The First: “Once my stomach is full, what do I care if others die of hunger?”

The Second: “You work, and I’ll eat.”

    That which perpetuates these two is the prevalence of usury and interest on the one hand, and the abandonment of zakat on the other. The only remedy able to cure these two awesome social diseases lies in implementing zakat as a universal principle and in forbidding usury. Zakat is a most essential support of happiness not merely for individuals and particular societies, but for all of humanity. There are two classes of men: the upper classes and the common people. It is only zakat that will induce compassion and generosity in the upper classes toward the common people, and respect and obedience in the common people toward the upper classes. In the absence of zakat, the upper classes will descend on the common people with cruelty and oppression, and the common people will rise up against the upper classes in rancour and rebellion. There will be a constant struggle, a persistent opposition between the two classes of men. It will finally result in the confrontation of capital and labour, as happened in Russia.

    O people of nobility and good conscience! O people of generosity and liberality!

    If acts of generosity are not performed in the name of zakat, there are three harmful results. The act may have no effect, for if you do not give in the name of Allah, you are in effect imposing an obligation, and imprisoning some wretched pauper with a sense of obligation. Then you will be deprived of his prayer, a prayer which would be most acceptable in the sight of Allah. In reality you are nothing but an official entrusted with the distribution of Almighty Allah’s bounties among His servants; but if you imagine yourself to be the owner of wealth, this is an act of ingratitude for the bounties you have received. If, on the contrary, you give in the name of zakat, you will be rewarded for having given in the name of Almighty Allah; you will have offered thanks for bounties received. he needy person too will not be compelled to fawn and cringe in front of you; his self-respect will not be injured, and his prayer on your behalf will be accepted. 

 
Source: Risale-i Nur Collection, 22nd Letter

If the day that is past held misfortune, the distress is now gone, and only tranquility remains; the pain has vanished and the pleasure in its cessation remains; the trouble is gone, and the reward remains. Hence one should not complain but give thanks for enjoyment. One should not resent misfortune, but love it. The transient life of the past comes to be counted as an eternal and blessed life because of misfortune. To think upon past pain with one’s fancy and then to waste part of one’s patience is lunacy.

As far as days yet to come are concerned, since they have not yet come, to think now of the illness or misfortune to be borne during them and display impatience, is also foolishness. To say to oneself “Tomorrow or the day after I will be hungry and thirsty” and constantly to drink water and eat bread today, is pure madness. Similarly, to think of misfortunes and sicknesses yet in the future but now non-existent, to suffer them already, to show impatience and to oppress oneself without any compulsion, is such stupidity that it no longer deserves pity and compassion.

In short, just as gratitude increases divine bounty, so too complaint increases misfortune, and removes all occasion for compassion.

During World War One, a blessed person in Erzurum was afflicted with an awesome disease. I went to visit him and he said to me complaining bitterly: “I have not been able to place my head on the pillow and sleep for a hundred nights.” I was much grieved. Suddenly a thought came to me and I said:

“Brother, the hundred difficult days you have spent are now just like one hundred happy days. Do not think of them and complain; rather look at them and be grateful. As for future days, since they have not yet come, place your trust in your Compassionate and Merciful Lord. Do not weep before being beaten, do not be afraid of nothing, do not give non-being the colour of being. Think of the present hour; your power of patient endurance is enough for this hour. Do not act like the maddened commander who expects reinforcement on his right wing by an enemy force deserting to join him from his left, and then begins to disperse his forces in the centre to the left and the right, before the enemy has joined him on the right. The enemy then destroys his centre, left weak, with a minimal force. Brother, do not be like him. Mobilize all your strength for this present hour, and think of divine mercy, reward in the hereafter, and how your brief and transient life is being transformed into a long and eternal form. Instead of complaining bitterly, give joyful thanks.”

Much relieved, he said, “Alhamdulillah- Praise and thanks be to Allah-, my disease is now a tenth of what it was before.”

When he called upon his Lord saying: “Verily harm has afflicted me, and You are the Most Merciful of the Merciful!”(Qur’an 21:83)

The supplication of Ayyub (Job) (Upon whom be peace), the champion of patience, is both well-tested and effective. Drawing on the verse, we should say in our supplication, “O my Lord and Sustainer! Indeed harm has afflicted me, and You are the Most Merciful of the Merciful.”

The gist of the well-known story of Job(Upon whom be peace) is as follows:

While afflicted with numerous wounds and sores for a long time, he recalled the great recompense to be had for his sickness, and endured it with utmost patience. But later, when the worms generated by his wounds penetrated to his heart and his tongue, the seat of the remembrance and knowledge of Allah, he feared that his duty of worship would suffer, and so he said in supplication not for the sake of his own comfort, but for the sake of his worship of Allah:

“O Lord! Harm has afflicted me; my remembrance of You with my tongue and my worship of You with my heart will suffer.” Allah Almighty then accepted this pure sincere, disinterested and devout supplication in the most miraculous fashion. He granted to Job perfect good health and made manifest in him all kinds of compassion.

Corresponding to the outer wounds and sicknesses of Ayyub (Job) (Upon whom be peace) we have inner sicknesses of the spirit and heart. If our inner being was to be turned outward, and our outer being turned inward, we would appear more wounded and diseased than Ayyup. For each sin that we commit and each doubt that enters our mind, inflicts wounds on our heart and our spirit.

The wounds of Ayyub (Upon whom be peace) were of such a nature as to threaten his brief worldly life, but our inner wounds threaten our infinitely long everlasting life. We need the supplication of Ayyup thousands of times more than he did himself. Just as the worms that arose from his wounds penetrated to his heart and tongue, so too the wounds that sin inflicts upon us and the temptations and doubts that arise from those wounds wil –may Allah protect us- penetrate our inner heart, the seat of belief, and thus wound belief. Penetrating too the spiritual joy of the tongue, the interpreter of belief, they cause it to shun in revulsion the remembrance of Allah, and reduce it to silence.

Sin, penetrating to the heart, will blacken and darken it until it extinguishes the light of belief. Within each sin is a path leading to unbelief. Unless that sin is swiftly obliterated by seeking Allah’s pardon, it will grow from a worm into a snake that gnaws on the heart.

For example, a man who secretly commits a shameful sin will fear the disgrace that results if others become aware of it. Thus the existence of angels and spirit beings will be hard for him to endure, and he will long to deny it, even on the strength of the slightest indication.

Similarly, one who commits a major sin deserving of the torment of Hell, will desire the non-existence of Hell wholeheartedly, and whenever he hears of the threat of Hell-fire, he will dare to deny it on the strength of a slight indication and doubt, unless he takes up in protection the shield of repentance and seeking forgiveness.

Similarly, one who does not perform the obligatory prayer and fulfil his duty of worship will be affected by distress, just as he would be in case of the neglect of a minor duty toward some petty ruler. Thus, his laziness in fulfulling his obligation, despite the repeated commands of the Sovereign of Pre-Eternity, will distress him greatly, and on account of that distress will desire and say to himself: “Would that there were no such duty of worship!” In turn, there will arise from this desire a desire to deny God, and bear enmity toward Him. If some doubt concerning the existence of the Divine Being comes to his heart, he will be inclined to embrace it like a conclusive proof. A wide gate to destruction will be opened in front of him. The wretch does not know that although he is delivered by denial from the slight trouble of duty of worship, he has made himself, by that same denial, the target for milions of troubles that are far more awesome. Fleeing from the bite of a gnat, he welcomes the bite of the snake.

A story to be pondered over: There were two groups of the Hasanan, a tribe of nomads, hostile to each other. Although more than maybe fifty people had been killed on each side, when another tribe such as the Sibgan or Haydaran came out against them, those two hostile groups would forget their enmity and fight together, shoulder to shoulder, until the opposing tribe had been repelled, without ever once recalling their internal dissensions.

O Believers! Do you know how many tribes of enemies have taken up position to attack the tribe of the people of belief? There are more than a hundred of them, like a series of concentric circles. The believers are obliged to take up defensive positions, each supporting the other and giving him a helping hand. Is it then at all fitting for the people of belief that with their biased partisanship and hostile rancour they should facilitate the attack of the enemy and fling open the doors for him to penetrate the fold of Islam? There are maybe seventy circles of enemies, including the misguided, the atheist, and the unbeliever, each of them as harmful to you as all the terrors and afflictions of this world, and each of them regarding you with greed, anger and hatred. Your firm weapon, shield and citadel against all of them is none other than the brotherhood of Islam. So realize just how contrary to conscience and to the interests of Islam it is to shake the citadel of Islam on account of petty hostilities and other pretexts! Know this, and come to your senses!

Source: 22nd Letter, Risale-i Nur Collection

‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar, who was one of the famous Companions of the Prophet known as the seven ‘Abdullahs, was the greatest and most important of the Caliph ‘Umar, Faruq al-A‘zam’s sons, and one of the most distinguished and learned of the Companions. One day while shopping in the market, in order to be economical and to preserve the confidence and integrity on which trade depends, he disputed hotly over something worth a few kurush. One of the Companions saw him, and imagining the Illustrious Successor of the Prophet on Earth, the Caliph ‘Umar’s son’s wrangling over a few kurush to be an extraordinary stinginess, he followed him in order to understand his conduct. Next he saw that ‘Abdullah was entering his blessed house and had spotted a poor man at the door. He chatted with him for a bit, and the man left. Then he came out of the second door of the house and saw another poor man. He chatted with him for a while too, and the man left. The Companion, who was watching from the distance, was curious. He went and asked the poor men: “‘Abdullah paused a while with you. What did he do?” Each of them replied: “He gave me a gold piece.” “Glory be to Allah!,” exclaimed the Companion, and thought to himself: “How is it that he wrangled like that over a few kurush in the market, then was completely happy to give away two hundred kurush in his house without letting anyone know?”

He went to ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar and said: “O Imam! Solve this difficulty for me! In the market you did that, while in your house you did this.” ‘Abdullah replied to him saying: “What I did in the market was not stinginess, but arose from frugality; it was perfectly reasonable, and to preserve confidence and honesty, which are the basis and spirit of commerce. And what I did by my house arose from the heart’s compassion and the spirit’s perfection. Neither was the first stinginess, nor the second immoderateness.”

Alluding to this, Imam Abu Hanifa said: “There can be no excess in good, just as there is no good in excess.” That is to say, just as in good works and benevolence there can no excess or wastefulness – on condition they are for the deserving, so there is no good at all in wastefulness and immoderateness.

By means of another wile resembling this one, Satan corrupts the integrity of peoples’ thoughts. He impairs sound judgement concerning the truths of belief and damages integrity and correctness of thought. It is like this:

He desires to destroy hundreds of evidences proving the truths of belief with a slight hint refuting them. Whereas it is an established principle that “a single proof is superior to a hundred denials.” The statement of a witness proving a claim is preferable to a hundred people denying it. Consider this truth by means of the following comparison:

There is a palace with a hundred doors all closed. If one of its doors is opened, the palace may be entered and all the doors opened. If all the doors are open and one or two are closed, it may not be said that the palace cannot not be entered.

Thus, the truths of belief are the palace. Each evidence is a key; it proves the truths and opens a door. If one of the doors remains closed, the truths of belief cannot be abandoned and denied. Satan however, in consequence of certain things or by means of heedlessness or ignorance, points out a door that has remained closed, thus causing a person to disregard all the positive evidences. He deceives the person, saying: “See, this palace cannot be entered. Perhaps it isn’t a palace and perhaps there’s nothing inside it.”

O wretched man afflicted by Satan and his wiles! If you want the life of religion and of society and personal life all to be healthy, and if you want integrity of thought, a sound view, and a sincere heart, weigh up your actions and thoughts on the scales of the incontestable matters of the Qur’an and the balance of the Prophet’s (S.A.W.) practices. Always take the Qur’an and the practices as your guide. Say: “I take refuge with Allah from Satan the Accursed,” and seek refuge with Allah Almighty!

The above thirteen Indications are thirteen keys. Use them to open the door of the fortified stronghold of the Sura,

Say: Say: I seek refuge with the Lord and Cherisher of mankind* The Ruler of mankind *The Allah of mankind * From the mischief of the Whisperer of evil, who withdraws after his whisper– * The same who whispers into the hearts of mankind–* Among jinns and among men;(Qur’an, 114:1-6)

enter this secure citadel and find safety!

Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise. (Qur’an, 2:32)

And say: O My Sustainer, I seek refuge with You from the whisperings of the Evil Ones, *and I seek refuge with you, my Sustainer lest they should come near me.(Qur’an, 23:97-8)

…

There is a Hadith which says: “All will perish save those who know, and those who know will perish save those who act, and those who act will perish save the sincere, and the sincere are in grave danger.” That is to say, the only means of salvation and deliverance is sincerity. It is of the greatest importance to gain sincerity. The tiniest act performed with sincerity is preferable to tons performed without sincerity. A person should understand that what gains sincerity for his actions is his doing them purely because they are a divine command and that their result is divine pleasure, and he should not interfere in Allah’s business.

Source: Flashes, Risale-i Nur Collection

He turns away from them towards spiritual rank and degrees in closeness to ALLAH, which constitute true rank, and towards provisions for the hereafter, and good works, which are true property. Metaphorical ambition, which is a bad quality, is transformed into true ambition, an elevated quality.

And, for example, with intense obstinacy, man expends his emotions on trivial, fleeting, transient things. Then he sees that he pursues for a year something not worth even a minute’s obstinacy. Also, in the name of obstinacy, he persists in something damaging and harmful. Then he sees that this powerful emotion was not given him for such things and that it is contrary to wisdom and truth to expend it on them.

So he utilizes his intense obstinacy, not on those unnecessary transient matters, but on the elevated and eternal truths of belief and foundations of Islam and service and duties pertaining to the hereafter.

Metaphorical obstinacy, a base quality, is transformed into true obstinacy; that is, ardent steadfastness and constancy in what is right, a fine and good quality.

The Letters, Bediüzzaman Said Nursi

If you are intelligent, take as your guide the truth apparent in the comparison in this Third Warning. Say in manly fashion: “Ya Sabr (O Most Patient One!)”, and shoulder the three sorts of patience. If you do not squander on the wrong way the forces of patience Almighty Allah has given you, they should be enough for every difficulty and disaster. So hold out with those forces! 

21TH WORD, Said Nursi

As for the lasting spiritual pleasure that comes from the cessation of momentary pains experienced in the past, it inspires man to exclaim, “Thanks and praise be to Allah!”. In addition to this innate tendency of man, if he thinks of the reward that results from misfortune and the requital that awaits him in the hereafter, if he realizes that his brief life will count as a long life because of misfortune, then instead of being merely patient he should be thankful. He should say, “Praise be to Allah for every state other than unbelief and misguidance.”

It is commonly said that misfortune is long-lasting. Indeed it is, but not because it is troublesome and distressing as people customarily imagine, but rather because it yields vital results just like a long life.