All Human Attainments of Learning Because of Divine Names

All Human Attainments of Learning, All Progress, and All Sciences, Each Have An Elevated Reality Which is Based on One of The Divine Names

In describing all the attainments of learning and scientific progress, and wonders of technology with which man has been endowed because of his vast potential under the title of ‘the teaching of the Names’, the verse quoted above alludes to a fine point which is as follows:

All attainments and perfections, all learning, all progress, and all sciences, each have an elevated reality which is based on one of the Divine Names. It is through being based on a certain Name, which manifests itself through numerous veils and in various ways and levels, that a particular branch of science or art attains its perfection and becomes reality. Otherwise, it remains something imperfect, deficient, and shadowy.

For example, engineering is a science. Its reality lies in the Divine Names, the All-Just (One Who gives everything a certain measure and creates everything just in its place) and the Determiner, and its final aim is to receive the wise manifestations of those Names in full measure and with all their majesty.

Medicine is an art as well as a science. Its reality lies in the Divine Name, the All-Healing and its perfection in finding a cure for every illness by discovering the manifestations of mercy of the Absolutely Wise One in the earth, which is His vast ‘pharmacy’.

Artificial Intelligence

Again, each of the natural sciences, which discuss the reality of entities, can be a true science full of wisdom only by discerning in things the regulating, directing, administering, sustaining and all-embracing manifestations of the Divine Name, the All-Wise, and in the benefits and advantages of those things, and by being based on that Name. Otherwise they either become superstition and nonsense, or cause misguidance like naturalistic philosophy.

Out of many, these are only three examples for you! You may compare with these the other sciences and attainments.

With the verse, He taught Adam the names, all of them (2:31) the wise Quran points to the highest points, the furthest limits, the final degrees, from which, at the present level of his progress, man is far away, and urges him towards them. This verse is extremely rich and elaborate in meaning but for now I will go no further.

God has many Names each of which has different manifestations of its own

God Almighty has many Names, each of which has different manifestations of its own. The Name, the All-Providing supplies beings with the provision necessary for their lives, while the Name, the All-Healing enables the patient to recover.

While with the Name the All-Answering, He comes to the aid of the needy, He warns the heedless with His Name, the All-Distressing and relieves the distressed with His Name, the All-Relieving. If we study together the manifestations of all of God’s Names, we can see the beauty in the variety they bring about in the universe, and understand the wisdom in the differences in creation. God makes Himself known to us with the manifestations of all His Names; while, for example, flowers smile at us as the result of the manifestation of His Names originating in His Grace, ‘natural’ catastrophes remind us of His wrath as the manifestation of His Names originating in His Majesty.

By Bediuzzaman Said Nursi