Illness

“O servants of God! Seek the cure, for God Almighty has sent you a remedy for every illness that He has created.”¹⁾

“Corresponding to the physical wounds and illnesses of the Prophet Job, upon him be peace, we have inner, spiritual diseases. If our inner being was to be turned to the outside, and our outer being turned inward, we would appear with more wounds and diseases than the Prophet Job. For each sin that we commit and each doubt that enters our mind causes wounds in our heart and our spirit.”²⁾

“Life is refined, perfected, and strengthened through disasters and illnesses, and fulfils its own purpose. Life led monotonously on the couch of ease and comfort cannot be regarded as existence and does not serve it. Rather, it is almost identical with non-existence.”³⁾

“Each age has characteristics peculiar to itself and therefore has its own needs and demands. In this age of heedlessness of Divine orders misfortune has changed its nature. It is not misfortune, but rather a Divine favor for certain persons at certain times. I especially regard those afflicted with illness at this time as fortunate—provided their illness does not affect their faith or religious life—and therefore I cannot oppose illness or certain other kinds of misfortune. Nor can I feel pity for them. Whenever a sick young man comes to visit me, I see him, in comparison to his peers, as being more concerned with and devoted to his religious duties and the Hereafter. I realize that This gives me the idea that illness is not a misfortune for such people, but rather a Divine favor. For, although illness causes some trouble for such a person in their brief, transient worldly life, in reality it is beneficial for their eternal life. If this person recovers, they will not be able to maintain the spiritual state they had during their illness and might fall into dissipation because of the intoxicating lures of youth and dissoluteness of the present time.”⁴⁾

“Illness reminds us of this reality and says, ‘Your body is not composed of stone and iron; rather it has been composed of various materials that are subject to partition and dissolution.’ Give up conceit, be aware of your innate impotence, recognize your Master, know your duties, and learn why you came to the world!’ Illness says this secretly in the ear of the heart. Also, since the pleasure and enjoyment of this world do not last and particularly if they are illicit, this is distressing and painful, do not weep over their disappearance because of illness. On the contrary, think of the worship you are performing by enduring the illness and the rewards that pertain to the Hereafter, and try to be content.”⁵⁾

“Sins are perpetual illnesses in the eternal life. They are also illnesses for the heart, conscience, and spirit in this worldly life. If you persevere and do not complain, you are being saved from numerous perpetual illnesses through that temporary illness. But if you do not worry about sins, or are not aware of the afterlife, or do not recognize God, you have such an illness that it is a million times worse than your present illness. Cry out at it, for your heart, spirit, and soul have relations with all the beings in the world. Your connections with them are continually severed through decay, death, and separation, causing innumerable wounds to open up in you. Particularly since you are not aware of the Hereafter and imagine death to be eternal extinction, it is as if you had a body afflicted with uncountable wounds and illnesses. Therefore, what you must do first is to search for belief as the cure for these innumerable spiritual wounds and illnesses of the ailing body. You must correct your creed, and the shortest, most direct way to such a cure is to recognize the Power and Mercy of an All-Powerful One of Majesty through the window of your innate impotence and weakness, which your physical illness shows you beneath the veil of heedlessness that it has rent. Indeed, one who does not recognize God is afflicted with a worldful of tribulations, while the world of one who recognizes God is full of light and spiritual joy. Everyone is aware of this according to the strength of their belief. The pain of physical illnesses melts away under the spiritual joy, healing, and pleasure that come from belief.”⁶⁾

“You who are ill and worrying needlessly! Your worry is because of the severity of your illness, but your worries make your illness more severe. If you want your illness to be less severe, try not to worry about it. That is, think about the benefits of your illness, the spiritual rewards it brings, and that it will pass quickly. Give up worrying, and cut off the illness at the root.”⁷⁾

“You, brother or sister Muslim, who are sick! As is explained convincingly and in detail in some other parts of the Risale-i Nur, know that the origin and culture of calamities and evils, and even of sins, is non-existence. As for non-existence, it is evil and darkness. It is because states like continuous ease, silence, inertia, and being sedentary 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, and it is light. Since this is a reality, your illness has been sent to your body as a guest so that it will carry out many duties like purifying your valuable life, and strengthening and developing it, as well as making other members and faculties of your body turn in assistance towards the part of you that is unwell, and displaying the imprints of various Names of the All-Wise Maker. God willing, the illness will carry out its duties quickly and depart. And it will say to good health, “Now you come, and stay permanently in my place, and carry out your duties. This house is yours. Remain here in a good condition.”⁸⁾

“You who are sick and seeking a remedy for your ills! Illness is of two kinds. One kind is real; the other is imaginary. As for the real kind, the All-Wise Healer of Majesty has stored up in His mighty pharmacy of the earth a remedy for every illness. Without illness, how can those remedies be known and enjoyed? He has created a cure for every illness. The Religion requires that medicines should be used in treatment, but we should know that their effect and the cure are from God Almighty. It is He Who gives the cure, and it is He Who provides the medicine. Following the recommendations of skillful, God-conscious doctors is an important form of treatment. For most illnesses arise from abuses, a lack of abstinence, extravagance, vice, dissipation, and indifference and a lack of care. A God-conscious doctor will certainly give advice and orders that are not contrary to Islamic precepts. They will forbid abuses and extravagance, and give consolation. The sick person has confidence in their recommendations and consolation, and the illness wanes, giving a feeling of relief in place of distress. But when it comes to illnesses that are imaginary, the most effective medicine of all is to give it no importance. The more importance is given to it, the more it grows and swells. If no importance is given, the illness lessens and fades away. The more bees are disturbed, the more they swarm around a person’s head, while if they are paid no attention, they disperse. Also, the more attention one pays to a piece of string waving in front of one’s eyes in the darkness, the more it disturbs one and causes one to flee from it like a madman. While if you pay it no attention, you can see that it is an ordinary bit of string and not a snake, and you will laugh at your fear and anxiety. If the groundless worry about one’s health continues for a long time, it is transformed into reality. It is an evil ailment for the nervous and those given to groundless fears and worries; such people make a mountain out of a molehill and their morale is destroyed. In particular, if they encounter unkind and unfair ‘half’ doctors, their worries are provoked and increase. If they are rich, they lose their wealth, or else they lose their wits, or their health.”⁹⁾

“You, brother and sister Muslims, who are ill! If you desire a most beneficial, truly pleasurable, and sacred medicine, which is the cure for every illness, develop your belief! That is, through repentance and seeking God’s forgiveness for your sins, and the five daily Prayers, and other duties of worship, apply to your illnesses belief that sacred cure and the medicine it provides. As for the medicine of belief, it shows its effect when you carry out your religious obligations as far as is possible. Heedlessness, dissipation, carnal desires, and religiously forbidden amusements prevent the effectiveness of that remedy. Since illness removes heedlessness, reduces the appetites, and prevents one from partaking in religiously unlawful pleasures, take advantage of it. Apply the sacred medicines and lights of true belief through repentance, seeking God’s forgiveness, and prayers, and supplications.”¹⁰⁾

“And so, respected people who have entered upon old age like me and frequently remember death through its warnings! In accordance with the light of the teachings of belief in the Qur’an, we should look favorably on old age, death, and illness, and even love them in one respect. Since we have an infinitely precious gift like belief, old age is agreeable, and illness and death likewise. If there are things that are disagreeable, they are sins, dissipation, heresy, unacceptable innovations in the Religion, and misguidance.”¹¹⁾

“If you want to understand why young people frequently end up in hospital with physical and mental diseases on account of their excesses, or in prison on account of their misconduct, or in bars and dens of vice, you only have to visit those places. And the graveyards are full of those who were destroyed as a result of the distress caused by the inability of young human hearts to find true nourishment through the performance of their proper duties.”¹²⁾

“O friend! I have observed that the more people are preoccupied with philosophy, the more their hearts suffer from spiritual disease. I also have observed that the greater this spiritual disease of the heart becomes, the more people are preoccupied with rational sciences. Spiritual diseases lead to preoccupation with rational sciences, and preoccupation with rational sciences gives rise to spiritual diseases.”¹³⁾

“In addition to afflictions, illnesses make human beings progress spiritually as well. People should consider both afflictions and illnesses as Divine bounties and be patient in gratitude.”¹⁴⁾

“This world has a Hereafter, and I see myself right at its doorstep. I want to spend my last days in worship of only Him, I want to talk of only His names and attributes, and want to wait for this Holy guest to whom I will hand over my soul. I feel very ill. This past year I haven't even been able to write even a couple of pages in one month. My heart condition, my diabetes, and the restricted ability to easily move my hands due to a neuropathic condition has prevented me from reading and writing. For a long time I waited with the hope that it would get better and that I would recover. Nowadays though I have fully come to terms with my illnesses; I have become friends with them.”¹⁵⁾

“Illnesses are, in a way, a call and a warning to prepare for the journey beyond. Every illness reminds people that this life is ephemeral and that they will go to an eternal realm.”¹⁶⁾

“We are obliged in return to thank for the bounty and beneficence of God. We are obliged to utilize all possibilities to tell about Him, to endear Him, to appreciate Him. In any case, we should excite a sentiment of contentment in people. Illness-health, distress-comfort, wealth-poverty…In any case… In essence: a tune of gratitude and a pleasant singing of gratitude should be heard even in the groaning of people.”¹⁷⁾

“The Qur'an depicts such people who deceive themselves in the following verse: In the Qur’an it reveals these types of individuals who deceive only themselves in these words: ‘Among people there are some who say, ‘We believe in God and the Last Day,’ although they are not believers. They would trick God and those who believe, yet they trick only their own selves (of which they are enamored), but they do not perceive.’ (Al-Baqarah 2:8-9) Again, according to the Qur’an, these are individuals whose hearts are diseased. Their emotions are impaired, their understanding is inconsistent, their awareness is obscured, and they are commanded by their own desires and egoistic inclinations. These people who are totally paralyzed by their conscientious mechanisms become so accustomed to this illness that, if you attempt to cure them, they will react against you, if you attempt to treat them they will attack, and if you attempt to save them you will be subjected to their abuse.”¹⁸⁾

“Prophet Jesus has many miracles, but here we would like to focus on the verse that speaks of his miracles from his own mouth: ‘I heal the blind from birth and the leper, and I revive the dead, by God's leave.’ (Al Imran, 3:49). The verse also says that from the severest skin diseases to blindness, and from there to what we call the plague of our day, cancer and AIDS, people can find a cure for all these, and that they can even delay the death, and that consequently they should not be dismayed by the diseases they encounter and that on the contrary should be even more determined to find cures for them.”¹⁹⁾

Death

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