The Six-Sided Vision of Said Nursi: Towards a Spiritual Architecture of the Risale-i Nur

Abstract

Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, the eponymous progenitor of the contemporary Nurculuk movement, was arguably the most influential, if woefully under-researched, Turkish Muslim thinker of the twentieth century. Nurculuk, a faith-based movement consisting of an estimated seven million followers worldwide, stands out from other contemporary Muslim religious and ideological groupings not only for its uncompromising focus on the renewal of individual rather than collective faith, but also for its eschewal of any kind of religiously legitimized violence or militancy for the sake of politico-ideological ends. This article is an attempt at an overview of Nursi's idiosyncratically irenic approach to the highly contentious issue of jihad, itself key to our understanding of the staunch apoliticism he espoused in later life.

Notes

1. For biographical information on Nursi, and an analysis of the development of Nurculuk, the faith movement composed of his followers, see Vahide, 2000. This excellent biography remains the sole English-language source for information on Nursi's life, times and works.

2. For the Supplication of Kumayl, see Qummi, n.d., pp. 127–139. The Mafātīḥ, the most popular book of liturgy among the Shi^cites, is a veritable treasure trove of invocations, supplications and meditations based on or around the ‘beautiful names’, including the famous Jawshan al-Kabīr. The Jawshan, an invocation that involves the recitation of a thousand divine names and attributes, and which is usually traced back to Muhammad through ^cAlī's great-grandson, Zayn al-^cĀbidīn, is a clear source of inspiration and support for much of Nursi's ‘theology of names’. He cites it frequently and its impact on him is evident in the tenor of his writing. For Nursi's take on the importance of the Jawshan, see Nursi, 2004, vol. 2, pp. 1745–1746.

3. Ibn al-^cArabī's Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam is a prime example, among many others.

4. For Nursi's treatment of the ḥadīth qudsī, ‘I was a hidden treasure …’, see Nursi, 2004, vol. 2, p. 1161.

5. For Eliade's exposition of the hierophanic nature of creation, see Allen, 2002, pp. 74–83.

6. Nursi's views on waḥdat al-wujūd are well documented and appear at various points throughout the Risale. See, for example, his ‘Second Important Example’ in the Eighteenth Letter of Mektubat (The Letters) (Nursi, 1994, pp. 106–109).

7. On the balance between tanzīh and tashbīḥ insofar as it pertains to Ibn al-^cArabī's conception of waḥdat al-wujūd, see Chittick, 2001, pp. 501–503. Nursi's disavowal of waḥdat al-wujūd and espousal of the Sirhindian notion of waḥdat al-shuhūd would profit from further research. To my mind, it is by no means clear that Nursi rejected in toto the thesis of ‘unity of being’ put forward by Ibn al-^cArabī, although it is clear that he did repudiate the more ‘extreme’ variations of the theory, such as that proposed by pantheists such as Ibn Sab^cīn.

8. ‘Whosoever knows his own self, knows his Lord’ (‘Man ^carafa nafsahu qad ^carafa rabbahu’) is a staple of Naqshbandi thought, which is claimed to have been influential on Nursi in his formative years. It should be noted, however, that the authenticity of this Tradition is contested by many mainstream Sunni scholars.

9. Nursi often uses the term ‘cosmic book’ (kâinat kitabı) to describe the created realm, but on several occasions goes as far as to describe the universe almost as a kind of uber-Qur'an, as in the phrase ‘the mighty Qur'an inscribed by Divine power and called the universe’ (Nursi, 2002a, p. 484).

10. For one of his many elucidations of the bismillāh, see Nursi, 2002a, pp. 15–17.

11. There are 64 occurrences of this term in the Qur'an. See, for example, Q 7:51 or Q 46:20.

12. For an overview of Eliade's teachings on the sacred and the profane, see Allen, 2002, pp. 65–99.

13. The complexity of the issue is such that any attempt to summarize it in space as limited as this is bound to lead to over-simplification. Interested readers who wish to gain more insight into the classical debates on causality may refer to Majid Fakhry's seminal Islamic Occasionalism (1958).

14. Q 49:14: ‘The desert Arabs say, “We believe.” Say, “Ye have no faith; but ye (only) say, ‘We have submitted our wills to God’, For not yet has Faith entered your hearts. But if ye obey God and His Apostle, He will not belittle aught of your deeds: for God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”’

15. For an analytical survey of the various theological and jurisprudential positions on this issue in classical Islam, see Turner, 2000, pp. 1–20.

16. A workable definition of scientism is given by Michael Shermer: ‘a scientific worldview that encompasses natural explanations for all phenomena, eschews supernatural and paranormal speculations, and embraces empiricism and reason as the twin pillars of a philosophy of life appropriate for an Age of Science’ (2002, p. 35).

17. ‘Entzauberung refers mainly to the “contents” aspects of culture and describes the demystification of the conception of the world connected with growing secularism, with the rise of science, and with growing routinization of education and culture’ (Eisenstadt, 1968, p. li).

18. An in-depth study of the intellectual and spiritual influences on Nursi awaits the time and effort of future researchers of the Risale.