Question: In the previous Indications, you have proved that since the way of dhalâlah is easy and destruction and transgression, many take that way. Whereas, in other risales, you have proved with decisive proofs that the way of kufr and dhalâlah is so doubtful and arduous that no one should have entered it and it is not possible to follow it. And the way of îmân and hidâyah is so easy and clear that everyone should have entered it.

The Answer: Kufr and dhalâlah are two parts. Together with pertaining to actions and secondary matters, one part is negation and denial of the requirements of îmân; this kind of dhalâlah is easy. It is non-acceptance of the haqq, an abandonment, a non-existence and a non-existence of acceptance. Thus, in the Risale-i Nur, this sort has been shown to be easy.

As for the second part, it pertains not to actions and secondary matters, but rather is a judgement pertaining to belief and thought. It is not only a negation of îmân but rather pursuing the opposite of îmân and opening up a way. It is the acceptance of bâtil and proving the reverse of haqq. This part is not only the negation and naqîdh1 of îmân but is its opposite. It is not the non-existence of acceptance so it may be easy, but rather is the acceptance of non-existence. And can only be accepted by proving such non-existence. According to the rule اَلْعَدَمُ لاَ يُثْبَتُ 2 , proving the non-existence is certainly not easy.

Thus, the kufr and dhalâlah shown in other risales to be arduous and doubtful to the degree of being impossible is this part that anyone possessing an iota of consciousness would not follow this way. As is certainly proved in risales, this way also contains such terrible pains and suffocating darkness that anyone possessing an iota of mind would not seek it.

If it is said: How do most people take such a grievous, dark and difficult way?

The Answer: They have fallen into it and cannot extricate themselves. And because the animal and vegetable powers (quwwa) in man do not see the consequence and cannot think of it and because those powers defeated man's subtle faculties, they do not want to extricate themselves; they console themselves with a present and temporary pleasure.

Question: If it is said: There is such dismaying pain and fear in dhalâlah that the kâfir should not be able to live, let alone receives pleasure from life. Rather, he should be crushed by such pain and should die due to such fear. For, although regarding his humanity he is filled with the desire for innumerable things and loves life, how can a man live who, by means of kufr, constantly sees before his eyes his death in the form of eternal annihilation and everlasting separation and the fade of beings, deaths of his friends and those he loves in the form of annihilation and eternal separation? How can he receive pleasure from life?

The Answer: He deceives himself and lives through a strange argument devised by shaytan to lead one into a fallacy. He supposes he receives a superficial pleasure. We will indicate the reality of it with a well-known comparison. It is as follows:

It is related that they said to the ostrich3 : "You've got wings, so fly!" But it folded its wings and said: "I'm a camel", and did not fly. But it fell into the hunter's trap. It stuck its head in the sand lest the hunter saw it. But, it left its huge body in the open and made it the hunter's target. They later said to it: "Since you say you're a camel, carry loads." Whereupon it opened its wings and said: "I'm a bird", and was saved from the hardship of carrying loads. But having neither a protector nor food, it became a target for the assault of hunters.

In exactly the same way, the kâfir have given up kufr al-mutlaq before the samâwî proclamations of the Qur'an and reduced his kufr to a doubtful one. If it is said to him: "Since you consider death as eternal extinction; the gallows, which will hang you, is before your eyes… how can a person, who continuously looks at it, live? How can he receive pleasure?" Through the share he has received from the Qur'an's universal face of rahmah and its comprehensive nûr, the man says: "Death is not annihilation; there is a possibility of eternity." Or else he plunges his head in the sand of ghaflah like the ostrich so that the appointed hour may not see him and the grave may not look at him and the perishment of things may not shoot its arrows at him!

In Short: Like the ostrich, by means of such doubtful kufr, when he sees death and perishment to be annihilation, the certain news of the Qur'an and samâwî scriptures about îmân in the âkhirah gives him a possibility. That kâfir adheres to such possibility; he does not take that ghastly pain upon himself. If it is then said to him: "Since one will go to an eternal ‘âlam, to live good in that ‘âlam, one has to suffer the hardship of the religious responsibilities". Regarding such kufr al-mashkuk, the man says: "Perhaps there is not, so why would I work for something that does not exist?" That is to say, when he is saved from the pains of eternal annihilation regarding such a possibility of eternity given by the decree of the Qur'an and he faces with the hardship of religious responsibilities regarding the possibility of non-existence given by kufr al-mashkuk, against it, he adheres to the possibility of kufr and is saved from such hardship. That is to say, from this point of view, he supposes that he receives more pleasure in this life than the mu’min. For, with the possibility given by kufr, he is saved from the hardship of religious responsibilities and with the possibility given by îmân, does not take eternal pains upon himself. However, this argument devised by shaytan to lead one into a fallacy is extremely superficial, temporary and without benefit.

Thus, Al-Qur’an Al-Hakîm also has an aspect of a sort of rahmah for the kâfirs that to a degree it saves the life of the world from being Jahannam for them; it gives a sort of doubt so they live through doubt. Otherwise, in this world too, they would have suffered the torments of a ma’nawî Jahannam recalling the Jahannam of the âkhirah, and they would have been compelled to commit suicide.

Thus, O people of îmân! Enter believingly and determinedly under the protection of the Qur'an, which saves you from eternal annihilation and the Jahannams of this world and the âkhirah, and submissively and admiringly enter the sphere of his Sunnah as-Saniyyah so that you may be saved from both misery of the world and torment in the âkhirah!