Risale-i Nur Collection >> The Flashes >> Sixteenth Flash
YOUR THIRD QUESTION

There are brief replies concerning Jesus (Upon whom be peace) killing the Dajjal in both the First and the Fifteenth Letters, which should suffice you.

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In His Name!

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.

Peace be upon you, and God’s mercy and blessings.

My Dear Self-Sacrificing, Loyal, Conscientious Brothers, Hoja Sabri and Hâfiz Ali!

Although your important question about the verse at the end of Sura Luqman about the Five Hidden Things deserves an important reply, unfortunately neither my present state of mind nor physical condition permit such an answer. I shall only allude very concisely to one or two points your question touches on.

Your question shows that atheists who have deviated from true path of religion have made objections and criticisms concerning the time of rain falling and nature of the embryos in the womb from among the Five Hidden Things. They have said: “Instruments in the observatory can discover when rain is to fall, so someone other than God knows. Also the sex of embryos can be learnt by means of X-rays. This means it is possible to learn the Five Hidden Things.”

T h e A n s w e r : Not being tied to any law, the time rain falls is bound directly to Divine will. One instance of wisdom in its appearance from the treasury of mercy being dependent on a particular Divine wish is as follows:

The most important things in the universe and the most valuable are existence, life, light, and mercy, which look directly, without intermediary or veil, to Divine power and a particular Divine wish. In other creatures, apparent causes are veils to the disposal of Divine power, and regular laws and principles to an extent screen the Divine will and wish. However, such veils have not been placed on existence, life, light, and mercy, for the purpose they serve is not in force in those things.

Since the most important truths in existence are mercy and life, and rain is the source of life and means of mercy, indeed is pure mercy, for sure intermediaries will not veil it, neither will laws and monotony screen the wishes that pertain to God alone. In this way everyone in every situation will all the time be obliged to offer thanks and worship and supplications and prayers. If rain had been included under a law, everyone would have relied on the law and the door of thanks and supplication would have been closed.

It is clear that there are numerous benefits in the sun’s rising. But since it is tied to a regular law, supplications are not offered for its rising and thanks are not given. And since by means of the law human knowledge knows that it will rise again tomorrow, it is not counted among the matters of the Unseen. But since the particular occurences of rain do not follow any law, men are all the time obliged to take refuge at the Divine Court with prayers and supplications. And since human knowledge has been unable to specify the times of precipitation, they consider it to be a special bounty proceeding from the treasury of mercy alone, and truly offer thanks.

It is because of this that the verse includes the time of rain among the Five Hidden Things. Deducing the preliminaries of rain with instruments in observatories and specifying the times of precipitation is not knowing the Unseen, but through studying certain of its preliminaries knowing when it has emerged from the World of the Unseen and drawn close to the Manifest World.

When the most secret events of the Unseen occur, or when they are close to occurring, they are known through a sort of premonition. That is not knowing the Unseen, it is knowing something existent or its being close to existence. I myself even, through a sensitivity in my nerves, perceive the rain, sometimes twenty-four hours before it comes. That is to say, the rain has preliminaries, forerunners. They show themselves through a sort of dampness, making it known that rain is to follow. Just like a law, this situation is a means of reaching matters that have left the World of the Unseen but not yet entered the Manifest World. But to know when rain will fall that has not yet set foot in the Manifest World, nor left through a particular Divine wish the treasury of mercy, is peculiar to the One All-Knowing of the Unseen.