Can we transform troubles, misfortunes and illnesses into good things for us? How?

I am very young but I have been suffering pains, troubles and misfortunes for years. As soon as a pain ends, another starts. Should I be happy or sad due to these misfortunes? Will the troubles that I have be atonement for my sins? Do you think Allah loves me? Or, is He punishing me? Can you teach me prayers that will make me feel good?

Dear Brother / Sister,

It is worship to show patience to illnesses and not to revolt. It has great rewards.

Illnesses are different kinds of worship for patient slaves.

“Worship consists of two kinds, positive and negative. What is meant by the positive is obvious. As for negative worship, this is when one afflicted with misfortune or sickness perceives his own weakness and helplessness, and turning to his Compassionate Lord, seeks refuge in Him, meditates upon Him, petitions Him, and thus offers a pure form of worship that no hypocrisy can penetrate. If he endures patiently, thinks of the reward attendant on misfortune and offers thanks, then each hour that he passes will count as a whole day spent in worship. His brief life becomes very long.” (Badiuzzaman Said Nursi, Lem’alar (Flashes))

An understanding that will deprive man, who is a traveler to the hereafter, of this second type of worshipping will cause his rank in Paradise to be lower. 

“I was a secret treasure. I wanted to be known and created the creatures.”

Most of those who read the sacred hadith above look at this world; they do not remember the hereafter very much. The source of this incomplete understanding and evaluation is being ignorant of the fact that Allah Almighty is free of time. In fatc, this sacred hadith is not related to this short worldly life.  This meaning will be manifest fully in the hereafter and the miracle of Miraj (Ascension) is a glad tiding of it. Our lofty prophet and famous messenger travelled all of the layers of the sky with this miracle, observed Paradise and Hell, and after these scenes of majesty and beauty, he was addressed by the owner of those manifestations and attained the honor of seeing His holy beauty.  

In Nur Collection, the phrase “great miracle of the sainthood of Ahmad" is used for Miraj. As it is known, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) has two aspects: his slavery and his prophethood. He believes in his Lord and worships Him the most in terms of slavery. He loves Him the most and fears Him the most. He performs nafilah worshipping several times more than fard worshipping. He performs prostration, which is the boon that makes a slave approach his Lord the most, as much as possible.

One of the duties of slavery that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) realized in perfect sense is patience. He won the test of patience with migration, battles, so many misfortunes and hardships in the best way. So many lofty and holy deeds of worshipping that we cannot express introduced him to the miracle of Miraj.

Prayer is the Ascension of the believer. Misfortunes and illnesses are another ladder of progress. People who are subject to different tests with such manifestations throughout their lives will migrate to the land of eternity after this short worldly life. They will attain the origins of the shadows in the world, and find and enjoy the boon of knowledge and love in the perfect form there.

In short, to think of a life without any misfortunes and illnesses means to ignore the test in this world and Paradise and Hell, which are the results of this test. Doing so means to be overwhelmed by the shadow, content oneself with it, and to ignore the original.

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