An Introduction to Said Nursi: Life, Thought and Writings by Ian S. Markham and Suendam Birinci Pirim, and: Theodicy and Justice in Modern Islamic Thought: The Case of Said Nursi ed. by Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi‘ (review)

The Risale-i Nur, a body of writings almost exclusively in Turkish assembled over some thirty-five years by Bediüzzaman Said Nursî (1878-1960), proclaims as its general purpose the vindication of the essential teachings of Islam in a manner consonant with the needs of an age heavily contaminated by atheistic materialism. Topics reflecting the particular concerns and circumstances of the author, distantly if at all related to that supreme goal, also occur in its pages with great frequency. The result is a huge opus that in a relatively recent two-volume edition runs to not less than 2344 pages (Risale-i Nur Külliyatı) [Istanbul, 1996]. In Nursî’s lifetime, the Risale-i Nur remained largely unknown outside Turkey, partly for reasons of linguistic inaccessibility, and even within the country its circulation was hindered by the sporadic prosecution – not to say persecution – of its author in the name of preserving secularism. Matters have, of course, long since changed within Turkey: the Risale-i Nur is now freely available, and the movement to which it gave rise is now divided into several competing branches, each with a somewhat different agenda. Much effort has also been invested in recent years in making the Risale-i Nur known to a broader international audience, both Muslim and non-Muslim, and it is in this context that the two books under review are to be placed.

Both describe the Risale-i Nur as ‘a thematic commentary’ on the Qur’an: it is essentially a work of exegesis, they claim, even if it does not examine the entire text in a traditional and orderly fashion (An Introduction to Said Nursi, 18; Theodicy and Justice in Modern Islamic Thought, ix & 15). This characterization may be questioned. Many sections of the Risale-i Nur are almost entirely lacking in Qur’anic references, and others deal with themes peculiar to aspects of the Sufi tradition with which Said Nursî was deeply involved. Others again record his musings on events or scenes that presented themselves to him; by way of random example we may cite his confident prediction that the bare legs of schoolgirls he once noticed from his jail cell in Eskişehir frolicking in their playground would become glowing embers in hellfire (Iman ve Küfür Muvazeneleri [Istanbul: Tenvir Neşriyat, 1987], p. 161). In the same work, he suggests that one reason for women to cover themselves appropriately (tesettür) is that six or seven out of every ten women are either old or ugly and wish therefore to conceal their appearances, an explanation difficult to reconcile with Qu’ran, 24:31, which attributes ‘adornment’ (zinatahunna) to all women (147).

The absence of a structured approach to the principal doctrines of Islam is also reflected in titles given to its various parts such as Sözler (‘Words’), Lem’alar (‘Flashes’), Şualar (‘Rays’), Mektuplar (‘Letters’), extracts from these being in turn reassembled to form yet other books; thus Iman ve Küfür Muvazeneleri (‘Comparisons of Belief and Unbelief’) includes thirty-two ‘words,’ the first, twenty-fourth and twenty-ninth ‘flashes’, the third part of the fourth ‘letter,’ and so forth.

More importantly, Said Nursî claimed for the Risale-i Nur a uniquely privileged relationship with the Qur’an and the Prophet that transcended by far the claims to attention made by simple exegesis. ‘This exalted work,’ he once asserted, ‘contains a sublime effusion and infinite perfection that have never been encountered in any similar book. It has inherited, in a fashion unattained...