بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَ الصَّلاَةُ وَ السَّلاَمُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَ عَلَى آلِهِ وَ صَحْبِهِ اَجْمَعِينَ
THE PRINCIPLE OF THE DUTY OF THE TABLÎGH AND DISSEMINATION - 1
(Please refer to The Principle To Not Interfere In The Duty of Allah)
Firmness without compromising and earnestness of our Prophet (asm) in tablîgh:
1) “Thirteenth Principle: And he proclaims the soundness of the injunctions which he does tablîgh with such confidence and sureness and invites that, if the whole world have gathered, they could not have made him revoke or abjure a single of those injunctions. Witness to this are all his life and his illustrious biography.
Fourteenth Principle: And he calls and does tablîgh with such confidence and trust that he does not become indebted to anyone and no difficulty can make him anxious; with complete sincerity and honesty, he accepted before anyone the injunctions he had brought, and acted accordingly, and proclaimed them. And witness to this was his famous asceticism and istighnâ, and his never stooping to the ephemeral glitter of this world, which were well-known by everyone, friends and foes.” The Nineteenth Letter-19th Subtle Sign
2) “In his tablîgh of his messengership and his inviting (da’wah) of humanity to the haqq, he displayed such steadfastness, firmness and courage that although great states and religions, and even his own people, tribe and uncle opposed him in the most hostile fashion, he exhibited not the slightest trace of hesitation anxiety or fear; and that he successfully challenged the whole world and made Islam the master of the world likewise proves that in tablîgh and in da’wah he has never been matched, nor will he ever be.” The Rays ( 152 )
3) “He invited (da’wah) people to religion with such steadfastness and did tablîgh his messengership with such boldness that although his people, his uncle, the great powers of the world, and the followers of the former religions were all opposed and hostile to him, he did not fear or hold back even a jot, but challenged them all and successfully accomplished his task. This too was an unequalled attribute.” The Rays ( 593 )
The uncompromising endeavour of our Prophet in his tablîgh, who is attributed with the attribute of the ‘Universal Leader’ which expresses the meaning of being the model of all mu’mins:
4) “Whereas by taking the decree of Allahوَمَا عَلَى الرَّسُولِ اِلاَّ الْبَلاَغُ1 as his absolute guide, Ar-Rasûl Al-Akram ‘Alayhissalâtu Wassalâm, who is the absolute ustadh, universal leader and perfect guide, performed tablîgh with greater effort, zeal and seriousness when people held back and did not listen because, through the mystery of the âyah اِنَّكَ لاَ تَهْدِى مَنْ اَحْبَبْتَ وَلٰكِنَّ اللهَ يَهْدِى مَنْ يَشَۤاءُ2 , he understood that making people listen and bestowing hidâyah on them is the duty of Janâb-i Haqq. And he did not interfere in Janâb-i Haqq's duty.” The Seventeenth Flash/Thirteenth Note
Tablîgh is a duty:
5) “The way of the Risale-i Nur is: It performs its duty and does not interfere with the duty of Janâb-i Haqq. Its duty is tablîgh. To make it accepted is the duty of Janâb-i Haqq.” Kastamonu Addendum (284)
Tablîgh to the people who feel their need:
6) “The Risale-i Nur does not seek customers; the customers have to seek it out and beseech for it.” Emirdağ Addendum (219)
7) “Also the Risale-i Nur does not seek for customers; rather, feeling their true need, its customers have to seek out the Risale-i Nur so that it may heal their wounds.” Emirdağ Addendum (254)
8) “The Nur Students do not feel compelled to seek customers and supporters to themselves; they say: “Our duty is service. We do not seek customers; let them come and seek us out and find us. They attach no importance to quantity. They prefer one person with true ikhlas over a hundred people without it.” Emirdağ Addendum-2 (170)
9) “The haqiqahs of îmân that I have written have been directly addressed to my own nafs. I do not invite everyone to it. It is rather those whose rûhs are in need and whose hearts are wounded that seek and find those Qur’anic remedies.” The Letters (93)
10) “The letters sent by our brother Hasan Atif who has been seriously active in Sandikli area with complete enthusiasm, have given me the impression that some hojas are using certain members of tarîqah to secretly stop his activities and cause disheartenment. Whereas, our way is to act positively. Let alone dispute with others, our way bans us from even engaging our minds with them. Moreover, we are not obliged to seek customers, customers should beseech with us.” Kastamonu Addendum (265-266)
11) “Question: Since you rely on the Qur'an's assistance to reform and guide (irshad) the most obstinate and obdurate of the irreligious through the Qur'an's faydh and nûr. You also actively do. Why do you not invite those transgressive people that are near you and guide (irshad) them?
The Answer: An important principle of the Sharî'ah is اَلرَّاضِى بِالضَّرَرِ لاَ يُنْظَرُ لَهُ . That is, “one who knowingly consents to harm may not be pitied and not be looked upon favourably.” Thus, relying on the strength of Al-Qur'an Al-Hakîm, I claim that “On condition, he is not utterly vile and does not enjoy spreading the poison of dhalâlah like a snake, I am ready to silence the most obdurate irreligious person in a few hours even if I do not convince them. However, to speak of haqiqahs to snakes in human form that have reached such a degree of nifâq that knowingly exchange the diamonds of haqiqah for vile and harmful fragments of glass, and speaking to them, to a conscience which has fallen to infinitely lowest degree of baseness that knowingly sells religion to the world is to be disrespectful to those haqiqahs. It becomes like the proverb كَتَعْلِيقِ الدُّرَرِ فِى اَعْنَاقِ الْبَقَرِ3 For those who do these things have several times heard the haqiqah from the Risale-i Nur, and they knowingly try to refute its haqiqahs before the dhalâlahs of zandaqa. Such people receive pleasure from poison like snakes.” The Twenty-Eighth Letter/The Fourth Matter-3rd Point
12) “This âyah لاَ يَضُرُّكُمْ مَنْ ضَلَّ اِذَا اهْتَدَيْتُمْ and an important principle of the fundamentals of Islam which is اَلرَّاضِى بِالضَّرَرِ لاَ يُنْظَرُ لَهُ that is, “the dhalâlah of others cannot harm your hidâyah. So long as you do not unnecessarily busy yourself with their dhalâlah.” The meaning of the principle is “one who consents to harm willingly may not be looked upon favourably and he may not be pitied with compassion.” Since this âyah and this principle forbid us to pity those who knowingly consent to harm; we should confine our time with all our strength and curiosity to the sacred duty. We should deem everything outside of it as trivial and not destroy our time on such things.” Emirdağ Addendum (59)
The importance of dissemination of the Risale-i Nur and encouragements for the service of it:
13) “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 al-‘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 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.” Biography (169-170)
Participating in the service of tablîgh through helping the dissemination:
14) “The most important duty of someone who associated with the Risale-i Nur is to scribe it or encourage others to do the same and to assist in its dissemination. Those who scribe it and encourage others to do the same will receive the title of “Risale-i Nur Student”. And through that title, in every twenty four hour period, they will share in the ma’nawî gains of the thousands of valuable brothers who make du'â like myself, and the du'â and ma’nawî gains of all the Risale-i Nur students.
Also, in four ways they will receive the many benefits of scribing which are like four types of acceptable ‘ibâdah. That is, by strengthening îmân, striving to protect the îmân of others from danger, and according to the rule of the hadith that sometimes one hour of tafakkur is like performing a year of ‘ibâdah, they will gain and assist in achieving a tafakkur relating to îmân, by assisting their Ustadh who lacks good handwriting and is faced with difficult conditions they will share in his good deeds. I solemnly swear, that the person who willingly writes out a small risale for himself, will have as though given me a great gift. Rather, even a page of it will please me as though having received a kilo of sugar.” Kastamonu Addendum (31-32)
15) “The sacrifices made in spreading the Risale-i Nur by those blessed women and made valuable and sincere sisters of the âkhirah have made me and all of us cry with utter joy.”Kastamonu Addendum (107)
The service of dissemination and tablîgh which is performing through publication by not seeking the recipient and spreads widely with utmost sincerity is the duty that mostly encouraged to:
16) “During these years of the Risale-i Nur’s dissemination through handwritten copies, there were people who had been writing and disseminating the Risale-i Nur for seven to eight years without leaving their homes. It was these times in which the thousands of Nur students in the vicinity of Isparta, the men and women, young and old, in fact, the whole village of Sav, which was a Nur darshane in itself, duplicated copies of the Risale-i Nur with a thousand pens for years. (Twenty years after writing, the Risale-i Nur was published with duplicating machines and was printed in publishing houses thirty-five years later. Inshaallah a time will come when the Risale-i Nur collection will be written in gold and be broadcast in different languages, transforming the face of the globe into a vast Nur darshane.)
The blessed women were also honoured to make significant sacrifices in the dissemination of the Risale-i Nur. There were, in fact, some heroic women who came to Hazrat Ustadh saying: "Oh Ustadh! I will try and take on the burden of the worldly affairs under my husband's care. Let him be yours, he is for the Risale-i Nur" and offered greater opportunities for their husbands to work in the service of the Risale-i Nur. With every bit of effort, they would share in the service of religion and îmân engaged by their husbands, by holding the candlelight while their husband's scribed the Risale-i Nur at nights. Women and the girls demonstrated self-sacrificing efforts to write out copies of the Risale-i Nur by hand and as blessed scribes performed great service to further the cause of îmân.”Biography (172)
Qadar corroborates dissemination and publication of the Risale-i Nur through the events:
17) "The Risale-i Nur is an important cause to repel the calamities over this land of Anatolia. Just as sadaqa repels calamities; it is evident after many signs and many events that as a type of universal sadaqa, the spread and reading of the Nur repel samâwî and earthly calamities. This has, in fact, been established with the indications of the Quran. And having four earthquakes started during the same time the Risale-i Nur's writing and dissemination were forbidden, and their having stopped after its dissemination and with its reading widely across Anatolia, and its being a means of preventing the Second World War from entering Anatolia as indicated to by Surah وَ الْعَصْرِ, this comprehensive ma’nawî sadaqa, which is a means to repel disasters, could not resist since, during this drought which has been going on for two months, while we were expecting the Risale-i Nur being disseminated and read with complete freedom after the court acquitted the Risale-i Nur and the Appeals Court reaffirmed its conclusion about the benefits to this nation, in a totally contrary manner, it has instead prohibited and the risales held by the court have not returned to their owners and we were prohibited to speak from this aspect; as a result of our sin, the drought began." The Emirdağ Addendum-1 (32)
18) “I was indeed happy at your letters, this time cheerful and nice, about the Risale-i Nur’s being unrestricted and spreading by means of the printing press; nevertheless, heroic Tahiri’s coming here to work at this important matter caused me to look to the world. I said from the heart: “Since my brothers want this so much, we’ll search for a solution.” Emirdağ Addendum (96)
The importance of the service of dissemination and publication, that is to deliver those who are in need:
19) “5 يُوزَنُ مِدَادُ الْعُلَمَاءِ بِدِمَاءِ الشُّهَدَاءِ
مَنْ تَمَسَّكَ بِسُنَّتِى عِنْدَ فَسَادِ اُمَّتِى فَلَهُ اَجْرُ مِاَةِ شَهِيدٍ6
Through the ilham which is taken from these two Noble Hadiths, I am declaring only a few of the numerous benefits in this world and the âkhirah of writing out the Risale-i Nur, which are mentioned in it and have been affirmed by the experiences of its students.
Five Sorts of ‘Ibâdah
1. Performing jihâd against the people of dhalâlah in a ma’nawî manner, which is the most important performance of jihâd.
2. Serving their Ustadh by assisting him in the dissemination of the haqiqah.
3. Serving the Muslim with regard to îmân.
4. Acquiring ‘ilm through the pen.
5. Performing ‘ibâdah of tafakkur, one hour of which may sometimes be the equivalent of a year’s ‘ibâdah.” Emirdağ Addendum (186)
20) “The characteristic and condition of a student are these: To feel and to stand forth as a protector as though the Words are his own property, and is a work composed by himself, and to consider that the most important duty of his life is the dissemination and service of them.”The Twenty-Sixth Letter/Fourth Topic/Tenth Matter
21) “Your duty continues. Inshaallah through commentary and expounding, completion and notes, and dissemination and teaching, rather with writing the Twenty-fifth and Thirty-second Letters, completing the Nine Stations of the Ninth Ray, and arranging, organising, explaining and emending the Risale-i Nur – your duty will continue.” Kastamonu Addendum (65)
In accordance with the following explanation in the same page of the Kastamonu Addendum, the duty of “commentary and expounding” in the above part can be performed through compiling the parts concerning the matter from the Risale-i Nur but not by using the previous personal knowledge.
“The Risale-i Nur can be a perfect source for you. And for each of the pillars of îmân; for instance, if various parts in the risales about the Qur’an being the kalâm of Allah and the points relating to its miraculousness are compiled, or the different proofs about the resurrection and so on, are collated… they can be an explanation, a note and a commentary that is perfect in every way. It is my belief that the Risale-i Nur encompasses the exalted haqiqahs of îmân entirely; it leaves no need to seek them in other places.” Kastamonu Addendum (65)
Not abandoning the service of dissemination under the hard circumstances of the livelihood:
22) “Due to profiteering, the urge for this life and living have predominated over religious feelings, making people continually concerned about their stomachs and their livelihood. In fact, due to the struggle required to put up with this calamity, the Risale-i Nur students, who are mostly from the poor class, are compelled to leave their true and most important duties which is the service of dissemination.” Kastamonu Addendum (217)
23)“A student of the Risale-i Nur said that one of the reasons he was unable to work for the Risale-i Nur was due to his increased struggle for livelihood.
So we told him: The reason why the struggle for your livelihood has intensified is because you are not working for the Risale-i Nur. Because every student in this region admits and I too say that: As we work for the Risale-i Nur, we experience ease in life, contentment in the heart and facility in livelihood.” Kastamonu Addendum (149-150)
24) “The Risale-i Nur’s champion Husrev wants seriously and sincerely to become ill and die in my place. So I say: the present is the time for disseminating and spreading the Risale-i Nur, not for composing it. However much more beneficial your writing is than my writing, and your publishing and dissemination, to that extend your life is more useful for the Risale-i Nur’s service than my torturous life. If I had the power, I would happily give you my life and health.” Emirdağ Addendum (133)
Becoming legal in publishment of Risale-i Nur:
25) “This country’s patriotic politician should come quickly to their senses and should print and publish the Risale-i Nur officially, so that it may shield those two calamities.
If it was not for the Risale-i Nur so powerfully spreading tahqîqî îmân in this country these last twenty years, in this terrifying age, amidst bizarre revolutions and explosions would this blessed country have been able to preserve its Qur’an and îmân from the terrible blows?” Emirdağ Addendum (111-112)
Utmost firmness without compromising in tablîgh:
26) “اَلْعُلَمَاءُ وَرَثَةُ اْلاَنْبِيَاءِThe meaning of this hadith is: “The ‘Ulamâ are the heirs of the Prophets”. The noble Prophet expresses with great eloquence that being an ‘âlim is no easy matter.
For an ‘âlim is heir to the Prophets; therefore in regard to tablîgh and spreading the haqq and haqiqah they must adhere exactly to their ways. No matter what kind of boulder, mountain, swamps or abyss; or worse: surveillance, arrest, trials, jail, dungeons, exile, persecution, isolation, poisoning, execution; and the many other unimaginable forms of dhulm and torment this path may bring.
Bediuzzaman was such that, he walked this difficult road with his sacred jihâd for more than half a century, and overcame the thousands of obstacles he confronted. He was proven through his actions that he is an ‘âlim, a true heir of the Prophets.” Biography (13-14)
27) “At such a devastating time, the like of which has never been witnessed in history, hundreds of ‘Ulamâ were frightened to speak, and religious publications were banned and even though it was their duty to preach and tablîgh the haqiqahs of the Qur’an, religious scholars were forcefully prevented from performing their duties and they were being exterminated. While this cunning plans to destroy the Qur’an, îmân and Islam were being carried out and when the kufr al-mutlaq and irreligious currents were at their most fearsome state, Bediuzzaman Said Nursî emerged and carried out the religious jihâd, and served as self-sacrificing and fearless defender and protector of the Qur’an, îmân and Islam.
Bediuzzaman did not only stand against nations and countries, he single-handedly challenged and continues to challenge the Pharaoh of not only one area, but all Europe's irreligion. He is spreading the Qur’anic haqiqahs under extreme dhulm and absolute tyranny. He says “Our duty is to work. To defeat us or make us victors, and to make others accept the Nur is entirely up to Janâb-i Haqq. We do not interfere with Allah’s duty.” He experienced the greatest level of dhulm and torment, he had gendarme and police posted at his door to prevent him from going to Jum’a salâh, and all of these disastrous states were being contained under strict secrecy so that nobody would hear about it.” Biography (760-761)
سُبْحَانَكَ لاَ عِلْمَ لَنَا اِلاَّ مَا عَلَّمْتَنَا اِنَّكَ اَنْتَ الْعَلِيمُ الْحَكِيمُ
1 (No more is the Prophet bound to do than deliver the message.)
2 (It is true you will not be able to bestow hidâyah on everyone whom you love, but Allah bestows hidâyah on those whom He wills.)
3 (Casting pearls before swine.)
5 (The ink of the ‘ulamâ will weigh equally to the blood of the shahîds.)
6 (Whoever adheres to my Sunnah when my ummah is corrupted, will receive the reward of a hundred shahîds.)