Table of Contents
Preface: Bediüzzaman Said Nursi & Prescriptions for a Healthy Social Life
PART ONE
Seeds of truth
PART TWO
Gleams of truth or flowers from the seeds of truth
The supplicant
Two supreme proofs of Divine Unity
Causes are purely apparent
Existence is not restricted to the physical world
The universality of the Pen of Power demonstrates Divine Unity
Nothing can exist without the existence of everything
The sun’s motion is for gravity and gravity provides the stability of the solar system
Small things are interconnected to larger things
There is a supreme miraculousness in the order of the universe
Everything is equal before the Divine Power
One who cannot hold the universe in his hand cannot create a particle
Raising a species to life is the same as raising an individual to life
Nature is Divine art
The conscience recognizes God through its attraction
The innate disposition given by the Creator speaks the truth
Prophethood is essential for humankind
The Ascension was for the angels what the splitting of the moon was for humankind
The proof of the affirmation of faith is within it
Life is a manifestation of unity
The spirit is a law clothed in external existence
Existence without life is like non-existence
Thanks to life, an ant is greater than the earth
Christianity will follow Islam
A partial or indirect view sees the impossible as possible
The Qur’an requires mirrors, not someone to act as a deputy
The falsifier of the truth adopts the false as true
The mirrors of the Divine Power are numerous
There are various sorts of representation
One qualified to make ijtihad may deduce a new law for himself, but he cannot be a law-giver
The light of reason comes from the heart
The levels of knowledge in the mind are variable and can be confused
Undigested knowledge should not be imparted to others
Destruction is easy, thus the weak are destructive
Force must serve right
Sometimes opposites contain opposites
Politics based on self-interest is bestial
Since human faculties have not been restricted in creation, their crimes are great
Sometimes good leads to evil
The absence of an objective strengthens egotism
A life of revolutions has sprung from the death of Zakah and a life of usury
If humankind prefers life, it must put to death usury of every sort
Humankind has demolished slavery; it will demolish wage-earning as well
An unlawful way leads to the opposite of what was intended
There is a grain of truth in both the Jabriyya and the Mu‘tazila
Only the incapable seek solace in impotence and complaints
If one on a rope fights with another on the ground, the one on the rope will lose
An ambiguous proposition cannot be a universal one
Sometimes little things have greater outcomes
For some people a moment is a year
A lie is a word of unbelief
In an assembly in the World of Representations or Ideal Forms
Rust-covered guidance is still a diamond
Ignorance takes a metaphor for a fact
Exaggeration is implicit denigration
Fame is oppressive
Those who suppose the Religion and life to be separable are the cause of disaster
Death is not as terrifying as imagined
Politics is diabolical in people’s minds; one should seek refuge in God from this
Weakness emboldens the enemy; God may try His servants, but they cannot try Him
Islamic politics should proceed from Islam; politics should not be instrumental for others. Partisanship causes hearts to be divided, not united
Do not overdo those things you like
The eye of obstinacy perceives an angel as a devil
You sometimes receive help from places you did not expect
The catalyst of the life of a community is sound and sincere solidarity
Even if non-acceptance is your right, refutation is not
One should follow the majority of Muslims
After finding what is right, do not cause discord for the sake of something better
Islam is peace and reconciliation; it wants no dispute or hostility within
There is great wisdom in the creation and combination of opposites: the sun and a minute particle are equal in the hand of Power
Multiplicity manifests unity on either side of it
If you have any merits or qualities, let them remain under the dust of concealment, so they may flourish
It is mistaken to feel mercy or wrath greater than God’s
Worldly recompense proves punishment in the Hereafter
The ease of humankind is inversely proportionate to one’s will and power; Provision is a broad, gradually-assembled body
The lawful provision of carnivorous animals
Wastefulness leads to dissipation, dissipation leads to poverty
The sense of taste is an informer; do not seduce it with pleasures
Like intention, point of view may transform habitual actions into worship
Merely naming something is sometimes a reason to substitute full knowledge of it
At this time, the Shari‘a does not permit affluence
Your pleasure lies in your pain and your pain in your pleasure
Sometimes the absence of bounty is a bounty
There is a bounty in every calamity
Do not appear important, or you will be degraded
If qualities change places, their natures change
“The truth prevails” is true both in itself and in respect of the consequences
Some social principles
Low civilization has destroyed respect toward women
Tendency toward expansion which does not exist in the pious is a tendency to corruption and destruction
The scope of Divine Power rejects intermediaries and helpers
The angels are a community charged with the Shari‘a of the creation and the operation of the universe
As matter is refined, life is intensified
Materialism is a spiritual plague
There is nothing idle in existence; an idle person works on account of non-existence
Usury and interest are absolutely harmful to Islam
The Qur’an defends itself and perpetuates its authority
Rather than instruction in theoretical matters, it is necessary to remind people of Islam’s explicit, incontestable essentials
The Prophetic sayings (hadiths) say to the Qur’an’s verses: It is not possible to reach you!
A concise explanation of the Qur’an’s miraculousness
The fanciful, lust-exciting, genius-impressing, earthly hand of Western literature cannot equal the healing, light-scattering, guiding, heavenly, eternal literature of the Qur’an
There are two viewpoints, one dark, the other illuminating
Branches offer fruit in the name of Mercy
An explanation of the three ways indicated at the end of Suratu’l-Fatiha
All true pain is in misguidance, and all true pleasure in belief: a mighty truth dressed in imagination
A mystery of the repetitions in the Qur’an
Each of the four senses of the spirit has an ultimate purpose
There is no creative power in existence save God
A comparison between the treatment of their saints by Islam and Christianity
A significant difference between ecstatic love and knowledge
There is a great pleasure in the activities in the universe
A minority burns in the fire that has been lit to burn the majority. Otherwise, if responsibility loses its meaning, the wisdom in testing is lost
Weakness is sometimes tyrannical
Greed is the cause of deprivation
What becomes a Muslim is justice and fairness for God’s sake, not egotistical criticism
Self-esteem comes from weakness and leads to misguidance: it is deviance among one’s comrades, while it is steadfastness against the misleading incitements of hostile unbelievers
The degree of the wickedness of backbiting
Muslim transgressors are not like the transgressors of other religions; our morality subsists by our Religion
A believer pays respect to their elders, has compassion for those younger than them, and love and magnanimity for their peers
This tremor in humankind, the shaking of Muslim societies, will remove the humiliation caused by the tremor and give them stability
The answer to the Anglican Church
Rather than the general gravity, it is the spiritual gravity of the Qur’an which preserves our globe
Thinking that the covering is the essence means losing the essence prayer should not be made for something impossible and should not contain sinful words
PART THREE
Arguments on the condition of Muslims and how to improve it
The diseases from which Muslims suffer and their cures
The cures
The first word or cure is hope and aspiration
The eight obstacles before Islam’s full dominion in the past
The five powers that reinforce Muslims
The second word or cure
The third word or cure
The fourth word or cure
The fifth word or cure
The sixth word or cure
Two cardinal causes for Europe’s development
Why at this time are the Muslims poor?
Despotism
Getting out of the dungeon of inactivity
Constitutionalism
Those who do not value Constitutionalism
A faultless government is impossible
The true meaning of freedom
Can there be equality between Muslims and non-Muslims?
Does the Qur’an forbid loving Christians and Jews?
Should the Christians not be addressed as unbelievers?
Positive and negative nationalism
Response to the propaganda of unjust infidels
No Muslim would abandon Islam through sound reasoning
A Qur’anic principle of absolute justice and human capacity for great wrongdoing
The absolute dominion of the Qur’an Books on Islam must be binoculars through which we examine the Qur’an
What should be done for the desired future of the Kurds and Turks?
How can Muslims recover and preserve their honor?
The present condition of medreses and religious scholars
On differences and disagreements among the scholars of the Muslim world
Different types of leaders, chieftains, religious scholars, and guides
Awakening spiritual guides
Taking action for the sake of the Religion
Belief and love, faithfulness, and Islamic patriotism and zeal
Islamic unity
PART FOUR
Miscellaneous matters
The testimony of human conscience to God the Almighty
The ways to attain knowledge of the Creator
Polygamy and slavery in the sight of the Shari‘a
In the face of rejecting the existence of a hadith
Criticism, particularly in religious matters