want any such thing.” Then suddenly, through the manifestation of “God is the Light of the heavens and the earth,” numerous Names like “Subjugator of the sun and moon,” and “Sustainer of all the worlds,” each rose like suns in the constellations of verses such as:
And We have adorned the lower heavens with lamps,1
and
Do they then not look at the heavens above them, how We have raised them and adorned them,2
and,
Then he withdrew to the sky and formed it into seven heavens.3
They filled all the heavens with light and with angels, transforming it into a huge mosque or military encampment. The traveller entered the current of “Those whom You have blessed.” He was saved from that of “Those who have gone astray” and “Or [the unbelievers’ state] is like the depths of darkness in a vast deep ocean.” He saw a magnificent land, as beautiful and well-ordered as Paradise. Observing that on all sides its inhabitants were making known the All-Glorious Creator, the value of his mind and imagination was increased a thousandfold, and their duties advanced likewise.
Referring to the Risale-i Nur the other observations of the traveller through the universe, which are comparable with these three examples out of hundreds, together with knowledge of the Necessarily Existent One through the manifestations of His Names, here we suffice with these brief indications and cut a long story short. Now, like that traveller through the world, we shall try to know the Creator of the universe through the works and manifestations of only three of His sacred ‘seven attributes:’ knowledge, will, and power. For details, we refer you to the Risale-i Nur.
The following piece in Arabic is the sum and substance of the Arabic Hizb al-Nuri,4 which I constantly recite reflectively. It expounds three of the thirty-three degrees of the phrase “God is Most Great” (Allahu Akbar). This is followed by a sort of translation of the Arabic piece, consisting of brief indications, which opens up the way to acquiring belief in Divine knowledge, will, and power at the degree of ‘the vision of certainty’ through pointing out their manifestations in the universe, a subject which greatly preoccupied the scholars of theology and of the tenets of
Qur’an, 67:5.
Qur’an, 50:6.
Qur’an, 2:29.
See page 501, footnote 78.