Each Science Speaks of God in Its Own Tongue*

 

 

[NOTE: The following is a brief pointer to one of the thousands of the universal proofs of the pillar of belief in God, many of which, together with explanations, are in the Risale-i Nur.]

 

In Kastomanu, some high-school students asked: “Tell us about our Creator, for our teachers do not speak of Him.” I replied that each science they study continuously speaks of God, the Creator, and makes Him known in its own tongue. I told them to listen to the sciences, not their teachers, and to consider the following examples:

A well-equipped, well-designed pharmacy has many medicines and pills composed of different precisely measured components. This indicates an extremely skillful and learned pharmacist. In the same way, the pharmacy of Earth has countless life-giving cures and medicaments (implanted within all plant and animal species). This shows and makes known, through medical science, that the All-Wise One of Majesty is the Pharmacist of the largest pharmacy on Earth.

A wonderful factory produces thousands of different cloths woven from a simple material. This makes known a manufacturer and skillful mechanical engineer. Likewise, our planet is a traveling machinery or factory of the Master. Its countless parts, each having innumerable machines, show and make known its Manufacturer and Owner through engineering.

A shop that serves as an organized storage place for different provisions shows that it has a wondrous proprietor, preparer, and distributor of provisions and foodstuffs. In the same way, the All-Merciful One’s food store—Earth—is a vessel of the Glorious One that annually traverses a wide orbit and houses innumerable species requiring different foods. It is filled every spring, like a huge wagon, with uncountable different provisions which it then brings to all living creatures whose sustenance was exhausted during the winter. The Master’s depot and shop, which holds vast varieties of goods, equipment, and conserved food, makes its Owner, Manager, and Organizer known and loved through economics.

Imagine an army of tribes, each one requiring unique provisions, weapons, uniforms, drills, and demobilization. If its miracle-working commander meets all their needs on his own, without forgetting and confusing any of them, the army and camp will point to him and make him loved and appreciated. In the same way, every spring a single Commander-in-Chief provides a newly recruited Divine army of countless animal and plant species with uniforms, rations, weapons, training, and demobilizations in a perfect and regular fashion. He forgets nothing and does not become confused. This makes Him known, through military science, as Earth’s Ruler, Master, Administrator, and Most Holy Commander. His perfection causes admiration and acclaim, and makes Him loved, praised, and glorified.

Imagine a magnificent city illuminated by millions of mobile and fixed electric lamps with an inexhaustible fuel and power source. This makes known a wonder-working artisan and an extraordinarily talented electrician who manages the electricity, makes the lamps, establishes the power source, and brings the fuel. Such a person is admired, congratulated, and loved by others.

In just the same way, some lamps (stars and planets) in this palace of the world’s roof, in this city of the universe, are far larger than Earth. They move with amazing speed, but in a very delicate order. They do not collide with each other, become extinguished, or run out of fuel. Astronomers say that our sun, a lamp and stove in the All-Merciful One’s guesthouse, is several billion years old and a million times larger than Earth. To keep burning, each day it needs as much oil as the seas of Earth, as much coal as its mountains, or as many logs and wood as 10 Earths.

Such lamps point with their finger of light to an infinite power and sovereignty that, in turn, illuminates the sun and other similar stars without oil, wood, or coal. It does not allow them to be extinguished or collide with each other, even though they are larger than those lamps and are managed more perfectly. The science of electricity and the stars’ testimony make known this vast exhibition’s Monarch, Illuminator, Director, and Maker. They also make Him loved, glorified, and worshipped.

Imagine a marvelous book. A different book is finely written within each line, and a sura is inscribed in each word with a fine pen. This book is most meaningful and expressive, and all of its subjects corroborate each other. Such a book shows clearly that it is the product of a particular artist possessed of extraordinary perfections, arts, and skills. It makes the author appreciated with such phrases as: “What wonders God has willed” and “Blessed be God.”

The same is true of the “macro-book” of the universe. We can see a pen at work, inscribing on Earth’s face (a sheet) countless plant and animal species (volumes). They are created all together, one within the other, without error or confusion and so perfectly and finely that an ode is compressed in a word like tree, and a book’s complete index in a seed-sized point. The sciences of nature, reading, and writing make known, to the degree that this infinitely meaningful compendium of the universe, this macro-Qur’an of the cosmos, in each word of which are numerous examples of wisdom and which is greater and more perfect and meaningful than the book in the example, the Book of the Universe’s Inscriber and Author and His infinite perfections. In the meaning of “God is the Greatest,” it makes Him known. In the glorification of “Glory be to God,” it describes Him. Through praises like “All praise be to God,” it makes Him loved.

Like those mentioned, hundreds of sciences make the Majestic Creator of the universe known by His Names. Through its extensive measure, particular mirror, far-reaching view, and searching and instructing perspectives, each science makes His Attributes and perfections known. The Qur’an of Miraculous Expression frequently describes our Creator through such phrases as “the Lord of the heavens and Earth” and “He created the heavens and Earth” in order to teach the decisive proof explained above (which is a magnificent and brilliant proof of Divine Oneness).

This is what I told the students, who accepted and affirmed it, saying: “We thank God, for we have received an absolutely true and sacred lesson. May God be pleased with you.” I added that each of us is a living machine subject to many sorrows and capable of knowing many pleasures. Although wholly impotent, we have infinite physical and spiritual enemies. Although wholly destitute, we have infinite outer and inner needs and suffer continual blows of decay and separation. But we can be connected to the Majestic Monarch via belief and worship, and find therein a point of support against our enemies and a source of help for our needs.

All people take pride in the honor and rank of the highly placed one to whom they are connected. Imagine that you are connected to the infinitely Powerful and Compassionate Monarch through belief, that you enter His service through worship and thereby change the announcement of your execution into welcome discharge papers. This lets you understand some degree of the contentment, thankfulness, and pride you will feel.

I gave the prisoners and the students the same message: Those who recognize and obey Him prosper even if they are in prison, while those who forget Him are wretched prisoners even if they live in palaces. Once a wronged but fortunate [due to his belief and being martyred] man said to the wretched wrongdoers who were executing him: “I’m not being executed; rather, I’m being discharged from my duties and going to eternal happiness. Moreover, as I can see you even now condemned to eternal punishment, I’m taking complete revenge on you.” He then said: “There is no god but God,” and died happily.

Glory be to You. We have no knowledge save what You have taught us. Truly, you are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

 

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

* The Thirteenth Word / Second Station