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As for the proof of creation (al-dalîl al-ikhtirâ)indicated by the âyah اَلَّذي خَلَقَكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ1:
Allah Taâ’lâ has bestowed upon every individual and species a particular existence, which is the source of its spesific works and perfections worthy of it. Because they are contingent and the argument regarding the causal chains is false, none of the series of species can be azalî, and the constant change and transformation in the ‘âlam prove, sometimes through witnessing and sometimes through rational necessity, that everything comes newly into existence (hudûth). It has also been demonstrated by biology and botany that there are more than two hundred thousand species, and each must have an Âdam and forefather. The mystery of imkân2 and hudûth3 necessarily proves that these progenitors and forefathers emerged from the hand of the Qoudrah of Allah without intermediaries. Consequently, the things — that is, the material causes — thought to be part of the causal chain of successive generations cannot be considered the origins of the first creation, and the delusional concept of the separation of certain species from others is also bâtil. Because an interbred species generally cannot start new chains through reproduction.4 Therefore, since the origins and beginnings are as stated, the successive members of these chains will also be the same. How can it be imagined that simple, lifeless natural causes, lacking intelligence and will, are capable of giving existence to these chains, which astound the mind, and capable of creating out of nothing (ikhtirâ) the members of these chains, each of which is a wonder of art and miracle of Qoudrah? Indeed, through the languages of their coming into existence (hudûth) newly and contingency (imkân), all members of chains with the chains they belong to testify decisively to the necessary existence of their Khâliq, Jalla Jalalûhu.
If you were to ask: Why do people believe in such dhalâlahs, like the matter and its movement being azalî, despite this decisive testimony?
You would be told: An indirect and superficial view sees the impossible as possible, just like an elderly man searching the sky for the crescent moon of Eid mistook the downward-curving white hair from his eyebrow for the moon. Since man possesses a lofty essence and noble nature, he pursues haqq and haqiqah. However, sometimes the bâtil and dhalâlah involuntarily fall into his hand without seeking or searching; rather, out of necessity, he accepts them since he looks through his superficial and indirect view. Because when he ignores the order of the universe, which is the thread and chain of hikmahs, and he is blind to the contradiction of the matter and its movement and their being azalî, it becomes possible in his indirect view to attribute the unique embroideries and wondrous art to blind chance and unseeing coincidence.
As Husayn Al-Jisrî has said, if a person who enters a palace filled with the adorned works of civilisation does not see its owner, he will believe that it has no owner, then he will be forced to attribute the structure of the palace and its adornments to the union of chance and coincidence and the laws of natural selection. Moreover, since he is blind to and ignores the testimony of hikmahs and benefits in the order of ‘âlam that continues through an absolute Will, encompassing ‘Ilm and perfect Qoudrah, it seems possible to prove the actual effect of lifeless causes to his indirect view.
O friend! Disregard the subtleties of the art of Jalla Jalalûhu and regard attentively the most obvious among His works called "nature," which is the visible manifestation and reflection, on condition that you rend the veil of familiarity: how can your nafs be convinced and your mind accepts that the attributes of the face of a mirror can be a real cause (‘illah) to reveal the face of the skies, attract its image with its altitude and embroider it with stars on its glass? And how can your mind be convinced that the thing called gravity, which is imaginary in reality, can be a real cause (‘illah), to hold the earth and stars with their movements and rotations, like a string of catapult, in firm order?
In Short: If man looks superficially and indirectly at something bâtil and impossible and does not see a real cause (‘illah), he may deem it possible and valid. However, if he looks at that thing directly and deliberately, seeking its true essence, he will find it impossible to accept any of those bâtil matters, which they refer to as philosophy, unless he is so foolish as to believe that all minute particles possess the intelligence of philosophers and the hikmah of politicians!
If you were to ask: What are the nature, laws and forces that they mumble about and console themselves with?
You would be told: Nature is a misdâr5, not a source. It is where the nature of everything is shaped, formed and printed, not the one that shapes, forms and prints. It is laws, not a power. Rather, it is the takwînî Sharî'ah of Allah that establishes an order on the acts of the limbs of the body of al-‘âlam ash-shahâdah. Just as Sharî'ah is the sum and summary of the laws concerning actions taken by choice and will, along with the whole of the political principles of the system of government. So too the order and Sharî'ah are two theoretical (i’tibârî) matters that exist only within the mind. Similarly, nature is a theoretical (i’tibârî) matter that is the summary of ‘Âdâtullah, which prevails and works in creation.
Imagining the external existence of nature resembles a savage man; when he sees a military division moving regularly, he imagines that the soldiers are tied together with something that has an external existence. So only those with a savage conscience (vijdân) can imagine that nature has an effective external existence because of its continuance.
In Short: Nature is the art of Allah Ta‘âlâ and His harî'ah of fitrah. Its laws and forces are the matters of it, and its powers are the rules of those matters.
1 (…your Rabb Who created you and created those who came before you…)
2 (Imkân literally means being possible, possibility, feasibility and practicability. The opposite of necessity, or necessary existence, which is wujûb.
As an Islamic term: Contingent beings. Contingency. The entirety of creation, where existence and non-existence hold equal possibility, and both require a cause to come into existence. Anything that depends on another being in order to exist. Whatever exists other than Al-Wajib Al-Wujûd. Allah, Who is Al-Wâjib Al-Wujûd, chooses their existence through His will and irâdah and gives them a particular essence, a specific form, a distinct identity, particular attributes, qualities full of hikmah and beneficial organs from amongst the infinite possibilities.) (Tr.)
3 [Hudûth: Newly coming into existence. Being new or recent; newness. Essential temporality; the essential newness of origin. Being nonexistent until coming into existence by a cause. The constant change and renewal in beings. Hudûth is the opposite of Qidam, one of Allah’s essential (dhati) attributes.] (Tr.)
4 (In the translation of Abdulkadir Badıllı, the explanation of this is as follows:
“For example, the mule species, which is an interbred species between the horse and the donkey species, does not initiate new chains through reproduction.”) (Tr.)
5 (Misdâr: A geometrical rule by which correct lines are drawn. A ruler. Parallel threads tightened on a piece of board used by those who copy manuscripts to mark lines.) (Tr.)