Concerning Proofs of the Divine Unity

THE FIRST TRUTH: Absolute Divinity
The absorption of each class of men in a mode of worship dictated by their innate
dispositions; the species of worship engaged in by other animate beings, as well as
inanimate beings, through the performance of their essential functions; the way in
which all material and immaterial bounties and gifts in the cosmos become means
inciting men to worship and thanks, to praise and gratitude; the fashion in which all the
manifestations of the Unseen and epiphanies of the spirit, revelation and inspiration,
unanimously proclaim the exclusive fitness of one God to receive worship — all of
this, in most evidential fashion, proves the reality and dominance of a single and
absolute Divinity. If the truth of such a Divinty exists, it can in no way accept
partnership. For those who respond to Divinity —that is, the fitness to be
worshipped— with thanks and worship, are the conscious and animate fruits on the
highest branches of the tree of the cosmos. If others were able to gratify and place
under their obligation those conscious beings in such fashion as to make them turn
away from and forget their true object of worship —Who may, indeed, be swiftly
forgotten, because of his invisibility— this would be in such utter contradiction to the
essence of Divinty and its sacred purposes that it could in no way be allowed. It is for
this reason that the Qur’an so repeatedly and with such vehemence refutes polytheism and threatens the polytheists with  Hell-fire.
THE SECOND TRUTH: Absolute Dominicality
The ubiquitous workings of a wise and compassionate hidden hand throughout the
cosmos, especially in animate beings and their nurturing and development, everywhere
in the same fashion and yet in a totally unexpected form, must be, without doubt, the
emanation and light of an absolute dominicality and a decisive proof of its reality.
An absolute dominicality cannot accept any partnership for since the important
aims and purposes of dominicality, such as the manifestation of its beauty, the
proclamation of its perfection, the revelation of its precious arts and the display of its
hidden accomplishments, are combined and concentrated in particulars and animate
beings, the slightest attribution to God of a partner, when entering even the most
particular of things and the smallest of animate beings, will frustrate the attainment of
those purposes and destroy those aims. Averting the faces of conscious beings from
those purposes and the One Who conceived them toward causes will be totally
opposed and hostile to the essence of dominicality, and absolute dominicality cannot in
any way countenance it.
The abundant proclamations in the Qur’an of God’s sanctity and transcendence,
its verses and words, even its letters and their shapes, are constant guides to God’s
unity, made necessary by the mystery we have just expounded.

THE THIRD TRUTH: Perfections
The self-evident testimony to the existence of the truth of perfections given by all
the exalted instances of wisdom in the universe, all its wondrous beauties, its just laws,
its wise purposes, and in particular its testimony to the perfections of the Creator,
Who brought forth the cosmos out of the void and then administered it in every way
miraculously and beauteously, as well as the perfections of man, who is the conscious
mirror of the Creator — such testimony is extremely clear.
There exists then the truth of perfections, and the certainty that the Creator Who
fashioned the cosmos in perfection must Himself possess perfection. Further, the
perfections of man, the most important fruit of the universe, vicegerent of the earth,
the beloved and most valued object of His creation — these are also established as
true. Therefore, to assign partners to God would be unacceptable and false, for it
would condemn to destruction and perdition all of the perfect and wise beings we
behold with our eyes; it would turn the cosmos into a vain plaything of accident, a
place of amusement for nature, a cruel slaughterhouse for the animate, an awesome
house of sorrows for the conscious; it would reduce man, whose perfections are visible
in his works, to the level of the most wretched, distraught and vile animal; and it
would draw a veil across the infinite perfections of the Creator that are reflected in the
mirror of all beings, thus nullifying the result of His activity and denying His creativity.
Since assigning partners to God contradicts Divine, human and cosmic perfections
and its denial of them has been established and explained in the First Station of the
Second Ray (devoted to three ‘Fruits’ of Divine unity) with strong and decisive
proofs, we refer our readers that work and cut short the discussion here.
THE FOURTH TRUTH: Sovereignty
Whoever looks at the cosmos with comprehensive attention, will see it to
resemble a most prosperous and active kingdom, a city administered most wisely and
ruled most firmly; he sees all things and all species obediently engaged in a particular
function.
According to the military metaphor contained in the verse,
God’s are the armies of the heavens and earth,29
the prevailing creative commands, imperious orders, and kingly laws enunciated in
those numerous armies, that extend from the hosts of the atom, the battalions of the
vegetable kingdom, the brigades of the animal kingdom, to the armies of the stars, and
embrace both the lowliest soldier and the loftiest commander — they all indicate selfevidently
the existence of an absolute sovereignty and a universal authority.
There is then a truth of absolute sovereignty, and there can be no truth of
assigning partners to God. For according to the decisive truth of the verse,
Were there to be in the heavens and earth gods other than God, verily they
would be corrupted,30
if numerous hands all engage assertively in the same task, the result will be confusion.
If there are two kings in one country, or even two headmen in one district, order will
disappear, and administration be replaced by anarchy. But on the contrary we see
everywhere such order, from the wing of the fly to the lamps of the heavens, from the
cells of the body to the signs of the planets, that there is no possibility for the
intervention of any partner in God’s affairs.
Sovereignty is, moreover, a station of dignity; to accept a rival would flout the
dignity of sovereignty. The fact that man, who needs the assistance of many people on
account of his impotence, will kill his brothers and offspring in the cruellest fashion for
the sake of some petty, apparent and temporary sovereignty, shows that sovereignty
rejects all notion of partnership. If so feeble a one acts thus for the sake of so petty a
sovereignty, it follows that the Possessor of Absolute Power, the Master of All
Creation, will never permit one other than Himself to participate in His sacred
sovereignty, the means to His real and universal dominicality and Divinity.
Since this truth has been established with firm proofs in numerous places
throughout the Risale-i Nur and especially the Second Station of the Second Ray, we
refer the reader to those pages for further discussion of it.
Through witnessing these four truths, our traveller came to know Divine unity
with the degree of certain and clear witnessing. His faith shone, and with all his power
he said, “There is no god but God, He is One, He has no partner.” In brief allusion to
the lesson he derived from this station, we said in the Second Chapter of the First
Station:
There is no god but God, the One, the Unique, to Whose Unity and the Necessity
of Whose Existence point the witnessing of the sublimity of the truth of the
manifestation of absolute Divinity, as well as the witnessing of the sublimity of
the comprehensiveness of the truth of the manifestation of absolute dominicality
that requires Unity, the witnessing of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of
the truth of the perfections that arise from unity, and the witnessing of the
sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of absolute sovereignty, that
prevents and contradicts the existence of any partnership.
Then that restless traveller addressed his heart and said: “The fact that the people
of faith, and particularly those affiliated with a sufi order, are constantly repeating the
words, ‘no god but He,’ and recalling and proclaiming God’s unity, is an indication
that the affirmation of God’s unity comprises many degrees. Such affirmation is
moreover a most enjoyable, most valuable, and most exalted sacred duty, instinctive
function, and act of worship. Let us then in order to attain a further degree, open the
door of another stopping-place in this abode of instruction. For the true affirmation of
God’s unity we seek is not some imaginary species of knowledge. It is rather an
affirmation that in terms of logic is deemed the opposite of imagination, that is far
more valuable than cognition based on imagination, that is the result of proof, that is
designated a knowledge.”
The true affirmation of God’s unity is a judgement, a confirmation, an assent and
acceptance that can find its Sustainer present with all things, that sees in all things a
path leading to its Creator, and does not regard anything as an obstacle to His
presence. For otherwise it would always be necessary to tear and cast aside the veil of
the cosmos in order to find its Sustainer. “Onward, then,” said the traveller to himself,
as he knocked at the door of God’s Sublimity and Grandeur. He entered the Stopping-
Place of God’s deeds and workings, the world of creation and origination, and there
he saw that five comprehensive truths were prevailing over the entire cosmos, and
offering self-evident proof of the Divine unity.
THE FIRST TRUTH: that of Grandeur and Sublimity.
Since this truth is explained with different proofs in the Second Station of the
Second Ray and various other places in the Risale-i Nur, we restrict ourselves here to
the following:
The Being that creates and then administers at a single time and in a single fashion
the stars that are thousands of years distant from each other; that creates at a single
time and in a single form the countless members of the same species of flower,
distributed over the east and the west, the north and south of the globe; that
administers, nurtures, quickens, distinguishes and adorns more than two hundred
thousand different types of plant and species of animal in five or six weeks, with the
utmost regularity and equilibrium, without any confusion, defect or error, in order to
provide every spring on the face of the earth more than a hundred thousand specimens
of the supreme resurrection, and thus prove before man’s eyes a remarkable event,
now belonging to the past and the realm of the Unseen, namely the creation of the
heavens and the earth in six days, as indicated in the verse,
He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six days;31
the Being that causes the earth to revolve, as evidenced in the verse,
He merges night with day, and day with night,32
and turns the night into the page on which the events of the day are written — this
same Being knows and administers according to His own will, all at the same time, the
most secret and obscure thoughts that occur to men’s hearts. Since each of the
aforementioned acts is in reality one act, it follows that their Glorious Doer is a
Unique and Powerful Being, enjoying such grandeur and sublimity that nowhere, in
nothing, in no way, does it leave the slightest possibility for the acceptance of partnership; on the
contrary, it uproots all such possibility.
Since such sublime power and grandeur exist and since that grandeur is at the very
apex of perfection and comprehends everything, it is certainly in no way possible to
permit or allow any attribution of partners to that Unique and Powerful Being, for so
doing would ascribe impotence or need to that power, fault to that grandeur, defect to
that perfection, and impose restriction on that comprehensiveness. No sound intellect
could deem this possible.
The assignment of partners to God, is then by virtue of the offence it causes to
God’s Grandeur, the dignity of his Glory and His Sublimity, so grave a crime that the
Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition decrees with an earnest threat,
God does not pardon the assignment to Him of a partner; He pardons
whatever is lesser than that.
THE SECOND TRUTH: The absoluteness, the comprehensiveness, and
appearance in infinite form of the dominical deeds seen at work in the cosmos.
It is only God’s wisdom and will that limits and restricts those deeds, as well as
the inherent capacities of the objects and places in which they manifest themselves.
Stray chance, dumb nature, blind force, unconscious causality and the elements that
without restriction are scattered in every direction — none of these can have any part
in the most balanced, wise perspicacious, life-giving, orderly and firm deeds of the
Creator. They are used, rather, by the command, will, and power of the Glorious Doer
as an apparent veil to conceal His power.
Three out of innumerable examples:
We will set forth three from among the numerous subtle points that relate to the
three deeds indicated in three continuous verses in Sura al-Nahl.
The First:
Your Sustainer inspired in the bee that it should seek a dwelling-place in the
mountains.
The bee is, with respect to its disposition and function, such a miracle of God’s power
that a whole sura, Sura al-Nahl, has been named after it. For to inscribe in the minute
head of that little honey-machine a complete
programme for the fulfilment of its important task; to place in its diminutive stomach
the most delicious of foods and to ripen it there; to place in its sting poison capable of
destroying and killing animate beings, without causing any harm to its own body or the
member in question — to do all this without the utmost care and knowledge, with
exceeding wisdom and purposiveness, partakes of a perfect orderliness and
equilibrium, and hence unconscious, disorderly, disequilibriated nature and accident
could never interfere or participate in any of this.
The appearance and comprehensiveness of this Divine craft, this dominical deed,
which is miraculous in three separate respects, in the countless bees that are found
scattered over the earth, with the same wisdom, the same care, the same symmetry, at
the same time and in the same fashion — this is a self-evident proof of God’s unity.
The Second Verse:
There is for you a lesson in cattle. From what is within their bodies, between
excretions and blood, we produce for your drink, milk, pure and agreeable
to those who drink it.
This verse is a decree overflowing with useful instruction. To place in the nipples of
cows, camels, goats and sheep, as well as human mothers, in the midst of blood and
excrement but without being polluted by them, a substance the exact opposite, pure,
clean, pleasant, nutritive and white milk, and to inspire in their hearts tenderness
toward their young that is still more pleasant, sweeter and more valuable than milk —
this requires such a degree of mercy, wisdom, knowledge, power, will and care that it
cannot in any way be the work of turbulent chance, of the tangled elements, or of blind
forces.
The manifestation, workings and comprehensiveness of so miraculous a dominical
art and so wise a Divine deed, all over the face of the globe and in the countless hearts
and breasts of innumerable mothers of hundreds of thousands of species, in the same
instant, the same fashion, with the same wisdom and the same care — this too
constitutes a self-evident proof of God’s unity.
The Third Verse:
From the fruits of the date-palm and the vine you take sugar and fine
nourishment; verily therein is a sign for a people possessing intelligence.This verse invites our attention to the date and to grapes, saying, “For those of intelligence, there is great proof, argument and evidence of the Divine unity in
these two fruits. These two fruits yield nurture and sustenance, fresh and dry fruit, and
give rise to most delicious forms of food; yet the trees that bear them stand in
waterless sand and dry soil, and are thus miracles of power and wonders of wisdom.
They are each of them like a factory producing sweet sugar, a machine manufacturing
honeylike syrup, a work of art created with perfect order and sensitive balance,
wisdom and care; hence anyone with a grain of intelligence will say on contemplating
them, ‘The one who made them in this fashion may very well be the Creator of the
whole cosmos.’”
For in front of our eyes each vine branch the thickness of a finger will hold twenty
bunches of grapes, and each bunch will in turn contain hundreds of sugary grapes,
each like a litle pump emitting syrup. To clothe the surface of each grape with a fine,
delicate, thin, and colourful protection; to place in its delicate and soft heart seeds with
their hard shells, which are like its retentive faculty, programme, and the story of its
life; to manufacture in its stomach a sweetmeat like the helva of Paradise, a honey like
the water of Kawthar; to create an infinite number of such grapes over the face of the
entire earth, with the same care and wisdom and wonderful art, and at the same time
and in the same fashion — this proves in self-evident fashion that the one who fulfils
these tasks is the Creator of the whole cosmos, and this deed, requiring as it does
infinite power and limitless wisdom, can be only His deed.
Yes, blind and stray, disorderly and unconscious, aimless, aggressive, and anarchic
forces, nature and causality, cannot have anything to do with this most sensitive
balance, this most skilful art, this most wise scheme. They cannot even stretch out
their hands toward it. It falls to them only to be employed through the dominical
command as passive objects, as curtainholders.
Just like the three points proving Divine unity contained in the three truths
indicated in the three verses, the countless manifestations and workings of infinite
dominical deeds attest unanimously the unity of a Single One of Unity, the All-
Glorious One.
THE THIRD TRUTH: The creation of beings, particularly plants and animals,
with absolute speed and absolute orderliness; with absolute ease and extreme skill,
talent, ability, and order; with great value and distinction, despite extreme abundance
and intermingling.
Yes, to produce with extreme swiftness and in extreme abundance, most skilfully
and artistically, with great ease and facility combined with the utmost care and
orderliness, with great value and distinction despite abundance and intermingling, without any form of confusion or deficiency — this can
be achieved only by a Unique Being Whose power is such that nothing appears
difficult to it.
For that power it is as easy to create stars as atoms, the greatest as the smallest, a
whole species as a single member of a species, a sublime and comprehensive universal
as a restricted and petty particular; it is as easy for Him to revivify and quicken the
whole earth as to do the same with a tree or to erect a tree as tall as a mountain as it is
to produce a seed no bigger than a fingernail. All of these deeds He performs in front
of our eyes.
So the exposition, the solution, the uncovering and proof of the mystery of this
degree of the assertion of the Divine unity, this Third Truth, this word of unity — the
mystery that the greatest universal is like the smallest particular without the slightest
difference between them —this beneficial wisdom, this supreme talisman, this riddle
beyond the reach of the intellect, this most significant foundation of Islam, this most
profound source of faith, this greatest basis of the Divine unity— the setting forth of
all this opens the talisman of the Qur’an, and makes it possible to know the most
secret and unknowable riddle of the creation of all beings, a riddle that reduces
philosophy to impotence.
Thanks and praise one hundred thousand times the letters of the Risale-i Nur be
to the Compassionate Creator that the Risale-i Nur has solved, uncovered and
established this wondrous talisman, this wondrous riddle. It has been proven with
decisive arguments, to the same degree of certainty that twice two is four, particularly
in the discussion of “He is powerful over all things” toward the end of the Twentieth
Letter; in the section concerning God’s being an all-powerful agent in the Twenty-
Ninth Word, one devoted to the resurrection; and in the section proving the Divine
power in the degrees of “God is Most Great” in the Twenty-Ninth Flash, written in
Arabic. For that reason we assign to those parts of the Risale-i Nur the exposition of
this matter, wishing, however, to set out briefly the foundations and proofs that solve
this mystery and to allude to thirteen mysteries that resemble thirteen steps, or a list of
contents. I have indeed written the first and second mysteries, but unfortunately two
powerful obstacles, material and immaterial, have caused me to abandon the
remainder.
T h e F i r s t M y s t e r y : If something be essential, its opposite cannot have
access to the essence defined by that thing. For that would be equivalent to the union
of opposites, which is an absurdity. Now with regard to this principle, since God’s
power is related to His Essence and
is an essential concomitant of His Most Sacred Essence, impotence —the opposite of
power— cannot in any way gain access to that All-Powerful Essence.
Moreover, the existence of degrees within a thing comes about through the
intervention in it of its opposite. For example, strong and weak degrees of light result
from the intervention of darkness; high and low degrees of heat proceed from the
admixture of coldness; and greater and lesser amounts of strength are determined by
the intervention and opposition of resistance. It is therefore impossible that degrees
should exist in that power of the Divine Essence. He creates all things as if they were
but a single thing. And since degrees do not exist in the power of the Divine Essence
and it does not admit of weakness or deficiency, no obstacle can in any way obstruct it
nor can the creation of anything cause it difficulty.
Since, then, nothing is difficult for God’s power, He creates the supreme
resurrection with the same ease as spring; spring with the same facility as a tree; and a
tree with as little trouble as a flower. Further, He creates a flower as artistically as a
tree; a tree as miraculously as a spring; and a spring as comprehensively and
wondrously as a resurrection. All of this He accomplishes in front of our eyes.
It has been proved in the Risale-i Nur with decisive and strong proofs that if there
were no Divine unity, the making of a flower would be as difficult as a tree or even
more difficult; the making of a tree would be as hard a spring or even more difficult;
and creation would even lose its value and artistic quality. An animate being that now
takes a minute to produce would be produced with difficulty in one year, or maybe
never at all.
It is then on account of this mystery that these fruits, flowers, trees and animals,
that are extremely valuable despite their ubiquitousness and abundance, and extremely
artistic despite the swiftness and ease of their fashioning, emerge in regular fashion
onto the plain of being and assume their functions. Proclaiming God’s glory, they
accomplish their duties and depart, leaving behind their seed in their stead.
S e c o n d M y s t e r y : Through the mystery of luminosity, transparency, and
obedience, just as through the manifestation of its essential power, a single sun reflects
it light in a single mirror, so too, through the Divine command and due to the
extensive activity of that unrestricted power, it can easily bestow the same reflection
—together with its light and heat— on innumerable mirrors, shining objects, and
droplets. Great and small are the same, there is no difference between them.
Similarly, like a single word can enter the ear of one man without
trouble, so too due to the infinite breadth of boundless creativity, it may enter a million
ears, with dominical permission. And a single light like an eye, or a single luminous
spirit being like Gabriel, through the infinite breadth of dominical activity within the
manifestation of mercy, may be present in, or look at, or enter thousands of places
through Divine power, as easily as they look at or enter a single place. There is no
difference between many and few.
The pre-eternal power of God’s essence is the most subtle and choicest of lights,
the light of all lights; the quiddities, essences and inner dimensions of all things are
luminous and lustrous as mirrors; all things, from the atom, the plant, and the animate
creature to the stars, the suns and the moons, are extremely obedient and submissive
to the command of that power of the Divine Essence and subordinate to the orders of
that pre-eternal power. It is for all of these reasons entirely natural that innumerable
things should be created with the same ease as a single thing and placed side by side
with each other. No concern or task interferes with another. Great and small, many
and few, particular and universal — all are the same for that power, for which nothing
is difficult.
As was said in the Tenth and Twenty-Ninth Words, through the mysteries of
order, equilibrium, obedience to command and submission to order, that power causes
a great ship as big as a hundred houses, to move and advance as a child’s finger pushes
his toy.
As a commander will send a single infantryman into battle with an order from his
throne, so too he may throw a whole obedient army into the fray with the same single
order.
Let us suppose that two mountains are in a state of equilibrium in a large and
sensitive balance. In the same way that a single walnut would cause one pan to rise
and the other to fall if placed on one side of a balance containing two eggs, it would
produce the same result with the scale containing the mountains; through a wise law it
would cause one pan with its mountain to rise to the mountain-top, and the other to
descend with its mountain to the bottom of the valley.
Since there is to be found in God’s absolute, infinite, luminous, essential and
eternal power a Divine justice and unending wisdom that is the origin, source,
fundament and beginning of all order, regularity and equilibrium in creation; and since
all things, particular and universal, small and great, are obedient to the command of
that power and submissive to its workings — it follows that God causes the stars to
revolve and to move, through the wisdom of His order, as easily as He rotates and
moves the atoms.
In spring, just as He brings to life a single fly with a single order, so too He
bestows life with the same ease and the same command on the whole species of fly, as
well as all the hosts of plants and animals, through the mystery of the wisdom and
equilibrium inherent in His power, and then sends them forth onto the plain of life.
In the same way that he swiftly gives life to a tree in spring and infuses vitality in
its bones, with His wise and just absolute power, He also resurrects in the spring the
corpse of the vast earth and brings into being hundreds of thousands of different
specimens of resurrection similar to the tree, all this with the greatest of ease.
With His creative command, He brings the earth back to life. By the decree of,
There will be but a single cry, then they shall all be brought nigh unto Us;37
that is, “all men and jinn, with a single cry and command shall be brought to Us and
made present at the plain of resurrection.” Again, by His command,
The hour shall be but a blinking of the eye, or even closer;38
that is, the bringing about of resurrection and the gathering that follows upon it shall
take no longer than the opening and closing of an eye, or even less. Then there is the
verse,
Your creation and resurrection is as a single soul,39
meaning the following: “O men! To create you and to bring you to life, to resurrect
and gather you, is as easy for me as bringing one soul to life; it presents no problem to
My power.” According to the inner sense of these three verses, God will bring all men
and jinn, all animals, spirit beings and angels to the field of the Supreme Gathering and
the great balance with a single command and with great ease. One concern does not
interfere with another.
The remaining Mysteries, from the third and fourth as far as the thirteenth, have
been postponed to another time in a fashion disagreeable to me.
THE FOURTH TRUTH: The existence and appearance of all beings proclaim
the Divine unity in a self-evident fashion through their numerous points of unity and
convergence, such as being simultaneously
together and yet separate and unique; resembling one another; being the miniature or
magnified versions of each other; being some, universals and species, and some,
particulars and individuals; resembling each other in the stamp of innate disposition;
having affinity in the impress of artistry; and aiding and complementing each other
with respect to their innate functions. They establish the unity of their Maker. And
with respect to dominicality, make it clear that the cosmos is a universal and a whole
that may not be divided or fragmented.
For example, in each spring, to create, order and sustain the innumerable members
of the four hundred thousand different species of plants and animals, together and
intermingled, in a single moment and in the same fashion, without any error or
mistake, with the utmost wisdom and perfection of artistry; to create all the different
species of bird, from flies, which are like birds in miniature, to eagles which are the
supreme specimens of the species, then to equip them with the means of flight and
subsistence and to cause them to journey through the realm of the air; to imprint on
the countenances of each of the birds in miraculous fashion a stamp of artistry, on the
body of each of them a seal of wisdom, and in the quiddity of each of them, in
sustaining fashion, a sign of God’s unity; to cause wisely and mercifully particles of
food to hasten to the aid of the cells of the body, plants to rush to the assistance of
animals, and all mothers to go swiftly to the help of their powerless infants; to work on
all things, particular and universal, from the Milky Way, the solar system and the
elements of the earth, down to the veils of the pupil of the eye, the petals of the rose,
the husk of the corn, the seeds of the melon, like a series of intersecting circles, with
the same regularity, perfection of artistry, the same deed, and plenitude of wisdom —
to do all this establishes the following with self-evident certainty:
He who performs these deeds is One and unique; His imprint is on all things. In
the same way that He is not in any place, he is present in every place. Like the sun, all
things are distant from Him, but He is close to all things. Just as the greatest objects,
such as the Milky Way and the solar system, are not difficult for Him, so too the cells
in man’s blood and the thoughts that pass across his heart are not secret from Him nor
beyond the reach of His power.
However great and multitudinous a thing may be, it is as easy for Him as the
smallest and scarcest thing, for He creates with ease a fly on the model of an eagle, a
seed in the form of a tree, a tree in the shape of a garden, a garden with the artistry of
a spring, and a spring on the scale of a resurrection. Things most valuable in their
artistry He gives to us and bestows upon us most cheaply. The price that He asks of us
is merely to say “In the name of God” and “Praise be to God.” In other words, the accepted price
for all those numerous precious bounties is to say at the beginning of all things, “In the
Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,” and at their end, “Praise be to God.”
Since this Fourth Truth is explained and proved elsewhere in the Risale-i Nur, we
content ourselves here with this brief allusion.
THE FIFTH TRUTH perceived by our traveller at the second stage: the
existence in the entirety of the cosmos, its pillars and parts and all the beings contained
in it, of the most perfect order and regularity; the sameness of the substances and
purposive beings that are the means of the rotation and administration of that vast
kingdom and are connected to its general scheme; the fact that the Divine Names and
deeds that are at work in that magnificent city, that vast exhibition, encompass and
comprehend all things or most things, despite their being one within the other, and of
the same nature, and the same, and their being the same Name and deed in every place;
the fact that the elements and species that are the means for the administration,
inhabiting, and construction of that well-adorned palace, cover the whole face of the
earth in their diffusion, despite their being one within the other, of the same nature,
and the same element and the same species being found everywhere — all of this
demands, proves, and affirms, necessarily and self-evidently, the following:
The Maker and Disposer of this cosmos, the Monarch and Nurturer of this realm,
the Master and Builder of this palace, is one, unique, sole. He has neither like nor peer,
neither minister nor aide. He has neither partner nor opposite, he has neither inability
nor deficiency. Yes, order is in itself a perfect expression of unity; it demands a single
orderer. It leaves no place for the assignment of partners to God, the source of dispute
and dissension.
There is a wise and precise order inherent in all things, whether universal or
particular, from the total scheme of the cosmos and the daily and annual rotation of the
earth down to the physiognomy of man, the complex of senses in man’s head and the
circulation of white and red cells in man’s blood. Nothing other than One Absolutely
Powerful and Absolutely Wise can stretch out its hand intentionally and creatively
toward any thing, nor interfere with it. On the contrary, all things are recipients, means
of manifestation, and passive.
Now, ordering, the pursuit of certain purposes and the bestowal of regularity with
a view to certain benefits, can be done only by means of knowledge and wisdom and
performed only with will and choice.
Certainly and in all events, this wisdom-nurturing regularity, this infinitely varied
ordering of the cosmos that before our very eyes assures various benefits, proves and
affirms to a self-evident degree that the Creator and Disposer of all beings is one, an
agent possessing will and choice. Everything comes into being through His power,
assumes a particular state through His will, and takes on a particular form through His
choice.
The heat-giving lamp of this hospice that is the world is one; its candle that is the
basis for the reckoning of time is one; its merciful sponge is one; its fiery cook is one;
its life-giving beverage is one; its well-guarded field is one, as well as a thousand and
one other instances of oneness. It follows from all of these instances of oneness that
the Maker and Master of this hospice is also one, that He is extremely generous and
hospitable, for He employs numerous high-ranking and great officials to serve the
animate guests of His hospice.
Names such as All-Wise, Compassionate, Giver of Forms, Disposer, Quickener,
and Nurturer, the impresses and manifestations of which are to be seen at work in
every corner of the world, attributes such as wisdom, mercy, and grace, and acts such
as formation, disposition and nurturing, are all one. They embrace every place in the
utmost degree, each Name and act being present there.
They also complement the imprint of each other in such a way that it is as if those
Names and deeds were uniting in such fashion that power becomes identical with
wisdom and mercy, and wisdom becomes identical with grace and life. For example, as
soon as the activity of the Name of Quickener appears in a thing, the activity of
numerous other Names such as Creator, Giver of Form, and Provider, also appears at
the same instant, everywhere, and in the same system. This of a certainty and selfevidently
establishes and proves that that which is designated by the Names and the
Doer of the comprehensive deeds that appear everywhere in the same fashion must
also be one, single and unique. In this we believe and to this we give our assent!
The elements that are the substance and material of creation encompass the whole
earth. Each of the species of creation that bears an imprint attesting unity is diffused
throughout the earth in unity and, so to speak, conquers it. This also proves to the
degree of being self-evident that those elements together with what they embrace, and
those species, together with their separate members, are the product and property of a
single being. They are the products and servants of so Unique and Powerful a One that
He employs those vast and and imperious elements as obedient servants and those
species diffused throughout the earth as well187
disciplined soldiers. Since this truth also has been established and explained in other
places in the Risale-i Nur, we content ourselves here with this brief indication.
In summary of the witnessings that he derived from these Five Truths, through the
superabundance of faith and the joy of Divine unity, and in expression of his feelings,
our traveller said to his heart:
Look upon the coloured page of the cosmic book;
See what forms the golden pen of power has traced.
No dark point remains for the gaze of the heart’s eye;
It is as if God has inscribed His signs with light.
Know too that:
The leaves in the world’s book are dimensions infinite;
The lines of time’s events are works innumerable.
Written on the workbench of the Preserved Tablet of reality,
A meaningful embodied word, is every being in this world.
Listen also to this:
When all things proclaim, “No god but God,” they will in unison say, “O
Truth and Reality!” and beseech in harmony, “O Living One!” Yes, in all
things there is a sign pointing to the fact that He is One.
Hearkening to this his heart and soul affirmed the truth of what they heard and said,
“Yes, indeed!”
In brief allusion to the Five Truths of Unity observed by our traveller through the
world, our voyager through the cosmos, at this Second Stopping-Place, it was said in
the Second Chapter of the First Station:
There is no god but God, the One, the Unique, to Whose Unity in Necessary
Existence points the witnessing of the truth of Grandeur and Sublimity, its
perfection and comprehensiveness; the witnessing of the truth of the appearance
of deeds in absolute fashion, in infinitude, without any limitation except that of
God’s will and wisdom; the witnessing of the truth of the creation of beings in
absolute multiplicity with absolute swiftness, the creation of creatures in absolute
ease with absolute perfection, the origination of things made in absolute
plenitude with utter perfection of artistry and value; the witnessing of the truth of
the existence of beings in universal and comprehensive fashion, joined,
interconnected and interrelated; the witnessing of the truth of universal order, an
order incompatible with the assignation of partners to God; the witnessing of the
unity of the sources of cosmic order, a unity that clearly attests the unity of their
Maker; the unity of the Names and deeds that comprehend and permeate the
universe; and the
unity of the elements and species dispersed over the face of the earth in
imperious fashion.
That world traveller voyaging through different ages chanced upon the school of
the Renewer of the Second Millenium, Imam-i Rabbani, Ahmad Faruqi. He entered
and listened to the lesson being taught by the Imam:
“The most important result yielded by all the Sufi paths is the unfolding of the
truths of belief. The unfolding in clarity of a single truth of belief is preferable to a
thousand miraculous deeds and mystical visions.”
The Imam said too:
“In former times, great persons said that someone will arise from among the
theologians and the scholars of the science of theology. He will prove all the truths of
belief and Islam with rational proofs and the utmost clarity. I wish to be that man and
maybe I am.”40
He continued his instruction by saying that belief and the assertion of Divine unity
were the foundation, substance, light and life of all human perfection; that the Hadith
“An hour’s reflective thought is better than a year’s worship”41 refers to reflection on
belief; and that the silent mode of invocation practised in the Naqshbandi Order is a
form of this most excellent reflection.
The traveller listened with utmost care. He turned and addressed himself as
follows: “It is thus that this heroic Imam speaks. To increase the strength of one’s
belief by as much as an atom is worth more than a ton of gnosis or other form of
perfection and sweeter than the honey of a hundred visionary experiences.
“On the other hand, the philosophers of Europe have leagued together for a
thousand years to invent objections and doubts in their hostility to faith and the
Qur’an, and to attack the believers. They wish to shake the pillars of belief that are the
key, the source, the foundation of everlasting felicity, of life immortal, of eternal
Paradise. We ought therefore to strengthen our belief by making it one of realization
instead of one of imitation. So come, let us advance! In order to bring the twenty-nine
degrees of faith that we have found, each as powerful as a mountain, to the blessed
number of thirty-three, the number of litanies that follow upon
40 Time has proven that the man referred to here is not in fact an individual, but the Risale-i Nur
itself. It maybe that the people of unveiling happened to notice the insignificant interpreter and
proclaimer of the Risale-i Nur and hence came to speak of “a man.”
41 al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa’, i, 310.
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prayer, and in order to see a third stopping-place in this realm of instruction, let us
knock at the door of the dominical sustenance of the animate world and open it with
the key of ‘In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.’” Speaking thus he
beseechingly knocked at the gate of this Third Stopping-Place, a compendium of
wonders, and a spectacle of marvels.
Saying, “In the Name of God, the Opener,” he opened the gate. The Third
Stopping-Place became visible to him. He entered and saw that it was illumined by
four great and encompassing truths that demonstrated the Divine unity as brightly as
the sun.
THE FIRST TRUTH: the Truth of Opening
That is, the opening up from a single simple substance of innumerable varied and
separate forms, together, everywhere, in a single instant and by a single deed, through
the manifestation of the Name of Opener.
Yes, in the same way that God’s creative power has opened up innumerable beings
like flowers in the garden of the cosmos, and endowed each with an orderly form and
distinct identity, through the manifestation of the Name of Opener, so too, although in
more miraculous fashion, he has given to the four hundred thousand species of animate
beings in the garden of the earth each its symmetrical, adorned and distinct form.
He creates you in the wombs of your mothers, creation after creation in
three darknesses. That is God, your Sustainer. His is the sovereignty; there is
no god other than He. Where, then, will you turn?42
Nought is hidden from God, neither on earth nor in the heavens. He it is
Who forms you in the wombs as He wills; there is no god but He, the Mighty,
the Wise.43
As these two verses indicate, the strongest proof of Divine unity and the most
remarkable miracle of Divine Power is God’s opening up of forms. Because the
opening of forms is repeatedly established and expounded in different ways elsewhere
in the Risale-i Nur, and particularly in the Sixth and Seventh Degrees of the First
Chapter of the Second Station of this treatise, we refer the discussion of this matter to
those places and restrict ourselves here to the following:
According to the testimony of botany and biology, based on profound research, there
is in the opening and unfolding of forms, such comprehen
siveness and artistry that other than a Single and Unique One, One Absolutely
Powerful, able to see and do all things in all things, no one could undertake this
comprehensive and all-embracing deed. For this deed of the unfolding of forms
demands a wisdom, an attention and a comprehensiveness that are present at all times
and are contained within an infinite power. This power, in turn, can be found only in
that Unique Being Who administers the whole cosmos.
As is decreed in the above-quoted verses, God’s attribute of ‘opening’ expressed
in the opening and creation of the forms of men from their mother’s wombs, within
three darknesses, separately, with equilibrium, distinctness, and order, without any
error, confusion, or mistake; this truth of the unfolding of the forms of all men and
animals, all over the earth, with the same power, the same wisdom and the same
artistry, is a most powerful proof of God’s unity. For to comprehend and embrace all
things is itself a form of unity that leaves no room for the assignation of partners to
God. Just as the nineteen Truths of the First Chapter bearing witness to the necessary
existence of God also attest the existence of the Creator through their own existence,
so too they bear witness to His unity through their comprehensiveness. Our traveller
then saw the following Second Truth in the Third Stopping-Place:
THE SECOND TRUTH: the Truth of Mercifulness
We see with our own eyes that there is one who has covered the face of the earth
with thousands of gifts of mercy, and made it into a feasting-place. He has laid out a
spread of hundreds of thousands of the different delicious foods of Mercifulness, and
made the inside of the earth a storehouse containing thousands of precious bounties of
compassionateness and wisdom. That Being sends to us also the earth, in its yearly
rotation, like a ship or a train, laden with the finest of the hundreds of thousands of
vital human necessities, proceeding from the World of the Unseen; and He sends to us
too the spring, like a waggon carrying food and clothing for us. Thus does he nurture
us, with utmost compassion. In order for us to profit from those gifts and bounties, He
has moreover given us hundreds and thousands of appetities, needs, feelings,
sensations and senses.
As was set forth in the Fourth Ray concerning the verse on the sufficiency of God,
He has given us a stomach that can take pleasure in infinite varieties of food.
He has given us such a life that through the senses associated with it we can
derive benefit from the innumerable bounties of the vast corporeal world, just as if it
were some bounteous spread.
He has favoured us with the human state so that we delight in the boundless gifts
of both the spiritual and material worlds, through instruments such as the intellect and
the heart.
He has conveyed Islam to us so that we derive light from the boundless treasuries
of the Unseen and Manifest Realms.
He has guided us to faith so that we are illumined by the innumerable lights and
gifts of this world and the hereafter. This cosmos is like a palace fitted out and
adorned by the Divine quality of mercy with innumerable antiques and valuable items,
which then gives to man’s hands the keys to open all the chests and chambers in that
palace, as well as bestowing on man’s nature all the needs and senses that will enable
him to make use of them.
This mercy that embraces this world and the hereafter, and indeed all things, is
without doubt a manifestation of oneness within unity.
Just as the light of the sun is a parable of unity, through its comprehending all
things that face it, every bright and transparent object that receives the reflection of the
light, heat, and seven colours of the sun, is also a parable and a symbol of oneness.
Hence, whoever sees its all-embracing light will conclude that the sun of this earth is
one and unique. Witnessing the warm and luminous reflection of the sun in all bright
objects, and even in drops of water, he will say that the oneness of the sun, or the sun
itself, is present with its attributes close to all things; it is at the mirrorlike heart of all
things.
So too the encompassing of all things by the extensive mercy of the Merciful One
of Beauty, like a light, demonstrates the unity of that Merciful One and that He in no
way has any partner. Similarly, the fact that under the veil of that all-embracing mercy
the lights of most of the Merciful One’s Names and a sort of manifestation of His
essence are found in everything, and especially in all living beings, and in man in
particular, and the fact that this gives each individual a comprehensiveness arising from
life which causes him to look to and be related to the whole universe, proves the
oneness of the Merciful One and that He is present with all things and does all things
in all things.
Yes, the Merciful One shows the splendour of His glory in the whole of the
cosmos and all over the earth through the unity and comprehensiveness of His mercy.
With the manifestation of His oneness, He gathers together in every member of all
animate species, and particularly man, specimens of all His bounties, orders the tools
and instruments of animate beings, and proclaims the special solicitude of His beauty
to each individual, this without shattering the wholeness of the universe. As for man, it
is in him that God makes known in concentrated form the various forms of His bounty.
Similarly, a melon can be said to be concentrated in its seed; the being that makes
the seed must necessarily be he who makes the melon. Then, with the special balance
of his knowledge and the particular law of his wisdom, he draws the seed out from it,
gathers it together and clothes it in a body. Nothing other than the one and unique
master craftsman who makes the melon is able to make its seed. That would be
impossible.
Since through the manifestation of Mercifulness the cosmos becomes like a tree or
a garden, the earth becomes like a fruit or a melon, and man becomes like a seed, of a
certainty the Creator and Sustainer of the smallest animate being must be the Creator
of all the earth and all the cosmos.
In Short: just as the making and unfolding from a simple substance of the regular
and orderly forms of all beings through the truth of Opening, which is comprehensive,
proves unity to the point of being self-evident, so too the truth of Mercifulness, which
encompasses all things, through its nurturing of all animate beings that come into
existence and enter the life of this world, particularly the newly arrived, with the
utmost order and regularity, causing all necessities to reach them, forgetting none of
them, this same mercy reaching all individuals everywhere at the same instant
demonstrates both unity, and oneness within unity.
Since the Risale-i Nur is a manifestation of the name of All-Wise and the name of
Compassionate, and the various points and manifestations of the essence of mercy are
explained and established in numerous places throughout the Risale-i Nur, we will be
content here with this indication of a drop from the ocean, and cut short an extremely
long story.
Our traveller then witnessed the following Third Truth in the Third Stopping-
Place
THE THIRD TRUTH: the Truth of Disposing and Administering
That is, to administer with complete order and equilibrium both the awesome and
swift-moving heavenly bodies and imperious, interfering elements, and the needy,
weak denizens of earth; to cause them to aid each other; to administer them jointly
with each other; to take all necessary measures concerning them; and to make this vast
world like a perfect kingdom, a magnificent city, a well-adorned palace.
Leaving side the vast spheres of this imperious and merciful administration, since
it is explained and proved in important sections of the Risale-i Nur such as the Tenth
Word, we will show, by means of a comparison, a single page and stage of that
administration as it manifests itself in the spring on the face of the earth.
Let us suppose, for example, that some wondrous world conqueror assembled an
army from four hundred thousand different groups and nationalities, and supplied the
clothes and weapons, the instructions and dismissals and salaries of every group and
nationality, separately and variously, without any defect or shortcoming, without error
or mistake, at the
proper time, without any delay or confusion, with the utmost regularity and in most
perfect form, no cause other than the extraordinary power of that wondrous
commander could stretch out is hand to attempt that vast, complex, subtle, balanced,
multitudinous and just administration. Were it to stretch out its hand, it would destroy
the equilibrium and cause confusion.
So too we see with our own eyes that an unseen hand creates and administers
every spring a magnificent army composed of four hundred thousand different species.
In the autumn —an example of the day of resurrection— it dismisses three hundred
thousand out of those four hundred thousand species of plants and animals from their
duties, and they go on leave through the activity of death and in the name of decease..
In spring —a sample of the gathering that follows resurrection— it constructs
three hundred thousand examples of raising from the dead in the space of a few weeks,
with the utmost order and discipline. In the case of the tree, four such resurrections
take place with respect to the tree itself, its leaves, its flowers, and its fruits. After
showing spring to our eyes exactly like the preceding one, it gives each species and
group in that army of glory that contains four hundred thousand different species its
appropriate sustenance and provision, its defensive weapons and distinctive garments,
its orders and dismissals, and all the tools and instruments it needs, with the utmost
order and regularity, without error or slip, without confusion or omission, in
unexpected fashion and at the proper time. It thus proves its unity, oneness,
uniqueness, and infinite power and boundless mercy within perfection of dominicality,
sovereignty and wisdom, and writes with the pen of Divine Determining this
proclamation of Divine unity on the face of the earth, on the page of every spring.
After reading only a single page of this proclamation of one spring, our traveller
said to himself:
“The torment of Hell-fire is pure justice for those who commit the error of
denying resurrection. For such denial would be to refute the numerous promises and to
deny the power of One Powerful and Compelling, a Wrathful One of Glory, Who has
promised and assured all of His prophets thousands of times and set forth in thousands
of verses of the Qur’an, explicity and by way of allusion, that He will bring about a
resurrection and gathering far easier for Him than the thousands of miraculous
gatherings that occur every spring, each more wondrous than the Supreme Gathering.”
His soul responded: “We believe in what you say.”
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THE FOURTH TRUTH, which forms the Thirty-Third Degree:
the Truth of Compassionateness and Bestowal of Provision
That is, the giving, over the whole face of the globe, within the earth, in the air
above it and the ocean around it, to all animate beings, especially those endowed with
spirit, and among them especially the impotent, the weak and the young, all of their
necessary sustenance, material and immaterial, in the most solicitous manner, deriving
it from dry and rude soil, from solid, bonelike dry pieces of wood, and in the case of
the most delicate of all forms of sustenance, from between blood and urine, at the
proper time, in orderly fashion, without any omission or confusion, in front of our
eyes, by an unseen hand.
Yes, the verse,
God is the Provider, the firm possessor of strength,44
restricts to God the task of sustaining and providing, and the verse,
There is no moving thing on earth but depends on God for its sustenance; He knows
its resting-place and storage-place; all is in a book perspicuous45
provides a dominical guarantee and pledge to furnish provision for all men and
animals. Similarly, the verse,
The beasts do not carry their sustenance; God sustains them and you, and He is All-
Hearing, All-Knowing,46
establishes and proclaims that it is God Who guarantees and provides for all impotent,
powerless, weak and wretched creatures that are unable to secure their own
sustenance, in an unexpected fashion, indeed from the Unseen or even out of nothing;
it is He for example Who provides for insects on the ocean bed and their young. This
proclamation is directed in particular to those men who worship causes and are
unaware that it is He Who bestows provision from behind the veil of causality.
Numerous other verses of the Qur’an and innumerable pieces of cosmic evidence
unanimously demonstrate that it is the compassionateness of a single Glorious
Provider that nurtures all animate beings.
Now the trees require a certain form of sustenance but have neither power nor will.
They remain therefore in their places, trusting in God, and their provision comes
hastening to them. So too the sustenance of infants flows to their mouths from
wondrous small pumps, aided by the solici
tude and tenderness of their mothers. Then when the infants acquire a little power and
will, the milk ceases. These various instances clearly prove that licit sustenance is not
proportionate to will and power, but comes in relation to weakness and impotence,
which induce trust in God.
Will, power and cleverness frequently incite greed, which is a source of loss, and
often push certain learned men toward a form of beggary, whereas by contrast the
trusting weakness of the boorish, crude and common man may cause him to attain
riches.
The proverb, “How many a learned man has striven in vain, and how many an
ignoramus gained rich provision,” establishes that licit provision is not won by power
and will, but by a mercy that finds working and striving acceptable; it is bestowed by a
tenderness that takes pity on need.
Now provision and sustenance is of two kinds:
The First is true and natural provision, that required for life; this is guaranteed by
the Sustainer. It is indeed so regular and well-ordered that this natural provision,
stored in the body in the form of fat and other things, is enough to ensure survival for
at least twenty days, even if nothing is eaten. Those who apparently die of hunger
before the twenty or thirty days are up and before the provision stored up in their body
is exhausted, die in reality not from a lack of provision, but from a disease arising from
lack of caution and the disturbance of fixed habit.
The Second Form of Provision: metaphorical and artifical provision, arising due
to addiction from habit, wastefulness and misuse, but acquiring the appearance of
necessity. This form is not guaranteed by the Sustainer, but depends on His generosity:
sometimes He may give it, sometimes He may not give it.
With respect to this second form of provision and sustenance, happy is he who
regards his frugality —a source of happiness and pleasure— contentment and licit
striving, as a form of worship and active prayer for sustenance. He accepts God’s
bounty gratefully and appreciatively, and passes his life in happpy fashion.
Wretched is he who on account of prodigality —the source of wretchedness and
loss— and greed, abandons licit striving, knocks at every door, passes his life in sloth,
oppression and wretchedness, and indeed puts his own life to death.
In the same way that a stomach requires sustenance, so too the subtle capacities
and senses of man, his heart, spirit, intelligence, eye, ear and mouth, also request their
sustenance from the Compassionate Provider and gratefully receive it. To each of them
separately and in appropriate
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form is presented such provision from the treasury of mercy as will rejoice them and
give them pleasure. Indeed, the Compassionate Provider, in order to give to them
provision in more generous measure has created each of man’s subtle capacities —eye
and ear, heart, imagination, and intellect— in the form of a key to His treasury of
mercy. For example, the eye is a key to the treasury containing such precious jewels as
the fairness and beauty to be seen on the face of the universe, and the same holds true
of all the others mentioned; they all benefit through faith. To resume after our
digression:
The All-Powerful and Wise One Who created this cosmos created also life as a
comprehensive summary of the cosmos, and concentrated all of His purposes and the
manifestations of His Names therein. So too, within the realm of life, he made of
provision a comprehensive centre of activity and created within animate beings the
taste for provision, thus causing animate beings to respond to His dominicality and
love with a permanent and universal gratitude, thankfulness, and worship that is one of
the significant purposes and instances of wisdom inherent in the creation of the
universe.
For example, it is one of the activities of dominicality to cause every area of the
broad realm of dominicality to rejoice — the heavens are caused to rejoice with the
angels and spirit beings, the World of the Unseen with spirits, and the material world,
particularly the air and the earth, with the existence of all animate beings, particularly
birds, great and small, at all times and places. Through the wisdom of this causing to
rejoice and the infusion of life and spirit, animals and men are, as it were, whipped by
the need for provision and the pleasure they take therein to pursue their provision and
sustenance, thus being delivered from sloth. This too is one of the wise activities of
dominicality. Were it not for such significant instances of wisdom, the provision
destined for animals would be caused instinctively to hasten toward them to satisfy
their needs, without any effort on their part, just as provision and sustenance is caused
to hasten toward the tree.
Were there to be an eye capable of witnessing and comprehending the whole
surface of the earth at one time, in order to perceive the beauties of the Names of
Compassionate and Provider and the witness they bear to Divine unity, it would see
what sweet beauty is contained in the tender and solicitous manifestation of the
Compassionate Provider Who sends to the caravans of animals at the end of winter,
when their provision is about to be exhausted, extremely delicious, abundant and
varied foods and bounties, drawn exclusively from His unseen treasury of mercy, as
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succour from the unseen and Divine generosity, placed in the hands of plants, the
crowns of trees, and the breasts of mothers. The possessor of that all-seeing eye would
realize the following:
The making of a single apple, and the generous giving of it to a man as true
sustenance and provision, can be accomplished only by a Being Who causes the
seasons, the nights and the days to rotate, Who causes the globe to revolve like a
cargo ship, and thus brings the fruits of the seasons within reach of those needy guests
of the earth who stand waiting for them. For the stamp of its nature, the seal of
wisdom, the imprint of eternal besoughtedness, the signet of mercy that is to be found
on the surface of the apple, is to be found also on all apples and other fruits, plants and
animals. Hence the true Master and Maker of the apple is bound to be the Glorious
Sovereign, the Beauteous Creator of all the inhabitants of the world, who are the
peers, the congeners and the brothers of the apple; of the vast earth that is the garden
of the apple; of the tree of the cosmos that is its factory; of the seasons that are its
workshop; and of the spring and summer that are its place of maturing.
In other words, every fruit is a seal of unity that makes known the Writer and
Maker of the earth, its tree, and of the book of the universe, its garden; it
demonstrates His unity, and shows to the number of fruits, the seal affixed to the
decree of unity.
Since the Risale-i Nur is a manifestation of the Names of All-Compassionate and
All-Wise, and numerous flashes and mysteries of the truth of Compassionateness have
been expounded and proved in many parts of the Risale-i Nur, we leave further
discussion of the matter to those parts and content ourselves with this brief indication,
out of a vast treasury, on account of the unfavourable circumstances from which we
are now suffering.
Our traveller now says: “Praise be to God! I have seen and heard Thirty-Three
Truths bearing witness to the necessary existence and unity of the Creator and
Sovereign I was everywhere seeking and enquiring after. Each of the truths is bright as
the sun and leaves no darkness behind. It is as strong and unshakeable as a mountain.
Each of them, with its verifications, bears decisive witness to His existence, and with
its comprehensiveness proves His unity in manifest fashion. While proving implicitly all
the pillars of faith, the totality and consensus of these truths causes our belief to
advance from imitation to realization, from realization to knowledge of certainty, from
knowledge of certainty to vision of certainty, and from vision of certainty to absolute
certainty. Praise be to God; this is from the bounty of my Sustainer.”
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Praise be to God Who guided us to this; verily we would not have been
guided unless God had guided us. The messengers of God have come to us
with the truth.47
In extremely brief allusion to the lights of belief derived by our inquisitive traveller
from the four sublime truths he witnessed at the Third Stopping-Place, it was said in
the Second Chapter of the First Station, concerning the truths of the Third Stopping-
Place:
There is no god other than God, the One, the Unique, to Whose Unity
in Necessary Existence points the witnessing of the sublimity of the
comprehensiveness of the truth of opening, through the unfolding of
different forms of four hundred thousand species of living beings,
perfect and without defect, according to the testimony of biology and
botany; the witnessing of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the
truth of mercifulness, all-embracing and regular, without any
deficiency, as the eye can see; the witnessing of the sublimity of the
truth of administering, that encompasses in orderly fashion all living
beings, without error or defect; the witnessing of the sublimity of the
comprehensivness of the truth of compassionateness and sustaining,
embracing all consumers of sustenance, at every time of need, without
any mistake or forgetfulness; Glory be unto Him, the Provider, the
Merciful, the Compassionate, the Solicitous, the Generous; His gifts
are universal, and His Generosity is all-embracing; there is no god but
He!
Glory be unto You; we have no knowledge save that which You have
taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.48
O our Sustainer! For the sake of ‘In the name of God, the Merciful, the
Compassionate,’ O God, O