[This consists of the explanation of two fine points concerning the Qur’an, written in connection with two minor questions put by Re’fet Bey.¹]

In His Name, be He glorified!

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.

Peace be upon you, and on your brothers, and God’s mercy and blessings!

My Dear, Loyal Brother, Re’fet Bey,

Your questions at this difficult time put me in a difficult position. On this occasion your two questions are unimportant, but since they are connected with two points of the Qur’an and your question about the globe of the earth touches on criticisms concerning the seven levels of the earth and the heavens made by geography and astronomy, they seemed to me to be important. Therefore not considering the unimportant nature of the questions, Two Topics will be explained concerning two verses of the Qur’an, in a scholarly and general way.

FIRST TOPIC

This consists of two Points.

F i r s t P o i n t : According to the verses,

How many are the creatures that carry not their own sustenance? It is God Who feeds [both] them and you.² * For God is He Who gives [all] sustenance - Lord of Power, Steadfast [for ever],³

sustenance is directly in the hand of the All-Powerful One of Glory and comes from the treasury of His mercy. Since the sustenance of all living creatures is guaranteed by the Sustainer, it should be that none dies of hunger. Whereas apparently many die of hunger and lack of food. This reality and mystery may be solved as follows:

The Sustainer’s guarantee is a reality; none die of hunger. For that All-Wise One of Glory stores up some of the sustenance He sends to the bodies of living creatures as fat, as reserves. In fact, He stores up a part of the sustenance He sends to each cell, in the cell, like a reserve stock to be spent when no sustenance comes from outside. They die before this store is finished. That is to say, such death is not from lack of sustenance; they rather die from a habit acquired through wrong choice and due to illness arising from desire for the wrong things and the giving up of habit.

Yes, the natural sustenance stored up in the bodies of living creatures in the form of fat generally lasts perfectly well for forty days. It may even exceed twice forty days as the result of illness or certain ecstatic states. It was written in the newspapers thirteen years ago (and now it is thirty-nine) that out of extreme stubbornness, a man in prison in London managed to live quite healthily for seventy days eating nothing at all.

Since the natural sustenance persists from forty days to seventy or eighty; and since the manifestation of the Divine Name of Provider is apparent on the face of the earth in most extensive fashion; and since foods flow forth from breasts and wood in completely unexpected fashion; if man so full of evil does not interfere with his bad desires and confuse things, that Name comes to the assistance of the living creature before the natural sustenance is consumed, and it does not open up the way to death through starvation. In which case, if those who die of hunger do so in less than forty days, it is definitely not from lack of sustenance. Rather, in accordance with the saying, “the abandoning of habit is one of those things which is fatal,” it occurs either from a bad habit or from illness resulting from the giving up of habits. In which case it may be said that there is no death from hunger.

Indeed, it may be observed that sustenance is in inverse proportion to power and will. For example, when still in the womb before coming into the world, young are completely deprived of power and will, yet are given sustenance to the extent they cannot move their mouths. Then when they come into the world, they still do not have power and will, but since they have some sort of ability and potential senses, needing only to fasten their mouths to the breast, given to their mouths from those fountains is the most perfect, nutritious and easily digestible sustenance, in the gentlest form and strangest way. Then as they acquire a small amount of power and will, that readily available, fine sustenance starts to be withdrawn from the infants. The fountains of the breasts dry up and their sustenance is sent from somewhere else. But since their power and will are insufficient to search for sustenance, the Munificent Provider sends their parents’ tenderness and compassion to assist them. Whenever their power and will are perfected, then their sustenance does not hasten to them and is not made to do so. The sustenance remains in its place, saying: “Come and search for me and take me!” That is to say, sustenance is in inverse proportion to power and will. We have indeed explained in many parts of the Risale-i Nur that animals most lacking in will and power are better nourished and live better than those with greater will and power.

S e c o n d P o i n t : There are different sorts of possibility, like ‘reasonable possibility,’ ‘customary possibility,’ and ‘ordinary possibility.’ If an event is not within the bounds of reasonable possibility, it is rejected, and if it is not within the bounds of customary possibility, it is a miracle, but may not easily be wonder-working. If it has no like, either according to common usage or in principle, it can only be accepted through categorical proof at the degree of witnessing.

It is as a consequence of this that the extraordinary states of Sayyid Ahmad Badawi, who did not eat bread even for forty days, are within the bounds of customary possibility. It may have been both wonder-working and a habitual practice out of the ordinary. Yes, there are numerous unanimous reports concerning Sayyid Ahmad Badawi’s (May his mystery be sanctified) wondrous states and absorption in ecstasy. On occasion, he ate only once in forty days, but it was not like that all the time; it was sometimes achieved through wonder-working. It is a possibility that because he did not feel the need to eat while in a state of ecstasy, it became as though habitual for him. Wonders of this sort have been reliably narrated about many saints of the kind of Sayyid Ahmad Badawi (May his mystery be sanctified). As we proved in the First Point, stored-up sustenance continues for more than forty days, and it is possible through habit not to eat for that length of time, and such a state has been reliably reported about people who were out of the ordinary. It therefore cannot be denied.