affliction

Affliction

“Our ability to meet our endless demands is negligible. We are threatened with afflictions that our own strength cannot withstand. Our strength is limited to what we can reach, yet our wishes and demands, suffering and sorrow, are as wide as our imagination.”¹⁾

“O soul and friend, our nature contains two faculties: the means of fear and the means of love. Such love and fear is felt for either the created or the Creator. Fear of the created is a painful affliction, and love of the created is a troublesome pain, for you fear such things or persons that they show you no mercy or reject your request. If this is so, fear of the created is a painful affliction.”²⁾

“Observe the three manifestations of Divine Mercy: love, affection, and intellect. If human life resulted in eternal separation with unending pangs of parting, that gracious love would turn into the greatest affliction, affection into a most painful ailment, and the light-giving intellect into an unmitigated evil. Divine Compassion, however, (for it is Compassion) never inflicts the agony of eternal separation upon true love.”³⁾

“… any love in the carnal soul’s name, like that of worldly, heedless people, causes much pain, trouble, and affliction in this world, and the ease, pleasure and enjoyment it gives is little. For example, compassion turns into a painful affliction because you cannot do something. Love becomes a consuming feeling because of separation. Pleasure becomes like a poisonous drink because it is subject to transience. Since such love is not love in Almighty God’s Name, it will be useless in the Hereafter. Also, it will bring torment if it has driven the lover into illicit dealings.”⁴⁾

“Afflictions come from our sins, mistakes, the darkness within us, and our ego being suppressed. Moreover, because God is very merciful, He does not immediately chastise us for every wrongdoing… He even forgives many of them.”⁵⁾

“Through disasters, afflictions, and difficulties, a person will purify and come to their true essence.”⁶⁾

“The actions of a believer are on the ‘goodness’ trajectory. When they face any affliction, they show patience, which is good for them. And when they attain any blessing, they express gratitude, which is also good for them.”⁷⁾

“According to the statement of our Prophet, ‘Patience is the determination shown when afflictions first strike.’”⁸⁾

Footnotes

¹⁾

Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, The Words, New Jersey: The Light, 2013, p. 20.

²⁾

Ibid., p. 377.

³⁾

Ibid., p. 540.

⁴⁾

Ibid., p. 657.

⁵⁾

M. Fethullah Gülen, Asrın Getirdiği Tereddütler-4, İstanbul: Nil Yayınları, 2011, p. 100.

⁶⁾

M. Fethullah Gülen, Fasıldan Fasıla-1, İstanbul: Nil Yayınları, 2008, p. 83.

⁷⁾

M. Fethullah Gülen, Fasıldan Fasıla-2, İstanbul: Nil Yayınları, 2008, p. 209.

⁸⁾

M. Fethullah Gülen, Fasıldan Fasıla-4, İstanbul: Nil Yayınları, 2011, p. 121; Bukhari, Janaiz, 32; Muslim, Janaiz, 14, 15.

Affliction