The Need for Renewal of Faith You ask concerning the wisdom contained in [the Hadith]: "Renew your belief by means of 'There is no god but God.'"^[13] The wisdom in it has been mentioned in many of the Words and one aspect of it is as follows:

Since man himself and the world in which he lives are being continuously renewed, he needs con­stantly to renew his faith. For in reality each individ­ual human being consists of many individuals. He may be considered a different individual to the num­ber of the years of his life, or to the number of its days or even hours. For since a single individual is subject to time, he is like a model and each passing day clothes him in the form of another individual.

Furthermore, just as there is within man this plu­rality and renewal, so also is the world in which he lives in motion. It goes and is replaced by another. It varies constantly. Every day opens the door of another world. As for faith, it is both the light of the life of each individual in that person, and it is the light of the world in which he lives. And as for "There is no god but God," it is a key with which to turn on the light.

Then the instinctual soul, desire, doubts, and Satan exercise great influence over man. In order to damage his faith, they are much of the time able to take advantage of his negligence, to trick him with their wiles, and thus to extinguish the light of belief with doubts and uncertainty. Also, man is prone to act and utter words which apparently oppose the Shari'a, and which in the view of some religious authorities are no less then unbelief. Therefore, there is a need to renew belief all the time, every hour, every day.

Question: The masters of scholastic theol­ogy wrapped up the world in the abbreviated con­cepts of contingency and createdness and having disposed of it, so to speak, proved divine unity. And one school of Sufis, in order to experience God's presence and affirm His unity fully, said: "Nothing is observed but Him." They thus forgot the universe and drew the veil of oblivion over it, and then fully experienced the divine presence. Another school of Sufis, in order to truly affirm divine unity and enter God's presence at the highest degree, said: "There is no existent but Him." They relegated the universe to the level of imagination and cast it into non­existence, and then fully entered the divine presence. But you point out that in the Qur'an is a mighty highway besides these three ways. And you say that its mark is the phrases: "There is nothing sought but Him," and, "There is nothing worshipped but Him." Can you show me a brief proof of the affirmation of divine unity that this highway provides and point out a short way leading to it?

The A n s w e r : All the Words and Letters in the Risale-i Nur point out that highway. For now, as you wish, we shall indicate concisely an extensive, lengthy and mighty proof of it.
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[13]Musnad, H. 359; al-Mundhiri, al-Targhlb wa'l-Tarlub, n, 415; al-Hakim, al-Musladrak, iv. 256; al-HaythamT, Majma' al-Zawa'id, ¡,52.