Said Nursî

Said-i Nursi
Said Nursi in 1918
Born	1877[1] Nurs,[2][3] Bitlis Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Died	23 March 1960 (aged 82–83)[4] Urfa, Turkey
Era	19th–20th century[5]
Region	Anatolia
Creed	Sunnite (Shafi'ite)
Main interest(s)	Islamic fundamentalist revival, theology, theosophy
Notable work(s)	Risale-i Nur[6]
Influenced by Imam Ali, Abdul-Qadir Gilani, Al-Ghazali, Ahmad Sirhindi,[7] Ash'ari
Influenced Fethullah Gülen (Gülen movement)

Said Nursî (Ottoman Turkish: بديع الزّمان سعيد النُّورسی‎; 1877^[1] – 23 March 1960), commonly known as Bediüzzaman (Badi' al-Zaman),^[8] was a Sunni Muslim theologian. He wrote the Risale-i Nur Collection, a body of Qur'anic commentary exceeding six thousand pages. He advocated teaching religious sciences in secular schools, claiming that literal readings of Quranic verses were directly compatible with, and even revelatory of, modern science.^[9]

Said Nursî inspired an Islamic movement that played a vital role in the revival of Islam in Turkey.^[10] His followers, often known as the "Nurcu" movement or the "Nur cemaat", often call him by the venerating mononymic Üstad ("the Master"). The most prominent off-shoot of this movement is the Gülen movement, led by the preacher and former imam Fethullah Gülen, although there has been increasing conflict between members of the original Nurcu movement and the Gülen movement over the latter's influence over Turkish politics and perceived infiltration of parts of the secular Turkish government.^[11]

Early life

Said Nursi was born in Nurs, a Kurdish village in the Bitlis Vilayet (province) of the Ottoman Empire, in eastern Anatolia.^[12] He received his early education from scholars of his hometown, where he showed mastery in theological debates. After developing a reputation for Islamic knowledge, he was nicknamed "Bediuzzaman", meaning "The most unique and superior person of the time". He was invited by the governor of the Vilayet of Van to stay within his residency.^{[citation needed]} In the governor's library, Nursî gained access to an archive of scientific knowledge he had not had access to previously. Said Nursi also learned the Ottoman Turkish language there. During this time, he developed a plan for university education for the Eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire.^{[citation needed]} By ostensibly combining scientific and religious (Islamic) education, the university was claimed by Said Nursi to advance the philosophical thoughts of these regions. However, he was put on trial in 1909 for his apparent involvement in the 1909 Islamist and monarchist countercoup against the progressive Committee of Union and Progress's newly-reestablished constitutional era, but he was acquitted and released. Said Nursi then proposed educational reforms to the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II, aiming to improve traditional madrasah training.^[13]

During World War I, he was a member of the Special Organization of the Ottoman Empire.^[14] Nursi was taken to Russia as a prisoner of war, where he spent over 2 years. He escaped from a Russian camp in the spring of 1918 and made his way to Istanbul.^[15]

The modernizing leader of the newly-founded Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, offered Said Nursi the position of "general preacher" for the eastern provinces of Turkey, but Nursi did not accept.^[16] This was the beginning of his split from Atatürk's ideology and reforms, although Said Nursi had a relatively friendly relationship with fellow ethnic Kurd Abdullah Cevdet, despite the vast difference between Said Nursi's fundamentalist religiosity and Avdullah Cevdet's distaste for institutionalized religion and advocacy for secularism.^[17]

After arriving in Istanbul, Said Nursi declared: "I shall prove and demonstrate to the world that the Quran is an undying, inexhaustible Sun!", setting out to write his comprehensive Risale-i Nur, a collection of Said Nursi's own commentaries and interpretations of the Quran, as well as writings about his own life. In Risale-i Nur, Said Nursi claimed a personal level of closeness to God.

Distribution of works and movement

Said Nursi wearing Kurdish traditional clothes

Said Nursi was exiled to the conservative Isparta Province for his public denouncements of the modernization reforms in Turkey.^[18] After his teachings naturally attracted some people in the area, the governor of Isparta sent him to another village. These manuscripts were sent to Sav, another village in the region, where people duplicated them in Arabic script (which was officially replaced by the modern Turkish alphabet in 1928).^[18] After being finished, these books were sent to Nursi's disciples all over Turkey via the "Nurcu postal system".^{[citation needed]} Said Nursi's activities were intended to provide an "Islamic answer" to the "attacks" of Westernization and secularization on the Ottoman Empire and Turkey. When the leadership of Turkey came into the hands of Mustafa Kemal and his supporters at the founding of the Republic in 1923, however, the drive for Westernization received a strong impetus, to the dismay of Said Nursi.

Said Nursi considered the "true enemies" of civilization to be "materialism and atheism". He described atheism as "corrupt" and said that Sufism was beneficial in that it advocated a mystical, rather than rational, belief in religion.^[19] Because mystical belief could not falsified or refuted by modern science or rational argument, one's belief in religion could not be "shaken" by what Said Nursi said were "attacks on Islam" by the modern and secular philosophies of Western powers.^[19]

In order to be able to pursue this "jihad of the word", Said Nursi insisted that his students avoid any use of force and disruptive action. Through "positive action", and the maintenance of public order and security, the supposed damage caused by the "forces of unbelief" could be repaired by the "healing" truths of the Quran.^[20]

Later life

In the last decade of his life, Said Nursi settled in the city of Isparta. 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. Said Nursî was a staunch anti-Communist, denouncing Communism as the greatest danger of the time. In 1956, he was allowed to have his writings printed. His books are collected under the name Risale-i Nur ("Letters of Divine Light").

He died of exhaustion after traveling to Urfa on 23 March 1960. He was buried on the premises where, according to Islamic mythology, the prophet Abraham was born. After the military coup d'état in Turkey in 1960, a group of soldiers led by the later extreme right-wing politician Alparslan Türkeş exhumed his remains and buried him at an unknown place near Isparta in July 1960.^[21] His followers are reported to have found his grave after years of searching in the area, and supposedly took his remains to a secret place in an effort to protect his body.^{[citation needed]}

Criticism

Said Nursî's teachings have been criticized by various people. The Quranist writer Edip Yüksel has accused Nursî of lacking scientific education despite preaching on such subjects.^[22][23][24]

Said Nursî has also been criticized for claiming personal witness of supernatural events.^[25][26] Additionally, the writer İhsan Eliaçık has accused Nursî of describing the Islamic prophet Muhammad in an exaggerated light while preaching to the masses.^[27]

References

Sources

• Camilla T. Nereid (1997). In the Light of Said Nursi: Turkish Nationalism and the Religious Alternative. Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, University of Bergen. ISBN 978-1-85065-309-7. 
• Sahiner, Necmettin, Son Şahitler 3, Nesil Yayinlari, 2004.
• Sukran Vahide (16 February 2012). Islam in Modern Turkey: An Intellectual Biography of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-8297-1. 
• Ian S. Markham; Suendam Birinci; Suendam Birinci Pirim (2011). An Introduction to Said Nursi: Life, Thought and Writings. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-1-4094-0770-6. 

Further reading

• Angel Rabasa; F. Stephen Larrabee (17 June 2008). The Rise of Political Islam in Turkey. Rand Corporation. ISBN 978-0-8330-4531-7. 
• Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi‘ (9 April 2003). Islam at the Crossroads: On the Life and Thought of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-5700-9. 
• Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi‘ (24 July 2008). Spiritual Dimensions of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi's Risale-I Nur: The Supreme Court of Israel and the Occupied Territories. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-7815-8. 
• Fred A. Reed (1 January 1999). Anatolia Junction: A Journey Into Hidden Turkey. Talonbooks, Limited. ISBN 978-0-88922-426-1. 
• Thomas F. Michel (2003). Reflections on Said Nursî's Views on Muslim-Christian Understanding. Söz Basim Yayin. ISBN 978-975-6438-02-2. 
• Şerif Mardin (1989). Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey: The Case of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-88706-996-3. 
• Ibrahim Kalin; Oxford University Press (1 May 2010). Islam in Turkey: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-980651-5. 
• Şahin, Mustafa Gökhan, Said Nursi and the Nur Movement in Turkey: An Atomistic Approach
• Colin Turner; Hasan Horkuc (15 June 2009). Said Nursi: Makers of Islamic Civilization. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-774-0. 

External links

• Media related to Muslim scholars of Islam at Wikimedia Commons
• SaidNur.com A comprehensive page about Said Nursi and Risale-i Nur Collection in many languages
• Suffa Vakfi Said Nursi-based Organization.
• Risale-i Nur
• A web page including Risale-i Nur Collection in various languages
• A web page including Risale-i Nur Collection in English
• NursiStudies Academic Researches on Said Nursi
• A letter about ban of Risale-i Nur Collection to President of Russia Medvedev