this greatest basis of the Divine unity— the setting forth of all this opens the talisman of the Qur’an, and makes it possible to know the most secret and unknowable riddle of the creation of all beings, a riddle that reduces philosophy to impotence.

Thanks and praise one hundred thousand times the letters of the Risale-i Nur be to the Compassionate Creator that the Risale-i Nur has solved, uncovered and established this wondrous talisman, this wondrous riddle. It has been proven with decisive arguments, to the same degree of certainty that twice two is four, particularly in the discussion of “He is powerful over all things” toward the end of the Twentieth Letter; in the section concerning God’s being an all-powerful agent in the Twenty-Ninth Word, one devoted to the resurrection; and in the section proving the Divine power in the degrees of “God is Most Great” in the Twenty-Ninth Flash, written in Arabic. For that reason we assign to those parts of the Risale-i Nur the exposition of this matter, wishing, however, to set out briefly the foundations and proofs that solve this mystery and to allude to thirteen mysteries that resemble thirteen steps, or a list of contents. I have indeed written the first and second mysteries, but unfortunately two powerful obstacles, material and immaterial, have caused me to abandon the remainder.

T h e F i r s t M y s t e r y : If something be essential, its opposite cannot have access to the essence defined by that thing. For that would be equivalent to the union of opposites, which is an absurdity. Now with regard to this principle, since God’s power is related to His Essence and is an essential concomitant of His Most Sacred Essence, impotence —the opposite of power— cannot in any way gain access to that All-Powerful Essence.

Moreover, the existence of degrees within a thing comes about through the intervention in it of its opposite. For example, strong and weak degrees of light result from the intervention of darkness; high and low degrees of heat proceed from the admixture of coldness; and greater and lesser amounts of strength are determined by the intervention and opposition of resistance. It is therefore impossible that degrees should exist in that power of the Divine Essence. He creates all things as if they were but a single thing. And since degrees do not exist in the power of the Divine Essence and it does not admit of weakness or deficiency, no obstacle can in any way