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Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
The Life of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi:As an Example of Self-Devotion to the Mankind-2-
It was the time, when he for the first time in his life was arrested (31 March 1909) and court martialed on the charge of inciting the disturbance, although he had done his best to do quite opposite things - to calm the actions. Finally he was acquitted. It was his first of many other acquittals, but he remembered it during all his life.
He returned back to his native Eastern Anadola, and then decided to travel through remote provinces in order to explain to his people what he had understood about the movement for freedom, which was not contrary to Islam. Since those days the fame of him as of one of the most talented speakers reached all the parts of his country. Later on he published these speeches in a book entitled ?The Debates?.
In 1911 Bediuzzaman went to Damascus and gave sermon in the well-known Mosque ? Umayyad Mosque ? to a congregation including one hundred famous scholars. As a real scholar, he analysed the political and spiritual aspects of the global development, while comparing East and West, Eastern and Western civilizations. He wanted to understand differences and even discrepancies between two civilizations, to foresee the future of the Islam world, eventual dimensions of its development.
Once understood his own destiny, he never gave up his efforts to establish a University in Eastern Anadola. As the representative of the Eastern Provinces, he escorted Sultan Reshad on his journey to Rumelia. Being there, Sultan decided to found a University therein, but Bediuzzaman opposed, telling him that Eastern part of the country needs such an institution much more, because it would become a real center of Muslim world. Very frankly and directly, he convinced Sultan in extreme importance of Eastern Anadolian University, and the latter finally ordered to finance the project. The construction was started, but the outbreak of the First World War stopped that.
During this war Bediuzzaman Said Nursi served as a commander of a volunteer regiment on the Caucasian Front and in Eastern Anadola. He devoted himself to the country?s cause in the same brilliant way as he sacrificed himself before that to the education of new generations of youngsters in his country. It was reported that he demonstrated a real heroism along with his volunteers known as the ?Felt Caps?. And what is more interesting, while using all the breaks between battles, he wrote his unique commentary on the Holy Quran in Arabic language. And this was another demonstration ? the demonstration of great devotion to the scholarly cause and traditional knowledge.
Even when he was captured and became a war prisoner, he continued to deepen and widen his knowledge. He spent more than two years in North-Western Russia, in the city of Kostroma, and during that time remained spiritually-free. There is a nice story about the brave behaviour of Bediuzzaman in Russia: once a Russian general visited the war-camp for inspection. When he passed by Bediuzzaman, he did not stand up. The General asked him what was the reason of that, and Bediuzzaman replied: ?I am a Muslim scholar and have belief in my heart. Whoever has belief in his heart is superior to one who has not. I cannot act against my belief?.
After these words, Bediuzzaman was court-martialed and sentenced to death. Before the execution he asked a permission to perform his last duty ? prayer, in front of firing squad. The General witnessed the scene and came to Bediuzzaman, but with apology. He said that he now realized that Bediuzzaman has acted out of his firmness of faith, and that the sentence was withdrawn.
After the Russian revolution, Bediuzzaman succeeded escaping from the prison and after a long journey returning back to Istanbul. It was in 1918. He was decorated with a war medal and Enver Pasha, the minister of war, offered him some positions in the government. Of course, Bediuzzaman refused to accept the offer, but he accepted a purely scholarly position ? in Daru?l-Hikmeti?l-Islamiye ? the religious academy at that time.
Still, he did not limit himself with scholarly research, but demonstrated all the firmness and patriotism when British troops penetrated Istanbul. He wrote newspaper articles against the occupants and invoked his people to struggle for national freedom.
In 1922 he received the second invitation from the government to accept an official position. He went to Ankara and was received at the Grand National Assembly with a ceremony. However, he did not find in Ankara what he had anticipated. In 1923 he issued declaration to deputies, as a result of which fifty or sixty of them began to perform the five daily prayers. Bediuzzaman spent eight months in Ankara and then went to Van, where he lived in seclusion for two years, occupied only by thought and prayer.
When during the so-called ?Eastern Rebellion? he was asked to give his help to the rebels, he refused, saying: ?The sword is to be used against the outside enemy, it is not to be used inside our own country?. Later on Bediuzzaman was again charged falsely and sent to exile in Burdur, in Western Anadola. There he was kept in strict surveillance and oppression, but this did not prevent him from teaching the truths of beliefs to the people around him and from secretly collecting his writing together in a book. His activities were reported to Ankara, and even a plan to silence him was prepared. He was sent to Barla, an out-of-way village in the province of Isparta surrounded by mountains, with thought that Bediuzzaman would eventually die there lonely and forgotten.
The point is that Bediuzzaman did not die in Barla , but emerged with more strength and more capacity. During eight years and a half he continued his activities ? he wrote three quarters of the Risale-i Nur Collection. He wrote these works by hand, because he himself, neither his followers could afford the printing costs. Writing the treatises by hand was an enormous task. Besides that he was carrying his contacts with people, telling them all the truth about the country, government and society. Just to remind that in that time it was strictly forbidden not only to write, but also even to disseminate religious works.
In fact through his all life, through his public and religious activity Bediuzzaman represented great personality, enormous spiritual strength, leadership. He gathered together thousands of followers who read his writings and shared his views. All this activity gave a striking impact over the internal life in Turkey, and effected people while raising the nation?s morale, engendered hope and relief, and delivered the Muslims from desperation and despair.
Bediuzzaman was arrested in 1935 together with 125 of his students, and tried in Eskisehir Criminal Court. In Eskisehir prison, where they spent eleven months during the trial, they had to endure unbearable torments. They were released the following spring, but not left in peace. They were escorted by gendarmes, and Bediuzzaman himself was sent into exile in another city, Kastamonu. The first three months there he spent in a police station, then was transferred to a house directly opposite it. Bediuzzaman lived in Kastamonu for seven years and during that time continued to write and disseminate the Risale-i Nur. Because he and his students were deprived of almost all kins of freedom, they formed their own postal organization, called the ?Nur Postmen? by means of whom many thousands of copies of the treatises were distributed throughout Anadola.
He returned back to his native Eastern Anadola, and then decided to travel through remote provinces in order to explain to his people what he had understood about the movement for freedom, which was not contrary to Islam. Since those days the fame of him as of one of the most talented speakers reached all the parts of his country. Later on he published these speeches in a book entitled ?The Debates?.
In 1911 Bediuzzaman went to Damascus and gave sermon in the well-known Mosque ? Umayyad Mosque ? to a congregation including one hundred famous scholars. As a real scholar, he analysed the political and spiritual aspects of the global development, while comparing East and West, Eastern and Western civilizations. He wanted to understand differences and even discrepancies between two civilizations, to foresee the future of the Islam world, eventual dimensions of its development.
Once understood his own destiny, he never gave up his efforts to establish a University in Eastern Anadola. As the representative of the Eastern Provinces, he escorted Sultan Reshad on his journey to Rumelia. Being there, Sultan decided to found a University therein, but Bediuzzaman opposed, telling him that Eastern part of the country needs such an institution much more, because it would become a real center of Muslim world. Very frankly and directly, he convinced Sultan in extreme importance of Eastern Anadolian University, and the latter finally ordered to finance the project. The construction was started, but the outbreak of the First World War stopped that.
During this war Bediuzzaman Said Nursi served as a commander of a volunteer regiment on the Caucasian Front and in Eastern Anadola. He devoted himself to the country?s cause in the same brilliant way as he sacrificed himself before that to the education of new generations of youngsters in his country. It was reported that he demonstrated a real heroism along with his volunteers known as the ?Felt Caps?. And what is more interesting, while using all the breaks between battles, he wrote his unique commentary on the Holy Quran in Arabic language. And this was another demonstration ? the demonstration of great devotion to the scholarly cause and traditional knowledge.
Even when he was captured and became a war prisoner, he continued to deepen and widen his knowledge. He spent more than two years in North-Western Russia, in the city of Kostroma, and during that time remained spiritually-free. There is a nice story about the brave behaviour of Bediuzzaman in Russia: once a Russian general visited the war-camp for inspection. When he passed by Bediuzzaman, he did not stand up. The General asked him what was the reason of that, and Bediuzzaman replied: ?I am a Muslim scholar and have belief in my heart. Whoever has belief in his heart is superior to one who has not. I cannot act against my belief?.
After these words, Bediuzzaman was court-martialed and sentenced to death. Before the execution he asked a permission to perform his last duty ? prayer, in front of firing squad. The General witnessed the scene and came to Bediuzzaman, but with apology. He said that he now realized that Bediuzzaman has acted out of his firmness of faith, and that the sentence was withdrawn.
After the Russian revolution, Bediuzzaman succeeded escaping from the prison and after a long journey returning back to Istanbul. It was in 1918. He was decorated with a war medal and Enver Pasha, the minister of war, offered him some positions in the government. Of course, Bediuzzaman refused to accept the offer, but he accepted a purely scholarly position ? in Daru?l-Hikmeti?l-Islamiye ? the religious academy at that time.
Still, he did not limit himself with scholarly research, but demonstrated all the firmness and patriotism when British troops penetrated Istanbul. He wrote newspaper articles against the occupants and invoked his people to struggle for national freedom.
In 1922 he received the second invitation from the government to accept an official position. He went to Ankara and was received at the Grand National Assembly with a ceremony. However, he did not find in Ankara what he had anticipated. In 1923 he issued declaration to deputies, as a result of which fifty or sixty of them began to perform the five daily prayers. Bediuzzaman spent eight months in Ankara and then went to Van, where he lived in seclusion for two years, occupied only by thought and prayer.
When during the so-called ?Eastern Rebellion? he was asked to give his help to the rebels, he refused, saying: ?The sword is to be used against the outside enemy, it is not to be used inside our own country?. Later on Bediuzzaman was again charged falsely and sent to exile in Burdur, in Western Anadola. There he was kept in strict surveillance and oppression, but this did not prevent him from teaching the truths of beliefs to the people around him and from secretly collecting his writing together in a book. His activities were reported to Ankara, and even a plan to silence him was prepared. He was sent to Barla, an out-of-way village in the province of Isparta surrounded by mountains, with thought that Bediuzzaman would eventually die there lonely and forgotten.
The point is that Bediuzzaman did not die in Barla , but emerged with more strength and more capacity. During eight years and a half he continued his activities ? he wrote three quarters of the Risale-i Nur Collection. He wrote these works by hand, because he himself, neither his followers could afford the printing costs. Writing the treatises by hand was an enormous task. Besides that he was carrying his contacts with people, telling them all the truth about the country, government and society. Just to remind that in that time it was strictly forbidden not only to write, but also even to disseminate religious works.
In fact through his all life, through his public and religious activity Bediuzzaman represented great personality, enormous spiritual strength, leadership. He gathered together thousands of followers who read his writings and shared his views. All this activity gave a striking impact over the internal life in Turkey, and effected people while raising the nation?s morale, engendered hope and relief, and delivered the Muslims from desperation and despair.
Bediuzzaman was arrested in 1935 together with 125 of his students, and tried in Eskisehir Criminal Court. In Eskisehir prison, where they spent eleven months during the trial, they had to endure unbearable torments. They were released the following spring, but not left in peace. They were escorted by gendarmes, and Bediuzzaman himself was sent into exile in another city, Kastamonu. The first three months there he spent in a police station, then was transferred to a house directly opposite it. Bediuzzaman lived in Kastamonu for seven years and during that time continued to write and disseminate the Risale-i Nur. Because he and his students were deprived of almost all kins of freedom, they formed their own postal organization, called the ?Nur Postmen? by means of whom many thousands of copies of the treatises were distributed throughout Anadola.