One should not receive bounties which arrive at the hands of apparent causes on account of the causes. If a cause does not possess will, like an animal or a tree for example, it gives the bounty directly on account of Almighty God. It says: “In the Name of God” through the tongue of disposition and gives it to you, so you too should say: “In the Name of God,” and take it for God’s sake. If the cause possesses will, he should say: “In the Name of God,” then you should take it, otherwise you should not take it. For apart from the explicit meaning of the verse,

Eat not of [meats] on which God’s name has not been pronounced,¹⁵

an implicit meaning is this: “Do not partake of bounties which do not recall the True Bestower of Bounties and are not given in His name.”

Since this is so, both the one who gives should say “In the name of God,” and the one who receives should say, “In the name of God.” If he does not say it, but you are in need, then you say, “In the Name of God,” and seeing the hand of Divine mercy upon him, kiss it in thanks, and take the bounty from him. That is to say, look from the bounty to the bestowal, and from the bestowal think of the True Bestower. To think in this way is a sort of thanks. Then if you wish, offer a prayer for the apparent means, since it was by his hand that the bounty was sent to you.

What deceives those who worship apparent causes is the two things coming together or being together, which is called ‘association;’ they suppose the two things cause one another. Also, since the non-existence of one thing is the cause of a bounty being non-existent, they suppose that the thing’s existence is also the cause of the bounty’s existence. They offer their thanks and gratitude to the thing and fall into error. For a bounty’s existence results from all the bounty’s conditions and preliminaries. Whereas the bounty’s non-existence occurs through the non-existence of only a single condition.

For example, someone who does not open the water canal to water a garden is the reason and cause of the garden drying up and the non-existence of bounties. But the existence of the garden’s bounties is dependent on hundreds of conditions besides the man’s duty and the bounties come into being through dominical will and power, which are the true cause. So understand just how clear is the error of this sophistry and how mistaken are those who worship causes!

Yes, ‘association’ is one thing and the cause is another. You receive a bounty, but the intention of a person to bestow it on you was the ‘associate’ of the bounty, not the cause. The cause was Divine mercy. If the man had not intended to give you the bounty, you would not have received it and it would have been the cause of the bounty’s non-existence. But as a consequence of the above rule, the desire to bestow cannot be the cause of the bounty; it can only be one of hundreds of conditions.

For example, some of those among the Risale-i Nur students (like Husrev and Re’fet) who have received Almighty God’s bounties have confused the ‘association’ and the cause, and have been over-grateful to their Master. However, Almighty God put together the bounty of benefiting from the Qur’anic instruction which He bestowed on them, and the bounty of instructing which He had bestowed on their Master; He ‘associated’ the two. They say: “If our Master had not come here, we would not have received this instruction, so his instruction is the cause of our benefiting.” However, I say:

“My Brothers! The bounties Almighty God bestowed on you and on me arrived together. The cause of both bounties is Divine mercy. Like you, I too at one time confused the association with the cause, and felt much gratitude towards the hundreds of Risale-i Nur students with diamond pens like yourselves. I would say: ‘If it had not been for them, how could have a semi-literate unfortunate like myself have performed this service?’ Then I understood that after bestowing on you the sacred bounty by means of the pen, He bestowed on me success in this service. He associated the two; they were not the cause of each other. I do not thank you, but congratulate you. And you too pray for me and congratulate me, rather than being grateful to me.”

It may be understood from this Fourth Matter just how many degrees there are in heedlessness.