Second Station
The Second Station consists of an introduction and five indications. The introduction contains two topics.
First Topic
In each of the following five Indications is a comparison, written in the form of a dull, short‑ranged telescope with which to observe the attributes of dominicality. The comparisons cannot contain the reality of those attributes; they cannot encompass them and be the measure of them, but they can assist in looking at them. Any phrases or expressions in the comparisons, or in the previous Signs, unfitting for the attributes of the Most Pure and Holy Essence are the fault of the comparisons.
For example, the meanings of pleasure, joy, and gratification known by us cannot express the sacred attributes; each rather indicates an observatory and is an aid to reflective thought. Also, by showing in a small example the tip of an encompassing, mighty law of dominicality, each proves the reality of the law present in the attributes of dominicality. For example, it is said that a flower departs from existence leaving thousands of existences behind it. This demonstrates a mighty law of dominicality that is in force in all the beings of spring, indeed, of all the world.
Yes, through whichever law the All‑Compassionate Creator changes and renews the feathered dress of a bird, through the same law that All-Wise Maker renews the dress of the globe of the earth every year. Through the same law, He transforms the shape of the world every century. And through the same law, He will change the form of the universe at the resurrection of the dead.
Through whichever law He impels particles like Mevlevi dervishes, He makes the earth spin through the same law, like an ecstatic Mevlevi dervish rising up to dance the sama‘. And through that law, He causes worlds to revolve, and the solar system to travel through space.
Through whichever law He renews, repairs, and dissolves the particles in your body’s cells, through the same law He renews your garden every year, making it anew many times every season. And through the same law, He renews the face of the earth every spring, drawing a fresh veil over its face.
Through whichever law that All‑Powerful Maker raises a fly to life, through the same law He restores to life the plane-tree opposite your window every spring; and through that law, He raises the globe of the earth to life in the spring; and through the same law He will raise creatures to life at the resurrection. The Qur’an alludes to this with the verse, Your creation and your resurrection is but as a single soul. And so on; you can make further examples in the same way. There are many laws of dominicality like these which are in force from particles to the totality of the world.
Consider the immensity of these laws within dominical activity; note carefully their breadth and see the meaning of unity within them. Understand that each law is a proof of divine unity. Yes, since all these numerous and immense laws are the manifestations of knowledge and will, and since they are both the same and all‑encompassing, they offer certain proof for the Maker’s unity, knowledge, and will.
Thus, most of the comparisons in the Words show through small examples the tips of laws like these, and by doing so, point to the existence of the same law in the matter claimed. Since the existence of the law is demonstrated through a comparison, it proves the assertion as categorically as a logical proof. That is to say, most of the comparisons in the Words should be considered categorical proofs and certain arguments.
Second Topic
As is described in the Tenth Truth of the Tenth Word, however many flowers and fruits there are on a tree, each of them has aims, purposes, and instances of wisdom to that number. These instances of wisdom are of three sorts. One sort looks to the Maker and displays the embroideries of His names. Another sort looks to intelligent and conscious beings, and in their view, things are valuable missives and meaningful words. Another sort looks to the being itself and to its own life and perpetuation; and if beneficial for man, it contains instances of wisdom accordingly.
At one time, while contemplating how all beings have such numerous aims, the following phrases occurred to me in Arabic, which, like notes forming the basis of the following Indications, allude to those universal aims:
These glorious beings are flowing places of manifestation and roving mirrors for the renewal of the manifestations of the lights of His creativity – Glory be unto Him! – through the changing of their relative determinations, ❋ Firstly, and by preserving their beautiful meanings and their identities in the World of Similitudes; ❋ Secondly, and producing truths pertaining to the World of the Unseen and the weavings of the Preserved Tablet; ❋ Thirdly, and spreading the fruits of the hereafter and publishing everlasting panoramas; ❋ Fourthly, and proclaiming dominical glorifications and making known what the divine names necessitate; ❋ Fifthly, so that the divine attributes become apparent and the aspects of divine knowledge.
These five sections comprise the bases of the Indications we shall discuss below. Yes, all beings, and particularly living beings, possess on five levels different aims and instances of wisdom and purposes. Like a tree produces fruit on branches one over the other, so all living beings have five different levels of aims and purposes.
O ephemeral man! If you want your own tiny seed‑like reality to be transformed into an eternal fruit-bearing tree, and to obtain the ten levels of fruits and ten sorts of aims pointed out in the five Indications, acquire true faith. Otherwise, in addition to being deprived of all of them, you will be squeezed into that seed and you will rot!
First Indication
Firstly: through the changing of their relative determinations, and by preserving their beautiful meanings and their identities in the World of Similitudes. This section expresses the following: although a being apparently disappears into non‑existence after departing from [external] existence, the meanings it has expressed are preserved and perpetuated. Its identity, form, and essential nature also are preserved in the World of Similitudes, on the Preserved Tablets, which are samples of the World of Similitudes, and in memories, which are samples of the Preserved Tablets. That is, the being loses its visible existence and gains hundreds of immaterial existences and existences in knowledge. For example, in order to print a page in a printing-press, the type is set up and arranged. Then after the page has bequeathed its form and identity on many pages when printed and after it has proclaimed its meanings to many minds, the arrangement of the type is changed. For no need remains for it and other pages have to be printed.
In exactly the same way, the pen of divine determining sets up and arranges the beings of the earth, especially plants. Divine power creates them on the page of the springtime. Then in order for them to express their beautiful meanings and for their forms and identities to pass to the ledgers of the World of the Unseen, for instance the World of Similitudes, divine wisdom requires that the arrangement be changed. In this way, the page of another, future spring may be written and its beings express their meanings too.
Second Indication
Secondly, and producing truths pertaining to the World of the Unseen and the weavings of the Preserved Tablet. This section shows that before departing from existence, everything, whether particular or universal, and especially living beings, produces many truths pertaining to the Unseen. So too they leave behind them on the tablets and notebooks of the World of Similitudes forms to the number of the stages of their lives. Their life histories and those of their forms that are meaningful are inscribed and become objects of study for spirit beings.
For example, a flower passes from existence, but together with leaving behind its essential nature in its hundreds of seeds, it leaves thousands of its forms on small Preserved Tablets and in memories, which are small samples of the Preserved Tablets. And throughout the stages of its life it causes conscious beings to study the embroideries of the divine names and the dominical glorifications it expresses; then it departs.
Similarly, the springtime is a flower adorned with finely wrought beings in the flower‑pot of the face of the earth; it apparently dies and departs for non-existence, but in its place it leaves behind in existence the truths pertaining to the Unseen it has expressed to the number of its seeds, and identities in the World of Similitudes it has published to the number of its flowers, and the instances of dominical wisdom it has displayed to the number of its beings; only then is it hidden from us. Moreover, it makes room for its friends, other springs, to come and perform their duties. That is to say, the spring is divested of an external existence, and in meaning is clothed in a thousand existences.
Third Indication
Thirdly, and spreading the fruits of the hereafter and publishing everlasting panoramas. This section states that the world is a workbench and an arable field raising crops suitable for the market of the hereafter. We have proved in many of the Words that just as jinn and men send their actions to the market of the hereafter, so too the other beings in the world perform numerous duties on account of the hereafter and produce many crops for it. It may even be said that the earth travels for them, or even that this is its purpose. This dominical ship traverses a twenty‑four thousand year distance in one year, circumscribing the field of the resurrection. For example, the people of Paradise will surely wish to recall their adventures in this world and recount them to one another. They will be exceedingly curious to see the images and pictures of those adventures, and they will enjoy it immensely if they can watch them like watching a cinema screen.
Consequently, as the verse, [Joyfully] facing each other on thrones [of dignity]; indicates, in Paradise, the realm of delight and happiness, worldly adventures and scenes of worldly happenings will be recalled, amid everlasting panoramas.
Thus, the beautiful beings of this world appearing for a moment then disappearing, and following on one after the other in succession, appear to be factories and workshops manufacturing the vistas of eternity. For example, in order to give fleeting situations a permanence and leave souvenirs for the people of the future, the people of present‑day civilization record the images of beautiful or strange happenings and present them as gifts to the future by means of the cinema screen; they show the past in the present and the future, and include it in them.
In just the same way, the All‑Wise Maker of the beings of spring and this world records the aims of their brief lives, which look to the World of Eternity, in that world. He records in everlasting scenes in the Eternal Realm the vital duties and the divine miracles they have performed throughout the stages of their lives, as required by His names All-Wise, All-Compassionate, and Loving.
Fourth Indication
Fourthly, and proclaiming dominical glorifications and making known the requirements of the divine names. This section states that
throughout the stages of their lives, beings perform numerous varieties of dominical glorifications. They also display various situations that the divine names necessitate and require. For example, the name of All‑Compassionate desires to be compassionate. The name Provider necessitates the giving of sustenance. The name Gracious requires the granting of favours. And so on; all the divine names require and necessitate something.
Thus, in addition to demonstrating the requirements of the names through their lives and existences, all living beings glorify the All‑Wise Maker to the number of their members and faculties. For example, a man eats delicious fruits which are then dissolved in his stomach and apparently destroyed, but they both produce a pleasure and eagerness arising from activity in all the cells of his body as well as his mouth and stomach, and comprise very many instances of wisdom like nurturing his life and every part of his body and causing his life to continue. And the food itself rises from vegetable existence to the level of human life; it progresses.
In exactly the same way, when beings are hidden behind the veil of death, in addition to their very many glorifications enduring in their places, they bequeath to the divine names many of the names’ embroideries and requirements. That is to say, they depart entrusting them to an eternal existence. If, then, when a transient and temporary existence departs thousands of existences manifesting a sort of permanence remain in its place, can it be said that the thing is to be pitied, or that it was all for nothing, or why did that lovable creature depart; can it be complained about? For the mercy, wisdom, and love that look to it required and necessitated it to be thus. Otherwise thousands of benefits would have to be abandoned so that a single harm would not come about; in which case the harm would be a thousandfold.
That is to say, the names All‑Compassionate, All-Wise, and Loving One are not opposed to death and separation; indeed, they require and necessitate it.
Fifth Indication
Fifthly, so that the divine attributes become apparent and the aspects of divine knowledge. This section states that on departing from visible existence, beings, and particularly living beings, leave behind them many enduring things. As described in the Second Sign, among the attributes of dominicality (şuûnât‑ı rubûbiyet) – in a way befitting the sacredness and perfect self‑sufficiency of the Necessarily Existent Essence and in a form worthy of Him – are a boundless love, an infinite compassion, an endless pride, and, if the term is permissible, a boundless holy pleasure, a joy, and if the expression is not mistaken, an infinite sacred delight, and a transcendent happiness; the traces of which are to be observed and seen.
Yes, through change and transformation, decline and transience, beings are driven on at speed within the astonishing activity necessitated by these attributes; they are constantly sent from the Manifest World to the World of the Hereafter. Under the manifestations of the attributes, creatures are shaken up in a continual flow and flood, motion and movement, scattering to the ears of the heedless the lamentations of death and separation, and to the hearing of the people of guidance a clamour of glorification and recital of Allah’s names. It is by virtue of this mystery that all beings depart leaving behind them in existence meanings, qualities, and states which will each be a means to the manifestation of the Necessarily Existent One’s eternal attributes.
Furthermore, beings depart leaving behind them the stages and states they have undergone throughout their lives – a detailed existence which represents their external existence – on the Preserved Tablet, and in the Clear Book and Clear Record, and other spheres of existence like these that pertain to divine knowledge. This means that every transitory being abandons one existence and gains thousands of permanent existences.
For example, a number of common substances are thrown into a wondrous machine in a factory; they burn up inside it and are apparently destroyed, but in those vats valuable chemical substances are precipitated. Also, through its force and steam, the factory’s machinery works: in one area of it textiles are woven, in another books are printed, while in another sweets and other rare confections are manufactured; and so on; it produces these. That is to say, thousands of things come into existence through the burning of those common substances and their apparent destruction. One common existence departs but leaves a legacy of numerous elevated existences. Can one therefore feel sorry for the common substance? Can one complain about the factory owner because he did not pity it and burnt it, destroying those lovable substances?
Similarly, And Allah’s is the highest similitude, as necessitated by mercy, wisdom, and lovingness, the Wise, Compassionate, and Loving Creator causes the factory of the universe to work. He makes all transient existences the seeds of numerous perpetual existences; He makes them the means for the fulfilment of the dominical aims; He makes them manifest the divine attributes; He makes them the ink for the pen of divine determining and shuttles for the weaving of divine power; and for many elevated aims and favours that we do not yet know, through the activity of His power He causes the activity of the universe; He causes particles to spin, beings to travel, animals to flow, and the planets to rotate; He makes the universe speak, causing it to silently recite His verses, His signs, and to inscribe them. And of the creatures of the earth – with regard to His dominicality – He makes the air a throne for His command and will; the element of light a throne for His knowledge and wisdom; water a throne for His bounty and mercy; and earth a throne for His preservation and giving of life; and three of these thrones He rests on the creatures of the earth.
Know certainly that the shining truth demonstrated in these five Signs and five Indications is to be seen through the light of the Qur’an and may be laid claim to through the strength of belief. Otherwise a terrifying darkness takes the place of this enduring truth. For the people of misguidance, the world is full to overflowing with deaths, separations, and non‑existence; for them, the universe is a sort of Hell. Everything has only a flash of existence and is surrounded by never-ending non-being. The past and the future are filled with the darkness of non-existence; they may find a sad light of existence only in the fleeting present. However, through the mystery of the Qur’an and the light of belief, a light of existence becomes apparent which shines from pre-eternity to post-eternity; believers are connected with that, and through it secure eternal happiness.
In Short: In the manner of the poet Niyazi Misrî, we say:
Till this breath becomes the ocean,
Till this cage is smashed to fragments,
Till this voice is silenced,
I shall call: O Truth! O Existent! O Living One! Most Worthy of Worship!
O Most Wise! One Sought! Most Compassionate! All‑Loving!
And I call out:
There is no god but Allah, the Sovereign, the Truth, the Evident; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, faithful in His promise, Amen.
And believing, I declare:
Resurrection after death is true; Paradise is true; Hell‑fire is true; eternal happiness is true; Allah is Compassionate, Wise, and Loving; and Mercy, Wisdom, and Love encompass all things and all their attributes.
Praise be to Allah, who has guided us to this [felicity]; never could we have found guidance, had it not been for the guidance of Allah; indeed, it was the truth that the prophets of our Sustainer brought to us!
Glory be unto You; we have no knowledge save that which you have taught us; indeed, you are All‑Knowing, All-Wise.
O our Sustainer! Do not take us to task if we forget or unwittingly do wrong.
Allah! Grant blessings to our master Muhammad that will be pleasing to You and fulfilment to his truth, and to his Family, his Companions, and his brothers, and grant them peace. And protect us and protect our religion. Amen. O Sustainer of All the Worlds!
Glory be to the One who has made the garden of the earth the exhibition of His art, the gathering of His creatures, the place of manifestation of His power, the means of His wisdom, the garden of His mercy, the tillage of His Paradise, the place of passage of creatures, through which beings flow, the measure of artefacts; adorned by animals, embroidered with birds, made fruitful by trees, made to bloom with flowers; miracles of His knowledge, wonders of His art, gifts of His munificence, proofs of His favour, evidences of His unity, subtleties of His wisdom, witnesses to His mercy; the smiling of the blossoms with the adornment of fruits, the singing of the birds in the breezes of morning, the pattering of the rain on the cheeks of the flowers; the adornment of the flowers, the embellishment of the fruits in these gardens; all mothers, human and animal, are tender towards their small young, making known a Loving One, making loved a Merciful One, the compassion of a Kind One, the tenderness of One sympathetic to man and jinn, and to spirits, animals, angels, and jinn.