THE FIFTH STEP: The mountains and plains

 

 

Then the mountains and the plains summon that traveler on their journey of reflection, saying: “Read our pages too!” Looking, the traveler sees:

The universal tasks carried out by the mountains, along with the purposes they serve, are so great and full of wisdom that they astonish the mind. For instance, the mountains burst forth from the earth’s crust by the command of their Lord and thereby calm down the unrest, anger and fury that arise from commotions within the bowels of the earth. Yet while the earth is delivered from the harmful tremors and upheavals within it and is allowed to breath through the bursting forth of these mountains, it does not disturb the rest or comfort of its inhabitants as it carries out its duty of rotation. Just as masts are placed on ships to protect them against turbulence and maintain their balance, according to the Qur’an of miraculous exposition, the mountains are like masts that have been planted on the deck of the vessel that is the earth:

And the mountains as masts, (78:7)

And the earth—We have spread it out, and set therein firm mountains, (15:19; 50:7)

And the mountains He has set firm. (79:32)

Furthermore, prepared and stored up in the mountains are countless things that are needed by living beings, such as springs, waters, minerals and medicinal substances; these are stored up and preserved there in such a wise, skilful, generous and careful fashion that they can only be the storehouses and servants of one of infinite power and wisdom. This much the traveler deduces, and comparing with these two the other duties and instances of wisdom that are inherent in the mountains and plains, they can see the testimony they give and the Divine Unity they pronounce, saying, “There is no deity but He,” through the general instances of wisdom hidden in them and, in particular, in regard to the things providentially stored up in them. And seeing that their pronouncement is as powerful and firm as the mountains and as vast and expansive as the plains themselves, the traveler too declares: “I believe in God.”

As an expression of this meaning, it was said in the Fifth Step of the First Station:

There is no deity but God, the Necessarily Existent One, Whose Necessary Existence is demonstrated clearly by all the mountains and plains, with whatever there is in or on them. This is testified to by sublimely comprehensive, vast and perfect reality of storing up and management, by the dissemination of seeds, the preservation and precautionary measures that are particular to Divine Lordship, all of which are clearly observable.

Said Nursi