S e c o n d l y is its demonstrating in all matters that it is a commentary on some of the Qur'an's verses, and flashes of its light.

T h i r d l y is its answering in scholarly fashion with certain proofs and arguments the deepest needs of human beings; for example, its proving God's existence, the life of the hereafter, and the other pillars of belief, and interpreting the testimony of minute particles, which they utter through the tongue of disposition. Ibn Sina, Farabi, and Ibn Rushd, the most eminent Islamic philosophers, demonstrated the evidence all beings offer in these matters, but the Risale-i Nur proves these truths through the tongues of minute particles and seeds of plants. If the philosophers had been shown the scholarly power of the Risale-i Nur, doubtless they would have humbly accepted it as their teacher.

F o u r t h l y is its teaching in a short time in the form of compressed extracts knowledge that normally can be acquired only in years of study.

F i f t h l y is its being a means of winning divine pleasure, the chief aim of knowledge, and in no way exploiting that knowledge for worldly aims, its representing the highest duty, that of serving humanity.

S i x t h l y : Being the fruit of powerful, sacred thought on questions of belief, the Risale-i Nur interprets the language of all creatures, uttered through the tongues of their beings. Similarly, it discloses the truths of belief to the degrees of 'knowledge of certainty,' 'vision of certainty,' and 'absolute certainty.'

S e v e n t h l y is in respect of their principles, the Risale-i Nur's comprising all the sciences. It is like a tapestry woven from threads of knowledge. It is a collection of succinct sayings, never before expressed by any scholar, which demonstrate its knowledge of all the sciences. Here, we offer a few by way of example, and recommend those who wish to gain a better idea of what the Risale-i Nur consists of as a whole, to refer to that ocean of knowledge.

1. Whoever created a mosquito's eye, created the sun.

2. Whoever ordered the butterfly's digestive system, arranged the solar system.

3. Power sufficient to create the whole universe is necessary to create a single particle. For every letter of the mighty book of the universe, especially its living letters, has a face and an eye that look to all the sentences.

4. Nature is a printing-press, it is not the printer. It is an embroidery, not the embroiderer. It is a pattern, not the source. It is an orderly system, not the orderer. It is a law, and has no power. It is a code of laws proceeding from will, and has no external reality.

5. Like fixed, permanent natural laws, spirit comes from the world of the