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The Life of Said Nursi and the Risale-i Nur Collection: A Review

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Modern Interpretation of the Qur’an

Part of the book series: Palgrave Series in Islamic Theology, Law, and History ((ITLH))

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Abstract

Firstly, this chapter analyses Nursi’s life and his intellectual career. It focuses on Nursi’s life periods and their characteristics, his theological thoughts and his approaches to the Islamic disciplines such as fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), kalām (Islamic systematic theology) and tasawwuf (Ṣūfism). After that, the chapter examines attempts to revitalize kalām and discussions regarding “new kalām” in the twentieth century CE since Nursi is a part of this movement. Finally, the chapter introduces Nursi’s major books in the collection which are the most relevant to this study.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Vahide, “Toward an Intellectual Biography,” 1.

  2. 2.

    Alparslan Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” in Diyanet Islam Ansiklopedisi (Istanbul: Diyanet V., 2008), XXXV: 565.

  3. 3.

    Şükran Vahide, Islam in Modern Turkey: An Intellectual Biography of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005), 10–4.

  4. 4.

    Vahide, “Toward an Intellectual Biography,” 4.

  5. 5.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” XXXV: 565.

  6. 6.

    Vahide, “Toward an Intellectual Biography,” 5–6.

  7. 7.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” XXXV: 566.

  8. 8.

    Şükran Vahide, “The Life and Times of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi,” The Muslim World 89, no. 3–4 (1999): 220–21.

  9. 9.

    Vahide, Islam in Modern Turkey, 164–6.

  10. 10.

    Vahide, “Toward an Intellectual Biography,” 12.

  11. 11.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” XXXV: 566.

  12. 12.

    Vahide, “Toward an Intellectual Biography,” 1.

  13. 13.

    Vahide, Islam in Modern Turkey, 167.

  14. 14.

    Şerif Mardin, Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey: The Case of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 146.

  15. 15.

    Vahide, Islam in Modern Turkey, 305–7, 311, 343.

  16. 16.

    Abu Davud Sulayman, Sunan Abi Davud, Kitāb al-Malāhim B: 1 (Beirut: Daru Ibn Hazm, 1997).

  17. 17.

    Oliver Leaman, “Nursi’s Place in the Ihya’ Tradition,” The Muslim World 89, no. 3–4 (1999): 324; Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 567.

  18. 18.

    Leaman, “Nursi’s Place,” 323–4.

  19. 19.

    Said Nursi, İşārātü’l-İ’cāz (Istanbul, Söz Basım Yayın, 2012), 30, accessed 5 April, 2018, http://www.erisale.com/#content.tr.6.30; Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Signs of Miraculousness: The Inimitability of the Qur’an’s Conciseness, trans. Şükran Vahide (Istanbul: Sözler Publications, 2004), 19.

  20. 20.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 567.

  21. 21.

    Hudūth (Createdness) Proof: “The world is subject to change. Anything subject to change has a beginning, for it came into existence at a point in time. Anything that came into existence at a point in time has someone who brought it into existence. That being the reality, this universe has an Eternal Creator.” Imkān (Contingency) Proof: “Contingency means equality between two possibilities. That is, if it is equally possible for something to come into existence or not, there must be one to prefer either possibility, one to create according to this preference, for contingent beings cannot create each other one after the other. Nor can they go back to eternity in cycles with the former having created the latter. Given this, there is a Necessarily Existent Being Who creates all.” Said Nursi, Sözler (Istanbul, Söz Basım Yayın, 2012), 933, accessed 5 April 2018, http://www.erisale.com/#content.tr.1.933; Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, The Words: The Reconstruction of Islamic Belief and Thought, trans. Hüseyin Akarsu (New Jersey: Light, 2005), 693.

  22. 22.

    Said Nursi, Muhākemat (Istanbul, Söz Basım Yayın, 2012), 131–4, accessed 5 April 2018, http://www.erisale.com/#content.tr.13.131; Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, The Reasonings A Key To Understanding the Qur’an’s Eloquence, trans. Hüseyin Akarsu (New Jersey: Tughra Books, 2008), 107–9.

  23. 23.

    M. Sait Özervarlı, “Said Nursi’s Project of Revitalizing Contemporary Islamic Thought,” in Islam at the Crossroads: On the Life and Thought of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, ed. Ibrahim M Abu-Rabi (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003), 323.

  24. 24.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 567.

  25. 25.

    Özervarlı, “Said Nursi’s Project of Revitalizing,” 322.

  26. 26.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 567; Nursi, Sözler (Istanbul, Söz Basım Yayın, 2012), 623–30, accessed 5 April, 2018, http://www.erisale.com/#content.tr.1.623; Nursi, The Words, 479, 482–4.

  27. 27.

    Said Nursi, Mektubat (Istanbul, Söz Basım Yayın, 2012), 72–3, accessed 5 April, 2018, http://www.erisale.com/#content.tr.2.72; Nursi, The Letters: Epistles on Islamic Thought, Belief, and Life, trans. Hüseyin Akarsu (New Jersey: The Light, 2007), 71.

  28. 28.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 567.

  29. 29.

    Nursi, Sözler (Istanbul, Söz Basım Yayın, 2012), 319, accessed 5 April, 2018, http://www.erisale.com/#content.tr.1.319; Nursi, The Words, 247.

  30. 30.

    Özervarlı, “Said Nursi’s Project of Revitalizing,” 327; For examples, see, Nursi, The Words, The Twentieth Word, Second Station, 265–279; Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 568.

  31. 31.

    Nursi, Sözler (Istanbul, Söz Basım Yayın, 2012), 142, accessed 5 April, 2018, http://www.erisale.com/#content.tr.1.142; Nursi, The Words, 107.

  32. 32.

    “Look, then, at the imprints of God’s mercy, how He restores the earth to life after death: this same God is the one who will return people to life after death – He has power over all things.”

  33. 33.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 568. For twelve ways, see, Nursi, Sözler, 82–176.

  34. 34.

    Nursi, Sözler, 148, accessed 5 April, 2018, http://www.erisale.com/#content.tr.1.148; Nursi, The Words, 111.

  35. 35.

    Aslan, “Said Nursi,” 170.

  36. 36.

    Nursi, Mektubat, 137–8, accessed 5 April, 2018, http://www.erisale.com/#content.tr.2.137; Nursi, The Letters, 122.

  37. 37.

    Nursi, Mektubat, 140, accessed 6 April, 2018, http://www.erisale.com/#content.tr.2.140; Nursi, The Letters, 123–4.

  38. 38.

    For instance, Nursi, Signs of Miraculousness, 24.

  39. 39.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 568.

  40. 40.

    Vahide, Islam in Modern Turkey, 142; Nursi, The Letters, 64.

  41. 41.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 568.

  42. 42.

    Nursi, Sözler, 646–7, accessed 6 April, 2018, http://www.erisale.com/#content.tr.1.646; Nursi, The Words, 498.

  43. 43.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 568.

  44. 44.

    Özervarlı, “Said Nursi’s Project of Revitalizing,” 322.

  45. 45.

    Nursi, Mektubat, 461–3, accessed 6 April, 2018, http://www.erisale.com/#content.tr.2.461; Nursi, The Letters, 345. See Ibn al-ʿArabī’s full letter, Mohammed Rustom, “Ibn ‘Arabī’s Letter to Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī: A Study and Translation,” Journal of Islamic Studies 25, no:2 (2014): 113–137, accessed 6 April, 2018, http://www.mohammedrustom.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Ibn-Arabis-Letter-to-Fakhr-al-Din-al-Razi-JIS-25.2-2014.pdf

  46. 46.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 568; Nursi, The Letters, 345.

  47. 47.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 568.

  48. 48.

    According to Demirli, this is a characteristic of the theologians whose aim is guidance in Islamic tradition. Sciences (Islamic disciplines) break (divide) the religion into several separate pieces. The whole should be discerned by going beyond being broken. Nursi attempts to do this…The major theme of tasavvuf is faith. Nuriye Akman, “Oğlum Ibni Arabī’ye Ibram Abi diyor,” http://www.zaman.com.tr/yazar.do?yazino=1222420&keyfield (accessed April, 30, 2012).

  49. 49.

    Vahide, Islam in Modern Turkey, 167; Nursi, The Letters, 345.

  50. 50.

    Şükran Vahide, “Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s Approach to Religious Renewal and its Impact of Aspects on Contemporary Turkish Society,” in The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought, ed. Ibrahim M Abu-Rabi (Massachusetts: Blackwell Pub., 2006), 60.

  51. 51.

    Islam in Modern Turkey, 223.

  52. 52.

    Akman, “Oğlum Ibni Arabī’ye.”

  53. 53.

    Vahide, “Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s Approach to Religious Renewal,” 60.

  54. 54.

    Nursi, Mektubat, 47, accessed 6 April, 2018, http://www.erisale.com/#content.tr.2.47; Nursi, The Letters, 29.

  55. 55.

    Vahide, “Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s Approach to Religious Renewal,” 72.

  56. 56.

    Mardin, Religion and Social Change, 37.

  57. 57.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 568; Nursi, The Letters, 345.

  58. 58.

    Leaman, “Nursi’s Place,” 318.

  59. 59.

    Nursi, Sözler, 732, accessed 5 April, 2018, http://www.erisale.com/#content.tr.1.732; Nursi, The Words, 557.

  60. 60.

    Leaman, “Nursi’s Place,” 319, 320, 322, 323.

  61. 61.

    Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, İşaratü’l- İcaz fi Mezanni’l-İcaz (Ankara, Diyanet IB., 2014), 37–40; Nursi, Signs of Miraculousness, 11.

  62. 62.

    Said Nursi, “Mu’cizât-ı Kur’âniye Risalesi,” in Sözler (Istanbul, Söz Basım Yayın, 2012), 490, accessed 6 April, 2018, http://www.erisale.com/index.jsp?locale=tr#content.tr.1.490; Nursi, The Words, 387–475.

  63. 63.

    Nursi, Signs of Miraculousness, 9–10.

  64. 64.

    Özervarlı, “Said Nursi’s Project of Revitalizing,” 322.

  65. 65.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 569; See, Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, The Gleams: Reflections on Qur’anic Wisdom and Spirituality, trans. Hüseyin Akarsu (New Jersey: Tughra Books, 2008), The Twenty Eighth Flash, The Answer to a Question, 397–8.

  66. 66.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 567.

  67. 67.

    M. Sait Özervarlı, “Attempts to revitalize Kalām in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries,” The Muslim World 89, no. 1 (1999): 90–92.

  68. 68.

    Kelāmda Yenilik Arayışları, Second ed. (Istanbul: İSAM, 2008), 30–7.

  69. 69.

    “Attempts to revitalize Kalām,” 93–100.

  70. 70.

    Vahide, Islam in Modern Turkey, 27–8.

  71. 71.

    Mardin, Religion and Social Change, 39.

  72. 72.

    Özervarlı, “Said Nursi’s Project of Revitalizing,” 320–1.

  73. 73.

    Vahide, “Toward an Intellectual Biography,” 4.

  74. 74.

    Özervarlı, “Said Nursi’s Project of Revitalizing,” 321.

  75. 75.

    Özervarlı, Kelāmda Yenilik, 150–1.

  76. 76.

    Vahide, Islam in Modern Turkey, 92.

  77. 77.

    “Toward an Intellectual Biography,” 8; Nursi, The Reasonings, Introduction, 7.

  78. 78.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 569.

  79. 79.

    Nursi, Signs of Miraculousness, 11.

  80. 80.

    Vahide, Islam in Modern Turkey, 167; Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, Mesnevī-i Nuriye, Introduction.

  81. 81.

    Vahide, Islam in Modern Turkey, 323.

  82. 82.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 569; Aslan, “Said Nursi,” 171.

  83. 83.

    Nursi, The Letters, xii; Aslan, “Said Nursi,” 171.

  84. 84.

    Açıkgenç, “Said Nursi,” 569.

  85. 85.

    Ibid., 569; Aslan, “Said Nursi,” 172.

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  1. Charles Sturt University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Hakan Çoruh

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Çoruh, H. (2019). The Life of Said Nursi and the Risale-i Nur Collection: A Review. In: Modern Interpretation of the Qur’an. Palgrave Series in Islamic Theology, Law, and History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15349-6_2

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