AN IMPORTANT MATTER which occurred to my heart on the Night of Power
(The Addendum to the Second Station of the Thirteenth Word)
I shall allude briefly to a most extensive and lengthy truth which occurred to my heart on the Night of Power.
Because of the extreme tyranny and despotism of this last World War and its merciless destruction, and hundreds of innocents being scattered and ruined on account of a single enemy, and the awesome despair of the defeated, and the fearsome alarm of the victors and their ghastly pangs of conscience arising from the supremacy they are unable to maintain and the destruction they are unable to repair, and the utter transitoriness and ephemerality of the life of this world and the deceptive, opiate nature of the fantasies of civilization becoming apparent to all, and the exalted abilities lodged in human nature and the human essence being wounded in a universal and awesome manner, and heedlessness and misguidance and deaf, lifeless nature being smashed by the diamond sword of the Qur’an, and the exceedingly ugly, exceedingly cruel true face of world politics becoming apparent, which is the widest and most suffocating and deceptive cover for heedlessness and misguidance, most certainly and without any shadow of a doubt, since the life of this world —which is the metaphorical beloved of mankind— is thus ugly and transient, man’s true nature will search with all its strength for eternal life, which it truly loves and yearns for, just as there are signs of this occurring in the North, the West, and in America.
Most certainly there is also no doubt that since the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, which each century for one thousand three hundred and sixty years has had three hundred and fifty million students, and sets the seal on each of its pronouncements and claims through the affirmation of millions of profound, veracious scholars, and each minute has been present with its sacredness in the hearts of millions of hafiz’s and given instruction to mankind through their tongues, and which in a way unmatched by any other book conveys the good news of eternal life and everlasting happiness to mankind and heals all their wounds, —since the Qur’an has given this certain good news of eternal life and happiness with thousands of its insistent, powerful and repeated verses, and with its certain unshakeable proofs and innumerable indubitable arguments which invite and give news explicitly and implicitly tens of thousands of times, so long as human kind does not altogether lose its mind and a material or immaterial doomsday does not erupt over its head, the broad masses and great states in the world will search out the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, and having grasped its truths, will embrace it with all their lives and spirits, just as there are [now] famous preachers in Sweden, Norway, Finland and England working to have the Qur’an accepted, and the important community of America is searching for the true religion. Because in view of this fact, the Qur’an by no means has —nor can have— any equal. Absolutely nothing can take the place of this greatest miracle.
SECONDLY: Since the Risale-i Nur has performed the service of a diamond sword in the hand of this greatest miracle and compelled its stubborn enemies to submit, and acts as a herald to the treasures of the Qur’an in a fashion that illuminates and heals completely both the heart, and the spirit, and the emotions, and has no source or authority other than the Qur’an and is its miracle, it performs that duty perfectly.
Furthermore it has completely routed the obstinate atheists and their fearsome propaganda against it, and smashed to pieces with the treatise Nature: Cause or Effect nature, which is the most impregnable bastion of misguidance, and, with the Sixth Topic of the treatise Fruits of Belief together with the First, Second, Third and Eighth Proofs all of which are included in the book The Staff of Moses, has banished heedlessness in a most brilliant fashion in its most dense, suffocating and extensive form beneath the wide-reaching veils of science and has demonstrated the light of Divine unity.
For sure, since religious instruction is now officially permitted and permission has been given to open private places of study, it is necessary for us and essential for the nation that, as far as is possible, Students of the Risale-i Nur should open a small ‘Risale-i Nur Study Centre’ in every place. Although everyone would benefit to some extent, not everyone would understand every matter completely. But since these matters are explanations of the truths of belief, they are both learning, and knowledge of God, and lead to a sense of God’s presence, and are worship.
God willing, these Risale-i Nur ‘Medreses’ will secure in five to ten weeks the results that the former medreses produced in five to ten years —and they have been so doing for twenty years.
Also, it is essential that the Government does not interfere with these flashes of the Qur’an, the Risale-i Nur, which is the Qur’an’s herald and is beneficial in many ways for the worldly and political life of this nation and country, and for its life in the hereafter. Indeed, it should work for its total spread and acceptance, so that it may atone for the grievous sins of the past, and form a barrier to the severe trials and anarchy of the future.
(The Addendum to the Second Station of the Thirteenth Word)
I shall allude briefly to a most extensive and lengthy truth which occurred to my heart on the Night of Power.
Because of the extreme tyranny and despotism of this last World War and its merciless destruction, and hundreds of innocents being scattered and ruined on account of a single enemy, and the awesome despair of the defeated, and the fearsome alarm of the victors and their ghastly pangs of conscience arising from the supremacy they are unable to maintain and the destruction they are unable to repair, and the utter transitoriness and ephemerality of the life of this world and the deceptive, opiate nature of the fantasies of civilization becoming apparent to all, and the exalted abilities lodged in human nature and the human essence being wounded in a universal and awesome manner, and heedlessness and misguidance and deaf, lifeless nature being smashed by the diamond sword of the Qur’an, and the exceedingly ugly, exceedingly cruel true face of world politics becoming apparent, which is the widest and most suffocating and deceptive cover for heedlessness and misguidance, most certainly and without any shadow of a doubt, since the life of this world —which is the metaphorical beloved of mankind— is thus ugly and transient, man’s true nature will search with all its strength for eternal life, which it truly loves and yearns for, just as there are signs of this occurring in the North, the West, and in America.
Most certainly there is also no doubt that since the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, which each century for one thousand three hundred and sixty years has had three hundred and fifty million students, and sets the seal on each of its pronouncements and claims through the affirmation of millions of profound, veracious scholars, and each minute has been present with its sacredness in the hearts of millions of hafiz’s and given instruction to mankind through their tongues, and which in a way unmatched by any other book conveys the good news of eternal life and everlasting happiness to mankind and heals all their wounds, —since the Qur’an has given this certain good news of eternal life and happiness with thousands of its insistent, powerful and repeated verses, and with its certain unshakeable proofs and innumerable indubitable arguments which invite and give news explicitly and implicitly tens of thousands of times, so long as human kind does not altogether lose its mind and a material or immaterial doomsday does not erupt over its head, the broad masses and great states in the world will search out the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, and having grasped its truths, will embrace it with all their lives and spirits, just as there are [now] famous preachers in Sweden, Norway, Finland and England working to have the Qur’an accepted, and the important community of America is searching for the true religion. Because in view of this fact, the Qur’an by no means has —nor can have— any equal. Absolutely nothing can take the place of this greatest miracle.
SECONDLY: Since the Risale-i Nur has performed the service of a diamond sword in the hand of this greatest miracle and compelled its stubborn enemies to submit, and acts as a herald to the treasures of the Qur’an in a fashion that illuminates and heals completely both the heart, and the spirit, and the emotions, and has no source or authority other than the Qur’an and is its miracle, it performs that duty perfectly.
Furthermore it has completely routed the obstinate atheists and their fearsome propaganda against it, and smashed to pieces with the treatise Nature: Cause or Effect nature, which is the most impregnable bastion of misguidance, and, with the Sixth Topic of the treatise Fruits of Belief together with the First, Second, Third and Eighth Proofs all of which are included in the book The Staff of Moses, has banished heedlessness in a most brilliant fashion in its most dense, suffocating and extensive form beneath the wide-reaching veils of science and has demonstrated the light of Divine unity.
For sure, since religious instruction is now officially permitted and permission has been given to open private places of study, it is necessary for us and essential for the nation that, as far as is possible, Students of the Risale-i Nur should open a small ‘Risale-i Nur Study Centre’ in every place. Although everyone would benefit to some extent, not everyone would understand every matter completely. But since these matters are explanations of the truths of belief, they are both learning, and knowledge of God, and lead to a sense of God’s presence, and are worship.
God willing, these Risale-i Nur ‘Medreses’ will secure in five to ten weeks the results that the former medreses produced in five to ten years —and they have been so doing for twenty years.
Also, it is essential that the Government does not interfere with these flashes of the Qur’an, the Risale-i Nur, which is the Qur’an’s herald and is beneficial in many ways for the worldly and political life of this nation and country, and for its life in the hereafter. Indeed, it should work for its total spread and acceptance, so that it may atone for the grievous sins of the past, and form a barrier to the severe trials and anarchy of the future.
Vastaukset 4
Vanhimmat
His Biography
Said Nursi, also widely known as Bediuzzaman (the Wonder of the Age) was born in 1877 in eastern Turkey. Bediuzzaman displayed an extraordinary intelligence and ability to learn from an early age, completing the normal course of religious school education at the early age of fourteen, when he obtained his diploma. He became famous for both his prodigious memory and his unbeaten record in debating with other religious scholars. Another characteristic Bediuzzaman displayed from an early age was an instinctive dissatisfaction with the existing education system, which when older he formulated into comprehensive proposals for its reform.
The heart of these proposals was the bringing together and joint teaching of the traditional religious sciences and the modern sciences, with the founding of a university in the Eastern Provinces of the Ottoman Empire, the Medresetü'z-Zehra, where this and his other proposals would be put into practice. In 1907 his endeavors in this field took him to Istanbul and an audience with Sultan Abdulhamid II. Although subsequently he twice received funds for the construction of his university, and its foundations were laid in 1913, it was never completed due to war.
Contrary to the practice of religious scholars at that time, Bediuzzaman himself studied and mastered almost all the physical and mathematical sciences, and later studied philosophy. In the course of time, modern sciences had been dropped from the religious schools curriculum, which had contributed directly to the Ottoman decline relative to the advance of the West. Bediuzzaman's endeavor was to prove and demonstrate that Islam is compatible with modern sciences and progress, the Holy Book was the source of true progress and civilization.
The years up to the end of the First World War were the final decades of the Ottoman Empire and were, in the words of Bediuzzaman, the period of the 'OldSaid'. In additions to his endeavors in the field of learning, he has had active involvement in social life and the public domain. In the War, he commanded the militia forces on the Caucasian Front against the invading Russians, for which he as later awarded a War Medal. To maintain the morale of his men he himself disdainedto enter the trenches against heavy shelling, and it was while withstanding the overwhelming assaults of the enemy that he wrote his celebrated the Holy Book's commentary, Signs of Miraculousness, dictating to a scribe while on horseback'stating that the Holy Book encompasses the sciences which make known modern sciences, the commentary is an original and important work which in Bediuzzaman's words, forms a sort model for commentaries he hoped would be written in the future, which would bring together the religious and modern sciences in the way he proposed. Bediuzzaman was taken prisoner in March 1916 and held in Russia for two years before escaping in early 1918, and returning to Istanbul via Warsaw, Berlin, and Vienna.
The defeat of the Ottomans saw the end of the Empire and its dismemberment, and the occupation of Istanbul and parts of Turkey by foreign forces. These bitter years saw also the transformation of the Old Said into the New Said, the second main period of Bediuzzaman's life. Bediuzzaman underwent a profound mental and spiritual change in the process of which he turned his back on the world. Realizing the inadequacy of the 'human' science and philosophy he had studied as a means of reaching the truth, he took the revealed Qur'an as his 'sole guide.' In recognition of his services to the Independence Struggle, Mustafa Kemal (the founder of modern Turkey) invited Bediuzzaman to Ankara. Remaining some eight months in Ankara, he was offered various posts and benefits by Mustafa Kemal. He declined them and left Ankara for Van, where he withdrew into a life of worship and contemplation; he was seeking the best way to proceed.
In early 1925 there was a rebellion in the east in which Bediuzzaman played no part, but as a consequence of which was sent into in western Anatolia along with many hundreds of others. When he started to speak about oppression of thought and beliefs unjustly began twenty-five years of exile, imprisonment, and unlawful oppression for Bediuzzaman. He was sent to Barla, a tiny village in the mountains of Isparta Province. However, the attempt to entirely and silence him had the reverse effect, for Bediuzzaman was both prepared and uniquely qualified to face the new challenge. He has spend these years writing of the Risale-i Nur collection, which silently spread and took root, combating in the most constructive way the attempt to uproot freedom of religion and expression in today's modern Turkey.He died when he was in exile in Urfa, Turkey in 1960.
And we are signs that speak the truth
Then listen to the stars, listen to their harmonious address!
See what wisdom has emblazed on the decree of its light.
Altogether they start to speak with the tongue of truth,
They address the majesty of the All-Powerful, All-Glorious One's sovereignty:
We are each of us light-scattering proofs of the existence of our Maker,
We are witnesses both to His Unity and His Power,
We are subtle miracles gilding the face of the skies for the angels to gaze upon.
We are the innumerable attentive eyes of the heavens which watch the earth, which study Paradise.
We are the innumerable exquisite fruits which the hand of wisdom of the All-Glorious and Beauteous One has fastened
To the celestial portion of the tree of creation, to all the branches of the Milky Way.
For the inhabitants of the heavens,
We are each of us a travelling mosque, a spinning house, a lofty home;
Each is an illumining lamp, a mighty ship, an aeroplane.
We are each of us a miracle of power, a wonder of creative art
Created by the Powerful One of Perfection, the All-Wise One of Glory;
A rarity of His wisdom, a marvel of His creation, a world of light.
We demonstrated to mankind innumerable proofs,
We made them hear with these innumerable tongues of ours;
But their accursed unseeing, unbelieving eyes did not see our faces,
They did not hear our words.
And we are signs that speak the truth:
Our stamp is one, our seal is one,
We are mastered by our Sustainer,
We glorify Him through our subjugation,
We recite His Names,
We are each of us in ecstasy,
A member of the mighty circle of the Milky Way.
The Enduring One, He is the Enduring One!
What is the Risale-i Nur?
The Risale-i Nur collection is a six-thousand-page commentary on the Quran written by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi in accordance with the mentality of the age. Since in our age faith and Islam have been the objects of the attacks launched in the name of so called science and logic, Bediuzaman Said Nursi therefore concentrated in the Risale-i Nur on proving the truths of faith in conformity with modern science through rational proofs and evidence, and by decribing the miraculous aspects of the Quran that relate primarily to our century. This collection now has millions of readers both in and outside of Turkey. Thanks to the Risale-i Nur, the Turks managed to maintain their religion despite the most despotic regimes of the past decades. Although its author faced unbearable persecution, imprisonment, and exile, while no effort was spared to put an end to his service to faith, he was able to complete his writings compromising the Risale-i Nur and raise a vast group of believers who courageously opposed the oppression and preserved the dominance of Islam in the country.
Bediuzzaman understood an essential cause of the decline of the Islamic world to be weakening of the very foundations of belief. This weakening, together with the unprecedented attacks on those foundations in the 19th and 20th centuries carried out by materialists, atheists and others in the name of science and progress, led him to realize that the urgent and over-riding need was to strengthen, and even to save, belief. What was needed was to expend all efforts to reconstruct the edifice of Islam from its foundations, belief, and to answer at that level those attacks with a 'manevi jihad' or 'jihad of the of the word.'
Thus, in exile, Bediuzzaman wrote a body of work, the Risale-i Nur, that would explain and expound the basic tenets of belief, the truths of the Quran, to modern man. His method was to analyse both belief and unbelief and to demonstrate through clearly reasoned arguments that not only is it possible, by following the method of the Quran, to prove rationally all the truths are the only rational explanation of existance, man and the universe.
Bediuzzaman thus demonstrated in the form of easily understood stories, comparisons, explanations, and reasoned proofs that, rather than the truth of religion being incompatible with the findings of modern science, the materialist interpretation of those findings is irrational and absurd. Indeed, Bediuzzaman proved in the Risale-i Nur that science's breathtaking discoveries of the universe's functioning corroborate and reinforce the truths of religion.
The imortance of the Risale-i Nur cannot be overestimated, for through it Bediuzzaman Said Nursi played a major role in preserving and revitalizing the Islamic faith in Turkey in the very darkest days of her history. And indeed its role has continued to increase in importance to the present day. But further to this, the Risale-i Nur is uniquely fitted to address not only all Muslims but indeed all mankind for several reasons. First it is written in accordance with modern man's mentality, a mentality that, whether Muslim or not, has been deeply inbued by materialist philosophy: it specifically answers all the questions, doubts and confusions that this causes. It answers too all the 'why's' that mark the questioning mind of modern man.
Also, it explains the most profound matters of belief, which formerly only advanced scholars studied in detail, in such a way that everyone, even those to whom the subject is new, may understand and gain something without it causing any difficulties or harm.
A further reason is that in explaning the true nature and purposes of man and the universe, the Risale-i Nur shows that true happiness is only to be found in belief and knowledge of God, both in this world and the Hereafter. And it also points out the grevious pain and unhappiness that unbelief causes man's spirit and conscience, which generally the misguided attempt to block out through heedlessness and escapism, so that anyone with any sense may take refuge in belief.
To conclude
The Holy Quran addresses the intellect as well as man's other inner faculties. It directs man to consider the universe and functioning in order to learn its true nature and purposes as the creation and thus to learn the attributes of its Single Creator and his own duties as a creature. This, then, is the method that Bediuzzaman employed in the Risale-i Nur. He explained the true nature of the universe as signs of its Creator and demonstrated through clear arguments that when it is read as such all the fundamentals of beliefs may be proved rationally.
When this method is followed, a person attains a true belief that will be sound and firm enough to be withstand any doubts that may arise in the face of the subtle attacks of Materialism, Naturalism and atheism, or the materialist approach to scientific advances. For all scientific and technological advances are merely the uncovering of the workings of the cosmos. When the cosmos is seen to be a vast and infinately complex and meaningful unified book describing its Single Author, rather that causing doubt and bewilderment, all these discoveries and advances reinforce belief, they deepen and expand it.
Man's most fundamental need is the need for religion, the need to recognize and worship Almighty God with all His Most Beautiful Names and attributes, and to obey His laws; those manifest in the universe and those revealed through his prophets. In explaining the message of the Quran, Almighty God's final Revealed Book, brought and perfectly expounded by His final Prophet, Muhammad (PBUH), and Islam, the complete and perfected religion for mankind, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi demonstrated in the Risale-i Nur that there is no contradiction or dichotomy between science and religion; rather, true progress and happiness for mankind can, and will, only be achieved in this way, the way of the Quran.
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Known as Bediuzzaman, regenerator or nonpareil of our times, Said Nursi (1876-1960) was an Islamic philosopher, scholar, and one of the distinguished educators of the contemporary world, lived in Turkey . His philosophy was based upon the belief that “the conscience is illuminated by the religious sciences, and the mind is illuminated by the sciences of civilization and wisdom occurs through the combination of these two.” He believed raising individuals’ religious consciousness through an education system based on the truths of the Qur'an.
Nursi lived in a time in which, materialism and communism were at their peak, and the psycho-sociological condition of the world was disturbing, viz. the world was in great crisis. However, there were enormous advances in the field of the modern sciences. These scientific advances were used as a tool for irreligion; to create doubts about religion in minds of Muslims, Christians and Jews. Surrounded by such ideas the basis for unreligious traditions, Nursi appeared as renewer and strengthener of belief and faith in God. His discourse was based on "experiential" arguments for the existence of God and his aim was to corroborate, prove, and publish the truths of the Qur'an and pillars of belief. For Nursi “Man came to this world to be perfected by means of knowledge and supplication. In regard to his nature and abilities everything is tied to knowledge. And the foundation, source, light, and spirit of all true knowledge is knowledge of God, and its essence and basis is belief in God.”
Nursi was aware of a need for education in knowledge, as well as education in character. Nursi attempted to develop guidelines for appropriate, good or “right” behaviour of individuals within a complex society. In his discourse Nursi’s greatest concern was for materialism’s “moral and spiritual destruction” of both the individual and society. It is the fact that one of the most disturbing facts in moral life at this century is the startling contrast between private and collective interests in morality. Man has lost his appetite for being one of the herd anymore and become selfish and egotist. It is at this point where we attach the importance of Nursi’s discourse on his emphasizing of morality and his thesis of being a part of the society. In the time of “…ism”widespread ideologies such as materialism, post-modernism, feminism, capitalism, communism, and individualism, but there has been never no society-ism or morality-ism. Nursi endeavored to reestablish the moral charters of Islamic ethics in social life. To enlighten people and to reestablish the old times legacy of the good society, Nursi has set up or more correctly re-invented some of the values and limitations of Islamic moral teachings for collectivities. Nursi diagnosed that a fearful egotism arising from heedlessness and love of this world rules at this time, he attempts to re-set up society by balancing his worldly appetites with the other worldly morals and ethics. Nursi was most adamant of the effect of such an interrelation that is on a psychological and not on a supernatural level. Nevertheless, for Said Nursi the Quran is primarily a means of placing restraints on the dangerous appetites of man. As he put:
The aims of the Quran are to provide a barrier against the appetites of man thus encouraging him to engage in higher pursuits, giving satisfaction to his higher aspirations and directing him towards the achievements of human perfection.”
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