Said Nursi on Muslim–Christian Relations Leading to World Peace

Abstract

This article examines the views of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi (1876–1960), specifically with regard to Muslim–Christian relations. It elaborates on his view as presented in his commentary on certain qur'anic verses (specifically 2:2 and 5:51), the first of which indicates that the devout are those who believe in both the Islamic and pre-Islamic revelations, while the second prohibits Muslims from taking Christians and Jews as friends. Nursi's interpretation is unique among all Islamic commentators. The article also discusses qur'anic texts in light of Nursi's famous Damascus sermon, in which he strongly advocates Muslim–Christian cooperation. Finally, the article gives examples from the life and writings of Nursi as references for his understanding of Muslim–Christian relations and the possibility of the cause of world peace being advanced through such positive relationships.

Notes

1. Nursi wrote this book during World War I when he was fighting against the Russian army that had invaded his hometown in the Ottoman province of Bitlis in eastern Anatolia. His plan was to write a 60-volume commentary on the Qur'an, but the war prevented him from doing so. It is worth noting that Nursi wrote this commentary during the war, while Turkey was in alliance with a Christian nation, Germany, against another Christian nation, Russia.

2. With regard to innocent and oppressed Christians who were killed by irreligious forces during the two World Wars, Nursi says they can be considered martyrs, which is a very high status in Islamic theology (see Nursi, 2002, Şuālar, p. 1022).

3. ‘He was a wise man of pre-Islamic times, who abandoned idols before the emergence of Islam. He also avoided the slaughter of animals as sacrifices to idols. He used to read books of various religions; he also used to write Arabic in Hebrew letters. He died not long before the Prophet's proclamation of his message (da^cwā). Some consider him a companion of the prophet’ (Ziriklī, 1997, vol. 8, pp. 114–115).

4. For a brief biography of ^cAdās and how he converted to Islam see (^cAsqalānī, 1995, vol. 2, pp. 241–242).

5. Islamic jurists, such as al-Shāfi^cī (d. 820), found in the Prophet's practice legal precedent for their own decision that the funeral prayer may be performed even when the body of the deceased is not physically present.

6. For details of this event see Ya^cqūbī, n.d, vol. 1, p. 138.

7. This mosque is significant in the Islamic tradition because many Muslims believe that Jesus will descend to it at his second coming, and because it contains the tombs of John the Baptist and Saladin.

• 8. Said Nursi considered these diseases to be the most challenging problems of the Islamic communities of his time. He was not neutral or passive with regard to them, but presented various solutions and cures through his sermons and publications, as well as in his relations with the community. Nursi referred to six cures for these diseases, which he took from the ‘pharmacy of the Qur'an’. The first is hope (al-amal). With this cure, Nursi tried to assure his audience that there was no need for despair. He explained that Islam would have a bright future, despite the widespread despair of the people. In this part of his sermon, he encouraged Muslims to show the beauty of Islam through their actions, not their words. In his own words, ‘If we show the ethics of Islam and the perfection of the truth of faith through our actions, the followers of other religions will embrace Islam, group by group. Perhaps, some whole continents and states on the face of the earth will embrace Islam’ (Nursi, 2002, Hutbe-i Şamiye, p. 1962). Again, under the heading of ‘hope’, Nursi elaborated on several powers that Islam contains and which he believed Muslims were in great need of for their material and spiritual advancement.

  Another cure of which Nursi spoke is the diagnosis of despair as a deadly disease. Here, Nursi criticized this attitude of hopelessness on the part of Muslims and presented it as the main reason why they still remained colonized by European countries, even after hundreds of years. In order to eradicate this disease, Nursi referred to the Qur'an: ‘Do not despair of the mercy of God’ (Q 39:53). Nursi presented truthfulness (Ṣidq) as the third cure for the diseases of the Islamic world, considering it to be the essence of the foundation of Islam and the combination of the highest spiritual senses in human nature. Thus he said, ‘We must revive truth in our social life in order to cure our collective diseases … Faith is truthfulness and righteousness. Because of this mystery, the gulf between truth and falsehood is as great as the distance between east and west. They should not be mixed. They are like light and fire.’ Nursi turns his attention to the audience and says, ‘O my brothers in this Umayyad Mosque, and 400 million brothers in the great mosque of the Islamic world, and those who will be coming in 40 or 50 years time, salvation is only possible through truth and righteousness. The unbreakable rope is truthfulness, so it is the chain which one should grasp’ (Nursi, 2002, Hutbe-i Şamiye, p. 1968).

9. For further details on Nursi's view of minority rights see Vahide, 2005, pp. 89–91.

10. His small book, Münazarat (1996), as mentioned above, which contains Nursi's answers to tribal leaders' questions, is one of the most important sources of Nursi's thought on this subject.

11. For some sayings of the Prophet, see Saritoprak, 2000.

12. One can argue that Said Nursi foresaw the trend towards socialism in many parts of the Islamic world in general and the Arab world in particular. Many Muslim intellectuals have become fascinated with the idea of socialism as a philosophy. Some, such as the Egyptian author Mustafa al-Siba^ci, have even coined the term ‘Islamic socialism’, which has led many Muslims to believe that socialist movements are more akin to Islam than is the Christian West.

13. A similar voice of cooperation comes from many contemporary Christians as well. For example, Charles Kimball says, ‘Many Christians and churches, including some who define themselves as conservative or evangelical, are seeking understanding of and cooperation with Muslims’ (Kimball, 2004).

14. For the list of these Western philosophers and their statements, see Nursi, 2002, pp. 2307–2312.