Bedizzaman Said Nursi and the Meaning of Life An Islamic Perspective

Prof. Dr. brahim zdemir Rector, Hasan Kalyoncu University, Gaziantep-TURKEY ib60dmr@gmail.com

Song of India Better than all the world is our India. We are its nightingales and this is our garden. That mountain most high, neighbor to the skies, It is our sentinel; it is our protector. A thousand rivers play in its lap, Gardens they sustain, the envy of the heavens is ours. Faith does not teach us to harbor grudges between us. We are all Indians and India is our homeland.

Allama Muhammad Iqbal (18771938)

3 Introduction: Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Most profound and fundamental questions human beings have ever asked themselves and that has plagued reective minds for as long as reective 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? What is the meaning of my life?

In fact, Socrates, the father of philosophy in the West reminds us 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 grow toward 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 18th and 19th centuries. Darwin's dangerous idea cuts much deeper into the fabric of

4 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 Western phenomenon began to spread Muslim lands with the colonization of these lands by Western imperialist powers. Therefore, this paper will deal with the challenge of modernity -particularly nihilism, to Muslims and how Said Nursi (1877-1960) tries to overcome it as a Muslim alim and intellectual. The Muslim Ummah experienced the colonization of their lands by the imperialist Western powers mainly in the 19th and the 20th centuries. Moreover, in the first quarter of the 20th century a new kind of colonization, the colonization of Muslim mind and heart, 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. According to late Abu-Rabi for example, these modern ideologies created a major disequilibrium in society and a deep crisis of identity from which the Third World still suffers to [the] present moment. The 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.

The 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 seventeenthand eighteenth-century Western thought. I will summarize here the cosmic 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. It is blank and featureless, purposes. giving no response to the age-old human search for understanding and no support to distinctively human aims, aspirations or

On the other hand, existential nihilists contend that human existence has no purpose, value, or justification. There is no reason to live, and yet we persist in living. The human situation is therefore absurd. Similarly, moral nihilism rejects any possibility of justifying or criticizing moral judgments. Therefore nihilism can be regarded as an ultimate challenge to religions and their moral systems.

David Ray Griffin, a professor of philosophy of religion and theology, argues, for example, that the meaninglessness/absurdity of the universe were a peculiar characteristic of existential philosophy. And then he 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,

6 becoming alcoholics, drug addicts, war addicts, mental patients, or suicides". 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. Another underlying proposition of the modern science is that nature is a machine; it has no value and expresses no purposiveness. In fact, they argue, nature is a dull affair, soundless, scentless, colourless: merely the hurrying of material, endlessly, meaninglessly.

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. 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. Nursi and Meaning of Life Said Nursi, I think, was one of the first Muslim scholars who perceived and comprehended the full implications of this new challenge. Therefore, he should be considered as an original and powerful voice, which should 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

7 harmed through the misguidance that arises from [materialist] science and philosophy. The sole solution for this is light; it is to show light so that their hearts can be reformed and their belief, saved.

Said Nursis response on the Quranic Bases Nursi, 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. In the first place, what was at the stake was no more the crude and bloody colonialism of the 19th century, which occupied the Dar al Islam, but the colonization of the hearts and minds of Muslim generations. In another words, it was the colonization of Dar al- Iman, i.e., the qalb (hearth), which is the sacred place and abode of iman. Talal Asad considers this new phenomena as loss of faith and by this he does not mean merely an internal psychological state, but also a radical reorientation of behavior, sensibility, and social life generally. 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 in human life and led people to what is called a nihilist way of life. So, the 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 fire: There is a great conflagration before me; the flames are touching the skies. My child is burning among them; my belief too has caught fire and is burning. I am racing to put out the fire, to save my belief. (...)

8 I have sacrificed even my life in the hereafter to save the communitys religious belief. I neither long for Paradise, nor fear Hell. () I am happy to burn in the fires of Hell if I see [the Muslims] belief to be safe, 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 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.

9 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: In other words, 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 of the Giver of being and existence to man. He is the Creator of man, and man is nothing but his creature. Indeed, Allah is the Creator of the whole world, ranging from the angels above (40: 18 [19]), Jinn (55: 14 [15]), the heavens and the earth (14:22 [19], etc.), the sun and the moon, the day and the night (41:37, etc), to the mountains and the rivers (13:3, etc.), trees, fruits, grain and herbs (55:10-11 [11-12], etc.), and all kinds of animals (24:44). There will be no end if we go on enumerating what He has created. A good example the Qur'anic Weltanschauung in twentieth century is the teaching of Said Nursi. A good example his understanding of universe from a Quranic perspective is the following passage: 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

10 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, AllPowerful, Possessing of Will, All-Knowing, and AllWise. 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 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 I created not jinn and mankind except that they might worship Me( 51:56) So, the purpose and aim of creation is in fact for God to come 'to know' Himself through His perfect instrument of knowledge that is the Universal Man. Man therefore occupies a particular position in this world. Accordingly, if there is meaning and purpose in nature, then there must be meaning and purpose in human life, too. The basic point seems to be that there is a relationship between the purposefulness and meaningfulness of natural world and man's conduct of life. Consequently, when Nursi 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

11 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. Thus, reading the universe as though it is a book is much more vital and effective in the works of the New Said period. 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 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 jewels and 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 the moon 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

12 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 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, 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

13 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).