بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحٖيمِ
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.