Sünuhat: 63-75

This is an addendum I wrote to one of my risale seven years ago.
بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

اَلْحَمْدُ للّٰهِ الَّذِى قَالَ وَ لاَ يَغْتَبْ بَعْضُكُمْ بَعْضًا1

وَ الصَّلاَةُ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ الَّذِى قَالَ: مَنْ قَالَ هَلَكَ النَّاسُ هَلَكَ النَّاسُ فَهُوَ اَهْلَكَهُمْ... اَمَّا بَعْد

In this time, the mediaeval-like Inquisition of this current civilisation, with a terrible instrument, impregnates certain minds, produces some illegitimate children, and thus executes its hatred and desire for revenge against Islam. It wants to open a door to a non-religious lifestyle, indifference, or a tendency towards Christianity, or to alienate Muslims from Islam by instilling doubts.

Here is that stratagem: "O Muslim, look, wherever there is a Muslim, they are relatively poor, ghâfil and uncivilised. Wherever there are Christians, they are to some degree civilised, enlightened, and wealthy. So... etc.”

And I say, O Muslim! Do not loosen your hand from Islam, which is the guardian of our existence against the frightening consequences stemming from the two causes of Europe's superiority, one material and one ma’nawî, and against the destructive effects of the consequence. Adhere with four hands, or you will be ruined.

Yes, we are going down, and they are going up. There are two reasons for this. One is material; the other is ma’nawî.

The First Reason is the natural state of Europe, which is the church and the source of life for all Christians. For it is small, beautiful, an iron reserve, and it is full of indentations and protrusions. Its seas and rivers are its intestines; it is cold.

Yes, Europe, which is one-fifth of the face of the globe, has attracted one-fourth of humanity with its fitrî beauty. It is established by hikmah that the gathering of many individuals produces needs. Needs that increase due to many causes, such as custom, cannot be provided by the vegetation of the earth. From this point onwards, necessity serves as the teacher for craft, curiosity serves as the teacher for science, and boredom serves as the teacher for the instruments of dissipation (safahat), and they commence their teaching.

Yes, the concept of art and the inclination towards craft emerge from increased population. Mutual acquaintance led to trade, while mutual assistance resulted in cooperation because of the smallness of Europe and the presence of natural means of transportation, such as its seas and rivers. Additionally,

تلاحق الأفكار2

is born out of connection, and competition is born out of rivalry. And since iron ore, the mother of all industries, is abundant in Europe, it has given their civilisation such a weapon of strength that they have plundered, seized, looted and raided all the debris of civilisations in the world, gained great dominance and disrupted the balance of the earth's equilibrium. Furthermore, rigid coldness, which entails avoiding haste and not rushing, gave them perseverance and firmness in their efforts and sustained and preserved their civilisation. Moreover, the establishment of their states based on science, the collision of their opposing forces, the inconvenience and harassment resulting from their cruel tyranny, the counterproductive pressures stemming from their mediaeval inquisitorial fanaticism and the competitive antagonism among Europe’s parallel nations caused the development and progress in the dispositions and capacities of Europeans, and these awakened some abilities and the idea of nationalism in them.

The Second Reason is the point of support. Yes, if a Christian raises his head and sets his hands to one of the interconnected and overlapping purposes, he looks behind them and sees a very strong point of support to rely on and a point that will always aid and give life to his mana’wî strength. He even finds the strength within himself to struggle against the heaviest and most significant tasks.

That point of support is the deceptive civilisation of Europe, which is always ready to strengthen the lifeblood of fellow followers of its religion, who extend their hands from all sides, and ready to cut the most vital veins of Muslims, and it is the deceptive civilisation of Europe, which is the barracks or great church of an armed mass of people intoxicated with the pride arising from the triumph of their civilisation and is kneaded with the irreligion arising from materialism and modern mediaeval inquisitorial fanaticism.

Don’t you see that the U.K., which wears the most freedom-cherishing mask, is reaching out and searching? Wherever they find Christians, they give life to them. Here is Abyssinia, Sudan. Here is Tayyar, Artushi. Here is Lebanon, Hauran. Here are Mal Sur and Albania. Here are the Kurds and Armenians, the Turks and Greeks, and so on.

In short: what revives them is hope, and what kills us is despair. It is well known that someone said, "If I could find a fulcrum, I would move the earth from its place." There is a peculiar point in this hypothesis. It means that if this tiny little man finds a point of support, he can accomplish things as great as the globe of the earth.

O Muslims! Here is our point of support against the calamities and disasters as heavy as the globe of the earth that have befallen the Islamic world: it is the point of Islam that commands unity through love, the union of ideas through ma’rifat and mutual assistance through brotherhood (ukhuwwah).

Look! From the highest point of this great circle of the Islamic world to the smallest circle — for example, the madrasa students — there is a knot of life within them that resembles a seed. Just as the individuals and bonds of society rely on each other, those knots, too, are connected; by forming a chain, they rely upon that supreme point. It means that Islam can awaken and begin to progress by not suppressing those knots of life that resemble seeds but rather by awakening, nurturing and cultivating all those knots of life.

Otherwise, with a strong, insane infatuation for Europe and a deep hatred for his nation, if someone unfairly, with deceptive jarbaza, compares the virtues of Europe with our evil states or acts, and the fruits of their talahûk al-afkâr with the fruits of one person's efforts, {Attributing to Christianity a civilisation that does not belong to it and portraying the decline, which Islam is antagonistic to, as Islam’s ally serves as evidence that the order that Allah established in the universe has turned upside down.} he reveals himself as the illegitimate child of Europe. Through his rebellious, slanderous satire destroying honour, which stems from a revolutionary thought, a desire for destruction and deceptive jarbaza, he also reveals his pharaonic nature and implicitly exposes his pride and arrogance, as well as unconscious hostility towards Islam. Through the judgment of his pharaonic nature, ananiyyah and pride, instead of the feeling of compassion, which he is required by Sharî’ah, mind and hikmah to feel towards his nation, he replaces it with the feeling of contempt; he replaces the inclination for affection with the inclination for hatred, the tendency towards love with a will for scorn, the tendency towards respect with the inclination towards deeming others ignorant, a desire for mercy with a desire for arrogance and self-sacrificing traits with a tendency towards individualism. He thus reveals his lack of patriotism and disloyalty, and in the eyes of haqiqah, he becomes such a criminal and detestable person that he engages in an act both foolish and criminal, such as attempting to clothe a respectable hoja in a masjîd with garments befitting and admired by a dissolute and immoral madame from the world of debauchery in Paris. For patriotism is the necessary outcome of love, respect and compassion. Without these, it cannot exist; without these, it is definitely a lie, a fraud. Hate is the opposite of patriotism.

The parasites and bootlickers of Europe who attack the devotees are each as devoted in their sick path as a hundred devotees. If a hoja were to praise Shaykh Jilânî as excessively as one of these people praises Shakespeare, he would be labelled a 'kâfir'.

Alas! Where is the love for the nation and patriotism in them?!

What a pity! Of the many knots of life that drive society to activity and movement, what has begun to develop in us is, unfortunately, only the idea of literature, in particular, the poetic, excessive and self-praising idea of satire and desire for contempt that destroy good manners and respect.

This is disrespect towards the âyah,

وَ لاَ يَغْتَبْ بَعْضُكُمْ بَعْضًا3

which teaches true good manners and respect, so that they attack each other. We throw at the faces of those parasites and bootlickers their implicit attacks by innuendo against Islam and the nation. However, we shall refrain from elaborating further, considering that they might indeed deserve their mutual irreligious satire and insults against each other.

I believe that more than excessive ignorance, the cause of the misery of this nation is the excessively unproductive intelligence, which is not accompanied by the nûr of the heart. I think that anger is the most dreadful disease, because by exaggerating everything, it causes the opposite effects.

O brother! Young and vigorous causes confronting the aged causes that led to the superiority of the Christian world have begun to develop in us. I have detailed it in another book. A story: Ten years ago, I went to Tbilisi. {Seven years have passed since the first edition of this book. So, ‘ten years ago’ refers to the year 13264 of the Rûmî calendar.}  I climbed to the top of Shaykh San'an Hill and was observing closely. A Russian came up to me. He said:

-To what are you paying attention?

I said:

-I am drawing the plan for my madrasah.

He said:

-Where are you from?

I said:

-I am from Bitlis.

He said:

-This is Tbilisi.

I said:

-Bitlis and Tbilisi are brothers.

He said:

-What do you mean?

I said:

-In Asia, in the Islamic world, three nûrs are beginning to develop one after another, and in your world, three darknesses will begin to spread on top of each other. This tyrannical veil will be torn down; it will diminish, and I will come and build my madrasa here.

He said:

-What a pity! I am surprised at your hope.

I said:

-I am also surprised by your mind. Can you imagine this winter continuing? Every winter has a spring; every night has a day.

He said:

-Islam has been fragmented.

-They have gone to be trained. Here is India, a promising child of Islam, studying in the English Preparatory School. Egypt is an intelligent son of Islam, studying at the British Civil Service Academy. The Caucasus and Turkestan, two brave sons of Islam training at the Russian Military Academy, and so on.

After these noble children receive their diplomas, each will take the command of a continent. By waving the flag of Islam, their magnificent and just father, across the horizons of perfection, each will proclaim the mystery of azalî hikmah in mankind, defiantly challenging the course of history.

Here is the half of my story.

With a comparison, I will explain the ma’nawî state that makes one say, "What is it to me?" and "Me! Me!":

An unfortunate, afflicted {It means that

5 اَلدُّنْيَا سِجْنُ الْمُؤْمِنِ وَ جَنَّةُ الْكَافِرِ

is not a metaphor.} but brave man from a noble tribe and a fortunate, prosperous coward man from another tribe meet in the same place. The debate and competition for glory begin between them.

The first man raises his head, sees that his tribe is humiliated, and cannot bear the blow to his self-esteem. He lowers his head, looks at his nafs, and finds it somewhat heavy. Alas! At that moment, his pride, wounded with self-criticism, begins to cry out, like, "What is it to me? Here I am; here are my deeds." Or, he withdraws from his tribe or displays disloyalty and joins another tribe.

As the second man raises his head, the glories of his tribe dazzle him and inflate his sense of pride. He looks at his nafs and sees it as neglectful. At that moment, the feeling of self-sacrifice and the idea of nationalism awaken in him; he says, "I shall sacrifice myself for my tribe.

If you understood the allusion in this comparison, if the feelings of a Muslim, for example, and a Christian or a Kurd and a Greek were to be apparent to us when they are confronted and compared in the struggle for patriotism in this world of lessons, which is a field of competition and struggle, you would see the mystery behind this analogy. However, this difference is not as everyone thinks. Rather, it arises from superficiality, shallowness and a mistaken feeling.

O Muslim! Do not be deceived! Do not lower your head! A rusty, unique diamond is always preferable to polished glass. The cause of the apparent weakness of Islam is that the modern civilisation serves the interests of another religion. However, the time has come for this civilisation to change its form. If the form of this civilisation changes, the case becomes the opposite. Just as it was said at the beginning, wherever there are Muslims, they are relatively Bedouin compared to Christians; they refuse civilisation, are cold towards it and suffer in accepting it. If the form changes, this state would transform.

كُلُّ آتٍ قَرِيبٌ ٭ اِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا6

SAİD NURSÎ (R.H.)

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