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The Significance of the Concept of Mercy and its Value on One’s Life, according to Imam Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

 

By Betania Kartika Muflih*

 

Abstract

This work investigates the approach used by Imam Bediuzzaman Said Nursi in interpreting the Qur’anic verses on Allah being Merciful and Compassionate, and to understand his lively scriptural approach to the value of mercy, in which it makes one’s life meaningful and purposeful. This work is aimed to highlight distinctive aspects and features of his approach and methodology of Qur’anic exegesis. It discusses the background, the reason and the purpose behind Imam Bediuzzaman’s approach to the issue at hand. It is also important to note down that his writing is not the result of a merely intellectual enterprise, but also the living answers to problems he has personally experienced. The thesis follows library and textual analysis to answer the research questions and address the main problematic. Hence, it concludes that it is necessary to situate Imam Bediuzzaman’s work within the context of Tauhid (Divine Unity) framework, which constitutes the background of his entire system of thought. Through the insight of Tauhid, all happenings in this universe are the product of universal mercy and under the direct control of Merciful Lord. From the perspective of Tauhid too, the order in this universe is the manifestation of the Compassionate Creator’s practices. Indeed, Imam Bediuzzaman’s approach provides a scaffold for a profound understanding and interpretation of the concept of mercy and its impact on one’s life and social fabric.

 

Introduction

Before discussing the approach of Imam Bediuzzaman on the impact and value of mercy in detail, it is important to understand his definition to Qur’an as this will be the base of his thought. Imam Bediuzzaman has made Qur’an as the ultimate source of all the discussion in his writings,1 the second source that he depends on was the Prophet Traditions.2 According to Qur’an, signs or ayah of Allah are given in the form of Qur’anic verses as well as things and events. Allah’s words are delivered to mankind through Qur’anic signs and cosmic signs as well. Just as the Qur’an is Allah’s speech with words, the cosmos is Allah’s speech with act. This led Imam Bediuzzaman to define the Qur’an as “the eternal translator of the mighty book of the universe and the interpreter of various tongues reciting the verses of creations.” 3 He explains that from one point of view, the Qur’anic signs translate the cosmic signs according to our understanding and make them speak, this makes the meaning of Qur’an unfolds in the signs of universe. The Qur’an actually explains how every being or event is a sign pointing to the existence of Allah and making Him known with all His names and attributes of perfection. Imam Bediuzzaman emphasizes that each Qur’anic verse encompasses all the other verses and contains all of the aims of the Qur’an because it is the word of One Who Encompasses all.4 In His infinite mercy, Allah has included the whole in the parts, so that man with his limited capacity may grasp and understand the meaning of the whole Qur’an in each of its part. Accordingly although man cannot comprehend the whole, he can reach universal understanding by focusing on universal particulars.

In many verses, Qur’an invites man to observe the universe and reflect on the Divine activity within it, following these verses, Imam Bediuzzaman likens the universe to a book, that man should read it for its meaning, learn of the Divine Names and attributes and other truths of belief.5 The purpose of this book is to describe its Author and Maker; all creatures become evidences and signs to their Creator.6 Thus taking inspiration from the Qur’an’s translation of the book of the universe, the Risale-i Nur expounds and explains the Qur’an truths by means of examples taken from the book of universe, and by means of example taken from the book of universe.7 From one point of view, his writings are an account of the human condition. They combine argument and emotion, that give them liveliness and strength. They are the outcomes of Imam Bediuzzaman’s life experience, wherein his most hidden feelings are reflected.

In this paper the way how Imam Bediuzzaman interprets the verses that contain God’s Divine Names of being Gracious, Compassionate and Merciful, will be examined. It has the direct implementation in the life of common people in general and believers in particular, for the main purpose of his commentary is to save and strengthen people’s belief in Allah. Their weakness and dependence to the others show that they are not the owners of anything which they appear to possess, no doubt that they are in need of the Provider, the Besought One. The people who are not aware of this, who live distanced from the spirit and moral values of the Qur’an live in ignorance of this great reality created by Allah. There are many examples of belongings that people think they are theirs, for example the soul, it belonged fully to Allah. The feeling of possession of the soul, as if it were one’s own, that Allah creates as manifestation of the infinite nature of His creation is one sort of test for someone who realizes the true nature of His creation, and so to many other things which all absolutely belong to Him alone.

 

A. Brief Life of Imam Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

Imam Bediuzzaman was born in 1876 or 1877 8 in Nurs of Bitlis province in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. His life-time spanned the final decades of the Caliphate of the Ottoman Empire, its collapse and dismemberment after the First World War, and the setting up of the Republic, and then twenty five years of Republican People’s Party rule, famous for the Government’s repressive anti-Islamic and anti-religious policies. Until the years following the First World War, during the ten years of Democrat rule, Imam Bediuzzaman’s struggles in the cause of Islam had been active and in the public domain. 9 He had not only taught many students and had engaged in debate and discussion with leading scholars from all over the Islamic world, but he had also commanded and led in person a volunteer regiment against the invading Russians in eastern Turkey in 1914 for nearly two years until taken prisoner10. Furthermore, up to that time he had sought to further the interests of Islam by actively engaging in public life. This period was named by Imam Bediuzzaman as the period of “Old Said”. However the years that saw the transition from empire to republic also saw the transition from the “Old Said" to the “New Said". The “New Said" was characterized by his withdrawal from public life and concentration on study, prayer and thought for what was required now was a struggle of a different sort. In this period he took Qur’an as his sole guide, by means of the original method of expounding the Qur’anic truths of belief, which at the same time refuted the principles of materialist philosophy.11 In 1925 under the reign of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk), Imam Bediuzzaman was sent into exile in western Anatolia and for the next twenty-five years, and to a lesser extent for the last ten years of his life, he suffered nothing but exile, imprisonment, harassment and persecution by the authorities. But these years of exile and isolation saw the writing of the Risale-i Nur, the “Treat of Light” and its dissemination throughout Turkey. To quote Imam himself:

"Now I see clearly that most of my life has been directed in such a way, outside my own free-will, ability, comprehension and foresight, that might produce these treatises to serve the cause of the Quran. It is as if all my life as a scholar has been spent in preliminaries to these writings, which demonstrate the miraculousness of the Quran”

Imam Bediuzzaman wrote that his life was “a seed” out of which in His Mercy, Almighty God had created “the tree of the Risale-i Nur”. Thus, when his biography was being prepared, he wanted attention to be directed towards this service to belief, rather than to his own self and personality.12 Imam Bediuzzaman realized that an essential cause of the decline of the Islamic world was the weakening of the main foundations of belief. This weakening, together with the constant attacks on those foundations in the 19th and 20th centuries carried out by materialists, and atheists, led him to realize that the urgent and over-riding need was to strengthen, and even to save belief.13 What was needed was to expend all efforts in the struggle against aggressive atheism and irreligion, and to answer at that level those attacks with a peaceful jihad, i.e.”Manevi Jihad” or “Jihad of the word”.14 Thus in his exile, Imam Bediuzzaman wrote a body of work, the Risale-i Nur, that would explain and expound the basic tenets of belief, the truths of the Quran, to modern man. Imam Bediuzzaman died in March 23rd 1960, or 25th Ramadan 1379 AH in Urfa, Turkey.15

 

B. Definition of rahmah/mercy

Imam Bediuzzaman defines the term of mercy when he explains the verse:

(بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيم) ‘Bismillaahirrrahmaanirrahiim’/ In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. The divine name of All-Merciful is manifested through the face of the universe, and is apparent through the innumerable manifestations of God’s absolute dominicality on the face of earth. Similarly, its complete manifestation is apparent in a small measure in man’s comprehensive form, the same as on the faces of the earth and universe.16 In the Signs of Miraculousness, Imam Bediuzzaman mentions the meaning of Rahman and Rahim as two Divine names which point to the two fundamentals in raising, nurturing and sustaining. They contain Allah’s name as al Razzaaq, the Provider of great bounties as well as minute ones, the Most Merciful Who infers the attraction of benefits, and al Ghaffaar, the Oft Forgiving, Who is conformable with the repulsion of harm. They also indicate the Divine Glory and Beauty, the two sources in which the sequence of command and prohibition, reward and punishment, inducement and threat, glorification and praise, fear and hope and so on are manifested.17

لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنسَانَ فِي أَحْسَنِ تَقْوِيمٍ

“We have indeed created man in the best of moulds,”18

As there is a Hadith which has the similar meaning as:”God created man in the form of the most Merciful.”19

 

C. Imam Bediuzzaman’s approach

Imam Bediuzzaman stresses the theme of mercy in his writings. He exposes how Divine mercy is shown in the harmonious ordering of the universe which fulfills the needs of all creatures especially man. With His mercy, Allah provides all living beings in this world with utmost order and regularity, with particular senses for various uses and benefits. He also teaches them how to fulfill their needs. This demonstrates that their Compassionate Maker knows them, sees them and hears them.20 Allah provides for humans every sort of gift, and they are endowed with appetites, needs, feelings and sense so that with them they can derive the pleasure from the Divine’s gift. The existence of the tiny fruit is also showing the product of mercy and generosity of Allah, how He revolves the earth, causes the seasons and thus brings the fruits of the season which are reached and enjoyed by humans.21

Everything created in this universe is due to His mercy and on special purposes, nothing happens by chance and meaningless. Even the creation of evil, feeling of fear, death and other undesirable things and events are good in their results. In reality, apparent harms, disasters and calamities are not misfortunes. They are created for many everlasting and beneficial results. They are created to be means of purification and spiritual progress, or atonement for sin, warnings and favors of the Merciful Lord to prevent man from falling into dissipation, remind him of his human helplessness and to prepare him for the eternal life.22 In this regard Allah says:

وَعَسَى أَن تَكْرَهُواْ شَيْئًا وَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ وَعَسَى أَن تُحِبُّواْ شَيْئًا وَهُوَ شَرٌّ لَّكُمْ وَاللّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لاَ تَعْلَمُون

“It may well be that you hate a thing the while it is good for you, and it may well be that you love a thing the while it is bad for you, and Allah knows whereas you do not know.”23

 

فَعَسَى أَن تَكْرَهُواْ شَيْئًا وَيَجْعَلَ اللّهُ فِيهِ خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا

“It may well be that you dislike something which Allah might yet make a source of abundant good.”24

 

وَنَبْلُوكُم بِالشَّرِّ وَالْخَيْرِ فِتْنَةً وَإِلَيْنَا تُرْجَعُون

“And We test you all through the bad and the good by way of trial; and unto Us you shall be brought back.”25

Most of people consider only the outer aspect of things, that they judge all that do not serve their purposes to be bad and evil. This is one of the characteristic of unbelief which condemns beings to meaninglessness, and denies the perfection of the Divine Beautiful Names that are reflected in the mirror of all beings, which lead to the refusal to surrender to the Compassionate One.

 

D. Analysis of the value of mercy according to Imam Bediuzzaman

To examine how Imam Bediuzzaman analyses the value of mercy, the researcher will write some examples given by him in this matter.

 

·Creation of human’s feeling of fear.

Fear is a kind of feeling that bothers people, but this feeling can be transferred into mercy and love if it is turned towards Allah. The real feeling of fear should be directed only to Allah. Fear Allah means to seek refuge by Allah’s mercy, strength, justice and power against all fears that humans have in worldly matters by accepting their weakness and poverty. This draws Allah’s mercy and compassion towards His servants. Together with the unexpected disasters and all kind of undesired evils, people are made to realize their impotence, and helplessness. They are certain that every created thing needs Allah. Nothing and no one has any strength apart from His Will. Allah shows His mercy by providing them opportunities to recognize these truths by expressing their weakness and submission to Him through prayer. Allah says:

قُلْ مَا يَعْبَأُ بِكُمْ رَبِّي لَوْلَا دُعَاؤُكُمْ

“Say (O Muhammad) My Sustainer would not concern Himself with you but for your supplication”. 26

 

وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُواْ لِي وَلْيُؤْمِنُواْ بِي لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ

“If My servants ask you (O Muhammad about Me, I am indeed near. I respond to the invocations of the supplications of the supplicant when he calls on Me. They should therefore obey Me and believe in Me so that they may be rightly guided.”27

The Almighty also says:

وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمُ ادْعُونِي أَسْتَجِبْ لكم

“Call on Me and I will answer you...”28

From this the believers know that Allah will answer their prayers, for He is very close to them and knows their needs. Those who experience such comfort and hope will gain His mercy by not being hopeless when encountering difficulties. Bediuzzaman explains this deep submission and says :

Supplication is also one of the fundamental innate duty that will perfect man after belief. For despite his impotence, innumerable desires, needs, poverty and wants, he is beset with endless calamities and trial. By offering supplication to the Most Merciful and Compassionate, he finds the help and offers thanks.29

“The most important aspect, the most beautiful aim, the sweetest fruit of this is; The one who offers the supplications knows that there is Someone Who hears the wishes of his heart. Whose hand can reach all things, who can bring about each of his desires, Who takes pity on his impotence, and answer his poverty.” And so “O impotent needy man! Do not neglect a means like supplication, which is the key to the treasury of mercy and to an inexhaustible strength. Cling to it! Rise to the highest peaks of humanity! Include in your supplications those of all the universe, like a king! Say, ‘From You alone do we seek help’30 like a servant and deputy representing all the universe! Be on the Most Excellent Pattern of creation.”31

 

· Creation of death.

Imam Bediuzzaman, did not see the death as merely outwardly dissolution, non existence, decay, the extinction of life, and the annihilator of pleasures. In the twentieth Letter, when explaining the phrase: wa yumiit…The Seventh Phrase: “And deals death” he says:

He is the one who causes death. He discharged you from the duty of life, changes your abode from this transitory world, and releases you from the labor of service. That is, He takes you from a transient life to an immortal one. This phrase then shouts out the following to ephemeral jinn and man:

Here is a good news for you! Death is not destruction, or nothingness, or annihilation; it is not cessation or extinction; it is not eternal separation, or non existence, or a chance, it is not authorless obliteration. Rather, it is to be discharged by the Author who is All- Wise and All-Compassionate; it is a change of abode. It is to be dispatched to eternal bliss, to your true home. It is the door of union to the Intermediate Realm, which is where you will meet with ninety nine percent of your friends.32

For him, death is mercy and bounty. It is not contradictory to the two names of God, namely “The Compassionate” (al-Rahman) and the “Giver of Life” (al-Muhyi). Death is a changing of place wherein the grave should not be seen as a dark well, but rather as a door to enlightened worlds. Imam Bediuzzaman describes death as discharge from service, it is a rest, a change of residence and location,33 a change of existence, alteration of the body, a time of real meeting with the loved ones and the prelude to the everlasting life and the eternal happiness,34it is not an eternal separation as presumed by the people of misguidance.35 Death is also an evidence for the oneness of God (tawhid) and His eternity as stated in Qur’an:

وَلَا تَدْعُ مَعَ اللَّهِ إِلَهًا آخَرَ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ كُلُّ شَيْءٍ هَالِكٌ إِلَّا وَجْهَهُ لَهُ الْحُكْمُ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ

“Do not call, besides God, upon any other god. There is no god but He. Everything will perish save His Face. His is the Judgment, and unto Him you shall all be returned,”36

With this Qur’anic verse, Imam Bediuzzaman aims to prove the existence and the oneness (tawhid) of God. There it is stated that death is necessary for God’s tawhid to be manifested; and, a resurrection is necessary for His Justice and Mercy to be demonstrated.37

Just as earth is the heart of this realm, the soil is the heart of earth. The closest way toward the purpose of man who is going to God, is through modesty and humbleness, represented by the soil. Hence he said:

“Oh Friend, do not be afraid of the soil and of altering to soil, of the grave and of lying in it!”

Later he explains how the death that outwardly is dissolution, decay, the extinction of life the annihilator of pleasure can be a bounty. Pointing to the verse that says:

الَّذِي خَلَقَ الْمَوْتَ وَالْحَيَاةَ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْغَفُور

“He Who created death and life so as to test you as to whoever of you is fairer in action. He is the All-Mighty, the All-Forgiving.”38

Imam Bediuzzaman said that just as life is created and determined, death and departure from this life is through a creation and determined, through a wise and purposeful direction. Imam Bediuzzaman says the following about death having an existence:

“Death is a discharge from the duties of life; it is rest, a change of residence, a change of existence; it is an invitation to an eternal life, a beginning, the introduction to an immortal life. Just as life comes into the world through an act of creation and a determining, so too departure from the world is through a creation and determining, through a wise and purposeful direction. For the death of the plant life, the simplest level of life, shows that it is a more orderly work of art than life. For although the death of fruits, seeds, and grains appears to occur through decay and dissolution, their death is in fact a kneading which comprises an exceedingly well-ordered chemical reaction and well balanced combining of elements and wise formation of particles; this unseen, orderly and wise death appears through the life of the new shoot. That is to say, the death of the seed is the start of life of the shoot; indeed, since it is like life itself, this death is created in the human stomach is the beginning of their rising to the level of human life; it may therefore be said ‘such a death is more orderly and created than their own life.’ Thus, if death of plant life, the lowest level of life, is thus created, wise, and ordered, so also must be the death that befalls human life, the most elevated level of life. And like a seed sown in the ground becomes a tree in the world of the air, so a man who is laid in the earth will surely produce the shoots of an everlasting life in the Intermediate Realm.”39

 

In this regard, Imam Bediuzzaman used the method of allegorical comparison

االتمثيلي القياس, he uses the example from the process of the germination of the seed in the plant. The seed apparently decays and turns out the life of new shoots. The death of this seed is the beginning of the new life of the shoot. If the death of plant life, which is according to him, the lowest level of life, is thus created, wise, and ordered, so also must be the death that befalls human life, the most elevated level of life.40

This shows that this death is created well-ordered on purpose just like a life. It is Allah who gives life and causes life to continue by means of sustenance, so it is also He who causes death by creating different kind and various means and ways. For this, indeed He discharges man from heavy duties, labor of service and responsibilities of earthly life, and takes him to an immortal life. Imam Bediuzzaman argues that all these are the sufficient proof that death is not merely destruction, extinction, cessation, eternal separation nor is it a haphazard event. It is indeed one of the well-planned by Allah and well-established realities of this life.41

He explains the reason of death as being a mercy in several places of his writings. The mercy of Allah SWT is also examined more through the resurrection of the dead. Most in the sort of tafakkur, or reflective thought on the natural world, and consists of close observation of it from the Qur’anic viewpoint; that is, viewing beings as signs signifying their Maker, and as letters and words describing Him alluding to such truths.

Later the discussion is made understood when he points to the verse that says:

فَانظُرْ إِلَى آثَارِ رَحْمَتِ اللَّهِ كَيْفَ يُحْيِي الْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا إِنَّ ذَلِكَ لَمُحْيِي الْمَوْتَى وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

“Behold, then the marks of Allah’s Mercy, how He revives the earth after it was dead. He, indeed, is the One who revives the dead and has power over everything.”42

Here Allah shows the readers that the resurrection of creation on this earth is the result of His mercy, and that His finite, direct unveiled and real Mercy is not this earth, but is going to be hereafter.43 The resurrection is seen by Imam Bediuzzaman as the final act and the wise climax of God’s creation.44 Imam Bediuzzaman addresses the Creator regarding this matter as follows:

Through Your activity in the atmosphere, Your power, which continuously displays examples of the resurrection of the dead and Great Gathering and transforms the summer into winter and winter into summer and similar acts, gives the sign that it will transform this world into the hereafter and there display its everlasting acts.45

To him death is also a bounty for four reasons: 46

1) Death frees man from the duties and obligations of life.

2) Death releases one from the narrow and turbulent prison of this world and unites one with the mercy of the Eternally Beloved One.

3) Death releases one from burdens of being old.

4) Death is a mercy and relief from worldly disaster.

Further, Bediuzzaman explains that death is not contradictory to Allah’s attribute as being The Compassionate, The Merciful (Arrahmaan, Arrahiim) and The Giver of Life (Al Muhyii) as mentioned earlier. Apparently it seems to contradict, indeed it is not at all right, based on the following verse of Qur’an:

“وَرَحْمَتِي وَسِعَتْ كُلَّ شَيْء”…and

“My Mercy encompasses all things…”47

Humans’ eyes are turned by Allah to prepare them for death. With the coming of old age, Allah shows the decline of all beautiful things in this world in order to create the desire in humans’ hearts for living in permanent beloved place. Furthermore the longing to beloved people who already passed away, awaken them a feeling of joy for the coming of death. Humans are also made to realize that their weakness and impotence lead them to the wish to rest and depart to another world. As Imam Bediuzzaman likens this universe to the book of the Eternally Besought One, every creation in this universe does not point to itself. They belong to the One Who is manifest in them with His attributes and divine Names. Imam Bediuzzaman asks us to read this book with meaning, with the aim to love its Maker, and to cease the attachment which is doomed to be broken and perish.48

From the examples above, Imam Bediuzzaman reminds the readers about their real existence, purpose of this life, and what do they have to do to prepare for the hereafter. He says:

“ Since this world is transitory, and since life is short, and since the truly essential duties are many, and since eternal life will be gained here, and since the world is not without an owner, and since this guest house of the world has a most Wise and Generous director, and since neither good nor bad will remain without recompense, and since according to the verse, ‘On no soul does Allah place a burden greater than it can bear’49There is no obligation that cannot be borne, and since a safe way is preferable to a harmful way, and since worldly friends and ranks last only till the door of the grave, then surely that the most fortunate is he who does not forget the hereafter for this world, and does not sacrifice the hereafter for this world, and does not destroy the life of hereafter for worldly life, and does not waste his life on trivial things, but considers himself to be a guest and acts in accordance with the commands of the guest house’s Owner, then opens the door of the grave in confidence and enters upon eternal happiness.” 50

According to Imam Bediuzzaman, humans have been provided and blessed with an overpowering desire for immortality and love of existence in order to find the Eternally Existent One. In fact, the happiness of their immortality lies in the eternity of their Sustainer, and in relying on His mercy, indeed their essential being is nothing but a shadow of a Divine Name which is eternal. By realizing this, they should not misuse that infinite love for their own selves, for that will lead them to eternal sorrows. Therefore they must form a relation with Him and make peace with Him, as it has been said in Qur’an:

أَلاَ بِذِكْرِ اللّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ

“…for verily in the remembrance of Allah, (people’s) hearts find their rest”51

 

·The creation of misfortunes, calamities and disaster

In Imam Bediuzzaman’s point of view the real and true calamity of a Muslim are the ones that have affected religion. When this happens, we consider this to be the misfortune that one should seek refuge with Allah from happening. The apparent misfortunes are given for several reasons, are:

1. Divine warnings and admonishment

2. Constitute the penance of sin

3. Dissolve people’s state of neglect

4. Remind people of their human helplessness and weakness

5. Afford people a form of tranquility

6. A favor from God and a means of purification, especially the disaster that relates to the sickness, as Prophet Muhammad said:

 

مَا مِنْ مصيبة تصيب المُسْلِمٍ إِلَّا كفر الله بها عنه حتَّي الشوكة يشاكها

“ None of believer who is affected by a disaster, but Allah will forgive his sins, with it, even the throne affected him.”52

Through disasters, calamities and sicknesses the life is strengthened, refined, purified, perfected and advanced. When people afflicted with any type of misfortune or sickness in which they do not know how to deal with it, they realized their impotence, weakness and helplessness, thus they will turn to Almighty Allah to seek refuge in Him, meditate upon Him and offer a pure form of worship with no hypocrisy. They are made to realize that this world is the field of testing and the abode of service. When they know that behind each calamity is Allah’s mercy, they should offer thanks to Allah instead of complaining. They would think that these momentary pains will result the everlasting spiritual pleasure. They should also think of the reward which results from misfortune and the requital that awaits them in the Hereafter. Not only that they should be patient but also be thankful as well. In this regard, imam Bediuzzaman suggested some advices of how one faces the misfortunes:

1. Never complain, for indeed complaint will do nothing but increasing misfortune and removing all occasion for compassion. Instead, one should offer gratitude, for it increases Divine bounty. The supplication offered by Prophet Ayyub (Job) when he was struck with illness:

وَأَيُّوبَ إِذْ نَادَى رَبَّهُ أَنِّي مَسَّنِيَ الضُّرُّ وَأَنتَ أَرْحَمُ الرَّاحِمِينَ

“O my Sustainer! Indeed harm has afflicted me, and You are the most Merciful of the Merciful,”53,

was due to his worries that he would not be able to remember Allah and offer worship anymore, as his illness spread to his heart and tongue. He did not pray in his supplication for the comfort of his own soul, but rather sought cure for the purpose of worship. Allah accepted this pure and sincere supplication in the best way. Prophet Ayyub was then granted with perfect good health.54

2. Offer supplication in a right way. One should seek refuge in a humble way, not protesting and plaintive, with a sigh in a manner implying objection and criticism to Divine Determining and Divine Merciful. One shouldn’t accuse God’s mercy, for he will be deprived of it. Imam Bediuzzaman likens this type of person to the broken hand which exacts revenge, there will be nothing but causing further damage to the hand.

3. One should not consider any misfortune occurs to be big. Physical misfortunes grow when they are seen to be large, and shrink when they are seen to be small. Nursi composed the following verses in description of this truth:

“Cry not out of misfortune, O wretch, come trust in God! For know that crying out compounds the misfortune and is a great error. Find misfortune’s Sender, and know it is gift within gift and pleasure. So leaving crying out and offer thanks, like the nightingale, smile through your tears! If you find Him not, know the world is all pain within pain, transience and loss. So why lament at a small misfortune while upon you is a world full of woe. Come, trust in God. Trust in God! Laugh in misfortune’s face; it too will laugh. As it laughs it will diminish; it will be changed and transformed.”55

 

·Creation of Impotence and Poverty

According to Imam Bediuzzaman, infinite impotence, weakness, poverty and need are essential to human nature, as he says:

“…the essence of humanity has been kneaded with infinite impotence, weakness, poverty, and need, while the essence of the Necessarily Existent One is infinitely omnipotent, powerful, self-sufficient, and without need.”56

One of man’s innate duties is to recognize this and proclaim it before the Most Merciful One by seeking his needs.57To do so is, in his words, “to fly the high station of worship of God and servitude to Him on the wings of impotence and poverty.”58 He says:

It is to beseech and supplicate the Provider of Needs through the tongue of impotence and poverty; it is to seek from Him. It is to fly to the high station of worship and servitude to God on the wings of impotence and poverty.59

He also says;

Thus, this great wealth in faculties and abundant capital was certainly not given for procuring this temporary worldly life. Rather, man’s fundamental duty is to perform his duties, which look to innumerable aims; and proclaim his impotence, poverty, and faults in the form of worship; and observing the glorifications of beings with a universal eye, to bear witness to them; and seeing the instances of the assistance of the Most Merciful One, to offer thanks; and gazing on the miracles of dominical power in beings, to contemplate on them as objects from which lessons may be drawn.60

It teaches us that the aim of humanity and duty of human being is knowing their impotence to seek refuge in divine power, by seeing their weakness to rely on divine strength, by realizing their poverty to trust in God’s Divine mercy. Due to this, after belief, man’s primary innate duty is supplication, and it is the basis of worship of God and servitude to Him.61 The reason the Most Merciful One made man infinitely weak and impotent was so that he would perpetually seek refuge and supplicate.62

In Imam Bediuzzaman system of thought, some of his basic concepts are: signifying man’s powerlessness and incapability before his Maker, and his want and neediness. He describes impotence as being a path that leads to winning God’s love by way of worship, but is safer. Poverty leads to the divine name of All-Merciful. He says:

While all true ways are taken from the Qur’an, some are shorter, safer, and more general than others. Of these ways taken from the Qur’an is that of impotence, poverty, compassion, and reflection, from which, with my defective understanding, I have benefited. Indeed, like ecstatic love, impotence is a path which, by way of worship, leads to winning God’s love; but it is safer. Poverty too leads to the Divine Name of All-Merciful. And, like ecstatic love, compassion leads to the Name of All-Compassionate, but is a swifter and broader path. Also like ecstatic love, reflection leads to the Name of All-Wise, but it is a richer, broader, and more brilliant path.63

According to Imam Bediuzzaman, man’s poverty and impotence have the reverse function of allowing man to act as mirror to the innumerable manifestations of All powerful and Compassionate one Whose power is infinite, the All Generous and Rich One whose wealth is boundless. 64 In this regard, he says:

He also emphasizes that it is not only human beings, but all creatures act as mirrors to the Maker’s power and riches through their impotence and poverty:

Through its impotence, weakness, poverty, and need, my life acts as a mirror to the power, strength, wealth, and mercy of the Creator of life. Yes, just as the pleasure of food is known in proportion to the degree of hunger, and the degrees of light through the degrees of darkness, and the degrees of heat through the degrees of cold; in the same way, through the boundless impotence and poverty in my life, I understood the infinite power and mercy of my Creator, who answers my needs and wards off my innumerable enemies. I understood my duties of entreaty, supplication, worship, abasement, and seeking refuge with God, and I undertook this duties.65

He also emphasizes that it is not only human beings, but all creatures act as mirrors to the Maker’s power and riches through their impotence and poverty:

These beings are mirrors. As darkness is the mirror to light, and however intense the darkness is, to that degree it will display the brilliance of the light, so these beings act as mirrors in many respects by reason of the contrast of opposites. For example, beings act as mirrors to the Maker’s power through their impotence and to His riches through their poverty; similarly they act as mirrors to His everlastingness through their ephemerality. The poverty of trees and the face of the earth itself in wintertime and their glittering wealth and riches in springtime act as mirrors in most unequivocal fashion to the power and mercy of an Absolutely Powerful One, the One of Absolute Riches.66

 

E. Examples of these impacts in Imam Bediuzzaman’s life

It has been mentioned before that Imam Bediuzzaman’s writings are not the result of a merely intellectual enterprise, but also the living answers to problems he has personally experienced. The circumstances in which he wrote Risale-i Nur were not easy. One year after the Caliphate in Turkey was abolished, Imam Bediuzzaman was arrested among many other Muslim scholars in Eastern Anatolia, some of them were executed and some others were exiled in remote areas in Western Turkey. He was one of those who were harassed by the authorities and compelled to remain in an exile. He was arrested, imprisoned and tried many times for writing on Islamic faith. Those who read his writings were also threatened, ill-treated and imprisoned for no mistake and crime. This injustice on Nursi lasted for more than 25 years. It pained him greatly, but he learned from it lots of lessons. He realized that a human without belief in Allah can be a cruel tyrant. He was also given opportunities to realize through the Divine unity that nothing in this universe happened on its own haphazardly. Allah the Merciful is behind the control of everything. When he was all alone in exiles, he was made to realize more his infinite weakness and his absolute need to seek refuge from Allah the Compassionate. He was sure that what had happened to him was based on Allah’s Will for special merciful reason. He was then able to overcome his affliction and dwell in the presence of Allah the Merciful. He had positive thinking over all events that he underwent. Once when he was Barla, he was asked by a chemist:”You say God exists, so why did He create evil?”, Imam Bediuzzaman answered him:”Now I will explain to you how evil can be good, cutting off an arm infected with gangrene is not evil, it is good. Because if it isn’t cut off, the body would go. That means Allah created that evil for good. You are a doctor and a chemist you know this better than I do”.67 Some examples that can be derived from his own experiences and how he exposed the continuing threat of evil to meaningful, purposeful and happiness, when he believed that all events had been designed by Allah based on His Mercy, are:

 

  • Imam Bediuzzaman’s transformation of Barla into First School of Risale-i Nur 68

Imam Bediuzzaman was not guilty of any crime that would caused him to be exiled to western Anatolia, and then being sent to Barla.69 It was a remote spot removed from the contact with the outside world. The village of Barla is a tiny hamlet of around 15 to 20 houses in the mountains near the northwestern shore of Lake Egridir. The government wanted him to stay in a small, remote place where he would not attract followers and where deprived of all company and society so that he would fade away and be forgotten. The authorities tried all possible effort to make Imam Bediuzzaman to be very isolated so that he would not have any contact with anyone. They did not only exile him here, but also spread the rumors which frightened the local people so not to approach him. They also had him watched, followed and harassed continuously. He was under tight custody and was banned even speaking with the few villagers staying in this place.70 This injustice was transformed into ‘a Divine Mercy’, his mind was kept clear and he could serve the Compassionate Sustainer in a greater degree.71

Imam Bediuzzaman was to remain nearly eight and half years in Barla. Throughout his stay here, he dedicated himself to the writing of Risale-i Nur. In this exile, he wrote the greater part of the one hundred and thirty parts of Risale-i Nur. They were later compiled as the ‘Words’, ‘Letters’ and ‘Flashes’ which make up the 75% of the Risale-I Nur. These treatises were distributed throughout Anatolia by an outstanding method. Those who were willing to become Imam Bediuzzaman’s students were asked to preserve the use of Qur’anic letters, to hand copy the treatises. Barla became the centre of learning the truth of belief. Imam Bediuzzaman named it ‘First Nur Medrese’, which is first Risale-i Nur School. By the end of his stay he had dictated three quarters, a total of 119 pieces. 72 Sukran Vahide writes:” Thus began Bediuzzaman’s silent struggle against the forces of irreligion.”73 Barla became the centre from which irradiated the lights of the truths of belief at a time when the darkness of unbelief gathered force to completely uproot the Islamic faith of people in Anatolia.74

Imam Bediuzzaman wrote a treatise proving the Resurrection of dead and existence of Hereafter, when he just arrived a month or two in Barla. Soon he had six immediate students there. They were: Samli Hafiz Tavfik, Siddik Suleyman, Hoca Halit, Sentral Sabri, Tigli Hakki and Hulusi. Tavfik had listened to The Sermon of Damascus. Later he became an expert transcriber to Nursi in Barla. Soon the students that were initially few in numbers reached thousands, hand publishing the Treatises by tens of thousands, and secretly distributing them throughout Anatolia. Once Nursi said: “Man does cruelty, but destiny does justice.” The enemy of Islam tried to isolate him in Barla, but destiny of Allah sent him to meet excellent students who were also fast transcribers.

 

  • Imam Bediuzzaman’s transformation of the prison into a ‘School of Joseph’ (Medrese-i Yusufiye)

Imam Bediuzzaman underwent imprisonment three times during his life due to the writing of Risale-i Nur.75 He was accused of finding secret organization that went against the government of Turkey. It was not only him who was imprisoned but also his students who supported him as well, and also some common people who had only slight connection with Imam Bediuzzaman. During this time, he has successfully transformed these three prisons into the learning place which he termed it as the School of Joseph, or Medrese-i Yusufiye, he named them after the Prophet Yusuf, the patron of prisoners. These three Schools were:

 

1. Eskisehir prison

Eskisehir Prison was the first place where Imam Bediuzzaman was sent to for imprisonment. He was sentenced here for eleven months. The condition of the prison was very poor and bad. Yet he continued to write. He was able to complete five more treatises in the months he was here. These were: The Twenty- Eighth, Twenty- Ninth and Thirtieth Flashes, and The First and Second Rays. Imam Bediuzzaman and his students were successfully transferred the prison into a mosque and learning centre. One of the prison officers who was on his military service, and was supposed to watch them out had been so impressed by this religious activity that he himself kept close relation with Bediuzzaman and Risale-i Nur secretly. He used to be called ‘Postman Kamil’. Later he described these days to Sahiner in 1985, and said to him:

“…Everyone got on well with each other in Eskisehir prison…They used to perform the prescribed prayers all together, recite the Qur’an, and offer prayers.” Later he continued,” The dark prison ward shone with the lights of the Qur’an. Everyone would rise early for the prayers, and take their section (a thirtieth part) of the Qur’an, then the recitations of the whole Qur’an would begin. After the morning prayer, the prayer for a complete recitation of Qur’an would be said, those were good days…The prison became like a mosque. If only I have been able to be like them…”76

 

2. Denizli prison

The condition of Denizli prison was worse than that of Eskisehir. Imam Bediuzzaman was kept in solitary confinement under the most appalling conditions in a minute damp, dark cell. He was also poisoned several times. He continued his struggle. His students were forbidden to visit or speak with him, so he wrote notes and letters to them to encourage, console, guide and direct them to write out and copy these letters and the Risale-i Nur. He also managed to write the Eleventh Ray, The Fruits of Belief.77 He also wrote his petitions and defense speeches. Besides his letters and defense speeches, it was mostly the Fruits of Belief that copies were made of in the prison. The Fruits of belief had been described as “a fruit of memento of Denizli Prison and a product of two Fridays”, consists of eleven pieces or Topics. Addressing in particular the prisoners, each Topic explains some matter of belief such as knowledge of God, resurrection and the hereafter, and particularly relevant to that situation, the question of death.

 

3. Afyon prison

This was the last prison that Imam Bediuzzaman was sent to. He stayed there for twenty months. During this period of time, he wrote the letter to his students who were also imprisoned and were prohibited to visit him, about various matters concerning their life in the prison. Most importantly about urging them to look on their imprisonment in positive terms in the light of Divine wisdom, as a trial and a test, which presented new possibilities for service to the Qur’an through the Risale-i Nur, and he urged patience on them. His students always found the ways of visiting him, and were successfully made circles of learning in their wards. The example of one student who was mistakenly arrested and benefitted during his eleven months in the prison was Terzi Mustafa, who learned how to write the Qur’anic transcript from the students of Risale-i Nur, in which later he was employed as a calligrapher by the Department of Religious Affairs, and he also learned how to recite Qur’an, so that for ten years subsequent to being released from the prison he acted as imam in a mosque in Emirdag.78

 

  • Imam Bediuzzaman’s painful circumstances were very fruitful

Imam Bediuzzaman wrote the Qur’anic commentary, The Signs of Miraculousness (Isharat al I’jaz) on the front in the first year of the Great War when no books or sources were available.79 Regarding the style of this commentary, Muhsin Abdul Hamid said:

“It was not only to prove the Qur’an’s miraculousness in respect of eloquence and rhetoric that Nursi directed his efforts towards explicating the theory of its word-order, it was to penetrate into the meanings of the verses. For he wanted to expound it in detail in the light of reason in order to set forth the main beliefs of Islam and demonstrate their relations with the truth of existence.80

Somehow due to the difficulties of time and many obstacles arose during and after the World War, he could not continue with the writing of this commentary, because the circumstances of the time and place thrust him into the thick of the fight. God Almighty appointed for him something higher and greater, i.e. the writing of the Risale-i Nur. Otherwise if Imam Bediuzzaman completed the writing of his commentary in the style of Ishaarat al I’jaz, the great majority of Muslims would have been unable to benefit from it, for it could only be understood only by a very few scholars.81

In one of the letter, Imam Bediuzzaman himself wrote that his thirty years of exile, imprisonment and oppression as continual Divine warnings not to make his service to religion the means to personal benefits of any kind but to make that service the means to his own progress and advancement, and to salvation from Hell and earning Paradise, and this could be achieved with absolute sincerity. During his painful circumstances, with all types of obstacles and difficulties, and by the grace of Allah, he managed to complete the writing of Risale-i Nur. When Risale-i Nur was given official permission to be published and was printed on modern presses in the new letters/Latin in 1957 in Ankara and Istanbul, it was the time that imam Bediuzzaman was seeing the fruits of the labors of the thirty years of exile, imprisonment and torment. He was filled with joy and declared:”Now is the time of Risale-i Nur’s festival. My duty is finished. This is the time I have long waited for. Now I can go.”82

 

F. Lessons from understanding

The most recurrent divine attribute in the Qur’an is mercy.83 Some of verses regarding this, are:

كَتَبَ رَبُّكُمْ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ الرَّحْمَةَ

“Your Sustainer has willed upon Himself the law of grace and mercy”84

 

كَتَبَ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ الرَّحْمَة

“He has prescribed Mercy for Himself”85

 

وَرَحْمَتِي وَسِعَتْ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ

“And My grace and mercy overspread everything (embraces all things).”86

Following the scriptures, Imam Bediuzzaman stresses the theme of mercy in his writings. He exposes how Divine mercy is shown in all events in this universe as follows:

 

1. Universal law of mercy is seen everywhere.87

2. As for Allah’s mercy that is shown in beneficial matters like good health, well-being and pleasure are for people to offer thanks in the form of worship.

3. In order to display the infinite power and unlimited mercy, Allah has made inherent in man infinite impotence and unlimited want.

4. Everything created in this universe is due to His mercy and on special purposes, nothing happens by chance and meaningless.

5. The creation of illness, sickness, feeling of fear, death and other undesirable things and events are good in their results.

6. Apparent harms, disasters and calamities are not misfortunes. They are created for many everlasting and beneficial results.

7. Whatever happens to a person, good or bad, is the test and for him to thank God, as stated in Qur’an:

قَالَ هَذَا مِن فَضْلِ رَبِّي لِيَبْلُوَنِي أَأَشْكُرُ أَمْ أَكْفُرُ وَمَن شَكَرَ فَإِنَّمَا يَشْكُرُ لِنَفْسِهِ وَمَن كَفَرَ فَإِنَّ رَبِّي غَنِيٌّ كَرِيمٌ

“…he said:”This is by the Grace of my Lord!- to test me whether I am grateful or ungrateful! and if any is grateful, truly his gratitude is (again) for his own soul; but if any is ungrateful, truly my Lord is Free of all Needs, Supreme in Honour !"88

 

وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا لُقْمَانَ الْحِكْمَةَ أَنِ اشْكُرْ لِلَّهِ وَمَن يَشْكُرْ فَإِنَّمَا يَشْكُرُ لِنَفْسِهِ وَمَن كَفَرَ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَنِيٌّ حَمِيدٌ

We bestowed (in the past) Wisdom on Luqman:”Show (your) gratitude to Allah." Any who is (so) grateful does so to the profit of his own soul: but if any is ungrateful, verily Allah is free of all wants, Worthy of all praise.89

8. The believer can take the lesson from what prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said:

عجبا لأمر المؤمن ن أمره كله خير وليس ذاك لأحد إلا للمؤمن إن أصابته سراء شكر فكان خيرا له وإن أصابته ضراء صبر فكان خيرا له

"Wondrous are the believer's affairs. For him there is good in all his affairs, and this is so only for the believer. When something pleasing happens to him, he is grateful, and that is good for him; and when something displeasing happens to him, he is patient, and that is good for him." 90

9. Calamities are created to be:

  • ·Means of purification and spiritual progress
  • ·Atonement for sin, warnings and favors of the Merciful Lord
  • ·Prevention from falling into dissipation
  • ·Reminder of human’s weakness and helplessness
  • ·Preparation for eternal life
  • ·A bounty from Allah, as any Muslim afflicted with calamities such as sickness, and he surrenders to Allah, knowing that it is the test, Allah prepares for him great reward in the Hereafter life.

 

G. Conclusion

Throughout his writing, Imam Bediuzzaman has made the discussion on the concept of the Mercy of Allah very clear. All believers who understand it well, will have more strength in undergoing all steps of life, for they know that behind each event there is a Divine well plan. Whatever happens to them, good or bad, is the test and for them to thank God. Everything created in this universe is due to His mercy and on special purposes, nothing happens by chance and is meaningless. The universe and its events are created to make Almighty God to be known. To know that there is existence, and that there is One in whom existence inheres and from Whom existence emanates, the diversity, plurality, complementary opposites and apparent instances of lack and absence are needed. In order to understand light for example, he needs darkness; in order to understand life he needs death and he also needs evil in order to understand good; and so on. Darkness, death and evil are the apparent lacks, the gradations in existence which make existence known. 91Everything is created to be meant as a test and purification. To quote Imam Bediuzzaman himself, he said:

“O mankind! Do not suffer and sorrow when bounties cease, for the treasury of mercy is inexhaustible. Do not dwell on the fleeting nature of pleasure and cry out with pain, because the fruit of the bounty is the fruit of a boundless mercy. Since its tree is undying, when the fruit finishes it is replaced by more. If you thankfully think that within the pleasure of the bounty itself is a merciful favour a hundred times more pleasurable, you will be able to increase the pleasure a hundredfold”.92

 

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* Betania Kartika Muflih, PhD candidate in the Faculty of Islamic Studies, Department of Qur’an Sunnah, University of Malaya, Malaysia and an Academic staff of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM Holdings)

 

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FOOTNOTES:

1 See Markham, Engaging With Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, A Model of Interfaith Dialogue, Ashgate Publishing Limited, UK, 2009, 12

See also Osman Cilaci, The Concepts of Supplication and Woship in the Risale-i Nur, on the Third International Symposium on Bediuzzamana Said Nursi, Sozler Ofset, Istanbul, 1994, 87

2 See Jamaluddin Abd al Aziz Syarif, Al Tajarrud Wa Nubdz al Anaaniyyah ‘Inda Al Nursi (التجرد و نبذ الأنانية عند النورسي) in An Nur, Academic Studies on Thought and Civilization, Published by the Istanbul Foundation for Science and Culture, Istanbul, 2011, 129

3 See Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, ‘The Words’, Sozler Publications, 2008, 376-377

4 ibid, Imam Bediuzzaman answers the questions of What is Qur’an and How is it defined as follows: The Qur’an is the pre-eternal translator of the mighty Book of the Universe; the post-eternal interpreter of the various tongues reciting the verses of creation; the commentator of the book of the Worlds of the Seen and the Unseen; the revealer of the treasuries of the Divine Names hidden in the heavens and on the earth; the key to the truths concealed beneath the lines of events; the tongue of the Unseen World in the Manifest World; the treasury of the post-eternal favours of the Most Merciful and of the pre-eternal addresses of the Most Holy, which come from the World of the Unseen beyond the veil of this Manifest World; it is the sun, foundation, and plan of the spiritual world of Islam; the sacred map of the worlds of the hereafter; the expounding word, lucid exposition, decisive proof, and clear interpreter of the Divine Essence, attributes, Names, and functions; it is the instructor of the world of humanity; the light and water of Islam, the macroanthropos; the true wisdom of mankind; and the true guide and leader urging humanity to prosperity and happiness; it is a both a book of law, and a book of prayer, and a book of wisdom, and a book of worship, and a book of command and summons, and a book of invocation, and a book of thought, and a unique, comprehensive sacred book comprising many books to which recourse may be had for all the needs of all mankind; it is a revealed scripture resembling a sacred library which offers treatises suitable for all the various ways and different paths of the all the saints and the veracious ones and the wise and the learned, which is appropriate for the illuminations of each way and enlightens it, and is suitable for the course of each path and depicts it.

SECOND PART and complement to the definition: As is explained and proved in the Twelfth Word, since THE QUR’AN has come from the Sublime Throne and the Greatest Name, and from the highest degree of each Name, it is God’s Word in regard to His being Sustainer of All The Worlds; it is a Divine decree through His title of God of All Beings; it is an address in the name of the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth; it is a conversation in respect of absolute dominicality; it is a pre-eternal discourse on account of universal Divine sovereignty; it is a notebook of the favours of the Most Merciful from the point of view of all-embracing, all-encompassing Divine mercy; it is a collection of addresses at the start of which are certain ciphers in respect of the tremendousness of Divine majesty; and through its descent from the comprehensiveness of the Greatest Name, it is a holy scripture full of wisdom which looks to and inspects all sides of the Sublime Throne. It is because of this mystery that with complete fitness the title of the Word of God has been given to the Qur’an, and is always given. After the Qur’an comes the level of the books and scriptures of the other prophets. However, those other innumerable Divine Words are each in the form of inspiration made manifest through a special regard, a partial title, a particular manifestation, a particular Name, a special dominicality, a particular sovereignty, a special mercy. The inspirations of the angels and man and the animals vary greatly with regard to universality and particularity.

THIRD PART: THE QUR’AN is a revealed scripture which contains in summary the books of all the prophets, whose times were all different, the writings of all the saints, whose paths are all different, and the works of all the purified scholars, whose ways are all different. Its six aspects are all brilliant and refined of the darkness of doubts and scepticism; its point of support is certain heavenly revelation and the pre-eternal Word; its aim and goal is self-evidently eternal happiness; its inner aspect is clearly pure guidance; its upper aspect is necessarily the lights of belief; its lower aspect is undeniably evidence and proof; its right aspect is evidently the surrender of the heart and conscience; its left aspect is manifestly the subjugation of the reason and intellect; its fruit is indisputably the mercy of the Most Merciful and the realm of Paradise; and its rank and desirability are assuredly accepted by the angels and man and the jinn. Each of the attributes in these Three Parts concerning the Qur’an’s definition have been proved decisively in other places, or they will be proved. Our claims are not isolated; each may be proved with clear proofs.

5 See Berghouth, Nahw Nadzariyyat Islaamiyyah Fii Al Tajaddud al Hadary (نحو نظرية إسلامية في التجدد الحضاري), Research Centre, IIU Malaysia, First Edition, 2006, 96

6 See Vahide, The Book of The Universe: Its Place and Development in Bediuzzaman's Thought

7 Akgunduz, Risale- Nur as a New School of Belief, International Symposium, The Reconstruction of Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century and Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Elif Ofset, Istanbul 1993, 150

8 In this regard, Sukran Vahide quoted that there are some discrepancies between the dates given for his birth day in the available sources but the majority give it as 1293 Rumi. See Vahide, The Life and Times of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, The Muslim World, Vol LXXXIX, No 3-4, 1999, p.208

9 See Sukran Vahide, About the Risale-i Nur, The Words and their Author, in the Words, Sozler Publication, 2008, 803

10 See Sukran Vahide, A Chronology of Said Nursi’s Life, in Islam at the Cross Road, edited and with introduction by Ibrahim Abu Rabi, State University York New York Press, 2003, xix

11 ibid

12 Sukran Vahide, The Author of the Risale-i Nur Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Reyhan Ofset, Istanbul Turkey,2004, x

13 See Fred A. Reed, Anatolia Junction, Talonbooks, Canada, 1999, 226

14 See Sukran Vahide, The Author of the Risale-i Nur Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Reyhan Ofset, Istanbul Turkey, 2004, 352

15 Ibid, 373

16 Nursi, The Words, p.24

17 See Nursi, The Signs of Miraculousness, 20-22

18 Qur’an, Al Tin (95):4

19 See Sahih Bukhari, Kitab Ahadith al Anbiy a’, Bab Khalqu Adam Wa Dzurriyyatih, Hadith number 3326

20 Nursi, The Rays, pp.17-18, 192-193, The Words, p.695.

21 Nursi, The Rays, p. 197

22 Nursi, The Flashes, pp. 26, 28, 334-336, The Words, pp.49, 185-190, The Letters, pp.64-65.

23 Qur’an, Al Baqarah(2):216

24 Qur’an, Al Nisa (4):19

25 Qur’an, Al Anbiyaa (21):35

26 Qur’an, Al Furqan (25):77

27 Qur’an, Al Baqarah (2):186

28 Qur’an, Al Mu’min (40): 60

29 Musa Al Basit, The Model Human Being Centred on Divine Unity, Fifth International Symposium on Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, The Qur’anic View of Man, According to the Risale-i Nur, Reyhan Ofset, Istanbul 2002, 97

30 Qur’an, Al Fatihah (1):4

31 Nursi, The Words, 326-327

32 Nursi, The Letters, 268

33 Nursi, The Words, 220

34 Ibid, 23

35 Ibid, 664

36 Al Qasas (28): 88

37 Tubanur Yesilhark, Eschatology and the Importance of Hope in the Light of Jürgen Moltmann and Said Nursi, 45

38 Al Mulk (67) 67:1

39 Nursi, The Letters, 24

40 Ibid

41 Ibid, 268

42 Qur’an, Al-Ruum (30):50

43 See Nursi, The Words, Tenth Word, 59

44 Thomas Michel, S.J., The Resurrection of the Dead and Final Judgment in the Thought of Said Nursi, published in Theodicy and Justice in Modern Islamic Thought, The Case of Said Nursi, edited by Ibrahim Abu Rabi, Ashgate Publishing Limited, UK, 2010, 37

45 Nursi, The Rays, 56

46 Nursi, The Letters, 24-25

47 Qur’an, Al-A’raf (7):156

48 Nursi, The Words, pp.220-221

49 Qur’an, Al Baqarah (2):286 لاَ يُكَلِّفُ اللّهُ نَفْسًا إِلاَّ وُسْعَها

50 Nursi, The Letters p.94

51 Qur’an, Al Ra’d (13):28

52 Sahih Bukhari, Kitab Mardha, Bab Maa Jaa Fii kaffaarat al Maradh, (كتاب المرضي باب ما جاء في كفارة المرض)Hadith number 5640

53 Qur’an, Al Anbiyaa’ (21):83

54 Nursi, The Flashes, 21

55 Nursi, The Flashes, 27

56 Nursi, The Words, 564

57 See Vahide, A Survey of the Main Spiritual Themes of the Risale-i Nur, published in Spiritual Dimensions of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s Risale-i Nur, edited and with an introduction by Ibrahim M. Abu Rabi, State University of New York Press, Albany, USA 2008, 9-10

58 Nursi, The Words, 324

59 ibid

60 Nursi, The Words, 334

61 Nursi, The Words, 324

62 See Nursi, The Flashes, 274

63 Nursi, The Words, 491

64 See Nursi, The Words, 330

65 Nursi, The Rays, 81-2

66 Nursi, The Letters, 286

67 See Sukran Vahide, The Author of Risale-i Nur Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, 211

68 Vahide, ibid p.205, as quoted from Sualar,598

69 Vahide, The Life and Times of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, published in The Muslim World, Vol. LXXXIX, Number 3-4, July-October, 1999, 225

70 Markham and Pirim, An Introduction to Said Nursi, Life, Thought and Writings, Ashgate Publishing Limited, UK, 2011

71 Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, The Letters, 43-44

72 See Horkuc, Said Nursi’s Ideal for Human Society: Moral and Social Reform in the Risale-i Nur, University of Durham, UK, 2004, 118

73 Vahide, The Author of the Risale-i Nur, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, 204

74 Vahide, ibid, 201

75 See Hasan Izral, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi Wa Masyru’ihi Al Islaahy Fi al Tarbiyyah Wa al Ta’lim, (بديع الزمان سعيد النورسي و مشروعه الإصلاحي)) in An Nur, Academic Studies on Thought and Civilization, Published by the Istanbul Foundation for Science and Culture, Istanbul, 2011, 153

76 Vahide, The Author of Risale-i Nur, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, 234-235

77 Vahide, A Chronology of Said Nursi’s Life, published in Islam at the Crossroads, On the life and Thought of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, edited and with introduction by Ibrahim M. Abu Rabi, published by State University of New York Press, Albany, USA, 2003, xxi

78 Vahide, The Author of Risale-i Nur, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, 310

79 Imam Bediuzzaman expressed this in the Reminder of Signs of Miraculousness, 11

80 See Muhsin Abdul Hamid, in his Introduction to Signs of Miraculousness, revised edition 2007, 9

81 ibid

82 Vahide, The Author of The Risale-i Nur Collection, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, 350

83 All of the 114 Qur’anic chapters but one (surah At-Taubah, chapter number 9) starts”In the name Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate”. Allah’s attributes of mercy are mentioned 288 times. The word ‘mercy’ is also mentioned 114 times.

84 Qur’an, Al An’aam (6): 54

85 Qur’an, Al An’aam (6):12

86 Qur’an, Al A’raf (7):156

87 See Abdurrahman Abdul wafi, Idza’ah Lil Fikr al Qur’ani ‘inda al Nursi (إضاءة للفكر القرآني عند النورسي), in Al Tafsir al Adabi Lil Qur’an al Karim, Sozler Publication, Cairo, First Edition 2006, 292-293

88 Qur’an, Al Naml (27): 40

89 Qur’an, Luqman (31): 12

90 Sahih Muslim, Kitab Al Zuhd, Bab Laa Yaldagh al Mu’min min Hijrinn marratain, Hadith number 2999

91 See Turner, Bediuzzaman and the Concept of ‘Adl: Towards a Nursian Ontology of Divine Justice, published in Asian Journal of Social Science, Special Focus: An Agenda for Nursi Studies: Towards the Construction of a Social Theology, Volume 38 Number 4 (2010), Brill Publication, The Netherlands, 2010, 563

92 Nursi, The Letters, 267