The Third Said

The phrases of The Old Said, The New Said, and The Third Said, used
for the life periods of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, have great importance in understanding
Risale-i Nur service and determination of the concept map. These phrases, used by
Said Nursi himself as appellations in different periods, point out his intrinsic
conditions in these periods, and individual, social and political changes, and also
his methodological differences that he designated about these changes, rather than
certain periods of time.

It is important to put forward whether there is any interruption, conflict or
contradiction among these three periods for the continuity of Risale-i Nur service.
This condition makes it necessary to examine Said Nursi’s life periods in the light
of historical and social facts.

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s life up to 1923 is named The Old Said. It is noteworthy
that the contents of the works written in this period are about social and political
matters. It can be seen that Nursi, in these works, interprets the events happening
in the wavering ages of the empire from the Qur’anic point of view, and, from this
point of view, he reveals Qur’anic principles which can be adapted to all ages.

Between 1923 and 1949 is what Said Nursi called The New Said. This period is
the one in which he focused on the works about the truths of faith against the understanding
and oppression that established the Republic on positivist values. In this period,
Risale-i Nur collection was written in spite of all the constraints, threats and
imprisonments.

The period starting with Said Nursi’s release from Afyon Prison on September
of 1949 is The Third Said. What the main factors in differentiating this period
from The Old Said and The New Said periods are, what sort of road map Bediuzzaman
established in the service of faith, on what level he continued his relation with
the institution of politics, what kind of measures he brought in the relations with
religion, politics and state, what kind of attitude he developed against the stereotypes
and oppressions of the official ideology, how he handled the fact of congregation
(jamaah), on what kind of social principles he relied in his actions in general,
are important in respect of showing which methodology Risale-i Nur services will
follow. That is because, in a period that we can mention a school and a philosophy
of Bediuzzaman in a broader sense now, the arguments he developed in social and
political fields and the principles he put forward shape the way of Risale-i Nur
service even after his death. In this context, the questions like what principles
Bediuzzaman built his style of service on in each one of three periods, and in what
ways it differentiates from other styles and schools of service should be answered.
It is important to put forward these principles, considering Bediuzzaman’s life
style and the contents of the works in these periods, to be able to convey the main
principles of Risale-i Nur school and disposition to our time.

As Kopru, we designated the subject of dossier of 112 th issue as “The Third
Said”. We scrutinised the subject in the light of the terms like The Old Said, The
New Said, The Third Said, constitutional monarchy, republic, democracy, liberty,
justice, religion, politics, state, Democratic Party, unity of Islam, political
Islam, the least bad of the evil things, school, disposition, service, loyalty,
Mahdi, faith, life, Sharia, congregation (jamaah), followers of Said Nursi (Nurculuk),
positive action, official ideology, and materialism.

We also tried to find answers to the following questions: What are the main reasons
and events behind why Bediuzzaman Said Nursi divided his own life into certain periods?
What are the main characteristics which differ The Third Said period from the The
Old Said and The New Said periods? What are the characteristics of The Third Said
period in relation to the publishing of Risale-i Nur and the service of Risale-i
Nur? What is the route of Risale-i Nur service after 1950? What is the importance
of following this route today? What is the framework of the meaning that Said Nursi
attributed to the concept of congregation (jamaah)? What are the principles that
the concept of congregation is based on? What are the characteristics of the contents
of Bediuzzaman’s letters in this period? What is the outline of the concept of “positive
action” that he emphasised in his last letter? Is it possible to relate the duties
of Mahdi, as Bediuzzaman described, in the divisions of “Faith”, “Life” and “Sharia”
to these three periods? What kind of political and social route did Bediuzzaman
follow in The Third Said period? From this point of view, what are the noticeable
characteristics of the period and what are the criteria that Nursi defined? What
kind of relationship is there between Democratic Party and Bediuzzaman? What are
the main factors behind the reasons why Bediuzzaman supported Democratic Party?
What are the main reasons why Bediuzzaman addressed Adnan Menderes as “Hero of Islam”?

As we leave you with the dossier of “The Third Said” in which we hope you may
find answers to all these questions above, we expect to meet again with a new dossier
under the main title of “Woman”.