In connection with the discussion about the radio in A Key to the Risale-i Nur, one day when travelling by car with two university students, we were listening to a Mevlid on the wireless. I told those two Nurju students:
A proof that the manifestation of divine power is direct and without veil in light, as it is in life and existence, is that the tiny amount of air and nonphysical light in this small machine hears and speaks not only the words of the Mevlid, but also, at the same time, thousands or even millions of words. For it may hear and relate to us all the different words broadcast by thousands of radio stations, the same as it does the words we are hearing now. That is to say, the most particular becomes the most universal. Moreover, that tiny piece of air performs tasks as great as the globe of the air; it grows to the size of the atmosphere. If this is not ascribed to the manifestation of pre-eternal power, it becomes a contradiction so delusory as to surpass all imagination. Since it is precluded for something to be transformed into its
opposite, it would be a hundredfold contradiction and an inconceivable misconception and impossibility for the most particular to become the most universal, its opposite, and the smallest to become the largest, and the most lifeless, ignorant, unconscious, and powerless to become the most capable, most percipient, and most conscious with the strongest will. That is to say, it is self-evidently a manifestation of pre-eternal power. The meaning of the following Hadith depicts fully that manifestation in the globe of the air. It is like this:
There is an angel with forty thousand heads in each of which are forty thousand tongues, and each tongue utters forty thousand glorifications. The angel utters sixty-four trillion glorifications at the same time. That is to say, the globe of the air resembles the angel; "good words" to the number of the angel's glorifications are inscribed on the page of the air. The globe of the air declares: "This Hadith describes me or the angel who is appointed to supervise me, for to utter all the speech of men and all the other sounds, without confusing them although they are all mixed up, with all the sounds, accents, and idioms of all the speakers with their distinctive voices shows that it is in no way possible to ascribe this task, which every single atom of air performs with universal consciousness, to either myself, that is, to the globe of the air, or to any causes. It is, therefore, the manifestation of a pre-eternal power which is all-present and all-seeing everywhere through the manifestation of oneness, and comprises comprehensive will and all-embracing knowledge. And one of the millions of witnesses to this is the radio."
A summary of the comparison in the Thirteenth Word between the wisdom of the Qur'an and the wisdom of philosophy is this:
Humanly inspired philosophy draws the veil of the commonplace over the truly wondrous miracles of mercy and divine power. It neither sees nor shows the evidences of divine unity beneath those commonplace matters and the wondrous bounties they contain. But it sees particular freaks which have deviated from the norm and accords them importance. For example, it does not notice the miracles of power in the creation of the human being and it attaches no importance to them. But it is filled with amazement at a two-headed man or three-legged freak who opposes the natural laws, and holds him up as a spectacle with much ado. It conceals the universal, general miracles within the veils of the laws, and it exhibits for examination particular matters that have deviated from the laws and from their own species. And for example, the followers of human philosophy consider unimportant and ordinary the quite extraordinary and miraculous sustenance of the young of animals and humans, and then create a furore in America, as
was published in the newspapers, when some fishermen saw some creature that had got separated from its species and had sunk to the bottom of the sea, and then wept when it was fed some green leaves and was saved. Whereas there are thousands of miracles of mercy and grace in the sustenance bestowed to the least young from the breasts of its mother like the spring of Kawthar, and in others like this. But human-inspired philosophy does not see them that it might offer thanks and recognize the Most Merciful and Compassionate One and respond to Him with gratitude.
Yes, the wisdom of the Qur'an rends the veil of the commonplace and teaches humankind those universal, general wondrous miracles and extraordinary bounties; it makes known Almighty God and urges men to worship Him and offer universal thanks.
One of the very strangest errors of human philosophy is this: human will and choice are insufficient for speech, the most obvious and least of actions; they cannot create it; they can only emit air and articulate the sounds of the letters. Almighty God creates the words in consequence of that particular act and makes thousands of copies of them in the air. Anyone with a grain of intelligence would understand what a serious error it is to give the name of "human invention" - although man lacks the power to do that much - to wondrous, universal miracles of power which all the causes in existence are powerless to produce.
An example of this is to say about a wretched, absolutely impotent man who due to the discovery, for human advantages, of a divine law which comprises a hundred thousand marvels, that is, the radio, which was dis- covered through divine inspiration as a sort of acceptance for active prayer: "Ah! So-and-so the inventor created the radio and discovered electrical forces. And some other inventors are trying to create a substance for reading the human mind!"
Yes, Almighty God created the universe as a guest house for human beings containing all their needs and requisites; He bestows bounties on them in the form of feasts which have remained concealed down the centuries, as a consequence of their investigations aided by their joint efforts and the meeting of minds, which are a sort of active prayer, While thanks should be offered for these, it is contempt for the bounties and ingratitude to look on them as the inventions of common, powerless men, and cause those wonders, which are the result of a universal consciousness, knowledge, will, mercy, and grace, to be forgotten and to refer them to unconscious chance, nature, and lifeless matter. It is to open the door to absolute ignorance, which is opposed to the essence of humanity, created as it is in the finest of forms. It is imperative, therefore, to look on creatures as signifying
something other than themselves (manâ-yı harfî), in accordance with the lines: «In everything is a sign * Indicating that He is One.» Then human beings may be truly human.
Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise! (Q 2:32)
In His Name, be He glorified!
And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise (Q 17:44)
Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings, for ever and ever!
«And from Him alone do we seek help» (Q 1:5).
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: "The parable of those who take protectors other than God is that of the spider, who builds [to itself] a house; but truly the flimsiest of houses is the spider's house; - if they but knew" (Q 29:41). Recently, when reading this verse, which has the meaning: the frailest house is the spider's; if only those who associate partners with God knew; that is, if only the unbelieving chiefs of the Quraysh knew ... ", I suddenly felt an acute anxiety that the verse's eloquence had not been given its due. At that moment I opened Zülfikar-The Miracles of Muhammad to correct it, and the following lines struck my eye:
"The First Incident: This is well-known to the degree of consensus in meaning (mânevî tevatür) and concerns the two pigeons coming and waiting at the entrance to the cave of Hira, where God's Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) and Abu Bakr the Veracious hid from the pursuing unbelievers, and the spider veiling the entrance with a thick web, like a curtain holder. Ubayy b. Khalaf, one of the leaders of the Quraysh whom God's Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) killed with
his own hand at the Battle of Badr, looked at the cave, When his companions suggested that they enter, he replied: 'Why should we? I see a large spider's web which appears to have been there since before Muhammad was born.'"
I suddenly saw a miracle in the conditional particle "if" (lau) and an elevated flash of miraculousness, which dispelled my anxiety. It was like this:
The Sura of the Spider (al-'Ankabût) was revealed in Mecca. The leaders of the Quraysh had not come to believe in the Prophet (UWBP) and were conspiring to kill him, yet the smallest and weakest of creatures was going to oppose their vicious assaults and defeat them. That is to say, by indicating this, that although the spider's web, its house, is the flimsiest veil, it was going to defeat those powerful chiefs, the verse was saying:
"If they had known they were going to be confounded by the frailest of creatures, they would not have embarked on this conspiracy."
Just as the verse, «This day We shall save you in your body» (Q 10:92) displays an historical miracle with one word, so with the allusion in the words, «if they but knew» (Q 29:41) in the Meccan sura above, it displays a flash of miraculousness by indicating the wondrous divine protection in the incident in the cave at Hira and in the predictive prophetic miracle. I saw that to call this sura The Spider and call attention to its insignificant web was completely apt and conclusively rebuffed any doubts or uncertainty concerning the verse, I offered endless thanks to Almighty God, for I had understood that there were flashes of miraculousness in the Qur'an's suras and verses, and even in its words and phrases, and even in its letters.
In His Name, be He glorified!
Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings, for ever and ever!
My Dear, Loyal, Unshakeable, Steadfast, Devoted Brothers!
Firstly: I congratulate you with my whole life and spirit on the nights praised in the verses, «By the break of day; * By the nights twice five» (Q 89:1-2), and on the festival. And I request your prayers for my severe illness.
With the idea of hindering the shining conquests of the Risale-i Nur, covert enemies of religion are troubling us with arbitrary laws and by utilizing certain officials, and are trying to deter a few of the select Nurjus. In short, during these blessed days, they sent the experts' report about A Guide for Youth to me from Istanbul, which was motivated by irreligion. I am referring it to you to reply to them since I am severely ill from poison.
I am referring it to the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ and its branches to silence the experts' committee concerning the work, which was written twelve years ago, has been the subject of acquittals and amnesties, has been found to contain nothing reprehensible by the five courts of law that have scrutinized it, has been beneficial for ten thousand people, particularly the youth, and caused them no harm, and together with its addenda has been proved in my main defence speech to yield enormous benefits for this country. I refer to those Nurju brothers the duty of demonstrating with evidences that the committee has acted completely illegally in the name of the law, and in the courts has been woefully unjust in the name of justice, and in response to their saying about the Guide that it exploits religion for politics, to show that they have wanted to exploit politics and their judicial duties for irreligion.