Part One

Seeds of Truth

 

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

All praise be to God, and all blessing and peace be upon our master Muhammad, his Family, and Companions.

 

•The prescription for a diseased age, an ailing nation, and a disabled people is to follow the Qur’an.

•The prescription for this glorious, though unfortunate continent, once so illustrious, yet now a humbled and wretched state, once so invaluable, yet now an undefended people, is unity under the guidance of Islam.

•One who cannot turn the earth, planets, and stars as easily as turning the beads of a rosary cannot claim any part in creation, for everything is intertwined.

•The resurrection of all the dead on Judgment Day is as easy for God’s Power as rousing a fly in the spring from its winter sleep. For the Divine Power is and inherent in the Divine Being; It cannot change, decay, diminish, or be impeded. Being absolute, It accepts no degrees and everything is equal in relation to It.

•The One Who has created the gnat’s eye is He Who has created the sun.

•The One Who has ordered the flea’s stomach is He Who has ordered the solar system.

•Seeing the universe’s miraculous order and harmony, all “natural” causes (supposing they have independent agency) bow and say: “All-Glorified are You. We have no power. You are the All-Glorious, the All-Wise.”

•As befits God’s Oneness and Majesty, causes have no real or creative effect in creation or in the functioning of the universe. But in the outward (corporeal) dimension of existence, causes function to veil the operation of the Divine Power so that certain seemingly disagreeable or banal entities and events will not be attributed directly to It.

•The inner dimension of everything in which Divine Power operates directly is absolutely pure and transparent.

•This visible, corporeal world is a lace veil before the unseen worlds.

•Creating a dot in the right place requires an infinite power that can create the entire universe. Every letter of this great Book of the Universe, particularly every “living” letter, has a face turned toward and an eye gazing at every one of its sentences.

•At the end of one Ramadan, people were trying to catch sight of the new crescent moon that marks the beginning eid (the religious festive day). An old man claimed to see it. However, he did not know that what he saw was the curve of one of his own white eyelashes. How can an eyelash be equivalent to the crescent? How can the motion of minute atoms be accepted in place of the One Who forms entire species?

•Nature is a print or a model composed of unseen laws, but it is not the printer or composer. It is a design, not the designer, a recipient but not the agent; it is order, but not the one who puts things in order. It is a law, not a power. It is a collection of laws established by the Divine Will – the laws (that our minds can grasp but) that in themselves have no power or material reality.

•The feeling of attraction and being attracted felt in one’s (innate) human conscience is due to the attractive power of the truth.

•A thing’s innate drive or its God-given nature or disposition does not lie: For example, a seed’s urge to grow says: “I will grow into such-and-such a plant and produce fruit,” and then it does so. The urge for life in an egg tells it: “I will be a chick,” and then it becomes a chick. The water’s urge to freeze says: “I will take up more space,” and then it does so. Hard and solid iron cannot contradict this; rather, when frozen, water can split iron. Such drives and urges are manifestations of the Divine commands of creation that issue from the Divine Will.

•The Eternal Power, Which ensures that ants have a leader and bees a queen, certainly would not deprive humanity of a Prophet’s leadership. Splitting the moon was one of his miracles shown in the visible, corporeal world.1 His Ascension (to God’s “Presence”)2  was his greatest miracle shown to the angels and spirit beings in the World of Inner Dimensions, and one that proved and showed the saintliness of his Prophethood. Through that miracle, that most illustrious being extended and diffused his radiance, like a flash of lightning or a bright moon, in the World of Inner Dimensions.

•The two parts of the affirmation of belief – I bear witness that there is no deity but God, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger – attest to each other’s truth. The first is the a priori argument for the second, and the second is the a posteriori argument for the first.

•As life is a manifestation of unity in the sphere of multiplicity, it leads to unity, which enables one thing to own everything.

•The spirit is a law with consciousness and a real, sensible existence.

Like enduring laws of creation, the spirit also issues from the World of Divine Commands and the Attribute of Will.  Divine Power clothes the spirit in an astral body or double (the etheric counterpart of the physical body) within a body of sensory organs. This spirit, which exists in each human being, is a counterpart of the laws of “nature,” which have theoretical, invisible existence. Both are unchanging and permanent, and come from the World of Divine Commands. If Eternal Power had clothed laws with external existence, each would have been a spirit; if the human spirit were stripped of consciousness, it would become an immaterial law.

•Existent beings are visible by the agency of light, and their existence is known through life. Light and life are each discoverers and revealers.

•Christianity will either vanish or be purified and abandon its struggle against Islam. It has split several times and produced Protestantism which, in turn, has split (into diverse sects and groupings) and (some) have approached monotheism. Christianity will split further, after which it will disappear or, finding the truths of Islam, which include the essentials of Jesus’ original religion, will follow Islam. This truth is indicated in a Prophetic Tradition: “Prophet Jesus will return to this world, join my community, and follow my Shari‘a.”3

•The majority of common people (the masses) are drawn by the sacredness of authority, rather than (the strength of) proofs.

•Ninety percent of the Shari‘a consists of the essential and incontestable rules of Islam, and may be likened to diamond pillars. The remaining ten percent, which is open to interpretation and is to be determined by Islam’s legal authorities, may be likened to gold pieces. Ninety diamond pillars cannot be put under the protection of ten gold pieces. Rather, the religious books and judicial arguments and judgments should help us to understand the Qur’an better. They should serve as binoculars to see and as mirrors to reflect its meanings, not to veil or replace it.

•Individuals qualified to practice ijtihad4 can proclaim a new law for themselves, but not for others or the Muslim community.

•Before an idea related to the Religion can be extended to others, it must be accepted by the majority of scholars. If it is not, it will be regarded and rejected as an innovation that is contrary to Islam’s jurisprudential principles.

•Human beings, created with an inherently noble disposition, pursue the truth. But sometimes they happen to find and embrace a falsehood. While searching for the truth, they sometimes are unintentionally taken in by misguidance and, thinking it to be the truth, mistake it for the truth.

•Many mirrors, each one more subtle than the other, reflect the Divine Power. They range from water to air, from air to ether, and thence to the World of Representations or Ideal Forms, and higher still to the World of Spirits and even to time and ideas. A word multiplies a million times in the mirror of air. The Pen of Divine Power accomplishes this in an amazing way. Things are reflected in these mirrors either with their apparent identities or with both identities and natures. Each reflection of a solid entity is a moving lifeless form; each reflection of a luminous spiritual entity is a living form connected to the original. Even if the reflection of a luminous entity is not identical to the original, it is not something different.

•Since the sun is shaken through its movement on its axis, its fruits (planets) do not fall. If it stopped shaking, its fruits would scatter.

•An idea is dark and spreads darkness unless illumined with the light of the heart. The white of the eye, which can be likened to the day, cannot engender sight until it is combined with the iris and pupil, which can be likened to night. In the same way, the “white portion” of an idea cannot engender sight of the truth unless combined with the heart’s “iris and pupil.”

•Knowledge without conviction is little better than ignorance. Siding with or adopting something is quite different from conviction.

•A fanciful, elaborate description of falsehood and decisive things misleads simple minds.

•A scholarly guide should be like a sheep, not like a female bird. A sheep gives its lamb her milk, whereas a female bird gives her chicks’ regurgitated food.

•A thing’s existence depends upon the existence of all its parts. Since a thing’s non-existence is possible through the non-existence of some of its parts, an impotent person tends to be destructive in order to demonstrate their power; they act negatively instead of acting positively.

•Principles of wisdom and laws of right have no effect upon ordinary people unless the former are combined with the law of the state and the latter with the rules of force.

•(In today’s world) injustice or tyranny wears the cap of justice, treachery has donned the cloak of patriotic zeal, jihad5 is called aggression and a violation of human rights, and enslavement has been called freedom. In short, opposites have exchanged forms.

•Politics based on personal interest is bestial.

•Showing love for a hungry wild animal only excites its appetite. Moreover, after it has fed upon you, it demands further payment for feeding upon you.

•Time demonstrates that Paradise is not cheap and that Hell is not futile.

•The merits of those considered “the elite” have led them to arrogance and oppression, whereas these merits should inspire them to modesty and self-effacement. Instead of arousing compassion and benevolence, the destitution of the poor and the poverty of common people have caused their abasement and servitude.

•If honor and merit result from a thing, it is offered to the elite and leaders. But if vice and evil proceed from it, it is divided and distributed among the common people.

•If people have no goals to pursue, or if the main objective is forgotten or neglected, the minds turn to individual egos and revolve around them.

•The origin of all revolutions, all corruption, and the cause and source of all vices and moral failings can be summed up in two short phrases: The first is: “I am full, so what is it to me if others die of hunger?” And the second is: “You will suffer so I may be comfortable. You will work so that I may eat.” There is one single cure for the lethal poison of the first word that will cut it to the root: this is the Zakah enjoined and established by the Shari‘a. The cure for the second disease is the prohibition of usury and interest. Qur’anic justice stands at the door of humanity and turns away usury and interest, proclaiming: “You have no right to enter!” Yet humanity has ignored this prohibition and suffered a great blow.6 It must heed it now to avoid receiving a greater one.7

•Wars between nations and states are being replaced by class war, for people do not want to be either slaves or wage-earners.

•One who follows an unlawful way (in Islam) for a lawful objective generally attains the opposite result of what they intended. The reward for an un-Islamic love, like that of (the second) Europe8, is the Beloved’s pitiless enmity.

•The past and all calamities should be considered in the light of Destiny. The future and sins committed should be referred to human free will and responsibility. This reconciles the extremes of jabr (fatalism) and i‘tizal (denying Destiny’s role in our actions).

•You should not seek solace in displaying impotence in what you can do or find a solution for, nor should you lament over what you cannot do or find a solution for.

•Wounds related to one’s life can be healed, but wounds inflicted upon the dignity of Islam and the national honor are too deep to heal.

•Sometimes a single utterance drives an army to defeat, as a bullet may lead to the deaths of 30 million people.9 Under the right conditions and circumstances, a (seemingly) insignificant act may cause its doer to be elevated to the highest of the high or reduced to the lowest of the low.

•A single truth can bring down a heap of lies. A single reality is preferable to a heap of fancies.

•You must always speak the truth, but it is not right to speak every truth.

•Those who attend the good side of everything contemplate the good.

Those who contemplate the good enjoy life.

•People are energized by ambition and hope and are demoralized by hope’s absence.

•From the time of its foundation, this Islamic State has seen itself as duty bound to sacrifice itself for the Islamic world and as the standard-bearer of the Caliphate; accordingly it undertook jihad, a collective religious obligation, to maintain Islamic independence and exalt the Word of God. The collapse of this state will be compensated for in the future with the Muslim world’s happiness and independence, for its collapse is a calamity that urges us to develop brotherhood and sisterhood, which is the yeast or catalyst of our lives as Muslims.

•Here is a demonstration of how the wheel of time rotates in the opposite direction: They attribute to Christianity the virtues of civilization which are not its property, while Islam is accused of encouraging backwardness, something which Islam is opposed to and fights.

•A fine but tarnished diamond is always preferable to a piece of glass, no matter how well polished.

•The intelligence of those who seek everything in matter (material existence) is in their eyes; however, the physical eye is blind to what is spiritual.

•If a metaphor falls from the hand of knowledge to that of ignorance, it is transformed into fact and opens the door onto superstition.

•Seeing and showing someone or something as having more than what

God has favored them with is essentially not doing them a favor. Therefore, it is much better to describe everything as it really is.

•Fame ascribes to the famous what they do not truly own.

•The Prophet’s sayings are the mine of life and inspire truths.

•The revival of Islam means the revival of the nation. The life of Islam is the light of life.

•The Qur’an is a mercy for humanity, and urges a civilization that secures the greatest happiness for the most people.

Western civilization, in its present phase, is established upon five negative principles: It is based upon might or force; the basic characteristic of force is aggression. It seeks to realize individual self-interest, which causes people to rush madly upon things to possess them. It considers life to be a struggle or conflict, the essential characteristic of which is contention and mutual repulsion. The basic bond it offers for the unity of people is racism or negative nationalism, which “feeds” by swallowing others, and engenders terrible conflict. Its enchanting service is to excite lusts and passions and facilitate the gratification of animal desires, which brutalize people.

As for the civilization which the Shari‘a of Islam comprises and orders: it rests upon right, not might or force, and right requires justice and balance. Its goal is virtue, not self-interest, and virtue spurs mutual affection and love. Its principle of life is cooperation or mutual help instead of conflict, and this leads to unity and solidarity. Its means of unity between people are the ties of religion and citizenship, in place of racism and negative nationalism; and these lead to internal peace and brotherhood (and sisterhood), and urge only self-defense against external aggression. In place of lust and passion, the form of service of the Shari‘a’s civilization is guidance and the essential characteristic of guidance is progress and prosperity in a way that is befitting to humanity, and spiritual and moral perfection. Never break with Islam, for it guarantees our survival. Stick to it, heart and soul, or we will perish utterly.

•A general calamity is the consequence of a general failing of most people. Every calamity is the consequence of a failing, but at the same time it is also a door that opens to a means of reward for Muslims.

•Martyrs know that they are alive. Since they do not experience dying as death, they see that their lives, sacrificed for God’s sake, are permanent, continual, and more refined.

•The pure, perfect justice of the Qur’an does not sacrifice the life of an innocent person even for the whole of humanity. In the sight of Divine Power and Justice, an individual’s life is equal to the life of humanity. Yet some people can be so selfish that they would destroy everything and annihilate all of humanity, even the whole world if they could, if it seems to be an obstacle to the fulfillment of their desires.

•Timidity and weakness encourage external pressure and interference.

•Certain benefit should not be renounced for fear of potential harm.

•Politics is now a disease like the Spanish flu.

•Tell a mad person repeatedly, “You are well,” and it is not unusual that they become cured. And tell a good one repeatedly, “You are bad,” and it is not rare that they become bad.

•The enemy of the enemy is a friend as long as he remains an enemy, and the friend of the enemy is an enemy as long as he remains a friend.

•An obstinate one behaves in this way: if a devil helps or supports someone or their side, they hail them as “an angel” and calls down blessings upon them. But if they see an angel on the opposing side, they view this as a devil in the guise of an angel, and they call down curses on them.

•The cure for an ailment may be harmful to another condition. Excessive doses of any medicine can cause new illnesses.

•A society in which there is solidarity is an instrument that has been created to stir up the inactive, while a community in which there is malicious envy is an instrument created to pacify the active.

•If there is not healthy and sincere unity in a community, it will weaken as its numbers increase merely through population growth. This is like the multiplication of fractions. The amount grows less in proportion to how many times it has been multiplied.10

•Not affirming something’s existence is often confused with affirming that it does not exist. The absence of evidence that something exists may justify people’s not affirming its existence if they are not inclined to accept its existence. But affirming something’s non-existence requires clear evidence to prove its non-existence, for not affirming its existence is doubt, while affirming its non-existence is denial.

•Even if doubt about one point of belief invalidates one, or even a hundred, proofs for it, its truth remains intact as there are thousands of other proofs supporting it.

•Follow the consensus of the majority of believers. The Umayyads did so and finally joined the Ahlu’s-Sunna wa’l-Jama‘a11, although at first they were not careful in following the Religion. But since the Shi‘a, who were careful and steadfast in adherence to the Religion in the beginning, preferred to remain a small minority, some among them eventually became Rafidis.12

•If there is consensus concerning what is good and true, and if seeking what is better and truer causes disagreement and discord, then what is true is truer than what is truer and what is good is better than what is better. So say: “My way is good and true,” but never: “My way is the only way, the truest and best.”

•Without Paradise, Hell’s torment could not be perceived or understood.

•As time grows older, the Qur’an grows younger, and its secrets and signs become clearer and better understood. As light may be mistaken for fire, forceful eloquence may sometimes be mistaken for exaggeration.

•Degrees in heat occur through the existence of cold; the degrees of beauty occur through the existence of ugliness. God’s Eternal Power is an essential Attribute of Divine Being and inherent in His Essence. This Power has no degrees, since impotence cannot access It. Thus, everything is equal before It.

•Consider: The sun’s image in the sea and in its smallest wave or bubble has the same identity.

•Life, a manifestation of God’s Oneness, brings unity to multiplicity.

•As long as who are the saints among people, which hour is most acceptable on Friday for prayer, the date of the Night of Power and Destiny during Ramadan, the Greatest Name among all God’s Beautiful Names, and the appointed hour of death within a lifetime remain concealed and unknown, all remain esteemed and important. A life of twenty years with an unknown end is preferable to one of a thousand years with a known end.

•The worldly recompense for evil is proof of punishment to come in the Hereafter.

•In the sight of Divine Power, provision or sustenance is as important as life. Provision is produced by Power, apportioned by Destiny, and nurtured by Grace or Favor. As life is the sure, certain outcome of particular circumstances and events, it is witnessed or visible in its totality. But provision is neither sure nor certain, for it is scattered and obtained over a certain time; it comes in uncertain degrees and leads people to contemplation. Those who appear to die of hunger before the sustenance stored in their bodies (as fat, for example) has been wholly consumed die from diseases caused by altering or abandoning routine nourishment.

•The licit sustenance of wild carnivores is innumerable animal carcasses. By eating them, these carnivores feed themselves and cleanse the earth’s surface.

•Imagine that you have two pieces of food of equal nutritional value.

One costs a hundred cents and the other costs ten dollars. If you prefer the latter solely for the few seconds of pleasure it will give your sense of taste, the inspector or doorkeeper of your body, then is this not the meanest form of waste?

•When pleasure calls, one should say, “It is as though I have eaten it (Sanki yedim).” One person who followed this principle could have eaten the equivalent of a mosque called Sanki Yedim, but he did not.13

•An easy life may be appealing when most Muslims are not hungry. But when most Muslims are hungry, no Muslim can choose such a life.

•Rather than welcoming transient pleasures with a smile, welcome transient ailments. Past pleasures lead one to regret, for “Alas!” indicates a hidden ailment. Past ailments lead one to sigh with relief, which gives news of a hidden joy and a favor that has come.

•Forgetfulness is also a bounty; it allows one to suffer the pains of only the present day; it makes one forget accumulated sorrows.

•Every calamity contains degrees of Divine Favor. Be mindful of the greater calamity, thereby being thankful for the favor of the lesser calamity. Concentrating on and exaggerating a calamity increases it, and this exaggerated reflection in the heart or imagination makes it real and troublesome.

•In social life, everyone has a window – status – through which to see and be seen. If the window is higher than their height (real stature or worth), they will, through pride, appear as tall (or taller). But if the window is lower than their height, they will bend and bow down out of modesty. In human beings, the measure of greatness is to know oneself as low-ranking or modesty, and the measure of true low-ranking is to feign greatness or conceit.

•Weak people’s self-respect or dignity in the face of the strong or powerful is arrogance when assumed by the latter. Powerful people’s modesty before weak people becomes self-abasement when assumed by the latter. In his office, the gravity of a person of authority is dignity, and his feeling of self-nothingness is self-abasement. But in his house, his feeling of self-nothingness is modesty, and his gravity, arrogance. Forbearance and sacrifice on one’s own account are good and virtuous, but are bad and treacherous when done on behalf of others. People may bear patiently what has been done to them personally, but cannot bear patiently what is done to the nation on behalf of the nation. Pride and indignation on the nation’s behalf are commendable, but are reprehensible on one’s own behalf.

•Entrusting the accomplishment of an affair to God without taking all necessary measures and making all necessary arrangements is laziness. Leaving the realization of the desired outcome to God after having done all that can be done is to put trust in Him. Contentment with one’s lot or the result after having exerted one’s greatest efforts is praiseworthy contentment, and encourages further effort, reinvigorating one’s energy and industry. However, contentment with what one already has is a deficiency and means lacking in necessary endeavor or efforts.

•Just as the commands of the Shari‘a are obeyed or disobeyed, so too are the Divine laws of creation and life obeyed or disobeyed. The reward and punishment for the former is received mostly in the Hereafter, while the penalties and rewards of the latter are suffered mostly in this world. For example, the reward for patience is success, while the punishment for indolence is deprivation. The reward of labor is wealth, and the reward of steadfastness is triumph. Any claim to justice which is not egalitarian is a false claim.

•The same age and status or social standing cause rivalry and conflict. Being complementary and congruous is the basis of solidarity. An inferiority complex provokes arrogance. A weak character is the source of haughtiness. Impotence gives rise to opposition. Curiosity is the teacher of knowledge.

•The Power that created everything with its own disposition has restrained humanity and animals through their need, in particular hunger, and put them in a certain order. It has also prevented disorder and confusion in the world and, by making need a motive for civilization, secured progress in every field.

•Boredom and distress are the teachers of dissipation; despair, misguidance in thought, and darkness in the heart are the mine of distress and depression.

•When men become womanish through focusing on worldly whims and fancies, women become masculine through crudity and impudence. If a beautiful woman enters a gathering of “brothers,” ostentation, rivalry, and envy are aroused. Unveiling women and allowing them to mix freely with men to whom they are not related encourages vices or bad morals.

•Pictures, especially obscene ones, have an important part in people’s present sinfulness and ill-temper.

•Statues, prohibited by Islam, are either petrified tyranny, or solidified passion, or embodied hypocrisy.

•The tendency toward expansion in a person who sincerely confirms and completely complies with the essentials and the basic injunctions of Islam is a tendency toward perfection. Yet the same tendency in another who is outside the sphere of obedience to Islamic essentials and who is indifferent to them is a tendency toward corruption and destruction. The right course of action during times of “storms” and “earthquakes” is not to open the door of ijtihad – that is to attempt to derive “new” laws from the Qur’an and Sunna; rather, it is to close the doors and shutter the windows (against innovation). Those who are heedless and indifferent in belief and the practice of the Religion should not be indulged with dispensations; they should rather be warned strictly and aroused with heavier responsibilities and greater care.

•Unprotected and misrepresented truths lose their value in valueless hands.

•Our earth resembles an animate being that displays signs of life. If it were reduced to the size of an egg, would it be a kind of animal? Or if a micro-organism were enlarged to the size of the earth, would it not resemble it? If the earth is living, then it must have a “soul.” If the universe were reduced to the size of a person, with its stars forming the particles and atoms or elements of his/her constitution, would it not be a conscious, animate being? God has created many kinds of living entities like this.

•There are two kinds of Shari‘a (Divine sets of laws): those issuing from the Divine Attribute of Speech that regulate humanity’s (a microcosm) deeds and states, and those that issue from the Divine Attribute of Will and regulate the universe’s (a macro-human) creation and operation. This second group is wrongly called nature. Angels constitute a mighty community; they convey, represent, and embody Divine Commands of creation and order which issue from the Divine Will and are known as the Shari‘a of the creation and operation of the universe.

•When you compare the senses of a microscopic creature to those of a human being you are confronted by an astounding, mysterious truth: Each person is like Suratu Ya-Sin, and in each person Suratu Ya-Sin is inscribed.14

•Materialism is a spiritual plague; it has infected humanity with this terrible fever and made it subjected to the Divine Wrath and punishment. In proportion to the increase in humankind’s ability to criticize and inculcate, this plague becomes more severe and spreads ever-wider.

•The most miserable, distressed, and wretched person is the one who is idle. For idleness is the nephew of non-existence, whereas exertion or working hard is the life of the body and the waking state of life.

 

 

 

•The profit of banks, the doors of usury and its containers, is always for the worst of humankind – the infidels – and for the most unjust among the infidels, and for the most dissolute among the unjust. It is absolutely harmful to the world of Islam. The Shari‘a does not require nor does it take responsibility for all humankind always being prosperous at all costs. For an infidel, particularly if they are at war with Islam and Muslims, does not deserve respect or legal protection.

•Friday sermons are to remind people of the essentials of Islam, not to expound upon its abstract theoretical points. Given this, the Arabic phrases expressing those essentials are the best suited for reminding in this way. When Qur’anic verses are compared even with the Prophet’s sayings, it will be noticed that even the most eloquent one of humankind was unable to compete with the Qur’an’s eloquence.

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

1 Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, split the moon by a gesture of his index finger as a miracle he worked before a group of people who rejected his Prophethood in Makka. This is related in the most authentic Hadith sources, such as Sahihu’l-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, and Sunanu’t-Tirmidhi. The verses, The Last Hour has drawn near, and the moon has split. Whenever they see a miracle, they turn from it in aversion and say: “This is sorcery like many others, one after the other.” (54:1–2) refer to this miracle. For a discussion about this miracle, see, Ali Ünal, The Qur’an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English, The Light, New Jersey, 2008, pp. 1082–1083. (Tr.)

2 The Ascension (al-Mi‘raj): The miraculous journeying of Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, through the realms of existence beyond the limit of forms, during which he witnessed the supreme signs of God. For a discussion, see, Ali Ünal, ibid., 1290–1295.

3 al-Bukhari, “Mazalim” 33; Muslim, “Iman” 242.

4 Ijtihad in Islamic Law is the process of deriving legal judgments from the unchanging, established principles of the Qur’an and the Sunna in order to deal with emerging circumstances. (Tr.)

5 Jihad means striving in God’s cause and for the good of humanity. (Tr.)

6 Said Nursi is referring to the First World War. (Tr.)

7 Unfortunately, humanity has not heeded this warning and has received another, greater blow, in the form of the Second World War. If humanity continues to ignore this warning, it will receive another, far greater one. (Tr.)

8 Said Nursi writes: “Europe is two. One is that which, benefiting from the religion of Jesus and Islamic civilization, serves human social life and justice through scientific and technological inventions, the other is that which is based on naturalistic and materialistic philosophy and, supposing the evils of civilization to be virtues, has driven humankind to vice and misguidance.” For further discussion see , The Gleams, (Trans.), Tughra Books, New Jersey, 2008, pp. 161–168. (Tr.)

9 Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian private, assassinated Austro-Hungarian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife; this was pretext for the outbreak of WWI, which resulted in 30 million deaths.

10 Multiplying by or adding whole numbers leads to a greater number, whereas multiplying by fractions leads to a smaller number. Four times four makes sixteen. But when a third is multiplied by a third, the result is a ninth. In just the same way, if there is not a substantial, sincere unity in a community, its increase in number only causes it to become smaller, disintegrating and losing value.

11 Ahlu’s-Sunna wa’l-Jama‘a is the overwhelming majority of Muslims who follow the way of the Prophet and His Companions in thought, creed, and action. (Tr.)

12 The Rafidis are those Shi’as who accuse the overwhelming majority of the Prophet’s Companions of apostasy because they did not elect ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, the 4th Caliph, as Caliph immediately after the Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings. (Tr.)

13 There is a mosque in Istanbul called Sanki Yedim (As If I Have Eaten It). Whenever the one who funded the building of this mosque wanted to eat something expensive, he would say, “It is as if I have eaten it,” and saved the money he might have otherwise spent. He finally had a mosque built with the money which he saved in this way. (Tr.)

14 Suratu Ya-Sin is the 36th chapter of the Qur’an. There are tablets on which the entire Suratu Ya-Sin are inscribed within the larger Arabic letters of Y(a) and S(in). (Tr.)