The Fourteenth Gleam
The meaning of the hadith, “The earth stands on the ox and the fish.” & The People of the Cloak & The meaning, worth and mysteries of the Basmala
This consists of Two Stations. The First Station is an answer to two questions.
First station
In His Name, All-Glorified is He.
There is nothing but it glorifies Him with His praise.
Peace be upon you, and God’s mercy and blessings.
My dear and faithful brother, Rafet Bey!
The answer to the question you ask about the earth standing on the ox and fish is to be found in some parts of the Risale-i Nur. Concerning such questions, twelve important principles have been explained in the Third Branch of the Twenty-Fourth Word. Those principles are guidelines that allow the perception of various meanings of the Prophetic Traditions and contain important standards by which to dispel doubts about them. Since there are many things preventing me from occupying myself with scholarly matters, I cannot answer your questions adequately. Therefore, I will give a brief answer to your present question.
You say that some hojas (religious teachers) claim that the earth stands on an ox and a fish, while geography sees that the earth is a planet traveling in space. There is neither an ox nor a fish holding it up.
THE ANSWER: There is an authentic Prophetic Tradition reportedly narrated by Ibn ‘Abbas, may God be pleased with him. They asked God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, “What does the earth stand on?” He declared, “The earth stands on the ox and the fish.”42 It is also narrated that this question was asked twice and in one of his answers, he said that it stands on the ox, and in the other, on the fish. Some scholars of Hadith have explained this Tradition in the light of certain superstitious stories taken from some Israelite sources. In particular, some Israelite scholars who became Muslims narrated the stories about the ox and the fish they had encountered in the earlier Scriptures along with the Prophetic Tradition mentioned, and changed the meaning of the Tradition to something strange. For now, I will write three principles so that we can understand such Traditions correctly and I will approach the Tradition you ask about from three different perspectives.
The first principle
When some of the scholars of the Children of Israel became Muslims, their former knowledge became “Muslim” and came to be attributed to Islam. However, there were errors in their former knowledge, and these errors do not belong to Islam.
The second principle
When passing from the hands of knowledge to the hands of ignorance, with the passage of time, a metaphor comes to be regarded as a reality. For example, once during my childhood the moon was eclipsed. I asked my mother about it. She answered that a snake had swallowed the moon. I asked why it continued to appear. She explained, “The snakes of the sky are like glass, and they show what is inside them.”
For a long time this memory of my childhood stayed with me. I would say, thinking about it, “How can such a groundless superstition be repeated by sensible people like my mother?” When I later studied astronomy I realized that those who spoke like my mother took a comparison for a reality. For, during a lunar eclipse the moon passes through some portion of the earth’s shadow. This can occur only when the moon is full, and when the sun, earth, and moon are exactly in line, or very close to being in line. The shadow is actually composed of two cone-shaped components, one nested inside the other. There is another condition for an eclipse to occur. This is when the moon is near one of the two intersection points of its orbit with the earth. Using a metaphor, classical astronomers called the two components “the two great snakes.” They called the two intersecting points “the head” and “the tail.” When the moon comes to the head and the sun to the tail, the earth comes between them, and the moon is eclipsed. According to the metaphor above, “the moon has entered the mouth of the snake.” Thus, when this fine, scientific metaphor entered the language of the common people, with the passage of time, it gave rise to the idea that a snake existed large enough to swallow the moon.
From the viewpoint of their duties and with a sacred, fine metaphor which indicates an important truth, two great angels were given the names of the Ox (Thawr) and the Fish (Hut). When this metaphor passed into the language of the common people from the elevated, sacred tongue of Prophethood, it became interpreted as a reality, and the blessed angels changed places with a large ox and an awesome fish.
The third principle
Just as the Qur’an uses allegories and comparisons, and teaches the most subtle and profound matters to ordinary people by means of the parables and similes they contain, so too do the Prophetic Traditions have allegories that contain familiar comparisons by means of which very profound truths are expressed. For example, as we have described in some other places (The Letters, “The Nineteenth Letter”), once a loud noise was heard in the Prophet’s presence. He said, “This is the noise of a rock that has been rolling downwards for seventy years and which has now reached Hell’s lowest depths.”43 An hour later, news came that a notorious hypocrite, who recently had reached the age of seventy, had died. This report shows what God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, intended by this eloquent parable.
Now, I will explain three aspects of the Tradition you asked about:
THE FIRST: God Almighty has appointed four angels, one of whom is called the Eagle (Nasir), to represent and observe His absolute dominion over the heavens. They are called the “the bearers of the Divine Throne and the heavens.” He has also appointed two angels to observe and represent His dominion over the earth, which is a small sister of the heavens and a friend of the planets. One of these angels is called the Ox (Thawr), and the other, the Fish (Hut). The reason He has given these names to them is as follows:
The earth mainly consists of land and water. It is the fish that inhabit the water, while agriculture, which is the basic means of livelihood for humankind, uses the land, resting on the shoulders of oxen. Since the two angels appointed to the earth are both commanders and supervisors over the earthly creatures and life, they must surely have some sort of relation with oxen and fish. It may be that—the true knowledge is with God—these two angels are represented in the Immaterial World of the Manifestations of Divine Commands and the World of Immaterial Representations or Ideal Forms in the forms of an ox and a fish.44 So, as both a reference to this representation and to the supervising function of these angels, as well as being an allusion to these two important species among the creatures of the earth, the Prophet’s language of miraculous expression stated, “The earth stands on the ox and the fish,” and expressed in a very fine, concise sentence a page of profound truths.
SECOND ASPECT: If it is asked upon what this government stands, the answer is, “It stands on the sword and the pen.” That is, a government rests on the power and courage of the military’s sword, and the administrative ability and justice of the bureaucracy. In the same way, the earth is the dwelling place of living beings and the commander of living beings is humanity. The means of livelihood for the majority of people who live by the sea is fishing, and the means of livelihood for the majority of those who do not live by the sea is agriculture, and therefore dependent on oxen while fish are also an important means of trade for them. So, just as it is said that a state stands on the sword and the pen, it can also be claimed that the earth stands on the ox and the fish. For if the ox should cease to work and the fish should stop producing hundreds of thousands of eggs in a single reproductive season, human life would suffer greatly.
Thus, as a highly miraculous, elevated, and wise reply, the noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, said, “The earth stands on the ox and the fish.” He instructed us, in an extraordinarily concise fashion, in a comprehensive truth concerning the extent to which the life of humankind is connected to the life of the animal kingdom.
THIRD ASPECT: Ancient astronomy held that the sun traveled through the sky. They called every thirty degrees of its journey a constellation. If hypothetical lines are drawn between the stars in the constellations to connect them with one another, these lines show the shape of a lion on one occasion, the shape of scales on another, the shape of an ox on another, and the shape of a fish on still another. The constellations were called by these shapes. According to modern astronomy, the sun does not travel. Thus, the constellations now are idle and out of work. We have learned that it is not the sun, but the earth that travels. Thus, instead of these idle heavenly constellations, their counterparts should exist along the annual orbit of the earth in smaller sizes. That is to say, the heavenly constellations should be represented along the annual orbit of the earth. This means that each month the earth falls in the shadow of one of these constellations. It is as if the annual orbit of the earth is a mirror in which the heavenly constellations are reflected.
It is reported that as mentioned before, the question about where the earth stands was put to God’s noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, twice. In one of his answers, he said that it was on the ox, and in the other, he said, “It is on the fish.” Pointing to a scientific reality which would only be understood many centuries later, he on one occasion said in a way fitting for the miraculous tongue of Prophethood, “It is on the ox,” because the earth at that time was under the hypothetical form of the constellation of the Ox (Taurus) when he gave this answer. When the same question was asked a second time and he answered that the earth was on the fish, the earth was at that time in the shadow of the constellation of the Fish (Pisces).
With these answers, God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, indicated a reality which would only be understood in the distant future. In other words, he indicated that the duty of the earth is fulfilled by turning around the sun and the fact that the heavenly constellations are idle and it is rather the constellations along the earth’s annual orbit that are at work. God knows best what is right.
The strange, unreasonable stories in some books about Islam concerning this Prophetic Tradition are either borrowings from earlier Israelite books or allegories or interpretations of some scholars of Hadith, which certain careless people took for hadiths and attributed to God’s noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings.
Our Lord, take us not to task if we forget or make mistakes!
All-Glorified are You. We have no knowledge save what You have taught us. Surely You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
THE SECOND QUESTION: This is about the People of the Cloak.
My brother! God’s noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, covered ‘Ali, ‘Ali’s wife and the Messenger’s daughter Fatima, and their sons Hasan and Husayn, may God be pleased with them, with the blessed cloak he was wearing, and prayed for them reciting the verse, God only wills to remove from you, O members of the (Prophet’s) Family, all that may be loathsome, and to purify you to the utmost of purity (33: 33).45
With respect to your question about the People of the Cloak, which has remained unanswered, omitting the subtle truths and meanings that this event contains, only one out of many of the instances of wisdom relating to the mission of Messengership will be explained. It is as follows:
God’s noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, saw with his eye of Prophethood, which penetrated the Unseen and the future, that thirty or so years later serious strife and dissent would break out among the Companions and the generation to succeed them, and that blood would be shed. He also saw that the most distinguished and illustrious among them would be the three—‘Ali, Hasan, and Husayn—whom he covered with his cloak. In order to declare ‘Ali’s innocence and acquit him in the view of the Muslim Community, and to offer condolences to Husayn, and to congratulate Hasan on the treaty he would make with Mu‘awiya in order to remove the serious dissent among the Muslims that disrupted their unity, and to proclaim the honor Hasan would earn and the great benefit he would give to the Muslim Community, and in order also to declare that the descendants of Fatima would be purified and honored and deserve the elevated title of the People of the Prophet’s Family or Household, he covered them in the cloak, thus giving himself and these four the title of the Five People of the Cloak.
Certainly ‘Ali, may God be pleased with him, was the rightful caliph. However, the bloodshed during his caliphate was of great importance and, therefore, the mission of Messengership required that the Messenger should declare his innocence in the sight of the Muslim Community for the bloodshed and the events of dissent that occurred during his caliphate. Thus, with this Tradition, God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, declared ‘Ali’s innocence and bade the Kharijites, who wrongfully accused him of error and heresy, and the aggressive partisans of the Umayyads, to be silent. The fanatical partisans of the Umayyads and Kharijites, who went to extremes concerning ‘Ali and accused him of misguidance, and the Shi‘a, who went to the opposite extreme due to the truly heartrending martyrdom of Husayn, introducing innovations to the Religion, and declaring themselves to be free of the two Elders of Islam, Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, may God be pleased with them, have caused great harm to the people of Islam.
Thus, through the event of the Cloak and the related prayer, God’s noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, absolved ‘Ali and Husayn, may God be pleased with them, of the accusations that would be leveled against them, and saved his Community from having an ill-opinion of them. He, on account of his mission of Messengership, also congratulated Hasan, may God be pleased with him, on the good he did with the Muslim Community by signing the treaty with Mu‘awiya, and announced that the blessed descendants of Fatima, may God be pleased with her, known as the Prophet’s Family, would be highly honored, and like Mary’s mother, who said, “I commend her [Mary] and her offspring to You for protection from Satan eternally rejected from God’s Mercy,” (3: 36), Fatima herself would earn great, extra honors by virtue of her descendants.
O God! Bestow blessings on our master Muhammad, and on his pure, righteous, pious, and virtuous Family, and on His Companions, strivers in God’s cause, noble and favored and good. Amen.
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi
42 al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, 4:636; at-Tabarani, Jami‘ al-Bayan, 1:153.. (Tr.)
43 Muslim, “Jannah” 31, “Munaiqun” 15; Ibn Hanbal, al-Musnad, 2:371. (Tr.)
44 The earth is a ship created by and belonging to the Lord running in the surrounding ocean of space, and according to a hadith, is the tillage of the Hereafter, that is, an arable land which we sow to harvest in the Hereafter. So it is clear how fitting are the name of Fish for the angel who steers that huge unconscious ship on that ocean by God’s command in a well-ordered and purposeful fashion, and the name of Ox for the angel who supervises that arable land by God’s leave. (Tr.)
45 Muslim, “Fadail as-Sahaba” 61; at-Tirmidhi, “Tafsir Sura 33” 7. (Tr.)