The Twenty-Fifth Word

The Miraculousness of the Qur’an

While there is a perpetual miracle like the Qur’an,

searching for further proof appears to my mind as superfluous;

While there is a proof of reality like the Qur’an,

would silencing those who deny it weigh heavily on my heart?

A REMINDER

[At the start, our intention was to write this Word in the form of five ‘Lights’, but at the end of the First Light, we were compelled to write extremely fast in order to print it in the old [Ottoman] script.(*) On some days even we wrote twenty to thirty pages in two or three hours. Therefore, writing three Lights in a brief and concise manner, we have for now abandoned the last two. I hope that my brothers will look fairly and with tolerance at any faults and defects, difficulties and mistakes, which may be attributed to me.]

Most of the verses in this treatise of The Miraculousness of the Qur’an have either been the cause of criticism by atheists, or have been objected to by scientists, or have been the subject of doubt and misgiving by satans among jinn and men.

Thus, this Twenty-Fifth Word has explained the truths and fine points of those verses in such a way that the very points which the atheists and scientists imagined to be faults have been proved according to scholarly principles to be flashes of miraculousness and the sources of the perfections of the Qur’an’s eloquence. In order not to cause aversion, decisive answers have been given without mentioning their doubts.

Only, in the first Station of the Twentieth Word their doubts have been stated concerning three or four verses, like, And the mountains [its] pegs,(*) and, And the sun runs its course.(*)

Also, although this treatise of The Miraculousness of the Qur’an was written very concisely and with great speed, with regard to the science of rhetoric and sciences of Arabic, it is explained in a way so learned and profound and powerful that it has caused wonder to scholars. Although everyone who studies it will not understand all the matters discussed, there is a significant share for everyone in this garden. In spite of the defects in the phraseology and manner of expression due to its being written very fast and under confused conditions, it explains the truth and reality of most important matters.

Said Nursî

The Miraculousness of the Qur’an

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Say: If all mankind and all jinn were to come together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce the like of it, even if they were to help and support each other.(*)

[Of the innumerable aspects of the miraculousness of the All-Wise Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, the treasury of miracles and greatest miracle of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), I have pointed out close on forty in my Arabic treatises, in the Arabic Risale-i Nur, in my Qur’anic commentary called Isharat al-I’jaz (Signs of Miraculousness), and in the preceding twenty-four Words. Now I shall explain to a degree only five of those aspects and include within them briefl y the other aspects, and in an Introduction give a definition of the Qur’an and indicate its nature.]

INTRODUCTION

The Introduction consists of three parts.

FIRST PART:

WHAT IS THE QUR’AN? How is it defined?

Answer: As is explained in the Nineteenth Word and proved in other Words,

THE QUR’AN

is the pre-eternal translator of the mighty Book of the Universe;

the post-eternal interpreter of the various tongues reciting the verses of creation;

the commentator of the book of the Worlds of the Seen and the Unseen;

the revealer of the treasuries of the Divine Names hidden in the heavens and on the earth;

the key to the truths concealed beneath the lines of events;

the tongue of the Unseen World in the Manifest World;

the treasury of the post-eternal favours of the Most Merciful and of the pre-eternal addresses of the Most Holy, which come from the World of the Unseen beyond the veil of this Manifest World;

it is the sun, foundation, and plan of the spiritual world of Islam;

the sacred map of the worlds of the hereafter;

the expounding word, lucid exposition, decisive proof, and clear interpreter of the Divine Essence, attributes, Names, and functions;

it is the instructor of the world of humanity;

the light and water of Islam, the macroanthropos;

the true wisdom of mankind;

and the true guide and leader urging humanity to prosperity and happiness;

it is a both a book of law, and a book of prayer, and a book of wisdom, and a book of worship, and a book of command and summons, and a book of invocation, and a book of thought, and a unique, comprehensive sacred book comprising many books to which recourse may be had for all the needs of all mankind;

it is a revealed scripture resembling a sacred library which offers treatises suitable for all the various ways and different paths of the all the saints and the veracious ones and the wise and the learned, which is appropriate for the illuminations of each way and enlightens it, and is suitable for the course of each path and depicts it.

SECOND PART and complement to the definition:

As is explained and proved in the Twelfth Word, since

THE QUR’AN

has come from the Sublime Throne and the Greatest Name, and from the highest degree of each Name, it is God’s Word in regard to His being Sustainer of All The Worlds;

it is a Divine decree through His title of God of All Beings;

it is an address in the name of the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth;

it is a conversation in respect of absolute dominicality;

it is a pre-eternal discourse on account of universal Divine sovereignty;

it is a notebook of the favours of the Most Merciful from the point of view of all- embracing, all-encompassing Divine mercy;

it is a collection of addresses at the start of which are certain ciphers in respect of the tremendousness of Divine majesty;

and through its descent from the comprehensiveness of the Greatest Name, it is a holy scripture full of wisdom which looks to and inspects all sides of the Sublime Throne.

It is because of this mystery that with complete fitness the title of the Word of God has been given to the Qur’an, and is always given. After the Qur’an comes the level of the books and scriptures of the other prophets. However, those other innumerable Divine Words are each in the form of inspiration made manifest through a special regard, a partial title, a particular manifestation, a particular Name, a special dominicality, a particular sovereignty, a special mercy. The inspirations of the angels and man and the animals vary greatly with regard to universalit y and particularity.

THIRD PART:

THE QUR’AN is a revealed scripture which contains in summary the books of all the prophets, whose times were all different, the writings of all the saints, whose paths are all different, and the works of all the purified scholars, whose ways are all different. Its six aspects are all brilliant and refined of the darkness of doubts and scepticism; its point of support is certain heavenly revelation and the pre-eternal Word; its aim and goal is self-evidently eternal happiness; its inner aspect is clearly pure guidance; its upper aspect is necessarily the lights of belief; its lower aspect is undeniably evidence and proof; its right aspect is evidently the surrender of the heart and conscience; its left aspect is manifestly the subjugation of the reason and intellect; its fruit is indisputably the mercy of the Most Merciful and the realm of Paradise; and its rank and desirability are assuredly accepted by the angels and man and the jinn.

Each of the attributes in these three parts concerning the Qur’an’s definition have been proved decisively in other places, or they will be proved. Our claims are not isolated; each may be proved with clear proofs.

FIRST LIGHT

This Light consists of three ‘Rays’.

FIRST RAY:

This is the eloquence of the Qur’an,

which is at the degree of miraculousness.Its eloquence is a wonderful eloquence born of the beauty of its word-order, the perfection of its conciseness, the marvels of its style, its singularity and pleasantness, the excellence of its expression, its superiority and clarity, the power and truth of its meanings, and from the purity and fluency of its language, which for one thousand three hundred years has challenged the most brilliant men of letters of mankind, their most celebrated orators, and the most profoundly learned of them, and invited them to dispute it. It has provoked them intensely. And although it has invited them to dispute it, those geniuses, whose heads touch the skies in their pride and conceit, have been unable to so much as open their mouths to do so, and have bowed their heads utterly humiliated.

Thus, we shall point to the miraculousness in its eloquence in two ‘Aspects’.

First Aspect:

It possesses miraculousness and its miraculousness exists for the following reasons. The great majority of the people of the Arabian Peninsula at that time were illiterate. Due to this, rather than in writing, they preserved the sources of their pride, historical events and stories encouraging good morality, by means of poetry and eloquence. Due to the attraction of poetry and eloquence, meaningful sayings would remain in people’s memories and be passed down the generations.

In consequence of this innate need, therefore, the goods most in demand in the immaterial market of that people were eloquence and fine speech. A tribe’s poet or orator was like its greatest national hero. It was he who was their greatest source of pride.

Thus, among the peoples of the world, the eloquence and rhetoric of that intelligent people, who due to their intelligence ruled the world after the establishment of Islam, was at the highest and most advanced degree. It was the thing most highly prized among them that they felt greatest need of, and was their cause of pride. They attached such value to eloquence that two tribes would do battle at the word of a poet or orator, and they would make peace at his word. They even wrote in gold on the walls of the Ka’ba the seven qasidas of seven poets called the al-Mu’allaqat al-Sab’a, and took great pride in them.

It was at such a time when eloquence was thus most sought after that the Qur’an was revealed. Just as at the time of Moses (Peace be upon him) it was magic that was most sought after and at the time of Jesus (Peace be upon him), it was medicine. The most important of their miracles were in those fields.The Qur’an, therefore, invited the Arabian orators of that time to reply to even one of the shortest of the Suras. It challenged them with the decree of: And if you are in doubt about what We have revealed to Our servant, then produce a Sura resembling it.(*) It also said: “If you do not believe, you shall be damned and shall go to Hell.” It provoked them intensely. It smashed their pride in fearsome manner. It was contemptuous of their arrogant minds. It condemned them firstly to eternal extinction and then to eternal extinction in Hell, as well as to worldly extinction. It said: “Either dispute me, or you and your property shall perish.”

If it had been possible to dispute the Qur’an, is it at all possible that while there was an easy solution like disputing it with one or two lines and nullifying the claim, they should have chosen the most dangerous and most difficult, the way of war? Yes, is it at all possible that that clever people, that politically-minded nation, who at one time were to govern the world through politics, should have abandoned the shortest, easiest, and most light way, and chosen the most dangerous, which was going to cast their lives and all their property into peril? For if their literary figures had been able to dispute it with a few words, the Qur’an would have given up its claim, and they would have been saved from material and moral disaster. Whereas they chose a perilous, lengthy road like war.

That means it was not possible to dispute in by word; it was impossible, so they were compelled to fight it with the sword.

Furthermore, there are two compelling reasons for the Qur’an being imitated. The first is its enemies’ ambition to dispute it, the other, its friends’ pleasure at imitating it. Impelled by these, millions of books in Arabic have been written, but not one of them resembles the Qur’an. Whether learned or ignorant, whoever looks at it and at them is bound to say: “The Qur’an does not resemble these. Not one of them has been able to imitate it.” The Qur’an is therefore either inferior to all of them, and according to the consensus of friend and foe alike, this is completely non-valid and impossible, or the Qur’an is superior to all of them.

If you say: “How do you know that no one has tried to dispute it, and that no one has had sufficient confidence to challenge it, and that no one’s help for anyone else was of any avail?”

The Answer: If it had been possible to dispute it, most certainly it would have been attempted. For it was a question of honour and pride, and life and property were at risk. If it had been attempted, numerous people would have supported such an attempt. For those who obstinately oppose the truth have always been many. And if many people had supported it, they surely would have found fame. For insignificant contests, even, attracted the wonder of people and found fame in stories and tales. So an extraordinary contest and event such as that would never have remained secret. The most ugly and infamous things against Islam have been passed down and become famous, but apart from one or two stories about Musaylima the Liar, no such thing has been related. Musaylima was very eloquent, but when compared with the exposition of the Qur’an, which possesses infinite beauty, his words passed into the chronicles as nonsense. Thus, the miraculousness of the Qur’an’s eloquence is as certain as twice two equals four; and that is how it is.

Second Aspect:

We shall now explain in five ‘Points’ the wisdom of the Qur’an’s miraculousness contained in its eloquence.

First Point: There is a wonderful eloquence and purity of style in the Qur’an’s word-order.

From beginning to end, Isharat al-I’jaz (Signs of Miraculousness) demonstrates this eloquence and conciseness in the word-order. The way the second, minute, and hour hands of a clock each complete the order of the others, that is the way all the sentences of the All-Wise Qur’an, and its words, and the order in the relationships between the sentences and words, have been expounded in Isharat al- I’jaz, from it first page to its last. Whoever wishes may look at that and see this wonderful eloquence in the word-order.

Here, we shall mention one or two examples in order to demonstrate the word-order in the parts of a sentence.

For example: But if a breath of your Sustainer’s punishment touches them.(*)

In this sentence, it wants to point out the punishment as terrible through showing the severity of the least amount. That is to say, it expresses littleness or fewness, and all the parts of the sentence look also to this littleness or fewness and reinforce it.

Thus, the words, But if signify doubt, and doubt looks to littleness or fewness.

The word touches means to touch lightly and expresses a small amount.

And just as the word a breath is merely a whiff, so is it in the singular form.

Grammatically it is a masdar marra and signifies once.

Also the tanwin indicating indefiniteness in a breathe expresses littleness or fewness and means it is so insignificant that it can scarcely be known.

The word of signifies division or a part; it means a bit and indicates paucity.

The word punishment points to a light sort of punishment in relation to chastisement (nakal) or penalty (i’qab), and suggests a small amount.

And by alluding to compassion and being used in place of Subduer, All- Compelling, or Avenger, the word Sustainer indicates littleness or fewness.

It says, if the small amount of punishment suggested in all this paucity has such an effect, you can compare how dreadful Divine chastisement would be. How much then do the small parts of this sentence look to one another and assist one another! How each reinforces the aim of the whole! This example looks to the words and aim to a small degree.

Second Example:

And spend [in God’s way] out of what We have bestowed on them as sustenance.(*)

The parts of this sentence point out five of the conditions which make almsgiving acceptable.

First Condition: This is to give only so much alms as will not cause the giver to be in need of receiving alms himself. It states this condition through the division or parts signified by out of in the words out of what.

Second Condition: It is not to take from ‘Ali and give to Wali, but to give out of a one’s own property. The words We have bestowed on them as sustenance express this condition. It means: “Give out of the sustenance that is yours.”

Third Condition: This is not to place an obligation on the recipient. The word We in We have bestowed on them as sustenance states this condition. That is to say: “I give you the sustenance. When you give some of My property to one of My servants, you cannot place them under an obligation.”

Fourth Condition: You should give it to a person who will spend it on his livelihood, for alms given to those who will squander it idly is not acceptable. The word spend points to this condition.

Fifth Condition: This is to give in God’s name. The words We bestow on them as sustenance states this. That is to say: “The property is Mine; you should give it in My name.”

These conditions may be extended. That is, the form almsgiving should take, with what goods. It may be given as learning and knowledge. It may be given as words, or as acts, or as advice. The word what in out of what indicates these various sorts through its generality. Furthermore, it indicates this with the sentence itself, because it is absolute and expresses generality.

Thus, with the five conditions in this short sentence describing almsgiving, it opens up a broad field before the mind, granting it to it through the sentence as a whole. Thus, in the sentence as a whole, the word-order has many aspects.

Similarly, the word-order between words encompasses a broad sphere and has many aspects.

And between phrases.

For example,

Say: He is God, the One(*) contains six sentences. Three of them are positive and three negative. It proves six degrees of Divine unity and at the same time refutes six ways of associating partners with God. Each sentence is both the proof of the other sentences and the result. For each sentence has two meanings. Through one meaning it is the result, and through the other the proof. That is to say, within Sura al-Ikhlas are thirty suras composed of proofs that demonstrate each another to be as well-ordered as the Sura itself.

For example:

Say, He is God, because He is One, because He is the Eternally Besought, because He begets not, because He is not begotten, because there is none that is equal to Him.

And: And there is none that is equal to Him, because He is not begotten, because He begets not, because He is Eternally Besought, because He is One, because He is God. And: He is God, so He is One, so He is the Eternally Besought, so He begets not, so He is not begotten, so there is none that is equal to Him.

You can continue in the same way.

A further example: Alif. Lam. Mim. * This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those who fear God.(*)

Each of these four phrases has two meanings. With one meaning each is a proof of the other phrases, with the other, it is their result. From the sixteen threads of their relationships, a miraculous word-order embroidery is wrought. It is described thus in Isharat al-I’jaz. Also, as is explained in the Thirteenth Word, it is as though all the Qur’an’s verses have eyes that see most of the other verses and faces that look to them, so that each extends to the others the immaterial threads of relationship; each weaves a miraculous embroidery. From beginning to end Isharat al-I’jaz expounds this beauty and eloquence of the word-order.

Second Point: This is the wonderful eloquence in its meaning.

Consider this example, which is explained in the Thirteenth Word. For example, if you want to understand the eloquence of the verse, All that is in the heavens and on the earth extols and glorifies God, for He is the Tremendous, the Wise,(*) imagine yourself in the Age of Ignorance in the deserts of barbarism before the Light of the Qur’an. Then, at a time everything is swathed in the darkness of ignorance and heedlessness and enveloped in the lifeless veils of nature, you hear verses from the heavenly tongue of the Qur’an like: All that is in the heavens and on the earth extols and glorifies God, or, The heavens and the earth and all within them extol and glorify Him.(*) Now look! See how the dead or sleeping creatures in the world are raised to life in the minds of listeners at the sound of extols and glorifies Him; how they become conscious, and rise up and recite God’s Names. And how at the cry and light of extols and glorifies Him the stars, which had been lifeless lumps of fire in the black skies, all appear in the view of those who hear it as wisdom-displaying words in the mouth of the sky and truth-pronouncing lights. The earth, too, rather than being a desolate wasteland is seen to be a head with the land and sea as tongues, and animals and plants as words of glorification and praise.

Now consider this example, which is proved in the Fifteenth Word. Listen to these verses. What do they say?

O you company of jinn and men! If you can pass beyond the regions of the heavens and the earth, pass beyond them! But you will not be able to pass beyond them save with authority [given by God]. Which then, of the blessings of your Sustainer do you deny? * A flash of fire, and smoke, will be sent on you, and no succour shall you have. * Which then of the blessings of your Sustainer do you deny?(*) And We have adorned the skies nearest the earth with lamps, and made them missiles to drive away the evil ones.(*) These verses say: “O men and jinn, arrogant and refractory in your impotence and baseness, and rebellious and obstinate in your weakness and poverty! If you disobey My commands and you have the power to do so, pass beyond the boundaries of My dominions! How can you dare to oppose the commands of a Monarch Whose commands the stars, moons, and suns obey as though they were soldiers under orders?

In your rebelliousness you oppose an All-Wise and Glorious One Who has obedient soldiers which are thus awesome. Suppose your satans were to resist, His soldiers could rain down stones on them like cannon-balls.

In your godlessness you revolt in the lands of a Sovereign so Glorious that among His forces are some which, it is not insignificant powerless creatures like you, but supposing the impossible you were infidel enemies the size of mountains or the globe, they could hurl down stars and flaming missiles on you of that magnitude and rout you.

You infringe a law which binds beings such as those; if it was necessary, they could hurl the globe of the earth in your face and rain down stars and heavenly bodies on you as though they were missiles, with God’s permission.” You can compare with these the power, eloquence, and elevated manner of expression of other verses and their meanings.

Third Point: This is the wonderful uniqueness of its style.

Indeed, the Qur’an’s style is both strange, and original, and wonderful, and convincing. It has imitated nothing and no one. And no one has been able to imitate it. Its style has always preserved the freshness, youth, and singularity it possessed when it was first revealed and continues to preserve it.

For instance, the unique style of the cipher-like muqatta’at, the ‘disjointed letters,’ like, Alif. Lam. Mim., Alif. Lam. Ra., Ta. Ha., Ya. Sin., Ha. Mim. ‘Ayn. Sin. Qaf., at the beginning of some of the Suras. We have described five or six of the flashes of miraculousness they comprise in Isharat al- I’jaz. For example, these letters at the start of certain Suras have taken half of each category of the many well-known categories of letters, like the emphatic letters (Kaf, Qaf, Ta, Alif, Jim, Dal, Ta, Ba), the sibilants, the stressed letters, the soft letters, the labiolinguals, and tremolo (qalqala) letters (Qaf, Ta, Dal, Jim, Ba). Taking more than half from the light letters and less than half from the heavy letters, neither of which are divisible, it has halved every category. Although the human mind would be capable of it, halving all those categories overlapping one within the other, hesitant among two hundred possibilities, in the only way possible, which was hidden to the human mind and unknown to it, and organizing all the letters on that way, over that broad distance, was not the work of the human mind. And chance could not have interfered in it.

Thus, in addition to these letters at the beginning of the Suras – Divine ciphers – displaying five or six similar flashes of miraculousness, scholars versed in the mysteries of the science of letters and the authorities from among the saints deduced many secrets from these ‘disjointed letters.’ They discovered such truths that they declared that on their own these letters form a brilliant miracle. Since we are not party to their secrets and also we cannot provide proofs clear to everyone, we cannot open that door. We shall therefore suffice with referring readers to the explanation in Isharat al-I’jaz of five or six flashes of miraculousness related to them.

Now we shall point out the Qur’anic styles with regard to Sura, aim, verse, phrase, and word.

For example, if the Sura About what are they disputing?(*) is studied carefully, it shows the events of the hereafter, the resurrection of the dead, and Paradise and Hell in a style so unique and wonderful that it proves the Divine acts and dominical works in this world as though looking at each of those events of the next world, and convinces the heart. To expound the style of this Sura fully would be lengthy, so we shall merely indicate one or two points, as follows:

At the start of the Sura, to prove the resurrection, it says: “We have made the earth a beautifully decked-out cradle for you, and the mountains masts and poles full of treasure for your house and your lives. We have made you as couples, loving and close to one another. We have made the night a coverlet for your sleep of comfort, the daytime the arena in which you earn your livelihood, the sun a light-giving, heat- supplying lamp, and from the clouds We pour down water as though they were a spring producing the water of life. And We create easily and quickly from the simple water the various flower-bearing and fruit-bearing things which bear all your sustenance. Since this is so, the Day of Resurrection, the day when good and evil shall be separated out, awaits you. It is not difficult for Us to bring about that Day.”

In a veiled way it points to proofs that after this at the resurrection, the mountains will be scattered, the skies shattered, Hell readied, and the people of Paradise given gardens and orchards. It says in effect: “Since He does these things related to the mountains and the earth before your very eyes, He shall do things resembling these in the hereafter.” That is to say, the ‘mountain’ at the beginning of the Sura looks to the state of the mountains at the resurrection, and the garden to the gardens and paradises in the hereafter. You may compare other points to this and see what a beautiful and elevated style it has.

And, for example: Say: O God, Holder of All Power! You grant dominion to whomever You wish and You remove dominion from whomever You wish. You exalt whomever You wish and You bring low whomever You wish. In Your hand is all good. Indeed, You are Powerful over all things. * You enter the night into the day and enter the day into the night, and You bring forth the living from the dead and bring forth the dead from the living, and You grant sustenance to whomever You wish without measure.(*)

These verses describe the Divine acts in human kind, and the Divine manifestations in the alternations of night and day, and the dominical acts of disposal in the seasons of the year, and the dominical deeds in life and death on the face of the earth and in the resurrections in this world in a style so elevated that it captivates the minds of the attentive. Since its brilliant, elevated, and wide-reaching style is clearly understood with little study, we shall not open that treasury for now.

And for example,

When the sky is rent asunder * Heeding [the command of] its Sustainer, as in truth it must. * And when the earth is levelled * And casts out what is within it and becomes empty * And it heeds [the command of] its Sustainer, as in truth it must.(*)

This explains in a truly elevated style the degree of submission and obedience to Almight y God’s command of the skies and the earth. It is like this:

just as a commander-in-chief opens two offices to accommodate the matters necessary for fighting, like one for strategy and one for the enrollment of soldiers, and when those matters are accomplished and the fighting is over, he addresses himself to the two offices in order to convert them into something else for some other business, they both say, either through the tongues of those employed in them or through their own tongues: “O Chief! Give us a short respite so that we can clean up the bits and pieces of the former business and throw them out, then you may honour us with your presence. There, we have thrown them out, we await your command. Order what you wish. We hear and obey! Everything you do is true, good, and beneficial.”

In the same way, the heavens and the earth were opened as two arenas of obligation, trial, and examination. After the allotted period is finished, they will put aside the things pertaining to the arena of trial and say: “O our Sustainer! The command is Yours, employ us now in whatever You wish. Our right is only to obey You. Everything You do is right.” Consider carefully the majestic style of those sentences!

And for example, Then the word went forth: “O earth, swallow up your water! And o sky withhold [your rain]!” And the water abated and the matter was ended. The ark rested on Mount Judi, and the word went forth: “Away with all those who do wrong!”(*)

In order to point to a mere drop from the sea of eloquence of this verse, we shall show one aspect of its style in the mirror of a comparison.

On the victory being won in a great war, the commander says “Cease fire!” to one firing army and “Halt!” to another, assaulting, army. He issues the command, and at that moment the firing ceases and the assault is halted. He says: “It is finished, we have beaten them. Our flag is planted at the top of the high citadel at the enemies’ centre. Those mannerless tyrants have met with their reward and been cast down to the lowest of the low.”

In just the same way, the Peerless Sovereign issued the command to the heavens and the earth to annihilate the people of Noah. When they had carried out their duty, He decreed: “Drink up your water, O earth! Cease from your work, O skies! It is finished. Now the waters are receding. The Ark, which is a Divine official performing its duty as a tent, is settled on the top of the mountain. The wrongdoers have received retribution.” See the elevated nature of this st yle. It is saying: “The heavens and earth obey the command like two highly disciplined soldier.” It is thus alluding to the fact that the universe becomes angry at man’s rebellion. The heavens and the earth become incensed. And with this allusion it is saying: “One Whose commands the skies and the earth obey like two disciplined soldiers may not be rebelled against,” restraining man in awesome fashion.

Thus, it describes a universal event like the Flood with all its consequences and truths in a few sentences in a concise, miraculous, beautiful, and succinct manner. You can compare this droplet from the ocean with other drops.

Now consider the style displayed by the window of the words.

For example, consider the words like an old date-stalk, withered and curved in, And the moon We have determined mansions for till it returns like an old date-stalk, withered and curved;(*) see what a subtle style it displays. It is like this: one of the moon’s mansions is in the Pleiades. The Qur’an likens the moon when it is a crescent to a withered and whitened old date-stalk. Through this simile it depicts for the eye of the imagination a tree behind the green veil of the skies; one of its white, curved, luminous branches has rent the veil and raised its head; the Pleiades are like a bunch of grapes on the branch and the other stars all luminous fruits of that hidden tree of creation. If you have any discernment, you will understand what an appropriate, graceful, subtle, and elevated style and manner of expression this is in the view of the desert-dwellers, for whom the date-palm is the most important means of livelihood.

And for example, as is proven at the end of the Nineteenth Word, the words runs its course in, And the sun runs its course to a place appointed19 opens a window onto an elevated style, as follows: with the words runs its course, that is, ‘the sun revolves,’ it puts in mind the Maker’s tremendousness by recalling the orderly disposals of Divine power in the alternations of winter and summer and day and night, and directs one’s gaze to the missives of the Eternally Besought One inscribed by the pen of power on the pages of the seasons. It proclaims the wisdom of the All-Glorious Creator.

And with the word lamp in, And set the sun as a lamp,(*) it opens a window onto the st yle like this: it makes one understand the Maker’s majesty and Creator’s bounty by recalling that the world is a palace and the things within it are adornments, food, and necessities prepared for man and living creatures and that the sun is a subservient candle, demonstrating that the sun is an evidence of God’s unity, and that the idolators’ greatest, most brilliant object of worship is merely a subjugated lamp, an inanimate creature. That is to say, the word lamp calls to mind the Creator’s mercy within the grandeur of His dominicality; it recalls His favours within the breadth of His mercy, and in so doing informs of His munificence within the majesty of His sovereignty, thereby proclaiming Divine unity, and saying indirectly: “An inanimate and subservient lamp is in no way fit to be worshipped.”

And in the course of runs its course it calls to mind the wondrous orderly disposals of Divine power in the revolutions of night and day and winter and summer, and in so doing makes known the grandeur of a single Maker’s power in His dominicality. That is to say, it turns man’s mind from the points of the sun and moon to the pages of night and day and winter and summer, and draws his attention to the lines of events written on those pages. For the Qur’an does not speak of the sun for the sake of the sun, but for the One Who illuminates it. Also, it does not speak of the sun’s nature, for which man has no need, but of the sun’s duty, which is that of mainspring for the order of dominical art, and centre of the order of dominical creativity, and a shuttle for the harmony and order of dominical art in the things the Pre-Eternal Inscriber weaves with the threads of day and night.

You can compare others of the Qur’an’s words with these. While all are simple, ordinary words, each performs the duty of a key to treasuries of subtle meanings.

It is because the Qur’an’s style is for the greater part elevated and brilliant in the ways described above that on occasion Arab nomads were captivated by a single phrase, and without being Muslims would prostrate. One nomad prostrated on hearing the phrase: Therefore proclaim openly what you are commanded.(*)When asked: “Have you become a Muslim?”, he replied: “No. I am prostrating at the eloquence of these words.”

Fourth Point:This is the wonderful eloquence in its wording; that is, in the words employed.

Yes, just as the Qur’an is extraordinarily eloquent in regard to its style and manner of exposition, so is there a truly fluent eloquence in its wording. Clear evidence of the existence of this eloquence is the fact that it does not bore or cause weariness; while the testimony of the brilliant scholars of the sciences of rhetoric forms a decisive proof of the wisdom of the eloquence. Yes, it does not weary even if repeated thousands of times; indeed, it gives pleasure. It is not burdensome for the memory of a small and simple child; children can memorize it easily. It is not unpleasant to the ear, pained by the slightest word, of someone extremely ill; it is easy on it. It is like sherbet to the palate of one in the throes of death. The recitation of the Qur’an gives sweet pleasure to the ear and mind of such a person just like Zemzem water to his mouth and palate.

The reason for its not causing boredom, and the wisdom of it, is this: it is food and sustenance for the heart, strength and wealth for the mind, water and light for the spirit, and the cure and remedy for the soul. Everyday we eat bread, yet we do not tire of it. But if we were to eat the choicest fruit every day, it would cause boredom. That means it is because the Qur’an is truth and reality and truthfulness and guidance and wonderfully eloquent that it does not cause weariness and preserves its freshness and agreeableness as though preserving a perpetual youth. One of the Qurayshi leaders even, an expert orator, was sent by the idolators to listen to the Qur’an. He went and listened, then returned and said to them: “These words have such a sweetness and freshness that they do not resemble the words of men. I know the poets and soothsayers; these words do not resemble theirs. The best we can do is mislead our followers and say it is magic.”(*) Thus, even the All-Wise Qur’an’s most obdurate enemies were amazed at its eloquence.

It would be very lengthy to explain the sources of the All-Wise Qur’an’s eloquence in its verses and words and sentences, therefore we shall keep the explanation brief and show by way of example the fluency and eloquence of the wording in one sentence obtained through the position of the letters and a single flash of miraculousness that shines forth from that positioning.

Take the verse: Then after the distress He sent down on you a feeling of peace and drowsiness, which overcame a group of you.(*) [to the end of the verse]

In this verse, all the letters of the alphabet are present. But, see, although all the categories of emphatic letters are together, it has not spoilt the smooth ness of style. Indeed, it has added a brilliance and harmonious, congruent, eloquent melody issuing from varied strings.

Also, note carefully the following flash of eloquence: of the letters of the alphabet, Alif and Ya, since they are the lightest and have been transposed with one another like sisters, they have each been repeated twenty-one times. And since Mim and Nun(*) are sisters and have changed places, they have each been mentioned thirty-three times.

And since Shin, Sin, and Sad are sisters in regard to articulation, quality, and sound, each has been mentioned three times. And although ‘Ayn and Ghayn are sisters, since ‘Ayn is lighter, it is mentioned six times, while because Ghayn is harsher, it is mentioned half as many, three times.

And since Zay, Dhal, Za, and Ta are sisters in regard to articulation, quality, and sound, each is mentioned twice, while Lam and Alif in the form of LA have united and Alif’s share in the the form of LA is half that of Lam, Lam is mentioned forty-two times and as a half of it Alif twenty-one times. Since Hamza and Ha are sisters in regard to articulation, Hamza(*) is mentioned thirteen times and being a degree lighter Ha\ is mentioned fourteen times. And Kaf, Fa and Qaf are sisters; since Qaf has an additional point, it is mentioned ten times, Fa, nine times, Kaf nine times, Ba nine times, and Ta twelve times.

Since Ta comes third, it is mentioned twelve times. Ra is Lam’s sister, but according to their numerical value, Ra is two hundred, and Lam thirty, so since it has risen six times more, it has fallen six. Also, since Ra is repeated on pronunciation, it becomes emphatic and is only mentioned six times. And because Dad, Tha, Ha, and Kha are emphatic and gain additional qualities in connection with other letters, they have each been mentioned only once. Since Waw is lighter than Ha and Hamza, and heavier than Ya and Alif, it is mentioned seventeen times, four times more than heavy Hamza and four times less than light Alif.

Thus, the extraordinary positioning of the letters in the passage mentioned here and their hidden relationships, and the beautiful order and fine, subtle regularity and harmony show as clearly as twice two equals four that it would not be within the limits of human thought to have composed it. As for chance and coincidence, it is impossible that it should have interfered. And so, just as the strange and wonderful order and regularity in the position of these letters leads to a fluency and eloquence in the words, so may there be many other hidden instances of wisdom. Since such an order has been followed in the letters, surely in the words, sentences and meanings such a mysterious order, such a luminous harmony, has been observed that should the eye see it, it would declare: Ma’shallah!, and should the reason comprehend it, it would exclaim: Barakallah!

Fifth Point: This is the excellence in its manner of exposition;

that is to say, the superiority, conciseness, and grandeur. Just as there is eloquence in the word-order, the wording, and the meaning, and a uniqueness in its style, so in its manner of exposition is there a superiority and excellence. Indeed, all the categories and levels of speech and address, like encouragement and deterring, praise and censure, demonstration and guidance, explanation and silencing in argument, are at the highest degree in the Qur’an’s exposition.

Of the innumerable examples of its manner of exposition(*) in the category of encouragement and urging is that in Sura Has there not been over man a long period of time when he was nothing – [not even] mentioned?;(*) this is as sweet as the water of Kawthar and flows with the fluency of the spring of Salsabil, it is as fine as the raiment of the houris.

Of the numerous examples of the category of deterring and threatening is the start of Sura Has the story reached you of the Overwhelming Event?(*) Here the Qur’an’s exposition has an effect like lead boiling in the ears of the people of misguidance, and fire burning in their brains, and zaqqum scalding their palates, and Hell assaulting their faces, and like a bitter thorny tree in their stomachs. An official like Hell charged by someone with inflicting torment and torture in order to demonstrate his threats, and its splitting apart with seething rage, and its saying: well-nigh bursting with fury(*) certainly show how awesomely dreadful that person’s threats are.

Of the thousands of examples in the category of praise, the Qur’an’s manner of exposition in the five Suras starting al-Hamdulillah is brilliant like the sun,(*) adorned like the stars, majestic like the heavens and the earth, lovable like the angels, compassionate like tenderness towards young in this world, and beautiful like Paradise in the hereafter.

Of the thousands of examples in the category of censure and restraint, in the verse, Would any among you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother,(*) it censures six times. It restrains from backbiting forcibly six times over. It is like this: as is known, the Hamza at the beginning of the verse is interrogative. This seeps through all the words of the verse like water.

Thus, with the first Hamza it asks: Have you no reason, the seat of question and answer, that you do not understand how ugly it is?

With the second, it asks with the word like: Is your heart, the seat of love and hate, so corrupted that it loves the most despicable thing?

With the third, it asks with the words one of you: What has happened to your social life and civilization, which receives its vitality from the community, that it finds acceptable an act which thus poisons your life?

With the fourth, it asks with the words to eat the flesh: What has happened to your humanity that you tear apart your friend like a savage beast?

With the fifth, it asks with the words your brother: Have you no compassion and fellow-feeling that you unjustly tear with your teeth at the character of the one injured, your brother in so many respects? Have you no reason that you bite at your own limbs like a madman?

And with the sixth it asks with the word dead: Where is your conscience? Is your nature so corrupted that you do the most repulsive thing to the most respected person, your brother, like eating his flesh?

That is to say, backbiting is censured and despised by the reason, the heart, humanity, the conscience, human nature, and social and national solidarity. So see! How this verse restrains from this crime in six concise degrees, on six miraculous levels!

Of the thousands of examples of the category of proof and demonstration, is the verse: So consider the signs of God’s mercy; how He gives life to the earth after its death. Indeed, it is He Who gives life to the dead, for He is powerful over all things.(*) Its exposition is such in proving resurrection and banishing doubts that it could not be more clearly demonstrated. It is like this: it says that, as is proved and explained in the Ninth Truth of the Tenth Word and in the Fifth Flash of the Twenty-Second Word, every spring examples of resurrection are provided in three hundred thousand ways in the earth being raised to life with the utmost order and differentiation despite the innumerable species being all mixed up together in total confusion, thus demonstrating to the human observer that the resurrection of the dead would not be difficult for the One who does this. Also, since to write without fault or error with the pen of power hundreds of thousands of species on the page of the earth, all together and one within the other, is the seal of the Single One of Unity; with this verse it both proves Divine unity as the clearly as the sun, and it demonstrates the resurrection of the dead as easily and decisively as the rising and setting of the sun. Thus, the Qur’an demonstrates this truth in regard to manner, as described by the word how, just as it mentions it in detail in many Suras.

And for example, in Sura, Qaf. By the Glorious Qur’an,(*) it proves resurrection in such a brilliant, fine, sweet, and exalted manner that it convinces as certainly as the coming of spring. Look: in answer to the unbelievers denying the raising to life of decomposed bones and saying: “This is extraordinary; it could not be!”, it decrees: Do they not look to the skies above them; how we have made them and adorned them and how there is no flaw in them.... until: ... and thus will be the Resurrection.(*) Its manner of exposition flows like water and shines like the stars. It gives both pleasure and delight to the heart like dates. And it is sustenance.

And in one of the most subtle examples of the category of demonstration, it says: Ya. Sin.* By the All-Wise Qur’an * Indeed you are one of the Messengers.(*) That is, “I swear by the Wise Qur’an that you are one of the Divine Messengers.” This oath indicates that the proof of Messengership is so certain and true, and its veracity is so worthy of honour and respect, that it is sworn by. By indicating this, it is saying: “You are the Messenger, for you hold the Qur’an in your hand, and the Qur’an is the truth and it is the word of Truth. For it contains true wisdom, and bears the seal of miraculousness.”

And one of the concise and miraculous examples of the category of proof and demonstration is this: He says: Who will raise to life these bones when they are rotted? * Say: He will raise them Who created them in the first instance, for He has full knowledge of every kind of creation.(*)

That is, man asks: “Who will resurrect decayed bones?” You say: “Whoever made them in the first place and gave them life, He will resurrect them.”

As was depicted in the third comparison of the Ninth Truth in the Tenth Word, if someone reassembles a large army in one day before your eyes, and someone else says: “At a bugle-call that person brought together the members of a battalion who had dispersed to rest; he is able to bring the battalion under order,” and you say, O man: “I do not believe it,” you can see what a foolish denial it would be.

In just the same way, the All-Powerful and All-Knowing One enrolls and unites anew with the command of “Be!” and it is, and with perfect order and the balance of wisdom, the particles and subtle faculties of the battalion-like bodies of all the animals – which are like an army – and other living creatures, and creates ever y century, and every spring even, all the hundreds of thousands of army-like species of living creatures on the face of the earth. Can it be questioned then how He can gather together at one blast of Israfil’s trumpet the fundamental parts and particles of a battalion-like body, which are already familiar with one another, through taking them under order? Can it be considered unlikely? If it is considered unlikely, it is a mindless foolishness.

In the category of guidance, the Qur’an’s manner of exposition is so moving and tender, and familiar and gentle that it fills the spirit with ardour, the heart with delight, the mind with interest, and the eyes with tears.

Of thousands of examples is this verse: And yet after all this your hearts hardened and became like rocks, or even harder... to the end of the verse.(*)

As is proved and explained in the discussion of the third verse in the First Station of the Twentieth Word, it says to the Children of Israel: “What has happened to you that although hard rock shed tears from twelve springs like eyes before a miracle like the Staff of Moses (Peace be upon him), you remain indifferent in the face of all his miracles, with your eyes dry and tearless and your hearts hard and without fervour?” Since this meaning of guidance is explained there, we refer you to that Word, and curtail this here.

Of thousands of examples in the category of making understood and silencing in argument, consider only the following two:

If you have doubts about the Qur’an We have revealed to Our servant Muhammad, then produce a Sura similar to it. And call upon all your helpers besides God to bear witness for you, if what you say is true.(*)

That is, “If you have any doubts, summon all your elders and supporters to help you and testify for you, then compose the like of a single Sura.” Since this has been explained and proved in Isharat al-I’jaz, here we shall only point out a brief summary of it. It is as follows:

The Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition says: “O men and jinn! If you have any doubts that the Qur’an is the Word of God and imagine it to be man’s word, then come on, here it is, let’s see! You bring a book like this Qur’an from someone unlettered, who does not know how to read and write like the one you call Muhammad the Trustworthy, and get him to compose it!

If you cannot do this, then he need not be untaught, let him be a famous man of letters and learned.

And if you are not able to do this, alright, not on his own, take all the finest works of all your orators and men of eloquence, and indeed of all the literary geniuses of the past and all those of the future, and the assistance of all your gods.

Work with all your strength, compose the like of this Qur’an. And if you cannot do this, leave aside the truths of the Qur’an and its many miraculous aspects, which it is not possible to imitate,

and compose a work which is its equal in only the eloquence of its word-order!”

Through the silencing words of Bring then ten Suras forged, like it,(*)

it says: “Come on, I do not want its true meaning from you, let it be fabrications and lies and false tales.

You will not be able to do this. So it need not be as much as the whole Qur’an, just bring ten Suras like it. You will not be able to do this either, so bring a single Sura.

This will be too much as well. So alright, make it the equivalent of a short Sura. You will not be able to do this either, although the need for you to do so is so great. For your honour and self-respect, your dignity and religion, your tribal honour and pride, your life and property, and your lives in this world and the next will all be saved by producing the like of it. Otherwise in this world you will remain in abasement, without honour, dignity, religion, or pride, and your lives and property will be destroyed and will perish, and in the hereafter, as is indicated by the verse, Then give heed to Hell-fire, whose fuel is men and stones,(*) you will be condemned to everlasting incarceration in Hell; together with your idols you will be fuel to its fires.

Since your need is thus great, and since you have now understood your impotence in eight degrees, you should be certain eight times over that the Qur’an is a miracle. So either believe in it, or be silent and go to Hell!”

So see the way the Qur’an forces them to accept the argument in this category of ‘silencing in argument’ which is within that of ‘making understood,’ and say: “There is no manner of exposition better than that of the Qur’an!”

Indeed, after that of the Qur’an no need remains for further exposition.

Here is a second example:

Exhort then [O Prophet], for by your Sustainer’s grace you are neither a soothsayer nor a madman * Or do they say: A poet! – let us wait and see what time will do! * Say: Wait then, I too shall wait with you. * Is it that their faculties of understanding urge them to this, or are they but a people transgressing all bounds. * Or do they say: He fabricated this [Message]? Nay, they do not believe. * Let them then produce a recital like unto it – if they speak the truth. * Or were they created of nothing, or were they themselves the creators? * Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Nay, they have no firm belief. * Or are the treasuries of your Sustainer with them, or are they the managers [of affairs]? * Or have they a ladder by which they can [climb up to heaven and] listen [to its secrets]? Then let [such a] listener of theirs produce a manifest proof. * Or has He only daughters and you have sons? * Or is it that you ask for a reward, so that they are burdened with a load of debt? * Or that the Unseen is in their hands, and they write it down? * Or do they intend a plot [against you]? But those who defy God are themselves involved in a plot! * Or have they a god other than God? Exalted is God far above the things they associate with them.(*)

Here we shall explain only one of the thousands of truths of these verses as a further example of the category of silencing in argument. It is as follows: with the word, Or....Or..., it silences every group of the people of misguidance with a rhetorical question expressing surprise and stops up all the sources of their doubts. It leaves no satanic chink through which doubts might enter and hide themselves; it closes them all. It leaves no veil of misguidance under which they might creep and lurk; it rends all of them. It leaves not one of their lies; it crushes them.

In each sentence it either demolishes the essence of the blasphemous ideas of one group with a short phrase, or since the falsity is obvious, it exposes it by silence, or since it is refuted in detail in other verses, it here alludes to it briefly. For example, the first sentence alludes to the verse: And We have not instructed him poetry, nor is it meet for him.(*) While the fifteenth sentence points to the verse: Were there gods other than God in the heavens and earth, there surely would have been confusion in both.(*) You can make further examples from the other sentences like these.

It is like this: it says at the start: Announce the Divine decrees. You are not a soothsayer, for the words of soothsayers are confused and conjectural, while yours are true and certain. And you are not mad; your enemies even attest to your perfect sanity.

Or do they say: A poet – let us wait and see what time will do!(*)

Do they call you a poet, like the unreasoning, common infidels? Are they waiting for you to perish? You say to them: “Wait! I shall wait with you!” Your vast and brilliant truths are free of the imaginings of poetry and independent of their fancies.

Or is it that their faculties of understanding urge them to this?(*)

Or like unreasoning philosophers who rely on their reasons, do they hold back from following you, saying: “Our faculties of reason are sufficient.” But reason commands that you are followed, because everything you say is reasonable. But again the reason on its own cannot reach it.

Or are they but a people transgressing all bounds?(*)

Or is the reason for their denial their not submitting to Almighty God like wicked tyrants? But the ends of the Pharaohs and Nimrods, who were the leaders of arrogant oppressors, are known.

Or do they say: He fabricated this [Message]? Nay, they do not believe.(*)

Or like lying dissemblers without conscience do they accuse you saying: “You have made up the Qur’an!”? But up to this time they have known you to be the most truthful among them and have called you Muhammad the Trustworthy. It means that they have no intention to believe. Otherwise let them find the like of the Qur’an among the works of men.

Or were they created of nothing?(*)

Or like the absurd philosophers who believed the universe to be without purpose and in vain, do they suppose themselves to be aimless and without wisdom, purpose, duty, or Creator? Have they become blind that they do not see that the universe is adorned from top to bottom with instances of wisdom and bears the fruit of aims, and that beings from particles to the suns are charged with duties and are subjugated to the Divine commands?

Or were they themselves the creators?(*)

Or do they imagine like the pharaoh-like Materialists that “They came into being by themselves, feed themselves, and themselves create everything they need,” so that they hold back from believing and worship? That means they all suppose themselves to be the Creator. Whereas the Creator of one thing has to be the Creator of everything. That is to say, their pride and conceit have made them so utterly stupid they imagine to be a Possessor of Absolute Power one who is absolutely impotent and may be defeated by a fly or a microbe. Since they have abdicated their reason and humanity to this degree and have fallen lower than the animals and even inanimate beings, do not be saddened at their denial. Consider them to be a variety of harmful animal and filthy matter! Ignore them and give them no importance!

Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Nay, they have no firm belief!(*)

Or, like the mindless, confused Mu’attila, who denied God all attributes and denied the Creator, do they deny God so that they do not heed the Qur’an? In which case, let them deny the existence of the heavens and the earth, or let them say: “We created them!” Let them lose their minds altogether and begin uttering the frenzied ravings of lunacy. For in the heavens as many proofs of Divine unity are apparent and are recited as the stars, and on the earth as many as the flowers. That means they have no intention of acquiring certain knowledge and finding the truth. Otherwise how do they suppose to be without inscriber the book of the universe, in one word of which is written a whole book, although they know that a letter cannot exist without the one who wrote it.

Or are the treasuries of your Sustainer with them?(*)

Or, like one group of misguided philosophers who denied Almighty God the power of choice, or like the Brahmans, do they deny the source of prophethood so that they do not believe in you? In which case, let them deny all the traces of wisdom and purpose, all the order and fruits which are apparent in all beings and demonstrate will and choice, let them deny all the works of mercy and grace, and all the miracles of all the prophets! Or let them say: “All the treasuries of the bounties given to creatures are with us and under our control.” Let them prove they are not fit to be addressed! Do not be grieved at their denial, say: “God’s unreasoning animals are many!”

Or are they the managers [of affairs]?(*)

Or, like the arrogant Mu’tazilites, who made the reason dominant, do they imagine themselves to be rivals to and inspectors of the Creator’s works, and want to hold the All-Glorious Creator responsible? Beware, do not lose heart! Nothing can come of the denials of self-centred people like that! You do not be deceived either!

Or have they a ladder by which they can [climb up to heaven and] listen [to its secrets]? Then let [such a] listener of theirs produce a manifest proof!(*)

Or, like the spiritualists and phony soothsayers, do they follow Satan and the jinn and suppose they have found another way to the World of the Unseen? In which case, have they a ladder by which to ascend to the heavens which are closed to the satans? Do they imagine that they can give the lie to your news from the heavens? The denials of such charlatans are worth nothing!

Or has He only daughters and you have sons?(*)

Or, like the polytheist philosophers who ascribed partners to God under the name of ‘the ten intellects’ and ‘the masters of the species,’ and the Sabeans, who attributed a sort of godhead to the stars and the angels, do they ascribe offspring to Almight y God? Like the heretics and misguided, do they ascribe a son to Him, which is contrar y to the necessary existence, unity, eternit y, and absolute self-sufficiency of the Single and Eternally Besought One? Do they ascribe femininity to that offspring, which is opposed to the angels’ worship, purity, and kind? Do they suppose it to be an intercessor for them, so that they do not follow you? Generation is the means of multiplying, mutual assistance, perpetuation, and life for creatures like man, who is contingent, transitory, and in need of perpetuating the species, is corporeal and divisible, capable of multiplying, impotent and needy for an heir to help him. So to ascribe offspring – and a sort of offspring that those impotent, contingent, wretched men did not themselves like and could not equate with their arrogant pride, that is, female offspring – to the All-Glorious One, Whose existence is necessary and perpetual, Who endures from pre-eternit y to post-eternity, Whose essence is utterly remote from and exalted above corporality, Whose being is free of and exempt from division and multiplication, and Whose Power is far above and beyond all impotence, is indeed such a delirium, such a lunatic raving that the lies and denials of those wretches who subscribe to such an idea are worth nothing. You must not be deceived. The scatter-brained nonsense, the delirious ravings of every crazy lunatic, should not be heeded!

Or is it that you ask for a reward, so that they are burdened with a load of debt?(*)

Or, like the rebellious, overweening worshippers of this world, who have made a habit of greed and miserliness, do they find what you propose burdensome, so that they flee from you? Do they not know that you seek your wage and recompense from God alone? Is it a burden to give to their own poor one fortieth of the property given to them by God Almighty, or a part of it, and as a consequence both receive plenty, and be saved from the envy and curses of the poor? Do they consider the command to give zakat burdensome and therefore hold back from Islam? Their denials have no importance, and what they deserve is a slap, not an answer...

Or is it that the Unseen is in their hands, and they write it down?(*)

Or, like Buddhists, who claim to be familiar with the Unseen, or the pseudo- intellectuals, who imagine their conjectures about its affairs to be certain, does what you said about the Unseen not appeal to them? That means they imagine that the World of the Unseen, which is disclosed to no one apart from the Divine Messengers, who receive revelation, and which no one has the ability to enter, is present and laid open before them, and that they obtain information from it and write it down. So do not be disheartened by the lies of these arrogant braggarts who have overstepped their mark to an infinite degree! For in a short while your truths will completely overturn their imaginings!

Or do they intend a plot [against you]? But those who defy God are themselves involved in a plot!(*)

Or, like two-faced dissemblers and cunning atheists whose natures are corrupted and consciences rotted, do they want to deceive the people and turn them away from the guidance which they cannot obtain, to trick them, and so call you either a soothsayer, or possessed, or a sorcerer? Do they want to make others believe what they do not believe themselves? Don’t think of these insidious charlatans as human beings, don’t be saddened at their wiles and denials, and lose heart. Rather, increase your efforts! For they only deceive their own souls and harm themselves. And their successes in evil are temporary; it is a Divine stratagem, drawing them to perdition by degrees.

Or have they a god other than God? Exalted is God far above the things they associate with Him!(*)

Or, like the Magians, who imagined two separate gods called the Creator of Good and the Creator of Evil, or like the idolators and worshippers of causes, who attribute a sort of godhead to different causes and imagine each of them to be a source of support for them, do they rely on other gods and contest you? Do they consider themselves free of any need of you? That means they have become blind and do not see the perfect order and flawless harmony throughout the universe, which is as clear as day. For in accordance with the decree, Were there gods other than God in the heavens and the earth, there surely would have been confusion in both,(*) if there are two headmen in a village, or two governors in a town, or two kings in a country, order is turned upside down and harmony spoilt. But from a fly’s wing to the lamps in the heavens, such a fine order has been observed that it leaves not so much space as a fly’s wing for partners to be associated with God. Since the above act in a manner so opposed to reason, wisdom, feeling, and what is obvious, don’t let their lies put you off proclaiming the Message!

Thus, of the hundreds of jewels of these verses, which constitute a series of truths, we have briefly explained only a single jewel of the Qur’an’s manner of exposition in the category of ‘giving to understand’ and ‘silencing in argument.’ If I had had the power and shown a few more jewels, you too would have said: “These verses are a miracle just on their own.”

But the Qur’an’s manner of exposition in making understood and instruction is so wonderful, subtle, and fluent that the most simple ordinary person easily comprehends a most profound truth from the way it explains it.

Yes, the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition simply and clearly teaches most abstruse truths in a way that caresses the view of people in general, and neither hurts their feelings, nor irritates their minds, nor tires them. Just as when speaking with a child, childish words are used, in the same way the Qur’anic styles come down to the level of those it addresses –called in the terminology of the scholars of theology, ‘Divine condescension to the mind of man’– it addresses them in that way; through comparisons in the form of allegories, it makes an illiterate common person understand abstruse Divine truths and dominical mysteries which the minds of the most learned philosophers cannot rise to.

For example, by means of a comparison, the verse, The Most Merciful One on the Throne established(*) depicts Divine dominicality as a kingdom, and the degree of that dominicality as that of a King seated on the throne of his sovereignty and exercising His rule.

Indeed, as the speech of the All-Glorious Creator of the universe, the Qur’an proceeds from the ultimate degree of His dominicality, passes over all the other degrees guiding those who rise to them, and passing through seventy thousand veils, it looks to each and illuminates it. It scatters its radiance and spreads its light to the thousands of levels of those it addresses, the understanding and intelligence of whom are all different. Although it has lived through ages and centuries whose capacities are all different, and has broadcast its meaning to this great extent, it has not lost an iota of its perfect youth and juvenility, and retaining its total freshness and delicacy, it teaches every ordinary person in a most easy, skilful, and comprehensible manner. Whatever aspect of a wonder-displaying book which thus teaches, convinces, and satisfies with the same lesson, the same words, numerous levels of people whose understanding and degrees are all different – whatever aspect of such a book is studied, a flash of miraculousness will surely appear.

In Short: Just as when some words of the Qur’an like “All praise and thanks be to God” are recited, they fill a cave, which is the ear of a mountain, in the same way that they fill the tiny ears of a fly, so too the Qur’an’s meanings satisfy ears like mountains in the same way that with the same words they teach and satisfy tiny simple minds, like a fly. For the Qur’an calls to belief all the levels of men and jinn. It teaches the sciences of belief to all. In which case, the most lowly of the common people kneels shoulder to shoulder with the most elevated of the elite, and together they listen to the Qur’an’s teachings and benefit from them.

That is to say, the Holy Qur’an is a heavenly repast at which the thousands of different levels of minds, intellects, hearts, and spirits find their nourishment. Their desires are fulfilled and their appetites are satisfied. In fact, numerous of its doors remain closed and are left to those who will come in the future. If you want an example of this category, from beginning to end the Qur’an forms examples of it.

All the Qur’an’s students and those who listen to its teachings, like the interpreters of the law, the veracious ones, the Islamic philosophers, the sages, the scholars of jurisprudence and scholars of theology, the saintly guides of those seeking knowledge of God, the spiritual poles of the lovers of God, the learned and exacting scholars, and the mass of Muslims, unanimously declare: “We understand thoroughly what the Qur’an teaches us.”

In short, flashes of the Qur’an’s miraculousness sparkle in the category of ‘making understood and instruction’ just as they do in the other categories.

SECOND RAY

This Ray is the Qur’an’s extraordinary comprehensiveness.

It consists of five ‘Flashes’.

The First Flash

is the comprehensiveness in the words.

This comprehensiveness is clearly apparent from the verses mentioned both in all the previous Words, and in this Word. As is indicated by the Hadith “Each verse has an outer meaning, an inner meaning, a limit, and an aim, and each has roots, and boughs, and branches,”(*) the words of the Qur’an have been positioned in such a way that all its phrases, words even, and even letters, and sometimes even an omission, has many aspects. It gives to all those it addresses their share from a different door.

Take, for example, the verse, And the mountains [its] pegs,(*) a phrase which says, “I made the mountains as stakes and masts for that earth of yours.”

An ordinary person’s share from this phrase would be this: he sees the mountains which appear like stakes driven into the ground, thinks of the benefits and bounties in them, and offers thanks to his Creator.

A poet’s share from this phrase: he imagines the earth as the ground, on which is pitched in a sweeping arc the dome of the heavens like a mighty green tent adorned with electric lamps, and he sees the mountains skirting the base of the heavens to be the pegs of the tent. He worships the All-Glorious Maker in wondering amazement.

A tent-dwelling literary man’s share of this phrase: he imagines the face of the earth to be a barren desert, and the mountain chains as the multifarious tents of nomads, as if the soil layer had been cast over high posts and the pointed tips of the posts had raised up the cloth of the soil, which he sees as the habitation of numerous different creatures looking one to the other. He prostrates in wonder before the Glorious Creator, Who placed and pitched so easily these august and mighty beings like tents on the face of the earth.

The share of a geographer with a literary bent from this phrase: he thinks of the globe of the earth as a ship sailing the oceans of either the air or the ¾ther, and the mountains as masts and posts driven into the ship to balance and stabilize it. He declares: “Glory be unto You! How sublime is Your glory!” before the All-Powerful One of Perfection, Who makes the might y globe as an orderly ship, places us on it, and makes it voyage through the far reaches of the world.

A sociologist and philosopher of human society’s share of this phrase; his thoughts would go like this: the earth is a house, and the supporting post of the life of that house is animal life, while the supporting post of animal life are water, air, and earth, the conditions of life. And the supporting post of water, air, and earth are the mountains. For the mountains are the reservoirs for water, the combs for the air: they precipitate the noxious gases and purify it; they are the earth’s preserver: they preserve it from being transformed into a swamp, and from the encroachment of the sea. They are also the treasuries for other necessities of human life. In utter reverence he offers praise and thanks to the Maker of Glory and Kindness, Who made these great mountains as posts for the earth – the house of our life – in this way, and appointed them as the keepers of the treasuries of our livelihood.

The share of a scholar of natural science from this phrase would be this: he would think of the earthquakes and tremors which occur as the result of upheavals and fusions in the heart of the earth being calmed with the upthrust of mountains; that the emergence of mountains is the cause of the earth’s stable rotation on its axis and in its orbit and its not deviating in its annual rotation as a result of the convulsions of earthquakes; and that the anger and wrath of the earth is quieted through it breathing through the vents in the mountains. He would come to believe completely, and would exclaim: “All wisdom is God’s!”

Another example: The heavens and the earth were joined together before We clove them asunder.(*) A scholar untainted by the study of philosophy would explain the words joined together like this: while the skies were shining and cloudless, and the earth dry and without life and incapable of giving birth, the skies were opened up with rain and the earth with vegetation, and all living beings were created through a sort of marriage and impregnation. To do this was the work of One so Powerful and Glorious that the face of the earth is merely a small garden of His, while the clouds veiling the face of the skies, sponges for watering it. The scholar understands this and prostrates before the tremendousness of His power.

A searching philosopher would explain the same words in this way: while at the start of creation the heavens and earth were a formless mass, each consisting of matter like wet dough without benefit, offspring, or creatures, the All-Wise Creator both rolled them out and expanded them into a beautiful, beneficial form, and made them the source of adorned and numerous creatures. The philosopher would stand in wonder before the breadth of His wisdom.

A modern philosopher would explain the words thus: at first, our globe and the other planets which form the solar system were fused together in the form of an undifferentiated dough. Then the All-Powerful and Self-Subsistent One rolled out the dough, and placed each of the planets in its position; leaving the sun where it was and bringing the earth here, He spread earth over the globe of the earth and sprinkled it with rain from the skies, scattered light over it from the sun, and inhabited it placing us on it. The philosopher would pull his head out of the swamp of nature, and declare: “I believe in God, the One, the Unique!”

And the sun runs its course to a place appointed.(*) The Lam, translated here as ‘to’, expresses also the meaning of ‘in’. Thus, ordinar y believers see it as meaning ‘to’ and understand that the sun, which is a mobile lamp providing light and heat for them, will certainly conclude its journeying and reach its place of rest, then take on a form which will no longer be beneficial. And pondering over the great bounties the All-Glorious Creator has attached to the sun, they declare: “Glory be to God! All praise and thanks be to God!”

A learned scholar would also show the Lam as meaning ‘to’, but he would think of it not only as a lamp, but also as a shuttle weaving the tapestries of the Sustainer on the loom of spring and summer, as an ink-pot whose ink is light for the letters of the Eternally Besought One written on the pages of night and day. And thinking of the order and regularity of the world, of which the apparent movement of the sun is a sign and to which it points, he would exclaim before His wisdom: “What wonders God has willed!”, and declare before the All-Wise Maker’s art: “How great are His blessings!”, and he would bow in prostration.

A geographer and philosopher would explain the Lam as meaning ‘in’, like this: through the Divine command and with a spring-like motion on its own axis, the sun orders and propels the solar system. Exclaiming in wonder and amazement before the All-Glorious Maker Who thus creates and sets in order this mighty clock: “All mightiness is God’s, and all power!”, he would cast away philosophy and embrace the wisdom of the Qur’an.

A precise scholar would consider this Lam as both causal and adverbial, and would explain it like this: “Since the All-Wise Maker has made apparent causes a veil to His works, through a Divine law of His called gravity, He has tied the planets to the sun like stones in a sling, and causes them to revolve with different but regular motions within the sphere of His wisdom; and He has made the sun’s spinning on its own axis an apparent cause giving rise to the gravity. That is, the meaning of (to) a place appointed, is ‘it is in motion in its own appointed place for the stability of the solar system.’ For it is a Divine rule, a dominical law like motion apparently giving rise to heat, and heat to force, and force to gravity.”

Thus, on understanding this from a single letter of the Qur’an, the philosopher would declare: “All praise and thanks be to God! It is in the Qur’an that true wisdom is to be found. I consider philosophy to be worth virtually nothing!” And the following idea would occur to a thinker of poetic bent from this La\m and the stability mentioned above: “The sun is a luminous tree, and the planets are its mobile fruits.

But contrary to trees the sun shakes itself so the fruits do not fall. If it did not shake itself, they would fall and be scattered.” Then he would think to himself: “The sun is the ecstatic leader of a group reciting God’s Names. It recites in ecstasy in the centre of the circle and causes others to recite.” In another treatise, I described this meaning as follows:

Yes, the sun is a fruit-bearing tree; it shakes itself, so that the planets fall not, its fruits.

If it rested in silence, the attraction would cease; and they would weep through space, its ecstatics.

A further example: It is they who shall prosper.(*) This verse is general and unspecific, it does not specify in what way they shall be successful, so that each person may find what he wants in it. Its words are few, so that they may be lengthy. For the aim of some of those it is addressing is to be saved from the Fire. Others think only of Paradise. Some desire eternal happiness. Yet others seek only God’s pleasure. While others know their aim and desire to be the vision of God; and so on. In numerous places, the Qur’an leaves the words open in this way, so that they may be general. It leaves things unsaid, so that it can express many meanings. It makes it brief, so that everyone may find his share.

Thus, it says, who shall prosper. It does not determine how they shall prosper. It is as if with this omission it is saying: “O Muslims! Good news! O you who fear God! You shall find prosperity through being saved from Hell. O righteous one! You shall find prosperity in Paradise. O you who seeks knowledge of God! You will attain God’s pleasure. O lover of God! You will experience the vision of God.” And so on.

Thus, out of thousands we have offered one example of each of the phrases, words, letters, and omissions demonstrating the comprehensiveness of the Qur’an’s words. You may make analogies and compare its verses and stories with these.

Another example, the verse, Know then that there is no god but God, and ask forgiveness for your fault.(*) This verse contains so many aspects and degrees that all the levels of saints have found their needs from it in all their spiritual journeyings and in all their degrees, and have found spiritual sustenance and a fresh meaning from it appropriate for their own level. For, since the Name of ‘Allah’ is a comprehensive Name, there are aspects of Divine unity within it to the number of the Most Beautiful Names:

“There is no provider but Him! There is no creator but Him! There is no merciful one but Him!” And so on.

And, for example, among the stories of the Qur’an, the story of Moses (Peace be upon him) contains thousands of benefits, just like the Staff of Moses. There are numerous aims and aspects in the story, like consoling and comforting the Prophet Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), and threatening the unbelievers, and censuring the dissemblers, and rebuking the Jews. For this reason it is repeated in many Suras. Although it expresses all the aims in every place it is repeated, only one is the main aim and the others are secondary.

If you say: How can we know all the meanings in the examples you have given, which the Qur’an intends and points to?

We would reply: Since the Qur’an is a pre-eternal address, and sitting above and beyond the centuries, which, layer upon layer, are all different, addresses and instructs all of mankind lined up within them, certainly it will include and intend numerous meanings according to those varying understandings, and will make allusions to what it intends. The numerous meanings contained in the Qur’an’s words similar to those mentioned here have been proved in Isharat al-I’jaz (Signs of Miraculousness) according to the rules of Arabic grammar, and the sciences of rhetoric, semantics, and eloquence and their rules.

According to the consensus of those qualified to interpret the Shari’a and the Qur’anic commentators and scholars of theology and jurisprudence, and according to the testimony of their differences, on condition they are considered correct by the sciences of Arabic and the principles of religion, all the aspects and meanings which are found acceptable by the science of semantics, and appropriate by the science of rhetoric, and desirable by the science of eloquence, may be considered among the meanings of the Qur’an. The Qur’an has placed allusions to each of those meanings according to its degree. They are either literal or significative. If significative, there are allusions to them in either the preceding context or the after context or in other verses. Some of them have been expounded in Qur’anic commentaries of twenty, thirty, forty, sixty, and even eighty volumes, written by exacting scholars, which are clear and decisive proofs of the extraordinar y comprehensiveness of the Qur’an’s words. However, if in this Word we were to point out the allusions indicating all the meanings together with their rules, the discussion would become extremely prolonged. So we cut it short here, and for part of it, refer you to Isharat al-I’jaz.

Second Flash:

This is the extraordinary comprehensiveness in its meaning.

Yes, together with bestowing from the treasuries of its meaning the sources for all the interpreters of the Shari’a, the illuminations of all those seeking knowledge of God, the ways of all those seeking union with God, the paths of all the perfected from among mankind, and the schools of all the scholars, the Qur’an has at all times been the guide of all of them and directed them in their progress, and it is verified unanimously by all of them that it has illuminated their ways from its treasuries.

Third Flash:

This is the extraordinary comprehensiveness in its knowledge.

The Qur’an has caused to flow forth from the oceans of its own knowledge, the numerous and various sciences of the Shari’a, the multifarious sciences of reality (haqiqat), and the innumerable different sciences of sufism (tariqat). Similarly, it has caused to flow forth in abundance and good order the true wisdom of the sphere of contingency, the true sciences of the sphere of necessity, and the enigmatic knowledge of the sphere of the hereafter. One would have to write a whole volume to provide examples of this Flash, and so as mere samples, we point to the twent y-five Words so far written.Yes, the veracious truths of all twenty-five Words are only twenty-five droplets from the ocean of the Qur’an’s knowledge. If there are errors in those Words, they spring from my defective understanding.

Fourth Flash:

This is the extraordinary comprehensiveness of the subjects it puts forward.

Together with bringing together the extensive subjects of man and his duties, the universe and the Creator of the universe, the heavens and the earth, this world and the hereafter, the past and the future, and pre-eternity and post-eternity, the Qur’an explains all the essential and important topics from man’s creation from seminal fluid till when he enters the grave; from the correct conduct of eating and sleeping to the matters of Divine Decree and Determining; from the creation of the world in six days, to the duties of the wind blowing, indicated by the oaths of,

By the [winds] that scatter,(*) and, By the [winds] sent forth;(*) from His intervention in man’s heart and will, indicated by, comes between a man and his heart,(*) and, to, But you will not except as God wills,(*)

And the heavens rolled up in His right hand,(*) that is, to His holding all the heavens within His grip; from the flowers, and grapes, and dates of the earth described in, And We produce therein gardens of date-palms and vines,(*) to the strange truth expressed by, When the earth is shaken to its utmost convulsion;(*) from the state of the skies in, Then He directed [His will] towards the skies and they were smoke,(*) to their being rent with smoke and the stars falling and being scattered in infinite space; from the world’s being opened for test and examination, to its closing; from the grave, the first dwelling of the hereafter, and then from the Intermediate Realm, the resurrection, and the Bridge, to eternal happiness; from the events of the past, and the creation of the body of Adam and the dispute of his two sons, to the Flood, and the drowning of the people of Pharaoh, and the major events of most of the prophets; and from the pre-eternal circumstance alluded to by, Am I not your Sustainer?(*) to the post-eternal occurrence expressed by, Some  faces  that  day  will  beam  in  brightness  *  Looking  towards  their Sustainer;(*) all these fundamental, important subjects are explained in a way befitting the All- Glorious  One Who administers the whole universe as though it was a palace, and opens and closes this world and the hereafter like two rooms, and regulates the earth as if it was a garden and the heavens as though they were a roof adorned with lamps, and beholds the past and the future as though they were two pages present in His sight like a single night and day, and looks on pre-eternity and post-eternity as though they were yesterday and tomorrow, in a form in which the two sides of a chain of events are joined together and touching in present time.

Just as a master builder speaks of two houses he has constructed and arranged, and makes out the programme and list and index of the matters involved, so the Qur’an is fitting for the One Who makes the universe and arranges it, and writes out and displays the list and index and –if one may say so– the programme of the matters concerned with it. There is no sign of any artificiality or false display. And just as there is no trace of imitation or hint of any fraud, like speaking on behalf of someone else or supposing itself to be in someone else’s place and speaking, so too with all its seriousness, all its purity, all its sincerity, the Qur’an’s pure, shining, brilliant exposition declares: “I am the word and exposition of the Creator of the world,” just as the light of day declares: “I came from the sun.”

Indeed, apart from the Maker Who adorns this world with antique arts and fills its with delicious bounties and scatters bountifully over the face of the world together with these wonders of His art so many valuable gifts, and setting them in orderly lines spreads them out over the face of the earth, apart from this Bestower of Bounties, who else could the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition be fitting for – the Qur’an which fills the world with this clamour of salutation and acclaim, this resounding praise and thanks, and transforms the earth into a place for the recitation of God’s Names, a mosque, and place for gazing on the Divine works of art? Whose speech could it be apart from His? Who can claim ownership of it apart from Him?

Whose word could it be other than His? Whose light could the exposition of the Qur’an be, which solves the talisman of creation and illuminates the world, other than the Pre-Eternal Sun’s? Who has the ability to produce the like of it, and imitate it? In truth, it is impossible for the Artist Who adorns this world with His arts not to speak with man, who appreciates His art. Since He makes and knows, He surely speaks. And since He speaks, it is surely the Qur’an which is appropriate to His speech. How should a Lord of All Dominion Who is not indifferent to the way a flower is ordered remain indifferent to a discourse which brings all His dominion to a clamour of salutation and praise? Would He permit it to be attributed to others and be made as nothing?

Fifth Flash:

This is the wonderful comprehensiveness of the Qur’an’s style and conciseness.

It consists of five ‘Glows’.

First Glow: The Qur’an’s style has a comprehensiveness so wonderful that a single Sura contains the ocean of the Qur’an, which in turn contains the universe. A single of its verses contains the treasury of the Sura. And most of the verses are each a short Sura, while most of the Suras are short Qur’ans. Thus, this is a great favour and guidance and facilitating arising from its miraculous conciseness.

For although everyone has need of the Qur’an all the time, either due to foolishness or for some other reason, they do not have the time to read all of it, or they do not have the opportunity. So in order that they should not to be deprived of it, each Sura is like a short Qur’an, and each long verse even has the rank of a Sura. Those who penetrate to the inner meaning of things agree that the whole Qur’an is contained in the Sura al- Fatiha, even, and the Fatiha in the Bismillah. The proof of this fact is the consensus of the scholars who have investigated it.

Second Glow: The verses of the Qur’an are comprehensive through their denoting and indicating all the categories of speech and true knowledge and human needs, like command and prohibition, promise and threat, encouragement and deterring, restraint and guidance, stories and comparisons, the Divine ordinances and teachings, the sciences related to the universe, and the laws and conditions of personal life, social life, the life of the heart, spiritual life, and the life of the hereafter. So that the truth of the saying, “Take whatever you want from the Qur’an for whatever you want” has become accepted to such a degree by the people of reality that it has become proverbial among them.

There is such a comprehensiveness in the verses of the Qur’an that they may be the cure for every ill and the sustenance for every need. Yes, they have to be like that, because it is essential that the absolute guide of all the levels of the people of perfection, who continually rise in the degrees of progress, possesses this property.

Third Glow: This is the Qur’an’s miraculous conciseness. It sometimes happens that the Qur’an mentions the two ends of a long chain in such a way that it shows clearly the whole chain. And sometimes it happens that it includes explicitly, implicitly, figuratively, and allusively in one word many proofs of an assertion.

For example, in the verse: And among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variations in your tongues and in your colours,(*) by mentioning the beginning and end of the chain of the universe’s creation, which forms a chain of signs and indications of Divine unity, the verse shows the second chain. It makes the first chain read it out. Yes, the first degree of the pages of the world which testify to an All-Wise Maker is the origin of the heavens and the earth, their creation. Next is the heavens being adorned with stars and the earth made to rejoice with living beings. Then the change of the seasons through the subjugation of the sun and the moon. Then is the alternation of day and night, and the chain of events within these. And so it goes on as far as the characteristics and distinguishing individual features on faces and in voices, the most widely spread loci of multiplicity.

Thus, since there is an astonishing and wise order in the characteristics of individual faces, which are the furthest from order and most subject to the interference of chance, if it is shown that the pen of a most wise craftsman works there, surely the other pages, whose order is clear, will themselves be understood and display their Inscriber.

And since the works of art and wisdom of a Maker are apparent in the original creation of the vast heavens and earth, Who positions them purposefully as the foundation stones of the palace of the universe; the works of His art and the impress of His wisdom will surely be most clear in His other beings. Thus, by exposing the concealed and concealing the obvious, this verse expresses a most beautiful succinctness.

Similarly in the verses from: So give glory to God when you reach eventide .... till And to Him belongs the loftiest similitude in the heavens and the earth; for He is Exalted in Might, Full of Wisdom,(*) the chain of proofs which begins six times with the words, And among His signs..., And among His signs, is a sequence of jewels, a sequence of light, a sequence of miraculousness, a sequence of miraculous conciseness. I wish from the heart to display the hidden diamonds in these treasuries, but what can I do?, the discussion here does not support it. So postponing it to another time, I am not opening that door for now.

And for example: ...Send me therefore * O Joseph! O Man of truth!(*) Between ..send me therefore and O Joseph! are these words:

...Joseph, that I may ask him to  interpret the dream. So I sent him, and he went to the prison and said to Joseph...

That is to say, although five sentences have been abbreviated and summarized in one sentence, it does not mar the clarity or hinder the understanding.

And, for example: Who produces for you fire from the green tree.(*)

Here the Qur’an is saying in the face of rebellious man’s denials, who is as though challenging the Qur’an by saying, “Who will raise to life rotten bones?”, “Whoever created them in the first place, He will raise them to life. And that Creator knows every single aspect of every single thing. Furthermore, He who provides fire for you from the green tree, is able to give life to dry bones.” Thus, this sentence looks in numerous ways to the claim that man will raised to life, and proves it.

Firstly, with these words the Qur’an starts off the chain of bounties it lays before man, moves its forward, and calls it to mind. Having described it in detail in other verses, it cuts short the description here, and refers it to the intelligence. That is, “You cannot flee from the One Who gives you fruit and fire from trees, sustenance and seeds from plants, cereals and grains from the earth, and makes the earth a fine cradle for you filled with all your sustenance, and the world a palace in which is found all your needs – you cannot be independent of Him, or disappear into non-existence and hide there. You cannot enter the grave without duties to sleep in comfort not to be awoken.

Then it points out an evidence of the claim. With the words, the green tree, it implies: “O you who deny resurrection! Look at the trees! One Who raises to life and makes green in spring numberless bone-like trees which have been dead throughout winter, and in every tree even demonstrates three examples of resurrection through the leaves, blossoms, and fruit – the power of such a One cannot be challenged through denial or by considering resurrection improbable.”

Then it points out another evidence, saying: “How do you deem it unlikely that One Who extracts for you out of dense, heavy, dark matter like a tree, subtle, light, luminous manner like fire should give fire-like life and light-like consciousness to wood-like bones?”

Then it states another evidence explicitly; it says: “One Who creates the famous tree which while green produces fire for nomads in place of matches when two of its branches are rubbed together, and combines two opposites like the green and damp and the dry and hot, and makes them the source of the fire – everything, even the fundamental elements, looks to His command and acts through His power. It cannot be considered unlikely of the One Who demonstrates that none of these is independent and acts of its own accord that He should raise up man from the earth once again, who was made from earth and later returned to the earth. He may not be challenged with rebellion.”

Then, through recalling Moses’s (Peace be upon him) famous tree, it shows that this claim of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) is also that of Moses (PBH). Lightly alluding to the consensus of the prophets, it adds one more subtle point to the phrase.

Fourth Glow: The Qur’an’s conciseness is so comprehensive and wonderful that when studied carefully it becomes apparent that sometimes, through some simple detail or particular event, it compassionately shows to simple, ordinary minds most extensive, lengthy, universal rules and general laws, like showing an ocean in a ewer. We shall point out only two examples of this out of thousands.

First Example: This is the three verses expounded in detail in the First Station of the Twentieth Word, which describe under the name of ‘the teaching of the Names’ to the person of Adam, the teaching of all the sciences and branches of knowledge with which the sons of Adam have been inspired. Through the angels prostrating before Adam and Satan not prostrating, they state that most beings from fish to angels are subjugated to human kind, just as harmful creatures from snakes to Satan do not obey man and are hostile to him.

And through the people of Moses (Peace be upon him) slaughtering a cow, they state that the concept of cow-worship –which was taken from the worship of cows in Egypt and showed its effect in ‘the event of the calf’– was slaughtered by Moses’ knife.

And through water gushing forth from the rock and springs flowing out and spreading, they also state that the rock layer which is under the soil layer acts as the source of both water springs and the soil.

Second Example: This is the whole and the parts of the story of Moses (Peace be upon him), which is frequently repeated in the Qur’an, and each of the repetitions of which is shown as the tip of a universal rule, with each repetition stating the rule in question.

For example: O Haman! Build me a lofty palace.(*)

Pharaoh is commanding his minister: “Build me a high tower so that I can take a look at the heavens and observe them. I wonder if there is a God who governs in the skies like Moses claims, who can be seen from their disposition?” Thus, through the word ‘palace’ and this minor incident, it states a strange rule dominant in the traditions of the Egyptian Pharaohs, who, because they lived in the desert with no mountains, wanted mountains, and because they did not recognize the Creator, were worshippers of nature and claimed godhead; and worshipping fame, through displaying the works of their dominion perpetuated their name and constructed the famous mountain-like pyramids; and agreed to magic and metempsychosis, and had their corpses mummified and preserved in their mountain- like tombs.

And, for example: This day We shall save you in your body.(*)

By saying to Pharaoh, who is drowning: “Today I am going to save your body which will drown,” it is expressing a death-tainted, exemplary rule of the Pharaohs’ lives, which was, as a consequence of the idea of metempsychosis and mummifying the bodies of all of them, to take them from the past and send them to be viewed by the generations of the future. And this present century a body was discovered which was the very body of Pharaoh, thrown up on the seashore where he drowned. The verse thus states a miraculous sign of the Unseen, that the body was to be borne on the waves of the centuries and cast up from the sea of time onto the shore of this century.

And, for example: They slaughtered your sons and let your women-folk live.(*)

With an event in the time of a Pharaoh, the slaughtering of the sons of the Children of Israel and the sparing of their women and daughters, it mentions the numerous massacres which the Jewish nation has suffered every age, and the role their women and girls have played in dissolute human life.

And you will indeed find them, of all people, most greedy of life.(*) And you see many of them racing each other in sin and rancour, and their eating of things forbidden. Evil indeed are the things they do.(*) But they [ever] strive to do mischief on earth. And God loves not those who do mischief.(*) And We gave [clear] warning to the Children of Israel in the Book, that twice they would do mischief on the earth.(*) And do no evil nor mischief on the earth.(*)

These two statements of the Qur’an directed at the Jews, comprise the two fearsome general rules, that that nation hatches plots in human social life with their trickery, which shake human society. They say that just as it was that nation which made labour contest with capital; and through usury and compounded interest, made the poor clash with the rich, and caused the banks to be founded, and amassed wealth through wiles and fraud; so it was again that nation who, in order to take their revenge on the victors and governments under which they always suffered deprivation and oppression, were involved in every sort of corrupting covert organization and had a finger in every sort of revolution.

And, for example: Then seek ye for death(*)

That is, “If what you say is true, seek death, but you won’t seek it!” Thus, through a minor incident in a small gathering in the presence of the Prophet (PBUH), it points out that the Jewish nation, which is most famous among the nations of mankind for its greed for life and fear of death, will not, according to its tongue of disposition, seek death till Doomsday, and will not give up its greed for life.

And, for example: Thus they were stamped with humiliation and indigence.(*)

With this, it describes generally that nation’s future destiny. It is because of these fearsome rules governing the destiny and character of this nation that the Qur’an acts so severely against them. It deals them awesomely punishing slaps. From these examples draw analogies with the other stories and passages about Moses (Peace be upon him) and the Children of Israel.

Now, there are very many flashes of miraculousness like the flash in this Fourth Glow behind the simple words and specific subjects of the Qur’an. A hint is enough for the wise.

Fifth Glow: This is the extraordinary comprehensiveness of the Qur’an in regard to its aims and subjects, meanings and styles, and its subtle qualities and fine virtues. Indeed, if the Suras and verses of the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition are studied carefully, and especially the openings of the Suras, and the beginnings and ends of the verses, it will be seen that although it gathers together all the categories of rhetoric,

all the parts of fine speech, all the classes of elevated styles, all the sorts of fine morality, all the summaries of the sciences relating to the universe, all the indexes of Divine knowledge, all the beneficial rules for individual and human social life, and all the luminous laws of the exalted physical sciences, not a trace of confusion is apparent. In truth, to gather together in one place this many different categories of knowledge and not to cause any dispute or difficulty can only be the work of an overwhelming miraculous order.

Then together with the order within this comprehensiveness, as is expounded and proved in the previous twenty-four Words, to rend the veils of the habitual and commonplace, which are the source of compounded ignorance, and to draw out the wonders concealed beneath them and display them; to smash with the diamond sword of proof the idol of nature, which is the source of misguidance; to scatter with thunderous trumpet-blasts the dense layers of the sleep of heedlessness; and to uncover and reveal the obscure talisman of being and the strange riddle of the creation of the world, before which human philosophy and science have remained impotent, is most surely only the wondrous work of a wonder-worker like the Qur’an – the Qur’an, which sees reality, is familiar with the Unseen, bestows guidance, and shows the truth.

If the Qur’an’s verses are considered carefully and fairly, it will be seen that they do not resemble a gradual chain of thought, following one or two aims, like other books. For the Qur’an’s manner is sudden and instantaneous; it is inspired on the moment; its mark is that all its aspects arrive together but independently from distant places, a most serious and important discourse which comes singly and concisely.

Yes, who is there apart from the universe’s Creator that could give a discourse concerned to this degree with the universe and the Creator of the universe? Who could step beyond his mark to an infinite degree and make the All-Glorious Creator speak according to his own whims, then make the universe speak the truth?

Yes, in the Qur’an, the universe’s Maker is seen to be speaking and making others speak most seriously and truthfully and in elevated and true fashion. There is no sign at all to suggest imitation. He speaks and makes speak. If, to suppose the impossible, someone like Musaylima was to step beyond his mark to an infinite degree, and by way of imitation make the All-Glorious Creator, the Sublime and Majestic One, speak according to his own ideas, and the universe as well, there certainly would be thousands of signs of imitation and indications of falsehood. For when the contemptible assume the manner of the lofty, their every action shows up their pretence. So consider carefully these verses, which proclaim this fact with an oath: By the star when it goes down! * Your companion is neither astray nor being misled * Nor does he say [aught] of [his own] desire * It is no less than revelation inspired!(*)

THIRD RAY

This is the miraculousness of the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition which is its giving news of the Unseen, preserving its youth in every age, and being appropriate to every level of person.

This Ray has three ‘Radiances’.

First Radiance:

This is its giving news of the Unseen.

It consists of three ‘Glistens’.

The First Glisten is its telling about the past, one part of the Unseen.

Indeed, the All-Wise Qur’an mentions through the tongue of one whom everyone agreed was both unlettered and trustworthy the important events and significant facts concerning the prophets from the time of Adam till the Era of Bliss in a way which, confirmed by scriptures like the Torah and the Bible, tells of them with the greatest power and seriousness. It concurs with the points on which the former Books were agreed, and decides between them on the points over which they differed, pointing out the truth of the matter.

That is to say, the Qur’an’s view which penetrates the Unseen sees the events of the past in a way over and above all the previous scriptures, and pronounces them right and confirms them in the matters on which they are agreed, and acts as arbiter between them, correcting in matters about which they are at variance. However, the facts the Qur’an relates about the events of the past are not things that could have been learnt through the exercise of reason that they were communicated by it; they were rather transmitted knowledge, dependent on the heavens, on revelation. And as for transmitted knowledge, it is the domain of those who know how to read and write, and these were revealed to one known by friend and foe alike as knowing neither how to read nor how to write, and as being trustworthy; someone described as unlettered.

Also, the Qur’an tells of those past events as though it had actually seen them. For it takes the spirit and vital point of a lengthy event, and makes them the introduction to its aim. That is to say, the summaries and extracts which the Qur’an contains show that it sees all the past together with all its events. For just as someone who is an expert in some science or craft shows his skill and proficiency through some succinct words or a concise statement, so the summaries and spirits of events mentioned in the Qur’an show that the one who said them comprehends all the events and sees them, and, if one may say so, relates them with extraordinary skill.

The Second Glisten is its giving news of the future, which is another part of the Unseen.

There are many sorts of this. The first sort is particular, and special to the saints and those seek the truth through illumination.

For example, Muhyiddin al- ’Arabi discovered numerous instances of the Qur’an’s giving news of the Unseen in the Sura, Alif. Lam. Mim. * The Roman Empire has been defeated.(*) And Imam-i Rabbani saw many signs of the events of the Unseen and the communicating of them through the ‘disjointed letters’ at the start of some Suras, and so on. For scholars of the Batiniya School, the Qur’an consisted from beginning to end of information about the Unseen. We, however, shall indicate some which are general.

These too have many levels, one of which we shall discuss. Thus, the All- Wise Qur’an says to God’s Noble Messenger (Peace and blessings be upon him):(*)

So patiently persevere, for God’s promise is true.(*) You shall enter the Sacred Mosque if God wills, with minds secure, heads shaved, hair cut short, and without fear; He it is Who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth, so it should prevail over all religion.(*) But they, after this defeat of theirs will soon be victorious, within a few years. With God is the decision.(*) Soon will you see, and they will see which of you is afflicted with madness(*) Or do they say: “A poet! We await for him some calamity [hatched] by time?” Say: “Wait, then. And I shall wait with you!”(*) And God will defend you from men.(*) But if you cannot, and of a surety you cannot.(*) But they will never seek it.(*) We shall show them Our signs on the furthest horizons and in their own selves, so that it becomes clear to them that this is the Truth.(*) Say: If the whole of mankind and the jinns were to come together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce the like thereof, even if they backed up each other with help and support.(*)

God will produce a people whom He will love as they will love Him, lowly with the  believers, mighty against the rejecters, fighting in the way of God, and never afraid of the reproaches of such as find fault.(*) And say: Praise be to God, Who will show you His signs, so that you shall know them.(*) Say: He is the Most  Merciful; we have believed in Him, and in Him have we put our trust. Soon you shall know which [of us] it is that is in manifest error.(*)
God has promised to those among you who believe and act righteously that He will  of a surety grant them inheritance [of power] in the land, as He granted it to  those before them; that He will establish in authority their religion, which He has chosen for them; and that He will change [their state] after their fear, to one of security and peace.(*)

The information about the Unseen which many verses like these give turned out to be exactly true. Because it was given by one who was subject to many criticisms and objections and could have lost his cause through the tiniest mistake, and was spoken unhesitatingly, and with absolute seriousness and confidence in a way that confirmed its authenticit y, this news of the Unseen demonstrates with certainty that the one who gave it had received instruction from the Pre-Eternal Master, and then he spoke.

The Third Glisten is its giving news of the Divine truths, cosmic truths, and the matters of the hereafter.

The Qur’an’s expositions of the Divine truths, and its explanations of the cosmos, which solve the talisman of the universe and riddle of creation, are the most important of its disclosures about the Unseen. For it is not reasonable to expect the human reason to discover those truths about the Unseen and follow them without deviating amid innumerable ways of misguidance. It is well- known that the most brilliant philosophers of mankind have been unable to solve the most insignificant of those matters by use of the reason.

Furthermore, it is only after the Qur’an has elucidated those Divine truths and cosmic truths, which it points out, and after man’s heart has been cleansed and his soul purified, and after his spirit has advanced and his mind been perfected that his mind affirms and accepts those truths, and he says to the Qur’an: “How great are God’s blessings!” This section has been in part explained and proved in the Eleventh Word, and there is no need to repeat it.

But when it comes to facts concerning the hereafter and Intermediate Realm, the human mind certainly cannot rise to them and see them on its own. However, it can prove them to the degree it sees them through the ways shown by the Qur’an. It is explained and proved in the Tenth Word just how right and true are these disclosures of the Qur’an about the Unseen.

Second Radiance:

This is the Qur’an’s youth. It preserves its freshness and youth every age as though newly revealed.

In fact, the Qur’an has to have perpetual youth since as a pre-eternal address, it addresses at once all the levels of mankind in every age. And that is how it has been seen and is seen. Even, although all the centuries are different with regard to ideas and capacity, it as though looks to each particularly, and teaches it. Man’s works and laws grow old like man, they change and are changed. But the rulings and laws of the Qur’an are so firm and well-founded that they increase in strength as the centuries pass.

Indeed, this present age and the People of the Book this age, who have more than any other relied on themselves and stopped up their ears to the words of the Qur’an, are so in need of its guiding address of, O People of the Book! O People of the Book! that it is as if it addresses this age directly, and the phrase O People of the Book! comprises also the meaning of O People of the Modern Science Books!(*) It delivers its shout of, O People of the Book!

Come to common terms as between us and you(*) to the ends of the world with all its strength, all its freshness, all its youth. For example, modern civilization, which is the product of the thought of all mankind and perhaps the jinn as well, has taken up a position opposed to the Qur’an, which individuals and communities have failed to dispute. With its sorcery it impugns the Qur’an’s miraculousness. Now, in order to prove the claim of the verse: Say: if the whole of mankind and the jinns were to gather together,(*) we shall compare the foundations and principles which civilization has laid in the form of dispute, with the principles of the Qur’an.

At the First Degree:The comparisons and balances which form all the Words from the First to the Twenty-Fifth, and the verses at their heads which form their truths, all prove with the certainty that two plus two equals four the Qur’an’s miraculousness and superiority in the face of civilization.

At the Second Degree: Like the proofs in the Twelfth Word, it is to summarize a number of principles.

By reason of its philosophy, present-day civilization accepts ‘force’ as the point of support in the life of society. It takes as its aim ‘benefits,’ and considers the principle of its life to be ‘conflict.’ It considers the bond between communities to be ‘racialism and negative nationalism.’ While its aim is to provide ‘amusements’ for gratifying the appetites of the soul and increasing man’s needs.

However, the mark of force is aggression. And since the benefits are insufficient to meet all needs, their mark is that everyone tussles and jostles over them. The mark of conflict is contention, and the mark of racialism, aggression, since it thrives on devouring others.

Thus, it is because of these principles of civilization that despite all its virtues, it has provided a sort of superficial happiness for only twenty per cent of mankind and cast eighty per cent into distress and poverty.

The wisdom of the Qur’an, however, takes as its point of support ‘truth’ in stead of force, and in place of benefit has ‘virtue and God’s pleasure’ as its aims. It considers ‘the principle of mutual assistance’ to be fundamental in life, rather than conflict. In the ties between communities it accepts ‘the bonds of religion, class, and country,’ in place of racialism and nationalism. Its aims are to place a barrier before the illicit assaults of the soul’s base appetites and to urge the spirit to sublime matters, to satisfy man’s elevated emotions and encourage him towards the human perfections.

And as for the truth, its mark is concord, the mark of virtue is mutual support, and the mark of mutual assistance, hastening to help one another. The mark of religion is brotherhood and attraction. And the result of reining in and tethering the evil-commanding soul and leaving the spirit free and urging it towards perfection is happiness in this world and the next.

Thus, despite the virtues present- day civilization has acquired from the guidance of the Qur’an in particular, and from the preceding revealed religions, in point of fact it has thus suffered defeat before the Qur’an.

Third Degree: Of thousands of matters, we shall point out only three or four by way of example. Since the Qur’an’s principles and laws have come from pre-eternity, they shall go to post-eternity. They are not condemned to grow old and die like civilization’s laws. They are always young and strong.

For example, despite all its societies for good works, all its establishments for the teaching of ethics, all its severe discipline and regulations, civilization has been unable to contest the All-Wise Qur’an on two of its matters, and has been defeated by them. These two matters are: Be steadfast in performing the prayers, and give zakat,(*)

and, God has permitted trade and forbidden usury.(*) We shall describe them, this miraculous victory, by means of an introduction. It is like this:

As is proved in Isharat al-I’jaz, just as the source of mankind’s revolutions is one phrase, so another phrase is the origin of all immorality.

First Phrase: “So long as I’m full, what is it to me if others die of hunger.”

Second Phrase: “You work so that I can eat.”

Yes, the upper and lower classes in human society, that is, the rich and the poor, live at peace when in equilibrium. The basis of that equilibrium is compassion and kindness in the upper classes, and respect and obedience in the lower classes. Now, the first phrase has incited the upper classes to practise oppression, immorality, and mercilessness. And just as the second has driven the lower classes to hatred, envy, and to contend the upper classes, and has negated man’s tranquillity for several centuries, so too this century, as the result of the struggle between capital and labour, it has been the cause of the momentous events of Europe well-known by all.

Thus, together with all its societies for good works, all its establishments for the teaching of ethics, all its severe discipline and regulations, it could not reconcile these two classes of mankind, nor could it heal the two fearsome wounds in human life.

The Qur’an, however, eradicates the first phrase with its injunction to pay zakat, and heals it. While it uproots the second phrase with its prohibition on usury and interest, and cures that. Indeed, the Qur’anic verse stands at the door of the world and declares usury and interest to be forbidden. It reads out its decree to mankind, saying: “In order to close the door of strife, close the door of usury and interest!” It forbids its students to enter it.

Second Principle: Civilization does not accept polygamy. It considers the Qur’an’s decree to be contrary to wisdom and opposed to man’s benefits. Indeed, if the purpose of marriage was only to satisfy lust, polygamy would have been contrary to it. But as is testified to by all animals and corroborated by plants that ‘marry’, the purpose and aim of marriage is reproduction. The pleasure of satisfying lust is a small wage given by Divine mercy to encourage performace of the duty.

Since in truth and according to wisdom, marriage is for reproduction and the perpetuation of the species, since women can give birth only once a year, and can be impregnated only half the month, and after the age of fifty fall into despair, and men can impregnate till a hundred years old, and thus one woman is insufficient for one man, civilization has been compelled to accept numerous houses of ill-repute.

Third Principle: Unreasoning civilization criticizes the Qur’anic verse which apportions to women one third [in inheritance]. However, most of the rulings concerning social life are in accordance with the majority, and mostly a women finds someone to protect her. As for the man, she will be a burden on him and will have to combine efforts with someone else who will leave her her means of subsistence. Thus, in this form, if a woman takes half of the father’s legacy, her husband makes up her deficiency. But if the man receives two parts from his father, one part he will give to maintaining the woman he has married, thus becoming equal with his sister. The justice of the Qur’an requires it to be thus. It has decreed it in this way.(*)

Fourth Principle: Just as the Qur’an severely prohibits the worship of idols, so it forbids the worship of images, which is a sort of imitation of idol-worship. Whereas civilization counts the representation of forms as one of its virtues, and has attempted to dispute the Qur’an in this matter. But represented forms, whether pictorial or concrete, are either embodied tyranny, or embodied hypocrisy, or embodied lust; they excite lust and encourage man to oppression, hypocrisy, and licentiousness.

Moreover, the Qur’an compassionately commands women to wear the veil of modesty so that they will be treated with respect and those mines of compassion will not be trodden under the feet of low desires, nor be like worthless goods for the excitement of lust.(*)

Aziz, sıddık kardeşlerim!

Ramazan-ı şerifte Kur’an-ı Mu’cizü’l-Beyan’ı okurken Risale-i Nur’a işaretleri Birinci Şuâ’da beyan olunan otuz üç âyetten hangisi gelse bakıyordum ki o âyetin sahifesi ve yaprağı ve kıssası dahi Risale-i Nur’a ve şakirdlerine kıssadan hisse almak noktasında bir derece bakıyor. Hususan Sure-i Nur’dan Âyetü’n-Nur, on parmakla Risale-i Nur’a baktığı gibi arkasındaki Âyet-i Zulümat dahi muarızlarına tam bakıyor ve ziyade hisse veriyor. Âdeta o makam, cüz’iyetten çıkıp külliyet kesbeder ve bu asırda o küllînin tam bir ferdi Risale-i Nur ve şakirdleridir diye hissettim.

Evet, Kur’an’ın hitabı, evvela Mütekellim-i Ezelî’nin rububiyet-i âmmesinin geniş makamından hem nev-i beşer, belki kâinat namına muhatap olan zatın geniş makamından hem umum nev-i benî-Âdem’in bütün asırlarda irşadlarının gayet vüs’atli makamından hem dünya ve âhiretin ve arz ve semavatın ve ezel ve ebedin ve Hâlık-ı kâinat’ın rububiyetine ve bütün mahlukatın tedbirine dair kavanin-i İlahiyenin gayet yüksek ve ihatalı beyanatının geniş makamından aldığı vüs’at ve ulviyet ve ihata cihetiyle o hitap, öyle bir yüksek i’caz ve şümul gösterir ki ders-i Kur’an’ın muhataplarından en kesretli taife olan tabaka-i avamın basit fehimlerini okşayan zâhirî ve basit mertebesi dahi en ulvi tabakayı da tam hissedar eder.

Güya kıssadan yalnız bir hisse ve bir hikâye-i tarihiyeden bir ibret değil belki bir küllî düsturun efradı olarak her asra ve her tabakaya hitap ederek taze nâzil oluyor ve bilhassa çok tekrarla   اَلظَّالِمٖينَ ،  اَلظَّالِمٖينَ deyip tehditleri ve zulümlerinin cezası olan musibet-i semaviye ve arziyeyi şiddetle beyanı, bu asrın emsalsiz zulümlerine kavm-i Âd ve Semud ve Firavun’un başlarına gelen azaplar ile baktırıyor ve mazlum ehl-i imana İbrahim (as) ve Musa (as) gibi enbiyanın necatlarıyla teselli veriyor.

Evet, nazar-ı gaflet ve dalalette, vahşetli ve dehşetli bir ademistan ve elîm ve mahvolmuş bir mezaristan olan bütün geçmiş zaman ve ölmüş karnlar ve asırlar; canlı birer sahife-i ibret ve baştan başa ruhlu, hayattar bir acib âlem ve mevcud ve bizimle münasebettar bir memleket-i Rabbaniye suretinde sinema perdeleri gibi kâh bizi o zamanlara kâh o zamanları yanımıza getirerek her asra ve her tabakaya gösterip yüksek bir i’caz ile ders veren Kur’an-ı Mu’cizü’l-Beyan, aynı i’cazla nazar-ı dalalette camid, perişan, ölü, hadsiz bir vahşetgâh olan ve firak ve zevalde yuvarlanan bu kâinatı bir kitab-ı Samedanî, bir şehr-i Rahmanî, bir meşher-i sun’-u Rabbanî olarak o camidatı canlandırarak, birer vazifedar suretinde birbiriyle konuşturup ve birbirinin imdadına koşturup nev-i beşere ve cin ve meleğe hakiki ve nurlu ve zevkli hikmet dersleri veren bu Kur’an-ı Azîmüşşan, elbette her harfinde on ve yüz ve bazen bin ve binler sevap bulunması ve bütün cin ve ins toplansa onun mislini getirememesi ve bütün benî-Âdem’le ve kâinatla tam yerinde konuşması ve her zaman milyonlar hâfızların kalplerinde zevkle yazılması ve çok tekrarla ve kesretli tekraratıyla usandırmaması ve çok iltibas yerleri ve cümleleriyle beraber çocukların nazik ve basit kafalarında mükemmel yerleşmesi ve hastaların ve az sözden müteessir olan ve sekeratta olanların kulağında mâ-i zemzem misillü hoş gelmesi gibi kudsî imtiyazları kazanır ve iki cihanın saadetlerini kendi şakirdlerine kazandırır.

Ve tercümanının ümmiyet mertebesini tam riayet etmek sırrıyla hiçbir tekellüf ve hiçbir tasannu ve hiçbir gösterişe meydan vermeden selaset-i fıtriyesini ve doğrudan doğruya semadan gelmesini ve en kesretli olan tabaka-i avamın basit fehimlerini tenezzülat-ı kelâmiye ile okşamak hikmetiyle en ziyade sema ve arz gibi en zâhir ve bedihî sahifeleri açıp o âdiyat altındaki hârikulâde mu’cizat-ı kudretini ve manidar sutûr-u hikmetini ders vermekle lütf-u irşadda güzel bir i’caz gösterir.

Tekrarı iktiza eden dua ve davet ve zikir ve tevhid kitabı dahi olduğunu bildirmek sırrıyla güzel, tatlı tekraratıyla bir tek cümlede ve bir tek kıssada ayrı ayrı çok manaları, ayrı ayrı muhatap tabakalarına tefhim etmekte ve cüz’î ve âdi bir hâdisede en cüz’î ve ehemmiyetsiz şeyler dahi nazar-ı merhametinde ve daire-i tedbir ve iradesinde bulunmasını bildirmek sırrıyla tesis-i İslâmiyette ve tedvin-i şeriatta sahabelerin cüz’î hâdiselerini dahi nazar-ı ehemmiyete almasında hem küllî düsturların bulunması hem umumî olan İslâmiyet’in ve şeriatın tesisinde o cüz’î hâdiseler, çekirdekler hükmünde çok ehemmiyetli meyveleri verdikleri cihetinde de bir nev-i i’cazını gösterir.

Evet, ihtiyacın tekerrürüyle, tekrarın lüzumu haysiyetiyle yirmi sene zarfında pek çok mükerrer suallere cevap olarak ayrı ayrı çok tabakalara ders veren ve koca kâinatı parça parça edip kıyamette şeklini değiştirerek dünyayı kaldırıp onun yerine azametli âhireti kuracak ve zerrattan yıldızlara kadar bütün cüz’iyat ve külliyatı, tek bir zatın elinde ve tasarrufunda bulunduğunu ispat edecek ve kâinatı ve arz ve semavatı ve anâsırı kızdıran ve hiddete getiren nev-i beşerin zulümlerine, kâinatın netice-i hilkati hesabına gazab-ı İlahî ve hiddet-i Rabbaniyeyi gösterecek hadsiz hârika ve nihayetsiz dehşetli ve geniş bir inkılabın tesisinde binler netice kuvvetinde bazı cümleleri ve hadsiz delillerin neticesi olan bir kısım âyetleri tekrar etmek; değil bir kusur, belki gayet kuvvetli bir i’caz ve gayet yüksek bir belâgat ve mukteza-yı hale gayet mutabık bir cezalettir ve fesahattir.

Mesela, bir tek âyet iken yüz on dört defa tekerrür eden بِس۟مِ اللّٰهِ الرَّح۟مٰنِ الرَّحٖيمِ    cümlesi, Risale-i Nur’un On Dördüncü Lem’a’sında beyan edildiği gibi arşı ferşle bağlayan ve kâinatı ışıklandıran ve her dakika herkes ona muhtaç olan öyle bir hakikattir ki milyonlar defa tekrar edilse yine ihtiyaç var. Değil yalnız ekmek gibi her gün, belki hava ve ziya gibi her dakika ona ihtiyaç ve iştiyak vardır.

Hem mesela, Sure-i   طٰسٓمٓ   de sekiz defa tekrar edilen şu اِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَهُوَ ال۟عَزٖيزُ الرَّحٖيمُ   âyeti, o surede hikâye edilen peygamberlerin necatlarını ve kavimlerinin azaplarını, kâinatın netice-i hilkati hesabına ve rububiyet-i âmmenin namına o binler hakikat kuvvetinde olan âyeti tekrar ederek, izzet-i Rabbaniye o zalim kavimlerin azabını ve rahîmiyet-i İlahiye dahi enbiyanın necatlarını iktiza ettiğini ders vermek için binler defa tekrar olsa yine ihtiyaç ve iştiyak var ve i’cazlı, îcazlı bir ulvi belâgattır.

Hem mesela, Sure-i Rahman’da tekrar edilen فَبِاَىِّ اٰلَٓاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ    âyeti ile Sure-i Mürselât’ta وَي۟لٌ يَو۟مَئِذٍ لِل۟مُكَذِّبٖينَ    âyeti, cin ve nev-i beşerin, kâinatı kızdıran ve arz ve semavatı hiddete getiren ve hilkat-i âlemin neticelerini bozan ve haşmet-i saltanat-ı İlahiyeye karşı inkâr ve istihfafla mukabele eden küfür ve küfranlarını ve zulümlerini ve bütün mahlukatın hukuklarına tecavüzlerini, asırlara ve arz ve semavata tehditkârane haykıran bu iki âyet, böyle binler hakikatlerle alâkadar ve binler mesele kuvvetinde olan bir ders-i umumîde binler defa tekrar edilse yine lüzum var ve celalli bir i’caz ve cemalli bir îcaz-ı belâgattır.

Hem mesela, Kur’an’ın hakiki ve tam bir nevi münâcatı ve Kur’an’dan çıkan bir çeşit hülâsası olan Cevşenü’l-Kebir namındaki münâcat-ı Peygamberîde yüz defa سُب۟حَانَكَ يَا لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اَن۟تَ ال۟اَمَانُ ال۟اَمَانُ خَلِّص۟نَا وَ اَجِر۟نَا وَ نَجِّنَا مِنَ النَّارِ cümlesi tekrarında tevhid gibi kâinatça en büyük hakikat ve tesbih ve takdis gibi mahlukatın rububiyete karşı üç muazzam vazifesinden en ehemmiyetli vazifesi ve şakavet-i ebediyeden kurtulmak gibi nev-i insanın en dehşetli meselesi ve ubudiyet ve acz-i beşerînin en lüzumlu neticesi bulunması cihetiyle binler defa tekrar edilse yine azdır.

İşte –namaz tesbihatı gibi ibadetlerden bir kısmının tekrarı sünnet bulunan maddeler gibi– tekrarat-ı Kur’aniye, bu gibi metin esaslara bakıyor. Hattâ bazen bir sahifede iktiza-yı makam ve ihtiyac-ı ifham ve belâgat-ı beyan cihetiyle yirmi defa sarîhan ve zımnen tevhid hakikatini ifade eder. Değil usanç, belki kuvvet ve şevk ve halâvet verir. Risale-i Nur’da, tekrarat-ı Kur’aniye ne kadar yerinde ve münasip ve belâgatça makbul olduğu hüccetleriyle beyan edilmiş.

Kur’an-ı Mu’cizü’l-Beyan’ın Mekkiye sureleriyle Medeniye sureleri belâgat noktasında ve i’caz cihetinde ve tafsil ve icmal vechinde birbirinden ayrı olmasının sırr-ı hikmeti şudur ki:

Mekke’de birinci safta muhatap ve muarızları, Kureyş müşrikleri ve ümmileri olduğundan belâgatça kuvvetli bir üslub-u âlî ve îcazlı, mukni, kanaat verici bir icmal ve tesbit için tekrar lâzım geldiğinden ekseriyetçe Mekkî sureleri erkân-ı imaniyeyi ve tevhidin mertebelerini gayet kuvvetli ve yüksek ve i’cazlı bir îcaz ile ifade ve tekrar ederek mebde ve meâdi, Allah’ı ve âhireti, değil yalnız bir sahifede, bir âyette, bir cümlede, bir kelimede belki bazen bir harfte ve takdim-tehir, tarif-tenkir ve hazf-zikir gibi heyetlerde öyle kuvvetli ispat eder ki ilm-i belâgatın dâhî imamları hayretle karşılamışlar.

Risale-i Nur ve bilhassa Kur’an’ın kırk vech-i i’cazını icmalen ispat eden Yirmi Beşinci Söz, zeylleriyle beraber ve nazımdaki vech-i i’cazı hârika bir tarzda beyan ve ispat eden Arabî Risale-i Nur’dan İşaratü’l-İ’caz tefsiri bilfiil göstermişler ki Mekkî sure ve âyetlerde en âlî bir üslub-u belâgat ve en yüksek bir i’caz-ı îcazî vardır.

Amma Medine sure ve âyetlerinin birinci safta muhatap ve muarızları ise Allah’ı tasdik eden Yahudi ve Nasâra gibi ehl-i kitap olduğundan mukteza-yı belâgat ve irşad ve mutabık-ı makam ve halin lüzumundan, sade ve vâzıh ve tafsilli bir üslupla ehl-i kitaba karşı dinin yüksek usûlünü ve imanın rükünlerini değil belki medar-ı ihtilaf olan şeriatın ve ahkâmın ve teferruatın ve küllî kanunların menşeleri ve sebepleri olan cüz’iyatın beyanı lâzım geldiğinden, o sure ve âyetlerde ekseriyetçe tafsil ve izah ve sade üslupla beyanat içinde Kur’an’a mahsus emsalsiz bir tarz-ı beyanla, birden o cüz’î teferruat hâdisesi içinde yüksek, kuvvetli bir fezleke, bir hâtime, bir hüccet ve o cüz’î hâdise-i şer’iyeyi küllîleştiren ve imtisalini iman-ı billah ile temin eden bir cümle-i tevhidiye ve esmaiye ve uhreviyeyi zikreder. O makamı nurlandırır, ulvileştirir, küllîleştirir.

Risale-i Nur, âyetlerin âhirlerinde ekseriyetle gelen اِنَّ اللّٰهَ عَلٰى كُلِّ شَى۟ءٍ قَدٖيرٌ ۝ اِنَّ اللّٰهَ بِكُلِّ شَى۟ءٍ عَلٖيمٌ ۝ وَهُوَ ال۟عَزٖيزُ الرَّحٖيمُ ۝ وَهُوَ ال۟عَزٖيزُ ال۟حَكٖيمُ gibi tevhidi veya âhireti ifade eden fezlekeler ve hâtimelerde ne kadar yüksek bir belâgat ve meziyetler ve cezaletler ve nükteler bulunduğunu Yirmi Beşinci Söz’ün İkinci Şule’sinin İkinci Nur’unda o fezleke ve hâtimelerin pek çok nüktelerinden ve meziyetlerinden on tanesini beyan ederek o hülâsalarda bir mu’cize-i kübra bulunduğunu muannidlere de ispat etmiş.

Evet Kur’an, o teferruat-ı şer’iye ve kavanin-i içtimaiyenin beyanı içinde birden muhatabın nazarını en yüksek ve küllî noktalara kaldırıp, sade üslubu bir ulvi üsluba ve şeriat dersinden tevhid dersine çevirerek Kur’an’ı hem bir kitab-ı şeriat ve ahkâm ve hikmet hem bir kitab-ı akide ve iman ve zikir ve fikir ve dua ve davet olduğunu gösterip her makamda çok makasıd-ı irşadiye ve Kur’aniyeyi ders vermesiyle Mekkiye âyetlerin tarz-ı belâgatlarından ayrı ve parlak, mu’cizane bir cezalet izhar eder.

Bazen iki kelimede mesela    رَبُّ ال۟عَالَمٖينَ    ve    رَبُّكَ    de   رَبُّكَ   tabiriyle ehadiyeti ve   رَبُّ ال۟عَالَمٖينَ   ile vâhidiyeti bildirir. Ehadiyet içinde vâhidiyeti ifade eder. Hattâ bir cümlede, bir zerreyi bir göz bebeğinde gördüğü ve yerleştirdiği gibi güneşi dahi aynı âyetle, aynı çekiçle göğün göz bebeğinde yerleştirir ve göğe bir göz yapar.

Mesela    خَلَقَ السَّمٰوَاتِ وَ ال۟اَر۟ضَ    âyetinden sonra يُولِجُ الَّي۟لَ فِى النَّهَارِ وَ يُولِجُ النَّهَارَ فِى الَّي۟لِ    âyetinin akabinde وَ هُوَ عَلٖيمٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ   der. “Zemin ve göklerin haşmet-i hilkatinde kalbin dahi hatıratını bilir, idare eder.” der, tarzında bir beyanat cihetiyle o sade ve ümmiyet mertebesini ve avamın fehmini nazara alan o basit ve cüz’î muhavere, o tarz ile ulvi ve cazibedar ve umumî ve irşadkâr bir mükâlemeye döner.

Ehemmiyetli Bir Sual: Bazen bir hakikat, sathî nazarlara görünmediğinden ve bazı makamlarda cüz’î ve âdi bir hâdiseden yüksek bir fezleke-i tevhidi veya küllî bir düsturu beyan etmekte münasebet bilinmediğinden bir kusur tevehhüm edilir. Mesela “Hazret-i Yusuf aleyhisselâm, kardeşini bir hile ile alması” içinde   وَفَو۟قَ كُلِّ ذٖى عِل۟مٍ عَلٖيمٌ   diye gayet yüksek bir düsturun zikri, belâgatça münasebeti görünmüyor. Bunun sırrı ve hikmeti nedir?

Elcevap: Her biri birer küçük Kur’an olan ekser uzun sure ve mutavassıtlarda ve çok sahife ve makamlarda yalnız iki üç maksat değil belki Kur’an mahiyeti hem bir kitab-ı zikir ve iman ve fikir hem bir kitab-ı şeriat ve hikmet ve irşad gibi çok kitapları ve ayrı ayrı dersleri tazammun ederek rububiyet-i İlahiyenin her şeye ihatasını ve haşmetli tecelliyatını ifade etmek cihetiyle, kâinat kitab-ı kebirinin bir nevi kıraatı olan Kur’an, elbette her makamda, hattâ bazen bir sahifede çok maksatları takiben marifetullahtan ve tevhidin mertebelerinden ve iman hakikatlerinden ders verdiği haysiyetiyle, öbür makamda mesela, zâhirce zayıf bir münasebetle başka bir ders açar ve o zayıf münasebete çok kuvvetli münasebetler iltihak ederler. O makama gayet mutabık olur, mertebe-i belâgatı yükseklenir.

İkinci Bir Sual: Kur’an’da sarîhan ve zımnen ve işareten, âhiret ve tevhidi ve beşerin mükâfat ve mücazatını binler defa ispat edip nazara vermenin ve her surede her sahifede her makamda ders vermenin hikmeti nedir?

Elcevap: Daire-i imkânda ve kâinatın sergüzeştine ait inkılablarda ve emanet-i kübrayı ve hilafet-i arziyeyi omuzuna alan nev-i beşerin şakavet ve saadet-i ebediyeye medar olan vazifesine dair en ehemmiyetli en büyük en dehşetli meselelerinden en azametlilerini ders vermek ve hadsiz şüpheleri izale etmek ve gayet şiddetli inkârları ve inatları kırmak cihetinde elbette o dehşetli inkılabları tasdik ettirmek ve o inkılablar azametinde büyük ve beşere en elzem ve en zarurî meseleleri teslim ettirmek için Kur’an, binler defa değil belki milyonlar defa onlara baktırsa yine israf değil ki milyonlar kere tekrar ile o bahisler Kur’an’da okunur, usanç vermez, ihtiyaç kesilmez.

Mesela اِنَّ الَّذٖينَ اٰمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَهُم۟ جَنَّاتٌ تَج۟رٖى مِن۟ تَح۟تِهَا ال۟اَن۟هَارُ … خَالِدٖينَ فٖيهَٓا اَبَدًا âyetinin gösterdiği müjde-i saadet-i ebediye hakikati, bîçare beşere her dakika kendini gösteren hakikat-i mevtin hem insanı hem dünyasını hem bütün ahbabını idam-ı ebedîsinden kurtarıp ebedî bir saltanatı kazandırdığından, milyarlar defa tekrar edilse ve kâinat kadar ehemmiyet verilse yine israf olmaz, kıymetten düşmez.

İşte bu çeşit hadsiz kıymettar meseleleri ders veren ve kâinatı bir hane gibi değiştiren ve şeklini bozan dehşetli inkılabları tesis etmekte iknaya ve inandırmaya ve ispata çalışan Kur’an-ı Mu’cizü’l-Beyan elbette sarîhan ve zımnen ve işareten binler defa o meselelere nazar-ı dikkati celbetmek; değil israf belki ekmek, ilaç, hava, ziya gibi birer hâcet-i zaruriye hükmünde ihsanını tazelendirir.

Hem mesela   اِنَّ ال۟كَافِرٖينَ فٖى نَارِ جَهَنَّمَ   ve اَلظَّالِمٖينَ لَهُم۟ عَذَابٌ اَلٖيمٌ   gibi tehdit âyetlerini Kur’an gayet şiddetle ve hiddetle ve gayet kuvvet ve tekrarla zikretmesinin hikmeti ise –Risale-i Nur’da kat’î ispat edildiği gibi– beşerin küfrü, kâinatın ve ekser mahlukatın hukukuna öyle bir tecavüzdür ki semavatı ve arzı kızdırıyor ve anâsırı hiddete getirip tufanlar ile o zalimleri tokatlıyor. Ve اِذَٓا اُل۟قُوا فٖيهَا سَمِعُوا لَهَا شَهٖيقًا وَهِىَ تَفُورُ ۝ تَكَادُ تَمَيَّزُ مِنَ ال۟غَي۟ظِ âyetinin sarahatiyle o zalim münkirlere cehennem, öyle öfkeleniyor ki hiddetinden parçalanmak derecesine geliyor.

İşte böyle bir cinayet-i âmmeye ve hadsiz bir tecavüze karşı beşerin küçüklük ve ehemmiyetsizliği noktasına değil belki zalimane cinayetinin azametine ve kâfirane tecavüzünün dehşetine karşı Sultan-ı Kâinat, kendi raiyetinin hukuklarının ehemmiyetini ve o münkirlerin küfür ve zulmündeki nihayetsiz çirkinliğini göstermek hikmetiyle fermanında gayet hiddet ve şiddetle o cinayeti ve cezasını değil bin defa, belki milyonlar ve milyarlar ile tekrar etse yine israf ve kusur değil ki bin seneden beri yüzer milyon insanlar her gün usanmadan kemal-i iştiyakla ve ihtiyaçla okurlar.

Evet, her gün her zaman, herkes için bir âlem gider, taze bir âlemin kapısı kendine açılmasından, o geçici her bir âlemini nurlandırmak için ihtiyaç ve iştiyakla   لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اللّٰهُ‌   cümlesini binler defa tekrar ile o değişen perdelere ve âlemlere her birisine bir   لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اللّٰهُ‌   ı lamba yaptığı gibi öyle de o kesretli, geçici perdeleri ve tazelenen seyyar kâinatları karanlıklandırmamak ve âyine-i hayatında in’ikas eden suretlerini çirkinleştirmemek ve lehinde şahit olabilen o misafir vaziyetleri aleyhine çevirmemek için o cinayetlerin cezalarını ve Padişah-ı Ezelî’nin şiddetli ve inatları kıran tehditlerini, her vakit Kur’an’ı okumakla tahattur edip nefsin tuğyanından kurtulmaya çalışmak hikmetiyle Kur’an, gayet mu’cizane tekrar eder ve bu derece kuvvet ve şiddet ve tekrarla tehdidat-ı Kur’aniyeyi hakikatsiz tevehhüm etmekten şeytan bile kaçar. Ve onları dinlemeyen münkirlere cehennem azabı ayn-ı adalettir, diye gösterir.

Hem mesela, asâ-yı Musa gibi çok hikmetleri ve faydaları bulunan kıssa-i Musa’nın (as) ve sair enbiyanın kıssalarını çok tekrarında, risalet-i Ahmediyenin hakkaniyetine bütün enbiyanın nübüvvetlerini hüccet gösterip onların umumunu inkâr edemeyen, bu zatın risaletini hakikat noktasında inkâr edemez hikmetiyle ve herkes, her vakit bütün Kur’an’ı okumaya muktedir ve muvaffak olamadığından her bir uzun ve mutavassıt sureyi birer küçük Kur’an hükmüne getirmek için ehemmiyetli erkân-ı imaniye gibi o kıssaları tekrar etmesi; değil israf belki mu’cizane bir belâgattır ve hâdise-i Muhammediye bütün benî-Âdem’in en büyük hâdisesi ve kâinatın en azametli meselesi olduğunu ders vermektir.

Evet, Kur’an’da Zat-ı Ahmediye’ye en büyük makam vermek ve dört erkân-ı imaniyeyi içine almakla    لَٓا اِلٰهَ اِلَّا اللّٰهُ‌   rüknüne denk tutulan مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللّٰهِ‌   ve risalet-i Muhammediye kâinatın en büyük hakikati ve Zat-ı Ahmediye, bütün mahlukatın en eşrefi ve hakikat-i Muhammediye tabir edilen küllî şahsiyet-i maneviyesi ve makam-ı kudsîsi, iki cihanın en parlak bir güneşi olduğuna ve bu hârika makama liyakatine pek çok hüccetleri ve emareleri, kat’î bir surette Risale-i Nur’da ispat edilmiş. Binden birisi şudur ki:

اَلسَّبَبُ كَال۟فَاعِلِ   düsturuyla, bütün ümmetinin bütün zamanlarda işlediği hasenatın bir misli onun defter-i hasenatına girmesi ve bütün kâinatın hakikatlerini, getirdiği nur ile nurlandırması, değil yalnız cin, ins, melek ve zîhayatı, belki kâinatı, semavat ve arzı minnettar eylemesi ve istidat lisanıyla nebatatın duaları ve ihtiyac-ı fıtrî diliyle hayvanatın duaları, gözümüz önünde bilfiil kabul olmasının şehadetiyle milyonlar, belki milyarlar fıtrî ve reddedilmez duaları makbul olan suleha-yı ümmeti her gün o zata salât ü selâm unvanıyla rahmet duaları ve manevî kazançlarını en evvel o zata bağışlamaları ve bütün ümmetçe okunan Kur’an’ın üç yüz bin harfinin her birisinde on sevaptan tâ yüz, tâ bin hasene ve meyve vermesinden yalnız kıraat-ı Kur’an cihetiyle defter-i a’maline hadsiz nurlar girmesi haysiyetiyle o zatın şahsiyet-i maneviyesi olan hakikat-i Muhammediye, istikbalde bir şecere-i tûba-i cennet hükmünde olacağını Allâmü’l-guyub bilmiş ve görmüş, o makama göre Kur’an’ında o azîm ehemmiyeti vermiş ve fermanında ona tebaiyetle ve sünnetine ittiba ile şefaatine mazhariyeti en ehemmiyetli bir mesele-i insaniye göstermiş ve o haşmetli şecere-i tûbanın bir çekirdeği olan şahsiyet-i beşeriyetini ve bidayetteki vaziyet-i insaniyesini ara sıra nazara almasıdır.

İşte Kur’an’ın tekrar edilen hakikatleri bu kıymette olduğundan tekraratında kuvvetli ve geniş bir mu’cize-i maneviye bulunmasına fıtrat-ı selime şehadet eder. Meğer maddiyyunluk taunuyla maraz-ı kalbe ve vicdan hastalığına müptela ola.

قَد۟ يُن۟كِرُ ال۟مَر۟ءُ ضَو۟ءَ الشَّم۟سِ مِن۟ رَمَدٍ وَ يُن۟كِرُ ال۟فَمُ طَع۟مَ ال۟مَاءِ مِن۟ سَقَمٍ kaidesine dâhil olur.

BU ONUNCU MESELEYE BİR HÂTİME OLARAK İKİ HÂŞİYEDİR

BİRİNCİSİ

Bundan on iki sene evvel işittim ki en dehşetli ve muannid bir zındık, Kur’an’a karşı suikastını tercümesiyle yapmaya başlamış ve demiş ki: “Kur’an tercüme edilsin, tâ ne mal olduğu bilinsin.” Yani lüzumsuz tekraratı herkes görsün ve tercümesi onun yerinde okunsun diye dehşetli bir plan çevirmiş.

Fakat Risale-i Nur’un cerh edilmez hüccetleri kat’î ispat etmiş ki Kur’an’ın hakiki tercümesi kabil değil ve lisan-ı nahvî olan lisan-ı Arabî yerinde Kur’an’ın meziyetlerini ve nüktelerini başka lisan muhafaza edemez ve her bir harfi, on adetten bine kadar sevap veren kelimat-ı Kur’aniyenin mu’cizane ve cem’iyetli tabirleri yerinde, beşerin âdi ve cüz’î tercümeleri tutamaz, onun yerinde camilerde okunmaz diye Risale-i Nur, her tarafta intişarıyla o dehşetli planı akîm bıraktı. Fakat o zındıktan ders alan münafıklar, yine şeytan hesabına Kur’an güneşini üflemekle söndürmeye, aptal çocuklar gibi ahmakane ve divanecesine çalışmaları hikmetiyle, bana gayet sıkı ve sıkıcı ve sıkıntılı bir halette bu Onuncu Mesele yazdırıldı tahmin ediyorum. Başkalarla görüşemediğim için hakikat-i hali bilemiyorum.

İKİNCİ HÂŞİYE

Denizli Hapsinden tahliyemizden sonra meşhur Şehir Otelinin yüksek katında oturmuştum. Karşımda güzel bahçelerde kesretli kavak ağaçları birer halka-i zikir tarzında gayet latîf, tatlı bir surette hem kendileri hem dalları hem yaprakları, havanın dokunmasıyla cezbekârane ve cazibedarane hareketle raksları, kardeşlerimin müfarakatlarından ve yalnız kaldığımdan hüzünlü ve gamlı kalbime ilişti. Birden güz ve kış mevsimi hatıra geldi ve bana bir gaflet bastı. Ben, o kemal-i neşe ile cilvelenen o nâzenin kavaklara ve zîhayatlara o kadar acıdım ki gözlerim yaşla doldu. Kâinatın süslü perdesi altındaki ademleri, firakları ihtar ve ihsasıyla kâinat dolusu firakların, zevallerin hüzünleri başıma toplandı.

Birden hakikat-i Muhammediyenin (asm) getirdiği nur, imdada yetişti. O hadsiz hüzünleri ve gamları, sürurlara çevirdi. Hattâ o nurun, herkes ve her ehl-i iman gibi benim hakkımda milyon feyzinden yalnız o vakitte, o vaziyete temas eden imdat ve tesellisi için Zat-ı Muhammediye’ye (asm) karşı ebediyen minnettar oldum. Şöyle ki:

Ol nazar-ı gaflet, o mübarek nâzeninleri; vazifesiz, neticesiz, bir mevsimde görünüp, hareketleri neşeden değil belki güya ademden ve firaktan titreyerek hiçliğe düştüklerini göstermekle, herkes gibi bendeki aşk-ı beka ve hubb-u mehasin ve muhabbet-i vücud ve şefkat-i cinsiye ve alâka-i hayatiyeye medar olan damarlarıma o derece dokundu ki böyle dünyayı bir manevî cehenneme ve aklı bir tazip âletine çevirdiği sırada, Muhammed aleyhissalâtü vesselâmın beşere hediye getirdiği nur perdeyi kaldırdı; idam, adem, hiçlik, vazifesizlik, abes, firak, fânilik yerinde o kavakların her birinin yaprakları adedince hikmetleri, manaları ve Risale-i Nur’da ispat edildiği gibi üç kısma ayrılan neticeleri ve vazifeleri var, diye gösterdi:

Birinci kısım neticeleri: Sâni’-i Zülcelal’in esmasına bakar. Mesela, nasıl ki bir usta hârika bir makineyi yapsa onu takdir eden herkes o zata “Mâşâallah, bârekellah” deyip alkışlar. Öyle de o makine dahi ondan maksud neticeleri tam tamına göstermesiyle, lisan-ı haliyle ustasını tebrik eder, alkışlar. Her zîhayat ve her şey böyle bir makinedir, ustasını tebriklerle alkışlar.

İkinci kısım hikmetleri ise: Zîhayatın ve zîşuurun nazarlarına bakar. Onlara şirin bir mütalaagâh, birer kitab-ı marifet olur. Manalarını zîşuurun zihinlerinde ve suretlerini kuvve-i hâfızalarında ve elvah-ı misaliyede ve âlem-i gaybın defterlerinde daire-i vücudda bırakıp sonra âlem-i şehadeti terk eder, âlem-i gayba çekilir. Demek, surî bir vücudu bırakır, manevî ve gaybî ve ilmî çok vücudları kazanır.

Evet, madem Allah var ve ilmi ihata eder. Elbette adem, idam, hiçlik, mahv, fena; hakikat noktasında ehl-i imanın dünyasında yoktur ve kâfir münkirlerin dünyaları ademle, firakla, hiçlikle, fânilikle doludur. İşte bu hakikati, umumun lisanında gezen bu gelen darb-ı mesel ders verip der: “Kimin için Allah var, ona her şey var ve kimin için yoksa her şey ona yoktur, hiçtir.”

Elhasıl, nasıl ki iman, ölüm vaktinde insanı idam-ı ebedîden kurtarıyor; öyle de herkesin hususi dünyasını dahi idamdan ve hiçlik karanlıklarından kurtarıyor. Ve küfür ise hususan küfr-ü mutlak olsa hem o insanı hem hususi dünyasını ölümle idam edip manevî cehennem zulmetlerine atar. Hayatının lezzetlerini acı zehirlere çevirir. Hayat-ı dünyeviyeyi âhiretine tercih edenlerin kulakları çınlasın. Gelsinler, buna ya bir çare bulsunlar veya imana girsinler. Bu dehşetli hasarattan kurtulsunlar.

سُب۟حَانَكَ لَا عِل۟مَ لَنَٓا اِلَّا مَا عَلَّم۟تَنَٓا اِنَّكَ اَن۟تَ ال۟عَلٖيمُ ال۟حَكٖيمُ

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Said Nursî

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