THE SIXTH STEP: The trees and plants

 

 

Then as that traveler is journeying in their mind through the mountains and plains, the gateway to the world of trees and plants is opened to them. They are invited to enter with the words: “Come, travel through our world and read our inscriptions.” Entering there, the traveler sees that they have formed a magnificent and well-adorned assembly that proclaims God’s Unity and a circle that mentions Him by His Names and offers thanks to Him. The traveler can understand from the very appearance of all the trees and plants that, with all their species they unanimously proclaim: “There is no deity but God.” For they notice three great, universal realities which indicate and prove the fact that in the tongue of their well-proportioned and eloquent leaves, with the phrases of their richly-adorned and fluent flowers, and the words of their well-ordered and articulate fruits, all fruit-bearing trees and plants glorify God and testify to His Unity, saying “There is no deity but He.”

THE FIRST REALITY: Each of the plants and trees gives the clear impression that they have been provided with a deliberate purpose and are intentionally maintained. This fact is also observed in the totality of the trees and plants with the brilliance of sunlight.

THE SECOND REALITY: In the countless varieties and species a wise and purposeful distinguishing and differentiation, and a willful and compassionate fashioning, equipping and adorning, none of which is in any way attributable to chance, can be seen as clearly as daylight: they reveal quite clearly the fact that they are the works and embroideries of an All-Wise Maker.

THE THIRD REALITY: Each of the members of these hundreds of thousands of species of plants and trees is given a separate, distinct form with the most perfect order, balance, proportion and beauty, with vitality and wise purposefulness, and without the least error, from simple and solid seeds and grains that are identical or nearly identical to one another. This is a reality more brilliant than the sun and there are as many witnesses that prove this truth as there are flowers, fruits and leaves that appear in spring. The traveler perceives this and says: “All praise be to God for the blessing of belief.”

As an expression of these realities and the testimonies given to them it was said in The Sixth Step of The First Station:

There is no deity but God, the Necessarily Existent One, Whose Necessary Existence in His Unity is demonstrated clearly by all species of trees and plants, which glorify God and speak with the words of their well-proportioned, eloquent leaves, their fluent, richly-adorned flowers and their well-ordered, articulate fruits. This is testified to by the sublimely comprehensive, vast and perfect reality of purposeful and compassionate provision, bestowal and favoring, and of willful and wise distinguishing, adorning and fashioning, all of which are clearly observable. It is also clearly indicated by the fact that each of these trees and plants is given a well-proportioned, decorated, distinctive, separate form from similar or near-identical seeds and grains, all of which are finite and limited.

Said Nursi