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:

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