1. The Twenty - Ninth Flash
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Preface
Thirteen years ago, my heart combined with my mind and urged me to the way of reflective
thought which the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition commands with such verses as,
That you may consider. * Perchance they may reflect. * Do they not reflect in
their own minds, did God create the heavens and the earth? * There are signs
for those who consider.
The Hadith the meaning of which is "An hour's reflective thought is better than a year's
(voluntary) worship" states that on occasion an hour's reflection may be equivalent to a year's
worship. It also offers powerful encouragement for reflective thought. For myself, in order to
preserve the extensive lights and lengthy truths which appeared to my mind and heart during
the thirteen years I have followed this way, I recorded a number of phrases by way of
indications, not to point out those lights, but to indicate their existence, facilitate reflection,
and preserve the order. I used to recite the phrases to myself verbally in varying Arabic terms
when I embarked on the reflection. On being repeated thousands of times over this long
period, neither did I become wearied, nor did the pleasure they afforded diminish, nor the
spirit's need of them lessen. Because, since the reflection all consisted of flashes from
Qur'anic verses, the qualities of not causing weariness and preserving their sweetness, which
are a qualities of the verses, were represented in the mirror of that reflective thought.
I realized recently that the powerful source of life and brilliant lights in the various parts of
the Risale-i Nur are flashes of those sequences of thought. Thinking that they would have the
same effect on others that they had had on me, I made the intention to set them all down in
writing towards the end of my life. Certainly, very important parts of them have been included
in the Risale-i Nur, but a further power and value will be found in them in their totality.
Since the end of life is not clear, and since the conditions here of my imprisonment have taken
on a form worse than death, not waiting for my life to end, on the insistence and importunity
of my brothers, those sequences of thought have been written, without changing them, as
Seven Chapters.
[The remaining six Chapters of this 'Flash have been published in the hand-
duplicated editions of The Flashes, and not included here.]
THE THIRD CHAPTER
On the Degrees of `Cod is Most Great!'

2. We shall mention seven of its thirty-three degrees. An important part of those degrees have
been expounded in the Second Station of the Twentieth Letter, at the end of the Second
Stopping-Place of the Thirty-Second Word, and at the beginning of the Third Stopping-Place.
Those who want to understand the reality of those degrees should refer to those two parts of
the Risale-i Nur.
The First Degree
Say: "Praise be to God Who begets no son and has no partner in (His) dominion: nor (needs)
He any to protect Him from humiliation: yes, magnify Him for His greatness and glory! " God
is Most Great, may His Glory be exalted! In regard to power and knowledge greater is He
than everything. For He is the Creator, the Maker, the Giver of Form, Who through His power
fashions man like the universe, and writes the universe with the pen of His determining as He
writes man with that same pen. For the macrocosm is like the microcosm: both are fashioned
by His power, inscribed by His pen; He creates the macrocosm as a place of prostration, while
He gives existence to the microcosm so that it is prostrating; He brings the former into being
as a property, while He gives existence to the latter as owned and needy for the property; His
art in the former displays it as a book, while His colouring in the latter shines through speech;
His power in the former reveals His majesty, while His mercy in the latter arrays His bounty;
His majesty in the former testifies that He is One, while His bounty in the latter proclaims that
He is Single, Undivided; His stamp on the former is on all things, universal and particular,
whether at rest or in motion, while His seal on the latter is on the body and on the limbs, and
on their cells and particles.
Now consider His works as a whole: you will as clearly as daylight absolute profusion within
absolute order and regularity; with absolute speed yet absolute balance; with absolute ease yet
with absolute skill; on a vast scale yet with absolute beauty of art; over infinite distances yet
with complete unity of kind; with absolute intermingling, yet absolute differentiation; with
absolute lack of expense together with absolute value. This situation testifies to the mind, as it
compels the foolish dissembler to accept, that this art and unity is the work of one possessing
absolute power, one possessing absolute knowledge.
In unity lies absolute ease, while in multiplicity and associating partners with God are
incomprehensible difficulties.
If all things are attributed to one, then the creation of the universe is as easy as the creation of
a palm-tree, and the palm-tree as the fruit. But when ascribed to multiplicity, to create a palm-
tree is as difficult as creating the universe and each fruit as difficult as the tree-so difficult as
to be impossible. For with a single act, a single person may obtain a single result and situation
for many things without difficulty and without having recourse to other means. Whereas if the
situation and result are referred to many, it would be possible to obtain them only with great
trouble and dispute and pursuing other means. It would be like an officer referring his duty to
the soldiers, the master builder to the stones of a building, the earth to the planets, the
waterfall to the drops of water, and the central point of a circle to all the points on the
circumference.
Through the mystery of `relations' an unlimited power is present in Unity. A thing or cause is
not compelled to carry the sources of its strength, and the work resulting from the cause gains
in greatness in relation to the thing on which it relies. But when partners are associated with
God, all causes are obliged to carry their own sources of strength, and the resulting works

3. diminish to the extent of their own size. And it is because of this that an ant and a fly defeated
tyrants, and a tiny seed bears upon it a huge tree.
If all things are ascribed to one person, there is no need for creation from absolute non-
existence. Creation rather consists of transferring a being which has existence in knowledge to
external existence, like transferring the image on the mirror at the back of a camera onto
photographic paper, thus establishing its external existence with complete ease, or like
revealing words written in invisible ink by spreading on the writing a special substance.
When things are ascribed to causes and multiplicity, it necessitates that they are created from
absolute non-existence, and this is impossible, the most difficult of things. In Unity is an ease;
it is so easy as to be necessary. While in multiplicity is great difficulty; it is so difficult as to
be impossible.
In accordance with wisdom, with Unity, it is possible to create a being from absolute non-
existence. That is, to create a being out of pure non-being instantaneously, without matter, and
to pour particles into the mould which has existence in knowledge without difficulty or
confusion. While as all the intelligent agree, with multiplicity and associating partners with
God, original creation is not possible from non-existence. Because for the existence of a
living creature, particles and elements dispersed throughout the earth have to be gathered
together. And when there is no mould existent in knowledge, to preserve the particles in the
body of the animate creature, all the particles have to possess all-encompassing knowledge
and absolute will.
In addition, there is no need at all for those things supposed to be partners to God, just as it is
impossible for them to be partners. To claim therefore that they are partners is purely
arbitrary; there is nothing in beings to suggest that they have any role in their creation, no
sign. For the creation of the heavens and the earth necessitates perfect, infinite power, which
is in no need of partners. If there were partners, it would necessitate their limiting that infinite
and utterly perfect power and bringing it to an end in infinite time, although there is no
necessity for this, indeed, although the reverse is necessitated; and this is impossible in five
respects. Such partners are therefore impossible and precluded. Moreover, beings in no way
suggest or point to their existence.
We have expounded this matter in the First Stopping-Place of the Thirty-Second Word,
showing how all things from minute particles to planets, and from the planets to individual
facial features in the Second
Stopping-Place, reject the ascribing of partners with God, and pointing out the stamp of
Divine Unity on all of them.
And just as He has no partners, so He has no assistants or ministers. Causes are nothing other
than fine veils to the disposals of Pre-Eternal power; in reality they have no creative effect.
For the highest of causes, and the one with the most extensive will, is man, and out of a
hundred parts of the most obvious volitional acts like eating, speaking, and thinking, he has
only one dubious part. If the true power of disposal of the highest of causes and the one with
the most extensive will is thus restricted as you have seen, then how is it possible for the
animals and inanimate creatures to have a part in the creation and dominicality of the Creator
of the heavens and the earth? Just as the envelope in which a king sends a gift, or the
handkerchief in which he wraps a present, or the retainer who brings the gift to you, cannot be

4. partners in the king's sovereignty, so too the causes by the hands of which bounties are sent,
or the coffers containing the bounties stored up for us, or the causes wrapped up as Divine
gifts and sent to us as presents, cannot be partners to or assistants of God, or intermediaries
which have any effect.
The Second Degree
God is Most Great, may His glory be exalted; in regard to power and knowledge greater than
everything. He is the Creator, All-Knowing, the Maker, All-Wise, Most Merciful, All-
Compassionate. For the beings of the earth and the lofty celestial bodies in the garden of the
universe are self-evidently miracles of the power of an All-Knowing Creator; and the adorned
and multicoloured plants laid out in the park of the face of the earth and the many varieties of
animals displayed and spread throughout the park are necessarily the wonders of art of an All-
Wise Maker; and the smiling flowers and decorated fruits in the gardens of this park are
clearly the gifts of a Most Merciful and Compassionate One. These miracles of power and
wonders of art and gifts of mercy testify, call out, and proclaim that their Creator, Fashioner,
and Bestower is powerful over all things, and knowing of all things, that His mercy and
knowledge encompass all things. In relation to His power particles and stars are equal; few
and many are equal; small and great, finite and infinite are equal. All the events of the past
and its strange happenings, which are miracles of an All-Wise Maker's art, testify that this
Maker is powerful over all the possibilities of the future and its strange events, for He is an
All-Knowing Creator, Exalted, All-Wise.
Glory be to the One Who made the earth the exhibition of His art, the gathering place of His
creatures, the manifestation of His power, the means of His wisdom, the garden of His mercy,
the arable field of His Paradise, the place of passage of creatures, the place through which
beings flow, the measure of His artefacts.
The embellished animals, the decorated birds, the trees made fruitful, the plants adorned with
flowers are miracles of His knowledge, marvels of His fashioning, gifts of His munificence,
proofs of His grace.
Blossoms smiling with the adornment of fruits, birds singing in the early morning breeze, rain
pattering on the petals of flowers, mothers tenderly embracing their small young, all make
known One All-Loving, make loved One Most Merciful, Most Kind and Generous to jinn and
man, to spirit beings, the angels, and to animals.
Grains and fruits, seeds and flowers are miracles of wisdom, marvels of art, gifts of mercy,
proofs of unity; they testify to His grace in the realm of the Hereafter. They are truthful
witnesses testifying that their Creator is powerful over all things, and knowing of all things;
that with His mercy and knowledge and creativity, planning, art, and fashioning He
encompasses all things. In relation to His creation, planning, art, and fashioning the sun is like
a tiny seed, a star like a flower, the earth like a grain.
For seeds and fruits are mirrors of Unity in every part of multiplicity; they point to Divine
Determining; they are signs of power showing the Unity of the source of this multiplicity.
Proceeding from that source they testify to the Unity of their Creator's art and fashioning.
Then on their coming to an end in Unity they recount the wisdom of their Maker's creativity
and planning.

5. Seeds and fruits are also allusions of wisdom indicating that the Creator of the universal looks
with His all-encompassing view to the particular, then to the parts. For the fruits are the
clearest aim of the tree's creation. Thus, man is the aim of the universe, and the chief aim of
the Creator of beings. Man's heart is like a seed, and the most luminous mirror to the Maker of
creatures. It is due to this wisdom that in the universe, insignificant man is the chief means to
and reason for the resurrection of beings, and the destruction, transformation, change and
renewal of the universe.
God is Most Great! O Mighty One! The mind cannot penetrate the essence of Your
tremendousness!
All beings recite together "There is no god but He!" Perpetually seeking their needs, they
declare "O Truth!" Altogether they recite "O Living One!"
The Third Degree
This is explained and elucidated at the beginning of the Third Stopping-Place of the Thirty-
Second Word.
God is Most Great, may His glory be exalted! -in respect of power and knowledge greater
than all things. For He is All-Powerful, the Determiner, All-Knowing, All-Wise, the Giver of
Form, Munificent, Gracious, the Adorner, the Bestower of Bounties, Loving, the One Who
makes Himself known, Most Merciful, All-Compassionate, Kind, the Beauteous One of
Absolute Beauty and Perfection, the Pre-Eternal Inscriber. What is the reality of the universe
as a whole and with its parts, and with its levels and pages, and what is the reality of beings as
a whole and as individuals, and in regard to existence and permanence:
• Other than being the well-ordered, measured writings of the pen of is Determining and
Decree, according to knowledge and wisdom;
• And the depictions of the compasses of His knowledge and wisdom, traced with art;
• And the adornments of the shining hand of His art and bestowal of form, His
embellishing· and illuminating, with grace and munificence;
• And the flowers of the subtleties of His grace and munificence, His making Himself
known and loved, bounteously, with mercy;
• And the fruits of the superabundance of the spring of His mercy and bounty, His
mercy and tenderness, with beauty and perfection;
• And the flashes of an eternal beauty, a perpetual perfection, testified to by the
transience of the mirrors and flowing on of the places of reflection together with the
continuance of the beauty's manifestation through the passage of the seasons, the
centuries, and epochs, together with the continued bestowal of bounty throughout the
passage of creatures, time, and beings.
Yes, the fleeting nature of the mirrors and the passing of beings together with the constant
manifestations and effulgences shows with the utmost clarity that that evident beauty and
shining perfection do not belong to the places of manifestation; they prove most clearly and
eloquently that they belong to a transcendent Beauty, a transcendent Bestower, to the
Necessary Existent, the Enduring One, the Loving One.

6. For a perfect work self evidently points to a perfect act. And a perfect act necessarily points
to a perfect name and a perfect performer of the act. And a perfect name doubtlessly points to
a perfect attribute. And a perfect attribute without doubt points to a perfect quality. And a
perfect quality certainly points in a way worthy of such a one, to the perfection of his essence.
This is absolutely certain.
The Fourth Degree
God is Most Great, may His glory be exalted! For He is All-Just, the Pre-Eternal All-Wise
Arbiter and Sovereign, Who established the body of the tree of the universe in six days in
accordance with the principles of His wisdom and will. He divided it into sections in
accordance with the rules of His Determining and Decree. He set it in order through the laws
of His practices. He adorned and embellished it according to the laws of His mercy and
favour. He illumined it through the manifestations of His Names and attributes. All this is
testified to by the order and regularity of His artefacts, the adorning of His beings, and their
mutual resemblance and harmony, their mutual assistance and co-operation, their embracing
one another, and the conscious, skilful art in all things in accordance with the measure of their
capacities, specified by Divine Determining.
• The universal wisdom in the order of the universe ,
o and the perfect favour in its adornment,
o and the all-encompassing mercy in the grace bestowed in it,
o and the sustenance and provisions to nurture its beings,
o and through its manifesting the essential attributes of its Creator, the
wondrous life and art it displays,
• and the intended beauties of its embellishment,
o and despite its transience, the constant manifestation of reflected
beauty in it,
o and the true love in its heart for the One it worships,
o and the attraction evident in its ecstasy,
o and the agreement of all perfected ones in it concerning the Unity of its
Creator,
o and the benefits followed in all its parts,
o and its results achieved through wise planning,
o and the generous nurturing of its living beings,
o and the perfect order in the changes in its chief elements,
o and the vast aims followed in the order of its totality,
o and its instantaneous creation with utterly perfect art, without need for either
time or matter, '
• and the wise individualities given to its beings hesitant amid limitless possibilities,
• and the most numerous and various needs of its beings being met at the most
appropriate times in unexpected ways, and even their smallest wishes, which they
themselves are unable to meet,
• and the absolute strength manifested in its weakness,
• and the absolute power manifested in its impotence,
• and the life apparent in its lifelessness,

7. • and the encompassing consciousness apparent in its ignorance,
• and the perfect order within its changes, necessitating the existence of another who is
unchanging,
• and its glorifications like concentric circles centred on one point,
• and the acceptance of its three sorts of supplications, offered through `the tongue of
latent ability,' `the tongue of innate need,' and `the tongue of exigency '
o and the invocations, and witnessings, and effulgences in its worship,
o and the order in its determining,
• and the peace found in the remembrance of its Creator,
• and the worship in it being a means of bringing together its beginning and its end, and
the cause of its perfections becoming apparent and the purposes of its Maker being
realized,
• and together with these, all the rest of the universe's attributes, states, and
circumstances testify that all its beings are under the direction of a Single Wise
Planner, and sustained by a Single Munificent Provider; that they are all the servants
of a Single Master; under the disposal of a Single Disposer, and that their source is the
power of a Single One the many seals of Whose Unity are apparent on all the missives
of all the pages of His beings.
Yes, all flowers and fruits, and plants and trees, and animals and stones, and even particles
and clods, in all valleys and on all mountains, and deserts and wildernesses, are seals between
the inscriptions and the works. To those who look with care, they show that whoever made
the work, is he who wrote the inscription which comprises the place. He is also the Inscriber
of the face of the earth and beneath the seas. He inscribed too the sun and the moon on the
face of the heavens, which contains many such missives. May the glory of their Inscriber be
exalted, God is Most Great!
The world and all in it recite together "There is no god but He!"
The Fifth Degree
God is Most Great! For He is the All-Powerful Creator, the Giver of Form, All-Seeing, of
Whose Divinity and Tremendousness the heavenly bodies and brilliant glittering stars are
proofs; they are rays testifying to His dominicality and splendour. They testify to and
proclaim His glittering sovereignty and dominicality; they proclaim the vast extent of His rule
and His wisdom, and the majestic vastness of His power.
Listen to the verse:
Do they not lok at the sky above them? How We have made it and adorned it,
and there are no flaws in it?

8. Then look at the face of the heavens, you see how it is silent in its tranquillity, how it is in
motion with wisdom, how it is radiant with majesty, how it smiles with its adornment, within
the order of its creation, the symmetry of its art.
The shining of its lamp, the sun, for the changing of the seasons, the stages of its candle, the
moon, to illuminate the tracks, the glittering of its stars to adorn the worlds, proclaim to those
who think an infinite, unending sovereignty regulating this world.
Thus, the All-Powerful Creator is Knowing of all things, His will is all-encompassing; what
He wills is, and what He does not will is not. He is Powerful over all things through His
essential, all-embracing, absolute power. Like it is neither possible nor imaginable for the sun
today to exist without light or heat, so it is neither possible nor imaginable for a god and
creator of the heavens to exist without all-embracing knowledge and absolute power. Of
necessity He is Knowing of all things with allencompassing knowledge essential to His being.
Of necessity such knowledge is connected with all things; through the mystery of presence,
witnessing, penetration, and luminous all-comprehension, it is not possible for anything to be
separate or apart from such knowledge.
The balance and order to be observed in all beings, and the ordered proportionateness, and the
universal wisdom, and the perfect bestowal, and the measured regularity, and the determined
fruitfulness, and the specifted appointed hour of death, and the regular sustenance, the utter
excellence and precision as established by science, and the solicitous adornment, and the
utterly perfect differentiation, balance, order, and skill, and the absolute ease, all testify to the
all-encompassing knowledge of the One All-Knowing of the Unseen and all things.
As the verse,
Should He not know -He that created? And He is the One that understands the
finest mysteries (and) is well-acquainted (with them)
indicates, the existence of a thing necessitates knowledge, and the light of existence of things
necessitates the light of knowledge.
The comparison between man's fine art pointing to his intelligence and the evidence of man's
creation to His Creator's knowledge, is like the comparison of the infinitesimal light of a fire-
fly on a dark night and the splendid brilliance of the sun at noon on the face of the earth.
And if He is Knowing of all things, so He is Willing of all things. For it is not possible for
something to be realized without it being willed. And just as power is effectual, and
knowledge distinguishes, so will specifies; then the existence of things is realized.
There are evidences to the existence of the Divine will and choice to the number of states,
stages, and attributes of things.
Yes, all beings being given order and appointed with particular attributes from among
limitless possibilities, amid fruitless ways from among confused floods of incongruous
elements, with such fine and sensitive order, and their being given balance with such fine and
sensitive balance, as is to be observed; and the creation of the various well-ordered living
beings from simple lifeless matter-like man and his physical systems from sperm, and birds
and their limbs from eggs, and trees and their various members from seeds- show that all

9. things are specified and determined through His will and choice and volition. Just as things of
the same sort corresponding to one another and members of the same species resembling each
other in regard to basic members shows that of necessity their Maker is One, Single; so too
each member having a wise individuality marked by orderly distinguishing features indicates
that that One, Single Maker is an Agent with Will and Choice Who acts as He wishes and
commands as He wills.
And just as that All-Knowing and Willing Creator has knowledge of all things and is willing
of all things, and has all-embracing knowledge and all-encompassing will and total choice; so
too He has necessary, essential perfect power, proceeding from His Essence and necessary to
it. The intervention of its opposite is impossible. For that would necessitate the combining of
opposites, which is impossible, as a11 are agreed. So there are no degrees in His power.
Particles and stars are equal in relation to it, as are many and few, small and great, particulars
and universals, parts and the whole, man and the universe, and the seed and the tree.
• Through the mystery of `luminosity', `transparency', `reciprocity', `balance', `order',
and `conformity';
• According to the testimony of absolute order, absolute balance, and absolute
differentiation, together with absolute speed, ease, and multiplicity;
• Through the mystery of `the assistance of Unity', `the facility of Unity', and `the
manifestation of Oneness;'
• Through the wisdom of `necessity', `total detachment and disengagedness', and
`complete otherness of essence;'
• Through the mystery of `unrestrictedness', `not being bound by space', and
`indivisibility;'
• Through the wisdom of the transformation of obstructions and difficulties into means
for facilitation-if there was need, though there is none-like veins in human beings and
metal wires for conducting electricity and subtle forces;
• Through the wisdom of particles being of no less eloquence than the stars, nor
particulars of less eloquence than universals, nor parts less than wholes, nor the few
less than the many, nor the small less than the great, nor man less than the world, nor
seeds of less eloquence than the tree;
• According to all these, particles are equal to the stars before that power, few are equal
to many, small are equal to great, the parts and equal to the whole, particulars are
equal to universals, man is equal to the world, and the seed equal to the tree; it cannot
be deemed unlikely that whoever creates the former creates the latter. For the beings
that are encompassed are miniature samples of the universal, encompassing beings,
and like tiny missives, or points distilled from them. That is to say, the thing that is
encompassed has to be in the grasp of power of the Creator of the encompassing being
so that the miniature sample of the encompassing being may be contained within the
encompassed thing through the principles of His knowledge, and the summary of the
encompassing being may be pressed out of it in accordance with the balance of His
wisdom.
A Qur'an of Wisdom written on an atom in particles of ether is of no less eloquence than a
Qur'an of Grandeur written on the pages of the heavens with the ink of the sun and stars. So
too the creation of a bee or an ant is not of less eloquence than the creation 'of a date-palm or

10. an elephant, and the art of a rose is of no less eloquence than that of a shining star. And so on,
further examples may be made in the same way.
Furthermore, the complete ease in the creation of things has led the people of misguidance to
confuse the formation of things with self-formation, which necessitates superstitious
impossibilities that not only the reason rejects, but from which even fancy flees in disgust,
while for the people of truth and reality it proves certainly and necessarily that before the
power of the Creator of the universe, stars and particles are equal.
May His glory be exalted and name be magnified; there is no god but He !
The Sixth Degree
May His glory be exalted and sublimity extolled, God is Most Great! In regard to power and
knowledge He is greater than all things. For He is ', All-Just, All-Wise, All-Powerful, All-
Knowing, One, Single, the Pre-Eternal Sovereign. All the worlds are within the grasp of His
order and balance, and ordering and balancing; of His justice, and wisdom, and knowledge,
and power, and under their sway. They manifest His Unity and Oneness, as may be surmised
certainly, indeed, may be observed. For there is nothing in existence which is outside the
bounds of the order and balance and ordering and balancing. They are the two domains of
the , `Clear Record' and the `Clear Book'. These are two titles, the former of the knowledge
and command of the All-Knowing and Wise One, the latter of the power and will of that
Mighty and All-Compassionate One. For the order and balance in this Book and Record are
two shining proofs for those possessing reason and with two eyes in their head that nothing at
all in existence and time is outside the grasp of power of a Most Merciful One, the ordering of
One Most Kind, the adorning of One Most Clement, the balancing of a Requiter.
I n S h o r t : The manifestations of the Names of First and Last in creation look to the
beginnings and ends of beings, and their origin and progeny, and the past and the future, and
to the Divine command and knowledge; they point to the `Clear Record'. While the
manifestation of the Names of Outward and Inward in the creation of things indicate the
`Clear Book'.
For the universe is like a vast tree, and all the worlds within it too are
like trees. Thus, you may draw a comparison between the creation of a
single tree and that of the universe together with all its worlds and realms.
The tree has an origin and source, which is the seed from which it sprang and it has a progeny
which continues its functions after its death, which is the seed in its fruit.
Thus its beginning and end are the manifestations of the Names of that First and Last.
Through order and wisdom, its beginning and original seed are an index and timetable
comprising all the laws of the tree's formation. The seeds in its fruits, which are its end, are
the place of manifestation of the Name of Last.

11. The seeds in its fruit created with perfect wisdom are like small coffers in which have been
placed an index and timetable for the formation of a similar tree. Inscribed in them with the
pen of Divine Determining are the laws of the formation of future trees.
The tree's outer aspect is the manifestation of the Name of Outward.
For its outer aspect displays perfect order and balancing and wisdom. As though it was an
ornate and decorated garment with which the tree has been clothed with perfect wisdom and
grace in accordance with the measure of its stature.
The tree's inner aspect is the manifestation of the Name of Inward. It displays perfect order
and planning and astounds minds. It distributes the
substances necessary for the tree's life to its various members with complete regularity, as
though this inner aspect was a wondrous machine
working with the utmost order and balance.
Thus, its origin is a wondrous timetable and its end an astonishing
index, both indicating the Clear Record. While its outer aspect is a gorgeous robe full of art,
and its inner aspect, a machine of the utmost regularity; both pointing to the Clear Book.
And like man's faculty of memory points to the `Preserved Tablet and
is a proof it, so too the original seeds of all trees and their fruits, point to
the Clear Record. While their outer and inner aspects allude to the Clear
Book. So, comparisons may be made with this particular tree and the tree
of the earth and its past and its future, the tree of the universe and its
beginnings and its future, and the tree of man and his forebears and progeny. And so on.
May the glory of their Creator be exalted, there is no god but He!
Oh One Sublime! You do not guide the mind to the true essence of
Your grandeur nor lead it to the substance of Your tremendousness
The Seventh Degree
God is Most Great, may His glory be exalted! In respect of power and knowlege He is greater
than all things. For He is the Creator, the Opener, the Doer, Most Knowing, the Bestower,
Most Effulgent, the PreEternal Sun. The universe together with its realms and beings is a
shadow of His lights; they are the works of His acts, and the colours of the impresses of the

12. various manifestations of His Names, and the lines inscribed by the pen of His Determining
and Decree, and mirrors to the manifestations of His attributes, beauty, glory, and perfection.
• According to the consensus of the Pre-Eternal Witness, known through all His Books
and Scriptures, and His Qur'anic verses, and creational signs;
• And the consensus of the earth with all its worlds, together with their essential and
total want and need, and the absolute wealth and riches displayed on them;
• And the consensus of all the prophets, saints, and purified scholars, the people of
witnessing with luminous spirits, light-filled hearts, and illumined minds, through all
their researches, uncoverings, effulgences, and invocations;
• They are all agreed, from the earth to the lofty and lowly bodies with their endless
certain testimony and certain affirmation, in their acceptance , of the testimony of the
creational signs and Qur'anic verses, and the revealed Books and Scriptures, the very
testimony of the Necessary Existent One, that all beings are the works of His power,
the missives of His determining, the mirrors to His Names, and the representations of
His Lights.
May His glory be exalted, there is no god but He!
***