From: irfan@maxwell.ece.wisc.edu (Irfan Alan)
Subject: EVIDENCES OF THE EXISTENCE OF ALLAH (THE GOD)
Organization: Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison; Electrical & Computer Engineering
Distribution: usa
Date: 21 Jan 93 20:31:43 CST


A TREATISE ON NATURE

EVIDENCES OF THE EXISTENCE OF ALLAH SWA (THE GOD)
AND THE IMPOSSIBILITIES OF THE WAYS TAKEN BY ATHEISTS,
NATURALISTS AND MATERIALISTS

A TRANSLATION from the COLLECTION OF RISALE-I NUR
"RISALAT-UT TABI'AT" (A TREATISE ON NATURE),
AUTHORIZED by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi.

NARRATOR: IRFAN ALAN

A DROPLET FROM THE VAST OCEAN OF MIRACULOUS QUR'AN
----------------------------------------------------
                   PART 2 
                
AUZUBILLAHIMINASSAYTANIRRACIYM BISMILLAHIRRAHMANIRRAHIYM
(I seek refuge to Allah from the Satan rejected, stoned. 
 In the name of ALLAH, the Merciful, the Compassionate)


   THE FIRST WAY:
   This is to imagine that the formation and existence of
things, creatures, occurs through the coming together of
the causes in the universe. We shall mention only three
of its numerous impossibilities.
First Impossibility
   Imagine there is a pharmacy in which there are hundreds
of jars and phials filled with quite different substances.
A living potion and a livinig remedy are required from
those medicaments. So, we go to the pharmacy and see
that they are to be found there in abundance, yet in great
variety. We examine each of the potions and see that
the ingredients have been taken in varying but precise
amounts from each of the jars and phials, one ounce
from this, three from that, seven from the next, and so
on. If one ounce too much or too little had been taken,
the potion would not have been living and would not
have displayed its special quality. Next, we study the
living remedy. Again, the ingridients have been taken
from the jars in a particular measure so that if even the
most minute amount too much or too little had been
taken, the remedy would have lost its special property.
   Now, although the jars number more than fifty, the
ingredients have heen taken from each according to
measures and amounts that are all different. Is it in any
way possible or probable that the phials  and  jars
should have heen knocked over by a strange coincidince
or sudden gust of wind and that only the precise,
though different, amounts that had been taken from
each of them should have been spilt, and then arranged
themselves and come together to form the remedy? Is
there anything more superstitious, impossible and absurd
than this? If an ass could speak, it would say, "I
cannot accept this idea!" and would run off.
   Similarly, each living being may be likened to the
living potion in the comparison, and each plant to a 
living remedy. For they are composed of matter that
has been taken in most precise measure from truly nu-
merous and truly various substances. If these are attrib-
uted to causes and the elements and it is claimed,
"Causes created these", it is unreasonable, impossible
and absurd a hundred times over,  just as  it was  to
claim that the potion in the pharmacy came into exis-
tence through the phials being knocked over, by accident.
   In Short: The vital substances in this vast pharmacy
of the universe, which are measured on the scales of di-
vine determining and decree of the All-Wise and Pre-
Eternal One, can only come into existence through a
boundless  wisdom,  infinite  knowledge  an
All-Encompassing Will. The unfonunate person who de-
clares that they are the work of blind  deaf and innu-
merable elements and causes and natures which stream
like floods; and the foolish, delirious person who
claims that that wondrous remedy poured itself out
when the phials were knocked over and formed itself
are certinly unreasonable and nonsensical. Indeed, that
denial and unbelief is a senseless absurdity.
Second Impossibility
   If everything is not attributed to the AII-Powerful and
AII-Glorious One, Who is the Single One of Unity,
but rather is attributed to causes, it necessitates that
any of the elements and  causes present in the uni-
verse interfere in the being of each animate creature.
Whereas, that different and mutually opposing and con-
flicting causes should come together of their own ac-
cord in complete order, with the finest balance and in
perfect concord in the being of a tiny creture, like a
fly, is such an obvious impossibility that anyone with
even an iota of consciousness would say, "This is im-
possible; it could not be!"
   The tiny body of a fly is  connected with most of the
elements and causes in the universe; indeed, it is a
summary of them. If it is not attributed to the Pre-
Eternal and All-Powerful One, it is necessary for those
material causes to be themselves present in the imme-
diate vicinity of the fly; rather, for them all to enter
into its tiny body; and even for them to enter each of
the cells of its eyes, which are minute samples of its
body.  For if a cause is of a material nature, it is neces-
sary for it to be present in the immediate vicinity of,
and inside, its effect. And this necessitates accepting
that the constituents and elements of the universe are
materially present inside that minute cell, a place too
small even for the tip of its antenna, and that they
work there in harmony like a master.
   A way such as this, then, shames even the most
foolish of the Sophists.

   Third Impossibility:
   It is an established rule that, "If a being has a unity, 
it can only have been issued from a single being, from one 
hand."  Particularly if it displays a comprehensive life
within a perfect order and sensitive balance, it demon-
strates self-evidently that it was not issued from numer-
ous hands, which are the cause of conflict and confu-
sion, but that it was issued from a single hand that is All-
Powerful  and All-Wise. Therefore, to attribute that
well-ordered and well-balanced being which has unity
to the jumbled hands of innumerable, lifeless, ignor-
ant, aggressive, unconscious, chaotic, blind and deaf
natural causes, the blindness and deafness of which in-
crease with their coming together and intermingling
among the ways of numberless possibilities, is as un-
reasonable as accepting innumerable impossibilities all
at once. If we leave this impossibility aside and ab-
sume that material causes have effects, these effects
can only occur through direct contact and touch. How-
ever, the contact of natural causes is with the exteriors
of living beings. And yet we see that the interiors  of
such beings, where the hands of material causes can
neither reach nor touch, are ten times more delicate,
well-ordered and perfect as regards art than their exteri-
ors. Therefore, although tiny animate creatures, on
which the hands and organs of material causes can in
no way be situated, rather, they cannot touch the crea-
tures' exteriors all at once even, are more strange and
wonderful as regards their art and creation than the larg-
est creatures, to attribute them to those lifeless, un-
knowing, crude, distant, vast, conflicting, deaf and
blind causes can result only from a deafness and blind-
ness compounded to the number of animate beings.

THE SECOND WAY ....
------------------------------------------------------------------  
  TO be continued Allah Willing;
  Narrator is Irfan Alan, Servant of Islam.  
Xref: sparky talk.religion.misc:27802 alt.slack:3984 alt.discordia:803 alt.pagan:16016