A Proper Way to Fear God and the Reality of Death
By Tubanur Yesilhark*
This paper shall explore Nursi’s view on the relationship between Creator and creation, between God and humanity. More specifically, I shall dive into one specific feeling, which is fear (khawf). When talking about mortality and death, within Islamic teachings, fearing God occupies a very important role. Horror scenarios are depicted and are told from mouth to mouth at religious gatherings, not only among adults, but also to children. Children are threatened – if they do not behave properly, God will turn them into stones, or they will be thrown into fire. Being raised up with a ‘God the Punisher’ mind-set, they have a very hard time loving God, their Creator. As a result of such an upbringing, death becomes an absolutely unwanted matter, something to run away from or to delay as far as possible.
Nursi’s healthy and balanced approach towards all our faculties, including the faculty of anger, is very helpful for humanity to understand how God wants us to behave and act responsibly and consciously. In connection to that, his view and description of death is quite unique. Before looking at Nursi’s approach towards fear, I shall give a brief definition of this word and shall explain very shortly how it is used in the Qur’an.
Definition of khawf (fear) and it usage in the Qur’an
If we take a look at the general meaning of the Arabic word khawf, we can see that it simply means to fear, dread, apprehend for or from something.[1] However, in a more specific way one could say that khawf means to comprehend one’s own weakness and, as a result, the feeling of fear in his/her heart in front of some other power or force which one may see, hear or feel.[2] In this case fear would be the result of understanding one’s own weakness. Additionally this would mean that fear stands in close relationship with knowledge. One has to know the object first, before he/she can fear it.
Fear of God stands in a close relationship with inzaar, that means with those verses in the Quran which describe some kind of threat; be it threatening with hell-fire, describing what bad place to go hell is, or threatening with God’s torment. However what is important here is to understand, that this kind of fear is not to be seen equal to the fear a person would have towards an oppressor or persecutor. According to Islamic faith, before being sent to earth, souls of humanity gave a promise to God - the promise to serve only Him and to see Him as our only creator.[3] Hence, the threat mentioned above should be seen as a reminder of that promise, since humanity is forgetful. It is a reminder of human’s duties.[4]
Nursi’s understanding of fearing God
Different from many Islamic scholars, Nursi has a very positive approach towards fear. This shall be explained further through different aspects.
One of Nursi’s aims is to always keep fresh the relationship between the Creator and creation. Everything wo/man does, see, hear, taste, say, and even feel should be related with her/his Creator. How this should be understood is elaborated in detail throughout his works. He teaches his readers not only how to reconcile her/his immortal longings with the reality of her/his own mortality, but also how to use her/his mortal faculties for the sake of God, so that these faculties are not wasted but will re-flourish in the hereafter, hence will be transformed from mortal faculties into immortal ones.
So, one aspect how Nursi explains the positive approach towards fearing God is by teaching his readers how to use the different feelings God has given us, in its proper way. For example curiosity, patience, avarice, fear and even love are faculties which God expects us to use for His sake. That means in order to know Him better and to worship Him properly. Instead of using the feeling of curiosity, for merely worldly matters, God wishes us to use this feeling to be curious about Him and to be eager to study Him and know Him. Even avarice, which is seen as a negative attribute, can be turned towards something positive this way. One can use the feeling of avarice for worship and in performing good deeds in order to gain the pleasure of God. Likewise, fear is an attribute God wants us to use only towards Him. If one uses fear towards others, s/he will harvest nothing but more fear and the abuse of the one s/he fears.
About love and fear, Nursi says that these are two faculties implemented by God into wo/man’s nature. If they are turned towards creatures – in the case of fear and love – it is going to be a grievous affliction in the case of fear, and a calamitous tribulation in the case of love. This is because wo/man will fear those who will neither pity nor accept the pleas of mercy; and s/he will love one who will either not recognize or will depart without bidding farewell. Therefore, states Nursi, one should redirect these two faculties toward God. This is because to fear the Creator means finding a way to His compassionate mercy and taking refuge in it. This shows that there is a supreme pleasure in fearing God. If there is such a great pleasure in fearing God, it is clear what infinite pleasure it is to love Him.[5]
Hence fear, if turned towards God, becomes a way towards His compassionate mercy and love. To fear God means to seek refuge by God’s mercy, strength, justice and power against all our fears that we have in worldly matters by accepting our weakness and poverty. Thus fear should not be seen as something negative. Additionally fear is not supposed to contradict God’s mercy and love. No, it is even the result of this fear! It leads us to God and it supposes to bring us closer to Him. This shall be explained further by means of the following figure:
Fear makes the servant comprehend his own weakness and poverty. This draws God’s mercy and compassion towards His servant. Furthermore, the knowledge of the servant increases which, on the other hand, makes God reveal Himself to his servant. The more the servant knows God, the more he understands what fear really means for him and his fear transforms into respect and acknowledgment. And God treats His servants the way they know Him. The more the servant knows his Creator and respects is Almightiness, the more he comprehends that the only One he can rely on and can ask for help is his Creator. This makes him seek knowledge from all worldly fears. And God answers his servant’s prayers. Hence, if the servant fears God, he draws the love of God.
Nursi’s approach is different from the Sufi approach of leaving everything worldly behind, which is described as “vahdetu’l vucud.” Seeing all creation in comparison with the Creator as so worthless and shadowy, that they do not deserve to be called vucut (existent); and hence considering all creation just imagination or even non-existent, is the idea behind it. Nursi, however, reminds his readers of the main pillars of Islam, one of them being the belief of a hereafter, and states that these pillars require the existence of creation since such pillars cannot stand on imaginary bases.[6] In fact, Nursi does not ask his readers to disregard the world but to give this world and the hereafter proportionally, what they rightly deserve. In other words, he asks his readers to spend less of our feelings to this world, and more of it for the hereafter. Instead of spending all the God-given fear for her/his worldly future, one is therefore asked to spend it more for the far-future, namely the hereafter and for God.
For a better understanding of this idea, Nursi offers a pattern to be followed so that one always manages to be on the straight path, the sirat-i mustaqeem.
According to Nursi, one is constantly exposed to development, change and to a constant harm. For his existence and so that the soul of man can live in such a body, he is given three strengths.
These three faculties are classified as follows:
1. Instinct for self-interest,
2. Intelligence to distinguish the useful from that which is harmful and to distinguish the good from the evil,
3. Aggression to fend off the harmful.[7]
These strengths are restricted by Religion but there is no restriction in the nature of human. Therefore each of these faculties are to be examined in three categories: minimal (understatement), optimal (golden path) and maximal (overstatement) (see the following diagram).
Instinct
This disposition is to satisfy the basic needs for livelihood. Examples for this level of motivation are eating, drinking, sleeping, talking, and sexual satisfaction and so on. If, in exertion, man understates this strength, the result will be listlessness, the will for nothing (humud). On the other hand, if wo/man overstates, the unrestricted desire for satisfaction occurs (fücur). In this case, one does not know any borders.
But the golden path is goodness (iffet). In this level, there is desire for everything which is included in the ethical-religious frame and there is listlessness for everything which is out of this frame. Physical and mental harms for oneself and for others occur, if these defined borders are overstepped towards both poles.
Intelligence
This ability is to distinguish the beneficial from the flagitious, to accept the good and to dissociate from and deny the evil. A very minimal use of the mind leads to foolishness (gabavet) and man is not able to understand even very easy issues. Therefore man lives in a state of primitiveness. Using the mind in maximal negative stage leads to such a sharp and deceptive sense of cleverness, which manipulates man to pervert them, so that they think about the false as right and about the right as false. That means overstatement of this ability is to use the mind in a deceptive way (cerbeze).
The golden path would be the maximal positive, the optimal usage. It implies wisdom and deliberateness (hikmet). Man cognizes the right with his mind, accepts it and acts upon it. The same way, he cognizes the wrong/unjust and dissociates from it. This way of acting names Nursi as “the biggest guidance.”[8]
Aggression
This ability which comes out of angriness and ire is given by God to defend the evil. When there is only minimal or no aggression, wo/man will be afraid of or scared by anyone and anything (cebanet). If it is used by wo/man in a maximum way, s/he will not fear anything and anyone (tehevvür); be it on a material or immaterial or on a mental-moralistic level. Hence, this level bears all kinds of violence and delinquency.
The golden path is spending efforts for abidance of justice in all areas (şecaat) and the dissociation from illegitimate things.
Nursi’s view of death
Having said this, Nursi’s view of death shall be examined further. For Nursi, 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 just a “changing of place” (tebdil-i mekan) wherein the grave should not be seen as a dark well, but rather as a door to enlightened worlds (alem). Nursi describes death as “discharge from service” and “alteration of the body.” Death is an evidence for the oneness of God (tawhid) and His eternity (sermediyyet).
These points will be discussed further in the following paragraphs.
Death being a Mercy on Humankind
Nursi explains the reason of death as a mercy in several places of his works. Mostly using the type of reflective thought (tefekkur), he observed the flowers and the beauty of the spring. All of a sudden, he felt that although his heart wanted to depart to the hereafter to see the relatives and friends, of whom ninety percent were waiting there, his “self” (nefs) objected to this idea. For Nursi, the light of belief (iman) showed to this objection the real face of the soil. The soil as the material source of life, beauty and mercy, is the veil of an infinite mercy and nothing that enters it is in vain. In fact, it is even better and more worthy of desire to seek refuge under the protective soil and to watch the real and infinite spiritual flowers from there.[9] At some other place, Nursi elaborates on this idea of soil following the example of the holy Qur’an, which repeats over and over the resurrection of earth and soil. Just as earth is the heart of this realm, the soil is the heart of earth. The closest way toward the purpose of man (namely God) is through modesty and humbleness, represented by the soil. One could maybe even say that the soil is a much shorter way towards God, than the highest heavens would be. This is because it is soil which is the best mirror of God’s Power, Majesty and the most appropriate for His divine names “the Living” and “the Giver of Life.” Hence, states Nursi, Oh Friend, do not be afraid of the soil and of altering to soil, of the grave and of lying in it![10]
When Nursi talks about life after death in his main treatise, the Tenth Word, he takes the following verse of the Qur’an as base: “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 He has power over everything.”[11] Ahmet Nazli states in his article on Nursi’s understanding of Life after Death, that in this verse, God shows us that the resurrection of creation on this earth is the result of His Mercy. He does this day by day, in front of our eyes. In fact, the reality of death and resurrection on this earth is not God’s finite Mercy. It is just a trace of it. We can say that the place of His direct, real and unveiled Mercy is not this earth, but is going to be the hereafter.[12]
Death being considered as bounty from God
The verse “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”[13] indicates in the Qur’an that death also is created just like life, and that it is even a bounty. Whereas outwardly death is dissolution, non-existence, decay, the extinction of life, the annihilator of pleasures – so how can it be created and a bounty? Nursi’s answer to this question is that just as life is created and determined, death and the departure from this life also is through a creation and determined, through a wise and purposeful direction. In order to bring this reality closer to the mind of the reader, he uses the allegory of a plant. For the apparent decay and dissolution of seeds and grains under the soil turn out to be life of new shoots. In other words, the death of a seed is the beginning of life for the shoot and this shows that this death is created well-ordered just as is life. After giving several other examples, he compares the death of a plant – the lowest level of life – with the death of a human – the highest level of life. He concludes that if the death of a plant is created and well-ordered, so must be the death of humans.
Regarding the second part of the question, how death can be a bounty, Nursi counts four reasons. The first reason is because death frees man from the duties and obligations of life, which become burdensome and it unites one with the ninety-nine out of hundred friends who are already in the intermediate realm. Secondly, Nursi states, it releases one from the narrow and turbulent prison of this world and unites one with the mercy of the Eternal Beloved One. Thirdly, he states the numerous factors which make life a burden, like old age, and what a calamity life can be and what a bounty death. Fourthly, Nursi compares death with sleep saying that death is like the older brother of sleep. Just as sleep can be a comfort and rest for a sick person, so is death a bounty and mercy for those struck by disaster.[14]
Death does not contradict the Compassion of God
Death might be seen as contradictory to the Compassionate God, the Giver of Life, especially within Christianity. Nursi tries to show that although apparently it seems to contradict, in fact this is not true on the basis of the following verse of the Qur’an: “… and My Mercy encompasses all things…”[15] Nursi’s aim is to make the reader understand that this world is like a prison compared to the hereafter and that this world has two faces in which it has to be observed. God turns the eyes of humans to the second face of this world in order to prepare them for death. With the season of old age God shows wo/man the transience and decline of all beautiful things in this world in order to establish the desire for a permanent beloved in place of the transient. Furthermore, God increases the longing for all the beloved friends and kindred who already passed away. This awakens, according to Nursi, a feeling of joy. In many different ways, God makes wo/man realize the infinite weakness and impotence in oneself and makes them wish to rest and sincerely wish to go to another world. Through listening to the Qur’an, humans understand that to love the world and attachment to it is quite meaningless. This dis-attachment, the way Nursi understands it, however, is different from the understanding of e.g. Buddhism.
For him, the universe is a book of the Eternally Besought One. Every creation within this universe does not point to itself, but to the One Who is manifest in them with His attributes and divine Names. Nursi asks the reader to learn and grasp its meaning and not to hang around its decorations. The world consists of continuously passing mirrors – hence the aim of humans should be to love the One they signify and to cease the attachment for the fragments of glass which is doomed to be broken and to perish. He invites the reader to see this world as a temporary exhibition. “Pay attention not to its apparent, ugly face,” says Nursi, “but to its hidden, beautiful face which looks to the Eternal All-Beauteous One. Go for a pleasant and beneficial promenade, then return, and do not weep like a silly child at the disappearance of scenes displaying fine views and showing beautiful things, and do not be anxious!”[16]
Death is a pointer to God’s Existence and Oneness (Tawhid)
On the basis of another verse in the Qur’an, namely “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,”[17] Nursi aims to prove the existence and tawhid of God. It might be possible that Nursi borrowed this idea from al-Ghazali’s Durra, which Smith and Haddad talk about in The Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection. 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.[18] Nursi’s approach to explaining this idea is in the same way as he delivers proofs of God’s existence through creation and life, especially in the Twenty-Second Word; he claims that death and the demise of creation is an evidence of God’s existence and tawhid, as well. For in the Twenty-Second Word, after referring the reader’s attention to the world from various different views, such as the seeds; the valleys; the trees with their fruits; humans; the soil in spring and fall; the sun; the nutrition of the weak; the mutual support of every creation; the mines and minerals; the sun and the moon; and so on, he states:
…And so, my friend! There is a sign of oneness, a stamp of unity, in this country, that is, this magnificent palace. For while being the same, certain things are all-encompassing. And while being numerous, some display a unity or similarity, since they resemble one another and are found everywhere. As for unity, it shows One of Unity. That means that its maker, owner, lord, and fashioner has to be one and the same.[19]
Just as one can see the stamp of God as the Creator on one single flower, all flowers of a big garden carry God’s stamp of Creation, as well. This is the difference of God being Ehad (Ehadiyyah) and God being Vahid (Vahidiyyah). Both mean the Oneness of God but they refer to different aspects of creation; and all in all creation refers to the tawhid of God.
A few chapters further, Nursi states that just as the living face of the earth, their death also bears witness to the eternity and unity of an Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One. In wintertime, for instance, when the white snow has covered everything and the earth appears to be dead, one’s attention is driven away from all the causes and reasons, and one’s gaze moves behind the corpse of that departing spring. Because, when it departs, spring takes with it all the apparent causes and shows that it is tied together with those causes, and can be seen in a broader view. So, each time when winter arrives, one turns her/his eyes to the coming spring, without doubting its approach. Looking from a much wider perspective, the constant resurrection of creation after winter shows the necessary existence, unity, everlastingness and eternity of an All-Glorious Maker, an All-Powerful One, and an Ever-Living Eternal One.[20]
Conclusion
As I come to an end, I would like to summarize briefly what has been said above.
1. The aim of this paper was to draw a balanced and proper approach to the relationship between God and humankind by means of fear and the reality of death in the light of Said Nursi’s teachings.
2. Fear is a faculty given to us by God in order to use for His sake, for only if used this way it teaches wo/man who s/he is (being aware of one’s own weakness) and only this way it turns out to attract God’s love towards oneself and vice versa.
3. There is always the possibility to over-or understate while using our faculties. Religion defines borders to these faculties and teaches us how to stay on the golden path, the sirat-i mustaqeem. Nursi explains, what sirat-i mustaqeem means and how wo/man can know whether or not s/he is on this path or not.
4. Furthermore, Nursi elaborates on the reality of death. Death is merely a reflection of God’s name al-Mumit, and should not be seen as something to be afraid of. A person who has understood the meanings of ma’rifetullah and muhabbetullah (knowledge of God and love of God) will have no reason to be meaninglessly afraid of God.
Finally, I would like to finish with the following sentences of Nursi:
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 God place a burden greater than it can bear”[21]
there 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 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 the 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.[22]
On each one of these sentences, Nursi has written many pages throughout his works. If understood rightly, these sentences can help to get rid of a meaningless fear of God and a meaningless fear of death; instead it can replace it with a healthy and balanced relationship with God and a conscious and responsible thought of death and additionally it can help to live this life in its full sense and thereby gain God’s pleasure easily.
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Bibliography
Gündüz, T. Kuran’da Korku Motifi. (Istanbul: Düsünce Kitap Evi 2004)
Nazli, Ahmet. karakalem.net. 26 August 2000. 14 February 2008 <http://www.karakalem.net/?article=261>
Nursi, S. The Words. (Istanbul: Sözler Publications 1998)
_______The Letters. Trans. Sukran Vahide. (Istanbul: Sozler Publications 2001)
_______ Risale-i Nur Kulliyati, v.I (Istanbul: Yeni Asya Yayinlari 1996)
_______ Risale-i Nur Kulliyati, v.II (Istanbul: Yeni Asya Yayinlari 1996)
Penrice, J. A Dictionary And Glossary Of The Quran. (Illinois: Library of Islam 1988)
Smith, Jane Idleman and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad. The Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection. (New York: Oxford University Press 2002)
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[1] Penrice, J. A Dictionary and Glossary of the Quran, p.45
[2] Gündüz, T. Kuran’da Korku Motifi, p.25; taken from Mawdudi, Tefhim, p.447
[3] Qur’an, (33:72) “We offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to carry it and were afraid of it, but man carried it. He was indeed been unjust and ignorant.”
[4] Qur’an, (51:56) “I have not created the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.”
[5] Nursi, The Words, 367.
[6] Nursi, Risale-i Nur Kulliyati, v.I, The Letters, 564.
[7] Nursi, Risale-i Nur Kulliyati, v. II, Isarat’ul I’caz, 1163 (own translation from Turkish)
[8] Nursi, Risale-i Nur Kulliyati, v.II, Isarat’ul I’caz, 1163 (own translation from Turkish)
[9] Nursi, Risale-i Nur Kulliyati, vol.II, 178.
[10] Ibid., 1366.
[11] Qur’an, 30:50.
[12] Nazli, “Gorüntü ve Gercek,” <http://www.karakalem.net/?article=261>, (cited 14 Feb 2008).
[13] Qur’an, 67:2.
[14] Nursi, The Letters, 24-25.
[15] Qur’an, 7:156.
[16] Nursi, The Words, 220-221.
[17] Qur’an, 28:88.
[18] Smith; Haddad, The Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection, 72.
[19] Nursi, The Words, 294.
[20] Ibid., 708.
[21] Qur’an, 2:286
[22] Nursi, The Letters, 94