The Fifteenth Ray

The Shining Proof

This consists of two ‘Stations’

[This lesson is a treatise which is apparently unimportant, but in reality is of the greatest importance, and is extremely powerful and comprehensive. It is a Qur’anic fruit of Paradise and of belief which was produced from the uniting —at the degrees of ‘knowledge of certainty’ and ‘absolute certainty’— of my life of reflective thought and the spiritual life of the Risale-i Nur, which is based on ascertaining reality through its evidences (tahkikî).¹]

S a i d N u r s i

The First Station

[A concise summary of the Twentieth Letter, and Part One of the instruction given in the third ‘School of Joseph’.² It consists of three ‘Parts’]

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

And from Him do we seek help

I am someone who has spent thirty-five years in seclusion, and particularly at night forgets the world, and having for twenty-three years suffered the annoyance of being under hostile surveillance, has become unsociable. Being all alone, I become fed up if I am for even an hour with anyone other than those who assist me or are desirous of the lessons of the Risale-i Nur. But then, on the pretext of the petition I wrote to the Court of Appeal about being held for eleven months in total solitary confinement in Afyon Prison, they forcibly transferred me to Ward Five and forbade my brothers to come to me. I was feeling truly alarmed that I would be unable to endure the crowded conditions when suddenly as a sign of wrath and anger, the cold became so severe I would not have survived had I remained in my former place. The hardship turned into mercy for me.

It occurred to me as I was reciting the tesbihat following the prayers: “In all the wards the Risale-i Nur students are working as hard as they can at the Risale-i Nur and its lessons both on their own account and in your place. But because this fifth ward is somewhat isolated and is constantly being filled and emptied, the need here is greater for the Risale-i Nur’s instruction. The youths and elderly people read the newspapers, which write about the assaults of Russia with its awesome denial of God, and are therefore in far greater need of its definitive, powerful instruction about belief in God’s existence and unity.” I was thinking of writing a brief summary of the Twentieth Letter and the sacred sentence:

There is no god but God, He is One, He has no partner; His is the sovereignty and His is the praise; He gives life and deals death, and He is Living and dies not; in His hand is all good; He is Powerful over all things; and to Him shall be your return,³

which for years I have recited ten times after the morning prayer. For it points out the affirmation of Divine unity on a vast scale, and with its eleven phrases demonstrates in detail as clearly as the sun both eleven proofs of the Divine necessary existence and dominical unity, and eleven good tidings. According to one narration, it bears the Greatest Name. But then it was suddenly imparted to me that I should teach this concise summary to Nadir Hoja and the youths here. So saying: “In the name of God,” I began:

This sentence demonstrating Divine unity contains eleven good tidings and eleven proofs of the truths of belief. For now, I shall point out briefly the proofs only and refer their further explanation and the good tidings to the Twentieth Letter and other parts of the Risale-i Nur. However, I cconsider it appropriate to write here a few points I did not tell them when I was writing the lesson. Of the eleven phrases of the above sentence affirming Divine unity:

THE FIRST PHRASE: ‘There is no god but God’

The proof here is the treatise called The Supreme Sign (Âyetü’l-Kübra), which has been printed. It was because it is a matchless wonder that in giving news of various parts of the Risale-i Nur, Imam ‘Ali (May God be pleased with him) said: “And by the Supreme Sign preserve me from sudden death,” and making that Supreme Sign an intercessor, through the treatise’s victories in the Courts of both Ankara and Denizli and its spreading effectively and secretly, it was both the reason for the Risale-i Nur students being acquitted, and since its secret printing had led to the students’ imprisonment for nine months, it both clearly affirmed Imam ‘Ali’s (May God be pleased with him) wondrous prediction, and his prayer for the Risale-i Nur students.

Yes, the Seventh Ray, The Supreme Sign, points out thirty-three vast, universal, unanimous proofs in all beings. Alluding to innumerable evidences in each universal proof, it proves firstly that heavens indicate the Necessarily Existent One’s existence and unity with the words of the stars; the earth with the phrases and sentences of the animals and plants; and so on, until the universe as a whole, with the words of all its contents and beings, and the truths of contingency and createdness and change — it proves them as clearly as sunlight and as certainly as the day. Those who want unshakeable belief and seek an unbreakable sword to combat irreligion and anarchy should refer to The Supreme Sign.

THE SECOND PHRASE: ‘He is One’

A concise indication of the proof in this phrase is as follows:

In every aspect of the universe a unity, a oneness, is apparent. For example, it displays a unity and oneness by being a well set-out city, a magnificent palace, a meaningful, materialized book, and a embodied Qur’an every verse, and even every letter and point of which is miraculous. Similarly, since the palace’s lamp is one and the same, and its calendar-lamp, and fiery cook, and water-bearing sponges, and hundreds of thousands of other things it contains are all one and the same, it proves decisively that the owner, ruler, scribe, and author of the palace, city, book, and mighty embodied Qur’an is existent, one, and single.

THE THIRD PHRASE: ‘He has no partner’

A brief indication of the proof in this is as follows:

The source, master, and basis of The Supreme Sign is the sublime verse:

Say: if there had been [other] gods with Him —as they say— behold, they would certainly have sought out a way to the Lord of the Throne! [to the end of the verse],⁴

which is also called the Supreme Sign. That is, if God had any partners and others had intervened in creation and interfered in His dominicality, the order of the universe would have been spoilt.” However, the perfect order in everything, small and large, particular and universal, from the wing of the tiniest fly and the cell of the pupil of the eye to the numberless birds which fly through the air and the solar system, furnishes indubitable and decisive evidence for the impossibility and non-existence of any such partners. It also testifies self-evidently to the existence and unity of the Necessarily Existent One.

THE FOURTH PHRASE: ‘His is the dominion’

A concise indication of the lengthy proof contained in this phrase:

We see that behind the veil One of boundless power and knowledge makes the face of the earth into an arable field, and every spring sows in it all mixed up together the seeds of a hundred thousand species of plants. Then in perfect order without confusing any of their crops, He raises them and with the hand of mercy and wisdom, out of them distributes to the two hundred thousand animal species their sustenance and rations according to need. He performs these acts of disposal in His vast, rich dominions, especially on the face of the earth. Those, then, who do not recognize that All-Wise Disposer and Compassionate Owner are compelled to deny the earth together with its produce, like the foolish Sophists.

THE FIFTH PHRASE: ‘His is the praise’

This is a very brief indication to the very extensive proof contained in this phrase:

Yes, we see with our eyes and understand clearly with our minds that this city of the universe, quarter of the earth, and barracks of men and animals is governed, supervised, and maintained by an All-Compassionate Provider, a Munificent Provider of Bounties. For in order to have His bounties praised and thanked for, He makes the earth into a merchant ship and railway train bringing provender, and the spring into a waggon filled with a hundred thousand sorts of foods and packets of conserves called breasts, conveying them to the needy living creatures whose rations have been exhausted at the end of winter. Anyone with an iota of intelligence would agree that this was the work of an All-Compassionate Provider. While one who does not affirm it and deviates into denial is a foolish, harmful animal since he is then obliged to deny all the regular bounties and specific foods on the face of the earth, which are the cause of praise and thanks.

THE SIXTH PHRASE: ‘He gives life’

An extremely brief allusion to the proof in this phrase:

Yes, it is proved in the Tenth Word and in other parts of the Risale-i Nur that every spring on the face of the earth a glorious army is raised to life which consists of three hundred thousand species of living beings of infinite variety. With its innumerable members, all of whose lives and necessities are given them with perfect order and regularity, it displays a hundred thousand samples, indeed, signs, of the supreme resurrection of the dead. All those innumerable different creatures which are intermingled and mixed up together are raised to life in perfect balance and order without error, mistake, or deficiency, with none being confused, disarranged, or forgotten. Those hundreds of thousands of animal species with their uncountable members, which all differ as regards their forms, art, and livelihoods, are resurrected from droplets of fluid called sperm which is all similar, from seeds resembling earth, from tiny grains which differ little from one another, from the tiny eggs of flies which are all similar, and the birds from the same air and from fluid and eggs which are either the same as or only a little different from each other. The person, therefore, who does not conclude that it is an Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One, an All-Knowing, Creative Giver of Life Who writes out on the page of the earth and the spring a hundred thousand different books, all together, one within the other, without error, perfectly, is surely compelled to deny both himself and all the living creatures throughout the earth, in all the springs attached to the string of time, and on the faces of the living earth and space, and must himself be the most foolish and wretched of living creatures.

THE SEVENTH PHRASE: ‘And deals death’

A very brief indication of the proof contained in this phrase:

In the autumn when the three hundred thousand species of living creatures are being discharged from their duties under the name of death, the registers and pages of the actions of each species and all their members, and the indexes of all they have done, and the lists of all they will do the following spring, and their seeds, which are spirits of a sort, are all entrusted in their places to the hand of wisdom of the All-Glorious Preserver. The person, therefore, who does not recognize that All-Wise Creator, the Ever-Living and Undying One, Who inscribes in the miniscule seeds of the fig-tree, each of which is like an immortal spirit and bears all the laws governing the tree’s life, the story of the tree’s life, which contains writing enough to fill a book, thus making it like a large volume — such a person is certainly not even an idiot and delirious animal, but more abject than the devils who stoke the fires of Hell, and will be condemned to eternal death.

Yes, just as it is a hundredfold impossibility and futility that the above universal, comprehensive, wise, purposive acts, which comprise numberless wonders and miracles and point to the proofs of these Phrases, should be without the one who performed them; so too, to attribute them to blind, impotent, unconscious, deaf, lifeless, confused, disorderly, overwhelming causes is impossible, precluded and unjustifiable a thousand times over. For if that was the case, every particle of earth would have to possess an infinite power and wisdom, and a wondrous, universal craftsmanship so that it could give form to all the plants and flowers; and as it says in the piece about the air in A Guide For Youth, every molecule of air would have to possess the ability to know all speech and all the words spoken on the radio and telephone, and to teach them to the other molecules. No satan even could make anyone accept such an extraordinary idea. The penalty for unbelief and denial, which is thus far from reason and reality and constitutes insult and aggression against all beings, could only be a terrible Hell, which is pure justice. We should surely declare in the face of such disbelievers: “Long live Hell!”

THE EIGHTH PHRASE: ‘And He is living and dies not’

An extremely brief indication of the proof in this phrase is this:

For example, on the disappearance of the tiny suns reflected in the bubbles on the surface of a choppy sea or flowing river, the bubbles that replace them display the same tiny suns, thus pointing to the sun in the sky and testifying to it, and with their disappearance and death they indicate the existence of a perpetual sun. Similarly, the creatures on the surface of the constantly changing sea of the universe, and ever-renewed, infinite space, in the arable field of minute particles, and in the river of time, which with its flow draws all transitory beings into its embrace, continuously and speedily flow on and depart, and their apparent causes die along with them. Every day, every year, a universe dies and a new one replaces it. Since the crops of travelling worlds and flowing universes are continuously reaped from the field of particles, certainly just as the bubbles and tiny suns point to a perpetual sun with their passage, so the deaths of those numberless creatures and endless crops, and their being discharged in perfect orderliness together with their apparent causes, testify with the clarity and certainty of daylight, indeed, of the sun, to the necessary existence and being and unity of an Ever-Living Undying One, an Eternal Sun, an Enduring Creator, a Most Pure and Holy Commander. All beings testify to these a thousand times more clearly and definitely than the existence of the universe.

Now you have certainly understood just how deaf, foolish, and offensive is someone who does not hear these loud voices and powerful testimonies that fill the universe, nor heeds them.

THE NINTH PHRASE: ‘In His hand is all good’

A brief indication of the proof contained in this phrase is as follows:

We see that each sphere of the universe, each realm of being, each level, each individual and member, and even each cell of each body possesses a store or depot containing its reserve supplies of sustenance, an arable field or treasury producing and preserving all its necessities. For at exactly the right time, in perfect order and balance, with perfect wisdom and graciousness, all their necessities are given to those needy beings by a hidden hand, outside their power and will.

For example, mountains contain all the minerals and chemicals necessary for man and living beings, and the things necessary for life; on someone’s command and through his planning, they are perfect stores and treasuries. Similarly, through the power of an All-Wise Provider, the earth is an arable field, a harvest, a kitchen, producing with perfect order and regularity the sustenance of all those living beings. Even, just as human beings and all their bodily members have treasuries and stores, and the cells of their bodies have tiny depots; so it goes on, till the world of the hereafter, a store of which is this world; and an arable field and store of Paradise are the world of Islam and true humanity, which produce the good, beauty, and lights of this world; and one storehouse of Hell are the filthy matters and groups of this world, which come from non-existence, which is evil, and yield the produce of evils, ugly things, and disbelief, and which pollute the worlds of existence, which are good. And the store of the stars’ heat is Hell, while the treasury of lights is a Paradise. Alluding to all those infinite treasuries, the phrase ‘In His hand is all good,’ then, demonstrates a most brilliant proof.

Yes, this phrase, together with the phrase, ‘In His hand are the keys of all things,’ points out to anyone not totally blind an infinitely extensive, wondrous proof of Divine dominicality and unity. For example, consider only the following out of those endless treasuries and stores: just as with his command of “Awake!” and the key of His will, an All-Wise Disposer Who holds the keys of seeds and grains, which are all tiny stores containing the members and destinies of huge trees or shining flowers, opens up in perfect balance and order the minute door of a seed; so too throwing open with the key of the rain the treasury of the earth, without error He opens all the seeds, which are the tiny stores and seminal fluid of plants, as well as the storehouses of droplets, which receive the command to develop and are the origin of animals, and the seminal fluid composed of water and air of birds and flying insects. If you want to understand and see that He opens up with the hand of wisdom, will, mercy, and choice, all the treasuries and depots, physical and non-physical, universal and particular, in the universe, each with its particular key, consider your own heart, mind, body, stomach, and garden, and the spring, which is the flower of the earth, and its flowers and fruits, for they are all opened up by a hidden hand, with perfect order, balance, mercy, and wisdom, with all different keys which come from the workbench of “Be! And it is.”⁵ That hidden hand draws out pounds of foods from a minute box weighing less than an ounce, and sometimes hundreds of pounds, and presents them to living creatures as a feast. Is it at all possible that blind force, deaf nature, aimless chance, or lifeless, ignorant, impotent causes could interfere in such a boundless orderly, knowing, and percipient act, in such totally wise, purposive art in which no chance played any part, in such error-free perfectly balanced disposals, and in such completely just dominicality which is free of all tryanny? Could any being who does not see and administer all beings together at once, nor holds under his command minute particles together with the planets and stars, intervene in this disposal and government which is in every way wise, purposeful, miraculous, and balanced?

As the verse, Well-nigh bursting with fury⁶ states, Hell rages at the person who does not recognize the All-Compassionate Disposer, the All-Wise Sustainer, in Whose hand is all good and Who holds the keys of all things, and deviates into denial; it boils up in fury, saying through the tongue of disposition: “He deserves my boundless torments and is in no way worthy of compassion.”

THE TENTH PHRASE: ‘And He is powerful over all things’

An extremely concise indication of the proof contained in this phrase is as follows:

As soon as every conscious creature who comes into this guest-house of the world opens his eyes, he sees that a power holds in its grasp the whole universe, and within that power are a pre-eternal, all-embracing knowledge which never confuses anything and a most precise wisdom and favour which never act purposelessly or without balance. Just as, spinning a single particle from the army of particles like a Mevlevi dervish in ecstasy, it employs it in numerous duties; so at the same time and according to the same law, it causes the globe of the earth to travel a twenty-four thousand-year-distance in a year, again like an ecstatic Mevlevi. At the same time and according to same law, through which it sends to men and the animals the produce of the seasons, it makes the sun into a shuttle or spinning-wheel, and spinning it ecstatically so it exerts an attraction, it employs the planets, the army of the solar system, in various duties in perfect order and balance. At the same time and according to the same law of wisdom, that same power writes one within the other, without error or confusion, hundreds of thousands of species, which resemble books, on the page of the face of the earth, and displays thousands of samples of the supreme resurrection of the dead. That same power at the same time transforms the page of the atmosphere into a slate for writing and erasing. Employing all its particles, which are like the nibs of pens or the points of the book, in the tasks specified for them by will and command, it endows all of them with such ability that each receives all words and speech as though it knows them, and broadcasts them without confusion. It employs each as a miniscule ear and tiny tongue, proving that the element of air is a ‘throne’ of Divine will and command.

Thus, according to this brief indication, the one who makes the universe into a well-ordered city, a first-class apartment-building and guest-house, and a miraculous book and Qur’an, and holds in His grasp with the balance of knowledge and arrangements of wisdom all the levels, realms, and groups of creatures from the universe as a whole to minute particles, and disposes of them, is Most-Merciful and Compassionate. So the person who does not recognize that Most Merciful and Compassionate One, Who demonstrates as clearly as the sun and daylight His wisdom and mercy within His power, and makes known His existence and unity within His absolute dominicality, thus wanting recognition through belief in return for His making these known, and love through worship in return for His making Himself loved, and thanks and praise in return for His bounties — the satans in human form who do not recognize Him, or try to love Him through worship, in fact foster a sort of enmity towards Him through denial, and are each minor Nimrods and Pharaohs, and are certainly deserving of infinite torment.

THE ELEVENTH PHRASE: ‘And to Him is your return’

This means to say: just as beings will depart for His presence, going to the eternal world, the hereafter, and the everlasting realm of happiness; so it is He Who is the place of recourse of all the creatures in the universe. All the chains of causes are based on Him and rest on His power. They are all merely veils for the disposals of His power. All apparent causes are only screens for preserving the dignity and majesty of His sacred power. They have no effect whatsoever in creation. If it was not for His will and command, nothing, not even a particle, could move or act. A very brief indication of the proof contained in this phrase is as follows:

Firstly: We refer to the Tenth Word and its addenda, the Twenty-Ninth Word, the Seventh Topic of The Fruits of Belief, the Third Ray, and to the treatises of the Risale-i Nur about belief, the proof, leading to completely certain belief, that the resurrection of the dead will occur and the hereafter and eternal life will be brought about as indubitably and definitely as the coming spring, as this sacred phrase states. Truly, those treatises have proved this pillar of belief in such a way with so many evidences that they compel even the most obdurate deniers to affirm that the existence of the hereafter is as certain as the existence of this world.

Secondly: One third of the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition looks to the resurrection of the dead and the hereafter, and it constructs all its claims on them. Since this is so, all the miracles and evidences proving the Qur’an’s veracity also indicate the existence of the hereafter. Similarly, all the miracles bearing witness to the prophethood of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), and all the evidences of his prophethood, and all the proofs of his truthfulness, testify also to the resurrection of the dead and the hereafter. For just as throughout his life, one of his most constant calls concerned the hereafter, so all the twenty-four thousand prophets (Peace be upon them) taught eternal life and everlasting happiness, giving the glad tidings to mankind, and proving them with innumerable miracles and certain evidences. Since this is so, all the miracles and evidences proving their prophethood and veracity testified to the hereafter and eternal life, which was their constant and most important teaching. Making an analogy with this, all the evidences proving the other pillars of belief testify also to the resurrection of the dead and the throwing open of the realm of bliss.

Thirdly: In order to display His perfections and His power and dominicality, an All-Glorious Maker, a Beauteous Maker, an All-Perfect Allah creates the universe together with all its atoms, planets, parts, and levels. With perfect wisdom He continuously makes each being work at a task, indeed, at numerous tasks, and in order to display the eternal, endless manifestations of His Names, He sends caravan after caravan, indeed, world after travelling renewed world, and the tribes of creatures to the guest-house of this world and the arena of trial which is worldly life. He records for the cinemas of the hereafter set up in the World of Similitudes, with the cameras of the Intermediate Realm, all their images, deeds, and circumstances, and after releasing them from their duties, sends other tribes, caravans, and flowing, travelling worlds to the arena in order to perform those duties and be mirrors to the manifestations of His Names. Is it therefore at all possible that there should be no realm of reward and punishment, no resurrection of the dead and last judgement for men, who with consciousness and intelligence respond in this fleeting world to all the aims of the Creator, loving Him with all their capacity and making Him love them; recognizing Him and making Him known; beseeching with endless supplications everlasting happiness in the hereafter; and since, possessing intelligence, they suffer infinite pains, they long for eternal life, which is pure pleasure, with all their beings, spirits, and capacities? God forbid! A hundred thousand times, God forbid!

Since these brief indications are proved and explained brilliantly, powerfully and in detail in the Risale-i Nur, we refer you to that and here cut this long story short.

Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.⁷

* * *

A Brief Summary of Sura al-Fatiha

[Part Two of the only lesson I gave after having been transferred temporarily from solitary confinement in the third ‘School of Joseph’ to the company of others.]

This is a short sample of the lessons given to the Risale-i Nur students in prison:

While reciting Sura al-Fatiha during the prayers, it commanded me to expound one drop from its ocean and a single flash from the seven colours in the light of its sun. For sure we had written some very sweet and agreeable points from this sacred treasury in part of the Twenty-Ninth Letter, particularly in the journey of imagination taken in “the Nun of na‘budu,” and the Eight Symbols (Rumuz-u Semaniye), and the Qur’anic commentary Signs of Miraculousness (Ishârâtü’l-I’caz), and in other parts of the Risale-i Nur, but I felt obliged to write down my reflections during the prayers, but only the allusions to the pillars of belief and their proofs from that very sweet Qur’anic summary, in the form of a concise extract and in the manner of Part One above. So referring the phrase In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate to two or three treatises of the Risale-i Nur, I am starting from All praise be to God:

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. * All praise be to God, the Sustainer of the All the Worlds. * The Merciful, the Compassionate; * Owner of the Day of Judgement; * You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help; * Guide us to the Straight Path; * The path of those whom You have blessed, not those who have received Your anger, nor those who have gone astray.⁸

FIRST PHRASE: ‘All praise be to God’

A very brief allusion to the proof of the truths of belief in this phrase.

Filling the face of the earth, indeed, the universe, are intentional bestowals and bounties, which are the cause of praise and thanks, especially the sending of pure, clean, nutritious milk to infants from between blood and excrement; so too are there purposeful gifts and presents, and kindly benefactions and feasts. The price of these is to say “In the Name of God” at the start, “All praise be to God” at the end, and in the middle to perceive the bestowal in the bounty, and through it to recognize your Sustainer. Consider your own self, your stomach, and your senses! How many things and bounties they need! See how many foods and delights they want for the price of praise and thanks, then compare all living creatures with yourself. Thus, the endless praise offered verbally and through tongues of disposition in response to these general bestowals shows as clearly as the sun the existence and universal dominicality of One Who is Worshipped and Praised, an All-Compassionate Bestower of Bounties.

SECOND PHRASE: ‘The Sustainer of All the Worlds’

A very short allusion to the proof contained in this phrase:

We see with our eyes that within the universe are not thousands, but millions of worlds, small universes, mostly one within the other. Although the conditions for the administration and running of these are all different, they are organized, maintained, and administered so perfectly that like a single page held constantly in view the universe is renewed and changed, and like a line, each of all those worlds is written by a pen of power and determining. Every instant attestations, particular and universal, are made, boundless, unending testimonies to the number of minute particles and the beings formed of them, to the necessary existence and unity of a Sustainer of All the Worlds who administers these millions of worlds and travelling universes with an infinite knowledge, wisdom, and limitless all-embracing mercy within an infinite dominicality. Not to affirm, perceive, understand or see a dominicality which raises and administers with the same law, the same dominicality, the same wisdom, all beings from the arable field of particles to the solar system and the Milky Way, and from the cells of the body to the storehouse of the earth, to the universe in its entirety, certainly makes a person deserving of endless torment, and negates his worthiness to be pitied.

THIRD PHRASE: ‘The Merciful, the Compassionate’

An extremely brief allusion to the proof in this phrase:

Yes, the existence and reality of a boundless mercy is as clearly apparent in the universe as the light of the sun. As certainly as light testifies to the sun, so this extensive mercy testifies to a Most Merciful and Compassionate One behind the veil of the Unseen. An important part of mercy being sustenance, that mercy is signified by the Name of Provider. As for sustenance, it points to an All-Compassionate Provider so clearly that anyone with an iota of intelligence is compelled to affirm Him. For example, He sends food to all living beings, particularly to the helpless and young, throughout the earth and the atmosphere, in truly wondrous fashion beyond their wills and power, from seeds, droplets of fluid, and grains of earth which all resemble each other. He makes the hen-birds search out the food and bring it their wingless, frail chicks in the nests at the tops of trees. He subjugates the hungry lioness to her cubs, so she does not eat the meat she finds but gives it them. He sends the pleasant, nutritious, pure, white milk, like the water of Kawthar, from the springs of breasts to the infants of humans and young of other animals, without it being polluted by red blood and filthy excrement, sending also their mothers’ tenderness to assist them. Then just as in truly wondrous fashion He causes the appropriate sustenance to hasten to all the trees, which need a sort of food, so He bestows an extensive table of foods on man’s senses, which require sustenance physical and non-physical, and on his mind, heart, and spirit. It is as though the universe consists of hundreds of thousands of laden tables of every different kind and sort, all enfolded one within the other like the petals of the rose and shirts of the maize cob. With a multitude of various tongues, particular and universal, to the number of tables and the foods they bear and their bounties, these point out to everyone who is not completely blind a Most Merciful Provider, an All-Compassionate and Munificent One.

If it is said: The calamities, ugliness, and evils in this world are contrary to that all-embracing mercy, and spoil it.

The Answer: This question has been answered completely satisfactorily in various parts of the Risale-i Nur such as the Treatise On Divine Determining. Referring you to them, here we make only a brief allusion, as follows:

All the elements, all the realms of beings, and all creatures, have numerous duties, particular and universal, and each of those duties yields numerous results and fruits. For the most part these are beneficial, beautiful, good, and are mercy. Only a few of them encounter those lacking ability, those who act wrongly, or those who deserve punishment and disciplining, or those who will be the means of producing many shoots of good. An apparent, minor evil is ugliness; it is apparently unkind. But if for that minor evil not to occur, the element and universal being is prevented by mercy from performing its duty, then all its other good and beautiful results would not come into existence. Since the non-existence of a good is evil and the spoiling of beauty is ugly, evils, ugliness, and pitilessness would occur to the number of those results. Thus, hundreds of evil and instances of unkindness would be perpetrated just so that one evil would not occur, which would be entirely contrary to wisdom, benefit, and the mercy of dominicality. For example, things like snow, cold, fire, and rain have hundreds of benefits and purposes. If through their own choice careless or imprudent people harm themselves, for instance if they put their hands in the fire and say there is no mercy in its creation, the innumerable good, beneficial, merciful uses of fire will give them the lie, and hit them in the mouth.

Moreover, man’s selfish desires and lowly emotions, which are blind to consequences, cannot be the criteria, measure, or balance of the laws of mercy, sovereignty, and dominicality which are in force in the universe. He sees things according to the colour of his own mirror. A black-hearted, cruel person sees the universe as weeping, ugly, dark, and tyrannical. But if he looks through the eye of belief, he sees a macroanthropos clothed in seventy thousand beautiful garments one over the other, sewn of instances of mercy, good, and wisdom. Like a houri of Paradise dressed in seventy fine garments, it is always laughing, smiling with mercy. He will observe that mankind within it is a miniature universe, and each individual man a microcosm. He will exclaim with all his heart and spirit:

“All praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds * The Merciful, the Compassionate. * Owner of the Day of Judgement!”

FOURTH PHRASE: ‘Owner of the Day of Judgement’

A very concise indication of the proof contained in this phrase:

Firstly: All the evidences which testify to the proof of ‘And to Him is your return,’ and to the resurrection of the dead and hereafter at the end of the Part One of this lesson, testify to the extensive truth of belief which ‘Owner of the Day of Judgement’ indicates.

Secondly: As is said at the end of the Tenth Word, just as the eternal dominicality, mercy, and wisdom of the universe’s Maker, and his pre-eternal and post-eternal beauty, glory, and perfection, and His endless other attributes and hundreds of Names certainly require the hereafter; so does the Qur’an testify to the abode of the hereafter with thousands of its verses and proofs, as does Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) with his hundreds of miracles and evidences, and all the prophets (Peace be upon them) and the revealed books and scriptures, with their innumerable evidences. The person, therefore, who does not believe in the everlasting life of the hereafter casts himself into a sort of Hell in this world, arising from his unbelief, and suffers constant torment. As is described in A Guide For Youth, through their death and parting, all the past and the future and creatures and universes continuously rain down endless pains on his spirit and heart, making him suffer the torments of Hell before going there.

Thirdly: ‘The Day of Judgement’ (Yawm al-Din) alludes to a vast and powerful proof of the resurrection of the dead, but a situation has arisen here causing the postponement of that proof to another time. Perhaps too, no need remains for it. For various parts of the Risale-i Nur have proved with hundreds of powerful arguments that the morning and spring of the resurrection of the dead and Great Gathering will occur as certainly as day follows night and spring follows winter.

FIFTH PHRASE: ‘You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help.’

It occurred to me that before pointing out the proof contained in this phrase, I should relate a true journey of the imagination which is described in the Twenty-Ninth Letter. It was like this:

As is explained in the Risale-i Nur, and especially in the Qur’anic commentary, Signs of Miraculousness (Isharat al-I‘jaz) and The Eight Symbols (Rumûz-u Semâniye), one time when I was seeking out the Qur’an’s miracles I found four or five miraculous predictions at the end of Sura al-Fath and an historical miracle in the verse: This day We shall save you in your body,⁹ and even flashes of miraculousness in numerous other words and sometimes miraculous points in letters. Then, when reciting Sura al-Fatiha during the prayers, a question occurred to me in order to inform me of a miracle in the Nun of na‘budu and nasta‘in ([You alone] do we worship [and from You alone] do we seek help).

Why was it not “You alone do I worship and from You alone do I seek help,” rather than the first person plural, that is, “We worship You and We seek help from You”? Suddenly the broad arena of a journey of the imagination opened up through the door of that “Nun” (we). I understood experientially the mighty mystery and vast benefits of praying in congregation, and that this single letter is a miracle, and I actually saw this. It was as follows:

At that time while performing the prayers in Bayezid Mosque in Istanbul, I said: “You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help.” I looked and saw that the congregation in the mosque was saying “Guide us!” the same as me; its members were all participating in my supplication, corroborating it. Then another veil was drawn back. I saw that all the mosques in Istanbul had as though become a huge Bayezid Mosque. All their congregations were exclaiming: “You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help” like me, setting their seals on my assertions and entreaties, and saying “Amen!” to them. Then within their taking on the form of intercessors for me, a further veil was unfolded in my imagination. I saw that the World of Islam had assumed the form of a huge mosque, with Mecca and the Ka‘ba as the mihrab. The rows of all the Muslims performing the prayers were in circles facing the sacred mihrab. Saying like me “You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help * Guide us...” each was both supplicating in the name of all, and testifying, and affirming it; also making all the others intercessors for himself. Then, when thinking: “What such a vast community claims could not be wrong and its supplications would not be rejected; it repulses Satanic doubts,” and when affirming the vast, self-evident benefits of performing the prayers in congregation, another veil was unfolded. I saw that the universe and all the varieties of creatures were as though performing the prayers through the tongues of their beings and worshipping in a way particular to each. Responding with extensive worship to the all-embracing dominicality of the Glorious All-Worshipped One, each group affirmed the testimonies and affirmation of Divine unity of all the others. While observing that this was the case since they all take up positions proving the same result, yet another veil was unfolded. I saw that just as the universe, the macroanthropos, exclaims: “You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help” with the tongue of disposition, and numerous of its parts declare it through the tongue of capacity and innate need, and conscious beings say it verbally, all thus displaying their worship before the Creator’s compassionate dominicality; in just the same way, through the silent tongue of need and submission to their Creator’s dominicality, all the particles, powers, and senses of my body, like those of all my companions in that vast congregation, each resembling a tiny universe, declared: “You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help.” In this way they showed that they were acting in accordance with the Divine will and command and were at every instant in need of their Creator’s grace and mercy and assistance. And just as entering through the door of the Nun, I had observed in wonderment both the sacred mystery of performing the prayers in congregation and the beautiful miracle of the Nun, so I went out from it. “All praise be to God!”, I exclaimed. Thereafter I became accustomed to reciting the verse, You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help on account of those three congregations and those companions, great and small.

Now we have completed the introduction and come to our main topic, and a brief indication of the proof alluded to by You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help:

Firstly: We see with our own eyes that in the universe and especially on the face of the earth, within an awesome, continuous, regular activity and creativity, a compassionate, administering absolute dominicality responds with perfect wisdom and favour to the pleas for help and entreaties made by act, tongue, and state, replying actively to each. Sound intelligences and the eye of belief see within the appearance of this dominicality, the response of the manifestation of an absolute Godhead, an Object of universal worship, to the thousands of sorts of worship of all beings, particularly living beings, and the voluntary, innate worship of all the groups of mankind in all its varieties. All the revealed scriptures and prophets also tell of this.

Secondly: As signified by the nun of na‘budu in the introduction above, each of the three congregations, and all of them, being engaged all together in their different, innate, voluntary worship, is without doubt a grateful response to a ‘worshippedness,’ and a boundless, unequivocal testimony to a Most Holy Object of Worship. As signified by the nun of nasta’in, the three congregations mentioned above, that is, every group and every individual from the totality of the universe to the congregation of the particles of a living body utters pleas for help and supplications both by act and state, testifying indubitably to the One Who administers them compassionately and hastens to assist them, and replies to and accepts their entreaties. For example, as is said in the Twenty-Third Word, the acceptance of the three sorts of supplications of all the creatures on the earth in a way which is truly wondrous and beyond all expectation, testifies definitely to a Compassionate Sustainer and Answerer of Prayer. Yes, before our eyes the supplications of grains and seeds to their Creator through the tongue of innate capacity to become shoots and trees, are accepted. Similarly, all living creatures seeking from someone through the tongue of innate need, their sustenance, which their hands cannot reach, and all their vital necessities and desires, which are beyond their power, testifies clearly to a Munificent Creator Who before our eyes accepts all those supplications they offer through the tongue of innate need, and at exactly the right time wisely makes strange, unconscious creatures speedily reply to their calls for help.

Thus, as in the above two paragraphs, the acceptance of the verbal supplications of all groups, especially the wondrous acceptance of the prophets’ (Peace be upon them) supplications and those of the elite, attest to the proof of Divine unity which From You alone do we seek help comprises.

SIXTH PHRASE: ‘Guide us to the Straight Path’

Yes, just as the shortest way among paths leading from one place to another, and the shortest of lines drawn from one distant point to another, are the straightest and most direct; in exactly the same way, the straightest and most direct of spiritual paths and interior ways are the shortest and easiest. For example, all the comparisons in the Risale-i Nur between the ways of belief and unbelief demonstrate decisively that the way of belief and the affirmation of Divine unity is extremely short, direct, straight, and easy, while the ways of unbelief and denial are extremely lengthy, difficult, and dangerous. That is to say, unbelief and the association of partners with God are not tenable in this straight, wise universe, in which everything is driven down the easiest and shortest path, and belief and the affirmation of Divine unity are as necessary and essential in the universe as the sun.

Also, the most comfortable, beneficial, and the shortest and safest way in human morality and conduct is the way of the straight path and moderation.

For example, if the power of reason deviates from the wisdom of the middle way and the easy, beneficial straight path, it falls into either excess and a pernicious wiliness, or deficiency and a calamitous stupidity, and is prey to all sorts of difficulties on their lengthy paths.

And if the power of anger does not follow the path of courage, which is the middle way, it descends into either excess and a most injurious, oppressive fury and arrogance, or into deficiency and an abased, painful cowardice and timidity, and as the penalty for the error of deviating from the straight path, suffers continuous torments of the conscience.

And if the power of animal appetites strays from the safe middle way of chastity, it falls into either excess and a calamitous, shameful debauchery and immorality, or into deficiency and frigidity, that is, an inability to experience pleasure, and suffers the torments of that spiritual sickness.

Thus, like these, in personal life and social life, in all their ways, the direct path is the easiest, shortest, and most beneficial. And ways other than the straight path are full of troubles, and are lengthy and harmful.

That is to say, just as Guide us to the straight path is a comprehensive supplication and wide-reaching worship, so it indicates a proof of Divine unity, instruction in wisdom, and moral training.

SEVENTH PHRASE: ‘The path of those whom You have blessed’

A concise indication of the proof contained in this phrase:

Firstly: The answer to the question of who “those” are, is the verse:

Of the prophets [who teach], the sincere [lovers of the truth], the witnesses [or martyrs] [who testify], and the righteous [who do good].¹⁰

This verse lists the four classes of mankind who have received the bounty of right-guidance. That is, with “the prophets” it indicates Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), who is the leader of the four classes, with “the sincere [lovers of the truth]” Abu Bakr the Veracious, and with “the witnesses [or martyrs] [who testify]” ‘Umar, Uthman, and ‘Ali (May God be pleased with them). With these prophecies, that after the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and after Abu Bakr, both ‘Umar, and ‘Uthman, and ‘Ali would be both Caliphs and martyrs, this verse displays a flash of miraculousness.

Secondly: The truth of Divine unity, which these most elevated, most true and rightly-guided four classes of mankind have taught with all their strength since the time of Adam, with innumerable proofs, miracles, wonders, evidences, and illuminations, and whom the majority of mankind have affirmed, is most certainly as definite as the sun. With their hundreds of thousands of miracles and proofs, these pre-eminent members of mankind have proved their veracity and truthfulness, and their consensus and agreement in positive matters such as Divine unity and the Creator’s necessary existence forms such a proof it can be in no way doubted. They are the straightest and the most veracious and verified of guides and the leaders in perfection among mankind, and man is the most important result of the universe, the Divine vicegerent on earth, and of living creatures the most elevated and with the most comprehensive capacity. Those therefore who do not recognize a truth upon which those four classes have unanimously agreed, and deny the truths in which they believed unshakeably, with ‘absolute certainty’, ‘vision of certainty’, and ‘knowledge of certainty’, and in proof of which they put forward the universe together with all its beings, such deniers surely perpetrate an infinite crime and are deserving of infinite punishment.

EIGHTH PHRASE: ‘Not those who have received Your wrath nor those who have gone astray’

A concise indication of the proof contained in this phrase:

Based on unanimous reports, and universal, certain events and observations, human history and the sacred revealed scriptures relate in clear, definite fashion how on thousands of occasions succour arrived wondrously from the Unseen for the prophets, the people of the straight path, and how what they sought was given them exactly, and how on hundreds of occasions wrath and heavenly blows were visited on their enemies, the deniers. This demonstrates conclusively and unmistakably that the universe and mankind within it have a sovereign, just, generous, munificent, mighty, subjugating Disposer and Sustainer Who in various historical incidents wondrously bestowed victory and salvation on many of the prophets such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, Hud, and Salih (Peace be upon them), and visited terrible heavenly calamities on numerous oppressors and deniers like the Thamud, ‘Ad, and Pharaoh, as punishment in this world too for rebellion against the prophets.

Since the time of Adam (Peace be upon him), two mighty conflicting currents have come down to us. One is that of the people of prophethood, righteousness, and belief, who, following the straight path, receive the bounty of happiness in this world and the next. Since they act in accordance with the true beauty, order, and perfection of the universe, they both receive the favours of the universe’s Owner, and experience happiness in this world and the next. Being the means of mankind rising to the level of the angels, or higher, through the truths of belief they attain to a sort of Paradise in this world, and to bliss in the hereafter, and they cause others to win these too.

As for the second current, because it deviates from the straight path and through excess and deficiency transforms the intelligence into an instrument of torture amassing pains, it casts humanity down to a degree lower than the animals. Moreover, in addition to receiving the blows of Divine wrath in return for their wrongdoing in this world, due to their intelligences, they see the universe as a place of universal mourning and as the slaughterhouse of living creatures toppling over in death, and as exceedingly ugly and confused, thus causing their consciences to suffer a perpetual Hell in this world and making themselves deserving of everlasting torment in the next.

Thus, the verse,

Not those who have received Your wrath nor those who have gone astray

at the end of Sura al-Fatiha informs us of these two mighty currents. It is also the source, basis, and master of all the comparisons in the Risale-i Nur. Since the treatises of the Risale-i Nur expound this verse with hundreds of comparisons, we refer you to them for further explanation, and here suffice with this brief indication.

NINTH PHRASE: ‘Amen’

An extremely brief allusion to this:

The nun in na’budu and nasta’in points out to us those three great congregations, particularly the congregations of those who affirm Divine unity in the mosque of the World of Islam, and especially the congregations of millions performing the prayers at that time, and it places us among them and opens the way for us to receive a share of their intercession; we too, then, through the word “Amen,” join in the supplications of that congregation of believing worshippers, affirming what they say, and offering a plea that their intercession and seeking of help will be accepted. It transforms our insignificant worship, supplications, and entreaties into universal, extensive worship, causing universal dominicality to respond to it. That is to say, through the mystery of the brotherhood of belief and Islamic unity, through the bonds of unity of the congregation of millions in the mosque of the Islamic world at the time of the prayers, and by means of ‘spiritual radios,’ the “Amen” at the end of Sura al-Fatiha acquires universality and may become millions of “Amens.”¹¹

All praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds.

Glory be unto to You! We have no knowledge save that which you taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.¹²

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

And from Him do we seek help

[Part Three of a single lesson of the third School of Joseph]

Introduction

Part Two was written at the implied command of Sura al-Fatiha in the five daily prayers, and through the effulgence of ‘I testify that there is no god but God.’ Now I have been obliged —for three reasons I am not at present permitted to disclose— to write this Third Part, prompted by the tongue of ‘I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God,’ and through the effulgence of the sublime verses at the end of Sura al-Fath:

It is He Who sent His Prophet with guidance and the Religion of Truth, to proclaim it over all religion, and enough is God for a Witness. * Muhammad is the Messenger of God; and those who are with him are strong against unbelievers, [but] compassionate among each other,¹³

which contain five miraculous predictions. Referring the details, explanations, and documented proofs to The Miracles of Muhammad in Zülfikâr, which is about the Messengership of Muhammad (PBUH), and to the Arabic al-Hizb al-Nuri in The Supreme Sign, here shall be written very briefly and concisely in the second and third of three ‘Indications’, a summary of the Hizb al-Nuri and a sort of translation of the part of the testimony of faith “Muhammad is the Messenger of God” which I constantly use in my Arabic reflective thought together with the affirmation of Divine unity, repeating them in the tesbihat following the prayers.

FIRST INDICATION

Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), who responded with universal worship and teaching to the manifestation of the dominicality of the universe’s Owner, and His eternal Godhead, and His infinite bounties, is as necessary for the universe as is the sun. For he is the supreme master of mankind and its greatest prophet, the Glory of the World, and the one addressed by “If not for you, if not for you, I would not have created the spheres.”¹⁴ The Muhammadan Reality was the reason for the world’s creation, and is its result and most perfect fruit. So too, truths connected with the universe such as its true perfections and its being the enduring mirrors of an eternal Beauteous One of Glory, and the manifestation of His Names, and the works —charged with duties— of His wise acts, and His most meaningful missives, and its bearing an everlasting world, and its producing the result of the hereafter and an abode of bliss for which all conscious creatures yearn, — these are all realized through the Muhammadan (PBUH) Reality and his messengership. Since this is so, the universe testifies most powerfully and decisively to his messengership. Moreover, the messengership of Muhammad (PBUH) and the Muhammadan Reality give certain good news of eternal life, which, in order to be saved from non-existence, nothingness, eternal extinction, and absolute annihilation, foremost the World of Islam, and all mankind and all conscious creatures, constantly and earnestly seek, with all the powers of their comprehensive natures, with the tongues of all their abilities, and with all their supplications, worship, and entreaties. They thus testify to Muhammad’s messengership and the Muhammadan Reality, endorsing that he is the pride of mankind and the most noble of creatures. Moreover, in accordance with the rule “the cause is like the doer,” the equivalent of all the good works performed every day by three hundred and fifty million believers being recorded in Muhammad’s (Peace and blessings be upon him) book of good works, and the single person of Muhammad (PBUH) attaining to a ‘station’ manifesting the universal worship and effulgence of hundreds of millions of righteous worshippers, and perhaps thousands of millions, testifies in truly powerful fashion to his messengership, affirming it.

SECOND INDICATION

The following indicates more than twenty testimonies, which I always ponder over reflectively in the course of my invocations:

Muhammad is the Messenger of God, ever faithful to his promise, through the testimony of his sudden appearance with a perfect religion, Islam, and Shari‘a despite being unlettered, with the firmest belief, faith, and worship, the most elevated cause, supplications, and prayers, the most general message, utter steadfastness, and wondrous fruitfulness, all without equal.

A translation of the above¹⁵ and a brief exposition of its meaning are the following testimonies to the messengership of Muhammad (PBUH).

The First is a proof of prophethood proceeding from eleven of his attributes and states. Yes, his appearing —despite being unlettered— suddenly and without experience with a religion which has left in amazement the learned men and philosophers of fourteen centuries and has won first place among the revealed religions is an attribute without equal.

Also unequalled is the fact that Islam, which emerged from his words, actions, and conduct, has at all times educated and trained the spirits, souls, and minds of three hundred and fifty million people, taking them to spiritual advancement.

Moreover, he appeared with such a Shari‘a that for fourteen centuries it has ruled with its just laws one fifth of mankind, leading it to material and spiritual progress.

So too that Being (PBUH) appeared with such a faith and creed, and such strength of belief that all the people of reality have unanimously affirmed that, since they receive perpetual effulgence from it, his belief was at the highest and strongest degree. The opposition of his innumerable opponents at that time not causing him the slightest anxiety, doubt, or scruple, shows too that the strength of his belief was without equal or like.

He also displayed such worship of God and servitude to Him that bringing together the beginning and end of worship, imitating no one, he saw and conformed to the subtlest mysteries of worship, and fulfilled them even in times of greatest disturbance. This was an incomparable attribute, as was his offering such prayers, supplications and entreaties to his Creator that up to the present his degree has not been reached, even with the meeting of many minds. For example, in the supplication Jawshan al-Kabir, taking as intercessor a thousand and one Divine Names, he so describes and acquaints his Creator that it has no like. Thus, no one has attained to his knowledge of God.

He called people to religion with such steadfastness and announced his prophethood with such boldness that although his people, his uncle, the great powers of the world, and the followers of the former religions were all opposed and hostile to him, he did not fear or hold back even a jot, but challenged them all and successfully accomplished his task. This too was an unparalleled attribute.

Thus, these eight wondrous, matchless attributes form a truly powerful testimony to his veracity and prophethood. They show too that there is complete certainty concerning his utter seriousness, trustworthiness, veracity, and truthfulness. Every day in the tashahhud with millions of tongues the World of Islam declares: “Peace be upon you, O Prophet! And may God’s mercy and blessings be upon you.” It submits to the function with which he was charged, and affirming the good news of the eternal happiness which he brought, it gratefully says: “Peace be upon you, O Prophet!” in the face of the sure way leading to eternal life which mankind seeks and yearns for with an innate, profound longing, thus meeting with him in spirit and congratulating him in the name of three hundred million, indeed, thousands of millions.

The Second Testimony, which comprises twenty universal testimonies, as well as many others: Through the testimony to his veracity of all truths of the pillars of belief.

That is, the truths, realities, and veracity of the six pillars of belief testify decisively to Muhammad’s (PBUH) messengership and veracity. For the collective personality of his life as Messenger and the basis of all he claimed and the essence of his prophethood were those six pillars. In which case, all the evidences verifying the pillars of belief proved the truth of Muhammad’s (PBUH) messengership, and his veracity. The evidences for the hereafter of the other pillars of faith are set forth in The Fruits of Belief (Meyve Risalesi) and the Addenda of the Tenth Word; and all the pillars together with their proofs form a proof of his messengership.

The Third Universal Testimony, which comprises thousands of testimonies: Through the testimony of his self (Peace and blessings be upon him), through his thousands of miracles, perfections, and fine morality.

That is: he was a proof of himself as brilliant as the sun, through the powerful testimony to his messengership and veracity of his thousands of miracles, attainments and perfections, and his elevated character and fine morality. Yes, as is proved in the wondrous treatise of The Miracles of Muhammad (PBUH) through more than three hundred sound narrations, in accordance with the explicit verses

And the moon split,¹⁶

and

And when you threw, it was not you who threw; it was rather God that threw,¹⁷

the moon splitting in two at the sign of a single finger of his hand; and water flowing forth in five springs from the five fingers of the same hand, and an entire thirsty army drinking from these and testifying to it; and his casting a handful of dust with the same hand at an attacking enemy army, and their turning tail and fleeing when the dust entered the eyes of all of them; and small pebbles uttering glorifications in the same hand, as though they were human, saying: “Glory be to God!” —hundreds of incidents such as these, which are related in ‘sound’ narrations; and some about which there are unanimous reports described in the histories, and miracles, which according to exacting scholars numbered around a thousand, appearing at his hand; and according to friend and foe alike his fine attributes and good character being of the very highest degree;18 and the unanimous agreement —at the degree of ‘absolute certainty’— of all the people of reality, who have attained to spiritual perfection through following him and reached ‘the vision of certainty’ in the realities, that Muhammad’s (PBUH) perfections and attainments were of the very highest level; and the spiritual achievements of the World of Islam, which proceeds from his religion; as well as the truths of mighty Islam — all these furnish evidence for his wondrous perfections. This surely means that this Being (PBUH) testified in most brilliant and universal fashion to his own messengership.

The Fourth Testimony, which comprises numerous powerful testimonies: Through the testimony of the Qur’an, with all its truths and proofs. That is, the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition testifies to his messengership and veracity with its innumerable truths and proofs.

Yes, with all its veracious truths, the Qur’an of Mighty Stature, which as is proved Zülfikâr is miraculous in forty respects, has illumined fourteen centuries and governed through its unchanging laws one fifth of mankind; and from that time to this has challenged all those who have opposed it; and not even one of the suras of which anyone has dared to produce the like of; and as is proved in The Supreme Sign, whose six aspects are luminous and cannot be penetrated by doubts; and whose veracity is endorsed by six supreme ‘stations’; which is based on six unshakeable truths; and is eagerly and respectfully recited every moment by hundreds and millions of tongues, and is inscribed with its sacredness on the hearts of hafizes; and from whose testimony proceeds all the testimony and belief of the World of Islam; and from whose source flow forth all the sciences of belief and of Islam; and just as it affirms all the previous revealed scriptures, so is it affirmed by them; — with all its truths and all its proofs of its veracity, the Qur’an of Mighty Stature testifies to the truthfulness and messengership of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him).

The Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Universal Testimonies:

Through the testimony of Jawshan al-Kabir, and the sacredness of its allusions; and the Risale-i Nur, and the power of its proofs; and the past, and the unanimity of its signs of a forthcoming prophet; and the future, and the confirmation of thousands of its events.

That is to say, Jawshan al-Kabir, which looks both explicitly and allusively to a thousand and one Divine Names; is a wondrous supplication that in one respect proceeds from the Qur’an; is superior to all the other invocations recited by those who advance in knowledge of God; which was brought as revelation by Gabriel during a military expedition, who said: “Cast away your armour and in its place read this Jawshan!” — the truths it contains and its perfectly accurate descriptions of the Sustainer testify to Muhammad’s (PBUH) messengership and veracity. So too, through proving rationally and logically as a single proof with its one hundred and thirty parts all the truths of the messengership of Muhammad (PBUH), and teaching matters which in the view of philosophy are remote from reason in the most reasonable and easy fashion as though they were before one’s very eyes, the Risale-i Nur —which in one respect received effulgence from the Jawshan and was born of it— testifies in universal fashion to Muhammad’s (PBUH) messengership and veracity.

Also, the past was a universal witness to his messengership, for numerous incidents which occurred before the commencement of his prophethood called irhasat, and wonders which were counted as miracles of the coming prophet and are related unanimously in the histories and books of biography, testify in authentic fashion to his messengership. These are of many different sorts. A part of them are described in the coming ‘Testimonies’ below, and others are related in the form of sound narrations in Zülfikâr and in books of history.

For example, close to the time of the Prophet’s (PBUH) birth stones being rained down from the claws of the ababil birds on the heads of Abraha’s soldiers, who had come to destroy the Ka‘ba; and on the night of his birth the idols in the Ka‘ba all toppling over; and the palace of Chrosroes the Persian being destroyed; and the fire-worshipping Zoroastrians’ fire being extinguished that night, which had been burning continuously for a thousand years; and on the certain reports of Bahira the Monk and Halima al-Sa‘diya, clouds throwing shadows around his head; numerous events like these gave forewarning of his prophethood before its commencement.

Also, there were very many events of differing kinds that he predicted would occur in the future, that is, after his death. Some were prophecies about his Family and Companions, and the conquests of Islam, which are given in The Miracles of Muhammad in Zülfikâr, together with their authentic sources. Others were eighty accurate predictions, including ‘Uthman (May God be pleased with him) being martyred while reading the Qur’an, Husayn (May God be pleased with him) being martyred at Karbala, the conquests of Syria and Iran and Istanbul, and emergence of the ‘Abbasid dynasty, and Jenghiz and Hulagu defeating and destroying it, have all been described in detail on the basis of sound narrations and the books of history and the Prophet’s biography. This means that numerous predictions of future events, and the future, which proved Muhammad’s (PBUH) veracity, testify also in powerful and universal fashion to Muhammad’s messengership and its veracity.

The Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Testimonies:

Through the testimony of Muhammad’s Family to his veracity through the power of their certain belief at the degree of ‘absolute certainty;’ and of his Companions, through their perfect belief at the degree of ‘the vision of certainty;’ and of the purified scholars through the power of their investigations at the degree of ‘knowledge of certainty;’ and of the spiritual poles, through the conformity of their illuminations and unfoldings with his messengership and its certainty.

That is, of the universal testimonies to Muhammad’s (PBUH) truthfulness and veracity,

The Ninth: With their unanimous and absolutely certain belief, and their unfoldings and illuminations, and the extraordinary guidance they gave the Umma and their wonder-working, the great saints of Prophet’s (PBUH) Family, who in benedictions for the Prophet are held equal to the descendants of Abraham (Peace be upon him), who manifested the meaning of “The scholars of my community are the equivalent of the prophets of the Children of Israel,”¹⁹ and ‘Ali, Hasan, Husayn, and the twelve Imams of the Prophet’s Family, and the spiritual poles and leaders like Gawth al-A‘zam, Ahmad al-Rufa’i, Ahmad al-Badawi, Ibrahim al-Dassuqi, and Abu’l-Hasan al-Shazali all ratified through their belief and testimonies the messengership, veracity, and truthfulness of Muhammad (PBUH).

The Tenth: The Companions of the Prophet, regarded as the most elevated and esteemed group after the prophets, through the light of Muhammad (PBUH) came in a short time to govern with justice from east to west despite being illiterate nomads, and becoming advanced, educated, civilized masters, teachers, diplomats and just judges, they defeated world powers and made that century into an age of happiness. After scrutinizing every aspect of his conduct, through the power of the many miracles they witnessed with their own eyes, they abandoned their former enmities and the ways of their forefathers, and many of them such as Khalid ibn al-Walid and Ikrima Ibn Abu Jahl gave up the tribalism of their fathers. Their embracing Islam in truly devoted and self-sacrificing manner, and believing in Muhammad’s veracity and messengership at the degree of ‘vision of certainty’ forms an unshakeable universal testimony.

The Eleventh: The belief in Muhammad’s messengership and veracity in reasoned, logical manner at the degree of ‘knowledge of certainty’ of the mujtahids, imams, and authoritative scholars, who are known as the purified ones and veracious ones, and of the thousands of investigative scholars such as the brilliant philosophers Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd, based on thousands of categorical arguments and definitive proofs, each following his own way, forms a testimony so universal that only one with the intelligence of all of them could oppose them.

One of those innumerable witnesses at the present time is the Risale-i Nur, before which the deniers have found themselves helpless, so deceiving the police and judiciary, have tried to silence it by means of the courts.

The Twelfth: In their spiritual progress, the profoundest people of reality and researchers into the realities known as spiritual poles, each of whom drew into the circle of his instruction a significant part of the Umma in the World of Islam, and through his wondrous guidance and wonder-working caused those people to advance spiritually, and whose progress was based on illumination and disclosing the realities in place of proofs —they saw ‘experientially’ through their illuminations Muhammad’s (PBUH) messengership and truthfulness and that his veracity was of the very highest degree. Their unanimous and mutually conforming testimony to his prophethood forms such a signature that no one who does not attain to a degree of perfections as elevated as all of them can erase it.

The Thirteenth Testimony, which consists of four universal, most extensive and definite proofs:

Through the testimony of the past and the agreement in the tidings of the soothsayers, the voices from the Unseen, and the gnostics in all the periods of the past, and the testimony of the tidings of the prophets and Divine messengers, Peace be upon them, and the good news of the messengership of Muhammad, Peace and blessings be upon him, in the previous holy scriptures.

A brief explanation of the above passage will be given here, for there are precise details together with the chains of authorities in the end section of The Miracles of Muhammad, in Zülfikâr.

It is recorded with sound narrations, and in part with unanimous reports, in the histories and books of Hadith and the Prophet’s biography that among the most prominent and famous of mankind in past times, foremost the prophets and the gnostics, soothsayers, and ‘voices from the Unseen’ foretold Muhammad’s (PBUH) messengership and coming unanimously, explicitly and repeatedly in the form of irhasat. Since the most powerful and certain of those thousands of predictions are described in detail in The Miracles of Muhammad, we refer you to that and here only say by way of a brief indication: out of hundreds in the revealed scriptures of the Torah, Gospels, and Psalms, brought by the prophets, twenty verses about the prophethood of Muhammad (PBUH) which are close to being explicit are written in the Nineteenth Letter (The Miracles of Muhammad). While Husayn al-Jisri found a hundred verses about Muhammad’s prophethood, despite the numerous corruptions in their texts made by Jews and Christians, and wrote them in his book.²⁰

According to a sound narration concerning which were unanimous reports, the soothsayers, and foremost Shiqq and Satih, who by means of jinns and spirit beings gave information about the Unseen and are now called mediums, foretold explicitly the coming of God’s Messenger (PBUH) and that he would wipe out the Persian Empire. They stated repeatedly in a way that could not be doubted that a prophet was shortly to appear in the Hijaz.

Similarly, Ka‘b ibn Lu’ayy, one of the Prophet’s forefathers and a gnostic, and many other gnostics and the saints of that time such as the rulers of Yemen and Abyssinia, Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan and Tubba, foretold clearly Muhammad’s (PBUH) messengership, and proclaimed it in their poetry. The most important and certain of these are included in the Nineteenth Letter. One of those kings even said: “I would choose to be Muhammad’s (PBUH) servant in preference to ruling this kingdom.” Another said: “If I had lived to see him, I would have been his cousin.” That is, I would have been a devoted servant and minister of his like ‘Ali (May God be pleased with him). The histories and books of biography have published all these prophecies, showing that the gnostics affirmed Muhammad’s (PBUH) messengership and veracity with a powerful, universal testimony.

Similarly, spirit beings called ‘hatif,’ which are heard but not seen, made predictions about Muhammad’s messengership, the same as the gnostics and soothsayers, foretelling his prophethood in most explicit fashion. Also, by foretelling his prophethood, many other things affirmed his messengership and veracity, such as animals sacrificed to idols, idols, and gravestones, testifying through the tongue of history.

The Fourteenth Testimony: The following Arabic piece alludes to the universe’s powerful testimony:

Through the testimony of the universe to the comprehensive messengership of Muhammad (PBUH) through its aims and the Divine purposes in it, which would otherwise come to nothing, for through the sending of man and particularly of Muhammad its value and duties were established, and its beauties and perfections became clear, and the wisdom in its truths were realized. For his messengership revealed them and was the means of their realization. If it had not been for his messengership, this perfect universe, this eternal and meaningful mighty book, would have gone for nothing, its meanings would have vanished and its perfections declined utterly, which is impossible in numerous respects.

In The Supreme Sign, the above is interpreted as follows:

Just as the universe points to its Maker, Writer, and Inscriber, Who creates, administers, and organizes it, and Who decorating, determining, and planning it, has disposal over it as though it was a palace, a book, an exhibition, or place of display; so it requires and demands an elevated herald, a truthful discoverer, an exacting master, a faithful teacher, who will know the Divine purposes in its creation, and make them known, and will teach the instances of dominical wisdom in its changes, and announce the results of its dutiful motions, and proclaim its value and the perfections of the beings within it. Since this is so and it points to his existence, surely testifying in powerful and universal fashion to the veracity of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), who performed these duties better than anyone, and to his being the highest and most loyal official of its Creator, it declares: “I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God.”

Yes, through the Light Muhammad (PBUH) brought the universe’s nature, value, and perfections, and the duties, results, and value of the beings within it and the fact that they are officials, all became known and were realized. From top to bottom it became Divine missives full of meaning, an embodied dominical Qur’an, and a magnificent exhibition of Divine works. If not for his Light, it becomes a mere desolate ruin, confused, a terrible place of mourning, toppling over into the darknesses of non-existence, nothingness, death, and obliteration. It is in consequence of this truth that the universe’s perfections, purposeful transformations, and eternal meanings declare in powerful fashion: “We testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God!”

The Fifteenth Testimony: The following is an Arabic piece which comprises numerous sacred testimonies. It indicates the sacred testimony to Muhammad’s (PBUH) messengership given through the acts of the dominicality and deeds of mercifulness of the Necessarily Existent One Who has disposal over the universe, and through Whose will, command, and power occur all change and transformation, motion and rest, from minute particles to the planets, and all the disposals of life and death.

Through the testimony of the universe’s Owner, its Creator and Disposer, to the messengership of Muhammad, through the deeds of His mercifulness and acts of His dominicality; such as the mercy of revealing to him the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition; and displaying many varieties of miracles at his hand; and assisting him and protecting him in all circumstances; and through perpetuating his religion together with all its truths; and by raising him to a position of high respect and honour and bestowal over all creatures, as is to be seen and observed; and His act of dominicality of making Muhammad’s messengership a spiritual sun in the universe, and making his religion the index of the perfections of His servants; and making his reality a comprehensive mirror to the manifestations of His Godhead; and His entrusting him with duties necessary for the existence of creatures in the universe such as mercy, wisdom, and justice, as necessary as food and water, and air and light.

Referring details of this most extensive, certain, and sacred testimony to the Risale-i Nur, here we shall merely take a look at a brief and concise meaning of it.

Since —in accordance with the justice and wisdom, mercy, favour, and protection which we see in the regular, orderly disposals in the universe— it is the practice of dominicality to always protect the good and deal blows at the bad and liars, as demanded by ‘the acts of His mercifulness,’ this world’s Disposer and Administrator revealed the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition to Muhammad (PBUH); and He bestowed on him nearly a thousand miracles of very many sorts; and compassionately preserved him in all circumstances and dangerous situations, even by means of a pigeon and a spider; and gave him complete success in all his duties; and perpetuated his religion together with all its truths; and caused his religion of Islam to spread over all the earth and to all mankind; and by raising him to a position of honour above all creatures and a permanent rank of acceptance superior to all the pre-eminent of mankind and, as is agreed by friend and foe alike, bestowed on him the highest character and qualities, and made one fifth of mankind his community — all of which testify most decisively to his faithfulness and messengership; so we see from the point of view of ‘the acts of dominicality’ that this world’s Disposer and Administrator made Muhammad’s (PBUH) messengership a sun in the universe, and as is proved in the Risale-i Nur, caused it to dispel all kinds of darknesses and show its luminous truths, and make happy all conscious beings, indeed the universe, with the good news of eternal life; and He made his religion an index of perfections for all the acceptable people of worship and a sound programme for their acts of worship; and as is indicated by the Qur’an and Jawshan, He made Muhammad’s Reality, which is his collective personality, a comprehensive mirror to the manifestations of His Godhead; and as is indicated by the above-mentioned truths, and by the fact that every day for fourteen centuries he has gained the equivalent of all the good works of all his community, and by his works and traces in man’s social and spiritual life, He made him the highest leader, master, and authority of mankind; and sent him to the assistance of mankind with sacred, sublime duties, and made men as needy for his religion, his Shari‘a, and the truths of Islam²¹ as they are for mercy, wisdom, justice, food, air, water, and light; thus offering sacred testimony to Muhammad’s (PBUH) messengership with twelve universal, decisive proofs — since this is so, is it at all possible that the messengership of Muhammad (PBUH), which thus manifests these universal, extensive testimonies of the universe’s Owner, Who is not indifferent to the ordering of the wing of a fly even or a flower, should not be a Sun of the universe?

Each of these fifteen Testimonies comprise numerous testimonies, and through the tongue of miracles the Second even comprises thousands, thus proving the profession “I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God” most powerfully and definitely and proclaiming its reality, value, and importance, so that every day five times in the tashahhud the World of Islam announces it to the universe with millions of tongues. So too, thousands of millions of believers unhesitatingly accept and affirm that the Muhammadan (PBUH) Reality, which is the basis of that profession, is the original seed of the universe, a reason for its creation, and its most perfect fruit. And the universe’s Owner (May His Glory be exalted) made that collective personality of Muhammad (PBUH) the loudest herald of the sovereignty of His dominicality; the accurate discloser of the talisman of the universe and riddle of creation; a shining exemplar of His favour and mercy; an eloquent tongue of His compassion and love; the most powerful bringer of the good tidings of everlasting life and happiness in the eternal realm; and of His messengers, His final and greatest Prophet.

It may be seen from this what a great error, foolishness, and crime those people commit who do not accept a truth such as this, or attach no importance to it, and what a terrible loss they suffer.

Thus, as indicated in Part Two, Sura al-Fatiha in the ritual prayers demonstrates with decisive proofs the affirmation of Divine unity in the profession “I testify that there is no god but God,” which is said in the tashahhud, setting innumerable signatures to it; so too this Third Part sets forth powerful testimonies to the reality of messengership claimed in “I testify that Muhammad is God’s Messenger,” again stated in the tashahhud, stamping it with innumerable confirmatory signatures.

O Most Merciful of the Merciful! In veneration of Your Most Noble Messenger (PBUH) allow us his intercession, give us success in following his Sunna, and make us neighbours to his Family and Companions in the Realm of Bliss! Amen. Amen. Amen.

O God! Grant him blessings and peace, and to his Family and Companions, to the number of the letters of the Qur’an, both those recited and those written. Amen.

Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.²²