EMRE Geschrieben 21. Juli 2009 Teilen Geschrieben 21. Juli 2009 The Fourth Ray [While being the Fifth Flash in meaning and degree, in form and ‘station’ this forms the valuable Fourth Ray of the Thirty-First Letter’s Thirty-First Flash and is an important and subtle point concerning the verse, For us God suffices.] NOTE: Unlike other works, the Risale-i Nur starts off in veiled manner and gradually unfolds. Especially the First Degree of this treatise, in addition to being a most valuable truth, it is extremely subtle and profound. Peculiar to myself, it took the form of a significant discussion governed by the feelings, an animated conversation about belief, a secret discourse of the heart; it was healing for my various deep ills. Those who are completely in harmony and agreement with me may understand it completely. Otherwise it will not be entirely appreciated. In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs.1 One time when I had been isolated from everything by ‘the worldly’, I was afflicted with five kinds of exile. I suffered too at that time of old age from five illnesses arising in part from my sorrows. Due to the heedlessness resulting from the distress, I looked not to the lights of the Risale-i Nur, which would have consoled and assisted me, but straight to my heart, and I sought my spirit. I saw that dominant in me were an overpowering desire for immortality, an intense love of existence, a great yearning for life, together with an infinite impotence and endless want. But an awesome transience was extinguishing the immortality. Suffering that state of mind, I exclaimed like the sorrowing poet:2 While my heart desires its immortality, Reality wants the passing of my body; I am afflicted with an incurable ill which not even Luqman could cure! I bowed my head in despair. Suddenly the verse, For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs came to my assistance, summoning me to read it with attention. So I recited it five hundred times every day. Writing briefly a part of the valuable lights which were unfolded to me in the form of ‘the vision of certainty’, and only nine lights and degrees, I refer readers to the Risale-i Nur for the details, known with ‘absolute certainty’ rather than the former ‘vision of certainty.’ The Fourth Ray [While being the Fifth Flash in meaning and degree, in form and ‘station’ this forms the valuable Fourth Ray of the Thirty-First Letter’s Thirty-First Flash and is an important and subtle point concerning the verse, For us God suffices.] NOTE: Unlike other works, the Risale-i Nur starts off in veiled manner and gradually unfolds. Especially the First Degree of this treatise, in addition to being a most valuable truth, it is extremely subtle and profound. Peculiar to myself, it took the form of a significant discussion governed by the feelings, an animated conversation about belief, a secret discourse of the heart; it was healing for my various deep ills. Those who are completely in harmony and agreement with me may understand it completely. Otherwise it will not be entirely appreciated. In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs.1 One time when I had been isolated from everything by ‘the worldly’, I was afflicted with five kinds of exile. I suffered too at that time of old age from five illnesses arising in part from my sorrows. Due to the heedlessness resulting from the distress, I looked not to the lights of the Risale-i Nur, which would have consoled and assisted me, but straight to my heart, and I sought my spirit. I saw that dominant in me were an overpowering desire for immortality, an intense love of existence, a great yearning for life, together with an infinite impotence and endless want. But an awesome transience was extinguishing the immortality. Suffering that state of mind, I exclaimed like the sorrowing poet:2 While my heart desires its immortality, Reality wants the passing of my body; I am afflicted with an incurable ill which not even Luqman could cure! I bowed my head in despair. Suddenly the verse, For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs came to my assistance, summoning me to read it with attention. So I recited it five hundred times every day. Writing briefly a part of the valuable lights which were unfolded to me in the form of ‘the vision of certainty’, and only nine lights and degrees, I refer readers to the Risale-i Nur for the details, known with ‘absolute certainty’ rather than the former ‘vision of certainty.’ The Second Degree of the Luminous Verse ‘For us God suffices’ One time when afflicted with old age, exile, loneliness, and isolation in addition to my innate and infinite impotence, ‘the worldly’ were attacking me with their spies and stratagems, and I declared: “Armies are attacking a single sick, weak man whose hands are tied. Is there nothing that unfortunate (that is, me) can find to support him?” I had recourse to the verse For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs! It told me: through the relation resulting from belief you may rely on a monarch so absolutely powerful that together with every spring equipping with perfect order all the armies of the plants and animals on the face of the earth, which comprise four hundred thousand nations, he renews the uniforms of the two regular armies of the trees and flying creatures, clothing them in fresh apparel and changing the skirts and top garments of the hens and birds. He changes too the dress of the mountains and the veil of the plains. Furthermore, this Monarch places all the rations of the vast army of foremost man and all the animals in the merciful ‘extracts’ known as seeds and grains, which are far more wondrous than the ‘food extracts’ like the meat, sugar and other extracts the ‘civilized’ have discovered in recent times. He rolls up inside these the instructions for their cooking and growth in accordance with Divine Determining, depositing them in minute casings for their protection. The creation of these containers is with such speed, ease and abundance from the factory of “‘Be!’ and it is”3 that the Qur’an says it is carried out at a mere command. Although all those extracts resemble each other and are of the same matter and would not fill a town, the Munificent Provider could fill all the towns on the earth with the exceedingly various and delicious foods He cooks from them in the summer. Thus, you may find a point of support such as this through the relation of belief, and rely on an infinite power and strength. On receiving this lesson from the verse, I acquired such moral strength and firmness of belief that I could have challenged not only my present enemies, but the whole world. I declared: “For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs!” Seeking a source of help for my infinite poverty and need, I again had recourse to the verse. It said to me: through the relation of worship and servanthood you become connected to and are recorded in the wages book of a Munificent Master Who every spring and summer sets out and removes a hundred times over tables bearing a multiplicity of foods, producing them out of nothing from unexpected places and the dry earth. It is as though the years and the days are all receptacles for the fruits of bounty and foods of mercy that appear in unending succession. They are exhibitions for the degrees of bestowal, universal and particular, of a Compassionate Provider. You are the servant of a Possessor of Absolute Riches Who is thus. If you are aware of your servanthood, your grievous poverty will be transformed into pleasurable appetite. This lesson I absorbed, and placing my trust in God, declared together with my soul: “Yes, yes! That is right! For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs!” The Third Degree of the Luminous Verse ‘For us God suffices’ At a time I found my attachment to the world broken due to the pressures of my exile and sickness, and the wrongs I suffered, and belief was informing me that I was destined for an eternal world, an everlasting land, and perpetual happiness, I gave up sighing “ah! ah!” and said “oh! oh!” But this goal of the imagination, aim of the spirit, and result of creation could only be achieved through the infinite power of One Absolutely Omnipotent Who knows the motion, rest, acts and states of all creatures, and records them, and takes insignificant and absolutely impotent man as his friend and addressee, giving him a rank over all creatures. Thinking of this and His attaching infinite importance to man and bestowing infinite grace on him, that is, pondering over the activity of such a power and man’s importance despite his apparent insignificance, I wanted an explanation that would increase my belief and satisfy my mind. I again had recourse to the verse. It commanded me: “Note carefully the ‘us’ of For us God suffices and see who is saying this together with you verbally and through the tongue of disposition.” So I looked and I at once saw that innumerable birds and miniature birds and flying creatures, and countless animals and small living creatures, and uncountable plants and growing things, and infinite numbers of trees and bushes, like me, were reciting through the tongue of disposition the meaning of For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs!, and were calling it to mind. For the One Who has disposal over them and guarantees all the necessities of their lives is such that He creates before our eyes and particularly in the spring in great abundance and with great ease and speed and extensiveness, without error, defect, or confusion, from eggs, droplets of fluid, seeds and grains which resemble each other and whose matter is the same, the adorned, balanced, and regular hundred thousand species of birds, the hundred thousand sorts of animals, the hundred thousand varieties of plants, and the hundred thousand kinds of trees, which, all with their distinguishing characteristics, are different to each other. With all this intermingling, resemblance, and closeness, He demonstrates to us His unity and oneness within the immensity and majesty of His power. I understood then that it was not possible for there to be any interference or partnership in that act of dominicality and disposal of creative power, which displayed such innumerable miracles. I noted next the ‘I’ in the For us God suffices, that is, I considered myself, and I saw that among the animals, He had created me miraculously from my origin, a drop of fluid, had opened my ear, attached my eye, and had placed in my head a brain, and in my breast a heart, and in my mouth a tongue containing hundreds of scales and measures with which I might weigh up and know all the gifts of that Most Merciful One stored up in the treasuries of mercy. He had inscribed on these, thousands of instruments for unlocking and understanding the treasures of the infinite manifestations of His Most Beautiful Names, and given instructions to the number of smells, tastes, and colours for the assistance of those instruments. He had moreover included with perfect order in this body the numerous sensitive feelings and senses, and subtle, non-physical faculties and inner senses. He had created with perfect art all the systems and members and faculties necessary for human life so that He might allow me to experience and understand all the varieties of His bounties, and make known to me the countless different manifestations of His Names. Like the bodies of all believers, He had made this poor body of mine, which appears so insignificant, a fine calendar and diary of the universe; an illuminated summary of the macrocosm; a miniature sample of the world; a clear miracle of His handicraft; a desirous seeker after every sort of His bounty, and the means to them; and a list and index, like a model garden, of the gifts and flowers of mercy; and the understanding recipient of His Divine pronouncements. He also had given me life, to expand and increase in my existence, which is the greatest bounty. For through life, the bounty of my existence may expand to the extent of the Manifest World. He had also bestowed humanity on me, through which the bounty of existence may unfold in the physical and spiritual realms, opening up the way to benefiting —through the senses particular to man— from those broad spreads of bounties. He had also bestowed Islam on me, through which the bounty of existence may expand to the extent of the Manifest World and World of the Unseen. He had also given me certain, verified belief, through which the bounty of existence may encompass this world and the hereafter. He had also given me the knowledge and love of God within belief. Through this He bestowed a rank through the bounty of existence at which one may stretch out the hands to reap benefits, through praise and laudation, at all the levels from the sphere of contingency to the Necessary World and realm of the Divine Names. He had also given me in particular knowledge of the Qur’an and the wisdom of belief, through which bounty He had bestowed on me a superiority over many creatures. He had also given me comprehensive abilities like the above-mentioned whereby I might be a complete mirror to His oneness and Eternal Besoughtedness, and respond with universal worship to His universal, sacred dominicality. And as unanimously confirmed by all the holy scriptures and books He had revealed to men by means of the prophets, and attested by all the prophets, saints, and purified ones, He buys from me my existence, life, and self —as stated by verses of the Qur’an— which are gifts and in trust to me, so that they will not be lost and go for nothing. He has repeatedly and categorically promised that He will preserve them in order to return them, and that as the price He will give eternal happiness and Paradise. This I understood with ‘the knowledge of certainty’ and believed with utter conviction. Thus, I was taught by the verse For us God suffices that my Sustainer, the Glorious and Munificent One, ‘opens up’ through His Name of Opener the forms of the hundreds of thousands of varieties of animals and plants from limited, similar droplets and seeds, with the uttermost ease, speed, and perfection, and as we mentioned before, gives man this astonishing importance, making him the chief pivot of the works of His dominicality; so too He will create the resurrection of the dead and Paradise and will bestow eternal happiness as easily and definitely as He will create next spring. Had it had been possible, I would have declared through the tongues of all creatures, but since it was not possible, I declared by intention and through thought and imagination: For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs! And so I want to repeat it through all eternity. The Fourth Degree of the Luminous Verse ‘For us God suffices’ One time, when a period of heedlessness coincided with my being shaken by various indispositions like old age, exile, illness, and defeat, I was overcome by a grievous anxiety that my very existence, to which I was intensely attached and by which I was captivated, would cease to be, as would the existences of all creatures. Again I had recourse to the verse For us God suffices. It told me: “Study my meaning and look through the telescope of belief!” I looked and I saw through the eyes of belief that my miniscule being was the mirror to an infinite existence, and through an infinite expansion was the means of gaining innumerable existences; it was a word of wisdom yielding the fruits of numerous everlasting existences far surpassing itself in value. I understood with ‘the knowledge of certainty’ that due to its relation with that infinite existence, to live for an instant was as valuable as existing eternally. For by understanding through the insight of belief that my being is the work, artefact and manifestation of the Necessarily Existent, I was saved from the endless darkness of desolate fears and the pains of innumerable separations. I knew that within a temporary separation was a permanent union with the beings I loved, with which, through bonds of brotherhood to the number of Divine Names manifested in the acts related to living creatures in particular, I had gained a relation. It is clear that those who share the same village, town or country, or the same regiment, commander, or master will feel a close brotherhood and warm friendship. While those deprived of such bonds feel a constant painful torment surrounded by darkness. The fruits of a tree, too, if they had intelligence, would feel that they were brothers, companions, and observers of each other. If the tree ceased to exist or they were plucked from it, they would experience separations to the number of fruits. Thus, through belief and the relation that results from it, my existence —like that of all believers— gains the lights of myriad existences untouched by separation. Even if it departs itself, it is content, for they remain behind as though it had itself remained. Moreover, as is demonstrated in detail in the Twenty-Fourth Letter, the existences of all living creatures and particularly those with spirits, are like words. They are spoken and written down, then disappear. But in place of their own existences, they leave behind numerous existences which may be counted as second degree existences, like their meanings, their similitudes and forms, and their results, and if they are blessed, their rewards and their realities. Only then do they pass beneath the veil. In just the same way, when they depart from external existence, my existence and the existences of all living creatures, leave behind them their spirits, if they possess them, and their meanings, and realities, and similitudes, and the worldly results and fruits of the hereafter produced by them individually; they leave their forms and their identities behind in memories and on the Preserved Tablet, and in the films displaying eternal vistas, and in the exhibitions of pre-eternal knowledge; and they leave the Divine glorifications offered by their essential beings, which represent them and give them permanence, in the notebooks of their deeds; and their innate responses to the manifestations of the Divine Names and what the Names necessitate, and their being existent mirrors to them, they leave in the sphere of the Names. They leave behind in their places numerous non-physical existences like these, more valuable than their external existences, then they depart. This I knew with ‘the knowledge of certainty.’ Thus, through belief and the insight and relationship resulting from belief, one may lay claim to the above-mentioned everlasting, immaterial existences. In the absence of belief, besides being deprived of all those other existences, even one’s own existence goes for nothing, for oneself, and is lost in non-existence. At one time, I felt great sorrow at the speedy destruction of the spring flowers; I even pitied those delicate creatures. But the above-mentioned truth arising from belief shows that such flowers become flowers in the world of meaning. Each like a fruit-producing tree or a shoot, —in respect of the lights of existence— all those existences apart from spirit produce a hundredfold profit. Their external existences do not go to non-existence, they are hidden. They are also the new forms of the permanent reality of a species. For the beings of last spring such as the leaves, flowers, and fruits, are the same as those of this spring; the difference is only apparent. I realized that the apparent difference, even, was to allow those words of wisdom, phrases of mercy, and letters of power to acquire numerous different meanings. Instead of lamenting, I exclaimed: “What wonders God has willed! How great are His blessings!” Thus, through the insight of belief and by being connected through belief to the Maker of the heavens and earth, I perceived from afar what a source of pride and honour it is to be the work of art of a craftsman who adorns the skies with stars and the earth with flowers and exquisite creatures, and demonstrates a hundred miracles in every one of his artefacts—how precious and unique it was to have been made by such a wondrous artist. The verse taught me in particular that since that wonder-working Artist had inscribed in the tiny copy of man the mighty book of the vast heavens and earth, even making him a choice and perfect summary of the book, what a great honour and achievement and way of acquiring value it was for man, and that through the relation and insight of belief, he could receive and lay claim to that honour. Conceiving of all beings in my mind, I formed the intention and declared through the tongues of all of them: “For us God suffices; and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs!” The Fifth Degree of the Luminous Verse ‘For us God 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 of 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 God 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. F i r s t M a t t e r : 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 it 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. S e c o n d M a t t e r : 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 God! Belief is so valuable and living that it infuses with life everything it enters! It transforms the fleeting glimmer of transitory life into eternal life, dispelling the transience in it. T h i r d M a t t e r : 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 God, 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 the meanings in my own life like 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 God. 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 God’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. F o u r t h M a t t e r : 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 God 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 God 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 God 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 God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs! The Sixth Degree of the Luminous Verse ‘For us God suffices’ At a time my old age was warning me of my own departure amid the events of the end of time, which in turn give warning of the end of the world and departure of all beings, my innate passionate love of beauty and fascination by perfection developed to an extraordinary degree, and I observed with extreme clarity and sorrow that death, transience, and non-existence were continuously causing the destruction of beings and their separation, and were pounding this beautiful world and its creatures, breaking them up and spoiling their beauty. Seeking consolation as that ‘metaphorical’ love in my nature rebelled violently against this situation, I again had recourse to the verse. It told me: “Recite me, and study my meaning carefully!” So I entered the observatory of the Light Verse in Sura al-Nur and trained the telescope of belief on the most distant levels of the verse For us God suffices, and turned the microscope of the insight of belief at its most obscure mysteries. I saw that just as mirrors, shining objects, fragments of glass, and even bubbles, reveal the various sorts of concealed beauty in the sunlight; and with their different capacities and their change and renewal, renew its beauties; and by reflecting and refracting the light, make known the hidden beauties of the sun and the seven colours in its light; so, without cease, in order to act as mirrors to the sacred beauty of the All-Beauteous One of Glory, the Sun of Pre-Eternity and Post-Eternity, and to the everlasting beauties of His infinitely lovely Most Beautiful Names, and to renew their manifestation, these fine creatures, these lovely beings, these exquisite artefacts, come, then depart. As is explained in detail in the Risale-i Nur supported by powerful proofs, all the shades of beauty that are to be observed on them are not theirs, but are the hints, signs, flashes, and manifestations of an eternal, sacred and transcendent beauty which desires to be perpetually manifested and visible. Here, three of those proofs shall be alluded to briefly. First Proof: The beauty of a finely worked object points to the beauty of the craftsmanship. The beauty of the craftsmanship points to the beauty of the name which was the source of the craftsmanship. The beauty of the name of the craftsman’s art points to the beauty of the craftsman’s attributes manifested in that art. The beauty of his attributes points to the beauty of his talent and abilities. And the beauty of his abilities points self-evidently to the beauty of his essential self and his reality. In exactly the same way, the beauty in all the fine creatures which fill the universe, all exquisitely made, testifies decisively to the beauty of the acts of the All-Glorious Craftsman. And the beauty of the acts points indubitably to the beauty of the titles, that is, Names, that look to those acts. And the beauty of the Names testifies certainly to the beauty of the sacred attributes that are the source of the Names. And the beauty of the attributes testifies to the beauty of the essential qualities and abilities that are the source of the attributes. And the beauty of the essential qualities and abilities testifies self-evidently to the beauty and sacred perfection of the Essence which is the source of the acts and is qualified by the Names and attributes, and to the holy beauty of His reality. That is to say, the All-Beauteous Maker possesses an infinite beauty and loveliness which are fitting for His Most Sacred Essence, one shadow of which has beautified all beings from top to bottom; He possesses a transcendent, sacred beauty a single manifestation of which has endowed with beauty the whole universe, and has adorned and illuminated with its flashes the entire sphere of contingency. Yes, just as a crafted work cannot have come into existence without an act, so an act cannot occur without the performer of the act. And just as it is impossible for there to be names without the one they signify, so attributes cannot be without the one they qualify. Since the existence of a work of art self-evidently points to the act which crafted it, and the existence of the act points to the existence of the worker of the act and his title, and to the existence of the attribute and name which gave rise to the work; the perfection and beauty of the work of art point also to the beauty and perfection particular to the act which crafted it, and they point to the beauty particular to and fitting for the name of the performer of the act, and, with ‘knowledge of certainty,’ to the beauty and perfection of his essence and reality, which are fitting and appropriate to them. In just the same way, since it is impossible for the constant activity under the veil of the works of art in the universe to be without the causer of the activity, and the names whose manifestations and inscriptions are visible on creatures to be without the one they signify, and the attributes like power and will which are almost visible to be without the one they qualify; with their limitless existences, all the works of art, creatures and artefacts in the universe point decisively to the existence of their Creator, Maker, and Doer, and to the existence of His Names, and to the existence of His attributes, and to the existence of his essential qualities, and to the necessary existence of His Most Pure and Holy Essence. Similarly, all the different varieties of beauty, perfection, and loveliness to be seen in creatures testify with complete clarity —but in a way particular to and fitting for their sacredness and necessity— to the infinite, unlimited, multifarious beauties and perfections of the acts, names, attributes, qualities, and Essence of the All-Glorious Maker; they point most decisively to their beauties, which far surpass those of all beings. The Second Proof contains five Points: First Point: Relying on their illuminations and unveilings, the chiefs of the people of reality have believed and stated unanimously —despite their paths and methods differing greatly from one another— that the instances of beauty in all beings are the shadows, flashes and manifestations of the sacred, hidden beauty of the Necessarily Existent One. Second Point: All beautiful creatures appear caravan after caravan, and not stopping, disappear; they come one after the other in succession, then depart. Yet an elevated and unchanging beauty displays itself in the mirrors of those creatures, demonstrating certainly through the continuity of its manifestation that the beauty does not belong to the beautiful creatures, to those mirrors. Rather, like the beauty of the sun’s rays is to be seen on the bubbles floating on the surface of running water, they are the lights of an eternal beauty. Third Point: It is clear that just as light comes from something luminous, the giving of existence from something existent, bounty from riches, munificence from wealth, and instruction from knowledge, so the giving of excellence is from the excellent and the bestowal of beauty is from the beautiful; it could not be in any other way. It is as a consequence of this truth that we believe that all the beauty in the universe comes from the beauty of the beauteous one the constantly changing and renewed universe describes and defines through all its creatures and the tongues of their mirror-like beings. Fourth Point: Just as the body relies on the spirit and subsists through it and is animated by it, and a word looks to the meaning and is illuminated by it, and form relies on reality and acquires value through it; so this corporeal and material manifest world is a body, a word, a form which relies on the Divine Names behind the veil of the Unseen, receiving life and vitality from them; it looks to them, and is beautified. All the instances of physical beauty proceed from the non-physical beauties of their own realities and meanings; and as for their realities, they receive effulgence from the Divine Names and are shadows of them of a sort. This truth is proved decisively in the Risale-i Nur. This means that all the varieties and sorts of beauty in the universe are the signs, marks, and manifestations —by means of names— of a faultless, transcendent Beauty which is manifested from beyond the veil of the Unseen. However, since the Necessary Existent’s Most Pure and Holy Essence resembles absolutely nothing at all and His attributes are infinitely superior to the attributes of contingent beings, His sacred beauty also does not resemble the beauties of creatures and contingent beings, and is infinitely more exalted. Certainly, an everlasting beauty one manifestation of which is vast Paradise together with all its exquisiteness and beauty, and one hour’s vision of which makes the inhabitants of Paradise oblivious to it cannot be finite, nor have any like, equal or peer. It is clear that the beauties of a thing are in accordance with itself; and there are thousands of sorts of beauties which all differ according to the different sorts of beings. For example, beauty perceived by the eye is not the same as something beautiful heard with the ears, and an abstract beauty comprehended by the mind is not the same as the beauty of food relished by the tongue; so too, the beauties appreciated and perceived as beautiful by the external and inner senses and the spirit are all different. For example, the beauty of belief, the beauty of reality, the beauty of light, the beauty of a flower, the beauty of spirit, and the beauties of form, compassion, justice, kindness, and wisdom. Similarly, since the utter and infinite beauties of the Most Beautiful Names of the All-Beauteous One of Glory are all different, the beauties in beings also differ. If you want to observe one manifestation of the beauties of the All-Beauteous One’s Names in the mirrors of beings, take a sweeping look with the eye of the imagination at the face of the earth supposing it to be a small garden; you will see that terms like mercifulness, compassionateness, wisdom, and justice allude to both the names, and acts, and attributes, and qualities of Almighty God. Observe the sustenance of foremost man and of all living creatures, which arrives regularly from behind the veil of the Unseen, and see the beauty of Divine mercifulness. Then consider the miraculous sustenance of all young, and the two pumps of milk hanging over their heads on the breasts of their mothers, as sweet and pure as the water of Kawthar, and see the captivating beauty of Divine compassion. Then observe the peerless beauty of Divine wisdom, which makes the whole universe into a mighty book of wisdom every letter of which contains a hundred words, and every word of which contains a hundred lines, and every line of which contains a thousand chapters, and every chapter of which contains hundreds of small books. Then see the imperious beauty of a justice which holds the whole universe and all its beings in equilibrium; and maintains the balance of all the heavenly bodies, lofty and lowly; and supplies symmetry and proportion, the most important elements of beauty; and causes everything to acquire the optimum state; and gives the right to life to living beings, and ensures that their rights are preserved; and halts and punishes aggressors. Then consider the inscription of man’s life story in his memory, as tiny as a grain of wheat, and the programmes of the second lives of all plants and trees in their seeds; and the members and faculties necessary for the defence of living beings, for instance bees’ wings and their poisonous stings, and the small bayonets of thorned plants, and the hard shells of seeds; and see the subtle beauty of dominical preservation and protection. Then consider the guests at the table of the earth of the Most Merciful and Compassionate One, Who is absolutely Munificent, and the pleasant smells of the numberless different foods prepared by mercy, and their beautiful and various colours, and their delicious and differing tastes, and the organs and members of all living creatures which assist their pleasure and enjoyment; and see the exceedingly pleasant, sweet beauty of dominical bestowal and munificence. Then consider the meaningful forms of foremost man and of all living creatures, which are opened up from droplets of fluid through the manifestation of the Names of Opener and Giver of Form, and the attractive faces of the flowers of spring opened up from seeds and tiny nuclei; and see the miraculous beauty of Divine ‘opening’ and giving of form. Thus, by analogy with these examples, each of the Divine Names has a sacred beauty particular to it a single manifestation of which makes beautiful the vast world and innumerable species of beings. You may see the manifestation of a Name’s beauty in a single flower; the spring is also a flower; Paradise is a flower yet unseen. If you can visualize the whole of spring and see Paradise with the eye of belief, you may understand the utter majesty of everlasting Beauty. If you respond to that Beauty with the beauty of belief and worship, you will be a most beautiful creature. While if you meet it with the boundless ugliness of misguidance and loathsomeness of rebellion, you will be both a most ugly creature and will in effect be loathed by all beautiful creatures. Fifth Point: In accordance with the law that all fine arts and crafts and accomplishments want to display themselves and have themselves appreciated, a master of hundreds of arts and crafts who possessed endless perfections and beauties made a wondrous palace in order to describe and reveal all his arts, crafts and accomplishments, and his hidden beauties. Anyone seeing the miraculous palace would immediately think of the virtues, arts and perfections of its master and maker. Believing in them and affirming them as though seeing them, he would declare: “One who was not beautiful and skilled in every way could not be the source, creator and originator of a work so beautiful. It is as though his immaterial beauties and perfections are embodied in this palace.” In exactly the same way, so long as his mind and heart are not corrupted, one who sees the exhibition of wonders and beauties of the magnificent palace of this world, that is, the universe, will realize that the palace is a mirror, decorated the way it is in order to show the beauties and perfections of another. Yes, since there is nothing similar to the palace of the world from which its beauties could have been imitated and copied, certainly, its Maker possesses the necessary beauties in himself and in his Names. It is from these that the universe is derived and according to them that it was made. It was written like a book in order to express His beauties and Names. The Third Proof consists of three Points: First Point: This is a truth explained in detail with powerful proofs in the Third Stopping-Place of the Thirty-Second Word. Referring detailed discussion of it to that Word, here we shall consider it only with a brief allusion. We look at creatures, and especially animals and plants, and we see that governing them are a constant adorning, which points to intention and will and makes known knowledge and wisdom, and an ordering and beautifying it is impossible to attribute to chance. There is in everthing an art so delicate, a wisdom so fine, an adornment so elevated, an organization so compassionate, and situation so sweet that it is clearly understood that behind the veil of the Unseen is a craftsman who wants to make his art appreciated, attract the gazes of the attentive, and please his artefacts and observers; who wants to make himself known and acquainted and loved through displaying numerous skills and perfections in each work of his art, and to make himself praised and applauded. He bestows on conscious creatures in order to please them and make them happy and friends of himself, every sort of delicious bounty from unexpected places in a way it is impossible to attribute to chance. Also to be observed are a generous treatment, a mutual acquaintance and friendly dialogue with the tongue of disposition, and a compassionate response to supplication which make perceived a profound compassion and elevated mercy. That is to say, the bestowal of bounty and giving of pleasure which are observed behind the making known and loved, which are as clear as the sun, arise from a genuine wish to be compassionate and powerful desire to be merciful. And this powerful desire in One Absolutely Self-Sufficient Who has no need of anything demonstrates certainly an utterly perfect pre-eternal, everlasting, peerless Beauty the nature and reality of which necessitate its wanting to be manifested and to see itself in mirrors. In order to display and see itself in various mirrors, this Beauty has taken on the form of compassion and mercy; then in the mirrors of conscious beings has assumed the state of bestowal and munificence; then has taken the form of making itself known and loved; and then bestowed the light of adorning creatures and making them beautiful. Second Point: Mankind’s genuine, intense, and powerful love of God, and especially that of its elevated classes and of innumerable persons whose paths are all different, points self-evidently to a peerless beauty; indeed it testifies to it. Yes, such a love looks only to such a beauty and necessitates it; such passion demands such loveliness. Indeed, all the praise offered by beings verbally and through the tongue of disposition looks to that pre-eternal Beauty and goes to it. In the view of lovers like Shams-i Tabrizi, all the attraction, captivation, ecstasy, and drawing truths in the universe are signs of a pre-eternal and post-eternal truth of attraction. While the ecstatic motion and rotations which cause the heavenly bodies and all beings to dance and spin like moths and Mevlevi dervishes are the passionate and dutiful responses to the imperious displays of the sacred beauty of that captivating truth. Third Point: All the scholars who have researched into reality have agreed that existence is pure good and light, while non-existence is pure evil and darkness. The chiefs of the people of reason and the people of the heart have agreed that in the final analysis all instances of good, beauty, and pleasure arise from existence, and that all evils and bad, calamities, suffering, and even sins are attributable to non-existence. I f y o u s a y : The source of all beauties is existence, yet also in existence are disbelief and the egotism of the soul? T h e A n s w e r : Disbelief is non-existence because it is denial of the truths of belief. The existence of egotism, however, is a form of non-existence which has acquired the colour and form of existence due to a wrongful claim to ownership, not knowing the nature of man’s mirror-like being and assuming the imaginary to be actual. Since the source of all beauties is existence and the source of all evils is non-existence, a Necessary Existence and Pre-Eternal, Everlasting Being, which is the firmest and most elevated and shining existence and the one most distant from non-existence, will demand the beauty which is the most powerful, and the most elevated and shining and free of any blemish; it will rather express such a beauty; indeed, it will be such a beauty. Like all-encompassing light is necessitated by the sun, so the Necessary Existent necessitates an eternal beauty; he gives light through it. All praise be to God for the bounty of belief Our Sustainer! Do not call us to task if we forget or do wrong.4 Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.5 NOTE: Nine degrees of the luminous verse “For us God suffices” were going to be written, but due to certain circumstances, three degrees have been postponed. REMINDER: Since the Risale-i Nur belongs to the Qur’an and is a commentary based on proofs proceeding from it, it contains necessary, purposeful, indeed, essential and beneficial repetitions, the same as the Qur’an contains subtle, wise, and necessary repetitions which cause no boredom. Also, since the Risale-i Nur consists of proofs of the profession of Divine unity, which does not cause tedium but is repeated with pleasure and zeal, its essential repetitions are not a fault, and do not and should not cause boredom. FOOTNOTES 1. Qur’an, 3:173. 2. This refers to Niyazi al-Misri (1218-1294 AD), a sufi poet who was born in the province of Malatya in Turkey. He studied in al-Azhar, hence the name ‘al-Misri,’ wrote a diwan of poetry and other works, and taught in the religious schools of Istanbul for many years. [Tr.] 3. Qur’an, 36:82, etc. 4. Qur’an, 2:286. 5. Qur’an, 2:32. The Fifth Chapter (of the Twenty-Ninth Flash)1 On the degrees of For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs! It consists of five ‘Points’. FIRST POINT This phrase is a well-tried remedy for the sickness of human impotence and poverty: For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs! The Giver of Existence is Eternally Existent, there is no harm therefore in the passing of beings, for the things that are loved continue to exist through the continuance of the One Who gave them existence, the Necessary Existent. He is the Enduring Maker and Creator; the passing of creatures causes no sorrow, then, for the means of love for them, their Maker, is Enduring. He is the Eternal King and Lord, so there are no regrets on the passing of His dominions, on their departing and being renewed. He is the Eternal All-Knowing Witness; no grief is felt therefore at the disappearance from this world of things that are loved, for they have perpetual existence in the knowledge of that Pre-Eternal Witness, and in His view. He is the Enduring Owner and Creator; there is no pain therefore at the passing of beautiful things, for the source of their beauty, their Creator’s Names, are enduring. He is the Enduring Inheritor and Raiser to Life; there should be no lamenting on being parted from beloveds, for the One Who will resurrect them and return them to Himself is Enduring. He is Eternally All-Beauteous and Glorious; there should be no distress therefore at the disappearance of beautiful things, for those beautiful things are the mirrors of the Beautiful Names, which endure together with their beauties after the disappearance of the mirrors. He is the Eternal True Object of Love and Worship; so no sorrow should be felt on the passing of ‘metaphorical’ beloveds, for the True Beloved is Eternal. He is Eternally Merciful, Compassionate, Loving, and Clement; so the passing of the apparent bestowers of bounties and compassion has no importance, it should not cause sorrow or despair, for the One Whose mercy and compassion encompass all things is Enduring. He is Eternally Beauteous, Gracious, and Kind; the disappearance of gracious and sympathetic beings, therefore, should neither cause pain, nor should importance be given it, for the One Who takes the place of all of them and a single of Whose manifestations they all together cannot replace, is Enduring. Since He is Enduring and possesses these attributes, He takes the place of every sort of transient, ephemeral beloved in this world. For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs! Yes, enough for the immortality of this world and all it contains is the enduring existence of its Owner, Maker, and Creator. SECOND POINT Sufficient for my immortality is God, for He is my Eternal God and my Eternal Creator, the Eternal Giver of my existence, my Eternal Maker, my Eternal Owner, my Eternal Witness, the Eternal True Object of my Worship, my Eternal Resurrector. There is therefore no harm in the disappearance of my being; there should be no sorrow, regret, or grief. For the Giver of my existence is Enduring, and His creation through His Names is also Enduring. The attributes of my person are nothing but the rays of one of His Names. They exist permanently in their Creator’s knowledge and within His view, and do not therefore cease to exist on their passing and disappearance. Likewise, sufficient for me in respect of immortality and the pleasure of it, are my knowledge, understanding, consciousness, and belief that the rays in my being of an Enduring Name of my God are Enduring, and that the reality of my being is nothing other than a shadow of that Name, and that through the mystery of its reflection or image in the mirror of my being, my reality is not itself lovable, but lovable on account of the immortality of the various enduring things reflected in it. THIRD POINT For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs! For He is the Necessary Existent, and these transitory beings are nothing other than places reflecting the renewal of the manifestations of His existence and giving of existence. Through Him and through being connected to Him and through knowledge of Him, are endless lights of existence; while without Him, there are the endless darkness of non-existence and the limitless pains of separation. These transitory beings are mere mirrors, and with the changing of their relative determinations, they are renewed in six aspects in their transience, disappearance, and permanence: The First: The permanent existence of their beautiful meanings and identities in the World of Similitudes. The Second: The permanent existence of their forms in the tablets of the World of Similitudes. The Third: The permanent existence of their results and fruits which look to the hereafter. The Fourth: The permanent existence of their dominical glorifications, represented [in the Preserved Tablet], which is a sort of existence. The Fifth: The permanent existence in the exhibitions of knowledge and eternal vistas. The Sixth: The permanent existence of their spirits, if they have them. For their various functions and states in their death, transience, disappearance, annihilation, and their appearance and extinction, is nothing other than what is demanded by the Divine Names. It is due to the mystery of this that beings flow like a rushing torrent on the waves of life and death, existence and non-existence. And from this function arises perpetual activity and continuous creation. I, and everyone, therefore, are compelled to say: For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs! That is, as regards existence, it is sufficient for me that I am the work of the Necessary Existent; to receive this illumined existence for a passing instant is preferable to millions of years of apparent, fruitless existence. Yes, through the mystery of being related to God through belief, a minute of this existence is the equivalent of thousands of years without the relation of belief; the degrees of existence of that minute, even, are more complete and extensive than those thousands of years. Likewise, sufficient for me for existence and the value of existence is my being the art of the One Whose grandeur is in the heavens and signs are on the earth, and Who created the heavens and earth in six days. Likewise, sufficient for me for existence and its perfection is my being the artefact of the One Who adorned and lit up the heavens with lamps, and made dazzling the earth with flowers. Likewise, sufficient for me for pride and honour is my being the creature and totally owned slave and servant of the One in relation to Whose perfection and beauty all the beauties and perfections of the universe are merely dim shadows, and signs of His perfection and indications of His beauty. Likewise, sufficient for me for everything is He Who stores up in tiny containers between the kaf and the nun2 incalculable numbers of bounties, and preserves through His power tons in a single handful of the subtle containers called seeds and grains. Likewise, sufficient for me in place of all possessors of beauty and beneficence is the All-Beauteous and Compassionate One. For all these beautiful creatures are merely ephemeral mirrors for the renewal of the lights of His beauty in the course of the seasons, the centuries, and the ages. And all these recurring bounties and successive fruits of the spring and summer are places of manifestation for the renewal of His continuous bestowal in the passage of creatures, days, and years. Likewise, sufficient for me for life and its true nature is my being a map, index, summary, balance, and measure of the manifestations of the Names of the Creator of life and death. Likewise, sufficient for me for life and its functions is my being a word inscribed with the pen of power, pointing to and making understood the Names of the Absolutely Powerful One, the Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent; by my life receiving the manifestations of my Creator’s essential attributes, and His are the Most Beautiful Names. Likewise, sufficient for me for life and its rights is my displaying it among my brother creatures and proclaiming it to them, and exhibiting in the view of the Creator of the universe my being decked out in the manifestations of My Creator’s Names, Who has adorned me with the bejewelled dress of my being, the gown of my inborn nature, and the necklace of my well-ordered life, which is ornamented with the gifts of His mercy. Likewise, sufficient for me for the rights of my life are my understanding the salutations of living creatures to the Granter of Life and my observation of them, and my testifying to them. Likewise, sufficient for me for the rights of my life is my being adorned and made beautiful with the embossed jewels of His bounties, to present them consciously, because of my belief to the view of the Pre-Eternal Monarch. Likewise, sufficient for me for life and its pleasures is my knowledge, realization, awareness, and belief that I am His slave, artefact, and creature, needy and wanting for Him; and He is my Creator, Compassionate to me, Who nurtures and raises me munificently, graciously, through His bestowal, as befits His wisdom and mercy. Likewise, sufficient for me for life and its value is my being a measure through my absolute impotence, poverty, and weakness to the degrees of the power of the Absolutely Powerful One, the degrees of mercy of the Absolutely Compassionate One, and the levels of strength of the Possessor of Absolute Strength. Likewise, sufficient for me for perfection is my knowledge that my God is Absolutely Perfect, and whatever things there are in the universe which are perfect, they are signs of His perfection and indications of it. Likewise, sufficient for me for perfection in myself is belief in God, because for man, belief is the source of all perfections. Likewise, sufficient for me for all my needs sought through the tongues of my various faculties, is my God, Sustainer, and Creator, the Giver of my form; His are the Most Beautiful Names; He feeds me and gives me to drink; He nurtures, raises, administers, and perfects me; He is limitless in glory, and His favours are comprehensive. FOURTH POINT Sufficient for me for all my wishes is He Who opened up from a fluid through His subtle art, subtle power, wisdom, and His subtle dominicality, my form and that of all my fellow living creatures. Likewise, sufficient for me for all my aims is He Who made me, opened my ears and eyes, included in my body my tongue and my heart, and placed in them and in my other faculties innumerable precise scales to weigh up the contents of the treasuries of His mercy. Similarly, He placed in my tongue, heart, and nature, countless sensitive instruments to gauge the varieties of the treasures of His Names. Likewise, sufficient for me is He Who, through His glorious Godhead, beautiful mercy, grand dominicality, munificent clemency, vast power, and subtle wisdom, included in my insignificant, lowly person and weak and wanting being, all these members and faculties, limbs and systems, senses and feelings, inner faculties and spiritual powers, to allow me to know all the varieties of His bounties and comprehend most of the manifestations of His Names. FIFTH POINT I and all men should declare thankfully and proudly: Sufficient for me is the One Who created me and took me out of the darkness of non-existence, bestowing on me light of being. Likewise, sufficient for me is the One Who bestowed on me the bounty of life, which gives all things to those who possess it and stretches out its hands to all things. Likewise, sufficient for me is the One Who made me a human being and bestowed on me the bounty of humanity, which makes man the microcosm, greater in meaning than the macrocosm. Likewise, sufficient for me is the One Who made me a believer and bestowed on me the bounty of belief, which makes this world and the hereafter two tables laden with bounties, and offers them to the believer with the hand of belief. Likewise, sufficient for me is the One Who made me a member of the community of His Beloved, Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) and bestowed on me love of God and being loved by Him, which are found in belief and are the highest degrees of human perfection; and through this love springing from belief, expanded the extent to which believers could benefit, to the infinite contents of the spheres of contingency and necessity. Likewise, sufficient for me is the One Who, not making me inanimate, or an animal, or leaving me in misguidance, gave me preference with regard to nature, species, religion, and belief, over the majority of creatures; praise and thanks are therefore due to Him alone. Likewise, sufficient for me is the One Who made me a comprehensive place of the manifestations of His Names, and in accordance with the meaning of the Hadith: “The heavens and the earth contained me not; I was contained in the heart of my believing servant,”3 bestowed on me a bounty which the universe could not contain; that is, man’s essential nature is a comprehensive place of manifestation of all the Divine Names manifested in the universe. Likewise, sufficient for me is He Who bought from me the property of His I had in order to preserve it and later return it to me, and give me Paradise as the price. Praise and thanks be to Him to the number of particles of my being multiplied by the number of atoms in existence. Sufficient for me is my Sustainer; May God be exalted! And the Light of Muhammad; God’s blessings be upon him! There is no god but God! Sufficient for me is my Sustainer; May God be exalted! My heart’s inner life is the remembrance of God; The remembrance of Ahmad; God’s blessings be upon him! There is no god but God! FOOTNOTES 1. The original of the Twenty-Ninth Flash is in Arabic. [Tr.] 2. That is, the creative command “Be! (Kun!).” See, Qur’an, 36:82, etc. [Tr.] 3. See, al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa, ii, 195. Link zu diesem Kommentar Auf anderen Seiten teilen Mehr Optionen zum Teilen...
Empfohlene Beiträge