The appointed hour is not known: in order to deliver man from absolute despair and absolute heedlessness, and to hold him between hope and fear and so preserve both this world and the Hereafter, in His wisdom Almighty God has concealed the appointed hour. The appointed hour may come at any time; if it captures man in heedlessness, it may cause grievous harm to eternal life. But illness dispels the heedlessness; it makes a person think of the Hereafter; it recalls death, and thus he may prepare himself. Some illnesses are so profitable that they gain for a person in twenty days a rank they could not otherwise have gained in twenty years.

For instance, from among my friends there were two youths, may God have mercy on them. One was Sabri from the village of Ilema, the other Vezirzâde Mustafa from Islâmköy. I used to note with amazement that although these two could not write they were among the foremost in regard to sincerity and the service of belief. I did not know the reason for this. After their deaths I understood that both suffered from a serious illness. Through the guidance of the illness, unlike other neglectful youths who gave up obligatory worship, they had great fear of God, performed most valuable service, and attained a state beneficial to the Hereafter. God willing, the distress of two years' illness was the means to the happiness of millions of years of eternal life. I now understand that the prayers I sometimes offered for their health were maledictions in respect to this world. God willing, my prayers were accepted for their well-being in the Hereafter.

Thus, according to my belief, these two gained profit equivalent to that which may be gained through ten years' fear of God [taqwa]. {[*]: The Hadith's meaning is this: "If a person has standing in God's sight and he cannot reach that station through good works and taqwa, God afflicts him with such tribulations as illness until he does attain it." al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak i, 344.} If like some young people, they had relied on their youth and good health and thrown themselves into heedlessness and vice, and watching them, death had grabbed them right in the midst of the filth of their sins, they would have made their graves into lairs of scorpions and snakes, instead of that treasury of lights.

Since illnesses contain such benefits, they should be not complained about, but borne with patience and relying on God, indeed, thanking God and having confidence in His mercy.

Bediüzzaman Said Nursî / The Flashes / The Twenty-Fifth Flash

Editing: Erhan Akkaya