Book of Healing - Spiritual Healing - Cure of Pain by Pain
Cure of Pain by Pain
1. In a physical state, the "Cure of Pain by Pain" is to escape the greater suffering of a disease by bearing the minor suffering of bitter medicines and prevention. If an operation becomes indispensable for its remedy, then one has to undergo it with patience and courage in order to regain health, so that chronic illness or untimely death may be prevented. In the same way, there is also the cure of pain by pain in spiritual healing.
2. What is the giryah-u zari of the Sufis and darwishes? It is the feeling of pain of lagging behind in spiritual progress, which is for the sake of the cure of the greatest pain in the future. What is the groaning and sighing of the lovers? It is the expression of pain by which the pain of love may intensify and then, by the vision, the pain of ignorance may be cured. For, ignorance is the greatest and worst disease and undoubtedly the greatest torment. Therefore, according to the wise people, in comparison to physical pain, spiritual pain is greater and more severe and the greatest and severest pain is in the intellectual state, which is ignorance.
3. Study carefully the subject of "tazarru`" (supplication with humility)". When individual or collective afflictions, diseases and calamities come by the command of God, it is for the purpose that people may understand the wisdom of this external and physical pain and benefitting from it, they may supplicate and do giryah-u zari in the Divine court, so that by the grace of God, the spiritual and intellectual pain may be cured by this physical pain (6:42-43; 7:94; 23:76).
4. Study verses (2:155-157), which are as follows: "And surely We will try you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives and crops; but give glad tidings to the steadfast who say, when a misfortune strikes them: Indeed, we belong to God and indeed unto Him we are returning. Such are they on whom are blessings from their Sustainer, and mercy. Such are the rightly guided." This is the description of spiritual pain. It is known that the animal soul, which used to be like an intractable horse, has now become silent and abandoned its intractability due to pain, i.e. affliction. In such a state, a wise mu'min remembers God abundantly and successfully so that, in word and deed, he may prove himself to be the servant of God and he has to have recourse to Him both in this life and in the Hereafter.
5. Qur'anic meanings first concern the stages of spirituality and then they comprise the physical condition too. Thus, since the physical aspect of the above-mentioned trials are known to all, I would like to explain briefly their spiritual aspect. That is, sometimes in dreams and spirituality, fear is imposed upon darwishes, which is an excellent means of mortification. Hunger means to have an acute feeling of the scarcity of spiritual foods; loss of wealth means that a fortunate mu'min severely feels the shortage of his knowledge; the loss of lives means that a wise mu'min laments the difference between the real status and the present status of his soul and the loss of fruits means that the rain of Divine help sometimes continues to pour and sometimes stops. Here, by patience is meant to be steadfast in spiritual calamities and trials and progress further. The glad tidings are personal and practical, and are heard in different forms of dreams and spirituality.
6. As death is the physical loss of life, in the same way, the spiritual loss of life is the death which occurs to a fortunate salik before physical death. However, in reality, there is loss in neither of them, rather, it is a wisdom-filled description according to the zahir or exoteric aspect (of the Qur'an). Thus the order of the description is extremely wisdom-filled in that first is fear, then spiritual hunger, then loss of wealth, then spiritual death, then the rain of spiritual fruits and then its cessation, then blessing, then mercy and finally guidance, namely, to reach the final destination or to merge in the origin.
7. In Qur'anic language, pain is called "alam (pl. alam)". In verse (4:104) it is said: "And be not weak hearted in pursuit of the enemy; if you suffer pain, then surely they (too) suffer pain as you suffer pain, and you hope from Allah what they do not hope." In this Qur'anic teaching lies the great wisdom that pain is the cause of progress in faith and spirituality for the believers and the means of the cure of disbelief and rejection for the enemies of religion.
8. There is another pain which, despite being common, is extremely useful and that is compassion, namely to have sympathy with others in their pain and grief, which purifies and polishes human attributes, as Sa`di says in the Gulistan:
Adam's children are the limbs of one another For in creation, they are from one substance When time causes pain to one limb The other limbs cannot rest If you do not care for others' affliction You do not deserve to be called a human being (Gulistan, p. 25)
9. In China, I saw a darwish, who was absolutely healthy, but his conversation which was filled with humility, was as if he was suffering from a severe disease. He was remembering God and supplicating to Him in a sickly tone, groaning and sighing. It is the way of darwishi by which the sickness of the heart gradually leaves and the original state can be restored. At that time, I remembered the wonder of a natural phenomena, which is that sometimes among the goats in a shed, one is such that, during the quiet of the night, it has a specific, soft voice which comes out of its nostril, which in Burushaski is called "guruskinas". All the goats, inspite of their being engaged in regurgitating, listen to this voice which resembles the groaning of a sick person. Thus it is certain that everything in speech or in state, consciously or unconsciously, with recognition or with belief, recites tasbih with His praise (Hamd) (17:44), and there is nothing without this.
10. The above-mentioned courageous darwish should be praised due to the fact that although apparently, he was not sick, he was perhaps sure that his soul was sick. The Supreme Creator has created the heart, namely the soul, as the mirror of the azali secrets. Thus, if this mirror does not do its work, then it should be cleansed and polished with the sand paper of the remembrance of God, and at the same time, the kind of mood and voice, loud or low, which can be most effective for the most successful remembrance has to be taken into consideration.
11. According to a noble Tradition, the fever from the Forgiving Sustainer is a source of purification, and the miracle of the real fever is in spirituality, the Qur'anic name of which is "zalzalah" (quake, 2:214; 22:1; 33:11; 99:1). In short, physical difficulties and the trials of the spiritual stages serve as extremely useful medicines for mu'mins so that complete spiritual and then intellectual health may be regained. It is the very great favour of God that He has made everything of good and evil a means of having recourse to Him.
12. One of the treasures of Qur'anic secrets is the story of Hazrat Maryam. Although this precious treasure is full of countless invaluable gems and pearls, we will mention only one casket of pearls related to the subject under discussion and that is the luminous birth of the Perfect Man, which happens in the personal world of a successful darwish. Thus the pangs of childbirth (19:23) of Hazrat Maryam are the example of that miraculous pain which happens to a darwish during the birth or manifestation of the personal light. You might be surprised about the relationship of the light with the pangs of childbirth! But there should be no surprise, since the light also has a spiritual birth, just as it has the physical birth, by which is meant the manifestation of light. It should also be noted that God has made the light the compriser of all examples, so that in its illumination the reality of every example may be known.
Tuesday, 14 Rajabu'l-murajjab, 1409
21st February, 1989.
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