Message for the Sick

قُلْ مَا يَعْبَؤُا بِكُمْ رَبّٖى لَوْلَا دُعَٓاؤُكُمْ

That is: if you do not supplicate, what value do you have? According to this verse, sincere supplication is the reason for man’s creation and his value. Since illnesses become a cause for supplication, one should not complain from this perspective but should be grateful to Allah. He should not neglect the fountain of supplication that illness has opened; rather, he should benefit from it.

The Thirteenth Remedy

O helpless person who complains about his illness! For some people, illness is a precious treasure, an exceedingly valuable gift from Allah. Every sick person may regard his illness in this way.

In accordance with His wisdom, Allah has kept the appointed hour of death hidden in order to save man from absolute despair and complete heedlessness, to keep him between fear and hope, and to make him work for both this world and the Hereafter. Truly, the appointed hour is unknown to us and may arrive at any moment. If death were to overtake man while he is in heedlessness, it could cause great harm to his eternal life.

Illness, however, brings heedlessness to an end, makes the Hereafter present before one’s eyes, reminds one of death, and thereby enables a person to prepare for the Hereafter. Sometimes, through illness, one attains in twenty days a spiritual rank that he would not normally attain in twenty years.

For example, among our friends there were two young men, may Allah have mercy on them: one named Sabri from the village of Ilama, and the other Vezirzade Mustafa from the village of Islamköy. Although they were unable to write, I observed with astonishment that they were among the foremost of my students in sincerity and in service to the truths of īmān. At the time, I did not understand the wisdom behind this. Only after their deaths did I learn that both had suffered from serious illnesses.

Through the guidance of their illness, unlike other heedless young people who had abandoned the obligatory acts of worship, they possessed exemplary taqwā, performed an extremely valuable service, and had attained a state most beneficial for the Hereafter. InshāAllāh, the burden of their two years of illness became a means of attaining millions of years of happiness in eternal life. I now understand that the prayers I had offered for their recovery were not, in worldly terms, in their best interest. InshāAllāh, those prayers I offered for their health were accepted for their well-being in the Hereafter.

Indeed, in my view, these two friends gained a merit equal to that which could be acquired through ten years of life in taqwā. Had they, like many young people, relied on their health and youth and thrown themselves into heedlessness and dissipation, and had death overtaken them in the very filth of their sins, they would have made their graves into nests of scorpions and pits of snakes instead of treasuries full of light.

Since illnesses can bring such benefits, one should not complain about them. Rather, through tawakkul, patience, and gratitude, one should rely on the mercy of Allah.