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A TRAVEL IN THE MICRO-,
NORMO- AND MACRO-COSMOSSES TO ESTABLISH GOD’S
EXISTENCE AND UNITY
In the name of God, the
Merciful, the Compassionate.
Had there been gods
beside God in either [of the earth and the heavens], both would certainly
be in disorder. There is no god but God, He alone, no partner with Him. To
Him belongs the Sovereignty and to Him belongs all praise. He gives life
and He takes life away. And He is All-Living and does not die. By His Hand
is all good. He is All-Powerful over every thing, and to Him is the
return. (21:22)
Suppose a being who, on
behalf of all sorts of unbelievers, whether they are unbelievers who attribute
everything in the universe to nature or material causes or unbelievers who
worship a plurality of gods or those who worship none at all, presumes to be an
associate with God in one or other or all of those attributes that are God’s
alone. This being alleges that he is the owner or sovereign or that he controls
and disposes, some portion or the whole of creation. He comes upon the smallest
particle of matter, let us call it an atom and, speaking to it in the language
or according to the presumptions of materialistic science or natural
philosophy, says to it that he is its true master and owner. The atom answers
in the language of truth and revealed wisdom:
The atom speaks
I carry on numerous
tasks, working within or alongside or upon an infinite variety of created,
ever-evolving entities. Do you have the knowledge and the power to direct
me in all these tasks? I work and move in a measured relationship with
innumerable other atoms of a constitution like my own.1
Do you have the authority and the competence to command and employ all
these? If indeed you own or arrange or manage the infinite complexity of
entities, of, for example, red blood corpuscles, of which I am but one,
and do so with perfect knowledge and discipline, then presume to be my
master, only then presume me to be attributable to any other than God.
But you surely
cannot do so, so be silent! You neither own me nor can interfere in my
operation, for all my movements and activities are so purposed and
arranged that only one with infinite wisdom and all-encompassing knowledge
could have the running of them. If indeed any other had a hand in it, he
would cause confusion. How can anyone who, like you, is powerless to give
himself life, whose seeing and feeling are blind to truth, who sees
himself as subject to chance and accidents of nature, presume so much as
to even interfere in my functioning?
The pretender then
responds as all materialists do: ‘Be your own master, then. Why do you claim
to be in the service of some other power’?
To which the atom
answers:
If I had a mind
with knowledge as all-encompassing as the sun’s light, with power as
intense as its heat; if I had a capacity for sense-impressions as varied
as the myriad colors in light or in what light discloses; if I had faces
and eyes to turn to every being and every place with which my being and
my place are connected; and if I had authority in and over all these
connections-then perhaps, perhaps, I might have claimed to be my own
master. Yet even then, if I had done so, I would only have been as
foolish as yourself. Now, get away from me, for you can have no business
with me
1 Every object which
is in motion, from minute particles to the planets, displays the
stamp of the Eternally Besought-of-All and His Unity. Also, by
virtue of its motion, each takes possession of the places in which
it enters in the name of Unity, thus adding them to the property of
its true Owner. As for those entities not in motion, they are each,
from plants to fixed stars, like a seal of Unity, showing their
locations as missives of their Maker. Each plant and fruit is a
stamp and seal of Unity which argues, in the name of Unity, that its
habitat and native place is the missive of its Maker. In short,
through its moving in the name of Unity, each entity takes
possession of all entities, which means that one who does not have
mastery of all the stars cannot have mastery of so much as a single
particle either.
Discussion with a red
blood corpuscle
The one who pretends to
have some say, some association, in the sovereignty of the Creator, gives up
on the atom. He looks for something larger. He looks for a particular and
harmonious grouping of atoms in the cell of a living body. He comes upon a red
blood corpuscle. (Thinking this cell is large enough for him to grasp its
nature and control its workings,) he speaks to it in the name of material
causality, and in the language of natural philosophy; he says: ‘I possess
you, I am your master and you work for me.’
The red blood cell
answers in the language of truth and Divine Wisdom:
But I am not
alone. If you also possess all my comrades in the blood army with whom I
share the same titles and colors of office, the same duties and
functions, if you have the full and detailed knowledge, the awesome,
subtle power, the perfect wisdom, to direct all the body cells through
which we move about and in which we operate, there might be some sense
to your pretensions. But as you depend only on deaf nature or natural
forces that are all blind, you can have no influence over us, let alone
having mastery of me. The order amongst us is indeed as perfect as it is
intricate; only One Who sees and hears and knows all things, forward and
backward in time, in all directions of space-only He Who governs the
being and operation of all that is, only He could be our true sovereign
and master. So go your way, I have better and more important things to
do than answer your nonsensical pretensions!
The cell answers
Unable to deceive the
red blood cell, the pretender moves on in his search. He comes upon an entity
still larger, a body cell made up of many lesser cells, as a small room is
made up of many distinct, smaller elements. And he addresses this cell in the
familiar language of natural philosophy, and says: ‘True, the atom and the
red blood corpuscle did not listen to me. I hope you can understand me. As I
see, you are composed of several smaller elements, like things arranged in a
room. Surely I can have a hand in this arrangement, surely I can arrange and
re-arrange it. You can be my creature. I can surely have power over you.’
The body cell answers
with wisdom and in the language of truth:
For all my small
size, I do vital tasks. I have the subtlest and yet strongest
connections with all my neighboring cells and with the whole organism of
which I am a part. I perform vital functions with, for example, arteries
and veins, sensory and motor nerves, with electrical forces of
attraction and repulsion, and with the immaterial principles that
determine my size, shape and reproduction. Now, if you have knowledge
and power to form an entire organism, to order and regulate the
arteries, veins and nerves, and to put to work all the diverse forces
and principles that manage our form and function; if you have the
ability to direct, with irresistible power and all-comprehending wisdom,
the innumerable body cells similar to me in artistry and quality, then
demonstrate your ability. Then perhaps, perhaps, you might claim to
master or make me. But as you cannot, go from me-there are even now red
blood cells carrying nourishment for me, white blood cells confronting
diseases that might threaten me-I am busy, so do not waste my time any
further with your vanity. No one as empty as you are of true
understanding, of true hearing and seeing, could ever meddle in our
being. Our order is so precise, delicate and perfect that only One who
has absolute Wisdom, Knowledge and Power could have dominion over us.2
If it were otherwise, our cohesion and order would not exist or it would
quickly fall into chaos
2 The All-Wise Maker
has created the human body analogously with a well-ordered city.
Certain of the blood vessels function as telephones and telegraphs,
others as pipe-work from a fountain through which blood, the water
of life, flows. Within the blood are created two sorts of
corpuscles: the red ones convey nutrients to the body’s cells,
their sustenance, according to a Divine law (analogously to the
activity of merchants and officers distributing food); the white
corpuscles, fewer in number than the red, function (analogously to
soldiers) to defend against invading forces such as disease-when
actively engaged in defense, they perform two revolutions like
Mawlawi dervishes and display a striking and rapid fluidity.
The two overall duties
of blood as a whole are: one, to repair damage to the body’s
cells, and, two, to clean the body by collecting out waste-matter
from the cells. Of the two corresponding sorts of blood-vessels,
veins and arteries, one form channels for transporting the purified
blood, the other sort form channels for the unclear blood which
gathers the waste-matter and conveys it in the blood to the lungs
which breathe.
The All-Wise Maker
created two elements in the air, nitrogen and oxygen. Oxygen, on
coming into contact with the blood during respiration, draws to
itself, like amber, the impure carbon element polluting the blood.
It combines with carbon, and the two are transformed together into
the substance now called carbonic acid gas. Oxygen also contributes
to maintaining body temperature and purifies the blood. For, in the
science of chemistry, the All-Wise Creator gave to oxygen and carbon
a mutual ardor, a sort of chemical affection, such that according to
the Divine law, as those two elements approach, they combine.
Science has explained how, being a form of combustion, combining
generates heat. It works in this way:
Particles of oxygen
and carbon have distinct motions which, when they combine, become a
single motion, each pair of particles now having the motion of a
single particle: As, before, there were two motions, one of the two
has been ‘lost’. That ‘lost’ motion is transformed into heat
by a law of the All-Wise Creator. ‘Motion produces heat’ is an
established principle. In consequence of this chemical combination,
carbon being removed from the blood, the human body temperature is
maintained while, at the same time, the blood is purified. When
breathing in, oxygen cleanses the body’s water of life and kindles
its fire for life. When breathing out, it enables words to form in
the mouth which are miracles of Divine Power.
The human body refutes
Disappointed, the
pretender seeks out a still larger entity and, confronting a human body,
re-iterates his argument in the language of unenlightened nature and erring
philosophy: ‘Of you, I can surely say: you are mine, I surely have a share
in owning and managing you.’
The human body answers
in the language of wisdom and truth and in the ‘natural’ tongue of its
order:
Have you the
knowledge and power to control and direct all the human bodies similar
to me which manifest the same signs of supreme power and creation? Do
you have dominion over the treasuries of light and air and water, and
all plants and animals, which are the ground and store of my provision
and sustenance? And do you have the boundless wisdom and infinite power
by which such invaluable, immaterial entities as mind, intellect and
soul are so securely disposed in a narrow, bodily envelope such as me
and made to ‘worship’ by performing extremely important tasks? If
you have such power, knowledge and wisdom, then demonstrate it-only then
claim to own and manage me. But as you cannot, be silent! My Maker is
One Who is the All-Powerful, All-Knowing, All-Seeing and
All-Hearing-that is testified by the perfection with which I am
organized and by the sign of the Oneness in my face. A being as ignorant
and incompetent as you could never have the least hand in His art.
Encountering with the
species
The pretender who
advocates for himself the status of an associate in what belongs to God alone
is nonplussed that he cannot find any point in the human body over which he
can claim to have a say. He moves on, and surveys all human beings together as
a species. He says to himself:
‘They live in such
diverse and complex societies-I see that the devil finds a way to interfere in
their affairs of will and in their social relations. May not I too find a
means of entry in the creation and constitution of their bodies and in their
operation? If I can find a point in their bodies in the operation of which I
can interfere, then I will be able to have control over the body and the body
cell which have turned me down.’
With this intention, he
addresses the species in the familiar language of blind nature and erring
philosophy:
- You appear very
diverse and much at odds. I am your master and owner or, at the very
least, I have a share in your making.
To this the species
responds in the language of truth and reality, and in the tongue of wisdom and
order:
Have you the
power, knowledge and wisdom to create the rich texture that covers the
face of the earth, woven with perfect wisdom from varied fabrics,
thousands of mineral and plant and animal species, including mankind?
Can you with a like wisdom renew this texture, and do so continuously?
Do you possess the all-extensive power and all-comprehending science
which manages the earth of which we are a fruit, and the universe of
which we are the seed? Can you send us, in measured amounts, the
provisions we need for our sustenance, from across the universe? Have
you the capacity to generate all individuals of my kind, past and yet to
come; whose faces bear the same sign of supreme majesty as me? If so,
you might then, perhaps, claim mastery over me. But as that is not so,
be silent! Do not dare to say that you have a hand in me just from
remarking the diversity in my kind. For that diversity is a part of the
perfection of our ordering. Diversity and multiplicity are copies made
with a perfect harmony from the Book of Destiny [containing the origins
of beings in a perfect order]. The diversity of appearance amongst us is
a sort of revising of our forms [dictated by Destiny]-as the perfect
diversity and order of plants and animals (which are inferior to us and
under our vigilance and which we study) also testifies.
Is it at all
plausible that the One Who weaves the diverse fabrics spread over and
through the texture of this world with great skill is other than its
Maker? That the Creator of a fruit is other than the Creator of the tree
from which it grows? That the Creator of a seed is other than the
Creator of the fruit it yields? You are blind in that you do not see the
miracles of His Omnipotence in my face and the wonders of His Creation
in my constitution. Had you seen, you would understand that nothing
escapes the observation of my Maker, nor does anything task Him
capriciously. He makes the stars as easily as He makes the individual
atom. He creates the whole springtime as smoothly as He creates the
individual flower. It is He who has placed the index of the vast
universe in my constitution with perfect correspondence. Could anyone
who is, as you are, corporeal, incompetent, blind, and deaf, have had a
hand in the artistry of such a Being? Be silent therefore, and be gone!
The texture of the earth
responds
The pretender then
turns to the widespread texture overlaying the face of the earth like an
embellished cloak, and speaks to it in the name of causality and in the
language of natural philosophy: ‘I can manage you. I own you, or at least
have a share in you.’
The texture answers him3 in the name of truth and in the language of wisdom:
If you have the
skill and power to create and weave all the textures that have been hung
on the line of past time, laid, unlaid and relaid seamlessly throughout
the years and ages, and that will be hung on the line of future time,
according to programs and patterns pre-designed with the greatest
precision and in accordance with the framework of Destiny, each elegant
and purposeful, and each uniquely adorned; if you possess immaterial
hands that can reach out from the creation of the earth to its
destruction, or rather, from the eternity of no-beginning to the
eternity that is to come; if you have the power and science to create
all the individuals within this texture, restoring and renewing them in
exact order and wisdom; if you are able to create and possess the earth
itself which is, as it were, a model for me and puts me on like a
veil-only if you can, only then claim mastery over me-if not, leave! You
can have no business here! In my rich and harmonious diversity are
demonstrated clear signs of the Oneness, and the clear stamp of His
Uniqueness. Only He Who has the whole cosmos in His control, Who can do
innumerable tasks in one and the same instant, Who can see all beings
and their actions, whether inward or outward, in one and the same
instant, Who is present and vigilant everywhere while He remains Himself
unbounded by time or space or dimension, and who has infinite wisdom,
science and power, only such a Being could ever own or have dominion
over me.
3 In fact, the texture
is animated, continuously giving the signs of life in a regular
fashion. Its embroideries are being continuously renewed with
perfect wisdom and order in order to display the various,
ever-differing manifestations of its Weaver’s Names.
The earth reacts
The pretender then
turns to the earth itself,4 imagining that he can deceive it and secure
dominion for himself with it. He repeats the same argument in the name of
causality and in the language of mere naturalism: ‘I see that you roam about
idly in the universe. Certainly you can have no master; therefore, I claim you
as mine.’
Upon hearing this the
earth roars like thunder in the name of truth:
Do not be
foolish! How can I be roaming about without a master? Have you ever seen
any disorder, want of wisdom or skill, in the making of my dress, or in
any little point or fabric of it, that you dare to say that I am roaming
about idly? Can you presume to own my orbit which, at a man’s pace
would take some twenty-five thousand years5 to traverse, but which I
complete in my annual round with perfect discipline and precision; can
you claim to own my fellow planets which, as I do, carry on their
appointed tasks along their individual orbits; and do you claim to have
the unlimited science and power to create and control the sun which
gathers and focuses our orbits, orbits to which we are bound through
gravitation of mercy, and to make me and other planets revolve around
it? But since you cannot plausibly make such a claim, be gone from me, I
have work to do. Our awesome circling, our purposeful submission and
magnificent discipline, show that our Maker is a Being to Whom all
entities, from the least to the largest, from the atoms to the sun and
stars, submit, and submit perfectly-as a dutiful soldier submits to his
orders. He is the Wise and Absolute Ruler of Majesty Who holds the sun
and the planets in their proper order as easily as He adorns each tree
with its proper fruit.
4 Briefly: the
particle or atom referred the pretender to the red blood corpuscle
which referred him to the cell which referred him to the body which
referred him to the human race which referred him to the earth’s
outer garment which referred him to the earth as a globe which
referred him to the sun which referred him to all the stars. Each in
turn said: ‘Be off! If you are able to subjugate the next one up
from me, do so, then return and seek to master me. If not, you are
equally impotent to subjugate me.’ All of which means-one whose
authority does not embrace the stars has no acceptable claim to
mastery over even a single particle.
5 If half the
diameter of a circle is roughly 180 million kilometers, the circle
covers a distance of roughly twenty-five thousand years [to cover on
foot, provided one covering five kilometers in an hour walks eight
hours a day.]
The sun speaks
Having failed to find a
place for himself in the government of the earth, the pretender turns to the
sun expecting that he would be able to open a path for himself there. Since
the sun is so great an entity, he hopes he can thereby gain control of the
earth. He addresses the sun in the name of the way of associating partners
with God Almighty and in the language of satanic philosophy, as the
sun-worshippers do: ‘You are a monarch. You are your own master. You do
whatever you will.’
The sun answers in the
name of truth and reality and in the language of Divine Wisdom:
No, indeed! a
thousand times, no! I am but an obedient officer, no more than a candle
in the guest-house of my Master. I could not own so much as a fly, even
the wing of a fly, for even in so small a thing as a fly, there are such
immaterial faculties and fine, exquisite works of art like the eye and
the ear that I do not have their like in any workshop of mine. I cannot
make even the smallest of them.
Though rebuked by the
sun, the pretender argues still in the manner of the pharaohs, arrogant
creatures who promote themselves as gods: ‘I claim you as mine in the name
of causality, since you are not your own master, but merely a servant.’
The sun replies in the
name of truth and in the language of obedience to its Creator:
I cannot belong
except to that Being Who has created me and all the resplendent stars
like me, Who, having fixed them in their stations with perfect wisdom,
rotates them in glory and adorns the wide heavens thereby.
Stars refute
The pretender then
comes in among the stars and says to himself. ‘Perhaps I will win some among
them for my client.’ He then says to them in the name of causality and his
partners, in the language of corrupt philosophy, as star-worshippers do: ‘You
must be under the control of many different rulers, seeing that you are
situated at such vast distances from each other.’
Upon this, one star,
speaking for all the others, answers him:
How senseless and
mindless you must be, not to see or understand in our nature the signs
of the Oneness of the Creator, the stamp of His Uniqueness. Do you not
know how absolute is our organization, and how secure the laws that we
obey? You fancy that we have no order. In fact, we are the handiwork and
the servants of a Being Unique and Indivisible, Who holds the sky, our
sea, the cosmos, our tree, and the vastness of space, our wide,
maneuvering field, in His control. Like the many-colored lamps which
indicate human festivities, we are luminous witnesses of His perfect
Dominion, brilliant evidence, blazing across the boundlessness of space,
of His Kingdom and His Lordship. Each of us is a shining servant
displaying His Majesty, near and far, in this world and the next, and in
the many worlds beyond, within the infinitude of His Creation. Each of
us is a miracle from the Power of the One, a perfectly-ordered fruit on
the tree of creation, bright manifestation of the Unity of God, a home
and mount and a mosque for His angels, a lamp and a sun of higher
worlds, an ornament, a flower, a palace of the celestial sphere, a
luminescent fish in the heavenly ocean, and each an eye,6 itself
beautiful, set in the face of the heavens. Throughout our vast community
there exists profound silence amidst tranquility, movement in wisdom,
light ornament with majestic grandeur, the most varied beauty in perfect
harmony, the highest art in absolute balance. Since you accuse us, while
we proclaim in innumerable tongues the Unity of our Majestic Maker and
His being the Eternally Besought-of-All, together with His Attributes of
perfection, grace and beauty-since you accuse us, whose purity is
unstained, whose obedience and servanthood are perfect, of disorder and
empty distances, of having no duty and no master, you merit a slap in
the face in payment for your absurd effrontery!
The star strikes the
pretender on the face, in a gesture like the stoning of the devil, and hurls
him from the domain of the stars to the bottom of hell. It likewise hurls
natural philosophy7 into the storms of uncertainties, and chance into the well
of non-existence; it hurls all who arrogate to themselves some portion in the
Dominion of the One God into the utter darkness of improbability and
impossibility; and every argument against the true religion it hurls into the
lowest of the low. Then the stars together recite the holy decree: Had there
been gods in either (of the earth or the sky) besides God, both would
certainly be in disorder. And they affirm: There is no place for any associate
with God, neither in the interstices of a fly’s wing, nor amid the stars and
spaces of the heavens.
6. I.e. we are
pointers-ourselves beholding the wonders of the Almighty’s creation
and pointing others to behold them also. The heavens are seen to be
observing the wonders of Divine artistry on the earth with innumerable
eyes. As angels do in the skies, the stars observe the earth, which is a
display-hall of wonders, and the stars’ doing so urges conscious
beings also to observe it attentively.
7. After its lapse, nature
repented. It realized its proper purpose and obligation was not to be
active and cause effects, but to receive and to be acted on. It realized
that it was a sort of notebook of Divine Determining, susceptible of
mutation and change; a sort of program of the Lord’s Power, analogous
to the corpus of rules of creation instituted by the All-Powerful of
Majesty, an assemblage of His laws. It took on its duty of worship in
perfect submission, admitting its absolute powerlessness and therein
achieved the title of God’s creation and the Lord’s handiwork.
Glory be to You! We
have no knowledge save what You have taught us. Surely, You are the
All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
O God, bestow peace
and blessings on our master Muhammad, the lamp of Your Unity amidst the
multiplicity of Your creatures, and the herald of Your Oneness in the
display hall of Your universe, and on all of his family and Companions.
***
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