Risale-i Nur

Phase 1 · Foundations

Week 02

Honesty with Yourself

The Words · Addendum to the Twenty-sixth Word; The Damascus Sermon · Third Word

01

Story

  1. 01There are many roads to God. Nursi walks a short one, with four steps.

  2. 02First step. Put down the shield. Stop defending and praising yourself.

  3. 03Second step. Remember yourself where it matters, at your death and your duty to others.

  4. 04Third step. The good in you was given. Let the credit go back as thanks.

  5. 05Fourth step. Alone, you are a firefly in an endless dark. As a mirror, you hold the sun.

An image, not a parable. Four steps from the Addendum to the Twenty-sixth Word. The wording is ours, the steps are Nursi’s.

02

Meaning

Change starts with seeing yourself truly, and with saying only what is true, or staying silent.

Change starts with seeing yourself truly. Each of Nursi’s four steps takes away one habit of the self: defending yourself, forgetting yourself in the wrong places, taking credit for your gifts, and imagining you stand on your own. Turned outward, the same honesty has one rule: truthfulness or silence. This is between you and God. Nobody has to confess anything to anyone. Think of the self-appraisal at review time, all wins and context. The first step is simply to stop writing it.

Six things the four steps show

Four steps inward and one rule outward. Try each picture with your own hands.

  1. ten subtle facultiesseven selvesweaknessneedcompassionreflection

    Both roads are true and reach the same light. Choose one and watch it walked.

    01 / 06

    A short road, and a warning about it

    The roads to God are many, and all come from the Qur’an. Nursi takes one that is shorter and safer: four steps, paces on a road, not ranks on a ladder. It means seeing your weakness, need and faults before God. It does not mean inventing them, or showing them to other people.

  2. “This part is wrong.”contextnot my faultbut actuallyseen

    Someone points out a mistake. Choose what happens next.

    02 / 06

    First step: do not acquit yourself

    “Do not claim purity for yourselves” (53:32). By nature we love ourselves first, praise ourselves and defend ourselves so hard that, Nursi says, it is as if we worshipped ourselves. The cleansing here is to stop. The Turkish plays on one word: the real tezkiye, purifying the self, is not to declare it pure.

  3. duty and deaththe washing up“help me move?”a friend in needmy own deathcredit and comfortthe awardthe best seatthe praisethe last sliceme firstsomeone else

    Remembered at the reward, forgotten at the work. Death is for other people.

    03 / 06

    Second step: do not forget yourself

    Those who forgot God were made to forget themselves (59:19). The commanding self remembers itself in the wrong places and forgets itself in the wrong places: busy when there is work or death to think about, first in line for reward and credit. The cure is to turn it round.

  4. giventhanksthe marketthe managerbad luckall my own workperfection in imperfectionpower in weaknesswealth in need

    Every good thing kept, every failure pushed out. The self swells, and stays in the dark.

    04 / 06

    Third step: the good in you is a gift

    “Whatever good reaches you is from God, and whatever harm reaches you is from yourself” (4:79). The self credits every good thing to itself. At this step a person sees that each good quality was given, and thanks instead of boasting. Nursi’s formula: your perfection in your imperfection, your power in your weakness, your wealth in your need. Honest, not harsh: the credit moves, and it ends in thanks.

  5. the sunwhat it lightsits own light

    Its own little light. Enough to see itself, and the dark all around.

    05 / 06

    Fourth step: a mirror, not a lamp

    “Everything will perish except His face” (28:88). The self imagines it stands on its own. Looked at by itself, everything is passing and borrowed. Looked at as a mirror of its Maker, with a job to do, everything is real and full of meaning, the way a particle in grammar only points beyond itself (mânâ-yı harfî). In four Turkish words: in his existence, non-existence; in his non-existence, existence.

  6. “Is it done?”trutha convenient untruthsilencenever

    It doesn’t feel like a lie. That is Nursi’s point.

    06 / 06

    Truthfulness, or silence

    In 1911, preaching in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Nursi called truthfulness the foundation of the faith. He named the lies we do not call lies: showing off is lying in action, flattery is cowardly lying, two-facedness is harmful lying. His rule is short: either truthfulness or silence. Two ways, not three. You need not say every true thing. You may never say an untrue one.

03

Read

اِمَّا الصِّدْقُ وَاِمَّا السُّكُوتُ

Imma’s-sıdk ve imma’s-sükût. Either truthfulness, or silence.

The ways that lead to God are many, and every true way is taken from the Qur’an. But some are shorter, safer and wider than others. From the Qur’an, as far as my poor understanding reaches, I have taken a short way: the way of weakness, need, compassion and reflection. It has four steps, and it is more reality and sacred law than a Sufi order.

At the fourth step the self imagines that it is free, and stands on its own. Looked at for its own sake, everything is passing and borrowed. Looked at as pointing to its Maker, everything is real. If a person leans on his own existence, he has the light of a firefly in an endless dark. If he gives up his ego and sees himself as a mirror, he finds everything: in his existence, non-existence; in his non-existence, existence.

Salvation is only through truthfulness. Truthfulness is the firmest handhold. Everything you say must be true, but it is not right to say every truth. If a true word would do harm, keep silent. A lie has no place. Either truthfulness, or silence.

Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, The Words, Addendum to the Twenty-sixth Word; The Damascus Sermon, the Third WordWorking translation from the Turkish, made for this draft. Check against a published edition before release.

04

Explore

A firefly, or a mirror

Nursi’s fourth step in one picture. Look at the same small figure two ways: as a thing by itself, and as a mirror.

By itselfSeen by itself, it has a light of its own, a firefly’s light, and all around it an endless dark.

As a mirrorSeen as a mirror, it has no light of its own, and holds the whole sun.

Inward, the four steps. Outward, truthfulness or silence. They are the same honesty, facing two ways.