The Epistle on Nature

* A page from The Twenty-Third Flash of the original manuscript of The Flashes

The Epistle on Nature

The Twenty-third Flash

Epistle on Nature

Due to its importance, this epistle, which was [originally] the sixteenth reminder of 'The Seventeenth Flash', has become [a separate epistle called] 'The Twenty-Third Flash'.

This epistle terminates the atheistic thought derived from 'nature' such that it may never again live, and disintegrates the foundation stone of disbelief, turning it upside down.

Notice: In this reminder, just how remote from rationality is the quiddity of the approach adopted by those naturalists who deny the existence of Allāh, and how ugly and superstitious are their ways, is clarified through nine impossibilities comprising at least ninety further impossibilities. Certain steps have been omitted for the sake of conciseness, for these impossibilities have, to a certain extent, been explained in other of the epistles. In which case, a question suddenly springs to mind; how were intelligent philosophers led to accept such obvious, self-evident superstition, and to proceed along its path? Yes; it seems that they have never

truly seen the inner reality of their approach. Yet here the reality of their approach is explained, along with its necessary entailments and concomitants. I am fully prepared to explain and prove in detail to those in doubt, by way of conclusive and self-evident demonstrations, that the essence of their repellent, distasteful, and unintelligible school of thought that has been explicated through each impossibility, is a requisite and necessary entailment of their way. (1)

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّح۪يمِ

قَالَتْ رُسُلُهُمْ اَفِي اللّٰهِ شَكٌ فَاطِرِ السَّمٰوَاتِ وَالْاَرْضِ (2)

This noble verse explains that the existence and unity of God is unequivocal to the degree of being self-evident. This is by virtue of the nature of the rhetorical interrogative; "There is no doubt about Him, nor can there be!" Notice prior to the elucidation of this secret:

Notice: Twelve years ago, in 1338 (that is, 1922), I travelled

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1. The cause of the composition of this epistle is the attack on the Qur’ān made through the spurious undermining of the truths of faith, with manners of the utmost presumptuousness and ultimate ugliness, by calling whatever their corrupted intellects are unable to comprehend "superstition and irrationality" and through grounding disbelief and atheism in "Nature". Now, that attack cast intense wrath into [my] heart, making me to assail these atheists with powerful and vehement blows, as well as the false schools of thought that turn away from the truth. Otherwise, the way of The Book of Light is [as a rule] a delicate, kind and mild, soft manner of speaking.

2. 'Can there be any doubt about Allāh, the Creator of the heavens and the earth?' (Qur’ān: Ibrāhīm, 14:10) 

to Ankara. There I saw that by way of plotting and intrigue, a terrible trend of atheistic thought was striving to infiltrate, poison and corrupt the dominant thinking of the people of faith, who were at that time rejoicing due to the victory of the army of Islam against Greece. I sighed, saying, 'Alas! This viper is going to challenge the fundamental pillars of faith'.

At that time, in [one of] my Arabic epistles, I wrote a proof extracted from the Wise Qur’ān, strong enough to break the head of that atheistic trend, in the writing of which I sought spiritual assistance from the noble verse mentioned above - for it self-evidently explicates the existence and unity of God. I published this epistle at the Yeni Gün Press in Ankara. Yet those with a knowledge of Arabic, and those attaching importance [to the epistle] were at that time few in number; what is more, the powerful proof - exceedingly terse and summarised - was unfortunately unable to have the tangible effect that it should have had. Unfortunately, that atheistic thought spread and grew stronger. Because of all this, I felt forced to expound something of that proof in Turkish. Since some of the elements of the proof have been sufficiently elucidated in certain other of the epistles, it will be presented in a summarised form here. Numerous [other] proofs which are scattered throughout various epistles form a unity with these proofs to some extent, and each one of them constitutes a portion of the present epistle.

Introduction

O mankind! Know with certitude that terrible phrases are being emitted from the mouths of [certain of] the people, [mouths] whence emanates the stench of disbelief and atheism. These [phrases] are being used by the people of true faith without them being aware [of their implications]. We will now explicate three important [examples] of them.

The First: اوجدته الاسباب “Natural causes brought it into existence.” That is, it is natural causes that bring entities into existence.

The Second: تشکل بنفسه “It took on form of its own accord” That is, entities are existentiated and come into existence, and take on their forms of their own accord.

The Third: اقتضته الطبیعه “Nature” entailed it. That is, it is an entirely natural affair, and 'Nature' necessitates it and brings it into existence.

Yet since existent beings [unequivocally] exist, their existences cannot be denied. Moreover, all beings come into existence manifesting surpassing art and wisdom, and they are clearly not beginninglessly eternal, but are brought into existence ex nihilo (out of nothing).

[O atheist!] You can either say that a particular existent - an animal for example - “is brought into existence by the causality of the world”, in the sense that it comes into existence by way of the confluence of causes, or you may say that “it formed itself”. Otherwise, you may say that “it comes

into existence as a necessary entailment of nature” and as a result of its inherent potency; or you may say that it exists through the power of an Almighty Possessor of Majesty.

Since [logically speaking] there are no other routes than these four, it follows that if the first three routes are conclusively proven to be impossible, invalid and beyond the bounds of reason and possibility, the fourth route - that of Divine Unity - becomes necessarily, self-evidently and indubitably established.

The First Route: This is the formation of all things and existence of created beings coming about by way of the confluence of the causes existing within the world. Here I will mention only three of the very many impossibilities entailed by this.

The First Impossibility: In a pharmacy are hundreds of phials filled with multifarious substances. The preparation, from these medicines, of a living electuary was requested, and in order for this to be realised, the composition of a living antidote made up of the original substance was necessary.

We entered the pharmacy, and found a great many examples of the living electuary, and the living medicine. We examined each of the electuaries.

We saw that in order to make it, a particular balance of differing quantities of the chemical substances contained within each of the phials had been taken - one or two grams of this, three or four of that, and six or seven of the other, and so on.

If the weight of a single gram was to be removed from one of them or added to it, that electuary would never become endowed with life and would lose its special attributes. We then examined the living antidote, and we found that in order to make it, a particular balance of substances from each phial had been taken, such that if an amount larger or smaller even to the weight of a particle had been taken away, the antidote would lose its special characteristics.

Although there are more than fifty phials, [we see that] differing particular amounts of substances have been taken [making this living antidote so perfect that] it is as if separately, each amount taken has been precisely measured.

Is there any possibility and likelihood whatsoever then, [in the notion] that by way of the bottles' tumbling down by some strange coincidence, or due to stormy weather striking, that each of the particular amounts of the substances which had been taken from those phials, no more and no less, dripped down and gathered together, thus forming the electuary?

Is there anything more superstitious, impossible, or absurd than that? If a donkey were to become doubly a donkey, and then took on the form of a human being, it would take to its heels at this, saying 'Never will I accept this idea!'

Just as in this example, there is no doubt that every living creature is a living electuary. Every plant resembles a living antidote. Each of them is composed of a large variety of potions and very different types of chemical substances, each taken in very sensitive proportions.

Were this to be attributed to physical constituents and causes and were it to be said “all of this was brought into existence by those natural causes”, it would be as exceedingly far from reason, as impossible and as superstitious as the notion of the electuary in the pharmacy being made purely by way of the rocking about of some bottles.

The upshot: The substances necessary for life that are taken from this supreme pharmacy of the world via the scales of the predestination and determining (al-qaḍā, wa al-qadar) of the Beginninglessly Wise, could only have come into existence through limitless wisdom, endless knowledge, and all-encompassing volition.

Thus the wretched person who claims that “these substances are the creation of blind, deaf, boundless, torrentially fluxing [physical] constituents, natures and causes”, is more imbecilic than someone who chooses to jabber senselessly like a madman.

Such a person is more foolish than a drunkard when he says that this marvellous antidote came to be as a result of the rocking about of some phials and bottles, on its own accord. Yes, disbelief is a form of senseless blathering, in a state of stupidity, drunkenness, and madness.

The Second Impossibility: If things are not ascribed to the Almighty Possessor of Majesty, the One and the Singular, but are rather ascribed to natural causes, it follows logically that each of the very great number of constituents and causes of the world must interfere in the body of every single individual living creature.

This is despite the fact that the confluence of diverse, mutually antagonistic and dissimilar causes within the body of a small creature such as a fly, in perfect order, a surpassingly sensitive balance and complete congruity, is such a manifest impossibility that even someone having only as much consciousness and perception as a fly's wing would say 'this is impossible, it can’t be!”.

Yes; the tiny body of a fly possesses interrelations with most of the fundamental physical elements and causes of the universe - indeed, it is [in itself a kind of] summary of all of them. Were it not to be ascribed to the Beginningless Power, it would logically follow that the physical causes would have to be adjacent to its body - and to be precise, they would have to enter into its tiny body, and indeed enter into each of the cells within its eye, which constitutes a tiny exemplar of its [entire] body.

For if a cause is physical, it logically follows that it must in some form exist adjacent to and within its effect.

From this, it further follows that the fundamentals, constituents and physical natures of the world must assume a material existence within that tiny cell - that is not able even to accommodate the needle-like fingers of two flies- and work there like a master workman. Even the most foolish of the Sophists has too much shame to [take] this kind of route.

The Third Impossibility: If an existent being constitutes a unity, there is no doubt that it has its origin in one being and one hand; this on the authority of the confirmed principle that states اَلْوَاحِدُ لَايَصْدُرُ اِلَّا عَنِ الْوَاحِدِ (1)

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1. “A singular unity (lit. “One”) can only issue from the One.” 

Especially if the existent being in question happens to be harmoniously ordered to exceptional perfection, and is sensitively balanced, and if its mode of life is sophisticated, [this] existent being itself self-evidently shows that it is not the product of many hands - which cause disharmony and chaos - but that it is rather issued from one single hand that is surpassingly Powerful and Wise. If the existent being is ascribed to the chaotic hands of blind and deaf natural causes, limitlessly inanimate, ignorant, invasive, unconscious and confused, the blindness and deafness of these causes increases as they become amalgamated and mingle within the endless routes down which possibilities may go. The ascription of that harmoniously ordered, finely balanced and individual existent being to those causes, then, is as far from being rationally defensible as one's assent to a hundred logical impossibilities.

Let us leave this impossibility aside; there is no doubt that the potency of physical causes only becomes realised by way of direct interaction and contact, whereas the contact that takes place between those natural causes only occurs to the outer-forms of living creatures.

[All the while] however, we see that the inner reality of living creatures, to which the hand of physical causes neither reaches nor touches, displays mastery and wondrous creativity, subtlety and perfection of artistry ten times greater than that of its outer forms.

It is thus not possible that the diminutive amongst living creatures, nor the tiny amongst animals, should be ascribed

to blind, deaf, inanimate, ignorant, brute, coarse, separate, vast and mutually antagonistic causes. Those creatures are absolutely too small to accommodate the hands and apparatuses of physical causes; indeed, their outer forms cannot even be touched by them. Yet the artistry that went into their creation is more remarkable than that of the biggest of creatures, and the particular constitutions of their creations are unique. Only someone himself totally blind and deaf could possibly make this ascription.

The Second Matter: تشکل بنفسه That is, existing beings take on their forms of their own accord. Observe, this phrase also comprises a great number of impossibilities. It is superstitious and impossible in many different ways. We will now explain three impossibilities as examples.

The First Impossibility: O obstinate denier! Your egoism has made you fatuous to the extent that you see it fit to assent to a hundred impossibilities all at once. For you exist; and you are not a simple substance; you are not inanimate, and you are not changeless. Rather, you are a very orderly machine that is constantly being renewed, like a magnificent palace undergoing constant transformations. The particles in your body are active at all times. Your body has interrelationships with the rest of the cosmos, especially in terms of sustenance and in the preservation of its species; and it gives and take and exchanges with them.

The particles active in your body work sensitively and precisely so that they do not harm those relations and do not sever that interrelationship.

Every step that they take, they do so with exceeding caution and alertness. It is as if they look towards all created beings [and observe them]. They see your interrelationships in the cosmos, and accordingly assume a position suited to them. You thus benefit through your inner and outer senses in accordance with the magnificent positioning of those particles.

Should you not accept that the particles existing in your body are tiny officials or an army of the Beginninglessly Almighty working according to His laws, or that they are the nibs of the pen of Divine predestination; that is, that each particle is like the nib of a pen, or that they are the dots inscribed by the pen of Power and that each particle is a dot, it would follow that every particle working in your body would have to have an eye able to see every part of your body, and able to see all of the created beings to which you are connected.

[It would further follow that] an intellect as powerful as one hundred intellects of genius, able to know and recognize your entire past, future, progeny and origin, as well as the sources of your physical constituents and the origins of your sustenance would be have to be attributed [to each particle].

The ascription, then, of the knowledge and awareness of a thousand Platos to one single particle in someone like yourself, who does not possess a particle’s weight of intellect in such matters, surely constitutes a thousand degrees of lunatic superstition and irrationality.

The Second Impossibility: Your body resembles a magnificent palace of a thousand domes; the stones for each dome have been placed such that they support one another, suspended without pillars.

Indeed your body is a thousand times more astonishing than such a palace. For the palace of your body is continually renewed with perfect regularity and order. Every organ in your body - this without even considering the surpassingly marvellous spirit, heart and [the other] subtle spiritual centres - is like a domed house.

For each of its particles support one another in perfect counterbalance and harmony quite in the same way as the stones of that dome [do so], and display a marvellous building, a magnificent piece of art, and wonderful miracle of power, like the eye and the tongue.

If these particles are not in fact officials following the order of the Architect and Creator of this world, each of them must then possess absolute rule over every one of the particles existing in the body, and yet also be unrestrictedly ruled by them at the same time. Similarly, each particle must be identical to all other particles and simultaneously contrast with them in its rulership. Likewise, it must be a source and spring of most of the attributes unique to the Necessary Being. And it must be in a [simultaneous] state of absolute restrictedness and unrestrictedness.

Apart from all this, anyone possessing a particle’s weight of consciousness will be able to perceive, through the secret of unicity, that the ascription of a masterful, wonderful creation

- which cannot have come into existence except by way of the work of the One, the Singular - to a limitless number of particles is manifestly and self-evidently impossible and in fact comprises a hundred impossibilities.

The Third Impossibility: Were your body not in fact written with the pen of the Beginninglessly Almighty, the One, the Singular, but was rather attributed to and printed by 'Nature' and causality, it follows [logically] that Nature's printing blocks would have to exist in quantities of thousands of composite beings ranging from a single cell to concentric circles in your body.

And now, if for example, this book in our hand is authored and “written”, then a single pen, dependent on the knowledge of the writer of the book, writes the entire book.

If it isn't 'written' and is not ascribed to the pen of that writer, and it is [instead] said, “it formed itself”, or it is ascribed to 'Nature', then a metal 'pen' is necessary for every single one of its letters in order for the book to be printed, as is always the case for printed books.

Just as the printing press contains metal versions of all of the letters, through which come into existence the letters existing in the book, it logically follows from this position that rather than only one pen being necessary, there must exist as many 'pens' as there are letters.

Indeed, if as sometimes happens one page is inscribed with a large letter, with a small pen and in a fine script, thousands of pens are necessary [to write] a single letter.

In fact, if the letters were to shape a form in the same way that your body has been [shaped], harmoniously and by superimposing onto one another, then it follows that for each circle and each part [therein], there must be as many printing blocks as there are forms.

Let us suppose you were to say that this case that comprises of a hundred impossibilities was in fact possible. If the creation of those precise and artful metal letters, and those finely crafted printing blocks and pens was also not to be ascribed to a single pen, it again follows logically that in for those pens, printing blocks and metal letters to be made, there must be as many further pens, printing blocks and letters.

These things too are artfully created and they are themselves harmoniously ordered and masterful. In this way does the matter regress infinitely, as far as you care to follow it.

You, too, understand! This is a notion containing as many impossibilities and superstitions as there are particles in your body! O obstinate denier! Have some shame and desist from this delusion!

The Third Phrase: اقتضته الطبیعه That is, nature entails it and nature creates it. There are scores of impossibilities involved in this judgement, of which we [will] mention three that can serve as exemplars.

The First Impossibility: If the insightful and wise artistry and existentiation manifestly evident in most existing

beings, and especially living creatures, is not attributed to the Pen of the predestination and power of the Beginningless Sun, being ascribed rather to blind, deaf and unconscious 'Nature' and forces, it would necessarily follow that 'Nature' must procure the limitless number of immaterial tools and printing presses necessary for the creation of each thing; or moreover, it would have to incorporate sufficient wisdom and power into each of these things, enabling them to create and direct the cosmos.

And for example, the manifestations and reflections of the sun appear upon pieces of glass on the ground, as tiny as particles and droplets of water.

Were those tiny, virtual and reflected suns not to be ascribed to the one sun in the sky, one would be forced to accept the external existence of an ordinary and actual 'sun' within each particle-sized piece of glass - unable even to accommodate the head of a matchstick - possessing the characteristics of the actual sun: apparently tiny but actually extremely huge and profound.

Indeed it entails accepting the existence of as many actual suns as there are particles of glass. Exactly as in this example; if existing beings and living creatures are not directly ascribed to the manifestations of the Names of the Beginningless Sun, it logically follows that one must accept the existence of a natural power within each existent, and especially within living creatures, that has limitless strength and volition, and endless knowledge and wisdom. That is, it would be as if there was a god within [each existent and each living creature].

Yet this line of thinking is the very most severely absurd and superstitious of all impossibilities in this cosmos. The man who ascribes the artistry of the Creator of the Cosmos - that is directed [even] towards the fly - to this imaginary, trivial, unconscious 'Nature', surely reveals that he is an animal one hundred times more animalistic than any other animals, and [one hundred times] less conscious.

The Second Impossibility: If these well-ordered, beautifully balanced, artistic existing beings brimming with wisdom are not ascribed to the One Who is Almighty and Wise and Whose power and wisdom have no limits, but are ascribed rather to ‘Nature’, it would necessarily follow that 'Nature' would have to procure, within every handful of earth, as many machines and printing presses as there are presses and factories in Europe, in order for that handful of earth to be able to constitute the cause of the scent, growth and design of the limitless number of flowers and fruits of which it constitutes the fountainhead and workshop.

For a potency that is able to design and illustrate the greatly differing forms and patterns of all flowers actually is visible [to all]; those flowers, the seeds of which are planted one by one, each into a handful of earth that fulfils the role of vase for the flowers.

If it is not ascribed to the Almighty Possessor of Majesty, immaterial and natural machines would have to exist for every flower within each vase of earth; otherwise the state we have described could not have come to pass.

For the substances of seeds just like sperms and eggs are the same; that is to say, because [every seed] is composed of a combination of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen, which is mixed without order or form and resembles a kind of dough, and moreover, because air, water, heat and light are all simple, unconscious, and in their dealings with all things overflow like torrential streams, the emergence of that limitless number of flowers from the earth - within their multifarious variegated forms and designs, evincing as they do surpassing regularity of order and artistry - necessarily and self-evidently entails that within that bowl of earth exist small-scale immaterial printing-presses and factories as numerous of those of [the whole of] Europe, in order that they be able to weave such a great number of living fabrics, and the thousands of differently embroidered textiles.

Measure thus the extent to which the thought of the naturalists, which constitutes disbelief, has deviated from the domain of logic.

See just how distant these foolish drunks are from logic and science - who are in the form of human beings but assume that “Nature” is the creator - when they claim to be specialists in science and intelligent folk. They have taken as their route an unattainable and ever-impossible superstition. See all this as you laugh and spit!

Should you say: If all existing beings are ascribed to 'Nature', a host of absurd impossibilities such as [those just mentioned] ensue; difficulties that are at the degree of impossibility are entailed by this position.

Yet how are these difficulties eliminated if all beings are ascribed to the One, the Independent and Eternally Besought? How does this impossibility of [the greatest] difficulty thereby turn into a necessity of [the greatest] ease?

The answer: As was mentioned in the first impossibility: the manifestation of the reflections, emanations and effects of the sun appear, with the greatest ease and without burden, upon [each and every transparent, shimmering thing], from the smallest particle-like pieces of glass, to the surface of the greatest sea, such that it is as if they are themselves little virtual suns.

If these [reflections, emanations and effects’] ascription to the sun was to be severed, one would be forced to accept the possibility of the extramental existence of a natural "sun" within each particle, a notion which is of a difficulty that is at the degree of impossibility.

Yet if, as we have just said, these existent beings are to be ascribed directly to the One, the Independent and Eternally Besought, every requirement can be delivered to each and every existent being with an ease of the degree of necessity, by way of affiliation and manifestation.

Yet should this affiliation be severed, and this order-taking and instruction be transformed into total unrestrained liberty and chaos, and each existent being left absolutely on its own and to the control of "Nature", it would logically follow that one would have to presuppose a hundred thousand difficulties and hardships at the degree of impossibility: that blind nature should create the astonishing corporal-machine

of a living creature the like of a fly - a corporal-machine that constitutes a little index of the entire universe - and have the wisdom and power enabling it to create and direct the universe. This, however, is not a notion involving merely a single impossibility, but thousands.

The upshot: Just as the existence of an associate and peer of the Necessary Being is inconceivably impossible and impossibly impossible, equally inconceivably impossible and impossibly impossible is the notion of anything other than Him interfering in His Lordship and existentiation of all things.

As for the difficulties within the second impossibility which have been established within numerous epistles; if they are ascribed to the One, the Singular, [the creation and direction] of all things becomes as easy as [those of] a single thing.

It has been established through numerous and precise proofs that if they are to be ascribed to natural causes and "Nature", [the creation and direction] of a single thing becomes as problematic as the creation of the totality of all things.

What follows is a summary of one of these proofs:

If a man affiliates himself to the king as a soldier or an official, that official and that soldier would, on the strength of that affiliation, be able to accomplish work a hundred thousands times greater than those they would be able to accomplish on their own strengths.

[Such a person] may at times find himself taking another king prisoner in the name of his king. He himself does not bear the apparatuses or power he needs in order to fulfil the tasks that he carries out, nor does he need to carry them. For the treasuries of the king and of the army, which are the towers of strength garnered by that soldier, carry the power and the apparatuses by way of that affiliation.

That is to say that this soldier is able thereby to accomplish a king's remarkable accomplishments, and to fulfil an army's works and activities, just as [mere] ants destroy the palace of Pharaoh on the authority of being officials - and a fly eliminates Nimrod through that affiliation.

Through that affiliation, a pine seed as small as a grain of wheat brings forth all the apparatuses of a vast pine tree. (Footnote) If that affiliation was to be severed, and [the pine seed] to be released from officialdom, it would have to carry its apparatuses and the power necessary to carry out those tasks upon its back and its wrists. Because of this, it would be able to carry out work only as great as the strength in its own

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Footnote: If there is that affiliation, that seed receives a command from the Divine destiny and it is enabled to perform wonderful acts. Yet if that affiliation is cut off, the creation of that seed requires more apparatuses, potency and art than the creation of a massive pine tree. For all of the limbs of the material pine tree, which is the work of power, located on a mountain together with their, apparatuses, need to be present in the bodiless tree, in the seed which is the work of destiny. Because the factory of that massive tree is that seed. The tree [written] within the destiny of the seed [but which has not yet appeared], appears in the realm of the seen world as the effect of power, and becomes a material pine tree.

small wrist, and relative to the number of apparatuses it happens to be carrying upon its back.

Should it be requested of one of them that, in that unaffiliated state, it carry out the same work that it used to quite easily carry out in its original state, it would have to carry a king’s factory of military equipment in its wrist, and upon its back; now, even the jesters who entertain people by telling strange old wives’ tales and fables would be too ashamed to have such a fantasy.

The upshot: In the ascription of each existent to the Necessary Being lies an ease of the degree of necessity. In their being ascribed, with respect to their coming into existence, to 'Nature', lie difficulties of the degree of impossibility, and such a notion is outside of the sphere of reason.

The Third Impossibility: This comprises two similitudes that clarify this impossibility - they have also been explained in certain of the epistles.

The First Similitude: A singularly savage barbarian enters a palace that had been built and set up in a desert wasteland, and perfectly decorated and beautifully furnished in a way that evinces all of the signs of civilisation. He looks and sees thousands of harmoniously ordered, masterful objects within.

He begins to inquire into the identity of its builder, and in his savagery and stupidity, he begins to say “Definitely one of the objects within this palace built the palace and everything within it, without anyone from the outside interfering.”

He does not not look at a single object except that even his savage mind finds it difficult to swallow the idea that it is that particular object that is making all of these objects.

He then sees a notebook, in which the plan for the building of the palace is written, as well as a list of its contents, and its management protocol.

This handless, eyeless and hammerless notebook likewise clearly possesses not the least capability, quite like all of the other objects therein, to build and decorate the palace.

Nonetheless, because he can see that in so far as the notebook constitutes a statement pertaining to theoretical laws and protocols, rather than to the [particular objects in the palace], it must be connected to the palace as a whole, he feels compelled to say 'It is definitely this notebook that built, organised, and decorated this palace, and it made all of these objects and placed them and hanged them in their proper places'; and at this, his state of savagery turned into the irrational raving of idiots and drunkards.

Just as is in this example, a savage man upholding the naturalist position that leads to the denial of Divinity enters the palace of the world, which evinces an immeasurably greater degree of harmonious order and perfection than the palace mentioned in the similitude, and all throughout brims with wisdoms bearing semblance to miracles.

He does not consider the palace of this world to be the work of art of the Essence of the Necessary Being, who is beyond the sphere of merely possible beings, and turns away

from Him. [Instead], within the sphere of merely possible beings he sees [what are in fact] an assemblage of Divine laws and established practices, and an index of the Lord’s artistry, that are tantamount to a tablet of the writing and erasing of Divine predestination, a notebook of the laws of the practices of the Divine Power, and which in grave error are referred to as “Nature”.

He says: “The existence of some sort of cause is necessarily entailed by all of these things, and there does not appear to be anything that is more interrelated [with the rest of the things] than this very notebook itself. Yet the truth is, a sound intellect could absolutely never accept that this scroll - which is sightless, unconscious, and powerless - could ever bring anything into existence, which is the role only of absolute lordship, and requires the presence of endless power. Yet since I do not accept the existence of a Beginninglessly Eternal Creator, then the best thing to say would have to be that this notebook is the one that brought this into existence, and continues to do so.” We too say:

O drunken idiot, who has amongst all idiots come to be even more idiotic than the very most idiotic of all! Extract your head from the quagmire of nature, and look back at the Majestic Artful Maker to Whose existence all existing beings, from the particles to the planets, testify in different languages, and point to with their fingers. See the manifestations of the Beginninglessly Eternal Inscriber, Who built that palace and wrote the palace’s programme in that notebook; look at His kingly commandments, and listen to His Qur’ān, and rid yourself of [your] blatherings!

The Second Similitude: A singularly savage barbarian enters an army’s awe-inspiring military encampment, where he sees the training exercises and orderly maneuvers thatthey undertake together.

He observes that with the movement of a single soldier, a squadron, brigade and battalion stand up, sit down, march; and they fire [their weapons] with a single command of "Fire!" Now, since [this man’s] barbaric, naive, mind does not perceive and indeed rejects [the notion] that a single commander is directing [the maneuvers], in accordance with the state’s system of regulations and the laws of the King, he imagines that the soldiers are tied together with rope, thinking how miraculous that imaginary rope is, and becoming quite astonished.

He then goes on, and one Friday enters a surpassingly [beautiful] and grand mosque like Aya Sofya. He observes that the congregation of Muslims rise, bow, prostrate and sit at the voice of a single man.

Now, since he knows nothing of the Sacred Law – which consists in the aggregate of the spiritual, heavenly laws arising from the commandments of the Lawgiver - he imagines that the people in the congregation are tied together with physical ropes, and that these wondrous ropes are subjugating and moving them. He leaves [the mosque] and goes on his way, thinking inane thoughts that even surpassingly savage wild animals in human form would laugh at.

Now exactly as in this example, a denier, infected with repudiative naturalistic thought that is pure savagery,

entered this world, which is one of the awe-inspiring military encampments for the illimitable soldiers of the King of Beginningless and Endless Eternity; and [entered] this cosmos, which is a harmoniously ordered mosque [of] the Beginninglessly Eternal Worshipped.

Via the assumption that the spiritual laws governing the cosmic systems which arise from the wisdom of that Beginninglessly Eternal King, are physical substances, and via imagining that the perspectival (i‘tibārī) laws of the sultanate of Lordship, and the spiritual provisions and principles of the Supreme Universal Law of the Beginningless Worshipped One - which have only sciential existence - are all material existents and physical substances; if one sets up those laws, arising from knowledge and speech and having only sciential existence, in place of the Divine power, and places existentiation into their hands, and [one] calls this "Nature", and considers a force that is merely a single manifestation of the Lordly power to constitute a power, and [indeed] an independent almighty being, this mode of thought constitutes a savagery a thousand times more degraded than that of the savage in the similitude.

The upshot: Were the thing that naturalists call "nature" - which is a delusion, with no real reality - to possess extramental existence, it could only ever be a work of art; it could never be an artist.

It is itself decoration and could not thus ever have been a Decorator (Naqqāsh). It is a set of rulings, and could never thus be a Judge (Ḥākim) itself. It is itself a universal law, and

could not thus be a Law-giver (Shāri‘). It is itself a created veil of glory, and therefore could never be a Creator (Khāliq). It is a passively affective nature, and could not thus possibly be an Originating (Fāṭir) agent. It is a law, not a power, and could never thus be Almighty (Qādir); and it is a tool for drawing lines never thus be [the] source [of the lines themselves].

The upshot: Existent beings really do exist, and it is not possible to conceive of a route by which the existent comes into existence other than the four that arose by way of the "precise logical classification" (taqsīm ‘aqlī) (1) as mentioned at the beginning of "The Sixteenth Reminder".

Three of the four perspectives have been conclusively invalidated by way of three obvious impossibilities contained within each of them. Doubtlessly, then, the route of Divine

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1. Translator’s Note: One of innumerable terms employed by Imām Nursī from the Islamic intellectual sciences of which he was a great master, the taqsīm ‘aqlī or taksîm-i aklî is a type of logical classification that exhaustively establishes all of the possible members of a class by positing each alongside its contradictory (naqīḍ) or that which is equivalent to its contradictory. For example, "A number is either even or odd", odd being equivalent to the contradictory of "even", i.e. "not-even", because there are only two types of whole numbers; therefore, if a number is not-even, it must be odd. The first logical division Imām Nursī makes on The Nature Epistle is that entities, with respect to themselves, are either brought into existence by natural causes, or they take form of their own accord; the further division is then made regarding the ultimate cause of entities; either they arose because "Nature" entailed their existence, or they arose through the freely-exercised power of Allāh. 

Unity, the fourth route, is necessarily, self-evidently and conclusively proven to be the truth.

For the noble verse mentioned at the beginning of this epistle, اَفِي اللّٰهِ شَكٌّ فَاطِرِ السَّمٰوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ (1) clearly points to the divinity of the Essence of the Necessary Being in a way that leaves no room for doubt - and it reveals that all things issue directly from His Power's hand, and that the heavens and the earth are within the grasp of His free disposal.

O worshipper of causality! O wretched man, stranded in "Nature"!

Since the nature of every being is created, just like all [individual] beings are themselves created - for they each evince artistry and are brought into being out of nothing - and theoutward cause of each existent being is itself artfully created, as is the case with its effect; and since for anything to exist, a very great number of apparatuses and tools are required, there must therefore exist an Absolutely Powerful Being who brings "nature" into existence, and who creates that cause.

Far be it from this Absolutely Powerful Being that He should need impotent intermediaries, such that they partake in His lordship and in His existentiation; rather, He has made causes and nature veils of His hand of power, by creating effects together with causes simultaneously, placing within them a certain arrangement and order and giving them an apparent causal [interrelationship] and simultaneity of association, so that He might reveal the manifestations

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1. Can there be any doubt about Allāh, the Creator of the heavens and the earth? (Qur’ān: Ibrāhīm, 14:10) 

of His Names and His wisdom; [natural causes] would take on the role of the responsible agency for the outward negligence, absence of mercy and shortcomings that appear inthings. Thus does He safeguard His glory.

I wonder which would be easiest? For a watchmaker to make the cog-wheels of a watch, and then to order and arrange them to form the watch? Or to make some miraculous machine within the cog-wheels, and then to leave the making of the watch to its inanimate hands? Is this last notion not beyond the realm of possibility? Now you tell [us], with your unjust and merciless mind. You be the judge!

Or for a scribe to bring pen, paper and ink, and then write out a book with them himself? Would this be easier, or for him to create a writing machine within the paper, the ink and the pen itself more artful and more laborious [to make] than the book itself, and then for him to say to this unfeeling, unconscious machine, "Now, you write!" without himself interfering in any way? Would this not then be a hundred times more difficult than simply writing?

Should you say: Yes, creating a machine to write out a book is indeed a hundred times more complex than the book itself. Yet is there not a certain ease in the way that the machine constitutes a means by which many copies of the same book can be printed?

The answer: By way of His limitless power, the Beginninglessly Eternal Inscriber - in order to reveal the limitless manifestations of His Names within different forms by renewing them at every moment - has created individuating

characteristics and faces within all things such that none of the written messages of the Independent and Eternally Besought One and none of the Lordly books ever exactlyresemble another. Under any circumstances, in order to express different meanings they must each possess a unique face.

If you have eyes, then look at the faces of human beings, and witness the incontrovertible fact that each of their little faces has a distinctive characteristic by which it is distinguished from all other faces that have ever been, from the time of master Adam (ASM), up until now, and indeed for all eternity, alongside the fact that their basic limbs are congruently similar - this phenomenon is an incontrovertible fact.

[Their] faces are, then, each independent books in themselves. Yet they each require particular writing instruments, as well as a special arrangement, a particular manner inwhich their unique designs take form and their creation [takes place] - and they require the existence of a special workshop totally different from all others, wherein the materials that they need can be procured and can be placed in their proper places; in which all things necessary to their existences can be incorporated.

Yet, apart from the tasks of arrangement and printing that belong to the printing press, including the molding of a particular design into printing blocks, the power and volition of the Absolutely Almighty Who created that particular printing press would still be needed for the existentiation of the materials used in the task of arrangement; that is,

[the power and volition of the Absolutely Almighty would still be needed] in order to bring into existence and procure from all over the world the materials existing within the body ofa living creature, the existentiation of which is one hundred times more difficult [than that of the printing press], and [in order to] deliver them into the hands of that printing press in a special balance and order. That is to say, the [alleged] possibility and hypothesis that 'Nature' is like a printing press is thus an utterly meaningless superstition.

Just as was shown through the examples of the watch and the book, the Majestic Artful Maker, and the One Capable of doing all things created causes, and He equally createstheir effects. By His wisdom, He links effects to their causes, and by His volition He determined [and particularised] one of the manifestations of His Divine supreme law of creation which is no other than the law of Allāh’s customary practice in organising the movements of the cosmos. He determined the natures of all things, which are mere mirrors and loci of reflection for that manifestation onto these things. Through His power He brought the outward face of 'Nature' - which received extramental existence - into being. And, upon that nature did He create all things, and then did He intermingle them all, one with the other. I wonder then whether the acceptance of this reality, that is a fruit of eminently logical and limitless proofs, is easier? Is not its acceptance so inevitably necessary? Otherwise, would it be easier to ascribe the limitless number of apparatuses and tools necessary for the bodies of all things to those physical constituents and elements that are referred to as 'cause' and 'Nature', that are

created, designed, inanimate, unconscious, and simple? And do you really contend that matters that are clearly brought to fruition with wisdom and insight in fact do so of theirown accord? Is that not impossible, and beyond the bounds of possibility? I entrust this question to your merciless, unjust intellect. Says the denier and the worshipper of 'Nature':

'Since you are calling to justice, I therefore declare that I acknowledge the route down which we had up until now travelled was a hundred-fold impossible, and deeply harmful, and utterly ugly. Whoever has a particle’s weight of consciousness will understand from the carefully [substantiated conclusions] of your foregoing inquiries that ascribing the bringing of beings into existence to causality and 'Nature' is logically impossible and inconceivably impossible. Ascribing all things directly to the Essence of the Necessary Being is on the other hand singularly necessary and utterly essential. I therefore declare my true faith saying اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ عَلَي الْأ۪يمَانِ (1)

But I have only one doubt: I accept that Allāh (Exalted is He) is the Creator. Yet what would it harm the sultanate of His Lordship if certain particular causes were to join in certain insignificant matters and in the bringing of beings into existence? If certain particular causes were to join in the bringing of beings into existence, and in certain insignificant matters; [what would it matter] if they were to share in something of the credit and praise? Would this really take anything away from His Sultanate?'

The answer: In various of the epistles we have most conclusively established that it is the nature of rulership that it

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1. I praise God for true faith. 

must fend off interference. This is such that even the least ruler or official would never consent to his son's interfering within the domain of his rule.

The fact that certain of even some religious sultans killed their innocent sons simply because they imagined that they might interfere with their rule, and despite their being the caliphs of Islam, shows how fundamental and effective the principle of non-interference is in rulership. The 'principle of the prevention of partnership', that is required by complete independence in rule, has manifested its power throughout the history of mankind by way of the extraordinary disorder and chaos that ensues as the result of the existence of two governors within one town, and to there being two kings in one kingdom.

Look! See how a single shadow of sovereignty and rulership within people who are impotent and in need of collaboration fights off interference so vehemently, preventing any intervention by others, rejecting any partnership in its rule, and striving to preserve its independence in its position in an endlessly bigoted way. Then go ahead and compare, if you can, how much of a necessary requisite and entailment of that rulership it is to reject interference, impede association and expel partners for the Majestic Essence, Who has absolute rulership to the degree of Lordship, absolute superiority to the degree of Divinity, absolute independence tothe degree of singularity, an absolute freedom from need of anything, to the degree of the absolute capability to do all things.

The second portion of your doubt is as follows: If certain causes were to become the object of some of the worship and servanthood (‘ubūdiyyah) of particular beings, why would this diminish the total worship and servanthood of all creatures, from particles to planets, that worship that is directed towards the Essence of the Necessary Being Who is Absolute in His Being, the object of all worship?

The answer: The Wise Creator of this cosmos has created it such that it is like unto a tree, and he has made conscious beings its most perfect fruits; and of conscious beings, it is man who is the most comprehensive fruit. Could that Absolute Ruler and Independent Sovereign, the One, the Singular, Who created the universe in order to endear Himself and make Himself known, yield up man, who is the fruit of the entirety of the universe, into the hands of others;could He yield up into the hands of others the gratitude and worship of man that are his highest fruit and the most important things to Him, and indeed the ultimate yield of His creation, the purpose of His particular creation, and the fruit of His life? Would He make the upshot of His creation and the fruit of the universe futility and completely at odds with His wisdom? No! Far be it from Allāh that He would do such a thing!

And now, would He be content to hand the acts of worship of His creations over into the hands of others, causing His Lordship to be denied? And now, would He ever allow that to happen? And now, would He cause Himself to be forgotten, and cause His creation to deny His exalted purpose for the universe, whilst handing over the beautiful gratitude,

indebtedness, love and servanthood of the most perfect of His creations to causality, despite the fact that through His actions He limitlessly manifests the fact that He is endearing Himself and making Himself known to creation?

O friend, who has renounced the worship of 'Nature'! Now it is for you to speak!

He says: “الحمد لله - al-ḥamdu lillāh (1) - my two doubts have fallen away and beyond that, you have shown me two such strong and bright proofs of the Divine Unity and of His being the One truly worthy of worship, that anyone denying these realities would be as obstinate as a person denying the existence of the sun, and of the day.”

Sa‘īd Nursī

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1. All praise is due to Allāh