The Eighth Letter

بِاسْمِهِ وَاِنْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ اِلاَّ يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِ

There are many hikmahs in the Names الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ being included in بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ and their dhikr being offered at the start of all blessed things. Postponing the explanation of these hikmahs to another time, for now, I shall express a feeling of my own:

My brother, I see the Names الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ as such a great nûr. They manifest so luminously and powerfully that they encompass the entire universe, satisfy all the eternal needs of every rûh and secure them against their infinite enemies. The most important means I have found to reach these Names, these two great nûrs, are poverty and shukr, impotence and compassion. That is: ‘ubûdiyyah and humility. In connection with this matter, what comes to mind and what I say in opposition to the muhaqqiqîn, and even to Imam-i Rabbanî, one of my Ustadhs, is this: the intense and brilliant feelings of Hazrat Ya’qûb ‘Alayhissalâm towards Yûsuf ‘Alayhissalâm were not love or ‘ashq, but compassion. Because compassion is more intense, more brilliant, more sublime and purer than love and ‘ashq, and it is more worthy of the rank of nubuwwah. If the love and ‘ashq for metaphorical beloveds and creatures are intense, they cannot be worthy of that exalted station of nubuwwah. It means that the feelings of Ya’qûb (as) that Al-Qur’an Al-Hakîm luminously demonstrates with a brilliant eloquence and are the means to reach the name Rahîm were a high degree of compassion.

As for the ‘ashq, which is the means to reach the name Wadûd, it is in the matter of Zulaikha's love for Yûsuf ‘Alayhissalâm. It means that compassion appears even higher than ‘ashq, to the extent that the Quran of Miraculous Exposition shows the feelings of Hazrat Ya’qûb ‘Alayhissalâm to be superior to those of Zulaikha.

My Ustadh, Imam-i Rabbani, did not consider that metaphorical ‘ashq is very suitable for the rank of nubuwwah and therefore said, "Since the virtues and beauties of Yûsuf were of the kind of virtues and beauties related to the akhirah, loving those virtues and beauties was not a kind of metaphorical love; thus, it would not be a deficiency." But I say, "O, Ustadh! That is a forced interpretation; the haqiqah should be this: that was not love, but a hundred times more brilliant, broader and higher degree of compassion than love." Yes, compassion is gentle and pure in all its forms. However, many forms of ‘ashq and love are not to be stooped to.

Furthermore, compassion is exceedingly broad. Because of the compassion he feels for his child, a person feels compassion for all young ones, and even all rûh beings, and becomes a mirror for the comprehensiveness of the name Rahîm. However, ‘ashq restricts its gaze only to its beloved and sacrifices everything for it, or it belittles others in order to exalt and praise its beloved and, in a ma’nawî manner, insults them and breaks their honour. For example, someone said, "The sun, seeing the beauty of my beloved, is ashamed. In order not to see my beloved, it pulls the veil of clouds over its head." Lover, fine sir! What right do you have to attribute shame to the sun, which is a luminous page of eight ism al-‘â’dham?

Moreover, compassion is sincere and wants nothing in return; it is pure and seeks no reward. It may be mentioned that the self-sacrificing compassion of animals at the lowest level towards their young that seeks nothing in return serves as evidence for this. ‘Ashq, however, desires a reward and demands a return. The weeps arising from ‘ashq are a kind of demand, a request for a reward.

It means that the compassion of Hazrat Ya’qûb (as), the brightest nûr of Surah Yûsuf, which is the most brilliant of the surahs of the Qur'an, demonstrates the names Rahmân and Rahîm. It informs us that the path of compassion is the path of Rahmah. And as a cure for the pain of compassion, it makes one recite the âyah:

فَاللّٰهُ خَيْرٌ حَافِظًا وَهُوَ اَرْحَمُ الرَّاحِمِينَ1

اَلْبَاقِى هُوَ الْبَاقِى

Said Nursî