About the course
A slow reading of the Risale-i Nur, one idea a week for twenty-two weeks.
The circle
The course follows a study circle that meets once a week to read the Risale-i Nur together. Each week on this site matches one meeting.
It is also written to be followed alone. Every week stands on its own and needs nothing but the page in front of you.
Bediüzzaman Said Nursi
Said Nursi (1877–1960) was a scholar from eastern Anatolia. Over some thirty years, much of it in exile and prison, he wrote the Risale-i Nur, a commentary on the Qur’an in many separate treatises, copied out by hand by his students.
He rarely argues in the abstract. He tells a short story first, often about two travellers, a king or a seed, and then shows what it meant. The course is built on these parables.
How to use the site
Open one week at a time. Scroll slowly through the Story, then let the Meaning settle. Read the passage on its paper page, then try the Explore part with your own hands.
Words with a dotted underline are in the glossary. Tap them to see what they mean without leaving the page.
If you are in the circle, open the week before the meeting. If you are reading alone, give each week its own week.
This version
Version 1 has no accounts, no discussion and no practice sections. Weeks open one at a time, and only once they are ready in both English and Russian.
The four interactions
Each week ends with one of these. Here they are with sample content.
01
Compare
Drag the divider between two views of the same scene.
AloneA seed under a rock, by its own strength.
In the NameThe same seed, carrying a tree through the rock.
02
Lens
Switch one scene between two readings.
MineRead as mine, the mirror seems to have its own light, and dust settles on it unnoticed.
Entrusted to meRead as entrusted, the mirror is kept clean so that it can show the sun it was given.
03
Scale
Move from the small towards the infinite.
A pointMy small knowledge, the measure I have been given.
WiderUsing it as a measure, I can sense what knowledge without limit would be.
Without limitThe measure points far past itself, and that is what it was for.
04
Time
Scrub through a change.
SeedA seed, small enough to lose in the hand.
RootThe root goes down and through the rock.
TreeThe whole tree, which was written in the seed from the start.