The Sixth Letter

بِاسْمِهِ سُبْحَانَهُ وَاِنْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ اِلاَّ يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِ

سَلاَمُ اللّٰهِ وَ رَحْمَتُهُ وَ بَرَكَاتُهُ عَلَيْكُمَا وَ عَلَى اِخْوَانِكُمَا مَادَامَ الْمَلَوَانِ وَ تَعَاقَبَ الْعَصْرَانِ وَ مَادَارَ الْقَمَرَانِ وَ اسْتَقْبَلَ الْفَرْقَدَانِ

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