Forty days later she again lost her sight. I was most upset and prayed fervently for her. God willing, the prayer was accepted for her life in the hereafter, otherwise that prayer of mine would have been a mistaken malediction for her. For forty days had remained till her death; forty days later she died – May God have mercy on her.

Thus, rather than gazing sorrowfully at the gardens of Barla with the eye of old age, she profited in her grave by being able to gaze for forty thousand days on the gardens of Paradise. For her belief was strong and she was completely righteous.

Yes, if a believer loses his sight and enters the grave blind, in accordance with his

degree he may gaze on the world of light to an extent much greater than other dead in their graves. Just as we see many things in this world that blind believers do not see, if the blind  depart with belief, they see to  a greater extent than other dead in their graves. They can behold the gardens of Paradise and watch them like the cinema as though looking through the most powerful telescopes, according to their degree.

Thus, through thanks and patience you may find beneath the veil on your present eye an eye which is thus light-filled, and with which while beneath the earth you may see and observe  Paradise above the skies. That which will raise the veil from your eye, the eye doctor that will allow you to look with that eye, is the All-Wise Qur’an.

FIFTEENTH REMEDY

O sick person who sighs and laments! Do not look at the outward aspect of illness and sigh,  consider its meaning and be pleased. If in meaning illness had not been good, the All-Compassionate Creator would not have given it to the servants He loves most. For there is a Hadith the meaning of which is, “Those afflicted with the severest trials are the prophets, then  the saints and those like them.”6   That is, “Those most afflicted  with tribulations and  difficulties are the best of  men, the most perfect.”

Foremost the Prophet Job (Peace be upon him) and the other prophets, then the saints, then the righteous, have regarded the illnesses they have suffered as sincere worship, as gifts of the Most Merciful; they have offered thanks in patience. They have seen them as surgical operations performed by the All-Compassionate Creator’s mercy.

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6   al-Munawi, Fayd al-Qadir, i, 519, no: 1056; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, iii, 343; Bukhari, Marda,

3; Tirmidhi, Zuhd, 57; Ibn Maja, Fitan, 23; Darimi, Riqaq, 67; Musnad, i, 172, 174, 180, 185; vi, 369.