Why did God create death, ugliness or unlovely things?

While we see and enjoy beauties in the universe and in our world, we also see ugliness, deaths, misery and illnesses.

What can be the wisdom behind their creation? Let's hear some insight into the matter:

"The First Part of the Question: You are saying in this Station that beauty, good, and justice encompass the universe, so what do you say to all the ugliness, disasters, illness, tribulations, and death we see around us?

The Answer: A single instance of ugliness which results in or shows up numerous instances of beauty is indirectly an instance of beauty. While the non-existence of an ugliness, or its being invisible, which then conceals numerous instances of beauty and does not permit them to be seen, is not a single, but a manifold, ugliness. For example, if an ugliness which is a unit of measurement is non-existent, the beauty would be of only one sort, and its numerous degrees would remain concealed. For it is through the intervention of ugliness that the degrees of beauty unfold. Just as the degrees of heat become apparent through the existence of cold, and the degrees of light are known through darkness, so universal instances of good, universal benefits, universal bounties, and universal instances of beauty become apparent through there being minor instances of evil, harm, calamities and ugliness. This means that the creation of ugliness is not ugly, it is beautiful, because the majority of its results are beautiful. Yes, a lazy man who suffers loss due to the rain, cannot deny the good results it produces in the name of mercy; he cannot transform the mercy into harm.

As for transience and death, it is demonstrated with extremely powerful and decisive proofs in the Twenty-Fourth Letter that they are not contrary to general mercy, all-embracing beauty, and comprehensive good; in fact, they are necessitated by them. The creation of Satan, even, since he is the cause of striving and competition, the springs of man’s spiritual progress, is also good, as is the creation of his species; their creation is beautiful in that respect. Also, for unbelievers to suffer torments in Hell even is good, since through their unbelief they have transgressed the rights of all beings and insulted their honour. These two points have been explained in detail in other treatises, so here we are curtailing the discussion with this brief indication".

(photo from: http://www.heatmat.co.uk/under-floor-heating-news/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Glowworm.jpg)

The important points raised by this excerpt is that what we see as ugly in the universe are actually tools for understanding the beauty better. As given as an example, the degree of darkness is a good benchmark for appreciating the beauty of light. The term beauty and ugliness may not be taken only for physical matters but for immaterial aspects of life as well like troubled moments which make happy moments precious.

Imagine a life which is never afflicted with trouble? Would not it be tasteless and boring? Compare health and ailment, sight and blindness etc.

Another point is that creation of something ugly is not an ugliness per se. As I have discussed this matter in my entry for "creation of Satan", it would be good to refer there. This example given in the excerpt tells it quite well.

For more, please read here for the continuation of the question in the excerpt: http://www.nur.gen.tr/en.html#leftmenu=Risale&maincontent=Risale&islem=read&KitapId=22&BolumId=760&KitapAd=The+Rays&Page=41

Do causes have any authority or power in creation or sustenance?

"Stopping-Place, reject the ascribing of partners with God, and pointing out the stamp of Divine Unity on all of them.

And just as He has no partners, so He has no assistants or ministers. Causes are nothing other than fine veils to the disposals of Pre-Eternal power; in reality they have no creative effect. For the highest of causes, and the one with the most extensive will, is man, and out of a hundred parts of the most obvious volitional acts like eating, speaking, and thinking, he has only one dubious part. If the true power of disposal of the highest of causes and the one with the most extensive will is thus restricted as you have seen, then how is it possible for the animals and inanimate creatures to have a part in the creation and dominicality of the Creator of the heavens and the earth? Just as the envelope in which a king sends a gift, or the handkerchief in which he wraps a present, or the retainer who brings the gift to you, cannot be partners in the king's sovereignty, so too the causes by the hands of which bounties are sent, or the coffers containing the bounties stored up for us, or the causes wrapped up as Divine gifts and sent to us as presents, cannot be partners to or assistants of God, or intermediaries which have any effect."

As the quotation indicates, we humanbeings are the most advanced of living beings, yet even we have no authority on our bodies and the things around us. Then, how come do speechless, deaf and dumb causes have authority in forming things and producing things that we see around.

Why does All-Mighty God need our supplication and worship? Why does He demand this so much?

(photo from : http://www.islamsitesi.net)

Most of us ask this question to ourselves while having inner talks or to others while having discussions. Apparently, such a God who created everything out of nothing won't need anything, then why does He require us so much that we must pray and worship to Him? 

Logic tells us He won't need it, therefore the case must be different than "need". Indeed, it is different. Let's hear these words:

"God Almighty has no need of your worship, nor indeed of anything else. It is you who needs to worship, for in truth you are sick. As we have proved  in many parts  of the  Risale-i Nur,  worship  is a  sort of remedy for  your spiritual  wounds.  You  can  understand  how  absurd  it  would  be  if  an  ill person responds to a kind doctor who insists on his taking medicines that are beneficial for his condition by saying: “What need do you have that you are insisting in this way to give me these medicines?”

 As the example states, God gives us the prescription for the wounds and pains of our soul which suffer from the stress and depression of the world. Most of us see injustices and wrongs around us, and these leave our soul and heart in pain at times. The only way that our soul can breathe is through the channel which connects us to our Creator. This channel is worshipping and supplication.

What is more about supplication:

"The best, finest, sweetest, most immediate fruit and result of supplication is this, that the person who offers it knows there is someone who listens to his voice, sends a remedy  for  his  ailment,  takes  pity  on  him,  and  whose  hand  of  power  reaches everything. He is not alone in this great hostel of the world; there is an All-Generous Being who looks after him and makes it friendly. Imagining himself in the presence of the One who can bring about all his needs and repulse all his innumerable enemies, he feels  a joy and relief;  he casts off his load,  which is as  heavy as the world,  and exclaims: “All praise be to God, the Lord and Sustainer of All the Worlds!”

 Who can know the possible problems of a machine better than the manufacturer? Who can know our desires, problems, wishes and longings better than our Creator?

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What is our duty in this world? To enjoy everything randomly or?

As I discussed earlier, we are used to seek a purpose in anything, and I concluded that we must have a goal in this life.

As another point in that regard, I will try to compare mankind with animals to see whether there is similarity in duty. As we know animals just eat, procreate and enjoy as much as they can. We all know that there is a huge difference between mankind and animals in terms of faculties and many other aspects. That must indicate us something with regard to duty. Lets see what this excerpt has to say:

Belief makes man into man, indeed, it makes man into a king. Since this is so, man's basic duty is belief and supplication. Unbelief makes him into an extremely impotent beast.Out of thousands of proofs of this matter, the differences in the ways animals and man come into the world are a clear indication and decisive proof. Yes, these differences show that humanity becomes humanity through belief. For when animals come into the world, they come complete in all points in accordance with their abilities as though having been perfected in another world; that is, they are sent. They learn all the conditions of their lives, their relationships with the universe, and the laws of life in either two hours or two days or two months, and become proficient in them. Animals like sparrows and bees acquire in twenty days the power to survive and proficiency in their actions that man only acquires in twenty years; that is, they are inspired with them. This means that the animals' fundamental duty is not to be perfected through learning and progress by acquiring knowledge, nor to seek help and offer supplications through displaying their impotence, but in accordance with their abilities to work and act. Their duty is active worship.

As the passage illustrates perfectly, animals do not have a duty to study and learn the ways to survive as we do. They have already been programmed to do so as they come into this world. So, human beings cannot be compared to animals in terms of living.  The idea that spending life like a beast would do is not rational then given these points. 

 (Photo from: http://www.pbase.com)

Unlike animals, we come into this world totally unlearned. We learn things in quite a lot time. We don't get full knowledge of ourselves till puberty. This means that man's innate duty is to be perfected through learning and seek answer to the questions of "Why am I here, who brought me and where will I go?". And this must lead him to His creator who is the one who gave purpose and providence for him. Curiousity requires learning. As one learns about someone great, he believes and admires Him. The Creator is really deserves admiration which also necessitates worship as He is the one who gave us everything we have/will have.

For many aspects of belief, go to this article: http://www.nur.gen.tr/en.html#leftmenu=Risale&maincontent=Risale&islem=read&BolumId=8519&KitapId=456&KitapAd=The+Words

How can one explain that a Merciful God gives death, illnesses, troubles and suffering to the mankind and animals?

Looking at ourselves and around us, we realise that there are deaths, sufferings, illnesses inflicted on both humankind and animals.

There are people who are confined to bed or who do not have a normal life where they can enjoy like others. And all die (animals and men) without exception sooner or later.

So, why an All-Merciful God inflict all these troubles, isn't this contradictory to His love and mercy? 

To understand the wisdom, let's hear an illustration:

"...when making a precious garment, ornamented with jewels and embroidery, a skillful craftsman employs a poor man in return for a commensurate  wage.  In order  to display his skill and art, he dresses the man in the garment, then measures and cuts it, and lengthens and shortens it;  making  the  man  sit  down  and  stand  up,  he  gives  it  various  forms.  Does  the wretched man have the right to say to the craftsman: “Why are you meddling with this garment which makes me beautiful, altering and changing it? Why are you making me stand up and sit down, disturbing me and causing me trouble?

In exactly the same way, in order to display the perfections of His art through the embroideries  of  His  names,  the  All-Glorious  Maker  takes  the  essential  nature of beings as a model, then He clothes them all and especially living creatures  in the garment of a body bejewelled  with senses, and inscribes  it with the pen of divine decree and determining, thus displaying the manifestation of His names. In addition, He gives to each one of them a perfection, a pleasure, an effulgence, in a way suitable to it and as a wage.

Does anything have the right, then, to say to the All-Glorious Maker, who exemplifies the meaning of, “the Lord of All Dominion has free disposal over His realms as He wishes:” “You are giving me trouble and disturbing me.”? God forbid! Beings have no rights before the Necessarily Existent One, nor can they claim them. What is expected from  them is, by offering thanks and praise, to carry out what is required by the degree of existence He has given them."

As illustrated in the example, when things have no existence, God created them and gave them a form of life. When being nothing they came into life. The did not own anything, so there is no room for complaining about their current status. The owner, just like the tailor in the example put the garment of body on souls of animals and mankind. He is the owner of the garment, he can give illness, He can make blind, He can make crippled or He can make handsome. He can show all kinds of His arts on this body garment He gave us in return for nothing.

Moreover, mankind has the highest form of life. The excerpt describes this well in the following way:

"O querulous  man! You  did  not remain  non-existent;  you  were clothed  in the bounty of existence. You tasted life; you neither remained inanimate, nor were made an animal. You received the bounty of Islam; you did not remain in misguidance. You have experienced the bounties of good health and well-being!

O ungrateful one! Where did you win the right not to offer thanks in return for the degrees of existence Almighty God has given you as a pure bounty? How is it that because exalted bounties that are contingencies and non-existent and that you do not deserve   have   not  been   given   you,   you   complain   about   Almighty  God   with meaningless greed, and are ungrateful for the bounties you have received? If a man rises to an elevated position, such as climbing to the top of a minaret, and finds a high station, and on every step receives a large bounty, then does not thank the one who gave him the bounties and complainingly asks why he did not rise even higher, how wrong  he  would  be!  What  an  ungrateful  denial  of  the  bounties,  what  a  great foolishness it would be, as even a lunatic would understand! "

As the quotation explains, we have already been given the most precious thing viz "life". But not a mere life, not a mineral, not a plant and not an animal. Unlike plants and inanimate beings, we have a soul which lives forever and will have eternal joy (with body) if it is guided.

 

 

 

{Photos respectively taken from: "http://gardenofeaden.blogspot.com, topphoto.org, http://cat.bloctum.com/acollida/}

Even a man confined to bed from his birth has been given a great gift as he is not "nothing" but something existing, he won't go extinct but live forever in heaven with a fully-functioning body. Is suffering for a minute and then having an eternal joy something to be complained of? Indeed, the life of this world is like a minute when compared eternity, so why should it be against mercy to suffer for a minute to have an eternal joy?

Likewise, the suffering inflicted on animals can be interpreted similarly. They have souls which will go to eternity. They came into life from being non-existent. Is not that a great gift? Moreover, unlike mankind animals don't remember the past as we do, and they are not aware of what will happen them next which is a great mercy from their Lord.

I used to graze cows and bulls in my childhood, sometimes we would slaughter one, and when we would take a bull for slaughtering, it would not show any reaction as it did not know what will happen. We would take it to the place and tie legs and lay it down, but it did not still know that it would be slaughtered. When we put the knife, it understood that we were slaughtering it but it could not really feel it as it only takes a few minutes for its consciousness to die. So, such a mercy is given to animals in the form of not knowing what will happen to them.

Why God always replaces the face of earth with new living beings? Why some animals only live for a term like two days and then die? What is the purpose behind this?

To see answers for such questions, read here more:

http://www.nur.gen.tr/en.html#leftmenu=Risale&maincontent=Risale&islem=read&BolumId=8787&KitapId=499&KitapAd=Letters+%28+revised+%29

Is the test we are having unfair? Isn't it evil that so many people go to hell as a result of this test?

Most of us ask this question. As someone believing in God, everyone entertains the question that "isn't it against mercy of God to start this test which results in many people's damnation to hell?".

As the current landscape shows many people will go to hell according to religion. What is the reason behind this fact which justifies such a Merciful God to have us this test? Lets see what this excerpt has to say:

"I f   y o u   a s k ?   The majority of humanity become unbelievers  due to the existence of Satan; they embrace unbelief and suffer harm, despite the sending of prophets. If, according to the rule “The majority has the word,” the majority suffers evil as a result,  then the creation of evil is evil and it may even be said  that the sending of prophets is not a mercy. Isn’t that so?

T h e  A n s w e r : Quantity has no importance in relation to quality. The true majority looks to quality. For example, if a date-palm has a hundred seeds and they are not planted in the earth and watered and so do not undergo a chemical reaction and  manifest  the  struggle  for  life,  they  remain  a  hundred  seeds  worth  virtually nothing.  But if they are watered  and are subject  to the struggle  for life, and then eighty out of the hundred rot due to their faulty make-up, but twenty become fruit- bearing trees, can you say that watering them was evil because most of them rotted? Of course you cannot say that, for the twenty have become twenty thousand. A person who loses eighty and gains twenty thousand suffers no loss, so it cannot be evil.

Another  example:  a  peahen  lays  one  hundred  eggs  and  they  are  worth  five hundred kurush (Turkish currency). If the hen sits on the hundred eggs and eighty go bad and twenty hatch into peacocks, can it be said that the loss was high and the affair, evil; that it was bad to put the broody hen on the eggs and an evil occurred? No, it was not thus, it was good. For the peacock species and egg family lost eighty eggs worth four hundred kurush, but gained twenty peacocks worth eighty liras (Turkish currency).

Thus, through the sending of prophets and the mystery of man’s accountability, and through striving and fighting with satans, in return for the hundreds of thousands of prophets and millions of saints and thousands of millions of purified scholars they have  gained,  who  are  like  the  suns,  moons,  and  stars of the  world  of  humanity, mankind has lost the unbelievers and dissemblers, who are numerous in regard to quantity, insignificant in regard to quality, and like pernicious beasts."

Thus, as this passage indicates, the test we are having produces precious personalities which is more worthy than others who fail in it.

As the illustrations indicate, number does not pose significance when compared to quality.

For more, read here:

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Purpose in life? Is there any purpose in life?

?

If we are to make some observations about our lives, we see a purpose in anything. For instance, tools, equipments, houses, parts of houses, garden, traffic lights, road signs, laws and many others all have a purpose.

When we come accross with something that we see for the first time, the first thing we ask is :"What is that for?". You will confirm me. As you see, we always seek a purpose in anything we see or experience.

We retort when we don't find something having a purpose. Even activities aimed for amusement do have a purpose which is amusement though it does not yield material outcomes.

So, the big question is: "Is there a purpose with this universe as far as we can observe?"

Before, answering this question, let's make some observation on the current picture we have. We, humanbeings have a very nice home moving in space and taking us for a space travel with all of the providence we need. We have sun illuminating us, giving us heat and cooking our food in every spring time.While seeing that the planets around us are without life (similar to ours) and water and plants, our earth is colorful and full of life as if specially chosen for habitation.

Each year countless animate beings die and in spring time the same are born and welcome their life. Similarly, each year many people die and babies are born.

Having mentioned these matters, could it be possible for such a place exist without a purpose with all these programs and plans with a smoothly running system? Could so much be wasted for nothing?

Could  man with so many material and emotional/spiritual capabilities be without a purpose having been cast onto this world? or do we have a purpose?

Could  such a sensitive and balanced system be without One establishing and sustaining the system? Could such a universe be attributed to causes or coincidences which have no authority other than strictly obeying their program?

If we accept God is responsible for this Creation and Control, then what is the purpose with regard to God? Why did God create this universe and man?

Then, why do man exist and what is his purpose?

In order to have an idea about these matters, read this article which deals with these two basic questions. The article gives the answers by means of an illustration which is then applied to reality.

http://www.nur.gen.tr/en.html#leftmenu=Risale&maincontent=Risale&islem=read&BolumId=8492&KitapId=456&KitapAd=The+Words