The Twenty-Sixth Flash

Furthermore, the pleasures of life that had been reduced to nothing by that terrifying state of heedlessness, the desires that had utterly withered, and the blessings and joys pertaining to my own life that had contracted into an exceedingly narrow circle—or had disappeared altogether—were suddenly expanded through the light of īmānFaith; belief in the six articles of faith: Allah, His angels, His revealed scriptures, His prophets, the Hereafter, and divine decree (qadar)..

As we have demonstrated with convincing proofs in other treatises, that narrow circle surrounding the heart widened until it encompassed the entire universe.

And in place of the former blessings of the HorhorA historic site located at the foot of Van Castle in eastern Turkey. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi used it as a madrasa between 1897 and 1907 and again between 1912 and 1914, teaching and educating students there. garden, which had withered and lost their sweetness, this world and the Hereafter became two vast tables of blessings and treasuries of mercy.

He showed me that each of the hundred human faculties—not merely ten, but a hundred, including the eye, the ear, and the heart—could be extended like a long hand towards those two tables of the All-Merciful.

And every believer, according to the degree of his īmānFaith; belief in the six articles of faith: Allah, His angels, His revealed scriptures, His prophets, the Hereafter, and divine decree (qadar)., could partake of the blessings spread across those tables.

To express this exalted truth and give thanks for that immeasurable blessing, I said at the time:

اَلْحَمْدُ ِللّٰهِ عَلٰى نُورِ اْلاِيمَانِ الْمُصَوِّرِ لِلدَّارَيْنِ مَمْلُوئَتَيْنِ مِنَ النِّعْمَةِ وَالرَّحْمَةِ، لِكُلِّ مُؤْمِنٍ حَقاً يَسْتَفِيدُ مِنْهُمَا بِحَوَاسِّهِ الْكَثِيرَةِ الْمُنْكَشِفَةِ بِاِذْن ِخَالِقِهِAll praise belongs to Allah for the light of faith, which reveals both worlds as filled with blessings and mercy, from which every believer can truly benefit through their many faculties and senses, awakened and expanded by the permission of their Creator.

In other words, for the blessing of the light of īmān—which reveals this world and the Hereafter as filled with blessings and mercy, and enables every true believer to benefit from those two great tables through the many faculties that unfold and develop by the light of īmānFaith; belief in the six articles of faith: Allah, His angels, His revealed scriptures, His prophets, the Hereafter, and divine decree (qadar). and Islam—I would, were it possible, offer with every atom of my being as much praise and gratitude as this world and the Hereafter could contain.

Since īmānFaith; belief in the six articles of faith: Allah, His angels, His revealed scriptures, His prophets, the Hereafter, and divine decree (qadar). produces such immense effects in this world, it will undoubtedly bear fruits and blessings in the eternal abode so exalted and boundless that the intellect of this world can neither comprehend nor describe them.

O my elderly brothers and sisters, who, like me, feel in old age the pain of separation from so many friends!

Although the oldest among you may surpass me in years, in a spiritual sense I am older still.

For my nature is endowed with a powerful compassion for my fellow human beings, and through this mystery of compassion I bear, in addition to my own suffering, the sufferings of thousands of brothers. Thus, it is as though I have lived for hundreds of years.

And however much pain you may have endured through separation, you have not been exposed to it to the same degree as I have.