The proof of divine providence (dalīl ‘ināyatī) is the proof of the Maker that is indicated by this verse and consists of the order included in the universe. For the order is a thread to which is attached all benefits and instances of wisdom. All the Qur’anic verses that enumerate the benefits of things and mention their purposes are ‘the weaver’ of this proof and are where this argument is manifested. For just as the order, with which all the instances of wisdom and benefits comply, proves the existence of the Orderer, so it demonstrates the Maker’s intention and wisdom, and repulses the delusion of blind chance and unseeing coincidence.
Now see! If you cannot encompass this elevated order, adorned with bezels of wisdom, with your sight, and you are incapable of understanding it through inductive reasoning, look through the prying eyes of the sciences – which are the senses of your species and are formed through the meeting of minds and conjunction of ideas, and are like the ideas of the human race – for you will see an order that dazzles the mind. You will know too that each of the physical sciences discloses through the universality of its principles, the order and harmony, the more perfect than which cannot be conceived of. For there is a science [to study] every area (naw‘) of the universe, or there will be [that is, each could sustain a science].
Science consists of universal principles, and this universality demonstrates the beauty of the order. For there can be no universality in something without order. Don’t you see that if we say: “All religious scholars wear white turbans,” it is confirming the universality, for there is order among that group (naw‘)? It leads on from this that by reason of the universality of their principles, all the sciences demonstrate through inductive reasoning a total, all-embracing order; each is a shining proof pointing to the benefits and fruits hanging in bunches from the links of the chains of beings, indicating too the instances of wisdom and advantages concealed in their changing states. The sciences raise the banner of divine unity and testify to the Maker’s purpose and wisdom. Each of them is a shining star piercing the darkness and repulsing the satans of delusion and doubt.
If you like, now disregard the general [order] and consider the following example: a microscopic organism so small it is invisible to the naked eye comprises an extremely fine and wonderful divine machine. Necessarily and self-evidently, this machine, which is contingent in both its essence and attributes and states, did not come into existence of itself without a cause. Like the pans of some scales, contingent beings are equal in respect of both existence and non-existence; if one preponderates, it remains in