The Nurcu Movement
The Nurcu Movement is a movement that was influenced by Said Nursi (1877-1960). The movement became one of the most powerful movements born of a text-based faith movement. [1] The writings referred to as the Risale-i Nur Kulliyatyi (The Epistles of Light), are several volumes of Qur’anic exegesis. [2] As a Kurdish Sunni Theologian, Nursi was writing in response to Turkey’s national secularism by Kemalism. [3] Kemalism was a political movement put in place to secularize Turkey and to rid itself of traditional forms of Islamic government. Kemalism was inspired by the ideas of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, President of the Turkish Republic. [4] Kemalism consist of six points from the Republican People’s Party which are, “republicanism, statism, populism, laicism, nationalism, and reformism.” [5]
The application of laicism in Turkish policy is what more than likely caused a reaction by devout theologians such as Nursi to respond. Laicism, at this time in Turkey, meant a full secularization of the government which constituted to the abolition of the caliphate, the removal of Islam as the national religion, and modernizing reforms that forsook Islamic practices. [6] Mete Tuncay states, “The failure to replace religious social bonds with a generally accepted civic ideology led to cleavage between the ruling westernized elite and the ruled traditional masses.” [7] Ataturk was a deist leader who did not believe in an absolute truth and did not see it
[1] M. Hakan Yavuz, Towards an Islamic Liberalism?: The Nurcu Movement and Fethullah Gulen, 586.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Mete Tuncay, Kemalism, oxfordislamicstudies.com.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
fit to rule a country in such a way. [1] Nursi would write The Epistles of Light in an attempt to reinvigorate the spiritual senses of the people, while raising individual consciousness. [2]
Said Nursi’s movement served as resistance movement against Kemalism, and taught people how to move from a purely traditional confessional community to a community who could adapt Qur’anic teachings in a secular society. With modernity there comes new challenges for any religious group to wrestle with, and Nursi used Qur’anic interpretation to start the movement to allow Muslims in Turkey to begin to wrestle with how to continue growing their faith in light of their society. Nursi lived during the time of the fall of the Ottoman Empire and witnessed the rise of the Turkish Republic which would bring about new questions for the umma in which he would be attempt to theologically answer and provide a way to pursue faith through his exegetical writings. M. Hakan Yavuz states that, “Nursi’s main goal in his commentaries was to prove that science and rationalism are compatible with religious beliefs.” [3] Nursi did not want people in modernity to fall away from belief due to thinking that religion and science could not be mended. He as well did not want to see those who were in traditional Muslim schools to fall into fanaticism. [4] His teachings remind me of an early Abbasid period where the hub of innovation and the relationship of religion and science thrived hand in hand.
Nursi taught that democracy and freedom were essential elements that needed to be embraced by Islamic societies, and that it was only by this freedom that the individual can be free to see the true power of God by his own will.[5] Through the revelation of knowing God’s Omnipotence an individual can become free from man-made oppression and begin to favor the idea of an Islamic nationhood. [6] Overtime Nursi began to see that what he was fighting against
[8] Mete Tuncay, Kemalism, oxfordislamicstudies.com.
[9] Yavuz, Towards an Islamic Liberalism?, 586.
[10]Yavuz, Towards an Islamic Liberalism?, 587.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid.
was not political, military, or economic, but rather an ideological issue.[1] He believed only be reintroducing God as the center element in the nation could the misconstrued ideologies of man be fixed. That man is in a constant war with his own desires and reason, and religion has always been the source of practice for man to practice God’s reasoning. A society without the reason of God was bound to fail in Nursi’s opinion. [2]
Nursi loved innovation and encouraged his followers to take advantage of media’s various avenues. The Nurcu Movement began to use mediums such as radio, television, newspapers, articles, and emails, as sources to distribute writings and teachings.[3] The technology of the printing machine effected the Nurcu culture the most as they were able to develop textual communities who met and discussed the writings of Nursi.[4] The dershanes (reading circles) became mediums where groups met to discuss global discourses of science, democracy, and human rights. The movement has spread worldwide with at least two to six million adherents. In Turkey today there are more than 5,000 reading circles. Some reading circles have even bought property in order to institutionalize themselves and be used as dormitories for university students. Further, the teachings observed by Nursi’s readers are regarding elevating individual Muslim consciousness, how to implement faith in everyday life, and the restoration of the Shari’a. Nursi and his followers have no intentions of implementing Shari’a politically, but rather by living by Qur’anic standards in everyday life, they believe they can shape the culture from within, which can eventually lead to people living by the laws of
God.[5] The Nurcu movement as a faith movement, not a political movement, today are on the forefront in Turkey in having inter-faith dialogue with other religious groups. They promote an inclusive conversation for all to take part in and discourage drawing oppositional lines against
[14]Yavuz, Towards an Islamic Liberalism?, 588.
[15]Yavuz, Towards an Islamic Liberalism?, 589.
[16] Yavuz, Towards an Islamic Liberalism?, 590.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Yavuz, Towards an Islamic Liberalism?, 591.
those outside of the Muslim faith.[1] The focus in general is to encourage faith in an age of skepticism, and to fight against issues such as poverty, ignorance, and dissension. They believe that faith precedes Islam, which is unique to traditional thought. That view and ideology led to the group’s support of Turkey joining NATO and the European Union. Although Nursi would of desired a unified movement, after his death, groups began to divide based on various ethnic, class, regional, and educational factors. Today there is a neo-Nurcu movement which was led by the teaching and ideas of one of Nursi’s followers, Fethullah Gulen, who continued teaching Nursi’s message to the new generation and continued the legacy and message that Nursi left for Muslim societies.[2]
[19] Yavuz, Towards an Islamic Liberalism?, 592.
[20] Ibid.
Works Cited
Yavuz, M. Hakan. "Towards an Islamic Liberalism?: The Nurcu Movement and Fethullah
Gulen." Middle East Journal 53.4 (1999): 584-605. Jstor. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.
Tuncay, Mete. "Kemalism." - Oxford Islamic Studies Online. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.
