The Words: The Reconstruction of Islamic Belief and Thought

BEDIÜZZAMAN SAID NURSI’S (1877-1960) ACHIEVEMENTS, PERSONALITY, character, and continuing influence make him an important twentieth-century Muslim figure. A most effective and profound representative of Islam’s intellectual, moral, and spiritual strengths, he spent most of his life overflowing with love and ardor for Islam, pursuing a wise
and measured activism based on sound reasoning, and following the Qur’an and the Prophetic example. Much has been said and written about the lofty ideal he pursued and his deep familiarity with the world and his times, as well as his simplicity, austerity, tenderness, loyalty, chastity, modesty, and contentedness.
Though outwardly simple, many of his ideas and activities were wholly original. He embraced humanity; opposed unbelief, injustice, and [religious] deviation; and struggled against tyranny—even at the cost of his life. His deep
belief and feeling, when combined with his wise and rational ideas and problem-solving methods, produced an example of love, ardor, and feeling. His balanced thought, acts, and methods of acting made him a far-sighted man who assessed and judged surrounding conditions and solved problems.
Many contemporaries explicitly or tacitly acknowledged him as the most important thinker and writer of twentieth-century Turkey, or even of the Muslim world. Despite this and his leadership of a new Islamic intellectual, social, and
political revival, he remained a humble servant of God. His life exemplified his understanding of humility: Desire for fame is the same as show and ostentation, a “poisonous honey” extinguishing the heart’s spiritual liveliness.