The Supreme Sign

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

So too from these
six levels, the Disposer of the universe has set His seal on its being sheer
truth and right, and not being man’s word, and its containing no error — the
Disposer, Who has made it His practice to always exhibit beauty in the
universe, protect good and right, and eliminate imposters and liars, has
confirmed and set His seal on the Qur’an by giving it the most acceptable,
highest, and most dominant place of respect and degree of success in the world.

And so too the one
who is the source of Islam and interpreter of the Qur’an — his believing in it
and holding it in greater respect than everyone else, and being in a sleep-like
state when it was revealed,24 and other words and speeches not resembling or
coming near it, and that Interpreter’s describing without hesistation and with
complete confidence through the Qur’an true cosmic events of generally the past
and the future from behind the veil of the Unseen, and no trickery or fault
being observed in him while being under the gazes of the sharpest eyes, and his
believing and affirming every pronouncement of the Qur’an with all his strength
and nothing shaking him, is a stamp confirming that the Qur’an is revealed and
true and the blessed Word of his own Compassionate Creator.

Also a fifth of
mankind, indeed the greater part of it, being drawn to the Qur’an and bound to
it in religion and giving ear to it eagerly desirous of the truth, and
according to the testimony of many indications and events and illuminations,
the jinn, angels, and spirit beings also gathering around it in
truth-worshipping fashion like moths whenever it is recited25 is a stamp
confirming the Qur’an’s acceptance by all beings and that it occupies a most
high position.

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

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

Yes, the value,
superiority, and eloquence of a speech or word is apparent through knowing,
“from whom it has come and to whom, and for what purpose;” the Qur’an then can
have no like, and none can reach it. For the Qur’an is a speech and address of
the Sustainer of all the worlds and Creator of the whole universe and a
dialogue in no way hinting of imitation and artificiality. It is addressed to
the one sent in the name of all men, indeed of all beings, the most famous and
renowned of mankind, the strength and breadth of whose belief gave rise to
mighty Islam and raised its owner to the level of the “Distance of Two Bow-strings”
and returned him as the addressee of the Eternally Besought One. It describes
and explains the matters concerning happiness in this world and the next, the
results of the creation of the universe, and the dominical purposes within it.
It expounds also the belief of the one it addresses, which was the highest and
most extensive of belief and bore all the truths of Islam. It turns and shows
every side of the huge universe like a map, a clock, or a house, and teaches
and describes it in the manner of the Craftsman Who made them — to produce the
like of this Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition is not possible; the degree of its
miraculousness cannot be attained to.

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

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

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

Thus, in brief
allusion to the instruction in belief and Divine unity that the traveller
received from the Qur’an, it was said in the Seventeeth Degree of the First
Station:

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

***

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

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

Looking through the
broad and comprehensive telescope he had taken from the Qur’an, he saw the
cosmos to be so meaningful and well-ordered that it took on the shape of an
embodied book of the Glorious One, an incarnate dominical Qur’an, a finely
adorned palace of the Eternally Besought One, an orderly city of the Most
Merciful. All the suras, verses, and words of that book of the universe, even
its very letters, chapters, divisions, pages, and lines, through their constant
meaningful effacement and reaffirmation, their wise changes and alternations,
gave unanimous expression to the existence and presence of One Who has
Knowledge of all things and Power over all things as the author of the book, of
a Glorious Inscriber and a Perfect Scribe seeing all things in all things and
knowing the relationship of all things with all things.

So too all the
species and particles of the cosmos, all its inhabitants and contents, all that
enters it and leaves it, all the providential changes and the wise processses
of rejuvenation that occur in it — these proclaim in unison the existence and
unity of an exalted craftsman, a peerless Maker Who sets to work with limitless
power and infinite wisdom. The testimony of two great and vast truths, of a
piece with the immensity of the cosmos, affirms this supreme witness of the
cosmos.

FIRST TRUTH: These
are the truths of ‘createdness’ and ‘contingency’ established with countless
proofs by the gifted scholars of the principles of religion and the science of
theology, as well as the sages of Islam. They said that since change and
mutation are to be observed in the world and all things, the world must be
ephemeral and created; it cannot be uncreated. If it is created, then there
must be a Maker who created it. And if there is no cause to be found in the
essence of a thing either for its being or for its non-being, so that these two
are equally possible, that thing cannot be necessary and eternal.

It has further been
proven with decisive arguments that it is not possible for things to create
each other, since that would involve the absurd and false notion of causality
and never-ending causal sequences. Hence the existence of a Necessary Existence
becomes necessary, whose like cannot exist, whose similitude is impossible, all
other than whom is contingent and created by him.

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

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

When the pages are spread out.

Then also, with
respect to the whole, each autumn a great world dies, and each spring a fresh world
comes into being. That death and creation proceed in so orderly a manner, and
so many separate deaths and creations occur within them, in such orderly and
regular fashion, that it is as if the world were a traveller’s lodge where
animate beings reside for a time, where travelling worlds and migrant realms
come, fulfil their duties, and then go on their way. So there is apparent to
all intellects, with the clarity of the sun, the necessary existence, infinite
power and unending wisdom of a Glorious Being Who creates and brings into being
in this world vital realms and purposive universes, with perfect wisdom,
knowledge, and equilibrium, with balance, order and regularity, and Who then
employs them for dominical purposes, Divine aims and Merciful goals, with full
power and compassion. We leave to the Risale-i Nur and the books of the
theologians the further discussion of matters related to createdness.

As for contingence,
it prevails over and surrounds all of the cosmos. For we see that all things,
universal or particular, big or small, from God’s Throne down to the ground,
from the atom to the planet, all are sent to the world with a particular
essence, a specific form, a distinct identity, particular attributes, wise
qualities, and beneficial organs. Now to bestow on that particular essence and
quiddity its peculiarities, from amongst the infinite possibilities available;
to clothe it in its specific, distinctive and appropriate form, from among the
possibilities and probabilities that are as numerous as the forms that may be
conceived; to distinguish that being with the identity suited to it, from among
the possibilities as numerous as the other members of its species; to endow
with special, suitable and beneficial attributes the created object that is formless
and hesitant midst the possibilities and probabilities that are as numerous as
the varieties of attribute and degree; to affix to that aimless creature,
perplexed and distraught amidst the innumerable possibilities and probabilities
that result from the infinitude of conceivable paths and modalities —to affix
to it wise qualities and beneficial organs and equip it with them— all of these
are indications, proofs, and affirmations to the number of the innumerable
possibilities of the necessary existence, infinite power and unlimited wisdom
of the Necessary Existent Who creates, chooses, specifies, and distinguishes
the quiddity and identity, the form and shape, the attribute and situation of
all contingent beings, whether they be universals or particulars.

They indicate, too,
that no object and no matter is hidden from Him, that nothing is difficult for
Him, that the greatest task is as easy for Him as the smallest, that He can
create a spring as easily as a tree, and a tree as easily as a seed. All this,
then, pertains to the truth of contingence, and forms one wing of the great
testimony borne by the cosmos.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Since the Risale-i
Nur has established and clarified this great testimony, we will content
ourselves here with this brief indication.

In brief allusion
to the lesson of faith learned by our traveller from the cosmos, we said in the
Eighteenth Degree of the First Station:

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

***

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

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

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

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

From this
continuous, wise and imperious activity, the deeds of an All-Powerful and
All-Knowing Doer can be discerned, as if from behind a veil. And from behind
the veil of these nurturing and administering deeds of dominicality, the Divine
Names, manifest in all things, can be immediately perceived. Then behind the
veil of the Beautiful Names, manifest with Glory and Beauty, can be deduced the
existence and reality of the seven sacred attributes, according to the
testimony of all creation, in a life-giving, powerful, knowledgeable,
all-hearing, all-seeing, volitional and speech-endowed form, there appears to
the eye of faith in the heart, self-evidently, necessarily, and with full
certainty, the existence of a Necessary Existent that is described by these
attributes, a Single One of Unity known by these Names, a Peerless and Eternal
Doer, in a form more evidential and brilliant than the sun.

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

On the basis, then,
of this truth and principle, the universe with all the beings it contains
resembles a collection of profound books and letters written by the pen of
Divine Determining, and countless buildings and palaces constructed with the
hammer of Divine Power. Each of these singly in thousands of ways and together
in uncountable ways utters the following testimony:

These innumerable
dominical and merciful deeds, and the endless manifestations of the thousand
and one Divine Names which are the source of the deeds, and the infinite
manifestations of the seven transcendent attributes which are the source of the
Beautiful Names, in endless and infinite ways point to and testify to the
necessary existence and unity of an All-Glorious Essence Which is the source of
those all-embracing, sacred seven attributes and is qualified by them. And so
too all the instances of beauty, loveliness, perfection, and exquisiteness
found in those beings self-evidently testify all together to the sacred
beauties and perfections of the dominical deeds, and the Divine Names, and
attributes, and qualities, which are fitting and worthy of them, and to the
sacred beauty of the Most Pure and Holy Essence.

So the truth of
dominicality that manifests itself within the truth of activity reveals and
makes itself known in qualities and acts such as creating, originating,
fashioning and bringing into being, with knowledge and wisdom; determining,
forming, administering and changing with regularity and balance; transforming,
causing to descend and perfecting, with purpose and will; and feeding,
nurturing, and bestowing generosity and bounty, with tenderness and mercy. And
within the truth of the manifestation of dominicality, the truth of the
immediately perceived revelation of Divinity makes itself known and recognized
through the compassionate and munificent manifestations of the Beautiful Names
and through the Glorious and Beauteous manifestations of the seven affirmative
attributes: Life, Knowledge, Power, Will, Hearing, Sight, and Speech.

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

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

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

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

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

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