Part 40

Notice the wisdom displayed in privileging man with the use of fire in preference to all animals! Apart from man, animals are not in need of fire. If man were to be without fire, the effects would be grave and very unfavourable in all matters of life and in his interests. Other animals, in contrast, have no use of fire, nor do they enjoy its services. To refer to just one of the many uses of fire, a use that is seemingly trivial, but is really vital in the life of human beings, let us notice the use of the lamp. This device is commonly used by people to perform any of the tasks they choose to perform at night. If they were deprived of this device, humans would have to spend half of their life as inactive as the dwellers of tombs. Who would be able to write, sew, perform a craft or do any activity in dark nights? How would an ill person behave at night? How would he manage without light to obtain medicine or to extract blood or to take any other action on his ailment? Consider the amount of light that is radiated by the tiny wick, how it lights quite a big circle around you, enabling you to see what is near and what is far! Consider, also, how if every creature of Allah’s were to take a light from your light it would not weaken or grow fainter! As for the benefits of fire in cooking foods,

preparing medicines, drying what is only usable after drying, analysing what has to be analysed, condensing what needs to be condensed and combined to make it useful; all these and many other uses are more than can be figured out.

Think again of the fire, how it naturally rises up! If the surrounding atmosphere did not check it, it would rise and rise; it is rather pulled down in the same way asa body that has weight is attracted down; and if, on the other hand, nothing checked its downward attraction it would go down and down. So who is it that arranged that the fire should rise to a determined level, and arranged that its descent should have a limit at the desired point? Who but the Most Mighty, the All-Knowing?

The rareness of gold and silver

Consider Allah’s wisdom revealed in the rareness of the two precious metals, gold and silver; observe the failure of the best minds among humans to artificially produce these two metals, their utter inability to emulate Allah’s creation in this, despite their zeal and utmost endeavour to achieve this end. They only succeeded in producing imitations of the two metals. Had they succeeded in producing the identical gold and silver, great chaos would happen in the world, as gold and silver would be available to men in great abundance, until they become as cheap as palm leaves and pottery; in which case they would cease to serve the interest they are created to serve. Their ampleness would make them of little value, and they would no longer be used as the price for valuable property and goods, services and weaponry for fighters. Men would refuse to be employed, since everyone would be a possessor of gold and silver. If the Lord were to make all of His creatures rich, He would have virtually made them all poor, for who would let himself be employed in menial jobs which are

absolutely essential for life? So glory be to Him who deemed that the rarity of gold and silver bea basis for establishing an organized system in the world! On the other hand, He did not make them as rare as red sulfur which is almost impossible to obtain, for in such little quantity they would be absolutely useless! He rather created them and laid them in such quantity as is deemed right by His judgement and mercy, for the convenience of His creatures.

I once read this description of an incident written by his eminence, Jibreel bin Rawh Al-Anbaree: “I was told by some precious-metal seekers that they once went quite far in searching for such metals along the paths of a certain mountain. They reached a spot where they came upon a mass of silver that seemed as big as a mountain. There intervened, however, between them and the silver a deep and wide river that they had no means of crossing. So they returned to fetch some device of crossing. Having found what they needed, they returned and looked for the way to the river, but they could not find any trace of it, and they had no means of choosing the right direction. So they returned, bearing their frustration.” You see how preciousmetal seekers will go to great lengths in looking for the precious metals, being unable to produce it in artificial methods. This is an evidence of the falsehood of chemistry, which on inspection will turn out to be mere fraud and hoax. Indeed, I wrote a treatise about chemistry in which I showed in forty ways that it is false and unfounded.* The

* Editor’s Notes : The concept of chemistry referred to here by the Imam is not the study of elements, their structural make up and chemical composition. Rather, the Shaikh is refuting the idea that man can create anything he wishes by combining the Proper elements and molecular structures through laboratory type procedures. Only Allah is the Supreme Creator and man can never imitate Allah’s ability to create what He wills! A.W.

point that we would like to emphasize here is that Divine wisdom willed that gold and silver should be rare and hard to find in comparison with iron, copper and lead; and this is for the benefit of humans. To drive this idea home we add that when an interesting and appealing thing is introduced among people to please them, it will be treasured and held valuable as long as it remains a rare thing. But as soon as it multiplies and becomes commonly available to people, common and noble, it loses its lustre in their eyes, and they lose interest in it.

This is the reason for the aphorism that goes: “The preciousness of something is contingent on its scarcity.” It is also for this reason that a scholar is least appreciated by his family and neighbours, and he is sought after most by those who are farthest away from him.

Availability of favours through Divine mercy

Think also of the marvelous wisdom embodied in the Lord’s bringing within access of His servants what they most badly need, His compassion in fitting the availability and abundance of things to the extent they are needed. The more human beings need something, the more abundant it is; the less they demand it the less it is abundant; and when they need it in moderate amounts, it is available in moderate amounts — it would not in that case be too common nor too scarce. All depends on the extent and diversity of needs. Take for example the four essentials, earth, water, air and fire. See how commonly available they are. Observe the huge amount of air Allah has created, and how commonly available it is everywhere you go. That is because land animals cannot survive without it; and so it is accessible to animals wherever they happen to be, since they cannot do without it for a moment. Had it not been there in great quantities in all lands and territories, people and animals would suffocate

because of smoke and vapour that keep forming and spreading. Observe, too, the wisdom of your Lord when He caused the wind to expel smoke and vapour; when they rise into the atmosphere, the wind carries them to where they are transformed to cloud or fog, and the world is rid of their nasty effects. You may well ask the denier who is it that managed things in this way and ordered everything most accurately? Can all human beings, if they work as a united group, transform smoke into clouds or fog, or can they blow them away from people where they would cease to be a source of danger to them? If your Lord so willed, He could have held the wind from blowing away smoke, and so it would become denser and denser on the surface of the earth, causing the demise of multitudes of humans and beasts.

From their study of the layers of rocks under the earth, geologists learn about the places where coal, oil and natural gas may be found. Such fuels are called fossil, because they

developed from the remains of living beings trapped between layers of rocks.

Geologists also investigate the nature and structure of rocks. They can distinguish rocks that contain useful minerals, such as iron, copper, diamond and uranium.

A few minerals are strongly magnetic. This is pyrrhotite, an ore of iron,

Some minerals emit beautiful colours under the rays of an ultra -violet lamp.

Some minerals that the Almighty deposited in the earth for human use.

Tropical forests may exist where the rainfall is high and the temperature is high; deserts exist where the weather the weather is dry and hot; the tundra plains exist where the weather is cold

The distribution of rain

Reflect on the exceeding wisdom witnessed in the falling of rain from above; how its precipitation extends to valleys and hills, mountains and planes, low lands and high lands. Had the Lord deemed that lands were to be watered from below, water would not reach high land until it had risen unduly in_ the low parts, which would cause much harm, It is for good reason that the Lord waters lands from above; He forms clouds, the irrigators of land, and sends winds that carry water from the sea, and then fertilise the clouds, in a way similar to a male impregnating a female. It is for this that lands adjoining the sea have a lot of rain, while those that are far from the sea have little rain. A certain poet has aptly described the clouds and their fertilisation in the following couplet:

“They (i.e. clouds) drank sea water and then rose; Like great green waves speeding with a high hoot.”

There is also, in relation to this, a tradition reported in AlMuatta’ (though it is one of the four traditions in AlMuatta’ with a break in the line of transmission):

(Bib te Gs Sac 5438 56 ts SLE tip

“If a cloud rises from the sea then moves westward, it is a rain-replete cloud.”’ For Allah originates water in the clouds at a certain stage; sometimes by transforming air into water, at other times by causing air to carry water from the sea; then it fertilises the cloud, then it falls on the ground to fulfill the benefits mentioned above. If He had caused water to be driven from the sea as a stream