The supplicant
I am a ruined grave, in which are piled up
Sixty-nine dead Saids with his sins and sorrows.
The seventieth is a gravestone for that grave;
All together they weep at the decline of Islam.
I am hopeful that the heavens and earth of the future
Will together surrender to Islam’s clear, shining hand.
For its strength lies in its belief and blessings,
It affords peace and security to all beings.
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In His Name, All-Glorified is He.
There is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.
My dear, faithful brothers!
Complaining about one another is unjust, meaningless, and harmful; indeed, it is tantamount to feeling a sort of resentment towards the Risale-i Nur. Beware! To consider some of the activities of the leading students to be the cause of this misfortune and to feel indignant at them is to regret having learnt the truths of belief. This is a far greater calamity than any physical misfortune. I swear that although I suffer from this misfortune twenty or thirty times more than any of you, because they have acted with pure intentions, I would not be annoyed with them even if the misfortune were ten times greater. It is also meaningless to object to events that have passed, since they are now done with and gone.
My brothers! Anxiety doubles one’s misfortunes; it also plants the root of physical calamity in the heart. Worse still, it smacks of criticism of the
Divine Destiny and blaming Divine Mercy. Everything has its good side: in all things there is a manifestation of Divine Mercy, and the Divine Destiny works with the utmost justice and wisdom. Since this is so, it is pointless to attach importance to the slight troubles we may suffer as a result of the sacred task we are performing, which concerns the whole body of believers.
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My dear, faithful brothers!
Endless thanks be to the Most Merciful of the Merciful that in these extraordinary times and this strange place, through you He has allowed us to attain the esteemed honor of being students of the religious sciences and to perform important services as they do. It is related that, like martyrs, some enthusiastic and earnest students of the religious sciences who die while occupied with their studies believe themselves to be alive when in their graves and still engaged in study. Indeed, as mentioned earlier, when Munkar and Nakir asked a student who died when studying grammar and syntax, “Who is your Lord?” the student replied: “‘Who’ is the subject, and
‘your Lord’ is its predicate.” He gave a grammatical answer, believing himself to still be in the religious seminary. Similarly, I believe that the late Hafiz Ali enjoys the same position of the students of religious sciences; he was busy with the Risale-i Nur while he was alive and is now at the degree of martyrs and their level of life. I often pray for him and for Mehmed Zühdü and Hafiz Mehmed, saying: “O God! Keep them occupied in perfect happiness and contentment until the Resurrection with the truths of belief and mysteries of the Qur’an. Amin!”
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My dear and faithful brothers!
These kinds of hadith are allegorical: some have a general sense and are applicable to similar times, places or events in history, while others are concerned only with particular times, places or events. The one you ask about concerns the upheavals which the early Muslim community underwent in Iraq and the Hejaz. During the ‘Abbasid period, numerous sectarian trends emerged, such as the Mu‘tazila, the Rafida, the Jabriyya, and various heretical movements, which appeared under various guises. During these disturbances, which were harmful to the Shari‘a and the Islamic creed, numerous eminent Muslim personalities, such as Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Hanifa, Shafi‘i, Imam Malik, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Imam al-Ghazzali, ‘Abdul-Qadir al-Jilani, and Junayd al-Baghdadi, emerged to put paid to dissent and opposition. Their triumph over the dissenters lasted for around three hundred years, but the followers of the misguided sects continued their secret activities and, by political means, brought down on the heads of the Muslim community the calamity of the Mongol invasion. Certain hadiths point to this calamity. Extrapolating from this, then, it is fair to say that since the calamity suffered by the Muslim world today is worse than all past calamities, numerous hadiths and a number of Qur’anic verses include references to it.
Moreover, there are hadiths which point to all the phases which the Muslim community will pass through. Certain particular events which happened in the course of history unveil aspects of the comprehensive meaning of the hadiths or their contents which indicate them. In various parts of the Risale-i Nur one may read interpretations of allegorical hadiths such as these, together with explanations as to how they should be interpreted. The basic principles used to understand and interpret them are set forth particularly in The Twenty-Fourth Word and The Fifth Ray.
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My dear, faithful brothers!
I feel that it is necessary to explain a truth so that you do not accuse one another of egotism or disloyalty.
I used to see that some of the great saints who had given up egotism completely and were saved from the influence of the evil-commanding soul continued to complain bitterly about their souls. This astonished me greatly. I later understood perfectly that when the evil-commanding soul dies, its instruments are handed over to various aspects of one’s temperament and sentiments, so that the meritorious struggle with the soul may continue until death. Those great saints, then, were complaining of this enemy, who is the heir to the evil-commanding soul.
Also, spiritual value, station, and virtue do not pertain to this world, thus to make themselves felt. In fact, since some of those at the highest station are not aware of the great Divine favor which has been bestowed on them, they actually consider themselves to be more wretched and bankrupt than everyone else. This shows that the wonder-workings, unveilings, spiritual pleasures, and illuminations, which most people consider to represent the zenith of spiritual perfection, cannot in reality be the means to that spiritual value or stations, or the yardstick by which they are measured. This is proved by the fact that although one hour in the life of the Companions of the Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, was equal to a whole day in the life of other saints, or perhaps forty days’ ordeal, not everyone of them was favored with the same extraordinary states or illuminations as the saints.
My brothers, be aware! Do not let your evil-commanding souls deceive you by making wrong comparisons and thinking ill of your brothers; do not allow them to make you doubt the ability of the Risale-i Nur to train souls.
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My dear, loyal brothers!
Sami Bey told me that one of our brothers from Homa, a student called Ali, died around the same time as Hafiz Ali. Mehmed Ali, one of the heroes of Homa, also wrote to tell me about this. So in many of my prayers I have made that Ali a companion of the great martyr Hafız Ali.
Recently, a lady who is connected with us dreamt that three of our brothers had died. The interpretation of this dream is that these two Alis and Mustafa, who in prison wanted to become a follower of the Risale-i Nur, but was hanged, went to the Hereafter in place of all of us and were sacrificed for the sake of our well-being.
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In His Name, All-Glorified is He!
My dear, faithful brothers!
The verse: Is he who was dead (in spirit) and We raised him to life, and set for him a light by which he moves (without any deviancy) among people, is he like the one who is as one lost in depths of darkness, from which he cannot get out? (6:122) seems to allude to the present time. Those who champion worldly life and the gratification of their physical appetites, oppressing us because we do not attach importance to their worldview and lifestyle, would have us eliminated if possible, or at least condemned to a major punishment. However, they are unable to find any legal sanction for this. As for us, we show them death, the veil which covers the gateway to eternal life, and try to bring them to their senses. We work with all our strength to save them from eternal punishment or execution or from everlasting solitary confinement in the Hereafter. Even if I am made to suffer the severest troubles because of the important treatises that have come to their attention, and even if those who saddle us with these troubles and wish for our elimination are saved from the eternal annihilation of death, both my heart and my soul would consent to these troubles. That is to say, we desire their happiness in both worlds and strive for this cause, while they wish us dead and seek pretexts to do away with us. But we do not suffer defeat at their hands, for the reality of death, as clear as the sun, visits tens of thousands of people every day and displays the decrees and announcements for tens of thousands of eternal executions or solitary confinements for the people of misguidance. Since this is the reality, we will from now on say the following, both to them, and to all other people:
We seek salvation from the eternal execution that comes with death, a specter which lies waiting for us, or from the darkness of solitary confinement in the grave, which will open its door to us and summon us to its depths without a shadow of a doubt. We also want to help you secure salvation from that awesome, inevitable calamity. Politics and worldly affairs, which in your view are the most momentous issues at hand, have little value for us. Indeed, in the view of truth, and of those not concerned with such matters directly, they are meaningless, unimportant, and without any value whatsoever. The essential human duties which we are trying to fulfill, however, are genuinely and essentially related to all people at all times. And so those who do not like this task of ours and wish to put a stop to it had better put a stop to death and close the door of the grave forever!
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My dear faithful brothers!
The expert report demanded by the government concerning the Risale-i Nur confirms that the greatest part of it is concerns belief and is based on knowledge and true scholarship. It says that Said explains his views sincerely and earnestly, and that his power does not lie in any attempt to found a society, a tariqa, or a party opposed to the government, with which he has nothing to do. Rather, his power and the strength of his works stem from his strong desire and zeal to teach the needy the truths of the Qur’an.
The committee of experts, composed of two philosophers, Necati and Yusuf, and a modernist religious scholar called Yusuf Ziya, have acquitted me and all of my brothers completely of the baseless accusations leveled against us. They said: “They (i.e. the students of the Risale-i Nur) adhere to Said’s scholarly and knowledgeable works for their belief and their afterlife. There is nothing explicit or implicit in their correspondences, their books, or treatises to suggesting any sort of conspiracy against the government.”
Their only criticism is of some of my views concerning innovations in our religion, and my opinion that in our century there are many who, since the truths of Islam have not been conveyed to them, may be regarded as similar to people of the “interregnum.”60 Especially if these people are religious Christians who are victims of war, they may be saved in the Hereafter and regarded as martyrs of some sort.
Said Nursi
60 People of the “interregnum” are those who live at a time or in a place where the acquisition of true knowledge about the Straight Path is impossible for them. (Tr.)