The Concepts Used in the Hizmet Movement

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====== Illness ======

  * “O servants of God! Seek the cure, for God Almighty has sent you a remedy for every **illness** that He has created.”((Tirmidhi, Tib, 2; Abu Dawud, Tib, 1; Ibn Majah, Tib, 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.”((Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, //The Gleams//, New Jersey: Tughra Books, 2013, p. 12.))

  * “[[life|Life]] is refined, perfected, and strengthened through disasters and **illnesses**, and fulfils its own purpose. [[life|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.”((Ibid., p. 13.))

  * “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|life]], in reality it is beneficial for their eternal [[life|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.”((Ibid., p. 18.))

  * “**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.”((Ibid., pp. 293–294.))

  * “Sins are perpetual **illnesses** in the eternal [[life|life]]. They are also **illnesses** for the heart, conscience, and spirit in this worldly [[life|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|death]], and separation, causing innumerable wounds to open up in you. Particularly since you are not aware of the Hereafter and imagine [[death|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|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|belief]]. The pain of physical **illnesses** melts away under the spiritual joy, healing, and pleasure that come from [[belief|belief]].”((Ibid., p. 295.))

  * “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.”((Ibid., p. 295.))

  * “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|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.”((Ibid., p. 306.))

  * “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|attention]], they disperse. Also, the more [[attention|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|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.”((Ibid., pp. 306–307.))

  * “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|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|belief]] that sacred cure and the medicine it provides. As for the medicine of [[belief|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|belief]] through repentance, seeking God’s forgiveness, and prayers, and supplications.”((Ibid., p. 310.))

  * “And so, respected people who have entered upon old age like me and frequently remember [[death|death]] through its warnings! In accordance with the light of the teachings of [[belief|belief]] in the Qur’an, we should look favorably on old age, [[death|death]], and **illness**, and even love them in one respect. Since we have an infinitely precious gift like [[belief|belief]], old age is agreeable, and **illness** and [[death|death]] likewise. If there are things that are disagreeable, they are sins, dissipation, heresy, unacceptable innovations in the Religion, and misguidance.”((Ibid., p. 333.))

  * “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.”((Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, //The Rays//, New Jersey: Tughra Books, 2010, p. 233.))

  * “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**.”((Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, //Al-Mathnawi Al-Nuri//, New Jersey: The Light, 2007, p. 112.))

  * “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.”((M. Fethullah Gülen, //Fasıldan Fasıla-1//, İstanbul: Nil Yayınları, 2008, p. 355.))

  * “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.”((M. Fethullah Gülen, //Sohbet-i Cânan (Kırık Testi-2)//, İstanbul: Nil Yayınları, 2011, p. 110.))

  * “**Illnesses** are, in a way, a call and a warning to prepare for the journey beyond. Every **illness** reminds people that this [[life|life]] is ephemeral and that they will go to an eternal realm.”((Ibid., p. 126.))

  * “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.”((M. Fethullah Gülen, //Gurbet Ufukları (Kırık Testi-3)//, İstanbul: Nil Yayınları, 2011, p. 196.))

  * “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.”((M. Fethullah Gülen, //Işığın Göründüğü Ufuk (Çağ ve Nesil-7)//, İstanbul: Nil Yayınları, 2011, pp. 290–291.))

  * “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|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.”((M. Fethullah Gülen, //Kur’ân’ın Altın İkliminde//, İstanbul: Nil Yayınları, 2010, pp. 529–530.))

===== See Also =====

  * [[death|Death]]

===== Other Languages =====

  * [[https://tr.hizmetpedia.org/doku.php?id=hastalik|Türkçe]]

===== Footnotes =====