Twenty-Fifth Word

First Light-Third Ray

Second Radiance: This is the Qur'an's youthfulness. It preserves its freshness and youthfulness as though newly revealed at every age. Yes, since the Qur'an addresses at once all the classes of mankind in every age as an azalî khutbah, a perpetual youth should necessarily be found in it. And that is how it has been seen and is seen. It even looks at each of the centuries, which are different concerning thoughts and dispositions, as though it looks particularly at that century; it makes others look in that way and gives lessons. The works and laws of mankind get old like mankind; they change and are changed. But the rules and laws of the Qur'an are so firm and well-grounded that they show more of their strength as the centuries pass. Yes, the present age and ahl al-kitâb of this age, who are the most self-reliant and close their ears to the words of the Qur'an, are so in need of its guiding address of يَا اَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ يَا اَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ 1 that it is as though that address inclines favourably towards this age directly, and the phraseيَا اَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ 2 also comprises the meaning of يَا اَهْلَ الْمَكْتَبِ3. It winnows out the shout of يَا اَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ تَعَالَوْا اِلَى كَلِمَةٍ سَوَاءٍ بَيْنَنَا وَ بَيْنَكُمْ 4 to all sides of the ‘âlam with all its severity, all its freshness and all its youth.

For example, the present civilisation, which is the product of the thought of all mankind and the jinns as well, has taken up a position of dispute against the Qur'an, which individuals and communities have failed to dispute. With their sihr, they dispute the Qur'an's miraculousness. Now, against this terrible new opponent, in order to prove the Qur'an's miraculousness and the claim of the âyah 5 قُلْ لَئِنِ اجْتَمَعَتِ اْلاِنْسُ وَالْجِنُّ , we shall compare the foundations and principles that civilisation has laid in the form of dispute with the principles of the Qur'an.

At the First Degree: the comparisons and balances of the Risale-i Nur, from the First Word to the Twenty-Fifth Word, and the âyahs at their heads, which are the haqiqahs of those Words, prove with certainty that two plus two equals four, the Qur'an's miraculousness and victory against civilisation.

At the Second Degree: as is proven in the Twelfth Word, it is to summarise some of its principles. Thus, with its philosophy, present civilisation accepts 'force' as the point of support in the life of society. It considers its aim to be 'benefit', the principle of its life to be 'conflict' and the bond between communities to be 'racialism and negative nationalism'. Its aim is some 'trifling amusements' for satisfying the desires of the nafs and increasing man's needs. But the necessary consequence of force is transgression. Since the benefit is not sufficient for the desires of all, the necessary consequence of it is to throttle one another on it. The necessary consequence of the principle of conflict is collision. Since racialism is being nourished by devouring others, the necessary consequence of it is transgression. Thus, it is because of these principles of civilisation that, despite all its goodness, it has provided a sort of superficial happiness for only twenty per cent of mankind and cast eighty per cent into discomfort and poverty.

As for the hikmah of the Qur'an, it accepts 'haqq' as its point of support in place of 'force'. It accepts 'fadhîlah and the pleasure and acceptance of Allah' as the aim instead of the benefit. Instead of the principle of conflict, it holds 'the principle of mutual assistance' as the basis of life. Instead of racialism and nationalism, it accepts 'the bonds of religion, class and country' as the bonds of communities. Its aims are to urge the rûh to sublime matters and to satisfy its elevated feelings by building a barrier against the transgressions of the desires of the nafs that are prohibited by the Sharî’ah, and to make the man a human being by urging him to the perfections of humanity. However, the necessary consequence of the haqq is union. The necessary consequence of fadhîlah is solidarity. The necessary consequence of the principle of mutual assistance is hastening each other’s aid. The necessary consequence of religion is brotherhood and attraction. The necessary consequence of leaving the rûh free by tethering and reining in the nafs al-ammarah and whipping up the rûh towards the perfections is happiness in both realms.

Here, despite the virtues that present civilisation has received from the previous samâwî religions, in particular, the Qur'an’s guidance, it has thus been defeated before the Qur'an in the view of haqiqah.

Third Degree: Of thousands of its matters, we shall point out only three or four as an example. Yes, since the principles and laws of the Qur'an have come from azal, they will go to eternity. They are not condemned to get old and die like civilisation's laws. They are always young and strong.

For example, despite all benevolent societies of civilisation and its overbearing severe discipline and orders and all its establishments for the teaching of ethics, they have been unable to contest Al-Qur'an Al-Hakîm on two of its matters; they have been defeated by those two matters.

For example, 6 وَاَقِيمُوا الصَّلَوةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَوةَ7 ٭ وَاَحَلَّ اللّٰهُ الْبَيْعَ وَحَرَّمَ الرِّبَوا . We shall declare this miraculous victory of the Qur’an through an introduction. It is as follows:

As is proved in Isharat al-I'jaz8, just as the source of rebellions among mankind is one phrase, so too is one phrase the origin of all immorality.

The First Phrase: "So long as I am full, what is it to me if others die of hunger?"

The Second Phrase: "You work; I will eat."

Yes, in man’s social life, the upper and lower classes, that is, the rich and the poor, live at peace through equilibrium. The basis of that equilibrium is mercy and compassion in the upper class and respect and obedience in the lower class. Now, the first phrase has driven the upper classes to cruelty, immorality and mercilessness, and the second has driven the lower class to hatred, envy and struggle and has taken away mankind's comfort for several centuries. So, in this century, as the result of the struggle of labour against capital, the momentous events of Europe, well known by all, have occurred. Thus, despite all its charitable institutions, all its schools for the teaching of ethics and all its severe discipline and orders, the civilisation could not reconcile these two classes of mankind, nor could it cure the two fearsome wounds of mankind’s life.

With zakât being wâjib, the Qur'an eradicates the first phrase by its very roots and cures it. With interest (ribâ) being haram, it eradicates the roots of the second phrase and cures it. Indeed, the âyahs of the Qur'an stand at the door of the world and say, “Interest (ribâ) is forbidden.” It decrees to mankind and says, "In order to close the door of the fight, close the door of banks!" It commands its students, “Do not enter it.”

Second Principle: Civilisation does not accept polygamy. It considers the Qur'an's decree to be contrary to itself and opposed to mankind's benefits and hikmah. Yes, if the hikmah of marriage were only to satisfy lust, there should be polygamy. But as is testified to by all animals and corroborated by plants that marry, the hikmah and aim of marriage is reproduction. The pleasure of satisfying lust is a small wage given by rahmah to encourage the fulfilment of the duty. Since, according to haqiqah and hikmah, marriage is for generation and the perpetuation of the species, and since a woman, who can give birth only once a year, can be impregnated only half of the month and after the age of fifty falls into despair, is mostly insufficient for a man, who can mostly impregnate till a hundred years old, civilisation has been compelled to accept numerous houses of promiscuousness.

Third Principle: Unreasoning civilisation criticises the âyah because, in inheritance, the Qur'an apportions to women one-third. However, most of the laws concerning social life are according to the majority, and a woman mostly finds someone to protect her. As for the man, he is compelled to have a partnership with someone whose sustenance will be carried by him and who will be a burden on him. Thus, in this way, if a woman takes half of her brother’s from her father's legacy, her husband assures her of her shortfall. If the man receives two parts from his father, he will give one part of it to provide for the livelihood of the woman he has married; he becomes equal with his sister. Here, the justice of the Qur'an requires it to be thus; it has judged it in this way. {Note-1: This is a part of the defence I wrote to the Appeal Court that was against the court and silenced it. It became a note for this subject. “I say to the court of law: if there is any justice on the face of the earth, surely it will reject and demolish an unjust decision that has convicted a man who made the tafsir of a most sacred, right principle of Allah that has been in force in the social lives of three hundred and fifty million people in each century for one thousand three hundred and fifty years by relying on the confirmation and consensus of three hundred and fifty thousand tafsirs and following the beliefs of our forefathers for one thousand three hundred and fifty years.}

Fourth Principle: Just as the Qur'an severely prohibits the ‘ibâdah to idols, so does it forbid the ‘ibâdah to images, which is a sort of imitation of the ‘ibâdah to idols. Whereas, considering the images as one of its virtues, civilisation has wanted to dispute the Qur'an. But images, whether possessing shadow or not, are either dhulm transformed into stones, embodied riyâ, or embodied desires of the nafs. By whipping up the desires of the nafs, images encourage mankind to dhulm and riyâ and to follow the desires of the nafs. Moreover, in order to preserve the respect shown to them, the Qur'an compassionately commands women to wear the veil of hayâ so that those mines of compassion will not be crushed under the feet of the vile desires of the nafs nor be a worthless commodity that is an instrument satisfying lust. {Note-2: The Twenty-Fourth Flash of the Thirty-First Letter on the tasattur of the women has decisively proved that tasattur is appropriate for women’s fitrah and the abrogation of tasattur is contrary to fitrah.} As for civilisation, it has drawn women out of their homes, torn their veils and corrupted mankind, whereas family life can continue with the mutual love and respect of man and woman. But immodest dressing has destroyed sincere respect and love and poisoned family life. From the following, it can be understood that especially ‘ibâdah to images appallingly shakes morality and causes the degradation of rûh: just as looking lustfully and with desire at the corpse of a beautiful woman who is in need of pity and compassion destroys morality, so too does looking at the images of dead women or the images of living women, which are their little corpses, in a way that nurtures the desires of the nafs shake the elevated human feelings from their very roots and destroy them to that extent.

Thus, together with serving to ensure the happiness of mankind in this world, each of the thousands of matters of the Qur'an, like the above three examples, serves their eternal happiness. You can compare other matters to these.

Just as the present civilisation is defeated before the principles of the Qur'an concerning man’s social life, and, in the point of view of haqiqah, it is bankrupt before the Qur'an's ma’nawî miraculousness, so too, in the previous twenty-five Words through comparisons between the Qur'an's hikmah and the European philosophy and human hikmah, which are the rûh of civilisation, it has been decisively proved that the hikmah of philosophy is impotent and the hikmah of the Qur'an is miraculous. For example, the impotence and bankruptcy of the hikmah of philosophy and the miraculousness and wealth of the Qur'an's hikmah have been proved in the Eleventh and Twelfth Words; you may refer to those.

Furthermore, just as the present civilisation is defeated before the miraculousness of the Qur'an's hikmah in regard to ‘ilm and action, in the same way, the comparison between the literature and balâghat of civilisation and the literature and balâghat of the Qur'an is that of the hopeless wailing of a motherless orphan with dark sorrow and an uproarious song of a drunkard in a despicable state, and the song of an elevated lover with yearning and hopeful sorrow arising from a temporary separation and patriotic poems urging victory or war and high self-sacrifice. For in regard to the effects of their styles, balâghat and rhetoric give either sorrow or joy. And sorrow is of two sorts. It is either a dark sorrow arising from the lack of friends; that is, having no friends, or the owner; it is the sorrow given by the literature of civilisation, which is soiled with dhalâlah, worships nature and is accustomed to ghaflah. The second sorrow arises from the separation of friends; that is, the friends exist, but their separation causes a yearning sorrow. Thus, this is the sorrow that the Qur'an, which delivers hidâyah and scatters nûr, gives. As for the joy, it is of two sorts. One encourages the nafs to pursue its desires. This is the necessary consequence of civilisation's literature, which produces theatre, cinema and novels. The second joy is a courteous, innocent and subtle encouragement for silencing the nafs and encouraging the rûh, heart, mind and sirr to reach sublime matters, their original home, eternal abode and companions of the âkhirah; it is the joy given by the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition that guides mankind to Jannah, eternal happiness and the ru’yat of Allah’s beauty (Jamâl) and fills them with eagerness.

Thus, the vast meaning and mighty haqiqah that the âyah 9 قُلْ لَئِنِ اجْتَمَعَتِ اْلاِنْسُ وَالْجِنُّ عَلَى اَنْ يَاْتُوا بِمِثْلِ هذَا اْلقُرْآنِ لاَ يَاْتُونَ بِمِثْلِهِ وَلَوْ كَانَ بَعْضُهُمْ لِبَعْضٍ ظَهِيرًا expresses is imagined to be an impossibility that was used to form an exaggerated balâghat by those with a deficient and short understanding due to their negligence. Hâshâ! It is not an exaggeration, nor is it an impossibility, but a balâghat that is pure haqiqah, and it is in a possible and actual form.

One aspect of its being in this form is this: it means that if all the beautiful words of man and jinn that do not originate from the Qur'an and do not belong to it were to be gathered together, they could not imitate the Qur'an, and they have not been able to imitate it, so they have been unable to show that they have.

The second aspect is this: it means that civilisation, the hikmah of philosophy and European literature, which are the fruits of thought and the products of the efforts of mankind, jinn and even shaytans, are in the very pits of impotence before the laws, hikmah and balâghat of the Qur'an. Just as we showed examples of it.