Life, illness, and death are basic human conditions. But at the same time, it is a very individual decision which specific meaning you ascribe to these elements. These meanings also affect the behavior patterns of our life and its consequences. Ascriptions of meaning can – considered without any judgment – be of religious, nationalist, pluralist, and atheistic nature, or be supported from the symbiosis of several ways of thinking.

In the training of health care professionals and in public lectures, the author of this article noticed that illness has a very negative image: the color which stands for physical and mental discomfort is a deep black, while shiny white is the color of health. Consequently, modern medicine therapies have been developed that do not necessarily try to diagnose the causes of diseases, but most of all combat the declared enemy. For this purpose, high-dose drugs, radiation and other weapons are out in the field, according to the motto: attack is the best defense.

The doctors make every effort to win the battle, but there is a risk that the emotional state of the ill person falls into despair – because it is taught to him that his new physical condition is an unnatural, undesirable condition. Thus, a melancholy forms, which reduces the quality of life dramatically. The patient regards the illness as invincible.

In the following, I will present some perspectives that renowned scholar Said Nursi (d. 1960) demonstrated decades ago. They are still powerful today. In my opinion, they harbor the potential to raise the quality of life not only of the ill, but also of healthy people.

In his treatise “The Twenty-fifth Gleam: 25 Remedies for the Sick”¹ Said Nursi throws 25 views (Turkish: Deva² ) on the phenomenon of illness. His outlook could assist in transforming the negative picture of illness into a positive one.

What makes a shift in perspective so important?

Anyone who prepares himself while he or she is a healthy person, if they later catch a more serious illness, will benefit from this text. Nursi’s thoughts on the meaning of illness and potential remedies can play an important role in preparation. Those who internalize his message can help prevent the emotional fall into depression and may instead hope for a cure.

Said Nursi’s first view presents its readers with the understanding that illness should not be seen as a problem that brings bitterness into life, but that you can also draw strength out of it. There may, as said before, be different ascriptions of meaning to human life, but ultimately all people agree that life is something precious and offers a variety of opportunities. The direction of our lives depends on which use we make of these opportunities.

Those who consider illness as something negative will experience every illness as a curse. Such an attitude has a negative impact on the patient and their environment and turns them very pessimistic. They might castigate themselves, and ask questions like: “Why is it me of all people who has ​​this disease?” In extreme cases, this can lead the patient to become delusional and withdraw from society. A shift in perspective, however, can release positive energy and let sorrow and pain melt away.

Those who recognize the opportunities offered by life and appreciate the efforts and labors of everyday life as something positive will concede that even diseases have a meaningful function – for themselves and humanity as a whole.

Nursi says that ill people perceive time differently, which enables them to observe their environment from a more passive perspective. This passivity is supposed to tear modern, urbanized people from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and move them to a pause. It decelerates the lives of those affected and leads them to horizons healthy people find difficulty to access.

Nursi’s second view goes to the role of prayer which he defines in two forms: positive and negative prayers. He refers to prayers like ritual worship, fasting, supplication, and other forms of remembrance as “positive” (müspet) prayers. “Negative” (menfi) prayer on the other hand is attaining awareness and knowledge of one’s own vulnerability and mortality – which is more likely to arise in moments of illness rather than any other time – as a result of which one turns to God in praise of His ultimate power and infinity. Nursi signifies these positive and negative prayers as the second remedy.

The insight into our own transience, which is the third remedy, allows the ill person to recall their past mistakes, many of which might have been forgotten, and allows them to reconcile with themselves and their fellow humans. According to Nursi, this allows a person to realize they are not as perfect and as infallible as they thought. Illness makes people honest: honest with themselves and with others. The confession of the own fallibility is tantamount to an admission of human weakness and mortality.

Viewed from this perspective, the question arises as to whether illness itself is a cure for mankind. It conveys us new views and leads us to reconsider our previous positions. The ill person becomes an observer, and he finally has time to start thinking. As said by Nursi, he realizes that mankind may be considered the crown of creation. But man’s frailty, his aging, and also the health problems of other people make him realize that life on earth is not all there is – a realization that opens his eyes and takes him out of the darkness into the light. Becoming aware of one’s mortality takes away any thoughtlessness. It causes a person to shed laziness and reflect on their obligations.

If the patient manages to do so, they will feel gratitude and be patient, not least in dealing with physical ailments. This gratitude and patience is what Nursi refers to as the fourth remedy. For Nursi, the body is not the property of man, but rather a loan, which he may not dispose of freely. Suffering is to be endured, since it can do some good, too. Nursi characterizes it as a kind of bonus, which God the ultimate owner of our body grants to us, and we should not protest against it.

Chronic diseases or disabilities, which are seen very negatively in today’s society, can be reinterpreted positively in this way because, as Nursi asserts, they bring a gain in knowledge compared that we cannot achieve when healthy. As a result of their illness, they understand new things that healthy people cannot, just as blind, deaf, or dumb people perceive their environment differently, and sometimes more sharply, than people without physical limitations.

Each person strives for well-being, mercy, and forgiveness, and every sorrow and misfortune also harbors rays of mercy in it. From behind the veil of the illness many quite pleasant insights can emerge. A new consciousness arises, and thus many people gain the courage to take risks and reposition oneself in life.

This maturity Nursi describes as the fifth remedy and it can be observed especially in young ill people. Because of their illness, and in contrast to their peers, they have to cope with issues that seem to contradict their youth. They do not fall into the typical noise of youth and are relieved of thoughtlessness and of the pressures of everyday life.

From this point of view, health, for some people, can be even a calamity that can make their heads spin and blind, and lets them lose sight of the fact that their life does not last forever.

Conclusion

Even these first 5 of 25 views on the subject of illness show that not everything, which is interpreted as negative, is actually negative. A shift in perspective can often work wonders.

Nevertheless, such a shift in perspective appears quite disconcerting initially in our modern society in which health equals to a gift and illness to a disaster. If we have considered diseases as the enemy for so long, why should we suddenly welcome disease? A notion that a disease may also enrich the patient and their friends and family is a useful approach. Surely, the thought that positive thinking can influence the illness (coping), and even contribute to the healing process, is quite common. However, the angle shift described by Said Nursi goes much further. And in my eyes, there is no doubt that it is able to significantly improve the quality of a patient’s life and environment.

Illness allows ill persons to pull out from everyday life, at least for some time. Thereby, it gives them new insights and opens doors that probably would have remained closed if they had stayed healthy. Illness allows a refocusing of which we can benefit from as individuals and communities.

Erdogan Karakaya is pursuing a master’s degree in history in Heidelberg, Germany.

Footnotes

1. Nursi, Said. 2009. 25 Remedies for the Sick, the Twenty-fifth Gleam, NJ: Tughra Books.
2. Deva in Turkish actually means cure, resort, and solution. In this article it is also understood as view or view angle.

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi reveals the beauty and purposes behind these seemingly ugly events in the “twenty-fifth flash”¹ with twenty-five remedies. Almost every remedy starts with a warning sentence advising “patience and thankfulness”; the reason for this is that a person who tries to understand everything without a strong belief in God and in the Hereafter feels impatient and will often complain. At first sight, the statement “An illness is not a malady; it is a cure” strikes almost everyone as paradoxical. Life is the most important asset that one has in this life, and it has a purpose. Life will pass very quickly in ease and heedlessness without bearing any fruit; illnesses and calamities slow time down, and give room for life to yield its fruit. This helps prevent us from wasting our lives.

To show a given situation in all its clarity Nursi considers all possible aspects of it. When we are ill or struck by a calamity we implicitly assume that a right has been taken from us; yet it is at this difficult time that we are asked to be patient and think of the positive side of what has happened. However, this is not all. When the situation is considered from a more fundamental point of view, it becomes clear that a person has no right to complain if they truly understand that they are not even the owner of their own selves:

“It is your duty not to complain, but to offer thanks and be patient. For your body, organs, and faculties are not your property. You did not make them and you did not buy them from other workshops. That means they are the property of another. Their owner has disposal over His property as He wishes.”

The purpose of the above statement is not to close the matter at this point, leaving no room for further discussion, but to make it clear that, there is no justification for any complaint and the All-Compassionate God will reward those moments of illness and tragedy lived in tranquility and patience, as Nursi states:

“Through the calamity of good health, some of your fellows become neglectful, giving up the five daily prayers, not thinking of the grave, and forgetting God Almighty. For the superficial pleasure of a brief hour of this worldly life, they shake and damage a never-ending, eternal life, even destroying it. Through illness you see the grave, which you will, in any event, enter, and the dwellings of the Hereafter beyond it, and you act in accordance with these. That means that for you, illness is good health, while for some of your peers good health is an illness…”

Ironically, the passing of pain is a pleasure, and the passing of pleasures is a discomfort, a constant sorrow left in the spirit. Even some pleasures that only last a day or a few minutes will sometimes cause a suffering that lasts years. It is not difficult to find an example of this; the use of drugs is an obvious parallel. The purpose in this life is to know our Creator and to prepare ourselves for an Eternal Hereafter, yet there are many distractions on the path. Illness gives us a warning: “Your body is not composed of stone and iron; it is made up of various materials which are always inclined to decay. Stop being proud, understand your impotence, recognize your Owner, know your duties, and learn why you came to this world!” This is what is secretly declared to the heart.

Everything is understood by its opposite. Light would not be known if there was no darkness. “If there was no thirst, there would be no pleasure in drinking water.” And as for illness, Nursi gives the following beautiful comparison: “If there was not this illness in your head, or in your hand, or stomach, would you have perceived the pleasurable and enjoyable Divine bounty of the good health of your head, hand, or stomach, and offered thanks? For sure, not only would you not have offered thanks for it, you would not have even thought of it! You would have unconsciously spent that good health on heedlessness, and perhaps even on dissipation.”

The All-Compassionate God from His mercy forgives the sins of the ill believer; this can be found in a authentic hadith: “As ripe fruit falls from the tree that is shaken, so too do the sins of a believer fall with his shaking in illness.”² What can be better news for a believer than this? With patience and by not complaining, one can transform a passing illness into everlasting health. Said Nursi gives the most fundamental and important cure: “Thus, the first thing you have to do is to search for the cure of belief, which is a healing remedy that is sure for the innumerable illnesses of that infinitely wounded and ill, yet extensive immaterial being of yours; you have to correct your beliefs, and the shortest way of finding such a cure is to recognize the power and mercy of the All-Powerful One of Glory by means of the window of your weakness and impotence; this has been shown you from behind the curtain of heedlessness, rent by your physical illness.”

Death plays the main role in causing pain, fear, and anxiety, as this is where illness may lead. Hear Said Nursi as he warns: “So know firstly and believe firmly that the appointed hour is determined and does not change. Those weeping beside the grievously ill and those in perfect health have died, while the grievously ill have been cured.” Moreover, for a believer, death is not a terrifying end; rather, as clearly shown through magnificent analogies in Nursi’s other masterpiece The Words, death is: “…to be discharged from the burdensome duties of life. And for them it is a rest from worship, which is the instruction and training in the arena of trial of this world. It is also a means rejoining friends and relations, ninety-nine out of a hundred of whom have already departed for the next world.”

The fifteenth remedy is of special importance, because it takes the whole issue to a different platform and shifts the perspective from being focused on merely being “patient and thankful” to establishing the social status of those who are ill and in hardship. The following hadith illustrates this: “Those afflicted with the severest trials are the prophets, then the saints and those like them.”³ That is, “Those most afflicted with tribulations and difficulties are the best of men, the most perfect.” In the same remedy, Nursi also mentions that some illnesses that cause death are a type of martyrdom.

The duty of the people around those who are ill is to look after them with compassion, and to visit them without being a burden. These hard times not only produce all the rewards mentioned above for the person who lives through them, but for the believer around them if they know their responsibilities: “To please an ill person’s heart and console him is like giving alms. Fortunate is the person who pleases the easily touched hearts of the father and mother at the time of illness, and who receives their prayer.”

All the remedies that Said Nursi proposes are focused around one issue, which is a strong belief in God, and the Hereafter. This belief shows its effect when one carries out one’s religious obligations as much as possible. This is a belief that will save a person from heedlessness and ignorance, and that will prepare them for the appointed time, which is a door to the eternal life; a belief that will transform the ugly faces of illnesses and calamities to the beautiful faces of eternal life in the gardens of Paradise.

Footnotes

1. The quotes are taken from, The Flashes Collection by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Sozler Publication, Istanbul 1995, pg 266-285
2. Bukhari, Mardha 1,2,13; Muslim, Birr 45, Darimi Riqaq 57.
3. Bukhari, Mardha 3; Tirmidhi, Zuhd 57

Yes, illness utters this warning to us: “Your body is not composed of stone and iron, but of various materials that are always disposed to parting. Leave your pride, understand your impotence, recognize your Owner, know your duties, learn why you came into this world!” It declares this secretly in the heart’s ear.

Moreover, since the pleasures and enjoyment of this world do not continue, particularly if they are illicit, they are fleeting, full of pain, and sinful. Do not weep on the pretext of illness because you have lost those pleasures. On the contrary, think of the aspects of worship and reward in the Hereafter to be found in illness, and try to receive pleasure from those.