Bediuzzaman Said Nursî’s Vision of the Future
Editorial
“Be hopeful! In this future revolution, the loudest sound will be the sound of Islam.”
The above words of Bedüzzaman Said Nursî, which instills hope in the societies he addresses, are waiting to be understood in a multi-faceted way for today’s rapidly changing and transforming world. “The meaning of ongoing social changes and turmoil and changes that are accelerating and making themselves felt more and more in the economic, political and social fields; what understandings and what kind of social structures will shape the future; with which values and arguments, the emphasis on Islam In Bediuzzaman Said Nursî’s gospel will have a say in the future against changing human and social models?” are some of the most frequently asked questions today.
With the economic, political and social upheavals that emerged in many countries of the world before the pandemic, the comments that many countries will make radical changes in their political and social structures in the future are among the most frequently expressed topics of the last period. In the light of these discussions, it is interesting to see how Islamic societies will be affected by these changes, how the foundations for the truths of the Qur’an, which promises the happiness of people and societies in this world and the hereafter will be formed, and what kind of future vision Bediuzzaman Said Nursî has revealed on these issues. One of the important questions is how the unrest arising from the current political and economic order, in which global capital owners get richer, the majority of humanity becomes poorer, and the happy minority dominates the unhappy majority, will turn into. It necessitates that the period, which Bediuzzaman Said Nursî called “Ownership and Freedom”, should be subjected to a multi-faceted examination because of the facts that with the effect of economic and other factors, the human being -who did not want to be a slave in the past and who started to reject the lifestyles based on the understanding of wage-earning, which is even more exacerbated today- is searching for ways out in every field; the political order based on tyranny and oppression is exposed to more criticism and the awareness of freedom is gradually increasing.
Again, the political and social problems that manifest themselves in many parts of the world and especially that the Islamic world cannot overcome, as well as the tension and internal conflicts in many parts of the world, continue to lead everyone to uneasiness with the concern of humanity. Migration movements that arise due to these problems, the fact that people have to leave the geographies where they were born and raised due to their desire to live more peacefully and happily is another situation that should not be overlooked for the future of humanity. While immigrants and refugees have to take some risks in hiz journeys by leaving their homes due to various problems, on the other hand, they encounter prejudices and hate speech from some segments of Western societies that are most exposed to immigration. From this point of view, it is necessary to examine how values such as “sharing, solidarity, unity and solidarity, respect and affection” will be implemented as common values of humanity and how the “Islamic World”, which is seen as the subject of the problem, will contribute to this solution.
Along with these, the biggest change seen in the transition from the printed culture environment to the electronic culture environment opens a different discussion ground. Because with this transition, youth undergo a rapid change, concepts such as acculturation (one-sided or unilateral cultural transfer) are discussed on different grounds, and the difficulties that nations experience in preserving or transferring their cultural values bring along new discussions. The fact of moving away from the spiritual values and belief system, which constitutes the essence of these discussions, which especially shifted to the fields of belief, has shaken the foundations of the belief world of the new generations, and a hedonistic lifestyle has almost turned into a common culture. As we move rapidly towards a period in which the real and the virtual begin to replace and real personalities and real values are replaced by images and symbols; “how to protect beliefs, how to repair the areas of belief that virtual reality tries to destroy, how to transfer the elements of Islamic morality and creed to new generations” are some of the important questions waiting to be answered.
As Köprü Magazine, we believe that Bediuzzaman Said Nursî -with his “criticism of the current civilization, which caused the great majority of humanity to unrest; with his proposal of the “Period of Ownership and Freedom”, which includes an understanding of civilization aiming at the happiness of the whole of humanity and which expresses the economic ownership along with fundamental rights and freedoms; and with his drawing attention to the Islamic truths that point to the material and spiritual development of mankind- will have a say in the future World. In this context, Risale-i Nur Institute organized a congress with the title of “Bediuzzaman Said Nursî’s Future Vision” in the past months and discussed this issue in detail around five tables in the light of the following issues. In this issue, you can find and read the results of this congress and some papers presented at the congress.
While Bediuzzaman was answering the questions of the tribesmen in the Eastern provinces, one of the important scholars strongly objected him and said “It is the last times of the End of The Days, (the situation) will get worse”. In response to his word, he states that while the world is a world of progress for everyone, it cannot be a world of regression to us. It is extremely interesting that right after that talking he said to his contemporaries in despair, “I will not talk to you either, I am turning this way, addressing future generations and I will talk to the people in the future. In this respect, it is necessary to determine what advice Bediuzzaman Said Nursî gave to the next generations, what kind of future he envisioned with them, and what values he addressed to the younger generations at the point of rebuilding the future.
However, in terms of management systems, it is possible to say that the model put forward by Bediuzzaman Said Nursî completely includes the general framework needed by humanity. Bediuzzaman Said Nursî’s pointing out that there will be a libertarian generation in the future by emphasizing the new generation while describing constitutionalism; his emphasizing the consultation of delegations in administrations by emphasizing consultation and council; his taking ‘justice, consultation and the rule of law’ as a base for the foundation of state administration; his highlighting freedom as a ‘freedom of evil’ as much as possible; his considering justice as the basis of the social orders and functioning of he universe; his grounding the morality and education with the monotheism approach; his basing all the turmoil and conflicts in the world on the understanding of “you work, I will eat, what if someone else dies of hunger after I am full” and his proposing the basic economic principles of the Qur’an in response to these; his revealing a vision of humanity with Qur’anic solutions by detecting the diseases such as “hopelessness, alienation from truth, love for enmity, tyranny, alienation from unity and solidarity, utilitarianism” that corrupt and leave societies behind… are matters that need to be examined.
In particular, the identification of the problems of people who are increasingly lonely with technological developments and the solution recommendations to be brought to them will fill a great deficiency. However, it is remarkable that Bediuzzaman Said Nursî, who argues that science is subject to evolvemenet and exhibits a stance that is open to scientific developments, sees scientific developments as evidence of the existence of Allah, and connects the miracles of the Prophet with scientific developments. It is remarkable that Bediuzzaman Said Nursî, who draws attention to the fact that the struggle at this time will be fought not with brute force but with science and art, embraced scientific developments that he saw as “the blessings of civilization” and invited Muslims to embrace them. At this point, it is also important what kind of work can be done on his approach to bring positive sciences and religious sciences together on the axis of Medresetüzzehra and to attribute them to humanity.
We wish that this congress, which aims to offer solutions to the aforementioned problems by making use of the Risale-i Nur Collection, will be beneficial, and we hope to present you with a special file in the next issue as we leave you alone with our journal.