Said Nursî

Islamic Thinker 19th-20th Century
Said Nursî praying in front of the Fatih Sultan Mehmed Tomb in Fatih Mosque in Istanbul
Name	Said Nursî
Birth	1878
Death	March 23, 1960
School/tradition	-
Main interests	Restoring faith
Notable ideas	Risale-i Nur Collection
Influences	-
Influenced	Fethullah Gulen

Said Nursî (1878, village of Nurs, Bitlis Province - March 23, 1960, Urfa) was an Islamic thinker from Turkey of Kurdish origin and the author of the Risale-i Nur Collection^[1], a Qur'anic commentary exceeding five thousand pages. He was also known as Bediüzzaman by his followers, which means "the wonder of the time."

Family background and youth

He was born into a Kurdish family of agriculturalists with an inclination to religious studies. As a boy, he was sent to study under the eminent scholars of the surrounding cities. He memorized the manuals of the classical Islamic fields of knowledge in a short time. Because of this feat, he was given the honorific title "Bediüzzaman," with which his followers use to refer to him. Bediüzzaman means "the wonder of the time."

The "Early Said"

Due to his fame as a scholar, he was invited by the governor of Van to stay in his residence. In the governor's library, Nursi gained access to the entire scientific knowledge he did not encounter during his studies. Moreover Said learnt proper Turkish there. During this time he developed a plan for a university for the Eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire. By combining scientific and religious education, the university was supposed to help remove the backwardness of these areas.^{[citation needed]}

The "Later Said"

He was finally exiled to the village Barla (prov. Isparta). His teachings attracted many people in the area. These manuscripts were sent to Sav, another village in the region where dozens of people duplicated them in Arabic script which was officially replaced by the Latin script in 1928. After being finished these books were sent to Nursi's disciples all over Turkey via the "Nurcu postal system." Bediuzzaman's study of science and involvement with philosophy should be seen in the context of the increasing Western influence in the Ottoman Empire at the end of the l9th and early 20th centuries and the attacks which were being made on the Qur'an and Islam in the name of science and materialism, and Positivist philosophy in particular; it was in order to answer these attacks. When the leadership of Turkey came into the hands of Atatürk and his supporters on the founding of the Republic, the drive for Westernization received a strong impetus, and philosophy was progressively inoculated into the Turkish people at the expense of Islam. In keeping with the extraordinary perspicacity and farsightedness that he displayed at every stage of his life, Bediuzzaman had perceived these designs of the new regime at the outset and understanding that it was not to be combatted in the realm of politics, had withdrawn from social and political life. Within a short time he was proved right, both concerning the secular republic they set up, and in how it was to be combatted. For as he himself later wrote, in modern states, where freedom of conscience is accepted as a fundamental principle, internal jihad has to be on the level of ideas and learning.

The "Third Said"

He was finally released in 1949. In the last decade of his life he settled in Isparta. After the introduction of the multi-party system he advised his followers to vote for the Democratic Party of Adnan Menderes which gained the support of the rural and conservative populations. Because Said Nursi considered communism the greatest danger of that time, he also supported the pro-Western orientation of the Democrats (NATO-membership, Baghdad treaty, Turkey's participation in the Korean war). He tried to unite Muslims and Christians in the struggle against communism and materialism therefore he corresponded with the Pope and the Greek Orthodox patriarch. Hence his followers praise him as the inventor of interfaith dialogue, even as the Prophet of Islam established a paradigm of interfaith relations. Said Nursi thus helped people to reinvigorate the prophetic tradition.

In 1956 he was allowed to have his writings printed.

His tomb in Urfa

He died of exhaustion after traveling to Urfa. He was buried in the premise where according to Islamic beliefs Abraham (Ibrahim) is buried. In July 1960 a group of soldiers led by the later extreme right-wing politician Alparslan Turkes opened his grave and buried him at an unknown place near Isparta in order to prevent popular veneration. [1] His followers are reported to find his grave after years of search in the area, and took it to a secret place in an effort to protect his body from further disturbance.

References

^ From Bediuzzaman Said Nursi's Life: Birth and Early Childhood

External links

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