In His Name, be He glorified!
And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.
And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.
Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings for ever.
The unsetting sun in the skies of the universe, the Noble Qur'an, spreads the rays its light so as to make read the creational signs of the great book of being, and to disclose their reality. Enlightening man's reason, the Qur'an points out the Straight Path. Through the light of that sun of guidance, all humanity may see and understand the aims, purposes, and desires in their creation. Relatively to the capacity of their hearts, those who receive the manifestation of its guidance reflect its light and gain proximity to it. The true nature of things and of life become apparent through that light; only through that light may they be seen and understood. Representing the lights of guidance of the Pre-Eternal Sun, the Qur'an makes truth and reality visible to the eyes of the heart and mind. Those who do not approach its light remain in darkness, for it is through light that everything is seen, known, and understood. In the present age, the collective personality of the Risale-i Nur, whose name is light (nur), has received the manifestation of the Qur'an's light, the eternal sun of this truth.
Like a search-light, the Risale-i Nur directs those who like bats do not want to emerge from the darkness, and slumbering in heedlessness turn their day into night and understand no further than they see, towards the truths of belief; it points out the straight path to all who are not completely blind. It strikes its club of light on the heads of the disbelievers saying: "Either throw away your reasoning faculties and become animals, or use your heads and become true human beings!"
Since knowledge is light, we shall indicate briefly one or two evidences that the Risale-i Nur contains profound knowledge:
Firstly: We should recall that since the Risale-i Nur recognized no master other than the Qur'an and it serves none other than the Qur'an, its acceptability goes without saying. Only, in order to inform scholars of the Risale-i Nur's worth, I say this:
The Risale-i Nur proves and elucidates most convincingly and accessibly so that everyone from the simplest ordinary people to the most learned elite can understand them, obscure matters that previously no scholars of religion had been able to prove with complete clarity. Such a characteristic is to be found in virtually no other work.
Secondly is its demonstrating in all matters that it is a commentary on some of the Qur'an's verses, and flashes of its light.
Thirdly is its answering in scholarly fashion with certain proofs and arguments the deepest needs of human beings; for example, its proving God's existence, the life of the hereafter, and the other pillars of belief, and interpreting the testimony of minute particles, which they utter through the tongue of disposition. Ibn Sina, Farabi, and Ibn Rushd, the most eminent Islamic philosophers, demonstrated the evidence all beings offer in these matters, but the Risale-i Nur proves these truths through the tongues of minute particles and seeds of plants. If the philosophers had been shown the scholarly power of the Risale-i Nur, doubtless they would have humbly accepted it as their teacher.
Fourthly is its teaching in a short time in the form of compressed extracts knowledge that normally can be acquired only in years of study.
Fifthly is its being a means of winning divine pleasure, the chief aim of knowledge, and in no way exploiting that knowledge for worldly aims, its representing the highest duty, that of serving humanity.
Sixthly Being the fruit of powerful, sacred thought on questions of belief, the Risale-i Nur interprets the language of all creatures, uttered through the tongues of their beings. Similarly, it discloses the truths of belief to the degrees of 'knowledge of certainty,' 'vision of certainty,' and 'absolute certainty.'
Seventhly is in respect of their principles, the Risale-i Nur's comprising all the sciences. It is like a tapestry woven from threads of knowledge. It is a collection of succinct sayings, never before expressed by any scholar, which demonstrate its knowledge of all the sciences. Here, we offer a few by way of example, and recommend those who wish to gain a better idea of what the Risale-i Nur consists of as a whole, to refer to that ocean of knowledge.
1. Whoever created a mosquito's eye, created the sun.
2. Whoever ordered the butterfly's digestive system, arranged the solar system.
3. Power sufficient to create the whole universe is necessary to create a single particle. For every letter of the mighty book of the universe, especially its living letters, has a face and an eye that look to all the sentences.
4. Nature is a printing-press, it is not the printer. It is an embroidery, not the embroiderer. It is a pattern, not the source. It is an orderly system, not the orderer. It is a law, and has no power. It is a code of laws proceeding from will, and has no external reality.
5. Like fixed, permanent natural laws, spirit comes from the world of the divine command and attribute of will. Power clothed it in a being decked out with senses, and made a subtle inner faculty the shell to that pearl.
The Risale-i Nur contains thousands of succinct sayings like these.
The Eternal One, He is the Eternal One,
Mustafa Hilmi, a university Nur student
Mustafa Hilmi, a university Nur student
The Staff of Moses