Said Nursi’s Islamic Thought: Its Relevance For the Twenty-First Century *

Writing in the early 2008 in a special issue devoted to Bediuzzaman Said

Nursi; the Guest Editor of the journal, Islam and Christian- Muslim Relations has
described Bediuzzaman Said Nursi as “one of the greatest contemporary Islamic
thinkers and scholars.”[1]Further, the Guest Editor attributed to Said Nursi the
employment of “ a positive and unique approach to the Islamic themes of our
time. His [Nursi’s] struggle was… a mature intellectual struggle. His [Nursi’s]
criticism of the West was … based on philosophical principles …He was not a man
for generalizations… he was a man for details and specifics… He never accepted
violence as a way of struggle; his way of struggle was the way of persuasion… He
believed that humanity had reached a certain level of civilization and that in
civilized societies the manner of solving disagreements is to convince others, not
to force them… For Nursi, the use of force and violence is bestial behaviour, and
…should not be practiced.”[2]
Saritopark’s foregone depiction of Nursi’s intellectual personality captures, in a
capsule form, the many ingredients that went into making his profile.
Considerable body of literature exists on Bediuzzaman Said Nursi till date and
continues to proliferate. He has been a cynosure of global academia in recent
times. He is the progenitor of one of the most important social and religious
movements in contemporary Turkey which scholars consider is neither akin to
traditional tariqat (mysterical, Sufi order) nor to contemporary ideologization of
Islam known as political Islam, in media and popular parlance. Nursi’s Islamic
thought is sui generis. However, Nursi acknowledged that his Islamic thought, as
contained in his Risale-I Nur, is a continuation of the route laid down by such
luminaries as Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, Ahmed Sirhindi- Turks call him Imam
Rabbani- and Imam al –Ghazzali. Risale-I Nur is a multi-volume admixture of
commentary on the Quran and lectures to multitude of people who, over the
years, hearkened to his teachings, bordering virtually on devotion. Later, they
became his steadfast adherents- the Nurcus-and took upon themselves the
onerous task of spreading his message among their countrymen and beyond.
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s thought, embodying socio-political theo-
philosophical, and civilizational phenomena, is quintessentially derived from an
Islamic paradigm, a product of the Quran and the Prophetic Sunnah. Conceived
from his paradigm’s yardstick, the relationship between reason (a function of
human rationality) and revelation (a function of epiphenomenona or metaphysics)
is not strewn with contradictions, unlike the western epistemology wherein the
said interplay between the two is, thanks primarily to Enlightenment, viewed from
binary terms. Nursi’s comprehensive thought processes are contained in his
magnum opus, the Risale-I-Nur: a treatise on the Quran and the Hadith. Nursi
allotted a great deal of space to God’s Messenger (PBUH) in his writings, and
attempted to analyze and illustrate various aspects of his life and practices.[3]
In the Tawhidi weltanschauung, reason- revelation symbiosis leads the road
traversed by humans to a cosmic unity as a destination.Tawhidi epistemology
transcends man-made primordial social constructions such as race, caste,
nationality, ethnicity and so on, as makers of identity. There is a Quranic verse
(49:13), which makes a reference to such affectations: O mankind! We created
you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and
tribes, that you may know each other.”
Of late, a realization has dawned among academic and policy communities at
the global level that positivist epistemology per se is inadequate to the cause of
explaining social phenomena holistically and that revelation- informed knowledge
should be accorded a due place in the entire scheme of things. This stance
reflective of the latter is particularly prevalent in the non-West, specifically in its
Muslim component. The worldwide recrudescence of religion, seemingly obviating
the secularist binarization of private- public spheres (the spiritual-temporal
divide), compels us to revisit the hitherto- held weltanschauung of Enlightenment.
The hegemonic hold held by the latter in the world of academia has been
increasingly critiqued in recent times.[4] The ushering in of an Islamic Revolution
in Iran in 1979 provided a rallying point to all those forces in the developing world
that were trying to effect change on the bases of endogeneity. Later, it paved the
way towards searching for authentic, domestically- nurtured paradigms informed
and effected by the ethos, values, and structures germane to them. This
revolution has brought to the fore a novel idea that revolutions, or for that matter
any social upheaval, need not be anchored on secular modernity; but, on the
contrary, they can be effected through religion- informed ideologies. Further, the
revolution reinforced the fact that modernization is not unilinear but multilinear.
Ideologization of religion, taking cognizance of time- space considerations, seems
to be a precondition, to get masses ready for a major transformation in society. In
the heyday of anti-colonial liberation wars waged in the Muslim countries suffering
under the yoke of subjugation, jihadism provided a broad framework within which
national freedom and liberation were conceived and acted upon in an
interweaving fashion. The employment of intellectual resources in the service of
chequered human values by resorting to Islamic discourse symbolizes a kind of
modernity and is an addition to the existing literature on modernity carrying the
Western repertoire.[5]
Roots of Nursi’s Thought
Said Nursi’s Risale-i Nur is a path–breaking, and an epoch-making attempt at
tajdidization of Islamic thought when European modernity appears triumphant
over the Turkish horizon under the command and control of the Ataturk. It reflects
a socially- engaged Islam seeking to address and develop an Islamic ideational
response to new and rising challenges being faced by the umma.
 Said Nursi’s understanding of humanity is guided by cosmos, and is universal in
nature. For Islam is a religion that does not set up barriers between people, even
if they hold deviant ideas or different beliefs.[6]
Nursi’s spiritual universe is derived from his unshakeable faith in God; it bound
the depths of his being to God and connected him closely with God’s creatures
and with man[7]. He inherited from his early environment a living feeling for
divine unity.[8] Nursi fearlessly rose to defend Islam whenever contingency
occasioned it.
He exhorted Muslims to compete in progress and civilization with others. To
accept Islam is tantamount to accepting the universe in accordance with the
principles contained in the Quran. The flowering of Islamic civilization in history
sprang from the seeds contained in the principles underlying the concepts of
internationalism, brotherhood, and the idea of progress that abhors apparent
distinctions betweenhomosapiens. Among the latter, constructions such as racial
differentiation or discrimination is totally proscribed in Islam. In fact, it is alien to
the worldview of Islam as it transcends categories such as race, descent, ethnic
and national origins, and other assorted primordialities. In Islam, they are all
markers of identification among human beings; and not markers of final
allegiance, as the latter is owed only to the Creator. Allegiance is implicit in
righteousness (taqwa), and the latter is reflected in a dutiful adherence to the
divine prescriptions contained in the Quran.
Nursi’s writings, sermons, and exhortations propelled and motivated Muslims to
aspire for noble human values and goals. According to him, civilizations are
marked not merely by material progress that they achieve, but also by inculcation
of human values that they nurture among human beings. The Risale-i- Nur is
redolent, nearly on every page, Nursi’s penchant for an emphasis on his being a
student of Quran, and that the aim of the former is to teach the Quran to
mankind. Nursi took the Quran as his “most elevated guide” and “the most holy
master”.
True freedom is inherent in Islam, attached to the Sharia, which dismantles
despotism and anarchy. Sharia comprises the valour arising from belief and
tempered by mercy and forbearance. And it comprises Islamic pride and dignity,
which upholds the World of God by both material and spiritual means.[9]
Said Nursi, in his genre of Islamic thought, alloted a significant space to
interreligious dialogue among Muslims, Christans, and Jews. The importance of
this phenomenon is borne out by the ongoing activities in this direction on the
global plane. Theologians and policy makers inEurope and the Muslim world have
realized the pressing need for interreligious and intercultural dialogue with a view
to finding out areas of commonality on the bases of which international peace,
justice, and freedom can be ushered in. Nursi’s public influence is felt in the
ongoing and powerful nurcu movement in Turkey, and in the wide- ranging efforts
of the followers of Fethullah Gulen to foster interreligious dialogue in Turkey and in
many other countries.[10] The Quran exhorts all human beings to resort to
dialogue, and between Christians and Muslims in particular, in order to living
closer to each other by cementing their commonalities. It encourages people to
develop positive relationships by knowing each other.[11] Dialogue is an essential
strategy for meeting, understanding, valuing, learning and living together in
peace. Religious people must come together to work for the common good. In the
era of globalization, it is nolonger appropriate for us to act independently when
we can act together.
Nursi was causal factor in the rise of Nurculuk, the so called ‘ lay movement’,
whose constituents, under ustad’s charismatic guidance, became socially and
politically active throughout Turkey and revitalized and energized Islamic life in
ways that would carry the Master’s powerful influence well into the twenty- first
century. This influence showed itself most effectively in the formation of yet other
teachers and lay movements that, in the spirit of Said Nursi, would in the years
after his death even further renew the life of Turkish Muslims well beyond the
borders of their homeland, and begin to speak to a world wide Muslim audience in
a number of modern language. A notable example of this phenomenon is evident
in the life and work of Fethullah Gulen and his friends and disciples.[12]
In Said Nursi’s writings, one finds a serious attempt on his part to reconcile
science and religion, or in other words, reason- revelation symbiosis. Through the
latter, he sought to bring about a rapprochement between Islamic and western
civilizations. Said was severely critical of the Enlightenment-
informed Europe because, he perceived, that the latter erased revealed religion
from epistemological considerations. Enlightenment gave birth to such
philosophical currents in Europe as positivism and materialistic naturalism which
contradicted what revelation claimed. Nursi was a staunch critic of Western
civilization for it does not conform to the fundamental tenets of the revealed
religions, its ill are more than its good effects. In the face of its injustices,
consumerism, westefulness, depravity, inequalities, and so on, Nursi cites verses
encouraging frugality, contentment, hardwork, brotherhood, the payment
of Zakat, and prohibition of usury and interest, and the beneficial utilization of
technology.[13]
Nursi’s role in building Islamic identity, Islamic vision and Islamic awakening
in Turkey has been enormous and colossal. Politically, he extended his support to
the post-Ataturk government headed by Adnan Menderes of the Democratic Party.
It is very interesting to note that Said Nursi conceived of social change not
through the usual, traditional methods of political struggle but through
strengtheningIman, and developing ethical and spiritual strength among the
Muslim, thus emphasizing the need for the social change emanating from below
rather than from above. This is the inception of the Old Said (Eski Said).
Said Nursi was a supporter and champion of freedom and constitutionalism
(Mesrutiyet). The latter are originally linked to each other. Constitutionalism seeks
to limit the authority of the state; when authority is delimited, it promotes
freedom. For freedom to sustain, the ubiquity of constitution is a necessary
condition. Nursi believes that the concepts of freedom and constitutionalism are
rooted in the Quranic notion of Shura, connoting mutual constitutions among
people to arrive at policy decisions leading to public welfare (maslaha). Besides,
freedom draws individual and society close to each other. To the extent that trust
(tawakkul) in God releases one from bondage to other created beings, true
belief/faith enhances freedom. As freedom is strengthened, it acts as an antidote
to despotism and unlawful behaviour of the state.
Said Nursi, in his writings, has also dwelt upon the concept and phenomenon of
the nationalism in its twin dimensions as he conceived of them: positive (benign)
and negative (malign). Nursi considers that positive nationalism conforms to the
values cherished in Islam, where negative nationalism is based on attributes such
as race, ethnicity, tribalism, unchecked patriotism, and so on. This type of
nationalism divides human beings and creates hatred, illwill, prejudice against
each other which does not augur well for the welfare and future of mankind.
Aggressive ethnic nationalism displayed violently by the Serbs against the
Bosniak Muslims stands as a living testimony to what Said Nursi has derted us
against. Titoist socialist Yugoslavia gave birth to such sovereign entities as Serbia
and Montenegro, Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Kosova
that later came to be known as ethnocracies.
Islam-Democracy Convivencia
Said Nursi had a firm and positive view concerning the relationship between Islam
and democracy. The question of compatibility between the two has received a
great deal of attention among academia following the reality of resurgent and
activist Islam globally. Nursi’s interpretive style of the Quranic concept
of Shura drews itself close to the Islam-democracy compatibility argument. Said
Nursi was very keen on nurturing and nourshing Islamic religious ethics among
masses.
As mentioned in the aforesaid, Said Nursi’s ideas on constitutionalism
(Mesrutiyet) very comfortably and easily dovetail into his marriage of seemingly
disparate and distinct essences inherent in notions such as shura, sharia, Islam,
democracy, and like. All these ideas of Said Nursi, it is very essential to emphasis,
are firmly entrenched in his moral philosophy. Said Nursi has arrived at these
views at the epistemic and ideational, not necessarily political, levels and stages.
In his work Munazarat (Debates), published in 1911, we see Said incorporating
these ideas. The Munazarat are his dialogues and confabulations with the Kurdish
tribes dispelling their fear that constitutionalism and democracy are camouflage
for westernization and deviation from Islam. Said Nursi’s endeavours to steer clear
of the cobwebs of suspicions surrounding these ideas make sense if some of his
utterances are taken note of. Juxtaposing constitutionalism with dispotism, Said
Nursi; has the following to say:
Despotism is oppression. It is [an] arbitrary treatment.
It is coercion and reliance on force. It is one person’s
opinion imposed on others. It is a ground for abuse.
It is the basis of injustice. It undermines human dignity.
It throws one into poverty and it is that which has
cast the Muslim world into failure and abject
poverty. It is a cause of animosity and it poisons
the religion of islam. And it spreads like an epidemic,
causing many divisions and factions among Muslims,
such as the Mutazila, Jabriyya and Murjia. Yes, it
is a scholastic despotism, the father of blind imitation
[taqlid] and child of political despotism-that has para-
laysed Islam.[14]

In Said Nursi’s Islamic thought, the rationale for constitutionalism, freedom,

and democracy has spring from the Quran and the ethics that the latter espouses.
In this context, Said cites the Quranic verses that deal with the importance of
consultation, Q 3:159 and Q 17:38. According to him, democracy is in reject
harmony with the spirit ofSharia.[15] Further, Said Nursi; underlines the
importance of public opinion and informed citizenry.

Sui Generis
That the fact that Said Nursi’s Islamic thought is derived from the primary sources
of islam, that is, the Quran and the Hadith, is indisputable. However, there exists
no clearcut answer to the question as to where his Islamic thought fits in : political
Islamism or Sufism. In the opinion of Zeynep Akbulut Kuru and Ahmed T. Kuru [16],
“ neither political Islamism nor Sufism truly reflects Nursi’s teaching”. According
to them, Said Nursi; categorized his thought as faith-based activism (Iman
hizmeti, to borrow Nursi’s words), which aims at spreading Islamic Faith among
individuals in contrast to the pursuit of setting up an Islamic state as an objective.
Further, Nursi’s faith- based activism is distinct from Sufism as the former is
“more activist, more rational, and less mystical”.[17] In Said Nursi’s scheme of
things, faith based activism can act as an antidote to modern- day positivism and
materialism. His faith-based activism is an admixture of revelation and reason.
Through the instrumentality of reason, appealing to the rational faculties of the
modern youth, Said Nursi sought to affirm and reinforce modern youth’s belief in
Islam, by wearing them away from the pernicious influence of positivism and
materialism. He perceived the latter two philosophies as pernicious and pose a
potential threat to all faith systems. His employment of reason or rational
arguments for the promotion and advancement of revelation is aimed at
reinforcing faith in Islam among the youth. He considered such n attempt as “the
primary need of contemporary Muslims in particular, and human beings in
general”.[18]

Nursi’s Thought: Different Phases

Said Nursi’s thought processes, as reflected in his manifold writings, underwent
three different phases symbolized in Old Said (Eski Said), New Said (Yeni Said),
and the Third Said, marking the phase of reconciliation combining the two, the
first and the second. The Old Said was politically active, and in the New Said, one
finds a Said imbued with spirituality. In this new Said phase, politics is shunned to
the extent he placed it in the company of Satan, as the following words convey: “
A!udhubillahi min al- shayatan wa al-siyasa”: “ I seek refuge in Allah from Satan
and politics”. Said regarded party politics as futile and even harmful to the service
of Islam. The first phase continued until the early 1920s. Similarly, the Old Said
was positive towards the role of science, and the New Said was critical towards it.
[19] However, Said Nursi has clearly understood the salience of science and
technology for the welfare of humankind. He does not see science apart from
religion, but recognizes mutualities between them. His propensity to underline the
conspectus between science and religion is very much evident, as the following
demonstrates:

We, the Muslims, who are students of the Quran, follow

Proof; we approach the truths of belief through reason,
Thought; and our hearts. We donot abondon proof in
favour of blind obedience and imitation of the clergy
hike some adherent of other religions. Therefore, in
the future when reason, science and technology prevail,
of a certainty that will be the time the Quran will again
ascendancy, which relies on rational proofs and invites
the reason of confirm its pronouncements.[20]

Said Nursi; is very critical of those who view science from the lenses of Positivism
and Darwinism. He is equally critical of the West which developed and relied
exclusively on positivism for advancing the cause of science. Western science and
civilization was too much focused on anthropomorphism and its power. European
history has been a witness to an increasing use of science and technology for
destructive purposes as was demonstrated during the inter war period.
Said Nursi saw the collapse of the Ottoman social order before his eyes and
realized, without allowing the widespread despair to contaminate him, the need
for the resuscitation of the Turks’ dying spirit in Islam by focusing his attention on
God’s revelation. To achieve this objective, Said Nursi sought to popularize the
Quran among his people through his own unique way of an exegetical (tafsiri)
treatment of the Book, his magnum opus, The Risale-I Nur. By its nature, the latter
is “a refraction of the Quranic luminosity through the prisms of Said’s
expression.”[21]
Said Nursi left behind a legacy of Islamic thought that has been carried forward
by others. Among the latter, Fethullah Gulen stands tall. Heralded as the modern
face of the Ottoman Sufi tradition, Fethullah Gulen has become one of the most
significant and dynamic modern Islamic thinkers to build upon the teachings of
Said Nursi; Gulen’s sphere of influence has moved for beyond Turkey, inspiring an
international Islamic social mobilization known as the Gulen movement. In the
world of resurgent Islam, Gulen is a compelling and a towering personality. Like
his mentor, Gullen, as regards learning, is open to both Islamic and western
sources. Again, like Nursi; Gulen endorses modernization and technology, while
simultaneously stressing the need for a globalized Islamic resurgence. The
followers of Said Nursi- the Nurculik- are a “textual community,” that is, a “
community in which membership is defined by reading and internalizing the
philosophy of the text.”[22] The Nurcu movement seeks to move Islam from an
oral- based tradition to a point- based medium and to raise religious
consciousness through education and reason. The reading circles- darshanes-
gradually spread throughoutAnatolia and updated Islamic vocabulary in terms of
the global discourses of science, democracy, and human rights.[23]
The Nurcu movement provides a set of idioms and networks for reimagining
Islam under modern conditions.[24] The Risale-i Nurrepresents an Islamic response
to the modern philosophical challenges to the Quran emanating from both within
and outside the realm of Islam.
Said Nursi, in his sui generis exegetical treatment of the Quran, was
undoubtedly successful in parting the Quranic message to the modern mind
imbued with reason, doubt, and uncertainty. The numbers of followers to his line
of Islamic thinking that he had accumulated during his life time and after his
death in 1960, amply testifies to this. In the place of despair, he advocated hope.

Said Nursi dismissively rebuffed the constructed clash and conflict between
religion and science that had caused so much confusion and was aimed at
undermining Islam. In contradistinction to post- Enlightenment Western thought,
which is epistemologically “compartmentalized” [emphasis in original] and based
on the fundamental differentiation and dichotomy between mind and matter,
body and soul, science and religion, and so on, Nursi tried to establish an
“epistemological wholeness” and organic relations between the various categories
of knowledge, revealed and scientific, and art, ethics, and belief, and within man
himself with his many faculties.[25]This is in consonance with the Quranic notion
of Tawhid. The aforesaid binarized perspective of Western system of epistemology
is equally observable between Quran and philosophy. Said Nursi wanted his
students and followers to focus and concentrate on what he wrote rather than on
his persona. It seeks to create an Islamic society firmly entrenched in faith,
moreover, it is a grassroot movement, whose impact is likely to be gradual
spanning very many years. It is transformative in nature as for as the societal
mores are concerned.Risale-i Nur introduced a core Islamic worldview in a
militantly anti-Islamic milieu where Muslim matters were in desperate need of
basic Islamic idioms.[26]
Even though modernity’s historicity has not been a very long duration (or its
gestation period has not been very long), in terms of impact, it has been far
reaching, virtually effacing alternative ways of looking at the world.[27] Islamic
intellectual movements particularly of the genre that is under consideration, that
is, Said Nursi’s Risale-i Nur, had provided, and continues to provide, such
“alternative ways of looking at the world”, as alluded to above. The type of Islamic
paradigm that is reflected in the Nursiite writings, holds the notion of
transcendence in high esteem. It is the absence of the consciousness of
transcendence (in the post Enlightenment Europe) that serves as one of the
distinguishing features of the western and Islamic epistemological systems.
Said Nursi’s interpretation of the Islamic scriptures-a tradition that goes back to
the history of Islam itself contains very unique elements that possess the
absorbtive capacity to take into its vortex global discourses such as democracy,
and other allied phenomena. In the words of Hakan Yavuz, Risale-i Nur is “the
most sophisticated and appealing interpretations of the Quran.[28]
Nursi’s Damascus sermon in early 1911, touched upon the causes of the
decline of Muslim community. In the sermon, he identified the death of
truthfulness in socio-political life, enmity, despotism, and egoism as the major
sources of social and political decline in the Muslim world. Said Nursi, in his
Damascus Sermon (Hutbe-i Samiye) underlined the need for Muslim-Christain
dialogue which he felt had a potential to resolve world problems. Given the
current state of Islamophobia in the West in the wake of so called Islamic
terrorism and the war on terror, the need for such a dialogue is all the more
urgent. The ushering in of peace and justice in the world cannot be the preserve
of political class alone, but should also embody general populace and men if
religion.
The Old Said was an activist who believed in societal transformation through
political involvement and struggles. The New Said realized that the challenge was
not political, economic, or military but rather ideological. He believed in the power
of ideas and a cognitive revolution. This phase of Said was marked by a high level
of religious consciousness. Nursi’s Islamic thought reflects a particular mode of
thinking about man’s reconnection with God.
Much of Risale-i Nur calls for a deeper personal morality on the part of
believers. It exhorts them to inculcate righteous living and virtuous practices.
Views On Racism
Said Nursi was very emphatic in the denunciation of racism which he correctly
considered as alien to the worldview of Islam. According to him, racism did not
square with man’s true nature, which inclines towards justice and truth. He made
a distinction between well founded Islamic brotherhood and a brotherhood based
on race. The former is a loyal, true brotherhood broad enough to include the
whole Islamic umma, while the latter is a “metaphorical, racial, temporary, and
hateful brotherhood. [29] Said Nursi yearned for Islamic unity and stressed the
need for the Muslim umma to gain prominence. Said Nursi dedicated his life to
combating in justice, disbelief, irreligion, and atheism, and today his influence
(found among his followers) persists in opposing positivism, materialism, and
irreligion.
Impact
Given Said Nursi’s widespread impact of his Islamic thought on the broad Turkish
populace, it would not be an exaggeration to say that both Turkish modernity and
Turkish secularism have come to terms with his thought; they have, infact,
accommodated themselves with the reality of Islam in Turkey.
By focusing on the creation of a society firmly anchored in belief (iman), Said
Nursi envisioned the emergence of a just polity. The Nurcu movement is “the first
text-centered Islamic movement in modern Turkey”. [30]On the adoption of a new
methodology in the dissemination of faith for the cause of Islam, Hakan Yavuz
makes some valid remarks on the movement spearheaded by Said Nursi: Those
remarks deserve to be quoted at some length:
The printed word [reflective of the extensive works of
Nursi] becomes a vehicle for the formation of Nurcu
consciousness…the Nurcu movement…stresse
reason than heart. It doesnot seek miracles (keramet)
but rather emphases reasoning and self-examination.
said seeks to subordinate the heart, the manifestation
of faith proper and the strength of traditional Islam,
with reason. Said argues that before, it was possible
to learn Islam through rigid imitations[taqlidi iman],
but it is not anymore…in an age of skepticism, there
is a need for a new methodology to get people t believe
in the existence of God.[31]

Strengthening Revelation Through Reason

Said Nursi sought to promote the cause of revelation through the instrumentality
of reason. The mastery of the phenomenal world, which forms an essential
function of reason, is a precondition, according to Said Nursi, to comprehend the
marvels of creation. When the latter is accomplished, the knowledge of the
creator is also attained. “Nursi sees God as an emanation from with in the power
of the physical uniformity and logic of nature.”[32] Even his absence on account of
incarceration by state, his adherents orientation remained with his exhortations
contained in his writings. Such an approach acted as a source of success of his
teachings. In the current context of the abound moral and spiritual decay that
mark the present- day world, Said Nursi’s message contained in his Risale-i
Nur can be made to act as a deterrent to such maladies.
 Nursi’s treatment of belief (iman) is one of the most original and effective
aspects of the Risale-i Nur , and his persuasive analyses are certainly one of the
main reasons for the work’s impact on successive generations[33]. Nursi
emphasized the importance of what analysts described as “belief by
investigation” (iman-i tahkik), n contrast to “belief by imitation”(iman-i taqlid). The
former involves a great deal of effort to convince himself that his convictions are
strong and firm. The latter refers to belief based on the weight of tradition handed
down by the ancestors to the present generation.

Nursi’s meaning of secularism differs from that of the state as the latter seeks to
control religion. In his maktubat- Letters- he asserted that “freedom of conscience
governs everywhere in this age of freedom.”[34] He went further and said that
since “secularism means being impartial….the government should not interfere
with the religiously-minded and pious, the same as it does not interfere with the
irreligious and dissipated.”[35] Nursi asserted that just as people are exposed to
science, they should also be shown the radiance of the Quran with a view to
healing their hearts and saving their beliefs.
The uniqueness of the Risale-I Nur, containing Said Nursi’s Islamic thought, lies
in its endogeneity. The Epistles of Light is also marked by authenticity (asala) as
its message is familiar to Muslims, since the message is gleaned from the Islamic
scriptures. Said Nursi’s writings aim at overhauling the religious convictions of
Muslims and keeping the latter alive from the Western philosophical onslaughts
against religion, particularly reflected in atheism, positivism, and materialism.
Influenced by Risale-I Nur, the successive generations of Turkish Muslims carried
forward Islamic exhortations of Said Nursi beyond the shores of Turkey. It is
quintessentially an intellectual movement addressed to both mind and soul of
human beings

• Dr. Sayed Abdul Muneem Pasha is a senior faculty in the department

of political science, Jamia Millia Islamia(a central university), New
Delhi, India, holding the designation of an associate professor. He his areas
of serious academic interest pertain to political Islam, human rights, and
international relations, including area studies such as West Asia and Central
Asia. He authored a book titled Islam in Pakistan’s foreign policy published
by Global Media Publications, New Delhi, 2006. Besides, he has more than
20 research articles published in both national and international journals of
repute. He holds a doctorate degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
Delhi, and a certificate and diploma in Uzbek language from Jamia Millia
Islamia. He rendered his academic services at
theuniversity of Jammu, Jammu and
Kashmir State, Aligarh MuslimUniversity, Aligarh, UP, North- Eastern Hill
University, Shillong, Meghalaya, and Jamia Millia Islamia.
 Dr. Pasha acknowledges the secretarial assistance rendered to him by Mr.
Yaqoob Ul Hassan, a promising doctoral candidate at the department of
political science, Jamia Millia Islamia. However, no one save the author claims
total responsibility for the article’s authorship.

[1]Zeki Saritoprak, “ Guest Editorial”, Islam and Christian- Muslim

Relations, Birmingham, Vol..19, No. 1, January 2008, p.3
[2] Ibid., p.3.
[3] Imaduddin Khalid, “God’s Messenger (PBUH) in the Risale-I-Nur” , in The Third
International Symposium on Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, The Reconstruction of
Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century and Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, trans.
From the Turkish, Sukran Vahide, Sozler Nesriyat,1997, p.11
[4] For a reasoned argument to inject religion into the study of social sciences, see
Fabio Petito and Pavlos Hatzopoulos,eds.,Religion in International Relations: The
Return From Exile (New York, Palgrave Macmillian,), 2003,pp.X+286. And also,
William T. Cavenaugh, The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the
Roots of Modern Conflict (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 285.
[5] For a representative piece of writing on these lines, see Durmus Hacaoglu,
“Islam and Modernity”, in Ian Markham and Ibrahim Ozdemir,eds; Globalization,
Ethnics and Islam: The Case of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (Aldershot, UK, Ashgate
Publishing Co., 2005), pp.174-194.
[6] Ashrati Sulayman, “Said Nursi and the Roots of His View of Humanity”, Fifth
International Symposium on Bediuzzaman Said Nursi; 24-26 September
2000, Istanbul, The Quranic View of Man, according to the Risale-I-Nur, trans. By
Sukran Vahide, Istanbul, Sozler Nesriyet, 2002, p.38.
[7] Ibid., p.39.
[8] Ibid., p.39.
[9] Ibid., p.89.
[10]Sidney H. Griffith, “Bediuzzaman Said Nursi and Louis Massignon in Pursuit of
God’s World: A Muslim and Christian on the Straight Paths”, Islama and Christain-
Muslim Relations, Birmingham, Vol.19, No.1, January 2008,p.13.
[11] Zaki Saritoprak, “Said Nursion Muslim-Christian Relations Leading to World
Peace”, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Birmingham, Vol.19, No.1, January
2008,p. 26.
[12] Ibid., p. 7.
[13] Sukran Vahide, “ Reconciliation with Christanity and the West in Said Nursi’s
Thought and Practice: An Overview,” Islam and Christian- Muslim
Relations, Birmingham, Vol.19, No.1, January 2008,p.22.
[14] Mucahil Bilici’s translated version. See the former’s article, wherein this
translation occurs, “Said Nursi’s Moral Philosophy”, Islam and Christian-Muslim
Relations, Birmingham, Vol.19, No.1, January 2008, p. 90.

[15] Ibid., p. 90.

[16] See their article, “ Apolitical Interpretation of Islam: Said Nursi’s Fait Based
Activism in Comparison with Political Islamism and Sufism”, Islam and Christian-
Muslim Relations, Birmingham, Vol.19, No.1, January 2008,p. 100.
[17] Ibid., p.100.
[18] Ibid., p.109.

[19] Bekim Agai, “ The Religious impact of Science and Natural Science in the
Writings of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi,” Fifth International Symposium on
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, The Quranic view of Man, According to the Risale-I-
Nur , 24-26 September 2000, Istanbul, Trans. Sukran Vahide, Sozler Nesriyet,
2002, p.344.
[20] Said Nursi, The Damascus Sermon, trans. By Sukran Vahide, 2001 Sozler
Nesriyat, Istanbul, p. 32.
[21] Hamid Algar, “ Said Nursi and the Risale-I Nur: An Aspect of Islam in
Contemporary Turkey,” in Islamic perspectives: Studies in Honour of Mawlana
SayyidAbdul A`la Mawdudi, ed; Khurshid Ahmad and Zafar Ishaq Ansari (The
Islamic Foundation, UK, and Saudi Publishing House , Jeddah, 1979/1399), p.326.
[22] M. Hakan Yavuz, “ Towards an Islamic Liberalism?: The Nurcu Movement and
Fethullah Gulen,” Middle East Journal , Washington D. C.,Vol.53, No. 3, 1999, P
590.
[23] Ibid., p.590.
[24] Ibid., p.591.
[25] S`ukran Vahide, “Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s Approach to Religion Renewal and
its impact on Aspects of Contemporary Turkish Society,” in Ibrahim M. Abu-
Rabi, ed., The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought (Oxford,
Blackwell publishing, 2006), p.61.
[26] Ahmed Yildiz, “Transformation of Islamic Thought in Turkey Since the 1950s”,
in Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi, ed., The Blackwell Companion To Contemporary Islamic
Thought,(Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2006)., p. 52.
[27] Aslam Farouk- Alli, “ When Worlds Collide: Islam and Modernity-Alternative
Paradigms, Contrasting Authentic Ideals”, American Journal of Islamic Social
Sciences, Herndon, Virgnia, USA, Vol.27, No.2, Spring 2010, p.52. This article
provides a comprehensive critique of modernity as conceived in the West and was
acted upon globally.
[28] See f.n.. 20, p.586.
[29] Mektu`bat, Letters, 492.
[30] Hakan Yavuz, “Print-Based Islamic Discourse and Modernity: The Nur
Movement,” in The Reconstruction of Islamic Thought in The Twentieth Century
and Bediuzzaman Nursi, Third International Symposium on Bediuzzaman Said
Nursi 24-26 September 1995, , Trans. Sukran Vahide, 1997, Sozler Nesriyet,
Istanbul, 1997, p.330.
[31] Ibid., p.330.
[32] Ibid., p.338.
[33] See f. n. 25, p.61.
[34] Said Nursi,Letters, p. 503.
[35] Said Nursi, Rays, pp. 305,386.