The Tenth Issue

The Tenth Issue

of The Fruit Epistle

A Flower of Emirdagh (45)

An immensely powerful response to the objections

raised against repetition within the Qur’ān.

My ‘azīz (honourable) and ṣiddīq (trustworthy) brothers!

Despite this issue having been confused and obscured by my pitiful situation, I came to know with certainty that behind these confused expressions lay a type of extremely precious miraculousness. I was unfortunately unable to express it [adequately]; yet however much it is true that its mode of expression is unclear, (46) it nonetheless constitutes a form of contemplative worship and the shell of a sacred, lofty, shining jewel for it is the property of the Qur’ān.

Look then to the diamonds in its hands, and look not to its torn apart clothing. If you see it befitting, make it The Tenth Issue and otherwise, consider it a letter in response to your letters of congratulation.

I was forced by circumstance to write it in extremely summarised and abridged form over the course of one or two days

_____

45. Emirdağ (Emirdagh) is a small town of city of Afyon in the western region of Anatolia bordering central Anatolia.

46. Literal: dim 

in Ramaḍān while I was in a state of severe illness, misery and without food. Within single sentences I have included many truths and numerous proofs. I thus hope that you will accept my apology and overlook its shortcomings. (Footnote)

It is a small but luminous flower of Emirdagh and of this blessed month of Ramaḍān. It is The Tenth Issue of The Fruit of Denizli Prison. It is a small but luminous flower of Emirdag, and it is the ‘Tenth Issue’ of the ‘Fruit’ of Denizli Prison for this blessed month of Ramaḍān. This does away, in its elucidation of one the wisdoms underlying the repetitions in the Qur’ān, with the putrefying, poisonous delusions of the people of misguidance (ahlu’ḍ-ḍalālah).

The Tenth Issue

My ‘azīz (honourable) and ṣiddīq (trustworthy) brothers!

When I was reading the Qur’ān of Miraculous Exposition (Al-Qur’ānu’lMu‘jizu’l-Bayān) this Noble Ramaḍān, every time I came across one of the thirty-three verses the allusions to The Book of Light of which have been elucidated in The First Ray, I would [carefully scrutinise them and] see that the page, paper and story in which those verses are contained to a certain degree also looks - in terms of the impact of the moral lesson of those stories - to The Book of Light and its students.

___

Footnote: You can edit. You may divide a long sentence into a few sentences. This will ease comprehensibility. 

This is especially so in The Verse of Light (Āyatu’n-Nūr) (47) in the sūrah of Light (Sūratu’n-Nūr), which points with ten fingers to The Book of Light (The Risāle-i Nūr), whereas the verses of darknesses after it most surely refer to its opponents and apportion [them] a greater share. It is quite as if that station casts off particularity and acquires universality. And I felt then that in this age, the perfect individuation of that universality is The Book of Light and its students.

Yes, the Qur’ānic address manifests such lofty, miraculous inimitability and comprehensiveness first in terms of the vastness, loftiness and scope that it acquires from the immense station of universal lordship (rubūbiyah) of the Beginninglessly Eternal Speaker (Mutakallim Azalī); and then from the vast station of the addressee, in the name of mankind and indeed the whole universe; and from the immensely vast station of the guidance it has given to all the sons of Ādam across all of the ages; and from the station of the immensely elevated, all-embracing pronouncements of the Divine laws connected to the administration of both this world and the next, the earth and the heavens, beginningless and endless eternity, the lordship of the Creator of the universe and all creatures.

This is such that even a merely outer and simple degree of its address, even such of its degrees as are intended to caress the simple understanding of the layman, the most numerous of the addressees of the Qur’ān’s lesson, also fully delivers the most advanced stratum of addressees their share.

_____

47. The Verse of Light:

اللَّهُ نُورُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۚ مَثَلُ نُورِهِ كَمِشْكَاةٍ فِيهَا مِصْبَاحٌ ۖ الْمِصْبَاحُ فِي زُجَاجَةٍ ۖ

الزُّجَاجَةُ كَأَنَّهَا كَوْكَبٌ دُرِّيٌّ يُوقَدُ مِن شَجَرَةٍ مُّبَارَكَةٍ زَيْتُونَةٍ لَّا شَرْقِيَّةٍ وَلَا

غَرْبِيَّةٍ يَكَادُ زَيْتُهَا يُضِيءُ وَلَوْ لَمْ تَمْسَسْهُ نَارٌ ۚ نُّورٌ عَلَىٰ نُورٍ ۗ يَهْدِي اللَّهُ لِنُورِهِ مَن

يَشَاءُ ۚ وَيَضْرِبُ اللَّهُ الْأَمْثَالَ لِلنَّاسِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ

Allāh is the Light of the heavens and earth. His Light is like this: there is a niche, and in it a lamp, the lamp inside a glass, a glass like a glittering star, fuelled from a blessed olive tree from neither east nor west, whose oil almost gives light even when no fire touches it- light upon light- Allāh guides whoever He will to his Light; Allāh draws such comparisons for people; Allāh has full knowledge of everything.

(Qur’ān: an-Nūr, 24:35)

It does not transmit a share of a mere story or of a moral lesson from a historical narration rather [it is as if] it descends freshly addressing every strata of mankind in every age as individuals of a universal law. This becomes most especially manifest in its many repetitions of the rebuke الظالمين * الظالمين ‘the oppressors, the oppressors’, and which threatens in its forceful proclamations of both the heavenly and terrestrial tribulations that constitute the punishment for their oppression. Through mentioning the [heavenly] punishment that descended upon the peoples of ‘Ād, Thamūd and Pharoah, it draws attention to oppressions that are without parallel in our times, and gives solace, [in its mention of] the deliverance of prophets like Ibrāhīm and Mūsā (‘alayhimassalām), to the oppressed people of faith.

Yes, the Qur’ān of Miraculous Exposition (Al-Qur’ānu’l-Mu‘jizu’l-Bayān) presents, like the screen of a theatre, the entirety of past time, and the deceased centuries and ages that are from the perspective of heedlessness and misguidance like a gloomy, frightening world of nothingness and a painful, lifeless graveyard. To all ages and strata it presents it like a living page of moral lessons, a strange and wonderful world from end to end inspirited and enlivened and an existing, Lordly kingdom that has a real connection to us. In this way does it transmit sublimely its lesson to us, on occasion taking us to those times and on other occasions, taking them to us.

This Qur’ān of Miraculous Exposition presents, with its own miraculous inimitability, this universe, which from the perspective of misguidance is inanimate, dead and wretched, 

and a place of limitless loneliness and horror reeling in separation and evanescence, as a book of the Independent and Eternally Besought, a city of Divine mercy, and an exhibition of Lordly works of art. It gives life to those inanimate beings, and makes them so that they are life officials that converse with one another and strive to come to the aid of one another.

[In this way], it instructs men, jinn and angels in lessons of true, luminous, pleasurable lessons of wisdom. There is no doubt that this Sublimely Glorious Qur’ān (Al-Qur’ānu’l-‘Aẓīmu’sh-Sha'n) has holy properties, such as the fact of the reading of a single of its letters counting as ten good deeds, and at times a thousand or many thousands of good deeds; and like the fact of all of the jinn and mankind together being unable to compose the like of it; and the way in which it addresses all of mankind and the entire universe in a way befitting each addressee; and the way it is sweetly inscribed onto the hearts of millions of those ḥuffāz who memorise it in every time; and the fact of its causing neither weariness nor boredom despite its being much recited and despite its many repetitions, and its remaining firm in the tender, simple minds of young children, despite its containing multifarious phrases and sentences that could be easily mixed up; the way in which it caresses the ears of the sick so sweetly as if it were zam-zam water, and of those who feel pain hearing even a few words and of those in the stupor of death - it possesses all of these sacred properties, and it secures for its students the happiness of the two realms. 

It manifests a natural fluency of style allowing no room for any artificiality, affectation or ostentation and its having come directly from the heavens by the secret of its fully taking into consideration the untaught station of its interpreter.

It instructs in the miracles of its artful power and the meaningful lines of its wisdom underlying these commonplace matters by the secret of the wisdom of its kind indulging of simple understandings of the layman, who constitute the majority, through the lowering its speech to the level of them. Most of the time, it does this simply by unfolding and revealing the most self-evident and apparent pages the like of the heavens and the earth. By doing all this, it reveals a most elegantly subtle miraculous inimitability (i‘jāz) in its kind guidance.

It reveals moreover, a type of miraculous inimitability in its enabling diverse strata of addressees to understand a great number of multifarious meanings in a single sentence and within a single story, by means of its comely, sweet repetitions, by the secret of the tidings that it is a book of supplication, of calling to the truth, of Divine remembrance, and of Divine unity - this is such that repetition becomes a requisite; and its taking into consideration even the most minor incident involving a companion during the foundation of Islām and the development of the legislation of the Sacred Law - by the secret of the tidings that all things, even the most simple and trifling of things, in particular, commonplace events - are under the gaze of His mercy, and within the sphere of His directions and volition - this reveals [the Qur’ān’s] miraculous inimitability with regard to the existence of 

universal laws within [those minor events], and the fact of those particular events bearing fruits of momentous importance - quite as if they were a seed - in the foundation of Islām and the universal, all-embracing Sacred Law.

Yes, repeated need entails repetition. This [repetition in the Qur’ān] instructed numerous and diverse strata in lessons as answers to the very many questions that continued to be repeated over the course of twenty years. These verses are equivalent to thousands of conclusions, and certain verses, that constitute the conclusions of limitless proofs, in the making of a foundation of a limitless and endless number of sublime, awe-inspiring and vast revolutions, that will destroy the vast universe and transform its appearance on the Day of Resurrection, and will remove this world and place the sublime hereafter in its place; that will affirm that all particulars and universals from particles to stars, are in the Hand of One [Who is One and Singular] and are subjected to His free disposal; that will show the Divine anger and the Lordly wrath - [that is] for the outcome of the creation of the universe’s sake - faced with man’s wrongdoing and oppression that angers the very universe, the heavens, the earth and the elements.

The repetition of particular sentences and certain verses is no shortcoming. Rather, it constitutes miraculous inimitability of singular power and rhetoric of superlative sublimity, and purity of style and eloquence that are very much relevant and harmonious with the requirement of the circumstances. 

So for example: The phrase, بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ (Bismillāhirrahmānirrahīm) that is repeated one hundred and fourteen times despite being only a single verse, in truth connects the Throne (‘Arsh) to the earth and illuminates the universe, and all people are in need of it at each moment as has been elucidated in The Fourteenth Flash of The Book of Light, such that were it to be repeated millions of times, the need for it would never be extinguished. Let alone being in need of it daily like bread, there is [always] a need and yearning for it in each moment like that of air and light.

And for example: The repetition of the verse إِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَهُوَ العَزِيزُ الرَّحِيمُ (a) eight times in Sūratu Tā Sīn Mīm [that is, Sūratu’sh-Shu‘arā'], that contains [mention] of the deliverance of the prophets and the punishment of their peoples, the stories of which are mentioned for the sake of the outcome of the creation of the universe and in the name of universal lordship; and were this verse to be repeated - which is equivalent to thousands of spiritual realities - thousands of times in order to instruct in the fact that the lordly might of the Divine entails the punishment of those oppressive peoples, and that the Divine mercy entails the deliverance of the prophets, the need and yearning for it to be repeated would never come to an end.

Nay, its repetition constitutes elevated rhetoric (balāgha) comprising both succinctness (ījāz) and miraculous inimitability (i‘jāz). And for example: The verse فَبِأَيِّ آلاَءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ (b) in Sūratu’r-Raḥmān,

_____

a Surely is your Lord the Mighty, the Compassionate (Qur’ān: ash-Shu‘arā', 26:9)

b O which of your Lord's bounties will you then deny? (Qur’ān: ar-Raḥmān, 55:13) 

and the verse وَيْلٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ لِلْمُكَذِّبِينَ (a) in Sūratu’l-Mursalāt, these two verses which proclaim to the ages, earth and heavens in a threatening fashion that the disbelief of mankind and the jinn species, and their ingratitude to every bounty [they have been given], and their tyranny and violating the rights of all creatures with [behaviour] that enrages the very universe itself, and angers the heavens and the earth, and impairs the outcomes of the creation of the universe, and that meets the sublimity of the Divine kingdom with denial and disdain; were these verses to be repeated thousands of times in the like of this universal lesson which is equivalent to thousands of topics, and related to thousands of spiritual realities, the need for it to be repeated would never be extinguished, for it is majestic succinctness and beautiful miraculous inimitability of rhetoric.

And for example: The sentence سُبْحَانَكَ يَا لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ اَلْأمَانُ اَلْأمَانُ خَلِّصْنَا وَأَجِرْنَا وَنَجِّنَا مِنَ النَّارِ (b) is repeated one hundred times in the prophetic supplication known as, ‘al-Jawshanu’l-Kabīr’ which is a type of real and complete supplication of the Qur’ān, that flows out from the Qur’ān and is a type of Qur’ānic quintessence.

Were this sentence to be repeated thousands of times, it would be yet again insufficient because within its repetition, there exists the like of the most sublime spiritual reality in the universe, that of Divine unity (tawhīd), and the most important of creatures’ momentous three duties,

_____

a Woe, on that Day, to those who denied the truth! (Qur’ān: al-Mursalāt, 77:15)

b Glory be to You, there is no god but You, safety! safety! - deliver and protect us from the fire.

the likes of glorification (tasbīḥ), praise (taḥmīd) and hallowing of the Divine (taqdīs), and the most terrifying matter facing human beings, namely being delivered from deprivation of eternal happiness, and the most compelling outcome of worship and powerlessness of human beings.

The repetitions in the Qur’ān thus go back to principles like these; indeed, at times [the Qur’ān] expresses the reality of Divine unity both explicitly and implicitly twenty times in a single page due to the exigency of the context, what is required [in that particular context], the need for explanation, and clarity of rhetoric. This does not bring on weariness, but it instead gives strength, and engenders yearning.

The fact that the repetitions in the Qur’ān are very much in their place, appropriate and rhetorically pleasing has been elucidated in The Book of Light along with [attendant] proofs.

[The secret of Meccan and Medinan surahs being different in terms of rhetoric]

The secret and wisdom underlying the divergence between the Meccan and the Medinan surahs in the Qur’ān of Miraculous Exposition in terms of rhetoric, from the perspective of miraculous inimitability and with respect to detail and brevity is the following:

The front line of the addressees and opponents of the Qur’ān in Mecca were the polytheists and unlettered people of Quraysh; this state of affairs necessitated, with regard to [to the form of] rhetoric [that the Qur’ān would employ], a powerful, lofty style, a succinct, persuasive, cogent conciseness that would engender serenity, and repetition to ensure [its content would become] well-established. This is why most of the Meccan surahs repeat the fundamental articles of faith and the degrees of Divine unity, and articulate them 

again and again with a tremendously powerful, elevated and miraculous succinctness, and very forcefully establish the all-important matters, beginning, the place to return, Allāh and the hereafter not only in a single page, indeed in a verse and sentence and word, and indeed at times in a single letter, and in positions like bringing forward and deferment, definition, indeterminacy, omission and mention, in a way that has astonished the genius imāms of rhetoric.

The Book of Light - particularly The Twenty-fifth Word, along with its appendices, which in encapsulated form proved forty facets of the miraculous inimitability of the Qur’ān true, and the exegesis, an epistle composed in Arabic, ‘Signs of Miraculous Inimitability’ (Ishārātu’l-I‘jāz), which marvellously proved facets of that inimitability in the verses of the Qur’ān - have already revealed the fact that the Meccan surahs and verses contain the most elevated rhetorical styles, and the most sublime succinct inimitability.

The frontline of the addressees and opponents of the Qur’ān in the case of the Medinan surahs and verses, on the other hand, were the People of the Book, both Jews and Christians - who already believed in Allāh. The circumstances did not thus require that the foundational principles of the sublime religion and the fundamental articles of faith be set out to the People of the Book, but rather that the exposition of the branches of the Sacred Law and the rulings that constituted the basis of the differences [between Muslims and the People of the Book], and the exposition of the particulars that constituted the starting point and causes of universal laws were [revealed by the Qur’ān] in a fluent,

clear and detailed style in accordance with [the principles of] rhetoric and guidance, and in a way that matched the context and circumstances.

This is why in its Medinan surahs and verses and within a particular event [related to] the branches [of Sacred Law], using a peerless mode of exposition special to the Qur’ān and usually within [a discussion] of particulars, a clarification and a simple elucidation in a most clear style, the Qur’ān will suddenly mention a powerful and elevated encapsulation, conclusion and proof, and a sentence [expressing] Divine unity, faith and the hereafter that transforms that particular event relating to Sacred Law into a universal, and that implies one’s submitting to it out of faith in Allāh. Thus does it illuminate that context and make it both lofty and sublime.

The Book of Light has elucidated just how high an eloquence, fluency of style, and fine virtues and subtle points are contained in [the Qur’ān’s] encapsulations and conclusions that express Divine unity and the hereafter and are mostly mentioned at the ends of the verses, the like of:

إِنَّ اللهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ (Surely Allāh has power over all things)

and إِنَّ اللهَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ (Surely Allāh has knowledge of all things)

and وَهُوَ العَزِيزُ الحَكِيمُ (And He is the Mighty, the Wise)

and وَهُوَ العَزِيزُ الرَّحِيمُ (And He is the Mighty, the Compassionate)

and it has proven even to the obstinate that those quintessences contain a supreme miracle in its expounding ten of the subtle points and virtues of 

those encapsulations and conclusions in, The Second Light of The Second Flame of The Twenty-fifth Word.

Yes, the Qur’ān lifts the gaze of its addressee all of a sudden to high and universal points within its exposition of those ancillary branches of Sacred Law and laws governing social life, and it transforms a plain style into a style that is lofty, and it turns the attention of the addressee from a lesson in Sacred Law to a lesson in Divine unity, thus making clear the fact that it is a book of Sacred Law, of [holy] rulings, and of wisdom, as well as a book of creed, faith, Divine remembrance, contemplation, supplication and calling to the truth. In every type of subject matter (maqām) [that it contains], it instructs in a great number of the fundamental bases (maqāṣid) of Qur’ānic guidance, thereby manifesting a dazzling, miraculous fluency of style that differs from the style of rhetoric to be found in the Meccan verses.

For example: Sometimes in two phrases the likes of رَبُّ الْعَالَمِينَ (the Lord of the worlds) and رَبُّكَ your Lord: for by means of the phrase رَبُّكَ your Lord, [the Qur’ān] expounds singularity, and by means of رَبُّ الْعَالَمِينَ the Lord of the worlds, it expounds unity; and it moreover articulates unity (wāḥidiyyah) within singularity (aḥadiyyah).

This is such that just as it sees a single particle in the pupil of the eye, incorporating it and fixing it therein in one sentence, it will even incorporate the sun into the pupil of the sky with the same verse and with the same hammer; and it fashions the sun into “an eye” for the sky, and says, for example,

 وَهُوَ عَلِيمٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ (a) after the verse يُولِجُ اللَّيْلَ فِي النَّهَارِ وَيُولِجُ النَّهَارَ فِي اللَّيْلِ (b), and after the verse خَلَقَ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالأَرْضَ . (c)

Now this unrefined, simple and particular discussion that takes into consideration the degree of the unlettered and the understanding of laymen, becomes transformed into soaring magnetism, and a guidance and communication that are universal in style and exposition, such that it is as if it is saying, ‘He knows even the thoughts that occur to the [human] heart, within the immensity of the creation of the earth and heavens, and He directs them and [turns them about.]

A question: One might imagine that there is some sort of shortcoming in the Qur’ān in its occasionally not revealing an important truth to superficial eyes, and because of the ignorance [of some people] of the relevance of the mention of a tremendously lofty encapsulation of Divine unity or a universal law to a commonplace, particular event, [as occurs] in some places [in the Qur’ān].

For example, in the eyes of rhetoric there doesn’t appear to be a relevance in mentioning a principle of singular sublimity وَفَوْقَ كُلِّ ذِي عِلْمٍ عَلِيمٌ (d) in connection with Prophet Yūsuf’s taking his brother by means of subterfuge? So what is the secret and wisdom underlying this?

_____

a He knows the thoughts in the breasts. (Qur’ān: Ḥadīd, 57:6)

b He makes the night to enter into the day and makes the day to enter into the night. (Qur’ān: Ḥadīd, 57:6)

c He created the heavens and the earth. (Qur’ān: al-An‘am, 6:1)

d Over every man of knowledge is One who knows (Qur’ān: Yūsuf, 2:285) 

The answer: The nature of the Qur’ān is that in the majority of its long and medium length surahs, the each of which is a little Qur’ān in itself, and in many of its pages and treatments (maqāmāt) does not comprise only two or three objectives, but indeed comprises numerous books: a book of Divine remembrance, of faith and contemplation, and a book of sacred law and wisdom and spiritual guidance, as well as diverse lessons.

Now the Qur’ān, which constitutes a way of reading the Great Book of the Universe in terms of the Lordship of Divinity’s encompassing all things, and in terms of the articulation of the sublimity of its manifestations, and because it instructs in knowledge of Allāh (ma‘rifatullāh), the degrees of Divine unity and the spiritual realities of faith, taking care within each of its treatments and indeed at times within a single page a very great number of objectives, there is no doubt thus that it encompasses in a single of its treatments another new lesson, though it may, for example, be apparently of weak relevance, it is in fact the case that other matters that are very strongly relevant are connected to this [apparently] weak relevance, and are therefore also relevant and harmonious with that [original] context - and it thus attains a higher degree of eloquence.



Another question: What is the wisdom underlying the hereafter, Divine unity, and the reward and punishment of mankind being established explicitly, implicitly and by way of allusion thousands of times in the Qur’ān, and attention being [continually] turned towards it, and its [reality] being taught in every surah, every page and every context? 

The answer: With regard to the teaching of the most important questions and the eradication of illimitable [possible] doubts, the shattering of the tremendously intense denial and obstinacy existing in the sphere of contingency, and in terms of the revolutions connected to that which transpires in the universe, and with respect to the greatest, most momentous, most awe-inspiring events relating to the vocation of man, who carries the supreme trust and the guardianship of the earth on his shoulders, that vocation that constitutes the pivot of both eternal wretchedness and eternal bliss - it would indubitably not be wasted space for the Qur’ān to turn attention to them - to those themes - thousands, nay, millions of times, in order to cause man to assent [to the reality] of those astonishing revolutions, and to submit [to the truth] of the momentous realities, and those that are the most pressing for man in the immensity of those revolutions; for those themes are recited in the Qur’ān again and again millions of times, but this does not cause weariness, nor boredom, nor does it extinguish the need for [their mention].

For example: The reality of the glad tidings of eternal bliss that is manifested by the verse إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ (a) and خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَداً (b)

Were this verse, that says, ‘the reality of death, which shows itself to a helpless mankind at all times, [in actual fact]

_____

a Those who believe and do righteous deeds, surely for them await gardens underneath which rivers flow (Qur’ān: al-Burūj, 85:11)

b therein dwelling forever and ever (Qur’ān: an-Nisā', 4:57)

saves man and saves his world and saves all of his loved ones from eternal execution, and enables him to acquire an eternal kingdom,’ to be repeated billions of times, and were an importance as tremendous as the universe to be afforded to it, it would be no waste of space, nor would it impair its precious value.

The Qur’ān of Miraculous Exposition (Al-Qur’ānu’l-Mu‘jizu’l-Bayān) thus, that instructs in such surpassingly numerous, important issues, the like of those aforementioned, and that strives to convince, persuade and prove to [people’s having] faith in the revolutions that are awe-inspiring, that transforms and deforms the universe as if it were a [small] house, there can be no doubt that attention being turned even thousands of times to those realities, explicitly, implicitly and by means of allusions, can never be a waste of space, but it is rather a renewal of the beneficence [contained in their mention], for [these issues] are necessities for life, the like of bread, medicine and air and light.

And for example: The wisdom underlying the Qur’ān’s mention and repetition of the verses that contain Divine threats in a very severe and furious way and by using forceful and amplified language, the like of وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَهُمْ نَارُ جَهَنَّمَ  (a) and وَإِنَّ الظَّالِمِينَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ (b)

is that mankind’s disbelief and denial violates the rights of the universe and of the majority of [other] creatures - this has been conclusively proven in The Book of Light - such that it provokes the wrath of the heavens and the earth, and angers the very elements; thus does it strike the oppressors with blows [in this way] and hell hates the oppressors such that it comes to a point of explosion from the severity of its anger and falling to pieces, as is explicitly stated in the verse, إِذَا أُلْقُوا فِيهَا سَمِعُوا لَهَا شَهِيقاً وَهِيَ تَفُورُ (c) and تَكَادُ تَمَيَّزُ مِنَ الْغَيْظِ . (d)

Now, were the Sultan of the Universe, faced with this all-embracing crime and limitless violations, to repeat the mention of these crimes and their punishment with surpassing severity and hardness in His edict; they are not in accordance with man’s small size nor his unimportance [in themselves], but in accordance with the immensity of his tyrannical crimes and the horror of his atheistic transgressions. And through the wisdom of revealing the importance of the rights of His subjects, and of manifesting the limitless ugliness latent in the disbelief and oppression of the deniers, were it to repeat it not only a thousand times but millions and billions of times this would constitute neither a waste of space nor a deficiency - for hundreds of millions of people have recited it every day for a thousand years, [all] in perfect longing and need and without boredom nor weariness.

Yes, every day and at every moment a world [particular] to each person departs and the door of a fresh world

_____

a The disbelievers will be in the Fire of Hell (Qur’ān: Fāṭir, 35:36)

b A painful punishment awaits the oppressive (Qur’ān: ash-Shūrā, 42:21)

c When they are cast into it they will hear it sighing the while it boils (Qur’ān: al-Mulk, 67:7)

d well nigh bursts asunder with rage (Qur’ān: al-Mulk, 67:8)

opens for [each person]. One makes لا إله إلاّ الله (there is no god but Allāh) into a lamp against every one of the changing veils, by means of one’s repeating the sentence لا إله إلاّ الله (there is no god but Allāh) a thousand times in need and with longing so as to illuminate every one of one’s temporary worlds.

In the same way, does the Qur’ān in an utterly meaningful fashion repeat significant matters, with the [underlying] wisdom of making man appreciate, through reading the Qur’ān and getting rid of the rebellion of the lower self.

It repeats the punishments for those crimes and the severe threats coming from the Beginninglessly Eternal Ruler - threats that break even the strongest stubbornness in order not to darken these numerous, temporary veils and these ever renewing, continually moving universes and in order not to disfigure the images of them that are reflected into the mirror of the life of man; and in order not to cause those fleeting, temporary states of affairs that could be in [man’s] interests to be against him. Even Satan flees from supposing that the Qur’ānic threats repeated with such power and severity have no reality.

The Qur’ān shows to the deniers who do not hearken to it that the punishment of hell is pure justice.



And for example, the repetition of the story of Moses (‘alayhissalām), containing as it does a great many wisdoms and benefits - like that of Moses’ staff (‘alayhissalām) - and the frequent repetition of the stories of the rest of the prophets, all for the sake of a wisdom the like of [the following]: the prophethood of every one of the prophets puts forward evidence for the truth of the Aḥmadan messengership (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) in that whoever finds himself 

unable to deny all of [the prophets], will also find himself unable to deny the messengership of this person (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) in reality; and because not everyone is able to recite the whole of the Qur’ān all of the time - they are not enabled to do so - those stories are repeated, just as are the important fundamental articles of faith, so as to make each long and middle-length sūrah like a little Qur’ān [in itself].

The Qur’ān’s repetition of these stories for the sake of these wisdoms is no waste of space, but it is rhetoric in inimitability, and a reminder that the Muḥammadan event (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) is for all human beings the most sublime of events, and the most momentous issue for all of the universe.

[The Muḥammadan Reality]

(‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām)

Yes, in the epistles of The Book of Light, a great many proofs and indications in conclusive form have been given concerning the Muḥammadan Personage (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) being conferred the loftiest place in the Qur’ān.

The reality of محمد رسول الله (Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allāh) which is equivalent to the article of لاإله إلاّ الله (There is no god but Allāh) in its comprising four articles of faith; and [proofs have been given] concerning the Muḥammadan messengership’s (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) being the universe’s most süblime reality and the Personage of Muḥammad (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) is the most honourable of the creation; and that his universal, spiritual person, known as the Muḥammadan Reality (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām), as well as his holy station, is a dazzling sun of the two realms, and that he is worthy of this magnificent station. 

Just one of a thousand [of these proofs] is the following:

The Knower of the Unseen (‘Allāmu’l-Ghuyūb) knew and saw that the Muḥammadan Reality (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām), which is the spiritual person of this individual would in the future be like unto the Ṭūbā Tree of paradise, in that all of the good deeds of his community in all times would be added to the like of [those good deeds] in his own book of good deeds this according to the principle السبب كالفاعل (a); [and He knew and saw] his illuminating the realities of the whole of the universe with the light with which he came; and his making not only the jinn, mankind, the angels and living creatures, but also the very universe and the heavens and the earth grateful to Him; and the merciful supplications along with blessings and peace (salawāt) of the righteous of his community - millions, nay billions, innate prayers of whom are never rejected but accepted - [their being accepted] is testified to by the actual acceptance, in front of our eyes, of the supplications of the plants in the language of their innate capacities and the supplication of the animals in the language of their innate needs - and their gifting their spiritual gains to him first of all; and limitless lights going into his scroll of good deeds with respect just to the Qur’ān being recited alone. In so far as it is the case that for every one of the three hundred thousand letters of the Qur’ān recited by the Community there is a reward that starts from ten and at times constitutes a hundred or at times thousands of good actions and fruits.

_____

a the cause is like the doer

It is in accordance with this station that the Knower of the Unseen gave him that sublime importance in His Qur’ān. In His decree He made clear that following him and winning his intercession through following his exalted sunnah constitutes the most important issue facing man.

From time to time, Allāh treats Prophet Muḥammad’s human personality (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) which is the seed of the immense Ṭūbā Tree, and his “humane conditions” at the beginning [of his life].

Thus the realities that are repeated in the Qur’ān indeed carry this precious importance, and it is thus that a sound innate disposition will bear witness to the fact that those repetitions are a spiritual miracle, powerful and expansive - except only for those who have been afflicted (48) with a disease of the heart and of sentiment because of the plague of materialism - they come under the principle:

قَدْ يُنْكِرُ الْمرءُ ضَوءُ الشَّمْسِ مِنْ رَمَدٍ   وَيُنْكِرُ الْفَمُ طَعْمَ الْمَاءِ مِنْ سَقَمٍ (a)

A Conclusion

to the Tenth Issue

Two notes serving as a conclusion to this Tenth Issue

The first note: Twelve years ago I heard that one of the most dangerous and obstinate of atheists had begun [to reveal] his bad intentions with regard to the Qur’ān by having it translated and enacted a calamitous plan saying, “let the Qur’ān be translated so that people may know its lack of value, that is, so that all be enabled to see its superfluous repetitions for themselves, and so that its translation be read instead of it.”

_____

a For man may deny the sun's light because of inflammation of the eye and when the body is unwell, the mouth may shun even the taste of sweet water.

48. Literal: addiction 

Yet the irrefutable evidences of The Book of Light have conclusively proven that it is impossible to produce a real translation of the Qur’ān and that no language can maintain the special characteristics and points of the Qur’ān other than the Arabic language, which is a grammatical language; and that ordinary, particular human translation cannot possibly articulate the inimitable, all-embracing expressions of the words of the Qur’ān, the each letter of which holds a reward of between ten and one thousand, and [such a translation] could never be read in mosques instead of it.

In this way has The Book of Light rendered this terrifying plan invalid, in its having been circulated everywhere. However, I guess it was because the idiotic, deranged efforts of the hypocrites who had taken lessons from that atheist, striving again for the sake of Satan to extinguish the sun of the Qur’ān by blowing at it out of their mouths like silly children, that I was inspired to write this ‘Tenth Issue’ in a challenging, pressing and troublesome state [of constriction], due to their foolish and lunatic endeavours. Yet I do not know the actual state of affairs, for I am not able to meet anyone [in order to find out].

The second note: After we were discharged from Denizli Prison, I was sitting on the top floor of the famous Şehir Hotel one day; before me in the beautiful gardens I could see the many poplar trees, as if they were in a circle of dhikr (Divine remembrance) surpassingly elegant and sweet. The ecstatic and magnetic movements and [melancholic] dancing of those trees and their branches [and hiss of] the leaves 

at the touches of the air and my separation from my brothers and my loneliness impacted my [already] grieved and sorrowful heart.

The seasons of autumn and winter sprung suddenly to mind, and I was seized by heedlessness. I was moved by compassion for those delicate trees and living creatures swaying in perfect ecstasy such that my eyes welled up with tears. Sorrows and sadnesses of separation and extinction as vast as the universe itself crowded my mind, in [my] remembering and sensing the [future] nonexistence and separation of those trees and living creatures, under the ornamented veil of the universe. It was then that the light that the Muḥammadan Reality (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) had come with came to my aid, and transformed those limitless sorrows and sadnesses into contentment and joy.

Even more, just like every individual of people of faith, I am eternally indebted to the Muḥammadan Essence (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) for his having brought this light to my aid and having consoled me with it - that light that was only a single of the millions of emanations that have been manifested to me only in that time and in that situation in the following way:

From that heedless perspective, those blessed and elegant beings were from the first moment shown to be manifest within seasons as if without duty nor outcome, and that their movements are not out of ecstasy, but showing that it is as if they are trembling with fear [in the process of] tumbling into nonexistence and separation, and this wounded my feelings, for feelings are the locus of the passionate love of living forever, 

love of beauties, compassion for [one’s fellow] human beings and [fellow] living beings, such that the world nigh on turned into a spiritual hell, and the intellect an instrument of torture. It was at this point that the light which Muḥammad (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) brought as a gift pulled back the veil, and revealed that there exist a wisdom and as many meanings underlying those poplar trees as there are leaves on each of them, not execution, nonexistence, nothingness, inoperation, futility and separation, and, as has been established in The Book of Light, they each have three types of products and vocations:

The first type: It is related to the Names of the Majestic Artful Maker (Aṣ-Ṣāni‘u Dhu’l-Jalāl). For example, when a craftsman makes a firstrate device, and all applaud him saying, Māshā'Allāh and BārakAllāh; and were even the device itself to congratulate and applaud its maker in the language of its state and in its producing exactly what it was intended to produce; [so too is] each living creature and each thing a device the like of that, that congratulates and applauds its Creator.

The second [and third] type: The second type of wisdoms are orientated towards the gaze of living creatures and conscious creatures. They (poplar trees) become a means of observation and a book of knowledge for them, leaving their meanings in the sphere of existence within the minds of conscious beings, and [leaving] their forms in their memories and tablets of representation, (49) and in the logbooks of the unseen world within the sphere of existence; thus do they depart from the observed world, and they are taken to

_____

49. Photograph, picture or a video capture are sorts of tablets of representation.

the unseen world. That is to say, they leave a formal existence behind them, and win multifarious spiritual (ma‘nawī) and unseen existences in knowledge.

Yes, since Allāh exists and His knowledge is all-encompassing, there can be no doubt that there is no real place for nonexistence, extinction, nothingness, obliteration or annihilation in the worlds of the people of faith, and that the world of the disbelievers is full of nonexistence, separation, nothingness and annihilation.

Here is an aphorism that passes around on the tongues of all, that instructs in this reality saying, “Whosoever [believes that] Allāh exists, everything [continues] to exist for him. Whosoever [believes that] Allāh does not exist, nothing exists [nor continues to exist] for him, everything is [as if it is] nothing.”

The upshot: Just as faith (īmān) saves man from eternal execution at the time of death, so too does it save the world particular to each person from execution and the gloom of nonexistence. Disbelief (kufr) however - and specifically if absolute disbelief - executes that human being and his personal world with [the reality of] death, and casts him into the darknesses of spiritual hell [in this world]. [Disbelief] turns the pleasures of his life into painful poisons. Let the ears of those who prefer the life of this world over their hereafters ring!

Let them come and find a solution to the circumstances [in which they will find themselves], or else let them enter into faith, and be saved from these two appalling losses.

سُبْحَانَكَ لاَ عِلْمَ لَنَا إِلاَّ مَا عَلَّمْتَنَا إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَلِيمُ الحْكِيمُ (a)

_____

a Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge except that which You have taught us, surely you are the All-knowing, the Wise