The Twenty-first Word

* A page from of the original manuscript of The Risale-i Nur

The Twenty-first Word

It comprises of two stations (maqāmāt).

The First Maqām

بسم الله الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

إِنَّ الصَّلَوٰةَ كَانَتْ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ كِتَٰبًا مَوْقُوتًا (a)

صَدقَ مَنْ نَطَقَ

Once, a man of senior age, with a massive body and a high ranking position told me: “The Prayer (ṣalāh) is good but praying five times a day every other day is too much.” It bores one as it does not finish.” A long time after that individual’s very statement, I listened to my own lower self (nafs). I heard that my nafs was saying the same words. I looked at it and saw that it was listening to the same lesson from the satan (shaytān) with an ear of laziness. At that moment, I realised that it was as if that individual raised that statement

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a. Indeed, the Prayer has been decreed upon the believers a decree of specified times. (Qur'ān: al-Nisa', 4:103) 

on behalf of all lower selves (nufūs al-ammāra) which consistently command us to do evil deeds or he was made speak like this. Then I said: My nafs is evil-commanding and the one who does not train his own nafs cannot train another one. Since this is the case, I do start with my own nafs.” I said: “O nafs! You utter these words in complete ignorance [yet you are not even aware that you’re wrong and] in a bed of laziness and in a sleep of heedlessness (ghaflah). Listen to these “Five Warnings” from me as a response to your words:”

The First Warning: O my miserable nafs! I wonder whether your life is everlasting? Do you have a guarantee that you will stay until next year or even the next day? The actual thing that makes you bored of the Prayer is your illusion and assumption that you will live forever in this world. You are being reluctant just for enjoyment as if you will stay here forever in this world. If you were to understand that your life was short and it was going from hands leaving no benefits to you, [you would give one hour out of twenty four hours to your prayer]. Surely sparing that one hour out of twenty four hours for a beautiful and nice and relaxing and mercy-attracting (1) service that will cause real happiness in eternal life and will cause a seriously important motivation and a sweet pleasure let alone tiring or boring you.

The Second Warning: O my stomach-lover, gluttonous nafs! You do eat bread repeatedly every day and drink water and breathe the air likewise. I wonder whether these bore you?

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1. This word is literally “mercy” in Turkish. Yet it is difficult to translate it as it is. We understand that the Prayer in itself is mercy from Allāh, it is also a mercybearing or mercy-attracting service and worship.

Since they do not do so, because the necessity for them repeats, you rejoice in them let alone get bored. This being the case, O my nafs, the Prayer should not bore you at all as it attracts and draws near the nourishment of my heart, the life-giving water of my spirit, the relaxing breeze of my subtle faculty (1) given by the Divine which are your friends in the house of my body.

Yes, sustenance and strength of a heart, that is exposed to and suffering from countless griefs and pains, and that is madly in love with and full of longing for endless pleasures and desires, can only be obtained by way of knocking by supplication on the door of The Merciful Generous One who is capable of everything.

Yes, in this ephemeral world, the life-giving water of a spirit, which is directly related with other existent beings that leave this world swiftly with cries of separation, can only be drunk by way of facing the fountain of mercy of an Eternally Worshipped One and an Everlastingly Loved One who can replace all else.

Yes, a conscious secret of man and an illuminated subtle faculty given by the Divine, which by nature desires eternity and which is created for eternity and is a mirror of the Beginninglessly and Endlessly Eternal One and which is profoundly delicate and nice, surely and greatly needs to breathe [fresh air] in this gloomy, crushing and troublesome, ephemeral and dark and strangling/choky circumstances of the world and it can only breathe through the window of Ṣalāh (the Prayer).

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1. Laṭīfa (subtle faculty): This is a subtle spiritual device or a sense, which is the king of other senses in one’s heart, through / by which Divine realities could be understood or felt. 

The Third Warning: O my impatient nafs! I wonder, is it at all reasonable to think of and suffer today the troubles of worship in past days and the hardship of the Prayer and the struggles of calamity and is it within the boundaries of the intellect to imagine the duty of worship in advance, the service of the Prayer, and the pain of calamity today and show impatience before it comes?

Your example resembles a foolish commander like this:

The troops of the right wing of the enemy army just switched sides and joined the troops of the foolish commander. Although this gave him fresh power on that side, he decides rather strangely to send more soldiers from the centre in that same direction. This makes the centre weak. And while there are no enemy soldiers on the left hand side and before they have even arrived yet, he sends a great amount of soldiers to the left and commands them to fire! This makes the centre totally weak. The enemy realises the case and assaults the centre and destroys them.

Yes, you resemble the foolish commander, because troubles of past days have now turned into mercy today. The pain of old days has gone and now only the pleasure remains. Its trouble turned to favour and its hardship transformed into reward. Therefore you should not grow bored, on the contrary, you should feel a new longing, a renewed taste and a serious effort to continue. Since future days have not come yet, thinking now and getting tired and being fed up is quite like shouting and screaming today about the hunger and thirst of far away, which is sheer folly. 

This being the reality, if you are intelligent, in terms of ‘ibādah (worship) just think of [what is required] today. And say: “I am spending one hour [of the day] on a massively rewarding, pleasant and beautiful and lofty service that has very little trouble!” If you do so, your bitter laziness out of boredom will turn into a sweet effort.

Now, O my impatient nafs! You are responsible for three types of ṣabr (patience). The first one is patience in respect to obedience. The other is patience against sins (ma’siyah). The last one is patience against calamity (musībah). If you have brain, make this reality of the allegory stated in the Third Warning a guide for yourself. Say bravely: “Ya Ṣabūr (O Allāh Who is Ultimately Patient)!” Take three types of patience onto your shoulders. If you do not disperse your power of patience that Allāh Most High has given to you into wrong directions, that power of patience can be sufficient enough for all troubles and each calamity. Endure with this power.

The Fourth Warning: O my foolish nafs! I wonder, is this duty of servanthood futile and fruitless? Is its reward very little that you are easily getting bored? On the other hand, if a man makes you work for him until evening by giving you some money or by frightening you, [in that case] you work with no sign of laziness and boredom. The Prayer in this guesthouse of a world is sustenance and richness for your powerless and poor heart; and in one of your absolute stops, in the grave, a nourishment and light; and it is a promissory note and a warrant in the place of Resurrection which is certainly your court [of justice]; 

and which will be a nūr (light) and burāq (a heavenly mount) on the sirāt (bridge) that all will cross over willingly or unwillingly. I wonder, is the Prayer [we mentioned] futile and fruitless? Or is its reward too little?

If a man promises you a present worthy of a hundred liras, he would make you work a hundred days. There is a possibility that he might break his promise. You trust that person and work without laziness. If a person, for whom breaking a promise is impossible and [whose promise is certainly true], promises you a reward like paradise and a present like eternal happiness and employs you in a very pleasant duty for a limited period of time, and if you do not serve or work reluctantly or work like someone who is compelled to work for nothing or serve half-heartedly in boredom, this will mean that you accuse his promise [of being untrue] and undervalue his present. Do you think that if you do so, you will deserve a very harsh punishment and a terrifying torture? The fear of imprisonment in the world makes you serve in the heaviest jobs without hesitation or boredom. Does not the fear of an eternal imprisonment like hell encourage you for the lightest and most subtle and nicest service?

The Fifth Warning: O my nafs, who loves this world to the extent of worshipping it! I wonder whether your boredom in worship and failure in the Prayer is because of the excessive amount of worldly commitments? Or is it because you cannot find time due to the struggles of earning a living? 

I wonder whether you were created just for this life and if that is why you spend all of your time for it alone? You know that you are superior to all animals in terms of capabilities but you cannot reach the level of a sparrow in terms of acquiring the necessities of worldly life. Why don’t you understand from this that your original duty is not a struggle like an animal yet your struggle is to work like a real human for a real perpetual life [in the Hereafter.]

In addition to this, what you call worldly preoccupations are in general futile businesses the majority of which do not belong to you, and you delve into them fruitlessly and mingle with them. (1) You leave the most necessary task and you spend your time on unnecessary knowledge as if you have thousands of years of life. For example, you are wasting your valuable time on such valueless things like these, “what are the rings of Saturn made of? How many chickens are there in America?” It is as though you believe you will gain some kind of perfection from the science of cosmography and statistics.

If you say: The things that keep me away from the Prayer and worship, and make me fail my prayers are not unnecessary tasks, but they are obligatory duties for making a living. If this is the case, I do say to you: Let’s assume that you work for a hundred qurush per day. If someone were to come and say to you, “Come here and dig this area for ten minutes. You will find a brilliant and an emerald worthy of a hundred liras.” If you say to him: “No, I won’t come. A ten qurush will be cut from my daily wage. My sustenance will decrease,”

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1. The word "karıştırmak" in Turkish literally means “to mix” or “to be confused”. This sentence could be translated in either of these below:

a. In addition to this, what you call worldly preoccupations are in general futile businesses the majority of which do not belong to you, and you delve into them unnecessarily and you do mix them with other tasks.

b. In addition to this, what you call worldly preoccupations are in general futile businesses the majority of which do not belong to you, and you delve into them fruitlessly and you do not fully understand their futility and do not differentiate them from others.

then you know for sure that if you said so, it would be a ridiculously crazy excuse.

Similarly, you are working in this garden of yours for your livelihood. If you leave your farḍ (obligatory) prayers, the fruit of all your work will be limited to only worldly and trivial sustenance without any blessing. If you spend your rest and break time on the Prayer, which is the cause of the relaxation of your spirit and the breathing of your heart, then together with your abundant worldly sustenance and livelihood, you will find two important spiritual goldmines for your sustenance of the hereafter and livelihood in the hereafter.

The first goldmine: With a good intention, you are receiving a share of the tasbīḥ (glorification) of each plant and each tree be it a fruitful one or a flowering one that you have grown in your garden. (a)

The second goldmine: And be it an animal or a human, a cow or a fly, a customer or a thief - whoever eats from the production of this garden of yours - becomes a sadaqah (charity) for you. But there is a condition that you must use this garden in the name of Razzāq Ḥaqīqī (The Real Sustainer) and within the boundaries of His permission, and regard yourself as a distribution officer who gives out His goods to His creations.

Now, see how great a loss the one who neglects the Prayer makes. See how massive a treasury he loses. He is deprived of those two results and those two goldmines that give a great motivation to work and supply a tremendous spiritual power for good deeds. He bankrupts.

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a. This station is a lesson given in this manner to a person [working] on a farm. 

As he ages, he becomes tired of farming and gets lazy. “That’s none of my business” says he. “I am already departing from this world anyway. Why should I endure this much trouble?” he will say and throw himself into laziness. But the previous farmer [who is an intelligent one] says: “I will work for a halāl earning together with more acts of worship (ibādah) so that I will send more light to my grave. I will supply more stores of provisions for my afterlife.”

As a result: O nafs! Know that yesterday has gone out of your hands. As for tomorrow, you have no warrant that you own it. Therefore, know that your real life is the day that you are in. Just like a reserve fund, spare at least an hour of the day at a masjid or on your prayer mat which is quite like a money box of the hereafter (1) made for the real future. And know that every new day is a door for a new world for you and everyone. If you do not observe your prayers, the world of yours on that day will be in darkness and wretchedness. It will bear witness against you in the world of similitudes (‘ālam al-mithal). Because everyone has a specific world within this world every day, the quality of that world depends on the heart and deed of that person.

Just like a magnificent palace is reflected in the colour of your mirror; if the mirror is black, the palace is seen as black, and if it is red, the palace will be red in colour. The reflection of the palace also depends on the quality and state of the mirror. If the mirror is smooth, it will reflect the palace smoothly. If the surface is not smooth, the palace will look ugly. Just like the most subtle and nice things are seen

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1. The masjid or the prayer mat in this sentence is being likened to a money box. Each hour used for prayers is like a coin saved in the money box for use in the hereafter. 

in a rough manner on a mirror that is not smooth, you change the shape of your world with your heart, intellect, deed and conscious. You can make it bear witness either in favour of you or against you. If you offer your prayers, and if you turn to the Artful Possessor of Majesty of that world with that Prayer of yours, all of a sudden the world that looks at you will shine and be enlightened. Your prayer is like an electric light and your intention to pray is like touching its switch; when you turn on the switch with your intention to the Prayer, it disperses the darkness in that world of yours. Regular changes and movements amongst the shambles and chaotic misery of the world show that there exists a wisely balanced order and meaningfully written book of The Power. It sprinkles a light to your heart from the most enlightened verse اللَّهُ نُورُ السَّمَٰوَٰتِ والأَرْضِ (Allāh is the light of the heavens and the earth). It illuminates your world of that day with the reflection of that light. It makes your world bear witness in your favour with that enlightenment.

Do not ever say: “[My own prayer is far away from its true reality.] Where is my prayer and where is the reality of the Prayer?” The date seed encapsulates the entire date tree. The difference is only on ijmāl (summary) and tafsīl (details). Likewise, although ordinary people like you and me do not feel it, our prayer has a share of this light like the Prayer of a great walī (saint). It has a secret of that reality even though your conscious may not conceive of it. Yet there exist various levels of prayer and accordingly various levels of flourishing and enlightenment. Just as there are many stages from a date seed to a perfect date tree, likewise the Prayer might have 

many more levels in the degrees of the Prayer. However, in all those levels, foundation of that luminous reality does exist.

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ عَلَى مَنْ قَالَ: "الصَّلاَةُ عِمَادُ الدِّينِ"

وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ.

O Allāh, send blessings upon the one who said:

“The prayer is mainstay of the religion” and send blessings

upon all his family and companions.