The Thirteenth and Sixteenth Letters 24
Indifference to politics and other personal matters
In His Name.
There is nothing that does not glorify Him with His praise.
Peace be upon those who follow true guidance, and reproach and disgrace upon those who follow their own whims and fancies!
My dear brother,
YOU ASK ABOUT MY HEALTH AND CONDITION, WANT TO KNOW WHY I do not apply to the government for the certificate (I once was given to preach in mosques), and wonder why I am so indifferent to politics. Since I am frequently bothered with such questions, I feel I must explain myself. In doing so, I allow myself some harsh language to defend my friends and The Words from the groundless anxieties and troublesome treatment of worldly people.
YOUR FIRST QUESTION: How are you? How are things going?
ANSWER: Infinite thanks to God, Most Merciful of the Merciful, Who has changed all the injustice directed toward me by misguided, worldly people into a mercy for me. When they unjustly exiled me to Barla, I had abandoned politics and secluded myself in a cave on Mt. Arak in Van. Yet the Wise, Compassionate Creator made this exile a mercy. My retreat in the mountain, in which I was not so secure, might not have been undertaken only for God’s good pleasure, whereas here nothing diverts me from sincere devotion to Him only.
When I was a prisoner of war in Russia, I intended to spend the rest of my life in a cave. Praise and thanks be to God, the Most Merciful of the Merciful, for He has made Barla a cave for me—but with the additional grace that my frail body does not suffer the hardships of cave life. Even so, suspicious officials who fear that I might engage in anti-regime activities harm my service of the Qur’an.
Second, these people have not restored my certificate to preach, although they provided certificates to all other exiled preachers and amnestied all imprisoned criminals. But my All-Compassionate Lord has transformed this injustice into a mercy by causing me to live in this silent place of isolation so that I can dedicate my life and efforts to serving the Qur’an and spreading its light.
Third, these people exiled me to a village even though they allow powerful, influential chieftains who can interfere with their worldly affairs to live in towns and cities and meet their relatives. Except for a very small number, my relatives and fellow citizens are not allowed to visit. My All-Compassionate Creator changed this isolation into another great mercy by freeing my mind from any malicious intention and worry, thereby leaving it open to enlightenment by the Qur’anic truths.
These people even begrudged my writing a couple of letters during my first 2 years of exile. Worse, they still do not accept my having two or three visitors a month, even for the sake of religious worship. But my Compassionate Lord and Wise Creator changed this injustice into mercy by causing me to enter into a welcome retreat in these “3 months of additional prayer,” during which one can harvest the reward of 90 years of prayer and devotion.
That must suffice as my answer.
YOUR SECOND QUESTION: Why do I not apply for the certificate?
ANSWER: I am bound by Destiny in this matter, not by misguided, worldly people. My application is to Destiny, and I will ask the government to restore my certificate only when Destiny permits me to do so and stops providing for me here. In other words, everything happens for a reason: one apparent and one real. Various misguided, worldly people are the apparent cause for my exile, whereas the real cause is Divine Destiny.
People who feared that I might serve Islam greatly and interfere in their worldly affairs committed a great injustice by exiling me. But this is only an apparent cause. The real cause is that Divine Destiny saw I could not serve Islam and (religious) knowledge sincerely, and therefore had those people exile me so that I could render such service and changed my exile into a mercy. As I am bound by Divine Destiny, and that Destiny is purely just, I should and do apply only to it. The apparent cause has almost nothing to do with the effects, so why should I apply to it?
The reasons why Destiny does not permit me to apply for the certificate to preach in my hometown are as follows:
ONE: I do not meddle in the affairs of these misguided, worldly people and so feel no obligation apply to them. All I can do is carry out the dictates of Divine Destiny that bind me. This is how my application should be, and so it is.
TWO: As this temporary guest-house of a world is subject to alteration and destruction, it is not the real, permanent home. Seeing that I am not permanently in this world even if I live in my hometown, it is useless to try to live in a particular place. If the Owner of that house is merciful to you, then each inhabitant is a friend and every place a home. But if one cannot receive His Grace and Mercy, then its inhabitants are enemies and every place is one of exile and isolation.
THREE: One should apply according to the law. However, they have treated me arbitrarily and illegally for the last 6 years. I have not been treated as a mere exile, but as one banned from enjoying almost any legal and civil rights. Why should I apply in the name of the law to those who do not follow it?
FOUR: When the district governor asked them, on my behalf, if I could stay at Badra village for a few days, they refused. If such an insignificant application was refused, why should I apply for something significant, which would mean humbling myself before them?
FIVE: It is an injustice and a disrespect to justice to demand one’s right from and apply to those who take wrong for right. I do not wish to commit such a wrong or show such disrespect to justice.
SIX: These people do not treat me justly because they think I am engaged in politics. Rather, they do so on behalf of the committee of irreligious people, whether consciously or not, because I am devoted to Islam. So applying to them means to repent of my belief in Islam and to sympathize with their way. If I applied to them and expected their aid, Divine Destiny, which is entirely just, would punish me through them. They give me trouble because I am devoted to Islam. But because my devotion and sincerity contain some shortcomings, Divine Destiny sometimes punishes me. If this is so, it seems impossible that I will be relieved of these troubles.
SEVEN: Officials are responsible for helping those who benefit the community and for hindering those who harm it. But the official who put me under surveillance came to me in order to catch me red-handed while I was explaining a pleasure of experiencing belief in God’s Oneness to an old visitor. He deprived my guest of this pleasure and angered me. And yet this same official flatters those who show their bad manners and harm the village’s social life.
Prisoners, no matter how many crimes they have committed, have the right to meet the official in charge of surveillance, regardless of his or her rank. But I have not met with the superior official here, nor with the two persons in charge of surveillance and who hold significant local government positions, for the last year. They do not ask after my health, although they have passed my room several times. I thought that they kept away out of hostility, but later it became clear that they did so out of fear that I might swallow them (brainwash them).
Therefore it would be a useless humiliation and indeed unreasonable to accept a government with such officials as a reliable, serious authority to which I could apply. If the Old Said were living now, that is, if I were to behave as I did when engaged in politics and worldly affairs, I would say as Antara25 did:
The water of life drunk in humiliation
is like the torments of Hell,
While Hell would be a place of pride,
if I could live therein with honor and dignity.
But the Old Said is not living now, and the New Said considers it useless and meaningless to speak to such people. May their world cause them to perish! Although I have long been through with their world and withdrawn from their politics, may it rebound on them, they continue to heap unbearable trouble upon me due to groundless suspicions and pretexts. Thus I will not provide any basis for their suspicions by applying to them.
EIGHT: Divine Destiny punishes me through the unpitying hands of those misguided, worldly people to whom I sometimes feel inclined, even though they are unworthy of it, for the reward of loving such unworthy ones is pitiless enmity. I keep silent, since I regard myself as deserving this punishment.
I fought the Russians for 2 years during World War I, commanding a volunteer regiment and sacrificing my worthy friends and disciples. The army commander and Anwar Pasha, then military staff chief, appreciated my services. I was wounded and taken prisoner. On return from captivity, I courted danger by writing books like Six Steps and thereby humiliating the British invaders in Istanbul. I did this to help those who are now keeping me, without reason, under such pitiless surveillance. They repay my help with cruelty. In 3 months, they have caused me as much suffering as I experienced during my 3 years of captivity in Russia.
The Russians let me teach, although they considered me a cruel commander of volunteer Kurds. I taught most of the 90 officers who were my friends in captivity. Once the Russian camp commander came and listened. At first he thought the lessons were political and wanted to ban them, but afterwards permitted me to continue. Later we adapted a room in the barracks as a mosque in which I led the prayers. They never interfered with our prayers or prohibited me from communicating.
But my fellow countrymen, whose belief I try to secure and strengthen, keep me under strict surveillance for no reason and forbid me to meet and communicate with others, although they know I have withdrawn completely from politics. They even forbid me to teach in my private room, although I have the necessary certificate, and to lead or even attend prayers in the mosque that I repaired and led the prayers in for 4 years. They still do not allow me to lead the prayers, even for the three people who are my regular congregation and intimate friends, in order to deprive me of the congregational prayer’s reward.
In addition to all these injustices, whenever someone praises me— although I do not like or desire praise—the officer in charge of my surveillance becomes angry and jealous. He then resorts to some cruel devices to break my influence and troubles me in order to be appreciated by his superiors.
Living under such conditions, who else should I apply to but God Almighty? If the judge assumes the attorney’s authority, there is no reason to apply to him or her. Whatever your opinion about this, I believe that there are many hypocrites among those friends. Hypocrites are worse than unbelievers and, therefore, make me suffer more than the unbelieving Russians did.
O you who are unfortunate because of your cruelty and hypocrisy! What harm did I do or am I doing to you that causes you to afflict me so? On the contrary, I am trying to secure your belief and help you attain eternal bliss. Are you crushing me with so much suffering because my service is not purely for God’s sake? We will settle accounts in the greatest court of the Hereafter. My last words on this matter are: God is sufficient for us, and most excellent is He in Whom we trust. How good He is as the Guardian, and how good He is as the Helper.
YOUR THIRD QUESTION: Why are you so indifferent to Turkey’s political situation (in particular) and that of the world (in general)? Why don’t you change your attitude in the face of all these events? Are you keeping silent because you fear the misguided, worldly people, or because you approve of what is going on?
ANSWER: Serving the Qur’an caused me to abandon politics, even to forget to think of it. My whole life shows that fear cannot prevent me from following what I believe to be right. What and why should I fear? My only relationship with this world is death. I have no children, no wealth, and no dynasty. May God bless those who try to break my false worldly fame and glory, not those who preserve it. I now have only my life and, as you know, am firmly convinced that my life and death are in God’s Hands only. Besides, I prefer an honorable death to a humiliating life. Like Old Said, somebody is reported to have said:
We are such people that do not agree
to be of mediocre degree;
We either enjoy preeminence with
no one else in the world or enter the grave.
Serving the Qur’an prohibits me from considering humanity’s political and social conditions for, among other things, we are travelers in this world. Basing myself on the Qur’an’s light, I say that humanity has reached a marsh in this century. Whole caravans of humanity are trying, with great difficulty, to advance in this putrid marsh. A small minority follow a safe way and some have extricated themselves, but the majority continues to flail around in the dark. Although 20 percent of this majority seems quite happy with this struggle, mistaking its dirt and filth for musk and ambergris, whereas the other 80 percent knows that it is in a filthy marsh but cannot see the safe path (leading them out).
We must bring that majority out of the marsh. To do so, we must use a mace to knock the 20 percent back to its senses or provide the 80 percent with a light to see a way to safety. I see that most people hold maces, but almost no one gives light to the helpless 80 percent. If some still have light, they are not trusted because they also carry maces. People are afraid of being beaten after being drawn to the light. Besides, the light may be extinguished if the mace is broken.
This marsh represents the modern corrupted social life of misguided people. The intoxicated 20 percent are those who willingly indulge in life’s material pleasures and stubbornly resist the light. The great majority, who are bewildered in the marsh, dislike deviation but cannot get out of it. The maces represent political trends and movements, while the light is the Qur’an’s truths. No one should oppose and feel hostile toward the light, for only Satan hates it. Thus I took refuge in God from Satan and politics, threw the mace of politics away, and held tightly to the light. Many of those involved in political trends love the light. No one should turn away from or accuse the Qur’anic lights and truths, which are offered sincerely and without ulterior political motives and aspirations, unless they are human devils who favor atheism and irreligion in the name of politics.
I thank God that abandoning politics prevented me from reducing the Qur’an’s diamond-like truths to pieces of glass under the accusation of exploiting them for political ends. On the contrary, these diamonds continue to grow in value in the eyes of more and more people from every social strata.
In addition, believers cannot serve their cause through politics in such stormy circumstances. Whatever service is rendered for Islam through politics eventually benefits the dominant anti-Islamic system, because foreign powers control the reins of political life. Engaging in politics also divides Muslims into opposing political factions that have a negative impact upon individual hearts and collective life—some people are so obstinate that even Muslims may label angelic brothers or sisters as satans, or a satanic party member as an angel, depending upon whether or not they support a certain political party. When I saw a learned man severely reproach a good, virtuous man who did not share his political views and then praise a corrupt member of his political faction, I became dismayed by the evils of politics and completely withdrew, saying: “I take refuge in God from Satan and politics.”
Another important reason for my indifference to politics is that eternal happiness can be attained only through belief. One without belief is unhappy in both worlds and is doomed to suffer the greatest suffering. Therefore, regardless of their personal belief or unbelief, piety or impiety, sincerity or insincerity, no one but Satan has the right to oppose serving belief.
Furthermore, belief is Islam’s very foundation or spirit, and manifests itself in each particle of Islam. The more established people are in belief, the more successful they can be in other areas of religion. Depending on politics usually leads to two perilous consequences: Believers either despair of God’s Mercy, due to successive disappointments, and are condemned to punishment by: Do not despair of God’s Mercy (39:53) or feel forced to support every party decision or activity in some way, whether it conforms to Islam or not, and thus face the threat of: And lean not on the evildoers, so that the fire touches you (11:113).
These misguided, worldly people are afraid of a service dedicated to securing and strengthening people’s belief. I sometimes hear them say: “Said is as powerful as 50,000 men, so we do not release him.” My reply is:
O you misguided, worldly people, unfortunate because of your hypocrisy! Why are you so incompetent at your own business, though your only concern is with this world? If you are afraid of me, anyone can perform 50 times as much as I do. If you are afraid of my mission to announce the Qur’anic truths and of my belief’s spiritual force, know that I am as powerful as 50 million, not 50,000 people. I challenge all European atheists, including those among you. I destroy their castles of positivism and naturalism with the Qur’anic lights that I spread. If all of Europe’s atheist philosophers, including yours, cooperate against me, by the will of God they will never move me even one inch from my way.
This being the truth, stop impeding me in my duty. Your efforts are in vain, for God’s decree cannot be resisted by brute force or material power, and because once God lights a light it cannot be extinguished by blowing.
Praise belongs to God, Who guided us unto this. If He had not guided us, we would not have been guided. Indeed, our Lord’s Messenger came with the truth.
The Everlasting: He is the Everlasting.
Said Nursi
24 Rather than dealing with the main topics that Said Nursi discusses in his works, these two letters concern his answers to questions asked to him about the persecution he had to endure and certain political issues that he ignored. Thus, we have chosen to summarize them in a single letter. (Tr.)
25 Antara: A sixth-century Arab warrior and poet, celebrated in his own day [around 600] as a hero because he rose from slave birth to be a tribal chief. His poetry is represented by one poem in the Mu‘allaqat. His greatness gave rise to many legends, and he became the hero of the popular Arabic epic Sirat Antar. In it he represents the ideal of a Bedouin chief, rich, generous, brave, and kind. His name also appears as Antar. The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. (2001). (Ed.)