The Twenty-Third Flash
On Nature
[First written as the Sixteenth Note of
the Seventeenth Flash, this part of the Risale-i Nur was later
designated as the Twenty-Third Flash because of its importance. This
treatise puts naturalistic atheism to death with no chance of
reanimation, and totally shatters the foundation stones of unbelief.]
A Reminder
This treatise explains through Nine
Impossibilities, themselves comprising at least ninety impossibilities,
just how unreasonable, crude and superstitious is the reality of the way
taken by those Naturalists who are atheists. Since these
impossibilities have been explained in part in other sections of the
Risale-i Nur, and to cut short the discussion here, some steps in the
arguments have been skipped. It suddenly comes to mind, then, how is it
that those famous and supposedly brilliant philosophers accepted such a
blantantly obvious superstition, and continue to pursue that way. Well,
the fact is they could not see its reality. And I am ready to explain in
detail and prove through clear and decisive arguments to whoever doubts
it that these crude, repugnant and unreasonable impossibilities are the
necessary and unavoidable result of their way; in fact, the very gist
of their creed.
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Their prophets said: “Is there any doubt about God, Creator of the heavens and the earth?”
By declaring through the use of a rhetorical question
that there cannot and should not be any doubt about God Almighty, this
verse clearly demonstrates the Divine existence and Unity.
A point to be mentioned before our discussion:
When I went to Ankara in 1922, the morale of the
people of belief was extremely high as a result of the victory of the
army of Islam over the Greeks. But I saw that an abominable current of
atheism was treacherously trying to subvert, poison and destroy their
minds. “O God!” I said, “this monster is going to harm the fundamentals
of belief.” At that point, since the above-mentioned verse makes
self-evidently plain God’s existence and Unity, I sought assistance from
it and wrote a treatise in Arabic consisting of a proof taken from the
All-Wise Qur’an that was powerful enough to disperse and destroy that
atheistic current. I had it printed in Ankara at the Yeni Gün Press.
But, alas, those who knew Arabic were few and those who considered it
seriously were rare. Also, its argument was in an extremely concise and
abbreviated form. As a result, the treatise did not have the effect it
should have done and sadly, that current of atheism both swelled and
gained strength. Now, I feel compelled to explain a part of the proof in
Turkish. Since certain parts of it have been fully explained in other
sections of the Risale-i Nur, it will be written in summary form here.
Those numerous proofs in part unite in this proof; so each may be seen
as an element of this proof.
Introduction
O man! You should be aware that there are
certain phrases which are commonly used and imply unbelief. The
believers also use them, but without realizing their implications. We
shall explain three of the most important of them.
The First: “Causes create this.”
The Second: “It forms itself; it comes into existence and later ceases to exist.”
The Third: “It is natural; Nature necessitates and creates it.”
Indeed, since beings exist and this cannot be denied,
and since each being comes into existence in a wise and artistic
fashion, and since each is not outside time but is being continuously
renewed, then, O falsifier of the truth, you are bound to say either
that the causes in the world create beings, for example, this animal;
that is to say, it comes into existence through the coming together of
causes, or that it forms itself, or that its coming into existence is a
requirement and necessary effect of Nature, or that it is created
through the power of One All-Powerful and All-Glorious. Since reason can
find no way apart from these four, if the first three are definitely
proved to be impossible, invalid and absurd, the way of Divine Unity,
which is the fourth way, will necessarily and self-evidently and without
doubt or suspicion, be proved true.
- THE FIRST WAY
This to imagine that the formation and existence
of things, creatures, occurs through the coming together of the causes
in the universe. We shall mention only three of its numerous
impossibilities.
First Impossibility
Imagine there is a pharmacy in which there are
hundreds of jars and phials filled with quite different substances. A
living potion and a living remedy are required from those medicaments.
So we go to the pharmacy and see that they are to be found there in
abundance, yet in great variety. We examine each of the potions and see
that the ingredients have been taken in varying but precise amounts from
each of the jars and phials, one ounce from this, three from that,
seven from the next, and so on. If one ounce too much or too little had
been taken, the potion would not have been living and would not have
displayed its special quality. Next, we study the living remedy. Again,
the ingredients have been taken from the jars in a particular measure so
that if even the most minute amount too much or too little had been
taken, the remedy would have lost its special property.
Now, although the jars number more than fifty, the
ingredients have been taken from each according to measures and amounts
that are all different. Is it in any way possible or probable that the
phials and jars should have been knocked over by a strange coincidence
or sudden gust of wind and that only the precise, though different,
amounts that had been taken from each of them should have been spilt,
and then arranged themselves and come together to form the remedy? Is
there anything more superstitious, impossible and absurd than this? If
an ass could speak, it would say: “I cannot accept this idea!”, and
would gallop off!
Similarly, each living being may be likened to the
living potion in the comparison, and each plant to a living remedy. For
they are composed of matter that has been taken in most precise measure
from truly numerous and truly various substances. If these are
attributed to causes and the elements and it is claimed, “Causes created
these,” it is unreasonable, impossible and absurd a hundred times over,
just as it was to claim that the potion in the pharmacy came into
existence through the phials being knocked over; by accident.
I n S h o r t : The vital substances in this vast
pharmacy of the universe, which are measured on the scales of Divine
Determining and Decree of the All-Wise and Pre-Eternal One, can only
come into existence through a boundless wisdom, infinite knowledge and
all-encompassing will. The unfortunate person who declares that they are
the work of blind, deaf and innumerable elements and causes and
natures, which stream like floods; and the foolish, delirious person who
claims that that wondrous remedy poured itself out when the phials were
knocked over and formed itself, are certainly unreasonable and
nonsensical. Indeed, such denial and unbelief is a senseless absurdity.
Second Impossibility
If everything is not attributed to the All-Powerful
and All-Glorious One, Who is the Single One of Unity, but is attributed
to causes, it necessitates that many of the elements and causes present
in the universe intervene in the being of every animate creature.
Whereas that different and mutually opposing and conflicting causes
should come together of their own accord in complete order, with the
finest balance and in perfect concord in the being of a tiny creature,
like a fly, is such an obvious impossibility that anyone with even an
iota of consciousness would say: “This is impossible; it could not be!”
The tiny body of a fly is connected with most of the
elements and causes in the universe; indeed, it is a summary of them. If
it is not attributed to the Pre-Eternal and All-Powerful One, it is
necessary for those material causes to be themselves present in the
immediate vicinity of the fly; rather, for them all to enter into its
tiny body; and even for them to enter each of the cells of its eyes,
which are minute samples of its body. For if a cause is of a material
nature, it is necessary for it to be present in the immediate vicinity
of, and inside, its effect. And this necessitates accepting that the
constituents and elements of the universe are physically present inside
that minute cell, a place too small even for the tip of its antenna, and
that they work there in harmony like a master.
A way such as this, then, shames even the most foolish of the Sophists.
Third Impossibility
It is an established rule that, “If a being has
unity, it can only have issued from a single being, from one hand.”
Particularly if it displays a comprehensive life within a perfect order
and sensitive balance, it demonstrates self-evidently that it did not
issue from numerous hands, which are the cause of conflict and
confusion, but that it issued from a single hand that is All-Powerful
and All-Wise. Therefore, to attribute a well-ordered and well-balanced
being which has unity such as that to the jumbled hands of innumerable,
lifeless, ignorant, aggressive, unconscious, chaotic, blind and deaf
natural causes, the blindness and deafness of which increase with their
coming together and intermingling among the ways of numberless
possibilities, is as unreasonable as accepting innumerable
impossibilities all at once. If we leave this impossibility aside and
assume that material causes have effects, these effects can only occur
through direct contact and touch. However, the contact of natural causes
is with the exteriors of living beings. And yet we see that the
interiors of such beings, where the hands of material causes can neither
reach nor touch, are ten times more delicate, well-ordered and perfect
as regards art than their exteriors. Therefore, although tiny animate
creatures, on which the hands and organs of material causes can in no
way be situated, indeed they cannot touch the creatures’ exteriors all
at once even, are more strange and wonderful as regards their art and
creation than the largest creatures, to attribute them to those
lifeless, unknowing, crude, distant, vast, conflicting, deaf and blind
causes can result only from a deafness and blindness compounded to the
number of animate beings.
- THE SECOND WAY
This is expressed by the phrase “It forms
itself.” It too involves many impossibilities and is absurd and
impossible in many aspects. We shall explain three examples of these
impossibilities.
First Impossibility
O you obstinate denier! Your egotism has made you so
stupid that somehow you decide to accept a hundred impossibilities all
at once. For you yourself are a being and not some simple substance that
is inanimate and unchanging. You are like an extremely well-ordered
machine that is constantly being renewed and a wonderful palace that is
undergoing continuous change. Particles are working unceasingly in your
body. Your body has a connection and mutual relations with the universe,
in particular with regard to sustenance and the perpetuation of the
species, and the particles that work within it are careful not to spoil
that relationship nor to break the connection. In this cautious manner
they set about their work, as though taking the whole universe into
account. Seeing your relationships within it, they take up their
positions accordingly. And you benefit with your external and inner
senses in accordance with the wonderful positions that they take.
If you do not accept that the particles in your body
are tiny officials in motion in accordance with the law of the
Pre-Eternal and All-Powerful One, or that they are an army, or the nibs
of the pen of Divine Determining, with each particle as the nib of a
pen, or that they are points inscribed by the pen of Power with each
particle being a point, then in every particle working in your eye there
would have to be an eye such as could see every limb and part of your
body as well as the entire universe, with which you are connected. In
addition to this, you would have to ascribe to each particle an
intelligence equivalent to that of a hundred geniuses, sufficient to
know and recognize all your past and your future, and your forbears and
descendents, the origins of all the elements of your being, and the
sources of all your sustenance.
To attribute the knowledge and consciousness of a
thousand Plato’s to a single particle of one such as you who does not
possess even a particle’s worth of intelligence in matters of this kind
is a crazy superstition a thousand times over!
Second Impossibility
Your being resembles a thousand-domed wondrous palace
in which the stones stand together in suspension and without support.
Indeed, your being is a thousand times more wonderful than such a
palace, for the palace of your being is being renewed continuously in
perfect order. Leaving aside your truly wonderful spirit, heart and
other subtle faculties, each member of your body resembles a
single-domed part of the palace. Like the stones of a dome, the
particles stand together in perfect balance and order demonstrating the
eye and the tongue, for example, each to be a wondrous building,
extraordinary work of art, and miracle of power.
If these particles were not each officials dependent
on the command of the master architect of the universe, then each
particle would have to be both absolutely dominant over all the other
particles in the body and absolutely subordinate to each of them; and
both equal to each and, with regard to its dominant position, opposed;
and both the origin and source of most of the attributes that pertain
only to the Necessarily Existent One, and extremely restricted; and both
in absolute form, and in the form of a perfectly ordered individual
artefact that could only, through the mystery of unity, be the work of
the Single One of Unity.
Anyone with even a particle of consciousness would
understand what an obvious impossibility this is; to attribute such an
artefact to those particles.
Third Impossibility
If your being is not “written’ by the pen of the
Pre-Eternal and All-Powerful One, Who is the Single One of Unity, and is
instead “printed’ by Nature and causes, there would have to be
printing-blocks in Nature not only to the number of cells in your body,
but to the number of their thousands of combinations, which are arranged
in concentric circles. Because, for example, if this book which we hold
in our hand is written, a single pen may write it relying on the
knowledge of its writer. If, on the other hand, it is not written and is
not attributed to its writer’s pen, and if it is said that it exists of
its own accord or it is ascribed to Nature, then, as a printed book, it
would be necessary for there to be a different iron pen of each letter
so that it could be printed. In a printing-press there have to be pieces
of type to the number of letters in the alphabet so the letters in the
book come into existence by means of them; pens to the number of those
letters being necessary in place of a single pen.
As may be seen, sometimes a whole page is written in a
single large letter from among those letters with a small pen in fine
script, in which case a thousand pens would be necessary for one letter.
Rather, if it took the form of your body, with all its components one
within the other in concentric circles, there would have to be
printing-blocks in each circle, for each component, to the number of the
combinations that they form.
Now, see, if you claim this, which involves a hundred
impossibilities, to be possible, then again if they are not attributed
to a single pen, for those well-ordered, artistic pieces of type,
faultless printing-blocks and iron pens to be made, further pens,
printing-blocks and letters to the same number as themselves would be
necessary. And they too would have to have been made; and they too would
have to have been well-ordered and artistically fashioned. And so on.
It would carry on in succession ad infinitum.
There, you too understand! This way of thinking is
such that it involves impossibilites and superstitions to the number of
particles in your body. O denier of God! See this, and quit this way of
misguidance!
- THE THIRD WAY
“ Nature necessitates it; Nature makes it.”
This statement contains many impossibilities. We shall mention three of
them by way of examples.
First Impossibility
If the art and creativity, which are discerning and
wise, to be seen in beings and particularly in animate beings are not
attributed to the pen of Divine Determining and Power of the Pre-Eternal
Sun, and instead are attributed to Nature and force, which are blind,
deaf and unthinking, it becomes necessary that Nature either should have
present in everything machines and printing-presses for their creation,
or should include in everything power and wisdom enough to create and
administer the universe. The reason for this is as follows:
The sun’s manifestations and reflections appear in
all small fragments of glass and droplets on the face of the earth. If
those miniature, reflected imaginary suns are not ascribed to the sun in
the sky, it is necessary to accept the external existence of an actual
sun in every tiny fragment of glass smaller than a match-head, which
possesses the sun’s qualities and which, though small in size, bears
profound meaning; and therefore to accept actual suns to the number of
pieces of glass.
In exactly the same way, if beings and animate
creatures are not attributed directly to the manifestation of the
Pre-Eternal Sun’s Names, it becomes necessary to accept that in each
being, and especially animate beings, there lies a nature, a force, or
quite simply a god that will sustain an infinite power and will, and
knowledge and wisdom. Such an idea is the most absurd and superstitious
of all the impossibilities in the universe. It demonstrates that a man
who attributes the art of the Creator of the universe to imaginary,
insignificant, unconscious Nature is without a doubt less conscious of
the truth than an animal.
Second Impossibility
If beings, which are most well-ordered and
well-measured, wise and artistically fashioned, are not ascribed to One
Who is infinitely powerful and wise and instead are attributed to
Nature, it becomes necessary for there to be present in every bit of
soil as many factories and printing-presses as there are in Europe so
that each bit of soil can be the means for the growth and formation of
innumerable flowers and fruits, of which it is the place of origin and
workshop. The seeds of flowers are sown in turn in a bowl of soil, which
performs the duty of a flower-pot for them. An ability is apparent in
the bowl of soil that will give shapes and forms which differ greatly
from one another to all the flowers sown in it. If that ability is not
attributed to the All-Glorious and All-Powerful One, such a situation
could not occur without there being in the bowlful of soil immaterial,
different and natural machines for each flower.
This is because the matter of which seeds, like sperm
and eggs for example, consist is the same. That is, they consist of an
orderless, formless, paste-like mixture of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and
nitrogen. Together with this, since air, water, heat and light also are
each simple, unconscious and flow against everything in floods, the fact
that the all-different forms of those flowers emerge from the soil in a
most well-ordered and artistic fashion self-evidently and necessarily
requires that there are present in the soil in the bowl immaterial,
miniature printing-presses and factories to the number of presses and
factories in Europe so that they could weave this great number of living
fabrics and thousands of various embroidered textiles.
Thus, you can see how far the unbelieving thought of
the Naturalists has deviated from the realm of reason. And although
brainless pretenders who imagine Nature to be creator claim to be “men
of science and reason,” see just how distant from reason and science is
their thought, so that they have taken a superstition that is in no way
possible, that is impossible, as a way for themselves. See this and
laugh at them!
I f y o u a s k : If such extraordinary
impossibilities and insurmountable difficulties occur when beings are
attributed to Nature, how are those difficulties removed when they are
attributed to the Single and Eternally Besought One? And how is the
difficult impossibility transformed into that easy necessity?
T h e A n s w e r : We saw in the First
Impossibility that the manifestation of the sun’s reflection displays
its radiance and effect through miniature imaginary suns with complete
ease and lack of trouble in everything from the minutest inanimate
particle to the surface of the vastest ocean. If each particle’s
relationship with the sun is severed, it then becomes necessary to
accept that the external existence of an actual sun could subsist, with a
difficulty at the level of impossibility, in each of those minute
particles.
Similarly, if each being is ascribed directly to the
Single and Eternally Besought One, everything necessary for each being
can be conveyed to it through a connection and manifestation with an
ease and facility that is at the level of necessity. If the connection
is severed and each being reverts from its position as an official to
being without duties, and is left to Nature and its own devices, it then
becomes necessary to suppose that, with a hundred thousand difficulties
and obstacles that reach the degree of impossibility, blind Nature
possesses within it a power and wisdom with which to create and
administer the universe so that it might bring into existence the
wonderful machine of the being of an animate creature like a fly, which
is a tiny index of the universe. This is impossible not just once but
thousands of times over.
I n S h o r t : Just as it is impossible and
precluded for the Necessarily Existent One to have any partner or like
in respect of His Essence, so too is the interference of others in His
dominicality and in His creation of beings impossible and precluded.
As for the difficulties involved in the Second
Impossibility, as is proved in many parts of the Risale-i Nur, if all
things are attributed to the Single One of Unity, all things become as
easy and trouble-free as a single thing. Whereas if they are attributed
to causes and Nature, a single thing becomes as difficult as all things.
This has been demonstrated with numerous, decisive proofs and a summary
of one of them is as follows.
If a man is connected to a king through being a
soldier or an official, by reason of the strength of that connection, he
may perform duties far exceeding his own individual strength. He may,
on occasion, capture another king in the name of his own king. For he
himself does not carry the equipment and sources of strength necessary
to carry out the duties and work he performs, nor is he compelled to do
so. By reason of the connection, the king’s treasuries, and the army,
which is behind him and is his point of support, carry his equipment and
sources of strength. That is to say, the duties he performs may be as
grand as the business of a king, and as tremendous as the actions of an
army.
Indeed, through being an official, an ant destroyed
Pharaoh’s palace. Through the connection, a fly killed Nimrod off. And
through the connection, the seed of a pine the size of a grain of wheat
produces all the parts of a huge pine-tree.
Were the connection to be severed and the man
discharged from his duties as an official, he would be compelled to
carry the equipment and sources of strength necessary for his work
himself. He would then only be able to perform duties in accordance with
the sources of strength and ammunition that he was able to carry.
Should he be required in this situation to carry out his duties with the
extreme ease of the first situation, it would be necessary to load on
his back the sources of an army’s strength and the arsenals and
munitions factories of a king. Even clowns who invent stories and
superstitions to make people laugh would be ashamed at this fanciful
idea.
I n S h o r t : To attribute all beings to the
Necessarily Existent One is so easy as to be necessary. While to
attribute their creation to Nature is so difficult as to be impossible
and outside the realm of reason.
Third Impossibility
The following two comparisons, which are included in other parts of the Risale-i Nur, explain this impossibility.
A wild savage entered a palace which had been built
in an empty desert, and completed and adorned with all the fruits of
civilization. He cast an eye over its interior and saw thousands of
well-ordered and artistically fashioned objects. Because of his
boorishness and lack of intelligence, he said: “No one from outside had a
hand in this, one of the objects from inside must have made this palace
together with all of its contents,” and started to investigate.
However, whatever he looked at, even his untaught intelligence could not
fathom out how it had made those things.
Later, he saw a notebook in which had been written
the plan and programme of the palace’s construction, an index of its
contents and the rules of its administration. For sure, the notebook
too, which was without hand, eye, or implement, like the rest of the
objects in the palace, was completely lacking the ability to construct
and decorate the palace. But, since he saw that, in comparison with all
the other things, the notebook was related to the whole palace by reason
of its including all its theoretical laws, he was obliged to say:
“There, it is this notebook that has organized, ordered and adorned this
palace, and has fashioned all these objects and set them in their
places.” He transformed his uncouthness into ludicrous jabber.
Thus, exactly like this comparison, a boor who
subscribed to Naturalist thought, which denies God, entered the palace
of the universe, which is infinitely more well-ordered, more perfect and
everywhere full of miraculous instances of wisdom than the palace in
the comparison. Not thinking that it was the work of art of the
Necessarily Existent One, Who is outside the sphere of contingency, and
shunning that idea, he saw a collection of the laws of Divine practice
and an index of dominical art, which are like a slate for writing and
erasing of Divine Determining in the sphere of contingency, and like a
constantly changing notebook for the laws of the functioning of Divine
power, and are extremely mistakenly and erroneously given the name
“Nature’, and he said:
“These things require a cause and nothing else
appears to have the relationship with everything like this notebook has.
It is true that reason will in no way accept that this unseeing,
unconscious and powerless notebook could carry out this creation, which
is the work of an absolute dominicality and requires infinite power. But
since I do not recognize the Eternal Maker, the most plausible
explanation is to say the notebook made it, and makes it, so I shall say
that.” To which we reply:
O you mistaken unfortunate! Your foolishness exceeds
anything imaginable! Lift your head out of the swamp of Nature and look
beyond yourself! See an All-Glorious Maker to Whom all beings from
particles to planets testify with their different tongues and Whom they
indicate with their fingers! Behold the manifestation of the Pre-Eternal
Inscriber, Who fashions the palace and Who writes its programme in the
notebook! Study His decree, listen to the Qur’an! Be delivered from your
delirious raving!
Second Comparison: A rustic bumpkin entered the
bounds of a splendid palace and saw there the uniform actions of an
extremely orderly army carrying out its drill. He observed a battalion, a
regiment and a division stand to attention, stand at ease and march,
and open fire when commanded as though they were a single private. Since
his rude, uncultured mind could not comprehend, so denied, that a
commander had been given command by the country’s laws and by royal
decree, he imagined that the soldiers were attached to one another with
strings. He thought of what wonderful string it must be, and was amazed.
Later, he continued on his way till he came upon a
magnificent mosque like Aya Sophia. He entered it at the time of Friday
prayer and watched the congregation of Muslims rising, bowing,
prostrating and sitting at the sound of man’s voice. Since he did not
understand the Shari’a, which consists of a collection of immaterial,
revealed laws, nor the immaterial rules proceeding from the Lawgiver’s
command, he fancied the congregation to be bound to one another by
physical string, and that this wonderful string had subjected them and
was making them move like puppets. And, coming up with this idea, which
is so ridiculous as to make the most ignorant roar with laughter, he
went on his way.
Exactly like this comparison, an atheist who
subscribed to materialist thought, which is denial and pure brutishness,
entered the universe, which is a splendid barracks of the Monarch of
Pre-Eternity and Post-Eternity for His innumerable forces, and a
well-ordered mosque of that Pre-Eternal All-Worshipped One. He imagined
the immaterial laws of the ordering of the universe, which proceed from
the Pre-Eternal Monarch’s wisdom, each to have material and physical
existence; and supposed the theoretical laws of the sovereignty of
dominicality, and the rules and ordinances of the Greater Shari’a, the
Shari’a of Creation, which are immaterial and exist only as knowledge,
each to have external, material and physical existence. But to set up in
place of Divine power those laws, which proceed from the Divine
attributes of knowledge and speech and only exist as knowledge, and to
attribute creation to them; then to attach the name “Nature’ to them,
and to deem force, which is merely a manifestation of dominical power,
to be an independent almighty possessor of power, is a thousand times
more low-fallen ignorance than the ignorance in the comparison.
I n S h o r t : The imaginary and insubstantial
thing that Naturalists call Nature, if it has an external reality, can
at the very most be work of art; it cannot be the Artist. It is an
embroidery, and cannot be the Embroiderer. It is a set of decrees; it
cannot be the Issuer of the decrees. It is a body of the laws of
creation, and cannot be the Lawgiver. It is but a created screen to the
dignity of God, and cannot be the Creator. It is passive and created,
and cannot be a Creative Maker. It is a law, not a power, and cannot
possess power. It is the recipient, and cannot be the source.
T o C o n c l u d e : Since beings exist, and as was
stated at the beginning of this treatise, reason cannot think of a way
to explain the existence of beings apart from the four mentioned, three
of which were each decisively proved through three clear Impossibilities
to be invalid and absurd, then necessarily and self-evidently the way
of Divine Unity, which is the fourth way, is proved in a conclusive
manner. The fourth way, in accordance with the verse quoted at the
beginning:
Is there any doubt about God, Creator of the heavens and the earth?
demonstrates clearly so that there can be no doubt or
hesitation the Divinity of the Necessarily Existent One, and that all
things issue directly from the hand of His power, and that the heavens
and the earth are under His sway.
O you unfortunate worshipper of causes and Nature!
Since the nature of each thing, like all things, is created, for it is
full of art and is being constantly renewed, and, like the effect, the
apparent cause of each thing is also created; and since for each thing
to exist there is need for much equipment and many tools; there must
exist a Possessor of Absolute Power Who creates the nature and brings
the cause into existence. And that Absolutely Powerful One is in no need
of impotent intermediaries to share in His dominicality and creation.
God forbid! He creates cause and effect together directly. And in order
to demonstrate His wisdom and the manifestation of His Names, by
establishing an apparent causal relationship and connection through
order and sequence, He makes causes and Nature a veil to the hand of His
power so that the apparent faults, severities and defects in things
should be ascribed to them, and in this way His dignity be preserved.
Is it easier for a watch-maker to make the cog-wheels
of a clock, and then arrange them and put them in order to form the
clock? Or is it easier for him to make a wonderful machine in each of
the cog-wheels, and then leave the making of the clock to the lifeless
hands of those machines? Is that not beyond the bounds of possibility?
Come on, you judge with your unfair reason, and say!
And is it easier for a scribe to collect ink, pen and
paper, and then using them proceed to write out a book himself? Or is
it easier for him to create in the paper, pen and ink a writing-machine
that requires more art and trouble than the book, and can be used only
for that book, and then say to the unconscious machine: “Come on, you
write it!”, and himself not interfere? Is that not a hundred times more
difficult than writing it himself?
I f y o u s a y : Yes, it is a hundred times more
difficult to create a machine that writes a book rather than writing it
out oneself. But is it not in a way easier, because the machine is the
means for producing numerous copies of the same book?
T h e A n s w e r : Through His limitless power, the
Pre-Eternal Inscriber continuously renews the infinite manifestations
of His Names so as to display them in ever-differing ways. And through
this constant renewal, He creates the identities and special features in
things in such a manner that no missive of the Eternally Besought One
or dominical book can be the same as any other book. In any case, each
will have different features in order to express different meanings.
If you have eyes, look at the human face: you will
see that from the time of Adam until today, indeed, until post-eternity,
together with the conformity of their essential organs, each face has a
distinguishing mark in relation to all the other faces; this is a
definite fact. Therefore, each face may be thought of as a different
book. Only, for the artwork to be set out, different writing-sets,
arrangements, and compositions are required. And in order to both
collect and situate the materials, and to include everything necessary
for the existence of each, a completely different workshop will be
required.
Now, knowing it to be impossible, we thought of
Nature as a printing-press. But apart from the composition and printing,
which concern the printing-press, that is, setting up the type in a
specific order, the substances that form an animate being’s body, the
creation of which is a hundred times more difficult than that of the
composition and ordering, must be created in specific proportions and
particular order, brought from the furthest corners of the cosmos, and
placed in the hands of the printing-press. But in order to do all these
things, there is still need for the power and will of the Absolutely
Powerful One, Who creates the printing-press. That is to say, this
hypothesis of the printing-press is a totally meaningless superstition.
Thus, like these comparisons of the clock and the
book, the All-Glorious Maker, Who is powerful over all things, has
created causes, and so too does He create the effects. Through His
wisdom, He ties the effect to the cause. Through His will, He has
determined a manifestation of the Greater Shari’a, the Shari’a of
Creation, which consists of the Divine laws concerning the ordering of
all motion in the universe, and determined the nature of beings, which
is only to be a mirror to that manifestation in things, and to be a
reflection of it. And through His power, He has created the face of that
nature which has received external existence, and has created things on
that nature, and has mixed them one with the other.
Is it easier to accept this fact, which is the
conclusion of innumerable most rational proofs—in fact, is one not
compelled to accept it?—or is it easier to get the physical beings that
you call causes and Nature, which are lifeless, unconscious, created,
fashioned and simple, to provide the numberless tools and equipment
necessary for the existence of each thing and to carry out those
matters, which are performed wisely and discerningly? Is that not
utterly beyond the bounds of possibility? We leave it to you to decide,
with your unreasonable mind!
The unbelieving Nature-worshipper replied: “Since you
are asking me to be fair and reasonable, I have to confess that the
mistaken way I have followed up to now is both a compounded
impossibility, and extremely harmful and ugly. Anyone with even a grain
of consciousness would understand from your analyses above that to
attribute the act of creation to causes and Nature is precluded and
impossible. And that to attribute all things directly to the Necessarily
Existent One is imperative and necessary. I say: “ALL PRAISE BE TO GOD
FOR BELIEF,’ and I believe in Him. Only, I do have one doubt:
“I believe that Almighty God is the Creator, but
what harm does it do to the sovereignty of His dominicality if some
minor causes have a hand in the creation of insignificant matters and
thereby gain for themselves a little praise and acclaim? Does it
diminish His sovereignty in some way?”
T h e A n s w e r : As we have conclusively proved
in other parts of the Risale-i Nur, the mark of rulership is that it
rejects interference. The most insignficant ruler or official will not
tolerate the interference of his own son, even, within the sphere of his
rule. The fact that, despite being Caliph, certain devout Sultans had
their innocent sons murdered on the unfounded apprehension that the sons
would interfere in their rule demonstrates how fundamental is this “law
of the rejection of interference’ in rulership. And the “law of
prevention of participation,’ which the independence intrinsic to
rulership necessitates, has shown its strength in the history of mankind
through extraordinary upheavals whenever there have been two governors
in a town or two kings in a country.
Thus, if the sense of rulership and sovereignty,
which is a mere shadow in human beings, who are impotent and in need of
assistance, rejects interference to this degree, prevents the
intervention of others, does not accept participation in its
sovereignty, and seeks to preserve the independence of its position so
jealously, then, if you can, compare this with an All-Glorious One Whose
absolute sovereignty is at the degree of dominicality, Whose absolute
rulership at the degree of Divinity, absolute independence at the degree
of Oneness, and absolute lack of need at the degree of absolute power,
and understand what a necessary requirement and inevitable necessity of
that rulership is this rejection of interference, prevention of
participation, and repulsion of partners.
Concerning the second part of your doubt, you said:
“If some of the worship of some insignificant beings is directed towards
certain causes, what deficiency does this cause to the worship of all
beings, from particles to planets, which is directed towards the
Necessarily Existent One, the Absolute Object of All Worship?”
T h e A n s w e r : The All-Wise Creator of the
universe made the universe like a tree with conscious beings as its most
perfect fruit, and among conscious beings He made man its most
comprehensive fruit. And man’s most important fruit, indeed the result
of his creation, the aim of his nature, and the fruit of his life are
his thanks and worship. Would that Absolute Sovereign and Independent
Ruler, that Single One of Unity, Who creates the universe in order to
make Himself known and loved, give away to others man, the fruit of the
whole universe, and man’s thanks and worship, his most elevated fruit?
Totally contrary to His wisdom, would He make vain and futile the result
of creation and fruit of the universe? God forbid! Would He be content
to give away the worship of creatures to others in a way that would deny
His wisdom and His dominicality? And although He demonstrates through
His actions that He wishes to make Himself known and loved to an
unlimited degree, would he cause His most perfect creatures to forget
Him by handing over to causes their thanks and gratitude, love and
worship, and cause them to deny the exalted purposes in the universe?
O friend who has given up the worship of Nature! Now it is for you to say! To which he replied:
“All praise be to God, these two doubts of mine have
now been resolved. And your two proofs concerning Divine Unity which
demonstrate that the only True Object of Worship is He, and that nothing
other than He is worthy of worship are so brilliant and powerful that
to deny them would require as much arrogance as to deny the sun and the
day.”
Conclusion
The person who gave up atheistic
Naturalism and came to believe said: “All praise be to God, I no longer
have any doubts, but there are still a few questions about which I am
curious.”
FIRST QUESTION
“We hear many lazy people and those who neglect the
five daily prayers ask: “What need has God Almighty of our worship that
in the Qur’an He severely and insistently reproves those who give up
worship and threatens them with such a fearsome punishment as Hell? How
is it in keeping with the style of the Qur’an, which is moderate, mild
and fair, to demonstrate the ultimate severity towards an insignificant,
minor fault?”
T h e A n s w e r : God Almighty has no need of your
worship, nor indeed of anything else. Rather, it is you who needs to
worship, for in truth you are sick. And as we have proved in many parts
of the Risale-i Nur, worship is a sort of remedy for your spiritual
wounds. If someone who is ill responds to a compassionate doctor who
insists on his taking medicines that are beneficial for his condition by
saying: “What need do you have of it that you are insisting in this
way?”, you can understand how absurd it would be.
As for the severe threats and fearsome punishments in
the Qur’an concerning the giving up of worship, they may be likened to a
king, who, in order to protect his subject’ rights, inflicts a severe
punishment on an ordinary man in accordance with the degree that his
crime infringes those rights.
In the same way, the man who gives up worship and
ritual prayer is violating in a significant manner the rights of beings,
who are like the subjects of the Monarch of Pre-Eternity and
Post-Eternity, and is in fact acting unjustly towards them. For the
perfections of beings are manifested through the glorification and
worship performed by that aspect of them which is directed towards their
Maker. The one who abandons worship does not and cannot see this
worship. Indeed, he denies it. Furthermore, beings occupy an exalted
position by reason of their worship and glorification, and each is a
missive of the Eternally Besought One, and a mirror to the Names of its
Sustainer. Since he reduces them from their high positions and considers
them to be unimportant, lifeless, aimless, and without duties, he is
insulting them, and denying and transgressing their perfections.
Indeed, everyone sees the world in his own mirror.
God Almighty created man as a measure and scale for the universe. And
from the world He gave a particular world to each person. This world He
colours for him in accordance with his sincere beliefs. For example, a
despairing, lamenting, weeping person sees beings as weeping and in
despair, while a cheerful, optimistic, merry person sees the universe as
joyful and smiling. A reflective man given to solemn worship and
glorification discovers and sees to a degree the certain, truly existent
worship and glorification of beings, while a person who abandons
worship through either neglect or denial sees beings in a manner totally
contrary and opposed to the reality of their perfections, thus
transgressing their rights.
Furthermore, since the one who gives up prayer does
not own himself, he wrongs his own soul, which is a slave of its True
Owner. His Owner delivers awesome threats in order to protect His
slave’s rights from his evil-commanding soul. Also, since he has given
up worship, which is the result of his creation and the aim of his
nature, it is like an act of aggression against Divine wisdom and
dominical will, and he therefore receives punishment.
I n S h o r t : The abandoner of worship both wrongs
his own soul, which is the slave and totally owned property of Almighty
God, and wrongs and transgresses the rights of the perfections of the
universe. Certainly, just as unbelief is an insult to beings, so is the
abandonment of worship a denial of the universe’s perfections. And since
it is an act of aggression against Divine wisdom, it is deserving of
awesome threats, and severe punishment.
Thus, it is to express this deservedness and the
above facts that the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition chooses in a
miraculous way that severe style, which, in complete conformity with the
principles of eloquence, corresponds to the requirements of the
situation.
SECOND QUESTION
The person who had given up Naturalism and come to believe next asked:
“It is indeed a vast truth that each being is
dependent on Divine will and dominical power in every aspect; in all of
its functions, qualities and actions. And by reason of this vastness,
our narrow minds cannot comprehend it. However, the infinite abundance
that we see around us, and the boundless ease in the creation and
formation of things, and the infinite ease and facility in the way of
unity, which was established through your proofs above, and the infinite
ease that verses of the Qur’an like the following clearly demonstrate
and expound,
Your creation and resurrection is as a single soul,
and,
The matter of the Hour shall be but as the twinkling of the eye, or even closer
show this mighty truth to be a matter that is most acceptable and rational. What is the wisdom and secret of this ease?”
T h e A n s w e r : This matter was elucidated in a most clear, decisive and convincing fashion in the explanation of,
And He is powerful over all things,
which forms the Tenth Phrase of the Twentieth Letter.
In particular, it was demonstrated even more clearly in the Addendum to
that Letter that when attributed to the Single Maker, all beings become
as easy as a single being. If they are not attributed to that Single
One of Unity, the creation of a single creature becomes as difficult as
that of all beings, and a seed as problematical as a tree. When they are
ascribed to their True Maker, the universe becomes as easy and
trouble-free as a tree, a tree as easy as a seed, Paradise as easy as
the spring, and the spring as easy as a flower. We shall now point out
briefly one or two evidences that have been explained in detail in other
parts of the Risale-i Nur out of the hundreds which explain the
underlying reasons for and instances of wisdom in the conspicuous,
boundless abundance and profusion of beings, the ease of the great
number of individuals in each species, and the fact that well-ordered,
artistically fashioned and valuable beings come into existence with
immense speed and ease.
For example, if the command of a hundred soldiers is
given to one officer, it is a hundred times easier than if the command
of one soldier is given to a hundred officers. And if to equip an army
it is assigned to one headquarters, one law, one factory and the command
of one king, it quite simply becomes as easy as equipping a single
soldier. In the same way, if to equip one soldier it is referred to
numerous headquarters, numerous factories and numerous commanders, it
becomes as difficult as equipping an army. Because in order to equip a
single soldier, it would require as many factories as are necessary for a
whole army.
Again, since by reason of the mystery of unity, the
vital necessities of a tree are provided through one root, one centre
and according to one law, it produces thousands of fruits as easily as a
single fruit. This is plain to see. If unity changes to multiplicity,
and all the necessities vital for each fruit are provided from different
places, to produce each fruit becomes as difficult as to produce the
tree. And to produce a single seed, even, which is a sample and index of
the tree, becomes as difficult as the tree. Because all the necessities
vital for the tree’s life are necessary for the seed.
Thus, there are hundreds of examples like these which
show that it is easier for thousands of beings to come into existence
through unity than for a single being to come into existence through
multiplicity and ascribing partners to God. Since this truth has been
proved with absolute certainty in other parts of the Risale-i Nur, we
refer you to those and here only explain a most important reason for
this ease and facility from the point of view of Divine knowledge,
Divine Determining, and dominical power. It is as follows:
You are a being. If you attribute yourself to the
Pre-Eternal All-Powerful One, He creates you at a command through His
infinite power out of nothing in an instant, like striking a match. If
you do not do this and rather attribute yourself to physical causes and
nature, then since you are a well-ordered summary, fruit, and miniature
index and list of the universe, in order to make you, it would be
necessary to sift with a fine sieve the universe and its elements, and
to gather in precise measure from all the corners of the universe the
substances of which your body is composed. For physical causes only
gather and join together. It is confirmed by people of reason that they
cannot create out of nothing what is not present in them. Since this is
the case, they would be compelled to collect together the body of a tiny
animate being from every corner of the cosmos.
Now understand what ease there is in unity, Divine
Unity, and what difficulties lie in misguidance and attributing partners
to God!
Secondly, there is an infinite ease also with regard
to Divine knowledge. It is thus: Divine Determining is an aspect of
Divine knowledge; it determines a measure for each being, which is like
its particular and immaterial mould. And that determined measure is like
a plan or model for the existence of each thing. When Divine power
creates, it does so with extreme ease on that determined measure. If the
thing is not attributed to the All-Powerful One of Glory, Who possesses
all-embracing, infinite and pre-eternal knowledge, as was described
above, not only thousands of difficulties appear, but hundreds of
impossibilities. For if it was not for the determined measure which
exists in Divine knowledge, thousands of material moulds with external
existences would have to be employed in the body of even a tiny animate
being.
So, understand one reason for the infinite ease in
unity and the endless difficulties in misguidance and ascribing partners
to God. And realize what a veracious, correct, and exalted truth is
stated by the verse,
The matter of the Hour shall be but as the twinkling of the eye, or even closer.
THIRD QUESTION
The former enemy and now rightly-guided friend then
asked: “Philosophers, who have made many advances these days, claim that
nothing is created out of nothing, and nothing is annihilated and goes
to nothing; there is only compostion and decomposition, and this makes
the factory of the universe run. Is this correct?”
T h e A n s w e r : Since the most advanced
philosophers who did not consider beings in the light of the Qur’an saw
the formation and existence of beings by means of Nature and causes—in
the manner proved above—to be so difficult as to be impossible, they
diverged into two groups.
One group became Sophists; abdicating reason, which
is exclusive to human beings, and falling lower than mindless beasts,
they found it easier to deny the universe’s existence, and even their
own existence, than to follow the way of misguidance, which claims that
causes and Nature have the power to create. They therefore denied both
themselves and the universe and descended into absolute ignorance.
The second group saw that in misguidance, according
to which causes and Nature are creator, the creation of a fly or a seed,
even, entails innumerable difficulties and requires a power
unacceptable to reason. They were therefore compelled to deny the act of
creation and to say: “Nothing can exist out of nothing.” And seeing
total annihiliation also to be impossible, they declared: “What exists
cannot go to nothing.” They fancied an imaginary situation in which
combining and decomposition, gathering and dispersion, occur through the
motion of particles and the winds of chance.
Now, see! Those who consider themselves to be the
most intelligent are the most profoundly ignorant and stupid. And
understand just how ludicrous, debased, and ignorant misguidance makes
man, and take a lesson!
Indeed, a Pre-Eternal Power created the heavens and
the earth in six days, every year creates four hundred thousand species
simultaneously on the face of the earth, and in six weeks every spring
constructs a living world more full of art and wisdom than the world
itself. Thus, it is more foolish and ignorant than the Sophists, the
first group above, to deny the act of creation and deem it unlikely
that, like a chemical that when applied shows up invisible writing,
Pre-Eternal Power should give external existence to beings, which,
though externally non-existent, exist as knowledge, and whose plans and
measures are determined in the realm of a Pre-Eternal Knowledge.
These unfortunates are absolutely impotent and have
nothing at their disposal apart from the faculty of will. And although
they are inflated like Pharaohs, they can neither annihilate anything
nor create anything from nothing, even a minute particle. And so,
although nothing comes into existence out of nothing at the hand of
causes and Nature on which they rely, out of their stupidity they say:
“Nothing comes from non-being, and nothing goes to non-being.” And they
even extend this absurd and erroneous principle to the Absolutely
All-Powerful One.
Indeed, the All-Powerful One of Glory has two ways of creating:
The First is through origination and invention. That
is, He brings a being into existence out of nothing, out of
non-existence, and creates everything necessary for it, also out of
nothing, and places those necessities in its hand.
The Second is through composition, through art. That
is, He forms certain beings out of the elements of the universe in order
to demonstrate subtle instances of wisdom, like displaying the
perfections of His wisdom and the manifestations of many of His Names.
Through the law of Providing, he sends particles and matter, which are
dependent on His command, to these beings and employs the particles in
them.
Yes, the Absolutely All-Powerful One creates in two
ways: He both originates, and He composes. To annihilate what exists and
to make exist what does not exist is most simple and easy for Him. It
is one of His constant and universal laws. The man, therefore, who says:
“He cannot give existence to what does not exist” in the face of a
power that in one spring makes exist out of nothing the forms and
attributes of three hundred thousand animate creatures, and, besides
their particles, all their conditions and states, such a man should
himself be obliterated!
The person who gave up Nature and embraced the truth
said: “Praise and thanks be to God Almighty to the number of particles
in existence for I have attained to complete belief. I have been saved
from delusion and misguidance. Not one of my doubts remains.
“ALL PRAISE BE TO GOD FOR THE RELIGION OF ISLAM, AND COMPLETE AND PERFECT BELIEF!”
All glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.
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