Another approach to mannerliness is dealing with it under the categories of “mannerliness in Sharia,” “mannerliness in tariqa (the spiritual order),” “mannerliness in knowledge of God,” and “mannerliness in the final truth (attained at the end of the spiritual journeying).” The first means practicing the Sunna (the way) of God’s Messenger, upon him he peace and blessings, in all his acts, sayings, and approvals. The second means, together with utter submission to and perfect love of him, serving the spiritual guide, attending his discourses, and refraining from objection to him. The third consists in preserving the balance between nearness to God and self-possession, between fear and hope or expectation, and awareness of self-poverty and impotence in the lace of the Divine favors coming directly from God. As for the fourth, it is perfect attachment to God in complete detachment from everything other than Him, without any material or spiritual expectation and anxieties worldly or other-worldly.

In one respect, Sufism consists in “mannerliness;” it consists in having or being adorned with the good manners proper to each occasion, each spiritual state, and each rank or station. However, only if believers have been able to realize all of these good manners in their own inner world, they can really be well-mannered in their attitudes and ways of behaviour. Apparent and superficial manners, such as have not been ingrained in their self and become an essential part of their nature, will mean no more than an outward show and cannot become permanent as habits. Nor are they worth anything in the sight of God, Who judges a person by his or her inner world. With his expressive style, Mawlana Jalalu’d-Din Rumi describes mannerliness with its true and artificial aspects as follows:

For the people of the heart,
mannerliness originates in a person’s inner world,
for they are aware of secrets.
As for the people of the flesh,
they see mannerliness in the apparent behavior of people;
for God has hidden the secrets from them.
We always ask God to enable us to be mannerly,
because one who is unmannerly is deprived of Divine favors.

According to Abu Nasr at-Tusi, mannerliness could he summarized in the following three paragraphs:

• The mannerliness of literary men who seek beauty and virtue in writing and speech, which is regarded as “gossip” by the Sufis for it does not originate in the heart.
• The mannerliness of those who represent the religion of Islam at the level of a pure spiritual life, which is regarded as consisting in refining the soul through disciplines, and the feelings through love and fear of God, and in meticulously following the religious commandments.
• The mannerliness of those who through continuous self-control and introspection maintain the purity of heart at the level of neither imagining nor conceiving of anything contrary to the awareness of always being in the presence of God and overseen by Him.

Those who have been able to attain to the truth have attached much importance to all kinds of mannerliness and tried their hardest to make it an essential, ingrained part of their human nature. They have many wise sayings uttered in this respect, of which they have themselves striven to be the embodiments in utmost sincerity. To cite a few examples:

Everything has an aspect of beauty and ornament,
the beauty of people lies in mannerliness.
There are those who, albeit of ignoble descent,
are most noble due to their mannerliness.

The following is a jewel-like saying quoted from Imam ‘Ali, the fourth Caliph and cousin of the Prophet, may God be pleased with him:

Nowadays misfortunes are common, which is not to be wondered at.
What is to be wondered at is how one could remain upright
and maintain one’s integrity among so many misfortunes.
Beauty is not that which the garment one wears adds to him.
Rather, it is the beauty of knowledge and mannerliness.

The following is from ‘Awarifu’l-Ma‘arif by Shihabu’d-Din as-Suhrawardi[1]:

Belief requires absolute affirmation of Divine Unity, without which a person is not regarded as having a sound belief. This affirmation requires mannerliness without which one cannot be pious. Truly, one without good manners cannot be pious.

Suhrawardi is totally right, because “the Prophets travelled their ways through mannerliness, and became each an elect in the Court of God.”

In addition to what we have already said concerning the practical aspect of mannerliness or being well-mannered in behaviour, the following reflections are worth recalling:

It is mannerliness which a person should always wear:
without good manners, one is as if naked.
….
Mannerliness is to be found in the people of knowledge.
A student without good manners cannot be a learned one.
….
The order of the world is through mannerliness;
Again, through mannerliness is human perfection.

Expressive of purity in thought, uprightness in the heart, and a deep relationship with God, mannerliness in speech has been stressed for centuries in all schools which concern themselves with moral and religious education or with spiritual training. Wahbi says:

Do not open your mouth for idle talk,
be well-mannered in your speech.
Take care of what you may say so that
afterwards you do not become uneasy.

Another voices his thought about mannerliness as follows:

Mannerliness is a crown from the light of God:
wear that crown and be safe from every misfortune.

The words of Mawlana Jalalu’d-Din Rumi in praise of mannerliness are beyond compare:

Know that the soul in a person’s body is mannerliness; the light of a person’s heart and eyes is mannerliness. Adam is from an elevated world, not from a low one. This dome (meaning the world) rotates on the axis of mannerliness, which is also its beauty and adornment. If you want to put your foot on the head of Satan, know that it is mannerliness which will kill Satan. One who is deprived of good manners is not truly human, for the difference between humans and animals lies in mannerliness. Open your eyes and see that the Qur’an, the Word of God, consists in mannerliness. I asked the intellect what belief was. It whispered to the ear of the heart that it was mannerliness.

Mannerliness with respect to good morals described as words and behaviour approved by Islam, and as expressed in the words, actions, and acts of approval of the Holy Prophet, upon him he peace and blessings, is beyond the scope of the present answer.

O God! Guide us to what You love and are pleased with, and bestow, O God, blessings on our master Muhammad and on his Family and his Companions, all of them.

[1] Shihabu’d-Din Abu Hafs ‘Umar ibn ‘Abdullah as-Suhrawardi (1145-1234) was a Sufi theologian. ‘Awarifu’l-Ma‘arif is about the Sufi way. He also criticized the philosophers following the ancient Greek philosophy.

Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Polkinghorne are our guests in Matter & Beyond this issue. Professor Tucker from Yale University correlates the spiritual crisis we face in modern times with the ecological crisis on the Earth. Tucker says we are obsessed with economic growth and this preoccupation is creating a number of different types of alienation, sadness, even addictions, because the emptiness of modern consumer life is suffocating the human soul. Polkinghorne, a Fellow of the Royal Society and the former President of Queens’ College, Cambridge, says that science does not tell us the whole story. For him science “needs supplementation by other forms of insight.” Further, he emphasizes how valuable we humans are when he says, “Obviously on the scale of the universe, we are very tiny creatures, and we inhabit a planet that is just a speck of dust, really in the great universe, but we are greater than all the stars because we know them and ourselves, and they know nothing.”

Each day new innovations in science and technology are introduced into our lives. It is often debatable whether scientific research is conducted for the sake of science to fulfill a human need, or if it is manipulated in a way to boost a consumerist economy by shoveling new products onto the market every day. Still, there are interesting findings and discoveries we can learn from the mass media and journals, which will inspire us each time with an appreciation of the glorious harmony found in the universe. Aiming to be a source of inspiration for those readers who seek knowledge through perceiving this harmony, The Fountain is launching Science Square, a new section which will feature a brief account of some of the most interesting scientific news, compiled from recently released papers and reviews. Proceed to the department and see how running barefoot is less damaging than running with shoes, see how pure water can remain liquid at temperatures down to –40 C, how cancer-causing DNA mutations are deciphered, and how scientists are inspired by the spider web.

It is the collaborative work of the mind and heart that will yield the desired spiritual and behavioral education of gifted people. But, how is it possible to satisfy the mind and the heart both at the same time? Traditionally, the heart is associated with religion and the mind is associated with science. So, cooperation between the mind and heart means cooperation between science and religion. Unfortunately, some religious subjects that solely depend on acceptance rather than investigation have been overemphasized during the course of many centuries for various reasons. As a result of this overemphasis and other incentives, Western society has broken the ties between science and religion, leading to an unbalanced relation between the mind and heart. In this imbalance, the mind is united with the ego and oppresses the heart; hearts are suffocated in the name of rationalism, and science is used as a means to deny religion.

It is true that religion is a way that eventually recourses to submission and acceptance rather than questioning. However, a correct perception of religion will never contradict the requirements of the mind, because of the fact that both religion and the mind originate from God. Therefore, a true religion will accept information about the universe that is arrived at by intellectual questioning as a way of acquiring knowledge of God; this consequently links the mind to the heart. A true religion will feed the heart in such a way that the love that sparks therein will give momentum to the investigations of the mind, enabling greater knowledge of God to be acquired, which will in turn increase the love of God and thus, link the heart to mind. It is the lack of this true cyclic relationship between the mind and the heart that has yielded uncontrolled, uneducated, self-idolized minds that boost the ego, creating a vicious circle in which the ego propels the mind. Therefore, the question is “how is one to achieve a unity between the mind and heart so that the education of gifted people yields humble servants to the community and to God?”

The solution to this problem lies partially in what can be called “ego education.” Although it may sound new, this concept is deeply rooted in Muslim cultures, and is called “adab.” In the context of this article, adab can be briefly described as knowing the ideal function and limits of the ego in order to be a good servant of God and a faithful member of society. Adab is traditionally learned from people who are already practicing it. This is referred to as education through the language of disposition (hal). Therefore, teachers who are already adorned with adab are needed to educate the egos of gifted people. It can be easily understood from a short reflection that the prophets and the saints throughout history and the sages in different cultures are those who represent the mission of ego education at different levels. For Muslims, adab is primarily learned from Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, who is the person that practiced and taught the way that leads to the point where the mind and heart are united under submission to God. Even according to the eyes of an outside viewer, Prophet Muhammad was an excellent and a distinguished person as a teacher, as a leader, as a servant of God, as a family man, as a commander, as a strategist . . . a person who came up with a totally new understanding of life and religion. In our context, we can take this as a model where a new approach to religion can be seen as an innovation introduced by a gifted person. Based on this model, it can be said that by learning the good behavior of Prophet Muhammad, who was a gifted person in many aspects, a method can be developed for the education of the ego of gifted people. Here, some of the conclusions from such an analysis are presented.

Ownership of the innovation

Although it is Prophet Muhammad who announced and taught Islam, it is God who taught him the religion and sent the Qur’an. Therefore, it is the Prophet who is the fountain through which the water of Islam flows, but the Prophet himself is neither the owner nor the originator of Islam. Similarly, any invention, be it a theory or a machine or a social system or a strategy, is only owned, originated, and inspired by God. The inventor is only the fountain through which God sends the innovation(1) as a blessing to humanity.

This point is important in many aspects. In terms of society, this way of consideration prevents the idolization of certain people and opens the door of thanksgiving and praise of God. For the inventor, it saves them from becoming an arrogant person and also leads them to thanksgiving and praising God. From another aspect, an invention is a gift from God to the inventor and society. Therefore, especially for the inventor, who, in this case, plays a role similar to that of a mother, this gift quickly leads to love of God.

Innovation as a unit of comparison

One of the purposes for the creation of the ego and the apparent potential it is given is that the individual can use these as a unit of comparison to learn about his Creator.(2) In other words, it is to humbly say “how beautifully created am I and how beautiful is my Creator” instead of arrogantly saying “how beautiful am I.” In a hadith, Prophet Muhammad is related as saying, “My Lord educated me, and how beautifully He has educated me.”(3) In the original text of this saying, the word adab is used for education. Based on this model, both being gifted in any area and the innovation that follows this potential are great units of comparison. A person who is gifted in any area can see God as the ultimate source of his own talents and as the omnipresent Lord who exercises His attributes in the universe on all scales.

Superiority versus neediness

Without the appropriate ego education, it is dangerously easy for a gifted person to indulge in the conviction that they can do things better than others and that they, not someone else, can invent something because they are superior to others. Such a conviction is powered by the ego and is also at the same time a means of feedback for further strengthening the ego in a vicious cycle. A gifted person can very easily fall into the deep and dark pit of arrogance with such thoughts, and will suffer in their social life due to this conviction.

An educated ego, on the other hand, knows that it owns nothing and it has no real creative power. It knows that it can only receive good things from its Creator.(4) What falls to its lot is only awareness of its poverty and neediness and praying to the Almighty for the satisfaction of its needs. This way of understanding leads to the result that it is the inventor who is needy of the invention, because of the way they have been created, because of the potential they have; in other words because of the “hunger” they have been given.(5) These needs can only be met by God, Who is the All-Rich, the All-Beneficent. Contemplation and experimenting in several ways must be considered both as conscious prayers and awareness of the neediness to reach the result of an effort.

Prior to the start of the prophethood, Prophet Muhammad used to seclude himself in a cave on a nearby mountain and contemplate the problems of society, the oppression, the unfortunate state of the women, the absurdity of the idolatry . . . Distressed by these factors, he wished for a salvation that would extinguish the fire within him and eventually deliver society from its wretchedness. This was the way in which the Prophet felt his neediness, and God replied to his conscious and unconscious prayers by choosing him as His Messenger.

So, what is so important about being gifted?

The special thing about being gifted is that the gifted person’s prayers are answered quickly in the way in which they are gifted. This is why certain people can do something or learn things very quickly and others cannot. A parallel to this is the acceptance of the prayers of the saints and the prophets. According to the Risale-i Nur, the prayers made in the language of natural need, innate potential, and in intense difficulty are quickly accepted and responded to(6) and such is the case with gifted people. The potential of the gifted person builds the foundation for the acceptance of their prayers, which are made in the language of their neediness in order to fulfill and develop their potential.

Servanthood as a gift

Every person is a creation of God on which different combinations of His names are manifested. This means that every person has a different and unique gift from others. In daily life, we usually recognize gifts of the people who achieve outstanding things. However, every person can realize the particular gifts given to them. The best of these gifts is the belief and love of God. Every person is given a potential to discover the existence of God and a potential to make an acquaintance with God that leads to His love. For every single human being, this discovery is unique; it is a discovery that nobody else can make for another. 

References

1. Nursi, S., The Words, Kaynak A.S., Izmir, 1997, First Word, pp. 4-5.
2. ibid, Thirtieth Word, pp. 228-229.
3. Al-Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa, 1/72.
4. Nursi, S., The Words, Thirtieth Word, pp. 229-230.
5. ibid, Eighteenth Word, pp. 296.
6. ibid, Twenty-third Word, pp. 412-415.