Thirteenth Note
This consists of five matters that have been the cause of confusion.
The First Matter
Although those who strive on the way of truth should think only of their own duties, they think of those that pertain to Allah the Most High, base their actions on them, and fall into error.
It is written in the work Adab al‑Din wa’l-Dunya, that one time Satan tempted Jesus (Upon whom be peace) saying: “The appointed hour of death and all things are specified by divine determining, so throw yourself down from this high place, and see, you’ll die.”
Jesus (Upon whom be peace) replied: Allah the Most High tries his servants, but His servants may not try their Sustainer. That is, “Allah the Most High tests his servant, saying to him: If you do that, I shall do this. Let’s see, are you able to do it? But the servant does not have the right and power to test Allah the Most High and say: If I do that, will You do this? To assume such a stance, as though subjecting Allah the Most High’s dominicality to test and examination, is bad conduct and contrary to worship and man’s being Allah’s slave.”
Since this is the case, man should do his own duty and not interfere in Allah the Most High’s business.
It is well‑known that when one of the heroes of Islam who many times defeated Jenghis Khan’s army, Jalaluddin Khwarazmshah, was going to the war, his ministers and followers told him: “You will be victorious; Allah the Most High will make you victor.” He replied: “I am charged by Allah’s command to act on the way of jihad, I do not interfere in Allah’s concerns. To make us victor or vanquished is His business.” Because he thus understood the mystery of submission, he was wondrously victorious on numerous occasions.
In his voluntary actions man should not think of the results which pertain to Allah the Most High. For example, for some of our brothers, when people join the Risale‑i Nur it fires their enthusiasm and makes them increase their efforts. Then when others do not listen, the weak ones among them become demoralized and their enthusiasm wanes somewhat. Whereas Allah the Most High’s Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace), who was the Absolute Master, Universal Leader, and Perfect Guide, took as his absolute guide the divine decree, No more is the Messenger bound to do than deliver the message, and when people held back and did not listen, conveyed the message with greater effort, endeavour, and earnestness. For in accordance with the verse, It is true you will not be able to guide everyone whom you love; but Allah guides those whom He will, he understood that making people listen and guiding them was Allah the Most High’s concern. And he did not interfere in Allah’s concerns.
And so, my brothers! You shouldn’t be officious either by basing your actions on what is not your business, or take up a position testing your Creator!
The Second Matter
Worship and servitude of Allah the Most High look to the divine command and divine pleasure. The reason for worship is the divine command and its result is divine pleasure. Its fruits and benefits look to the hereafter. But so long as they are not the ultimate reason and not intentionally sought, benefits looking to this world and fruits which come about themselves and are given are not contrary to worship. They are rather to encourage the weak and make them incline to worship. If those fruits and benefits are made the reason for the invocation or recitation, or a part of the reason, it in part invalidates the worship. Indeed, it renders the meritorious invocation fruitless, and produces no results.
Thus, those who do not understand this mystery, recite for example the Awrād Qudsiyya Shāh Naqshband, which yields a hundred benefits and merits, or the Jawshan al‑Kabīr, which yields a thousand, making some of those benefits their prime intention. Then they do not receive the benefits, and shall not receive them, and do not deserve to receive them. For the benefits may not be the reason for the invocation and may not themselves be intended and sought. For they are obtained when unsought, in consequence of the sincere invocation, as a favour. If they are intended, it damages the sincerity to an extent. Indeed, it ceases being worship and loses all value.
But there is one matter, which is that weak people need something to encourage them to recite meritorious invocations. If they think of the benefits and eagerly recite them purely for Alalh’s sake and for the hereafter, it causes no harm and is acceptable even.
But because this instance of wisdom has not been understood, many of them come to doubt or even to deny the benefits narrated from the spiritual poles and righteous ones of former generations when they do not receive them.
The Third Matter
Happy is the man who knows his limits and does not exceed them. The sun has manifestations from a fragment of glass and a droplet of water to a pool, the ocean, the moon, and the planets. Each contains the sun’s reflection and image in accordance with its capacity, and knows its limits. In accordance with its capacity, a drop of water says: “There is a reflection of the sun on me.” But it cannot say: “I am a mirror like the ocean.”
In just the same way, the ranks of the saints have degrees, in accordance with the variety of the divine names’ manifestations. Each of the divine names has manifestations like a sun, from the heart to the divine throne. The heart too is a throne, but it cannot say: “I am like the divine throne.”
Thus, those who proceed reluctantly and with pride instead of knowing their impotence, poverty, faults, and defects, and prostrating entreatingly before the divine court, which form the basis of worship, hold their miniscule hearts equal to the divine throne. They confuse their droplet‑like stations with the ocean-like stations of the saints. They stoop to artificiality, false display, and meaningless self-advertisement in order to make themselves fitting for those high ranks and to hold them, and cause themselves many difficulties.
In Short: There is a Hadith which says: All will perish save those who know, and those who know will perish save those who act, and those who act will perish save the sincere, and the sincere are in grave danger.
That is to say, the only means of salvation and deliverance is sincerity. It is of the greatest importance to gain sincerity. The tiniest act performed with sincerity is preferable to tons performed without sincerity. A person should understand that what gains sincerity for his actions is his doing them purely because they are a divine command and that their result is divine pleasure, and he should not interfere in Allah’s business.
There is sincerity in everything. A jot of love, even, with sincerity is superior to tons of official love for which return is wanted. Someone described this sincere love as follows:
I do not want a bribe, recompense, return or reward for love, for love which seeks recompense is weak and short‑lived.
Sincere love has been lodged in human nature and in all mothers. The compassion of mothers manifests this sincere love in its true meaning. Evidence that through the mystery of this compassion mothers do not want or seek a reward or bribe for their love of their children, is their readiness to sacrifice their lives and even their eternal happiness for them. All a hen’s capital is its life, and one hen sacrificed its head in order to save its chick’s head from the jaws of a dog – as Hüsrev witnessed.
The Fourth Matter
One should not accept bounties which arrive at the hands of apparent causes on account of the causes. If a cause like an animal or a tree does not possess will, it gives the bounty directly on account of Allah the Most High. It says: “In the Name of Allah” through the tongue of disposition and gives it to you. So you too should say: “In the Name of Allah,” and take it for Allah’s sake. If the cause possesses will, he should say: “In the Name of Allah,” and you may accept it, otherwise you should refuse it. Apart from its explicit meaning, the verse, Eat not of [meats] on which Allah’s name has not been pronounced, has an implicit meaning: Do not partake of bounties that do not recall the True Bestower of Bounties and are not given in His name.
Since this is so, both the one who gives and the one who receives should say “In the name of Allah.” If the giver does not say it and you are in need, you say, “In the Name of Allah,” and seeing the hand of divine mercy upon him, kiss it in thanks, and take the bounty from him. That is to say, look from the bounty to the bestowal, and from the bestowal think of the True Bestower. To reflect in this way is a sort of thanks. Then if you wish, offer a prayer for the apparent means, since it was by his hand that the bounty was sent to you.
What deceives those who worship apparent causes is the two things coming together or being together, which is called ‘association;’ they suppose the two things cause one another. Also, since the non‑existence of one thing is the cause of a bounty’s non-existence, they suppose that the thing’s existence is also the cause of the bounty’s existence. They offer their thanks and gratitude to the thing and fall into error. For a bounty’s existence results from all the bounty’s conditions and preliminaries. Whereas the bounty’s non-existence occurs through the non-existence of only a single condition.
For example, someone who does not open the canal to water the garden is the reason and cause of the garden drying up and the non‑existence of bounties. But the existence of the garden’s bounties is dependent on hundreds of conditions besides the man’s duty and the bounties come into being through dominical will and power, which are the true cause. So understand just how clear is the error of this sophistry and how mistaken are those who worship causes!
Yes, ‘association’ is one thing and the cause is another. You receive a bounty, but the intention of a person to bestow it on you was the ‘associate’ of the bounty, not the cause. The cause was divine mercy. If the man had not intended to give you the bounty, you would not have received it and it would have been the cause of the bounty’s non‑existence. But in consequence of the above rule, the desire to bestow cannot be the cause of the bounty; it can only be one out of hundreds of conditions.
For example, some of the Risale‑i Nur students (like Hüsrev and Re’fet) who have received Allah the Most High’s bounties have confused the ‘association’ and the cause, and have been over‑grateful to their Master. However, Allah the Most High put together the bounty of benefiting from the Qur’anic instruction which He bestowed on them, and the bounty of instructing which He had bestowed on their Master; He ‘associated’ the two.
They say: “If our Master had not come here, we would not have received this instruction, so his instruction is the cause of our benefiting.”
However, I say: “Brothers! The bounties Allah the Most High bestowed on you and on me arrived together. The cause of both bounties is divine mercy. Like you, I at one time confused the association with the cause, and felt much gratitude towards the hundreds of Risale‑i Nur students with diamond pens like yourselves. I would say: ‘If it had not been for them, how could a semi‑literate unfortunate like myself have performed this service?’ Then I understood that after bestowing on you the sacred bounty by means of the pen, He bestowed on me success in this service. He associated the two; they were not the cause of each other. I do not thank you, but congratulate you. You too pray for me and congratulate me, rather than being grateful to me.”
It may be understood from this Fourth Matter just how many degrees there are in heedlessness.
The Fifth Matter
Just as if the property of a community is given to one man, it is wrong; or if one man lays hands on charitable foundations which belong to the community, he does wrong; so too to ascribe to the leader or master of a community the results of that community’s labours or the honour and merits resulting from its good works, is wrong both for the community and for the leader or master. Because to do so flatters his egotism and encourages pride. While being the doorkeeper, he supposes himself to be the king. He also does wrong to himself. Indeed, he opens the way to a sort of concealed association of partners with Allah the Most High. Yes, the colonel cannot claim for himself the booty, victory, and glory belonging to a regiment which conquers a citadel. The master and spiritual guide should not be considered to be the source and origin, but known to be the place of reflection and manifestation.
For example, heat and light reach you by means of a mirror. It would be crazy if you forget the sun, and considering the mirror to be the source, are grateful to it instead of being grateful to the sun. The mirror should be preserved because it is the place of manifestation. Thus, the guide’s spirit and heart are a mirror; they are the place for reflecting the effulgence emanating from Allah the Most High. He is the means of its being reflected to his followers. He should not be ascribed a station higher with regard to the effulgence than that of being the means.
It sometimes even happens that a master considered to be the source is neither the place of manifestation nor the source. The follower supposes the effulgences he receives due to the purity of his sincerity, or his strength of attachment, or his concentration on his master, or in other ways, to have come from the mirror of his master’s spirit.
Like by means of mesmerism, some people open up a window onto the World of Similitudes by gazing attentively at a mirror, and observe strange and wonderful things in the mirror. But they are not in the mirror; by focussing their attention on the mirror, a window opens up in their imaginations outside the mirror and they see those things. It is for this reason that sometimes the sincere student may be more advanced than a deficient shaykh. He returns, guides his shaykh and becomes the shaykh’s shaykh.