Who is Imam Bediuzzaman Said Nursi?
Imam Bediuzzaman Said Nursi was a great Muslim scholar who is accepted as the mujaddid of his time. He was born in 1877 in Bitlis and passed away in 1960 in Urfa, Turkey.
He obtained ijazah at the age of 14 by unprecedentedly finishing a 15-year-education of madrasa in such a short period of time as 3 months.
Then he studied and mastered physical sciences, as well. He got a high level of knowledge in this field and had a grasp of physical science along with religious sciences.
ANSWER TO EVERY QUESTION
At a young age, he was able to pass, with flying colours, all of the examinations given to him by his teachers, and to defend his theses in the scholastic discussions to which they subjected him.
His answering all the questions without hesitation convinced the scholars in general that his knowledge is ilmu wahbi, a gift given by Allah in other words.
Along with this high level of his knowledge, he lived a life based on sunnah al-saniyya, taqwa and zuhd; no oppression and cruelty could prevent him from living the truths he believed in. Like the scholars who lived in previous centuries as the heirs of the Prophet (pbuh), he showed the perfection required by his knowledge.
THE DAMASCUS SERMON
He stayed in Istanbul for about ten years between 1908 and 1922. During that time he found the opportunity to diagnose the material and spiritual problems of the Ottomans and the Islamic world and presented solutions. His celebrated sermon he delivered in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus in 1911, later published as The Damascus Sermon, is just like a diagnosis and prescription and shows that he is the mujaddid of the century.
THE BEGINNING OF THE WRITING OF RISALE-I NUR
Imam Bediuzzaman diagnosed the Islamic world with “the illness of faith” which was the major cause all of their problems. For this reason he dedicated his entire life to proving the articles of faith and treating the illness of faith. He wrote the Risale-i Nur Corpus, which comprises 130 epistles and is an interpretation of the meanings of the Qur’an, with the inspirations from the Qur’an in 23 years beginning with his exile to Isparta in 1926.
Ahmed Husrev Altınbaşak Kimdir?
Ahmed Husrev Efendi was born in 1899 in Isparta, Turkey. Upon a dream he had in 1931 Ahmed Hüsrev Efendi went to visit Imam Bediuzzaman Said Nursi in Barla, the village the imam was exiled to.
From then on, he was one of Imam Nursi’s first students; he served as an advising friend, an assistant to the imam and became the most important element in the service. He devoted his entire life and wealth to the Risale-i Nur Service.
TRIAL WITH THE PURPOSE OF EXECUTION
He was tried together with Bediuzzaman and the students of Nur in every court such as Eskişehir (1935), Denizli (1943) and Afyon (1947). They were tried with the intention of execution.
The letters of Nur students from all over the country reached Imam Bediuzzaman through Ahmed Husrev Efendi; most of the time he replied the letters himself according to Imam Nursi’s wishes. Imam Nursi said the following regarding this:
“We congratulate Husrev and pray for his success in his duty of correction and distribution (of the Risale-i Nur), supervision (of the service of iman) and communication as well as spreading the Nur (epistles) and educating (students around him). In addition to his important duties, we behold the beauty of his pleasant and brilliant handwriting in many copies (of the Nur epistles).” (Emirdag Letters-1, p.167)
Ahmed Husrev Altınbaşak passed away in August 1977 and was buried in Isparta, Turkey. Rahmatullahi Alayh.
How the idea of handwriting the Qur’an in Tawafuq came up?
This miracle in the writing of the Qur’an was first recognised by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi last century. It is a wondrous miracle of the Qur’an pertaining to eyes in this age when people have been deeply influenced by the materialist irreligious philosophy and become an empirically-minded who says “we don’t believe what we cannot see”. It is rather meaningful and completely a grace of Allah (swt).
Imam Bediuzzaman said the following about the subject: “A new copy of the Qur’an was written which will show one of five or six miraculous aspects of The Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition pertaining to eyes. We preserved the pages and line numbers of the copy written by Hafiz Uthman. We understood that although the word “Allah” is repeated in the Qur’an just 2806 times, they are all in tawafuq (congruous alignment) with some exceptions which are very few and have subtle meanings. We did not change pages or lines. We have just organized them. Then a marvellous tawafuq has appeared thereafter. We learned that some people of heart have seen our copy and accepted that it is similar to the script of the Preserved Tablet.” (See The Letters, The Index of The Letters and Rumuzat al-Thamaniya”