The Fourth Ray
God is sufficient for us; how excellent a Guardian He is!
This Ray is derived from the verse, God is sufficient for us; how excellent a Guardian He is! (3:173)
NOTE: Unlike other works, the Risale-i Nur develops and unfolds its meanings gradually. The First Aspect in this treatise is particularly subtle and profound, explaining a very valuable truth. Peculiar to myself, in the form of an emotional contemplation, a life-giving treatment based on belief, and a secret discourse in my heart, it proved to be a cure for my various deep-rooted ills. Those who are of the same spiritual mindset will understand it perfectly; those who are not may be unable to experience it in its entirety.
The First Chapter
In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.
God is sufficient for us; how excellent a Guardian He is!
OWING TO THE FACT THAT THE WORLDLY PEOPLE HAD ISOLATED ME from everything, I was suffering from five kinds of separation.16 I was also afflicted by five illnesses—arising partly from the sorrows I felt in my old age. Without looking to the consoling and helpful lights of the Risale-i Nur, because of heedlessness arising from distress, I turned to my heart and spirit. I saw that as well as infinite impotence and boundless need, I was dominated by an extremely powerful desire for permanence, an intense attachment to existence, and a great yearning for life. Yet the awesome specter of mortality threatened to extinguish that permanence. In such a mood, I exclaimed like a poet who complains of separation:
My heart desired permanence, but God, the Ultimate Truth,
decreed that my body be mortal;
I am afflicted with an incurable illness; how pitiful it is that even
Luqman is unaware of it!
I bowed my head in despair. Suddenly the verse, God is sufficient for us; how excellent a Guardian He is! (3:173), came to my aid, and asked me to read it attentively. So I recited it five hundred times every day. Writing down briefly only nine of its aspects or nine of its numerous invaluable lights which were unfolded before me at the level of “certainty based on vision or observation,” I refer readers to the Risale-i Nur for the details, which were known at the level of “certainty based on knowledge,” not on vision, in the past.17
Said Nursi
16 For these kinds of separation, see: Said Nursi, The Letters, (trans.), The Light, 2007, “The Sixth Letter,” pp. 35–37. (Tr.)
17 Muslim scholars have pointed to three levels or degrees of certainty (yaqin) based on what is written in the Qur’an: certainty of knowledge, that is, certainty based on or arising from knowledge, certainty of vision—certainty based on vision, and certainty of experience— certainty based on experience. (Tr.)