The Seventeenth Letter

The Seventeenth Letter

[An Addendum to the Twenty-Fifth Flash]

A Letter of Condolence

On the Death of a Child

And in His Name, be He glorified!

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.(17:44)

My Dear Brother of the hereafter, Hafız Halid Efendi!

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

And give good news to the patient, Those who when afflicted with calamity say: To God do we belong and to Him is our return*.(2:155-6)

My brother, your child’s death saddened me, but, “the command is God’s,”(40:12) being resigned to the divine decree and submitting to divine determining are marks of Islam. May Almighty God grant you all patience, and may He make the deceased a helper and intercessor for you in the hereafter. I shall explain five points which are truly good news and offer real consolation for you, and for pious believers like you:

First Point

F i r s t P o i n t: The meaning of the phrase, “immortal youths”(56:17; 76:19) in the All-Wise Qur’an is this: with this phrase, the verse indicates and gives the good news that the children of believers who die before reaching maturity will remain perpetually as eternal, lovable children in a form worthy of Paradise; that they will be an everlasting source of happiness in the embrace of their fathers and mothers who go to Paradise; and will ensure that their parents receive the sweetest of pleasures, the loving and carressing of children; and that all pleasurable things will be found in Paradise; that those who say that since Paradise is not the place for reproduction there will be no loving and carressing of children, are not correct;