Vauxhall Tea Party

Phase 4 · The Names and the mirror

Week 12

Meeting the Names

The Words · The Thirtieth Word · The Thirty-Second Word · The Letters · The Twenty-Sixth Letter

01

Story

  1. 01Picture a light with no edge and no shadow anywhere (zulmetsiz ziya). You could not see it. There would be nothing to see it against.

  2. 02Now draw one line of darkness through it, real or only imagined (hakikî veya vehmî). Suddenly the light can be known.

  3. 03The “I” (ene) draws such a line through itself, an imagined limit (hadd-i mevhum). “Up to here is mine. After this is His.”

  4. 04With that little ruler (ölçücük) it measures what lies beyond. “As I built this house and keep it in order, Someone built the house of the world.”

  5. 05The measuring done, the line is lifted. The light stays known, and the house was His all along.

A picture from the introduction to the First Aim of the Thirtieth Word, told in steps. The wording is ours, the picture is Nursi’s. The army of four hundred nations is in point five below.

02

Meaning

Our small knowledge, mercy and power are a ruler for His infinite ones. And because we need so much, we are made to need His Names, then to long for them, then to love them.

Phase 3 cleaned the mirror. Phase 4 asks what it shows. In week 7 we read the Thirtieth Word for the danger of the “I” (ene); tonight we read the same pages for its job. We come to know God’s Names not by first picturing the infinite, but by looking at the little knowing, caring and making we already do, and saying: like this, but without limit and without likeness. Then Nursi opens a second door, need. Someone with parents in another country already knows which Name he needs most.

Six ways in to the Names

Two from the Thirtieth Word, two from the Thirty-Second, one from the Twenty-Sixth Letter, and one question for you. Try each picture with your own hands.

  1. al-Kadîr · the All-Powerfulal-Alîm · the All-Knowingar-Rahmân · the All-Mercifulmy little power · cüz’î kudretmy little knowledge · cüz’î ilimmy little mercy · şefkata supposed line · farazî hatlike this, but without limit and without likeness

    A small sample in the self. Choose one and use it as a ruler. It need not even be real, like a line in geometry.

    01 / 06

    The self is a unit of measure

    The All-Wise Maker gave the human being an “I” that holds samples and hints of His attributes (sıfât), so that it can serve as a unit of measure (vâhid-i kıyâsî) by which the qualities of His lordship become known. The unit need not even be real: like the lines supposed in geometry (farazî hatlar), it can be assumed. Our small power (cüz’î kudret) hints at al-Kadîr, the All-Powerful; our small knowledge (cüz’î ilim) at al-Alîm, the All-Knowing; our small mercy at ar-Rahmân and ar-Rahîm.

  2. mine · benimHis · O’nunHis is the dominion · lehü’l-mülkendless light · zulmetsiz ziya — not known, not felta line, real or imagined · hakikî veya vehmî hat“up to here mine, after this His” · hadd-i mevhumthe line lifted; the light still known

    A light with no darkness anywhere. You cannot see it, because there is nothing to see it against.

    02 / 06

    Darkness makes light visible

    Why tie knowing God to the self at all? Because something absolute and all-encompassing (mutlak ve muhît) has no edges, so it cannot be given a shape or grasped. A light with no darkness in it cannot be known or even felt. Draw a line of shadow, real or imagined, and it can. That is what the “I” does: it imagines in itself a little lordship, ownership, power and knowledge, draws an imagined limit (hadd-i mevhum), and by that division slowly understands what lies on the other side.

  3. ar-Rahmân · ar-Rahîmal-Hakîm · al-Mürebbîal-Vâris · al-Bâisneed · ihtiyaçlonging · iştiyak×2love · muhabbet×2passion · aşk×2family far awaya world in disarraythose who have died

    Choose a need, then double it. Human nature gathers so much that it needs every Name.

    03 / 06

    Need becomes longing, longing becomes love

    The Thirty-Second Word opens a second door: need (ihtiyaç). Human nature (fıtrat) gathers so much that a person needs, by nature, the thousand and one Divine Names, and every degree of each. Then a line worth writing on the board: need doubled is longing (iştiyak), longing doubled is love (muhabbet), love doubled is passion (aşk). As the spirit matures, love unfolds through the degrees of the Names, and since the Names are His titles, love of the Names turns into love of Him.

  4. Muhyîgives it lifeHakîmorders its bodyKerîmadorns its homeRahîmprepares its needsRezzâkfeeds itone light, many colours · elvân-ı seb‘a

    A bird, not yet alive. Give it life, and see how many Names arrive.

    04 / 06

    The Names are intersecting circles

    In the Twenty-Sixth Letter Nursi says the Names shown in the universe are like intersecting circles (devâir-i mütedâhile) and like the seven colours in light (elvân-ı seb‘a): each enters the others, helps them and completes their work. The moment the Giver of Life (Muhyî) shows itself (tecelli) in a creature, the All-Wise (Hakîm) orders its body, the Generous (Kerîm) adorns its home, the Compassionate (Rahîm) prepares its needs, and the Provider (Rezzâk) feeds it in ways it never expected. So whoever owns one Name owns them all.

  5. one King, no helper · muînsizone battalion · taburthe same kit for all — most of it does not fiteach its own uniform, food, weapon and medicinefour hundred thousand nations · dörtyüzbin millet

    Even ten nations in one battalion are too many to equip one by one. So everyone gets the same kit, fit or not.

    05 / 06

    The four hundred nations of spring

    Picture an army of four hundred different nations (taife), each wanting its own uniform, food, weapons and medicine, all mixed together rather than sorted into units. A single King, with no helper (muînsiz), gives every soldier exactly what suits him, forgetting no one and confusing no one. Even ten nations in one battalion (tabur) would force any human quartermaster to equip them all alike. Then look at spring: four hundred thousand nations (dörtyüzbin millet) of plants and animals camped across the earth, none able to provide for itself or even to ask in words, each fed and dressed. Here the Truth (Hak), the All-Merciful, the Provider, the Compassionate and the Generous are all at work.

  6. all at one distance, like a poster on the wallar-Rahmânal-Vârisal-Bâisal-Kerîmal-Kahhâral-Hakîmar-Rezzâkal-Vedûdal-Muhyî

    Nine Names, all at the same distance. Choose what your life is doing now, and see which come close.

    06 / 06

    Which Name is near, which is far?

    The course plan asks which Name we feel most in our life right now, and which feels most distant. This is not a test of piety. Someone carrying a heavy loss may feel ar-Rahmân far away and al-Vâris, the Inheritor, very near. Someone just promoted may feel al-Kerîm, the Generous, close and al-Kahhâr, the Subduer, remote. Nursi’s whole approach suggests that the Most Beautiful Names (Esmâ-i Hüsnâ) are met through life, not only through lists.

03

Read

وَلِلّٰهِ الْاَسْمَاۤءُ الْحُسْنٰى فَادْعُوهُ بِهَا

“To God belong the Most Beautiful Names, so call on Him by them.” (Qur’an 7:180)

The All-Wise Maker has placed in the hand of the human being, as a trust, an “I” that gathers signs and samples showing the realities of the attributes and works of His lordship, so that the “I” may be a unit of measure, and the qualities of lordship and the workings of divinity be known. A unit of measure need not be something that really exists. Like the supposed lines of geometry, it can be formed by assumption and imagining.

A light that has no darkness cannot be known or felt. Only when a line is drawn with some darkness, real or imagined, does it become known. So the “I” imagines in itself a lordship, an ownership, a power and a knowledge, and draws a limit. “Up to here is mine, after this is His,” it says, and with its own little measures it slowly understands. As I own this house, it says, the Creator owns this universe.

Human nature is lofty and gathers everything, so by its very nature it needs, in a thousand kinds of need, the thousand and one Divine Names and the many degrees of each. Need doubled is longing; longing doubled is love; love doubled is passion. As the spirit grows towards its perfection, the degrees of love unfold according to the degrees of the Names.

Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, The Words, the Thirtieth Word (First Aim, introduction) and the Thirty-Second Word (Third Stopping-place, Third Point); The Letters, the Twenty-Sixth Letter (Fourth Topic, Fourth Matter)Working translation from the Turkish, made for this draft. Ölçücük, “a little measure”, is Nursi’s own diminutive. The Thirty-Second Word is section 67 of the same edition. Check against a published edition before release.Read the Thirtieth Word in English and Turkish

04

Explore

Like this, but without limit

Start with something you made and keep in order yourself: a home, a project, a family dinner. Move the slider outward and lay your little ruler end to end, until it can no longer count.

MineHis

This house“I built this house and I keep it in order. I own it.” A small ownership (zâhir mâlikiyet), a small skill (san‘atçık), and they are real enough to measure with.

The cityPull back, and the house is one window among a hundred thousand. Laid end to end, the ruler can still count them, just.

The earth and skyFurther, and the ticks crowd together and blur. Who built the house of the world (dünya hânesi), and keeps it in order?

Without limitThe ruler gives out. Like this, but without limit (hududsuz) and without likeness (şeriksiz). As I own this house, He owns the universe.

Nursi’s warning is in the same sentence. Our attributes are only units of measure, not small copies of His. His Knowledge is not a bigger version of ours. And when the measuring is done, the “I” gives back the ownership it only pretended to, and says: His is the dominion, and His is the praise.

Course