The Second Point

This year, although I had withdrawn into seclusion and had stepped back from social life, I nevertheless looked out upon the world for the sake of my brothers and sisters who serve with me in the cause of the Qur’an. From most of the friends who visited me, I heard complaints about their family lives.

“Alas!” I said. “Family life is the refuge of a human being, especially of a Muslim; it is a kind of paradise and a small world. Has this too begun to fall into ruin?”

I searched for the reason and understood that, just as certain committees are working to harm Islamic social life—and thereby the religion of Islam—by leading the youth astray and driving them into dissipation through their youthful desires, so too certain committees are secretly working to lead vulnerable women onto misguided paths. I understood that a severe blow is coming upon this Muslim nation from that direction. Therefore, I state with certainty to you, my sisters and my spiritual children:

There is no means of preserving women’s happiness in this world and the Hereafter, and of protecting the noble qualities of their nature from corruption, except by living according to the principles of Islam. You have heard what condition the unfortunate women of Russia have fallen into.

In one part of the Risale-i Nur, it is stated:

A sensible man does not base his love and affection for his wife on her fleeting outward beauty, which lasts only five or ten years. Rather, he should base his love on her shafqaCompassionate and unconditional love, such as a mother's love for her child. and on the beauty of character particular to womanhood, which is her most beautiful and enduring form of beauty. In this way, as that helpless woman grows older, her husband’s love for her will continue.

For she is not merely a temporary helper and companion in this worldly life; she is an eternal and beloved life companion in everlasting life. Therefore, as they grow older, they should love one another with even greater respect, compassion, and mercy. But under the guise of modern civilization, family life is being destroyed at its very foundation, reduced to a temporary and superficial union followed by eternal separation.

In another part of the Risale-i Nur, it is stated:

Blessed is the man who follows the example of his righteous wife and becomes righteous himself, so that he does not lose his eternal life companion.

Blessed is the woman who sees her husband’s religiosity and herself becomes a practising Muslim, so that she does not lose her eternal friend and companion, thereby gaining the happiness of the Hereafter within her worldly happiness.

Wretched is the man who follows his wife when she enters dissipation, does not try to turn her away from it, and instead joins her.

Wretched is the woman who sees her husband’s sinful conduct and imitates him in another way.

And woe to the husband and wife who help one another cast themselves into the Fire—that is, by encouraging one another to submit to unlawful acts under the banner of modern civilization.