THE FLASHES
The Thirtieth Flash
The Third Subtlety
A subtle meaning of the verse
اُدْعُ اِلٰى سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِInvite to the way of your Lord with wisdom. — The Qur’an 16:125.
and a manifestation of the Name al-Hakam“The Supreme Judge”; one of the Most Beautiful Names of Allah, signifying that He judges all things with perfect wisdom, justice, and authority. — 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 clear to me during the blessed month of RamadanThe ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, during which Muslims fast from dawn until sunset and in which the Qur’an was first revealed., while I was 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.
As a mere indication of this truth, this Third Subtlety, consisting of five points, was written down in haste and left in draft form.
The First Point
As indicated in the Tenth Word, the supreme manifestation of the Name al-Hakam“The Supreme Judge”; one of the Most Beautiful Names of Allah, signifying that He judges all things with perfect wisdom, justice, and authority. has transformed this universe into a book. On every page, hundreds of books are written; in every line, hundreds of pages are condensed; in every word, hundreds of lines are contained; in every letter, hundreds of words are found; and in every point lies a concise index of the entire book.
The pages, lines, and even the points of this book reveal their Designer and Author with such clarity, and in hundreds of ways, that beholding the book of the universe proves the existence and unity of its Author a hundred times more clearly than it establishes the existence of the book itself. For while a single letter indicates its own existence only to the extent of a letter, it points to its writer to the extent of an entire line.
Indeed, one page of this great book is the face of the earth. On that page, during the spring season, we witness with our own eyes how books as numerous as the species of plants and animals are written simultaneously, intermingled with one another, yet without confusion or error, and each in perfect form.
A line on this page is a garden. In that garden, we see with our own eyes how countless flowers, trees, and plants are written together as rhyming odes, interwoven with one another, without a single mistake.
A word in that line is a tree that has blossomed, put forth its leaves, and is about to bear fruit. That single word contains meaningful expressions as numerous as its orderly, well-balanced, and beautifully adorned leaves, flowers, and fruits, all proclaiming the praise and glory of the Hakam-i Dhul-JalālThe Majestic Judge; a divine title referring to Allah as the Supreme Judge, Whose judgments and decrees reflect perfect wisdom, absolute justice, and divine majesty..
It is as though that tree, like every flowering tree, were itself a rhyming hymn of praise, singing the praises of its Designer.
It is also as though the Hakam-i Dhul-JalālThe Majestic Judge; a divine title referring to Allah as the Supreme Judge, Whose judgments and decrees reflect perfect wisdom, absolute justice, and divine majesty. wills to behold, through thousands of eyes, His rare and wondrous works of art displayed in the great exhibition of the earth.