The Seventeenth Word

The meaning of worldly life, and remedies for worldly misfortune

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. We have made all that is on the earth an ornament for it that We may test them: which of them is best in conduct. Yet, We surely reduce all that is on it a barren dust-heap. (18:7-8)

The present, worldly life is but a play and pastime. (6:32)

[NOTE: This Word consists of two exalted Stations and an Addendum of signal importance.]

Two stations

FIRST STATION: The All-Compassionate creator, All Munificent Provider, All-Wise Maker shapes this world as a festival, a place of celebration for spirits and spirit beings. He has decorated it with His Names’ most wonderful inscriptions, and clothes each spirit in a body equipped with suitable and appropriate senses so that it may benefit from the innumerable good things and bounties therein. He gives each spirit a corporeal body and sends it to this spectacle once.

He divides the festival, which in terms of time and space is very extensive, into centuries, years, seasons, and days, and into certain parts. Each one is an exalted festival during which all animate beings and plants parade. Especially in spring and summer, the earth’s surface is a vast series of festivals for small creatures, an arena so glittering and attractive that it draws the gaze of angels and the heavens’ other inhabitants, and spirit beings in the higher abodes. For those who think and reflect, it is an arena for reflection so wonderful that we cannot describe it appropriately.

However, the displays of the Divine Names the All-Merciful and the Giver of Life in this Divine festival are counterbalanced by the Names the All-Overwhelming and All-Crushing, and the One Who Causes to Die via death and separation. This does not seem to be in line with the all-embracing Mercy expressed in: My Mercy encompasses all things (7:156). Nevertheless it is so in several ways, one of which is as follows:

After each group has completed its turn of parade and the desired results have been obtained, the All-Munificent Maker, the All-Compassionate Creator, causes most of them, by His Compassion, to feel weariness and distaste for the world. He grants them a desire for rest and a longing to emigrate to another world. Thus, when they are to be discharged from life’s duties, He arouses in them an enthusiastic inclination to return to their original home.

The All-Merciful One bestows martyrdom on soldiers who die in the course of duty (defending their sacred values), and rewards the cattle sacrificed for His sake with an eternal corporeal existence in the Hereafter, and with the rank of being mount for their owner on the Bridge71—like Buraq.72

Therefore, it is not far from His infinite Mercy that other animate beings who die and suffer while performing their God-given duties, in accord with their nature and obedience to the Divine commands, should receive a spiritual reward and wage according to their capacities from His Mercy’s inexhaustible treasuries. So, they should not be resentful of their departure from this world; rather, they should be pleased. Only God knows the Unseen.

Humanity, being the most honored of animate beings, is the greatest beneficiary of these festivals and the most enamored of and immersed in the world. So, when death approaches, God, out of His Mercy, gives each person a mood whereby he or she feels distaste with this world and longs to go to the eternal world. Whoever is not lost in misguidance benefits from this mood and dies with a tranquil heart. I will give five of the many reasons leading to this mood:

ONE: Due to old age, the All-Merciful One shows the stamp of transience and decline on that which is beautiful and tempting in this world, as well as the bitter meaning they have. By causing us to become dissatisfied with the world, He causes us to seek a permanent beloved.

TWO: Ninety-nine percent of our friends have died and gone to the other world. By engendering within us a longing for the same place through that heart-felt attachment, He enables us to meet death with joy.

THREE: By causing us to feel our inherent infinite weakness and impotence and thereby to understand the great weight of our life’s burdens and responsibilities, He implants within us a great wish for rest and a sincere longing to go to another world.

FOUR: He shows believers through the light of belief that death is a change of abode, not an eternal execution; that the grave is the door to illuminated worlds, not the mouth of a dark well; and that for all its glitter this world is like a dungeon when compared to the Hereafter. Therefore, to leave this dungeon for the gardens of Paradise, and pass from the troublesome turmoil of bodily life to the world of rest and the realm where spirits soar, and to slip free of the distressing noise of creatures and go to the All-Merciful’s Presence is a journey and a happiness to be desired most earnestly.

FIVE: By revealing to those who give ear to the Qur’an the knowledge of truth it contains, as well as the world’s true nature through the light of truth, He explains that love for and attachment to this world are meaningless, for:

• The world is a book of the Eternally Besought One. Its letters and words point to Another’s Essence, Names, and Attributes. So learn and adopt its meaning, abandon its decorations, and go.
• The world is a tillage; sow it, harvest your crop, and preserve it.
• Throw away the chaff, and give it no importance.
• The world is a collection of mirrors that continuously pass on, one after the other. Know the One Who is manifest in them, see His lights, understand the manifestations of the Names appearing in them, and love the One they signify. End your attachment for those fragments of glass, which are doomed to be broken and perish.
• The world is a moving place of trade. Do your business and leave.
• Do not tire yourself by uselessly pursuing caravans that leave you behind.
• The world is a temporary place of recreation. Study it to learn what you need to know. Ignore its apparent, ugly face, but pay attention to its hidden, beautiful face, which looks to the Eternal All Gracious One. Go for a pleasant and beneficial visit and then come back. When the scenes displaying those fine views and beautiful things disappear, do not cry like a child, and do not be anxious.
• The world is a guest-house. Eat and drink within the limits set by the All-Munificent Host Who has built it, and offer thanks. Act and behave in accordance with His Law. Then leave and go away without looking back. Do not interfere in it; nor busy yourself in vain with things that leave you and do not concern you.

He shows the world’s real character through such plain truths, and makes death less painful. Indeed, He makes death desirable to those awake to truth, and shows that everything He does has a trace of His Mercy. The Qur’an’s verses also point to other particular reasons.

Woe to him who has no share of these five reasons or realities!

 

SECOND STATION

O helpless one, stop wailing over misfortune and trust God,

For know this wailing is an error that causes trouble after trouble;

If you have found Him Who makes you suffer, then know

this suffering is a gift bringing peace and happiness.

 

So, stop wailing and thank God, like nightingales: their touching

songs on roses are in fact heartfelt thanks offered for all flowers.

But if you do not find Him, know that the whole world

is a place of suffering, misfortune, and loss.

 

Why wail over a small misfortune

when you bear a worldwide responsibility,

Come, put your trust in God and smile at the face of misfortune

so that it may also smile, for as it smiles, it lessens and changes.

 

Know, O selfish one: happiness in this world lies in forsaking it.

If you know and seek God, this is enough, for then

all things will be for you even if you abandon them.

 

If you are selfish, this is total loss, for

whatever you do, all things will be against you.

So, in either case, forsake the world.

 

Forsaking the world means considering it God’s property and

dealing with it with His permission, in His name...

The only profitable business here is to make your mortal life eternal.

 

If you seek your selfhood, it is rotten and without foundation.

If you seek the outer world, upon it is

the stamp of decline and transience.

Nothing is worth purchasing in this market of rotten goods.

So pass on... Beyond it, the sound goods are all lined up...

 

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

71 See ad-Daylami, al-Musnad, 1:85. (Tr.)

72 The heavenly mount that bore the Prophet through the heavens during his Ascension. (Tr.)