Sicknesses of The Muslims And Their Remedies in The Discourse of Bediuzzaman Nursi: An Analysis

Prescription of Remedies for the Crisis in the Muslim World: Insights from the Writings of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi

Abstract

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1969) was a profound Muslim thinker and a revivalist in the twentieth-century Turkey. In the first half of his life, he appeared to be an advocate of the Quranic teachings in Turkey, but later he was more concerned with the sickness of the Muslim ummah, religious and educational reforms and the promotion of the Muslim unity in the Muslim world. His Qura`nic teachings and reformative ideas are still followed today in modern Turkey and all over the world.  He was a man of the Qur`an by which he encountered challenges faced by man and society during his lifetime with peace and love and never allowed his students to respond with aggression and abhorrence. He had sacrificed his whole life for the cause of Islam and humanity and fought against the enemies of Islam and Muslims such as atheism, colonialism, secularism, and materialism. He had divided his life into two periods: First. The Old Said from his birth 1876 until the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1920 in which he had a political involvement. Second. The New Said from 1920 to 1949 in which he entered a world where influencing modernity had destabilized, and undermined old equilibria. Some biographers considered the third period from 1949 until his death and emerged as a reformist. The article shows that Bediuzzaman Nursi’s reformative ideas on the sickness of the Muslim ummah were dictated by the social fact that the Muslim community was backward and divided compared to the European community and moreover, they were suppressed by the colonial rulers in the nineteenth century. Bediuzzaman is portrayed here as an advocate of the religious, political, and social reforms for the well-being of the Muslim ummah. His strategic approaches to the realization of these remedies were through the teachings of the Qur`an, religious, educational, and social reforms. Formally, he established religious schools and madrasah al-Zuhrah with integrated approach that were meant to provide modern education and improved harmonious relations in the Muslim community. The qualitative method is applied for this research and collected the primary data written by him and secondary data written on him. The aspect of his life and thought that has bearing on the challenges of contemporary Muslims has received less attention from scholars compared to his religious and educational sphere. Although he worked hard to promote to cure of the sicknesses of the Muslims, he sought to emphasize the religious and rational approaches as a means of influencing others in the spirit of unity. He presented his reformation message against a backdrop of troubled Muslims’ internal conflicts and recurring European ideological and cultural threats.

The article aims to investigate Bediuzzaman Nursi’s inclusive vision of the sickness of the Muslims and their remedies with special reference to ‘The Damascus Sermon’, ‘The Flashes Collection’ and other literary works as means to its realization as reflected in his literary works. The article also seeks to elucidate why he has espoused such a bold vision and how he envisioned accomplishing the unity of the Muslim world to restore the Ottoman Khilafah while acknowledging severe internal conflicts of Muslims and the influence of the Europeans. Highlighted in this discussion are the silent features of challenges of the Muslims before and during his time that influenced their later developments. This article concludes with a suggestion on the need to revisit the significance and relevance of his thoughts and ideas on challenges and remedies for the contemporary Muslim world.