Then that
wondrous place of gathering known as space or the atmosphere begins thunderously
to proclaim to that traveller come as a guest to the world, "Look
at me! You can discover and find through me the object of your search,
the one who sent you here!" The traveller looks at the sour but kind
face of the atmosphere, and listening to the awesome but joyous thunderclaps
perceives the following.
The clouds, suspended between the sky and the earth, water the garden
of the world in the most wise and merciful fashion, furnish the inhabitants
of the earth with the water of life, modify the natural heat of life,
and hasten to bestow aid wherever it is needed. In addition to fulfilling
these and other duties, the vast clouds, capable of filling the heavens
sometimes hide themselves, with their parts retiring to rest so that not
a trace can be seen, just like a well-disciplined army showing and hiding
itself in accordance with sudden orders.
Then, the very instant the command is given to pour down rain, the clouds
gather in one hour, or rather in a few minutes; they fill the sky and
await further orders from their commander.
Next the traveller looks at the wind in the atmosphere and sees that the
air is employed wisely and generously in such numerous tasks that it is
as if each of the inanimate atoms of that unconscious air were hearing
and noting the orders coming from that monarch of the universe; without
neglecting a single one of them, it performs them in ordered fashion and
through the power of the monarch. Thereby it gives breath to all beings
and conveys to all living things the heat, light, and electricty they
need, and transmits sound, as well as aiding in the pollination of plants.
The traveller then looks at the rain and sees that within those delicate,
glistening sweet drops, sent from a hidden treasury of mercy, there are
so many compassionate gifts and functions contained that it is as if mercy
itself were assuming shape and flowing forth from the dominical treasury
in the form of drops. It is for this reason that rain has been called
"mercy."
Next the traveller looks at the lightning and listens to the thunder and
ses that both of these, too, are employed in wondrous tasks.
Then taking his eyes off these, he looks to his own intellect and says:
"The inanimate, lifeless cloud that resembles carded cotton has of
course no knowledge of us; when it comes to our aid, it is not because
it takes pity on us. It cannot appear and disappear without receiving
orders. Rather it acts in accordance with the orders of a most powerful
and compassionate commander. First it diasppears without leaving a trace,
then suddenly reappears in order to begin its work. By the command and
power of a most active and exalted, a most magnificent and splendid, monarch,
it fills and then empties the atmosphere. Inscribing the sky with wisdom
and erasing the pattern, it makes of the sky a tablet of effacement and
affirmation, a depiction of the gathering and the resurrection. By the
contriving of a most generous and bountiful, a most munificent and solicitous
sustainer, a ruler who regulates and disposes, it mounts the wind and
taking with it treasuries of rain each as heavy as a mountain, hastens
to the aid of the needy. It is as if it were weeping over them in pity,
with its tears causing the flowers to smile, tempering the heat of the
sun, spraying gardens with water, and washing and cleansing the face of
the earth."
That wondering traveller then tells his own intellect: "These hundreds
of thousands of wise, merciful and ingenious tasks and acts of generosity
and mercy that arise from the veil and outer form of this inanimate, lifeless,
unconscious, volatile, unstable, stormy, unsettled, and inconstant air,
clearly establish that this diligent wind, this tireless servant, never
acts of itself, but rather in accordance with the orders of a most powerful
and knowing, a most wise and generous commander. It is as if each particle
were aware of every single task, like a soldier understanding and hearkening
to every order of its commander, for it hears and obeys every dominical
command that courses through the air. It aids all animals to breathe and
to live, all plants to pollinate and grow, and cultivates all the matter
necessary for their survival. It directs and administers the clouds, makes
possible the voyaging of sailing ships, and enables sounds to be conveyed,
particularly by means of wireless, telephone, telegraph and radio, as
well as numerous other universal functions.
"Now these atoms, each composed of two such simple materials as hydrogen
and oxygen and each resembling the other, exist in hundreds of thousands
of different fashions all over the globe; I conclude therefore that they
are being employed and set to work in the utmost orderliness by a hand
of wisdom.
"As the verse makes clear,
And the disposition of the winds and the clouds,
held in disciplined order between the heavens and the earth,(1)
the one who through the disposition of the winds
employs them in countless dominical functions, who through the ordering
of the clouds uses them in infinite tasks of mercy, and who creates the
air in this fashion - such a one can only be the Possessor of Necessary
Existence, the One Empowered over All Things and Knowledgeable of All
Things, the Sustainer endowed with Glory and Generosity." This is
the conclusion our traveller now draws.
Then he looks at the rain and sees that within it are contained benefits
as numerous as the raindrops, and dominical manifestations as multiple
as the particles of rain, and instances of wisdom as plentiful as its
atoms. Those sweet, delicate and blessed drops are moreover created in
so beautiful and ordered a fashion, that particularly the rain sent in
the summertime, is despatched and caused to fall with such balance and
regularity that not even stormy winds that cause large objects to collide
can destroy its equilibrium and order; the drops do not collide with each
other or merge in such fashion as to become harmful masses of water. Water,
composed of two simple elements like hydrogen and oxygen, is employed
in hundreds of thousands of other wise, purposeful tasks and arts, particularly
in animate beings; although it is itself inanimate and unconscious. Rain
which is then the very embodiment of Divine Mercy can only be manufactured
in the unseen treasury of mercy of One Most Compassionate and Merciful,
and on its descent expounds in physical form the verse:
And He it is Who sends down rain after men have
despaired, and thus spreads out His Mercy.(2)
The traveller next listens to the thunder and watches
the lightning. He understands that these two wondrous events in the atmosphere
are like a material demonstration of the verse,
The thunder glorifies His praise,(3)
The brilliance of His lightning almost robs them of their sight (4)
They also announce the coming of rain, and thus
give glad tidings to the needy.
Yes, this sudden utterance of a miraculous sound by the atmosphere; the
filling of the dark sky with the flash and fire of lightning; the setting
alight of the clouds that resemble mountains of cotton or pipes bursting
with water and snow - these and similar phenomena are like a blow struck
on the head of the negligent man whose gaze is directed down at the earth.
They tell him:
"Lift up your head, look at the miraculous deeds of the most active
and powerful being who wishes to make himself known. In the same way that
you are not left to your own devices, so too, these phenomena and events
have a master and a purpose. Each of them is caused to fulfil a particular
task, and each is employed by a Most Wise Disposer."
The wondering traveller hears then the lofty and manifest testimony to
the truth that is composed of the disposition of the winds, the descent
of the rains and the administration of the events of the atmosphere, and
says: "I believe in God." That which was stated in the Second
Degree of the First Station expresses the observations of the traveller
concerning the atmosphere:
There is no god but God, the Necessary Being, to Whose Necessary Existence
in Unity the atmosphere and all its contains testifies, through the testimony
of the sublimity of the comprehensiveness of the truth of subjugation,
disposal, causing to descend, and regulation, a truth vast and perfect,
and to be observed.
From
the Risale-i Nur Collection
FOOTNOTES
(1) Qur'an, 2:164.
(2) Qur'an, 42:28.
(3) Qur'an, 13:13.
(4) Qur'an, 24:43.
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