The science of economics would reply: "It is an exceedingly well-ordered warehouse containing every sort and kind of food."
The science of dietetics would reply: "It is a dominical kitchen and cauldron of the Most Merciful in which is cooked in most regular fashion hundreds of thousands of the most delicious foods."
The science of soldiering would reply: "The earth is a military camp. Although there are four hundred thousand different nations in that army in the spring, newly taken under arms with their tents pitched on the face of the earth, they are given their rations, uniforms, weapons, training, and discharges, which are different for each nation, in perfect order, with no confusion and none being forgotten, through the command, power, compassion of a single Commander-in-Chief, from His treasury; they are all administered in the most regular fashion."
And if the science of electricity were to be asked: "What is this world?", it would certainly reply: "The roof of this magnificent palace of the universe has been adorned with innumerable orderly and balanced electric lamps. However, the order and balance are so wondrous that foremost the sun. and those heavenly lamps, which are a thousand times larger than the earth, do not spoil their balance, although they burn continuously; they do not explode or burst into flames. Their expenditure is endless, so where do their income and fuel and combustible material come from? Why are they not exhausted? Why is the balance not spoilt with their burning? A small lamp goes out if it is not tended regularly. See the wisdom and power of the All-Wise One of Glory, Who makes the sun. which according to astronomy is a million times larger than the earth and a million years older.² burn without coal or oil, without being extinguished; say: 'All Glory be to God!' Say: What wonders God has willed! Blessed be God! There is no god but He!' to the number of seconds of the sun's existence.
"This means there is a wondrous order in these heavenly lamps, and they are tended with the greatest care. It is as if the boiler of those huge, numerous fiery masses, those light-shedding lamps, is a Hell whose heat is never exhausted; it provides them with lightless heat. While the machinery and central factory of those electric lamps is a perpetual Paradise; it provides them with light and luminosity; through the greatest manifestation of the Names of Sapient and All-Wise, they continue to burn in orderly fashion."
And so on; through the certain testimony of hundreds of sciences like these, the universe has been adorned with innumerable instances of wisdom, purposes, and beneficial things within a faultless, perfect order. And the order and wisdom given through that wondrous, all-encompassing wisdom to the totality of the universe have been included in small measure in seeds and the tiniest living creatures. It is clear and self-evident that aims, purposes, instances of wisdom, and benefits can only be followed through choice, will, intention, and volition, not through any other wway. Just as they could not be the work of unconscious causes and Nature, which lack will, choice, and purpose, so they could not interfere in them.
That is to say, it cannot be described what an extraordinary ignorance and foolishness it is not to recognize or to deny the All-Wise Maker, the Agent with Choice, Whom the universe and all its beings necessitate and demonstrate through their infinite order and the instances of wisdom they contain. Yes, if there is anything astonishing in the world, it is such denial. For the endless aspects of order and instances of wisdom in the beings in the universe testify to His existence and unity, so that even the most profoundly ignorant can understand what blindness and ignorance it is not to see or not to recognize Him. I might even say that among the people of unbelief, the Sophists, who are supposed to be stupid because they denied the universe's existence, are the most intelligent. For since on accepting its existence, it was not possible not to believe in God and its Creator, they started to deny the universe's existence. They denied themselves as well. Saying, "There is nothing," they abdicated their intelligences, and being saved from the boundless unreasonableness —under the guise of reason— of the other deniers, they in one sense drew close to reason.
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2. You can reckon just how much wood, coal, and oil would be necessary for the stove or lamp of the sun, which heats the palace of the world. According to the reckoning of astronomy, for it to burn every day, piles of wood equal to a million earths and thousands of oceans of oil would be necessary. Now think! And say: "Glory be to God! What wonders God has willed! Blessed be God!" to lhe number of the sun's panicles in the face of the majesty, wisdom, and power of the All-Powerful One of Glory, Who makes it give light continuously without firewood or oil.