Balance of Realities - A lesson from the book of nature
A lesson from the book of nature
Tags: rahmat-i `alamin, nur-i Muhammadi, Four elements, Mineral Kingdom, universal soul, intellectual light
If a wise thinker wants to know about the stages of the survival of his soul and body and their initial contact, he should first reflect upon those things out of which the initial dot of his body is created. The holy Qur'an teaches us to reflect on human creation. For, it is not only the hypothetical limit with respect to the access of the partial intellect, but there is also an unforgettable lesson in those low conditions through which his life has passed and those base things from which the creation of his body has begun.
The world that we inhabit (the earth) is the most base, the darkest and the densest of the four elements. When it becomes still lower and more humble it takes the form of slime or mud. Since the lowest state of the earth is linked with the initial (stage of) life, therefore the luminous rays of the mercies of the Benevolent and Matchless God, through the heavenly bodies, started to pour a most gentle rain of nature on it, whereby it (slime) turns into leaven. This leaven possesses qualities of smoothness, fineness, taste, chemical power, mixture of dissolved fertiliser and fineness of [elemental] natures, and transforms into a smooth, fine, tasteful nourishment for plants. By reflecting on the state of this transformed [and dissolved] earth it will surely become evident that there is life, even in its earthly particles, about which God says: “And there is not a thing but purifies His praise, but you do not understand their purifying” (17:44).
If we examine the mineral kingdom, we will see such scenarios of life cultivated by God, that they will compel us to believe that there is the effect of soul in everything, which manifests everywhere in various forms. It is called the supreme and universal soul, and it is this soul, which as the ocean of mercy, has immersed the entire universe in its unfathomable depth. Its hidden radiation comes from the azure ceiling (i.e. the heaven). It is the hand of God which can reach everywhere and can dispense the way it wants to (5:64). The mercy of the worlds (rahmat-i `alamin) and the Muhammadan Light (nur-i Muhammadi) are the names of this supreme soul.
This real light is not only the source of material light, but is also the world-illumining sun of the spiritual and intellectual light. [This is the sun that illumines all the three worlds, i.e. the physical, the spiritual and the intellectual]. The real and true light is ever living from eternity and has the power of granting life. This is the light that has illumined the heavens and the earth (24:35), not only externally, but it has also illumined the inner darknesses of everything. Another name of this lamp of guidance of the path of survival and the guide of the path of life, is the light of the heavens and the earth. If when we hear the name of God’s light, we instantly conceive of the light of the sun or of any other material light, it is due to the weakness and inaccessibility of our intellect and due to its being confined and imprisoned in the circle (snare) of the body. Alas, it is deplorable for our intellect that we never took the trouble to consider what the function of real light is! If we had understood that light means that (power) which shows all hidden things, and contrary to this, darkness is that power which conceals them, we would not have denied the fact above in which God Himself says that He is the light of the heavens and the earth and of everything. In such a case there cannot be a single particle in whose existence His incorporeal, luminous and substantial (essential) power does not work. Thus, the thing in which this power exists, necessarily does so for the sake of its progress on the path of life, which is possible only under a fixed system.
In the mineral world apparently nothing can be called more lifeless than a stone. In the beginning it was a part of the mountain from which it fell and came rolling down. There are splendid exotic wonders and sceneries of Divine power in the exterior and interior of mountains, because they are magnificent patterns of the artistry of God’s hand. If you look at their exterior surface you will see variegated pieces and varied edges, which will show that the blending of their matter is not like that of vegetables and animals. The leaven of the nourishment of vegetables is well blended first externally and then in their own constitution. Unlike the human constitution, in which man first kneads food, then blends its parts by chewing it in the mouth, then it passes through the stomach and liver, etc. and loses its original colour and adopts the colour of the human body, the structures and colours of the mountain are different. This position of the mountain shows that it has grown from the compressed soil underneath it, and the leaven of its matter was not well kneaded and blended. The growing of the mountain that is considered lifeless from the earth is a splendid miracle of Divine power. It does not have roots as a tree has. Had it roots like plants, it would have the same colour entirely. For the roots of plants, through their faculty of attraction absorb the nourishment, which is kneaded once, then through further chemical dissolution, they blend it with their colour, due to which they have their specific colour. But in the case of a mountain its matter, which in fact, is the layers of soil, is mixed up without being kneaded and blended, in which there is God’s hand, just as mentioned earlier that there is soul in everything.
The naturalist philosophers say that the mountain has grown from the earth under the ocean when the ocean receded. The reason they give is that due to the pressure of the ocean the earth changed and became hard, which caused the mountain to grow from it. However, the pressure of the ocean on the earth beneath must have been at its centre, not on any other part.
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