Two Tables Were Imparted To My Heart

‘Two Tables Were Imparted To My Heart’ compares the existence of good and evil in this world.

(NOTE: About 25 years ago on Yusa Tepesi in Beykoz, Istanbul, when I had decided to renounce the world, several important friends came to call me back to the world and my former position. I told them to leave me till the following morning so I could seek Divine guidance. That morning the following two “Tables,” occurred to me. They resemble verse, but they are not. I have not changed them for the sake of that blessed memory. They are included here for they are appropriate.)

First Table

Second Table

(A depiction of the true spirit of the heedless people’s world.)

Do not invite me to the world,
I came and found it evil and mortal.

Heedlessness was a veil;
I saw the light of truth concealed.

All things, the whole of creation—
I saw were mortal and full of harm.

Existence, indeed I put it on.
Alas! It was non-existence; I suffered much.

As for life, I experienced it;
I saw it was torment within torment.

Intellect became pure retribution;
I saw permanence to be tribulation.

Life was like a wind, it passed in whims;
I saw perfection to be pure loss.

Actions were only for show;
I saw ambition to be pure pain.

Union was in fact separation;
I saw the cure to be the ailment.

These lights became darkness;
I saw these friends to be orphans.

These voices were announcements of death;
I saw the living to be dead.

Knowledge changed into whim;
I saw in science thousands of ailments.

Pleasure became unmixed pain;
I saw existence to be compounded non-existence.

I have found the True Beloved;
Ah, I suffered much pain because of separation.

(This table describes the true spirit of the world of the people of guidance and peace.)

Heedlessness has disappeared;
I have seen the light of truth to be manifest.

Existence is a proof of Divine Being.
See, life is the mirror reflecting The Truth.

Intellect has become the key to treasuries.
See, mortality is the door to eternity.

The spark of self-attainment has died.
But see, there is the sun of grace and beauty.

Separation has become true union;
See, pain is pure pleasure.

Life has become pure action.
See, eternity is pure life.

Darkness is a thin membrane enclosing light.
See, there is true life in death.

All things have become familiar.
See, all sounds are the mentioning of God.

All the particles in creation:
See, each glorifies God and calls Him by His Names.

I have found poverty to be a treasury of wealth.
See, in impotence lies perfect power.

If you have found God,
See, all things are yours.

If you are a slave of the Owner of all things,
See His property is yours.

If you are egotist and claim self-ownership,
See, it is endless trial and tribulation.

It is infinite torment, taste it,
See, it is an unbearable calamity.

If you are truly a slave of God, devoted to Him,
See, it is an infinite delight.

Taste its uncountable rewards,
See the boundless bliss; experience it.

By Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

Good and Evil

Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, also widely known as Bediuzzaman (the Wonder of the Age) was born in 1877 in eastern Turkey. Bediuzzaman displayed an extraordinary intelligence and ability to learn from an early age, completing the normal course of religious school education at the early age of fourteen, when he obtained his diploma. He became famous for both his prodigious memory and his unbeaten record in debating with other religious scholars. Another characteristic Bediuzzaman displayed from an early age was an instinctive dissatisfaction with the existing education system, which when older he formulated into comprehensive proposals for its reform.