The First Letter
Degrees of life • Blessing in death • Hell’s location • Figurative love and real love
In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.
… and we pray Him for succor. In His name, glory be to Him.
There is nothing that does not glorify Him with His praise.
This letter consists of brief answers to four questions.
FIRST QUESTION: Is Khadr still alive? 1 If so, why do some scholars reject this?
ANSWER: He is still alive. Of the five degrees of life, Khadr has the second. This is why such scholars reject this.
The first degree is as we live here and now, which is bound by certain conditions. The second degree is manifested in the lives of Khadr and Elijah. To a certain extent it is free, for those who have it can be in different places at the same time and are not bound by ordinary human life’s necessities. For example, they do not have to eat and drink. The experiences that some godly persons who can discern hidden truths have had with Khadr suffice to illuminate and prove this degree of life. Further, one spiritual degree or station that saints reach in their spiritual journey is the Station of Khadr. One who attains this degree may meet Khadr and be instructed by him directly. Sometimes, one who holds this station is even mistaken for Khadr.
The third degree is manifested in the lives of Prophets Jesus and Enoch, who live in heaven with their physical bodies. Their bodies are not bound by human life’s necessities and have acquired a sort of refinement and luminosity to the degree of astral bodies and an angelic type of life. Prophet Muhammad2 is reported to have said: “Jesus will return to the world before the end of time and follow Muhammad’s Sharia.” This implies that Christianity will be purified of its borrowed elements and superstitions and join Islam. As a result, this chosen way of God (true Religion) will use the “sword of Revelation” to eradicate the trends of unbelief and absolute materialism established by natural philosophy.
The fourth degree is the life of martyrs. Some Qur’anic verses state that martyrs enjoy a higher degree of life than deceased non-martyrs. Since martyrs sacrifice their life in His way, God Almighty grants them an intermediate life resembling worldly life without its pains and troubles. They do not feel the pangs of death or know that they are dead. Instead, they consider themselves transferred to a better world and enjoy perfect happiness. On the other hand, the dead are aware that they are dead (although their souls are eternal) and experience a lesser degree of pleasure in the intermediate life than that enjoyed by martyrs.
The difference can be explained as follows: In a dream, two people enter a palace as beautiful as Paradise. One receives little pleasure, because he knows that he is dreaming and that everything will disappear when he wakes up. The other person is unaware of this and so feels wholly contented and happy. In addition to the relevant Qur’anic verses, some Prophetic Traditions (Hadith) 3 and countless experiences prove that martyrs lead a life with some degree of consciousness and know that they are alive. This is particularly well-indicated in the experienced reality that Hamza can, by God’s leave, help those whom God wills him to help, even after his death, and carry forward some of their worldly affairs.
One of my students, my cousin ‘Ubayd, was martyred in my company and on my behalf [while fighting the Russians in eastern Turkey during the First World War]. I had a true dream of him, in which I saw myself enter his grave and witness him enjoying the degree of life belonging to martyrs. He told me that he was alive and that I was dead. He had cried much over me, he said, and had built a fine house underground to avoid the Russian invasion. This dream, together with certain other signs, convinced me that martyrs, in some condition, have a higher degree of life than the dead.
The fifth degree is the deceased’s spiritual life. Death is a changing of residence and a discharge from worldly duties with the soul set free, not a complete annihilation into non-existence. This degree of life is established clearly by such repeatedly observed facts as the souls of some godly persons appearing in their human (material) forms and being seen by those with insight into hidden truths. Another proof is the deceased’s ability to communicate with us while we are dreaming or awake.
SECOND QUESTION: Such verses as: He has created death and life that He may try which of you is best in conduct (67:2) imply that death is created, like life, and thus a blessing for living beings. But death appears to be decomposition, seems to extinguish life’s light and cause a living body to rot away, and destroys pleasures. How can it be a blessing?
ANSWER: Death is a discharge from this worldly life’s duties, a changing of residence, a transferal of the body, an invitation to and the beginning of an everlasting life. The world is continually enlivened through acts of creation and predetermination, and yet it also is continually stripped of life through other cycles of creation, determination, and wisdom. The dying of plants, the simplest level of life, is a work of Divine artistry, as is their living—but more perfect and better designed. This is so because when a fruit seed dies, it seems to decompose and rot away into the soil. But in reality, it undergoes a perfect chemical process, passes through predetermined states of re-formation, and grows again into an elaborate new tree. Thus the seed’s “death” is a new tree’s beginning, and death, which is something created like life, is as perfect as life.
As the death of fruits and animal flesh in people’s stomachs raises them to the degree of human life, this death can be regarded as more perfect than their lives. Since a plant’s death is so perfect and serves so great a purpose, each person’s death must be much more perfect and serve a still greater purpose, for humanity is life’s highest level. After “going underground,” each of us will be brought into eternal life.
Death is a blessing for many reasons. Let me briefly set down four:
FIRST: It discharges us from life’s hardships, which gradually become harder through old age. It also allows us to meet again the 99 percent of our friends who have already died.
SECOND: It releases us from worldly life, which is a turbulent, suffocating, narrow dungeon of space, and admits us to the wide circle of the Eternal Beloved One’s mercy, where we enjoy a pleasant and everlasting life without any suffering.
THIRD: It frees us from old age and similar conditions that make life unbearable. For example, if your old parents and grandparents were living in misery in front of your eyes, you would see death as a great blessing and life as an unendurable pain. Besides, the autumnal death of insects (lovers of lovely flowers) is a mercy for them, for they do not have to live through winter’s harshness and severity.
FOURTH: Sleep is a time of repose and relief, and thus a mercy, especially for the sick and afflicted. Similarly, death (the “brother” of sleep) is a blessing and mercy especially for those afflicted with such misfortune that they might contemplate suicide. As for the misguided, both life and death are torment within torment and pain after pain.
THIRD QUESTION: Where is Hell?
ANSWER: Only God knows the Unseen. Say: “Knowledge is only with God.” Some Prophetic Traditions report that it exists under Earth. Through its annual movement, Earth draws a large cycle that will be the Supreme Plain of Mustering after the Resurrection. This implies that Hell is under Earth’s orbit. It cannot be seen, for it consists of fire that gives no light. In the annual orbit of Earth, there are innumerable creatures that exist but are invisible to us because they emit no light. It is like the moon when it is hidden from the sun’s light—it cannot emit light and so becomes invisible to us.
There is a minor Hell and a major Hell. The minor Hell is under Earth or in its center. We know from geology that heat increases by 1ºC for every 33 meters toward Earth’s center. Thus Earth’s center has a temperature of 200,000ºC, given that its radius is 6,000 kilometers. This agrees with a relevant Prophetic Tradition.
In both this world and the intermediate one, the minor Hell fulfills many of the major Hell’s functions. In the other world, it will be expanded into the major Hell. Earth will empty its contents into the Supreme Plain of Mustering, which will be built in Earth’s orbit, and then transfer the minor Hell to the major Hell upon God’s command.
Some leading Mu‘tazili4 scholars mistakenly thought that Hell would be created later, for it still must be expanded fully to contain its future contents. Besides, the other world’s stations are veiled from us, for our eyes are not as penetrating as starlight and cannot divide the universe into small enough areas. Prophetic sayings imply that the major Hell has a relation with this world, such as describing intense summer heat as “coming from the heat of Hell.”
We cannot see or comprehend the major Hell, but we can glimpse something of its nature through the Divine Name the All-Wise.5 The major Hell appears to have deputed certain functions to the minor Hell. The sovereignty of an All-Powerful One of Majesty, an All-Wise One of Perfection, Who owns the absolute power of the commanding words Be! and it is, has bound the moon to Earth and Earth to the sun with perfect wisdom and order. He has set the sun and its satellites on a course that moves, according to a theory, toward the sun of suns (the Vega star in the Lyra constellation) with a speed almost as great as that of Earth’s revolution around the sun.
In addition, He has made the stars, which are like the electric lamps used on special occasions, as luminous evidences of His Lordship’s sovereignty and His Power’s greatness. Such a Power and Wisdom can make the major Hell function as the source of the “heat and fire” of the stars looking to the other world’s heaven and to illuminate them with Paradise’s light. He can make some sections of Hell a place of punishment and a dungeon for people who deserve it. In addition, the power of the Majestic, All-Wise Creator, who makes a thumbnail-size fruit-pit contain a tree, can make the minor Hell encapsulate the major one until an appointed time.
In conclusion, Paradise and Hell are two fruits growing on the tip of a branch extending from the Tree of Creation far into eternity, two opposite outcomes of the chain of being. The places of these outcomes are on opposite ends of the chain: the degraded one on the lower end, and the luminous sublime one on the upper end.
Paradise and Hell are two storerooms of the flow of worldly events and Earth’s spiritual products. One storeroom is being filled with evil products and is located below, while its opposite is above. They are two pools receiving the flow of two streams, one carrying the wicked and foul while the other carries the good and pure. Paradise is the place where Divine Favor and Mercy manifest themselves, whereas Hell is the place where Divine Wrath and Awe are exhibited. The Gracious, All-Merciful One, the All-Powerful One of Majesty, manifests Himself (through His Names and Attributes), places His exhibitions, wherever He wills.
The existence of Paradise and Hell was proved in the Tenth and Twenty-ninth Words.6 We would like to add here only that the fruit’s existence is as evident as the branch’s existence, the result’s as evident as the chain’s, the storeroom’s as evident as the product’s, the pool’s as evident of the stream’s, and the Place of Manifestation’s as evident as (Divine) Mercy’s and Wrath’s.
FOURTH QUESTION: Love for the opposite sex, called “figurative love” by Muslim saints and scholars, sometimes can become real love (love for the Creator). Can this happen with the love of the world?
ANSWER: The world has two faces; one mortal and transient, the other a mirror in which Divine Names are manifested and which is a field sown with seeds for the next life. If its lovers can turn away from its transient face to the other, such a love can change into love of God. But such lovers should not take their own particular, small, and perishable world for the whole vast outer world. If they forget themselves, become immersed in and fall in love with the external world, they, along with the misguided, will drown in the bog of nature worship—unless a hand miraculously comes to their aid.
Consider this analogy: Four of us are in a room with four walls, and each wall has a full-length mirror. This makes at least five rooms appear: one real and common to all of us, and “private” rooms reflected in each of our mirrors. Each of us can change our private room’s shape, appearance, and color by manipulating our own mirror. For example, we can make it green or red, by painting the mirror, or give it different shapes. But we cannot change the shared real room so easily. Although both private and common rooms appear to be almost identical, their disposition and manageability is quite different. You can destroy your reflected, private room with a finger, whereas you cannot even move a stone of the shared real one.
Likewise, the world is a decorated station in which each person’s life is a full-length mirror. In this station, each of us has a private world of which the pillar, center, or gate is our own life. Our private world can be compared to a page on which our deeds are recorded with the pen of our life. We love our private world, but inevitably realize that this world is built around our life and so, like our life, is transient, unstable, and perishable.
Given this, we should give our heart to the Divine Names’ manifestations and not to perishable things. Furthermore, we should know that our private world is assigned to us as a field in which to plant seeds to grow into our Paradise, and that we should love it for the sake of the fruits we will harvest in the other world. If we devote our love to the fruits of our deeds and the Divine manifestations, our love for the world will change into love for God. Otherwise, as stated in: Be not as those who forgot God, and so He caused them to forget themselves; they are the ungodly (59:19), we might drown in our private world by forgetting ourselves and our private world’s temporary nature, and so embrace our worldly life as if we and it would last forever.
Such a love for the world’s transient face causes endless pain and suffering, for it engenders a pathetic compassion and despairing tender-heartedness. Sensitive lovers feel pity for all beings and, accordingly, their feelings are wounded by the perishing of all beautiful, mortal creatures. As they can do nothing for them, they suffer great hopelessness.
On the other hand, those who find God discover a remedy for the ailments caused by such feelings of compassion and tender-heartedness. Perceiving that the souls of all living beings, for whose perishing they feel such pity, are mirrors in which a Permanent Being’s permanent Names are reflected constantly, their tender-heartedness changes into accepting joy and ease of mind. They understand that behind all the beautiful (but mortal and perishable) creatures is a pure grace and a sacred beauty manifested permanently through their delicate workmanship, ornamentation, and the wonder with which they are favored and illumined.
And so they understand how death and perishing are only processes of renewal to refresh and augment the beauty and pleasures and also to display the Divine artistry observed in the universe. Their pleasure in and appreciation of all Divine manifestations increases, as does their ardor.
The Everlasting: He is the Everlasting.
Said Nursi
1 Khadr (Khidir): One of God’s righteous servants, who it is thought might have been a Prophet. He represents eternal enlivening or the gaining of eternity through elixir. It is understood from Moses’ companionship with him (18:65-82) that his mission relates to the spiritual domain of existence. He was blessed with knowledge of God and some sort of perpetual life, and can explain the wisdom behind life’s events. (Tr.)
2 In any publication dealing with Prophet Muhammad, his name or title is followed by the phrase “upon him be peace and blessings,” to show our respect for him and because it is a religious requirement to do so. A similar phrase is used for his Companions and other illustrious Muslims: “May God be pleased with him (or her).” However, as this practice might be distracting to non-Muslim readers, these phrases do not appear in this book, on the understanding that they are assumed and that no disrespect is intended. (Ed.)
3 Derived from the word haddatha (to inform), hadith literally means a tiding or information. Another literal meaning of the word hadith is something that takes place within time. Over time, it has assumed the meaning of every word, deed, and approval ascribed to God's Messenger. According to the muhaddithun (scholars of Hadith, or Traditionists), everything related to God's Messenger is included in the meaning of Hadith (Tradition). Hadith is usually used as synonymous with the Sunna, so it is the record of every act, word, and confirmation of God's Messenger. It is the second source of Islamic legislation (the Qur'an is the first one). (Tr.)
4 Wasil ibn ‘Ata’ (699-749), the founder of this sect, taught that Muslims who commit a major sin are neither believers or unbelievers, but in an intermediate station known as transgression (fisq). The Mu‘tazilah eventually split into several other sects. They were characterized by an overemphasis on using reason and trying to interpret Islam in the light of first-order logic. They also believed that it is lexically permissible to ascribe creation of deeds to people, thus almost denying the Divine Destiny any part in our actions. (Ed.)
5 In Said Nursi’s thought, God created the universe as a “book” to be “read” by those who
want to learn of and draw close to Him. He says that the universe (the created Qur’an), the Qur’an (the revealed universe), and humanity are three universal books making the Creator known to us. The universe’s order, regularity, interconnectedness, functioning, and so on display God’s Names and Attributes such as All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate, the All-Providing, the All-Knowing, the All-Willing, the All-Powerful and so on. (Ed.) 4
6 Said Nursi, The Words, The Light, Inc., 2005: New Jersey.