Then that restless traveller addressed his heart and said: “The fact that the people of faith, and particularly those affiliated with a Sufi order, are constantly repeating the words, No god but He, and recalling and proclaiming Allah the Most High’s unity, is an indication that the affirmation of Allah’s unity comprises many degrees. Such affirmation is moreover a most enjoyable, most valuable, and most exalted sacred duty, instinctive function, and act of worship. Let us then in order to attain a further degree, open the door of another stopping‑place in this abode of instruction.
For the true affirmation of Allah’s unity we seek is not some imaginary species of knowledge. It is rather an affirmation that in terms of logic is deemed the opposite of imagination, that is far more valuable than cognition based on imagination, that is the result of proof, that is designated a knowledge.”
The true affirmation of Allah the Most High’s unity is a judgement, a confirmation, an assent and acceptance that can find its Sustainer present with all things, that sees in all things a path leading to its Creator, and does not regard anything as an obstacle to His presence. For otherwise it would always be necessary to tear and cast aside the veil of the cosmos in order to find its Sustainer. “Onward, then,” said the traveller to himself, as he knocked at the door of Allah the Most High’s Sublimity and Grandeur. He entered the Stopping‑Place of Allah’s deeds and workings, the world of creation and origination, and there he saw that five comprehensive truths were prevailing over the entire cosmos, and offering self-evident proof of the divine unity.
The First Truth:
That of Grandeur and Sublimity. Since this truth is explained with different proofs in the Second Station of the Second Ray and various other places in the Risale‑i Nur, we restrict ourselves here to the following:
The Being that creates and then administers at a single time and in a single fashion the stars that are thousands of years distant from each other; that creates at a single time and in a single form the countless members of the same species of flower, distributed over the east and the west, the north and south of the globe;
that administers, nurtures, quickens, distinguishes and adorns more than two hundred thousand different types of plant and species of animal in five or six weeks, with the utmost regularity and equilibrium, without any confusion, defect or error, in order to provide every spring on the face of the earth more than a hundred thousand specimens of the supreme resurrection, and thus prove before man’s eyes a remarkable event, now belonging to the past and the realm of the Unseen, namely the creation of the heavens and the earth in six days, as indicated in the verse, He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six days;
the Being that causes the earth to revolve, as evidenced in the verse, He merges night with day, and day with night, and turns the night into the page on which the events of the day are written – this same Being knows and administers according to His own will, all at the same time, the most secret and obscure thoughts that occur to men’s hearts.
Since each of the aforementioned acts is in reality one act, it follows that their Glorious Doer is a Unique and Powerful Being, enjoying such grandeur and sublimity that nowhere, in nothing, in no way, does it leave the slightest possibility for the acceptance of partnership; on the contrary, it uproots all such possibility.
Since such sublime power and grandeur exist and since that grandeur is at the very apex of perfection and comprehends everything, it is certainly in no way possible to permit or allow any attribution of partners to that Unique and Powerful Being, for so doing would ascribe impotence or need to that power, fault to that grandeur, defect to that perfection, and impose restriction on that comprehensiveness. No sound intellect could deem this possible.
The assignment of partners to Allah, is then by virtue of the offence it causes to Allah the Most High’s grandeur, the dignity of his glory and His sublimity, so grave a crime that the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition decrees with an earnest threat, Allah does not pardon the assignment to Him of a partner; He pardons whatever is lesser than that.
The Second Truth:
The absoluteness, the comprehensiveness, and appearance in infinite form of the dominical deeds seen at work in the cosmos. It is only Allah the Most High’s wisdom and will that limits and restricts those deeds, as well as the inherent capacities of the objects and places in which they manifest themselves. Stray chance, dumb nature, blind force, unconscious causality and the elements that without restriction are scattered in every direction – none of these can have any part in the most balanced, wise perspicacious, life‑giving, orderly and firm deeds of the Creator. They are used, rather, by the command, will, and power of the Glorious Doer as an apparent veil to conceal His power.
Three out of innumerable examples: We will set forth three from among the numerous subtle points that relate to the three deeds indicated in three continuous verses in Sura al‑Nahl.
The First: Your Sustainer inspired in the bee that it should seek a dwelling‑place in the mountains.
The bee is, with respect to its disposition and function, such a miracle of Allah’s power that a whole sura, Sura al‑Nahl, has been named after it. For to inscribe in the minute head of that little honey-machine a complete programme for the fulfilment of its important task; to place in its diminutive stomach the most delicious of foods and to ripen it there; to place in its sting poison capable of destroying and killing animate beings, without causing any harm to its own body or the member in question – to do all this without the utmost care and knowledge, with exceeding wisdom and purposiveness, partakes of a perfect orderliness and equilibrium, and hence unconscious, disorderly, disequilibriated nature and accident could never interfere or participate in any of this.
The appearance and comprehensiveness of this divine craft, this dominical deed, which is miraculous in three separate respects, in the countless bees that are found scattered over the earth, with the same wisdom, the same care, the same symmetry, at the same time and in the same fashion – this is a self‑evident proof of Allah the Most High’s unity.
The Second Verse: There is for you a lesson in cattle. From what is within their bodies, between excretions and blood, we produce for your drink, milk, pure and agreeable to those who drink it. This verse is a decree overflowing with useful instruction. To place in the nipples of cows, camels, goats and sheep, as well as human mothers, in the midst of blood and excrement but without being polluted by them, a substance the exact opposite, pure, clean, pleasant, nutritive and white milk, and to inspire in their hearts tenderness toward their young that is still more pleasant, sweeter and more valuable than milk – this requires such a degree of mercy, wisdom, knowledge, power, will and care that it cannot in any way be the work of turbulent chance, of the tangled elements, or of blind forces.
The manifestation, workings and comprehensiveness of so miraculous a dominical art and so wise a divine deed, all over the face of the globe and in the countless hearts and breasts of innumerable mothers of hundreds of thousands of species, in the same instant, the same fashion, with the same wisdom and the same care – this too constitutes a self‑evident proof of Allah the Most High’s unity.
The Third Verse: From the fruits of the date‑palm and the vine you take sugar and fine nourishment; verily therein is a sign for a people possessing intelligence.
This verse invites our attention to the date and to grapes, saying, “For those of intelligence, there is great proof, argument and evidence of the divine unity in these two fruits. These two fruits yield nurture and sustenance, fresh and dry fruit, and give rise to most delicious forms of food; yet the trees that bear them stand in waterless sand and dry soil, and are thus miracles of power and wonders of wisdom. They are each of them like a factory producing sweet sugar, a machine manufacturing honeylike syrup, a work of art created with perfect order and sensitive balance, wisdom and care; hence anyone with a grain of intelligence will say on contemplating them, ‘The one who made them in this fashion may very well be the Creator of the whole cosmos.’”
For in front of our eyes each vine branch the thickness of a finger will hold twenty bunches of grapes, and each bunch will in turn contain hundreds of sugary grapes, each like a litle pump emitting syrup. To clothe the surface of each grape with a fine, delicate, thin, and colourful protection; to place in its delicate and soft heart seeds with their hard shells, which are like its retentive faculty, programme, and the story of its life; to manufacture in its stomach a sweetmeat like the helva of Paradise, a honey like the water of Kawthar; to create an infinite number of such grapes over the face of the entire earth, with the same care and wisdom and wonderful art, and at the same time and in the same fashion – this proves in self‑evident fashion that the one who fulfils these tasks is the Creator of the whole cosmos, and this deed, requiring as it does infinite power and limitless wisdom, can be only His deed.
Yes, blind and stray, disorderly and unconscious, aimless, aggressive, and anarchic forces, nature and causality, cannot have anything to do with this most sensitive balance, this most skilful art, this most wise scheme. They cannot even stretch out their hands toward it. It falls to them only to be employed through the dominical command as passive objects, as curtainholders.
Just like the three points proving divine unity contained in the three truths indicated in the three verses, the countless manifestations and workings of infinite dominical deeds attest unanimously the unity of a Single One of Unity, the All‑Glorious One.
The Third Truth:
The creation of beings, particularly plants and animals, with absolute speed and absolute orderliness; with absolute ease and extreme skill, talent, ability, and order; with great value and distinction, despite extreme abundance and intermingling.
Yes, to produce with extreme swiftness and in extreme abundance, most skilfully and artistically, with great ease and facility combined with the utmost care and orderliness, with great value and distinction despite abundance and intermingling, without any form of confusion or deficiency – this can be achieved only by a Unique Being Whose power is such that nothing appears difficult to it. For that power it is as easy to create stars as atoms, the greatest as the smallest, a whole species as a single member of a species, a sublime and comprehensive universal as a restricted and petty particular; it is as easy for Him to revivify and quicken the whole earth as to do the same with a tree or to erect a tree as tall as a mountain as it is to produce a seed no bigger than a fingernail. All of these deeds He performs in front of our eyes.
So the exposition, the solution, the uncovering and proof of the mystery of this degree of the assertion of the divine unity, this Third Truth, this word of unity – the mystery that the greatest universal is like the smallest particular without the slightest difference between them – this beneficial wisdom, this supreme talisman, this riddle beyond the reach of the intellect, this most significant foundation of Islam, this most profound source of faith, this greatest basis of the divine unity – the setting forth of all this opens the talisman of the Qur’an, and makes it possible to know the most secret and unknowable riddle of the creation of all beings, a riddle that reduces philosophy to impotence.
Thanks and praise be one hundred thousand times to the Compassionate Creator to the number of the letters of the Risale‑i Nur, that the Risale‑i Nur has solved, uncovered and established this wondrous talisman, this wondrous riddle. It has been proven with decisive arguments, to the same degree of certainty that twice two is four, particularly in the discussion of He is powerful over all things toward the end of the Twentieth Letter; in the section concerning Allah the Most High’s being an all‑powerful agent in the Twenty-Ninth Word, one devoted to the resurrection; and in the section proving the divine power in the degrees of Allah is Most Great in the Twenty‑Ninth Flash, written in Arabic.
For that reason we assign to those parts of the Risale‑i Nur the exposition of this matter, wishing, however, to set out briefly the foundations and proofs that solve this mystery and to allude to thirteen mysteries that resemble thirteen steps, or a list of contents. I have indeed written the first and second mysteries, but unfortunately two powerful obstacles, material and immaterial, have caused me to abandon the remainder.
The First Mystery:
If something be essential, its opposite cannot have access to the essence defined by that thing. For that would be equivalent to the union of opposites, which is an absurdity. Now with regard to this principle, since Allah the Most High’s power is related to His Essence and is an essential concomitant of His Most Sacred Essence, impotence – the opposite of power – cannot in any way gain access to that All‑Powerful Essence.
Moreover, the existence of degrees within a thing comes about through the intervention in it of its opposite. For example, strong and weak degrees of light result from the intervention of darkness; high and low degrees of heat proceed from the admixture of coldness; and greater and lesser amounts of strength are determined by the intervention and opposition of resistance. It is therefore impossible that degrees should exist in that power of the Divine Essence. He creates all things as if they were but a single thing.
And since degrees do not exist in the power of the Divine Essence and it does not admit of weakness or deficiency, no obstacle can in any way obstruct it nor can the creation of anything cause it difficulty.
Since, then, nothing is difficult for Allah the Most High’s power, He creates the supreme resurrection with the same ease as spring; spring with the same facility as a tree; and a tree with as little trouble as a flower. Further, He creates a flower as artistically as a tree; a tree as miraculously as a spring; and a spring as comprehensively and wondrously as a resurrection. All of this He accomplishes in front of our eyes.
It has been proved in the Risale‑i Nur with decisive and strong proofs that if there were no divine unity, the making of a flower would be as difficult as a tree or even more difficult; the making of a tree would be as hard a spring or even more difficult; and creation would even lose its value and artistic quality. An animate being that now takes a minute to produce would be produced with difficulty in one year, or maybe never at all.
It is then on account of this mystery that these fruits, flowers, trees and animals, that are extremely valuable despite their ubiquitousness and abundance, and extremely artistic despite the swiftness and ease of their fashioning, emerge in regular fashion onto the plain of being and assume their functions. Proclaiming Allah the Most High’s glory, they accomplish their duties and depart, leaving behind their seed in their stead.
Second Mystery:
Through the mystery of luminosity, transparency, and obedience, just as through the manifestation of its essential power, a single sun reflects its light in a single mirror, so too, through the divine command and due to the extensive activity of that unrestricted power, it can easily bestow the same reflection – together with its light and heat – on innumerable mirrors, shining objects, and droplets. Great and small are the same, there is no difference between them.
Similarly, like a single word can enter the ear of one man without trouble, so too due to the infinite breadth of boundless creativity, it may enter a million ears, with dominical permission.
And a single light like an eye, or a single luminous spirit being like Gabriel, through the infinite breadth of dominical activity within the manifestation of mercy, may be present in, or look at, or enter thousands of places through divine power, as easily as they look at or enter a single place. There is no difference between many and few.
The pre‑eternal power of Allah the Most High’s essence is the most subtle and choicest of lights, the light of all lights; the quiddities, essences and inner dimensions of all things are luminous and lustrous as mirrors; all things, from the atom, the plant, and the animate creature to the stars, the suns and the moons, are extremely obedient and submissive to the command of that power of the divine essence and subordinate to the orders of that pre-eternal power. It is for all of these reasons entirely natural that innumerable things should be created with the same ease as a single thing and placed side by side with each other. No concern or task interferes with another. Great and small, many and few, particular and universal – all are the same for that power, for which nothing is difficult.
As was said in the Tenth and Twenty‑Ninth Words, through the mysteries of order, equilibrium, obedience to command and submission to order, that power causes a great ship as big as a hundred houses, to move and advance as a child’s finger pushes his toy.
As a commander will send a single infantryman into battle with an order from his throne, so too he may throw a whole obedient army into the fray with the same single order.
Let us suppose that two mountains are in a state of equilibrium in a large and sensitive balance. In the same way that a single walnut would cause one pan to rise and the other to fall if placed on one side of a balance containing two eggs, it would produce the same result with the scale containing the mountains; through a wise law it would cause one pan with its mountain to rise to the mountain‑top, and the other to descend with its mountain to the bottom of the valley.
Since there is to be found in Allah the Most High’s absolute, infinite, luminous, essential and eternal power a divine justice and unending wisdom that is the origin, source, fundament and beginning of all order, regularity and equilibrium in creation; and since all things, particular and universal, small and great, are obedient to the command of that power and submissive to its workings – it follows that Allah the Most High causes the stars to revolve and to move, through the wisdom of His order, as easily as He rotates and moves the atoms.
In spring, just as He brings to life a single fly with a single order, so too He bestows life with the same ease and the same command on the whole species of fly, as well as all the hosts of plants and animals, through the mystery of the wisdom and equilibrium inherent in His power, and then sends them forth onto the plain of life.
In the same way that he swiftly gives life to a tree in spring and infuses vitality in its bones, with His wise and just absolute power, He also resurrects in the spring the corpse of the vast earth and brings into being hundreds of thousands of different specimens of resurrection similar to the tree, all this with the greatest of ease.
With His creative command, He brings the earth back to life. By the decree of, There will be but a single cry, then they shall all be brought nigh unto Us; that is, “all men and jinn, with a single cry and command shall be brought to Us and made present at the plain of resurrection.”
Again, by His command, The hour shall be but a blinking of the eye, or even closer; that is, the bringing about of resurrection and the gathering that follows upon it shall take no longer than the opening and closing of an eye, or even less.
Then there is the verse, Your creation and resurrection is as a single soul, meaning the following: “O men! To create you and to bring you to life, to resurrect and gather you, is as easy for me as bringing one soul to life; it presents no problem to My power.” According to the inner sense of these three verses, Allah the Most High will bring all men and jinn, all animals, spirit beings and angels to the field of the Supreme Gathering and the great balance with a single command and with great ease. One concern does not interfere with another.
The Remaining Mysteries, From the Third and Fourth as Far as the Thirteenth, Have Been Postponed to Another Time in a Fashion Disagreeable to Me.
The Fourth Truth:
The existence and appearance of all beings proclaim the divine unity in a self‑evident fashion through their numerous points of unity and convergence, such as being simultaneously together and yet separate and unique; resembling one another; being the miniature or magnified versions of each other; being some, universals and species, and some, particulars and individuals; resembling each other in the stamp of innate disposition; having affinity in the impress of artistry; and aiding and complementing each other with respect to their innate functions. They establish the unity of their Maker. And with respect to dominicality, make it clear that the cosmos is a universal and a whole that may not be divided or fragmented.
For example, in each spring, to create, order and sustain the innumerable members of the four hundred thousand different species of plants and animals, together and intermingled, in a single moment and in the same fashion, without any error or mistake, with the utmost wisdom and perfection of artistry;
to create all the different species of bird, from flies, which are like birds in miniature, to eagles which are the supreme specimens of the species, then to equip them with the means of flight and subsistence and to cause them to journey through the realm of the air; to imprint on the countenances of each of the birds in miraculous fashion a stamp of artistry, on the body of each of them a seal of wisdom, and in the quiddity of each of them, in sustaining fashion, a sign of Allah’s unity;
to cause wisely and mercifully particles of food to hasten to the aid of the cells of the body, plants to rush to the assistance of animals, and all mothers to go swiftly to the help of their powerless infants;
to work on all things, particular and universal, from the Milky Way, the solar system and the elements of the earth, down to the veils of the pupil of the eye, the petals of the rose, the husk of the corn, the seeds of the melon, like a series of intersecting circles, with the same regularity, perfection of artistry, the same deed, and plenitude of wisdom – to do all this establishes the following with self‑evident certainty:
He who performs these deeds is One and unique; His imprint is on all things.
In the same way that He is not in any place, He is present in every place.
Like the sun, all things are distant from Him, but He is close to all things.
Just as the greatest objects, such as the Milky Way and the solar system, are not difficult for Him, so too the cells in man’s blood and the thoughts that pass across his heart are not secret from Him nor beyond the reach of His power.
However great and multitudinous a thing may be, it is as easy for Him as the smallest and scarcest thing, for He creates with ease a fly on the model of an eagle, a seed in the form of a tree, a tree in the shape of a garden, a garden with the artistry of a spring, and a spring on the scale of a resurrection.
Things most valuable in their artistry He gives to us and bestows upon us most cheaply. The price that He asks of us is merely to say In the name of Allah and Praise be to Allah. In other words, the accepted price for all those numerous precious bounties is to say at the beginning of all things, In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate, and at their end, Praise be to Allah.
Since this Fourth Truth is explained and proved elsewhere in the Risale‑i Nur, we content ourselves here with this brief allusion.
The Fifth Truth:
Perceived by our traveller at the second stage: the existence in the entirety of the cosmos, its pillars and parts and all the beings contained in it, of the most perfect order and regularity; the sameness of the substances and purposive beings that are the means of the rotation and administration of that vast kingdom and are connected to its general scheme; the fact that the divine names and deeds that are at work in that magnificent city, that vast exhibition, encompass and comprehend all things or most things, despite their being one within the other, and of the same nature, and the same, and their being the same name and deed in every place; the fact that the elements and species that are the means for the administration, inhabiting, and construction of that well‑adorned palace, cover the whole face of the earth in their diffusion, despite their being one within the other, of the same nature, and the same element and the same species being found everywhere – all of this demands, proves, and affirms, necessarily and self-evidently, the following:
The Maker and Disposer of this cosmos, the Monarch and Nurturer of this realm, the Master and Builder of this palace, is one, unique, sole. He has neither like nor peer, neither minister nor aide. He has neither partner nor opposite, he has neither inability nor deficiency.
Yes, order is in itself a perfect expression of unity; it demands a single orderer. It leaves no place for the assignment of partners to Allah the Most High, the source of dispute and dissension.
There is a wise and precise order inherent in all things, whether universal or particular, from the total scheme of the cosmos and the daily and annual rotation of the earth down to the physiognomy of man, the complex of senses in man’s head and the circulation of white and red cells in man’s blood. Nothing other than One Absolutely Powerful and Absolutely Wise can stretch out its hand intentionally and creatively toward any thing, nor interfere with it. On the contrary, all things are recipients, means of manifestation, and passive.
Now, ordering, the pursuit of certain purposes and the bestowal of regularity with a view to certain benefits, can be done only by means of knowledge and wisdom and performed only with will and choice. Certainly and in all events, this wisdom‑nurturing regularity, this infinitely varied ordering of the cosmos that before our very eyes assures various benefits, proves and affirms to a self-evident degree that the Creator and Disposer of all beings is one, an agent possessing will and choice. Everything comes into being through His power, assumes a particular state through His will, and takes on a particular form through His choice.
The heat‑giving lamp of this hospice that is the world is one; its candle that is the basis for the reckoning of time is one; its merciful sponge is one; its fiery cook is one; its life-giving beverage is one; its well-guarded field is one, as well as a thousand and one other instances of oneness. It follows from all of these instances of oneness that the Maker and Master of this hospice is also one, that He is extremely generous and hospitable, for He employs numerous high-ranking and great officials to serve the animate guests of His hospice.
Names such as All‑Wise, Compassionate, Giver of Forms, Disposer, Quickener, and Nurturer, the impresses and manifestations of which are to be seen at work in every corner of the world, attributes such as wisdom, mercy, and grace, and acts such as formation, disposition and nurturing, are all one. They embrace every place in the utmost degree, each name and act being present there. They also complement the imprint of each other in such a way that it is as if those names and deeds were uniting in such fashion that power becomes identical with wisdom and mercy, and wisdom becomes identical with grace and life.
For example, as soon as the activity of the name of Quickener appears in a thing, the activity of numerous other names such as Creator, Giver of Form, and Provider, also appears at the same instant, everywhere, and in the same system. This of a certainty and self‑evidently establishes and proves that that which is designated by the names and the Doer of the comprehensive deeds that appear everywhere in the same fashion must also be one, single and unique. In this we believe and to this we give our assent!
The elements that are the substance and material of creation encompass the whole earth. Each of the species of creation that bears an imprint attesting unity is diffused throughout the earth in unity and, so to speak, conquers it. This also proves to the degree of being self‑evident that those elements together with what they embrace, and those species, together with their separate members, are the product and property of a single being. They are the products and servants of so Unique and Powerful a One that He employs those vast and and imperious elements as obedient servants and those species diffused throughout the earth as well-disciplined soldiers.
Since this truth also has been established and explained in other places in the Risale‑i Nur, we content ourselves here with this brief indication. In summary of the witnessings that he derived from these five truths, through the superabundance of faith and the joy of divine unity, and in expression of his feelings, our traveller said to his heart:
Look upon the coloured page of the cosmic book;
See what forms the golden pen of power has traced.
No dark point remains for the gaze of the heart’s eye;
It is as if Allah has inscribed His signs with light.
Know too that:
The leaves in the world’s book are dimensions infinite;
The lines of time’s events are works innumerable.
Written on the workbench of the Preserved Tablet of reality,
A meaningful embodied word, is every being in this world.
Listen also to this:
When all things proclaim, “No god but Allah,” they will in unison say, “O Truth and Reality!” and beseech in harmony, “O Living One!”
Yes, in all things there is a sign pointing to the fact that He is One. Hearkening to this his heart and soul affirmed the truth of what they heard and said, “Yes, indeed!”
In brief allusion to the five truths of unity observed by our traveller through the world, our voyager through the cosmos, at this Second Stopping‑Place, it was said in The Second Chapter of the First Station:
There is no god but Allah, the One, the Unique, to Whose Unity in Necessary Existence points the witnessing of the truth of Grandeur and Sublimity, its perfection and comprehensiveness;
the witnessing of the truth of the appearance of deeds in absolute fashion, in infinitude, without any limitation except that of Allah’s will and wisdom;
the witnessing of the truth of the creation of beings in absolute multiplicity with absolute swiftness, the creation of creatures in absolute ease with absolute perfection, the origination of things made in absolute plenitude with utter perfection of artistry and value;
the witnessing of the truth of the existence of beings in universal and comprehensive fashion, joined, interconnected and interrelated;
the witnessing of the truth of universal order, an order incompatible with the assignation of partners to Allah;
the witnessing of the unity of the sources of cosmic order, a unity that clearly attests the unity of their Maker;
the unity of the names and deeds that comprehend and permeate the universe;
and the unity of the elements and species dispersed over the face of the earth in imperious fashion.