Just as through crying or asking or looking unhappy, a child subjugates the strong to himself, and is so successful in getting what he wants that he could not obtain one thousandth of it with a thousand times his own strength. That is to say, since weakness and impotence excite compassion and a sense of protection towards him, the child can subjugate heroes to himself with his tiny finger. Now, should such a child with foolish conceit deny the compassion and accuse the protection saying: “I subjugate these with my own strength”, of course he will receive a slap.

In the same way, if, like Qarun, man says:

اِنَّمَۤا اُوتِيتُهُ عَلٰى عِلْمٍ

that is, “I gained this through my own knowledge and my own power” in a way that demonstrates ingratitude and denies his Creator’s mercy and accuses His wisdom, he will of course deserve a punishing blow. This means that man’s domination and human advances and the attainments of civilization, which are to be observed, have been made subject to him not through his attracting them or conquering them or through combat, but due to his weakness. He has been assisted because of his impotence. They have been bestowed on him due to his indigence. He has been inspired with them due to his ignorance. They have been given him due to his need. And the reason for his domination is not strength and the power of knowledge, but the compassion and clemency of the Sustainer and Divine mercy and wisdom: they have subjugated things to him. Yes, what clothes man, who is defeated by vermin like eyeless scorpions and legless snakes, in silk from a tiny worm and feeds him honey from a poisonous insect is not his own power, but the subjugation of the Sustainer and the bestowal of the Most Merciful, which are the fruits of his weakness.

O man! Since the reality of the matter is thus, give up egotism and arrogance. With the tongue of seeking help proclaim your impotence and weakness at the Divine Court, and with the tongue of entreaty and supplication, your poverty and need. Show that you are His slave. Say:

حَسْبُنَا اللهُ وَنِعْمَ الْوَكِيلُ

Allah is enough for us, for He is the Best Disposer of Affairs,

and rise in degree.

Source: Risale-i Nur Collection, 23rd Word, 4th Remark

http://www.erisale.com/index.jsp?locale=en#content.en.201.336

If the day that is past held misfortune, the distress is now gone, and only tranquillity 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, “Praise and thanks be to Allah, my disease is now a tenth of what it was before.”

“For fifty days now —and now seven years have passed— (this refers to 1946) you have asked nothing at all about this ghastly World War, which has plunged the whole world into chaos and is closely connected with the fate of the Islamic world, nor have you been curious about it. Whereas some religious and learned persons are leaving the congregation in the mosques and racing to listen to the radio. Is there some event more momentous than the war? Or is it harmful in some way to be preoccupied with it?”

I replied to them: Life’s capital is very little and the work to be done is much. There are spheres one within the other like concentric circles, from the sphere of man’s heart and stomach, and that of his home and body, and that of the quarter in which he lives and his town, and his country and land, and the globe and mankind, to the spheres of animate beings and the world. Each person may have duties in each of those spheres, but the most important and permanent of these are those in the smallest sphere. While his least important and temporary duties may be in the largest sphere. According to this analogy, the largest and smallest are in inverse proportion. But because of the attractiveness of the largest sphere, it causes the person to neglect his important, necessary duties in the small sphere, busying him with unnecessary, trivial, peripheral matters. It destroys the capital of his life for nothing. It kills his precious life on worthless things. Sometimes, the one following curiously the struggles of the war comes to earnestly support one side. He looks favourably on their tyranny, and becomes a partner in it.

The Answer to the first point: Yes, an event more momentous than this World War and a case more important than that of world supremacy has been opened over the heads of everyone and especially Muslims, so that if everyone had the wealth and power of the Germans and English and sense as well, they would unhesitatingly spend all of it to win that single case. The case is this: relying on the thousands of promises and pledges of the universe’s Owner, Who has disposal over it, hundreds of thousands of the most eminent of mankind, and uncounted numbers of its stars and guides, have unanimously given news —and some of them have actually seen— that for everyone the case has opened by which they may either win, in return for belief, or lose, eternal properties as broad as the earth set with palaces and gardens. If they do not secure the document of belief, they will lose. And this age, many are losing the case because of the plague of materialism. One of the diviners of reality and investigators of truth observed in one place that out of forty people who died, only a few won; the others lost. Can anything take the place of that lost suit, even rule over the whole world?

Since we Risale-i Nur students know it would be pure lunacy to give up the duties which will win the case and abandon the wondrous lawyer who saves ninety per cent from losing it and the task which the lawyer employs us in, and become involved with peripheral trivia as though we were going to remain in the world for ever, we are certain that if each of us had intelligence a hundred times greater than what we have, we still would use it only on this task.

Source: 11th Ray, Fourth Topic, Risale-i Nur Collection

I had concluded no trade; the capital of life was all lost;

I came to the road to find the caravan had moved on, unaware.

Lamenting, I continued down the road, all alone, a stranger;

My eyes weeping, my heart in anguish, my mind bewildered, unaware.

I was in exile at the time; I felt a despairing sorrow, a regretful penitence, a longing for assistance. Suddenly, the All-Wise Qur’an came to my aid. It opened a door of hope so powerful and afforded a light of consolation so true that it could have dispelled despair and darknesses a hundred times more intense than mine.

Yes, respected elderly men and women whose attachment to the world has begun to be sundered and the ties binding them to be broken! Is it possible that the All-Glorious Maker who creates this world as a perfectly ordered city or palace would not speak with his most important guests and friends or not meet with them? Since He knowingly made the palace and ordered and adorned it through His will and choice, certainly as one who makes knows, so one who knows will speak. Since He made this palace and city into a fine guesthouse and place of trade for us, He will surely have a book, a file, to explain His relations with us and what He desires from us.

The most holy of such Books is the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition; it is a miracle in forty respects and is every instant on the tongues of at least a hundred million people; it scatters light, and every letter of it affords at least ten merits and rewards, and fruits of Paradise and lights in the Intermediate Realm, and sometimes ten thousand, and sometimes – through the mystery of the Night of Power – thirty thousand. There is no book in the universe to compete with it in this respect and no one could put one forward. Since this Qur’an which we have is the Word of the All-Glorious Creator of the heavens and earth, proceeding from His absolute dominicality, the tremendousness of His Godhead, and His all-encompassing mercy, and is His decree and a source of His mercy; adhere to it. In it are found a cure for every ill, a light for every darkness, and a hope for all despair. And the key to this eternal treasury is belief and submission to Allah, and listening to the Qur’an and accepting it, and reciting it.

Source: Twenty Sixth Flash, Fourth Hope 

Yes, no one has any right to look to those superior to themselves in regard to bounties and complain. And in times of calamity, everyone’s right is to look those above themselves in terms of calamity in order to offer thanks (shukr). This mystery has been explained in some risales with a representation; a summary of it is as follows:

A person takes a destitute man to the top of a minaret. On every step of the minaret he gives the man different favours and different gifts. And right at the top of the minaret he gives the greatest present. Although the person asks for thanks and gratitude in return for all those various gifts, the peevish man forgets the presents he has received on each of the steps, or considers them to be of no importance, and offering no thanks, looks above him. He starts to complain, saying, “If only this minaret had been higher, I could have climbed even further; why isn’t it as tall as that mountain over there or that other minaret?” If he begins to complain like this; what great ingratitude it would be, what a wrong!

In just the same way, a person comes into existence from nothing; not as a rock or a tree or an animal, but as a human being and as a Muslim, and, for most of the time, lives in good health and receives a high degree of bounty. Despite all this, to complain and display impatience due to lacking worthiness for the bounties of good health and wellness, or for losing them due to wrong choice or abuse, or for not being able to obtain them; and to criticise Divine lordship (rububiyyah) saying, “What have I done that this has happened to me?” is a condition and spiritual sickness more calamitous than the physical one. Like fighting with a broken hand, a person only worsens the illness by complaining.

The wise person is one who submits with patience in accordance with the mystery of

لِكُلِّ مُصٖيبَةٍ اِنَّا لِلّٰهِ وَاِنَّٓا اِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ

so that the illness serves its purpose and leaves.

Source: Twenty Fifth Flash: Eighteenth Remedy.

Because, the physical aspect of your time of illness prior to today has gone and its pain has departed with it; only its reward and the pleasure of its passing remain. While it should give you profit and happiness, to think of past days and feel grieved and become impatient is lunacy. As for future days, they have not yet come. To think of them now and be grieved and display impatience by imagining a day that does not exist and an illness that does not exist and grief that does not exist, is to give the colour of existence to three degrees of non-existence –if that is not lunacy, what is?

Since, the times of illness prior to today produce joy; and since the time subsequent to the present hour is non-existent, the illness is non-existent, and the grief is non-existent; do not scatter the power of patience given to you by Almighty Allah to right and left; muster it in the face of the pain in the present hour, say: “Ya Sabur” (O Most Patient One!) and endure it.

Source: Twenty Fifth Flash: Eleventh Remedy.

As is stated in the Twenty-Sixth Word, an extremely wealthy and skilful craftsman, for example, employs a poor man as a model in order to show off his fine art and valuable wealth. In return for a wage, for a brief hour he clothes the poor man in a bejewelled and most skilfully wrought garment. He works it on him and gives it various states. In order to display the extraordinary varieties of his art, he cuts the garment, alters it, and lengthens and shortens it. Does the poor man working for a wage have the right to say to that craftsman: “You are causing me trouble and distress by making me bow down and stand up, and you are spoiling my beauty by altering this shirt which makes me beautiful,” and can he ever gain the right to say this? Can he tell him he is being unmerciful and unfair?

Just like this comparison, O sick person! The All-Glorious Maker (Sani’i Zuljalal) has bejewelled the garment of your body with luminous faculties like the eye, the ear, the reason, and the heart; and in order to display the embroideries of His Most Beautiful Names (Esma’ul Husna), He makes you revolve amid numerous states and changes you in many situations. Like you learn of His name of Provider (Razzaq) through hunger, you should also recognise His name of Healer (Shafi) through your illness. Since suffering and calamities show the decrees of some of His Divine names, there are many instances of good to be found within those flashes of wisdom and rays of mercy.

If the veil was lifted, you will find many pleasant and beautiful meanings behind this veil of illness which you fear and loathe.

Source: Twenty Fifth Flash: Fourth Remedy.

اَلَّذٖينَ اِذَٓا اَصَابَتْهُمْ مُصٖيبَةٌ قَالُٓوا اِنَّا لِلّٰهِ وَاِنَّٓا اِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ ۞ وَالَّذٖى هُوَ يُطْعِمُنٖى وَيَسْقٖينِ ۞ وَاِذَا مَرِضْتُ فَهُوَ يَشْفٖينِ

O helpless sick person! Do not be anxious, be patient. Your illness is not an affliction for you, rather, it is a sort of cure. For life is a capital that departs. If it yields no fruits, it is wasted. And if it passes in ease and heedlessness, it departs very swiftly. Illness makes that capital of life yield huge profits. Also, it does not allow life to pass quickly, it holds it and lengthens it, so it can depart after yielding its fruits.

An indication that your life is lengthened through illness is the following proverb that is often repeated: “The times of calamity last very long, the moments of joy are most short.”

O ill person who lacks patience! Be patient, indeed, be grateful. This illness of yours can transform the minutes of your life into an hour’s worship.

Because worship is of two kinds. One is active worship; which is the known forms of worship like salat and supplication. The other are passive forms of worship; whereby the afflicted person feels their impotence and weakness by means of illnesses and calamities, and seeks refuge with their Compassionate Creator and beseeches Him, and manifests a spiritual worship that is pure and unassuming.

Yes, there is a sound narration stating that a life passed in illness is considered as worship for the believer (mumin) –on condition there is no complaint about Allah. In fact, it has been established through sound narrations and veracious kashfs (spiritual discoveries) that each minute of illness for some of the afflicted who are completely patient and grateful is like an hour of worship, and for certain people of perfection each minute is like a day’s worship.

For such illness that transforms a minute of your life into a thousand minutes and gains for you a long life; you should not complain but offer thanks.

Source: Twenty Fifth Flash: First and Second Remedies.

Use your reason! You and your personal world are perpetually subject to the blows of death and decline. Your illusion and sophistry resemble this comparison: if you have a mirror and hold it up to a house or a town or a garden, their images will appear in it. If the mirror is moved the tiniest amount or the smallest change occurs to it, the images become confused and distorted. The fact that the actual house, town or garden outside the mirror continue and are constant is of no avail to you, for the house in the mirror in your hand and your town and garden are only in the scale and proportions which the mirror gives you.

Your life is the mirror. The support and mirror of your world and its centre is your life. Every minute it is possible that the house, town, and garden will die and be destroyed, their condition is such that any minute they may collapse on your head and your doomsday will come. Since it is thus, do not burden this life and world of yours with loads they cannot raise and support!

The meaning of worship is this, that the servant sees his own faults, impotence, and poverty, and in the Divine Court prostrates in love and wonderment before dominical perfection, Divine mercy, and the power of the Eternally Besought One. That is to say, just as the sovereignty of dominicality demands worship and obedience, so also does the holiness of dominicality require that the servant sees his faults through seeking forgiveness, and through his glorifications and declaring “Subhanallah” proclaims that his Sustainer is pure and free of all defects, and exalted above and far from the false ideas of the people of misguidance, and hallowed and exempt from all the faults in the universe.

Also, the perfect power of dominicality requires that through understanding his own weakness and the impotence of other creatures, the servant proclaims “Allahu Akbar” in admiration and wonder before the majesty of the works of the Eternally Besought One’s power, and bowing in deep humility seeks refuge in Him and places his trust in Him.

Also, the infinite treasury of dominicality’s mercy requires that the servant makes known his own need and the needs and poverty of all creatures through the tongue of entreaty and supplication, and proclaims his Sustainer’s bounties and gifts through thanks and laudation and uttering “Alhamdulillah”. That is to say, the words and actions of the prayers comprise these meanings, and have been laid down from the side of Divinity.

Source: 9th Word, Risale-i Nur Collection