The Words | 25. Word | 452
(375-476)

Do the unbelievers not see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, before We clove them asunder?,166

it gives the world a transparency and removes its turbidity. Through its light-scattering illuminations like,

God is the Light of the heavens and the earth167 * What is the life of this world but play and amusement?,168

it melts the frozen, inactive world. Through its death-tainted expressions like,

When the sun is folded up,169 * When the sky is cleft asunder ,170 * When the sky is rent asunder.171 * And the trumpet will be sounded, and all that are in the heavens and all that are on earth will fall down senseless, except such that it pleases God [to exempt],172

it smashes the delusion that the world is eternal. Through its thunderous blasts, like,

He knows what enters within the earth and what comes forth out of it, what comes down from the skies and what mounts up to them. And He is with you wheresoever you may be. And God sees all that you do.173 * And say: Praise be to God, Who will show you His signs, so that you shall know them. And your Sustainer is not unmindful of all that you do,174

it scatters the heedlessness born of the notion of 'nature'.

Thus, from beginning to end the Qur'an's verses which are turned towards the universe proceed according to this principle. They reveal and display the reality of the world as it is. Through showing just how ugly the ugly world is, it turns man's face from it, and points out the beautiful world's beautiful face, which looks to the Maker. It fastens man's eye on that. It instructs in true wisdom and knowledge, teaching the meanings of the book of the universe, and looking infrequently at the letters and decorations. It does not cause the meaning to be forgotten like drunken philosophy, nor make man enamoured of the ugly and waste his time on meaningless things due to the decoration of the letters.

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166. Qur'an, 21:30.
167. Qur'an, 24:35.
168. Qur'an, 6:32.
169. Qur'an, 81:1.
170. Qur'an, 82:1.
171. Qur'an, 84:1.
172. Qur'an, 39:68.
173. Qur'an, 57:4.
174. Qur'an, 27:93.

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The Words