The WISDOM BEHIND
the UNCEASING ACTIVITY in the UNIVERSE
THIRD MATTER
An important matter
that has not been solved by philosophy
and reason.
Every day in [new]
splendour does He [shine]!5
* Indeed, your Sustainer is Doer of
what He will.6
Q u e s t i o n
:What is the reason for and
wisdom in the astonishing unceasing
activity in the universe? Why do these
fleeting beings not stop, but
continuously change and are renewed?
T h e A n s w e
r : To explain the wisdom in this
would require a thousand pages. And so we
shall leave aside a full explanation and
squeeze an extremely brief summary of it
into two pages.
If a person performs
a natural function or social duty and
works enthusiastically to do so, one who
observes him carefully will certainly
understand that there are two things that
make him perform the duty:
The First are
the benefits, fruits, and advantages
which result from the duty, which are
called ‘the ultimate cause.’
The Second:
There is a love, a desire, a pleasure,
which cause the duty to be performed
enthusiastically, and these are called
the ‘necessitating cause and reason.’
For example, eating
food; the pleasure and longing arising
from appetite drive a person to eat, and
afterwards, the result of eating is
nourishing the body and perpetuating
life. In the same way, And God’s is
the highest similitude,7
based on two sorts of Divine Names, the
awesome and astonishing endless activity
in the universe is for two vast instances
of wisdom, each of which is also
infinite:
T h e F i r s t :Almighty
God’s Most Beautiful Names have
incalculable sorts of manifestations. The
variety in creatures arises from the
variety of the manifestations. The Names
require to be manifested in a permanent
fashion; that is, they want to display
their embroideries; that is, they want to
see and display the manifestations of
their beauties in the mirrors of their
embroideries; that is, they want every
instant to renew the Book of the Universe
and missives of beings; that is, they
necessitate the continuous meaningful
writing, and to display each missive to
the study and gaze of the Most Pure and
Holy Essence, the One signified, as well
as to all conscious beings; they require
to make each of the missives read.
T h e S e c o n d
R e a s o n a n d I n s t a n c e o f W i
s d o m : Just as activity in
creatures arises from an appetite, a
desire, a pleasure, and there is a
definite pleasure in all activity,
rather, all activity is a sort of
pleasure; so too, in a suitable way and
form appropriate to His essential
self-sufficiency and absolute riches and
in a manner fitting for His absolute
perfection, the Necessarily Existent One
has boundless sacred compassion and
infinite holy love. And He has a
boundless sacred ardour arising from that
sacred compassion and holy love, and an
endless holy joy arising from that sacred
ardour, and, if one may say so, an
infinite sacred pleasure arising from the
sacred joy. And pertaining to that
Merciful and Compassionate One, is, if
the term is permissible, a boundless
sacred gratification and infinite holy
pride arising from the boundless feeling
of compassion that springs from the
sacred pleasure, sacred gratification and
pride which arise from the gratitude and
perfections of creatures which result
from their abilities emerging from the
potential to the actual and their
developing within the activity of power.
It is these which necessitate in
boundless fashion, an endless activity.
Thus, it is because
philosophy, science, and natural
philosophy do not know this subtle
instance of wisdom that they have
confused unconscious Nature, blind
chance, and lifeless causes in this
utterly knowing, wise, percipient
activity, and falling into the darkness
of misguidance, have been unable to find
the light of reality.
Say, “God [sent
it down];” then leave them to plunge in
vain discourse and trifling.8
O our Sustainer!
Do not cause our hearts to swerve now
that You have guided us, and bestow mercy
upon us from Yourself; indeed, You are
the Bestower of Gifts.9
O God! Grant
blessings and peace to the Solver of the
talisman of Your universe to the number
of atoms of beings, and to his Family and
Companions, so long as the earth and the
heavens persist.
The Enduring One,
He is the Enduring One!
S a i d N u r
s i
____________________
5. Qur’an, 55:29.
6. Qur’an, 11:107.
7. Qur’an, 16:60.
8. Qur’an, 6:91.
9. Qur’an, 3:8.
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