Thursday, May 14, 2009

THE AIR: A Window onto Divine Unity

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Thus, while on my journey of contemplation prompted by the phrases THERE IS NO GOD BUT HE, and, SAY, HE IS GOD, and while observing the world of the air and studying the page of that element, I witnessed this brief truth with utter certainty and clarity, and in detail. And I understood with ‘knowledge of certainty’ that it was because there is in the word HE, in the air of its utterance, such a brilliant proof and flash of Divine unity, and also in its meaning and allusions such a luminous manifestation of Divine oneness and powerful proof of Divine unity, and in that proof an indication that since the pronoun HE is unconditional and indefinite, it suggests the question, “Who does it refer to?” that both the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition and those who constantly recite the Divine Names frequently repeat this sacred word in the station of unity.
If, for example, there is one point on a piece of white paper and two or three other points are jumbled around with it and then someone who already has numerous jobs tries to distinguish them, he will be confused; and if many burdens are loaded on a small creature, it will be crushed; and if numerous words issue from one tongue and enter one ear altogether at the same time, their order will be broken and they will be a muddle.
Despite this being the case, I saw with complete certainty that with the key and compass of HE, although thousands of different points, letters and words had been put in each molecule -and even in each particle- of the element air, through which I journeyed in my mind, neither did they become mixed up nor did they spoil their order; and although they performed a great many different duties, these were carried out without being confused in any way; and although very heavy loads were laid on each molecule and particle, they bore them in order without lagging or displaying any weakness at all. And I saw that thousands of different words of all different sorts enter and issue with perfect order from what is in effect those minute ears and tongues without being mixed up and spoilt in any way, they enter those minute ears and issue from those tiny tongues, and by performing these extraordinary duties, each particle and each molecule declares through the enraptured tongue of its being and its perfect freedom, and through the testimony and tongue of the above truth: THERE IS NO GOD BUT HE, and: SAY, HE IS GOD, THE ONE, and travels among air-clashing waves like storms and lightning and thunder without in any way spoiling their order or confusing their duties. One duty is not an obstacle to another duty. I observed this and was utterly certain.
That is to say, either every particle and piece of the air has to possess infinite wisdom, knowledge, will, and power, and the qualities for being absolutely dominant over all the other particles so that it can be the means of those functions being carried out, which is absurd and impossible to the number of particles, and no devil even could imagine it, or else, and it is self-evident to the degree of ‘knowledge of certainty,’ ‘vision of certainty,’ and ‘absolute certainty’ that the page of the air functions through the boundless, infinite knowledge and wisdom of the All-Glorious One, and is the changing page for the pen of Divine Power and Determining, and like a signboard for writing and erasing, known as a Tablet of Appearance and Dissolution, which has the function of the Preserved Tablet in the world of transformation and change.
BEDİÜZZAMAN

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