Said Nursi and the Meaning of Life v2

7/29/2019 Said Nursi and the Meaning of Life v2

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Bedizzaman Said Nursi and the Meaning of Life

An Islamic Perspective

Prof. Dr. brahim zdemir

Rector,

Hasan Kalyoncu University,

Gaziantep-TURKEY

[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Introduction:

Why are we here? What is the meaning of life?

One of the Most profound and fundamental questions human beings have

ever asked themselves and that has plagued reflective minds for as long as

reflective minds have existed in the universe are:

Why are we here? How did we come to exist on this planet?

What is the meaning of life, and more importantly what is the meaningof my life?

In fact, Socrates, (c. 469399BC) the father of philosophy in the West

proclaimed that the unexamined life is not worth living. It is instructive

that he doesn't say that the unexamined life is "less meaningful than it could

be" or "one of many possible responses to human existence." He simply and

clearly says it's not even worth living. Why does he make such strong,

unequivocal statement? Socrates underlined that we are unable to growtoward greater understanding of our true nature unless we take the time to

examine and reflect upon our life and its meaning.

Interestingly, Viktor E. Frankl (19051997), the founder of logotherapy,

which is a form of existential analysis, argues that ultimately, man should

not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is

he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only

answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by

being responsible.

The meaning of life is also a major topic and question to be solved for

religions, such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which provide a natural

context to respond the question regarding the meaning of life. However, there

are others who hold a nihilistic and Darwinian standing and argue that God

does not exist and therefore human life is absurd and meaningless. The

latter is a modern phenomenon since the rise of atheism in 18 th and 19th


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centuries. Darwin's dangerous idea cuts much deeper into the fabric of

our most fundamental beliefs. Apparently, as Glynn points out the

philosophical, cultural, and emotional impact of this conclusion could hardly

be overstated. If Darwin was right, for example, the implication would be

that nothing could be sacred. Therefore, as Frankl underlined earlier that

the alleged meaninglessness of his life threatens contemporary man and this

is the existential vacuum within him.

Interestingly, this nihilistic modern Western phenomenon began to spread

Muslim lands with the colonization of these lands by Western imperialist

powers in 18th and 19th centuries. Moreover, in the first quarter of the 20th

century a new kind of colonization, the colonization of Muslim mind andheart, began to take place in the name of dominant Western philosophical

currents. According to Haddad for example, those Western values were

supported and disseminated by colonialists, Orientalists and Christian

missionaries, who attacked Islam as a religion and portrayed it as a vestige

of a Medieval mentality, responsible for the weakened condition of the

Muslims, from which they could not recover unless they adhered to the

posited Western ideologies of modernism, secularism, socialism, materialism,liberalism, and the scientific revolution.

The far-reaching implications of these modern and secular conceptions of

reality began to challenge the core and foundational values of Muslim

societies and created a deep crisis of identity. One result of these identity

crises was the emergence of secular and nihilist generations in the Muslim

societies. I want to clarify here, even briefly, what nihilism means and its

implications.

Challenge of Nihilism and ModernityThe term nihilism originally derived from Latin nihil, i.e., nothing. As a

result, philosophical nihilism is a philosophy of negation, rejection, or

denial of some or all aspects of thought or life. Although there are other

forms of nihilism, almost all of them stem from the legacy of seventeenth-

and eighteenth-century Western thought. I will summarize here the cosmic


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and existential nihilisms main arguments and then present Said Nursis

response to this challenge in some details.

When we look at the absolute form of cosmic nihilism for example, it

denies to the universe any sort of intelligibility or meaning. The wholeuniverse, accordingly, is blank and featureless, giving no response to the

age-old human search for understanding and no support to distinctively

human aims, aspirations or purposes. I think, it is here, where the nihilism

comes in and becomes a new way of life and denies the existence and

possibility of any value in the life. Thus, the central premise of nihilism is

that there is no need for meaning in a meaningless universe.

On this basis existential nihilists contend that human existence has nopurpose, value, or justification. There is no reason to live, and yet we persist in

living. The human situation is therefore absurd. Therefore nihilism can be

regarded as an ultimate challenge to religions and their moral systems.

At this contest, David Ray Griffin,a professor of philosophy of religion andtheology, asks this crucial question: if the universe, as the leading

philosophers of existential thought claimed, has no sense of importance, and

moreover everything in it is absurd, then "how could sensitive human beings

make a go of human life in this context?" That is, a universe in which there

is "no natural law, no divine purpose, no objective importance, no hierarchy

of values is inherent in nature of things, to which we should concern." As a

result of this understanding, Griffin concludes, "many people have not made

a go of it, becoming alcoholics, drug addicts, war addicts, mental patients, or

suicides".

The far-reaching implications of this modern understanding, not only for

Muslims, but also for members of all faiths were disastrous and destructive.

It began to sweep all moral, traditional and religious values in the social life.

Hans Kng, a Protestant scholar, argues that a pervasive nihilism denies

three classical transcendentals, i.e. there is no unity, no truth, and no

goodness, it threatens not only theism but also rationality. As a result,

nihilism presents itself as insight into the nothingness, contradictoriness,

meaninglessness of reality with overall implications.


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When these modern and dangerous doctrines began to spread and circulate

at the Muslim societies, mainly through westernized education system and

popular media, many Muslim leaders and scholars directed their effort to

meet this modern challenge. However, this paper will deal how Said Nursi

(1877-1960) responded to these challenges on Quranic basis as a Muslim

allama and intellectual.

Meaning of Life and Said Nursi

Said Nursi, I think, was one of the first Muslim scholars who perceived and

comprehended the far-reaching implications of this new challenge. Therefore,

he should be considered as an original and powerful voice, and deserve to be

heard at this context. Interestingly, he regarded the spread of these secular,

materialistic, and nihilistic views in Muslim societies as a new kind of

domination with following remarks:

The greatest danger facing the people of Islam at this

time is their hearts being corrupted and belief

harmed through the misguidance that arises from

[materialist] science and philosophy. The sole

solution for this is light [Nur]; it is to show light so

that their hearts can be reformed and their belief,

saved.

Said Nursis response on the Quranic BasesNursi, as we see, like few other modern Muslim leaders, was aware of the

challenge of Western ideas and their far-reaching implications for Muslim

generations. Therefore, Nursi declared that nothing concerns him as much

as the dangers that threaten Islam. He argues that these dangers used to

come from the outside and were therefore easy to resist. Now they come

from within where the worms have spread throughout the body making

resistance difficult. I fear that the society is unable to withstand this disease

because it does not resemble the enemy.

Furthermore, the far-reaching implications of this challenge felt and seen by

Nursi as a dreadful fire, that would sweep all religious and moral values inhuman life and led people to what is called a nihilist way of life. So, the


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melancholy of modernity and sick culture of the European civilization

began to spread and inflict Muslims as well. Therefore, his reaction to this

challenge was the reaction of affectionate father who tries to save his

children from a great and dreadful fire:

There is a great conflagration before me; the flamesare touching the skies. My child is burning amongthem; my belief too has caught fire and is burning. Iam racing to put out the fire, to save my belief. (...)

I have sacrificed even my life in the hereafter to savethe communitys religious belief. I neither long forParadise, nor fear Hell. () I am happy to burn inthe fires of Hell if I see [the Muslims] belief to besafe, for while my body was burning, my heart would

be in bliss.

We know that Nursi was a single man and devoted his life to the ideals of

Islam. However, as we understand from the above quotation, he was

considering the whole generations of Muslim Ummah as his own children

and therefore he was moved to intense compassion and pity when he saw

that the moral and spiritual well-being of Muslim generations are in danger.

Thus, the mission of Nursi was crystal-clear for him: to re-interpret the

Quran and the Quranic teachings in a nihilist and secular world and

demonstrate its relevance for present day. In other words, to re-interpreted

Islamic tradition in a way that lends itself to a revolutionary meaning.

At this junction, it should be underlined that when trying to overcome the

challenge of modern secular worldview, Nursi devise a new method of

interpreting the Quran. As Haddad observed, he placed a great deal of

emphasis on the Qur'an's miraculous nature, which he saw as central for

mounting a defense of Islam as culture, in an effort to disparage Western

ideologies of positivism, materialism and secularism. Although it is not

difficult to see the continuity of tradition in his works, he makes it clear that

his major guide and master is the Quran itself. This, of course, does not

mean that he ignores his classical and spiritual masters and his debt to


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them. In fact, he mentions Ghazali (d.1111), Imm Rabbn Shaykh Ahmad

al-Farq al-Sirhind (15641624) the great son of an India from Punjab

(1564-1624), and Mawlana Jalaluddin al-Rumi (1207-1273) as his spiritual

masters (ustad-i manawi).

A Meaningful Universe and a Meaningful Life

Nursi, considering the very teachings of the Qur'anic Weltanschauung in

contrast to nihilist and secularist world-view, presented a meaningful

universe and ethical implications of such a world-view for us. In the

Qur'anic conception, the right answer-and the only right one-to this question

is not far to seek: the source of being is God Himself; existence is conferred

upon man by God as a gratuitous gift.

Therefore, the deepest purpose of creation is explained by a famous hadith

qudsi (a sacred saying of the Prophet not part of the Quran in which God

speaks in the first person through the mouth of the Prophet): I was a hidden

treasure. I loved to be known. Therefore, I created the creation so that I

would be known. The purpose of creation therefore is Gods love for the

knowledge of Himself realized through His central agent on earth, humanity.

For a human being to know God is to fulfill the purpose of creation.

According or S H. Nasr, this famous hadith qudsi also speaks of Gods being

a hidden treasure, which is a symbol of the truth that everything in the

universe has its origin in the Divine Reality and is a manifestation of that

Reality. Everything in the total cosmos both visible and invisible is a

theophany, or manifestation, of the Divine Names and Qualities and isdrawn from the treasury of God. The Wisdom of God thus permeates the

universe, and Muslims in fact see the cosmos as Gods primordial revelation.

Everything in the universe, in reflecting Gods Wisdom, also glorifies Him,

for, as the Quran says, There is nothing but that it hymns His praise

(17:44).

Thus, there is, between God and man, a fundamental relation of creator and

creature in this part of the Qur'anic divina commedia, Allah plays the role ofthe Giver of being and existence to man. He is the Creator of man, and man


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is nothing but his creature. Indeed, Allah is the Creator of the whole world,

ranging from the angels above (40: 18), Jinn (55: 14), the heavens and the

earth (14:22), the sun and the moon, the day and the night (41:37), to the

mountains and the rivers (13:3, etc.), trees, fruits, grain and herbs (55:10-

11and all kinds of animals (24:44). There will be no end if we go on

enumerating what He has created.

The teachings of Said Nursi is a good example this understanding of

universe from a Quranic perspective in twentieth century. He reminds us on

the Quranic basis that:

When we open our eyes, when the universe fastens

our gaze on its face, the first thing to attract our

attention is a universal and perfect order; we see

that there is a comprehensive and sensitive

equilibrium; everything exists within a precise order

and delicate balance and measure.

When we study it even more closely, a wisdom and

justice appear behind the ordering and balancing. A

purpose and benefit are considered, a truth, a

usefulness are followed in the motion of everything,

even the minutest particles. ()

Indeed, for anyone who is intelligent and has eyes in

his head, the order and equilibrium, and ordering

and adorning that there are in the universe and in

the beings within it demonstrate, at the degree of

Unity, One Who is Single, Sole, Solitary, Unique, All-

Powerful, Possessing of Will, All-Knowing, and All-

Wise.

So, as this long quotation makes it clear, Nursi regards God as the very

meaning of reality; a meaning manifested, and clarified and brought home by

the universe, developed further by humanity. Thus, God is the dimension

that makes other dimensions possible: He gives meaning and life to

everything else. For example, the Qur'an sees in the humble bee a recipient


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of Divine inspiration and constantly calls upon the reader to observe the

perpetual change of the winds, the alternation of day and night, the clouds,

the starry heavens, and the planets swimming through infinite space!

It is obvious that the Qur'an rejects the argument that nature is meaningless

and purposeless and the resulting conclusion, that is, that human life also is

meaningless and purposeless. God says in Quran that "Not without purpose

did We create heaven and earth and all between! That was the thought of

Unbelievers..."( 38: 27) And also He declares to humanity that He created

not jinn and mankind except that they might worship Him(51:56)

Accordingly, if there is meaning and purpose in nature, then there must be

meaning and purpose in human life, too. When Nursi, for example,

interprets the verse 52:35, once more we see that he draws moral

implications from the balance, orderliness and purposefulness of the

universe and underlines that humanity cannot be meaningless. Nursi

continues his argument as interpreting the verse as follows: do they imagine

like the pharaoh-like Materialists that They came into being by themselves,

feed themselves, and themselves create everything they need, so that they

hold back from believing and worship?

Therefore, it can be deduced that the metaphysical and moral dimension of

the Qur'an comes first and precedes other dimensions. The basic point

seems to be that there is a strong relationship between the purposefulness

and meaningfulness of natural world and man's conduct of life.

Interestingly and amazingly, Said Nursi calls the universe "the mighty

Qur'an" and he repeats this in many places. However, the chief function of

the book of the universe is to teach those who read it about its Writer and

His attributes. For example, when commenting on the meaning of universe

and the wisdom and moral lessons to be learnt thereof, he mentions the

following verse: The seven heavens and the earth and all within them extol


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His limitless glory, and there is nothing but it extols His limitless glory and

praise.( 17:44) Then, he tries to demonstrate that the book of nature also

points to and glorifies its maker in the same way. Therefore, Nursi asks us to

listen to both books at same time.

Then, Nursi goes on and gives more examples from our very environment

and encourages us to look with Quranic lens to our very environment:

Now consider the winds!

Consider the springs, the streams, and the rivers!

Now consider all the varieties of stones and jewelsand minerals in the earth!

Now consider the flowers and fruits!

Now consider the birds! Consider the clouds!

Now look at the sky and consider carefully only themoon out of all the innumerable bodies within it!

In short, Nursi says, the universal elements we have enumerated from light

to the moon open in large measure a truly extensive window. They proclaim

and show the unity of a Necessarily Existent One (wajib al-wujud), and the

perfection of His power, and grandeur of His sovereignty.

Moreover, Nursi underlines the chief characteristics of human beings -as the

Qur'an wishes them to be- as a powerful consciousness and faith, which

forms the foundation of 'I'-ness. The psychological states gained by iman,

perform a motor function in ordering the life of the individual person and

their withstanding all sorts of difficulties. Nursi emphasizes the importance

of iman and its implications as follows:

to know God, means to have certain faith in Gods

dominicality (Uluhiyyet) encompassing all beings,

and in all things, particular and general, from the

atoms to the stars, being in the grasp of His power,

action and will; it means believing in the truths of

the sacred words There is no god but Allah, and

assenting to them with ones heart. But simply to

say, God exists, and then divide His kingdom

among secondary causes and nature and attribute it


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to them; to recognise secondary causes as sources of

authority, as if -God forbid!- they were partners of

God, to fail to perceive His will and knowledge as

present with all things, to refuse to recognise His

strict commands, and to reject His attributes, and

the messengers and prophets He has sent, this has

noting to do with the reality of faith in God.

Conclusion

Said Nursi's understanding of universe and the place of human being in it is

based on the Qur'an as a whole. Since God created the universe with a

particular order, balance, measure, beauty, and aesthetic structure, and

sustains the whole system, it forms the clearest and most decisive evidence

of its Maker. All living things are meaningful and interrelated. What is more

important, human beings cannot be meaningless, purposeless, and idle.

They are vicegerents of God and have their own responsibilities.

Humanity's chief duty and the aim of life, he argues convincingly, is not to

live as he/she likes uncontrolled by moral principles. In contrast, humanity

should study the book of the universe in the light of the Qur'an. They will

make their lives meaningful through the inspiration and principles they

derive from these two books, i.e., the Quran, and the book of universe. So,

the moral implications of a meaningful universe are a meaningful life, which

is exemplified by the life of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

His life and sunnah as models of action in most diverse areas brings

meaning into our daily life that stretches from birth to death. Therefore,

Imm Rabbn, the Mujaddid Alf Thn (the Regenerator of the Second

Millenium), declared that While traversing the degrees in my spiritual

journeying, I saw the most brilliant, splendid, subtle, and sound among the

levels of the saints to be those who took following the Practices of the

Prophet (PBUH) as the basis of their way. Even the ordinary saints of thatlevel appeared to be more splendid than the highest saints of the other


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levels. Nursi agrees with his spiritual ustad (ustad-i manavi) Imm Rabbn

and underlines that one who takes the Practices of the Prophet (PBUH) as

the basis [for his life and daily actions] rises to the station of being beloved of

God under the shadow of Gods Beloved. In fact, the sublime verse, Say: Ifyou do love God, follow me: God will love you proclaims in definite fashion just

how necessary and important it is to follow the Practices of the Prophet (PBUH).

It is very clear that love of God necessitates and results in following the Practices

of the Prophet (PBUH).

Ustad Nursi reminds us that the Sunnah of the Prophet and his exemplary

life are like qibla-directing compasses showing the course to be followed in

ships, each of the matters of the Practices, and even small points of conduct,

were like electric switches among innumerable hazardous, dark ways. Then,

he confirms through his own observations what Imm Rabbn had said

regarding following the Practices of the Prophet (PBUH) as the most

brilliant, splendid, subtle, and sound example to be followed for us.

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