At the end of the Treatise on Sincerity, Bediuzzaman says: “We beseech the All-Compassionate, the Most Merciful, making all of His Most Beautiful Names our intercessors, that He may grant us complete sincerity.” [1] What is the wisdom behind invoking the Divine Names as intercessors in attaining sincerity?

Answer:

Sincerity (ikhlas) means performing deeds solely because God commands them and seeking only His good pleasure as their outcome. Beyond this, one does not set one’s heart on worldly interests or even on rewards in the Hereafter. For worshipping God is not the price paid for blessings to be granted later; rather, it is an expression of gratitude for the blessings that have already been bestowed.

Nevertheless, when the matter is considered from the perspective of human need and necessity, there is no harm in asking for the blessings of the Hereafter. Although we do not attach our acts of worship to such rewards, nor serve God merely to obtain them, it is certain that we are in profound need of them. Just as in this world we need to believe in God, to know and recognize Him, to love Him, to feel connected to Him, and to rely and trust in Him, so too in the next world we are in need of being among those brought near to Him. We know that the only place where we may draw near to Him, behold His Divine beauty, and be encompassed by the breezes of the verse, “God’s good pleasure is greater than all else” (Qur’an 9:72), is Paradise. Therefore, we hope for and ask for Paradise and its blessings from His grace. For we cannot do without Him; and just as we cannot do without Him, we cannot do without Paradise.

Seeking refuge in the Divine Names

Sincerity is, in essence, a designation for truly knowing God, aspiring to attain His good pleasure, and showing reverence for His commands. For this reason, sincerity holds vital importance for every believer. The wisdom behind Bediuzzaman’s invoking the Divine Names as intercessors while asking God for sincerity lies precisely in this point. When we ask for what we value most in our supplications, we naturally seek intercession through what we hold most precious.

Moreover, the Qur’an recommends that we include the Divine Names in our supplications and invoke them as a means of appeal. One verse states, “The Most Beautiful Names belong to God; so call upon Him by them” (7:180).

This indicates that the Divine Names possess a profound influence connected to the inner meaning of servanthood, and that we should seek refuge in them in our prayers. Similarly, in the supplication of Jawshan, it is said, “I ask You by Your Names,” after which the Divine Names are mentioned, and through their honor deliverance from Hell is sought.

Bediuzzaman’s emphasis on sincerity

In his works, Bediuzzaman repeatedly stresses sincerity on various occasions and highlights its importance in powerful terms. He states that even an atom’s weight of action performed with sincerity surpasses tons of deeds devoid of sincerity. Despite the small number of people around him, he attributes the manifold fruits of their service to their sincerity, describing how their efforts yielded results far beyond their apparent capacity. While expressing this truth, he says: “God willing, you will attain complete sincerity, and you will also help me attain complete sincerity” [2].

Through these words, Bediuzzaman demonstrates humility, appreciates his companions, and at the same time offers an important reminder. For no matter how sincere a person may be, attaining perfect sincerity is not easy. It requires that not even the slightest ulterior consideration be mixed into one’s deeds, that everything other than the Divine be set aside, and that one’s heart be fully directed toward God alone. Moreover, sincerity once attained can easily be lost without one even realizing it. Even when one is very careful, it is difficult to claim that one has reached complete sincerity (ikhlaṣ al-tamm) or perfected sincerity (ikhlaṣ al-atamm). This represents a horizon that we strive for but find difficult to reach. To attain it, one must overcome many demanding obstacles and loosen the bonds of bodily and worldly attachments. Such a degree of sincerity belongs only to the distinguished servants referred to as the mukhlasin—those purified in sincerity.

Bediuzzaman was a monumental personality who carefully observed events around him, continuously drew lessons from them, and offered guidance whenever necessary. On one occasion, he recounts the following experience concerning sincerity: when he told his student Hafiz Ali that another friend’s handwriting was more beautiful than his and that this person would therefore contribute more effectively to the service, Hafiz Ali responded with complete sincerity and heartfelt purity. Rather than feeling disturbed, he expressed joy and took pride in his brother [3].

This example shows that sincerity is closely connected with brotherhood and fellowship. If we wish to understand the degree of sincerity present in our own efforts in the path of God, we may ask ourselves the following question: If I were confronted with such a situation, would I be able to show the same attitude?

May God grant us the ability to transcend our egos, establish a deep connection with our Lord, and act with genuine sincerity at this level.

The ascending spiral of sincerity

If, like Bediuzzaman, we carefully take a look around us, we will encounter many heroes of sincerity whose hearts beat for God. We admire their state and strive to be like them. There have been many such heroes who set out for many parts of the world without considering salary, often without even knowing the countries to which they were going, and they undertook journeys of migration devoted to altruistic service. Their attitude inspired us, revived us, and helped us regain our sense of purpose. No matter how much we thank God for granting us the blessing of being among so many dedicated individuals, it would still be insufficient. Indeed, if there had not been such devoted and sincere people, so many beautiful outcomes would not have emerged. This shows that the fruits arising from such service are extra favors granted by God to sincere intentions.

If sincerity is the foremost quality that the Divine seeks from us, and if it is like an ascending spiral that lifts a person toward His good pleasure, then it should also be our foremost aim. We must constantly ask God for sincerity. Especially at night, we should place our foreheads upon the prayer mat and say: O God, make us among Your servants who seek sincerity and who are granted sincerity.

We should seek sincerity in all of our actions and spend our entire lives striving for perfected sincerity (ikhlaṣ al-atamm). In our supplications, we ask God for matters such as livelihood, health, and family. There is no harm in these requests; however, none of them is as important as attaining sincerity, the Divine good pleasure, and knowledge of the Divine Creator. Therefore, at least as much as we pray for worldly needs and desires, we should also pray to obtain these higher aims.

It should also not be forgotten that sincerity is connected to faith. The stronger one’s faith, the stronger one’s sincerity will be. From this perspective, we must first believe in God with certainty surpassing mathematical certainty; in proportion to our faith, we should attain knowledge of Him (ma‘rifah), and in proportion to that knowledge we should establish a deep connection with Him. If we wish to attain perfected sincerity, we should strive to elevate our faith from certainty through knowledge (‘ilm al-yaqin), to certainty through direct perception (‘ayn al-yaqin), and finally to certainty through realized truth (haqq al-yaqin). If faith becomes deeply rooted within our being and we remain close to God, neither Satan nor the evil-commanding self (nafs al-ammarah) will be able to damage our sincerity.

Just as every precious thing is difficult to obtain, sincerity is not easily acquired. Yet the paths leading to it are not closed; they remain open. It is possible to reach sincerity through faith, knowledge, love, reflection, and prayer.

References

1. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Lem’alar, p. 208 (The Twenty-First Flash – Treatise on Sincerity).
2. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Lem’alar, p. 203 (The Twenty-First Flash, Third Principle).
3. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Barla Lahikası, p. 146. At that time, his Epistles of Light collection were written and reproduced by hand due to the political pressure and persecution directed against religious expression.

According to the American Humanist Association, nowadays the word “humanism” is popularly understood to imply “some progressive philosophy of life that, without theism or other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment” (American Humanist Association). Rarely, if ever, is religion associated with the ideals of humanism. It is even more so in the case of Islam, which after the attacks on September 11 came to be closely associated with “terrorism,” “intolerance,” and “dogmatism” within the modern mind. Most people seem to remain in the dark about the insightful, life-affirming, and broad-minded philosophies developed by modern Islamic thinkers and adopted by millions of Muslims all over the world.

One such thinker is Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1960), who wrote thousands of pages of Qur’anic commentary collected under the title of the Risale-i Nur (“The Epistles of Light”). The commentary has become the foundation of a number of Turkish-led modern Islamic movements (Mattson 2013, 249). Nursi’s profound exposition of the Qur’an allows him to speak about a unique and positive vision of humanity embedded in the inward dimensions of Islamic scripture. His worldview tends to be all-inclusive, philosophically profound, and featuring the life-affirming concept of “humanity.” While being erected upon Nursi’s firm religious weltanschauung, his philosophy welcomed cultural diversity and highlighted tolerance and forgiveness as sine qua non for the success of any modern Islamic discourse. Hence this paper’s importance: it will highlight the ideas of Nursi that deal with the notion of “humanity” and will thereby show an authentically Islamic vision of humanity. I will explore Nursi’s concept of humanity by showing the way he bases his understanding upon his Qur’anic interpretation. As Nursi scholar Hakan Coruh argues, the exegetical approach of Nursi is rather difficult to classify: while Nursi himself defines his tafsīr as “spiritual” (tafsīr-i ma‘nawī), it is in fact a synthesis of the traditional kalām (speculative theology) and tafsīr, or, in Coruh’s parlance, a kalāmized Qur’anic exegesis (Coruh 2015, 11).

Purposes of Human Life

Bediuzzaman’s understanding of man draws heavily from the Qur’an. The main question that he tries to address is that of the origins and purposes of human life. The answer, he thinks, is provided in chapter 55, verses 1-4: “The Most Compassionate. He has taught the Qur’an. He created humanity. He taught them speech” (Nursi 1994, 23). Indeed, according to Nursi, the Universe—and humans as a part thereof—came to exist through the manifestation of God’s attributes and names, everything therein owing its existence and vitality to Allah. For example, we can see in all animate things His Names “the Ever-Living One” (al-Ḥayy) and “the Giver of Life” (al-Muḥyi); in the universe’s mind-boggling degree of majestic balance, one can contemplate His Name “the Just” (al-‘Adl). Thus, in the Islamic worldview, Allah is not something conflated with the Universe or defined by natural laws; being the sole creator of all and manifesting His names everywhere, He, nonetheless, stands beyond and above Creation: as Nursi says, the Qur’an does not terminate the stable realities of things (Risale-i Nur Enstitusu). In Bediuzzaman’s own analogy, when one stands on the bank of a spring, he can see the sun reflected on the surface of the bubbles of water passing beneath. The “tiny suns” disappear after a short while, as the bubbles burst. The real sun remains intact, of course. This shows that the sun in no way belongs to the bubbles themselves, being everlasting and independent from the existence of the tiny bubbles (Nursi 2008, 296). The same goes for creatures: through their being alive they allude to the Divine and the life of the Divine; through their deaths they disclose His Permanence (al-qayyūmiyyah).

According to the Qur’an, any kind of knowledge—even that which angels are granted, or that which humans acquire because of their own intellectual pursuits—is a Divine gift. As the Qur’an tells us, “They [i.e. angels] said: ‘Glory be to You! We do have no knowledge save what You have taught us. Verily, You are the All-Knowing, All-Wise’” (Q 2:32). Indeed, it was Adam’s ability to grasp the abstract realities of things through naming them that astonished the angels, distinguishing him from the rest of Creation and entitling him to become God’s viceroy on Earth. For Nursi, the divine origin of the Qur’an renders it an unfailing criterion enabling one to distinguish between authentic and inauthentic knowledge (Nursi 1994, 23). Nursi defines the Qur’an as the embodiment of truth. In the book Ishārāt al-I‘jāz fī Maẓann al-Ijāz (“The Indications of Inimitability in the Loci of Apparent Terseness”), the fifth part of his Qur’anic commentary Risale-i Nur (“Epistles of Light”), Nursi defines the Qur’an as follows:

It is the pre-eternal translator of the great book of the universe; the discloser of the treasures of the divine names concealed in the pages of the earth and the heavens; the key to the truths hidden beneath the lines of events; the treasury of the Most Merciful’s favors and of the pre-eternal addresses, which issue forth from the World of the Unseen beyond the veil of this Manifest World; the sun, foundation, and plan of the spiritual world of Islam, and the map of the worlds of the hereafter. (al-Ansari, 253)

Thus, for him, the real source of the most authentic knowledge is the Qur’anic principles themselves, which “confirm each other in respect of humans’ feelings and intellect, blending them in a Qur’anic combination” (Muhsin 2004, 404). Indeed, according to Nursi, humans can hardly balance out the three aspects of their inner nature, namely their powers of appetite, anger and reasoning (Unal 2007, 51). For the purpose of the Divine test, humans were left unrestrained as far as their use of these inward powers is concerned. For instance, humans are seldom successful at getting the power of their anger to revolve around their courage (which is a combination of anger with reasoning), or in keeping their appetite in check with the principles of chastity (which is a combination of appetite with reasoning). Indeed, our intellect does not always ply the pathway of wisdom (i.e. our understanding of our limits), and justice (as the sum total of all virtues) is yet to be fully maintained in our social life. However, without obtaining this balance, humanity’s happiness is well-nigh impossible. Thus, according to Nursi, only the universal, unfailing intellect of God can cater to our quest for happiness by sending us Divine Revelation (Unal 1998, 24).

Divine Names

Nursi is sure to show that the spiritual viceregency (al-khilāfah al-ma‘nawiyyah) was granted to humanity because of their ability to mirror Divine names and attributes: “Man is a well-composed ode of wisdom proclaiming the manifestations of the Sacred Divine Names, and a seed-like self-evident miracle of Divine power containing all the members of an eternal tree (Nursi 2008, 329).” However, this means that the Divine attribute of “Mutakabbir” (supremely proud) is also reflected in humans, transforming into their self-identity and, sometimes, into outright egotism. Hence the Qur’an says, “We offered the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear its burden and got afraid thereof. However, humans picked it up” (Q 33:72). Ironically, even if humans oftentimes behave as if they were omnipotent, their direct power is confined to the distance of their arms’ length, for everything further stands out of their immediate command. In fact, physically speaking, the human body is quite helpless compared to other animals. Human knowledge always remains partial in comparison with Allah’s: “O humankind, you are the poor [in relation] to Allah” (Q 35:15). Humankind’s possession of anything is always limited, while their needs are unlimited. One’s mind, thanks to its consciousness of the past and future times, can reduce one to the level of a most wretched animal, for it can arouse in one an insatiable anxiety as to how one can meet one’s unlimited needs. According to Nursi, humans’ duty is to deploy their intellect within the guidelines provided by the universal intellect of the Revelation. They must take recourse to the power of God as an intercessor for their helplessness and resort to His boundless knowledge as a remedy for their ignorance (Unal 2007, 51). Thus, humans’ ontological poverty may become a source of their good qualities. Jealousy might transition into one’s emulating or competing with others with the pure intention of doing good, and one’s ambition can turn into one’s persistence in being virtuous (Unal 2007, 61).

According to Nursi, everything in the Heavens and the Earth serves humans. Humans, however, serve nothing of creaturely order, as their sole existential aim is to serve God, as stipulated in the Qur’an: “I (Allah) did not create the jinns and humans except that they should worship Me,” (Q 51:56) and, “It is He Who created for you all that is on earth” (Q 2:29) (Unal 1994, 4). That is to say, humans act as the ruling kings of nature; thanks to their ability to manage things and manipulate them in a way that benefits them, humans are radically different from animals.

Humans are seen by Nursi as the fruit of the tree of the Universe (al-Ansari, 106). Had any fruit of any tree become sentient and prostrated itself to its Creator, it would have performed an all-embracing type of worship on behalf of the entire tree. Therefore, the fruit is the ultimate goal of the tree and the natural outcome of the tree’s life. In the same vein, humans, being the most perfect creatures in the world, are the latter’s fruit and final goal. As a fruit of a tree bears the whole plan of the tree’s life, the fruit of the universe, that is, humans, are a miniature index and quintessence of everything that the universe contains. To put it differently, humans are microcosms, and the universe is a “macrohuman” (Unal 1998, 4). All chemical and physical elements, indeed, life in all its manifestations—animalistic, vegetative, angelic, or diabolic—is present within humans in the same way it is present in the universe. On this point, Scheler was of the same opinion: humans, he thought, bear within themselves the essence of the whole universe (Unal 1998, 4).

Mirror

According to his Qur’anic anthropology, a unique feature Nursi confers on humans is the notion that we are “mirrors of God.” This conclusion proceeds from the following two aspects:

• In the same way that darkness serves as a foil for the beauty of light, the impotence of humans—their weakness, shortcomings, and mistakes—serve as a foil for the power of the All-Powerful, All-Subsistent, and Perfect One to manifest (al-Ansari, 117, 118).
• Being a mirror of the perfect names of Allah and not the authentic possessor thereof, humans fail to manifest the Divine names and attributes in full. Their partial manifestation within humans is rather meant to highlight the existence of the corresponding names and attributes of Allah, ones that are all-embracing and universal (al-Ansari, 115).

Thus, humans’ lofty attributes serve the mission of being measurement units of the corresponding lofty attributes of the Divine. To put it differently, humanity’s partial and incomplete ability to comprehend the names and attributes of Allah gives it some idea about the unlimited, absolute nature of those names and attributes by the power of contrast. Also, even as far as their physical appearance is concerned, humans are beautiful mirrors of the Divine names and attributes (for instance, their faces are the proof of the inimitable and beautiful creative act) (al-Ansari, 115).  

   Even if humans have the nominal ability to create and manage, Nursi maintains, it is Allah who remains the real creator of everything and its sole manager. Verily, if other creatures “bow” in their servitude to humans, they do so only because Allah meant them to do so and because this “bowing” is their own, unique way of worshipping Allah. This is reflected in the Qur’anic verse “And to Allah prostrates all those within the heavens and the earth, willingly or by compulsion, as do their shadows in the mornings and in the evenings” (Q 13:15).

Dialogue

Another central feature of Nursi is the openness of his philosophy toward dialogue with alternative religious worldviews, especially with that of Christianity. As Ian Markham, a scholar of Nursi’s work, points out, “…Said Nursi is properly labelled an ‘inclusivist.’ He is committed to the truth of Islam… Yet he acknowledges that other traditions have a partial insight into the truth” (Markham 2004, 18). The value that Bediuzzaman placed on dialogue can be understood if we attend to his account of creation. For him everything in the world is intelligible and dialogic, as all entities—different as they might be in appearance—are essentially beautiful mirrors of God requiring that observers appreciate them. As Nursi says in his magnum opus, The Words: “Beauty and fairness desire to see and be seen. Both of these require the existence of yearning witnesses and bewildered admirers” (Nursi 2008, 80). During his lifetime, he several times reached out to Christian leaders, the most important instances being his sending his works to Pope Pius XII in 1950 and the visit that he paid to the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in Istanbul in 1953. His intention was to invite Muslims and Christians to cooperate against their common existential enemy, atheism (Michel 2005a, 36). According to Nursi, the verse Q 5:51 that calls Muslims “not to take the Jews and the Christians for your friends” is only applicable when the Jews and the Christians demonstrate qualities of disbelief and impiety—and not when they are pious followers of their religion. He also points out that the aforementioned verse should be interpreted within the more general context of Islamic Law. The very fact that Islamic law allows Muslim men to marry Jewish and Christian women suggests for Nursi that, if this profound relationship is allowed, so is friendship between the communities. Most naturally, the spouses will reciprocate love and compassion and will become intimate friends (Michel 2005b, 37). Nursi also found another reason to entertain dialogic relations with Christianity. That is, a Prophetic tradition predicts that, when the end of time will draw close, God-mindful Christians will swell the ranks of Muslims to fight their common adversary—atheism (Michel 2005b, 20). Indeed, the ideological opposition envisaged by Nursi is not against Christianity. Rather, it is against those elements of Western civilization that are alien to the spirit of what he believed to be true Christianity and that are focused on the anthropocentrism of Greco-Roman philosophical thought, which absolutized the human person and marginalized God (Michel 2005a, 29).

All in all, Nursi’s approach to humanity is informed by his unique interpretation of the Qur’an. Well-trained in the ways of modern philosophy and steeped in his own Islamic tradition, he spoke about some sort of theocentric humanism, in which one’s devotion to God necessitates one’s unconditional love for human beings as God’s best creatures to mirror His names and attributes. His is unique Qur’anic philosophy which endeavors to capture the very essence of being while remaining informed by the Qur’anic outlook. According to Nursi, those steeped in philosophy alone “consciously walk along dead end streets or through such labyrinths wherein finding the way becomes increasingly difficult” (Unal 2007, 66). In his sight, philosophy unaided by revelatory truths is too vague, convoluted, and idiosyncratic. As for his Qur’anic approach, it flaunts realism and objectivity. Based on centuries-old Islamic tradition, it proffers criteria that can be easily practiced. Finally, based on its notion of humans as the best pattern of God’s creation, the Scripture-based philosophy of Nursi envisages open-mindedness to other worldviews and is intrinsically inclusive—something that should be celebrated in our divided contemporary world.

References

• al-Ansari, Farid. Miftāḥ al-Nūr fī Mafāhīm Rasā’il al-Nūr (Miknas: Jami‘at al-Sulṭān al-Mawlā Ismā‘īl), 253, Kindle.
• “Are You Humanist?” American Humanist Association, http:///americanhumanist .org (accessed on Nov 19, 2019).
• Coruh, Hakan. “Bediuzzaman Said Nursi and his understanding of exegesis in his Risale-i-Nur,” (PhD diss., Australian Catholic University, 2015), 11, ACU Research Bank.
• Markham, Ian. “Truth and Toleration: The Said Nursi Achievement,” in Bringing Faith, Meaning & Peace to Life in a Multicultural World: The Risale-i Nur Approach (Istanbul: Nesil, 2004), 18.
• Ingrid Mattson, The Story of the Qur’an: Its History and Place in Muslim Life, (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), 249.
• Michel, Thomas. “Muslim-Christian Dialogue and Cooperation in the Thought of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi,” in Said Nursi’s Views on Muslim-Christian Understanding, ed. Shukran Vahide (Istanbul: Soz Basim Yayin, 2005a), 36.
• Michel, Thomas. “Nursi’s View of Tolerance, Engagement with the Other, and the Future of Dialogue,” in Said Nursi’s Views on Muslim-Christian Understanding, ed. Shukran Vahide (Istanbul: Soz Basim Yayin, 2005b), 20.
• Muhsin, “‘Abd al-Hamid. The Theory of Knowledge in the Qur’an according to the Risale-i Nur,” in A Contemporary Approach to Understanding the Qur’an. The Example of the Risale-i Nur, ed. Abdullah Varlik (Istanbul: Sozler Publications, 2004), 404.
• Nursi, Bediuzzaman Said. The Words: On the Nature and Purposes of Man, Life, and All Things, (Istanbul: Sozler Publications) 2008, 296.
• Nursi, Bediuzzaman Said. “Ishārāt al-I‘jāz fī Maẓann al-Ijāz,” in Kulliyat Rasa’il al-Nur 5, trans. Ihsan Qasim al-Salih (Beirut: Nur, 1994), 23.
• Risale-i Nur Enstitusu, “’Her Sey O’ Mudur, Yoksa ‘Her Sey O’ndan’ Midir?” Sorularla Said Nursi, http://www.sorularlasaidnursi.com/her-sey-o-mudur-yoksa-her-sey-ondan-midir (accessed on Nov 19, 2019).
• Unal, Ali. Islamic Perspectives on Science: Knowledge and Responsibility (New Jersey: Light), 2007, 51.
• Unal, Ali. “Kant, Scheler and Bediuzzaman on Man,” Fountain Magazine 24, no. 4 (October-December 1998), https://fountainmagazine.com/1998/issue-24-october-december-1998/kant-scheler-and-bediuzzaman-on-man (accessed on Nov 17, 2019).

“Ideology is the marriage of the truth with the apocryphal whereas wisdom is the distinction of the former from the others,” (1) says Cemil Meriç, a prominent Turkish intellectual figure, philosopher, and influencer of twentieth century Turkey. Wisdom is the property of West and East together; it’s the private garden of all humanity, a shared ocean of advancement for the sons and daughters of Adam. The profound knowledge leading to wisdom is a bowl which is uniting rather than segregating, a line drawn to encompass, not to dissect. A short glimpse across the flipped pages of history is enough to come across a handful of people who lived as light-houses, illuminating the way to wisdom, despite using various languages and separate tools.

The tradition of storytelling

Stories are as old as humanity. They are vessels across the ocean of wisdom. Storytelling was used by Buddha in his Jatakas, Rumi in the Masnawi, Bidpai in Kalilah and Dimnah. Many children of the West prefer to embrace novels. (2) On the other hand, old wise masters of the East used allegories and parables. They preferred to describe an elephant as a water spout (trunk) (3), a fan (ear) (4), a pillar (leg) (5), or a throne (back) (6). They knew understanding an elephant’s entire being would be beyond the limits of comprehension for a majority of people. Whence Prophet Muhammad had been asked about the content of the scrolls sent down to Abraham, peace be upon both, he replied, “It was full of parables” (7).

Bidpai (from Sanskrit Vidya-pati, meaning chief scholar) was a wise man of India. He lived in the 3^rd century BC,[i] and he decided to correct the oppression and wrongdoings of a young Indian Emperor of his time, Dabshalim by teaching him wisdom he collected from the ancient times (8). Though the main sources of the stories are not known to us, they were still being told a millennium later. In 570 AD, the ruler of Persia, Khosroes Noushirawan, after having received the information of that book, sent Barzouyeh, court physician, on a mission to India to translate the book into Persian (more precisely into Pahlavi, i.e. Middle Persian). These stories were translated into Arabic two centuries later, and into Hebrew from Arabic – and possibly from its Sanskrit originals (9). And this lineage of translations gave fruit to more than two hundred versions of the book in about fifty different languages.

Said Nursi

Said Nursi is another man of wisdom, one of recent history. Being born into life in an Eastern Anatolian village in 1877, until he passed in 1960, he lived through the collapse of an empire and the rebuilding of a country as a republic. He experienced the reigns of constitutional monarchy, oppression, military coups, and democracy. He dedicated his life to the survival of religious and ethical connections, in contrast to many of his contemporaries. During the last half of his life, he focused on extolling the virtues of education and belief to the extent that he did not bother at all about the developments of the World War II, which was basically destroying the world.

Nursi diagnosed society’s problems as falling under three categories: ignorance, poverty and dissension. His Risale-i Nur (the Collection of Epistles of Light) was a cure to these ills. He authored this collection of several thousand pages under the harsh conditions of captivity, exile, imprisonment, and surveillance.

Before writing his Risale, Said Nursi preached his wisdom to the villagers living around him, in the desolate places of Anatolia. He used the same method as Bidpai, i.e. via parables and allegories. Skimming through his primary epistles in “the Short Words” is sufficient enough to catch a glimpse of the profound wisdom woven through his stories.

I want to focus on one of Said Nursi’s parables. It is from the first treatise of the collection, “Nur’un İlk Kapısı” (the First Gate of the Light). The second lesson is reiterated in his masterpiece as “Mesnevi-i Nuriye” (the Seedbed of Light), and later in “Eighth Word” in a slightly different and more detailed form. It is the story of a desert-dweller jumping into a well when threatened by a lion (10).

The story

A person (actually Nursi talks about two brothers in order to compare positive and negative responses to the mystery of the universe) finds himself in a desolate wilderness. He suddenly hears a terrifying sound and sees that a great lion is about to attack him. While he is fleeing, he comes across a waterless well sixty yards deep, and in his fear jumps into it. After falling halfway down the well, his hands meet a tree growing out of the wall. He clings to it. He soon sees two animals gnawing through the tree’s two roots. Then he looks up and sees the lion waiting, and when he looks down with frustration he sees a dragon, its mouth as big as the mouth of the well. Then he looks back at the tree and notices with surprise that even though it is a fig-tree, it is bearing the fruits of thousands of trees, including some looking fancy and delicious but ultimately intoxicating and poisonous.

The responses of the two brothers bifurcates in Nursi’s narration. The good brother, whose good morals give him good thoughts, and good thoughts showing him the good side of everything, goes ahead with the realization of these strange happenings being connected to someone. He concludes that behind everything are the commands of a hidden ruler, who is watching him and testing him. His fear turns into wonder, and that wonder gives the fruit of love towards that hidden hand, leading him to cry out: “O ruler of this place! I have happened upon you and I take refuge with you. I am your servant and I want to please you. I am searching for you.” After he makes this supplication, the walls of the well suddenly part, and a door opens onto a wonderful, pleasant, quiet garden. Indeed, the dragon’s mouth transforms into the door, and both it and the lion take on the forms of two servants, inviting him to enter. The lion even becomes a docile horse for him to ride.

Wisdom of the story

Even while listening to the story for the first time, one can match most of the allegorical details mentioned in the story with real life counterparts. A short reference is provided as Table 1.

Table 1. Correspondence between the metaphors used in the parable and the truths behind them.

Beyond these, it’s astonishing to realize how perfectly the story simplifies the very essential concerns of each concious individual, such as the purpose of this life, reaching the Creator beyond the veil of creation, the reality of death, the compliance of destiny with the responsibility of actions, and so forth. The story also sets forth answers to the three basic questions asked by all humanity:

“Where are you coming from?”

“What is your destination?”

“What is your task in this world?” (11, 12)

Search for the source of wisdom

The First Station

The clever son of Russian Tsardom, Leo Tolstoy, welcomed me with his deep contemplations on life, death, and religion in the preface of his book, A Confession. Tolstoy was mentioning the “story of wisdom,” but from the perspective of bad-mannered brother:

There is an Eastern fable, told long ago, of a traveler overtaken on a plain by an enraged beast. Escaping from the beast he gets into a dry well, but sees at the bottom of the well a dragon that has opened its jaws to swallow him. And the unfortunate man, not daring to climb out lest he should be destroyed by the enraged beast, and not daring to leap to the bottom of the well lest he should be eaten by the dragon, seizes a twig growing in a crack in the well and clings to it. His hands are growing weaker and he feels he will soon have to resign himself to the destruction that awaits him above or below, but still he clings on. Then he sees that two mice, a black one and a white one, go regularly round and round the stem of the twig to which he is clinging and gnaw at it. And soon the twig itself will snap and he will fall into the dragon’s jaws. The traveler sees this and knows that he will inevitably perish; but while still hanging he looks around, sees some drops of honey on the leaves of the twig, reaches them with his tongue and licks them (13).

Before journeying towards the next station, the following is how Tolstoy transcribes the story into his case:

So I too clung to the twig of life, knowing that the dragon of death was inevitably awaiting me, ready to tear me to pieces; and I could not understand why I had fallen into such torment. I tried to lick the honey which formerly consoled me, but the honey no longer gave me pleasure, and the white and black mice of day and night gnawed at the branch by which I hung. I saw the dragon clearly and the honey no longer tasted sweet. I only saw the inescapable dragon and the mice, and I could not tear my gaze from them. And this is not a fable but the real unanswerable truth intelligible to all.

While following Tolstoy within his profound yet gloomy commentary on the standing of human “self,” Nursi’s voice has shaken my mind again, answering the stated, unanswerable truth, as follows:

Death is not terrifying as it appears to be superficially… for believers, death is to be discharged from the burdensome duties of life. And for them it is a rest from worship, which is the instruction and training in the arena of trial of this world. It is also a means of their rejoining friends and relatives, ninety-nine out of a hundred of whom have already departed for the next world. And it is a means of entering their true homeland and eternal abodes of happiness. It is also an invitation to the gardens of Paradise from the dungeon of this world. And it is the time to receive their wage from the munificence of the Most Compassionate Creator in return for service rendered to Him… Yes, for the people of belief, death is the door to Divine mercy, while for the people of misguidance, it is the pit of everlasting darkness (14).

The Second Station

While skimming through Arabic translation of the book by Abdullah ibn Muqaffa from Barzouyeh’s original Persian, I came across Barzouyeh’s own version of the “story of wisdom.” His version, which was written thirteen centuries before, was just parallel to Tolstoy’s. It was an allegory of his own search for truth, with the details only slightly altered:

…I therefore compared the human race to a man who, flying from a furious elephant, goes down into a well. He suspends himself from two branches which are at the brim of it whilst his feet rest upon something projecting out of its sides, which prove to be the heads of four serpents appearing out of their holes. At the bottom, he discovers a dragon… (15)

After underlining small yet clear differences between Barzouyeh’s version and Tolstoy’s – including the introduction of four serpents and a furious elephant – we can leave the second station.

The Third Station

After being translated into Greek in the 11^th century and into Latin in the 13^th by a Christian, John of Capua, the book appeared in Europe in several languages close to the end of 15^th century, right after the invention of printing. The rendering of John of Capua’s Latin manuscript into Italian by Anton-Francesco Doni fostered the first English translation of the book by Sir Thomas North, in 1568. The title of North’s translation was, Fables of Bidpai: The Morall Philosophie of Doni (16).

Swung back to 16^th century from ibn Muqaffa’s Arabic text, 750 AD, a surprise was waiting for me at the third station. While skimming through North’s English translation, I came across the “story of wisdom” in the middle of the book – except this one was apparently not in the Arabic manuscript, save Barzouyeh’s preface, as already mentioned above.

Jane Stevenson writes in her piece in the University of Toronto Quarterly on the manuscript’s translation adventure, that Doni’s Italian version – compiled of forty-one tales, thirty-four of which are from the Persian manuscript – as a rehashed version. These thirty-four stories are also shared between Bidpai’s narrations and Barzouyeh’s (17).

Most probably, the courtesy of our “story of wisdom” is given to Barzouyeh due to the preface text appearing in the Arabic version. Yet interestingly, “the story of wisdom” in North’s English translation appears more similar to Tolstoy and Nursi’s narrations, as it mentions neither a furious elephant nor four serpents. It most resembles Nursi’s story, where the traveler comes into a large plain after passing through thick and large woods. Differently in North’s version, there are four lions attacking rather than a single one.

The following quote from Thomas North’s lesson is significant to exhibit how the core of the “death – lion allegory” is lost through the influence of his contemporary culture: “The foure Lions the foure elements, which feeke ftill to deuour man” (18). This also gives us a hint about the case of Barzouyeh’s addition of four serpents. Barzouyeh was saying, “…the four serpents are the four humors in the human body which being disturbed in their mutual action become many deadly poisons…” Medieval medicine believed four faculties in the human body caused illnesses in their mutual discord. Noticeably, both of these allegories, missing in Nursi’s text, have been proven wrong/mythical via modern knowledge of science and medicine.

Comparison of differences

The only demanding explanation of the significant differences between Barzouyeh’s story and the Medieval European translations would be thinking of a second Hebrew manuscript which parented John of Capua’s Latin manuscript. Otherwise assuming the Latin version being translated from Joel’s 12^th century Hebrew narration of ibn Muqaffa text, would leave the source of the differences in the “story of wisdom” in dark. That second version of 8^th century AD text, in Hebrew, was likely compiled under an Abbasid Caliph, as argued by some scholars, and should have been directly translated from Sanskrit originals.

Turkish newspaper columnist and author, Abdullah Aymaz, in a conversation with a Buddhist scholar, Venerable Bup-Hyun,[ii] throws light onto the issue:

… I narrated him the story told by Said Nursi in the Eighth Word and later asked: ‘Does that story exist in your religious texts?’ He replied, ‘Yes it does, but instead of a lion we have an elephant and also the dragon has four heads. We too have black and white mice and in place of fruits we have a poisonous honey. You can also find it in Jatakas, told by Buddha (19).

If we come to the last main difference between the four versions of the story, the existence of honey inside the well, we see that both Barzouyeh and North are talking about a beehive whereas Tolstoy is mentioning some drops of honey on the leaves of the twig. In contrast to these, Nursi does not mention honey in the story. Rather he talks about numerous types of fruits coming out of fig tree’s branch, some of which are poisonous though they look sweet. Nursi’s analogy leads to nourishing pearls of wisdom such as:

1. “Dissolute, forbidden pleasures of youth are like poisonous honey.” (20).
2. “As pleasure’s disappearance causes pain, pain’s disappearance causes pleasure” (21).
3. “Man’s accountability requires opening the door to the reason and not removing the power of choice” (22).
4. “This world’s adornments are meant to rouse our appetite. As they are temporary and give pain upon separation, they are here only to instruct in wisdom, to arouse gratitude, and to encourage us to seek the permanent originals of which they are copies” (23).

Approaching the source as the last station

Although it is hard to historically detect the origin of the “story of wisdom,” and we’re not able to trace it beyond Barzouyeh, it is evident from the previous discussion that the very source of the story is not himself. A reasonable scenario would be accepting the story existing in the original compilation of Pañchatantra, in Sanskrit, and in the Jataka stories of Buddha.

Moreover, the inner-consistency of the story and the perfection of allegories give the fragrance of a heavenly wisdom rather than a carnal production. Maybe that is why Nursi summarized the Eighth Word as, “… interpreting an important mystery of the verses on the essence of this world, the essence of the human, and in humanity the meaning of religion, via a beautiful and luminary parable which has its original in the Scriptures of Abraham…” (24).

The Story of Wisdom and the Qur’an

It’s worthwhile to mention several tips from the book called “al-Hakim,” which literally means “full of wisdom.”

The scriptures sent to Prophet Abraham are mentioned in the Qur’an at only one place, the ending verses of the Chapter of A’la (the High): “This is surely contained in the former Scrolls: The Scrolls of Abraham and Moses” (25).

Preceding verses have a comparison of two people coming up with opposite responses to the advice of the Messenger: the mindful one who stands in awe of the Lord, and the wicked one remaining aloof from God (26). Later on, the punishment due to the latter’s heedlessness is described: “He will neither die therein (to be saved from punishment) nor live” (27). This description is consistent to the case of the man holding the twig inside the well.

The Qur’an’s narrative compares the situation of two persons, which is in line with Nursi’s double-winged narration. Said Nursi emphasizes that the twig which the man holds is a “fig tree.” The Qur’an says, at the beginning of the Chapter of Tin (the Fig): “By the fig and the olive, And Mount Sinai, And this secure City” (28). Some prominent scholars of Tafsir, interpreting these verses, believe that “the fig” refers to Damascus, thus to the mission of Abraham (29); the olives refer to Jerusalem, thus to Jesus; Mount Sinai refers to Egypt, thus to Moses; and “this secure City” to Mecca, thus to Prophet Muhammad (blessings be upon them all) (30).

Notes

1. Şahiner, N. 2007. Cemil Meriç’le Nur Sohbetleri, Izmir: Isik Publications, p. 106 (in Turkish).
2. Ibid. pp. 93-95.
3. Jainism and Buddhism. Udana 68-69: Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant.
4. Hughes, Marilynn. 2005. The Voice of Prophets, Volume 2, Morrisville, NC, pp. 590-91.
5. Al-Ghazzali. 1933. Ihya’ `Ulum ad-Din, Volume 4, Cairo, p. 6. (in Arabic).
6. Jalalu’ddin Rumi. 1930. The Mathnawi. Edited with critical notes, translation, and commentary by Reynold A. Nicholson, Volume 4, Book 3, London, vv. I259-68.
7. Suyuti. Durr al-Mansur, Volume 6, p. 341. Hakim. Mustadrak, Volume 2, p. 425. (in Arabic).
8. Bidpai. 1885. Kalilah and Dimnah, or, The Fables of Bidpai. Translated by I.G.N. Keith Falconer, Cambridge University Press.
9. Bidpai. 1819. Kalila and Dimna. Translated by Rev. Wyndham Knatchbull, London: Oxford Press, pp. 32-46.
10. Nursi, Said. 2005. The Words, 8th Word, NJ: The Light, Inc.
11. Nursi. 2005, 10th Word, Introduction, Second Sign, 19th Word, Third Droplet.
12. Nursi. 2006. The Letters, 19th Letter, First Addendum, NJ: The Light, Inc.
13. Tolstoy, Leo. 2010. A Confession and Other Religious Writings, Translated by N.H. Dole, L. Maude, Digireads.com Publishing, pp. 13-14.
14. Nursi. 2006. 1st Letter, Second Question.
15. Bidpai. 1819. p. 81.
16. Doni, Anton Francesco. 2003. The Moral Philosophy of Doni: Known as The Fables of Bidpai. Translated by Thomas North, edited by John Anthony Butler, Carmine Di Biase, Canada: Dovehouse Editions.
17. Stevenson, Jane. 2004. “The Moral Philosophy of Doni, popularly known as the Fables of Bidpai,” University of Toronto Quarterly, Volume 74, Number 1, Winter 2004/2005, pp. 404-405.
18. North, Thomas. 1568. The Morall Philosophie of Doni, London: Ballantyne Press, p. 63.
19. Aymaz, Abdullah. “Güneş doğana kadar yediyüz secde”, July, 18, 2005, Zaman Newspaper (in Turkish).
20. Nursi. 2005. Thirteenth Word, Second Station.
21. Nursi. 2005. Tenth Word, Fourth Truth.
22. Nursi. 2005. Thirty First Word, Addendum.
23. Nursi. 2005. Tenth Word.
24. Nursi, Fihrist Risalesi, Sekizinci Söz, İstanbul: Envar Publications (in Ottoman Turkish).
25. Qur’an, 87/18-19.
26. Qur’an, 87/10-11.
27. Qur’an, 87/13.
28. Qur’an, 95/1-3.
29. İslamoğlu, Mustafa. Tefsirul Kur’an Te’vil ul Furkan, Tîn Sûresi (in Turkish).
30. Imam Qurtubi, Tafsir Qurtubi, Chapter 95.

[i]. By his original name, Vishna Sarma is believed to have lived in the Kashmir area about 200 BC and compiled different fables and stories, some dating back to the 13^th century BC, into a single book under the name of “Pañchatantra (Five Principles).”

[ii]   Professor at Dongbang Buddhist University, Director of the Korean Buddhist Order Association

With his new book, Insights from the Risale-i Nur, Thomas Michel sets out to answer some of these questions. Michel states his goal very early in the book: as a Jesuit priest, he wants to know where, if at all, he can find “points of convergence” between Christianity and Islam within Bediüzzaman Said Nursi’s (d. 1960) seminal “Risale-i Nur.”

It turns out there aren’t just a few points, but many. And throughout Michel’s book – which is a collection of essays, speeches, and presentations the priest has delivered over the last two decades – he lays the groundwork for a healthy, constructive dialogue between not just Christians and Muslims, but peoples of all faith.

Nursi wrote the “Risale-i Nur” in the wake of two world wars. He’d watched as the secular advances of Western civilization had led to the near total destruction of Europe – not once, but twice. The collateral damage had deeply affected his home, Turkey, and its neighbors. And he endured the ill effects of Turkey’s own modernization efforts, as he was repeatedly persecuted and imprisoned for his faith.

Under such circumstances, it would have been understandable if his book had been rife with anger. Instead, as Michel astutely shows throughout his own thoughtful book, Nursi’s commentary is remarkably hopeful. He sought these “points of convergence” while also stressing what he believed as the truth of his own faith. Michel adeptly uses Nursi’s words to draw out the common ground between different faiths, and looks at how these similarities can be applied in our equally fraught contemporary age.

Both Christianity and Islam pinpoint the destruction wrought by war and poverty as having germinated not from faith, but from rampant materialism run to its natural conclusion. In a quote that Michel returns to, time and again, Nursi writes:

Europe is two. One follows the sciences which serve justice and right
And the industries beneficial for the life of society it has received from
True Christianity; this first Europe I am not addressing. I am rather
Addressing the second, corrupt Europe which, through the darkness of
The philosophy of naturalism, supposing the evils of civilization to be
Its virtues, has driven mankind to vice and misguidance.

Michel routinely connects Nursi’s, and Islam’s, distress about materialism and greed with Christianity and Judaism’s distress about the same things. The book’s second essay charts the overlaps between Nursi and Pope John Paul II in their approaches to forgiveness. Both men believed that materialism, and the selfishness it fosters, are antithetical to healthy, fulfilled communities. People of faith, no matter their belief systems, believe that a truly rich life involves more than the simple acquisition of transient materials. This common desire – for communities based on mutual love and respect instead of self-interest – is a major point of convergence. As Nursi writes, “Our enemy, that which is destroying us, is Lord Ignorance, his son [Master] Poverty Efendi, and grandson, [Mr] Enmity Bey.”

Michel shows that, although Nursi believed adamantly in the truth of his faith, he also believed that true followers of the other “revealed religions” were friends and allies of Islam. Writing after the Second World War, Nursi stated that innocents who had died “were martyrs of a sort, whatever religion they belonged to.” In the aftermath of an invasion that mostly destroyed the city of Van, Nursi “…wept without distinction for both the Christian and Muslim victims, who had been his ‘friends and acquaintances.’” In these acts of kindness, Michel finds common ground with Nursi – both of their faiths value the dignity of every human life.

In a world in which the pursuit of wealth and immediate satisfaction guides so many human interactions, this value is not always present. All too often, people from different walks of life are viewed as obstacles to a person attaining the material satisfaction they’ve come to believe is rightfully theirs.

Michel sums up this perspective succinctly in one of the most important essays in the book, “Dialogue among Believers.” He writes, “Instead of fostering fellowship and mutual aid among nations, social values are too often oriented toward providing the populace with amusements, distractions, and opportunities for instant gratification.”

Such striving for material rewards – the pursuit of which lies at the heart of capitalism, which often functions as a “secular” religion – has resulted in the debasement and poverty of a large portion of the world’s population. This dehumanization and desacralizing of human life is at the root of most religious concerns about contemporary culture. Instead of working towards a “higher good” – community, peace, or God – people are focused on self-actualization through consumption. But as Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 4, verse 4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The Qur’an echoes this when it says, in chapter 63, verse 9, “Let not your properties … divert you from the remembrance of God.” It’s not difficult to interpret these quotes to mean that humanity should not simply honor and respect God, but should also honor and respect God’s creations through reverence and peace. Material possessions alone cannot fill a person’s spirit; this is a belief almost all religions share.

Both Nursi and Michel feel that the absence of religion – and not the differences between faiths – has led to the wars and poverties of the last century. This is a belief that many, many people of faith share. The essays in the book continually return to these themes of common interest. By having a dialogue with Nursi’s text, and by viewing that text in its best possible context, Michel establishes a space for further dialogue between people of all faiths to occur. Both men express their adamant belief that faith – be it Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or something else – has an important, vital role to play in establishing a broad, lasting peace. Michel, like Nursi before him, remains hopeful about the future role faith will play in a more peaceful, tolerant world. This book serves as a dialogue between two religions, and it builds a foundation for future dialogues. It is a foundation built of respect, devoted faith, and a deep commitment to the dignity of every life. These are not Christian, Muslim, or Jewish values – they are universal values.

Analysis of the Risale-i Nur

In order to analyze Nursi’s perception of the Qur’an and the role of revelation, it is imperative to discuss Nursi’s overall framework. According to Nursi, the word “worship” (ibadah) is the key to understanding the verse, “I created not jinn and humankind except that they might worship me” (Dhariyat 51:56). Nursi’s understanding of worship is encompassing, and not confined to ritual forms of worship. The process of worship necessitates three steps, which consist of, first, recognizing the Creator of all beings, getting to know Him, and believing in Him (see Figure 1). Secondly, love of the Creator is only possible in proportion to believers’ knowledge of Him. Thus, as believers get to know the Creator through His Divine Attributes, they cannot but love Him. Thirdly, a natural outcome of love is worship, which entails adoration. The primordial duty of humanity and the obligation incumbent upon them is to know God (marifatullah), to believe in Him (to affirm His existence and unity) in submission and absolute certainty (Nursi, The Rays, p. 71-74).

These phases (knowledge, love, and worship) do not necessarily happen sequentially. One does not graduate from the knowledge phase, having learned everything, to go onto the love phase. For instance, one can love God as much as one knows Him. Likewise, one can worship God in the true sense of the word as much as one knows and loves Him. Thus, human beings live the three phases at once, and continue increasing and renewing their knowledge. According to Nursi, knowledge of God is acquired through witnessing (shahaada) (see Figure 2). Human beings witness the manifestations of God’s Attributes constantly. In fact, for Nursi, the real essence of creation is nothing but the manifestations of God’s Divine Attributes. For instance, by contemplating the compassion that God places in a mother’s heart for her child, one witnesses God’s Absolute Compassion manifested through the mother. Thus, for Nursi, science is a means to further discover and admire God’s Attributes of All-Knowing, All-Powerful…etc. Thus, in Nursi’s framework, creation has to be experienced and contemplated upon in order to know God. There is no “worldly” deed as opposed to “other- worldly” deed in absolute terms. Everything is in the perception of the beholder. One can approach all “worldly” deeds with the intention of knowing God, thus turning them into eternal “other-worldly” deeds. From this aspect, Nursi does not endorse ascetic life over experiencing the Attributes of God as a parent, an employee, a student . . . etc. Continuous witnessing leads to continuous confirmation (tahqiq) and submission (islam). For instance, according to Nursi’s framework, the first of the five pillars of Islam is not “to say” I bear witness that there is no deity but God, Muhammad is His servant and messenger, but “to witness” this statement constantly. “In Islam, ‘testimony’ (shahaada) to the truth of the unity of divinity (tawhid) is central to faith. The one who surrenders (muslim) himself to the truth should actually observe how everything in the observable world (‘alam al-shahaada) indicates the truth of tawhid and, consequently, testify to the truthfulness of the Qur’anic message” (Yamina Mermer, Principles). Yet in Nursi’s paradigm, tawhid (unity of God) is a continuous process that is directly linked with the Divine Attributes. As mentioned above, in order to know God, one contemplates upon the manifestations of Divine Attributes. For example, when one contemplates a flower, one realizes that the flower cannot be beautiful of itself, and that this quality can only belong to its Creator. Thus, the flower is not beautiful but it is made beautiful; it manifests God’s Attribute of Al-Jameel. In this very process, one testifies to the unity of God by acclaiming there is no jameel (beauty or beautiful) but Al-Jameel, God. Likewise, when thinking of human intelligence, or contemplating one’s own brain and its functions, one acknowledges that the ‘ilm (knowledge or knowing) is not from the self, but again is only a manifestation of God’s Attribute, Al-‘Alim. Thus, it is a given quality that invites one to conclude that there is no ‘alim (knower) but Al-‘Alim, God. For Nursi, then, unity of God is highly experiential and is the purpose of every thought, action, encounter in life that leads to iman, absolute certainty. Where does belief (iman) fall in this process? According to Nursi, iman is not a fixed phenomenon. Thus, analytically speaking, these “phases” or conscious acts of increasing one’s knowledge through constant witnessing, confirming, and submit tinglead to increased iman, and the lack thereof results indecreased iman. How do human beings know whator how to witness? In the Risale-i Nur, Nursi outlines four universal instructors (mu’arrif) as the ways to knowledge of God: Prophet Muhammad as the representative of all the prophets; the Qur’an as the representative of all revelations; the universe as representative of all of creation; and human consciousness Thus, Nursi argues that God has created man and put him in this world, yet He did not leave man without guidance. In fact, everything in the cosmos testifies to God’s existence and manifests His Attributes (Asma al-Husna) for humans to witness, confirm, and submit. Revelations are sent to guide humans and to increase their knowledge of God. Moreover, messengers are sent by God to teach us how the universe and the revelations are to be understood (interpreted) and to educate them therewith. Lastly, God has given humans certain faculties (such as reason, heart, etc.), all of which, under the guidance of man’s innate consciousness,² can help to confirm the truthfulness of the revelations, the messengers, and the message embodied in the universe (Ali Mermer, Divine Speech). In Figure 3, the four instructors that are provided for human beings to attain knowledge of God mutually confirm one another. Thus, the outside arrows depict the circular affirming and reaffirming of the four sources of knowledge. According to Nursi, human beings are created with the capacity to comprehend and confirm the message that is brought by these four sources. In fact, all human faculties-such as emotions, reason, soul, etc.-have been given to serve this end. Yet, human beings should use their faculties with the guidance of revelation. In other words, reason without heart (consciousness), and heart without reason, cannot but lead man astray.

Nursi’s definition of the Qur’an

The Twenty-Fifth Word, titled “The Miraculousness of the Qur’an,” is an exegesis of the verse, Say: “Surely, if humankind and the jinn were to come together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they will never be able to producethe like of it,though they backed one another up with help and support”(Isra 17:88). This is one of the longest chapters in the volume called,The Words. Nursidedicates The Twenty-Fifth Word to explaining these verses, which have been contested and questioned byagnostics and atheist scientists (Nursi, The Words, p. 375). However, before going into detail and explaining specific verses, Nursi starts this chapter by posingtwo complementary questions: What is the Qur’an?And how is itdefined? In the introduction, Nursigives concise but profound definitions of the Qur’an. Nursi begins to answer these questions by statingthat, “The Qur’an briefly contains all Scriptures revealedto previous prophets.”³ First, Nursi argues that the Qur’an was revealed by God to a prophet, and it contains “briefly” previous revealed Books, as well. Inother words,Nursi assumes a continuation, overlap,and confirmation between prior revelations and theQur’an. The word “briefly” can be understood to implythe message of the Books for all previous prophets.Hence, the underlying or core message of all theScriptures revealed by God is one and the same. ForNursi, this message is, ‘there is no deity but God.’Thus, by virtue of stating this quality of the Qur’an at thevery beginning, it can be argued that Nursi’s followingdefinitions of the Qur’an apply to all revelations prior to the Qur’an.In Nursi’s view, the Qur’an is, first and foremost,“an eternal translation of the great Book of theUniverse.”⁴ This role of the Qur’an, or revelations in general, is crucial, as depicted in Figure 3. Revelationconfirms the other sources of knowledge, one ofwhich is the universe. According to Nursi, human beings are created with the innate quest for meaning. Byobserving the universe, all the events, eco-systems…etc., human beings can assert that there has to be a Creator and meaning and purpose to all this, yet human reason and other faculties stop at that point.

Without the guidance of revelation, human beings cannot know what that meaning or purpose is. Thus, the Qur’an reads and translates the meaning of the book of the universe to human beings in a form that is comprehensible to them. For example, many verses of the Qur’an end with one or perhaps two Attributes of God after an event or a fact has been narrated. Nursi interprets these “asma-i tayy” as Attributes that encapsulate the essence of the reality that the believer should derive from the event narrated in the verse. In this manner, the Qur’an teaches believers how to interpret the universe, and how to witness the Attributes. Nursi adds that the Qur’an is not only a book that explains this world, but it also brings news from the World of the Unseen (ghayb) as, “the interpreter of the books of the visible, material world, and the World of the Unseen.”⁶ Human beings have not been given any faculties to see, comprehend, or know beyond this creation through any means other then revelation. Thus, revelation is the only outlet or source that brings news from the World of the Unseen, beyond “the veil of this visible world.”⁷ For instance, news of the Afterlife, angels, World of Spirits (‘alam al-arwah), etc., are examples from the World of the Unseen which are narrated in the Qur’an. Hence, without the guidance of the revelations, human beings cannot speculate about the Unseen. According to Nursi, one of the roles of the revelation is to disclose, “the immaterial treasuries of the Divine Names hidden in on Earth and in the heavens.”

For instance, as mentioned above, many verses in the Qur’an end with one or more Divine Names that teach the reader how, in the specific story, event, or statement, God’s Attributes can be seen. Hence, through revealing God’s Names in certain contexts, the Qur’an increases the readers’ knowledge of God, and acts asthe “articulate proof and clear translator of the Divine Essence, Attributes, Names, and acts.”9 Thus, bearing in mind Nursi’s overall framework, the Qur’an is a guide that teaches human beings how to increase inmarifatullah Another role of the Qur’an is related to the Hereafter. Nursi states that the Qur’an is “the sacred mapof the Hereafter’s worlds.”10 The “map,” in this statement, can be understood to be a tool that shows the user how to get to a certain destination. Therefore, Nursi argues that if a person desires Heaven as the ultimate destination, the Qur’an is the map that teaches them how to get there. Likewise, the Qur’an is also the map that discloses to the reader what will bring them to Hell-i.e. deprivation of Heaven, which is the embodiment of God’s Mercy. However, Nursi’s description of the Qur’an as, “the sacred map of theHereafter’s worlds” should not necessarily be understood as referring to the specific verses that directly talk about Heaven and Hell. In Nursi’s thought, human beings are building their Afterlife (akhirat) right here while they are living in this world. So, a sharpdelineation between this life and the Afterlife does notexist for Nursi. Hence, even verses about how to live this life are directly related to the Afterlife, and can beconsidered as maps to the hereafter.Nursi states that Qur’an is, “the educator and trainer of humanity’s world,”11 addressing all of humanity,rather than a specific people at a specific point in time:“Addressing every age and every class of people in itsstories and historical narratives, it does not recount one part or one lesson from them, but points out elementsof a universal principle, as though it were newly revealed.”12 In other words, for instance, the prophets’stories are paradigms for believers (i.e. whoeverchooses theQur’anashis/her guidance) right here and now. In addition, Nursi believes that its message is so comprehensive that it is, “like a sacred library,[it] contains numerous booklets from which all saints, eminently truthful people, all purified and discerning scholars, and those well-versed in knowledge of Godhave derived their own specific ways, and which illuminate each way and answer their followers’ needs.” In this statement, Nursi also touches upon a principle he often explicates elsewhere in the Risale-i Nur: that paths leading to the Truth are multiple and the path of the Qur’an is wide enough to encompass all these turuq (paths). Thus, according to Nursi, whoever reads the Qur’an can find guidance for his/her currentstate of heart and mind. He states that the Qur’an, “is a book of law, prayer, wisdom, worship and servanthoodto God, commands and invitation, invocation and reflection [and] is a holy book containing boks for all of our spiritual needs.” Hence, viewing the Qur’an disproportionately or solely as a book of law distorts its truly comprehensive nature. Finally, Nursi addresses the issue of the hierarchy of the Qur’an among other revealed texts and inspirations. He argues that “the Qur’an briefly contains all Scripturesrevealed to previous Prophets.”15 The major difference defined by Nursi is that the Qur’an is the direct speech of God, whereas some of the other revelations are inspirations. Also, he points out that the Qur’an is universal with regard to the Divine Attributes, whereas prior revelations had a particular scope.

Conclusion

One fundamental theme that emerges from Nursi’s definitions is that the Qur’an and the universe cannot be divorced If one is to understand and confirm the message of the Qur’an, one has to witness the signs in the universe, and without the guidance of the Qur’an, one cannot make sense of the message hidden behind creation or understand its meaning. As one contemporary Nursi scholar argues, according to Nursi, “the meaning of the Qur’an unfolds in the cosmic signs” (Yamina Mermer, Principles).

The Qur’an refers to things in the universe as signs (ayat) and invites the reader to contemplatetheir meaning in order to confirm the teachings of the Qur’an: Surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day, there are signs for the people of discernment (Al Imran 3:190).16 “God speaks through Qur’anic signs as well as through cosmic signs” (Yamina Mermer, Principles), thus the Qur’an is God’s speech with words, whereas the universe/creation is God’s speech with acts. In a sense, God speaks as He creates. Nursi explains that everything in creation translates, explicates, confirms the Qur’anic ayat, and “the Qur’an, which comes from God’s infinite knowledge, is a translation of the universe…” (Ali Mermer, Divine Speech). Both the Qur’an, as divine speech and the universe, as a “speaking book” are divine revelations: “There is a continuous mutual relationship between them. The Qur’an explains the universe; the universe is proof of the Qur’an’s assertions” (Ali Mermer, Divine Speech). Thus the universe can only be read correctly with the guidance of the Qur’an, whereas the universe confirms the truthfulness of Qur’anic claims (Ali Mermer, Divine Speech). In the light of Nursi’s framework, Read, and your Lord is the All- Munificent… (Alaq 96:1) everything must be read, not only the revealed texts, but also creation in the name of their Creator (Yamina Mermer, Cause and Effect, p. 41). Thus, in the Risale-i Nur, Nursi invites the readers to look around themselves and observe the universe to see how “things are signs and evidences making known our Maker and teach us the method of reading and deciphering them” (Yamina Mermer, Cause and Effect, p. 41).

In conclusion, Nursi contends that the Qur’an teaches about who the Creator is, what the purpose of creation is, how to know the Creator through His Attributes, and finally how to love and worship Him alone.

Works Cited

Mermer, Ali. “Divine Speech: The Ways to the Knowledge of God in the Risale-i Nur,” in TheReconstruction of Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century and Bediuzzaman SaidNursi, 24th-26th September, 1995. The Istanbul Foundationfor Science and Culture. Istanbul: Sozler Nesriyat A.S., 1997. Mermer, Yamine B. “Cause and Effect in the Risale-i Nur,” inThe Reconstruction of Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century and Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, 24th-26th September, 1995. The Istanbul Foundation for Science and Culture. Istanbul: Sozler Nesriyat A.S., 1997. “Principles of Qur’anic Hermeneutics,” Journal of ScripturalReasoning, Vol 5.1, (April 2005). Nursi, Bediuzzaman Said. Kaynakli-Indeksli-Lugatli Risale-i NurKulliyati. Vol 1, 2. Istanbul: Nesil Yayinlari, 2004. Nursi, The Rays, Istanbul: Sozler Publications, 1998. Nursi, The Words, The Light, Inc, NJ: 2005.

Notes

1. See, Nursi, The Words, The Light, Inc., NJ: 2005, p. 449.

2. Nursi mentions human conscience or consciousness as one of the four proofs of God’s existence in the Eleventh Treatise of his Al-Mathnawi al-Nuri (The Light, Inc., NJ: 2007, p. 368). However, in the Nineteenth Word he lists only three proofs: the Prophet, the Qur’an, and the book of the universe. Human conscience is a subjective factor, thus Nursi may have decided to exclude it in The Words, which he wrote at a much later date than Al-Mathnawi al-Nuri. See The Words, The Light, Inc., NJ: 2005, p: 247.

3. Nursi, 2005, p. 389.

4. Nursi, 2005, p. 388.

5. Nursi, Kaynakli-Indeksli-Lugatli Risale-i Nur Kulliyati, p. 188.

6. Nursi, 2005, p. 388.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

12. Nursi, The Rays, Sozler Publications, Istanbul:2002, p. 263.

13. Nursi, 2005, 388-9.

14. Ibid., p. 388.

15. Ibid., p. 389.

16. For an extended discussion on all creation being signs see Murata and Chittick, The Vision of Islam, Paragon House Publishers, 1995 p. 52.