knows his relation surely finds such a source of assistance that even its least degree provides for innumerable hopes reaching to eternity, and causes them to continue.
Furthermore, through the reality of the verses, the light proceeding from the effulgence of belief was manifested in such brilliant fashion that it lit up those six dark aspects like daytime. It illuminated the grief I felt for my students and friends in my medrese and in the town with this reminder: “The world your friends have gone to is not dark. They have merely gone somewhere else; you will meet again.” It put an end to my tears entirely, and made me understand that I would find others resembling them in this world who would take their place.
Yes, all praise be to God, He both raised to life the dead Van medrese with the medrese of Isparta, and He in meaning raised my friends there to life with the more numerous and valuable students and friends here. It also made known that the world is not empty and meaningless and that my thinking of it as a ravaged country had been wrong: as required by His wisdom, the True Owner changes the artificial scenes made by man and renews His missives. The more the fruits of some trees are plucked, the more others grow in their places; so too death and separation among mankind constitute renewal and change. In respect of belief, they are a renewal that produces not the grievous sorrow arising from the lack of friends, but the sweet sorrow born of parting in the hope of meeting again in another, better place.
The verses also illuminated the face of the beings in the universe which had appeared dark in the former ghastly situation. I wanted to offer thanks for this, and the following Arabic lines occurred to me, which described that reality exactly. I said:
“All praise be to God for the light of belief, which dispels the illusion of beings as hostile strangers, moribund and savage, as weeping orphans, and shows them to be loving brothers, living and familiar, joyfully employed in mentioning God’s names and glorifying Him.”
That is to say, due to the heedlessness resulting from my grievous state of mind, some of the beings in the universe appeared to my neglectful soul as hostile and strange,1 others as awesome corpses, and yet others as orphans weeping in their loneliness. In the light of belief I saw that they were all friends and brothers. As for the awesome corpses, some were living and friendly while others had been released from their duties. Seeing through the light of belief the wailing of the orphans to be the murmuring
Like earthquake, storm, tempest, plague, and fire.