32-34

بِاسْمِهِ سُبْحَانَهُ

This is an answer given to a question asked by a junior student of the Risale-i Nur on behalf of many people.

Question: Dear Ustadh, the effects of the du'â and salâh for rain have not been seen; it remained futile. The clouds gathered two or three times but scattered without giving rain. Why is this?

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First Point: The price for the ni’mah and rahmah of Allah is shukr. We did not offer the shukr that was due. Indeed, just as we failed to give the price of rahmah through shukr, we are also attracting the wrath of Allah upon ourselves through our dhulm and rebelliousness. Through the present dhulm, destruction, kufr and rebelliousness across the face of the world, humanity has made itself deserving of a slap and has received terrifying slaps. Surely, we also will have a share in this.

Second Point: There is a hadith which says: To a degree that the fish in the bottom of the ocean complain against sinners and dhâlim people that they say, "because of them the rain is ceased and our sustenance even diminishes." Yes, there are such sins and dhulm in these times that we no longer have the face to ask for rahmah; the animals even are suffering torment.

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Fourth Point: Now, through deceptions, abuse and bribery, many harams have been mixed with wealth and rizq, and farmers have lost actual ownership of their assets. While there are two or three out of ten men who are worthy of rahmah, through either dhulm or mixing haram into their work or through lack of shukr, five or six who benefit from the assets of farmers lose their worthiness for rahmah.

Fifth Point: The Risale-i Nur is an important cause to repel the calamities over this land of Anatolia. Just as sadaqa repels calamities; it is evident after many signs and many events that as a type of universal sadaqa, the spread and reading of the Nur repel samâwî and earthly calamities. This has, in fact, been established with the indications of the Quran. And having four earthquakes started during the same time the Risale-i Nur's writing and dissemination were forbidden, and their having stopped after its dissemination and with its reading widely across Anatolia, and its being a means of preventing the Second World War from entering Anatolia as indicated to by Surah وَ الْعَصْرِ , this comprehensive ma’nawî sadaqa, which is a means to repel disasters, could not resist since, during this drought which has been going on for two months, while we were expecting the Risale-i Nur being disseminated and read with complete freedom after the court acquitted the Risale-i Nur and the Appeals Court reaffirmed its conclusion about the benefits to this nation, in a totally contrary manner, it has instead prohibited and the risales held by the court have not returned to their owners and we were prohibited to speak from this aspect; as a result of our sin, the drought began.

Sixth Point: Lack of rain is a calamity; it is a torment that is in accordance with the punishment of the deed. Therefore, responding it should be through weeping, begging with sadness, grief, entreaty, sorrow, deep remorse, tawbah and istighfâr and seeking refuge at the court of Allah, offering du'â and performing ‘ubûdiyyah particular to that state within the circle of the Sunnah As-Saniyyah, without mixing bid’ahs and in the manner determined by the Sharî’ah.

Moreover, since such general calamities come as a result of the mistake of the majority, they will be removed by the tawbah, remorse and istighfâr of most of those people — the majority of them.

Since we, the students of the Risale-i Nur, do not attach much importance to the world and only look to the world for the Risale-i Nur, we look from that aspect in this lack of rain too. Thus, at the very same time, when the small number of Risale-i Nur books which were handed over to the court in Denizli returned back to their owners and some of the people here began to write them, rahmah rained down to a degree during this rainless period. However, since the freedom of the Risale-i Nur was partial, the rahmah too was partial. InshâAllah soon my risales will also be returned, and they will be completely free and widely disseminated and the rahmah too will be universal.