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In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

Those who believe in the Unseen.(*)

If you want to understand what great happiness and bounty, what great pleasure and ease are to be found in belief in God, listen to this story which is in the form of a comparison:

One time, two men went on a journey for both pleasure and business. One set off in a selfish, inauspicious direction, and the other on a godly, propitious way.

Since the selfish man was both conceited, self-centred, and pessimistic, he ended up in what seemed to him to be a most wicked country due to his pessimism. He looked around and everywhere saw the powerless and the unfortunate lamenting in the grasp of fearsome bullying tyrants, weeping at their destruction. He saw the same grievous, painful situation in all the places he travelled. The whole country took on the form of a house of mourning. Apart from becoming drunk, he could find no way of not noticing this grievous and sombre situation. For everyone seemed to him to be an enemy and foreign. And all around he saw horrible corpses and despairing, weeping orphans. His conscience was in a state of torment.

The other man was godly, devout, fair-minded, and with fine morals so that the country he came to was most excellent in his view. This good man saw universal rejoicing in the land he had entered. Everywhere was a joyful festival, a place for the remembrance of God overflowing with rapture and happiness; everyone seemed to him a friend and relation. Throughout the country he saw the festive celebrations of a general discharge from duties accompanied by cries of good wishes and thanks. He also heard the sound of a drum and band for the enlistment of soldiers with happy calls of “God is Most Great!” and “There is no god but God!” Rather than being grieved at the suffering of both himself and all the people like the first miserable man, this fortunate man was pleased and happy at both his own joy and that of all the inhabitants. Furthermore, he was able to do some profitable trade. He offered thanks to God.

After some while he returned and came across the other man. He understood his condition, and said to him: “You were out of your mind. The ugliness within you must have been reflected on the outer world so that you imagined laughter to be weeping, and the discharge from duties to be sack and pillage. Come to your senses and purify your heart so that this calamitous veil is raised from your eyes and you can see the truth. For the country of an utterly just, compassionate, beneficent, powerful, order-loving, and kind king could not be as you imagined, nor could a country which demonstrated this number of clear signs of progress and achievement.” The unhappy man later came to his senses and repented. He said, “Yes, I was crazy through drink. May God be pleased with you, you have saved me from a hellish state.”

O my soul! Know that the first man represents an unbeliever, or someone depraved and heedless. In his view the world is a house of universal mourning. All living creature are orphans weeping at the blows of death and separation. Man and the animals are alone and without ties being ripped apart by the talons of the appointed hour. Mighty beings like the mountains and oceans are like horrendous, lifeless corpses. Many grievous, crushing, terrifying delusions like these arise from his unbelief and misguidance, and torment him.

Diğer adam ise mü’mindir; Cenab-ı Hâlık’ı tanır, tasdik eder. Onun nazarında şu dünya, bir zikirhane-i Rahman, bir talimgâh-ı beşer ve hayvan ve bir meydan-ı imtihan-ı ins ü cândır. Bütün vefiyat-ı hayvaniye ve insaniye ise terhisattır. Vazife-i hayatını bitirenler, bu dâr-ı fâniden, manen mesrurane, dağdağasız diğer bir âleme giderler. Tâ yeni vazifedarlara yer açılsın, gelip çalışsınlar. Bütün tevellüdat-ı hayvaniye ve insaniye ise ahz-ı askere, silah altına, vazife başına gelmektir. Bütün zîhayat, birer muvazzaf mesrur asker, birer müstakim memnun memurlardır. Bütün sadâlar ise ya vazife başlamasındaki zikir ve tesbih ve paydostan gelen şükür ve tefrih veya işlemek neşesinden neş’et eden nağamattır. Bütün mevcudat, o mü’minin nazarında, Seyyid-i Kerîm’inin ve Mâlik-i Rahîm’inin birer munis hizmetkârı, birer dost memuru, birer şirin kitabıdır. Daha bunun gibi pek çok latîf, ulvi ve leziz, tatlı hakikatler, imanından tecelli eder, tezahür eder.

Demek iman, bir manevî tûba-i cennet çekirdeğini taşıyor. Küfür ise manevî bir zakkum-u cehennem tohumunu saklıyor.

Demek selâmet ve emniyet, yalnız İslâmiyet’te ve imandadır. Öyle ise biz daima اَل۟حَم۟دُ لِلّٰهِ عَلٰى دٖينِ ال۟اِس۟لَامِ وَ كَمَالِ ال۟اٖيمَانِ demeliyiz.

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