– Hello grandma, how is everything?

– Oh, my dear Seyma, is that you? Since you are calling all the way from America I will not waste much. I am doing well, take good care of yourself and never forget to put aside your charity before Friday prayer every week.

– Sure, grandma, is there anything you ask of me?

– Tell me, if I were to come to collect donations for the orphans in my town, would President Clinton give me any?

– My dearest grandma, you ask this all the time; I am in America, but I really do not meet with President Clinton at all. I am an ordinary college student and he does not roam around the streets.

I then wondered and chuckled, “the audacity to ask the President of the States when you live far away in a rural part of Anatolia!”

***

All of our cousins, aunts, and uncles would gather in her large but simple 4-bedroom home every Eid. Sugar-loaded grandkids would look for trouble and would find money at every corner of the giant hand-woven rug, to which she anxiously warned: “This sac of money belongs to the fridge project for Ms. Aisha; the right corner belongs to the school supplies for Ms. Khadija’s daughters; and the red sack has the money for Ms. Fatima’s house project. Do not even touch, my dears, as these are sacred.”

She built dozens of houses with the funds that she collected bit by bit, day by day, cent by cent and would store it under the rug. She would never let a family go without fulfilling all of their needs and finding a sustainable source of income. A couple days a week, she would take the needy families down to the marketplace to visit businessmen and ask for help. Some of them knew of her sincere intentions while others complained when she arrived. However, she certainly did not care what others would think of her. She would be helping a family or two and they would sit around the table with all of us every Eid dinner. My uncles and aunts were the “elites” of the town, and so this notion was not something we were used to in our normal lives. I then grunted for her absurdness for squeezing us all with strangers.

***

She used to sit down on her old velvet couch with her green thousand-count prayer beads in her hands as she looked out the window and lamented why the municipality would turn on the light at 5:30 pm when it gets dark only slightly later. If she saw an unnecessarily lit area, no matter how tired she was and what time of the day it was, she would hastily run to turn them off despite her old age and swollen legs.

The most striking part of the story used to come when she turned the lights off when my grandfather was in the bathroom. It was typical in most houses to have light switches outside of the room. When he screamed for her to turn the light back on, she, with a great sense of humor and seriousness, shouted back “Get done and come out quickly, there is nothing to see there anyhow!”

The most memorable quote from her was the Qur’anic verse, “…eat and drink, but waste not by excess, for God does not love wasters” (7:31).

I thought she was exaggerating this a bit much.

***

– Granny, I have exams this week. Can you please pray for me?

– Oh, my sweetie, may God help all those in need including you. I will pray for everyone, God willing.

– No grandma, that is NOT what I want. I want you to pray for ME!

With a smile, she would embrace and kiss me on the head.

I was then heart-broken thinking that I wasn’t special to her.

***

Her first name was Ihsaniye, which means “the bestowed.” She met with her Beloved God on a Feb 14^th after a long battle with a heinous cancer. The whole town cried – and, I thought I even heard the sky cry – with chants of her nickname, “the Mother of Orphans.”

Now, I have your hand-woven blue-beige medallion-style wool rug, which was the container of your little sacks, maroon-ruby wedding ring, and your green thousand-count prayer beads in my hands to cherish your beautiful heart and soul, the giant heart to fit all of humanity, the soul that cared for the earth…

As I sip my dark and warm coffee in this light and spacious hall, in one of the country’s most sustainable buildings, Kroon Hall in New Haven, listening to professors, NGOs, and private sectors presenting their vision, solutions, and efforts on Climate Change, Sustainability, and Economic Empowerment, I sigh deeply, and remember the Mother of Orphans, my dearest grandmother.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
…For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
“The World is too Much with Us” by William Wordsworth

Rapidly changing technology and an endless stream of entertainment and information are the trappings of modern life. When I read Wordsworth’s poem, an old favorite of mine, I was surprised to discover that life wasn’t so different in 1807 than it is now. It made me realize that in some universal sense, I can also say that the world is “too much with me.”

I drink coffee, listen to the news, buy new shoes, go to lunch with my sister, watch football on TV, and move trancelike from one “thing” to another. Understanding that these attractions of the world have always been a timeless trap, I went in search of a way to be free from this trap and sustain happiness.

I first examined Eastern philosophy, which reaffirmed what every good disciple of Zen Buddhism knows: you have to run away from what attracts you in the world. I have always associated the practice of contemplation with the picture of the Buddha sitting peacefully under a tree, detached from the world, wearing an expression of serenity on his face. This expression is also depicted on Christ’s face as he is suspended above the world on a cross.

While these pictures triggered a longing inside me for a modicum of peace, they also reminded me of the discontentment I experience when the world is too much with me. It turns out that discontentment has been referred to in many ways throughout time. The Taoists call it imbalance, Buddhists call it ignorance. The Qur’an calls it “a sickness/disease of the heart” (2:10). And the famous Christian monk, St. Augustine, describes its opposite, “true contentment,” in the following way:

“… [true contentment is] felt only in the presence of God … Our whole business then, in life, is to restore the heart to health so that God can be seen or felt.”

While our modern Western philosophy seduces us with the possibility that we can be happy by consuming and dominating the world, the appeal of Eastern philosophy is the promise that we can be happy by transcending it. Enviably, Buddha had found a way to sustain happiness, without having to buy a new set of clothes. I wanted to know if sustained happiness was possible for me, too. Since Islam is my religion, I set out to discover something about the contemplative practices in Islam, so I could connect with God through my own tradition.

I had never read or come across anyone who described the traditional practices in Islam as “contemplative.” They are called the five pillars of Islam, and they seem so different from other practices, such as meditation in Zen Buddhism. But Islamic contemplative practices, I discovered, are a blend of the best of both worlds, East and West.

I began by examining the first pillar of Islam: Belief in the Oneness of God, or tawhid in Arabic. Tawhid is the central tenet upon which all other beliefs can rest. It demands an exclusive relationship with God, excluding anyone or anything in any similar relationship. This is a relationship that does not recognize any authority besides God—whether it is one’s parents, teacher, or friend. In other words, it is a relationship that presupposes that humankind is liberated from everything in the material and physical world, in order to experience what is known in Islam as taqwa, or piety—the conscious performance of good and avoidance of evil.

Tawhid (liberation) is manifest in the Buddha seated under the tree, and taqwa (piety) is seen in his facial expression. In Islamic terms, the predisposition of liberation (tawhid) is the foundation of Islamic contemplative practice. It is the same as saying that to sustain happiness, you have to let go of what attracts you in the world.

How is this done in Islam? The quintessential example of “stepping outside” of the world is the disciple sitting for 18 hours in the lotus blossom position. This helped me to describe the two essential characteristics of contemplative practice as being: 1) a physical “stepping outside” of the world; and 2) something painful or difficult, or both.

Islamic prayer bears both these characteristics. The time-out is brief, but it also happens five times a day. In other words, it requires me to step outside of my life and let go (detach), for short periods of time throughout the day, every day. It may not be as difficult as sitting in the lotus position for 18 hours, but believe me the hardest part of this practice is making yourself stop what you’re doing in order to pray.

Meditation and Islamic prayer also share the imperative of self-discipline. Fully conscious of the pain and sacrifice associated with contemplative practices, the Hindus say, tears and prayers go hand-in-hand. I think the biggest challenge for Muslims is finding the time to pray each day. Given the demands of life on one hand and the schedule of five daily prayers on the other, self-discipline is tested in the constancy of personal choices: Do I watch the rest of my favorite TV program or turn it off in time to pray? At which point do I end my phone conversation? When do I stop working on my computer? And, how do I excuse myself from a fun gathering of family or friends just to say my prayers on time?

These choices get to the crux of the spiritual matter. Do I continue participating in the world, or do I stop and step outside of it at punctuated times? I failed miserably at my first attempts to pray five prayers a day. It took me years to realize that trying to squeeze my prayers into my busy life was a futile and backwards approach.

What helped me most was re-reading the oft-repeated command in the Qur’an that says “establish prayer” in your life. I finally figured out that if I could establish my daily life around the commuter train schedule, as I did to get to work, then why couldn’t I establish my life around a prayer schedule?

When I took this approach, I was able to establish prayers in my life. First, it was just one prayer a day, then, two, until ultimately I was praying five times a day. In essence, I had “established” a sacred space and contemplative time in my busy life, creating a virtual sanctuary, with no trespassing. The result has been a virtuous circle of sustained happiness, nurtured by my sustained commitment.

In addition, to be successful in both prayer and meditation, a disciple has to have some effective way to keep the worries and demands of the world at bay. Otherwise, time-out quickly becomes time-wasted. I remember studying transcendental meditation in the early 1970s. The Yogi (practitioner of yoga) taught me to use my mantra (a sound, syllable or word considered capable of creating a spiritual transformation) as a way to focus (which cost me $450 at the time). He said “thought bubbles” of worldly concerns would rise to the surface but that I must release them in order to empty my mind repeatedly.

With Islamic prayer, it is no less challenging to keep focused. But the genius of prayer in Islam is that the prayers are in Arabic, the language of the Qur’an. Learning and memorizing the Arabic language is challenging to all Muslims, whether Arabic-speaking or not (and most are not). But concentration on the Arabic words (which I vaguely understand) and recitation of memorized prayers, coupled with the physical requirements of performing prayer, play a significant role in keeping focused on the task of communion with God.

Next, I tried to determine the times when I had ever felt God’s presence (a sense of taqwa) in my life. The answer was easy. It was during the holy month of Ramadan, a month of fasting from dawn to dusk, another pillar of Islamic practice. Christians, Muslims or Jews who have fasted know that fasting changes your routine life, at the most critical and basic level. I found that even though I was standing in the middle of my life, fasting separated me from everything going on around me.

Analyzing the results of this alternative state (tawhid), I realized that fasting had liberated me from the most basic enslavements of our modern, secular world, allowing my spirit to soar freely above the din. Taking one step further, whenever my personal covenant with God was tested by an aching hunger or profound thirst, I would ask myself: Why am I doing this? And in that moment, when I am most conscious of the extreme sacrifice I am making, I am also acutely aware that I have a choice: I can keep my promise to God to fast, or break it. Thus, when I consciously choose my relationship with God above all else, I experience the pure sweetness of taqwa in the depths of my soul. Taqwa is my constant companion during Ramadan, for every time I make a conscious choice to fast, my heart fills with it.

Prior to making the pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj), I had experienced only fleeting moments of taqwa. But the journey to Mecca is like Alice going down the rabbit hole, leaving her life and traveling to another world for an extended period of time, which is sometimes very scary. Unlike Ramadan, when you resume the semblance of your normal life at the end of the day, nothing is normal during the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Every religion asks us to abandon comfort and familiar ways, or give something up. We get up early to pray, we fast, we hone our virtues, purify our inner self, and treat our neighbors well, with the hope of achieving that Divine communion. We have learned that diligence without assurance is otherwise known as faith.

I know of no other journey that has tested or strengthened my faith as much as the Hajj. Mysteriously, I still cannot fully articulate why this is so. The imams warned us before we left, “You will be out of your comfort zone.” But that was an understatement. This was a journey to a world more foreign and exhilarating than I have ever seen or been. The rituals we had to perform were far beyond my physical capacity. Furthermore, everything about the world that I was familiar with was fading into the past, further and further into obscurity and insignificance.

Ironically, the further I stepped out of my world, the closer I felt to God (a deeper sense of taqwa). At the same time, I became more intimately in touch with myself in a way I had never experienced before. It was a time of self-renewal, and through it all, I held the unwavering belief that God, my Creator, was guiding me. I just humbly submit, and I do not know how or why. All I know is that I had made a choice long ago to fulfill this pillar of Islam, even though at times, I feared I might never be able to afford it. Yet, when I finally had the opportunity to go on the pilgrimage and things got tough along the way, I would always ask myself: Why am I doing this? And the answer always came from my heart: it was my choice and my promise.

“Do not imagine that the journey is short; and one must have the heart of a lion to follow the unusual road, for it is very long…. One plods along in a state of amazement, sometimes smiling, sometimes weeping…” Rumi

Mary Lahaj is a Muslim Chaplain to the community at the Islamic Center of Boston in Wayland, MA.

It was on one of these sunny days that I had a guest. He was a generous young man. Soon after he came nearby, he served his blood to the mosquitos. Considering all the things humans pick from nature, their blood is the fruit that nature can pick in return, right? Anyway, the reason that I called this guest generous is that he did not kill the mosquitos while they were sucking his blood. He sat near me, and started pondering over the nice valley below. I didn’t know at first if I should talk to him. The snail creeping on me preferred to keep silent too. So I decided not to speak to him.

Soon after, a friend of this young man arrived. They started talking about finding water here. I thought “How do you think water can be found at this height of the hill?” But they started digging with the special equipments they had. I had heard about these things when a group of students had come on a field trip. They talked about the different kinds of rocks and the minerals in them, their story of formation through the depths of the earth or under deep water, and how one could find invaluable fluids by digging through them. Seeing these two young men, I better understood what they meant.

Anyway, after a few hours of extreme noise, I felt the wetness that touched me from below. The water was indeed rising in the well the two young men had made, and soon they were screaming from joy. As they indulged in their celebration, I was engulfed by that uncomfortable feeling I had when they’d arrived. After all, this was my place, and they had invaded it.

As if this invasion wasn’t enough, the man who had arrived first stepped on me and spread a cloth. I was enraged at the thought of this man celebrating his victory over me. But my rage stumbled upon what I saw as I watched him. He started offering thanks and praying. It was then that a sense of warmth seeped between us, and I began talking to him everytime he came. During his visits, he used to drink some fresh water, sit on me looking towards the valley, and delve into reflections and prayers. I thanked God for giving me this flat surface so that someone could pray on me. Our relationship became so special that when he was not around, I used to pray for his return.

Years passed by. Things didn’t change much with me, but the man changed a lot. His once smooth face now looked like the wavy ocean surface. His body was bent like trees on steep hills. Things were changing incredibly fast for humans. I felt pity for this man who was troubled by his daily affairs. I prayed that I could be closer to him to help relieve his pains. My prayers were accepted and this respectable man spent more and more time on me. Sometimes lying, sometimes sitting, but always contemplating or praying.

At times, he brought his grandchildren. These kids did not enjoy being here as much as their grandfather. They constantly kept looking at the glasses in their hands that entertained them. But sometimes, they had funny talks with their grandfather. For example, this one time they talked about putting the stones in water or burrying them in the soil so that they can grow like plants. When I heard those words, I thought about my genesis through the ocean beds and the inferno compartments in the earth. My life story was so naively and elegantly put into those few words of the children. It is curious how the little ones can formulize complex things so easily.

Those times of amusement used to make me think about myself. I was a mature rock, and I wanted to have youngsters around me. I prayed to have little ones that were eager to “rock ‘n’ roll.” But perhaps those little ones would not show up as soon as they did for the humans, and they would not be as rambunctious as their human peers. Anyway, with my innate desire, I kept praying to have them around.

Strange enough, my prayers were answered sooner than I thought, and I started seeing these little pebbles parting from me. In my maturity, I had the blessing of giving birth to children all around me. Now, whenever the old man came with his grandchildren, they played with mine, and that gave me immense pleasure.

At last one day, I saw a group of people coming near by with a wooden box on their shoulders. Yes, that was him, brought to meet his Lord… He was burried in the cemetery at the peak of the hill.

…

You know, it’s not easy to lose someone you love. It’s feels like burying a part of your heart before you actually die. I cried a lot, and I still do, silently, in my own way. I don’t want my sorrow to assume the form of a complaint against the decree of our Lord. Yet, I cry nonetheless. Maybe this grief is what has made me so weak nowadays. I am feeling that my end is near, too. The increasing number of little ones all around is making this message impossible to ignore. But at the same time, I am developing a hope of continuity; because the water that is springing under me penetrates into my pores, and water means life.

However, the peace that comes with this hope is always followed by the grief of losing my friend, and I am crying all my water out. To quench my sorrow, God sent me lots of people. They are all around, now that my tears are making a waterfall. But I’d rather have my friend pray on me than these people laugh with negligence at my sorrow. “Oh my Lord, my friend in the heavens… Oh my Lord, my friend in the heavens…”

If life is a book of colorful pages, I cherish each color I shared with you. Colors of laughter, love and joy, emotions I can never pen down. Such were the 20 young pages of my life, with 85 of yours. Your companionship was indeed incomparable to any other object of the world. But holy wisdom lays in a calm surrender my friend; life is in fact no more than a brief existence, and we are sole travelers. It’s neither ours to give nor ours to take. Like a shell imprisoning the pearl. This body is a prison for the soul that demands to fly away one day, without any khalil, close friends, up onto the final abode, where He has blessed the Prophets, the foremost believers, martyrs and the righteous ones. So today is a plain deal my friend, conditioned by death and remorse, tomorrow all the spirited ones leave the world at a constant loss.

Indeed sometimes to say goodbye to someone you love is quite impossible.

I know memories tend to fade away but they say the heart retains its scars longer than any other part of the body. Along with the pleasant memories I hold in my heart, there are some regrets too that make me ache but make me love you more and more with each passing moon. Surely, I stand firm because of Him whose love is greater than our disappointments. It’s not easy my friend, but it’s His decree. I hear, I obey, and I surrender. So does every man.

You have gone away my friend. Your soul is free. But you’re still alive in my heart. I like to go back in time and remember old days, our offering Jumu’ah, Friday, prayer together in your favorite mosque, that white dress of yours and your beautiful embroidery veil, a veil that sheltered me once from the sunrays, on our return to home; your old kind eyes full of wisdom and your face gentle and calm. The times you used to sit by my side whenever I was sick and pray with tears in your tender eyes. I still dream of your hands my friend, when I think of you, so soft like silk caressing my teary face.

Indeed sometimes to say goodbye to someone you love is quite impossible.

They say I am your reflection my friend, what a lie they tell. How could I possibly be as pious as you? You were the height of righteousness while I… Oh! How badly I wish, if I could turn back time and end my grief. How badly I desire to right the wrongs of yesterday, bring you back and sit next to you again. But Alas! Life is momentary and uncertain my friend, death is its part.

As patience is retained by the desert without rain, I shall have patience and remember you as my friend, O my beloved Nano . I shall pass your love to my children’s children. I shall walk in your footsteps and keep you alive in my heart. As time goes by, my memories will fade away but I shall always remember the one who caressed me and took my worries away. You and I belong to different worlds now but death is only a pause in this momentary life, a new life awaits. So when He will shower His rain upon me I shall meet you again. Until then I pray thee peace, my friend, whenever I kneel before Him in my prayer. I’ll grow older and older with each fleeting moment and memories will grow fainter so they say, but as long as my mortal heart will beat, I’ll keep in heart the day the angel of death took you to your heavenly abode, an unseen place…

Indeed sometimes to say good bye to someone you love is quite impossible.

But …We All belong to God my friend, and to Him we shall return!

May God rest your soul in peace, my beloved Nana! I miss you. But One day, if God wills, we’ll surely meet. They ask me over and over again Nano, why life does everything in its power to return to death? I say hush, silent…believe and pray. Death in itself is a desire to live young, forever and ever again!

“God is He to Whom belongs the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth. He gives life and causes to die. And you have, apart from God, neither a guardian (who will protect you and to whom you can entrust your affairs) nor a helper.” (Tawbah, 9:116)

Pervisha Khan is a student of B.S. Hons. Mass Communication at Lahore College for Women University, Pakistan.

The following day journalists, writers, columnists, newscasters, academics, members of think-tanks, and politicians announced that this day had been a milestone. The term “milestone” marks the beginning of new things; what was about to begin now? As time passed we understood what they meant. Nothing in America was the same as before. On September 10, 2001 it had been the land of liberty; on September 12 the situation totally changed. Due to the religious identity of the members of Al Qaeda, who were declared to be the perpetrators, the USA, indeed almost the entire world, had become uninhabitable for anyone with the same religious identity. Liberty had been replaced by constraints and accusations. Not only the USA, but indeed the entire world had shrunk for Muslim people.

It is possible to understand the anger of Americans who lost their loved ones in this tragic incident, one in which almost 3,000 people died. It is also possible to understand people insulting Muslim women wearing headscarves and Muslim men in their beards and turbans. Attacks on mosques during this time could even be considered tolerable. However, what is difficult to understand is the long-lasting discrimination against Muslims and the perception of each and every Muslim as a potential terrorist. For the USA, a country with multicultural politics it cannot be reasonable to formalize changing attitudes with legislation. Something was happening to this country, one which had been advocating peace not war, one that had been known as the land of freedom and diversity. However, all this has happened because America was undergoing a period in which wisdom had been abandoned, something noted by many people.

I want to tell you about two of my memories. One of them occurred in 1999. I and several friends were going to the southern region of New Jersey. When we landed at JFK, we had another 2 hours to drive to our destination, if the traffic was light. Because it was time to pray and we would not be able to get to our destination before the time to pray, we decided to pray on the way. We performed ablution in a rest area. We laid our prayer rugs on the ground and we prayed in public, on the grass. We did not notice anyone glaring at us. We did not encounter any quizzical expressions nor were we treated in any disparaging manner. People in the USA would ask Muslims to mention them in their prayers when they came into contact with God. They also used to show us places to pray. But today? Although some claim that attitudes have not changed, Muslims cannot pray without worrying about somebody calling 911. This is not just an empty claim or remote possibility. There have been many examples of this kind of situation.

Another memory is from the USA of 2002. I was at an airport, getting ready to fly to another state. Although I passed through a number of security checkpoints along with other passengers, the security officer pulled me over. This had happened many times after 9/11, but this time I could not resist asking, “Why?” I had become exasperated with such acts of discrimination. I was fed up with being treated like a terrorist and a man to pity under scornful eyes. Angrily I asked “Why me?” I suppose he had undergone training in psychology. He held my arm, smiling, which made me feel comfortable. He showed me my boarding pass and the 3 S on it. He explained that it means extra security check. He said that the computers put these letters there because I have a Muslim name. He also told me that I should not take it personally because the computer program adds this to all names entered into the system. I realized that my name, which I have always been proud of, was now a reason for discrimination. I am sure that this was only because of 9/11 and Al Qaeda.

Are such precautions appropriate? Many authorities, in particular, politicians at that time agreed they were necessary. There were some people who did not agree, but their number was less and they could not speak up. 10 years after this horrific incident many people now say that all such actions were inappropriate.

The past stays in the past. It is ridiculous to try to carry yesterday’s issues to today. However should we not learn from the past? I Religion, language, ethnicity, creed, and profession are our secondary identities, coming after being human. These were differences that gave us a sense of belonging. In the same way that capital has no religion, terrorism cannot have any religion. If there is a list of words that cannot go together, “religion and terrorism” takes first place. We can neither relate to religion nor explain by religion what the Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh or the Norwegian terrorist Behring Breivik did. In the same way that we cannot relate what they did to their religious identity as Christian terrorism, we cannot do the same with the events on 9/11 as Islamic terrorism. However, sadly this has not been the case.

All rational Muslims have exclaimed that it is in no way justified to identify Islam and Muslims with terrorism. Many authorities, scholars, politicians, academics, and opinion leaders have also said that this was a grave mistake. Even though a terrorist may have a Muslim identity, you cannot generalize and scrutinize such behavior from an Islamic perspective. On that day the newspapers published full-page condolence messages. Muslim scholars and academics also penned letters that condemned terrorism. This period, as it was one in which wisdom did not exist, prevented people from seeing all this, perhaps because it was Islam being accused and they didn’t really care about it, or because they did not want to change their foreign policy which they based on these attacks, or because they were prejudiced, or because they wanted to ease public opinion. What did happen was that common sense was ignored and people behaved as they wanted to.

Thank God, this lack of wisdom did not last long. As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the mood has changed. Not all Muslims are considered to be potential terrorists anymore. People who have Muslim names do not get extra security checks at airports. The terrible slaughter in Norway has made the authorities start to reconsider their policies. Religious and cultural diversity projects and models for living together with peace are being reviewed. Projects that cover all areas of life, such as world brotherhood, coexistence while preserving differences, making the world a place for togetherness, preventing the otherization of other people have all started to take place despite the existence of some people who still see “others” as the enemy. We sincerely hope that those who are for peaceful coexistence will dominate over the second and the world will never experience a new 9/11, Oklahoma, Madrid, London, or Oslo attacks again.

Adjusting her position on the floor, Hannah told herself, “I have just one choice now. I have to pray to God.” She raised her eyes to the ceiling, where she thought there was a heaven, where she thought she might find God. But her mind was unclear about what to do or say next. She didn’t really know how to pray but she hoped, if there was a God, He would hear her wherever she was…wouldn’t He? She didn’t really know much about belief. Religion didn’t play a big part in her family’s life; perhaps this had led her to believe she didn’t need religion or God in her life.

For the past 10 years, she had been living like so many young people of her time, never once contemplating God, religion, or even the difference between right and wrong. She had followed the crowd and her own egotistical desires. Ironically, it was this crooked path that led her to God’s door. She was standing now at a dangerous intersection, 30 years old with no home of her own, no job, pregnant out of wedlock, and trying to make a responsible decision for the life she carried inside.

Growing up, it was clear that her parents had hopes and dreams for all their children to be successful, good people. Her generation had their marching orders: make the family proud. They strove to be the brightest in school, the most talented musicians, and the toughest players on the football field. Her family was well-known in town for owning the biggest house, buying the best clothes, and driving the newest cars.

As a child, she had lived a sheltered, lonely and isolated life. Her playmates were her cousins and siblings. When she grew older, her friends became the most important people in her life. And although she tried, she didn’t fit in with her peers; perhaps the reason was because she didn’t belong to a community of faithful believers, or perhaps because her skin was a shade too dark. Being different had impacted her identity negatively. Despite all the love her family had shared, she was unhappy with herself. Hannah couldn’t wait to get away from that town, that family, and the unanswered questions about why she didn’t fit in.

Hannah’s life changed drastically after she went to college. There, she was free. What she did with her newfound freedom was not inhibited by her skin color, her parents, or by any relationship with God. She cared nothing about what God thought of her, and only about what people thought of her. Her sole ambition was to appear liberated from any sense of guilt or shame, even after wronging herself or another.

After college, her parents expected her to move back home, but Hannah refused. By then, her taste for freedom had become as precious as gold, and she couldn’t imagine losing even one piece of it. So, with her parents’ reluctant support, she moved to New York City to pursue her dream of becoming a rich and famous songwriter and singer.

After seven years, and some success in the music business, she returned home—secretly pregnant. Deeply disappointed by her mistakes and the dissatisfying path she had chosen, Hannah sought shelter in her mother’s home, until she could figure out what to do next. In her room, Hannah prepared to pray, closing her eyes and fearing God. Praying was something she hadn’t done since she was an innocent child. She wondered,“Will God listen to me? But then, why should He?”

Hannah struggled to find the right words, to move beyond her fears and doubts. How could she ask for something from someone she hardly knew or trusted? Finally, she managed to speak: “God, I am unworthy; too unworthy to ask for your help.”

With her head bowed, Hannah began to sob, “But I’m in trouble. You have to help me…I have nowhere to turn, no one else to ask. Oh, dear God. Please help me…”

In tears, and feeling her prayer was futile, Hannah was about to give up, when she was struck by a clear, cold reality: God was her only Helper. This truism awakened a longing deep inside of her. She kept pushing, praying, putting aside her pride, and then, she began to beg: “Oh, my God, I’m going to do the most impossible thing. But You…You have to help me, because without Your help, I couldn’t do it…”

She heard her own voice, crying out, asking for a change in her life. Like the Israelites, who had cried out to God from the depths of their souls to be released from slavery. God answered their cry and gave them Moses.

Praying was evidence of a change taking place within Hannah. But she had to wonder, was it really enough, if absolutely nothing about her situation had changed? She had no plan of action, no partner, no place to live, no money, and no job; and yet, she now believed that everything in the universe could change by God’s will:

“…Truly, never will God change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves…”

Hannah began to think of other changes she could make to her life, asking herself for the first time: “Could I change my way of life? Would God guide me if I asked to be guided?”

When she finished crying and praying, and opened her eyes, Hannah felt better. She had an inexplicable sense of peace, and felt confident about her sudden decisiveness. She passed her hands over her face, still wet with her tears and whispered into the air: “I’m going to have this baby and God is going to help me.”

From that day forward, Hannah’s awareness of and deep need for God would determine all her choices. For Hannah, it was the beginning of a renewed relationship with God, a way for her to learn how to trust in God. Some call it “a leap of faith.” But years later, Hannah would describe the experience in her room as the day she surrendered to God. She experienced the true meaning of faith that day; the moment of her surrender came when she realized with her whole heart that she had only One True Helper.

Tears dried and spirits surprisingly high, Hannah left her room and headed downstairs to the pantry. Starving, she held a salty pickled turnip in one hand and a sweet piece of baklava in the other, when her mother came upon her and asked innocently,“What are you doing, Hannah? Why are you eating both of those at once? You’re going to get sick!”

When she saw the love and concern on her mother’s face, and thought about the gift from God growing inside her body, Hannah was overcome by a profound sense of gratitude, and the vision of a new life, with God as her guide.

“Say, ‘Come, I will rehearse what God has really prohibited you from: Join not anything as equal with Him; be good to your parents; kill not your children on a plea of want.’ We provide sustenance for you and for them…come not near to shameful deeds, whether open or in secret. Take not life, which God has made sacred, except by way of justice and law. Thus does He command you that you may learn wisdom.” (Qur’an 6:151)

Afterword: Hannah and her child never experienced a single day of want. Today, her son is 28 years old and has far exceeded the hopes and dreams a mother could have for a child. She often refers to him as the “jewel in her crown.” And each fall she makes him his favorite dish, salty pickled turnips.

While these conflicts are represented and justified in terms of religion, historical linkages and occurrence, resources, election or ethnicity, a critical look at these “points of division” increasingly clarifies certain underlying currents: group affiliation, attachment and solidarity. It is this affiliation, attachment and solidarity that have informed the increasingly common dichotomy of people, locally and sometimes internationally, between the “we” and the “them,” “the in-groups” and “the out-groups” or, as is used among the Yorubas in western Nigeria, between the “Omo-ilus” and the “Ara-ilus.”

In the Yoruba language the Omo-ilus denotes a group of people who belong to a particular area in terms of religion and culture, and not only reside in such areas, but are attached to the land. Conversely, the Ara-ilus are people who find themselves in the same area as the Omo-ilus, but who are considered aliens by the latter because of history, religion, tribe, etc. Therefore, there is a clear division to the extent that an Omo-ilu tends not to see an Ara-ilu as his tribal brother even when the latter has stayed in the Ilu (village or locality) for more than 20 years, or even where he was born in the Ilu and haz imbibed some of the culture of the land, including its religion. Though elsewhere, this division is termed the native-settler syndrome, the underlying logic is similar.

The “group thesis” as an explanatory paradigm postulated by Arthur Bentley is not new in the social sciences, but its essence and relevance has been a subject of academic standoffs, while the respective groups continue to move towards violent settlement of issues. Even the global system has not been left out in this segmentation of the humanities. While Huntington spoke about a “clash of civilizations,” President George W. Bush partitioned the world into “Our Allies” and the “Axis of Evil,” even as some Arab scholars and leaders publicized an “Arab Renaissance”-sometimes termed “Arabism”-which splits the Northern African countries from other parts of Africa, and in other, more Machiavellian usage justifies conflicts in places like Darfur, Sudan. All these assertions and points of view tend to perceive of the global system as a mixture of groups with mutually exclusive interest and existences. These patterns of thinking, though gaining grounds, qualify as perhaps the greatest form of communal self-deceit. Men will always remain interrelated and interdependent on one another.

It is within this milieu that I propose Justobification, a simple interpersonal disposition to be adopted or adapted by these various groups. Justobification is a personal experiment that has helped me understand, to a large extent, someone from “another group.” Today that someone is my wife. It is simple and replicable in a wider context. Most importantly, it is adaptable in attempting to address some of these socially constructed divisions with a sense of love and respect, emphasizing centripetal rather than centrifugal forces. Justobification is a story, spanning nine years of my life and culminating in my marriage to my friend, classmate and, now, wife, Justina Olatuga. We had different backgrounds in terms of religion, state of origin (a key means of division and appropriation in Nigeria), family background and differing opinions on a number of issues. Though we belonged to the same Yoruba ethnic group in Nigeria, the aforementioned differences created a dialectical summation which made us Omo-ilu and Ara-ilu simultaneously, depending on whether we are in my native Lagos State or in her Ondo State in Nigeria. To complicate issues, our parents are religious leaders: a Pastor and an Alhaji. Justobification is in itself, and originally, an attempt to merge my native name and hers to form a word: Justina and Tobi. It was coined by a colleague of ours who had, unknown to us, watched us since we stated our friendship in 1999. But beyond his coinage, I proceed to justify Justobification.

I have always had the belief that one’s position and stage in life is determined by a number of factors. These factors have been broadly identified as nature or nurture. By nature, it presupposes the fact that a human being’s way of seeing things is shaped by the way he or she was born. Thus, often it is said in some cultures that a fat person is usually friendly and lively, or a baby with a gap in its tooth means that it will be a socialite when it grows up. More clearly, race and ethnicity are key nature-factors; for instance, people who are born by European parents see themselves as Europeans just as an African, in the strictest form, gives birth to an African, though nurture also has a role to play in the formation of racial or ethnic identities.

The nurture angle argues that human beings are influenced by those events that they experience and the circumstances in which they find themselves. This means that the opportunity for and location of their education, their friendship, the books they read, their family orientation and so on all being a function of what occurred after birth. In other words, experiences have an enduring impact on the way we see things. As a factor, religion-without any attempt at interpreting the embodiment of the Books-falls under nurture. Thus, a large number of people are Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sango worshipper, etc., most often because their parents belong to such religions.

However, while nature-nurture makes human beings different in terms of their culture, race, tribe, region, religion, etc, this nature-nurture engendered classification has been at the core of local and international crises. These crises are reinforced by the fact that some of the emergent groups tend to view themselves as superior or more civilized or more indigenous than the other, as can be seen in the native-settler violence in Middle Belt of Nigeria, the Hutu-Tutsi violence in Rwanda, violence in Darfur in Sudan, Kenya with regards to the recent electoral violence, the crisis in Ireland some years ago, pre-1990 apartheid in South Africa among others.

My marriage to Justina exposed me to certain points. First, all religions teach love and respect. Similarly, all ethnic groups, which are likened to race, teach morality in which love and respect are central. There is hardly any religion, race, tribe, etc, that advocates violence and mutual hatred for the followers of other religions or members of other tribes or groups for no just reason. As friends, not only did we love ourselves as creatures of the Almighty, but we also respected our various points of view on nature-nurture factors such as ethnicity, religion, tribe, class, etc. We understood that these views are personal but we also, most importantly, understood that we must not assume that these individual views must be accepted by the other party. The global system can learn from this in the sense that civilizations, to use the words of Huntington, should not claim to be on a mission to civilize another civilization. Instead, efforts should be made to understand and respect the others’ views through love. Love, if present, allows individuals and groups to overlook the mistakes of others. This certainly does not mean that we should ignore human rights violations, injustices, and corruption; more appropriate and influential means of interaction should be used if we truly want to eliminate such violations.

Second, listening to ourselves helped us make sense of some of our beliefs. This helped us scale the hurdle of assumptions and the breaks in communications which are some of the reasons for group related intra/inter-state conflicts. These can be illustrated by such events as the myth of the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, the emergent Sunni-Shiite enmity around portions of the middle east, a failure to communicate between the top leaders of Palestine and Israel, the continuous religious vacuum created in the neglect of some Islamic leaders in Somalia (Oshodi, 2009) and the ethno-religious violence in 1994, 2001, 2002 and 2008 in Jos, Nigeria to mention just a few. Listening to people helps one to understand their respective points of view. The importance of listening allows the Ara-ilus and Omo-ilus to understand one another better. For instance, our interactions have helped me understand some aspects of Christianity that I never knew existed. Also, I was able to relate a number of the verses of the Qur’an to her, even before we decided to marry.

Thirdly, Justobification helped me understand that some of the points of difference among groups could be transformed to points of understanding. We achieved this by learning to see our similarities rather than overplay our differences. Even as there were areas where we did not agree, we laid more emphasis on the centripetal forces such as common humanity and love, while understanding the centrifugal forces by listening to each other with respect and understanding. Unfortunately, some group leaders tend to over-blow these differences to a massive level, leading to the emergence of hybrid interpretations which find expression in the various violence and counter-violence among a large number of the nature-nurture groupings of the world.

Fourthly, Justobification showed me the importance of prayer for peace and friendship. Though it is unquestionable that prayers are a communication between human beings and the Creator, these prayers often have a psychological effect on us. By praying for a person, you tend to wish such a person well, thereby overcoming any hitherto existing antagonisms or hatreds. I recommend that groups pray for other groups. By this I look, hopefully, for a day when Sunnis pray for Shiites in Iraq, and vice versa in their mosques on frequent occasions, or the day when Christians pray for Muslims, Arabs pray for Americans, Yorubas pray for Hausa-Fulanis, or leaders of larger groups/states pray for others. For instance, the Israeli President pray for Palestinian leaders, or ex-President Bush praying for President Ahmadinajad of Iran, and vice versa. Though this may be considered laughable and debateable, there is no doubt that saying a prayer for peace and friendship will soften the hearts of these groups and their leaders.

In conclusion, even as I write there is the threat of nature-nurture related violence in different parts of the world. Societies are dividing along ethnic, religious, tribal or civilizational line. Sadly, this may continue unless we, as humans, begin to see the need to love, respect, expand points of unity and pray for peace and friendship. Simply put… we could all use a little Justobification.

Abdul-Gafar ‘Tobi’ Oshodi is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Lagos State University (LASU), Lagos, Nigeria. Also a trained journalist, Tobi Oshodi specialises in Advanced Specialised Reporting and International Political Economy with bias for the “African Condition.”

References

• Huntington, S. “The Clash of Civilizations,” in Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993.
• Oshodi, T. “Religious Vacuum and the Making of a Failed State: Somalia in the Eyes of the World” a paper presented at the Conference on Religion and International Relations in the Post Cold War Era held at the Uthman Dan Fodio University (UDU) Sokoto, Nigeria, January 16th – 17th, 2009.

Nursi frames his view on prayer by making use of the following verse from the Qur’an, which shows the paramount importance of prayer.

Say (O Muhammad, unto the unbelievers): My Lord would not care for you were it not for your prayer. (Furqan 25:77)

In the Islamic tradition, prayer is considered the most significant and mysterious means of relationship between humans and the Creator. Nursi considers prayer as the spirit of servanthood. Accordingly, all creatures in their own tongues pray to God, both consciously and unconsciously. Humans, angels, and the jinn (invisible creatures that are parallel to humans) all pray to God. Nursi divides prayer, basically, into four types.

The first type of prayer is a prayer through the language of capacity. This is the prayer of all kinds of seeds and grains. They pray to the Lord through the language of their capability by saying the following:

O Lord, grow us to express the beauty of Your names in a detailed manner. Change our small reality to the reality of a big tree.

Another aspect of this first type of prayer is through the relationship between cause and effect. Causes come together to bring about the result or the effect, and this is considered a prayer. The interconnectedness of the two forms a prayer. Causes, by their collective language, ask the Most Powerful Lord for the result. For example, water, air, earth, and fire come together through their collective language and ask the Lord to make a certain seed a tree or a plant. The cooperation of causes to create a result is a prayer. Because the result is so wonderfully organized and prepared, there cannot be the effect of unconscious causes in reality.

The second type of prayer is through the language of natural need. This is the prayer of all living creatures who receive their needs and their wishes in an unexpected way at an appropriate time, with no delay or interruption. According to the Islamic tradition, one of the ninety-nine names of God is the Most Compassionate. Creatures are unable to provide their needs if it is not provided by the Most Compassionate Creator. Therefore, utmost necessity is their prayer to the Lord. That means this is a mercy from the Lord as a result of this prayer. All living creatures are included in this category. For example, a fish in the dark of the sea will receive its sustenance. A bird receives its sustenance in an appropriate way. Humans receive their sustenance at an appropriate time and in an appropriate way. And all receive the most expensive one in the cheapest way. For example, humans breathe air, which is the most important thing, for free. The universe is prepared and given to humans according to their needs. There is an amazing relationship between the capacity of the human eye and sunlight. This is a prayer through the language of the natural needs of creatures. Therefore, Nursi says, “There is a constant prayer rising to the court of the Divine from the entire universe.”

third type of prayer is through the language of desperation. Every living creature in the time of extreme anxiety needs a safe haven. Through a desperate prayer, this refuge becomes its unknown protector and as a result “it faces toward the Most Merciful.”

The fourth type of prayer is the prayer of humans. It is divided into two parts. The first part is through the language of human efforts for their utmost needs. All efforts of scientists for the benefit of humanity are considered to be prayers and, therefore, are rewarded by God. For example, the scientific discoveries and technological advances of all times are a direct result of this collective prayer of scientists.

The second part is the common prayer that we know. This also has two types, according to Nursi’s understanding. The first type is called prayer through action. The second type is prayer through words. Both are necessary for achievement. For example, to farm, to sow seeds, is a prayer to God to receive a plentiful harvest. This is a prayer through action. Therefore, the person who farms does not expect his sustenance from the soil, but he thinks that the soil is a door to the mercy of the Creator. Through farming, people knock at this door to request their sustenance from the Lord. In Islam, the prayer through action is very significant and is often misunderstood. Prayer through words, if related to an action, has to accompany the prayer through action as well. If a student prays to the Lord and asks for a good grade instead of working and studying hard, this is fruitless. Instead, the student must work hard, study, and pray to the Lord for a good result. Therefore, whatever action is necessary for a good result must be used in conjunction with a prayer through words.

Prayer through words is the most common prayer amongst people. The Qur’an, the Holy Book of Islam, teaches Muslims how to supplicate and communicate with God by showing examples of this type of prayer. Believers use this type of prayer to turn to the Eternal, Merciful, and Compassionate God. The Qur’an describes such believers and their attribute of the essential element of humility in the following verse:

Call on your Lord humbly and secretly; surely He does not love those who exceed the limits… call on Him fearing and hoping; surely the mercy of God is nigh to those who do good. (A’raf 7:55-56)

Another Qur’anic verse suggests that God is close, and He accepts the prayer of His servants:

(O Muhammad) when My servants ask you concerning Me, then surely I am very near; I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he calls on Me, so they should answer My call and believe in Me that they may walk in the right way. (Baqara 2:186)

The Qur’an suggests that every prayer is answered. Therefore, no one returns empty-handed from His court, because in Islamic perspective, when people pray, they ask the One who can meet all of their needs, just as they would complain to a doctor who can heal all illnesses. When people pray to God, their mind, intelligence, and senses must be in a receptive state, in a state that they know surely that their prayer is heard.

Nursi brings to mind that in addition to being sincere while praying, believers should search for favored moments and seconds during which prayer is accepted. For example, the Holy Month of Ramadan and the Holy Days and Nights are important times for prayer. The Qur’an speaks of some Holy Days and Nights. One of them is called the Night of Power (Qadr), in which the Holy Qur’an was revealed. Another example is Friday, which is considered a Holy Day. Believers are expected to make full use of these moments. These are the times when divine blessings pour forth.

The Qur’anic way of prayer is to glorify God first, as it is presented in the first chapter of the Qur’an, “Praise be to the Lord of the Universe.” In the middle of the chapter, the suppliant asks their Lord for guidance to the right path.

Nursi advises that the prophetic and the Qur’anic formats of prayer are the closest to acceptance. In the second chapter, the Qur’an teaches humans what to ask from God. It says, “Our Lord, grant us good in this world and good in the hereafter” (Baqara 2:201). The second chapter also shows people how to pray when they face difficult conditions. “Our Lord, pour down upon us patience. Make our steps firm . . . .” The chapter ends with the following prayer:

Our Lord, do not punish us if we forget or make a mistake. Our Lord, do not lay on us a burden as You did on those before us. Our Lord, do not impose upon us that which we have not the strength to bear. Pardon us, forgive us and have mercy upon us. You are our protector. Give us victory over the unbelieving people.

The third chapter of the Qur’an reminds believers of a very significant prayer:

Our Lord, do not let our hearts deviate now after You have guided us. Grant us mercy from Your presence, for You are the granter of bounties without measure.

After a few verses, the chapter mentions the prayers of the pious:

“Our Lord, we have indeed believed. Forgive us our sins and save us from the agony of the Fire.

These verses draw our attention to the prayer of Jesus’ apostles:

Our Lord, we believe in what You have revealed, and we follow the Messenger. So write us down with those who bear witness. (Al Imran 3:53)

Toward the end of this chapter, there is a wish for a good end:

Our Lord, lo we have heard a cry calling unto faith. “Believe in your Lord.” So we believed. Our Lord, therefore, forgive our sins. Blot out all our evil deeds, and make us die the death of the righteous. (Al Imran 3:193)

The Qur’an essentially suggests that prayer and humble supplications lead to salvation in this life and also in the afterlife. Therefore, the Prophet of Islam, whose life was in total compliance with the Qur’anic ideal, is known as the Sultan of Prayer. He would open hands, turn to his Lord, overflow with thanks and glorification, bow and double himself up in prayer, and constantly pray to God. He did this throughout his life. He woke up every morning and performed his daily prayers, including prescribed and voluntary prayers. He would stay in God’s presence at night and spend most of his night in prayer. He would continue his prayer even while eating, going to bed, traveling, returning from a campaign, confronting an enemy, experiencing worldly or heavenly disasters, witnessing miraculous events, and suffering from illnesses or troubles. There are specific books dedicated to the Prophet’s prayers, which give more details about all of his supplications. For every occasion, the prophet used to say a special prayer. These prayers began to be used by Muslims and have continued throughout the history of Islam.

Nursi answers a question about the acceptance of prayer. The question is as follows: “We have prayed many times, but it seems like it is not accepted. Does this conflict with the general idea of the Qur’an, which suggests that every prayer is answered?” Answering this question, Nursi says the following: “To answer the prayer and to accept the prayer as we wish are different. God answers all prayers, but sometimes, He gives what He wants, not what we want. This is like someone who asks a doctor to look at them, and the doctor asks them what they want. They ask to be given medicine that tastes good, but the doctor, who knows the nature of their illness, sometimes does not give them what they want. What he gives them is something better for them than what they want, although it may not be as tasty.” 1

According to Islamic belief, all prayers are answered by God. Muslim theologians give this example: A person prays to God to give him a son, but God does not give him a son, He gives him a daughter like Mary, the Mother of Jesus. This does not mean that his prayer has not been answered; it has just been answered in a better way because a regular son cannot be compared to Mary.

According to Nursi, Muslims have to be conscious that prayer is a sign of servanthood. It has to be done, not for the sake of result, but for the sake of prayer. For example, in the time of drought, Muslims are expected to pray to God for rain because it is the time of prayer, just as the sunset is the time for the sunset prayer. Even when God’s cosmic work has already been astronomically predicted, in the form of lunar and solar eclipses, Muslims are expected to pray because it is the time of prayer. This prayer is not for a resolution, but instead they pray to God, who has shown His Majesty through such cosmic events. Natural disasters and calamities are also times for prayer. If these calamities are lifted through their prayer, this is wonderful, but if they are not lifted, Muslims are expected to continue prayer because the time of prayer has not yet passed.

In conclusion, Islam accepts that humans are weak and poor before God, and they need constant prayer to fulfill their achievements and to meet their needs. Nursi states that prayer is an inexhaustible treasure for the human spirit whose needs are not limited. Through prayer, humans, being the supervisors over all creatures in this universe, represent both their prayers and the prayers of all other creatures to the Creator. All believers collectively say, as it is indicated in the Qur’an, “You, O Lord, alone we ask for help.” Through prayer, the human spirit feels that there is someone that can hear its wishes, solve all problems, and meet all needs, which gives it utmost strength.

Footnote

1. Nursi, S., The Words, Kaynak A.S., Izmir, 1997 Twenty-third Word, pp. 412-415

In his great works, the main precept of his philosophy was that God had sent people two kinds of books; one that is written and one that is created. Namely, these two books are the Qur’an and the Universe. Since both of these came from the same God as guidance for humanity, there can be no conflict between them. Indeed, it is impossible to understand one of them without the other, because they reveal and explain one another. While the universe can be compared to a book that is filled with multiple manifestations of God’s exalted names and attributes, which are displayed for all existence, the Qur’an can be compared to a manual that guides us through these manifestations on the path to finding God. Therefore, believers should make no distinction between the Qur’an and the universe. In short, the Qur’an and the universe can be called, if I may coin a term, books of coexistence.

In his writings, Nursi examines the universe in the way indicated by the Holy Qur’an, that is reading it for its meaning, learning The Divine Names and Attributes, and other truths of belief. The purpose of this book is to describe its Author and Maker, and to subscribe all evidence of life in the universe to their Creator. Thus, an important element when studying the writings of Nursi, the Risale-i Nur, is to reflect or contemplate, i.e. to ‘read the Book of the Universe in order to increase one’s knowledge of God and to affirm faith in His existence’. By using this method Bediuzzaman solves many mysteries of religion in the Risale-i Nur, such as bodily resurrection, Divine Destiny, man’s will, the riddle of the constant activity of the universe and the motion of particles.

Once one understands that the books of coexistence concept is the central point in Nursi’s philosophy, it is quite possible to see traces of that idea in all his works. In this essay, I will establish the connections between the books of coexistence and Nursi’s Concept of Prayer. This will serve as an appendage to Nursi’s writings on the Concept of Prayer.

The Idea of Prayer within the Books of Coexistence

According to Nursi’s perspective, existence is divided into two parts. The first is that of God, whose source of existence is Himself, while the second is the rest of all existence, created by God Himself. In other words, the first part is the Creator and the second is the creation. Since every single thing in the universe has a purpose, the entire universe must have a purpose too. The purpose of its existence is to display God’s attributes and to worship and praise Him. In that sense, even though the average person does not understand the prayer of creation in a profound way, everything, even every particle in the universe, worships and prays to God in its own language. Like all sentient beings, each particle says “In the name of God” at the start of a motion, and it raises loads infinitely exceeding its strength. For example, a tiny seed carries the weight of a huge pine tree. Upon completion of its duty, a particle says “All praise be to God.” By exhibiting an art that is beautiful and full of purpose and a beauty that is fine and beneficial, astounding to all minds, it displays a work of art like an ode in praise to the Glorious Maker.

In every facet of every motion of every single particle the light of Divine Unity shines like the sun. If a particle is not a representative of God, acting with His permission and under His authority, and if it is not undergoing change within His knowledge and limitless power, then it must have eyes that see everything, a face that looks to all things, and authority over all things. For every particle within each of the four elements acts, or can act, in an orderly fashion, in harmony with all animate beings. The order within things and laws according to which they are formed differ from one thing to the next. If this order was not known to the particles, the particles could not act, or even if they could act, they could not act without error. Nevertheless, we see that everything acts without any error. In which case, the particles which are performing their duties are either acting with the permission and the command, and within the knowledge and at the will of the Owner of an all-encompassing knowledge, or they themselves must have such an all-encompassing knowledge and power.¹

“Those in the heavens and on earth prostrate themselves to God willingly or unwillingly, and so do their shadows, mornings and evenings.” (Qur’an 13:15)”The seven heavens andthe earth, and all beings therein, declare His glory: there is nothing but celebrates His praise; And yet you understand not how they declare His glory! Verily He is All-Clement, Most Forgiving .”(Qur’an 17:44)

After stating Nursi’s point about the purpose of all beings, considering them as worshippers of God, it is then necessary to make clear that this point of view comes from the Qur’an. In other words, Nursi looks at nature, the universe, and the creation from the perspective of the Qur’anic verses. According to him, as the Qur’an is the revealed version of God’s created book, that is, of all of existence, one who desires the most beneficial knowledge concerning existence should read this revealed version. And this is what Nursi continuously does, even though sometimes he does not cite the Qur’an directly. In this sense, the following verses could be considered as the basis of what he takes from the Holy Book, the Qur’an:”Those in the heavens and on earth prostrate themselves to God willingly or unwillingly, and so do their shadows mornings and evenings.” (13/15) “See you not that to God bow down in worship all things that are in the heavens and on earth, -the sun, the moon, the stars; the hills, the trees, the animals; and a great number among mankind? …” (22/18) “And the herbs and the trees both prostrate themselves to God.” (55/6) “There is none in the heavens and the earth but comes unto the Most Gracious God as a worshiper.” (19/93) “The seven heavens and the earth, and all beings therein, declare His glory: there is no a thing but celebrates His praise; And yet you understand not how they declare His glory! Verily He is All-Clement, Most Forgiving.” (17/44) The Concept of Prayer in Nursi’s Works Nursi divides prayer into two main groups: The prayer of all existence, including human beings, and the prayer of human beings, the first of which is subdivided into four.

a. The Prayer of Movement and Cessation

According to Nursi, when we look casually at the universe, we can see that every particle is either moving or at rest. Each particle, be it moving or at rest, is working in an orderly fashion with the other particles in the universe. In other words, even though every particle is, at any given time, either moving or resting in a connected environment with all other particles, there is no chaos that can be observed in the universe. There can be two explanations for this situation; either every particle in the universe knows exactly when every other particle is going to move or cease moving and acts in a manner that takes these factors into account, or every single particle is a representative and worshiper of God, acting with His permission and under His authority, and saying “In the name of God” before every movement and “All praise be to God” before stopping and resting; that is, it is acting with the permission of God and in an orderly manner. Nursi finds the second explanation more reasonable than the first and he regards every movement and cessation of every single particle as a type of prayer; this prayer I have termed the prayer of movement and cessation.²

b. The Prayer of Ability

All creatures pray to God through their language of need. For instance, a sprouting seed prays to God and virtually says: “O my Lord! To be able to display Your Attributes and Names, I need to grow. Please make me grow and give me a chance to reflect your divine names in a detailed fashion. Allow me to become a tree.” Moreover, Nursi sees cause and effect as a prayer of ability. He gives the example of a seed again, and says that when water, the light of the sun, and soil come near a seed, they all pray to God to make the seed grow into a tree. As they do not have the power to make the seed into a tree, the only thing that they can do is to pray to God; they pray to God in their own languages. Therefore, water, sunlight and soil are not the true cause of the tree. As the Qur’an states, even if we do not understand their prayers and their worship, these things are no more than worshipers. The real cause of the tree is God. Otherwise, one would have to admit that water knows how to get help from the sun, and the sun knows the needs of the seed, and the seed knows how to grow into an orange or apple tree.

c. The Prayer of Need

Nursi says that every living being prays to God to get what it needs in the language of need. As living beings do not have the authority or the ability to get what they need, such as water, air, and light, with their own power, that is, they cannot create what they need, they must therefore pray to God in the language of need in order to attain what they require. When we look at nature, we can observe that living things get their needs in an appropriate season in an appropriate amount. They get water from the heavens at the appropriate time in the appropriate amount. They get light from the sun at the appropriate time in the appropriate amount. They get all the oxygen or carbon dioxide they need to breathe from the atmosphere. Does a tree have the power to make clouds bring rain? Does a flower have strength enough to command the sun to shine? Can an animal tell the trees to produce oxygen? Actually, the only power these things have is the power of the prayer of need.³

d. The Prayer of Inability

According to Nursi, when one is in a difficult situation, such as finding oneself in poverty or in distress, helpless, inadequate, or not able to change one’s situation, then this will lead to another kind of prayer, the prayer of inabi-lity. According to his perspective, if a living being is in a difficult situation, such as when a whale is beached and is unable to rescue itself, the inability of that creature becomes a form of prayer to God in its own language, begging to be rescued from the difficult situation.⁴ The best example we can select from the Risale-i Nur concerning the prayer of inability is the story of Jonah. As stated in the Qur’an, Jonah was sent to a town as a prophet. Preaching over many years, he realized that the people of the town were not going to believe him. He then left the town, without first asking the permission of God, and went to sea. While traveling, a hurricane came and he fell into the dark sea. After all these things had happened, he then recognized and accepted that no one could rescue him except God; he had no power to help himself. At that time, his inability, his weakness, his distress became a prayer and then a whale came and swallowed him. Finally, the whale spat him out on the land; it was a miraculous rescue. From Nursi’s point of view, neither Jonah nor the whale had the power to solve the problem. Nevertheless, Jonah’s distress was a prayer to God in its own language and God had the whale help him.⁵

The Prayer of Human Beings

a. The Prayer of the Tongue

The prayer of the tongue is a prayer of human beings in their own languages to attain what they need or what they seek. For instance, a sick person may say “O my Lord! I would love to be healthy,” and beg for such a cure from God. In which case, God will either give this person exactly what he/she was seeking, such as a cure, as he/she had requested, or whatever he/she needs, such as staying unhealthy, if being healthy and full of bodily desires may lead this person to a rebellious life style. Actually, the main purpose of prayer is merely to worship God, to establish a good relationship with Him, and to seek His good pleasure. The earthly effects of prayer are the unintentional effects of the prayer and God’s gifts to the worshiper. Because prayer is the main worship of God, there cannot be any intention in it except to please God. Therefore, the needs of the human being are secondary to the glorification of God. For instance, farmers pray to God for rain at a time of drought, or sailors pray to God when a storm strikes to seek the protection of God. Nevertheless, neither the rain nor the protection of God is the main purpose of such prayers. On the contrary, the drought is the correct time of prayer for farmers and the storm is the correct time of prayer for sailors. In short, every need of a human being is a right cause and time to pray to God and to establish a good relationship with him, but these are not the main purposes of the prayer.⁶

b. The Prayer of Conscious Action

Human beings always have a goal that they are trying to reach. Students attempt to pass their examinations, businessmen attempt to make greater profits, engineers seek to improve product quality, and so on. What these people have in common is that they are trying to attain their goals. Students study to pass the examinations, business men work harder to make greater profits, and engineers put greater effort into their work to produce better quality products. It is at this point that the prayer of conscious action emerges, according to Nursi. In his eyes, every action and the effort of every human being to reach their goal is a kind of prayer in the language of conscious action. The studying of students is a prayer to God in a special language, a prayer to help them pass their examinations, the efforts of businessmen are a prayer to God in a special language, a prayer to gain them greater profits, and the efforts of engineers are a prayer to God in a special language to improve product quality; all these actions are prayers addressed to God to help these people reach their goals.⁷ The roots of this concept are actually hidden in Nursi’s perspective of cause and effect.

Although Nursi’s ideas about cause and effect require a separate article to discuss them in detail, we can shed a little light on them here. Nursi has stated that the causes in nature cannot be the real causes of effects because the causes are not conscious of their effects. Moreover, they do not have the power to create the effects, and they do not always cause their effects. If it were otherwise, there would be as many different powers as there were causes. The result of this would necessarily be chaos in nature. However, the only reality in nature is unity. If there is unity in nature, there must be unity in power too. The only power is the power of God. Therefore, the real cause of the effects is God. Since the causes usually appear before the effects, people think that the cause dictates the effect. Nevertheless, there is no order of cause and effect, but there is just the previous and the next order. As this is the order that God put in nature, a human being must give importance to that order. If people do not respect and follow what God put in nature as an order, they will receive the punishment of nature, which is failure. In short, every action of every human being to reach his/her target is a kind of prayer to God, a prayer that shows respect to the order God has instilled in nature.⁸ In conclusion, Nursi looks at all of existence as a created existence, all of existence that is except God. Since there is just the Creator and the Creation, there can only be one type of relationship between them; this relationship is worship and prayer, and every scene witnessed in nature is a different sort of prayer. As stated in the Qur’an: “The seven heavens and the earth and all that is therein, glorify Him and there is not a thing but glorifies His Praise. But you understand not their glorification. Truly, He is All-Clement, Most Forgiving.” (17/44)

Footnotes

1. Sozler, Nursi, Said, Envar Nesriyat, Istanbul, 1989, pp. 547-548.
2. Ibid, p. 549.
3. Mektubat, Nursi, Said, Istanbul, Envar Nesriyat, 1991, p.299.
4. Ibid., pp.299-300.
5. Ibid., p.300.
6. Lem’alar, Nursi, Said, Istanbul, Envar Nesriyat, 1990, pp.7-10.
7. Sozler, Nursi, Said, p.318.
8. Ibid., p.318.

Within this framework, servants become engrossed in a combined feeling of fear and hope. Away from the sight of others, we supplicate from the heart only to God, and pray in secret. This sentiment, which is reflected in The Qur’an 7:55, describes an essential element of prayer that we must observe while praying. However, only the Legislator can permit and encourage this attitude at various times, and only He can determine the degree to which it is allowed.

God enjoins us to pray to Him only, in fear as well as full of hope and to know that His Mercy is with those whose hearts beat with the consciousness of His constant supervision over them. (7:56) He even shows us the door toward which we should walk, and teaches us the rules and principles of how to wait in front of it.

Turning to God all the time and in every condition, opening our hands in supplication, and revealing our concerns and problems to Him are all an honor and an initial prize. In addition, they are very significant initial steps taken to earn a favorable response from Him. He states: If my servants direct their wishes to Me, they must know that I am closer to them than anything else. I respond to the prayer of those who turn to Me with prayers. (2:186) However, there is a condition: All of these prayers and supplications are to be performed as indicated in: You pray from the heart with utmost sincerity and seeking God’s pleasure. (7:29, 40:14, 65) Instead of praying when among people, as if showing off to others, we should entreat the All-Knowing God, Whose hearing and seeing is worth far more than any person’s, by sighing in secret and with utmost sincerity, in complete privacy so that we are closed to others but open to Him. Meeting these conditions will enable us to implore Him with the alchemy of secrecy, and will prevent our voices and sighs from being fouled with the sparks of irrelevant thoughts.

No one returns empty-handed from His court. In fact, those people who pour out their deepest needs and desires, and present such personal grievances about themselves only to Him, are drawn closer to Him. They have to ask the One Who can meet all of their needs, just as they have to complain to a doctor who can heal their illnesses.

Each servant who enters the Nearest One’s Presence is required to be in possession of his or her self and in full control of his or her speech, vocal vibrations, and groaning. Moreover, each servant’s mind, intelligence, and senses must be in a receptive state.

Loyal servants frequently filter their thoughts and supplications through their intentions and sincerity, for they strive to keep their expressions and feelings free of any disturbance. They become like mute people so that no one can hear them, to such a degree that they even become jealous of their own voice and words.

In addition to being sincere while praying, servants should search for moments and seconds during which their pulses beat with the remembrance of God. They should make full use of holy days and nights, for these are the times when divine blessings pour forth. Especially when it is time to pray and to break the fast, all prostrations and bows should be performed in such a way that not even one second is wasted. Loyal and sincere servants are expected to fulfill these obligations, for doing so is essential for the prayer to be accepted. As all such servants know, a prayer may be answered either positively or negatively, or circumstances may ‘become’ favorable or unfavorable.

Believers in God do not mind if summer is as cold as winter, if spring seems to resemble autumn, or if days become as dark as blind graves. Who cares about darkness when God reminds us of His All-Encompassing Power: Who saves you from the darkness of the land and the sea when you pray in destitute?! (6:63) Who cares about such things when God makes His Existence known in their conscience by saying: Who else, other than God, accepts the prayers of the poor and takes care of their problems?! (27:62)

The Qur’an is the Divine Book that guides us through existence, interprets events, and interprets both the macro- and micro-worlds. It is the language of the World of the Unseen in this life; a contract of divine blessings for humanity; and the essence, essential nature, glory, and light of Islam. As if that were not enough, it is also the map for the worlds of the afterlife, a means of happiness for believers, and a book of prayer.

The Qur’an introduces a prayer by glorifying Him, and then asks to be set on the straight path as it sets off, sprinkling its most brilliant jewels with Surat al-Fatihah. Next comes Surat al-Baqarah, which calls us to pray by means of implicit expressions of prayer, raising its voice with the tune of its explicitness, and teaches us what to ask from God: Our Lord! Grant us good in this world and good in the Hereafter (2:201). After a few pages, it shows us the greenhouses and shelters in which we can shelter while facing difficult conditions and asking for help: Our Lord, pour down upon us patience (endurance), make our steps firm (make our foothold sure), and help us against the unbelievers (2:250).

The last verse of this surah points to the following prayer, which is a gift from the Prophet’s Ascension and which should be repeated constantly: Our Lord, do not punish us if we forget or make a mistake. Our Lord, do not lay on us a burden as You did on those before us. Our Lord, do not impose upon us that which we have not the strength to bear. Pardon us and grant us protection, and have mercy upon us. You are our Patron, so help us against the unbelievers. (2:286)

The next surah, Surat Al-i ‘Imran, also starts with and reminds all believers of a very significant prayer: Our Lord, do not let our hearts deviate now after You have guided us. But grant us Mercy from Your Presence, for You are the Grantor of bounties without measure. (3:8) A few verses later on, we are invited again with an allusion to the prayers of the pious, who supplicate with the following cries: Our Lord, we have indeed believed. Forgive us, then, our sins, and save us from the agony of the Fire (3:16) and: Our Lord, we believe in what You have revealed and we follow the Messenger, so write us down with those who bear witness. (3:53) These draw our attention to the supplication of Jesus’ apostles, who also are filled with a sense of responsibility.

Right after this comes a gift of prayer from the mouths of the devout ones, the scholars who gathered around the Messengers and strived: Our Lord, forgive our sins and anything We may have done that transgressed our duty. Establish our feet firmly, and help us against those that resist faith. (3:147) The section of contemplation toward the end of the surah ends with a wish for a good end: Our Lord, lo, we have heard a crier calling unto faith: ‘Believe in your Lord!’ So we believed. Our Lord, therefore forgive our sins, blot out our evil deeds, and make us die the death of the righteous (3:193). Those who shake fearfully, thinking that they have treated themselves unjustly, pray: Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves. If You do not forgive us and have mercy upon us, surely we are of the lost (7:23) and remind us through a distinctive cry that unleashes tremors into our souls. Our Lord comprehends all things in knowledge. In God do we put our trust. Our Lord, decide with truth between us and our folk, for You are the best of those who decide (7:89) whispers a unique style of entreaty of a submissive Prophet who murmurs ‘establishment of justice’ with full confidence, asking for God’s action against an extremely impertinent disbelieving society.

In accordance with the context, the Qur’an frequently presents examples of the Prophet’s supplications, sighs, and pleas for help. For example: You are our Guardian, therefore forgive us and have mercy on us (7:155); O our Lord, do not let us be subjected to the persecution of the unjust people (10:85); and There is no god but You, glory be to You. Surely I am of those who make themselves to suffer loss. (21:87) Hundreds of Qur’anic verses call us to interrogate ourselves, plea, and complain about our evil features. Such verses reveal that prayer is a source of strength for those in charge, a fountain of absolution for those who have committed sins, a solution for the needy, a hand extended to help those struck by disaster, a key to a treasure for the poor, a doctor for the sick, a breeze of hope for the desperate, and a dispatch order of a gift for the oppressed and the victim. The Qur’an always points out that prayer and humble supplications lead to salvation from worldly problems and concerns with the Hereafter, and that those who see (the Book) with the heart and murmur with the soul are traveling toward and praying to God.

In parallel with the Qur’an’s prayer-colored horizon, the life of Prophet Muhammad, the sultan of prayer, is a lacework adorned with entreaties and supplications. He would open hands, turn to his Lord, overflow with thanks and glorification, bow and double himself up in prayer, and constantly supplicate to Him. He did this throughout his life: when he woke up in the morning, lived until the evening, and stood in God’s Presence at night; while performing the ritual ablutions and daily prayers, observing these prayers (each a heavenly ascension), listening to the call for prayer, and during and after each prayer as a means for getting closer to God; while eating, going to bed, traveling, returning from a campaign, confronting an enemy; and while experiencing worldly or heavenly disasters and surprising events, witnessing miraculous events, suffering from illnesses or troubles, and when concerned or pleased with something. Prayer books give more details about all of his prayers and supplications.

Prayer is a mysterious key to His everlasting treasures, a point of support for the poor and hurt, and the most secure shelter for those in distress. Those who step into this shelter are considered to have obtained this key, and the poor, weak, and needy who join this governance attain that for which they had hoped.

The inhabitants of the heavens carry along the sincere prayers of such needy people, who are deprived of any other solution. These destitute people, who are in a state of desolation and demise, know what they are asking for and are aware of what they are doing. They turn to Him and unburden themselves of all thoughts. Such prayers would make the heavens burst into tears; hurricanes threatening the world would change its course, waves overturning everything would calm down, and peace would rise on the horizon. Broken fault lines would surrender to unexpected rulings, and released gases would easily evaporate into the atmosphere. The breeze of such a prayer enlivens Earth and brightens the skies. Hearts beat with exhilaration, and nature rises in order to dance and to send forth smiles.

Through prayer, people offer their sacred requests, which are beyond causes, to the Most Glorified One, and acknowledge that God see whatever is hidden or open. Humanity, as well as the jinns and the angels, pray to Him, especially about issues that subjugate their strength and control, and expect a remedy from Him. However, such a remedy is forthcoming only if we take all of the required measures and fulfill all of the necessary conditions.

O Remedy for all in need! Send a light from Your presence for those suffering in darkness, especially these days, when there is no means left to resort to, social circumstances are in complete disorder; when only the tyrants’ voices are heard everywhere and the people sway and bump into obstacles. Extinguish the fires of tyranny and injustice with Your Infinite Power, destroy the Devil’s homes, and place inescapable collars around the necks’ of the evil ones.

We are not exposed to the winds of inspiration any more, the enthusiasm in our hearts has been subdued, and a stammer has started to appear upon our tongues. Send us a reviving breeze from Your land of mercy. Raise our hopes and goodwill for You to the borders of Your Mercy, give us faithful excitement, and accept us as hopeful supplicants thereof. Untie our tongues so that we do not commit another sin.

We are wronged, fallen, and devastated. Never have we been so far from You. Never have we entered such depths of failure. Never have we been so without You.

O Shelter for the miserable, Power Source for weak, Physician for the ill, and Truthful Guide for the lost! Once more we take refuge in You and unburden ourselves to You. We have been chasing after useless things and longing for the fulfillment of ridiculous dreams. Those whom we approached with hope and in whom we trusted never even looked at or paid any attention to us. No one but You have heard our voices and caressed our heads. Our feelings have been mocked, and our thoughts have been regarded as crimes. So many places have been sabotaged, fires of mutual separation have been inflamed, and all of what has been committed now hurts the purity of the faith.

Broken-down feelings, clumsy behaviors, souls in the dirt, feeble feet, paralyzed hands ‘ most of us have lost all hope ‘ the weather is foggy-gray ‘ people in the West are filled with longing ‘ people in the East are in need of Your blessings. We have come to You in such chaos. We are neither the first nor the last to come. Your Mercy is the door of hope for those who regret, and we are pitiful beggars in front of this door. Until now, all who have waited by Your door have returned with a blessing, and no fugitive or repentant person has ever been rejected. It is Your door, and thus it differs from others because only it opens upon the forgiveness that You bestow upon all those who wait by it. Strengthen us with Your mildness and peace. Make Your Existence heard by the tyrants.

O the Sultan of the exalted throne Who answers all prayers! Thousands, hundreds of thousands of us stand in Your Presence now. Opening our hands to You and knocking upon Your door of mercy, which is always open or at least ajar, we sigh. We believe from the depths of our hearts that You see and watch over everyone and everything, that You show compassion for every praying voice and person. Therefore, we ignore our disobedience for the time being, imagine our sins washed away in the falls of Your Mercy, and disregard our faults while regarding Your forgiveness. If You exist ‘ You are the only One who exists on its own ‘ we cannot be deserted. If You are our companion, then who cares about the wilderness that surrounds us on all sides?! As long as You are together with us, it does not matter even if Satan and his followers are everywhere. You are the one and only Sovereign over everything, and Your ruling cannot be overthrown. You see the smallest thing, hear the most silent sound in the domain of Your Sovereignty, and do not discard anything or anyone without a reply.

Yet again do we present ourselves at Your door, which is as large as Your Mercy, with the capacity that You have given us to ask from You, and with the belief that You will grant us our wishes. You know our situation, and so what we are going to tell You is just a small part of Your Knowledge. Give us a remedy for all the troubles that we have suffered from for centuries. O Most Merciful, Most Compassionate, accept our prayers!