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By Thomas Michel
1. No compulsion in religion In the Risale-i Nur, Said Nursi speaks of human responsibility as a mystery, that is, as something that is not fully understood by rational methods. A mystery is a reality that is perfectly understood by God and forms part of the content of Divine wisdom which God has revealed to humans through the prophets. However, the mysteries of Divine wisdom are never fully understandable by human minds. Through faith which surpasses reason, people can come to know the mysteries revealed by God, but by rational processes they can only know some few particular elements of these Divine mysteries. How these particular realities hang together, how the seeming contradictions between known facts are to be resolved rationally, how one can accept and explain what appear to be logical absurdities – all this pertains to mystery and is material for religious faith. Confronted with a mystery which seems to confound human reason, the believer acknowledges that he or she is standing before a revealed truth greater than what can be grasped by the human intellect and humbly submits to the divine message which teaches what would otherwise be unknown by humans. Such is the case with the mystery of human responsibility, which reappears in various arguments in the Risale-i Nur. On the one hand, for Said Nursi the mystery of human responsibility is evident in the fact that God leaves people free even in the crucial matter of being able to accept or refuse a prophetic revelation. God does not use any form of compulsion, whether physical or logical, to force anyone to believe. The inviolate mystery of human responsibility which God does not preempt or violate is seen clearly in God’s inviting people to faith through the use of reason and the exercise of their freedom to choose. In speaking of the miracles of Muhammad, Nursi asks why God would not have made the miracles reported in the Qur’an and hadith, such as the splitting of the moon, so obvious and evident to all people on earth that everyone would have seen and known them and thus have been compelled to believe. As it was, such miracles were only shown to a certain number of people in a certain place, while most people on earth were unaware of them. Nursi’s response is that if the evidence for prophethood were so compelling that no reasonable person could possibly deny it, the mystery of human responsibility with which God had endowed humankind would not have been respected. In other words, faith which is logically compelled is not true faith, and the individual person who is responsible for responding without restraint to God’s invitation would not be making a truly free response of faith. As Nursi puts it: If [the miracle of splitting the moon] had been shown to all and sundry, it would have been shown as a sign and miracle of Muhammad (PBUH)’s prophethood. His messengership would have been so manifest that everyone would have been compelled to affirm it. No choice would have remained for man’s reason. But belief is attained through reason and the power of choice, and the mystery of human responsibility [italics mine] would have been lost.[1]
2. God’s determination and human choice With this example, the issue is joined of the greatest mystery of human responsibility, that is, the seemingly impossible, but religiously essential reality of human choice in the face of God’s omnipotent nature. Human free choice would seem to be an illusion, impossible to reconcile with the Islamic doctrine of taqdir or qadar, which is the logical conclusion of belief in God’s sovereign omnipotence. If God is the author of all potency and potentiality without exception, it follows that everything is determined by God’s will, including those actions that flow from human choice and decision. For this reason, it would seem impossible for a religious believer to hold that humans are truly free in choosing their acts and, in fact, the Divine Determining, or taqdir, is a pillar of faith among Sunni Muslims. On the other hand, if the essential choices to believe or disbelieve and to obey or disobey are mere illusions but have really already been determined by God, how can God be justified in rewarding or punishing those acts according to their moral quality? Unless humans in some way acquire responsibility for their actions or come to “own” their deeds, including the basic religious acts of belief and obedience, the ground is cut from any truly religious response to God’s revelations. Were people to have no responsibility for their acts, they would become simply puppets, forced to act out, by the power of another, a prescribed scenario. But, as Said Nursi states in the above-mentioned citation, “belief is attained through reason and the power of choice” and, as the Qur’an states: “Let there be no compulsion in religion” (2: 256). God invites a person to choose freely to believe and obey His commands and on this basis God is just in rewarding those who believe and obey and in punishing those who choose to disbelieve and disobey. For Said Nursi, this mystery of human responsibility is not first and foremost a philosophical conundrum to be solved through the use of logical methods. Rather, it is truly a mystery that touches upon some of the deepest levels of Islamic faith. As he states: “Divine determining and the power of choice are aspects of belief pertaining to state and conscience which show the final limits of Islam and belief; they are not theoretical and do not pertain to knowledge.”[2] Thus, the believer’s task is not to engage in a philosophical search for a rational “solution” to a logical puzzle, but rather to try to understand the Divine guidance and wisdom that can be found in this revealed message. Nursi’s way of approaching the question of human freedom and God’s sovereign omnipotence from the point of view of divine pedagogy is a departure from the kalam tradition which sought to reconcile the apparent contradiction between the two concepts. However, Nursi’s intent is different. He leaves aside the question of logical reconciliation and instead strives to see how adhering simultaneously to both these elements of Islamic faith can help one live responsibly before God. One lesson taught by the twin concepts of divine determining and human freedom is the need to use responsibly the gifts with which God has endowed each person. In other words, taqdir or the Divine determining is the source of the talents and scientific capacities which humans possess. Humans must recognize that these gifts do not arise from their own efforts, but have been determined by God. The same God who has determined human talents and capabilities has also determined that people will be able to freely execute these abilities. Denying either the divinely determined gifts or the human responsibility to employ those gifts in a creative way will result in the misuse or dissipation of those gifts. For example, God has endowed humans with scientific and intellectual abilities. Using these divine gifts in a meaningful way in accord with God’s will is for humans the source of energy and fullness of life. However, employing one’s gifts wastefully in the pursuit of trivial whims and immediate gratification is tantamount to allowing these gifts to atrophy or to rot like spoiled fruit. Those who spend their lives wasting the divine gifts with which they have been blessed tend to blame the limitations of their spirit for what is essentially their own failure to exploit their gifts properly. In other words, they are in practical denial of God’s determining as well as ignorant of their own responsible freedom. At life’s end, they wind up lamenting not only the time lost, but also the squandered talents and opportunities. In Nursi’s words: Significant talents and valuable programs have been deposited in man’s nature by Divine power and determining. If man uses those immaterial members on the desires of his soul and on minor pleasures under the soil of worldly life in the narrow confines of this earthly world, he will decay and decompose in the midst of difficulties in a brief life in a constricted place like the rotted seed, and load the responsibility on his unfortunate spirit, then depart from this world.[3] The religious value of taqdir is that the concept keeps one realistically humble. Rather than arrogantly believing that one’s achievements have been accomplished by one’s own power and therefore belong to oneself, belief in the Divine determining enables one to understand and appreciate one’s own limitations and to be grateful for what one has been given by God. Taqdir is the recognition that all human achievements are in fact acquisitions of what God has performed in and for us. Thus, emphasis on awareness of God’s determining is the “normal” way a believer proceeds through life until the moment of choice arrives. However, at that moment, one must acknowledge and become aware of the reality that God has left humans free to believe or disbelieve, to obey or disobey. Thus, recognition of free will is the basis of human responsibility for one’s actions; acceptance of taqdir while denying freedom of choice would result in an evasion of the very responsibility with which God has endowed humans. In short, a believer attributes everything to God, even all his personal actions. However, he has a real power to choose, and renouncing that power to choose would be an evasion of one’s duty and responsibility. It is the power of choosing that underlines human responsibility for one’s actions. In the words of the Risale-i Nur: A believer attributes everything to Almighty God, even his actions and self, till finally the power of choice confronts him, so he cannot evade his obligation and responsibility. It tells him: “You are responsible and under obligation.” Then, so that he does not become proud at his good deeds and his achievements, Divine determining confronts him, saying: “Know your limits; the one who does them is not you.” Yes, Divine determining and the power of choice are at the deepest levels of belief and Islam; the former has been included among the matters of belief to save the soul from pride, and the latter, to make it admit to its responsibility.[4] Those who do not want to follow God’s guidance are quick to deny both taqdir and human responsibility. They want to take credit for their own deeds as though nothing had been determined by God and they come to think highly of themselves as a result of imagining their achievements to have been their own. Then, in situations of failure, they blame the Divine determining for their weaknesses of judgment and action and are unwilling to own their own limitations.[5] They claim that all has been determined by God, hence their shortcomings must be accepted as their fate or destiny. According to Nursi, the recourse to fate to provide an excuse for one’s failings and disappointments is an irresponsible way of viewing both oneself and God. It shows a lack of respect for the true human freedom with which God has created humans as well as a lack of confidence in God’s desire to treat with humans as creatures who have been taken up the responsibility of responding freely to God.
3. God’s viceregent on earth According to Nursi, human dignity is bound up with the role God has given to the human person as God’s vicegerent, or representative, on earth. Commenting on the Qur’anic verse “We offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to undertake it, being afraid, but man undertook it” (33:72), Nursi regards true human responsibility in light of this unique role as God’s viceroy in the created world. Of all created animal and vegetable life, he states, “man is the most articulate and most responsible minister.”[6] The human being is “the most important product of the universe, the most elevated of living creatures, possessing the most comprehensive capabilities,”[7] “a representation in miniature of God’s cosmic processes.”[8] The mysterious nature of the creation of the human person, which differs not only in degree but also in kind from the creation of the rest of animal and vegetable life, gives to the human person a level of responsibility which is neither possible nor expected from the rest of creation. It is because of this great mystery that Almighty God created mankind with a nature that would produce the shoots of thousands of species and display the levels of the thousands of other species of living creatures. No limit was placed on man’s powers, subtle faculties, and senses like the other animals; since He left him free and gave him a capacity whereby they could roam through endless degrees, while being one species, mankind became like thousands of species.[9] In fact, the vast responsibility which humankind has accepted over the created universe is the basis for much indulgence and compassion on the part of God. It is as though God were aware that the responsibility granted to humans is almost beyond their capabilities, and thus God is neither surprised nor greatly displeased that people have failed to execute their Trust successfully. By exercising the scientific and artistic talents that God has placed in them, human beings show that they are the purpose, the masterpiece, the ultimate fruit, of God’s creative genius and thereby gain a measure of forgiveness for their shortcomings. There is man, who rules over the earth and has disposal over most creatures and subjects most living beings to himself. He so orders, displays, and gathers each remarkable species… that he attracts not only the attention and admiration of men and jinn, but of the dwellers of the heavens and the appreciative gaze of the universe’s Owner, thus gaining great importance and high worth. He shows through his sciences and arts that he is the purpose of the universe’s creation, its most important product, its most precious fruit, and the Divine viceroy on earth. Because has ordered and displayed excellently the miraculous arts of the world’s Maker, he is left in this world despite his rebellion and disbelief, and his punishment is postponed...[10] Nursi explains elsewhere[11] that it was the very human disposition to be taught, to learn, to express, and to organize knowledge logically and scientifically that was the basis for the human acceptance of the divine Trust as ruler of the created universe. This ability to discover, recognize, and categorize the secrets of scientific knowledge amounts to an appreciative understanding of God’s own attributes and qualities, and it is this ability to know God’s creation scientifically and to express it artistically that affords humans a superiority not only over the cosmos but also over angelic beings.
4. True human fulfilment Through reflection upon and contemplation of the wonders and effects of God’s creative activity, an individual actually becomes the fully realized human person intended by God. “Through worship and contemplation of this kind [a person] becomes a true man.”[12] In other words, scientific research and artistic expression are the primary methods by which the believer becomes aware of all that is involved in God’s creative activity. By allowing oneself to grow in knowledge of the universe, one actually fulfils the purpose for which he or she was created and becomes God’s vicegerent. In this way, Nursi underlines his conviction that science and art are not opposed to religious practice but, rather, are among its highest manifestations. Developing one’s scientific and artistic talents, which are the products of God’s determining (taqdir), thus amounts to the human acceptance of the primordial Trust offered by God and leads to true human fulfilment. Because of the unique gifts and function with which God has endowed the human person, a human being can exercise power of choice, thus assuming responsibility for his own actions and yet approaching God with the attitudes of worship and obedience which are owed by creatures to the Creator. Nursi’s resolution of the “problem” of Divine determining and human choice is found in human dignity which places the two elements of faith in creative tension, opting neither for the illusion of indiscriminate human freedom nor for a fatalistic determinism. Accepting Divine taqdir means gratefully recognizing God as the source of one’s gifts and achievements and thereby avoiding arrogance and self-delusion; accepting human choice permits one to overcome a desperate fatalism in the face of frustration at personal limitations. Since one knows himself and everything to be from Almighty God, he assumes the responsibility, basing it on his power of choice. He accepts that it is the source of evils and proclaims his Sustainer free of fault. He remains within the sphere of worship and undertakes the obligations with which he is charged by Almighty God. Moreover, he does not become proud at his good deeds and achievements; he rather looks to Divine Determining and offers thanks. He sees Divine Determining in the calamities that befall him, and endures them in patience.[13] A healthy rule of thumb offered by Said Nursi would be to consider the past and the various calamities that befall people from the point of view of taqdir, while the future and personal sins should be regarded from the aspect of one’s responsibility before God.[14] In other words, God respects the human power of choice by allowing people to err and even to do what is against their own best interests. Divine determining does not mean that God prevents people from wrongdoing, nor that God wills and desires the evil that people do, but rather that God respects the power of free choice with which God has created humans. Nursi uses the example of a child that insists on climbing a mountain in cold weather. A parent is ready to take the child, even though it means that the child might fall or catch cold. The parent may even punish the child for his obstinacy.[15] It is clear, however, that the responsibility for going up the mountain is the child’s, who freely chose to climb the mountain when he could have decided on some other course of action, whereas the parent neither forced nor prevented the child from his unwise course. On the other hand, the determining power came from the parent; the child would have been unable to climb the mountain alone. One might criticize this example and suggest that Nursi could have found a better way to illustrate his point. On the one hand, the example demonstrates well how an all-determining God could leave an immature child free to choose an unwise action and then, despite his wise guidance to the contrary, employ his omnipotence to enable the child to perform that action and also to be justified in punishing the child’s stubborn willfulness. However, in real life a parent who would permit a child to carry out an unwise and dangerous action, rather than simply forbidding the deed and refusing to assist in facilitating the child’s bad idea would be subject to the accusation of irresponsibility. A conscientious parent would never allow himself or herself to be drawn into and become part of the child’s foolish project. Certainly, Nursi does not want to impute any irresponsibility to God in permitting humans to sin, but the reader must be aware of the limits of this imperfect analogy.
5. The illusion of absolute freedom Affirming and holding together in tension the twin concepts of Divine determination and human choice is not only the proper response to Islamic teaching, but has practical benefits for the way in which a believer lives. A person who emphasizes taqdir while minimizing or denying the reality of human choice could easily fall into a type of passive fatalism in which he asks himself what is the use of exercising his innate talents, since everything has already been determined by God. In fact, certain schools of Islamic thought, such as that of the Ash’ariyya, have been often accused of fatalism by their opponents. On the other hand, by over-emphasizing human choice to the detriment of God’s determining power, as do the followers of the Mu’tazili school, one is led to a kind of scrupulosity. Confronted with a multiplicity of diverse and contradictory choices, on which someone’s eternal destiny depends, the believer is faced with the dilemma of choosing the best course of action. In this scheme, there is no role for Divine determination, with the result that the burden of human responsibility becomes too great for a healthy religious life. How can a person make the best choice when he doesn’t have all the necessary knowledge? What if he makes the wrong choice? How can he ever be sure that he has made the correct choice? Nursi regards the assertion of free human choice, with a corresponding disavowal of Divine determination, as imposing a crippling burden on the human psyche, one which places undue responsibility on the human person. There is a scruple arising from searching for the best form of an action. Supposing it to be fear of God, the more rigorous it becomes, the more severe becomes the person’s condition. It even reaches the point that while searching for better forms of action, someone deviates into what is unlawful. Sometimes searching for a sunna makes him give up what is obligatory. He says: “I wonder if my act was correct?” and repeats it. This state continues until he falls into terrible despair…Scruples like this are typical of the Mu‘tazila, because they say: “Actions and things for which a person is responsible are either, of themselves and in regard to the hereafter, good, and because of this good they were commanded, or they are bad, and because they are bad they were prohibited. That means, from the point of view of reality and the hereafter, the good and bad in things is dependent on the things themselves, and the Divine command and prohibition follows this.” According to this school of thought, the following scruple arises in every action which a person performs: “I wonder if my action was performed in the good way that in essence it is?”[16] According to Nursi, the Sunni affirmation, which acknowledges Divine determination, does not lead, unlike the Mu’tazili view, to paralyzing scrupulosity. Rather than positing an innate moral value to every human act, Sunni doctrine holds that the moral quality of human actions is dependent on the Divine decree. “Almighty God orders a thing, then it becomes good. He prohibits a thing, then it becomes bad.”[17] Thus, the good or evil nature of an act is not determined by how an act appears in the light of worldly human judgment but rather how the act is judged and determined by God. Thus, someone need not agonize over the innate correctness or wrongness of an act and wonder whether what he has done was good or not, but can simply follow God’s own teaching on the particular moral value of the deed.
6. Conclusion: the value of sincerity Finally, what is the believer’s responsibility to attain the spiritual attitudes and strengths necessary for the task which God gives? On the one hand, the believer needs to grant that the necessary strength and wisdom come from God, not from his own efforts but, on the other hand, the individual must work with all his strength to obtain those gifts of grace. A good example is sincerity, which Nursi sees as being at the heart of a religious believer’s life in this world and essential to carrying out the task God appoints to each. If one does not do everything one can to respond to God’s grace and the service expected of believers, that person will be held responsible for his failure. Thus, human responsibility means recognizing that both talents and capabilities stem from Divine initiative and that the ability to carry out one’s mission of service is the result of God’s grace, but at the same time, the believer must “work with all his strength” to respond with sincerity and honest effort to fulfil these physical and spiritual potentialities given by God. Since in sincerity lies much strength… and since at this dreadful time, despite our small number and our weak, impoverished, and powerless state, our being confronted by terrible enemies, and suffering severe oppression in the midst of aggressive innovations and misguidance, the extremely heavy, important, and sacred duty of serving belief and the Qur’an has been placed on our shoulders by Divine grace, we are certainly compelled more than anyone to work with all our strength to gain sincerity. We are in utter need of instilling sincerity in ourselves. Otherwise what we have achieved so far in our sacred service will in part be lost, and will not persist; and we shall be held responsible.[18] Since “an ounce of deeds performed in sincerity is preferable to a ton performed without sincerity,”[19] one need not worry whether one has done enough, or has done the right action. The mystery of human responsibility suggests that a person fulfils one’s duty by sincerely responding to Divine grace to the best of one’s abilities. Decisions are the fruit of real human choices, yet they never fall outside the sphere of Divine determination.
FOOTNOTES [1] Said Nursi, The Letters, Miracles of Muhammad, Second Addendum, p. 250. [2] Said Nursi, The Words, Twenty-sixth Word, p. 477. [3] Nursi, The Words, Twenty-third Word, Second Chapter, p. 331. [4] Nursi, The Words, Twenty-sixth Word, p. 477. [5] Nursi, The Words, Twenty-sixth Word, p. 480. [6] Said Nursi, The Rays, the Fruits of Belief, Seventh Topic, p. 238. [7] Nursi, The Rays, Fifteenth Ray, the Shining Proof, First Station, p. 588. [8] Nursi, The Words, Tenth Word, Eleventh Truth, p. 100. Cf. also, The Words, Twentieth Word, p. 268 and the Twenty-fifth Word, Second Light, Second Beam, p. 442. [9] Said Nursi, The Flashes, Twenty-second Flash, p. 226. [10] The Rays, Ninth Ray, p. 209. [11] The Words, Twentieth Word, First Station, p. 254. [12] The Words, Twenty-third Word, Second Chapter, p. 339. [13] The Words, Twenty-sixth Word, p. 479. [14] Said Nursi, The Damascus Sermon, Seeds of Reality, p. 103. Cf. also, The Letters, p. 546. [15] The Words, Twenty-sixth Word, p. 483. [16] The Words, Twenty-first Word, Second Station, p. 283. [17] Ibid. [18] The Flashes, Twenty-first Flash, On Sincerity, p. 213. [19] The Flashes, Twentieth Flash, On Sincerity, p. 206. |