The Fifth Degree of the Luminous VerseFor Us Allah Suffices
Another time when my life was being shaken by severe conditions, it turned my attention towards life and I saw that mine was swiftly passing. I was approaching the end of my life; it had begun to be dimmed with the oppression I suffered. But I thought sorrowfully of how, because of its important duties and virtues and valuable benefits, which are explained in the treatise on the divine name Ever‑Living, life deserved to be very lengthy, not to be swiftly extinguished in that way. I once again had recourse to my master, the verse For us Allah suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs!, and it told me: “Consider life from the point of view of the Ever‑Living and Self-Subsistent One, Who gives you life!”
So I considered it and I understood that if one aspect of life looks to me, one hundred aspects look to the Ever‑Living Granter of Life. If one of its results concern me, a thousand of its results pertain to my Creator. In that respect it did not require great length, in fact it needed no time at all; to live for an instant was sufficient. This truth is elucidated together with proofs in various parts of the Risale‑i Nur, so here it will be explained in four matters, in brief and summary form.
First Matter:
I looked in the manner the essence and reality of life look to the Ever‑Living and Self-Subsistent One, and I saw that in reality my life was a collection of keys with which to open the treasuries of the divine names, and a small map of their inscriptions, an index of their manifestations, a sensitive balance and measure of the vast truths of the universe, and a word of wisdom written to know and make known, and to understand and make understood, the meaningful names of the Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One. When life’s reality is this, its value increases a thousandfold and one hour of life gains the significance of a lifetime. In respect of its relation to the Pre-Eternal One, Who has no time, life may not be considered with regard to its length or brevity.
Second Matter:
I considered the true rights of life, and I understood that my life is a dominical missive; it invites my brothers, other intelligent creatures, to read itself; it is a place of study making known its Creator.
It is also a manifesto proclaiming my Creator’s perfections.
Knowingly adorning itself in the priceless gifts and decorations bestowed on it by life’s Creator, it displays them consciously, gratefully, and believingly to the Peerless Monarch in the daily parade.
It comprehends, observes, and proclaims the thankful benedictions and glorifications of the Creator of innumerable living beings.
And it makes known verbally and through the tongues of disposition and worship, the beauties of the Ever‑Living and Self-Subsistent One’s dominicality.
I understood with the knowledge of certainty that the elevated rights of life like these did not require lengthy time, and that they elevate life a thousandfold and are a hundred times more valuable than the worldly rights of life. I exclaimed: “Glory be to Allah! Belief is so valuable and living, it infuses with life everything it enters! It transforms the fleeting glimmer of transitory life into eternal life, dispelling the transience in it.”
Third Matter:
I considered the innate duties of my life and its non‑material benefits which look to my Creator, and I saw that it acts as a mirror to the Creator of life in three ways:
The First Way: Through its impotence, weakness, poverty, and need, my life acts as a mirror to the power, strength, wealth, and mercy of the Creator of life.
Yes, just as the pleasure of food is known in proportion to the degree of hunger, and the degrees of light through the degrees of darkness, and the degrees of heat through the degrees of cold; in the same way, through the boundless impotence and poverty in my life, I understood the infinite power and mercy of my Creator, Who answers my needs and wards off my innumerable enemies. I understood my duties of entreaty, supplication, worship, abasement, and seeking refuge with Allah the Most High, and I undertook these duties.
The Second Way is acting as a mirror to the universal and comprehensive attributes and acts of my Creator through such meanings in my own life as partial knowledge, will, hearing and sight.
Yes, I understood through the many meanings in my own life and my conscious acts like knowing, hearing, seeing, speaking, and wanting – like my size relative to the universe but in far greater degree – my Creator’s all‑encompassing attributes such as knowledge, will, hearing, sight, power, and life, and His qualities such as love, anger and compassion. Believing, I assented to them, and admitting this, I found another way leading to knowledge of Allah (May His glory be exalted!).
The Third Way is acting as a mirror to the divine names, inscriptions and manifestations of which are present in my life.
Yes, as I beheld my own life and body, I saw hundreds of sorts of miraculous works, inscriptions, and arts, and observed moreover that I was being most compassionately nurtured. I understood therefore through the light of belief, how extraordinarily generous, merciful, skilful and gracious was the One Who created me and gave me life; how wondrously powerful and, if one may say so, ingenious, provident, and efficient. I understood too what the innate duties and aims of creation and results of life consisted of, such as glorification, sanctification, praise, thanks, exaltation, affirming Allah the Most High’s unity, and declaring His greatness and His praises. And I understood with the knowledge of certainty the reason life is the most valuable creature in the universe and why everything is subjugated to it, and the wisdom in everyone having an innate passion for life; I understood that belief is the very life of life.
Fourth Matter:
In order to learn what the true pleasure and happiness of life consist of in this world, I again pondered over the verse For us Allah suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs! I saw that
the purest pleasure and most untarnished happiness in this life of mine lay in belief. That is to say, my certain belief that I was the creature, artefact, and totally owned slave of a Compassionate Sustainer Who created me and gave me life, and was in His view and was being nurtured by him, that I was all the time in need of Him, and that He was both my Sustainer and my Allah and was most kind and compassionate to me, was such a perfect, permanent, painfree pleasure and happiness that it is indescribable. I understood from the verse just how appropriate is the saying: All praise be to Allah for the bounty of belief!
Thus, these four matters, that is, the reality, rights, duties, and pleasure of life, show that
the more life looks to the Eternally Ever‑Living and Self-Subsistent One and the more belief becomes the life and spirit of life, the more enduring it becomes and the more enduring fruits it produces. Moreover, it becomes so elevated, it receives the manifestation of eternity; it no longer looks to the length and brevity of life. This I learnt from the verse. And in the name of all lives and living beings, and with that intention and idea, I declared: For us Allah suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs!