Who creates death and life that He may try you, which of you is the best in conduct.(67:2)

Verses like this in the All-Wise Qur’an, the Criterion of Truth and Falsehood, make it understood that death is created like life; it too is a bounty. But on the face of it, death is dissolution, non-existence, decay, the extinction of life, the annihilator of pleasures; so how can it be created and a bounty?

T h e  A n s w e r :  As was stated at the end of the answer to the first question, death is a discharge from the duties of life; it is a rest, a change of residence, a transformation of existence; it is an invitation to eternal life, a beginning, the introduction to an immortal life. Just as life comes into the world through an act of creation and is appointed and determined, so departure from the world is created and determined, and is planned wisely and purposively. The ways plants die, plant life being the simplest level of life, show their death to be a more orderly work of art than life. For although the death of fruits, seeds, and grains appears to occur through their decay and dissolution, it is in fact a sort of kneading that comprises exceedingly well-ordered chemical reactions and a balanced combining of elements and wise formation of particles; their unseen, orderly and wise deaths appear through the life of the new shoots. That is to say, the death of the seed is the onset of the shoot’s life. Indeed, since its death is like life itself, it is created and regular the same as life is.

Moreover, the death of living fruits or animals in the human stomach is the beginning of their rising to the level of human life; it may therefore be said that being thus, their death is more orderly and created than is their life.

If the death of plant life, the lowest level of life, is created, wise, and ordered in that way, the death that befalls human life, the highest level of life, must be the same. Similarly, as a seed sown in the ground becomes a tree in the world of the air, so a man who is laid in the earth will surely produce the shoots of an everlasting life in the Intermediate Realm.

Now for the aspects of death that are bounties; we shall point out four of them.

The First: Death is a great bounty because it means one is freed from the duties and obligations of life, which become burdensome. It is also a door through which one passes in order to join and be united with one’s friends, ninety-nine out of a hundred of whom are already in the Intermediate Realm.

The Second: It is to be released from the narrow, irksome, turbulent prison of this world, and to receive an expansive, joyful, troublefree immortal life, and to enter the sphere of the Eternally Beloved One’s mercy.

The Third: There are numerous factors like old age which make life arduous and show death to be a far superior bounty. For example, if together with your very elderly parents who cause you much distress you beheld before you your grandfather’s grandfathers in all their pitiful state, you would understand what a calamity life is, and what a bounty, death.

Another example: one can imagine how difficult life is in the harsh conditions of winter for the beautiful flying insects, the lovers of the beautiful flowers, and what a mercy death is for them.

The Fourth: Just as sleep is a comfort, a mercy, a rest, particularly for those afflicted by disaster and the wounded and the sick, so too is death, the elder brother of sleep, a pure bounty and mercy for the disaster-struck and those who suffer tribulations that drive them to suicide. However, as is proved decisively in many of the Words, for the people of misguidance, death is pure torment the same as life, and pure affliction, but that is outside the discussion here.

Source: 1st Letter, The Risale-i Nur Collection

http://www.erisale.com/index.jsp?locale=en#content.en.202.21

One fifth of mankind, three hundred million people, together declaring: “Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar – Allah is Most Great!”; and in relation to its size the globe broadcasting to its fellow planets in the skies the sacred words of “Allahu Akbar!”; and the more than twenty thousand pilgrims performing the Hajj, on ‘Arafat and at the Eid, together declaring: “Allahu Akbar!” are all a response in the form of extensive, universal worship to the universal manifestation of Divine dominicality through Allah’s sublime titles of Sustainer of the Earth and Sustainer of All The Worlds, and are a sort of echo of the Allahu Akbar! spoken and commanded one thousand three hundred years ago by Allah’s Noble Messenger (Peace and blessings be upon him) and his Family and Companions. This I imagined and felt and was certain about.

Then I wondered if the sacred phrase has any connection with our matter. It suddenly occurred to me that foremost this phrase and many others of these marks of Islam like La Ilahe Illalah – There is no god but Allah, Alhamdulillah – All praise be to Allah!, and Subhanallah – Glory be to Allah!, which bear the title of “enduring good works,” recall particular and universal points about the matter we are discussing, and infer its realization.

For example, one aspect of the meaning of Allahu Akbar! is that Divine power and knowledge are greater than everything; nothing at all can quit the bounds of Allah’s knowledge, nor escape or be saved from the disposals of His power. He is greater than the things we fear most. This means He is greater than bringing about the resurrection of the dead, saving us from non-existence, and bestowing eternal happiness. He is greater than any strange or unimaginable thing, so that, as explicitly stated by the verse,

مَا خَلْقُكُمْ وَلاَ بَعْثُكُمْ إِلاَّ كَنَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ

Your creation and your resurrection are but as a single soul (Qur’an 31:28),

the resurrection of mankind is as easy for His power as the creation of a single soul. It is in connection with this meaning that when faced by serious disasters or important undertakings, everyone says: “Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!”, making it a source of consolation, strength, and support for themselves.

As is shown in the Ninth Word, the above phrase and its two fellows, that is, Allahu Akbar!, and Subhanallah!, and Alhamdulillah!, form the seeds and summaries of the ritual prayers —the index of all worship— and in order to corroborate the meaning of the prayers, are repeated in the tesbihat following them. They provide the powerful answers to the questions arising from the wonderment, pleasure, and awe man feels at the strange, beautiful, extraordinary things he sees in the universe, which cause him to offer thanks and to feel awe at their grandeur. Moreover, at the end of the Sixteenth Word, it is described how at the festival a private soldier and a field marshal enter the king’s presence together, whereas at other times the soldier has contact with the field marshal only through his commanding officer. Similarly, somewhat resembling the saints (ewliya), a person making the Hajj begins to know Allah through His titles of Sustainer of the Earth and Sustainer of All the Worlds. With its repetition, it is again Allahu Akbar that answers all the feverish bewildered questions that overwhelm his spirit as the levels of grandeur unfold in his heart. Furthermore, at the end of the Thirteenth Flash, it is described how it is again Allahu Akbar that replies most effectively to Satan’s cunning wiles, cutting them at the root, as well as answering succinctly but powerfully our question about the hereafter.

The phrase Alhamdulillah – All praise be to Allah also reminds us of resurrection. It says to us: “I would have no meaning if there was no hereafter. For I say: to Allah is due all the praise and thanks that have been offered from pre-eternity to post-eternity, whoever they have been offered by and to whom, for the chief of all bounties and the only thing that makes bounty true bounty and saves all conscious creatures from the endless calamities of non-existence, is eternal happiness; it is only eternal happiness that can be equal to that universal meaning of mine.”

Yes, every day all believers saying at least one hundred and fifty times after the obligatory prayers: Alhamdulillah! Alhamdulillah!, as enjoined by the Shari‘a, and its being the expression of praise and thanks which extend from pre-eternity to post-eternity, can only be the advance price and immediate fee for Paradise and eternal happiness. They offer thanks since bounties are not restricted to the fleeting bounties of this world, which are tainted by the pains of transience, and see them as the means to eternal bounties.

As for the sacred phrase, Subhanallah!; with its meaning of declaring Allah free of all partner, fault, defect, tyranny, impotence, unkindness, need, and deception, and all faults opposed to His perfection, beauty, and glory, it recalls eternal happiness and the realm of the hereafter and Paradise within it, which are the means to His glory and beauty and the majesty and perfection of His sovereignty; the phrase alludes to them and indicates them. For, as has been proved previously, if there was no eternal happiness, both His sovereignty, and His perfection, glory, beauty, and mercy would be stained by fault and defect.

Like these three sacred phrases, Bismillah – In the Name of Allah and La ilahe illallah – There is no god but Allah and other blessed phrases are all seeds to the pillars of faith. Like the meat essences and sugar concentrates that have been discovered recently, they are summaries of both the pillars of belief, and the truths of the Qur’an. The three mentioned above are both the seeds of the five daily prayers, and they are the seeds of the Qur’an, sparkling like brilliants at the beginning of a number of shining suras. So too are they the true sources and bases of the Risale-i Nur, many of whose inspirations first came while I was reciting the tesbihat following the prayers; they are the seeds of its truths. In respect of the sainthood and worship of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), these phrases are the invocations of the Muhammadan (PBUH) way which, following each of the five daily prayers, more than one hundred million believers repeat together in a vast circle of remembrance. Their beads in their hands, they declare Subhanallah! thirty-three times, Alhamdulillah! thirty-three times, and Allahu Akbar! thirty-three times.

You have surely understood now the great value of reciting thirty-three times after the five daily prayers, in such a splendid circle for the remembrance of Allah, each of those three blessed phrases, which as explained above, are the summaries and seeds of both the Qur’an, and belief, and the prayers. You have understood too the great reward they yield.

اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ عَلٰۤى اِنْعَامِهِ

سُبْحَانَكَ لاَعِلْمَ لَنَۤا اِلاَّ مَا عَلَّمْتَنَا اِنَّكَ اَنْتَ الْعَلِيمُ الْحَكِيمُ

Praise be to Allah for His bounties.

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)

Source: The Risale-i Nur Collection, 11th Flash, A Summary of Eighth Topic, 

If you say: “What keeps me from the prayers and worship and causes me to be lax is not unnecessary things like that, but essential matters like earning a livelihood,” then my answer is this: if you work for a daily wage of one hundred cents, and someone comes to you and says: “Come and dig here for ten minutes, and you will find a brilliant and an emerald worth a hundred dollars.” If you reply: “No, I won’t come, because ten cents will be cut from my wage and my subsistence will be less,” of course you understand what a foolish pretext it would be. In just the same way, you work in this orchard for your livelihood. If you abandon the obligatory prayers, all the fruits of your effort will be restricted to only a worldly, unimportant, and unproductive livelihood. But if you spend your rest periods on the prayers, which allow your spirit to relax and heart to take a breather, you will discover two mines which are an important source, both for a productive worldly livelihood, and your livelihood and provisions of the hereafter.

First Mine: Through a sound intention, you will receive a share of the praises and glorification offered by all the plants and trees, whether flowering or fruit-bearing, that you grow in the garden.

Second Mine: Whatever is eaten of the garden’s produce, whether by animals or man, cattle or flies, buyers or thieves, it will become like alms-giving from you. But on condition you work in the name of the True Provider (Ar-Razzaq) and within the bounds of what He permits, and see yourself as a distribution official giving His property to His creatures.

So see what a great loss is made by one who abandons the prescribed prayers. What significant wealth he loses, and he is deprived of those two results and mines which would otherwise cause him to work eagerly and ensure his morale is strong; he becomes bankrupt. Even, as he grows old, he will grow weary of gardening and lose interest in it, saying, “What is it to me? I am anyway leaving this world, why should I put up with this much difficulty?” He will sink into idleness. But the first man says: “I shall work harder at both worship and licit activities in order to send even more abundant light to my grave and procure more provisions for my life in the hereafter.”

The heedless man incurs serious loss through ingratitude for bounties. We shall describe only one of its many aspects. It is as follows:

If someone eats a delicious bounty and gives thanks, by virtue of his thanks the bounty becomes a light and a fruit of Paradise in the hereafter. If, because of the pleasure, he thinks of it as the work of Almighty God’s favour and mercy, it yields a true, lasting delight and enjoyment. He sends kernels and essences of its meanings and immaterial substances like these to the abodes above, while the material husk-like residue, that is, the matter that has completed its duty and now is unnecessary, becomes excreta and goes to be transformed into its original substances, that is, into the elements. If he fails to give thanks, the temporary pleasure leaves a pain and sorrow at its passing, and itself becomes waste. Bounty, which is as precious as diamonds, is transformed into coal. Through thanks, ephemeral sustenance produces enduring pleasures, everlasting fruits. While bounty that is met with ingratitude is turned from the very best of forms into the most distasteful. For according to the heedless person, after producing a fleeting pleasure, sustenance ends up as waste-matter.

Sustenance is indeed in a form worthy of love, and this form is to be seen through thanks. However, the passion of the misguided and heedless for sustenance is animality. You can make further comparisons in this way and see what a loss the heedless and misguided suffer.

Source: Risale-i Nur Collection, 28th Letter, Fifth Matter.

Indeed, the Almighty Disposer of this world’s affairs creates in every century, every year and every day, on the narrow and transient face of the globe, numerous signs, examples and indications of the Supreme Gathering and the Plain of Resurrection.

Thus in the gathering that takes place every spring we see that in the course of five or six days more than three hundred thousand different kinds of animal and plant are first gathered together and then dispersed. The roots of all the trees and plants, as well as some animals, are revived and restored exactly as they were. The other animals are recreated in a form so similar as to be almost identical. The seeds which appear, in their outward form, to be so close to each other, nonetheless, in the course of six days or six weeks, become distinct and differentiated from each other, and then with extreme speed, ease and facility, are brought to life in the utmost order and equilibrium. Is it at all possible that for the One Who does all of this anything should be difficult; that He should be unable to create the heavens and the earth in six days; that He should be unable to resurrect men with a single blast? No, by no means is it possible!

Let us suppose there were to be some gifted writer who could write out in a single hour the confused and obliterated letters of three hundred thousand books on a single sheet without any error, omission or defect, complete and in the best form. If someone were then to say to you that that writer could write out again from memory a book written by him that had fallen into the water and become obliterated, would you then say that he is unable, and would you not believe in his ability? Or think of some talented king who, in order to demonstrate his power or for the sake of providing a warning example, removes whole mountains with a single command, turns his realm upside down, and transforms the sea into dry land. Then you see that a great rock rolls down into a valley, so that the path is blocked for guests travelling to attend the king’s reception and they are unable to pass. If someone should say to you: “that exalted one will remove or dissolve the stone, however great it may be, with a single command; he will not leave his guests stranded,” would you then say that he will not remove the stone, or be unable to do so? Or if someone one day should gather together a great army, and you are then informed that he will summon its battalions together with a blast of the trumpet after they had dispersed to rest, and the battalions will form up in disciplined shape, would you respond by saying, “I don’t believe it?” Were you to say any of these things your behaviour would truly be madness.

If you have understood these three parables, now look further and see how the Pre-Eternal Designer turns over in front of our eyes the white page of winter and opens the green pages of spring and summer. Then He inscribes on the page of the earth’s surface, with the pen of power and destiny, in the most beautiful form, more than three hundred thousand species of creation. Not one encroaches upon another. He writes them all together, but none blocks the path of another. In their formation and shape, each is kept separate from the other without any confusion. There is no error in the writing. That Wise and Preserving One, Who preserves and inserts the spirit of a great tree in the smallest seed, no bigger than a dot — is it permissible even to ask how He preserves the spirits of those who die? That Powerful One Who causes the globe to revolve like a pebble in a sling — is it permissible even to ask how He will remove this globe from the path of His guests who are travelling to meet Him in the Hereafter?

Again, the One of Glorious Essence Who from non-being recruits anew and inscribes into His battalions, with the command of “Be, and behold it is,” and with utmost discipline, the troops of all living things, the very particles of all of their bodies, and thus creates highly disciplined armies — is it permissible even to ask how He can make bodies submit to His discipline like a battalion, how He can gather together their mutually acquainted fundamental particles, and their component members?

You can, moreover, behold with your own eyes, the numerous designs made by Allah as signs, similes and indications of resurrection, designs placed by Him in every age and epoch of the world, in the alternation of day and night, even in the appearance and disappearance of clouds in the sky. If you imagine yourself to have been living a thousand years ago, and then compare with each other the two wings of time that are the past and the future, then you will behold similes of the gathering and indications of resurrection as numerous as the centuries and days. If, then, after witnessing so many similes and indications, you regard corporeal resurrection as improbable and rationally unacceptable, know your behaviour to be pure lunacy.

See what the Supreme Decree says concerning the truth we are discussing:

فَانْظُرْ اِلٰۤى اٰثَارِ رَحْمَتِ اللهِ كَيْفَ يُحْيِى اْلاَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا اِنَّ ذٰلِكَ لَمُحْيِى الْمَوْتٰى وَهُوَ عَلٰى كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

Look upon the signs of Allah’s mercy, and see how He restores life to the earth after its death. Verily He it is Who shall bring to life the dead, and He is powerful over all things.

Source: The Risale-i Nur Collection, 10th Word

http://www.erisale.com/index.jsp?locale=en#content.en.201.92

The instinctual soul wants to be free and independent, and considers itself to be thus. According to the dictates of its nature, it even desires an imaginary dominicality and to act as it pleases. It does not want to admit that it is being sustained and trained through innumerable bounties. Especially if it possesses worldly wealth and power, and if heedlessness also encourages it, it will devour Allah’s bounties like a usurping, thieving animal.

Thus, in the month of Ramadan, the instinctual soul of everyone, from the richest to the poorest, may understand that it does not own itself but is totally owned; that it is not free, but is a slave. It understands that if it receives no command, it may not do the simplest and easiest thing; it cannot even stretch out its hand for water. Its imaginary dominicality is therefore shattered; it performs its worship and begins to offer thanks, its true duty.

Source: 28th Letter, The Risale-i Nur Collection

http://www.erisale.com/index.jsp?locale=en#content.en.202.459

فَاٰمِنُوا بِاللهِ وَرَسُولِهِ النَّبِىِّ اْلاُمِّىِّ الَّذِى يُؤْمِنُ بِاللهِ وَكَلِمَاتِهِ وَاتَّبِعُوهُ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ

So believe in Allah and His Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, who believes in Allah and His Word: follow him that you may be guided (7-158).

Try to reflect comprehensively the effulgence and manifestation of all of the Most Beautiful Names, whose manifestations are diffused within the ordinances of the Shari’a and Illustrious Sunna…

Source: 24th Word, 3rd Fruit, Risale-i Nur Collection

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

He is the one who causes death. He discharges you from the duty of life, changes your abode from this transitory world, and releases you from the labour of service. That is, He takes you from a transient life to an immortal one. This phrase, then, shouts out the following to ephemeral jinn and man:

Here is good news for you! Death is not destruction, or nothingness, or annihilation; it is not cessation or extinction; it is not eternal separation, or non-existence, or a chance event; it is not authorless obliteration. Rather, it is to be discharged by the Author who is All-Wise and All-Compassionate; it is a change of abode. It is to be despatched to eternal bliss, to your true home. It is the door of union to the Intermediate Realm, which is where you will meet with ninety-nine per cent of your friends.

THE EIGHTH PHRASE:  وَهُوَ حَىٌّ لاَ يَمُوتُ “And He is living and dies not”

That is to say, the Possessor of a beauty, perfection, and munificence that are infinitely superior to the beauty, perfection, and munificence to be seen in the creatures of the universe, and that arouse love; and an Eternal Object of Worship, an Everlasting Beloved, a single manifestation of whose beauty is sufficent to replace all other beloveds, has an enduring life through pre-eternity and post-eternity – a life free from any trace of cessation or ephemerality and exempt from any fault, defect, or imperfection. Thus, this phrase proclaims to jinn and man, to all conscious beings, and the people of love and ardour:

Here is good news for you! There exists an Everlasting Beloved who will cure and bind the wounds caused you by countless separations from the ones you love. Since He exists and is undying, whatever happens do not fret over the others. Furthermore, the beauty and generosity, virtue and perfection to be seen in them, the cause of your love, are, passing through many veils, the shadows of the palest of shadows of the manifestation of the Ever-Enduring Beloved’s ever-enduring beauty. Do not grieve at their disappearance, for they are mirrors of a sort. The mirrors being changed renews and embellishes the manifestation of the Beauty’s radiance. Since He exists, everything exists.

THE NINTH PHRASE:  بِيَدِهِ الْخَيْرُ “All good is in His hand”

Every good action you perform is transferred to His register. Every righteous deed you do is recorded with Him. Thus, this phrase calls out to jinn and mankind with the following good news:

O wretched ones! When you journey to the grave do not cry out in despair, “Alas! Everything we owned is destroyed, all our efforts are wasted; we have left the beautiful broad earth and entered the narrow grave,” for everything of yours is preserved, all your actions written down, every service you have rendered recorded. A Glorious One in whose hand is all good and who is able to bring all good to fruition, will reward your service: drawing you to Himself, He will keep you only temporarily under the ground. Later, He will bring you to His presence. What happiness for those of you who have completed their service and duty; your labour is finished, you are departing for ease and mercy! Service and toil are over, you are going to receive your wage!

The All-Powerful One of Glory preserves seeds and grains, which are the pages of the register of last spring’s deeds and the deposit-boxes of its services, and publishes them the following spring in glittering fashion, indeed, in a manner a hundred times more plentiful than the originals. The results of your life He is preserving in the same way, and will reward your service in a truly abundant fashion.

Source: 20th Letter, Letters, the Risale-i Nur Collection

http://erisale.com/index.jsp?locale=en#content.en.202.265

For further read:

15th Word, http://erisale.com/index.jsp?locale=en#content.en.201.191

29th Word, 1st Aim  http://erisale.com/index.jsp?locale=en#content.en.201.521