| Muslim scholar Said Nursi |
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Said Nursî praying in front of the Fatih Sultan Mehmed Tomb in Fatih Mosque in Istanbul |
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| Born | Between January 5 and March 12, 1878 Nurs, Bitlis Province, Ottoman Empire (now Kepirli village, Hizan) |
| Died | March 23, 1960 (age 82) Urfa, Turkey |
| Region | Anatolia |
| School tradition | Sunnite (Shafi'ite), |
| Main interests | Restoring Faith [1] * Proving Existence and Oneness of God [2] * Proving Resurrection [3] * |
| Notable ideas | Risale-i Nur Collection |
| Influences | Qur'an, Imam Ali, Abdul-Qadir Gilani, Al-Ghazali, Ahmad Sirhindi, Ash'ari |
| Influenced | Fethullah Gülen, |
Bediuzzaman Said Nursî(1878[4] – March 23, 1960) (Ottoman Turkish: بديع الزمان سعيد النورسى),commonly known as Bediüzzaman (Badi' al-Zaman), which means "The Wonder of the Age" [5] was a Muslim scholar who wrote the Risale-i Nur Collection, a body of Qur'anic commentary exceeding six thousand pages. Believing that modern science and logic was the way of the future, he advocated teaching religious sciences in secular schools and modern sciences in religious schools.[6] Nursi inspired a faith movement that has played a vital role in the revival of Islam in Turkey and now numbers several million followers worldwide.
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He was born in Nurs, a village in the Ottoman Bitlis Province in eastern Anatolia.[7] He educated by the district's best scholars. He soon surpassed them in debates. His profound knowledge in religious and positive sciences he learned at an early age was acclaimed by the scholars of his time, and due to his sharp intelligence, strong memory and superior abilities, he was called by the name “Bediuzzaman”, meaning “The most unique, superior person of the time.” He was invited by the governor of the vilayet of Van to stay within his residency. In the governor's library, Nursî gained access to an archive of scientific knowledge he had not had access to previously. Moreover, Said learned proper Turkish there. During this time, he developed a plan for university education for the Eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire. By combining scientific and religious (Islamic) education, the university was expected to advance the philosophical thoughts of these regions. However, he was put on trial in 1909 for his apparent involvement in the 1909 countercoup on the side opposing the Committee of Union and Progress but he was acquitted and released. He had always been an advocate for true democracy as a Muslim scholar and knew the facts that voting was initially practiced during and a short time after the death of the Islamic prophet Mohammad. Therefore he supported true democracy but protested with peaceful dissent against the then common era dictatorship. He was active during the late Ottoman Caliphate as an educational reformer and advocate of the unity of the peoples of the Caliphate, Bediüzzaman was a worrying enough influence for the incipient leader of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Ataturk, to deem it necessary to seek to control him by offering him the position of ‘Minister of Religious Affairs’ for the eastern provinces of Turkey, a post that Nursi famously refused.[8] This was the beginning of his split from the Kemalist Ideology. During the World War I, he was a member of the Sperical Organization of the Ottoman Empire.[9]
Said Nursi heard that a British Secretary for the Colonies had even said in a newspaper: "So long as the Muslims have the Qur'an, we shall be unable to dominate them. We must either take it from them, or make them lose their love of it."[10][11] Such threats caused him to declare: "I shall prove and demonstrate to the world that the Qur'an is an undying, inextinguishable Sun!" thus he decided to write his masterpiece, Risale-i Nur.
He was finally exiled to the village Barla in the Isparta Province. His teachings attracted many people in the area. These manuscripts were sent to Sav, another village in the region where dozens of people duplicated them in Arabic script (which was officially replaced by the Latin script in 1928). After being finished these books were sent to Nursî's disciples all over Turkey via the "Nurcu postal system". Bediuzzaman's study of science and involvement with philosophy should be seen in the context of the increasing Western influence in the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries and the attacks which were being made on the Qur'an and Islam in the name of science, materialism and Positivist philosophy in particular. Bediuzzaman's activity was intended to provide an Islamic answer to these attacks. When the leadership of Turkey came into the hands of Mustafa Kemal and his supporters at the founding of the Republic in 1923, the drive for Westernization received a strong impetus. As the New Said, Bediuzzaman had immersed himself in the Qur'an, searching for a way to relate its truths to modern man. In Barla in his isolation he began to write treatises explaining and proving these truths, for now the Qur'an itself and its truths were under direct attack. The first of these was on the Resurrection of the Dead, which in a unique style, proves bodily Resurrection rationally, where even the greatest scholars previously had confessed their impotence. He described the method employed in this as consisting of three stages: first God's existence is proved, and His Names and attributes, then the Resurrection of the Dead is 'constructed' on these and proved.
With these writings, Bediuzzaman opened up a new, direct way to reality (haqiqat) and knowledge of God which he described as the highway of the Qur'an and way of the Companions of the Prophet through the 'legacy of Prophethood,' which gains for those who follow it 'true and certain belief.' He did not ascribe the writings to himself, but said they proceeded from the Qur'an itself, were 'rays shining out of from [its] truths.'
Thus, rather than being a Qur'anic commentary which expounds all its verses giving the immediate reasons for their revelation and the apparent meanings of the words and sentences, the Risale-i Nur is what is known as a mânevî tefsir, or commentary which expounds the meaning of the Qur'anic truths. For there are various sorts of commentaries. The verses mostly expounded in the Risale-i Nur are those concerned with the truths of belief, such as the Divine Names and attributes and the Divine activity in the universe, the Divine existence and Unity, resurrection, prophethood, Divine Determining or destiny, and man's duties of worship. Bediuzzaman explains how the Qur'an addresses all men in every age in accordance with the degree of their understanding and development; it has a face that looks to each age. The Risale-i Nur, then, explains that face of the Qur'an which looks to this age. We shall now look at further aspects of the Risale-i Nur related to this point.
In numerous of its verses, the Holy Qur'an invites man to observe the universe and reflect on the Divine activity within it; following just this method, Bediuzzaman provides proofs and explanations for the truths of belief. He likens the universe to a book, and looking at it in the way shown by the Qur'an, that is, 'reading' it for its meaning, learns of the Divine Names and attributes and other truths of belief. The book's purpose is to describe its Author and Maker; beings become evidences and signs to their Creator. Thus, an important element in the way of the Risale-i Nur is reflection or contemplation (tefekkür), 'reading' the Book of the Universe in order to increase in knowledge of God and to obtain 'true and certain belief' in all the truths of belief.
Bediuzzaman demonstrates that the irrefutable truths, such as Divine Unity, arrived at in this way are the only rational and logical explanation of the universe, and making comparisons with Naturalist and Materialist philosophy which have used science's findings about the universe to deny those truths, show the concepts on which they are based, such as causality and Nature, to be irrational and logically absurd.
Indeed, far from contradicting them, in uncovering the order and working of the universe, science broadens and deepens knowledge of the truths of belief. In the Risale-i Nur many descriptions of the Divine activity in the universe are looked at through the eyes of science, and reflect Bediuzzaman's knowledge of it. The Risale-i Nur shows that there is no contradiction or conflict between religion and science.
In addition, all these matters discussed in the Risale-i Nur are set out as reasoned arguments and proved according to logic. All the most important of the truths of belief are proved so clearly that even unbelievers can see their necessity. And so too, inspired by the Qur'an, even the most profound and inaccessible truths are made accessible by means of comparisons, which bring them close to the understanding like telescopes, so that they are readily understandable by ordinary people and those with no previous knowledge of these questions.
Another aspect of the Risale-i Nur related to the face of the Qur'an which looks to this age, is that it explains everything from the point of view of wisdom; that is, as is mentioned again below, it explains the purpose of everything. It considers things from the point of view of the Divine Name of All-Wise.
Also, following this method, in the Risale-i Nur Bediuzzaman solved many mysteries of religion, such as bodily resurrection and Divine Determining and man's will, and the riddle of the constant activity in the universe and the motion of particles, before which man relying on his own intellect and philosophy had been impotent.
While in Barla, Bediuzzaman put the treatise on Resurrection and the pieces that followed it together in the form of a collection and gave it the name of Sozler (The Words). The Words was followed by Mektûbat (Letters), a collection of thirty-three letters of varying lengths from Bediuzzaman to his students. And this was followed by Lem'alar (The Flashes Collection), and Sualar (The Rays), which was completed in 1949. Together with these are the three collections of Additional Letters, for each of Bediuzzaman's main places of exile, Barla Lahikasi, Kastamonu Lahikasi, and Emirdag Lahikasi.
The way the Risale-i Nur was written and disseminated was unique, like the work itself. Bediuzzaman would dictate at speed to a scribe, who would write down the piece in question with equal speed; the actual writing was very quick. Bediuzzaman had no books for reference and the writing of religious works was of course forbidden. They were all written therefore in the mountains and out in the countryside. Handwritten copies were then made, these were secretly copied out in the houses of the Risale-i Nur 'students,' as they were called, and passed from village to village, and then from town to town, till they spread throughout Turkey. Only in 1946 were Risale-i Nur students able to obtain duplicating machines, while it was not till 1956 that various parts were printed on modern presses in the new, Latin, script. The figure given for hand-written copies is 600,000.
It may be seen from the above figure how the Risale-i Nur movement spread within Turkey, despite all efforts to stop it. After 1950, the period of what Bediuzzaman called 'the Third Said,' there was a great increase in the number of students, particularly among the young and those who had been through the secular education system of the Republic. At the same time the number of students outside Turkey increased.
Besides these powerful writings themselves, a major factor in the success of the movement may be attributed to the very method Bediuzzaman had chosen, which may be summarized with two phrases: 'mânevî jihad,' that is, 'jihad of the word' or 'non-physical jihad', and 'positive action.' For Bediuzzaman considered the true enemies in this age of science, reason, and civilization to be materialism and atheism, and their source, materialist philosophy. Thus just as he combatted and 'utterly defeated' these with the reasoned proofs of the Risale-i Nur, so through strengthening the belief of Muslims and raising it to the level of 'true, verified belief,' the Risale-i Nur was the most effective barrier against the corruption of society caused by these enemies. In order to be able to pursue this 'jihad of the word,' Bediuzzaman insisted that his students avoided any use of force and disruptive action. Through 'positive action,' and the maintenance of public order and security, the damage caused by the forces of unbelief could be 'repaired' by the healing truths of the Qur'an. And this is the way they have adhered to.
He was finally released in 1949. In the last decade of his life he settled in Isparta city. After the introduction of the multi-party system he advised his followers to vote for the Democratic Party of Adnan Menderes which gained the support of the rural and conservative populations. Because Said Nursî considered communism the greatest danger of that time, he also supported the pro-Western orientation of the Democrats, leading to his support of NATO, CENTO and Turkey's participation in the Korean war. He tried to unite Muslims and Christians in the struggle against communism and materialism therefore he corresponded with the Pope and the Greek Orthodox patriarch.[12] In 1956 he was allowed to have his writings printed. His books are collected under the name The Collection Of Risale-i Nur (Letters of Light).[13]
He died of exhaustion after traveling to Urfa. He was buried on the premises where according to Islamic beliefs prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) is buried. After the military coup d'état in Turkey in 1960, a group of soldiers led by the later extreme right-wing politician Alparslan Türkeş opened his grave and buried him at an unknown place near Isparta during July 1960 in order to prevent popular veneration.[14] His followers are reported to have found his grave after years of searching in the area, and took his remains to a secret place in an effort to protect his body from further disturbance. Now, only two followers of him know where he is buried. When one of them dies, the other one tells one more person the secret place of the grave reducing the chance that the place be forgotten. Interestingly[15] enough, he wrote in a treaty (risala), that no one should know where his tomb is. "The Risale-i Nur Collection" revealing his claimed personal level of closeness to God. Although in letters circulating between the disciples many have been narrated instantly and are to be found within published letters combined under books called "Lahikalar". There are a few of these published "Lahikalar" named after where Said Nursi resided.
Said Nursi's life, both while writing the Risale-i Nur (1925–48) and until his death in 1960, consisted of arrest and imprisonment, surveillance, and harassment. But he persevered. In the words of a person familiar with such anti-Said Nursi activities. Following is a brief chronology of this phase of his life:
· 1925-35: Kept under strict control at Barla, a very small, mountanous district, and forced to live alone.
· 1935: Arrested and imprisoned for 11 months with 125 students during their trial at Eskisehir Criminal Court.
· 1936-43: Following his release, began a 7-year exile in Kastamonu, where he spent the first 3 months at a police station After that, he was transferred to a house opposite to the police station.
· 1943: Arrested and tried with 126 students at the Denizli Criminal Court for having a treatise on God's existence printed secretly in Istanbul. He taught the other prisoner and produced his Fruits from the Tree of Light and other works on small pieces of paper torn from paper bags, which were then smuggled out. He was acquitted and exiled to Emirdag.
· 1948: Arrested in Emirdag with 53 students, and jailed for 20 months in Afyon prison. Now 72, Said Nursi endured solitary confinement in a cell with broken windows that were not fixed during the two harsh winters he stayed there. Sick and eventually poisoned, he had to serve his full term even though the Supreme Court had annulled his sentence. In 1956, they were declared innocent.
· In 1950: the multiparty system was introduced and restrictions on religion were relaxed. Said Nursi was arrested only once after this, and was acquitted by a unanimous decision. Dying on March 23, 1960, he left this world with his works and his magnum opus: Risale-i Nur Collection
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