97-105

The Fifth Word: The lesson I have received from the mutual consultation (mashwarah) conforming to Sharî'ah is this: in this age, one sin of one person does not remain as one; it sometimes grows, spreads and becomes a hundred sins. And sometimes, one good deed does not remain as one but rather multiplies into thousands. The mystery of the hikmah of this is as follows:

The freedom described in Sharî'ah and the mutual consultation (mashwarah) conforming to Sharî'ah have demonstrated the dominance of our true nationhood. As for the foundation and rûh of our true nationhood, it is Islam. And regarding the Ottoman Khilâfah and the Turkish army being the flagbearers of the nationhood of Islam, the two true brothers, Arabs and Turks, are the shell and fortress of the nationhood of Islam and the guards of that sacred fortress.

Thus, through the bond of this sacred nationhood, all the people of Islam become a single tribe. Like the members of a tribe, the nations of Islam are bound and connected through Islamic brotherhood (ukhuwwah). They assist one another in a ma’nawî manner, and when there is a need, they assist materially. It is as if all the nations of Islam are bound to each other with a luminous chain. Just as, if a member of a tribe commits a crime, all its members are accused in the eyes of another enemy tribe. The enemy tribe becomes the enemy of all of them; it is as if each member of the tribe had committed the crime. That single crime becomes thousands of crimes. However, when a member of the tribe performs a good act, which is the cause of pride and is connected to the value of the tribe, all its members take pride in it. Each person in the tribe takes pride in it; it is as if he performed that good deed.

It is because of this haqiqah that at this time, and particularly forty to fifty years1 later, evil and bad deeds will not remain with the perpetrator; rather, those evil and bad deeds will be transgressions against the rights of millions of Muslims. Numerous examples of this will be seen forty to fifty years later.

O brothers who are listening to these words of mine here in the Umayyad Masjîd! And O Muslim brothers in the masjîd of the world of Islam forty to fifty years later! Do not make excuses by saying, "We do no harm, but we do not have the power to give benefit; therefore, we are excused." Such an excuse will not be accepted. Your laziness and displaying no effort by saying, "What is it to me?" and your failure to display a spirit of energy through Islamic unity and true Islamic nationhood are the grievous harm you cause, and it is injustice.

Just as bad deeds rise to thousands in this way, so too do good deeds, which are good acts that are connected with the sacredness of Islam, at this time not remain restricted to the one who performs them. Indeed, such good deeds may give ma’nawî benefits to millions of mu’mins and may strengthen the bonds of their ma’nawî and material life. Therefore, this is not the time to throw yourselves on the bed of laziness by saying, "What is it to me?"

O my brothers here in this masjîd and my brothers forty to fifty years later in the mighty masjîd of the world of Islam! Do not suppose that I have come to this esteemed position of delivering lessons to give you advice; rather, I have come here to claim our rights from you. That is to say, the benefit and happiness in this world and the âkhirah of small nations, like the Kurds, are bound to Ustadhs, who are rulers, such as you, the Arabs and the Turks, who are great and esteemed nations. We, the Muslim nations, who are your helpless younger brothers, are harmed due to your inaction and indifference.

Especially, O esteemed and great Arabs, who have either been awakened or will be! First and foremost, I speak with you with these words because you were the Ustadhs and Imams for us and all the nations of Islam, and you were the mujâhidîn of Islam. Then, the esteemed Turkish nation assisted you in your sacred duty.

Therefore, your inaction is a great sin, and your good acts and deeds are also great and exalted. In particular, forty to fifty years later, we await with great expectation from the rahmah of Allah that the Arab nations will succeed in taking an exalted position, like the federal government system of America, and re-establishing Islamic rule, akin to previous eras, across half the globe of the earth and, indeed, throughout most of the world that is currently under captivity. If the qiyâmah does not erupt soon, the coming generation shall see it, InshâAllah.   

Beware, my brothers! Do not think or imagine that with these words of mine, I am urging you to spend your endeavour on politics. Hâshâ! The haqiqah of Islam is above all forms of politics. All politics can only be its servants. No form of politics has any right to make Islam a tool for itself.

With my flawed understanding, I envision the Islamic society of this time as a factory with various wheels and machines. If any wheel of the factory lags behind or encroaches on another wheel, its fellow, the entire function and movement of the machine will be broken. Therefore, the right time is beginning for Islamic Unity. It is necessary not to focus on each other's personal faults.

I also say this to you with regret and sadness: just as certain foreigners have taken our valuable possessions and countries from us and have given us a rotten price in return. So too, they have taken from us our elevated moral values and part of our fine qualities that arise from our elevated moral values and are connected with social life, and they have made them the means of their progress. And it is their dissipated immorality and dissipated qualities that they have given us as a price for them.

For example, through the fine quality of nationalism that they have taken from us, a man from among them says, "If I die, let my nation live, for I have an everlasting life in my nation." They have taken these words from us, and it is the firmest foundation of their progress. They stole them from us. As for these words, they arise from the haqq religion and the haqiqahs of îmân. They are our property, the property of the mu’mins. However, because of the filthy and bad qualities of the foreigners that infiltrated us, a selfish man from among us says, "If I die of thirst, let it not rain again anywhere in the world. If I do not experience happiness, let the world go to rack and ruin as it wishes." These foolish words arise from irreligion and from not knowing the âkhirah. They have entered among us from outside and are poisoning us. Furthermore, through the idea of nationhood, which those foreigners took from us, an individual among them becomes as valuable as a nation because the value of a man is in proportion to his endeavour. A man whose endeavour is his nation is a small nation on his own.

A thousand men become one man due to the carelessness of some of us, our adopting the damaging qualities of foreigners, and, despite our strong and sacred Islamic nationhood, everyone saying, "Me! Me!" and considering personal benefits, not the nation's benefits.

مَنْ كَانَ هِمَّتُهُ نَفْسُهُ فَلَيْسَ مِنَ اْلاِنْسَانِ ِلاَنَّهُ مَدَنِىٌّ بِالطَّبْعِ

That is, a man whose endeavour is limited to himself is not a human being because the fitrah of human beings is civilised. Man is compelled to consider his fellow humans. His personal life can only continue through the social life. For example, how many hands is he in need of to eat one loaf of bread, and in return for it, how many hands does he kiss in a ma’nawî manner? And how many factories is he connected to due to the clothes he wears? You compare! Since he cannot live with fur like an animal, he is connected by fitrah to his fellow humans and compelled to pay them a ma’nawî price. Therefore, by his fitrah, he maintains civilisation. One who confines his view to his personal benefits loses his humanity and becomes a cruel animal lacking all innocence. If it is not in his power to do anything, or he has a genuine excuse, that is an exception!

The Sixth Word: The key to the happiness of Muslims in the social life of Islam is the mutual consultation (mashwarah) that conforms to Sharî’ah. The noble âyah,

وَ اَمْرُهُمْ شُورَى بَيْنَهُمْ2

orders the Council (Shûrâ) as a fundamental principle. Just as in mankind, the mutual consultation (mashwarah) of the ages and centuries via history, which is called

تلاحق الأفكار ,3

formed the foundation of man's progress and sciences, so too one reason for the backwardness of Asia, the largest continent, was the failure to practice the true Council (Shûrâ).

The key and resolver of the continent of Asia and its future is the Council (Shûrâ). That is to say, just as individuals consult with one another, nations and continents must also practice this consultation. Because it is the mutual consultation (mashwarah) conforming to Sharî’ah and the freedom of the Sharî’ah born of the bravery, ingenuity and compassion arising from îmân that will loosen and remove the shackles and chains of the various forms of oppression fastened to the feet of three hundred, or rather, four hundred million Muslims. The freedom of Sharî’ah is to be adorned with the âdâb of Sharî’ah and to throw away the evils of dissipated western civilisation.

The freedom of Sharî’ah arising from îmân commands two principles:

اَنْ لاَ يُذَلِّلَ وَ لاَ يَتَذَلَّلَمَنْ كَانَ عَبْدًا لِلّٰهِ لاَ يَكُونُ عَبْدًا لِلْعِبَادِ لاَ يَجْعَلْ بَعْضُكُمْ بَعْضًا

اَرْبَابًا مِنْ دُونِ اللّٰهِ نَعَمْ اَلْحُرِّيَّةُ الشَّرْعِيَّةُ عَطِيَّةُ الرَّحْمٰنِ

That is, îmân necessitates not insulting others and making them fall into abasement through oppression and despotism, and not being humiliated by dhâlims. One who is truly an ‘abd of Allah cannot be an ‘abd to others. Do not take each other as your Rabb other than Allah! That is, one who does not acknowledge Allah will assign a rubûbiyyah to everything and everyone in proportion to their degree, and as a result, he will be dominated and overpowered by all.

Yes, the freedom of Sharî’ah is Janâb-i Haqq’s bounty through the manifestation of His names Rahmân and Rahîm and is a characteristic of îmân.

فَلْيَحْيَا الصِّدْقُ وَلاَ عَاشَ الْيَاْسُ فَلْتَدُومِ الْمُحَبَّةُ وَلْتَقْوَى الشُّورَى وَالْمَلاَمُ عَلَى مَنِ اتَّبَعَ الْهَوَى وَالسَّلاَمُ عَلَى مَنِ اتَّبَعَ الْهُدَى

Long live Sidq! Death to despair! Let love persist! Let the Council (Shûrâ) find strength! May all the blame and reproach be on those who follow their nafs and the desires of their nafs! May salâm and salâmât be on those who follow the way of Allah! Âmîn.

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At the beginning of the Freedom4, I joined Sultan Reşad's journey to Rumelia on behalf of the Eastern Provinces. On the train, we had a discussion with two friends who were educated and versed in the sciences. They asked me, "Is religious zeal or national zeal more powerful and necessary?" I said:

For us Muslims, religion and nationhood, in essence, are united. There is an imaginary and apparent difference between them, not in their essence. Rather, religion is the life and rûh of the nationhood. When they are seen as different and separate from each other, religious zeal encompasses both the common people and the upper classes, whereas national zeal remains individual among one person out of a hundred, who sacrifices his personal benefits for the nation. So, religious zeal must be the basis of common rights. National zeal must be its servant, power and fortress.

Especially, we, the people of the East, are not like those of the West. Among us, the sense of religion rules over our hearts. Azalî Qadar sending most of the prophets to the East indicates that only the sense of religion awakens the East and directs it to progress. A decisive proof of this is the era of Bliss and the age of Tâbi’în.

O my classmates in this travelling madrasa called a train, who asked me which one should be given more importance, religious zeal or national zeal! And now, all students who are travelling with us towards the future by the train of time! I say the following to you as well:

Among the Turks and Arabs, religious zeal and Islamic nationhood have completely blended with each other and have become inseparable. Islamic zeal is the strongest and firmest luminous chain, which came from the ‘arsh. It is an unbreakable and firm handhold5. It is a sacred fortress that cannot be destroyed or defeated.

When I said this to those two enlightened school teachers, they said to me, "What is your evidence for this? For this great claim, great proof and powerful evidence are necessary. What is the evidence?" Suddenly, our train emerged from a tunnel. We stuck our heads out of the window and looked. We saw a child, not yet six years old, standing right next to the railway line where the train was about to pass. I said to my two teacher friends:

Look, this child is perfectly answering our question with the language of his being. Let the innocent child be our ustadh in our travelling madrasa instead of me. Here, the language of his being is stating the following haqiqah:

Look! The minute this beast emerges out of its hole, the tunnel, and onslaughts with its fearful roars and shrieking, the child is standing only a metre away from the way it will pass. The beast is threatening with its overwhelming attack and roars. Although it is saying, "Anything in my way better watch out!" the innocent child is standing on its way. With perfect freedom, wondrous courage and heroism, he gives no importance at all to its threats. He has contempt for the beast’s onslaught and says with his mini-heroism, "Hey train, you cannot scare me with your thunderous roars!"

It is as if he is saying, through the language of being of his steadfastness and firmness, "Hey train, you're the slave of an orderly system! Your bridle and rein are in the hands of the one who is driving you. You cannot dare to attack me. You cannot subdue me with your despotism. Go on your way! Follow your way with the permission of your commander!'"

Thus, O my friends in this train and my brothers who are studying sciences fifty years later! By traversing time, suppose that, in place of the innocent child, Rustam of Iran and Hercules of Greece are here with their wondrous heroism. Since, at their time, there were no trains, of course, they would not have the belief that trains move according to an orderly system. How those two heroes will be terrified and flee due to the terrible, threatening attack of the train that suddenly emerges out of this hole, the tunnel, with fire on its head and lightning in its eyes, the breath of which is like thunder and runs to the side of Rustam and Hercules! Despite their wondrous courage, they will run more than a thousand metres.

Look! How their freedom and courage dissolve in the face of the beast’s threat! They have no choice but to flee beecause they do not realise that it is an obedient mount since they do not believe in its commander and orderly system. Rather, they imagine it to be a sort of lion with twenty terrifying and rapacious lions the size of waggons attached to its rear.

O my brothers and my friends who are listening to these words after fifty years! What gives the child, not yet six years old, greater freedom and courage than those two heroes, and fearlessness and confidence far exceeding those two heroes, is his belief, trust and îmân — which is a seed of haqiqah in that innocent child's heart — in the orderly system of the train, its reins being in the hands of a commander, its movement being regulated and in someone driving it on his own account. And, what terrifies those two heroes and enslaves their consciences to wahm is their ignorant disbelief, which is not knowing the commander of the train and not believing in its orderly system.

In this comparison, as a qonsequence of the îmân and belief settled in the heart of a number of tribes (Turks and the nation became Turk) from among the Islamic nations for a thousand years, like the heroism arising from the innocent child's îmân, foremost the Turks and Arabs, and all the Muslim tribes, who, against nations and states on the face of the earth that are a hundred times more than them, raised the flag of Islam and ma’nawî perfections in Asia, Africa and half Europe with the heroism arising from their îmân, and who meet the death with a smile by saying, "If I die, I shall be a shahîd; if I kill, I shall be a ghazi", and who resist against the contunious hostile events in the world and the threats of that fearsome trains, from microbes, even, to comets, which are enemies to man's comprehensive disposition, and do not fear of them with the heroism of îmân, and who, instead of terror and fright, took lessons, gained hikmah and a kind of worldly happiness through submission to qadar and qadhâ of Allah, have displayed a wondrous ma’nawî heroism like that innocent child. It demonstrates that the absolute ruler of the future in this world is the nation of Islam as well as in the âkhirah.

The cause of the extremely strange fear, anxiety and pain of those two wondrous heroes in the two comparisons was their disbelief, ignorance and dhalâlah. A haqiqah that the Risale-i Nur proves with hundreds of proofs: One or two examples of it were declared in the Introduction of this risale, which are as follows:

Kufr and dhalâlah show the whole universe as thousands of series and groups of terrible enemies to the people of dhalâlah. The Introduction of this risale demonstrates that kufr and dhalâlah show that thousands of different enemies, from the solar system to tubercular microbes in the heart, are attacking helpless mankind with the hands of blind force, aimless coincidence and deaf nature. It demonstrates that kufr and dhalâlah are a zaqqûm-tree of Jahannam and put those who carry them into a Jahannam in this world, too, since they continuously give fear, pain, terror and anxiety to man's comprehensive essence and disposition, his endless needs and infinite desires, and like the heroism of Rustam and Hercules, thousands of science and human progress outside religion and îmân are worth nothing; they only inject drunkenness and dissipation in order to numb the senses and not temporarily feel those grievous fears.

Thus, just as the comparison of îmân and kufr yields fruits and results like Jannah and Jahannam in the âkhirah, so îmân ensures a ma’nawî Jannah in this world and transforms death into a demobilisation, and in this world, too, kufr is a ma’nawî Jahannam; it destroys the true happiness of mankind and transforms the essence of death to eternal extinction. We refer it to the hundreds of definite proofs of the Risale-i Nur, which rely on cognition and witnessing (shuhûd), and cut short the discussion here.

If you wish to see the haqiqah of this comparison, raise your head and look at the universe. Look and see! Like that train, how many balloons, cars, aeroplanes, and ships of the land and sea there are... the globes of the stars, the planets of the universe, the chains of events and successive occurrences that Azalî Qoudrah creates with order, regularity and hikmah on land and sea and in space. Anyone who has intelligence confirms that, like the existence of these beings and events in the ‘âlam ash-shahâdah and the physical universe, there are even more wondrous similars of the chains of those beings and events created by Azalî Qoudrah in the ma’nawî ‘âlam; anyone who possesses eyes can see most of them.

Thus, all these material and ma’nawî chains of events and beings in the universe attack, threaten and frighten the people of dhalâlah lacking îmân; they destroy their ma’nawî strength. Whereas, for the people of îmân, rather than threatening and frightening them, they give them joy, happiness, familiarity, hope and strength. Because the people of îmân see through îmân that a Sâni’, Who is Hakîm, Who employs those infinite chains of events and beings, material and ma’nawî trains, travelling universes in different duties within the sphere of perfect order, regularity and hikmah, makes them work. They do not make a single mistake in their duties; they cannot transgress against one another. Îmân makes them see that those beings and events are the places of manifestation for the perfections of art and the reflection of beauty in the universe; it gives ma’nawî strength to their hand and shows a sample of eternal happiness.

Thus, nothing, not any science, not any human progress, can ensure ma’nawî strength and give solace in the face of the ghastly pains and fears of the people of dhalâlah that arise from lacking îmân. They destroy their courage. But ghaflah temporarily draws a veil and deceives them.

The people of îmân, as a consequence of their îmân, look at them not with fear and with broken ma’nawî strength but through the haqiqah in îmân and with extraordinary ma’nawî strength and firmness, like the innocent child in the comparison. They witness the arrangement and control of a Sâni’, Who is Hakîm, within the sphere of hikmah and are saved from wahm and fears. They understand and say, "Without the command and permission of As-Sâni’, Who is Hakîm, these travelling universes cannot move or attack." With perfect confidence, they are honoured with happiness in the life of this world, too, according to their degree. The one in whose heart and conscience this seed of haqiqah arising from îmân and haqq religion is not present and is not his point of support, his courage and ma’nawî strength will be destroyed and his conscience will decay as Rustam and Hercules' courage and heroism crumbled in the comparison. He will be the slave of the events in the universe. He will descend into being a trembling beggar before everything.

Since, with hundreds of decisive proofs, the Risale-i Nur has proven the mystery of this haqiqah of îman and the terrible wretchedness in this world that dhalâlah brings, we shall cut short this long haqiqah here.

The mankind of this century, who has recognised his greatest need for ma’nawî strength, solace and firmness and recently awakened to consciousness, foremost Muslims, will understand how far from the benefit and profit of mankind it is, instead of benefiting from Islamic nationhood, under the title of westernisation, to abandon the haqiqahs of îmân, which ensure such ma’nawî strength, solace and happiness and are the point of support in Islam and îmân, and to rely on dhalâlah, dissipation and lying politics, which completely destroy all ma’nawî strength and annihilate solace and break firmness; if time has not run out for this world, mankind will embrace the haqiqahs of the Qur'an.

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