Conclusion
[A brief allusion to the other pillars of belief, within the mystery of the affirmation of Divine unity.]
Heedless man! Come now and consider if only once the three Fruits, Necessitating Causes, and Proofs in the three Stations of this treatise: is it at all possible, since the All-Powerful, Wise, Compassionate, and Knowing Maker Who has disposal over the universe takes into account the smallest cure and least thanks; does not refer to others nor is indifferent towards the tiniest art, such as that of a fly’s wing; attaches to the lowliest common seed duties and instances of wisdom as great as a tree; and makes perceived His mercifulness, compassionateness, and wisdom through all His arts, and Himself known through every means and loved through every bounty — is it at all possible that He should be indifferent towards the virtues of the Muhammadan (PBUH) reality and his glorifications, and the lights of Islam?
Is it at all possible that the Messengership of Muhammad (PBUH), which gilds all creatures and fills them with joy, illuminates the universe and brings the heavens and earth to tumult, and has for fourteen centuries taken under its rule, physical and spiritual, half the globe and a fifth of mankind, and has perpetuated that glorious rule on account of the Creator of the universe and in His Name — is it at all possible that his Messengership is not one of the Maker’s most important aims, lights, and mirrors; and that the other prophets, who served the same truths as Muhammad (PBUH), should not also have been that Maker’s envoys, friends, and officials? God forbid, to the number of the prophets’ miracles!
And is it at all possible that the Wise and Compassionate Creator Who attaches a hundred purposes and fruits to the least significant thing like a branch or twig, and through His wisdom and general mercifulness makes known His dominicality, should deny all His wisdom and mercy, and even His dominicality and perfection, by not bringing about the resurrection, which is as easy for His power as the spring? Is it at all possible that he should not open up an abode of happiness and everlasting realm, and make His wisdom and mercy, dominicality and perfection denied, and condemn to eternal annihilation all His beloved creatures whom He loves? God forbid, a hundred thousand times! That Absolutely Beauteous One is utterly exempt from such an absolute abomination.
A Lengthy Note
A question related to the resurrection of the dead:
The frequently repeated verse,
It will be naught but a single cry,17
and the verse,
The command of the Hour will be like the glance of the eye,18
show that the resurrection of the dead and Great Gathering will occur instantaneously, in a flash. But man’s narrow reason requires some tangible example so that it can conceive of this wondrous, extraordinary, and unparalleled event, and accept it.
T h e A n s w e r : At the resurrection there will be the return of spirits to their bodies, the revivification of the bodies, and the remaking of the bodies. It consists of three matters.
THE FIRST MATTER: An example for the return of spirits to their bodies is the mustering, at a loud bugle call, of the members of a disciplined army after they have dispersed to rest. Yes, the Sur of the Angel Israfil is no less powerful than an army bugle. The spirits, too, who while in post-eternity, reply with “Yes, we accept” to the question “Am I not your Sustainer?”,19 which comes from pre-eternity, are infinitely more subjugated, disciplined, and obedient than the soldiers of an army. The Thirtieth Word has demonstated with decisive proofs that not only spirits, but all particles, form a Divine army and are its soldiers under command.
SECOND MATTER: An example for the revivification of bodies is the springing to life in an instant of the hundred thousand electric lights of a large city on a festival night, switched on from one centre. It would be possible to light up in the same way a hundred million lamps scattered over the face of the earth from one centre. Since through the training and instruction in regularity and order it has received from its Creator, a creature of Almighty God like electricity —a servant and candleholder in His guest-house— possesses this quality, surely the resurrection of the dead could occur in the twinkling of an eye within the bounds of the regular laws of Divine wisdom which thousands of luminous servants represent, like electricity.
THIRD MATTER: An example for the remaking of bodies instantaneously is the perfect remaking within a few days of all the trees in the spring, which are far more numerous than all humanity, together with all their leaves, in exactly the same way as those of the previous spring; and the bringing into being, again like those of previous springs, all the blossoms, fruits and leaves of the trees with the speed of lightning; and the sudden awakening of the uncountable numbers of seeds, grains, and roots, which are the source of the spring, and their unfolding and being raised to life; and reflecting the meaning of “resurrection after death,” the sudden raising to life at a command of the upright skeleton-like corpses of the trees; and the reanimation of the innumerable members of all the species of small animals; and the revivification of all the sorts of flying insects, particularly those which continually cleaning their faces, eyes, and wings, remind us of our ablutions and cleanliness, and caress our faces — the resurrection and remaking of all the members of this tribe within a few days every spring before our very eyes together with all the other species, despite being greater in number than all mankind since the time of Adam, provides not one example of the remaking of all human bodies at the resurrection, but thousands.
Yes, since this world is the realm of wisdom and the hereafter the realm of power, numerous Divine Names like All-Wise, Arranger, Disposer, and Nurturer, as well as dominical wisdom, require that the creation of things in this world is gradual and in the course of time. In the hereafter, however, power and mercy will be manifested more than wisdom, and there being no need for matter, time, and waiting, things will be made instantaneously. Alluding to the fact that things which are made here in a day or in a year will be made in the hereafter in an instant or a flash, the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition states:
The command of the Hour will be like the glance of the eye, or briefer.20
If you want to be as certain about the occurrence of the resurrection of the dead as you are about the arrival of next spring, study the Tenth and Twenty-Ninth Words carefully, which are about this, and you will see! If you do not then believe that it will occur as you believe the coming of spring, come and stick your finger in my eye!
A FOURTH MATTER: The death of the world and Doomsday. The sudden collision with this globe, our guest-house, at a dominical command, of a planet or comet, could wipe out this dwelling-place of ours. Like the destruction in a minute of a palace the building of which had taken ten years.
The above summaries of the four matters of the resurrection are sufficient for now, and we return to our main subject.
Also, is it at all possible that the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, which is the eloquent interpreter of all the universe’s elevated truths, the miraculous tongue of all the perfections of the universe’s Creator and the wondrous collection of all His aims, should not be that Creator’s word? God forbid, to the number of the mysteries of its verses.
Also, is it at all possible that the All-Wise Maker should cause his living and conscious creatures to speak with one another in all their myriad tongues, and that He should know their voices and what they say, and listen to them and clearly reply through His acts and bounties, but Himself not speak or not be able to speak? Is there any possibility or probability of this? Since self-evidently He speaks and the chief of those addressed by His speech, who comprehends it perfectly, is man; more certainly, foremost the Qur’an and all well-known holy scriptures are His speech.
Also, is it at all possible that the All-Wise Maker, Who made the universe a means of making Himself known, loved, and praised; and through His multifarious bounties makes living creatures happy and contented, and their thanks and gratitude a significant pivot of His dominicality; and made the vast universe together with all its elements and realms, a docile servant, a dwelling-place, an exhibition, and banquet; and so wanted to multiply the thousands of all the different sorts of animate beings, that He made some of the leaves of trees that do not bear fruit like the poplar and elm both the cradle, and the womb, and the foodstore for the living creatures that perform their glorifications in the air, that is, for a regiment of flies; —is it at all possible that having done all this he should leave empty, purposeless, and without owner, life, spirit, or inhabitants the adorned heavens and light-scattering stars; that is, that He should leave them without angels and spirit beings? God forbid, to the number of angels and spirit beings!
Also, is it at all possible that the All-Wise Maker, the Disposer, should write with the pen of His determining in the seeds and fruits of the commonest plant and smallest tree their origins and ends and the courses of their lives within a perfect order, and that He should write with perfect order and differentiation the origins and results of the vast spring as though it was a tree, and not remain indifferent to the least signficant things, then not record the actions and deeds of man, which have great importance, since he is the result of the universe, God’s vicegerent on earth, the supervisor of all the realms of beings and their officer; that He should not include them within His determining or be unconcerned with them? God forbid, to the number of the deeds of man, all of which will be weighed up on the scales!
In Short: The universe together with all its truths shouts out:
I believe in God, and in His angels, and messengers, and in the Last Day, and in Divine Determining, that both the good of it and the evil of it are from God Almighty, and that resurrection after death is the truth; I testify that there is no god but God, and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God, may God grant blessings to him and to his Family and Companions, and grant them peace. Amen.
A Supplication about Divine Unity and its Introduction
In his Qasidat al-Jaljalutiya in the place he mentions it, Imam ‘Ali (May God be pleased with him and honour him) gives the Risale-i Nur the names of Siracü’n-Nur and Siracü’s-Sürc in wondrous fashion. Since he gives it these two additional names and the name Siracü’n-Nur is repeatedly mentioned in the present treatise, we have taken one of his most important supplications, and expanding it two degrees, offer it in his elevated tongue and in our tongues on his account to the Court of the Single One of Unity.
Supplication
O God! There is in the heavens no circulation, no star, and no motion of the planets...
In the atmosphere no cloud, no lightning, and no glorification of the thunder...
On the earth no profusion of animate beings and no wondrous artefact...
In the seas not a droplet of water nor a fish nor any strange creature...
On the mountains no stone or plant, and within them no mineral...
On the trees, no leaf or blossom, nor any decorated fruit...
In the bodies of living things no activity, nor any well-ordered member or system...
In man’s heart no thought, no inspiration, and no illumined belief...
But it testifies to the necessity of Your existence and is evidence for Your unity, and in Your dominions is utterly subjugated. Through the power by which You subjugate the heavens and earth, subjugate to me my soul and subjugate to me my wish, and subjugate to the Risale-i Nur and to service of the Qur’an and belief the hearts of Your servants and the hearts of the spirit beings, both elevated and lowly; O All-Hearing! O Near One! O Answerer of Prayer! Amen. And all praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds.
Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.21
FOOTNOTES
1. Qur’an, 47:19.
2. Musnad, iv, 16.
3. A collection from the Risale-i Nur consisting of A Supplication (Third Ray), Treatise For The Sick, Treatise For The Elderly, ‘For us God suffices’ (Fourth Ray), the Thirteenth Flash, Thirty-Three Windows, A Supplication in Arabic, and the Denizli Defence Speeches. [Tr.]
4. Muwatta, Qur’an, 32; Hajj, 246; al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa, i, 153; al-Albani, Sahih al-Jami’u’s-Saghir, no: 1113.
5. Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi (604/1207-672/1273), author of the Mathnawi.
6. Qur’an, 1:5.
7. Qur’an, 31:13.
8. Qur’an, 67:8.
9. Qur’an, 31:13.
10. For example, God is the Provider, the firm possessor of strength (Qur’an, 51:58).
11. Bukhari, al-Mu’sir, v, 237; al-Nikah, vii, 8; al-Nasa’i, al-Nikah.
12. 4 para = 1 qurush, 100 qurush = 1 lira. [Tr.]
13. Qur’an, 36:82.
14. The answer to the second part of the question has great importance; it dispels numerous doubts.
15. Qur’an, 57:3.
16. Since olden times, a common expression in the popular language was “to raise from seed,” which may be seen as a sort of allusion to the author of this treatise. For through the effulgence of the Qur’an, ‘the servant of the Risale-i Nur’ [its author] discovered two ascents in knowledge of God and the affirmation of Divine Unity in seeds and flowers. He discovered the water of life in the very places the Naturalists drowned. He reached reality and the light of knowledge of God from seeds. It is for this reason that these two things are repeated frequently in the Risale-i Nur.
17. Qur’an, 36:29.
18. Qur’an, 16:77.
19. Qur’an, 7:172.
20. Qur’an, 16:77.
21. Qur’an, 2:32.