Said Nursi was exiled by the government. He was forbidden outside contact and made to live a harsh and lonely life in the mountains. He was at the time, an old man, weakening every day. But being a believer, he insisted to view every hardship as a wise plan from Allah from which he would most certainly benefit. He writes one of the most beautiful passages you'll ever read:
"I have been very lonely for the last 3 months. At most, a visitor drops by once every 15 or 20 days. Otherwise, I am alone. In addition, it has been 20 days since the mountaineers left the area. At this time of night in these forsaken mountains, silent and amidst the tree’s sorrowful sounds, I find myself immersed in five sorts of loneliness.
Being old, I am separated from most of my contemporaries, friends, and relatives who have gone to the hereafter and left me in a most wretched isolation.
This loneliness makes me feel a second type of separation coming from the disappearance of most creatures with which I feel a connection, such as the past spring.
This loneliness arouses yet another feeling, that of separation caused by being far from my hometown and relatives.
In addition to these, the mountains’ dark nightscape makes me feel a fourth kind of separation.
Lastly, I have seen my soul in complete separation during its journey to eternity from this guest-house the world. I exclaimed all of a sudden “Glory be to God!” Wondering how I could endure such separations. In the meantime, I felt my heart groan out this poem:
O Lord, I am a stranger, I am lonely and weak, Impotent, old and ill, and I have no choices at all;
O Allah, I beg Your mercy, ask Your forgiveness, And I cry for help from Your Throne of Grace!
At just that point belief's light, the Quran’s effusive grace, and the All-Merciful favor came to my aid and changed five kinds of separation into five circles of warm companionship. As I recited: “Allah is sufficient for us; and excellent Guardian is He (3:173), my heart recited: “If they turn their backs, say: ‘Allah is enough for me. There is no god but He. In Him I have put my trust. He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne” (9:129).