Reconsidering Jihad: the perspective of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi
By Colin Turner
Turner, Colin (2007). 'Reconsidering Jihad: the perspective of Bediuzzamen Said Nursi'. Nova Religio 11(2): 94-111.
- Publication type: Journal papers: academic
- ISSN/ISBN: 1092-6690, 1541-8480
- DOI: 10.1525/nr.2007.11.2.94
- View online: Online version
- Durham research online: DRO record
Author(s) from Durham
Abstract
Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, the eponymous progenitor of the contemporary Nurculuk movement, is arguably the most influential, if woefully under-researched, Turkish Muslim thinker of the twentieth century. Nurculuk, a faith-based movement consisting of an estimated seven million followers worldwide, stands out from other contemporary Muslim religious and ideological groupings not only for its uncompromising focus on the renewal of individual rather than collective faith, but also for its eschewal of any kind of religiously-legitimized violence or militancy for the sake of politico-ideological ends. This article is an attempt at an overview of Nursi's idiosyncratically irenic approach to the highly contentious issue of jihad, itself key to our understanding of the staunch apoliticism he espoused in later life.