Inanimate Objects

“… the Lord of the Worlds, the All-Majestic Lord of the heavens and Earth, the All-Gracious Builder of this world and the next, uses angels, animals, inanimate objects, plants, and people in this palace of the universe, in this Realm of Causality. He does this not out of need, as He is the Creator of everything, but for certain instances of wisdom like the requirements of His Might and Honor, Greatness and Lordship.”¹⁾

“The fact that plants and inanimate objects have no will makes their work more perfect than that of animals.”²⁾

“… the All-Wise Maker has appointed for each thing an attainable rank of perfection and an appropriate level of existence. Accordingly, He has endowed it with a potential to work for and attain that rank. He urges everything toward its rank of perfection and level of existence. This is a law He established as the Lord of all creation, one that is operative in the realms of plants of animals as well as in that of inanimate things. Thus plain soil can become the source of all jewelry like priceless diamonds. This demonstrates a universal law of God as being the Lord, One Who sustains, evolves, and trains all creatures.”³⁾

“Question: Living creatures can receive pleasure, but how can inanimate beings have zeal and derive pleasure? Answer: Inanimate beings seek honor, position, perfection, beauty, and order, not on their own accounts, but on account of the Divine Names manifested in them. They become mirrors to the Names of the Light of Lights by carrying out their natural duties, and are illumined, refined, and developed.”⁴⁾

“Man has been created as an index of the universe. God included the index of all the qualities, from the realm of the angels to the realm of the spirits to the realm of inanimate objects, in the essence of mankind.”⁵⁾

“The ‘power of choice’ has been placed in our essence. If people can use this power for good, they will leave inanimate objects, plants, and animals far behind, and even sometimes they will be able to surpass the angels.”⁶⁾

“A tree has become a means for a Bedouin to believe: As a miracle, it came from a river bed nearby, splitting the earth as if walking, when the Messenger of God invited it. The tree gave the following message by its tongue of disposition: ‘O Messenger of God! We were like the incomprehensible things in the realm of the inanimate objects. Thanks to the light you have emitted, we have become very precious beings that carry the stamp of God on our foreheads.’”⁷⁾

“God has created the universe in order to be known. The human mirror shows different things, and the mirrors of inanimate objects, plants, and animal reflect different things. Animals and human beings serve as different mirrors in creation. Human beings and animals manifest different Divine self-disclosures. Here, I would like to ask your attention to one point in particular: Trees, animals, grass, roses, flow of water, sky gilded with stars… Each of these is beautiful in its own way and we observe a different beauty in all of them. But their beauty is different. Looking at one does not prevent us from looking at the other. We cannot say, ‘We have observed the beauty in trees, so we do not need to look at other plants anymore.’”⁸⁾

Other Languages

¹⁾

Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, The Words, New Jersey: The Light, 2013, p. 370.

²⁾

Ibid., p. 376.

³⁾

Ibid., p. 573.

⁴⁾

Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, The Gleams, New Jersey: Tughra Books, 2013, p. 171.

⁵⁾

M. Fethullah Gülen, Kendi İklimimiz (Prizma-5), İstanbul: Nil Yayınları, 2007, p. 207.

⁶⁾

M. Fethullah Gülen, Yol Mülahazaları (Prizma-6), İstanbul: Nil Yayınları, 2007, p. 765.

⁷⁾

Ibid., p. 125–126.

⁸⁾