The Fourteenth Word

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.Alif. Lam. Ra. [This is] a Book with verses fundamental [of established meaning]. Further explained in detail, from One All-Wise and Well-Acquainted [with all things].Qur’an, 11:1

[In order to ascend to some of the elevated truths of the All-Wise Qur’an, and of Hadiths, which are the true expounder of the Qur’an, we shall point out a number of comparisons of those truths which are like steps to assist hearts deficient in submission and obedience, and shall explain in the Conclusion an object lesson and a mystery concerning Divine favour. Since from among those truths, comparisons of the Resurrection and the Day of Judgement have been mentioned in the Tenth Word, and its Ninth Truth in particular, there is no need to repeat them. Here we shall mention only five ‘Matters’ as examples of the other truths.]

THE FIRST: For example, in order to induce certainty about the verse,

He created the heavens and the earth in six days,Qur’an, 7:54

and the elevated truth it alludes to through the Qur’anic days, which consist of a long period of time like perhaps a thousand or fifty thousand years, that man’s world and that of the animals will last six days, we draw attention to the travelling worlds, transient universes, and passing cosmoses which the Glorious Maker creates every day, every year, every century, each of which is like a day. It is as though these worlds are all guests like man. At the All-Glorious One’s command, each season the world is filled and emptied.

THE SECOND: For example, the verses,

Nor anything fresh or dry but is [inscribed] in a Record Clear.Qur’an, 6:59 * And of all things have We taken account in a Clear Book.Qur’an, 36:12 * From Whom is not hidden the least little atom in the heavens or on earth; nor is there anything less than that, or greater, but it is in the Record Clear.Qur’an, 34:3

In order to be convinced of the elevated truth which these verses state, that, “All things together with all their states are recorded before they come into existence, when they come into existence, and after they have departed; and they are being recorded,” we point out to be observed the All-Glorious Inscriber’s including and preserving in immaterial fashion in the seeds and roots of the innumerable well-ordered creatures which He changes every season on the page of the earth, and particularly in the spring, the indexes of their beings, life-histories, and principles according to which they act; and when they die His inscribing in immaterial fashion with the same pen of Divine Determining those indexes, life-histories and principles in the simple seeds in their fruits; and every passing spring even His preserving them -whether fresh or dry- in perfect order in seeds like dry chips of wood and bones, limited and tiny. It is as if each spring is attached like a flower to the face of the earth in extremely orderly and balanced fashion by the hand of One All-Beautiful and All-Glorious, then plucked from it; each is placed on it, then removed. While the reality is this, one of the strangest forms of man’s misguidance is that he calls this natural writing, this inscribing full of art, this passive pattern of wisdom which is an index of dominical art and only a reflection and manifestation of the Preserved Tablet, ‘nature’, and considers it to be the source and active and effective. Can there be any comparison between the ground and the Pleiades? Can there be any comparison between reality and the views of the heedless?

BEDİÜZZAMAN