The First
Is Salutations to Allah (al‑taḥīyyātu lillāh). Briefly, its meaning is this: for example, a master craftsman invents a wonderful machine with his profound knowledge and miraculous intelligence, and everyone who sees it applauds and congratulates the craftsman, and praising and saluting him, offers him gifts both material and immaterial. The machine too, by displaying the craftsman’s wondrously subtle art, and skill and knowledge, and working perfectly in exactly the way he wanted, applauds him through the tongue of its being, in effect greeting him and offering him immaterial gifts.
In exactly the same way, all the species of living beings in the universe, together with all their individual members, are in every respect miraculous, wonderful machines, which – like conscious beings, men, and jinn and angels, applaud and salute their Maker verbally – through the tongues of their beings and lives applaud and salute their craftsman, the All‑Glorious Maker, Who makes Himself known through the profound and subtle manifestations of His all-comprehending knowledge, which sees the relationship of everything with everything else, and knows all the things necessary for the life of each and conveys them to it at the right time. Greeting Him, the beings declare: Salutations to Allah! They worshipfully offer the price of their lives directly to their Creator, Who knows all creatures together with all their states. On the night of the Ascension, in the name of all living creatures, Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace) said Salutations to Allah! instead of the greeting of peace in the presence of the Necessarily Existent One, and offered the salutations, gifts, and greetings of all those species of living beings.
Yes, just as with its order and balance, an ordinary regular machine undoubtedly shows a painstaking, skilful craftsman; so each of the numberless living machines which fill the universe displays a thousand and one miracles of knowledge. Whatever the comparison between the light of the sun and the feeble glow of the firefly, that is the comparison of the former and the brilliance with which, through the manifestations of knowledge, the living beings testify to the necessary existence of their eternal Maker and Craftsman, and His fitness to be worshipped.
The Second Sacred Word From the Ascension
Is blessings (al‑mubārakāt). Since according to Hadiths, the prescribed prayers are the believer’s ascension and receive the manifestation of the supreme Ascension; and since the traveller found in every world his Creator, the One Knowing of the Unseen, through His attribute of knowledge; accompanying the traveller, we shall enter the broad world of blessed things and blessings, which make those who behold them declare: “How great are Allah’s blessings!” Like the traveller, we shall behold that world of “blessed beings” and foremost the innocent, blessed infants of beings with spirits, and the seeds of animate creatures, which are the tiny containers of the programmes of their lives, and through studying them shall attempt to know our Creator with the knowledge of certainty, through the miraculous, subtle manifestations of His sacred attribute of knowledge.
Yes, with our own eyes we see that through the knowledge of One All‑Wise and Knowledgeable, all those innocent young and blessed minute treasuries and boxes, – both altogether and singly – suddenly awaken and stir into motion, and proceed towards the aim of their creation. They cause those who see them as they are in reality to exclaim: “May Allah bless these a thousand times over! What endless wonders Allah has willed!”
For example, all seeds, eggs, sperm, and grains have a precise order which springs from knowledge; and the order is within a perfect balance, which arises from skill; and the balance is within a constant reordering, and the reordering is within a constant measuring and balancing; and the measuring and balancing are within a distinguishing and nurturing, each possessing marks intentionally distinguishing it from its fellows; and this distinguishing and nurturing are within an artful decorating and adorning; and this adorning is within the giving of wise, appropriate, perfect forms and members; and this giving of form is together with differences in the flesh and edible parts of those creatures and fruits, for the purpose of generously gratifying the tastes of those desiring sustenance; and this is within miraculous embroideries and adornments which reflect knowledge and are all different; and this is together with pleasing smells and delicious tastes which are all different. Thus, through the unfolding and development of all these forms with perfect orderliness and distinction, and while being different, without fault or error in absolute profusion, and with absolute speed and over an infinite area, and with this wondrous situation continuing throughout the seasons; all those blessed beings, singly and all together, demonstrate visibly through the above fifteen tongues the marvels of their Craftsman’s skills and His miraculous knowledge, making known as clearly as the sun the One All‑Knowing of the Unseen, their Necessarily Existent Maker.
It was because of this truly brilliant and extensive testimony of theirs and congratulations of their Maker, that on the night of the Ascension when speaking on behalf of all creatures, Muhammad (UWBP) used the word blessings instead of the greeting of peace.
The Third Word
Is benedictions (al‑ṣalawāt). This sacred word, which was spoken during the supreme Ascension of Muhammad (UWBP), hundreds of millions of believers offer to the divine court every day at least ten times in the tashahhud during the obligatory prayers, which are the believers’ ascension. They proclaim it to the universe. Since all the truths of the Ascension have been proved in the Thirty‑First Word in most powerful and decisive fashion, even to obdurate, atheist deniers, which it in part addresses, for the proofs and details we refer you to that Word, and here, extremely concisely, we shall take a look at the strange world of the various sorts of sentient beings and beings with spirits, which illustrates the broad meaning of this third word of the Ascension. We shall also try to understand by means of the manifestation of His pre-eternal knowledge, the perfect mercy and compassion of our Creator, and the vastness of His power and all-encompassing will, within His existence and unity.
Yes, we see in this world that even if not consciously and with their minds, by nature all beings with spirits feel and perceive that despite their boundless impotence and weakness, they have innumerable enemies and things detrimental to them, and despite their infinite want and need, they have endless needs and desires. Since their power and capital are insufficient to meet even a thousandth of these, they cry out and weep with all their strength, and by their nature implore and entreat. Each with its own particular voice and tongue offers supplications, entreaties, prayers of a sort, and benedictions to One All‑Knowing and All-Powerful. Then while seeking refuge at His court, we see that suddenly One All-Wise and Powerful Who is absolutely knowing and perceives all the needs of those crying out, understands their plaints and plight, and hears their innate petitions and supplications, comes to their assistance and does all that they wish. He transforms their weeping into smiles and their cries into thanks.
This wise, knowing, compassionate assistance makes known in truly brilliant fashion through the manifestations of knowledge and mercy, an Assisting Answerer of Prayer, a Munificent and Compassionate One. During the Supreme Ascension, Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace), and during the prayers, the lesser ascension, his community, all declare Benedictions and supplications, and good words – all are Allah’s, which has the meaning of offering specifically to Him all the benedictions and worship of the world of beings with spirits.
The Fourth Sacred Word
Is Good words, all are Allah’s! (al‑ṭayyibāt lillāh). Since many of the truths of the Risale‑i Nur have been imparted to me while reciting the tesbihat following the prayers, quite simply I have been driven involuntarily to explain by means of brief indications the truths associated with both Sura al‑Fatiha, and the words of the tashahhud.
The sacred word good words, which was spoken during Muhammad’s (UWBP) Ascension, refers to the good words and deeds and worship of those with knowledge of Allah and the believers, and of men, jinn, angels, and spirit beings, who possess universal consciousness, with which they beautify the universe. They look to the world of beauties, and understand fully the infinite beauties of the eternal Absolutely Beauteous One and the perpetual beauties of His names, which adorn the universe, and they respond to them with passion and ardour and universal worship. This word refers to the endless good words they utter to their Creator through the fragrant odours of their shining belief, extensive knowledge of Him, and praise and laudation. Since good words in this meaning were spoken during the Ascension, every day without wearying the whole Umma repeats that sacred word in the tashahhud.
Yes, the universe is the mirror of an infinite, sempiternal beauty and loveliness, and consists of manifestations of it. All the beauties and perfections of the universe come from that eternal beauty and become beautiful through their connection with it, and increase in value. The universe would otherwise be a ruin, a house of sorrows, a place of utter confusion. Their connection with that beauty is understood through the knowledge and affirmation of men, angels, and spirit beings, who are the heralds and announcers of the sovereignty of the divinity.
It was even imparted to me that there is a strong possibility that in order to broadcast everywhere the beautiful, sweet praise and laudation of those heralds and their extolling the One they worship, and to send them up to the sublime throne and present those good words at the divine court, the element of the air has been given a truly strange and wondrous state whereby its particles, like soldiers under orders, are miniscule tongues and ears.
Thus, just as through their belief and their worship, men and the angels make known the All‑Glorious All-Worshipped One; so through making each of those announcers a microcosm connected to the whole universe through the comprehensive capacities, wondrous faculties, and subtleties of knowledge He has given them, that All-Glorious and Wise One makes Himself known in brilliant fashion. For example, He shows Himself as clearly as the sun by creating numerous wonderful machines in a space the size of a walnut in man’s tiny head such as his faculties of memory, imagination, and thought, and by making his memory into a large library.
We shall now allude to a very brief meaning of the Arabic piece mentioned above which points out universal proofs of all‑encompassing knowledge, comprises innumerable proofs, bringing them together and making them one extensive proof, and demonstrates all-encompassing knowledge through fifteen evidences. We shall give a sort of translation of the piece.