Islam at the Crossroads: On the Life and Thought of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

by Abu-Rabi, Ibrahim M.

• ISBN13: 9780791456996
• ISBN10: 0791456994
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

Distinguished scholars in Islamic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and Modern Turkish Studies examine the life and thought of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1960) using a variety of approaches -- theological, philosophical, sociological, and historical -- to shed new light on one of the most important thinkers and religious leaders in the modern Muslim world. Early in his life Nursi had hoped to save the Ottoman Empire from collapse, but after the empire gave way to the modern Turkish Republic, Nursi found himself in disagreement with the vision of a secular, Western-style state fostered by Turkey's new leadership and withdrew from public life. Deemed a potential threat to the young Republic, he was condemned to a life of exile and imprisonment. This isolation, however, allowed him to write the works that were to form the basis of a "faith movement" that would not only keep alive the Islamic religion in Turkey, but also in later decades would become one of the most important religious movements in contemporary Turkey and an inspiration to millions throughout the

Table of Contents

Note on Transliteration	vii
Editor's Introduction	ix
A Chronology of Said Nursi's Life	xvii
Sukran Vahide
Toward an Intellectual Biography of Said Nursi	1	(32)
Sukran Vahide
In the Footsteps of Said Nursi	33	(12)
Fred A. Reed
Reflections on Said Nursi's Life and Thought	45	(6)
Serif Mardin
Qur'anic Commentary, Public Space, and Religious Intellectuals in the Writings of Said Nursi	51	(10)
Dale F. Eickelman
How to Read Said Nursi's Risale-i Nur	61	(32)
Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi
Said Nursi's Interpretation of Jihad	93	(22)
Sukran Vahide
Prison Is a Hell for the Unbeliever: Thoughts and Reflections on Two Imprisoned Muslims	115	(14)
Ayize Jamat-Everett
Revelation, the Disciplines of Reason, and Truth in the Works of Said Nursi and Paul Tillich	129	(22)
Kelton Cobb
The Concept of Man: Mevlana Jalal al-Din and Said Nursi	151	(16)
Bilal Kuspinar
Forgetting Gramsci and Remembering Said Nursi: Parallel Theories of Gramsci and Said Nursi in the Space of Eurocentrism	167	(14)
Mucahit Bilici
The Marrow of Worship and the Moral Vision: Said Nursi and Supplication	181	(18)
Lucinda Allen Mosher
The Separation of Human Philosophy from the Wisdom of the Qur'an in Said Nursi's Work	199	(16)
Taha 'Abdel Rahman
The Problem of Theodicy in the Risale-i Nur	215	(14)
Mehmet S. Aydin
The Apocalypse in the Teachings of Said Nursi	229	(8)
Barbara Freyer Stowasser
Ghurbah as Paradigm for Muslim Life: A Risale-i Nur Worldview	237	(18)
Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad
Islam, the Environment, and Said Nursi	255	(8)
Oliver Leaman
Text and Community: An Analysis of the Risale-i Nur Movement	263	(34)
Metin Karabasoglu
Nur Study Circles (Dershanes) and the Formation of New Religious Consciousness in Turkey	297	(20)
M. Hakan Yavuz
Said Nursi's Project of Revitalizing Contemporary Islamic Thought	317	(18)
M. Sait Ozervarh
Preface to the al-Mathnawi al-'Arabi al-Nuri	335	(16)
Redha Ameur
Bibliography	351	(12)
Contributors	363	(2)
Index	365