regard to origins by the origins of the two hundred thousand animal species, and brought to an end. That is, the two hundred thousand progenitors of the species, quite simply like Adam’s, violated the law of reproduction. They were not born of a father and mother and were given existence outside the law.
Furthermore, the greater part – innumerable individuals – of the hundred thousand species we see with our eyes every spring are created outside that law, on the surface of leaves and on putrified matter. So you can see just how unreasonable someone is who cannot accept with his reason the exception of a single individual in one thousand nine hundred years to a law that was violated and breached at its origin and has been breached every year even, and clings to forced interpretations of the definite statements of the Qur’an.
The things those wretches call natural laws are the laws called ‘adat Allah or divine practices, which are a universal manifestation of the divine command and dominical will, and which Almighty God changes for certain instances of wisdom. He shows that His will and choice govern in everything and in every law. Certain extraordinary individuals breach those practices. This truth He points out with His decree, “The similitude of Jesus before God is as that of Adam.”(3:59)
Ömer Efendi’s S e c o n d Q u e s t i o n concerning the doctor:
The doctor behaves extremely foolishly in this matter, so that to listen to what he says or give it importance is very demeaning. The unfortunate wants to be half way between belief and unbelief. I say the following, in reply not to his trifling words, but to Ömer Efendi’s questioning:
The reason for the injunctions and prohibitions of the Shari‘a are the divine command and divine prohibition. Advantages and instances of wisdom are to give them weight, and may be the reason for the command or prohibition from the point of view of the divine name of All-Wise.
For example, someone making a journey shortens the five daily prayers. There is a reason for (illet) and a purpose or instance of wisdom in (hikmet) shortening them. The reason is the journey, while the purpose is the difficulty involved. If on a journey and there is no difficulty involved, the prayers are still shortened. If not on a journey, and the person suffers a hundred difficulties in his own house, he may not shorten the prayers. For the difficulty occurring on some journeys is sufficient as the purpose for shortening the prayers, and is again sufficient for making the journey the reason.
Thus, in accordance with this rule of the Shari‘a, the Shari‘a’s injunctions do not change due to purposes or instances of wisdom; they look to the true reasons. Apart from the harm and illness caused by pork, as the