The Mountains and Deserts

فِيهَا بِشَهَادَةِ عَظَمَةِ إِحَاطَةِ حَقِيقَةِ التَّسْخِيرِ

وَالمُحَافَظَةِ وَالاِدِّخَارِ وَالإِدَارَةِ الوَاسِعَةِ المُنْتَظمَةِ بِالمُشَاهَدَةِ

There is no god but Allāh, the Necessary Being. All of the seas

and rivers, along with all that is in them, demonstrate the

necessity of His unitary existence by the testimony of the sublimity

of the all-encompassing realities of subjugation, protection,

conservation, and direction, that are witnessed as being vast, and

harmoniously ordered.

Engrossed in his contemplative journey, the mountains and deserts then called out to this traveller. ‘Read our pages too!’ they said. So he looked, and saw that the universal duties and general services of the mountains are sublime and sapient to a degree that startles the intellect. For example, through a Divine command, the mountains appear out of the earth, and they quell, through their appearance, the earth’s impulsiveness, anger and rage, that all arise from internal convulsions deep inside the earth. By way of the eruption of the mountains, and through their openings, the earth breaths. Thereby it frees itself of harmful juddering and earthquakes, and avoids disturbing the comfort of its inhabitants in the course of its duty of rotation.

Just as the masts of ships are put up in order to prevent turbulence and to preserve their balance, so too are the mountains pegs in the same way, containing treasuries for this ship of the earth - this is announced

in the Qur’ān of Miraculous Exposition (Al-Qur’ānu’l-Mu‘jizu’l-Bayān) in a number of verses, such as

وَالجِبَالَ أَوْتَادًا (a)   وَأَلْقَيْنَا فِيهَا رَوَاسِيَ (b)   وَالجِبَالَ أَرْسَاهَا (c)

And for example - all of the things that are present in the heart of mountains, such as types of springs, water, minerals, materials and medicines that are necessities for living creatures, have been wisely, providentially, generously and prudently conserved and set down. The traveller understood that this self-evidently proves that they are treasure-houses and repositories, and servants of the Almighty (Al-Qadīr) to whose power there is no end and the Wise (Al-Ḥakīm), to whose wisdom there is no end.

He infers, based on these immense two core functions and wisdoms of the mountains and the desert, further of their functions and wisdoms. He sees the mountains and the deserts testifying to every one of their wisdoms, and especially their prudent conservation. He hears too what the strength and stability of the mountains, and the vast extent of the deserts assert about the Divine unity of لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ هُو ‘there is no god but Him’ - and he says آمنت بالله Āmantu billāh - I believe in Allāh. In order to express this meaning, the following was mentioned, in ‘The Fifth Level’ of ‘The First Station’:

لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللهُ الوَاجِبُ الوُجُودِ الَّذِي دَلَّ عَلَى وُجُوبِ وُجُودِهِ جَمِيعُ الجِبَالِ

وَالصَّحَارَى بِجَمِيعِ مَا فِيهَا وَمَا عَلَيْهَا بِشَهَادَةِ عَظَمَةِ إِحَاطَةِ حَقِيقَةِ الاِدِّخَارِ

وَالإِدَارَةِ وَنَشْرِ البُذُورِ وَالمُحَافَظَةِ وَالتَّدابِيرِ الاِحْتِيَاطِيَّةِ الوَاسِعَةِ العَامَّةِ المُنْتَظِمَةِ المُكَمَّلَةِ بِالمُشَاهَدَةِ

_____

a [Did we not make] the mountains pegs? (Qur’ān: an-Naba, 78:7)

b We have set firm mountains on it. (Qur’ān: al-Hijr, 15:19)

c [He made] the mountains firm. (Qur’ān: an-Nāzi‘āt, 79:32)