The Twenty-ninth Letter

 

Seventh section: The seven signs

 

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.

Believe in God and His Messenger, the Prophet who neither reads nor writes, who believes in God and His Words, and follow him so that you may be guided. (7:158)

They want to extinguish God's Light with their mouths, but God wills to perfect His Light even if the unbelievers be averse. (9:32)

 

(This part consists of seven signs as answers to three questions. The first question contains four signs.)

 

FIRST SIGN: Those who seek to change Islam’s public symbols and rituals base their attempt, as they base all of their evil actions, on blind imitation of the West. This is their argument: Converts to Islam in London or other parts of Europe recite the adhan and iqama in their own languages, and the Muslim world does not object. Does not this silence imply tacit approval, which must be based on Islamic law?

ANSWER: This is a most misleading analogy. It is inconceivable that any intelligent person would seek to imitate Westerners on this point. For the land of the unbelievers differs in the implementation of some religious rules from the land of Muslims. Many things that are permissible in such a place are not permissible in a Muslim society.

In addition, Christianity is dominant in the West. Since the West is not an environment that normally inspires and inculcates the meaning of Islamic terms and the content of its sacred words or phrases, Western Muslims may feel compelled to sacrifice the original wording for the sacred meanings, and so preferred what is less harmful. But the Muslim world’s entire environment teaches Muslims the meaning of those sacred words and phrases. All discourses about Islam’s traditions, history, and above all its symbols, signs, and pillars, continually import those sacred phrases’ meaning to believers. Mosques and institutions of religious learning, even gravestones and their epitaphs, are like teachers reminding believers of the sacred meaning of Islamic symbols.

Thus I wonder whether those who call themselves Muslims, who can learn 50 foreign words a day, are really Muslims if they cannot learn within 50 years such sacred phrases as subhan Allah (Glory be to God), al-hamdu li-llah (All praise be to God), la ilaha illa’llah (there is no deity but God), and Allahu akbar (God is the All-Great), phrases that they daily repeat at least 50 times. For such heedless and indifferent persons, these sacred phrases are not distorted by translation and stripped of their original sacred wording. To change and distort them would even mean erasing the epitaphs cut on tombstones, and invite even the curse of the dead who would tremble with indignation at such an insult.

Influenced by unbelievers, evil scholars try to deceive with the following argument: Abu Hanifa, opposing other Imams, rules that those living far from Islam’s centers can recite, based on the degree of necessity, a translation of Surat al-Fatiha during the prayer.393 Therefore, we can recite it in Turkish because we need to.

ANSWER: Abu Hanifa is one of the greatest Imams of Islamic jurisprudence. However, other greatest Imams and 12 other Imams authorized to deduce verdicts on legal matters from the Qur’an and Sunna do not share this opinion. The highway followed by the Muslim world for centuries is founded on the precedents of these Imams. As the mighty Muslim congregation can follow only this broad highway, those who try to direct them elsewhere seek their misguidance. Abu Hanifa is alone in this opinion. Moreover, his opinion has a specific character due to the following five points:

It relates to those living far from Islam’s centers. It is valid only in the case of absolute necessity. It relates only to the Persian language that, according to a Prophetic Tradition, is considered a language of the people of Paradise. It relates only to Surat al-Fatiha, and is intended for those who have not memorized it so that they can perform the prescribed prayers. It is based on his Islamic idealism, commitment, and strong belief so that ordinary people can understand that sura’s sacred meaning.

In contrast, those who want to allow a (Turkish) translation seek to destroy Islam through weak belief, negative nationalism, and hatred of Arabic. In sum, they want to draw people away from Islam.

SECOND SIGN: After altering Islam’s public symbols and rituals, the heretics first demanded a fatwa from evil scholars and then published it.394 We analyzed its oddness above. Second, they borrowed this ominous argument from Western “revolutionaries.” Europe’s philosophers and revolutionary intellectuals rejected Catholicism and adopted Protestantism, which the Catholics regard as a sect of religious innovation and deviation, followed by many Christians. As a result, those accustomed to blind imitation of the West assert: Since Christianity was thus reformed to give birth to Protestantism, and the reformers were branded as apostates at first and then later accepted as Christians, Islam may be reformed in the same way.

ANSWER: This analogy is far more misleading than the one in the First Sign. Christianity attributes to Jesus only its doctrinal pillars, for most legal, social, economic, and political principles were laid down by his followers and other spiritual leaders or borrowed from earlier Divine Books. Since Jesus was not a worldly ruler and is considered that he legislated no social laws, Christianity’s legal system is like a borrowed garment fitted on its religious fundamentals. If this garment is altered or changed, Christianity remains and Jesus’ position is not denied.

But Prophet Muhammad (the pride of the world) was a religious leader and ruler whose dominion extends from Spain to the Philippines. Therefore he received all of Islam’s pillars, principal commands, and social, economic and political principles directly from God through Revelation. As a result, Islam’s secondary principles cannot be altered or changed, for they are like the body or at least the skin of Islam’s essentials —they are organically molded to each other in such a way that they cannot be separated. Changing them amounts to denying the Prophet.

Differences among Islamic schools or sects originated in the understanding of some theoretical principles concerning secondary matters laid down by the Prophet. Islam’s fundamentals and incontrovertible principles are not subject to dispute or alteration. Whoever tries to do so is an apostate and is included in the meaning of the Prophetic tradition: “They break with Islam in the same way as an arrow leaves the bow.”395

Trying to find a pretext, the unbelievers argue: During the great French Revolution, which caused successive convulsions in the world, priests, spiritual leaders, and Catholicism were attacked. These attacks were later approved. This is one reason for Europe’s progress.

ANSWER: This analogy is just as misleading as the ones given earlier. Europe, especially France, had to deal with a Catholic Church that for centuries had been used by the elite and ruling classes as a tool of oppression and despotism; as a means to secure and sustain their dominion and the status quo; and as a way to crush nationalists, intellectuals, and lovers of freedom who opposed their despotism. Also, many saw the Church as the cause of the revolts that destroyed Europe’s social life and internal peace for 400 years. Thus they attacked it in the name of Christianity. The masses and philosophers were indignant and resented the Catholic Church, and therefore the French Revolution went the way it did.

Such arguments do not work with Islam, for Islam protects the people, as proven by its long history. Islam, with very few exceptions, brought no internal wars of religion, which were a common feature of Christian Europe for 400 years. Further, Islam has been a shelter and stronghold for the masses. Through the obligation of almsgiving (zakat) and prohibiting interest, Islam puts the elite at the masses’ service. Islam established that a people’s master is the one who serves them, and that the best people are those who benefit others.396

The Qur’an constantly urges people to reason and investigate, as seen in such verses as: Will you not use your reason? Will they not ponder? Will they not reflect? It gives people of reasoning and knowledge a very high and important position. Unlike Catholicism, it does not reject reasoning, nor silences intellectuals, nor demands blind faith.

There is an essential difference between Islam and Christianity in its present form—not the original religion of Jesus. Islam is a pure monotheistic religion that rejects means and intermediaries, breaks egotism and establishes sincere worship, and denounces and rejects all false lordships from the carnal self to nature. Thus a pious member of the elite must give up egotism. Without abandoning egotism and self-conceit, Muslims will lose their strong religious devotion and may even break, to some degree, with Islam.

The present version of Christianity, which accepts Divine son-ship and begetting, inevitably ascribes creative power to causes and means. Rather than breaking egotism in the name of religion, it sacralizes the egotism of intermediaries by regarding them as holy representatives of Jesus. And so members of the Christian elite who occupy high worldly positions can be perfectly pious. For example, former American president Woodrow Wilson and former British prime minister Lloyd George were as bigoted as any priest. But members of the Muslim elite who attain such high worldly positions must break their egotism to be pious Muslims perfectly conscious of God. This is why the Muslim elite could never use Islam to oppress and despise the masses. In Islam, one joins either the elite or the masses through knowledge, God-consciousness, and piety.

Even philosophers reflect this difference. Christian philosophers are usually indifferent or even hostile to Christianity, whereas most Muslim philosophers or theosophists  base themselves on Islam’s essentials. Moreover, the afflicted or oppressed Christian masses do not seek help from religion, for most of them are irreligious. The famous revolutionaries who brought about the French Revolution and were described as “irreligious tramps” belonged to the disaffected middle classes. But in the Muslim world, the afflicted and oppressed usually apply to religion for help and consolation, and so become religious.

THIRD SIGN: Heretics argue: Religious fanaticism has made us backward. A progressive life in this century is possible only after abandoning it. This is how Europe developed and progressed.

ANSWER: You are mistaken and deceived, or misleading on purpose. (First, fanaticism is defined as violent and unreasoning devotion. It is therefore incompatible with Islam, for a Muslim’s devotion, no matter how deep, depends on knowledge and reasoning. Even if it is not so based, it cannot be described as fanaticism. Muslims are never fanatics. Regardless of their degree of belief and devotion to Islam or whether they base their belief on knowledge or reasoning, they follow the middle way of peace and balance, and justice and moderation, for Islam is the middle way between all extremes.) Second, Europe is strongly attached to its religion. If you told an ordinary Bulgarian person, English private, or French individual: “Wear a turban (which Muslim men wear) or else you will be thrown into jail,” their fanaticism would cause them to respond: “Even if you kill me, I will not despise my religion and nation by doing so.”

Third, history shows that whenever Muslims firmly adhered to Islam, they made great progress and declined only when they neglected their devotion. In the Christian world, however, this is reversed. This is due to another significant, essential difference between the two religions.

Fourth, Islam cannot be compared with other religions. Muslims who abandon Islam cannot believe in another Prophet, admit God’s Existence even, or recognize anything sacred. Since they find no point in their souls that can be a means for human perfection, they become corrupt, evil, and anarchic. Christians who abandon their religion still can benefit from its collective life. They may still recognize some sacred things, believe in some of the Prophets, and somehow confirm God’s Existence. This is why Islam gives non-Muslim enemies the right to live. If their countries are at peace with the Muslims, if they live in the Muslim world and pay their jizya (protection tax), the Muslim state guarantees their lives. However, the conscience of those who abandon Islam is corrupted and therefore can poison Islam’s collective life.

What benefit do heretics expect to receive by denying religion? If they consider government and public security, dealing with 10 irreligious tramps is far harder than dealing with 1,000 religious people. If they desire progress, irreligious people both harm the government and block progress by destroying the public order and security essential to trade and progress. Since they follow a socially destructive way, how can anyone expect progress and happiness in life from them? Unfortunately, one high-level person has displayed his own ignorance by saying: “Our belief in and reliance on God caused us to decline. Europe developed through technology and weaponry.”

According to the principle of “the best answer to a foolish question is silence,” I should keep silent in the face of such absurdities. But since reasonable people should be warned against such absurdities, let me say the following:

O poor fellows! This world is a guest-house. All who die confirm and testify that death is a reality. Since you cannot destroy it and contradict those testimonies, death calls you to believe in and rely on God. In place of God, what technology or weaponry can illuminate the eternal darkness before those who are dying and change their despair into hope? Since death is inevitable and the grave awaits us, and since this transient life gives way to the permanent life, we should mention God 1,000 times and mention technology and weaponry only once. Besides, technology and weaponry lead to God when used in the cause of God, and operate and cease in His name.

FOURTH SIGN: Destructive heretics are of two groups. The first group pretend to support religion and faithfulness to Islam. On the pretext of reinforcing religion with nationalism, they say: “We want to implant in the soil of nationalism the illustrious tree of religion, which has been weakened, and thereby strengthen it.” The second group introduces religious innovations on the pretext of “grafting nationalism onto Islam” in order to promote racism in the name of nationalism.

As for the first group: The illustrious tree of Islam, which is deeply established in creation’s truth and has sent out roots through the universe’s truths, is not to be implanted in racism’s dark, barren, arid, unstable, and easily scattered dust-like soil. It is heretical, destructive, and unreasonable to try to do so.

As for the second group: O insensible ones pretending to nationalism! The previous [nineteenth] century was perhaps the century of nationalism. But in this [twentieth] century, nations and countries are coming together to form strong blocks, and feel the need to form unions. Bolshevism and socialism invalidate racial separatism. Besides, such trends as nationalism and racism are temporary, for they sweep over Earth like a strong wind and disappear. Islam’s enduring and eternal nationality cannot be grafted onto racism. If you attempt to do so, you will corrupt Islam but cannot maintain racism. Although at first it may give a temporary pleasure, it will endure too briefly and end in catastrophe.

In this country, separatist movements may lead to internal conflicts almost impossible to heal, for each side will break the other’s power and thereby exhaust the nation’s overall strength. As a result, any foreign power will be able to manipulate this nation easily, for the force of a small stone can manipulate two mountains of the same weight when put on the scales.

FIFTH SIGN: This is a brief answer to an important question.

QUESTION: Some authentic traditions relate that the Mahdi will come toward the end of time and reform the corrupted world. As this is the time of communities, individuals, no matter how capable and intelligent, can be defeated by the opposing community’s collective body if they do not have the support or representation of their own community’s collective body. How can an individual, no matter how strong his or her sainthood, reform such a corrupted world? If every act of such a person were miraculous, Divine Wisdom and the laws operating in the world would be contradicted. So, what is the truth about the Mahdi?

ANSWER: Each time the Muslim community becomes corrupt, God Almighty sends, out of His perfect Compassion and as a sign of His eternal protection of the Sharia, a person to remove the corruption and preserve Islam. Such a person may be a reformer, a reviver, a noble caliph, a great saint, or a perfect spiritual guide. Since this is God’s way, He can reform the world at the time of its greatest corruption through an illustrious person combining the functions of the greatest jurist, reviver, ruler, and spiritual and intellectual guide. This person will be a descendant of the Prophet’s Family.

As God Almighty fills the space between the heaven and Earth with clouds in a minute and then removes them, calms a raging sea in a moment, or shows an hour of summer weather during spring and an hour of a winter storm during summer, He can use the Mahdi to remove the darkness covering the Muslim world. This is very easy from the viewpoint of Divine Power. When considered from the viewpoint of causality and Divine Wisdom, it is so inevitable that even if the Prophet had not related it, it would—and will—happen in just that way.

This is what the people of reflection are certain to judge, because all Muslims supplicate five times a day in the prescribed prayers: “O God, bestow blessing on our master Muhammad and on his Family, as you bestowed it on Abraham and his Family among the whole creation! You are Most Praiseworthy, Most Glorious.” This supplication has been accepted.

Muhammad’s Family has become like Abraham’s Family, leads all blessed chains of saints, presides over all assemblies of spiritual commanders, and carries out the duty of guiding people.397 They are numerous enough to form a mighty army. If they form a unit through solidarity and make Islam, in the form of a sacred nationality, a means of awakening and a bond of unity, no army can beat them. This mighty and irresistible army, formed of the descendants of the Prophet’s Family, is the core of the Mahdi’s army.

Only the lineage of the descendants of the Prophet’s Family is continuously linked to each other through uninterrupted descent, and distinguished with personal merits and ancestral nobility. No other lineage is stronger or more important. It includes, since the beginning, all groups of the people of truth and perfection. At present, with millions of members, they are a blessed awake and aware people whose hearts are full of belief and love for the Prophet, and are elevated and ennobled by the priceless honor of attachment to him. Events are taking place to excite and stir up the sacred force in this mighty community. This force will burst forth with a sublime zeal, and the Mahdi will direct it to the true way of serving Islam. This is our expectation from Divine Laws and Mercy, just as we expect spring to follow winter. And we are right in this expectation.

SIXTH  SIGN: The Mahdi’s illustrious community will reform the Sufyan’s398 destructive and heretical regime and revive the Prophetic (Islamic) way of belief, life, and government. Those who appear in the Muslim world to destroy the Islamic way of life by denying Prophet Muhammad’s Messengership and leadership will be defeated and eradicated by the miraculous, spiritual sword of the Mahdi’s community.

Another devoted, self-sacrificing community of Jesus’ followers, who can be considered as the Muslim representatives of Jesus’ mission, will try to unite the original religion of Jesus with the truth of Islam, and thereby defeat and eradicate the Anti-Christ (Dajjal) and his followers. These corrupters of human civilization, violators of all sacred things, and deniers of God will be defeated, and humanity will be delivered from atheism.

SEVENTH SIGN: They ask me: “Your defense of Islam, or your struggle for its sake, has changed. In addition, you do not follow those thinkers who defend Islam against Europe. Why did you change the way of Old Said, and why do you not follow the other defenders of Islam?”

ANSWER: Such thinkers accept, as did Old Said, the principles of human philosophy and the Western way of thinking to a certain degree, and depend upon them in their struggle against Europe. Since they admit some of those principles beforehand, as if they were established scientific principles, they fail to show Islam’s true value. They think that they can strengthen Islam by grafting philosophy’s supposedly deep-rooted shoots onto its trunk.

I left this way because it is a very difficult and improbable way to overcome anti-Islamic trends, and because it degrades Islam. Islam’s essentials cannot be reached by philosophy’s principles, as proven in the Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Words and The Twenty-fourth Letter.

However, thinkers following the same way as Old Said consider human philosophy to be deep and Islam’s pillars to be shallow, and thus think that the pillars can be strengthened by grafting them onto the principles of philosophy. But those principles cannot reach the level of either Islam’s fundamental or even secondary principles.

Glory be to You. We have no knowledge save what You have taught us. You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. All praise be to God, Who guided us to this. If God had not guided us, we would never have been guided. Our Lord’s Messengers came with the truth. O God, bestow blessings upon our master Muhammad and upon his Family, as You bestowed blessings upon our master Abraham and upon his Family among creation. You are Most Praiseworthy, most Glorious.

Said Nursi

393 The Qur’an’s opening sura, which must be recited before any other sura in the prayer. All prayers are in Arabic. (Ed.)

394 Fatwa: A conclusive legal verdict made by a qualified religious scholar. (Ed.)

395 Bukhari, Anbiya’, 6; Muslim, Zakah, 142-44; Tirmidhi, Fitan, 24.

396 Al-Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa’, 2:463, and al-Munawi, Fayd al-Qadir, 3:481, respectively.

397 Among them, Sayyid Ahmad Sanusi commands millions of disciples. Sayyid Idris and Sayyid Yahya each has hundreds of thousands of followers. There are many such heroes among the descendants of the Prophet’s Family, and still greater ones like Sayyid ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Sayyid Abu al-Hasan al-Shazali, and Sayyid Ahmad al-Badawi.

398 Sufyan: The Dajjal, the personification of all opposition to Islam, who will appear in the Muslim world toward the end of time as a human being. (Ed.)