A short addendum from Gençlik Rehberi (A Guide for Youth)
In His Name, All-Glorified is He!
Prisoners are in great need of the consolation that is to be had from reading and understanding the Risale-i Nur, especially those young people who have been sentenced to spend the prime of their lives in prison: they are as much in need of it as they are in need of bread itself.
Youth is driven by emotion rather than reason. Emotion and desire are blind: they do not see the consequences and tend to prefer an ounce of immediate pleasure to tons of future pleasure. They kill for a minute’s satisfaction or revenge, and then suffer uncountable hours of painful imprisonment as a result. One hour of dissolute pleasure spent raping a woman may destroy a lifetime’s happiness through the fear of prison and the enemies one has made.
Young people meet many pitfalls which cause them to transform the sweetness of life into a most bitter and remorse-laden existence. In particular, a huge and mighty state to the north is misusing the passions of its youth and shaking the very foundations of this century with its storms. It has made lawful for emotionally-driven young men the beautiful daughters and wives of upright, innocent people. By allowing men and women to mix with one another in public baths, it encourages immorality. It also allows vagabonds to use freely, and to plunder, even, the property of the rich. Everyone trembles in the face of this calamity.
During this age, all Muslim youths must act heroically and respond to this two-pronged attack with sharp “swords” such as the Risale-i Nur’s “Fruits of Belief” and “A Guide for Youth.” Otherwise their future will be ruined, their happiness destroyed, both in this world and the next, and both worlds will be transformed into miserable realms of torment and suffering. If they abuse their energies and passions, they will end up in prison on account of their excesses, and when they grow old they will be filled with bitter regrets. But if they protect themselves with Qur’anic training and Islamic truths, some of which the Risale-i Nur expounds, they will become truly heroic youths, perfect human beings, prosperous Muslims and, in certain respects, masters over the rest of animate beings.
If young people in prison spend just one hour a day on the five canonical Prayers and, in addition to not committing those sins, which in any case prison prevents them from committing, choose freely to avoid those sins which are still possible, seeking God’s forgiveness for the mistakes that led them to incarceration, then everyone—their country, relatives, and their future included—will benefit. By passing their fleeting ten or fifteen years of youth in such a way, they will gain an eternal, brilliant youth. The miraculous Qur’an and all revealed Scriptures proclaim this truth most clearly.
If young people show their gratitude for the delightful blessing of youth by following the Straight Path of obedience to God, the blessing increases and becomes even more pleasurable as it becomes eternal. If they are ungrateful, however, they will be pursued by calamity, pain, and grief: their youth will become like a nightmare and then disappear. They will live without purpose, harming not only themselves, but also their relatives, nation and country.
If those among prisoners who were imprisoned unjustly perform the daily canonical Prayers, they will find that each hour spent behind bars equals one day of worship. Their cells will become like a place of retreat for them. They may even be considered similar to the pious people of old who used to retreat to caves in order to devote themselves to worship. Those who are poor or old or ill and yet seek to learn the truths of belief will find that each hour spent in prison will equal twenty hours of worship. Prison will come to resemble a rest home, a place of friendliness, training, and education. Staying in prison may even bring them greater happiness than they would find on the outside, for there they would be confused and assaulted by sin. If they become educated while in prison, former murderers or those who seek revenge will be released as repentant, mature, and well-behaved people who can benefit their nation. Those who received moral and spiritual lessons from the Risale-i Nur in Denizli prison quickly attained this rank. The authorities who observed this said: “A fifteen-week program like this is always preferable to imprisoning them for fifteen years.”
Since death will never disappear and the appointed hour is unknown, it may come at any time; since the grave cannot be closed and people enter it constantly, convoy after convoy, after a brief life, which passes swiftly; and since the Qur’an states that believers experience death as a discharge from worldly duties and that belief saves them from eternal punishment, while unbelievers experience death as a sentence of execution which leads them to everlasting torment and unending separation from their loved ones and all other creatures—for sure, the happiest people are those who thank God patiently and, benefiting from their time in prison, use the necessary moral and religious teaching to serve the Qur’an and belief on the Straight Path.
To those who are addicted to enjoyment and pleasure, I would say this. I am now seventy years old. I have come to know with utmost certainty from thousands of experiences and proofs that true enjoyment, pure pleasure, grief-free joy, and happiness are to be found only in belief and the sphere of its truths. There are many pains in a single worldly pleasure: as though delivering ten slaps for a single grape, it mars the taste of life.
To those unfortunate people who suffer imprisonment, I would say this. Since your world here is one of mourning and your life is bitter, benefit from your time in prison so that you do not have to mourn in the Hereafter and so that your eternal life may be sweet. Just as an hour’s watch under severe battle conditions sometimes equals a year of worship, the hardship of each hour spent worshipping in prison multiplies and changes hardship into mercy.
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In His Name, All-Glorified is He!
My fellow-prisoners and friends in religion!
I should explain to you a truth which will save you from both worldly torment and the torment of the Hereafter. It is as follows:
Let us imagine that a person has killed someone’s brother or one of his relatives. One minute’s pleasure to be had from revenge causes millions of minutes of distress and the anguish of prison. And the fear of revenge by the murdered person’s relatives, together with the anxiety of finding themselves face to face with an enemy, removes all of the pleasure from their life. They suffer the torment of both fear and anger. There is only one solution for this, and that is reconciliation, which the Qur’an commands and truth, reality, humanity, and being Muslims require and encourage.
If there is no reconciliation, both sides suffer perpetually the torments of fear and revenge. It is because of this that Islam says: “One believer should not remain angry with another believer for more than three days.” If the murder in our example was not the result of enmity or vindictive spite, and if a hypocritical troublemaker instigated the discord, it is essential to make peace quickly. Otherwise, the minor disaster becomes larger and continues. If the two sides make peace, and the murderer repents and prays continuously for the person they killed, then both sides will gain much and become like brothers. In place of the one brother who died, the wronged party will gain several brothers in religion. They will be resigned to the Divine Destiny and Decree and they will forgive their enemy. In particular, given that they have received lessons of the Risale-i Nur, for the sake of their own benefit and peace, and for the sake of the brotherhood engendered between them by their connection to the Risale-i Nur, they should give up the resentment which exists between them.
You should know that in Denizli prison all the prisoners between whom there was enmity eventually became brothers thanks to the lessons learned from the Risale-i Nur. This in turn caused even the irreligious and criminals to congratulate them, and all of the prisoners themselves felt relieved. I myself have seen a hundred men suffer trouble here because of one man, and refuse, out of fear, to go out to take fresh air. Such behavior on the part of that man is pure oppression. A manly believer of sound conscience cannot cause hundreds of other believers harm because of some petty error or for some minor benefit. If they make a mistake and cause harm, they should immediately repent.
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In His Name, All-Glorified is He!
My dear, faithful brothers!
Today, I felt unrest and grief on your account. Just when I was feeling pain for those of my brothers whose livelihoods are constrained, a blessed memory, a truth, and certain good tidings gave me consolation. They are as follows:
The “Three Months” will begin in five days time: three blessed months which, if they are filled with worship, are truly meritorious. For if the reward for a good work at other times is tenfold, in the month of Rajab it is more than a hundredfold, in Sha‘ban it exceeds three hundredfold, and in Ramadan it rises to a thousand fold. On Fridays in Ramadan it exceeds a thousand and on the Night of Power and Destiny it may even reach thirty thousand! It is certainly highly profitable, therefore, to spend these three months—which are like a sacred market for the trade of the Hereafter, an exceptional exhibition for the people of truth and worship, and a means for believers to gain a life of eighty years—in this School of Joseph, which increases one’s profits tenfold. Whatever hardships are suffered, they are pure mercy. As this is so with regard to worship, it is also thus with regard to the service of the Risale-i Nur, the benefits of which increase fivefold. For those who enter this guest-house and then depart from it are the means by which the Risale-i Nur’s lessons reach more people. Sometimes one person’s sincerity yields the benefits of twenty people. The hardship and distress suffered are of no importance if the sincerity acquired through the Risale-i Nur spreads among the unfortunate prisoners whose disposition is inclined towards politics and who are in fact much in need of the solace that is to be found in the Risale-i Nur. Regarding the problem of livelihood, since these three months are a marketplace for the Hereafter, I began to feel at ease with it, understanding that being here until the Day of Festival is a great favor, for numerous other Risale-i Nur students will help you with your business outside.
Said Nursi
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In His Name, All-Glorified is He.
My dear, truthful, faithful and compassionate brothers!
In these awesome conditions, the following complaint occurred to me: “Why do we suffer this much? How does it benefit our work?”
The answer must be as follows: Being subjected to this severe examination; being weighed on extremely sensitive scales many times so that it may be understood whether our true nature is gold or brass; being tried severely in every respect and passed through ever finer sieves three or four times so that it may become clear whether our evil-commanding souls have a share in the service we give or are playing tricks on us—all these are vitally necessary for our service, which should be purely and solely in the name of truth, so that the Divine Destiny and the Lord’s grace allow it. For everyone has understood from the fact that our service has been exhibited in this arena of trial and examination before obstinate, unjust enemies who act under many pretexts that there is no trickery, egotism, malice, worldly, or personal interests in our service: it is completely sincere and has its source in pure truth. If it had remained hidden, it might have fallen foul of numerous misinterpretations and false conclusions. The mass of believers would not have had confidence in it. They would have thought: “They may be deceiving us,” and the elite among them too would have had their suspicions. Imagining that we might be selling ourselves in the way that some of those who have certain spiritual ranks do in order to win public confidence, they would remain doubtful about the sincerity of our service. As it is, however, the trials and tribulations we undergo have led even the most stubborn and obdurate ones to admit the sincerity and honesty of our service. If you suffer one hardship, your profits are, God willing, a thousand fold.
Said Nursi