that necessary being, pre-eternity, and the attributes of Godhead to an unlimited number of beings, an infinity of atoms. Or like the foolish Sophists, he can abdicate his intelligence by denying and negating both his own existence and that of the universe.

Thus, all the truths of belief and Islam, basing their matters on the grandeur and sublimity which are their requirement, deliver themselves from the awesome absurdities, the fearsome superstitions, and the tenebrous ignorance of unbelief that confront them, and take up their place in sound hearts and straight intellects, through utmost submission and assent.

The constant proclamation of this grandeur and sublimity in the call to prayer, in the prayers themselves and in most of the rites of Islam, Allahu akbar, God is Most Great! God is Most Great! God is Most Great! the declaration of the Sacred Tradition that “Grandeur is My shield and Sublimity My cloak;”(*)and the statement of the Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) — his most inspiring communing with God, in the eighty-sixth part of Jawshan al-Kabir:(*)

O You other than Whose Kingdom no kingdom exists; O You Whose Praise cannot be counted by His slaves;

O You Whose Glory cannot be described by His creatures;

O You Whose Perfection lies beyond the range of all vision;

O You Whose Attributes exceed the bounds of all understanding; O You Whose Grandeur is beyond the reach of all thought;

O You Whose Qualities man cannot fittingly describe;

O You Whose Decree His slaves cannot avert; O You Whose Signs are manifest in everything —Be You glorified; there is no god other than You— Protection, protection, deliver us from the Fire!

all these show that grandeur and sublimity constitute a necessary veil.

The Supreme Sign

The Observations of a Traveller Questioning the Universe Concerning His Maker

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. The seven heavens and the earth and all that is in them extol and glorify Him, and there is nothing but glorifies Him with praise, but you understand not their glorifying; indeed, He is Most Forebearing, Most Forgiving.(*)

[This Second Station, in addition to explaining the above sublime verse, sets out the proofs, arguments, and meaning of the First Station, which has been skipped.] Since this sublime verse, like many other Qur’anic verses, mentions first the heavens —that brilliant page proclaiming God’s unity, gazed on at all times and by all men with wonder and joy— in its pronouncement of the Creator of this cosmos, let us too begin with a mention of the heavens.

Indeed, every voyager who comes to the hospice and the realm of this world, opens his eyes and wonders who is the master of this fine hospice, which resembles a most generous banquet, a most ingenious exhibition, a most impressive camp and training ground, a most amazing and wondrous place of recreation, a most profound and wise place of instruction. He asks himself too who is the author of this great book, and who is the monarch of this lofty realm. There first presents itself to him the beautiful face of the heavens, inscribed with the gilt lettering of the stars. That face calls him saying, “Look at me, and I shall guide you to what you seek.” He looks then and sees a manifestation of dominicality performing various tasks in the heavens:

it holds aloft in the heavens, without any supporting pillar, hundreds of thousands of heavenly bodies, some of which are a thousand times heavier than the earth and revolve seventy times faster than a cannon-ball; it causes them to move in harmony and swiftly without colliding with each other; it causes innumerable lamps to burn constantly, without the use of any oil; it disposes of these great masses without any disturbance or disorder; it sets sun and moon to work at their respective tasks, without those great bodies ever rebelling; it administers within infinite space —the magnitude of which cannot be measured in figures should they stretch from pole to pole— all that exists, at the same time, with the same strength, in the same fashion, manner and mould, without the least deficiency; it reduces to submissive obedience to its law all the aggressive powers inherent in those bodies; it cleanses and lustrates the face of the heavens, removing all the sweepings and refuse of that vast assembly; it causes those bodies to manoeuvre like a disciplined army; and then, making the earth revolve, it shows the heavens each night and each year in a different form, like a cinema screen displaying true and imaginative scenes to the audience of creation. There is within this dominical activity a truth consisting of subjugation, administration, revolution, ordering, cleansing, and employment. This truth, with its grandeur and comprehensiveness, bears witness to the necessary existence and unity of the Creator of the Heavens and testifies to that Existence being more manifest than that of the heavens. Hence it was said in the First Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, the Necessary Being, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity the heavens and all they contain testify, through the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of subjugation, administration, revolution, ordering, cleansing, and employment, a truth vast and perfect, and to be observed.

Then that wondrous place of gathering known as space or the atmosphere begins thunderously to proclaim to that traveller come as a guest to the world, “Look at me! You can discover and find through me the object of your search, the one who sent you here!” The traveller looks at the sour but kind face of the atmosphere, and listening to the awesome but joyous thunderclaps perceives the following.

The clouds, suspended between the sky and the earth, water the garden of the world in the most wise and merciful fashion, furnish the inhabitants of the earth with the water of life, modify the natural heat of life, and hasten to bestow aid wherever it is needed. In addition to fulfilling these and other duties, the vast clouds, capable of filling the heavens sometimes hide themselves, with their parts retiring to rest so that not a trace can be seen, just like a well-disciplined army showing and hiding itself in accordance with sudden orders.Then, the very instant the command is given to pour down rain, the clouds gather in one hour, or rather in a few minutes; they fill the sky and await further orders from their commander.

Next the traveller looks at the wind in the atmosphere and sees that the air is employed wisely and generously in such numerous tasks that it is as if each of the inanimate atoms of that unconscious air were hearing and noting the orders coming from that monarch of the universe; without neglecting a single one of them, it performs them in ordered fashion and through the power of the monarch. Thereby it gives breath to all beings and conveys to all living things the heat, light, and electricty they need, and transmits sound, as well as aiding in the pollination of plants.

The traveller then looks at the rain and sees that within those delicate, glistening sweet drops, sent from a hidden treasury of mercy, there are so many compassionate gifts and functions contained that it is as if mercy itself were assuming shape and flowing forth from the dominical treasury in the form of drops. It is for this reason that rain has been called “mercy.”

Next the traveller looks at the lightning and listens to the thunder and ses that both of these, too, are employed in wondrous tasks.

Then taking his eyes off these, he looks to his own intellect and says: “The inanimate, lifeless cloud that resembles carded cotton has of course no knowledge of us; when it comes to our aid, it is not because it takes pity on us. It cannot appear and disappear without receiving orders. Rather it acts in accordance with the orders of a most powerful and compassionate commander. First it diasppears without leaving a trace, then suddenly reappears in order to begin its work. By the command and power of a most active and exalted, a most magnificent and splendid, monarch, it fills and then empties the atmosphere. Inscribing the sky with wisdom and erasing the pattern, it makes of the sky a tablet of effacement and affirmation, a depiction of the gathering and the resurrection. By the contriving of a most generous and bountiful, a most munificent and solicitous sustainer, a ruler who regulates and disposes, it mounts the wind and taking with it treasuries of rain each as heavy as a mountain, hastens to the aid of the needy. It is as if it were weeping over them in pity, with its tears causing the flowers to smile, tempering the heat of the sun, spraying gardens with water, and washing and cleansing the face of the earth.”

That wondering traveller then tells his own intellect: “These hundreds of thousands of wise, merciful and ingenious tasks and acts of generosity and mercy that arise from the veil and outer form of this inanimate, lifeless, unconscious, volatile, unstable, stormy, unsettled, and inconstant air, clearly establish that this diligent wind, this tireless servant, never acts of itself, but rather in accordance with the orders of a most powerful and knowing, a most wise and generous commander.

It is as if each particle were aware of every single task, like a soldier understanding and hearkening to every order of its commander, for it hears and obeys every dominical command that courses through the air. It aids all animals to breathe and to live, all plants to pollinate and grow, and cultivates all the matter necessary for their survival.It directs and administers the clouds, makes possible the voyaging of sailing ships, and enables sounds to be conveyed, particularly by means of wireless, telephone, telegraph and radio, as well as numerous other universal functions.“Now these atoms, each composed of two such simple materials as hydrogen and oxygen and each resembling the other, exist in hundreds of thousands of different fashions all over the globe; I conclude therefore that they are being employed and set to work in the utmost orderliness by a hand of wisdom.

“As the verse makes clear, And the disposition of the winds and the clouds, held in disciplined order between the heavens and the earth,(*)

the one who through the disposition of the winds employs them in countless dominical functions, who through the ordering of the clouds uses them in infinite tasks of mercy, and who creates the  air in this fashion — such a one can only be the Possessor of Necessary Existence, the One Empowered over All Things and Knowledgeable of All Things, the Sustainer endowed with Glory and Generosity.” This is the conclusion our traveller now draws.

Then he looks at the rain and sees that within it are contained benefits as numerous as the raindrops, and dominical manifestations as multiple as the particles of rain, and instances of wisdom as plentiful as its atoms. Those sweet, delicate and blessed drops are moreover created in so beautiful and ordered a fashion, that particularly the rain sent in the summertime, is despatched and caused to fall with such balance and regularity that not even stormy winds that cause large objects to collide can destroy its equilibrium and order; the drops do not collide with each other or merge in such fashion as to become harmful masses of water. Water, composed of two simple elements like hydrogen and oxygen, is employed in hundreds of thousands of other wise, purposeful tasks and arts, particularly in animate beings; although it is itself inanimate and unconscious. Rain which is then the very embodiment of Divine Mercy can only be manufactured in the unseen treasury of mercy of One Most Compassionate and Merciful, and on its descent expounds in physical form the verse: And He it is Who sends down rain after men have despaired, and thus spreads out His Mercy.(*)

The traveller next listens to the thunder and watches the lightning. He understands that these two wondrous events in the atmosphere are like a material demonstration of the verse,The thunder glorifies His praise,(*)The brilliance of His lightning almost robs them of their sight.(*)They also announce the coming of rain, and thus give glad tidings to the needy.

Yes, this sudden utterance of a miraculous sound by the atmosphere; the filling of the dark sky with the flash and fire of lightning; the setting alight of the clouds that resemble mountains of cotton or pipes bursting with water and snow — these and similar phenomena are like a blow struck on the head of the negligent man whose gaze is directed down at the earth. They tell him:“Lift up your head, look at the miraculous deeds of the most active and powerful being who wishes to make himself known. In the same way that you are not left to your own devices, so too, these phenomena and events have a master and a purpose. Each of them is caused to fulfil a particular task, and each is employed by a Most Wise Disposer.”

The wondering traveller hears then the lofty and manifest testimony to the truth that is composed of the disposition of the winds, the descent of the rains and the administration of the events of the atmosphere, and says: “I believe in God.” That which was stated in the Second Degree of the First Station expresses the observations of the traveller concerning the atmosphere:There is no god but God, the Necessary Being, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity the atmosphere and all its contains testifies, through the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of subjugation, disposal, causing to descend, and regulation, a truth vast and perfect, and to be observed.

Next the globe addresses that thoughtful traveller, now growing accustomed to his reflective journey: “Why are you wandering through the heavens, through space and the sky? Come, I will make known to you what you are seeking. Look at the functions that I perform and read my pages!”

He looks and sees that the globe, like an ecstatic Mevlevi dervish with its twofold motion, is tracing out around the field of the Supreme Gathering a circle that determines the succession of days, years, and seasons. It is a most magnificent dominical ship, loaded with the hundreds of thousands of different forms of food and equipment needed for all animate beings, floating with the utmost equilibrium in the ocean of space and circling the sun.

He then looks at the pages of the earth and sees that each page of each of its chapters proclaims the Sustainer of the Earth in thousands of verses. Being unable to read the whole of it, he looks at the page dealing with the creation and deployment of animate beings in the spring, and observes the following:

The forms of the countless members of hundreds of thousands of species emerge, in the utmost precision, from a simple material and are then nurtured in most merciful fashion. Then, in miraculous manner, wings are given to some of the seeds; they take to flight and are thus dispersed. They are most effectively distributed, most carefully fed and nurtured. Countless tasty and delicious forms of food, in the most merciful and tender fashion, are brought forth from dry clay, and from roots, seeds and drops of liquid that differ little among each other. Every spring, a hundred thousand kinds of food and equipment are loaded on it from an unseen treasury, as if onto a railway waggon, and are despatched in utmost orderliness to animate beings.

The sending to infants of canned milk in those food packages, and pumps of sugared milk in the form of their mothers’ affectionate breasts, is in particular such an instance of solicitousness, mercy and wisdom that it immediately establishes itself as a most tender manifestation of the mercy and generosity of the Merciful and Compassionate One.

In short: this living page of spring displays a hundred thousand examples and samples of the Supreme Gathering, and is a tangible demonstration of this verse, So look to the signs of God’s mercy: how He gives life to the earth after its death, for verily He it is Who gives life to the dead, and He has power over all things.(*)Moreover, this verse may be said to express in miraculous fashion the meanings of the page that is spring. The traveller thus understood that the earth proclaims through all its pages, in fashion proportionate to their size: “There is no god but He.”(*)

In expression of the meaning beheld by the traveller through the brief testimony of one of the twenty aspects of a single page out of the more than twenty pages of the globe, it was said in the Third Degree of the First Station:

There is no god but God, the Necessary Being, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity the earth with all that is in it and upon it testifies, through the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of subjugation, disposition, nurturing, opening, distribution of seeds, protection, administration, the giving of life to all animate beings, compassion and mercy universal and general, a truth vast and perfect, and to be observed.

Then that reflective traveller read each page of the cosmos, and as he did so his faith, that key to felicity, strengthened; his gnosis, that key to spiritual progress, increased; his belief in God, the source and foundation of all perfection, developed one degree more; his joy and pleasure augmented and aroused his eagerness; and while listening to the perfect and convincing lessons given by the sky, by space and the earth, he cried out for more. Then he heard the rapturous invocation of God made by the tumult of the seas and the great rivers, and listened to their sad yet pleasant sounds. In numerous ways they were saying to him: “Look at us, read also our signs!” Looking, our traveller saw the following:

The seas, constantly and vitally surging, merging and pouring forth with an inclination to conquest inherent in their very nature, surrounded the earth, and together with the earth, revolved, extremely swiftly, in a circle of twenty-five thousand years in a single year. Yet the seas did not disperse, did not overflow or encroach on the land contiguous to them. They moved and stood still, and were protected by the command and power of a most powerful and magnificent being.

Then looking to the depths of the sea, the traveller saw that apart from the most beautiful, well-adorned and symmetrical jewels, there were thousands of different kinds of animal, sustained and ordered, brought to life and caused to die, in so disciplined a fashion, their provision coming from mere sand and salt water, that it established irresistibly the existence of a Powerful and Glorious, a Merciful and Beauteous Being administering and giving life to them.

The traveller then looks at the rivers and sees that the benefits inherent in them, the functions they perform, and their continual replenishment, are inspired by such wisdom and mercy as indisputably to prove that all rivers, springs, streams and great waterways flow forth from the treasury of mercy of the Compassionate One, the Lord of Glory and Generosity. They are preserved and dispensed, indeed, in so extraordinary a fashion that it is said “Four rivers flow forth from Paradise.”(*)That is, they transcend by far apparent causes, and flow forth instead from the treasury of a non-material Paradise, from the superabundance of an unseen and inexhaustible source.

For example, the blessed Nile, that turns the sandy land of Egypt into a paradise, flows from the Mountains of the Moon in the south without ever being exhausted, as if it were a small sea. If the water that flowed down the river in six months were gathered together in the form of a mountain and then frozen, it would be larger than those mountains. But the place in the mountains where the water is lodged and stored is less than a sixth of their mass. As for the water that replenishes the river, the rain that enters the reservoir of the river is very sparse in that torrid region and is quickly swallowed up by the thirsty soil; hence it is incapable of maintaining the equilibrium of the river. A tradition has thus grown up that the blessed Nile springs, in miraculous fashion, from an unseen Paradise. This tradition has profound meaning and expresses a beautiful truth.

İşte deniz ve nehirlerin denizler gibi hakikatlerinin ve şehadetlerinin binden birisini gördü. Ve umumu bi’l-icma denizlerin büyüklüğü nisbetinde bir kuvvetle لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّاهُوَ der ve bu şehadete denizler mahlukatı adedince şahitler gösterir diye anladı. Ve denizlerin ve nehirlerin umum şehadetlerini irade ederek ifade etmek manasında Birinci Makam’ın dördüncü mertebesinde لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اللّٰهُ ال۟وَاجِبُ ال۟وُجُودِ الَّذٖى دَلَّ عَلٰى وُجُوبِ وُجُودِهٖ فٖى وَح۟دَتِهٖ جَمٖيعُ ال۟بِحَارِ وَ ال۟اَن۟هَارِ بِجَمٖيعِ مَا فٖيهَا بِشَهَادَةِ عَظَمَةِ اِحَاطَةِ حَقٖيقَةِ التَّس۟خٖيرِ وَ ال۟مُحَافَظَةِ وَ ال۟اِدِّخَارِ وَ ال۟اِدَارَةِ ال۟وَاسِعَةِ ال۟مُن۟تَظَمَةِ بِال۟مُشَاهَدَةِ denilmiş.

Then the traveller is summoned, on his meditative journey, by the mountains and the plains. “Read too our pages,” they say. Looking he sees that the universal function and duty of mountains is of such grandeur and wisdom as to stupefy the intelligence.

The mountains emerge from the earth by the command of their Sustainer, thereby palliating the turmoil, anger, and rancour that arise from disturbances within the earth. As the mountains surge upward, the earth begins to breathe; it is delivered from harmful tremors and upheavals, and its tranquillity as it pursues its duty of rotation is no longer disturbed.

In the same way that masts are planted in ships to protect them from turbulence and preserve their balance, so too mountains are set up on the deck of the ship that is the earth, as masts and stores, as is indicated by verses of the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition such as these: And the mountains as pegs,(*)And We have cast down anchors,(*)And the mountains He anchored them.(*)

Then, too, there are stored up and preserved in the mountains all kinds of springs, waters, minerals and other materials needed by animate beings, in so wise, skilful, generous and foreseeing a fashion that they prove that they are the storehouses and warehouses and servants of One possessing infinite power, One possessing infinite wisdom.

Deducing from these two examples the other duties and instances of wisdom —as great as mountains— of the mountains and plains, the traveller sees through the general instances of wisdom in them and particularly in regard to the fashion in which all manner of things are stored up in them providentially, the testimony they give and the Divine unity they proclaim declaring “There is no god but He,” —a declaration as powerful and firm as the mountains and vast and expansive as the plains— and he too says, “I believe in God.”

In expression of this meaning, it was said in the Fifth Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, to the Necessity of Whose Existence point all the mountains and plains together with what is in them and upon them, by the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of the storing up, administration, dissemination of seed, preservation, and regulation, a truth providential, dominical, vast, general, well-ordered, and perfect, and to be observed.

Then, while that traveller was travelling in his mind through the mountains and plains, the gate to the arboreal and vegetable realm was opened before him. He was summoned inside: “Come,” they said, “Inspect our realm and read our incriptions.”

Entering, he saw that a splendid and well-adorned assembly for the proclamation of God’s unity and a circle for the mentioning of His Names and the offering of thanks to Him, had been drawn up. He understood for the very appearance of all trees and plants that their different species were proclaiming unanimously, “There is no god but He.” For he perceived three great and general truths indicating and proving that all fruit- giving trees and plants with the tongue of their symmetrical and eloquent leaves, the phrases of their charming and loquacious flowers, the words of their well-ordered and well-spoken fruits, were testifying to God’s glory and bearing witness that “There is no god but He.”

The First:In the same way that in each of the plants and trees a deliberate bounty and generosity is to be seen in most obvious fashion, and a purposive liberality and munificence, so too it is to be seen in the totality of the trees and plants, with the brilliance of sunlight.

The Second: The wise and purposive distinction and differentiation, one that cannot in any way be attributed to chance, the deliberate and merciful adornment and giving of form — all this is to be seen as clearly as daylight in the infinite varieties and species; they show themselves to be the works and embroideries of an All-Wise Maker.

The Third: The opening and unfolding of all the separate members of the hundred thousand species of that infinite realm, each in its own distinct fashion and shape, in the utmost order, equilibrium and beauty, from well-defined, limited, simple and solid seeds and grains, identical to each other or nearly so — their emerging from those seeds in distinct and separate form, with utter equilibrium, vitality and wise purpose without the least error or mistake, is a truth more brilliant than the sun. The witnesses proving this truth are as numerous as the flowers, fruits and leaves that emerge in the spring. So the traveller said, “Praise be to God for the blessing of belief.”

In expression of these truths and the testimony given to them, we said in the Sixth Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, to the Necessity of Whose Existence in Unity points the consensus of all the species of trees and plants that are engaged in glorifying God and speak with the eloquent and well-ordered words of their leaves, their loquacious and comely flowers, their well-ordered and well-spoken fruits, by the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of bestowal, bounty, and generosity, done in purposive mercy, and the truth of differentiation, adornment, and decoration, done with will and wisdom. Definite, too, is the indication given by the truth of the opening of all their symmetrical, adorned, distinct, variegated and infinite forms, from seeds and grains that resemble and approximate each other, that are finite and limited.

As this traveller through the cosmos proceeded on his meditative journey, with increased eagerness and a bouquet of gnosis and faith, itself like a spring, gathered from the garden of the spring, there opened before his truth-perceiving intellect, his cognitive reason, the gate to the animal and bird realm. With hundreds of thousands of different voices and various tongues, he was invited to enter.

Entering, he saw that all the animals and birds, in their different species, groups and nations, were proclaiming, silently and aloud, “There is no god but He,” and had thus turned the face of the earth into a vast place of invocation, an expansive assembly for the proclamation of God’s glory. He saw each of them to be like an ode dedicated to God, a word proclaiming His glory, a letter indicating His mercy, each of them describing the Maker and offering Him thanks and encomium. It was as if the senses, powers, members and instruments of those animals and birds were orderly and balanced words, or perfect and disciplined expressions. He observed three great and comprehensive truths indicating, in decisive form, their offering of thanks to the Creator and Provider and their testimony to His unity.

The First: Their being brought into existence with wisdom and purpose and their creation full of art in a fashion that in no way can be attributed to chance, to blind force or inanimate nature; their being created and composed in purposive and knowledgeable manner; their animation and being given life in a way that displays in twenty aspects the manifestation of knowledge, wisdom, and will — all of this is a truth that bears witness to the Necessary Existence of the Eternally Living and Self- Subsistent, His seven attributes and unity, a witness repeated to the number of all animate beings.

The Second: There appears from the distinction made among those infinite beings and from their adornment and decoration in a fashion by which their features are different, their shapes adorned, their proportions measured and symmetrical, and their forms well-ordered — there appears from this a truth so vast and powerful that none other than the One Powerful over all things, the One Knowledgeable of all things, could lay claim to it, this comprehensive act which displays in every respect thousands of wonders and instances of wisdom; it is impossible and precluded that anything other than such a one could lay claim to it.

The Third: The emergence and unfolding of those countless creatures, in their hundreds of thousands of different shapes and forms, each of which is a miracle of wisdom, their emergence from eggs and drops of water called sperm that are identical with each other or closely resemble each other, and are limited and finite in number, all this in the most orderly, symmetrical and unfailing fashion, is so brilliant a truth as to be illumined with proofs and evidences as numerous as the animals themselves.

By the consensus of these three truths, all the species of animals are engaged together in testifying that “There is no god but He.” It is as if the whole earth, like a great man, were saying “There is no god but He” in a manner befitting its vastness, and conveying its testimony to the dwellers of the heaven. The traveller saw this and understood it perfectly. In expression of these truths, we said in the Seventh Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity points the consensus of all animals and birds, that praise God and bear witness to Him with the words of their senses, their faculties and powers, words well-balanced, ordered and eloquent; with the words of their limbs and members, words perfect and persuasive; by the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of bringing into being, making, and creating, according to will, the truth of distinction and decoration according to purpose, and the truth of proportioning and forming according to wisdom. Definite too is the indication given by the truth of the opening of all of their orderly, distinct, variegated and infinite forms, out of identical or similar eggs and drops of sperm, that are finite and limited.

That meditative voyager, in order to advance farther in the infinite degrees and countless luminous stages of knowledge of God, then wished to enter the world of men, the realm of humanity. Humanity, headed by the prophets, invited him, and he accepted the invitation.

Looking first at the stopping-place of the past, he saw that all of the prophets (Peace and blessings be upon him), the most luminous and perfect of human kind, were reciting in chorus, “No god but He,” and making remembrance of God. With the power of their brilliant, well-attested and innumerable miracles, they were proclaiming God’s unity, and in order to advance man from the animal state to angelic degree, they were instructing men and summoning them to belief in God. Kneeling down in that school of light, he too paid heed to the lesson.

He saw that in the hand of each of those teachers, the most exalted and renowned of all celebrated human beings, there were numerous miracles, bestowed on them by the Creator of All Being as a sign confirming their mission. Further, a large group of men, a whole community, had confirmed their claims and come to belief at their hands; a truth assented to and confirmed by these hundreds of thousands of serious and veracious individuals, unanimously and in full agreement, was bound to be firm and definitive. He understood, too, that the people of misguidance, in denying a truth attested and affirmed by so many veracious witnesses, were committing a most grievous error, indeed crime, and were therefore deserving of a most grievous punishment. He recognized, by contrast, those who assented to the truth and believed in it, as being the most true and righteous, and a further degree of the sanctity of belief became apparent to him.

Yes, the infinite miracles bestowed by God on the prophets (Peace be upon them) each one being like a confirmation of their mission; the heavenly blows dealt to their opponents, each being like a proof of their truthfulness; their individual perfections, each one being like an indication of their righteousness; their veracious teachings; the strength of their faith, a witness to their honesty; their supreme seriousness and readiness to self-sacrifice; the sacred books and pages held by their hands; their countless pupils who through following their paths attain truth, perfection and light, thus proving again the truthfulness of the teachings; the unanimous agreement of the prophets —those most earnest warners— and their followers in all positive matters; their concord, mutual support and affinity — all of this constitutes so powerful a proof that no power on earth can confront it, and no doubt or hesitation can survive it.

Our traveller understood further that inclusion of belief in all the prophets (Peace be upon them) among the pillars of belief, represents another great source of strength. Thus he derived great benefit of faith from their lessons, in expression of which we said in the Eighth Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, to the Necessity of Whose Existence in Unity points the unanimity of all the prophets, through the power of their luminous miracles, that both affirm and are affirmed.

That questing traveller, having derived a lofty taste of truth from the power of belief, found himself invited, while coming from the assembly of the prophets (Peace be upon them) to the classroom of those profound, original, exacting scholars who affirm the claims of the prophets (Peace be upon them) with the most decisive and powerful proofs and who are known as the purified and most veracious ones.

Entering their classroom, he saw thousands of geniuses and hundreds of thousands of exact and exalted scholars proving all the affirmative matters connected with faith, headed by the necessity of God’s existence and His unity, with such profound demonstrations as to leave not the least room for doubt. Indeed, the fact that they are agreed in the principles and pillars of belief, despite their differences in capacity and outlook, and that each of them relies on a firm and certitudinous proof, is in itself such evidence that it can be doubted only if it is possible for a similar number of intelligent and perspicuous men to arrive at a single result. Otherwise the only way for the denier to oppose them is to display his ignorance —his utter ignorance— and his obstinacy with respect to negative matters that admit neither of denial nor affirmation. He will in effect be closing his eyes but the one who closes his eyes is able to turn day into night only for himself.

The traveller learned that the lights emitted in this vast and magnificent classroom by these respected and profound scholars had been illumining half of the globe for more than a thousand years. He found in it moral and spiritual force that the combined strength of all the people of denial would be unable to shake or destroy.

In brief allusion to the lesson learned by the traveller in this classroom we said in the Ninth Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity points the agreement of all of the purified scholars, with the power of their resplendent, certain and unanimous proofs.

Our contemplative traveller came forth from the classroom, ardently desiring to see the lights that are to be observed in the continuous strengthening and development of faith, and in advancing from the degree of the knowledge of certainty to that of the vision of certainty. He then found himself summoned by thousands or millions of spiritual guides who were striving toward the truth and attaining the vision of certainty in the shade of the highway of Muhammad (PBUH) and the ascension of Muhammad (PBUH). This they were doing in a meeting-place, a hospice, a place of remembrance and preceptorship, that was abundantly luminous and vast as a plain, being formed from the merging of countless small hospices and convents.

Upon entering, he found that those spiritual guides —people of unveiling and wondrous deeds— were unanimously proclaiming, “No god but He,” on the basis of their witnessing and unveiling of the Unseen and the wondrous deeds they had been enabled to perform; they were proclaiming the necessary existence and unity of God. The traveller observed how manifest and clear must be a truth to which unanimously subscribe these sacred geniuses and luminous gnostics. For, like the sun is known through the seven colours in its light, the saints’ luminous colours, their light-filled hues, their true paths and right ways and veracious courses are manifested from the light of the Pre-Eternal Sun through seventy colours, indeed, through colours to the number of the Divine Names, and are all different. He saw that the unanimity of the prophets and the agreement of the purified scholars and accord of the saints forms a supreme consensus, more brilliant than the daylight that demonstrates the existence of the sun.

İşte bu misafirin tekyeden aldığı feyze kısa bir işaret olarak Birinci Makam’ın onuncu mertebesinde لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اللّٰهُ الَّذٖى دَلَّ عَلٰى وُجُوبِ وُجُودِهٖ فٖى وَح۟دَتِهٖ اِج۟مَاعُ ال۟اَو۟لِيَاءِ بِكَش۟فِيَّاتِهِم۟ وَ كَرَامَاتِهِمُ الظَّاهِرَةِ ال۟مُحَقَّقَةِ ال۟مُصَدَّقَةِ denilmiş.

Now our traveller through the world, aware that the most important and greatest of all human perfections, indeed the very source and origin of all such perfections, is the love of God that arises from belief in God and the knowledge of God, wished with all of his powers, outer and inner, to advance still farther in the strengthening of his faith and the development of his knowledge. He therefore raised his head and gazing at the heavens said to himself:

“The most precious thing in the universe is life; all things are made subordinate to life. The most precious of all living beings is the animate, and the most precious of the animate is the conscious. Each century and each year, the globe is engaged in emptying and refilling itself, in order to augment this most precious substance. It follows, then, without doubt, that the magnificent and ornate heavens must have appropriate people and inhabitants, possessing life, spirit and consciousness, for events relating to seeing and speaking with the angels —such as the appearance of Gabriel (Peace be upon him) in the presence of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) and in the view of the Companions— have been transmitted and related from the most ancient times. Would, then, that I could converse with the inhabitants of the heavens, and learn their thoughts on this matter. For their words concerning the Creator of the cosmos are the most important.”As he was thus thinking to himself, he suddenly heard a heavenly voice:

“If you wish to meet us and hearken to our lesson, then know that before all others we have believed in the articles of faith brought by means of us to the prophets, headed by the Prophet Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), who brought the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition.“Then too all of the pure spirits from among us that have appeared before men have, unanimously and without exception, born witness to the necessary existence, the unity, and the sacred attributes of the Creator of this cosmos, and proclaimed this with one accord. The affinity and mutual correspondence of these countless proclamations is a guide for you as bright as the sun.” Thus the traveller’s light of faith shone, and rose from the earth to the heavens.

In brief allusion to the lesson learned by the traveller from the angels, we said in the Eleventh Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity points the unanimity of the angels that appear to human gaze, and who speak to the elect among men, with their mutually corresponding and conforming messages.

Then, that ardent and inquisitive traveller, having learned from the tongues of various realms of creation in the Manifest Realm in their material and corporeal aspects, and from the utterance of their modes of being, desired to study and journey through the World of the Unseen and the Intermediate Realm, and thus to investigate reality. There opened to him the gate of upright and luminous intellects, of sound and illumined hearts, that are like the seed of man, who is the fruit of the universe, and despite their slight girth can expand virtually to embrace the whole of the cosmos.

He looked and saw a series of human isthmuses linking the realm of the Unseen with that of the Manifest, and the contacts between those two realms and the interchanges between them insofar as they affect man, taking place at those points. Addressing his intellect and his heart he said: “Come, the path leading to truth from these counterparts of yours is shorter. We should benefit by studying their qualities, natures and colours concerning faith that we find here, not by listening to the lessons given by the tongues of disposition as was previously the case.”

Beginning his study, he saw that the belief and firm conviction concerning the Divine unity that all luminous intellects possessed, despite their varying capacities and differing, even opposing, methods and outlooks, was the same, and that their steadfast and confident certainty and assurance was one. They had, therefore, to be relying on a single, unchanging truth; their roots were sunk in a profound truth and could not be plucked out. Their unanimity concerning faith, the necessary existence and unity of God, was an unbreakable and luminous chain, a brightly lit window opening onto the world of the truth.

He saw also that the unanimous, assured and sublime unveilings and witnessings of the pillars of belief enjoyed by all those sound and luminous intellects, whose methods were various and outlooks divergent, corresponded to and agreed with each other on the matter of the Divine unity.

All those luminous hearts, turned and joined to the truth and manifesting it, each a small throne of dominical knowledge, a comprehensive mirror of God’s Eternal Besoughtedness, were like so many windows opened onto the Sun of the Truth. Taken together, they were like a supreme mirror, like an ocean reflecting the sun.Their agreement and unanimity concerning the necessary existence and unity of God was an unfailing and reliable most perfect guide, most elevated preceptor.

For it is in no way possible or conceivable that a supposition other than the truth, an untrue thought, a false attribute, should so consistently and decisively be able to deceive simultaneously so many sharp eyes, or to induce illusion in them. Not even the foolish Sophists, who deny the cosmos, would agree with the corrupt and dissipated intellect that held such a thing possible. All of this our traveller understood, and he said, together with his own intellect and heart, “I have believed in God.”

In brief allusion to the benefit derived from upright intellects and luminous hearts by our traveller, for knowledge of belief, we said in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Degrees of the First Station: There is no god but God, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity points the consensus of all upright intellects, illumined with congruent beliefs and corresponding convictions and certainties, despite differences in capacity and outlook. There also points to His Necessary Existence in Unity the agreement of all sound, luminous hearts, with their mutually corresponding unveilings and their congruent witnessings, despite differences in method and manner.

Then that traveller looking closely at the World of the Unseen, and voyaging in it with his intellect and his heart, knocked inquisitively on the door of that world, thinking to himself, “What does this world have to say?” The following occurred to him: it is to be clearly understood that behind the veil of the Unseen is one who wants to make himself known through all these numerous finely adorned artefacts full of art in this corporeal Manifest World, and to make himself loved through these infinite sweet and decorated bounties, and to make known his hidden perfections through these innumerable miraculous and skilful works of art, and who does this by act rather than speech and by making himself known by the tongue of disposition. Since this is so, of a certainty he will speak and make himself known and loved through speech and utterance just as he does through deed and state. In which case, from his manifestations we must know him in respect to the World of the Unseen. Whereupon he entered that world with his heart and saw the following with the eye of his intellect:

The truth of revelations prevails at all instants over all parts of the World of the Unseen, with a most powerful manifestation. There comes with the truths of revelation and inspiration proceeding from the One All-Knowing of the Unseen, a testimony to His existence and unity far stronger than testimony of the universe and created beings. He does not leave Himself, His existence and His unity, only to the testimony of His creatures. Rather, He speaks with a pre-eternal Speech consonant with His own being. The Speech of the One Who is all-present and all-seeing everywhere with His Knowledge and Power is also endless, and just as the meaning of His Speech makes Him known, so does His discourse make Himself known together with His attributes.

The traveller recognized that the truth, reality, and existence of revelation has been made plain to the point of being self-evident by the consensus of one hundred thousand prophets (Peace be upon them), by the agreement among their proclamations concerning the manifestion of Divine revelation; by the evidences and miracles contained in the sacred books and heavenly pages, which are the guides and exemplars of the overwhelming majority of humanity, confirmed and assented to by them, and are the visible fruits of revelation. He understood further that the truth of revelation proclaims five sacred truths.

The First: To speak in accordance with men’s intellects and understandings, known as ‘Divine condescension to the minds of men,’ is a form of Divine descent. It is a requirement of God’s dominicality that He endows all of his conscious creatures with speech, understands their speech, and then participates in it with His own speech.

The Second: The One Who, in order to make Himself known, fills the cosmos with His miraculous creations and endows them with tongues speaking of His perfections, will necessarily make Himself known with His own words also.

The Third: It is a function of His being Creator to respond in words to the supplications and offerings of thanks that are made by the most select, the most needy, the most delicate and the most ardent among His beings — true men.

The Fourth: The attribute of Speech, an essential concomitant and luminous manifestation of both Knowledge and Life, will necessarily be found in a comprehensive and eternal form in the being Whose Knowledge is comprehensive and Whose Life is eternal.

The Fifth: It is a consequence of Divinity that the Being Who endows men with impotence and desire, poverty and need, anxiety for the future, love and worship, should communicate His own existence, by way of His speech, to His most loved and lovable, His most anxious and needy creatures, who are most desirous of finding their Lord and Master.

The evidences for the existence in unity of the Necessary Existent offered in unanimity by universal and heavenly revelations, which contain the truths of Divine descent, dominical self-proclamation, compassionate response, Divine conversation, and eternal self-communication, constitute a proof more powerful than the testimony for the existence of the sun brought by the rays of sunlight.

Our traveller understood this then looked in the direction of inspiration and saw that veracious inspiration indeed resembles revelation in some respects and is a mode of dominical speech. There are, however, two differences:

THE FIRST: Revelation, which is much higher than inspiration, generally comes by the medium of the angels, whereas inspiration generally comes directly.

So too a king has two modes of speech and command.

The first consists of his sending to a governor a lieutenant equipped with all the pomp of monarchy and the splendour of sovereignty. Sometimes, in order to demonstrate the splendour of his sovereignty and the importance of his command, he may meet with the intermediary, and then the decree will be issued.

The second consists of his speaking privately in his own person, not with the title of monarch or in the name of kingship, concerning some private matter, some petty affair, using for this purpose a trusted servant, some ordinary subject, or his private telephone.

In the same way the Pre-Eternal Monarch may either, in the name of the Sustainer of All the Worlds, and with the title of Creator of the Universe, speak with revelation or the comprehensive inspiration that performs the function of revelation, or He may speak in a different and private fashion, as the Sustainer and Creator of all animate beings, from behind the veil, in a way suited to the recipient.

THE SECOND DIFFERENCE: Revelation is without shadow, pure, and reserved for the elect. Inspiration, by contrast, has shadow, colours intermingle with it, and it is general. There are numerous different kinds of inspiration, such as the inspiration of angels, the inspiration of men, and the inspiration of animals; inspiration thus forms a field for the multiplication of God’s words, that are as numeous as the drops in the ocean.

Our traveller understood that this matter is, indeed, a kind of commentary on the verse, Were the sea to become ink for the words of my Sustainer, verily the sea would be exhausted before the words of my Sustainer.(*)

Then he looked at the nature, the wisdom, and the testimony of inspiration and saw that its nature, wisdom and result were composed of four lights.

The first: it is the result of God’s Lovingness and Mercifulness that He makes himself loved through word, presence and discourse, in the same way that He makes Himself loved to His creatures through His deeds.

The second: it is a requirement of His Compassionateness that just as He answers His servants’ prayers in deed, He should also answer them in word, from behind veils.

The third: it is a concomitant of dominicality that just as He responds in deed to the cries for help, supplications, and pleadings of those of His creatures who are afflicted with grievous misfortunes and hardships, so too He should hasten to their help with words of inspiration, which are like a form of speech.

The fourth: God makes His existence, presence and protection perceptible in deed to His most weak and indigent, His most poor and needy, conscious creatures, that stand in great need of finding their Master, Protector, Guardian, and Disposer. It is a necessary and essential consequence of His Divine solicitousness and His dominical compassion that He should also communicate His presence and existence by speech, from behind the veil of veracious inspiration —a mode of dominical discourse— to individuals, in a manner peculiar to them and their capacities, through the telephone of their hearts.

He then looked to the testimony of inspiration and saw that if the sun, for example, had consciousness and life, and if the seven colours of sunlight were the seven attributes, in that respect it would have a form of speech through the rays and manifestations found in its light. And in this situation both its similitudes and reflections would be present in all transparent objects, and it would speak with all mirrors and shining objects and fragments of glass and bubbles and droplets of water, indeed with all transparent particles, in accordance with the capacity of each; it would respond to the needs of each, and all these would testify to the sun’s existence; and no task would form an obstacle to any other task, and no speaking obstruct any other speaking. This is self-evident.

In the same way, the Speech of the Glorious Monarch of Pre-Eternity and Post- Eternity, the Beauteous and Exalted Creator of All Beings, Who may be described as the Pre-Eternal Sun, manifests itself to all things,in general and comprehensive fashion, in a manner appropriate to their capacity, as do also His Knowledge and Power. No request interferes with another, no task prevents the fulfilment of another, and no address becomes confused with another. All of this our traveller understood as self-evident. He knew that all of those manifestations, those discourses, those inspirations, separately and together, evidenced and bore witness unanimously to the presence, the necessary existence, the unity and the oneness of that Pre-Eternal Sun with a knowlege of certainty that approached a vision of certainty.

In brief allusion to the lesson in knowledge of God from the World of the Unseen gained by our inquisitive traveller, we said in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Degrees of the First Station: There is no god but God, the Necessary Existent, the One, the Single, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity points the consensus of all true revelations, containing Divine descent, glorious discourse, dominical self-revelation, compassionate response to the invocations of men, and eternal indications of His existence to his creatures. There points also to His Necessary Existence in Unity the agreement of all veracious inspirations, containing expressions of God’s love, compassionate responses to the prayers of God’s creatures, dominical responses to the appeals of His servants for aid, and glorious intimations of His existence to His creatures.

Then that traveller through the world addressed his own intellect saying: “Since I am seeking my Master and Creator by means of the creatures of the cosmos, I ought before all else to visit the most celebrated of all these creatures, the greatest and most accomplished commander among them, according to the testimony even of his enemies, the most renowned ruler, the most exalted in speech and the most brilliant an intellect, who has illuminated fourteen centuries with his excellence and with his Qur’an, Muhammad the Arabian Prophet (May God’s peace and blessings be upon him).”

In order thus to visit him and seek from him the answer to his quest, he entered the blessed age of the Prophet in his mind, and saw that age to be one of true felicity, thanks to that being. For through the light he had brought, he had turned the most primitive and illiterate of peoples into the masters and teachers of the world.

He said too to his own intellect, “Before asking him concerning our Creator, we should first learn that value of this extraordinary being, the veracity of his words and the truthfulness of his warnings.” Thus he began investigating, and of the numerous conclusive proofs that he found we will briefly indicate here only nine of the most general ones.

THE FIRST: All excellent qualities and characteristics were to be found in that extraordinary being, according to the testimony even of his enemies. Hundreds of miracles were made manifest at his hands, according to explicit Qur’anic verses or traditions enjoying the status of tawatur.(*)Examples of these miracles are his splitting of the moon, And the moon split,(*)with a single indication of his finger; his casting of a handful of dust into the eyes of his enemies, causing them to flee, It was not your act when you threw, but God’s,(*)and his giving his thirsting army to drink from the water that flowed forth from his five fingers like the Spring of Kawthar. Since some of those miracles, numbering more than three hundred, have been set forth with decisive proofs in the remarkable and wondrous work known as The Miracles of Muhammad (The Nineteenth Letter), we leave discussion of the miracles to that work, and permit the traveller to continue speaking:

“A being who in addition to noble characteristics and perfections has all these luminous miracles to demonstrate, must certainly be the most truthful in speech of all men. It is inconceivable that he would stoop to trickery, lies and error, the deeds of the vile.”

THE SECOND: He holds in his hand a decree from the lord of the universe, a decree accepted and affirmed in each century by more than three hundred million people. This decree, the Qur’an of Mighty Stature, is wondrous in seven different ways. The fact that the Qur’an has forty different aspects of miraculousness and that it is the word of the Creator of all beings has been set forth in detail with strong proofs in the Twenty-Fifth Word, The Miraculousness of the Qur’an, a celebrated treatise that is like the sun of the Risale-i Nur. We therefore leave such matters to that work and listen to the traveller as he says,

“There can never be any possibility of lying on the part of the being who is the conveyor and proclaimer of this decree, for that would be a violation of the decree and treachery toward the One Who issued it.”

THE THIRD: Such a Sacred Law, an Islam, a code of worship, a cause, a summons, and a faith did that being bring forth that the like of them does not exist, nor could it exist. Nor does a more perfect form of them exist, nor could it exist.

For the Law appearing with that unlettered being has no rival in its administration of one fifth of humanity for fourteen centuries, in a just and precise manner through its numerous injuctions.

Moreover the Islam that emerged from the deeds, sayings, and inward states of that unlettered being has no peer, nor can it have, for in each century it has been for three hundred million men a guide and a refuge, the teacher and educator of their intellects and the illuminator and purifier of their hearts, the cause for the refinement and training of their souls, and the source of progress and advancement of their spirits.

The Prophet is similarly unparalleled in the way in which he was the foremost in practising all the forms of worship found in his religion, and the first in piety and the fear of God; in his observing the duties of worship fully and with attention to their profoundest dimensions, even while engaged in constant struggle and activity; in his practice of worship combining in perfect fashion the beginning and end of worship and servitude to God without imitation of anyone.

With the Jawshan al-Kabir, from among his thousands of supplicatory prayers and invocations, he describes his Sustainer with such a degree of gnosis that all the gnostics and saints who have come after him have been unable, with their joint efforts, to attain a similar degree of gnosis and accurate description. This shows that in prayer too he is without peer. Whoever looks at the section at the beginning of the Treatise On Supplicatory Prayer which sets forth some part of the meaning of one of the ninety-nine sections of the Jawshan al-Kabir will say that the Jawshan too has no peer.

In his conveying of the message and his summoning men to the truth, he displayed such steadfastness, firmness and courage that although great states and religions, and even his own people, tribe and uncle opposed him in the most hostile fashion, he exhibited not the slightest trace of hesitation anxiety or fear. The fact that he successfully challenged the whole world and made Islam the master of the world likewise proves that there is not and cannot be anyone like him in his conveying of the message and summons.

In his faith, he had so extraordinary a strength, so marvellous a certainty, so miraculous a breadth, and so exalted a conviction, illumining the whole world, that none of the ideas and beliefs then dominating the world, and none of the philosophies of the sages and teachings of the religious leaders, was able, despite extreme hostility and denial, to induce in his certainty, conviction, trust and assurance, the slightest doubt, hesitation, weakness or anxiety. Moreover, the saintly of all ages, headed by the Companions, the foremost in the degrees of belief, have all drawn on his fountain of belief and regarded him as representing the highest degree of faith. This proves that his faith too is matchless.

Our traveller therefore concluded, and affirmed with his intellect, that lying and duplicity have no place in the one who has brought such a unique sacred law, such an unparalleled Islam, such a wondrous devotion to worship, such an extra-ordinary excellence in supplicatory prayer, such a universally acclaimed summons to the truth and such a miraculous faith.

THE FOURTH: In the same way that the consensus of the prophets is a strong proof for the existence and unity of God, so too it is a firm testimony to the truthfulness and messengerhood of this being. For all the sacred attributes, miracles and functions that indicate the truthfulness and messengerhood of the prophets (Peace be upon them) existed in full measure in that being according to the testimony of history.

The prophets have verbally predicted the coming of that being and given good tidings thereof in the Torah, the Gospels, the Psalms, and the pages; more than twenty of the most conclusive examples of these glad tidings, drawn from the scriptures, have been set forth and proven in the Nineteenth Letter. Similarly, through all the deeds and miracles associated with their prophethood they have affirmed and, as it were, put their signature to the mission of that being which is the foremost and most perfect in the tasks and functions of prophethood. Just as through verbal consensus they indicate the Divine unity, through the unanimity of their deeds they bear witness to the truthfulness of that being. This too was understood by our traveller.

THE FIFTH: Similarly, the thousands of saints who have attained truth, reality, perfection, wondrous deeds, unveiling and witnessing through the instruction of this being and following him, bear unanimous witness not only to the Divine unity but also to the truthfulness and messengerhood of this being. Again, the fact that they witness, through the light of sainthood, some of the truths he proclaimed concerning the World of the Unseen, and that they believe in and affirm all of those truths through the light of belief, either with knowledge of certainty, or with the vision of certainty, or with absolute certainty. He saw that this too demonstates like the sun the degree of truthfulness and rectitude of that great being, their master.

THE SIXTH: The millions of purified, sincere, and punctilious scholars and faithful sages, who have reached the highest station of learning through the teaching and instruction contained in the sacred truths brought by that being, despite his unlettered nature, the exalted sciences he invented and Divine knowledge he discovered — they not only prove and affirm, unanimously and with the strongest proofs, the Divine unity which is the foundation of his mission, but also bear unanimous witness to the truthfulness of this supreme teacher and great master, and to the veracity of his words. This is a proof as clear as daylight. The Risale-i Nur too with its one hundred parts is but a single proof of his truthfulness.

THE SEVENTH: The Family and Companions of the Prophet —who with their insight, knowledge, and spiritual accomplishment are the most renowned, the most respected, the most celebrated, the most pious and the most keensighted of men after the prophets— examined and scrutinized, with the utmost attention, seriousness and exactitude, all the states, thoughts and conditions of this being, whether hidden or open. They came to the unanimous conclusion that he was the most truthful, exalted, and honest being in the world, and this, their unshakeable affirmation and firm belief, is a proof like the daylight attesting the reality of the sun.

THE EIGHTH: The cosmos indicates its Maker, Inscriber, and Designer, Who creates, administers, and arranges it, and through determining its measure and form and regulating it, has disposal over it as though it was a palace, a book, an exhibition, a spectacle. And so too it indicates that it requires and necessitates an elevated herald, a truthful unveiler, a learned master, and a truthful teacher who will know and make known the Divine purposes in the universe’s creation, teach the dominical instances of wisdom in its changes and transformations, give instruction in the results of its dutiful motions, proclaim its essential value and the perfections of the beings within it, and express the meanings of that mighty book; it indicates that he is certain to exist. Thus, the traveller knew that it testified to the truthfulness of this being, who performed these functions better than anyone, and to his being a most elevated and loyal official of the universe’s Creator.

THE NINTH: There is behind the veil One Who wishes to demonstrate with these ingenious and wise artefacts the perfection of His talent and art; to make Himself known and loved by means of these countless adorned and decorated creations; to evoke praise and thanks through the unnumbered pleasurable and valuable bounties that he bestows; to cause men to worship Him with gratitude and appreciation in the face of His dominicality, through His solicitous and protective sustenance of life, and His provision of nurture and bounty in such manner as to satisfy the most delicate of tastes and appetites; to manifest His Divinity through the change of seasons, the alternation of night and day, and through all His magnificent and majestic deeds, all His awe-inspiring and wise acts and creativity, and thereby to cause men to believe in his Divinity, in submission, humility and obedience; and to demonstrate His justice and truthful ness by at all times protecting virtue and the virtuous and destroying evil and the evil, by annihilating with blows from heaven the oppressor and the liar.

There will of a certainty be at the side of this Unseen Being His most beloved creature and most devoted bondsman, who, serving the purposes that have just been mentioned, discovers and unravels the talisman and riddle of the creation of the universe, who acts always in the name of that Creator, who seeks aid and success from Him, and who receives them from Him — Muhammad of Quraysh (Peace and blessings be upon him!) The traveller further said, addressing his own intellect: “Since these nine truths bear witness to the truthfulness of this being, he must be the source of glory of mankind and the source of honour for the world.

If we therefore call him the Pride of the World and Glory of the Sons of Adam, it will be fitting. The fact that the awesome sovereignty of that decree of the Compassionate One, the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition that he holds in his hand, has conquered half the world, together with his individual perfections and exalted virtues, shows that he is the most important personage in the world. The most important word concerning our Creator is that which he utters.”

Now see: the foundation of the summons of this extraordinary being and the aim of all his life, based on the strength furnished by his hundreds of decisive and evident and manifest miracles, and the thousands of exalted, fundamental truths contained in his religion, was to prove and bear witness to the existence of the Necessary Existent, His Unity, attributes and Names, to affirm, proclaim and announce Him.

He is therefore like a sun in the cosmos, the most brilliant proof of our Creator, this being whom we call the Beloved of God. There are three forms of great and infallible consensus each of which affirms, confirms, and puts its signature to the witness he bears.

The First: the unanimous affirmation made by that luminous assembly known and celebrated throughout the world as the Family of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) including thousands of poles and supreme saints of penetrating gaze and ability to perceive the Unseen, such as Imam ‘Ali (May God be pleased with him), who said, “Were the veil to be lifted, my certainty would not increase,” and ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani, the Ghawth al-A‘zam (May his mystery be sanctified), who saw the Supreme Throne and the awesome form of Israfil while yet on the earth.

The Second: the confirmation made with a strong faith that permitted men to sacrifice their lives and their property, their fathers and tribes, by the renowned assembly known as the Companions, who found themselves among a primitive people and in an unlettered environment, devoid of all social life and political thought, without any scripture and lost in the darkness of a period between prophets; and who in a very brief time came to be the masters, guides, and just rulers of the most civilized and politically and socially advanced peoples and states, and to rule the world from east to west in universally approved fashion.

The Third: the confirmation provided with unanimous and certain knowledge by that lofty group of punctilious and profound scholars of whom in each age thousands spring forth, who advance in wondrous fashion in every science and work in different fields.

Thus, the testimony brought by this being to the Divine unity is not particular and individual, but general and universal and unshakeable. If all the demons that exist were to unite, they could not challenge it. Such was the conclusion reached by the traveller.

In reference to the lesson learned in the School of Light by that traveller from the world, that wayfarer in life, when he visited in his mind the blessed age of the Prophet, we said at the end of the Sixteenth Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, the Necessary Existent, the One, the Unique, the Necessity of Whose Existence in Unity is indicated by the Pride of the World and the Glory of the Sons of Adam, through the majesty of the sovereignty of his Qur’an, the splendour of the expanse of his religion, the multiplicity of his perfections, and the exaltedness of his characterisitics, as confirmed even by the testimony of his enemies. He bears witness and brings proof through the strength of his hundreds of manifest and evident miracles, that both testify to truth and are themselves the object of true testimony; and through the strength of the thousands of luminous and conclusive truths contained in his religion, according to the consensus of all the possessors of light, the agreement of his illumined Companions, and the unanimity of the scholars of his community, the possessors of proofs and luminous insight.

The tireless and insatiable traveller, who knew the aim of life in this world and the essence of life to be faith, addressed his own heart and said: “Let us examine the book known as the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, which is said to be the word and utterance of the Being Whom we are seeking, the most famous, the most brilliant and wisest book in the world, that issues a challenge in every age to whoever refuses to submit to it. Let us see what it says. But first, we must establish that this book is from our Creator,” and he began to search.

Since the traveller lived in the present age, he looked first at the Risale-i Nur, flashes from the miraculousness of the Qur’an; he saw its one hundred and thirty parts to consist of luminous points drawn from that Book of Discernment, or well-founded explanations of its contents. Even though the Risale-i Nur is valiantly struggling to diffuse the truths of the Qur’an in all directions, in this obstinate and atheistic age, no one can defeat it, which proves that its master, its source, its authority and its sun, is the Qur’an, heavenly not human speech.

Among the hundreds of proofs in the different parts of the Risale-i Nur, the single proof contained in the Twenty-Fifth Word and the end of the Nineteenth Letter, establishes forty aspects of the Qur’an’s miraculousness in such a way that whoever sees it, far from uttering any criticism or objection, admires its arguments, and utters appreciative praise.

The traveller left it to the Risale-i Nur to prove that the Qur’an is miraculous and the true Word of God, turning only to a brief indication of a few points showing its greatness.

First Point: Just as the Qur’an, with all its miracles and truths indicating its veracity is a miracle of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) so too, Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) with all his miracles, proofs of prophethood and perfections of knowledge, is a miracle of the Qur’an and a decisive proof of the Qur’an’s being the Word of God.

Second Point: The Qur’an, in this world, brought about in so luminous, felicitous and truthful a fashion, a revolution in the social life of man, as well as in the souls, hearts, spirits, and intellects of men, in their individual, social, and political lives, and having caused this revolution perpetuated it in such a fashion, that for fourteen centuries at every moment its six thousand, six hundred and sixty-six verses have been read by the tongues of more than a hundred million men, training them, refining their souls and purifying their hearts. To spirits, it has been a means of development and advancement; to intellects, an orientation and light; to life, it has been life itself and felicity. Such a book is of a certainty unparalleled; it is a wonder, a marvel, and a miracle.

Third Point: The Qur’an, from that age down to the present, has demonstrated such eloquence that it caused the value attached to the odes known as “Seven Hanging Poems” that were written in gold on the walls of the Ka‘ba to descend to such a point that the daughter of Labid, when taking down her father’s poem from the Ka‘ba, said, “Compared with the verses of the Qur’an, this no longer has any value.”

A bedouin poet heard this verse being recited, Therefore expound openly what you are commanded,(*)and immediately prostrated. They asked him: “Have you become a Muslim?” “No,” he replied, “I was prostrating before the eloquence of this verse.”

Thousands of scholars and litterateurs, like geniuses of the science of rhetoric such as ‘Abd al-Qahir Jurjani, Sakkaki, and Zamakhshari, have unanimously decided that the eloquence of the Qur’an is beyond human capacity and is unattainable.

The Qur’an has also from that time forward invited to the field of combat all arrogant and egoistic litterateurs and rhetoricians, and said to them in a manner calculated to break their arrogance: “Come, produce a single sura like it, or else accept perdition and humiliation in this world and the hereafter.” Despite this challenge, the obstinate rhetoricians of that age abandoned the short path of producing a single sura like the Qur’an, and instead chose the long path of casting their persons and property into danger. This proves that the short path cannot be taken.

Millions of Arabic books are in circulation, some written by friends of the Qur’an in order to resemble and imitate it, others written by its enemies in order to confront and criticize it. Not one of them has been able to attain the level of the Qur’an. Should a common man even listen to them, he is sure to say: “The Qur’an does not resemble these other books, nor is it in the same class as they. It must be either below them or above them.” No one —no unbeliever or fool— in the world can say that it is below them. Hence its degree of eloquence is above all of them.

Once a man read the verse, All that is in the heavens and the earth extols and glorifies God.(*)He said: “I cannot see any miraculous eloquence in this verse.” He was told: “Go back to that age like the traveller, and listen to the verse as recited there.”

Imagining himself to be there before the revelation of the Qur’an, he saw that all the beings in the world were living in an unstable, transient world in empty, infinite and unbounded space, in confusion and darkness, lifeless and without consciousness and purpose.

Suddenly he heard this verse proclaimed by the tongue of the Qur’an and the verse removed a veil from in front of the universe and illumined the face of the globe; this pre-eternal speech, this eternal decree, gave instruction to all conscious beings, drawn up in the ranks of succeeding centuries, in such fashion that the cosmos became like a vast mosque. All of creation headed by the heavens and the earth, was engaged in vital remembrance of God and proclamation of His glory, was joyously and contentedly fulfilling its function. All of this our traveller observed. Thus tasting the degree of the eloquence of the Qur’an, and comparing the other verses to it by analogy, he understood one of the many thousands of wise reasons for the conquest of half the globe and a fifth of humanity by the eloquent murmuring of the Qur’an, for the uninterrupted continuance of its respected and magnificent monarchy for fourteen centuries.

Fourth Point: The Qur’an has demonstrated such a veracious sweetness that whereas the repetition of even the sweetest thing induces disgust,it has from earliest times been accepted by everyone and even become proverbial that repeated recitation of the Qur’an, far from inducing disgust and weariness in men of sound heart and pure taste, on the contrary increases its sweetness.

The Qur’an demonstrates, moreover, such a freshness, youth and originality, that even though it has lived for fourteen centuries and passed through many hands, it retains its freshness as if it had only just been revealed. Every century sees the Qur’an enjoying a new youth, as if it were addressing that century in particular. Similarly, scholars of every branch of learning, even though they keep the Qur’an constantly at their side in order to benefit from it, and perpetually follow its method of exposition, see that the Qur’an maintains the originality of its style and manner of explanation.

Fifth Point: One wing of the Qur’an is in the past, and one is in the future, and like its root and one wing are the agreed truths of the former prophets, and it confirms and corroborates them, and they too confirm it with the tongue of unanimity, so too all the true Sufi paths and ways of sainthood whose fruits like the saints and purified scholars, who receive life from the Qur’an, show through their vital spiritual progress that their blessed tree is living, effulgent, and the means to truth, and who grow and live under the protection of its second wing, testify that the Qur’an is pure truth and the assembly of truths and in its comprehensiveness, a matchless wonder.

Sixth Point: The Qur’an’s truthfulness and veracity show that its six aspects are luminous. Indeed, the pillars of argument and proof beneath it; the flashes of the stamp of miraculousness above it; the gifts of happiness in this world and the next before it, its goal; the truths of heavenly revelation, the point of support behind it; the assent and evidence of innumerable upright minds to its right; and the true tranquillity, sincere attraction, and submission of sound hearts and clean consciences on its left all prove that the Qur’an is a wondrous, firm, unassailable citadel of both the heavens and the earth.

So too from these six levels, the Disposer of the universe has set His seal on its being sheer truth and right, and not being man’s word, and its containing no error — the Disposer,

Who has made it His practice to always exhibit beauty in the universe, protect good and right, and eliminate imposters and liars, has confirmed and set His seal on the Qur’an by giving it the most acceptable, highest, and most dominant place of respect and degree of success in the world.

And so too the one who is the source of Islam and interpreter of the Qur’an — hisbelieving in it and holding it in greater respect than everyone else, and being in a sleep- like state when it was revealed,(*)and other words and speeches not resembling or coming near it, and that Interpreter’s describing without hesistation and with complete confidence through the Qur’an true cosmic events of generally the past and the future from behind the veil of the Unseen, and no trickery or fault being observed in him while being under the gazes of the sharpest eyes, and his believing and affirming every pronouncement of the Qur’an with all his strength and nothing shaking him, is a stamp confirming that the Qur’an is revealed and true and the blessed Word of his own Compassionate Creator.

Also a fifth of mankind, indeed the greater part of it, being drawn to the Qur’an and bound to it in religion and giving ear to it eagerly desirous of the truth, and according to the testimony of many indications and events and illuminations, the jinn, angels, and spirit beings also gathering around it in truth-worshipping fashion like moths whenever it is recited(*)is a stamp confirming the Qur’an’s acceptance by all beings and that it occupies a most high position.

Also, all the classes of mankind from the most stupid and lowly to the cleverest and most learned taking their full share of the Qur’an’s instruction and their understanding its most profound truths, and all branches of scholars like the great interpreters of the Greater Shari‘a in particular, and hundreds of Islamic sciences and branches of knowledge, and the brilliant and exacting scholars of theology and the principles of religion extracting from the Qur’an all the needs and answers for their own sciences is a stamp confirming that the Qur’an is a source of truth and mine of reality.

Also, although the Arab literary figures, who were the most advanced in regard to literature, —those of them who were not Muslims— had the greatest need to dispute the Qur’an, their avoiding producing the like of only a single sura and its eloquence, eloquence being only one aspect of the seven major aspects of the Qur’an’s miraculousness, as well as the famous orators and brilliant scholars up to the present who have wanted to gain fame through disputing it being unable to oppose a single aspect of its miraculousness and their remaining silent in impotence, is a stamp confirming that the Qur’an is a miracle and beyond the powers of man.

Yes, the value, superiority, and eloquence of a speech or word is apparent through knowing, “from whom it has come and to whom, and for what purpose;” the Qur’an then can have no like, and none can reach it.

For the Qur’an is a speech and address of the Sustainer of all the worlds and Creator of the whole universe and a dialogue in no way hinting of imitation and artificiality. It is addressed to the one sent in the name of all men, indeed of all beings, the most famous and renowned of mankind, the strength and breadth of whose belief gave rise to mighty Islam and raised its owner to the level of the “Distance of Two Bow-strings” and returned him as the addressee of the Eternally Besought One. It describes and explains the matters concerning happiness in this world and the next, the results of the creation of the universe, and the dominical purposes within it. It expounds also the belief of the one it addresses, which was the highest and most extensive of belief and bore all the truths of Islam. It turns and shows every side of the huge universe like a map, a clock, or a house, and teaches and describes it in the manner of the Craftsman Who made them — to produce the like of this Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition is not possible; the degree of its miraculousness cannot be attained to.

Also, thousands of precise and learned scholars of high intelligence have each written commentaries expounding the Qur’an, some of which are of thirty, forty, or even seventy volumes, showing and proving through evidence and argument the innumerable qualities, fine points, characteristics, mysteries, elevated meanings, and numerous indications concerning every sort of hidden and unseen matter in the Qur’an. And the one hundred and thirty parts of the Risale-i Nur in particular, each of which proves with decisive arguments one quality, one fine point of the Qur’an. Each part of it — like The Miraculousness of the Qur’an, and the Second Station of the Twentieth Word, which deduces many things from the Qur’an concerning the wonders of civilization like the railway and the aeroplane, and the First Ray, called Signs of the Qur’an, which makes known the indications of verses alluding to the Risale-i Nur and electricity, and the eight short treatises called The Eight Symbols, which show how well-ordered, full of meaning, and mysterious are the words of the Qur’an, and the small treatise proving in five aspects the miraculousness of the verses at the end of Sura al-Fath in regard to their giving news of the Unseen — each part of the Risale-i Nur shows one truth, one light of the Qur’an. All this forms a stamp confirming that the Qur’an has no like, is a miracle and a marvel, and that it is the tongue of the World of the Unseen in the Manifest World and the Word of One All- Knowing of the Unseen.

Thus, due to these qualities and characteristics of the Qur’an indicated above in six points, six aspects, and six levels, its sublime, luminous sovereignty and sacred, mighty rule has continued with perfect splendour illuminating the faces of the centuries and the face of the earth for one thousand three hundred years. And also on account of these qualities of the Qur’an, each of its letters has gained the sacred distinction of yielding at least ten rewards, ten merits, and ten eternal fruits, and the letters of certain verses and suras yielding a hundred or a thousand fruits, or even more, and at blessed times the light, reward, and value of each letter rising from ten to hundreds. The traveller through the world understood this and said to his heart:

“The Qur’an, which is thus miraculous in every respect, through the consensus of its suras, the agreement of its verses, the accord of its lights and mysteries, and the concurrence of its fruits and works, so testifies with its evidences in the form of proofs to the existence, unity, attributes, and Names of a Single Necessarily Existent One that it is from its testimony that the endless testimony of all the believers has issued forth.”

Thus, in brief allusion to the instruction in belief and Divine unity that the traveller received from the Qur’an, it was said in the Seventeeth Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, the One and Unique Necessary Existent, to Whose Necessary Existence in Unity points the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, the book accepted and desired by all species of angel, men and jinn, whose verses are read each minute of the year, with the utmost reverence, by hundreds of millions of men, whose sacred sovereignty over the regions of the earth and the universe and the face of time is permanent, whose spiritual and luminous authority has run over half the earth and a fifth of humanity, for more than fourteen centuries, with the utmost splendour. Testimony and proof is also given by the unanimity of its sacred and heavenly suras, the agreement of its luminous, divine verses, the congruence of its mysteries and lights, the correspondence of its fruits and effects, by witnessing and clear vision.

Our traveller, our voyager through life, knew now that faith is the most precious capital man can have, for it bestows on indigent man not some transient and ephemeral field or dwelling, but a palace, indeed an eternal kingdom as vast as the whole cosmos or the world itself. Faith also bestows on ephemeral man all he will need for life eternal; delivers from eternal annihilation wretched man who waits on the gallows for the arrival of fate; and opens to man an eternal treasury of everlasting felicity. The traveller then said to himself:

“Onward! In order to gain a further degree from among the infinite degrees of faith, let us refer to the totality of the cosmos, and listen to what it says. We will then be able to perfect and illumine the lessons we have received from its components and parts.”

Looking through the broad and comprehensive telescope he had taken from the Qur’an, he saw the cosmos to be so meaningful and well-ordered that it took on the shape of an embodied book of the Glorious One, an incarnate dominical Qur’an, a finely adorned palace of the Eternally Besought One, an orderly city of the Most Merciful. All the suras, verses, and words of that book of the universe, even its very letters, chapters, divisions, pages, and lines, through their constant meaningful effacement and reaffirmation, their wise changes and alternations, gave unanimous expression to the existence and presence of One Who has Knowledge of all things and Power over all things as the author of the book, of a Glorious Inscriber and a Perfect Scribe seeing all things in all things and knowing the relationship of all things with all things. So too all the species and particles of the cosmos, all its inhabitants and contents, all that enters it and leaves it, all the providential changes and the wise processses of rejuvenation that occur in it — these proclaim in unison the existence and unity of an exalted craftsman, a peerless Maker Who sets to work with limitless power and infinite wisdom. The testimony of two great and vast truths, of a piece with the immensity of the cosmos, affirms this supreme witness of the cosmos.

FIRST TRUTH: These are the truths of ‘createdness’ and ‘contingency’ established with countless proofs by the gifted scholars of the principles of religion and the science of theology, as well as the sages of Islam.

They said that since change and mutation are to be observed in the world and all things, the world must be ephemeral and created; it cannot be uncreated. If it is created, then there must be a Maker who created it. And if there is no cause to be found in the essence of a thing either for its being or for its non-being, so that these two are equally possible, that thing cannot be necessary and eternal. It has further been proven with decisive arguments that it is not possible for things to create each other, since that would involve the absurd and false notion of causality and never-ending causal sequences. Hence the existence of a Necessary Existence becomes necessary, whose like cannot exist, whose similitude is impossible, all other than whom is contingent and created by him.

Yes, the truth of createdness has permeated the whole of the cosmos, and many instances of it are visible to the eye; the rest can be seen only by the intellect. For in front of our eyes a whole world dies every autumn, and together with it die hundreds of thousands of different kinds of plants and small animals, each member of each species being like a small cosmos unto himself. It is, however, so orderly and disciplined a death that all things leave behind in their places seeds and eggs that in the spring shall be the means of resurrection and rebirth, miracles of mercy and wisdom, miracles of power and knowledge. They hand to the seeds and eggs their book of deeds and plan of action, entrusting them to the wisdom of the Glorious Preserver and under His protection, and only then do they die.

In spring, the dead trees, roots and animals come to life again exactly as they were, thus providing hundreds of thousands of examples, specimens and proofs of the supreme resurrection. In the place of others, plants and animals resembling them exactly are brought into being and life, thus publishing the pages of the beings of the preceding spring, together with their deeds and functions, just like an advertisement. Thus they demonstrate one meaning of the verse, When the pages are spread out.(*)

Then also, with respect to the whole, each autumn a great world dies, and each spring a fresh world comes into being. That death and creation proceed in so orderly a manner, and so many separate deaths and creations occur within them, in such orderly and regular fashion, that it is as if the world were a traveller’s lodge where animate beings reside for a time, where travelling worlds and migrant realms come, fulfil their duties, and then go on their way.

So there is apparent to all intellects, with the clarity of the sun, the necessary existence, infinite power and unending wisdom of a Glorious Being Who creates and brings into being in this world vital realms and purposive universes, with perfect wisdom, knowledge, and equilibrium, with balance, order and regularity, and Who then employs them for dominical purposes, Divine aims and Merciful goals, with full power and compassion. We leave to the Risale-i Nur and the books of the theologians the further discussion of matters related to createdness.

As for contingence, it prevails over and surrounds all of the cosmos. For we see that all things, universal or particular, big or small, from God’s Throne down to the ground, from the atom to the planet, all are sent to the world with a particular essence, a specific form, a distinct identity, particular attributes, wise qualities, and beneficial organs. Now to bestow on that particular essence and quiddity its peculiarities, from amongst the infinite possibilities available; to clothe it in its specific, distinctive and appropriate form, from among the possibilities and probabilities that are as numerous as the forms that may be conceived; to distinguish that being with the identity suited to it, from among the possibilities as numerous as the other members of its species; to endow with special, suitable and beneficial attributes the created object that is formless and hesitant midst the possibilities and probabilities that are as numerous as the varieties of attribute and degree; to affix to that aimless creature, perplexed and distraught amidst the innumerable possibilities and probabilities that result from the infinitude of conceivable paths and modalities

—to affix to it wise qualities and beneficial organs and equip it with them— all of these are indications, proofs, and affirmations to the number of the innumerable possibilities of the necessary existence, infinite power and unlimited wisdom of the Necessary Existent Who creates, chooses, specifies, and distinguishes the quiddity and identity, the form and shape, the attribute and situation of all contingent beings, whether they be universals or particulars. They indicate, too, that no object and no matter is hidden from Him, that nothing is difficult for Him, that the greatest task is as easy for Him as the smallest, that He can create a spring as easily as a tree, and a tree as easily as a seed. All this, then, pertains to the truth of contingence, and forms one wing of the great testimony borne by the cosmos.

Since the testimony of the cosmos, with its two wings and two truths, is fully established and explained in various parts of the Risale-i Nur, and particularly the Twenty-Second and Thirty-Second Words, as well as the Twentieth and Thirty-Third Letters, we refer our readers to those writings, and cut short an extremely long story.

As for the Second Truth that proceeds from the total scheme of the cosmos, which is also the second wing of its great and universal testimony, it is as follows:

SECOND TRUTH: There is to be seen a truth of co-operation among these beings that are attempting to maintain their existence, and if they are animate, their life, and fulfil their functions in the midst of constantly stirring changes and revolutions, a truth that lies far beyond their capacities.

For example, the elements hasten to aid animate beings; the clouds to help the vegetable kingdom; the vegetable kingdom, to help the animal kingdom; the animal kingdom, to help the human kingdom. Milk gushes forth from the breast, like the spring of Paradise, to succour the infant; the fact that animate beings are given their needs and sustenance in a manner that transcends their capacity, from unexpected places; the replenishing of the cells of the body with particles of food, through their being subjugated by their Sustainer and their employment at His merciful hands — all of these and numerous other examples of the truth of co-operation demonstrate the universal and compassionate dominicality of the Sustainer of All the Worlds, Who administers the cosmos like a palace.

Solid, inanimate and unfeeling objects, that nonetheless co-operate with each other in a sensitive and conscious fashion, must of necessity be caused to rush to each other’s aid by the power, mercy, and command of a Compassionate, Wise, and Glorious Sustainer.

The universal co-operation visible throughout the cosmos; the comprehensive equilibrium and all-embracing preservation prevailing with the utmost regularity in all things, from the planets to the members, limbs and bodily particles of animate beings; the adorning whose pen ranges over the gilded face of the heavens, the decorated face of the earth, and the delicate faces of flowers; the ordering that prevails over all things, from the Milky Way and solar system down to fruits such as corn and pomegranates; the assigning of duties to all things, from the sun and the moon, the elements and the clouds, down to honey-bees — all of these great truths offer a testimony of proportionate greatness, and their testimony forms the second wing of the testimony offered by the cosmos. Since the Risale-i Nur has established and clarified this great testimony, we will content ourselves here with this brief indication.

In brief allusion to the lesson of faith learned by our traveller from the cosmos, we said in the Eighteenth Degree of the First Station: There is no god but God, the Necessary Existent, the like of Whom cannot exist, other than Whom all things are contingent, the One, the Unique, to the Necessity of Whose Existence in Unity points the cosmos, the great book incarnate, the supreme Qur’an personified, the ornate and orderly palace, the splendid and well-arranged city, with all of its suras, verses, letters, chapters, parts, pages, and lines, with the agreement of its fundaments, species, parts and particles, its inhabitants and contents, what enters it and what leaves it; with the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of createdness, change and contingency; with the consensus of all scholars of the science of theology; with the testimony of the truth of the changing of its form and its contents, with wisdom and regularity, and the renewal of its letters and words with discipline and equilibrium; and with the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of co-operation, mutual response and solidarity, reciprocal care, balance and preservation, among all its beings, as is to be clearly observed.

Then the ardent and inquisitive traveller, who was seeking the Creator of the world, had advanced by gaining knowledge of God indirectly through eighteen degrees and approached, at the end of an ascension in belief to the throne of truth, a station where in the presence of God, he addressed Him directly. He said to his own spirit:

“In the noble opening sura of the Qur’an, the verses that extend from the beginning to the word iyyaka (You alone) are like a form of praise and encomium uttered indirectly; but the word iyyaka signifies a coming into His presence and addresssing Him directly. So too we should abandon this indirect seeking and ask for the object of search from the object of our search. For one must ask the sun, that shows all things, concerning the sun, since that which shows all things will show itself even more clearly. Just as we perceive and know the sun by its rays, so too we can strive to know our Creator, in accordance with our capacities, through His Most Beautiful Names and Sacred Attributes.”

We will set forth here, with the utmost brevity and concision, two of the countless paths that lead to this goal; two of the infinite degrees of those two paths; and two of the abundant truths and details of those two degrees.

THE FIRST TRUTH: There appears visible to our eye a comprehensive, permanent, orderly and awesome truth, one that changes, transforms, and renews all beings in heaven and on earth, with imperious and incessant activity. Within the truth of that in every way wise activity, there is immediately perceived the truth of the manifestation of dominicality, and in turn, within the truth of that in every way merciful manifestation of dominicality, is recognizable the truth of the epiphany of Divinity.

From this continuous, wise and imperious activity, the deeds of an All-Powerful and All-Knowing Doer can be discerned, as if from behind a veil.

And from behind the veil of these nurturing and administering deeds of dominicality, the Divine Names, manifest in all things, can be immediately perceived.

Then behind the veil of the Beautiful Names, manifest with Glory and Beauty, can be deduced the existence and reality of the seven sacred attributes,

according to the testimony of all creation, in a life-giving, powerful, knowledgeable, all-hearing, all-seeing, volitional and speech- endowed form, there appears to the eye of faith in the heart,self-evidently, necessarily, and with full certainty, the existence of a Necessary Existent that is described by these attributes, a Single One of Unity known by these Names, a Peerless and Eternal Doer, in a form more evidential and brilliant than the sun.

For a beautiful and profound book necessarily presupposes the act of writing and a well-built house presupposes the act of building; and the acts of writing beautifully and building well presuppose the names of writer and builder; and the titles of writer and builder obviously imply the arts and attributes of writing and building; and these arts and attributes self-evidently necessitate one who will be qualified by the names and attributes, and be the artist and craftsman. For just as it is impossible for there to be a deed without a doer, or a name without one designated by the name, so too it is not possible for there to be an attribute without one qualified by the attribute, and for there to be a craft without a craftsman.

On the basis, then, of this truth and principle, the universe with all the beings it contains resembles a collection of profound books and letters written by the pen of Divine Determining, and countless buildings and palaces constructed with the hammer of Divine Power. Each of these singly in thousands of ways and together in uncountable ways utters the following testimony: These innumerable dominical and merciful deeds, and the endless manifestations of the thousand and one Divine Names which are the source of the deeds, and the infinite manifestations of the seven transcendent attributes which are the source of the Beautiful Names, in endless and infinite ways point to and testify to the necessary existence and unity of an All-Glorious Essence Which is the source of those all- embracing, sacred seven attributes and is qualified by them. And so too all the instances of beauty, loveliness, perfection, and exquisiteness found in those beings self- evidently testify all together to the sacred beauties and perfections of the dominical deeds, and the Divine Names, and attributes, and qualities, which are fitting and worthy of them, and to the sacred beauty of the Most Pure and Holy Essence.

So the truth of dominicality that manifests itself within the truth of activity reveals and makes itself known in qualities and acts such as creating, originating, fashioning and bringing into being, with knowledge and wisdom; determining, forming, administering and changing with regularity and balance; transforming, causing to descend and perfecting, with purpose and will; and feeding, nurturing, and bestowing generosity and bounty, with tenderness and mercy.

And within the truth of the manifestation of dominicality, the truth of the immediately perceived revelation of Divinity makes itself known and recognized through the compassionate and munificent manifestations of the Beautiful Names and through the Glorious and Beauteous manifestations of the seven affirmative attributes: Life, Knowledge, Power, Will, Hearing, Sight, and Speech.

Just as the attribute of Speech makes the Most Sacred Essence known through revelation and inspiration, so too the attribute of Power makes the Essence known through its skilled works and effects, each of which is like a word assuming external shape. Presenting the cosmos from end to end under the aspect of an incarnate book of discernment, it describes and makes known a Powerful Possessor of Glory.

As for the attribute of Knowledge, it makes known a single Most Sacred Essence, through each of the wise, well-ordered and balanced objects of creation, through each creature administered, directed, adorned, and made distinct by God’s Knowledge.

As for the attribute of Life, it is proven not only by its own evidences, but also by all the works that proclaim God’s Power, by all the well-ordered, wise, balanced and adorned forms and states that indicate God’s Knowledge, as well as by all proofs of all other attributes. Thus Life, showing as witnesses all animate beings, which act as mirrors reflecting those abundant proofs, makes known an Eternally Living and Self- Subsistent Essence.

It is also this attribute that constantly changes the cosmos, in order to produce in it ever-fresh and various manifestations and designs, and turns it into a supreme mirror composed of countless smaller mirrors. Similarly, the attributes of Seeing and Hearing, Willing and Speaking, each reveal and make known the Most Sacred Essence, just as the cosmos does.

Then, too, just as the attributes point to the existence of the Possessor of Glory, they also indicate in most manifest fashion the existence and reality of life, and the livingness and permanence of that Essence. For Knowing is a sign of Life; Hearing is an indication of Life; Seeing belongs only to the living; Will takes place only with Life. Purposive Power is found only in living beings, and Speech is a task for those endowed with Knowledge and Life.

It follows from the foregoing that the attribute of Life has proofs seven times as numerous as the cosmos, and evidences that proclaim its existence and the existence of the One Whom it qualifies. Thus it comes to be the foundation and source of the attributes, the origin and support of the Supreme Name. Since the Risale-i Nur establishes this first truth with powerful proofs and clarifies it, we will content ourselves now with a drop from this ocean.

THE SECOND TRUTH: Divine discourse, which proceeds from the attribute of Speech.

Were the sea to become ink for the words of my Sustainer...(*)According to the inner sense of this verse, Divine discourse is infinite. The clearest sign demonstrating the existence of a being is his speech. This truth, therefore, constitutes an infinite testimony to the existence and unity of the Pre-Eternal Speaker.

Since two powerful evidences of this truth are revelation and inspiration, set forth in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Degrees of this treatise; another broad proof is provided by sacred and heavenly Books, as indicated in the Tenth Degree; and a further most brilliant and comprehensive proof is furnished by the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, as discussed in the Seventeenth Degree — for all these reasons we refer our readers to those Degrees for the exposition and affirmation of this truth. Enough for us and for our traveller, who was unable to proceed beyond this point, are the lights and mysteries contained in the sublime verse that proclaims this truth in miraculous fashion and adds it own testimony to all of the preceding ones:God bears witness that there is no god but He, as do the angels and the possessors of knowledge; steadfast in equity; there is no god but He, the Mighty, the Wise!(*)

In allusion to the core of the lesson learned by our traveller at this sacred Station, we said, in the Nineteenth Degree of the First Station:There is no god but God, the Necessary Existent, the One, the Unique; His are the Beautiful Names, His are the Supreme Attributes, and His is the Most Sublime Similitude. To His Necessary Existence in Unity points the necessarily existent Essence, with the consensus of all its sacred and comprehensive attributes and all of its Beautiful Names, manifested according to the consensus of His dominant qualities and deeds. By the testimony of the sublimity of the truth of the self-revelation of Divinity in the manifestation of dominicality, in the permanence of imperious activity through the act of bringing into being, creating, making and originating, in will and in power; and through the act of determining, forming and regulating, in choice and in wisdom; through the act of expending, preserving, ordering, administering, and nurturing in purposiveness and mercy, in complete order and equilibrium; as too by the testimony of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of the mysteries of the verse: God bears witness that there is no god but He, as do the angels and the possessors of knowledge; steadfast in equity; there is no god but He, the Mighty, the Wise!

NOTE

Geçen İkinci Makam’ın Birinci Bab’ındaki on dokuz adet mertebelerin şehadet eden hakikatlerinin her birisi, tahakkuklarıyla ve vücudlarıyla vücub-u vücuda delâlet ettikleri gibi; ihataları ile dahi vahdete ve ehadiyete delâlet ederler. Fakat başta sarîhan vücudu ispat ettikleri cihetle, vücub-u vücudun delilleri sayılmış.

İkinci Makam’ın İkinci Bab’ı ise başta ve sarahatle vahdeti ve içinde vücudu ispat ettiği haysiyetiyle, tevhid bürhanları denilir. Yoksa her ikisi, her ikisini ispat eder. Farklarına işaret için Birinci Bab’da بِشَهَادَةِ عَظَمَةِ اِحَاطَةِ حَقٖيقَةِ

İkinci Bab’da vahdet görünür gibi zuhuruna işareten بِمُشَاهَدَةِ عَظَمَةِ اِحَاطَةِ حَقٖيقَةِ fıkraları tekrar ediliyor.

Gelecek İkinci Bab’ın mertebelerini Birinci Bab gibi izah etmeye niyet etmiştim. Fakat bazı hallerin mümanaatıyla ihtisara ve icmale mecburum. Hakkıyla beyan etmeyi Risale-i Nur’a havale ediyoruz.

İKİNCİ BAB

Berahin-i Tevhidiyeye Dairdir

Dünyaya iman için gönderilen ve bütün kâinatta fikren seyahat eden ve her şeyden Hâlık’ını soran ve her yerde Rabb’ini arayan ve hakkalyakîn derecesinde İlah’ını vücub-u vücud noktasında bulan dünya misafiri, kendi aklına dedi ki: Gel, Vâcibü’l-vücud Hâlık’ımızın vahdet bürhanlarını temaşa için yine beraber bir seyahate gideceğiz.

Beraber gittiler. Birinci menzilde gördüler ki kâinatı istila eden dört hakikat-i kudsiye, vahdeti bedahet derecesinde istilzam edip isterler.

BİRİNCİ HAKİKAT: “Uluhiyet-i mutlaka”dır.

Evet, nev-i beşerin her taifesi birer nevi ibadet ile fıtrî gibi meşgul olması ve sair zîhayatın belki cemadatın dahi fıtrî hizmetleri, birer nevi ibadet hükmünde bulunması ve kâinatta maddî ve manevî bütün nimetlerin ve ihsanların her biri, bir mabudiyet tarafından, hamd ve ibadeti yaptıran perestişe ve şükre birer vesile olmaları ve vahiy ve ilhamlar gibi bütün tereşşuhat-ı gaybiye ve tezahürat-ı maneviyenin bir tek İlah’ın mabudiyetini ilan etmeleri; elbette ve bedahetle bir uluhiyet-i mutlakanın tahakkukunu ve hüküm-ferma olduğunu ispat ederler.

Madem böyle bir uluhiyet hakikati var, elbette iştiraki kabul edemez. Çünkü uluhiyete yani mabudiyete karşı şükür ve ibadetle mukabele edenler, kâinat ağacının en nihayetlerinde bulunan zîşuur meyveleridir. Ve başkaların o zîşuurları memnun ve minnettar edip yüzlerini kendilerine çevirmesi ve görünmediğinden çabuk unutturulabilen hakiki mabudlarını onlara unutturması, uluhiyetin mahiyetine ve kudsî maksatlarına öyle bir zıddiyettir ki hiçbir cihetle müsaade etmez.

Kur’an’ın çok tekrar ile ve şiddetle şirki red ve müşrikleri cehennem ile tehdit etmesi, bu cihettendir.

İKİNCİ HAKİKAT: “Rububiyet-i mutlaka”dır.

Evet, bütün kâinatta hususan zîhayatlarda ve bilhassa terbiye ve iaşelerinde her tarafta aynı tarzda ve umulmadık bir surette beraber ve birbiri içinde hakîmane, rahîmane bir dest-i gaybî tarafından olan bir tasarruf-u âmm elbette bir rububiyet-i mutlakanın tereşşuhudur ve ziyasıdır ve tahakkukuna bir bürhan-ı kat’îdir.

Madem bir rububiyet-i mutlaka vardır, elbette şirk ve iştiraki kabul etmez. Çünkü o rububiyetin kendi cemalini izhar ve kemalâtını ilan ve kıymetli sanatlarını teşhir ve gizli hünerlerini göstermek gibi en mühim maksat ve gayeleri cüz’iyatta ve zîhayatta temerküz ve içtima ettiğinden, en cüz’î bir şeye ve en küçük bir zîhayata kendi başıyla müdahale eden bir şirk, o gayeleri bozar ve o maksatları harap eder. Ve zîşuurun yüzlerini o gayelerden ve o gayeleri irade edenden çevirip esbaba saldığından ve bu vaziyet rububiyetin mahiyetine bütün bütün muhalif ve adâvet olduğundan, elbette böyle bir rububiyet-i mutlaka, hiçbir cihetle şirke müsaade etmez.

Kur’an’ın kesretli takdisatı ve tesbihatı ve âyâtı ve kelimatı, belki hurufatı ve hey’atıyla mütemadiyen tevhide irşadatı bu büyük sırdan ileri gelmiştir.

ÜÇÜNCÜ HAKİKAT: “Kemalât”tır.

Evet, bu kâinatın bütün ulvi hikmetleri, hârika güzellikleri, âdilane kanunları, hakîmane gayeleri, hakikat-i kemalâtın vücuduna bedahetle delâlet ve bilhassa bu kâinatı hiçten icad edip her cihetle mu’cizatlı ve cemalli bir surette idare eden Hâlık’ın kemalâtına ve o Hâlık’ın âyine-i zîşuuru olan insanın kemalâtına şehadeti pek zâhirdir.

Madem kemalât hakikati vardır. Ve madem kâinatı kemalât içinde icad eden Hâlık’ın kemalâtı muhakkaktır. Ve madem kâinatın en mühim meyvesi ve arzın halifesi ve Hâlık’ın en ehemmiyetli masnuu ve sevgilisi olan insanın kemalâtı haktır ve hakikatlidir.

Elbette bu gözümüz ile gördüğümüz kemalli ve hikmetli kâinatı; fena ve zevalde yuvarlanan ve neticesiz olarak tesadüfün oyuncağı, tabiatın mel’abegâhı, zîhayatın zalimane mezbahası, zîşuurun dehşetli hüzüngâhı suretine çeviren ve âsârı ile kemalâtı görünen insanı, en bîçare ve en perişan ve en aşağı bir hayvan derekesine indiren ve Hâlık’ın âyine-i kemalâtı olan bütün mevcudatın şehadetiyle nihayetsiz kemalât-ı kudsiyesi bulunan o Hâlık’ın kemalâtını setredip perde çekerek netice-i faaliyetini ve hallakıyetini iptal eden şirk, elbette olamaz ve hakikatsizdir.

Şirkin bu kemalât-ı İlahiyeye ve insaniye ve kevniyeye karşı zıddiyeti ve o kemalâtları bozduğu İkinci Şuâ Risalesi’nin üç meyve-i tevhide dair Birinci Makam’ında kuvvetli ve kat’î deliller ile ispat ve izah edildiğinden ona havale edip burada kısa kesiyoruz.

DÖRDÜNCÜ HAKİKAT: “Hâkimiyet”tir.

Evet, bu kâinata geniş bir dikkat ile bakan; kâinatı gayet haşmetli ve gayet faaliyetli bir memleket, belki idaresi gayet hikmetli ve hâkimiyeti gayet kuvvetli bir şehir hükmünde görür, her şeyi ve her nev’i birer vazife ile musahharane meşgul bulur. وَ لِلّٰهِ جُنُودُ السَّمٰوَاتِ وَال۟اَر۟ضِ âyetinin askerlik manasını ihsas eden temsiline göre: Zerrat ordusundan ve nebatat fırkalarından ve hayvanat taburlarından tâ yıldızlar ordusuna kadar olan cünud-u Rabbaniyeden, o küçücük memurlarda ve bu pek büyük askerlerde hâkimane tekvinî emirlerin, âmirane hükümlerin, şahane kanunların cereyanları, bedahetle bir hâkimiyet-i mutlakanın ve bir âmiriyet-i külliyenin vücuduna delâlet ederler.

Madem bir hâkimiyet-i mutlaka hakikati vardır, elbette şirkin hakikati olamaz. Çünkü لَو۟ كَانَ فٖيهِمَٓا اٰلِهَةٌ اِلَّا اللّٰهُ لَفَسَدَتَا âyetinin hakikat-i kātıasıyla, müteaddid eller müstebidane bir işe karışsalar karıştırırlar. Bir memlekette iki padişah, hattâ bir nahiyede iki müdür bulunsa intizam bozulur ve idare herc ü merc olur. Halbuki sinek kanadından tâ semavat kandillerine kadar ve hüceyrat-ı bedeniyeden tâ seyyaratın burçlarına kadar öyle bir intizam var ki zerre kadar şirkin müdahalesi olamaz.

Hem hâkimiyet bir makam-ı izzettir; rakip kabul etmek, o hâkimiyetin izzetini kırar. Evet, aczi için çok yardımcılara muhtaç olan insanın, cüz’î ve zâhirî ve muvakkat bir hâkimiyeti için kardeşini ve evladını zalimane öldürmesi gösteriyor ki hâkimiyet rakip kabul etmez. Böyle bir âciz, böyle cüz’î bir hâkimiyet için böyle yaparsa; elbette bütün kâinatın mâliki olan bir Kadîr-i Mutlak’ın hakiki ve küllî rububiyetine ve uluhiyetine medar olan kendi hâkimiyet-i kudsiyesine başkasını teşrik etmesi ve şerike müsaade etmesi hiçbir cihetle mümkün olamaz.

Bu hakikat, İkinci Şuâ’nın İkinci Makam’ında ve Risale-i Nur’un birçok yerlerinde kuvvetli deliller ile ispat edildiğinden onlara havale ediyoruz.

İşte yolcumuz bu dört hakikati müşahede etmekle, vahdaniyet-i İlahiyeyi şuhud derecesinde bildi, imanı parladı. Bütün kuvvetiyle

لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اللّٰهُ وَح۟دَهُ لَا شَرٖيكَ لَهُ dedi. Ve bu menzilden aldığı derse bir kısa işaret olarak Birinci Makam’ın ikinci babında لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اللّٰهُ ال۟وَاحِدُ ال۟اَحَدُ الَّذٖى دَلَّ عَلٰى وَح۟دَانِيَّتِهٖ وَ وُجُوبِ وُجُودِهٖ مُشَاهَدَةُ عَظَمَةِ حَقٖيقَةِ تَبَارُزِ ال۟اُلُوهِيَّةِ ال۟مُط۟لَقَةِ وَ كَذَا مُشَاهَدَةُ عَظَمَةِ اِحَاطَةِ حَقٖيقَةِ تَظَاهُرِ الرُّبُوبِيَّةِ ال۟مُط۟لَقَةِ ال۟مُق۟تَضِيَّةِ لِل۟وَح۟دَةِ وَ كَذَا مُشَاهَدَةُ عَظَمَةِ اِحَاطَةِ حَقٖيقَةِ ال۟كَمَالَاتِ النَّاشِئَةِ مِنَ ال۟وَح۟دَةِ وَ كَذَا مُشَاهَدَةُ عَظَمَةِ اِحَاطَةِ حَقٖيقَةِ ال۟حَاكِمِيَّةِ ال۟مُط۟لَقَةِ ال۟مَانِعَةِ وَ ال۟مُنَافِيَةِ لِلشِّر۟كَةِ denilmiştir.

Sonra o sükûnetsiz misafir kendi kalbine dedi: Ehl-i imanın, hususan ehl-i tarîkatın her vakit tekrarla لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّاهُوَ demeleri, tevhidi yâd ve ilan etmeleri gösterir ki tevhidin pek çok mertebeleri bulunuyor. Hem tevhid, en ehemmiyetli ve en halâvetli ve en yüksek bir vazife-i kudsiye ve bir farîza-i fıtriye ve bir ibadet-i imaniyedir. Öyle ise gel bir mertebeyi daha bulmak için bu ibrethanenin diğer bir menzilinin kapısını daha açmalıyız.

Çünkü aradığımız hakiki tevhid, yalnız tasavvurdan ibaret bir marifet değildir. Belki ilm-i mantıkta tasavvura mukabil ve marifet-i tasavvuriyeden çok kıymettar ve bürhanın neticesi olan ve ilim denilen tasdiktir.

Ve tevhid-i hakiki öyle bir hüküm ve tasdik ve iz’an ve kabuldür ki her bir şeyle Rabb’ini bulabilir ve her şeyde Hâlık’ına giden bir yolu görür ve hiçbir şey huzuruna mani olmaz. Yoksa Rabb’ini bulmak için her vakit kâinat perdesini yırtmak, açmak lâzım gelir. “Öyle ise haydi ileri!” diyerek, kibriya ve azamet kapısını çaldı. Ef’al ve âsâr menziline ve icad ve ibda âlemine girdi, gördü ki: Kâinatı istila etmiş beş hakikat-i muhita hükmediyorlar, bedahetle tevhidi ispat ederler.

BİRİNCİSİ

Kibriya ve azamet hakikatidir. Bu hakikat, İkinci Şuâ’nın İkinci Makam’ında ve Risale-i Nur’un müteaddid yerlerinde bürhanlarla izah edildiğinden burada bu kadar deriz ki:

Binlerle sene birbirlerinden uzak bir mesafede bulunan yıldızları, aynı anda aynı tarzda icad edip tasarruf eden ve zeminin şark ve garp ve cenup ve şimalinde bulunan aynı çiçeğin hadsiz efradını, bir zamanda ve bir surette halk edip tasvir eden...

Hem هُوَ الَّذٖى خَلَقَ السَّمٰوَاتِ وَال۟اَر۟ضَ فٖى سِتَّةِ اَيَّامٍ yani gökleri ve zemini altı günde yaratmak gibi geçmiş ve gaybî ve çok acib bir hâdiseyi, hazır ve göz önünde bir hâdise ile ispat etmek ve onun gibi acib bir tanzir olarak zeminin yüzünde bahar mevsiminde haşr-i a’zamın yüz binden ziyade misallerini gösterir gibi iki yüz binden ziyade nebatat taifelerini ve hayvanat kabilelerini beş altı haftada inşa edip kemal-i intizam ve mizan ile iltibassız, noksansız, yanlışsız, beraber, birbiri içinde idare, terbiye, iaşe, temyiz ve tezyin eden...

Hem يُولِجُ الَّي۟لَ فِى النَّهَارِ وَ يُولِجُ النَّهَارَ فِى الَّي۟لِ âyetinin sarahatiyle zemini döndürüp gece gündüz sahifelerini yapan ve çeviren ve yevmiye hâdisatıyla yazan değiştiren aynı zat, aynı anda, en gizli, en cüz’î olan kalplerin hatıratlarını dahi bilir ve iradesiyle idare eder.

Ve mezkûr fiillerin her biri bir tek fiil olduğundan, zarurî olarak, onların fâili dahi bir tek, vâhid ve kādir olan fâil-i zülcelallerinin, bedahetle öyle bir kibriya ve azameti var ki: Hiçbir yerde, hiçbir şeyde, hiçbir cihetle, hiçbir şirkin hiçbir imkânını, hiçbir ihtimalini bırakmıyor, köküyle kesiyor.

Madem böyle bir kibriya ve azamet-i kudret var ve madem o kibriya nihayet kemaldedir ve ihata ediyor. Elbette o kudrete acz veya ihtiyaç ve o kibriyaya kusur ve o kemale noksaniyet ve o ihataya kayıt ve o nihayetsizliğe nihayet veren bir şirke meydan vermesi ve müsaade etmesi, hiçbir vecihle mümkün değildir. Fıtratını bozmayan hiçbir akıl kabul etmez.

İşte şirk, kibriyaya dokunması ve celalin izzetine dokundurması ve azametine ilişmesi cihetiyle öyle bir cinayettir ki hiç kabil-i af olmadığını, Kur’an-ı Mu’cizü’l-Beyan azîm tehdit ile اِنَّ اللّٰهَ لَا يَغ۟فِرُ اَن۟ يُش۟رَكَ بِهٖ وَيَغ۟فِرُ مَا دُونَ ذٰلِكَ ferman ediyor.

İKİNCİ HAKİKAT

Kâinatta tasarrufları görünen ef’al-i Rabbaniyenin ıtlak ve ihata ve nihayetsiz bir surette zuhurlarıdır. Ve o fiilleri takyid ve tahdid eden, yalnız hikmet ve iradedir ve mazharların kabiliyetleridir. Ve serseri tesadüf ve şuursuz tabiat ve kör kuvvet ve camid esbab ve kayıtsız ve her yere dağılan ve karıştıran unsurlar, o gayet mizanlı ve hikmetli ve basîrane ve hayattarane ve muntazam ve muhkem olan fiillere karışamazlar, belki Fâil-i Zülcelal’in emriyle ve iradesiyle ve kuvvetiyle zâhirî bir perde-i kudret olarak istimal olunuyorlar.

Hadsiz misallerinden üç misali, Sure-i Nahl’in bir sahifesinde birbirine muttasıl üç âyetin işaret ettikleri üç fiilin hadsiz nüktelerinden üç nüktesini beyan ederiz.

Birincisi: وَ اَو۟حٰى رَبُّكَ اِلَى النَّح۟لِ اَنِ اتَّخِذٖى مِنَ ال۟جِبَالِ بُيُوتًا ... اِلٰى اٰخِره

Evet, bal arısı fıtratça ve vazifece öyle bir mu’cize-i kudrettir ki koca Sure-i Nahl, onun ismiyle tesmiye edilmiş. Çünkü o küçücük bal makinesinin zerrecik başında, onun ehemmiyetli vazifesinin mükemmel programını yazmak ve küçücük karnında taamların en tatlısını koymak ve pişirmek ve süngücüğünde zîhayat azaları tahrip etmek ve öldürmek hâsiyetinde bulunan zehiri o uzuvcuğuna ve cismine zarar vermeden yerleştirmek; nihayet dikkat ve ilim ile ve gayet hikmet ve irade ile ve tam bir intizam ve muvazene ile olduğundan şuursuz, intizamsız, mizansız olan tabiat ve tesadüf gibi şeyler elbette müdahale edemezler ve karışamazlar.

İşte bu üç cihetle mu’cizeli bu sanat-ı İlahiyenin ve bu fiil-i Rabbanînin, bütün zemin yüzünde hadsiz arılarda, aynı hikmetle, aynı dikkatle, aynı mizanda, aynı anda, aynı tarzda zuhuru ve ihatası, bedahetle vahdeti ispat eder.

İkinci âyet: وَ اِنَّ لَكُم۟ فِى ال۟اَن۟عَامِ لَعِب۟رَةً نُس۟قٖيكُم۟ مِمَّا فٖى بُطُونِهٖ مِن۟ بَي۟نِ فَر۟ثٍوَ دَمٍ لَبَنًا خَالِصًا سَٓائِغًا لِلشَّارِبٖينَ âyeti, ibret-feşan bir fermandır. Evet, başta inek ve deve ve keçi ve koyun olarak süt fabrikaları olan validelerin memelerinde, kan ve fışkı içinde bulaştırmadan ve bulandırmadan ve onlara bütün bütün muhalif olarak hâlis, temiz, safi, mugaddi, hoş, beyaz bir sütü koymak; ve yavrularına karşı o sütten daha ziyade hoş, şirin, tatlı, kıymetli ve fedakârane bir şefkati kalplerine bırakmak; elbette o derece bir rahmet, bir hikmet, bir ilim, bir kudret ve bir ihtiyar ve dikkat ister ki fırtınalı tesadüflerin ve karıştırıcı unsurların ve kör kuvvetlerin hiçbir cihetle işleri olamaz.

İşte böyle gayet mu’cizeli ve hikmetli bu sanat-ı Rabbaniyenin ve bu fiil-i İlahînin, umum rûy-i zeminde, yüz binlerle nevilerin, hadsiz validelerinin kalplerinde ve memelerinde aynı anda, aynı tarzda, aynı hikmet ve aynı dikkat ile tecellisi ve tasarrufu ve yapması ve ihatası, bedahetle vahdeti ispat eder.

Üçüncü âyet: وَمِن۟ ثَمَرَاتِ النَّخٖيلِ وَال۟اَع۟نَابِ تَتَّخِذُونَ مِن۟هُ سَكَرًا وَرِز۟قًا حَسَنًااِنَّ فٖى ذٰلِكَ لَاٰيَةً لِقَو۟مٍ يَع۟قِلُونَ

Bu âyet, nazar-ı dikkati hurma ve üzüme celbedip der ki: “Aklı bulunanlara, bu iki meyvede tevhid için büyük bir âyet, bir delil ve bir hüccet vardır.” Evet, bu iki meyve hem gıda ve kut hem fakihe ve yemiş hem çok lezzetli taamların menşeleri olmakla beraber, susuz bir kumda ve kuru bir toprakta duran bu ağaçlar, o derece bir mu’cize-i kudret ve bir hârika-i hikmettir ve öyle bir helvalı şeker fabrikası ve ballı bir şurup makinesi ve o kadar hassas bir mizan ve mükemmel bir intizam ve hikmetli ve dikkatli bir sanattırlar ki zerre kadar aklı bulunan bir adam “Bunları böyle yapan, elbette bu kâinatı yaratan zat olabilir.” demeye mecburdur.

Çünkü mesela, bu gözümüz önünde bir parmak kadar asmanın üzüm çubuğunda yirmi salkım var ve her salkımda şekerli şurup tulumbacıklarından yüzer tane var. Ve her tanenin yüzüne incecik ve güzel ve latîf ve renkli bir mahfazayı giydirmek ve nazik ve yumuşak kalbinde, kuvve-i hâfızası ve programı ve tarihçe-i hayatı hükmünde olan sert kabuklu, ceviz içli çekirdekleri koymak ve karnında cennet helvası gibi bir tatlıyı ve âb-ı kevser gibi bir balı yapmak ve bütün zemin yüzünde, hadsiz emsalinde aynı dikkat, aynı hikmet, aynı hârika-i sanatı, aynı zamanda, aynı tarzda yaratmak, elbette bedahetle gösterir ki bu işi yapan; bütün kâinatın Hâlık’ıdır ve nihayetsiz bir kudreti ve hadsiz bir hikmeti iktiza eden şu fiil ancak onun fiilidir.

Evet, bu çok hassas mizana ve çok maharetli sanata ve çok hikmetli intizama, kör ve serseri ve intizamsız ve şuursuz ve hedefsiz ve istilacı ve karıştırıcı olan kuvvetler ve tabiatlar ve sebepler karışamazlar, ellerini uzatamazlar. Yalnız, mef’uliyette ve kabulde ve perdedarlıkta, emr-i Rabbanî ile istihdam olunuyorlar.

İşte bu üç âyetin işaret ettikleri üç hakikatin tevhide delâlet eden üç nüktesi gibi hadsiz ef’al-i Rabbaniyenin hadsiz cilveleri ve tasarrufları, ittifakla bir tek vâhid-i ehad, bir Zat-ı Zülcelal’in vahdetine şehadet ederler.

ÜÇÜNCÜ HAKİKAT

Mevcudatın ve bilhassa nebatat ve hayvanatın, sürat-i mutlaka içinde kesret-i mutlaka ve intizam-ı mutlak ile ve suhulet-i mutlaka içinde gayet hüsn-ü sanat ve maharet ve itkan ve intizam ile ve mebzuliyet-i mutlaka ve ihtilat-ı mutlak içinde gayet kıymettarlık ve tam imtiyaz ile icadlarıdır.

Evet, gayet çokluk ile gayet çabukluk hem gayet sanatkârane ve mahirane ve dikkat ve intizam ile gayet kolay ve rahatça hem gayet mebzuliyet ve karışıklık içinde gayet kıymetli ve farikalı olarak bulaşmadan ve bulaştırmadan ve bulandırmadan yapmak ancak ve ancak bir tek vâhid zatın öyle bir kudretiyle olabilir ki o kudrete hiçbir şey ağır gelmez. Ve o kudrete nisbeten, yıldızlar zerreler kadar ve en büyük en küçük kadar ve efradı hadsiz bir nevi, bir tek fert kadar ve azametli ve muhit bir küll, has ve az bir cüz kadar ve koca zeminin ihyası ve diriltilmesi, bir ağaç kadar ve dağ gibi bir ağacın inşası, tırnak gibi bir çekirdek kadar kolay ve rahatça ve suhuletli olmak gerektir. Tâ ki gözümüzün önünde yapılan bu işleri yapabilsin.

İşte bu mertebe-i tevhidin ve bu üçüncü hakikatin ve kelime-i tevhidin bu ehemmiyetli sırrını, yani en büyük bir küll, en küçük bir cüz’î gibi olması ve en çok ve en az farkı bulunmaması hem bu hayretli hikmetini ve bu azametli tılsımını ve tavr-ı aklın haricindeki bu muammasını ve İslâmiyet’in en mühim esasını ve imanın en derin bir medarını ve tevhidin en büyük bir temelini beyan ve hall ve keşif ve ispat etmekle Kur’an’ın tılsımı açılır ve hilkat-i kâinatın en gizli ve bilinmez ve felsefeyi idrakinden âciz bırakan muamması bilinir.

Hâlık-ı Rahîm’ime yüz bin defa Risaletü’n-Nur’un hurufatı adedince şükür ve hamdolsun ki Risaletü’n-Nur bu acib tılsımı ve bu garib muammayı hall ve keşif ve ispat etmiş. Ve bilhassa Yirminci Mektup’un âhirlerinde وَهُوَ عَلٰى كُلِّ شَى۟ءٍ قَدٖيرٌ bahsinde ve haşre dair Yirmi Dokuzuncu Söz’ün “Fâil muktedirdir.” bahsinde, Yirmi Dokuzuncu Lem’a-i Arabiye’nin “Allahu ekber” mertebelerinden kudret-i İlahiyenin ispatında, kat’î bürhanlarla, iki kere iki dört eder derecesinde ispat edilmiş.

Onun için izahı onlara havale etmekle beraber, bir fihriste hükmünde bu sırrı açan esasları ve delilleri icmalen beyan ve on üç basamak olarak on üç sırra işaret etmek istedim. Birinci ve ikinci sırları yazdım. Fakat maatteessüf hem maddî hem manevî iki kuvvetli mani, beni şimdilik mütebâkisinden vazgeçirdiler.

Birinci Sır: Bir şey zatî olsa onun zıddı o zata ârız olamaz. Çünkü içtimaü’z-zıddeyn olur, o da muhaldir. İşte bu sırra binaen, madem kudret-i İlahiye zatiyedir ve Zat-ı Akdes’in lâzım-ı zarurîsidir. Elbette o kudretin zıddı olan acz, o Zat-ı Kadîr’e ârız olması mümkün olmaz.

Ve madem bir şeyde mertebelerin bulunması, o şeyin içinde zıddının tedahülü iledir. Mesela, ziyanın kavî ve zayıf gibi mertebeleri, zulmetin müdahalesi ile ve hararetin ziyade ve aşağı dereceleri, soğuğun karışması ile ve kuvvetin şiddet ve noksan miktarları, mukavemetin karşılaması ve mümanaatıyladır. Elbette o kudret-i zatiyede mertebeler bulunmaz. Bütün eşyayı, bir tek şey gibi icad eder.

Ve madem o kudret-i zatiyede mertebeler bulunmaz ve zaaf ve noksan olamaz, elbette hiçbir mani onu karşılayamaz ve hiçbir icad ona ağır gelmez.

Ve madem hiçbir şey ona ağır gelmez, elbette haşr-i a’zamı bir bahar kadar kolay ve bir baharı bir ağaç kadar suhuletli ve bir ağacı bir çiçek kadar zahmetsiz icad ettiği gibi; bir çiçeği bir ağaç kadar sanatlı, bir ağacı bir bahar kadar mu’cizatlı ve bir baharı bir haşir gibi cem’iyetli ve hârikalı halk eder ve gözümüzün önünde halk ediyor.

Risale-i Nur’da kat’î ve kuvvetli çok bürhanlar ile ispat edilmiş ki: Eğer vahdet ve tevhid olmazsa bir çiçek, bir ağaç kadar belki daha müşkülatlı ve bir ağaç, bir bahar kadar belki daha suubetli olmakla beraber; kıymet ve sanatça bütün bütün sukut edeceklerdi. Ve şimdi bir dakikada yapılan bir zîhayat, bir senede ancak yapılacaktı, belki de hiç yapılmayacaktı.

İşte bu mezkûr sırra binaendir ki: Gayet mebzuliyet ve çoklukla beraber gayet kıymettar ve gayet çabuk ve kolaylıkla beraber gayet sanatlı olan bu meyveler, bu çiçekler, bu ağaçlar ve hayvancıklar muntazaman meydana çıkıyorlar ve vazife başına geçiyorlar ve tesbihatlarını yapıp, bitirip, tohumlarını yerlerinde tevkil ederek gidiyorlar.

İkinci Sır: Nasıl ki nuraniyet ve şeffafiyet ve itaat sırrıyla ve kudret-i zatiyenin bir cilvesiyle bir tek güneş, bir tek âyineye ziyalı akis verdiği gibi; hadsiz âyinelere ve parlak şeylere ve katrelere o kayıtsız kudretinin geniş faaliyetinden ziyalı ve hararetli olan ayn-ı aksini emr-i İlahî ile kolayca verebilir. Az ve çok birdir, farkı yoktur.

Hem bir tek kelime söylense nihayetsiz hallakıyetin nihayetsiz vüs’atinden, o bir tek kelime bir tek adamın kulağına zahmetsiz girdiği gibi bir milyon kulakların kafalarına da izn-i Rabbanî ile zahmetsiz girer. Binlerle dinleyen ile bir tek dinleyen müsavidir, fark etmez.

Hem göz gibi bir tek nur veya Cebrail gibi nurani bir tek ruhanî; tecelli-i rahmet içinde olan faaliyet-i Rabbaniyenin kemal-i vüs’atinden bir tek yere suhuletle baktığı ve gittiği ve bir tek yerde suhuletle bulunduğu gibi binler yerlerde de kudret-i İlahiye ile suhuletle bulunur, bakar, girer; az, çok farkı yoktur.

Aynen öyle de kudret-i zatiye-i ezeliye, en latîf, en has bir nur ve bütün nurların nuru olduğundan ve eşyanın mahiyetleri ve hakikatleri ve melekûtiyet vecihleri şeffaf ve âyine gibi parlak olduğundan ve zerrattan ve nebatattan ve zîhayattan tâ yıldızlara ve güneşlere ve aylara kadar her şey, o kudret-i zatiyenin hükmüne gayet derecede itaatli, inkıyadlı ve o kudret-i ezelînin emirlerine nihayet derecede mutî ve musahhar bulunduğundan, elbette hadsiz eşyayı bir tek şey gibi icad eder ve yanlarında bulunur. Bir iş bir işe mani olmaz. Büyük ve küçük, çok ve az, cüz’î ve küllî birdir. Hiçbiri ona ağır gelmez.

Hem nasıl ki Onuncu ve Yirmi Dokuzuncu Sözlerde denildiği gibi; intizam ve muvazene ve hükme itaat ve emirleri imtisal sırlarıyla, yüz hane kadar bir büyük sefineyi bir çocuğun parmağıyla oyuncağını çevirdiği gibi döndürür, gezdirir.

Hem bir âmir, bir “Arş!” emriyle bir tek neferi hücum ettirdiği gibi muntazam ve mutî bir orduyu dahi o tek emriyle hücuma sevk eder.

Hem pek büyük bir hassas mizanın iki gözünde, iki dağ muvazene vaziyetinde bulunsalar iki kefesinde iki yumurta bulunan diğer mizanın, bir tek ceviz, bir kefesini yukarıya kaldırması, birini aşağı indirmesi gibi; o tek ceviz, bir kanun-u hikmetle öteki büyük mizanın bir gözünü dağ ile beraber dağın başına ve öbür dağı, derelerin dibine indirebilir.

Aynen öyle de kayıtsız, nihayetsiz, nurani, zatî, sermedî olan kudret-i Rabbaniyede ve beraberinde bütün intizamatın ve nizamların ve muvazenelerin menşei, menbaı, medarı, masdarı olan nihayetsiz bir hikmet ve gayet hassas bir adalet-i İlahiye bulunduğundan ve cüz’î ve küllî ve büyük ve küçük her şey ve bütün eşya, o kudretin hükmüne musahhar ve tasarrufuna münkad olduğundan, elbette zerreleri kolayca tedvir ve tahrik ettiği gibi yıldızları dahi nizam-ı hikmet sırrıyla kolayca döndürür, çevirir.

Ve baharda, bir emir ile suhuletle bir sineği ihya ettiği gibi; bütün sineklerin taifelerini ve bütün nebatatı ve hayvancıkların ordularını, kudretindeki hikmet ve mizanın sırrıyla, aynı emirle, aynı kolaylıkla diriltip meydan-ı hayata sevk eder.

Ve bir ağacı baharda çabuk diriltmek ve kemiklerine hayat vermek gibi o hikmetli, adaletli kudret-i mutlaka ile koca arzı ve zemin cenazesini, baharda o ağaç gibi kolayca ihya edip yüz bin çeşit haşirlerin misallerini icad eder.

Ve bir emr-i tekvinî ile arzı dirilttiği gibi اِن۟ كَانَت۟ اِلَّا صَي۟حَةً وَاحِدَةً فَاِذَاهُم۟ جَمٖيعٌ لَدَي۟نَا مُح۟ضَرُونَ fermanıyla yani “Bütün ins ve cin, bir tek sayha ve emir ile yanımızda meydan-ı haşre hazır olurlar.”

Hem وَمَٓا اَم۟رُ السَّاعَةِ اِلَّا كَلَم۟حِ ال۟بَصَرِ اَو۟ هُوَ اَق۟رَبُ ferman etmesiyle yani “Kıyamet ve haşrin işi ve yapılması gözünü kapayıp hemen açmak kadardır belki daha yakındır.” der.

Hem مَا خَل۟قُكُم۟ وَلَا بَع۟ثُكُم۟ اِلَّا كَنَف۟سٍ وَاحِدَةٍ âyetiyle yani “Ey insanlar! Sizin icad ve ihyanız ve haşir ve neşriniz, bir tek nefsin ihyası gibi kolaydır. Kudretime ağır gelmez.” mealinde bulunan şu üç âyetin sırrıyla, aynı emir ile aynı kolaylıkla bütün ins ve cinleri ve hayvanı ve ruhanî ve melekleri haşr-i ekberin meydanına ve mizan-ı a’zamın önüne getirir. Bir iş bir işe mani olmaz.

Üçüncü ve dördüncüden tâ on üçüncü sırra kadar, arzuma muhalif olarak başka vakte ta’lik edildi.

DÖRDÜNCÜ HAKİKAT

Mevcudatın vücudları ve zuhurları, beraberlik ve birbiri içinde birlik ve birbirine benzemeklik ve birbirinin misal-i musağğarı ve numune-i ekberi ve bir kısım küll ve küllî ve diğer kısım onun cüzleri ve fertleri ve birbirine sikke-i fıtratta müşabehet ve nakş-ı sanatta münasebet ve birbirine yardım etmek ve birbirinin vazife-i fıtriyesini tekmil etmek gibi çok cihetü’l-vahdet noktalarında; bedahet derecesinde tevhidi ilan ve Sâni’lerinin vâhid olduğunu ispat etmek ve kâinatın rububiyet cihetinde, tecezzi ve inkısam kabul etmez bir küll ve küllî hükmünde bulunduğunu izhar etmektir.

Evet mesela, her baharda nebatattan ve hayvanattan dört yüz bin nev’in hadsiz efradlarını, beraber ve birbiri içinde, bir anda ve bir tarzda, yanlışsız, hatasız, kemal-i hikmet ve hüsn-ü sanatla icad etmek ve idare ve iaşe etmek...

Hem kuşların misal-i musağğarları olan sineklerden tâ numune-i ekberleri olan kartallara kadar hadsiz efradlarını yaratmak ve hava âleminde, seyahat ve yaşamalarına yardım eden cihazatı verip gezdirmek ve havayı şenlendirmekle beraber, yüzlerinde mu’cizane birer sikke-i sanat ve cisimlerinde müdebbirane birer hâtem-i hikmet ve mahiyetlerinde mürebbiyane birer turra-i ehadiyet koymak...

Hem zerrat-ı taamiyeyi hüceyrat-ı bedeniyenin imdadına ve nebatatı hayvanatın imdadına ve hayvanatı insanların yardımına ve umum valideleri iktidarsız yavruların muavenetine hakîmane, rahîmane koşturmak, göndermek…

Hem daire-i Kehkeşan’dan ve manzume-i şemsiyeden ve anâsır-ı arziyeden tâ göz hadekasının perdelerine ve gül goncasının yapraklarına ve mısır sümbülünün gömleklerine ve kavunun çekirdeklerine kadar mütedâhil daireler gibi cüz’î ve küllî hükmünde aynı intizam ve hüsn-ü sanat ve aynı fiil ve kemal-i hikmetle tasarruf etmek, elbette bedahet derecesinde ispat eder ki:

Bu işleri yapan hem vâhiddir, birdir, her şeyde sikkesi var.

Hem de hiçbir mekânda olmadığı gibi her mekânda hazırdır.

Hem güneş gibi; her şey ondan uzak, o ise her şeye yakındır.

Hem daire-i Kehkeşan ve manzume-i şemsiye gibi en büyük şeyler ona ağır gelmediği gibi kandaki küreyvat, kalpteki hatırat ondan gizlenmez; tasarrufundan hariç kalmaz.

Hem her şey ne kadar büyük ve çok olursa olsun, en küçük, en az bir şey gibi ona kolaydır ki sineği kartal sisteminde ve çekirdeği ağacın mahiyetinde ve bir ağacı bir bahçe suretinde ve bir bahçeyi bir bahar sanatında ve bir baharı bir haşir vaziyetinde suhuletle icad eder.

Ve sanatça çok kıymettar şeyleri, bize çok ucuz verir, ihsan eder. İstediği fiyat ise bir “Bismillah” ve bir “Elhamdülillah”tır. Yani, o çok kıymettar nimetlerin makbul fiyatları, başta “Bismillahirrahmanirrahîm” ve âhirinde “Elhamdülillah” demektir.

Bu Dördüncü Hakikat dahi Risale-i Nur’da izah ve ispat edildiğinden bu kısacık işaretle iktifa ediyoruz.

Bizim seyyahın ikinci menzilde gördüğü

BEŞİNCİ HAKİKAT

Kâinatın mecmuunda ve erkânında ve eczasında ve her mevcudunda bir intizam-ı ekmelin bulunması ve o memleket-i vâsianın tedvir ve idaresine medar olan ve heyet-i umumiyesine taalluk eden maddeler ve vazifedarlar birer vâhid olması ve o haşmetli şehir ve meşherde tasarruf eden isimler ve fiiller, birbiri içinde ve birer ve bir mahiyet ve vâhid ve her yerde aynı isim ve aynı fiil olmakla beraber, her şeyi veya ekser eşyayı ihataları ve şümulleri ve o ziynetli sarayın tedbirine ve şenlenmesine ve binasına medar olan unsurlar ve neviler, birbiri içinde ve birer ve bir mahiyet-i vâhide ve her yerde aynı unsur ve aynı nevi bulunmakla beraber zeminin yüzünü ve ekserisini intişar ile ihata etmeleri elbette bedahetle ve zaruretle iktiza eder ve delâlet eder ve şehadet eder ve gösterir ki:

Bu kâinatın sâni’i ve müdebbiri ve bu memleketin sultanı ve mürebbisi ve bu sarayın sahibi ve bânisi birdir, tektir, vâhiddir, ehaddir. Misli ve naziri olamaz ve veziri ve muîni yoktur. Şeriki ve zıddı olamaz, aczi ve kusuru yoktur.

Evet, intizam tam bir vahdettir, bir tek nazzamı ister. Münakaşaya medar olan şirki kaldırmaz.

Madem bu kâinatın heyet-i mecmuasından, arzın yevmî ve senevî deveranından tâ insanın simasına ve başının duygular manzumesine ve kandaki beyaz ve kırmızı küreyvatın deveranına ve cereyanına kadar, küllî olsun cüz’î olsun her bir şeyde hikmetli ve dikkatli bir intizam var. Elbette bir Kadîr-i Mutlak’tan ve bir Hakîm-i Mutlak’tan başka hiçbir şey, kasd ve icad suretiyle elini hiçbir şeye uzatamaz ve karışamazlar. Belki yalnız kabul ederler, mazhar ve münfail olurlar.

Ve madem tanzim etmek ve bilhassa gayeleri takip etmek ve maslahatları gözeterek bir intizam vermek, yalnız ilim ve hikmetle olur ve irade ve ihtiyar ile yapılır. Elbette ve herhalde, bu hikmet-perverane intizam ve bu gözümüz önündeki maslahatkârane, çeşit çeşit, hadsiz intizamat-ı mahlukat, bedahet derecesinde delâlet ve şehadet eder ki bu mevcudatın hâlıkı ve müdebbiri birdir, fâildir, muhtardır. Her şey onun kudretiyle vücuda gelir, onun iradesiyle birer vaziyet-i mahsusa alır ve onun ihtiyarıyla bir suret-i muntazama giyer.

Hem madem bu misafirhane-i dünyanın sobalı lambası birdir ve rûznameli kandili birdir ve rahmetli süngeri birdir ve ateşli aşçısı birdir ve hayatlı şurubu birdir ve himayetli tarlası birdir… Bir, bir, bir… Tâ bin bir birler kadar... Elbette bu bir birler bedahetle şehadet eder ki bu misafirhanenin sâni’i ve sahibi birdir. Hem gayet kerîm ve misafirperverdir ki bu yüksek ve büyük memurlarını, zîhayat yolcularına hizmetkâr edip istirahatlerine çalıştırıyor.

Hem madem dünyanın her tarafında tasarruf eden ve nakışları ve cilveleri görünen “Hakîm, Rahîm, Musavvir, Müdebbir, Muhyî, Mürebbi” gibi isimler ve “hikmet ve rahmet ve inayet” gibi şe’nler ve “tasvir ve tedvir ve terbiye” gibi fiiller birdirler. Her yerde aynı isim, aynı fiil birbiri içinde hem nihayet mertebede hem ihatalıdırlar. Hem birbirinin nakşını öyle tekmil ederler ki güya o isimler ve o fiiller ittihat edip kudret ayn-ı hikmet ve rahmet ve hikmet ayn-ı inayet ve hayat oluyor.

Mesela, hayat verici ismin bir şeyde tasarrufu göründüğü anda, yaratıcı ve tasvir edici ve rızık verici gibi çok isimlerin aynı anda, her yerde, aynı sistemde tasarrufatları görünüyor. Elbette ve elbette ve bedahetle şehadet eder ki o ihatalı isimlerin müsemması ve her yerde aynı tarzda görünen şümullü fiillerin fâili birdir, tektir, vâhiddir, ehaddir. Âmennâ ve saddaknâ!

Hem madem masnuatın maddeleri ve mâyeleri olan unsurlar zemini ihata ederler. Ve mahlukattan, vahdeti gösteren çeşit çeşit sikkeleri taşıyan nevilerin her biri bir iken rûy-i zeminde intişar edip istila ederler. Elbette bedahetle ispat eder ki o unsurlar müştemilatıyla ve o neviler efradıyla bir tek zatın malıdır, mülküdür. Ve öyle bir Vâhid-i Kadîr’in masnuları ve hizmetkârlarıdır ki o koca istilacı unsurları, gayet itaatli bir hizmetçi ve o zeminin her tarafına dağılan nevileri gayet intizamlı bir nefer hükmünde istihdam eder.

Bu hakikat dahi Risaletü’n-Nur’da ispat ve izah edildiğinden burada bu kısa işaretle iktifa ediyoruz. Bizim yolcu, bu beş hakikatten aldığı feyz-i imanî ve zevk-i tevhidî neşesiyle müşahedatını hülâsa ve hissiyatını tercüme ederek kalbine diyor:

Bak kitab-ı kâinatın safha-i rengînine

Hâme-i zerrîn-i kudret, gör ne tasvir eylemiş

Kalmamış bir nokta-i muzlim çeşm-i dil erbabına

Sanki âyâtın Hudâ, nur ile tahrir eylemiş.

Hem bil ki:

Kitab-ı âlemin evrakıdır eb’ad-ı nâmahdud

Sutûr-u hâdisat-ı dehirdir âsâr-ı nâma’dud

Yazılmış destgâh-ı levh-i mahfuz-u hakikatte

Mücessem lafz-ı manidardır, âlemde her mevcud.

Hem dinle:

چُو لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اللّٰهُ بَرَابَر۟ مٖيزَنَن۟د۟ هَر۟ شَى۟

دَمَادَم۟ جُويَدَن۟د۟ يَا حَق۟ سَرَاسَر۟ گُويَدَن۟د۟ يَا حَى۟

نَعَم۟ وَ فٖى كُلِّ شَى۟ءٍ لَهُ اٰيَةٌ تَدُلُّ عَلٰى اَنَّهُ وَاحِدٌ diyerek, kalbiyle beraber nefsi dahi tasdik ederek “Evet, evet” dediler.

İşte dünya misafiri ve kâinat seyyahının ikinci menzilde müşahede ettiği beş hakikat-i tevhidiyeye kısa bir işaret olarak Birinci Makam’ın ikinci babında ikinci menzile ait böyle denilmiş:

لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اللّٰهُ ال۟وَاحِدُ ال۟اَحَدُ الَّذٖى دَلَّ عَلٰى وَح۟دَتِهٖ فٖى وُجُوبِ وُجُودِهٖ مُشَاهَدَةُ حَقٖيقَةِ ال۟كِب۟رِيَاءِ وَ ال۟عَظَمَةِ فِى ال۟كَمَالِ وَ ال۟اِحَاطَةِ . وَ كَذَا مُشَاهَدَةُ حَقٖيقَةِ ظُهُورِ ال۟اَف۟عَالِ بِال۟اِط۟لَاقِ وَ عَدَمُ النِّهَايَةِ لَا تُقَيِّدُهَا اِلَّا ال۟اِرَادَةُ وَ ال۟حِك۟مَةُ . وَ كَذَا مُشَاهَدَةُ حَقٖيقَةِ اٖيجَادِ ال۟مَو۟جُودَاتِ بِال۟كَث۟رَةِ ال۟مُط۟لَقَةِ فِى السُّر۟عَةِ ال۟مُط۟لَقَةِ وَ خَل۟قُ ال۟مَخ۟لُوقَاتِ بِالسُّهُولَةِ ال۟مُط۟لَقَةِ فِى ال۟اِت۟قَانِ ال۟مُط۟لَقِ وَ اِب۟دَاعُ ال۟مَص۟نُوعَاتِ بِال۟مَب۟ذُولِيَّةِ ال۟مُط۟لَقَةِ فٖى غَايَةِ حُس۟نِ الصَّن۟عَةِ وَ غُلُوِّ ال۟قِي۟مَةِ . وَ كَذَا مُشَاهَدَةُ حَقٖيقَةِ وُجُودِ ال۟مَو۟جُودَاتِ عَلٰى وَج۟هِ ال۟كُلِّ وَ ال۟كُلِّيَّةِ وَ ال۟مَعِيَّةِ وَ ال۟جَامِعِيَّةِ وَ التَّدَاخُلِ وَ ال۟مُنَاسَبَةِ . وَ كَذَا مُشَاهَدَةُ حَقٖيقَةِ ال۟اِن۟تِظَامَاتِ ال۟عَامَّةِ ال۟مُنَافِيَةِ لِلشِّر۟كَةِ . وَ كَذَا مُشَاهَدَةُ وَح۟دَةِ مَدَارَاتِ تَدَابٖيرِ ال۟كَائِنَاتِ الدَّالَّةِ عَلٰى وَح۟دَةِ صَانِعِهَا بِال۟بَدَاهَةِ وَ كَذَا وَح۟دَةُ ال۟اَس۟مَاءِ وَ ال۟اَف۟عَالِ ال۟مُتَصَرِّفَةِ ال۟مُحٖيطَةِ . وَ كَذَا وَح۟دَةُ ال۟عَنَاصِرِ وَ ال۟اَن۟وَاعِ ال۟مُن۟تَشِرَةِ ال۟مُس۟تَو۟لِيَةِ عَلٰى وَج۟هِ ال۟اَر۟ضِ

Sonra o seyyah-ı âlem asırlarda gezerken müceddid-i elf-i sânî, İmam-ı Rabbanî Ahmed-i Farukî’nin medresesine rast geldi, girdi; onu dinledi. O İmam, ders verirken diyordu:

“Bütün tarîkatların en mühim neticesi, hakaik-i imaniyenin inkişafıdır.” ve “Bir tek mesele-i imaniyenin vuzuh ile inkişafı, bin keramata ve ezvaka müreccahtır.” Hem diyordu:

Eski zamanda, büyük zatlar demişler ki: “Mütekellimînden ve ilm-i kelâm ulemasından birisi gelecek, bütün hakaik-i imaniye ve İslâmiyeyi delail-i akliye ile kemal-i vuzuh ile ispat edecek.” Ben istiyorum ki ben o olsam belki (Hâşiye) o adamım, diye iman ve tevhid bütün kemalât-ı insaniyenin esası, mâyesi, nuru, hayatı olduğunu ve تَفَكُّرُ سَاعَةٍ خَي۟رٌ مِن۟ عِبَادَةِ سَنَةٍ düsturu, tefekkürat-ı imaniyeye ait bulunması ve Nakşî tarîkatında hafî zikrin ehemmiyeti ise bu çok kıymettar tefekkürün bir nevi olmasıdır, diye talim ederdi.

Seyyah tamamıyla işitti. Döndü, nefsine dedi ki: Madem bu kahraman imam böyle diyor ve madem bir zerre kuvvet-i imaniyenin ziyadeleşmesi, bir batman marifet ve kemalâttan daha kıymetlidir ve yüz ezvakın balından daha tatlıdır. Ve madem bin seneden beri iman ve Kur’an aleyhinde teraküm eden Avrupa feylesoflarının itirazları ve şüpheleri yol bulup ehl-i imana hücum ediyor. Ve bir saadet-i ebediyenin ve bir hayat-ı bâkiyenin ve bir cennet-i daimenin anahtarı, medarı, esası olan erkân-ı imaniyeyi sarsmak istiyorlar. Elbette her şeyden evvel imanımızı taklitten tahkike çevirip kuvvetlendirmeliyiz.

Öyle ise haydi ileri! Gel, bulduğumuz birer dağ kuvvetindeki bu yirmi dokuz mertebe-i imaniyeyi namazın mübarek tesbihatının mübarek adedi olan otuz üç mertebesine iblağ etmek fikriyle, bu ibretgâhın bir üçüncü menzilini daha görmek için Bismillahirrahmanirrahîm’in anahtarı ile zîhayat âlemindeki idare ve iaşe-i rabbaniyenin kapısını çalmalıyız ve açmalıyız, diyerek mahşer-i acayip ve mecma-ı garaib olan bu üçüncü menzilin kapısını istirhamla çaldı, Bismillahilfettah ile açtı. Üçüncü menzil göründü. Girdi, gördü ki dört hakikat-i muazzama ve muhita o menzili ışıklandırıyorlar ve güneş gibi tevhidi gösteriyorlar.

BİRİNCİ HAKİKAT: “Fettahiyet” hakikatidir.

Yani Fettah isminin tecellisiyle basit bir maddeden ayrı ayrı, çeşit çeşit, hadsiz, muntazam suretlerin, beraber, her tarafta, bir anda, bir fiil ile açılmasıdır. Evet, nasıl ki umum kâinatın bağistanında ayrı ayrı hadsiz mevcudatı; çiçekler misillü, Fettah ismiyle her birisine münasip bir tarz-ı muntazam ve bir şahsiyet-i mümtaze kudret-i Fâtıra açmış, vermiş. Aynen öyle de fakat daha mu’cizatlı olarak; zemin bahçesinde dört yüz bin enva-ı zîhayata dahi her birisine gayet sanatlı ve hikmetli bir suret-i mevzune ve müzeyyene ve mümtaze vermiş.

يَخ۟لُقُكُم۟ فٖى بُطُونِ اُمَّهَاتِكُم۟ خَل۟قًا مِن۟ بَع۟دِ خَل۟قٍ فٖى ظُلُمَاتٍ ثَلَاثٍ ذٰلِكُمُ اللّٰهُ رَبُّكُم۟ لَهُ ال۟مُل۟كُ لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا هُوَ فَاَنّٰى تُص۟رَفُونَ ۝اِ نَّ اللّٰهَ لَا يَخ۟فٰى عَلَي۟هِ شَى۟ءٌ فِى ال۟اَر۟ضِ وَلَا فِى السَّمَٓاءِ ۝ هُوَ الَّذٖى يُصَوِّرُكُم۟ فِى ال۟اَر۟حَامِ كَي۟فَ يَشَٓاءُ لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا هُوَ ال۟عَزٖيزُ ال۟حَكٖيمُ

âyetlerin ifadesiyle tevhidin en kuvvetli delili ve kudretin en hayretli mu’cizesi, suretleri açmasıdır. Bu hikmete binaen, feth-i suver hakikati tekrar ile –birkaç suretlerde– Risaletü’n-Nur’da ve bilhassa bu risalenin İkinci Makamı’nın Birinci Bab’ında altıncı ve yedinci mertebelerinde ispat ve beyan edilmesinden onlara havale edip burada bu kadar deriz ki:

Fenn-i nebatat ve fenn-i hayvanatın şehadetiyle ve tetkikat-ı amîkasıyla, bu feth-i suverde öyle bir ihata ve şümul ve sanat var ki bir tek Vâhid-i Ehad’den ve her şeyde her şeyi görebilecek ve yapabilecek bir Kadîr-i Mutlak’tan başka hiçbir şey bu cem’iyetli ve ihatalı fiile sahip olamaz. Çünkü bu feth-i suver fiili ise her yerde ve her anda bulunan nihayetsiz bir kudretin içinde nihayet derecede bir hikmet, bir dikkat, bir ihata ister. Ve böyle bir kudret ise ancak bütün kâinatı idare eden bir tek zatta bulunabilir.

Evet mesela, mezkûr âyetlerin ferman ettikleri gibi; üç karanlık içinde bütün validelerin erhamında insanların suretlerini ayrı ayrı, mizanlı, imtiyazlı, ziynetli ve intizamlı olarak hem şaşırmadan, yanlış etmeden, karıştırmadan basit bir maddeden açmak ve yaratmak olan fettahiyet ve umum rûy-i zeminde aynı kudret, aynı hikmet, aynı sanatla umum insanları ve hayvanları ve nebatları ihata eden bu feth-i suver hakikati; vahdaniyetin en kuvvetli bir bürhanıdır. Çünkü ihata etmek bir vahdettir, şirke yer bırakmaz.

Ve Birinci Bab’da vücub-u vücuda şehadet eden on dokuz hakikat nasıl ki vücudlarıyla Hâlık’ın vücuduna delâlet ederler, öyle de ihatalarıyla da vahdete şehadet ederler.

Bizim yolcunun üçüncü menzilde gördüğü

İKİNCİ HAKİKAT: “Rahmaniyet” hakikatidir.

Yani gözümüzle görüyoruz, birisi var ki bize zemin yüzünü rahmetin binlerle hediyeleri ile doldurmuş, bir ziyafetgâh yapmış ve rahmaniyetin yüz binlerle ayrı ayrı lezzetli taamları içinde dizilmiş bir sofra etmiş ve zemin içini rahîmiyet ve hakîmiyetin binlerle kıymettar ihsanlarını câmi’ bir mahzen yapmış.

Ve zemini devr-i senevîsinde bir ticaret gemisi hükmünde her sene âlem-i gaybdan levazımat-ı insaniye ve hayatiyenin yüz bin çeşitlerinden en güzellerini içine alarak yüklenmiş bir nevi sefine veya şimendifer gibi ve her baharı ise erzak ve elbisemizi taşıyan bir vagon hükmünde olarak bizlere gönderir. Bizi gayet rahîmane beslettirir. Ve bütün o hediyelerden, o nimetlerden istifade etmemiz için bize de yüzlerle ve binlerle iştihalar, ihtiyaçlar, duygular, hissiyatlar, hisler vermiş.

Evet, Âyet-i Hasbiye’ye dair olan Dördüncü Şuâ’da izah ve ispat edildiği gibi bize öyle bir mide vermiş ki hadsiz taamlardan lezzet alır.

Ve öyle bir hayat ihsan etmiş ki duyguları ile –bir sofra-i nimet gibi– koca cismanî âlemde hadsiz nimetlerinden istifade eder.

Ve öyle bir insaniyet bize lütfetmiş ki akıl ve kalp gibi çok âletleri ile hem maddî hem manevî âlemin nihayetsiz hediyelerinden zevk alır.

Ve öyle bir İslâmiyet bize bildirmiş ki âlem-i gayb ve âlem-i şehadetin nihayetsiz hazinelerinden nur alır.

Ve öyle bir iman hidayet etmiş ki dünya ve âhiret âlemlerinin hasra gelmez envarından ve hediyelerinden tenevvür edip müstefid eder.

Güya rahmet tarafından bu kâinat hadsiz antika ve acib ve kıymetli şeylerle tezyin edilmiş bir saraydır. Ve bütün o saraydaki hadsiz sandıkları ve menzilleri açacak anahtarlar insanın ellerine verilmiş ve bütün onlardan istifade ettirecek olan ihtiyaçlar, hissiyatlar insanın fıtratına verilmiş.

İşte böyle dünyayı ve âhireti ve her şeyi kaplamış bir rahmet, elbette o rahmet, vâhidiyet içinde bir ehadiyetin cilvesidir.

Yani nasıl ki güneşin ziyası, mukabilindeki umum eşyayı ihata etmesi ile vâhidiyete bir misal olduğu gibi parlak ve şeffaf her bir şey dahi kabiliyetine göre güneşin hem ziyasını hem hararetini hem ziyasındaki yedi rengini hem aks-i misalini almakla ehadiyete bir misal olduğundan elbette o ihatalı ziyayı gören adam, arzın güneşi vâhiddir, bir tektir diye hükmeder. Ve her parlak şeyde hattâ katrelerde güneşin ışıklı, hararetli aksini müşahede eden o adam, güneşin ehadiyetini, yani bizzat güneşi sıfatlarıyla her şeyin yanındadır ve her şeyin âyine-i kalbindedir diye, bilir.

Aynen öyle de Rahman-ı Zülcemal’in geniş rahmeti dahi ziya gibi umum eşyayı ihatası, o Rahman’ın vâhidiyetini ve hiçbir cihette şeriki bulunmadığını gösterdiği gibi her şeyde hususan her bir zîhayatta ve bilhassa insanda o cem’iyetli rahmetin perdesi altında o Rahman’ın ekser isimlerinin ışıkları ve bir nevi cilve-i zatiyesi bulunarak her ferde, bütün kâinata baktıracak ve münasebettarlık verecek bir cemiyet-i hayatiye vermesi dahi o Rahman’ın ehadiyetini ve her şeyin yanında hazır ve her şeyin her şeyini yapan o olduğunu ispat eder.

Evet nasıl ki o Rahman, o rahmetin vâhidiyetiyle ve ihatasıyla, kâinatın mecmuunda ve zeminin yüzünde celalinin haşmetini gösteriyor. Öyle de ehadiyetin cilvesiyle her bir zîhayatta, hususan insanda bütün nimetlerin numunelerini o fertte toplayıp o zîhayatın âlât ve cihazatına geçirip, tanzim ederek mecmu-u kâinatı parçalanmadan o tek ferde, bir cihette aynı hanesi gibi verdirmesiyle dahi cemalinin hususi şefkatini ilan eder ve insanda enva-ı ihsanatının temerküzünü bildirir.

Hem nasıl ki bir kavunun mesela her bir çekirdeğinde, o kavun temerküz ediyor. Ve o çekirdeği yapan zat elbette odur ki o kavunu yapar, sonra ilminin hususi mizanıyla ve hikmetinin ona mahsus kanunuyla o çekirdeği ondan sağar, toplar, tecessüm ettirir. Ve o tek kavunun tek ve vâhid ustasından başka hiçbir şey, o çekirdeği yapamaz ve yapması muhaldir.

Aynen öyle de rahmaniyetin tecellisiyle kâinat bir ağaç, bir bostan ve zemin bir meyve, bir kavun ve zîhayat ve insan bir çekirdek hükmünde olduğundan elbette en küçük bir zîhayatın Hâlık’ı ve Rabb’i, bütün zeminin ve kâinatın Hâlık’ı olmak lâzım gelir.

Elhasıl: Nasıl ki ihatalı olan fettahiyet hakikatiyle bütün mevcudatın muntazam suretlerini basit maddeden yapmak ve açmak, vahdeti bedahetle ispat eder. Öyle de her şeyi ihata eden rahmaniyet hakikati dahi vücuda gelen ve dünya hayatına giren bütün zîhayatları ve bilhassa yeni gelenleri kemal-i intizamla beslemesi ve levazımatını yetiştirmesi ve hiçbirini unutmaması ve aynı rahmet, her yerde, her anda ve her ferde yetişmesiyle bedahetle hem vahdeti hem vahdet içinde ehadiyeti gösterir.

Risale-i Nur, ism-i Hakîm ve ism-i Rahîm’in mazharı olduğundan Risale-i Nur’un birçok yerlerinde, hakikat-i rahmetin nükteleri ve cilveleri izah ve ispat edildiğinden, burada bu katre ile o bahre işaret edip o pek uzun kıssayı kısa kesiyoruz.

Seyyahımızın üçüncü menzilde müşahede ettiği

ÜÇÜNCÜ HAKİKAT: “Müdebbiriyet ve idare” hakikatidir.

Yani, gayet dehşetli ve süratli ecram-ı semaviyeyi ve gayet istilacı ve karıştırıcı unsurları ve gayet ihtiyaçlı, zafiyetli mahlukat-ı arziyeyi kemal-i intizam ve muvazene ile idare etmek, birbirlerine muavenettar yapmak ve imtizaçkârane idare etmek ve tedbirlerini görmek ve bu koca âlemi bir mükemmel memleket, bir muhteşem şehir, bir müzeyyen saray gibi yapmak hakikatidir.

İşte bu cebbarane ve rahmanane idarenin büyük dairelerini bırakıp yalnız baharda zemin yüzünde cereyan eden o idarenin bir tek sahife ve safhasını Risaletü’n-Nur, Onuncu Söz gibi mühim risalelerinde izah ve ispat etmesine binaen, kısa bir suretini bir temsil ile göstereceğiz. Şöyle ki:

Mesela ve faraza, hârika ve cihangir bir zat, dört yüz bin ayrı ayrı milletlerden, taifelerden bir ordu teşkil etse her milletin ve her taifenin neferlerine ait elbiselerini hem silahlarını hem yemeklerini hem talimat hem terhisatlarını hem hidematlarını, birbirinden ayrı ayrı hem çeşit çeşit olarak bütün o muhtelif cihazatı noksansız, kusursuz, yanlışsız, hatasız, vakti vaktine, gecikmeden, karıştırmadan kemal-i intizamla ve gayet mükemmel bir tarzda o mu’cizatlı kumandan verse; elbette o gayet geniş ve karışık ve ince ve muvazeneli ve kesretli ve adaletli idareye, o hârika kumandanın fevkalâde kudretinden başka hiçbir sebep elini uzatamaz. Eğer uzatsa muvazeneyi bozar ve karıştırır.

Aynen öyle de gözümüzle görüyoruz ki bir dest-i gaybî, her baharda dört yüz bin muhtelif nevilerden mürekkeb bir muhteşem orduyu icad edip idare ediyor. Kıyamete numune olan güz mevsiminde, o dört yüz binden üç yüz bin nebatî ve hayvanî nevilerini vefatlar suretinde ve mevtler namında terhis edip vazifelerinden paydos ediyor. Ve haşir ve neşre numune olan baharda haşr-i a’zamın üç yüz bin misalini birkaç hafta zarfında kemal-i intizamla inşa edip hattâ bir tek ağaçta dört küçük haşirleri, yani kendini ve yapraklarını ve çiçeklerini ve meyvelerini, gitmiş baharın aynı gibi neşirlerini gözümüze gösterdikten sonra, o dört yüz bin envaa bâliğ olan ordu-yu Sübhanînin her nev’e, her taifeye mahsus ve münasip ayrı ayrı rızıklarını ve çeşit çeşit müdafaa silahlarını ve ayrı ayrı libaslarını ve ayrı ayrı talimlerini ve terhislerini ve ayrı ayrı bütün cihazat ve levazımatlarını, kemal-i intizamla, sehivsiz, hatasız, karıştırmadan ve hiçbirini unutmadan, umulmadık yerlerden, vakti vaktine vermekle kemal-i rububiyet ve hâkimiyet ve hikmet içinde vahdaniyetini ve ehadiyetini ve ferdiyetini ve nihayetsiz iktidarını ve hadsiz rahmetini ispat ederek bu tevhid fermanını zemin yüzünde, her bahar sahifesinde, kalem-i kader ile yazar.

Bizim seyyah, yalnız bir baharda bu fermanın bir tek sahifesini okuduktan sonra, nefsine dedi ki: Böyle her baharda haşr-i ekberden daha garib binlerle haşirleri inşa eden, mükâfat ve mücazat için kudretine nisbeten bir bahardan daha kolay olan haşri yapacağını ve kıyameti getireceğini umum enbiyasına binlerle defa vaad ve ahdeden ve Kur’an’da haşrin vukuuna binlerle işaretle beraber, bin adet âyetlerinde sarahaten hükmedip tehdit ve taahhüd eden bir Kadîr-i Cebbar’ın, bir Kahhar-ı Zülcelal’in o kadar vaadlerini tekzip ve kudretini inkâr hükmünde olan inkâr-ı haşir hatasını irtikâb edenlere cehennem azabı ayn-ı adalettir diye hükmetti, nefsi dahi “Âmennâ” dedi.

Dünya yolcusunun üçüncü menzilde müşahede ettiği

DÖRDÜNCÜ HAKİKAT olan Otuz Üçüncü Mertebe: “Rahîmiyet ve rezzakıyet” hakikatidir.

Yani umum zemin yüzünde ve içinde ve havasında ve denizinde bütün zîhayatın ve bilhassa zîruhun ve bilhassa âciz ve zayıfların ve bilhassa yavruların hem maddî ve midevî hem manevî bütün rızıklarını, şefkatkârane, kuru ve basit bir topraktan ve camid ve kemik gibi kuru odun parçalarından yapılan ve bilhassa en latîfi kan ve fışkı ortasından gelen ve bir dirhem kemik gibi bir tek çekirdekten yapılan binlerle okka taamların, vakti vaktine mukannen bir surette hiçbirini unutmayarak ve şaşırmayarak gözümüz önünde bir dest-i gaybî tarafından verilmesi hakikatidir.

Evet اِنَّ اللّٰهَ هُوَ الرَّزَّاقُ ذُو ال۟قُوَّةِ ال۟مَتٖينُ âyeti, iaşeyi ve infakı Ce­nab-ı Hakk’a tahsis edip hasrettiği gibi وَمَا مِن۟ دَٓابَّةٍ فِى ال۟اَر۟ضِ اِلَّا عَلَى اللّٰهِ رِز۟قُهَا وَيَع۟لَمُ مُس۟تَقَرَّهَا وَمُس۟تَو۟دَعَهَا كُلٌّ فٖى كِتَابٍ مُبٖينٍ âyeti dahi bütün insanların ve hayvanların rızıklarını taahhüd ve tekeffül-ü Rabbanî altına aldığı hem وَكَاَيِّن۟ مِن۟ دَٓابَّةٍ لَا تَح۟مِلُ رِز۟قَهَا اَللّٰهُ يَر۟زُقُهَا وَاِيَّاكُم۟ وَ هُوَ السَّمٖيعُ ال۟عَلٖيمُ âyeti de rızkı tedarik edemeyen, âciz ve iktidarsız olan zayıf bîçarelerin rızıklarını umulmadık yerden, belki gaybdan belki hiçten –mesela, denizin dibindeki böceklere hiçten ve bütün yavrulara umulmadık yerlerden ve bütün hayvanlara her baharda âdeta sırf gaybdan– infaklarını bilfiil tekeffül ederek bilmüşahede vermekle; esbab-perest insanlara dahi esbab perdesi altında yine o veriyor diye ispat ve ilan ettiği gibi pek çok âyât-ı Kur’aniye ve hadsiz şevahid-i kevniye, bi’l-ittifak her bir zîhayatın bir tek Rezzak-ı Zülcelal’in rahîmiyeti ile beslendiklerini gösteriyorlar.

Evet, bir nevi rızık isteyen ağaçlar iktidarsız ve ihtiyarsız olduklarından onlar, yerlerinde mütevekkilane dururken rızıkları onlara koşup gelmesi ve âciz yavruların nafakaları hayret-nümun tulumbacıklardan ağızlarına akması ve o yavrulara bir parça iktidar ve azıcık bir ihtiyar gelmesiyle süt kesilmesi, hususan insan yavrularına analarının şefkatleri yardımcı verilmesi, bedahetle ispat eder ki helâl rızık, iktidar ve ihtiyar ile mütenasiben değildir belki tevekkül veren zaaf ve acze nisbeten geliyor.

Ekseriyetçe sebeb-i hüsran olan hırsı tahrik eden iktidar ve ihtiyar ve zekâvet, bir kısım büyük ediblerde o edibleri bir nevi dilenciliğe kadar sevk ettiği gibi zekâvetsiz, kaba, çok âmî adamların tevekkülvari iktidarsızlıkları dahi onları zenginliğe îsal etmesi ve كَم۟ عَالِمٍ عَالِمٍ اَع۟يَت۟ مَذَاهِبُهُ وَ جَاهِلٍ جَاهِلٍ تَل۟قَاهُ مَر۟زُوقًا darb-ı mesel olması ispat eder ki rızk-ı helâl, iktidar ve ihtiyar kuvvetiyle kazanılmaz, buldurulmaz. Belki çalışmasını ve sa’yini kabul eden bir merhamet tarafından verilir ve ihtiyacına acıyan bir şefkat canibinden ihsan edilir. Fakat rızık ikidir:

Biri: Yaşamak için hakiki ve fıtrî rızıktır ki taahhüd-ü Rabbanî altındadır. Hattâ o kadar muntazamdır ki bedende yağ vesaire suretinde iddihar olunan fıtrî rızık, hiç olmazsa yirmi günden ziyade bir şey yemeden yaşatır, hayatını idame eder. Demek, yirmi otuz günden evvel ve bedende müddehar olan fıtrî rızkı bitmeden zâhiren açlıktan vefat edenler, rızıksızlıktan değil belki sû-i itiyaddan ve terk-i âdetten neş’et eden bir hastalıktan vefat ederler.

İkinci kısım rızık: İtiyad, israf ve sû-i istimalat ile tiryaki olup zaruret hükmüne geçen mecazî ve sun’î rızıktır. Bu kısım ise taahhüd-ü Rabbanî altında değil belki ihsana tabidir. Kâh verir kâh vermez.

Bu ikinci rızıkta, bahtiyar odur ki medar-ı saadet ve lezzet olan iktisat ve kanaatle sa’y-i helâli, bir nevi ibadet ve rızık için bir fiilî dua bilerek müteşekkirane ve minnettarane o ihsanı kabul edip hayatını saadetkârane geçirir.

Ve bedbaht odur ki medar-ı şakavet ve hasaret ve elem olan israf ve hırs ile sa’y-i helâli bırakarak, her kapıya başvurup tembelkârane ve zalimane ve müştekiyane hayatını geçirir, belki öldürür.

Nasıl ki mide bir rızık ister, öyle de kalp ve ruh ve akıl ve göz ve kulak ve ağız gibi insanın latîfeleri ve duyguları dahi Rezzak-ı Rahîm’den rızıklarını isterler ve müteşekkirane alırlar. Her birisine ayrı ayrı ve onlara lâyık ve onları memnun ve mütelezziz eden rızıkları, hazine-i rahmetten ihsan edilir. Belki Rezzak-ı Rahîm, onlara daha geniş rızık vermek için göz ve kulak, kalp ve hayal ve akıl gibi o latîfelerin her birisini, hazine-i rahmetinin birer anahtarı hükmünde yaratmış.

Mesela göz, kâinat yüzündeki hüsün ve cemal gibi kıymettar cevher hazinelerinin bir anahtarı olduğu misillü ötekiler dahi her biri birer âlemin anahtarı olur, iman ile istifade eder. Yine sadedimize dönüyoruz.

Bu kâinatı yaratan Zat-ı Kadîr-i Hakîm, nasıl ki kâinattan hayatı bir hülâsa-i câmia olarak halk edip umum maksatlarını ve isimlerinin cilvelerini onda temerküz ettiriyor. Öyle de hayat âleminde dahi rızkı bir cem’iyetli merkez-i şuunat yaparak, iştiha ihtiyacını ve zevk-i rızkîyi zîhayatta halk ederek hilkat-i kâinatın en ehemmiyetli bir gayesi ve bir hikmeti olan daimî ve küllî bir teşekkür ve minnettarlık ve perestişlik ile rububiyetine ve sevdirmesine karşı mukabele ettiriyor.

Mesela, çok geniş olan memleket-i Rabbaniyenin her tarafını, hususan melâike ve ruhanîler ile semavatı ve ervah ile âlem-i gaybı şenlendirdiği gibi; maddî âlemi dahi hususan hava ve arzı, her vakit ve her tarafını zîruhun, hususan kuşların ve kuşçukların vücudlarıyla şenlendirmek ve ruhlandırmak hikmetiyle ihtiyac-ı rızkî ve rızkın zevki, pek kuvvetli bir kamçı olarak hayvanları ve insanları rızık peşinde koşturmakla tahrik ederek tembellikten ve ataletten kurtarıp gezdirmesi, şuunat-ı rububiyetin bir hikmetidir. Eğer bu hikmet gibi mühim hikmetler olmasa idi, ağaçların erzakını onlara koşturduğu gibi hayvanların da mukannen olan tayinatlarını onlara zahmetsiz bir surette fıtrî hâcetlerini koşturacaktı.

İsm-i Rahîm ve Rezzak’ın cemallerini ve vahdaniyete şehadetlerini tam görmek için zemin yüzünü birden ihata edip müşahede edecek bir göz bulunsa kış âhirinde erzakları bitmek üzere olan hayvanat kafilelerine, imdad-ı gaybî ve ihsan-ı Rahmanî olarak nebatatın ellerine verilen ve ağaçların başlarına konulan ve validelerin sinelerine takılan ve sırf hazine-i gaybiye-i rahmetten gayet leziz ve gayet çok ve gayet mütenevvi taamları ve nimetleri gönderen Rezzak-ı Rahîm’in bu cilve-i şefkatinde ne kadar şirin bir güzellik, ne kadar tatlı bir cemal bulunduğunu görecek ve ondan bilecek ki:

Bir tek elmayı yapıp bir adama hakiki bir rızık olarak mün’imane veren, yalnız öyle bir zat yapar, verir ki mevsimleri, gece ve gündüzleri çevirir ve küre-i arzı bir sefine-i tüccariye gibi gezdirerek mevsimlerin mahsulatlarını onunla zemindeki muhtaç misafirlerine getirir. Çünkü o elmanın yüzünde bulunan sikke-i fıtrat ve hâtem-i hikmet ve turra-i samediyet ve mühr-ü rahmet, bütün elmalarda ve sair meyvelerde ve bütün nebatat ve hayvanatta bulunduğundan o tek elmanın hakiki mâliki ve sâni’i, elbette ve herhalde o elmanın emsali ve hemcinsi ve kardeşleri olan bütün sekene-i arzın ve onun bahçesi olan koca zeminin ve onun fabrikası olan ağacının ve onun tezgâhı olan mevsiminin ve onun terbiyegâhı olan bahar ve yazın Mâlik-i Zülcelal’i ve Hâlık-ı Zülcemal’i olacak, başka olamaz.

Demek, her bir meyve öyle bir mühr-ü vahdettir ki onun ağacı olan arzın ve onun bahçesi olan kâinat kitabının kâtibini ve sâni’ini bildirir ve vahdetini gösterir ve meyveler adedince vahdaniyet fermanının mühürlendiğine işaret eder.

Risaletü’n-Nur ism-i Rahîm ve ism-i Hakîm’in mazharı olduğundan, bu rahîmiyet hakikatinin çok lem’alarını ve çok sırlarını Risaletü’n-Nur çok eczalarında beyan ve ispat ettiğinden ona havale ile bu pek büyük hazineden halimin müsaadesizliği cihetiyle bu kısa işaretle iktifa edildi.

İşte bizim seyyah diyor ki: Elhamdülillah her yerde aradığım ve her şeyden sorduğum Hâlık’ımın ve Mâlik’imin vücub-u vücuduna ve vahdetine şehadet eden otuz üç hakikati gördüm ve dinledim. Her bir hakikat, güneş gibi parlak, karanlık bırakmaz; dağ gibi kuvvetli ve sarsılmaz. Ve her biri tahakkukuyla vücuduna gayet kat’î şehadet eder ve ihatasıyla vahdetine gayet zâhir delâlet eder. Ve sair erkân-ı imaniyeyi dahi içinde kuvvetli ispat etmekle beraber mecmu hakikatlerin icmaı ve ittifakı, imanımızı taklitten tahkike ve tahkikten ilmelyakîne ve ilmelyakînden aynelyakîne ve aynelyakînden hakkalyakîne iblağ ediyor.

اَل۟حَم۟دُ لِلّٰهِ هٰذَا مِن۟ فَض۟لِ رَبّٖى

اَل۟حَم۟دُ لِلّٰهِ الَّذٖى هَدٰينَا لِهٰذَا وَمَا كُنَّا لِنَه۟تَدِىَ لَو۟لَٓا اَن۟ هَدٰينَا اللّٰهُ لَقَد۟ جَٓاءَت۟ رُسُلُ رَبِّنَا بِال۟حَقِّ

İşte bu pür-merak seyyahın bu üçüncü menzilde müşahede ettiği dört muazzam hakikatlerden aldığı envar-ı imaniyeye gayet kısa bir işaret olarak Birinci Makam’ın ikinci babında üçüncü menzilin hakikatlerine dair şöyle denilmiş:

لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اللّٰهُ ال۟وَاحِدُ ال۟اَحَدُ الَّذٖى دَلَّ عَلٰى وَح۟دَتِهٖ فٖى وُجُوبِ وُجُودِهٖ مُشَاهَدَةُ عَظَمَةِ اِحَاطَةِ حَقٖيقَةِ ال۟فَتَّاحِيَّةِ بِفَت۟حِ الصُّوَرِ لِاَر۟بَعِ مِاَةِ اَل۟فِ نَو۟عٍ مِن۟ ذَوِى ال۟حَيَاةِ ال۟مُكَمَّلَةِ بِلَا قُصُورٍ بِشَهَادَةِ فَنِّ النَّبَاتِ وَ ال۟حَيَوَانِ . وَ كَذَا مُشَاهَدَةُ عَظَمَةِ اِحَاطَةِ حَقٖيقَةِ الرَّح۟مَانِيَّةِ ال۟وَاسِعَةِ ال۟مُن۟تَظَمَةِ بِلَا نُق۟صَانٍ بِال۟مُشَاهَدَةِ وَ ال۟عِيَانِ . وَ كَذَا مُشَاهَدَةُ عَظَمَةِ حَقٖيقَةِ ال۟اِدَارَةِ ال۟مُحٖيطَةِ لِجَمٖيعِ ذَوِى ال۟حَيَاةِ وَ ال۟مُن۟تَظَمَةِ بِلَا خَطَاءٍ وَ لَا نُق۟صَانٍ . وَ كَذَا مُشَاهَدَةُ عَظَمَةِ اِحَاطَةِ حَقٖيقَةِ الرَّحٖيمِيَّةِ وَ ال۟اِعَاشَةِ الشَّامِلَةِ لِكُلِّ ال۟مُر۟تَزِقٖينَ ال۟مُقَنَّنَةِ فٖى كُلِّ وَق۟تِ ال۟حَاجَةِ بِلَا سَه۟وٍ وَ لَا نِس۟يَانٍ ۝ جَلَّ جَلَالُ رَزَّاقِهَا الرَّح۟مٰنِ الرَّحٖيمِ ال۟حَنَّانِ ال۟مَنَّانِ وَ عَمَّ نَوَالُهُ وَ شَمِلَ اِح۟سَانُهُ وَ لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا هُوَ

سُب۟حَانَكَ لَا عِل۟مَ لَنَٓا اِلَّا مَا عَلَّم۟تَنَٓا اِنَّكَ اَن۟تَ ال۟عَلٖيمُ ال۟حَكٖيمُ

يَا رَبِّ بِحَقِّ بِس۟مِ اللّٰهِ الرَّح۟مٰنِ الرَّحٖيمِ يَا اَللّٰهُ يَا رَح۟مٰنُ يَا رَحٖيمُ صَلِّ وَسَلِّم۟ عَلٰى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلٰى اٰلِهٖ وَاَص۟حَابِهٖ اَج۟مَعٖينَ بِعَدَدِ جَمٖيعِ حُرُوفِ رَسَائِلِ النُّورِ ال۟مَض۟رُوبِ تِل۟كَ ال۟حُرُوفُ فٖى عَاشِرَاتِ دَقَائِقِ جَمٖيعِ عُم۟رِنَا فِى الدُّن۟يَا وَال۟اٰخِرَةِ مَعَ ضَر۟بِ مَج۟مُوعِهَا فٖى ذَرَّاتِ وُجُودٖى فٖى مُدَّةِ حَيَاتٖى وَاغ۟فِر۟لٖى وَلِمَن۟ يُعٖينُنٖى فٖى نَش۟رِ رَسَائِلِ النُّورِ وَكِتَابَتِهَا بِصَدَاقَةٍ بِكُلِّ صَلَاةٍ مِن۟هَا وَ لِاٰبَائِنَا وَلِسَادَاتِنَا وَشُيُوخِنَا وَ لِاَخَوَاتِنَا وَاِخ۟وَانِنَا وَلِطَلَبَةِ رِسَالَةِ النُّورِ الصَّادِقٖينَ وَبِال۟خَاصَّةِ لِمَن۟ يَك۟تُبُ وَيَس۟تَن۟سِخُ هٰذِهِ الرِّسَالَةَ بِرَح۟مَتِكَ يَا اَر۟حَمَ الرَّاحِمٖينَ اٰمٖينَ وَ اٰخِرُ دَع۟وٰيهُم۟ اَنِ ال۟حَم۟دُ لِلّٰهِ رَبِّ ال۟عَالَمٖينَ

İHTAR

Bu risalenin mahall-i zuhuru olan şu memleket muhitinde Risaletü’n-Nur’un sair risaleleri bulunmadığından ve ihtiyarsız olarak burada telif edildiğinden Âyetü’l-Kübra gibi risalelerde, zâhirî bir tekrar suretinde başka Sözlerin ve Lem’aların bir kısım mühim meseleleri zikredilmiş ve buralardaki şakirdlere nisbeten her biri birer küçük Risaletü’n-Nur hükmüne geçmek hikmetiyle böyle yazdırılmış.

Bu müsveddenin birinci tebyizi bir mübarek zat tarafından oldu. O zatın tevafuktan haberi yokken yazdığı nüshada, kayda lâyık şöyle latîf ve manidar bir tevafuk gördük ki: O nüshanın satırları başında “Elif”ler altı yüz altmış altı olarak yazılmıştır.

Bu hal ise Hazret-i İmam-ı Ali radıyallahu anh tarafından bu hususi risaleye verilen Âyetü’l-Kübra namının cifrî ve ebcedî makamı olan altı yüz altmış altı adedine tam tamına muvafakatı ve mutabakatı ile bu risalenin bu nama liyakatini gösterir. Hem âyât-ı Kur’aniyenin adedi olan altı bin altı yüz altmış altının dört mertebesinden üç mertebesine tevafuku dahi bu risalenin, âyâtın bir lem’ası olduğuna bir işarettir diye telakki ettik.

Said Nursî

Bugünlerde, manevî bir muhaverede bir sual ve cevabı dinledim. Size bir hülâsasını beyan edeyim:

Biri dedi: Risale-i Nur’un iman ve tevhid için büyük tahşidatları ve küllî teçhizatları gittikçe çoğalıyor. Ve en muannid bir dinsizi susturmak için yüzde birisi kâfi iken neden bu derece hararetle daha yeni tahşidat yapıyor?

Ona cevaben dediler: “Risale-i Nur, yalnız bir cüz’î tahribatı ve bir küçük haneyi tamir etmiyor. Belki küllî bir tahribatı ve İslâmiyet’i içine alan ve dağlar büyüklüğünde taşları bulunan bir muhit kaleyi tamir ediyor. Ve yalnız hususi bir kalbi ve has bir vicdanı ıslaha çalışmıyor, belki bin seneden beri tedarik ve teraküm edilen müfsid âletler ile dehşetli rahnelenen kalb-i umumîyi ve efkâr-ı âmmeyi ve umumun ve bâhusus avam-ı mü’minînin istinadgâhları olan İslâmî esasların ve cereyanların ve şeairlerin kırılması ile bozulmaya yüz tutan vicdan-ı umumîyi, Kur’an’ın i’cazıyla ve geniş yaralarını Kur’an’ın ve imanın ilaçları ile tedavi etmeye çalışıyor. Elbette böyle küllî ve dehşetli tahribata ve rahnelere ve yaralara, hakkalyakîn derecesinde, dağlar kuvvetinde hüccetler, cihazlar ve bin tiryak hâsiyetinde mücerreb ilaçlar ve hadsiz edviyeler bulunmak gerektir ki bu zamanda Kur’an-ı Mu’cizü’l-Beyan’ın i’caz-ı manevîsinden çıkan Risale-i Nur o vazifeyi görmekle beraber, imanın hadsiz mertebelerinde terakkiyat ve inkişafata medardır.” diye uzun bir mükâleme cereyan etti. Ben de tamamen işittim, hadsiz şükrettim. Kısa kesiyorum.

Said Nursî

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