بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

وَ بِهِ نَسْتَعِينُ

اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَ الصَّلاَةُ وَ السَّلاَمُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَ عَلَى آلِهِ وَ صَحْبِهِ اَجْمَعِينَ

WHAT IS THE RISALE-I NUR?

What is the Risale-i Nur and what type of tafsir is it?

The Collection of Risale-i Nur explains and proves the haqiqahs of Qur’an in a manner that is compatible with positive science and answers the most fundamental questions of humanity such as:

"Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? What is my duty? Where do all living things come from and where are they going? What are their essence and haqiqah?"

It answers these questions clearly and decisively and in an attractive style with beautiful expressions which enlighten and satisfy the rûh and mind.

 

What kind of tafsir is the Risale-i Nur?

Tafsir is of two kinds:

The first kind: These are the known tafsirs in which, the meaning of the passages, words and sentences are expounded, explained and proven.

As for the second kind of tafsir: It is to expound, prove and explain with powerful proofs the haqiqahs of the Qur'an regarding îmân. This type of tafsir is of great importance. The tafsir of the first known kind may sometimes refer to this aspect in brief form. The Risale-i Nur, however; is a ma’nawî tafsir that takes directly this second kind as its basis, silencing obstinate philosophers in peerless fashion.

The Risale-i Nur, far from being a subjective theory or view, is a collection of works presented for the benefit of humanity which explains the haqiqahs of our holy book, the Qur'an, which is a guide for millions of people every century, rationally and objectively.

The Risale-i Nur is a tafsir with nûr of the Qur'an âyahs. It consists of proofs relating to the haqiqahs of îmân and tawhîd. It has been prepared for the understanding of every class of people and is equipped with the positive sciences that persuade even the most scrupulous. It addresses everyone from the lowest to the highest social class and compels the most obdurate philosopher to surrender.

The Risale-i Nur is a collection of the books of Nûr. It comprises one hundred and thirty works which are in the form of large and small risales. It provides complete answers to the needs of our time; satisfying both the mind and the heart. It is the ma’nawî - not literal - tafsir of the Qur'an this century.

It proves the matters of îmân! All questions that come to mind, the levels of îmân from the atom to the sun, the wahdah of Allah, the reality of nubuwwah. It proves them! From the spheres of the samâwât and the earth; to the topic of malâikah and rûh; to the haqiqah of time; to the occurrence of the resurrection and the âkhirah, to the essence of death and whether it is the source of eternal bliss or misery. By addressing the intellect, logic and mind, it proves with decisive evidence the questions pertaining to îmân. By encouraging positive science this masterpiece persuades the mind and the heart and removes doubts with more decisive proofs than those used in mathematics.

Biography (749-751)

 

Bediuzzaman Said Nursî was held in the village of Barla under constant and severe oppression and surveillance. The reason for his exile was to prevent the Islamic zeal in his rûh from erupting, silence him, prevent him from speaking and writing about îmân and Islam by taking him away from populated cities and throwing him to an isolated village, and prevent him from the jihad against irreligious people and from serving the Qur’an by keeping him inactive and unproductive. But Bediuzzaman was successful in doing completely contrary to their plans. He was never inactive and unproductive for even a moment; he wrote the Risale-i Nur that gives lessons on the haqiqahs of the Qur’an and îmân and ensured their dissemination in secret in a secluded place like Barla. This success and this triumph were magnificent victories because, during that terrible period of irreligion, not a single true religious work was allowed to be written; all ‘ulamâ were silenced and efforts were made to destroy them. The irreligious could not destroy Bediuzzaman; they were unable to prevent his dissemination of îmân and Islam that revived the numbed hearts and minds. This dissemination of religious works carried by Bediuzzaman was a work that no other person could have done during the twenty-five-year period of extreme oppression and absolute tyranny.

Bediuzzaman was exiled to Barla in the years 1925-1926. These years were the early period of implementation of absolute despotism in Turkey that would continue for twenty-five years. The covert irreligious committees were pushing for their plans to confiscate all copies of the Qur’an, eradicate them and destroy the Islamic rûh by repealing shaâ’er one by one. Thinking shaytanically that this plan could not be achieved, they devised a new plan that would result in the Qur’an being demolished by the hands of the future generation that would come thirty years later; they started to implement this plan. To destroy Islam, devastation and aggression unprecedented in history were carried out.

All efforts were made to break all kinds of ties between the Turkish nation and children of this country — who for six hundred years, challenged the whole world as a flag bearer of Al-Qur’an Al-Hakîm, rather for a thousand years since the Abbasids — and the Muslim identity in order to distance and deprive them of Islam, and they were indeed successful. This was not a particular event but a universal one concerning the entire Muslim world. It was a large-scale universal event concerning the îmân and belief of millions of people, especially the youths and the millions of innocents and students, and the catastrophe that would befall them in the world and âkhirah, and it was connected with the eternal lives of the people of Anatolia until the qiyâmah.

At that time, throughout those years, terrible revolutions and destructions against Islam and the Qur’an were carried out in the life of a heroic nation that, as testified by its thousand-year shining history, has held the highest exalted rank as the flag bearer of the Qur’an. The future generations and students were made to forget their honoured ancestors buried in history and the glorious past of the world’s most renowned army that spanned a thousand years of jihâd. The ground was being prepared for the communist regime by severing all their ties to the past and deceiving them with apparently glittering veiled words! In place of the most elevated principles of civilisation and the highest material and ma’nawî development already present in the haqiqahs of Islam, the covert communists, freemasons and irreligious were indoctrinating the principles devoid of nûr in the swamp of irreligious philosophy and the ideologies of intellectuals and philosophers devoid of virtue. These principles and ideologies were being taught on a very vast scale by using the education system. The main aim of the enemies of Islam, especially the British and the French, was to exploit and deteriorate the Islamic world from the material and ma’nawî aspects, and it was their plan to distance the heroic Turkish nation from any religious ties and bring Turkish nation to a state completely contrary to Islam regarding customs, traditions and morality. Unfortunately, these plans have already been put into action!

Thus, the years that Bediuzzaman Said Nursî began his Qur’anic service and his service for îmân in Anatolia with the Risale-i Nur as a hero of Islam striving self-sacrificingly were the beginning and establishment of an extremely terrible era of irreligion that had never been witnessed on earth before; therefore, it is necessary to keep such a terrifying time in mind when Bediuzzaman and his service with the Risale-i Nur are considered.

…

Yes, during that terrible time when irreligiousness was reigning, efforts were made to humiliate the people of religion. It was even considered to completely remove the Qur'an and destroy the aqîdah, as it happened in Russia. But when it was suggested that this would cause a backlash by the Islamic nation, they abandoned the plan and instead made the following decision: "The youth raised with our new methods of education that will be implemented in schools will demolish the Qur’an themselves; thereby all ties between the nation and Islam will be severed." The sources of all this terrible fitnah who devised these atrocious plans were the leaders and members of external irreligious currents, the antagonists and enemies of the current progress in religion.

…

During the most savage periods of such dhalâlah and zandaqa, Bediuzzaman Said Nursî was under constant surveillance and oppression and was under such horrible and burdensome conditions. All kinds of cruelties that Nimrods, Pharaohs, Shaddads and Yazids could not perpetrate were inflicted on Bediuzzaman, and it continued for twenty-five years. At that time, the world of Islam was materially poor and was held captive by the colonialists. All secret committees of corruption and irreligion were carrying out terrible activities both in Turkey and in the world of Islam. Their adherents were supporting them, and they were all united against Islam.

Thus the Risale-i Nur is the product of such a valuable time, just as the significance of the battles of Badr and Uhud at the Era of Bliss that were the key to Islam conquesting the world; therefore, the service of îmân, which the Risale-i Nur was the means of it, and the ma’nawî jihad of religion carried out by the Risale-i Nur are of greatness that has never been seen before in history except in the Era of Bliss. With the one hundred and thirty works of the Risale-i Nur he has written under captivity in such a terrible exile and isolation, Bediuzzaman, despite being helpless, speaks with eloquence in the masjîd of Anatolia and the world of Islam. He repeatedly echoes the lesson he has received from the Qur'an to the people of Islam. It is as if, on the top of the minaret of the fourteenth Muhammadan century and of the twentieth century AD, Bediuzzaman Said Nursî cries out to his contemporaries, humanity and the people of Islam, and he speaks to the future generations lined up behind this century as a great guide (murshid) and a grand mujaddid.

THE WRITING AND DISSEMINATION OF THE RISALE-I NUR

Bediuzzaman Said Nursî composed the Risale-i Nur under such difficult and fearsome conditions that he endured hardships no scholar in history has ever faced. Possessing an inexhaustible determination, a will and a love of service without being disheartened, he fearlessly and tirelessly spent all his energy with unparalleled patience, resilience and abnegation of the nafs. This culminated with his extraordinary work in writing the Risale-i Nur, which is presented as a perfect guide to illuminate and instruct the ‘âlam of Islam and humanity. It has and will always protect this nation and country from the dragon of communism, the calamity of masonry and irreligiousness. The writing of the Risale-i Nur, which consists of one hundred and thirty parts was finalised in twenty-three years.

Since the Nur Risales were written at a time of desperate need, every risale was the antidote and remedy that effectively cured the ma’nawî sicknesses of many people. Each person who reads the Risale-i Nur will find themselves engrossed in such a state of rûh in which they will study it with great longing and feeling their utter need for it as though that risale was written for themselves. Consequently, the works emerging served as bestowals of the Qur’anic haqiqahs that perfectly addressed the needs of all matters relating to îmân, Islam, the thought, rûh, heart and mind that would suffice for this age and ages to come. 

The Risale-i Nur is a true tafsir of Al-Qur’an Al-Hakîm. The tafsir is not in sequence of the âyah; it addresses the âyahs expounding the haqiqahs of îmân needed in this age.

There are two types of tafsirs: The first is a tafsir of the passage and words of the âyahs, while the other explains and proves the meaning and haqiqahs of the âyahs. According to the testimony and verification of thousands of people of tahqîq and analysis, the Risale-i Nur is the strongest, most valuable, most brilliant and the most superb of this second type.

This way in which the Risale-i Nur was written and disseminated has no like or equal in history. Bediuzzaman Said Nursî was not proficient in handwriting so that he could duplicate his writings. He was semi-literate in writing. For this reason, he would dictate with great speed to the actives who would hastily write it out. By spending one or two hours each day, masterpieces have been composed in ten, twelve and sometimes one or two hours.

Multiple copies of the works by Ustadh Bediuzzaman Said Nursî were handwritten by his Students, who passed it from one to another to make further hand copies, with the final finished work Brought back to its author, who would then correct the mistakes of the scribes. While making these emendations he would do so without reference to writings of the original work. Even now, when correcting a work he has written twenty- five or thirty years ago he would do so (purely from memory) without looking at the original.

The people from the surrounding towns and villages would receive these works with great interest and enthusiasm and would disseminate them with their own handwritten copies.

Ustadh Bediuzzaman Said Nursî did not have recourse to any book other than the Qur’an and he wrote the Nur Risales without having any book beside him.

The ideal expressed by the late Mehmet Akif in the following couplet was an accomplishment bestowed upon Bediuzzaman:

“receiving ilham directly from the Qur’an,

We should make this century’s comprehension speak of Islam”

The nature of the Risale-i Nur’s dissemination was unparallel in history. It was as follows:

Being charged with the duty of preserving the Que’anic letters it was imperative that the Risale-i Nur be written out in the Qur’anic alphabet. The Qur’anic alphabet had been banned and publishing houses in that alphabet were abolished. Bediuzzaman was poor and had no connection with any worldly possessions. He possessed neither money nor wealth. Those copying out the Risales by hand were also able to secure only their most basic needs. Scribes of the Risale-i Nur were arrested and taken to police stations. There, they would be subjected to torture and cruelty. This was a time when a climate of fear and intimidation was on the rise and when the devout and lovers of haqq lost their lives on the gallows merely because they were religious. Levelling unjust pressures and propaganda against Bediuzzaman by the hands of the government everywhere a climate of terror was being instilled. People were left so afraid they could not find the courage to even approach Ustadh or receive from him a lesson of religion and îmân.

Under this regime of extreme oppression and absolute tyranny, the people of religion were condemned to absolute silence. Neither was it permissible to a truthful treatise that spoke about religious truths nor was it permissible to teach those haqiqahs to the people. Thus, Islam was being made out to be a body without a rûh; to teach the nature of the Religion of Islam and its principles was absolutely prohibited…

…Bediuzzaman Said Nursî remained in Barla for a period of eight years. Most of his time would be spent in the countryside among orchards and gardens. He would retreat to the unfrequented mountains or orchards about two or three hours’ distance, and would write the Nur risales while also emending the duplicated copies of his work sent to him by the scribes in Isparta and its regions. Within a single day, he would be busy with emendation and travel distances of up to four to five hours by foot and allocate in the same day three to four hours to his writing. In most cases, he would also prepare his own meals.

During those times the early students yearning for the Risale-i Nur would be copying risales out by scribing in forty different places. Loading these books on his back, Ustadh would take them to the mountains, orchards and gardens, complete their emendations and return to his residence. Remaining in forced exile he was subject to the most extreme oppression of the time and was banned from having to see anybody. However, within these abject conditions, he reached an inexhaustible wealth. For he was writing out the truths of îmân resonating from the Qur’an that would illuminate and guide the ‘âlam of Islam and humanity, and was at the same time working for its dissemination. His sole preoccupation became his works (risales).

A day will come and these works will spread across Anatolia, reach the centres of the ‘âlam of Islam and attract the gazes of the people of politics, shatter the ideologies of irreligion and kufr, which were intended to be implanted within a nation that for centuries was the flag bearer of the ‘âlam of Islam and serve as a barrier against the invasion of this country by the currents of the people of kufr, the people of dissipation and the people of dhalâlah, which consist of the ma’nawî collective personality of the taghûts of dhalâlah. They will be the means of the procurement of eternal salvation and happiness for future generations.

Thus, Bediuzzaman was the happiest man in the world and the most fortunate man of his age since, with the permission of Allah and through the disposal of Ar-Rabb, he prepared the grounds for a most magnificent event in history and carried out a duty with such sacred significance. There had been no change or alteration in his attire, purpose or ideals; he was never shaken, even in the minutest way. On the contrary, he carried the torch of hidâyah that would restore the beliefs of the present world and dispel the darkness. He was in a great struggle with determination because his duty and service comprised the happiness and prosperity of all humanity in both worlds.

…

 

Biography 152-166