the universe, the sacred attribute of knowledge shows the Most Pure and Holy One most clearly. When on that night he received the Divine address in God’s presence, since he had been sent as an envoy on behalf of all living beings and every sort of creature, instead of giving the greeting (al-salam) of conscious beings, he said: “Salutations, blessings, benedictions and supplications, and good words — all are God’s,”42 thus offering to his Creator the creatures’ gifts, showing the manner they make known their Sustainer through the manifestations of the attribute of knowledge. That is, with the four words “Salutations, blessings, benedictions and supplications, and good words” he was alluding to the salutations, congratulations, worship, and recognition of the One All-Knowing of the Unseen of the four main groups of living beings which they offer through the manifestations of pre-eternal and post-eternal knowledge. For this reason, the recitation of this sacred conversation of the Ascension in its broad meaning has become an obligatory part of the tashahhud for all Muslims. Referring detailed exposition of that sacred conversation to the Risale-i Nur, we shall explain one meaning of it in the form of four very brief indications.

The First is “Salutations to God” (al-tahiyyatu lillah). Briefly, its meaning is this: for example, a master craftsman invents a wonderful machine with his profound knowledge and miraculous intelligence, and everyone who sees it applauds and congratulates the craftsman, and praising and saluting him, offers him gifts both material and immaterial. The machine too, by displaying the craftsman’s wondrously subtle art, and skill and knowledge, and working perfectly in exactly the way he wanted, aapplauds him through the tongue of its being, in effect greeting him and offering him immaterial gifts. In exactly the same way, all the species of living beings in the universe, together with all their individual members, are in every respect miraculous, wonderful machines, which —like conscious beings, men, and jinn and angels, applaud and salute their Maker verbally— through the tongues of their beings and lives applaud and salute their craftsman, the All-Glorious Maker, Who makes Himself known through the profound and subtle manifestations of His all-comprehending knowledge, which sees the relationship of everything with everything else, and knows all the