From the Risale-i Nur Collection
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi
1928-1932
LETTERS
Translated from the Turkish by Şükran Vahide
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IN THE NAME OF GOD,
THE MERCIFUL, THE COMPASSIONATE
And from Him do we seek help
The First Letter
In His Name, be He glorified!
And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.1
[This consists of the brief answers to four questions]
FIRST QUESTION
Is Hadhrat Khidr alive? If he is alive, why do some important religious scholars not accept this?
T h e A n s w e r : He is alive, but there are five degrees of life. He is
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1.Bediuzzaman explained the reason for heading his letters with this verse (Qur’an, 17:44) as follows: “This was the first door opened to me from the sacred treasuries of the All-Wise Qur’an. Of the Divine truths of the Qur’an, it was the truth of this verse that first became clear to me and it is this truth which pervades most parts of the Risale-i Nur. Another reason is that the masters in whom I have confidence used it at the head of their letters.” (See, Barla Lahikasi, 179.) (Tr.)
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at the second degree. It is because of this that some religious scholars have been doubtful about it.
The First Level of Life is that of our life, which is very restricted.
The Second Level of Life is that of the lives of Khidr and Ilyas (May God grant them peace), which is free to an extent. That is to say, they can be present in numerous places at the same time. They are not permanently restricted by the requirements of humanity like us. They can eat and drink like us when they want to, but are not compelled to like we are. The saints are those who uncover and witness the realities of creation, and the reports of their adventures with Khidr are unanimous and elucidate and prove this level of life. There is even one degree of sainthood which is called ‘the degree of Khidr.’ A saint who reaches this degree receives instruction from Khidr and meets with him. But sometimes the one at that degree is mistakenly thought to be Khidr himself.
The Third Level of Life is that of Idris and Jesus (May God grant them peace) which, being removed from the requirements of humanity, rises to an angelic level of life and acquires a luminous fineness. Quite simply, Idris and Jesus are present in the heavens with their earthly bodies, which have the subtlety of bodies from the World of Similitudes and the luminosity of star-like bodies. The Hadith the meaning of which is, “At the end of time, Jesus (Upon whom be peace) will come and will act in accordance with the Shari‘a of Muhammad (PBUH),”2 indicates that at the end of time the religion of Christianity will be purified and divest itself of superstition in the face of the current of unbelief and atheism born of Naturalist philosophy, and will be transformed into Islam. At this point, the collective personality of Christianity will kill the fearsome collective personality of irreligion with the sword of heavenly Revelation; so too, representing the collective personality of Christianity, Jesus (Upon whom be peace) will kill the Dajjal, who represents the collective personality of irreligion, that is, he will kill atheistic thought.
The Fourth Level of Life is that of the martyrs. According to the Qur’an, the martyrs are at a level of life higher than that of the other dead in their graves. Since the martyrs sacrificed their worldly lives in the way of truth, in His perfect munificence, Almighty God bestows on them in the Intermediate Realm a life resembling earthly life, but without the sorrow and hardship. They do not know themselves to be dead, thinking only that they have gone to a better world. They enjoy themselves in perfect happiness and do not suffer the pains of separation that accompany
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2. Bukhari, Mazalim 31; Buyu’ 102; Muslim, Iman 242, 343; Ibn Maja, Fitan 33.
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death. For sure the spirits of the dead are immortal, but they know themselves to be dead. The happiness and pleasure they experience in the Intermediate World are not equal to that of the martyrs. Like if two men in their dreams enter a beautiful palace resembling Paradise; one knows that he is dreaming and the pleasure and enjoyment he receives are deficient. He thinks: “If I wake up, all this enjoyment will disappear.” While the other man does not know he is dreaming, and he experiences true happiness and pleasure.
The way the martyrs and other dead benefit from life in the Intermediate Realm is thus different. It has been established by innumerable incidents and narrations and it is certain that the martyrs manifest life in that way and think that they are alive. Indeed, this level of life has been illuminated and proved on repeated occasions by many occurrences like Hamza (May God be pleased with him) -the lord of the martyrs-protecting those that have recourse to him and performing and making performed matters in this world. I myself, even, had a nephew and student called Ubeyd. He was killed at my side and in my place and became a martyr. Then, when I was being held as a prisoner-of-war at a place three months’ distance away, I entered his grave in a true dream, which was in the form of a dwelling-place under the earth, although I did not know where he was buried. I saw him living the level of life of martyrs. He evidently thought that I was dead, and said that he had wept much for me. He thought that he was alive, but having retreated from the Russian invasion, had made himself a good home under the ground. Thus, through a number of such indications, this unimportant dream afforded the conviction as certain as witnessing it concerning the above-mentioned truth.
The Fifth Level of Life is that of the life of the spirits of the dead in their graves. Yes, death is a change of residence, the liberation of the spirit, a discharge from duties; it is not annihilation, non-existence, and a going to nothingness. Many evidences like innumerable occurrences of the spirits of the saints assuming forms and appearing to those who uncover the realities, and the other dead having relations with us while awake or sleeping and their telling us of things that are conformable with reality, evidences like these illuminate and prove this level of life. In fact, the Twenty-Ninth Word about the immortality of man’s spirit demonstrates this level of life with incontrovertible proofs.
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SECOND QUESTION
Verses like the following in the All-Wise Qur’an, the Criterion of Truth and Falsehood,
Who creates death and life that He may try you, which of you is the best in conduct,3
make it understood that “death is created like life; it too is a bounty.” Whereas apparently death is dissolution, non-existence, decay, the extinction of life, the annihilator of pleasures; how can it be created and a bounty?
T h e A n s w e r : As was stated at the end of the answer to the First Question, death is a discharge from the duties of life; it is a rest, a change of residence, a change of existence; it is an invitation to an eternal life, a beginning, the introduction to an immortal life. Just as life comes into the world through an act of creation and a determining, so too departure from the world is through a creation and determining, through a wise and purposeful direction. For the death of plant life, the simplest level of life, shows that it is a more orderly work of art than life. For although the death of fruits, seeds, and grains appear to occur through decay and dissolution, their death is in fact a kneading which comprises an exceedingly well-ordered chemical reaction and well-balanced combining of elements and wise formation of particles; this unseen, orderly and wise death appears through the life of the new shoots. That is to say, the death of the seed is the start of life of the shoot; indeed, since it is like life itself, this death is created and well-ordered as much as is life.
Moreover, the death of the fruits of living beings and animals in the human stomach is the beginning of their rising to the level of human life; it may therefore be said “such a death is more orderly and created than their own life.”
Thus, if the death of plant life, the lowest level of life, is thus created, wise, and ordered, so also must be the death that befalls human life, the most elevated level of life. And like a seed sown in the ground becomes a tree in the world of the air, so a man who is laid in the earth will surely produce the shoots of an everlasting life in the Intermediate Realm.
As for the aspects of death that are bounties, we shall point out four of them.
The First: It is a great bounty because it is to be freed from the duties and obligations of life, which become burdensome, and is a door through
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3. Qur’an, 67:2.
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which to join and be united with the ninety-nine out of a hundred of one’s friends who are already in the Intermediate Realm.
The Second: It is a release from the narrow, irksome, turbulent, and agitated prison of this world, and, manifesting an expansive, joyful, troublefree immortal life, it is to enter the sphere of mercy of the Eternally Beloved One.
The Third: There are numerous factors like old age which make the conditions of life arduous and show death to be a bounty far superior to life. For example, if together with your very elderly parents who cause you much distress were now in front of you your grandfather’s grandfathers in all their pitiful state, you would understand what a calamity is life, and what a bounty, death. Also for example, it is understood how difficult are the lives in the conditions of winter of the beautiful flying insects, the lovers of the beautiful flowers, and what mercy are their deaths.
The Fourth: Just as sleep is a comfort, a mercy, a rest, particularly for those afflicted by disaster and the wounded and the sick, so too is death, the elder brother of sleep, a pure bounty and mercy for those struck by disaster and suffering tribulations which drive them to suicide. However, as is proved decisively in many of the Words, for the people of misguidance, death is pure torment like life, and pure affliction, but it is outside the discussion here.
THIRD QUESTION
Where is Hell?
T h e A n s w e r :
Say: the knowledge is with God alone.4 * None knows the Unseen save God.
According to some narrations, Hell is beneath the earth. As we have explained in other places, in its annual orbit, the globe of the earth traces a circle around an area that in the future will be the place of the Great Gathering and Last Judgement. It means Hell is beneath the area of its orbit. It is invisible and unperceptible because it consists of veiled and lightless fire. In the vast distance travelled by the earth are many creatures that are invisible because they are without light. Like the moon loses its existence when its light withdraws, so we are unable to see numerous lightless globes and creatures which are before of our eyes.
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4. Qur’an, 67:26
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There are two Hells, the Lesser and the Greater. In the future, the Lesser will be transformed into the Greater and is like its seed; in the future it will become one of its habitations. The Lesser Hell is under the earth, that is, at the earth’s centre. It is the inside and centre of the globe. It is known in geology that in digging downwards, the heat for the most part increases one degree every thirty-three metres. That means that since half the diametre of the earth is around six thousand kilometres, the fire at the centre is at a temperature of around two hundred thousand degrees, that is, two hundred times hotter than fire at the circumference; this is in agreement with what is related by Hadiths. This Lesser Hell performs many of the functions of the Greater Hell in this world and Intermediate Realm, and this is indicated in Hadiths. Just as in the world of the hereafter, the earth will pour its inhabitants into the arena of the resurrection within its annual orbit, so too at the Divine command will it hand over the Lesser Hell within it to the Greater Hell.
Some of the Mu‘tazilite imams said that “Hell will be created later,” but this is mistaken and foolish, and arises from Hell not having completely opened up at the present time and developed into a form entirely appropriate to its inhabitants. In order to see with our worldly eyes the dwelling places of the world of the hereafter within the veil of the Unseen and to demonstrate them, either the universe has to be shrunk to the size of two provinces, or our eyes have to be enlarged to the size of stars, so that we can see and specify their places. God knows best, the dwelling-places of the hereafter are not visible to our worldly eyes, but as indicated by certain narrations, the Hell of the hereafter is connected with our world. In a Hadith it is said of the intense heat of summer, “It gives an inkling of Hell.”5 That is to say, that Greater Hell is not visible to the tiny and dim eyes of the minds of this world. However, we may look with the light of the Divine Name of All-Wise, as follows:
The Greater Hell beneath the earth’s annual orbit has as though made the Lesser Hell at the earth’s centre its deputy and made it perform some of its functions. The possessions of the All-Powerful One of Glory are truly extensive; wherever Divine wisdom pointed out, He situated the Greater Hell there. Yes, an All-Powerful One of Glory, an All-Wise One of Perfection Who is owner of the command of ‘Be!’ and it is has tied the moon to the earth before our eyes in perfect wisdom and order, and with vast power and perfect order tied the earth to the sun, and has made the