The Thirtieth Flash

The Second Subtlety

A subtle meaning of the verse

وَاِنْ مِنْ شَىْءٍ اِلاَّ عِنْدَنَا خَزَاۤئِنُهُ وَمَا نُنَزِّلُهُ اِلاَّ بِقَدَرٍ مَعْلُومٍAnd there is nothing except that its treasures are with Us, and We do not send it down except according to a known measure. — The Qur’an 15:21.

and a manifestation of the Name al-Adl“The Utterly Just”; a divine name or attribute signifying Allah’s absolute justice, whereby He acts and judges with perfect fairness, without oppression or injustice. — which is either the Ism-i AzamThe Greatest Name of Allah. or one of the six lights of the Ism-i AzamThe Greatest Name of Allah. — became apparent to me from afar in EskişehirA city in northwestern Turkey, known for its historical and cultural significance. It holds an important place in the life of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, who was imprisoned there in 1935 together with many of his students because of their activities involving the Risale-i Nur. Prison, just as the truths of the First Subtlety had. To bring this truth closer to our understanding, we shall once again explain it by means of a comparison:

This universe resembles a palace containing a city that is continually being demolished and rebuilt. Within that city is a country constantly shaken by war and migration, and within that country is a world ceaselessly tossed between life and death.

Yet throughout that palace, city, country, and world, there prevails such an astonishing balance and such precise measure and proportion that it clearly demonstrates that the countless changes, receipts, and expenditures taking place among these innumerable beings are measured and weighed according to the balance established by the One Who at every moment oversees the entire universe and governs it under His authority.

For if causes—such as a fish producing a thousand eggs, a plant like the poppy producing twenty thousand seeds, and the elements and transformations surging onward like a flood—were left free and unrestrained, or abandoned to purposeless chance, blind force, and unconscious, dark nature, the balance of creatures and of the universe would be so utterly disrupted that everything would fall into chaos, not within a year, but within a single day.

The seas would fill with all manner of debris and begin to rot; the air would become poisoned with harmful gases; and the earth would become a rubbish heap, a slaughterhouse, and a swamp. The world would suffocate.

Yet the reality is precisely the opposite. From the cells of living beings and the red and white blood cells, from the transformations of the smallest particles and the proportions among the organs of the body, to the receipts and expenditures of the seas, the inflow and outflow of underground springs, the births and deaths of animals and plants, the destruction and renewal of autumn and spring, the duties and movements of the elements and stars, and the alternations and interactions of life and death, light and darkness, heat and cold—everything is regulated and weighed with such delicate precision and such fine balance that the human intellect can find no real waste or purposelessness anywhere.

On the contrary, human wisdom and science perceive and reveal the most perfect order and the most beautiful harmony everywhere. Indeed, human wisdom and science themselves are but a reflection and expression of that order and harmony.

Consider, then, the balance between the sun and its twelve different planets. Does this balance not demonstrate, as clearly as the sun itself, the existence of the Dhāt-i Dhul-JalālAllah, the Majestic Lord Whose greatness and majesty are boundless., Who is Just and All-Powerful?