ON THE PURPOSE OF THE RISALE-I NUR

Today, I listened to an imaginary exchange of question and answer. Let me set forth for you a summary of it.

Someone said: “The great mobilization and complete preparedness of the Risale-i Nur for the sake of belief and the proving of the Divine unity is constantly increasing. One hundredth part of its contents is enough to silence the most obstinate atheist; why then this further feverish mobilization and preparation?”

They answered him: “The Risale-i Nur is not only repairing some minor damage or some small house; it is repairing vast damage and the all-embracing citadel which contains Islam, the stones of which are the size of mountains. And it is not striving to reform only a private heart and an individual conscience; it is striving to cure with the medicines of the Qur’an and belief and the Qur’an’s miraculousness the collective heart and generally-held ideas, which have been breached in awesome fashion by the tools of corruption prepared and stored up over a thousand years, and the general conscience, which is facing corruption through the destruction of the foundations, currents, and marks of Islam which are the refuge of all and particularly the mass of believers.

“Certainly, for such universal breaches and awesome wounds, proofs and equipment of the utmost certitude and the strength of mountains, and well-proven medicines and numberless drugs of the effectiveness of a thousand remedies are necessary. Emerging at this time from the miraculousness of the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, the Risale-i Nur performs this function, and is also the means of advancing and progressing through the infinite degrees of belief.”

A long discussion ensued to which I listened, offering infinite thanks. I curtail the matter here.

S a i d N u r s i

FOOTNOTES

1. This translation of the Seventh Ray was originally carried out by Hamid Algar, Prof. of Middle Eastern Studies in the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and was first published in 1979. It has been been in part amended to fit the present work. [Tr.]

2. The events that took place in Denizli fully confirmed the prediction of Imam ‘Ali concerning the Supreme Sign. For the secret printing of this book was the cause of our imprisonment, and the triumph of its sacred and most powerful truth was the main cause of our acquittal and deliverance. Thus did Imam ‘Ali make manifest his miraculous prediction, and prove the acceptance of the prayer he had uttered on our behalf: “By means of the Supreme Sign, secure me against sudden death!”

3. See page 130, footnote 7.

4. Qur’an, 51:56.

5. Muslim, Birr, 136; Abu Da’ud, Libas, 25; Ibn Maja, Zuhd, 16; Musnad, ii, 248, 376, 414, 427, 442; iv, 416; Ibn Hibban, Sahih, i, 272; vii, 473; al-Hindi, Kanz al-‘Ummal, iii, 534.

6. The famous supplication revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) which, consisting of the Divine Names, is related to possess many merits. [Tr.]

7. Qur’an, 17:44.

8. Qur’an, 2:164.

9. Qur’an, 42:28.

10. Qur’an, 13:13.

11. Qur’an, 24:43.

12. Qur’an, 30:50.

13. A phrase repeated many times in the Qur’an.

14. See, Muslim, Janna, 26. (The rivers, Sayhan, Jayhan, Euphrates, and Nile). [Tr.]15. Qur’an, 78:7.16. Qur’an, 50:7.17. Qur’an, 79:32.18. Qur’an,18:109.19. Tawatur is the kind of report transmitted by numerous authorities, about which there is no room for doubt. [Tr.]

20. Qur’an, 54:1.

21. Qur’an, 8:17.

20. A river in Paradise.

22. Qur’an, 15:94.

23. Qur’an, 57:1.

24. Muslim, iv, nos: 1816, 1817; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, ii, 392; Tabrizi, Mishkat al-Masabih, No: 4844.

25. Bukhari, vi, 234; al-Mustadrak, i, 553, 554.

26. Qur’an, 81:10.27. Qur’an, 18:109.

28. Qur’an, 3:18.

29. Qur’an, 48:4.

30. Qur’an, 21:22.

31. Qur’an, 57:4.

32. Qur’an, 3:27.

33. Qur’an, 4:48.

34. Qur’an, 16:68.

35. Qur’an, 16:66.

36. Qur’an, 16:67.

37. Qur’an, 36:53.

38. Qur’an, 16:77.

39. Qur’an, 31:28.

40. Time has proven that the man referred to here is not in fact an individual, but the Risale-i Nur itself. It maybe that the people of unveiling happened to notice the insignificant interpreter and proclaimer of the Risale-i Nur and hence came to speak of “a man.”41. al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa, i, 310.

42. Qur’an, 39:6.

43. Qur’an, 3:5-6.

44. Qur’an, 51:58.

45. Qur’an, 11:6.

46. Qur’an, 29:60.

47. Qur’an, 7:43.

48. Qur’an, 2:32.

49. Alif: the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, written as a vertical stroke, and the numerical value of which is one. [Tr.]