THE FLASHES
The Twenty-Second Flash
AN ASTONISHING MANNER OF TREATMENT
It is well known that scholars everywhere regard matters from the standpoint of knowledge and learning. Wherever they encounter knowledge and scholarship, and in whomever they find them, they show friendship and respect out of regard for their calling. Even if a professor from a hostile country were to visit this land, its scholars would call upon him and honour him out of respect for his learning.
When England’s highest scientific council submitted six questions to the Council of the Shaykh al-IslāmAn honorific title historically given to eminent Islamic scholars and, in the Ottoman Empire, to the highest-ranking religious authority., requesting that they be answered in six hundred words, a scholar who had been treated with disrespect by the learned circles of this country answered all six questions in just six words, to widespread admiration.
Moreover, equipped with genuine knowledge and scholarship, he challenged the fundamental principles upheld by foreign scholars and philosophers in debate and emerged victorious. Drawing upon the power of the knowledge he had acquired from the Qur’an, he challenged the philosophers of Europe.
Six months before the proclamation of freedom, he invited both the religious scholars and the students of the modern schools in Istanbul to debate with him. Without putting a single question to them himself, he gave complete and correct answers to every question they posed.
He devoted his entire life to the happiness of this people, published hundreds of treatises in their own Turkish language, and thereby enlightened them.[1]
Yet it is certain individuals from learned circles and a small group of officially appointed hodjas who cause this scholar the greatest difficulties—a man who is also their compatriot, fellow believer, friend, and brother—and who even treat him with hostility and disrespect.
Consider, then: what name can be given to such conduct?
Is this civilisation? Is this love of knowledge and learning? Is this patriotism? Is this love for the people? Is this love for the republic?
No, no! It is none of these.
Rather, it is a decree of Divine destiny that hostility should arise from precisely those quarters where this scholar had expected friendship, lest the respect shown to him taint his knowledge with riyāDisplaying piety to impress others rather than seeking Allah’s pleasure; the opposite of ikhlās., and so that he might attain ikhlāsSincerity in worship, seeking only the pleasure of Allah and avoiding the pursuit of fame or status..
The New SaidThe second major period in the life of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, during which he withdrew from political and public affairs and devoted himself to strengthening Islamic faith through spiritual reflection, Qur’anic teachings, and the writing of the Risale-i Nur. says: At this point, I cannot agree with the somewhat boastful words of the Old SaidThe first major period in the life of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, during which he was actively involved in public affairs, education, and efforts to reform Muslim society. This period preceded his spiritual transformation into the “New Said,” when he devoted himself primarily to strengthening Islamic faith through the Risale-i Nur.. Yet, since I have given him leave to speak in this treatise, I cannot silence him. Therefore, in the face of those who are driven by their own egos, I allow him to display a little of his own self-regard, while I myself remain silent.
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