In His Name, be He glorified! And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.
Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings, for ever and ever!
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
On the twenty‑seventh night of Ramadan, which in the Islamic world is reckoned to be the Night of Power I felt both a sort of poisoning and ghastly stomach upset, and another terrible illness that was as though suffusing my nerves, conscience, and heart. Together with these two sicknesses, physical and spiritual, I suddenly felt a sympathy for all living creatures and their pains. I experienced a mental state far more grievous than my illnesses. Then I felt a sorrowful despair more severe than the other two illnesses at my being unable at the end of my eighty-year life to strive at worshipping in a way fitting to its final Night of Power, which gains a lifetime of worship of eighty years. Then just as a feeling of pain produced by the nerves and performing the function of the evil-commanding soul was crushing me, an inner meaning of the verse “For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs” came to my assistance. It dispelled those three illnesses, and endless thanks be to Almighty God, in a way outside the customary I was able to bear it. It also healed the three illnesses. As proved in the Treatise for the Sick, for the patient who trusts in God, one hour of physical illness is the equivalent of at least ten hours' worship, and on the Night of Power even more than that. So with the illness I was suffering on the Night of Power replacing the worship I was unable to perform due to my weakness and incapacity, it became a fully healing salve. Then the sickness of the grief I felt out of pity for the pains and sufferings of living beings, was transformed into spiritual joy and pleasure through the manifestation of divine compassion. That is to say, since the compassion, clemency, and mercy of the Creator for creatures are the most appropriate and sufficient, their suffering is turned into a sort of pleasure or reward for them. This transforms the pain arising from compassion into pleasure, for to demonstrate compassion greater than divine mercy is meaningless and unjust. This was not merely a salve for me, but a healing remedy.
Moreover, in the face of the pain at losing at the end of my life an invaluable spiritual treasury, I shared in the mystery of the spiritual partnership of all the select Nur students with all their good works and prayers in the name of all; and I participated in the supplications and expressions of divine unity uttered by the congregations of all beings and living creatures, in the Fatiha and tashahhud in the prayers (ṣalāt), as explained in The Shining Proof (el‑Hüccetü'z-Zehrâ) and A Key to the World of Light (Nur Anahtarı); and since the elements earth, air, water, and light are all tongues, I joined in the gifts of life that emerge from the earth and water, and the praise and worship proceeding from the air, the beautiful words, material and otherwise, uttered by the light, and the thanks and praise for all the bounties in the universe and the universal worship and seeking of help of all creatures, especially living creatures, in the Fatiha and tashahhud in the prayers; and I accompanied all the people of truth and the believers who travel the right path and declared “Amen!” to their prayers and supplications. The universal mystery of participating in all the above came to my assistance that night and was such a panacea for the grievous spiritual sickness I was suffering at being unable to perform my worship in my sick, weak, despairing state, that I experienced a spiritual joy that in truth I had not found in my healthiest states in the time of my youth and in my most pleasurable invocations. I offered endless thanks and was resigned to that awful illness. I exclaimed: All praise be to God to the number of all the seconds and minutes of Ramadan in all time!
The Enduring One, He is the Enduring One!Your brother,Saîd Nursî