Readings
The text behind each week, and where to find the whole of it.
Week by week
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#ReferenceTheme
01The Words · The First WordTo act “in the Name of God” is to cross the world under the protection of its Owner, instead of alone.02The Words · Addendum to the Twenty-sixth Word; The Damascus Sermon · Third WordChange starts with seeing yourself truly, and with saying only what is true, or staying silent.03The Words · The Eleventh Word · The Twenty-third Word, Second ChapterA human being was made to know, love and thank the One who made him. That goal puts everything else in its right order.04The Words · The Second Word · The Sixth WordBelief changes how the same world looks, and lifts a weight we were never meant to carry.05The Words · The Thirteenth Word · The Twenty-third Word · The Flashes · The Eleventh FlashWe are made with a nature (fıtrat) that cannot be erased and powers with no built-in limit. The work is not to kill those powers but to steer them to the middle.06The Words · The Twenty-Third and Twenty-Fourth Words · The Flashes · The Nineteenth FlashA person is a house with many residents, and the heart is meant to rule it. When the heart is sound, the rest fall into line.07The Words · The Thirtieth Word · First AimThe “I” has two faces. Turned beyond itself it is a mirror and a measuring line; turned on itself it swells into a dragon.08The Letters · The Twenty-Eighth Letter · The Twenty-Sixth LetterTake stock of yourself honestly every day (muhasebe), but accuse the nafs, not your worth, and then turn back to God.09The Flashes · The Second Flash · The Seventeenth FlashSins and doubts are inner wounds, and what we surround ourselves with keeps touching the heart; wipe it often, and choose what it faces.10The Words · The Twenty-First Word, First Station · The Ninth WordThe five daily prayers (namaz) wash the heart five times a day and feed it like bread, water and air, and each prayer time marks a turning point in the day, the year and a life.11The Flashes · The Twenty-First Flash, On SincerityA heart in a busy city needs a small daily routine of cleaning, and sincerity (ihlas) decides whether it works. Do it for God alone, not for the room. It is the greatest strength a person or a group can have.12The Words · The Thirtieth Word · The Thirty-Second Word · The Letters · The Twenty-Sixth LetterOur small knowledge, mercy and power are a ruler for His infinite ones. And because we need so much, we are made to need His Names, then to long for them, then to love them.13The Words · The Thirty-Second Word · Second and Third Stopping-placesA clean heart reflects the Names as a clean mirror reflects the sun, and different people reflect different Names more strongly.14The Words · Addendum to the Twenty-Sixth Word · The Letters · The Twenty-Eighth LetterThe Sufi tradition maps seven levels of the self (nefs). Nursi honours that road, and points to a shorter, safer and broader one, the four steps of impotence, poverty, compassion and reflection.15The Words · The Thirty-Second Word · The Thirtieth WordWe rise through belief, worship, sincerity and service, not by willpower alone. Progress (terakki) is slow and slips are part of the path; the rungs are given from above, and our part is to hand over the weight and step on.16The Words · The Twenty-sixth Word (Kader Risalesi), First TopicEverything happens with God’s knowledge and measure (kader). Whoever believes in kader is safe from grief (kadere iman eden kederden emin olur): accepting it brings peace about the past, it is not giving up on the future.17The Words · The Twenty-Sixth Word, Second and Third TopicsWe have a small but real share of will (cüz-i ihtiyarî), and we answer for how we use it. Look at the past and at misfortune through kader, so you neither despair nor blame; look at the future and at your sins through responsibility (teklif), so you make no excuses.18The Words · The Twenty-first Word, Second Station (Vesvese Risalesi) · The Letters · The Eleventh LetterAn ugly or doubtful thought that comes unbidden is not your belief and not your sin: the reflection of a snake in a mirror cannot bite. Whisperings (vesvese) grow with attention and shrink when calmly ignored.19The Words · The Twenty-first Word, Second Station · The Flashes · The Thirteenth FlashA cleaner heart notices what pulls it. Inspiration (ilham) leads towards God, goodness and balance; whispering (vesvese) brings confusion, despair, obsessive doubt or pride. Doubt about whether a prayer “counted” is itself a whisper, answered with ease. Sensing things before they happen (hiss-i kable’l-vuku) is real, but held lightly.20The Flashes · The Twenty-Sixth Flash · The Letters · The Sixteenth LetterNursi wrote down his own nights of captivity and exile, the pain first and then the help that came. They show the ideas of this course lived out under pressure and isolation, which speaks to anyone far from home.21The Words · The Eleventh Word · The Tenth WordReturn to the higher-goal sentence from week 3. With a cleaner heart and clearer self-knowledge it should now be deeper and more concrete; then put the rest of life in order around it.22Each person brings one passage from the course · The Flashes · The Twenty-First Flash · The Twentieth FlashThis is a beginning, not an end. Keep reading, keep company, keep cleaning.The reference for each week is added when the week is written.
The main volumes
- The Words SözlerThirty-three treatises on belief and worship, most of them opening with a parable.
- The Letters MektubatAnswers to questions from Nursi’s students, written in exile.
- The Flashes Lem’alarShorter treatises, many on patience, sincerity and the Divine Names.
- The Rays ŞuâlarLater writings, including the long reflective journey of “The Supreme Sign”.
About Nursi
- Islam in Modern Turkey: An Intellectual Biography of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi Şükran VahideThe standard biography in English (SUNY Press, 2005).