The Qur'an of miraculous exposition

From: www.theholybook.org

By Said Nursi

A man searching for his Lord said to himself : "Let's look at the book called the Qur'an of miraculous exposition, which is said to be the Word of the One I have been searching for and challenges its opponents. Let's see what it says about the Lord. Is it really a Divine Book, the Book of the Creator, as is claimed?" Since he lives in this age, first he inquired of the Risale‑i Nur about the Creator. Seeing that its 130 treatises comprise the explanations and substantial interpretations of certain Qur'anic truths, he understood from its content and forceful diffusing and defending of the Qur'anic truths in this age of unbelief that the Qur'an is a revealed book. Especially after reading the Eighteenth Sign of The Nineteenth Letter and The Twenty‑fifth Word, which convincingly argue that the Qur'an is a miracle in 40 respects, he almost was convinced of its Divine authorship and noticed a few more points showing its excellence:
First point: With all the aspects of its miraculousness and the truths it contains, which prove its truth, the Qur'an is a miracle of Muhammad. In the same way the Prophet, with all his miracles and his Prophethood's proofs, as well as his perfect knowledge and integrated personality, is a miracle of the Qur'an and a decisive proof of its Divine authorship.
Second point: The Qur'an brought about a substantial, happy, and enlightening change in the social life of a considerable portion of humanity. In addition, it continues to bring about such a revolution in people's souls, hearts, and intellects, as well as in their personal, social, and political lives. Its more than 6,600 verses, which have been recited in utmost respect by countless people for centuries, continue to educate people spiritually and intellectually, purify souls, refine intellects, uplift and expand spirits, guide to truth and sound thinking, and make people happy. Such a book must be miraculous, genuine, extraordinary, and unequaled.
Third point: From the first day, the Qur'an's eloquence has captivated literary people. For example, it dimmed the Seven Poems.[19] While removing her father's poem from the wall, Labid's daughter remarked: "After the revelation of the Qur'an, this has no value." On hearing: Proclaim openly and insistently what you are commanded·(15:94), a Bedouin prostrated. When asked if he had become a Muslim, he said: "No. I prostrated before this verse's eloquence." Many geniuses of literature and the science of eloquence, like 'Abd al‑Qahir al‑Jurjani, al‑Sakkaki, and al‑Zamakhshari, have concluded that the Qur'an's eloquence is unequaled.
Moreover, it has challenged all geniuses of literature and eloquence to dispute with it: "Either produce a single sura like mine, or suffer humiliation and ruin in both worlds by denying me." The unbelieving literary people of the Prophet's time could not meet this challenge, and so took up arms against him. This proves that any dispute with the Qur'an is futile.
Countless books in Arabic have been written by friends of the Qur'an who seek to imitate it and by its enemies who criticize it. Anyone, even the simplest person, who hears the Qur'an will conclude that it is superior to all human works. No other book even comes close to resembling it. This leaves us with two options: either it is inferior or superior to all other books. As no one can honestly claim that it is inferior, it must be superior.
Once someone recited: All that is in the heavens and Earth glorifies God·(57: 1), and remarked: "I cannot find in this verse such extraordinary eloquence as the Qur'an is claimed to have." He was told: "Go to pre‑Islamic Arabia [or another place where the darkness of atheism or materialism prevails] and listen to this verse." The man imagined that he was living in pre‑Islamic Arabia [or the world of, say, existentialist philosophers]. He saw that all creatures were leading purposeless, wretched, and meaningless lives. In this dark, unstable, and transient world they were travelling aimlessly in a dark, boundless space devoid of meaning.
Suddenly he heard this verse from the tongue of the Qur'an. He saw that it removed the dark veil from the world's face, illuminating it so much that the eternal sermon and everlasting decree was teaching all conscious beings, lined up in the rows of centuries. It was showing them that the universe is like a huge mosque in which all creatures, including the heavens and Earth, continually glorify, praise, and invoke Him in rapture and utmost happiness. Then, tasting this verse's eloquence and comparing it with others, he understood one of the infinite reasons why the Qur'an's resonating and reverberating eloquence has conquered one‑fifth of humanity and has maintained its majestic dominion for 14 centuries.
Fourth point:·The Qur'an has a sweetness that, despite repeated recitation, never bores people; rather, it gives increasing pleasure. It maintains its freshness and originality as if newly revealed, despite its easy availability, widespread memorization, and its 14 centuries of age. Every age feels as if the Qur'an is addressing it directly. Although all scholars have had frequent recourse to it in every age and have always benefited from it, and although they usually have followed its styles of expression, it still preserves its authentic styles and forms of explanation.
Fifth point: The Qur'an is rooted deeply in the unchanging truths on which all previous Prophets agree. It confirms them, and they affirm it by agreeing on its truths. All of its fruits (e.g., the Islamic sciences and spiritual disciplines of sainthood), which originated from it and demonstrated that each is a blessed, living tree yielding fruits of enlightening truths, testify that the Qur'an is truth itself and a collection of truths unequaled in comprehensiveness.
Sixth point:·All six sides or aspects of the Qur'an are luminous and demonstrate its truth. From below, it is supported upon the pillars of proof and evidence [e.g., rational, scientific, historical, those pertaining to conscience and sound judgment]; above it are gleams of the seal of miraculousness, before it lies happiness in both worlds as its aim; and behind it is another point of support: the truths of Divine Revelation. To its right is the unanimous confirmation of guided reason based on proofs, and to its left are the intellectual and spiritual contentment of those with sound hearts and conscience, and their sincere attachment and submission to it.
Taken as a whole, all of these bear witness that the Qur'an is a formidable, extraordinary, and unconquerable stronghold established by the hand of heaven on Earth. They set their seal of admission that it is a faultless, true Word of God. The Administrator of the universe, Who always manifests unity, protects virtuousness and goodness, and extirpates falsehood and slander, has given the Qur'an the most acceptable, high, and dominant rank of respect and success. Given this, God Himself has confirmed its truth.
Also Prophet Muhammad, the Qur'an's interpreter, believed in it and respected it more than anything and anybody else. He went into a different state when its verses were being revealed, and confirmed and preached all its decrees and commandments with utmost conviction, without showing any deception and error to those waiting to catch him, and without anything to shake him. Despite being unlettered, the Qur'an enabled him to relate instantly what was revealed about the past and future, the facts of creation and the universe's operation. Other sayings of his do not resemble the Qur'an and are inferior to it in certain respects. All of this proves that the Qur'an is the true heavenly and blessed Word of that person's Merciful Creator.
One‑fifth of humanity, or even the majority of people in certain cases, always have had an ecstatic and religious devotion to the Qur'an. They listened to it lovingly and in adoration of truth, and as testified to by numerous observations, signs, and events. Just as moths fly round a light, angels, believing jinn, and other spirit beings gather around the Qur'an during its recitation. This also confirms that the Qur'an is accepted by almost all beings in the universe and that it is of the highest rank.
All types of people derive their share from its teachings. The greatest scholars in Islamic sciences (e.g., jurisprudence, theology, and religious methodology) have found in it answers to their questions and so have based their conclusions upon it. This is another evidence that the Qur'an is the source of truths, the mine of all true knowledge. Furthermore, no unbelieving Arab literary genius ever has produced anything like it. Other geniuses of learning and eloquence who sought to produce something as eloquent as the Qur'an have been compelled to refrain from doing so. This clearly shows that the Qur'an is a miracle.
To judge a word's value, sublimity, and eloquence, we must ask who spoke it, to whom was it spoken, and why was it spoken. When considered in this way, the Qur'an has no equal, for it is the Word of the Lord of all beings, the Speech of the Creator of the universe. Nothing in it suggests that it has been fabricated by someone and then falsely attributed to God. God revealed the Qur'an to His chosen representative of all creatures, one who is His most famous and renowned addressee, whose belief embraced the comprehensive religion of Islam and caused its owner to rise to the rank of the distance of two bows' length. After being honored with direct conversation with the Eternally‑Besought‑of‑All, he returned to convey the principles of happiness in both worlds.
The Qur'an explains these principles, as well as the results of and the Divine purpose in creating the universe. It expounds upon the Prophet's most comprehensive belief, which sustains all the truths of Islam. It shows and describes the universe as a map, a clock, or a house, and teaches about the Artist Who made it. It cannot be matched or equaled in any respect.
In addition, numerous Qur'anic interpretations written by meticulous scholars of the highest intelligence and learning present proofs for countless virtues, subtleties, and mysteries of the Qur'an, and disclose and affirm its numerous predictions. Among them, the Risale‑i Nur's 130 treatises explain each Qur'anic virtue and subtlety, as can be seen throughout The Words. All of this sets a seal on the fact that the Qur'an is a miracle, has no equal, and is the Word of the Knower of the Unseen, which is the tongue of the World of the Unseen in this material world.
Due to its virtues, the Qur'an's magnificent spiritual dominion and majestic sacred rule continue to illuminate Earth and the ages, as well as time and space, and more people have been embracing it with perfect respect. Due to these same virtues, each letter yields at least 10 merits, 10 rewards, and 10 fruits pertaining to the eternal world, and the letters of certain verses and suras each give hundreds or even thousands of merits. When recited on certain blessed occasions, the light and merits of each letter multiply by tens or hundreds.
The world‑traveler came to understand this and said to himself or herself: "Based on the consensus of its lights and mysteries, and the concord of its fruits and results, this Qur'an, miraculous in every respect, proves and testifies to the Existence, Unity, Attributes, and Names of a single Necessarily Existent One in such a manner that the testimonies of innumerable believers have their sources in that testimony."
In a brief reference to the instruction the traveler received from the Qur'an about belief and God's Unity, we say: "There is no god but God—the Necessarily Existent One, the One, the Single—the necessity of Whose existence in His Oneness is proved decisively by the Qur'an of miraculous exposition." This is accepted and sought for by angels, people, and jinn. All of its verses are recited every minute and with perfect respect by countless people. Its sacred rule has prevailed in various regions of the Earth, realms of space, and on the faces of all ages and time. Its enlightened spiritual dominion has prevailed with perfect splendor over one‑fifth of humanity for 1,400 years. Likewise, with the consensus of its heavenly and sacred suras, the agreement of its luminous Divine verses, the correspondence of its mysteries and lights, the concord of its truths, and its results, it manifestly attests to and is a clear proof of this same truth.
[19] Known as the Seven Suspended Poems because they were written in gold and hung up on the Ka'ba's wall prior to the Qur'an's revelation.