The Twenty-third Letter

 

Seven different matters • Patience and a fine point about the end of the story of Joseph

 

In His Name, glory be to Him.

There is nothing that does not glorify Him with His praise.

Upon you be peace and God’s mercy and blessing forever, to the number of your life’s seconds and minutes, and to your body’s particles.

 

MY DEAR, PERSEVERING, TRUTHFUL, SINCERE, AND CAPABLE BROTHER, differences of time and place cannot hinder friendly conversations of brothers-in-truth like us. Even if they are as far apart as east and west, past and future, this world and the Hereafter, they

may be considered as being together and engaging in conversation. In particular, those who perform the same duty are accounted as the same as each other. I imagine you with me every morning, and assign one-half or one third of my spiritual reward to you (may God accept it!). I include you, ‘Abd al-Majid, and ‘Abd al-Rahman in my prayers, and hope that you are receiving your share.

I have felt, feeling with you, some sorrow due to the trouble you face in your worldly affairs. Yet since this world is impermanent, and since some good lies behind its troubles, it occurred to me for your sake that they would end one day. The only real life is that of the Hereafter. Having thought this, I recited: Surely God is with the patient (2:153), and then: Surely we belong to God, and to Him we are returning (2:156). Thinking with you, I found some consolation.

If God loves someone, He causes him or her to see the world as ugly and renounce it. I hope you are among those people. Do not become sad about the growing number of obstacles to publishing The Words. I am hopeful that when the portions you have published already receive God’s Mercy, they will flourish like seeds growing into a multitude of flowers.

You asked me several questions. Most of The Words and The Letters used to be beautiful, for they came to me suddenly and involuntarily. So if I answer your questions relying on the strength of my own knowledge, as the Old Said did, they will be dim and imperfect. Inspiration has stopped for some time and my memory has weakened, but I will attempt brief answers to your questions.

YOUR FIRST QUESTION: What is the best kind of petitionary prayer (du‘a) to say for another believer?

ANSWER: One that accords with the conditions of acceptability. A prayer is more or less acceptable if certain conditions are met. First, cleanse yourself by seeking God’s forgiveness. Then call God’s blessing on Prophet Muhammad as an intercessor before and after the prayer, for calling God’s blessing on our Prophet is acceptable and a prayer said between two acceptable prayers is usually acceptable. Also, such a prayer should be said in the absence of the believer in question and be of the kind mentioned in the Qur’an and the Traditions. For example, prefer such comprehensive prayers as:

O God, I ask forgiveness of You, for me and him [her], and soundness in religion, in this world, and in the Hereafter. Our Lord, grant us good in this world and in the Hereafter, and guard us against the chastisement of the Fire.

Pray from your heart with sincerity, religious seriousness, and solemn reverence. Do so after the five daily prayers and, particularly, after the early morning prayer and in such blessed times as Friday—especially during the hour when prayer is absolutely accepted, in the three blessed months, particularly on the special nights, during Ramadan, most particularly, on the Night of Qadr (the Night of Power and Destiny).

Further, try to supplicate in the mosque. God is expected, through His Mercy, to accept petitions meeting such conditions. He either answers it here or causes the one in whose name it is made to benefit from it in the Hereafter.

So if you do not obtain the desired result, consider your prayer as having received a better acceptance.

YOUR SECOND QUESTION: It has become a preferred tradition to say of a Companion: “May God be pleased with him [or her].” Is it proper to say this after the names of others?

ANSWER: Yes, for it is not particular to the Companions exclusively. Rather it should be said of people who, like the founders of the four legal schools, as well as ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Imam Rabbani, and Imam Ghazzali,348 were approved by God through succession to the Prophetic mission (the greatest rank of sainthood). Nevertheless, according to the common usage of religious scholars, we tend to say: “May God be pleased with him [or her]” when mentioning a Companion; “May God have mercy upon him [or her]” of those belonging to the two succeeding generations after the Companions; “May God forgive him [or her]” of those who followed them; and “May God sanctify him [or her]” for saints.

YOUR THIRD QUESTION: Whose virtue is higher: the greatest jurists or the greatest saints who inspired or founded sound tariqas?349

ANSWER: Not all the jurists who are qualified to derive judgments from the Qur’an and Sunna, but the four founders of Islam’s schools of law are higher in virtue than the greatest saints. Although extraordinary saints like ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, known as the “pole of the age,” are superior in certain virtues, these four Imams are superior to the leading saints of all tariqas and to everyone else, except [Prophets and Messengers,] the Companions and the Mahdi.

YOUR FOURTH QUESTION: What does: God is with the patient (2:153) mean?

ANSWER: God’s Name the All-Wise requires the establishment of an order, a definite procedure, for things to come into existence. Impatient people are not deliberate—either they overleap and fall, or omit some steps and fail to reach their goal. This is why avarice causes deprivation and patience is a key to solving problems. As a proverb says: “Greed is subject to disappointment and loss, but patience is a means of relief.”

God Almighty helps the patient and makes them successful. There are three kinds of patience, as follows:

Piety and God-consciousness, or resisting the carnal self’s temptations and avoiding sins. Such patient people are included in: God is with the God-conscious and pious (2:194). Endurance during misfortune by patient reliance on and total submission to God, Who numbers the patient among: God loves those who rely on Him (3:159) and God loves the patient (3:146). Impatience implies complaining of God by criticizing His acts, accusing His Mercy, and disapproving of His Wisdom. A weak, helpless person should not wail over misfortune, but should complain to—not of—Him, just as Prophet Ya‘qub (Jacob) did: I complain of my anguish and sorrow unto God (12:86). It is futile and even harmful to encourage self-pity and complaining. Insistence on worshipping God. This elevates the patient person to the highest spiritual rank, that of being one of God’s perfect and beloved servants.

YOUR FIFTH QUESTION: A man is usually believed to reach puberty, and therefore be responsible for performing his religious duties, when he is around 15 years old. How did the Messenger worship before his Prophethood?

ANSWER: He worshipped according to those principles of Prophet’s Abraham’s religion that still survived in Arabia, albeit in an indistinct fashion. He worshipped not because he was obliged to, but did so in a supererogatory way. This subject demands a much full explanation, but let this short observation suffice for the time being.

YOUR SIXTH QUESTION: Why was he raised as a Prophet when he was 40, which is regarded as the age of maturity, and die when he was sixty-three?

ANSWER: There are many purposes, one of which is as follows: Prophethood is a great and heavy duty that can be performed only through the intellectual faculties’ perfection and the spiritual potentialities’ full development. The age of this development and perfection is forty.

Youth is a time of carnal desire and worldly ambition and therefore not suitable for the holy and divine duty of Prophethood, which is purely related to the Hereafter. However noble and sincere people may be before 40, fame-seekers might regard them as pursuing fame and glory. They cannot free themselves from such accusations (no matter how false) easily. But after they pass 40, they are nearer to the grave than the world and so are more likely to be free of such accusations. Also, people may free themselves from groundless suspicions.

One of the many reasons why he lived for 63 years is that believers must love and respect God’s Messenger absolutely, and commend his manners without feeling any dislike. As old age is usually troublesome and humiliating, God sent him to the highest abode when he was 63, the average lifespan of his community’s members. Thus, God made him an example in this respect as well.

YOUR SEVENTH QUESTION: Is “The best of your young people are those like your old people, and the worst of your old people are like your young people” a Prophetic saying? If so, what does it mean?

ANSWER: I have heard it referred to as a Prophetic saying. It means that the best young people, like an old person, think of death and, without being captivated by youth’s fancies, strive for the next life. The worst old people are those who, trying to imitate the young in worldly aspirations by ignoring the Divine commands, obey their carnal selves’ temptations.

The correct form of your framed inscription’s second part is as follows. I hung it on the wall as a warning, and look at it every morning and evening to take a lesson:

If you want a friend, God is sufficient. Indeed, if He is a friend to you, so is everything.

If you want companions, the Qur’an is sufficient. Imagine yourself with the Prophets and angels mentioned in the Qur’an. Study their experiences and become intimate with them.

If you want wealth, contentment is sufficient. The content become thrifty, and the thrifty are blessed with great wealth.

If you want to feel enmity, your evil-commanding self is sufficient. The self-conceited obtain grief; the humble obtain care and peace.

If you want counsel, death is sufficient. One who thinks of death gets rid of his or her love of the world and strives for the next life.

 

I am adding an eighth, which is as follows:

A few days ago, a memorizer of the Qur’an recited a certain portion of Sura Yusuf, down to: Make me die submissive (unto You), and join me with the righteous (12:101). A subtle point suddenly occurred to me: Everything related to the Qur’an and belief is, regardless of its apparent insignificance, of great significance. Since anything contributing to eternal happiness is significant, we should regard it as worthy of explanation.

Being the first among my students who study such matters and is appreciative of subtle Qur’anic points, Ibrahim Hulusi will desire to hear this finest, most subtle point of the finest Qur’anic narrative: Make me die submissive (unto You), and join me with the righteous, which marks the end of the story of Prophet Joseph (Yusuf). It contains the following glad tiding in a vivid and miraculous fashion:

The pleasure received from a happy story ends in deep sorrow because of final separation or death. Or, it arouses more sorrow when we learn that the person(s) encounter separation or death just after finding ease and happiness. But the verse quoted above, even if it contemplates Joseph’s death when he became Egypt’s ‘Aziz (grand vizier or chancellor) and was reunited with his parents and brothers (the happiest moment in his life), gives it in a different way.

It declares: “To receive a far greater happiness, Joseph asked God for death and, through death, received that happiness.” This means that a more attractive and pleasure-giving bliss than the world’s greatest happiness waits on the grave’s other side. Knowing this, he asked for death, which is apparently very painful, when he was enjoying the world’s greatest happiness.

Consider the eloquent way in which the Qur’an reports this narrative’s end. See how it adds to the audience’s joy and happiness, instead of giving pain and regret.

Another benefit of such an ending is that it encourages us to strive for the grave’s other side, where we will find real happiness and pleasure. It also shows Joseph’s exalted truthfulness and announces that even the most joyful and brightest condition of worldly life cannot captivate him; rather, it leads him to ask for death and the other life.

The Everlasting. He is the Everlasting.

Said Nursi

348 Al-Ghazzali (1058-1111): Muslim theologian and Sufi whose great work, Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din (The Revival of the Religious Sciences), made Sufism an acceptable part of mainstream Islam. (Ed.)

349 Tariqa is defined literally as a “way” or a “path.” It is commonly used to mean a path of strict spiritual discipline and practices that leads its adherents toward God. It is a very common term in Sufism, and is discussed at great length in the Twenty-ninth Letter. (Ed.)