بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَ الصَّلاَةُ وَ السَّلاَمُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَ عَلَى آلِهِ وَ صَحْبِهِ اَجْمَعِينَ

GHURBAH

One time during my excruciating captivity, having withdrawn from people, I was alone on the top of Çam Mountain on the plateau of Barla. I was searching for a nûr in solitude. One night, I was in the open-top small room on a tall pine tree at the top of that high hill. Old age warned me of three or four ghurbah, one within the other. As is explained in the Sixth Letter, on that night, the plaintive sound rising from the rustles and waves of the desolate, silent, lonely trees extremely touched my compassion, my old age and ghurbah. Old age warned me and said to my heart's ear that just as the day changed into this black grave and the world was wrapped in its black shroud, in the same way, the day of your life, too, will turn into night, and the day of the world will turn into the night of barzakh and summer of life will transform into the winter night of death. My nafs was compelled to say:

Yes, just as I am exiled from my homeland, I am also separated from all I love, who have died, and I remained behind them in tears during my fifty-year lifetime; it is a far more grievous and excruciating ghurbah than the ghurbah from my homeland. Moreover, I am approaching a more grieving and excruciating ghurbah than the grieving ghurbah in the state of that night and mountain; old age informs me that the time of sudden separation from all the world is approaching. I sought a hope, a nûr from this state which is ghurbah within ghurbah and sorrow within sorrow. Suddenly, îmân in Allah came to my help and gave me such a familiarity that even if the compounded fear I found myself in had increased a thousandfold, its consolation could have been sufficient.

O elderly men and women! Since we have a Khâliq, Who is Rahîm, there can be no ghurbah for us! Since He exists, everything exists for us. Since He exists, His malâikah exist too. In that case, the world is not empty. Desolate mountains and empty deserts are full of ‘abds of Janâb-i Haqq. Apart from His conscious ‘abds, stones and trees also become a familiar friend through His nûr and on His account; they can converse with us through their language of being and give us enjoyment. Yes, evidences and witnesses — which testify to His existence — to the number of beings in the universe and to the number of the letters of this huge book of the ‘âlam and evidences and witnesses to the number of the members, foods and ni’mahs — which can be the means of His compassion, rahmah and ‘inayah — of the beings possessing rûh indicate the Court of our Khâliq, Sâni’ and Hâmi, Who is Rahîm, Karîm, Anîs and Wadûd. At that Court, the most acceptable intercessor (Shafî’) is impotence and weakness. And the precise time of impotence and weakness is old age. One should not feel resentful at old age, which is an acceptable intercessor (Shafî’) at such a Court but should love it.

The Twenty-Sixth Flash/Sixth Hope

 

وَ يُمِيتُ That is to say, the One Who gives death is He. That is, He discharges you from the duty of life, changes your place from this transient world and emancipates you from the hardship of service. That is, He takes you from transient life to eternal life. Thus, this phrase shouts out the following to transient jinn and man and says that “A good tiding for you! Death is not execution, not nothingness, not extinction, not cessation, not destruction, not eternal separation, not non-existence, not a random coincidence; it is not annihilation without an agent, but rather is a demobilization by a Fâ’il Who is Hakîm and Rahîm, a change of place. It is a shipment to eternal happiness, to their true homeland. It is a door of reunion to al-‘âlam al-barzakh, which is the place of assembling for ninety-nine per cent of friends….

وَ هُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ That is to say, He is Al-Wâhid, Al-Ahad; He has qoudrah over everything. Nothing is heavy for Him. To create the spring is as easy for Him as to create a flower. To create the Jannah as easy for Him as to create a spring. The numberless beings with art, which He newly creates every day, every year, every century, witness to His infinite qoudrah with numberless tongues. Thus, this phrase, too, delivers good tidings and says: O man! The service and ‘ubûdiyyah you have performed are not going in vain. A realm of reward, an abode of happiness has been prepared for you. Instead of this transient world of yours, an eternal Jannah is waiting for you. Trust and carry îmân in the promise of Al-Khâliq Zuljalâl, Whom you know and to Whom you perform ‘ibâdah. It is impossible for Him to break His promise. There is no deficiency in His qoudrah, in any aspect. Impotence cannot interfere in His works. Just as He creates your tiny garden, so too, He can create Jannah for you, and He has created it and promised it to you. And since He has promised, most certainly, He will take you into it.

Since we see with our eyes: every year, on the face of the earth, with perfect order and balance, with perfect speed and ease, He resurrects and spreads out more than three hundred thousand species and nations of animals and plants. Most certainly such a Qadîr Zuljalâl is capable of fulfilling His promise. And, since every year such an Absolute Qadîr creates samples of the resurrection and Jannah in thousands of forms. And, since He promises eternal happiness through all His samâwî decrees, He gives good tidings of Jannah. And, since all His actions and shuûn are haqq, haqiqah and with veraciousness (sidq) and seriousness. And, since through the testimony of all His works, all perfections indicate and testify to His infinite perfection. And there is no deficiency nor fault in Him in any aspect. And, since the breaking of a promise, falsehood, lying and deception are defects and faults and the ugliest of morals. Undoubtedly and most certainly, that Qadîr Zuljalâl, that Hakîm Zulkamâl, that Rahîm Zuljamâl will fulfil His promise; He will open the door to eternal happiness; He will take you, O people of îmân, to Jannah, which is the true homeland of your father Âdam.

The Twentieth Letter-The Seventh and Tenth Phrases

 

O alone, wretched ill one in ghurbah! Just as your loneliness and ghurbah together with your illness arise compassion towards you from the hardest hearts and attract the look of compassion, so do your sickness of loneliness in this ghurbah and your relation (intisâb) through îmân to your Khâliq Ar-Rahîm, Who presents Himself to us at the start of all the Surahs of the Qur’an with the attribute of Ar-RahmânurRahîm, and with one flash of His compassion, Who makes all mothers give tarbiyyah to their young with their wonderful compassion and with one manifestation of His rahmah, every spring, Who fills the face of the earth with ni’mahs, and the single manifestation of Whose rahmah is the Jannah with all its beauties in an eternal life, and your recognizing Him and beseeching Him through the illness’ tongue of impotence, surely, attract towards you the look of His rahmah in place of everything. Since He exists and He looks to you, everything exists for you. Those who are truly alone and in ghurbah are those who are not related to Him through îmân and submission or attach no importance to their relation (intisâb).

The Twenty-Fifth Flash/Twenty-Third Remedy

 

My hard-working brothers, zealous friends and my means of consolation in this realm of ghurbah called the world!

Since Janâb-i Haqq has made you shareholders in the meanings He has bestowed on my thought, it is surely your right to be shareholders in my feelings as well. In order not to sadden you much, I shall skip the excessively excruciating part of my separation in my ghurbah and tell some of it to you. It is as follows:

These last two or three months, I have been so lonely. Sometimes once in fifteen or twenty days, I have a guest with me. The rest of the time, I am alone. And for nearly twenty days, there were no mountaineers near me; they all scattered...

Thus, at night time, in these strange mountains, amid the plaintive waves of the silent, quiet and alone trees, I saw myself in five different colours of ghurbah within each other.

The first: due to the mystery of old age, most of the time, I was alone and away from my peers, friends and relatives. I felt a grievous ghurbah arising from their leaving me and departing for al-‘âlam al-barzakh. Thus, another different sphere of ghurbah was opened within this ghurbah. I felt a ghurbah full of separation arising from most of the beings like last spring to which I was attached, leaving me and departing. And another sphere of ghurbah opened up within this ghurbah; since I was being separated from my homeland and relatives and was alone, I felt a ghurbah full of separation arising from this state. And within this ghurbah, the lonely and strange state of the night and the mountains made me feel another pitiable ghurbah. And amid this ghurbah, I saw my rûh, which prepared to move to all eternity from this transitory guest-house, amid an extreme ghurbah. I suddenly said, Fasubhânallah, how can these ghurbahs and darknesses be endured? My heart cried out and said:

O my Rabb! I am a stranger in ghurbah, I have no protector, nor friend, I am weak, I am not strong, I am sick, I am impotent, I am old,

I am without a will, I seek mercy, I seek forgiveness, I seek help from Your Court, O Allah!

Suddenly the nûr of îmân, the faydh of the Qur'an and the favour of Rahmân came to my help. They transformed those five dark ghurbahs into five luminous spheres of familiarity. My tongue said:  حَسْبُنَا اللّٰهُ وَنِعْمَ الْوَكِيلُ1

My heart recited the âyah 2 فَاِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَقُلْ حَسْبِىَ اللّٰهُ لاَ اِلهَ اِلاَّ هُوَ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ وَهُوَ رَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ

My mind too said to my nafs crying out in pain and terror:

Stop crying out, O wretch, from the calamity, refuge in tawakkul! For know that crying out is the calamity within error, the calamity within calamity.

If you find the One Who gives the calamity, know that it is a gift within pleasure, a gift within kindness.

So stop complaining and offer shukr like the nightingales cheerfully smiling with the roses!

If you find Him not, know that the world is a calamity within pain, a calamity within harshness, a calamity within the loss.

So why do you cry out at a small calamity while upon you is a worldfull of calamity? Come refuge in tawakkul!

Laugh in calamity's face with tawakkul so that it, too, will laugh; As it laughs, it will diminish; it will be changed and transformed.

Like Mawlana Jalal ad-Dîn, one of my Ustadh, said to his nafs, I also said:

اُو گُفْتْ اَلَسْتُ و تُو گُفْتِى بَلَى شُكْرِ بَلَى چِيسْتْ كَشِيدَنْ بَلاَ ٭

سِرِّ بَلاَ چِيسْتْ كِه يَعْنِى مَنَمْ حَلْقَه زَنِ دَرْگَهِ فَقْر و فَنَا3

So then my nafs even declared: "Yes, yes, through impotence and tawakkul, poverty and taking refuge in Him, the door of nûr is opened and the darknesses are dispersed. 4 الحمد للّٰه على نور الإيمان والإسلام " I saw what an elevated haqiqah the following phrase of the famous Al-Hikam Al-‘Ata'iyyah is:

مَاذَا وَجَدَ مَنْ فَقَدَهُ ٭ وَ مَاذَا فَقَدَ مَنْ وَجَدَهُ

That is: “What does the one who finds Janâb-i Haqq lose? And what does the one who loses Him find?"

That is: “The one who finds Him finds everything, while the one who does not find Him, can find nothing. If he does find something, he finds only trouble.” And I understood the mystery of the hadith طُوبَى لِلْغُرَبَاءِ5 . And I offered shukr.

Thus, my brothers, although these dark ghurbahs illuminated through the nûr of îmân, they still affected me to an extent and gave me the following thought: "Since I am a stranger in ghurbah and I will go to ghurbah, I wonder if my duty in this guest-house is finished? So that I can entrust the Words to you and completely sever all my ties?" Therefore, I asked you if the Words that have been written are sufficient or are lacking something. That is, I troubled you with the questions like these: Is my duty finished so that with ease of heart, I can cast myself into a pleasurable, true ghurbah full of nûr, forget the world and search for an elevated ghurbah by saying like Mawlana Jalal ad-Dîn said:

دَانِى سَمَاعِ چِه بُوَدْ بِى خُودْ شُدَنْ زِهَسْتِى6

اَنْدَرْ فَنَاىِ مُطْلَقْ ذَوْقِ بَقَا چَشِيدَنْ

اَلْبَاقِى هُوَ الْبَاقِى

Said Nursî

The Sixth letter