Man and his world in Said Nursi’s Short Words (7th April, 2009)

The following are some notes from Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s collection of treatises
known as the Short Words. The notes will center upon the idea of man and his world
as given by Said Nursi.

To illustrate man and his world, Said Nursi uses the help of metaphors or examples. I
believe that these metaphors are chosen deliberately to symbolize a particular
meaning of man’s life and his world including his function and purpose in this world.
A compilation of the metaphors and the symbolism Said Nursi uses is given in the
table below.

Word Story or Metaphor given Symbol of Man Symbol of the world

To explain Bismillah, the
story of two travelers
traveling through the desert is
1
given.
To explain happiness and
bounty in the belief in God,
he used the comparison of
two men who were traveling
for pleasure and business.
(In a way it is to describe the
faults of pessimistic thought.)
2
3 To explain profit and
happiness that lie in worship,
he uses the example of two
soldiers that reached a fork in
a road. Each was only to
choose one of the paths. To
help their choice, they were
told what is expected, and the
rewards of that path.
Traveler: The Desert: a world
One traveler is a where man’s
humble man. The impotence has no
other is a proud and limit, his enemies
conceited man. and needs are
endless.
Again the use of a A land. Each traveler
traveler or a person sees the land
on a journey. One is differently based on
a non-believer, while his outlook on life,
the other is a which is tied to his
believer. The latter belief or unbelief.
receives salvation The believing one
while the former gets will see this world as
tormented. a Creation of God
and a place of
examination. The
unbeliever will see as
a place of
wickedness,
negativity,
destruction.
Soldiers, a person The road of two
who serves and forks. In life there are
strives for a cause, choices to be made,
authority, etc. One of and we are given that
them loved the army, much of freedom to
loved to serve, and either choose believe
did not mind and submission, or
hardship, knowing otherwise. The world
that at the end his of choices has
reward will be there. already been
He represents a described, thus it is
person who submits not something that
to the Divine Law. which man is
The other was lazy ignorant of. This
and did not want to makes him

To explain how valuable the
prescribed prayers are and
how easy it is to perform
them, he gives the parable of
two servants being provided
fully by a king to take care of
on of the king’s royal farms.
Each servant has been
provided with 24-gold pieces.
This is their capital to be used
4 in their task of tending the
farm.
To make understood man’s
duty and how it is natural for
man to perform his prayers
and not to commit sins, he
gives the parable of a two
soldiers who belonged in the
same regiment.
5
6 To illustrate how trading
one’s person and property to
strive in the army. responsible and liable
He is a person who for his actions, and
does not submit and his reward depends
is branded as a on his actions.
mutineer.
The king is Allah A royal farm. This is
Most High. 24 gold said to be Paradise.
pieces are the hours The usage of the time
of a day. Gold symbolizes our life in
meaning they need this world. The
to be used wisely. station is the grave to
One servant is which we will all
frugal. He only uses enter into. The ticket
a small amount of with which we buy at
his capital but made the station, is bought
a good profit from it. with the time that we
The other servant had spent in worship
was instead to the Almighty. The
spendthrift and used parable of the last
up all of his money. dime, means that we
Even when he had really only need a
just one more dime single hour of every
to make him redeem day to perform our
his loss, he still prayers along with
wasted it. the ablutions before
it.
The two soldiers The turbulent place,
symbolized two or war is the stormy
people. One was worldly life. The
conscientious and army signifies the
concentrated on human society, and in
training and the war. his comparison, it is
He did not worry the Muslim army.
about his provisions The world is a place
because he knew it of struggle with
was taken care of. Satan and his won
Even so, he still soul, and not for our
attended to some of livelihood alone, that
the rations and work. one discredits the
He would say: I am role of the Sustainer.
doing fatigue duty The war is a struggle
for the state. The against the soul and
other is a raw recruit its desires.
and self-centred. He
was fond of his
stomach, and
worried of his
livelihood.
The king is Allah. All the provisions
The lieutenant is the given by the king are
 God, he gives the parable of
two subjects of a king being
entrusted with an estate. He
equips them with all the
necessary items such as
workshops, machinery,
horses, weapons, etc. The
situation was a warring
period of the country, so there
was no stability. The king
sent a lieutenant to each man,
asking them to hold him in
trust all of their belongings.
One of them did entrust him
with his items, the other did
not.
To make known the
importance of the talisman, I
believe in God and the Last
Day, he gives the parable of a
soldier who has fallen into a
grave situation. The soldier
had wounds on his right and
left, behind was a lion
waiting to attack him, and in
7
front was the gallows. He
also had a long journey ahead
of him. Then, he was
approached by two men. One
brought the light, while the
other was Satan who was
tricking him into darkness.
8 To understand the world,
man’s spirit and the nature
and value of religion and how
the world is a prison, he asks
to consider the parable of two
brothers who are on a long
journey. Each brother faces
the same tests, but each goes
through the tests differently.
Some of the tests are a fork in
the road, a hill, wilderness,
lion, a well, rats eating two
roots on a tree, a dragon.
Each has its significance.
Good comes out of good, and
evil comes out of evil.
Messenger of Allah our possessions. This
s.a.w. Man depicted means our body,
as two subjects spirit, heart, inward
entrusted to an and outward senses,
estate. intelligence and
imagination. The
battlefield or warring
period is the world, it
ceases to change,
dissolve and reform.
The soldier is man. The world is a world
The lion is the of impotence and
appointed hour. The poverty on man’s
gallows is death. The part.
wounds are man’s (Surah Muhammad:
impotence and 38).
poverty. He was
given two talismans,
one is of belief in
Almighty Allah, the
other is belief in the
Hereafter. He was
also given two
medicines, trusting
in God, and reliance
in God. These only
come from belief in
the talismans.
Brothers, signifies The fork: one leads to
that each one of us submission and the
are connected to other means
each other, like rebellion.
brothers. We advice The garden and the
one another in desert: the garden is
goodness, but the the fleeting life in
choice of taking or human society and
leaving advice is civilization. The
personal. The two desert is the earth and
brothers represent this world.
two different The lion is death and
psychologies. One of the appointed hour.
who believes and The well is man’s
strives and is body and the time of
confident, the other his life.

To understand the meaning of
prayer, he gives five points to
consider.
9
11 The interpretation of verses
1-7 of Surah ash-Shams. The
parable given by him in
connection with the verses
and to understand of wisdom
of the world and the riddle of
man’s creation and the
mystery of the reality of the
prayers. He gave the parable
of a king that had everything.
Besides this, he was
knowledgeable, had many
different skills and was a
master artist, that he wanted
to see and display his own
beauty and perfection. Thus,
he opened up an exhibition
and set out displays.
is not and remains in The tree roots are his
fear. The believer life time and its
has a righteous heart. sustenance.
The unbeliever has a The rats of black and
depraved heart. white are night and
day.
The dragon is the
intermediate realm,
grave.
The fruits: bounties
in the world Allah
made in a list of the
bounties of the
Hereafter, and
examples, warnings,
and samples to
Paradise.
1. Offering of glorifications, praise, and
thanks to Allah. Tasbih, Tahmid, and
Takbir. These are the seeds of prayer.
2. The servant sees his own faults,
impotence, poverty. In the Divine Court,
he prostrates in love and wonderment.
3. The prayer is a comprehensive, luminous
index of all varieties of worship. A sacred
map pointing to all kinds of worship of
every creation.
4. The times of each prayer are signs of
man’s lifetime, from beginning to end.
5. Prayer connects him to Allah to help him
temporary forget of the transient world.
Two aspects of his The palace is the
creation: world that which
He can see it for Allah Most High has
himself, and also see created and adorned
it through others with all sorts of
point of view. adornments.
Two groups of (verses of the Qur’an
people in the palace: on the world:
The first group had vi. 32, xxix. 64, xlvii.
self-knowledge and 36, lvii. 20, vi. 130,
realized there is lxxv. 20-21, lxxvi.
much to reflect 27, ix. 38-39, xviii.
upon, and leads them 28, 46, iii. 14)
to know their king.
The second group
had corrupted minds
and hearts were
extinguished, fell
astray by the beauty
 of the palace and the
riches within it.

Reflecting upon the many wise words that were delivered in this piece of work, I
come to the following conclusions.

The first is the reflective manner to which Bediuzzaman alludes to. This demonstrates
his profound grasp and knowledge of the Qur’anic stories. His style is to translate the
teachings of the Qur’an in a way that a person who does not know the Qur’an, who
discredits the Qur’an, who is unsure about the Qur’an will be invited to it by seeing
how it can be applied in modern day contexts.

Through this, the second conclusion, he is able to strengthen the fact that the
teachings of the Holy Qur’an are applicable to any time. It just needs to be
reinterpreted in light of itself. In this sense, the Qur’an is a proof to itself.

He presents man as a creature that does not need to concern to much with the world.
His main and primary function is to align himself and herself towards God. In reality
man is weak, poor, and needy. He has no right to be bashful, boasting, and proud. The
effects of such a character is loss, deceit and torture. Man needs God’s help in all
aspects, he needs to hope for God’s sustenance, he needs to rely on God’s mercy. All
these is part of the rights of man that God fulfills. Yet, it is not only a world of rights
that man lives in, but more a world of responsibility, and that responsibility is to
worship his Lord who sustains him, who his life depends upon, and other important
factors.

It teaches me a few things of how man’s life is moulded. Man needs the environment
to live, to sustain, and to function in his society. But if we subscribe to the concept of
evolutionary development of religion as the 19th century held to, such as Durkheim
and Weber, than religion is only a construct of man’s environment and only developed
because there were things with which he did not understand and made up stories to be
able to understand the phenomena around him. In this way, the modern world should
then be void of religion because many of the phenomena that fascinated ancient man
are now known through the fields of science and philosophy.

This problem was one of the many ideological concepts confusing the Muslim
ummah at the time of Said Nursi. He came out forcefully against this and wrote his
Risale-I Nur to answer and stop the disruptive forces at the time. An answer to the
above view, Said Nursi says that the environment is a creation of the Divine and
serves a Divine purpose. It was not something that is just there. Hence, it is there
subjected to man by God. To be able to understand what it is, what man is, and all the
other aspects of man’s life, he needs to be educated. But can man educate himself?
Can the created educate himself of his own creation? It is like the light bulb
explaining to itself why and how it is a light bulb. Another example is the ship captain
at sea. His environment is the sea. His tool is his boat. He needs to navigate his way to
one place, but he cannot navigate there without having knowledge of the seas, the
winds, the stars, the storms, the manner of his boat when it responds to swells, and the
like. That knowledge he needs, and it is like that with man in any environment. In the
cosmos, the bigger picture, man requires knowledge of his fate, of his tasks, of his
role, and society, governance, etc. He needs a knowledge that is higher than his
created self, and this only comes from the knowledge given through revealed
knowledge, and to believe in revelation one must first believe in the Supreme God
from whence revelation comes from. To have this, he needs religion. This religion is
more important to him, and it helps him make sense of what he is, and his
surroundings. He will be able to accelerate his achievements through religion because
he already has a guide. He does not need to go through every process of discovery, of
confusion, because religion has already supplied to him.