From “The Staff of Moses” by Said Nursi
And then the earth addresses that reflective traveler, who has now been accustomed to their journey of reflection, in the tongue of its disposition: “Why are you wandering through space, through the heavens? Come, I will make known to you the One Whom you are seeking. Look at the tasks I carry out and read my pages!”
The traveler looks and sees that, like an ecstatic Mevlevi dervish, the earth, having two movements that are the means for the occurrence of days, seasons, and years, is drawing a circle around the Place of Supreme Gathering.
What does the underlined phrase mean?
They see that it is a magnificent, subjugated vessel which holds within itself hundreds of thousands of species of living creatures together with all the food and equipment needed by them, a vessel that is traveling around the sun in the ocean of space with perfect balance and order.
What does this vessel remind you of? How can we extend the metaphor?
The traveler then looks at the pages or sheets of the earth and sees that each page of every chapter proclaims the existence of the Lord of the earth in thousands of its “verses.” Having no time to read the entire work,
So, is there a work we can read in its entirety?
they look at the page which describes the creation and administration of living creatures in spring, and observe the following:
- The forms of the numberless members of hundreds of thousands of species are opened up from a simple material with the most extraordinary orderliness and precision; they are then nurtured and raised in a most merciful fashion.
- God has created every living creature from water. Among them are such as move on their bellies, and such as move on two legs, and such as move on four. God creates whatever He wills. Surely, God has full power over everything. (an-Nur 24:44)
- Subsequently, the seeds of some of these members are, in a most miraculous fashion, given wings and caused to fly, thus allowing them to be scattered over the earth.
- All these numberless members of hundreds of thousands of species are directed with the utmost efficiency and fed and nurtured with the greatest affection.
- Their countless, diverse, and delicious nourishment is provided and made to reach them in the most compassionate manner from nothing more than dry clay, drops of water, and seeds and roots that resemble bones, differing little one from the other.
- All plant, tree, and grass roots and fibers, soft as silk, say bismillah and pierce hard stones and soil. Mentioning His Name, the Name of the All-Merciful, subjects everything to them. A tree’s branches spread in the sky, and its roots spread unhindered among stones and soil. It generates underground spontaneously, and its delicate green leaves hold moisture despite intense heat. These realities vex the naturalist. It jabs a finger into the naturalist’s unseeing eye and says: “You put so much trust in the power of hardness and heat, yet they obey the Divine Command. That is why each soft fiber of the plant’s roots, like Moses’ staff, obeys: And We said: ‘O Moses, strike the rock with your staff!’ (2:60) and penetrates the rock. Every delicate, paper-thin leaf, like one of Abraham’s limbs, recites: O fire, be coolness and peace! (21:69) in defiance of the intense heat. (The First Word)
- In the same way that cargo is loaded onto a goods wagon, hundreds of thousands of different kinds of food and equipment are loaded on every spring from an unseen treasury and are dispatched with perfect orderliness to living creatures.
- And on the earth are tracts close by one another (and yet different from one another), and gardens of vines, and cultivated fields, and date-palms growing in clusters from one root but standing alone, (all) watered with the same water; and yet as sustenance We have made some preferable to others (in certain respects). Surely in that are signs of truth for a people who use their reason. (ar-Ra’d 13:4)
- In particular, the sending of canned milk in these food packages, brought to the mouths of infants in the form of the sweet milk that springs forth from the affectionate breasts of their mothers, demonstrates such affection, compassion, and wisdom that it can clearly be seen to be the gift and most affectionate and attentive manifestation of the Mercy of an All-Merciful One.
- Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “Allah has divided mercy into one hundred parts; and He retained with Him ninety-nine parts, and sent down to earth one part. Through this one part creatures deal with one another with compassion, so much so that an animal lifts its hoof over its young lest it should hurt it.” (Riyad as-Salihin 420, from al-Bukhari and Muslim)
- All blessed animals (e.g., cows, camels, sheep, and goats) say bismillah and become fountains of milk from Mercy’s abundance. They offer us, in the All-Providing’s name, a most delicate and pure food like the water of life. Every plant and blade of grass, every root and stem, says bismillah. (The First Word)
In short: By displaying hundreds of thousands of examples of the Resurrection and Supreme Gathering, this living page of spring interprets in brilliant fashion the verse, Look, then, at the imprints of God’s Mercy—how He revives the dead earth after its death: certainly then it is He Who will revive the dead (in a similar way). He has full power over everything (30:50). Similarly, this verse expresses in a miraculous fashion the meanings of that page. The traveler thus understands that with all its pages the earth proclaims “There is no deity but He,” in a fashion and with a strength that is proportionate to its size.
Through the brief testimony of one of the twenty aspects of a single page out of more than the twenty big pages of the earth,
What do you think could be some of the other 399+ aspects?
in The Third Step of The First Station, the observations the traveler made in the other pages of the earth were expressed as follows:
There is no deity but God, the Necessarily Existent One, Whose Necessary Existence in His Unity is demonstrated clearly by the earth with whatever there is in and upon it. This is testified to by the sublimely comprehensive, vast and perfect reality of subjugation, management, raising, opening up, the distribution of seeds, preservation, administration, and the provision of all living creatures, and the all-encompassing and all-inclusive mercifulness and compassion, all of which are clearly observable.
Thursday Tafakkur Hour 