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| gencnurCom | THE
TWENTY-FIFTH FLASH Message
for the Sick [This
treatise consists of Twenty-Five Remedies. It was written
as a salve, a solace, and a prescription for the sick,
and as a visit to the sick and a wish for their speedy
recovery.] Warning
and Apology This
immaterial prescription was written with a speed greater
than all my other writings,1 and since time
could not be found in which to correct and study it,
unlike all the others, it was read only once-and that at
great speed like its composition. That is to say, it has
remained in the disordered state of a first draft. I did
not consider it necessary to go over carefully the things
which had occurred to me in a natural manner, lest they
be spoilt by arranging them and paying them undue
attention. Readers and especially the sick should not
feel upset and offended at any disagreeable expressions
or harsh words and phrases; let them rather pray for me. In
the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Those
who say when afflicted by calamity: “To God do we
belong and to Him is our return.”2
* Who gives me food and drink * And when I am ill it
is He Who cures me.3 In
this Flash, we describe briefly Twenty-Five Remedies
which may offer true consolation and a beneficial cure
for the sick and those struck by disaster, who form one
tenth of mankind. ____________________ 1.
This treatise was written in four and a half hours.
Signed, Rüshtü, Re’fet, Husrev, Said. The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.267 FIRST
REMEDY Unhappy
sick person! Do not be anxious, have patience! Your
illness is not a malady for you; it is a sort of cure.
For life departs like capital. If it yields no fruits, it
is wasted. And if it passes in ease and heedlessness, it
passes most swiftly. Illness makes that capital of yours
yield huge profits. Moreover, it does not allow your life
to pass quickly, it restrains it and lengthens it, so
that it will depart after yielding its fruits. An
indication that your life is lengthened through illness
is the following much repeated proverb: “The times of
calamity are long, the times of happiness, most short.” SECOND
REMEDY O
ill person who lacks patience! Be patient, indeed, offer
thanks! Your illness may transform each of the minutes of
your life into the equivalent of an hour’s worship. For
worship is of two kinds. One is positive like the
well-known worship of supplication and the five daily
prayers. The other are negative forms of worship like
illness and calamities. By means of these, those
afflicted realize their impotence and weakness; they
beseech their All-Compassionate Creator and take refuge
in Him; they manifest worship which is sincere and
without hyprocrisy. Yes, there is a sound narration
stating that a life passed in illness is counted as
worship for the believer-on condition he does not
complain about God.4 It is even established by
sound narrations and by those who uncover the realities
of creation that one minute’s illness of some who are
completely patient and thankful becomes the equivalent of
an hour’s worship and a minute’s illness of certain
perfected men the equivalent of a day’s worship. Thus,
you should not complain about an illness which as though
transforms one minute of your life into a thousand
minutes and gains for you long life; you should rather
offer thanks. THIRD
REMEDY Impatient
sick person! The fact that those who come to this world
continuously depart, and the young grow old, and man
perpetually revolves amid death and separation testifies
that he did not come to this world to enjoy himself and
receive pleasure. Moreover,
while man is the most perfect, the most elevated, of
living beings and the best endowed in regard to members
and faculties, through thinking of past pleasures and
future pains, he passes only a grievous, troublesome
life, lower than the animals. This means that man did not
come to this world in order to live in fine manner and
pass his life in ease ____________________ 4.
al-Albani, Sahihu Jami’i’s-Saghir 256. The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.268 and
pleasure. Rather, possessing vast capital, he came here
to work and do trade for an eternal, everlasting life. The
capital given to man is his lifetime. Had there been no
illness, good health and well-being would have caused
heedlessness, for they show the world to be pleasant and
make the Hereafter forgotten. They do not want death and
the grave to be thought of; they cause the capital of
life to be wasted on trifles. Whereas illness suddenly
opens the eyes, it says to the body: “You are not
immortal. You have not been left to your own devices. You
have a duty. Give up your pride, think of the One Who
created you. Know that you will enter the grave, so
prepare yourself for it!” Thus, from this point of
view, illness is an admonishing guide and advisor that
never deceives. It should not be complained about in this
respect, indeed, should be thanked for. And if it is not
too severe, patience should be sought to endure it. FOURTH
REMEDY Plaintive
ill person! It is your right, not to complain, but to
offer thanks and be patient. For your body and members
and faculties are not your property. You did not make
them, and you did not buy them from other workshops. That
means they are the property of another. Their owner has
disposal over his property as he wishes. As
is stated in the Twenty-Sixth Word, an extremely wealthy
and skilful craftsman, for example, employs a poor man as
a model in order to show off his fine art and valuable
wealth. In return for a wage, for a brief hour he clothes
the poor man in a bejewelled and most skilfully wrought
garment. He works it on him and gives it various states.
In order to display the extraordinary varieties of his
art, he cuts the garment, alters it, and lengthens and
shortens it. Does the poor man working for a wage have
the right to say to that person: “You are causing me
trouble, you are causing me distress with the form you
have given it, making me bow down and stand up;” has he
the right to tell him that he is spoiling his fine
appearance by cutting and shortening the garment which
makes him beautiful? Can he tell him he is being unkind
and unfair? O
sick person! Just like in this comparison, in order to
display the garment of your body with which He has
clothed you, bejewelled as it is with luminous faculties
like the eye, the ear, the reason, and the heart, and the
embroideries of His Most Beautiful Names, the
All-Glorious Maker makes you revolve amid numerous states
and changes you in many situations. Like you learn of His
Name of Provider through hunger, come to know also His
Name of Healer through your illness. Since suffering and
calamities show the decrees of some of His Names, within
those flashes The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.269 of
wisdom and rays of mercy are many instances of good to be
found. If the veil of illness, which you fear and loathe,
was to be lifted, behind it you would find many agreeable
and beautiful meanings. FIFTH
REMEDY O
you who is afflicted with illness! Through experience I
have formed the opinion at this time that sickness is a
Divine bounty for some people, a gift of the Most
Merciful One.5 Although I am not worthy of it,
for the past eight or nine years, a number of young
people have come to me in connection with illness,
seeking my prayers. I have noticed that each of those ill
youths had begun to think of the Hereafter to a greater
degree than other young people. He lacked the drunkenness
of youth. He was saving himself to a degree from animal
desires and heedlessness. So I would consider them and
then warn them that their illnesses were a Divine bounty
within the limits of their endurance. I would say: “I
am not opposed to this illness of yours, my brother. I
don’t feel compassion and pity for you because of your
illness, so that I should pray for you. Try to be patient
until illness awakens you completely, and after it has
performed its duty, God willing, the Compassionate
Creator will restore you to health.” I
would also say to them: “Through the calamity of good
health, some of your fellows become neglectful, give up
the five daily prayers, do not think of the grave, and
forget God Almighty. Through the superficial pleasure of
a brief hour’s worldly life, they shake and damage an
unending, eternal life, and even destroy it. Due to
illness, you see the grave, which you will in any event
enter, and the dwellings of the Hereafter beyond it, and
you act in accordance with them. That means for you,
illness is good health, while for some of your peers good
health is a sickness...” SIXTH
REMEDY O
sick person who complains about his suffering! I say to
you: think of your past life and remember the pleasurable
and happy days and the distressing and troublesome times.
For sure, you will either say “Oh!” or “Ah!” That
is, your heart and tongue will either say “All praise
and thanks be to God!”, or “Alas and alack!” Note
carefully, what makes you exclaim “Praise and thanks be
to God!” is thinking of the pains and calamities that
have befallen you; it induces a sort of pleasure so that
your heart offers thanks. For the passing of pain is a
pleasure. With the passing of pains and calamities, a
legacy of pleasure is left in the spirit, which on being
aroused by thinking, pours forth from the spirit with
thanks. ____________________ 5.
Bukhari, Marda 1; Muwatta’, Ayn 7; Musnad ii, 237. The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.270 What
makes you exclaim “Alas and alack!” are the
pleasurable and happy times you have experienced in the
former times, which, with their passing leave a legacy of
constant pain in your spirit. Whenever you think of them,
the pain is again stimulated, causing regret and sorrow
to pour forth. Since
one day’s illicit pleasure sometimes causes a year’s
suffering in the spirit, and with the pain of a fleeting
day’s illness are many days’ pleasure and recompense
in addition to the pleasure at being relieved at its
passing and saved from it, think of the result of this
temporary illness with which you are now afflicted, and
of the merits of its inner face. Say: “All is from God!
This too will pass!”, and offer thanks instead of
complaining. SIXTH
REMEDY6 O
brother who thinks of the pleasures of this world and
suffers distress at illness! If this world was
everlasting, and if on our way there was no death, and if
the winds of separation and decease did not blow, and if
there were no winters of the spirit in the calamitous and
stormy future, I would have pitied you together with you.
But since one day the world will bid us to leave it and
will close its ears to our cries, we must forego our love
of it now through the warnings of these illnesses, before
it drives us out. We must try to abandon it in our hearts
before it abandons us. Yes,
illness utters this warning to us: “Your body is not
composed of stone and iron, but of various materials
which are always disposed to parting. Leave off your
pride, understand your impotence, recognize your Owner,
know your duties, learn why you came to this world!” It
declares this secretly in the heart’s ear. Moreover,
since the pleasures and enjoyment of this world do not
continue, and particularly if they are illicit, they are
both fleeting, and full of pain, and sinful, do not weep
on the pretext of illness because you have lost those
pleasures. On the contrary, think of the aspects of
worship and reward in the Hereafter to be found in
illness, and try to receive pleasure from those. SEVENTH
REMEDY O
sick person who has lost the pleasures of health! Your
illness does not spoil the pleasure of Divine bounties,
on the contrary, it causes them to be experienced and
increases them. For if something is continuous, it loses
its effect. The people of reality even say that “Things
are known ____________________ 6.
This Flash occurred to me in a natural manner, and two
remedies have been included in the Sixth Remedy. We have
left it thus in order not to spoil the naturalness;
indeed, we did not change it thinking there may be some
mystery contained in it. The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.271 through
their opposites.” For example, if there was no
darkness, light would not be known and would contain no
pleasure. If there was no cold, heat could not be
comprehended. If there was no hunger, food would afford
no pleasure. If there was no thirst of the stomach, there
would be no pleasure in drinking water. If there was no
sickness, no pleasure would be had from good health. The
All-Wise Creator’s decking out man with truly numerous
members and faculties, to the extent that he may
experience and recognize the innumerable varieties of
bounties in the universe, shows that He wants to make man
aware of every sort of His bounty and to acquaint him
with them and to impel man to offer constant thanks.
Since this is so, He will give illness, sickness, and
suffering, the same as He bestows good health and
well-being. I ask you: “If there had not been this
illness in your head or in your hand or stomach, would
you have perceived the pleasurable and enjoyable Divine
bounty of the good health of your head, hand or stomach,
and offered thanks? For sure, it is not offering thanks
for it, you would not have even thought of it! You would
have unconsciously spent that good health on
heedlessness, and perhaps even on dissipation. EIGHTH
REMEDY O
sick person who thinks of the Hereafter! Sickness washes
away the dirt of sins like soap, and cleanses. It is
established in a sound Hadith that illnesses are
atonement for sins. And in another Hadith, it says: “As
ripe fruits fall on their tree being shaken, so the sins
of a believer fall away on his shaking with illness.”7 Sins
are the lasting illnesses of eternal life, and in this
worldly life they are sicknesses for the heart,
conscience, and spirit. If you are patient and do not
complain, you will be saved through this temporary
sickness from numerous perpetual sicknesses. If you do
not think of your sins, or do not know the Hereafter, or
do not recognize God, you suffer from an illness so
fearsome it is a million times worse than your present
minor illnesses. Cry out at that, for all the beings in
the world are connected with your heart, spirit, and
soul. Those connections are continuously severed by death
and separation, opening up in you innumerable wounds.
Particularly since you do not know the Hereafter and
imagine death to be eternal non-existence, it is quite
simply as though lacerated and bruised, your being
suffers illness to the extent of the world. Thus,
the first thing you have to do is to search for the cure
of belief, which is a certain healing remedy for the
innumerable illnesses of that ____________________ 7.
Bukhari, Marda 1, 2, 13, 16; Muslim, Birr 45; Darimi,
Rikak 57; Musnad i, 371, 441; ii, 303, 335; iii, 4, 18,
38, 48, 61, 81. The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.272 infinitely
wounded and sick, extensive immaterial being of yours;
you have to correct your beliefs, and the shortest way of
finding such a cure is to recognize the power and mercy
of the All-Powerful One of Glory by means of the window
of your weakness and impotence shown you behind the
curtain of heedlessness, rent by your physical illness. Yes,
one who does not recognize God is afflicted with a
world-full of tribulations. While the world of one who
does recognize Him is full of light and spiritual
happiness; he perceives these in accordance with the
strength of his belief. The suffering resulting from
insignificant physical illnesses is dissolved by the
immaterial joy, healing, and pleasure that arise from
this belief; the suffering melts away. NINTH
REMEDY O
sick person who recognizes his Creator! The pain, fear,
and anxiety in illness is because it is sometimes leads
to death. Since superficially and to the heedless view
death is frightening, illnesses which may lead to it
cause fear and apprehension. So
know firstly and believe firmly that the appointed
hour is determined and does not change. Those weeping
beside the grievously sick and those in perfect health
have died, while the grievously sick have been cured and
lived. S
e c o n d l y : Death is not terrifying as
it appears to be superficially. Through the light
afforded by the All-Wise Qur’an, in many parts of the
Risale-i Nur we have proved in completely certain and
indubitable fashion that for believers death is to be
discharged from the burdensome duties of life. And for
them it is a rest from worship, which is the instruction
and training in the arena of trial of this world. It is
also a means of their rejoining friends and relations,
ninety-nine out of a hundred of whom have already
departed for the next world. And it is a means of
entering their true homeland and eternal abodes of
happiness. It is also an invitation to the gardens of
Paradise from the dungeon of this world. And it is the
time to receive their wage from the munificence of the
Most Compassionate Creator in return for service rendered
to Him. Since the reality of death is this, it should not
be regarded as terrifying, but on the contrary, as the
introduction to mercy and happiness. Moreover,
some of the people of God fearing death has not been out
of terror at it, but due to their hope of gaining more
merit through performing more good works with the
continuation of the duties of life. Yes,
for the people of belief, death is the door to Divine
mercy, while for the people of misguidance, it is the pit
of everlasting darkness. The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.273 TENTH
REMEDY O
sick person who worries unnecessarily! You worry at the
severity of your illness and that worry increases it. If
you want your illness to be less severe, try not to
worry. That is, think of the benefits of your illness,
the recompense for it, and that it will pass quickly; it
will remove the worry and cut the illness at the root. Indeed,
worry increases illness twice over. Worry causes an
immaterial illness of the heart beneath the physical
illness; the physical illness rests on that and persists.
If the worry ceases through submission, contentment, and
thinking of the wisdom in the illness, an important part
of the illness is extirpated; it becomes lighter and in
part disappears. Sometimes a minor physical illness
increases tenfold just through anxiety. On the anxiety
ceasing, nine tenths of the illness disappears. Worry
increases illness, so is it also like an accusation
against Divine wisdom and a criticism of Divine mercy and
complaint against the Compassionate Creator. For this
reason, contrary to his intentions, the one who does so
receives a rebuff and it increases his illness. Yes, just
as thanks increases bounty, so also complaint increases
illness and tribulations. Furthermore,
worry is itself an illness. The cure for it is to know
the wisdom in illness and the purpose of it. Since you
have learnt its purpose and benefit, apply that salve to
your worry and find relief! Say “Ah!” instead of
“Oh!”, and “All praise be to God for every
situation” instead of sighing and lamenting. ELEVENTH
REMEDY O
my impatient sick brother! Although illness causes you an
immediate suffering, the passing of your illness in the
past until today produces an immaterial pleasure and
happiness for the spirit arising from the reward received
for enduring it. From today forward, and even from this
hour, there is no illness, and certainly no pain is to be
had from non-being. And if there is no pain, there cannot
be any grief. You become impatient because you imagine
things wrongly. Because, with the physical aspect of your
time of illness prior to today departing, its pain has
departed with it; only its reward and the pleasure of its
passing remains. While it should give you profit and
happiness, to think of past days and feel grieved and
become impatient is crazy. Future days have not yet come.
To think of them now, and by imagining a day that does
not exist and an illness that does not exist and grief
that does not exist to be grieved and display impatience,
is to give the colour of existence to three degrees of
non-existence-if that is not crazy, what is? The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.274 Since,
if the hour previous to the present was one of illness,
it produces joy; and since the time subsequent to the
present hour is non-existent, and the illness is
non-existent, and the grief is non-existent, do not
scatter the power of patience given you by Almighty God
to right and left, but muster it in the face of pain of
the present hour; say: “O Most Patient One!” and
withstand it. TWELFTH
REMEDY O
sick person who due to illness cannot perform his worship
and invocations and feels grief at the deprivation! Know
that it is stated in a Hadith that “A pious believer
who due to illness cannot perform the invocations he
normally regularly performs, receives an equal reward.”8
On an ill person carrying out his obligatory worship as
far as it is possible with patience and relying on God,
during that time of severe illness, the illness takes the
place of Sunna worship-and in sincere form. Moreover,
illness makes a person understand his impotence and
weakness. It causes him to offer supplication both
verbally and through the tongue of his impotence and
weakness. Almighty God bestowed on man a boundless
impotence and infinite weakness so that he would
perpetually seek refuge at the Divine Court and beseech
and supplicate. According to the meaning of the verse, Say:
Your Sustainer would not concern Himself with you if it
was not for your prayers;9 that
is, “what importance would you have if you did not
offer prayer and supplication?”, the wisdom in man’s
creation and reason for his value is sincere prayer and
supplication. Since one cause of this is illness, from
this point of view it should not be complained about, but
God should be thanked for it, and the tap of supplication
which illness opens should not be closed by regaining
health. THIRTEENTH
REMEDY O
unhappy person who complains at illness! For some people
illness is an important treasury, a most valuable Divine
gift. Every sick person can think of his illness as being
of that sort. The
appointed hour is not known: in order to deliver man from
absolute despair and absolute heedlessness, and to hold
him between hope and fear and so preserve both this world
and the Hereafter, in His wisdom Almighty God has
concealed the appointed hour. The appointed hour ____________________ 8.
Bukhari, Jihad 134; Musnad iv, 410, 418. The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.275 may
come at any time; if it captures man in heedlessness, it
may cause grievous harm to eternal life. But illness
dispels the heedlessness; it makes a person think of the
Hereafter; it recalls death, and thus he may prepare
himself. Some illnesses are so profitable that they gain
for a person in twenty days a rank they could not
otherwise have gained in twenty years. For
instance, from among my friends there were two youths,
may God have mercy on them. One was Sabri from the
village of Ilema, the other Vezirzâde Mustafa from
Islâmköy. I used to note with amazement that although
these two could not write they were among the foremost in
regard to sincerity and the service of belief. I did not
know the reason for this. After their deaths I understood
that both suffered from a serious illness. Through the
guidance of the illness, unlike other neglectful youths
who gave up obligatory worship, they had great fear of
God, performed most valuable service, and attained a
state beneficial to the Hereafter. God willing, the
distress of two years’ illness was the means to the
happiness of millions of years of eternal life. I now
understand that the prayers I sometimes offered for their
health were maledictions in respect to this world. God
willing, my prayers were accepted for their well-being in
the Hereafter. Thus,
according to my belief, these two gained profit
equivalent to that which may be gained through ten
years’ fear of God [taqwa].10 If like
some young people, they had relied on their youth and
good health and thrown themselves into heedlessness and
vice, and watching them, death had grabbed them right in
the midst of the filth of their sins, they would have
made their graves into lairs of scorpions and snakes,
instead of that treasury of lights. Since
illnesses contain such benefits, they should be not
complained about, but borne with patience and relying on
God, indeed, thanking God and having confidence in His
mercy. FOURTEENTH
REMEDY O
sick person whose eyes have developed cataracts! If you
knew what a light and spiritual eye is to be found
beneath the cataract that may cover a believer’s eyes,
you would exclaim: “A hundred thousand thanks to my
Compassionate Sustainer.” I shall recount an incident
to you to explain this salve. It is as follows: ____________________ 10.
The Hadith’s meaning is this: “If a person has
standing in God’s sight and he cannot reach that
station through good works and taqwa, God afflicts
him with such tribulations as illness until he does
attain it.” al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak i, 344. The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.276 One
time, the aunt of Süleyman from Barla, who served me for
eight years with total loyalty and willingness, became
blind. Thinking well of me a hundred times more than was
my due, the righteous woman caught me by the door of the
mosque and asked me to pray for her sight to be restored.
So I made the blessed woman’s righteousness the
intercessor for my supplication, and beseeching Almighty
God, I prayed: “O Lord! Restore her sight out of
respect for her righteousness.” Two days later, an
oculist from Burdur came and removed the cataract. Forty
days later she again lost her sight. I was most upset and
prayed fervently for her. God willing, the prayer was
accepted for her life in the Hereafter, otherwise that
prayer of mine would have been a most mistaken
malediction for her. For forty days had remained till her
death; forty days later she had died-May God have mercy
on her. Thus,
in place of the woman looking sorrowfully at the gardens
of Barla with the eye of old age, she profited by in her
grave being able to gaze for forty thousand days on the
gardens of Paradise. For her belief was strong and she
was completely righteous. Yes,
if a believer loses his sight and enters the grave blind,
in accordance with his degree he may gaze on the world of
light to a much greater extent than others in their
graves. Just as we see many things in this world that
blind believers do not see, if they depart with belief,
those blind people see to a greater extent than other
dead in their graves. As though looking through the most
powerful telescopes, they can see and gaze on the gardens
of Paradise like the cinema, in accordance with their
degree. Thus,
with thanks and patience you can find beneath the veil on
your present eye an eye which is thus light-filled, and
with which while beneath the earth you can see and
observe Paradise above the skies. That which will raise
the veil from your eye, the eye doctor that will allow
you to look with that eye, is the All-Wise Qur’an. FIFTEENTH
REMEDY O
sick person who sighs and laments! Do not look at the
outward aspect of illness and sigh, look at its meaning
and be pleased. If the meaning of illness had not been
good, the All-Compassionate Creator would not have given
illness to the servants He loves most. Whereas, there is
a Hadith the meaning of which is, “Those afflicted
with the severest trials are the prophets, then the
saints and those like them.”11 That is,
“Those most afflicted with tribulations and
difficulties are the best of men, the ____________________ 11.
al-Munawi, Fayzu’l-Qadir i, 519 no:1056;
al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak iii, 343; Bukhari,
Marda 3; Tirmidhi, Zuhd 57; Ibn Maja, Fitan
23; Darimi, Rikak 67; Musnad i, 172, 174,
180, 185; vi, 369. The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.277 most
perfect.” Foremost the Prophet Job (Upon whom be peace)
and the other prophets, then the saints, then the
righteous, have regarded the illnesses they have suffered
as sincere worship, as gifts of the Most Merciful; they
have offered thanks in patience. They have seen them as
surgical operations performed by the All-Compassionate
Creator’s mercy. O
you who cries out and laments! If you want to join this
luminous caravan, offer thanks in patience. For if you
complain, they will not accept you. You will fall into
the pits of the people of misguidance, and travel a dark
road. Yes,
there are some illnesses which if they lead to death, are
like a sort of martyrdom; they result in a degree of
sainthood like martyrdom. For example, those who die from
the illnesses accompanying childbirth12 and
pains of the abdomen, and by drowning, burning, and
plague, become martyrs. So also there are many blessed
illnesses which gain the degree of sainthood for those
who die from them. Moreover, since illness lessens love
of the world and attachment to it, it lightens parting
from the world through death, which for the worldly is
extremely grievous and painful, and it sometimes even
makes it desirable. SIXTEENTH
REMEDY O
sick person who complains of his distress! Illness
prompts respect and compassion, which are most important
and good in human social life. For it saves man from
self-sufficiency, which drives him to unsociableness and
unkindness. For according to the meaning of, Indeed
man transgresses all bounds * In that he looks upon
himself as self-sufficient,13 an
evil-commanding soul which feels self-sufficient due to
good health and well-being, does not feel respect towards
his brothers in many instances, who are deserving of it.
And he does not feel compassion towards the sick and
those smitten by disaster, although they deserve kindness
and pity. Whenever he is ill, he understands his own
impotence and want, and he has respect towards his
brothers who are worthy of it. He feels respect towards
his believing brothers who visit him or assist him. And
he feels human kindness, which arises from
fellow-feeling, and compassion for those struck by
disaster-a most important Islamic characteristic. And
comparing them to himself, he pities them in the true
meaning of the word and feels compassion for them. He
does what he can ____________________ 12.
The period this martyrdom may be gained through illness
is around the forty days of ‘lying-in.’ The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.278 to
help them, and at the very least prays for them and goes
to visit them to ask them how they are, which is Sunna
according to the Shari’a, and thus earns reward. SEVENTEENTH
REMEDY O
sick person who complains at not being able to perform
good works due to illness! Offer thanks! It is illness
that opens to you the door of the most sincere of good
works. In addition to continuously gaining reward for the
sick person and for those who look after him for God’s
sake, illness is a most important means for supplications
being accepted. Indeed,
there is significant reward for believers for looking
after the sick. Enquiring after their health and visiting
the sick-on condition it does not tax them-is Sunna14
and also atonement for sins. There is an Hadith which
says, “Receive the prayers of the sick, for their
prayers are acceptable.”15 Especially
if the sick are relations, and parents in particular, to
look after them is important worship, yielding
significant reward. To please a sick person’s heart and
console him, is like significant alms-giving. Fortunate
is the person who pleases the easily touched hearts of
father and mother at the time of illness, and receives
their prayer. Indeed, even the angels applaud saying: “Ma’shallah!
Barekallah!” before loyal scenes of those good
offspring who respond at the time of their illness to the
compassion of their parents-those most worthy of respect
in the life of society-with perfect respect and filial
kindness, showing the exaltedness of humanity. Yes,
there are pleasures at the time of illness which arise
from the kindness, pity, and compassion of those around
them, and are most pleasant and agreeable and reduce the
pains of illness to nothing. The acceptability of the
prayers of the sick is an important matter. For the past
thirty or forty years, I myself have prayed to be cured
from the illness of lumbago from which I suffer. However,
I understood that the illness had been given for prayer.
Since through prayer, prayer cannot be removed, that is,
since prayer cannot remove itself, I understood that the
results of prayer pertain to the Hereafter,16
and that it is itself a sort of worship, for through
illness one understands one’s impotence and seeks
refuge at the Divine Court. Therefore, although for
thirty years I have offered supplications ____________________ 14.
al-Munawi, Fayzu’l-Qadir ii, 45 no: 1285. The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.279 to
be healed and apparently my prayer was not accepted, it
did not occur to me to give up the supplication. Because
illness is the time of supplication; to be cured is not
the result of the supplication. If the All-Wise and
Compassionate One bestows healing, He bestows it out of
His abundant grace. Furthermore,
if supplications are not accepted in the form we wish, it
may not be said that they have not been accepted. The
All-Wise Creator knows better than us; He gives whatever
is in our interests. Sometimes for our interests, he
directs our prayers for this world towards the Hereafter,
and accepts them in that way. In any event, a
supplication that acquires sincerity due to illness and
arises from weakness, impotence, humility and need in
particular, is very close to being acceptable. Illness is
the means to supplication that is thus sincere. Both the
sick who are religious, and believers who look after the
sick, should take advantage of this supplication. EIGHTEENTH
REMEDY O
sick person who gives up offering thanks and takes up
complaining! Complaint arises from a right. None of your
rights have been lost that you should complain. Indeed,
there are numerous thanks which are an obligation for
you, a right over you, and these you have not performed.
Without Almighty God giving you the right, you are
complaining as though demanding rights in a manner which
is not rightful. You cannot look at others superior to
you in degree who are healthy, and complain. You are
rather charged with looking at the sick who from the
point of view of health are at a lower degree than
yourself, and offering thanks. If your hand is broken,
look at theirs, which is severed. If you have only one
eye, look at the blind, who lack both eyes. And offer
thanks to God! For
sure, no one has the right to look to those superior to
him in regard to bounties and to complain. And in
tribulations it is everyone’s right to look to those
above themselves in regard to tribulation, so that they
should offer thanks. This mystery has been explained in a
number of places in the Risale-i Nur with a comparison; a
summary of it is as follows: A
person takes a wretched man to the top of a minaret. On
every step he gives him a different gift, a different
bounty. Right at the top of the minaret he gives him the
largest present. Although he wants thanks and gratitude
in return for all those various gifts, the peevish man
forgets the presents he has received on each of the
stairs, or considers them to be of no importance, and
offering no thanks, looks above him and starts to
complain, saying, “If only this minaret had been higher
I could have The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.280 climbed
even further. Why isn’t it as tall as that mountain
over there or that other minaret?” If he begins to
complain like this, what great ingratitude it would be,
what a wrong! In
just the same way, man comes into existence from nothing,
not as a rock or a tree or an animal, but becomes a man
and a Muslim, and most of the time sees good health and
acquires a high level of bounties. Despite all this, to
complain and display impatience because he is not worthy
of some bounties, or because he loses them through wrong
choice or abuse, or because he could not obtain them, and
to criticize Divine dominicality saying “What have I
done that this has happened to me?”, is a condition and
immaterial sickness more calamitous than the physical
one. Like fighting with a broken hand, complaint makes
his illness worse. Sensible is the one who in accordance
with the meaning of the verse, Those
who when struck by calamity say: To God do we belong, and
to God is our return17 submits
and is patient, so that the illness may complete its
duty, then depart. NINETEENTH
REMEDY As
the term of the Eternally Besought One, ‘the Most
Beautiful Names’ shows, all the Names of the
All-Beauteous One of Glory are beautiful. Among beings,
the most subtle, the most beautiful, the most
comprehensive mirror of Eternal Besoughtedness is life.
The mirror to the beautiful is beautiful. The mirror that
shows the virtues of beauty becomes beautiful. Just as
whatever is done to the mirror by such beauty is good and
beautiful, whatever befalls life too, in respect of
reality, is good. Because it displays the beautiful
impresses of the Most Beautiful Names, which are good and
beautiful. If
life passes monotonously with permanent health and
well-being, it becomes a deficient mirror. Indeed, in one
respect, it tells of non-existence, non-being, and
nothingness, and causes weariness. It reduces the
life’s value, and transforms the pleasure of life into
distress. Because thinking he will pass his time quickly,
out of boredom, a person throws himself either into vice
or into amusements. Like a prison sentence, he becomes
hostile to his valuable life and wants to kill it and
make it pass quickly. Whereas a life that revolves in
change and action and different states makes its value
felt, and makes known the importance and pleasure of
life. Even if it is in hardship and tribulation, such a
person does not want his life to pass quickly. He does
not complain out of boredom, saying, “Alas! The sun
hasn’t set yet,” or, “it is still nighttime.” ____________________ 17.
Qur’an, 2:156. The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.281 Yes,
ask a fine gentleman who is rich and idle and living in
the lap of luxury, “How are you?” You are bound to
hear a pathetic reply like: “The time never passes.
Let’s have a game of backgammon. Or let’s find some
amusement to pass the time.” Or else you will hear
complaints arising from worldly ambition, like: “I
haven’t got that; if only I had done such-and-such.” Then
ask someone struck by disaster or a worker or poor man
living in hardship: “How are you?” If he is sensible,
he will reply: “All thanks be to God, I am working. If
only the evening did not come so quickly, I could have
finished this work! Time passes so quickly, and so does
life, they pass so quickly. For sure things are hard for
me, but that will pass too. Everything passes quickly.”
He in effect says how valuable life is and how regretful
he is at its passing. That means he understands the
pleasure and value of life through hardship and labour.
As for ease and health, they make life bitter and make it
wanted to be passed. My
brother who is sick! Know that the origin and leaven of
calamities and evils, and even of sins, is non-existence,
as is proved decisively and in detail in other parts of
the Risale-i Nur. As for non-existence, it is evil. It is
because monotonous states like ease, silence,
tranquillity, and arrest are close to non-existence and
nothingness that they make felt the darkness of
non-existence and cause distress. As for action and
change, they are existence and make existence felt. And
existence is pure good, it is light. Since
the reality is thus, your illness has been sent to your
being as a guest to perform many duties like purifying
your valuable life, and strengthening it and making it
progress, and to make the other human faculties in your
being turn in assistance towards your sick member, and to
display various Names of the All-Wise Maker. God willing,
it will carry out its duties quickly and depart. And it
will say to good health: “Come, and stay permanently in
my place, and carry out your duties. This house is yours.
Remain here in good health.” TWENTIETH
REMEDY O
sick person who is searching for a remedy for his ills!
Illness is of two sorts. One sort is real, the other,
imaginary. As for the real sort, the All-Wise and
Glorious Healer has stored up in His mighty pharmacy of
the earth a cure for every illness. It is licit to obtain
medicines and use them as treatment, but one should know
that their effect and the cure are from Almighty God. He
gives the cure just as He provides the medicine. Following
the recommendations of skilful and God-fearing doctors is The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.282 an
important medicine. For most illnesses arise from abuses,
lack of abstinence, wastefulness, mistakes, dissipation,
and lack of care. A religious doctor will certainly give
advice and orders within the bounds of the lawful. He
will forbid abuses and excesses, and give consolation.
The sick person has confidence in his orders and
consolation, and his illness lessens; it produces as
easiness for him in place of distress. But
when it comes to imaginary illness, the most effective
medicine for it is to give it no importance. The more
importance is given it, the more it grows and swells. If
no importance is given it, it lessens and disperses. The
more bees are upset the more they swarm around a
person’s head and if no attention is paid to them they
disperse. So too, the more importance one pays to a piece
of string waving in front of one’s eyes in the darkness
and to the apprehension it causes one, the more it grows
and makes one flee from it like a madman. While if one
pays it no importance, one sees that it is an ordinary
bit of string and not a snake, and laughs at one’s
fright and anxiety. If
hypochondria continues a long time, it is transformed
into reality. It is a bad illness for the nervous and
those given to imaginings; such people make a mountain
out of a molehill and their morale is destroyed.
Especially if they encounter unkind ‘half’ doctors or
unfair doctors, it further provokes their hypochondria.
For the rich, they lose their wealth, or they lose their
wits, or their health. TWENTY-FIRST
REMEDY My
sick brother! There is physical pain with your illness,
but a significant immaterial pleasure encompasses you
that will remove the effect of your physical pain. For if
you have father, mother, and relations, their most
pleasurable compassion towards which you have forgotten
since childhood will be reawakened and you will see again
their kind looks which you received in childhood. In
addition, the friendships around you which had remained
secret and hidden again look towards you with love
through the attraction of illness, and so, in the face of
these your physical pain becomes very cheap. Also, since
those whom you have served proudly through the decree of
illness now serve you kindly, you have become a master to
the masters. Moreover, since you have attracted towards
yourself the fellow-feeling and human kindness in people,
you have found numerous helpful friends and kind
companions. And again, you have received the order from
your illness to rest from many taxing duties, and you are
taking a rest. For sure, in the face of these immaterial
pleasures, your minor pain should drive you to thanks,
not complaint. The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.283 TWENTY-SECOND
REMEDY My
brother who suffers from a severe illness like apoplexy!
Firstly I give you the good news that apoplexy is
considered blessed for believers. A long time ago I used
to hear this from holy men and I did not know the reason.
Now, one reason for it occurs to me as follows: In
order to attain union with Almighty God, be saved from
the great spiritual dangers of this world, and to obtain
eternal happiness, the people of God have chosen to
follow two principles: T
h e F i r s t is contemplation of death. Thinking
that like the world is transitory, they too are transient
guests charged with duties, they worked for eternal life
in that way. T
h e S e c o n d : Through fasting, religious
exercises and asceticism, they tried to kill the
evil-commanding soul and so be saved from its dangers and
from the blind emotions. And
you, my brother who has lost the health of half his body!
Without choosing it, you have been given these two
principles, which are short and easy and the cause of
happiness. Thus, the state of your being perpetually
warns you of the fleeting nature of the world and that
man is transient. The world can no longer drown you, nor
heedlessness close your eyes. And for sure, the
evil-commanding soul cannot deceive with base lusts and
animal appetites someone in the state of half a man; he
is quickly saved from the trials of the soul. Thus,
through the mystery of belief in God and submission to
Him and reliance on Him, a believer can benefit in a
brief time from a severe illness like apoplexy, like the
severe trials of the saints. Then a severe illness such
as that becomes exceedingly cheap. TWENTY-THIRD
REMEDY Unhappy
ill person who is alone and a stranger! Even if your
aloneness and exile together with your illness were to
arouse sympathy towards you in the hardest hearts and
attract kindness and compassion, could that be a
substitute for your All-Compassionate Creator? For He
presents Himself to us at the start of all the
Qur’an’s Suras with the attributes of “the Merciful
and the Compassionate,” and with one flash of His
compassion makes all mothers nurture their young with
that wonderful tenderness, and with one manifestation of
His mercy every spring fills the face of the earth with
bounties, and a single manifestation of His mercy is
eternal life in Paradise together with all its wonders.
Then surely your relation to Him through belief, your
recognizing Him and beseeching Him through the tongue of
impotence of your illness, and your illness of The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.284 loneliness
in exile, will attract the glance of His mercy towards
you, which takes the place of everything. Since He exists
and He looks to you, everything exists for you. Those who
are truly alone and in exile are those who are not
connected with Him through belief and submission, or
attach no importance to that relation. TWENTY-FOURTH
REMEDY O
you who look after innocent sick children or after the
elderly, who are like innocent children! Before you is
important trade for the Hereafter. Gain that trade
through enthusiasm and endeavour! It is established by
the people of reality that the illnesses of innocent
children are like exercises and training for their
delicate bodies, and injections and dominical training to
allow them to withstand in the future the upheavals of
the world; that in addition to many instances of wisdom
pertaining to the child’s worldly life, instead of the
atonement for sins in adults which looks to spiritual
life and is the means to purifying life, illnesses are
like injections ensuring the child’s spiritual progress
in the future or in the Hereafter; and that the merits
accruing from such illnesses pass to the book of good
works of the parents, and particularly of the mother who
through the mystery of compassion prefers the health of
her child to her own health. As
for looking after the elderly, it is established in sound
narrations and many historical events that together with
receiving huge reward, to receive the prayers of the
elderly and especially of parents, and to make their
hearts happy and serve them loyally, is the means to
happiness both in this world and in the Hereafter. And it
is established by many events that a fortunate child who
obeys to the letter his elderly parents will be treated
in the same way by his children, and that if a wretched
child wounds his parents he will be punished by means of
many disasters in this world as well as in the Hereafter.
Yes, to look after not only relatives who are elderly or
innocents, but also those of the believers if one
encounters them-since through the mystery of belief there
is true brotherhood-and to serve the venerable sick
elderly if they are in need of it to one’s utmost
ability, is required by Islam. TWENTY-FIFTH
REMEDY My
sick brothers! If you want a most beneficial and truly
pleasurable sacred cure, develop your belief! That is,
through repentance and seeking forgiveness, and the five
daily prayers and worship, make use of belief, that
sacred cure-and of the medicine which arises from belief. Indeed,
due to love of this world and attachment to it, it is as
if you The
Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash / For The Sick - p.285 possess
a sick immaterial being as large as the world, like the
heedless. We have proved in many parts of the Risale-i
Nur that belief at once heals that immaterial being of
yours as large as the world, which is bruised and
battered by the blows of death and separation, and saves
it from the wounds and truly heals it. I cut short the
discussion here so as not to weary you. As
for the medicine of belief, it shows its effect through
your carrying out your religious obligations as far as is
possible. Heedlessness, vice, the lusts of the soul, and
illicit amusements prevent the effectiveness of that
remedy. Since illness removes heedlessness, cuts the
appetites, is an obstacle to illicit pleasures, take
advantage of it. Make use of the sacred medicines and
lights of belief through repentance and seeking
forgiveness, and prayer and supplication. May
Almighty God restore you to health and make your
illnesses atonement for sins. Amen. Amen. Amen. And
they say: All praise be to God Who has guided us to this;
never could we have found guidance if it had not for the
guidance of God; indeed, the Messengers of our Sustainer
did bring the truth.18 Glory
be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You
have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.19 O
God! Grant blessings to our master Muhammad, the
medicine for our hearts and their remedy, the good health
of our bodies and their healing, the light of our eyes
and their radiance, and to his Family and Companions, and
grant them peace. Addendum
to the Twenty-Fifth Flash This
is the Seventeenth Letter, which having been included in
the Letters Collection, has not been added here. ____________________ 18.
Qur’an, 7:43. |
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