Eighteenth Word
This treatise is composed of three points: These points are commentaries on the verses: “Do not think that those who exult in what they have done and seek praise for things they have not done will escape the torment; agonizing torment awaits them (Qur’an, 3: 188).” “He gave everything its most beautiful form… (Qur'an, 32: 7)” And “Say, ‘If you love God, follow me, and God will love you… (Qur'an, 3: 31).”
Click to listen to Episode 1 (First Point), Episode 2 (Second Point), Episode 3 (Third Point)
Back to The Words.
ROUGH TRANSLATION from the RISALE-I NUR
translated by Dr. Mustafa Tuna
A rough translation of the section that is being discussed is posted below. This is a work in progress and should not be considered a finalized translation. It is only meant to help with understanding the recorded discussion.
This Word has two stations. The second station has not been written yet. The first station is three points.
First Station
First Point
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
لاَ تَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ يَفْرَحوُنَ بِمَاۤ اَتَوْا وَيُحِبُّونَ اَنْ يُحْمَدُوا بِمَا لَمْ يَفْعَلُوا فَلاَ تَحْسَبَنَّهُمْ بِمَفَازَةٍ مِنَ الْعَذَابِ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ اَلِيمٌ
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Mercy-giver
“Do not think that those who exult in what they have done and seek praise for things they have not done will escape the torment; agonizing torment awaits them (Qur’an, 3: 188).”
A slap of chastisement to my evil-commanding soul:
O my addlebrained lower soul which is infatuated with boasting, addicted to fame, given to praise, and matchless in self-centeredness!
If it is a truthful claim that for the tiny seed that is the origin of a fig tree bearing thousands of fruits and the black, bone-dry trunk of a grape vine on which a hundred bunches are attached, all the fruits and bunches on them are their own crafts and that those who benefit from them should praise and respect that trunk and that seed, in that case, you too have a right to boast and be vainglorious about the blessings that are loaded on you.
But the reality is that, you are deserving of censure at all times. Because, you are not like that seed and that trunk. As a result of the fact that you have partial volition, you are decreasing the value of those blessings. You are destroying them with your vainglory. You are cancelling them out with your denial. You are usurping them through appropriation.
Your duty is not boasting but showing gratitude. You merit not fame but humility and bashfulness. You deserve not praise but remorse and asking for forgiveness. Your perfection is not in self-centeredness but in God-centeredness.
Yes, in my body, you are like the nature in the realm. You two are created to accept good and be the locus to which evil is attributed. That is, you are not the active or source agents. Rather, you are the passive recipients and loci of acts. You have one impact only, and that is causing evil as a result of not accepting the good that comes from absolute goodness in a beautiful way.
Also, you are each created as a veil, so that the apparent instances of ugliness the beauty of which are not visible would be attributed to you and thus, you be the means for the proclamation of the transcendence of the Sacred Divine Entity. Together with this, you have taken on a form that completely contradicts your innate nature. Even though you turn good into evil because of your incapability, you act as though you are partners to your Creator! In that case, the one who is self-centered and who worships Nature is an utter idiot and utter wrongdoer.
Also, do not say: “I am the locus of appearance. The locus of appearance of beauty becomes beautiful.” Because, since the similitude [of beauty] does not appear, you are not the locus of appearance but a passageway.
And also, do not say: “I was selected among other creatures. These fruits are being shown on me. That means I have a merit.” No, never! Rather, it was given to you before everyone else, it was put in your hand first, because you are more bankrupt, needy, and afflicted than everyone else (sidenote).
sidenote: I really liked that New Said refutes and silences his lower soul to this extent in this debate and said “May God bless a thousand times.”
Second Point
This explains the secret of the verse اَحْسَنَ كُلَّ شَىْءٍ خَلَقَهُ (He gave everything its most beautiful form… (Qur'an, 32: 7)).
There is an aspect of true beauty in everything, even in things that look ugly. Yes, everything in the cosmos, every happening is either “beautiful in itself.” This is called beauty in itself. Or it is beautiful from the point of view of its consequences, and this is called “indirect beauty.” Some happenings are ugly and chaotic in appearance, but there are brilliant beauties and orderliness underneath that apparent veil. For instance:
In the spring season, under the veil of stormy rain and muddy soil, the smiles of an endless number of beautiful flowers and orderly plants are hidden. And behind the veils of sorrowful separation, the harsh destructions of the season of fall are the discharge of delicately-built tiny animals – the friends of those coy flowers – from their duties in order to protect them from the pressures and torment of winter events, which are the loci of the appearance of majestic manifestations, and underneath that veil of the winter, a place for the coy, fresh, and beautiful spring is being prepared. The metaphysical unveiling of many flowers are hidden under the veils of events like storms, earthquakes, and plagues. The kernels of aptitude that are deprived of the ability to grow and spread, like seeds, sprout and attain beauty thanks to events that look ugly in appearance. It is as though all upheavals and universal transformations are each a metaphysical rain.
However, because man both worships appearances and is self-absorbed, he looks at the appearance and judges it as ugly. Because of his self-absorption, he evaluates the matter based on its outcomes that concern only himself and judges it to be evil. Yet, if a thing has one purpose related to the human being, it has thousands of purposes related to the names of its Artful Maker.
For instance, man deems the thorny weeds and trees, which are among the great miracles of the power that creates from nothing, to be harmful and meaningless. Yet, they are the well-equipped heros of those weeds and trees.
For instance, the sparrowhawk’s attack on the sparrows does not agree with mercy from the point of view of appearance. Yet, the aptitudes of the sparrow unveil with that attack.
For instance, they deem snow to be awfully cold and tasteless. Yet, underneath that cold and tasteless veil of the snow, there are purposes with so much heat and such consequences that are sweet like sugar that this is beyond description.
Also, because man, with his self-absorption and worship of appearances, evaluates everything based on its face looking to himself, he presumes many things that are decency itself to be indecent.
For instance, the human organ of reproduction, talking about it is shameful in the view of human beings. However, this veil of shamefulness exists in the face looking to the human being. Otherwise, the faces looking to the act of creation, artistry, and the purposes of innate nature are such veils that if looked with the sight of wisdom, it becomes very decency; shamefulness does not come near it.
Thus, some expressions of the Wise Qur’an, which is the font of decency, are in accordance with these faces and veils. That is, beneath the apparent faces of the happenings and creatures that look ugly to us, there are utterly beautiful and wisdomful faces looking to their artistry and creation, which face their Artful Maker; many beautiful veils that hide wisdoms; and many apparent instances of disorderliness and chaos that are [in fact] an exceedingly orderly sacred inscription.
Third Point
قُلْ اِنْ كُنْتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِى يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللهُ
“Say, ‘If you love God, follow me, and God will love you… (Qur'an, 3: 31)”
Since it is observed and known definitively that there is a beauty of artistry in the cosmos, of course, it is a must that Ahmadan messengership (ﷺ) will have established reality with a definitiveness that reaches the level of witnessing, because, the beauty of artistry and adornment of forms in these pretty artifacts show that their Artful Maker has a significant will to beautify and strong demand for adornment. This will and demand, in turn, show that that Artful Maker has a lofty love and a sacred proclivity toward the perfections of His artistry, which He exposes in His artifacts. And this love and proclivity want to be directed toward and concentrate more than others on the human being who is the most illuminated and perfect individual among the artifacts.
As for the human being, he is the conscious fruit of the tree of creation. The fruit is the most comprehensive and furthest particular with the most general sight and universal consciousness. As for a person with general sight and universal consciousness, he can be the highest and most brilliant individual who becomes an addressee of that Artful Maker, the Possessor of Beauty, and who expends his universal consciousness and general sight on worshipping the Artful Maker, admiring His artistry, and showing gratitude for His blessing.
Now, two frames, two circles are visible:
One is an utterly magnificent and orderly circle of Lordship and an utterly artistic and embellished frame of art.
The other, an utterly illuminated, flowery circle of worshipful slavehood and utterly broad and comprehensive frame of contemplation, admiration, thankfulness, and faith that this second circle moves with all its strength in the name of the first circle.
Here, it would be understood intuitively how much the leader of that circle that serves the objectives – which reflect a love for artistry – of that Artful Maker will be closely connected with that Artful Maker and how beloved and acceptable he will be to Him.
Then wonder, if the intellect would at all accept that the Artful Maker of these beautiful artifacts, Who so loves arts and to give blessings that He even takes all tastes of the mouth into consideration, will remain indifferent to this beautiful artifact of His who worshipfully turns to Him with such an outcry of admiration and appreciation and with such an exclamation of gratitude and exaltation (tekbir), thus bringing the land and the sea to ecstasy, that He will not talk to him, will not make him a messenger showing interest in him, and will not want his beautiful state to pass on to others too?
By no means! It is not possible that He will not talk and make him a messenger.
اِنَّ الدِّينَ عِنْدَ اللهِ اْلاِسْلاَمُ
“True religion by God is Islam… (Qur'an, 3: 19).”
مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللهِ وَالَّذِينَ مَعَهُ اَشِدَّاءُ عَلَى اْلكُفَّارِ رُحَمَاۤءُ بَيْنَهُمْ
“Muhammad is the messenger of God, and those who are with him are harsh towards the disbelievers and compassionate among themselves… (Qur'an, 48: 29).”