Vauxhall Tea Party

Phase 5 · Kader and Vesvese

Week 16

Nothing Is Random

The Words · The Twenty-sixth Word (Kader Risalesi), First Topic

01

Story

  1. 01The end of a long, dry summer. The fields of the valley are brown, the riverbed is cracked, the wells are low. In one yard a man has left his hay out, too lazy (tenbel) to bring it in.

  2. 02Clouds come over the hills, and the rain (yağmur) falls all night on the whole valley.

  3. 03The fields drink, the river runs again, the wells fill, the orchards turn green. A great deal of good (hayr-ı kesîr) has come down in one night.

  4. 04In his yard, the hay is soaked through. He stands over it and says: “This rain is no mercy” (yağmur rahmet değil).

  5. 05But the rain fell on the whole valley, his own field too. To hold back all that good for one man’s hay would be the great harm. The small harm (şerr-i cüz’î) passes into the good.

Nursi’s own comparison from the First Topic of the Treatise on Divine Determining, retold in our words; the valley and the hay are our details.

02

Meaning

Everything happens with God’s knowledge and measure (kader). Whoever believes in kader is safe from grief (kadere iman eden kederden emin olur): accepting it brings peace about the past, it is not giving up on the future.

The lazy man was not wrong that his hay was ruined. He was wrong that the rain was no mercy. He saw his corner of the valley; the rain was falling on all of it. That is the opening of the Treatise on Divine Determining: nothing is sent down except in a known measure, and everything is counted in a Clear Book (imam-ı mübin). Kader (kader) means measure. A life is not a heap of random letters but a written page, even where we cannot read it yet. Looked at this way, kader is a medicine for despair and grief about what has already happened. It is never an excuse for what we still have to do.

Six things this reading shows

From the opening and the First Topic of the Treatise on Divine Determining. Try each picture with your own hands.

  1. a heap of letters: random?a Clear Book · imam-ı mübinNOTHINGISSENTDOWNEXCEPTINAKNOWNMEASUREin a known measure · bi-kaderin ma‘lûm

    One sentence, cut into letters. Scatter them, then set them in place.

    01 / 06

    Measure and a Clear Book

    The treatise opens with two verses. The treasuries of everything are with God, and He sends nothing down except in a known measure (bi-kaderin ma‘lûm, 15:21); and He has counted everything in a Clear Book (imam-ı mübin, 36:12). The word kader comes from this root: measure, due proportion, determining. So the first picture is not of a blind fate falling on us. It is of a world where nothing is sent without being weighed and nothing happens without being written: a well-ordered book in which every event has its place and points to its Author.

  2. the final limits of belief · nihayet hudud“it was written”kaderagainst pridecüz-i ihtiyarîagainst excuses“Know your limit: it is not you who does it” · haddini bil“You are answerable” · mes’ul ve mükellefsinthanks · şükür“I did it”“that was mine”

    Two guards at the edge of belief. Do something good, or something wrong, and see who steps out.

    02 / 06

    Kader is lived, not argued

    Nursi begins with a surprise. Kader and the small share of will (cüz-i ihtiyarî) are not academic, theoretical questions (ilmî ve nazarî). They belong to a belief that is lived and felt in the conscience (hâlî ve vicdanî), and they mark its final limits. The believer hands everything to God, even his actions and himself, until at the very edge his share of will steps in front of him: you are answerable, and under obligation (mes’ul ve mükellef, teklif). Then, so that he does not grow proud of the good that comes from him, kader steps in: know your limit, it is not you who does it (haddini bil, yapan sen değilsin).

  3. what has happened · mâziyatwhat is to come · istikbaliyattodaya lossa missed chancean illnessmedicine for grief · ilâçyour next step · mes’uliyetidleness · atâlet

    Behind him, three things that happened. Ahead, what is to come. Where does kader belong?

    03 / 06

    A medicine for grief, not an excuse

    Where should kader be used? Nursi is precise. Its place is in things past and in calamities (mâziyat ve mesâib), where it is the medicine for despair and grief (ye’sin ve hüznün ilâcı). It is not for sins and for the future (maâsî ve istikbaliyat), where it would only breed dissipation and idleness (sefahet ve atâlet). Kader faces backwards, towards what has happened and cannot be changed. It does not face forwards, towards what you still have to do. That is the meaning of the well-known saying: kadere iman eden kederden emin olur, whoever believes in kader is safe from grief.

  4. mercy wants it, power makes it · rahmet, kudrethis part · dua, iman, şuur, rızato build: 0to destroy: 1

    Build the house a brick at a time. Then strike one match.

    04 / 06

    Good is from Him, evil is from me

    A person may not boast of his good deeds (hasenat): his share in them is very small. God’s mercy (rahmet) wants them and His power (kudret) creates them; we come to own them only through prayer, belief, awareness and consent (dua, iman, şuur, rıza). But he is fully answerable for his evil deeds (seyyiat), because it is his own nafs that wants them, by its capacity (istidad) or by its choice. White sunlight falls on everything, and some things turn black and rot in it: the blackness is theirs, not the sun’s. And evil is destruction, so one act can do enormous harm, like one match that burns down a house.

  5. a little harm, a great goodfields drinkwells fillthe river runsorchards growflocks drinkmuch good · hayr-ı kesîrhis hay is soakeda little harm · şerr-i cüz’îthe rest of the valley, unseen

    Weigh the rain. Look at the whole valley, then only at his yard, then hold the rain back.

    05 / 06

    A little harm, a great good

    The heart of the First Topic. Nursi separates acquiring evil (kesb) from creating it (halk): acquiring evil is evil, but creating evil is not evil (kesb-i şer şerdir, halk-ı şer şer değildir). When God creates, a small, partial harm (şerr-i cüz’î) comes with much good (hayr-ı kesîr). To give up the much good to avoid the small harm would itself be a great evil (şerr-i kesîr). So the small harm counts as good. That is the lazy man and the rain.

  6. what the judge sees · zâhirî illetyears agonowa hidden crimenear a shopthe same cellfor a theft he did not commit: unjust · zulüm

    One man’s years, and one prison cell. Look with the judge’s eyes, then with kader’s.

    06 / 06

    Kader sees the true causes

    Kader is free of injustice in its causes too, because it looks at the true causes (hakikî illet), while people judge by the causes they see on the surface (zâhirî illet). A judge convicts a man of a theft he did not commit: unjust. But the man once killed someone in secret, and kader, which sends him to the same cell for that, is just. Then a test: only someone aware of God’s presence (ehl-i huzur) has the right to talk of kader: he looks to it in calamities and is patient (sabır), looks to it when he does good and gives thanks (şükür), and takes the blame for his faults. For the heedless (ehl-i gaflet), talk of kader is only a trick of the self (desise-i nefsiye) to escape responsibility.

03

Read

وَاِنْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ اِلاَّ عِنْدَنَا خَزَائِنُهُ وَمَا نُنَزِّلُهُ اِلاَّ بِقَدَرٍ مَعْلُومٍ ۝ وَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ اَحْصَيْنَاهُ فِى اِمَامٍ مُبِينٍ

“There is nothing whose treasuries are not with Us, and We send it down only in a known measure.” “And We have counted everything in a Clear Book.” (Qur’an 15:21; 36:12)

Kader and the small share of will (cüz-i ihtiyarî) are parts of a belief that is lived and felt in the conscience (hâlî ve vicdanî), marking the farthest limits of Islam and belief; they are not matters of scholarship and theory. The believer gives everything to God, his deeds and even his self, until at the very end, so that he does not slip out of obligation and responsibility, the share of will comes out in front of him and says: you are answerable, you are under obligation. Then, so that he is not proud of the good and the perfections that come from him, kader comes to face him and says: know your limit; it is not you who does it (haddini bil, yapan sen değilsin).

Among ordinary people who have not progressed in spirit, kader does have a place where it may be used: in what is past and in calamities (mâziyat ve mesâib), where it is the medicine for despair and grief. It is not for sins and for what is to come, where it would become a cause of dissipation and idleness (sefahet ve atâlet). So kader entered belief not to free us from obligation and responsibility, but to free us from boasting and pride.

A lazy man harmed by a rain that holds a great many benefits cannot say, “the rain is not a mercy.” In creation, a small evil comes with much good; to give up the much good for the small evil would be a great evil, and so the small evil passes over into the good. Or: a judge convicts you of theft and puts you in prison. You are no thief, but you have a hidden killing that no one knows. Kader has sentenced you to the same prison, but for the hidden killing, and it has done justice; the judge, who sentenced you for a theft you were innocent of, has done wrong.

Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, The Words, the Twenty-Sixth Word (the Treatise on Divine Determining), the opening and the First TopicWorking translation from the Turkish, made for this draft. Check against a published edition before release. The saying “kadere iman eden kederden emin olur” is a well-known summary of this teaching; it is not in the First Topic itself.Read the Treatise on Divine Determining in full, in English with the Turkish original

04

Explore

A door that closed

Think of a door that closed on you: a job, a visa, a place, a person. Scrub through time and read the same event three times.

That dayRain, a shut door and a torn letter in pieces on the ground. It looks like a heap of letters: random, or worse, unfair. Grief (hüzün) and a heavy “if only”.

LaterThe rain has stopped. A path has opened beside the door, towards a lit window you could not see that night. You do not understand it all yet, but the page is turning.

Read as writtenThe same door, now one line on a written page, set there with knowledge and measure (kader). The past is handed over, and the grief lifts. The path is still yours to walk: that part is your share of will.

Kader does not ask you to pretend the door did not hurt. It asks you to stop reopening it, and to trust that the page was written by Someone who knows and measures. Next week: the other half, our small share of choice, and how to face the future.

Course