The Supreme Sign
The Observations of a Traveller Questioning The Universe Concerning His Maker
Editorial
In the historical process, social changes and scientific developments have been the source of different beliefs and worldviews. Especially recently, the human spirit, which has been invaded by ideological approachesbased on the idea of denial of divinity and taking its strength from scientific developments, is experiencing depressions in the face of questions about the essence of its own existence, the purpose of creation, the existence and the nature of the creator and the meaning of life, and the questions that remain unanswered turn into a crisis of humanity. At this point, different from scientific studies based on the philosophy of denying God, approaches that present scientific developments as evidence of God’s existence from a faith perspective are needed. Today, starting from the idea of evolution, the answer to the question of how to re-establish this connection becomes important against scientific approaches that voice denialist approaches in questions about creation such as deism, atheism, and agnosticism, and break the bond between God, man and the universe. In this context, we think that Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s way of proving the principles of faith and the methods he uses are extremely important for today’s approaches. Responding to high school students in Kastamonu who said, “Our teachers do not tell us about God,” by saying “listen to the sciences you learn” and stating that each science speaks of God, Bediuzzaman’s “the meaning that looks to the thing itself” approach and its operation in the universe led to a new paradigm based on Tawhid is an issue that needs to be examined, which is felt throughout the Risale-i Nur. The fact that Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, who mentions three universal muarrifs among the countless proofs that introduce us to our Creator, presents the “Book of the Universe” as a great proof along with the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad, is remarkable in the context of rejecting the denying ideas based on the science-religion conflict. At this point, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s treatise “ Ayetü’l-Kübra – The Supreme Sign” is a work that awaits multi-faceted examination, which has a strong answer to the questioning of the existence and nature of the Creator, one of the unchanging agendas of humanity throughout human history, and to materialist approaches based on the idea of denial of divinity. The treatise “ Ayetü’l-Kübra – The Supreme Sign”, which Bediuzzaman Said Nursi defines with the phrase “it is a truth of the Qur’an and a great strength against
the terrible destruction at present “, is one of the most powerful answer to the question of today’s people “Who is the creator of man and the universe?, and expects to be understood as a proof based on Tawhid that presents all the elements of the universe as evidence, with the the observations of a traveller questioning the universe concerning his maker”.Technically, approaches that evoke blasphemy and polytheism, or ideas that openly express unbelief, and all objections to the truth of Tawhid are refuted by analyzing almost many pages of “The Great Book of the Universe”; and the existence and unity of The God is proven by taking into account the elements of the universe. Bediuzzaman’s work; also gains importance in that it offers the opportunity to re-establish the ties etween the human and the universe to modern people who forget the purpose of their own existence, questioning the meaning of existence, looking for their creator, forgot the link between the human-universe-creator triangle with the veil of habituation, and have damaged the bond between themselves and God. It is extremely striking that Bediuzzaman Said Nursi updated the functioning of the universe by using the mental codes of modern science to prove God. At this point, in terms of today’s theological approaches and classical religious teaching, the meaning expressed by Ayetü’l-Kübra-The Supreme Sign is another issue that needs to be studied. Determining the place of the “treatise which transforms the “belief in God”, which forms the basis of the principles of faith, into a lesson in knowing God through a reading the “book of the universe” in a way that responds to modern developments, and explains the principles of faith in an extremely clear and decent language” among today’s theological texts or philosophical approaches; and determining its value as a “pioneering work” in terms of rejecting the denying philosophy that connects the creation of man and the universe to causes, chance, a network formed by polytheism and natüre is extremely important. Another curious issue is the attitude of the Ayetü’l-Kübra treatise towards the sources that state that there is a conflict between science and religion. It is an important question how the problem of inconsistency of scientific findings with the texts in the holy books, which is the main basis of the conflict between science and religion, is overcome in Ayetü’l-Kübra. In the treatise, in which science is shown as a step of knowing Allah, our world is described as “a most generous banquet, a most ingenious exhibition, a most impressive camp and training ground, a most amazing and wondrous place of recreation, a most profound and wise place of instruction”; and also faith lessons are given with the observations of “a traveler who asks the universe about his life”, and the ways and methods of unshakble faith are shown. At this point, in the treatise Ayetü’l-Kübra, revealation of the perfect functioning of the world and the universe together with elements
such as wind, rain, sky, cloud, water, soil, air, lightning, etc from a tawhid-oriented eye makes it necessary to consider the work in terms of the validity of today’s scientific approaches that emphasize the conflict between religion and science. In summary, what the Ayetü’l-Kübra Treatise says to humanity, which is facing big problems in terms of belief; what kind of way is followed about how spiritual education should be as a whole together with religious education; how to use this method in the education syllabus; the meaning of the work in relation to arts such as literature, theatre, cinema and photography in terms of contribution to faith lessons; how Ayetü’l-Kübra opened up a horizon for the modern age man, who damaged his bond with Allah; What are the possibilities that a Tawhid-centered paradigm that will be formed by the rediscovery of faith will offer humanity are some of the basic questions we try to answer in this issue. While we leave you alone with our magazine, we hope to be with the subject of “The Defense of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi” before you in the next issue.