Indifference to politics and certain other personal matters
Those to whom some people said: “Look, those people have gathered against you, therefore be fearful of them.” But it increased them only in faith, and they responded: “God is sufficient for us; how excellent a Guardian He is!” (3:173)
This letter has been written according to the Divine decree But speak to him with gentle words! (20:44)
What follows is an answer to a question asked by many persons. As a rule, I do not like having to answer such questions, for I have bound everything related to me to reliance on God Almighty. However, since I am not left alone in my private world, I have been compelled to turn my face to worldly affairs, not for my own sake but in order to save my friends and The Words from the unfounded suspicions and harassment of the worldly. For this reason I am obliged to explain my state in five Points to my friends, to the worldly, and to the authorities.
THE FIRST POINT: They ask me why I have withdrawn from politics and am not involved in it at all.
The answer: The Old or Former Said was involved in politics to a certain extent; indeed, with the hope of serving religion and learning by means of politics, he tired himself out in vain. Eventually he came to see that the political route is full of doubts, pitfalls, and troubles: it was risky and unnecessary for me, and it would certainly prevent me from carrying out my most vital duties. For politics consists largely of lies, and there is always the possibility that one will unknowingly become an instrument in the hands of enemies.
Furthermore, one who enters politics is either for something or against it; they are either a supporter or in opposition. If I were the supporter of a successful political faction and participated in it, since I am not an official or a parliamentarian, working in politics would be unnecessary, useless, and meaningless for me.61 There is no need for me to become involved in politics, so why should I participate in it in vain? If I were to become involved in politics on the side of the opposition, I would do so either with ideas or with force. If it were with ideas, there would be no need for me: the issues are all clear and everyone knows them as well as I do; discussing them over and over again is meaningless. And if I were to oppose the ruling side with force and cause trouble, it may transpire that I would possibly be committing thousands of sins for the sake of a goal whose righteousness is open to question and whose realization is, in any case, doubtful. Many people may thus suffer because of one person.
Since his conscience did not allow him to commit sins or cause the innocent to commit sins for the sake of a goal that has one in ten possibility of being realized, the Old Said abandoned politics. He also gave up smoking, reading newspapers, and having conversations about politics with others. For eight years I have neither read a newspaper nor listened to one being read, and I dare anyone to claim otherwise. The Old Said, however, would read up to eight newspapers a day!
Furthermore, for the last five years I have been under the strict scrutiny of the authorities, and so if anyone has witnessed the least sign of my involvement in politics, let them come forward and say so. For someone like me who speaks his mind openly, who has no attachment to the world, and whose basic stratagem is to have no stratagem, well, his ideas cannot remain secret for eight days, let alone eight years! If he had had any appetite and desire for politics, there would have been no need for investigation and scrutiny, for he would have shouted it from the rooftops!
THE SECOND POINT: Why does the New Said avoid politics so vehemently?
The answer: He avoids politics vehemently in order to serve belief and the Qur’an, which is the purest, truest, most important, and most glorious service. He avoids it in order not to sacrifice unnecessarily those endeavors spent on attaining eternal life for the sake of a few years of worldly life, the length of which is in any case uncertain. He says:
I am getting old and do not know how long I will live, and so the most important thing that I must do is to work for my eternal life. The primary means of gaining eternal life is belief, which is the key to eternal happiness, and so we must work for belief. However, since Islam wants us to work also for the benefit of people with whatever bounties God has bestowed on us, I feel obliged to serve them through learning. Service is directed either to the worldly social life of humanity or to their belief. I am unable to serve them in their worldly social life. Moreover, in such stormy times as these, it is extremely difficult to serve human worldly life as it should be served, and thus, I prefer to serve the cause of belief, which is the most important, the most necessary way, and also the safest and most sound. I leave the door of the service of belief open so that the truths of belief that I have acquired and experienced within my soul may be accessed by others. I hope that God Almighty will accept this service and make it atonement for my former sins. Apart from Satan the accursed, no one, be they believers or unbelievers, true confirmers of the Divine Message or materialists, can have the right to oppose this service. For nothing in the world can be likened to the lack of belief. There may be malevolent, satanic pleasure in wrongdoing, dissipation, transgression, and other major sins, but in unbelief there is no sort of pleasure at all. It is simply pain within pain, darkness within darkness, torment within torment.
Just consider how unreasonable it would be for someone like me— alone, with no attachment to the world, and seeking eagerly to atone for his former sins—to give up striving for eternal life and the service of belief for the sake of involvement, at my old age, in the unnecessary and perilous games of politics! Even a lunatic would be able to understand how contrary to reason and wisdom such a move would be.
If you ask why serving belief and the Qur’an prohibits me from politics, I will say this:
The truths of belief and the Qur’an are like diamonds. Now, if I were to become involved in politics, the gullible masses would think that I am using them as the means of political propaganda in order to win over more supporters. As a result, they may come to regard those diamonds as mere shards of glass. My involvement in politics would therefore contribute to the devaluation of these diamonds in the eyes of the people.
Now, O worldly people! Why do you keep opposing me with such tenacity? If you say, “They call you Said-i Kurdi; you may have ethnic inclinations and aims that do not suit our interests,” I would reply as follows:
Gentlemen! The things that the Old Said and the New Said have written circulate in the public domain and are quite clear. I present them as testimony to the fact that, according to the decisive judgment of our religion, “Islam has absolutely condemned and abrogated tribalism and racism, which belong to the times of ignorance,” I have always considered racism and tribalism, which is a kind of Western disease, to be like poison. It is Europe which has infected the Muslim community with this disease in order to be able to divide and rule it. My students and others who have some contact with me know that I have been trying my hardest to cure that disease.
Given this, why is it that you make every incident a pretext to harass me? According to which principle and precept of public good do you see fit to cause me distress at every turn? It is like punishing a soldier in the east of the country for a fault committed by a soldier in the west, simply on account of the fact that they belong to the same army. It is like convicting a shopkeeper in Baghdad of a crime committed by a tradesman in Istanbul, simply because they are both in the same line of business. Which conscience would allow such a thing and how does it accord with common sense?
THE THIRD POINT: My friends who care about my health and are astonished at my meeting every calamity with silent patience ask the following question: “How can you tolerate the difficulties and troubles that are visited on you, given that formerly you were very proud and could not endure even the least insult?”
The answer: Listen to two short anecdotes and you will receive your answer:
The first: Two years ago a director spoke insultingly and contemptuously about me behind my back. What he said was later narrated to me. For about an hour, the Old Said held sway and I was affected by what was said.
Then, through the mercy of God Almighty, the following fact occurred to me, dispelling my distress and compelling me to forgive that man. This fact occurred to me while I was addressing my soul as follows:
If that man’s insults and those faults of mine he mentioned were directed to or concerned with my evil-commanding soul, then may God be pleased with him, for he has highlighted my flaws of which I was unaware. If he was speaking the truth, he was the means of my training my soul and the reason that I was moved to save myself from arrogance. If what he said was false, then he helped to save me from ostentation and undeserved fame, which is the source of ostentation. I have not been reconciled with my soul, for I have not trained it. If someone were to tell me that there is a scorpion on my neck or in my armpit, I would be grateful to him, not offended. But if the man’s insults were directed against my belief and my duty of serving the Qur’an, it would not concern me in the least, for I would refer him to the Owner of the glorious Qur’an Who employs me. He is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise. If that man meant merely to curse and insult me or destroy my character, that would not concern me either. For I am an exile, a stranger, and my hands are tied: it is not my duty to try to restore my honor myself. Rather, such an incident would concern the authorities of this village where I am a guest and under surveillance. Insulting the guest of a person concerns that person, not the guest: it is the host who must defend his guest.
Since reality is thus, my heart became easy. I said, “I commit my affair to God (in full submission). Surely God sees the servants well (40:44),” and imagined that the incident had not happened at all. It was only later that it became clear, unfortunately, that the Qur’an had not forgiven him.
The second incident: This year I heard about an incident. Although I only heard a brief account of it after it had happened, I was treated as though I had had some close connection with it. I had not corresponded with anyone, and if I had, I had only written extremely rarely concerning some issue of belief to a friend. In fact, I have written only one letter to my brother in four years. I try to avoid mixing with others and am also held back from doing so by “the worldly.”
In any event, I am determined to exhibit the same patience and forbearance in the face of whatever befalls me as I did towards the maltreatment I was made to suffer and which I mentioned above. For what follows is what I think and say:
If this ill-treatment, distress and oppression which are inflicted on me are on account of my faulty soul, I forgive it. I hope my soul is reformed by means of it, and that it will be atonement for my sins. I have tasted innumerable favors of God in the guest-house of the world: if I suffer its trials, I will still offer thanks. If “the worldly” trouble me because of my service in the cause of belief and the Qur’an, it does not fall to me to defend myself. Instead I refer it to the All-Mighty, All-Compelling One. If they aim to turn people against me and to impugn my undeserved fame, which is baseless and destructive of sincerity, then may God bless them! For I consider public attention and fame to be harmful for people like me. Those who have contact with me know that I have never desired respect to be shown to me; indeed, I detest it. I have even reproached a dear friend of mine many times for showing me excessive respect. If their aim in defaming me and degrading me in public is to attack the truths of belief and the Qur’an, which I try to explain, it is in vain. For it is impossible to draw a veil over the stars of the Qur’an. One who closes their eyes prevents only themselves from seeing: they cannot make the light disappear for others.
THE FOURTH POINT: “The worldly” ask me how I live and what I live on. The answer: I live according to the principles of frugality and on the abundance which results from it. I depend upon no-one apart from the One Who provides for me and I have taken the decision not to become obliged to anyone else. One who lives daily on a hundred, or even forty, para (cent) surely does not become obliged to anyone.
I did not want to explain this matter: the whole issue is a disagreeable one, since it might cause me to feel proud or egoistic. But since the “worldly” question me about it suspiciously, I reply as follows:
Throughout my whole life, since I was a child in fact, it has been principle of mine not to accept anything—Zakah included—from the people, and not to become obliged to them for my livelihood. The people of my native region and those who have known me in other places are fully aware of this. During these five years of exile, many friends have tried earnestly to make me accept their gifts, but I have accepted nothing from any of them. If, therefore, people ask me, “So how do you manage to live?” I reply: I live frugally and on the abundance which results.”
For the last six years, one bushel of wheat—enough for thirty-six loaves of bread—has sufficed me. And there is still some left: how long it will last, I have no idea.
During the last month of Ramadan, I managed with three loaves of bread and a little more than a kilo of rice; the rice finished two weeks after the end of Ramadan.
For three months on the mountain, more than a kilo of butter together with some amount of bread sufficed me and those guests who happened to visit me from time to time.
I bought this coat that I am wearing seven years ago, second-hand. Over the past five years, I have spent no more than four and a half liras on clothes, undergarments, shoes, and socks. Frugality, Divine mercy and the resulting abundance have sufficed.
There are numerous other examples and realities like these and the people of this village know about most of them. I mention them not out of pride but because people have compelled me to. And do not think that these instances of abundance of which I speak are a result of any goodness on my part: they were either Divine favors to those sincere friends who have visited me or a favor for the service of the Qur’an; they were either the abundant benefit resulting from frugality or they come for the sustenance of the four cats I have, who recite the Divine Names “O All-Compassionate One! O All-Compassionate One!”, from which I benefit. If you listen carefully to their mournful meowing, you will understand that they are saying, “Ya Rahim! Ya Rahim! ”
Thinking of the cats reminds me of the hen I keep. This winter, she brought me an egg from the treasury of Mercy every day, with few exceptions. One day she brought me two eggs and I was amazed. I asked my friends “How can this be?” They replied: “Perhaps it is a Divine gift.” The hen also has a young chick which she hatched in the summer. It started to lay eggs at the beginning of Ramadan and continued for forty days: whenever the mother hen stopped laying, the younger would start, thus never leaving me without eggs.
THE FIFTH POINT: Since this world is transient and life is short; since there are numerous essential duties to be done here in order to gain eternal life; since the guesthouse that is the world is not without an owner, and has a most Wise and Generous Director; since neither good nor evil will remain without recompense; since according to the verse: God burdens no soul except within its capacity (2:286), there is no responsibility that cannot be fulfilled; since a safe path is preferable to a harmful one; since worldly friends and status last only until the door of the grave, then surely the happiest person is the one who does not forget the Hereafter in the rush for this world. The happiest one surely is the one who does not sacrifice or destroy the Hereafter for the sake of this transient earthly life. The happiest one is surely the one who does not waste their life on trivial things, but who considers themselves to be a guest and acts in accordance with the Owner of the guesthouse, thus opening the door of the grave in safety and entering eternal happiness.
It is because of these realities that I pay no attention to the troubles and wrongs inflicted on me. I do not think that they are worth my attention and thus I do not interfere with the world.
* * *
In His Name, All-Glorified is He.
Upon you be peace, and God’s mercy and blessings!
My dear, faithful brothers!
I will offer an effective source of solace in the form of three Points for prisoners and for those who help them sincerely and faithfully and supervise their food which comes from outside.
THE FIRST POINT: Each day spent in prison may gain as much reward as ten days of worship, and with regard to their fruits, may transform these transient hours into enduring hours, and a few years of punishment may be the means of salvation from millions of years of eternal imprisonment. Imprisoned believers can gain this most significant and valuable advantage by praying five times a day, by asking God’s forgiveness for the sins that led to their imprisonment, and by thanking God patiently. Prison is an obstacle to certain sins; it prevents them.
THE SECOND POINT: Just as the disappearance of pleasure brings pain, the disappearance of pain brings pleasure. When thinking of past happy and enjoyable days, everyone feels regret and longing and utters a sigh of grief. When recalling past calamitous and painful days, everyone feels pleasure because they are gone, thanks God that such days are past and have left their reward, and sighs with relief. This means, an hour’s temporary pain leaves an immaterial pleasure in the spirit, while an hour’s pleasure leaves pain.
Such is reality. Past hours of misfortune and their pain have disappeared, while the future days of imagined distress have not yet come. Pain does not come from nothing or from that which does not exist. Therefore, it is pure lunacy to eat and drink continually today out of fear that we will probably be hungry and thirsty in the future. Similarly, it is foolish to think at this present moment of past and future pains—pains which do not exist—and, as a result, to grow impatient, to ignore one’s faulty soul, and to act as though one is complaining about God. If we do not waste our precious stores of patience on worrying about the past and the future, neither of which exists, it will cause our existing pain to decrease tenfold.
This is not a complaint: During this third period of my stay in the “School of Joseph,” a few days of physical and spiritual affliction and illness, which stem mainly from the despair I felt at not being able to serve the Qur’an and the like of which I had never before experienced, began to crush me. However, after Divine grace showed me this truth, I accepted my distressing illness and imprisonment. Since it is of great profit for a poor man like me, who waits at the door of the grave, to turn an hour of possible heedlessness into ten hours of worship, I thanked God.
THE THIRD POINT: There is a great reward to be had from attending compassionately to the needs of prisoners, from providing their food and soothing their spiritual wounds. Serving them the food which is sent from outside also brings the same spiritual reward as one would gain if that food were to be given away as alms. This reward is added to the records of good deeds of both the prison guards and those who contribute to it from within and outside the prison. If the prisoners are old, sick, poor, or without support or protection, the reward of such alms-giving multiplies. To gain this valuable profit, however, one must perform the daily canonical Prayers so that their service may be only for God’s sake. In addition, one should hasten to help prisoners with sincerity, compassion, and cheerfulness, and in such a manner that they do not feel themselves placed under obligation to you.
Said Nursi
61 During the period of one-party rule in Turkey government officials were members of the ruling party. (Tr.)