Risale-i Nur

Phase 6 · Return

Week 22

Closing and Next Steps

Each person brings one passage from the course · The Flashes · The Twenty-First Flash · The Twentieth Flash

01

Story

  1. 01Twenty-two weeks ago a few people came into a room in London, each on his own, each with a very small light.

  2. 02Week by week each one brought something: the tea, a book, a question never said aloud, the courage to turn up. None of these was a light.

  3. 03Put on one table, they lit one lamp. Nobody owns a share of it; each one owns the whole lamp, as Nursi says of the five friends.

  4. 04On the last evening each one goes home through the city, and each one carries the whole lamp.

  5. 05Across the city the lights stay joined. Even one who goes far away has, in Nursi’s words, as many spirits as he has brothers (kardeşleri adedince ruhlar).

The lamp of five is from the Twenty-First Flash, retold in our words as the story of this circle; the last step is from its footnote on brotherhood. Week 11 told the same lamp as a story about sincerity.

02

Meaning

This is a beginning, not an end. Keep reading, keep company, keep cleaning.

A course ends. The reading, the company and the cleaning do not. Nursi gives two reasons a circle can outlast its weeks. What is lit together with sincerity (ihlas) is not divided up: each one takes the whole lamp home. And in true brotherhood (uhuvvet) a person is never quite alone, not even when he moves away, not even, Nursi says, in death: his brothers’ spirits keep earning for him. So the last evening is not a farewell. It is the evening the circle decides how it keeps meeting.

Six things to carry forward

From the Twenty-First and Twentieth Flashes, both on sincerity, read on the evening the circle decides how to keep meeting. Try each picture with your own hands.

  1. the twelve months after the courselast eveninga year onthe heart · kalb

    Nothing kept. The light does not go out in a night; it fades by the month.

    01 / 06

    A beginning, not an end

    At the head of the Twenty-First Flash Nursi left a note: this Flash should be read at least once every fifteen days (lâakal her onbeş günde bir defa). He wrote it, he knew it, and still one reading was not enough. A course ends; the reading, the company and the cleaning do not. Habits rarely fail because people forget what they learned. They fail because the appointment disappears, and the friend who asked “did you?” is no longer there.

  2. kardeşleri adedince ruhlarhimhis book · defter-i a‘mâl

    Choose how many brothers he has, then let him go.

    02 / 06

    As many spirits as brothers

    In a footnote to the Second Rule Nursi says that sincere union is a shield against fear, even against death. Death comes and takes one spirit. But on the road of God’s pleasure (rıza-yı İlahî), one bound in true brotherhood has as many spirits as he has brothers (kardeşleri adedince ruhlar). So he meets death smiling (gülerek): “My other spirits are still here, always earning reward for me; I am not dying. Through them I go on living in good deeds, and die only as far as sins are concerned.”

  3. a circle of brothers · uhuvvetat most a teacher · üstad

    Arrange the same eight people two ways.

    03 / 06

    Brothers, not a hierarchy

    The Fourth Rule: picture your brothers’ virtues as your own and take thankful pride in them. Nursi turns the Sufi idea of passing away in the master into passing away in the brothers (fena fi’l-ihvan, tefânî), adding, “I am not a Sufi.” The basis of his way is brotherhood (uhuvvet), not father and son or shaykh and disciple; at most a teacher (üstadlık) comes into it. A brother cannot be a father to his brother, and the station in brotherhood is wide (makam geniştir), so there is nothing to jostle for. He calls his way’s temper hıllet, the close friendship of Abraham, the Friend of God: the closest friend, the noblest brother (en civanmerd kardeş).

  4. a heavy quarterevery evening on the phonegrey Sundays“I don’t need anyone”

    The wolves come to everyone. Choose how to meet them.

    04 / 06

    The lions and the wild goats

    In the Twentieth Flash Nursi asks why the worldly cooperate so well while people of faith quarrel. One answer: lions do not band together as foxes do, because each is strong enough alone; wild goats form a herd against the wolves. The weak make strong communities, the strong weak ones. Leaning on their faith, good people feel like lions and drift apart. His cure: take as your rule “do not quarrel” (8:46) and “help one another (teavün) in goodness and piety” (5:2), and join the caravan of the people of truth knowing your own weakness (acz).

  5. the circlea monthly circlereading partnersa line a day

    Three good proposals. What each person says about his own decides the evening.

    05 / 06

    “Mine is true”, never “only mine is true”

    Before deciding how to keep meeting, read the Twentieth Flash’s nine commands. The first is to act positively (müsbet hareket): out of love for your own way, not hostility to others’. The third is the rule of fairness (insaf düsturu): anyone on a right path may say “my way is true” or “my way is better”, but not “only mine is true”. And: overlook each other’s faults, close your eyes to each other’s shortcomings, as the Qur’an describes those who pass by idle talk with dignity (25:72).

  6. an atom becomes like a star · zerre, yıldız

    Six jobs nobody wants. Do one.

    06 / 06

    No small jobs

    Nursi warns against a pious excuse: “Rather than waste my precious time on these small matters, let me spend it on remembrance.” What looks small may be very great; a soldier’s hour on watch at the right moment can be worth a year of worship. Whatever is done for God cannot be divided into small and great. Done with sincerity (ihlas) and for His pleasure, an atom becomes like a star (zerre, yıldız gibi olur).

03

Read

وَتَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْبِرِّ وَالتَّقْوٰى

“Help one another in goodness and piety.” (Qur’an 5:2)

Yes: through the secret of sincerity (ihlas), heartfelt mutual support (tesanüd) and union are a source of countless benefits, and they are the most important shield and point of support against fears, even against death. For when death comes, it takes one spirit. But one who walks in true brotherhood on the road of God’s pleasure, in works for the hereafter, has as many spirits as he has brothers. If he dies, he meets death smiling, saying: “Let my other spirits stay well; they keep a spiritual life going for me by always earning me reward, so I am not dying. Through them I go on living as far as reward goes; I die only as far as sin goes.” And he lies down at rest.

Your Fourth Rule is to picture your brothers’ merits in your own person and their virtues in yourself, and to take thankful pride in their honour. The Sufis speak of passing away in the shaykh and passing away in the Prophet. I am not a Sufi. But in our way this principle of theirs makes a fine rule in the form of passing away in the brothers. Among brothers it is called tefânî, passing away into one another: forgetting the feelings of one’s own self, and living in one’s thoughts with the virtues and feelings of one’s brothers. In any case, the basis of our way is brotherhood (uhuvvet).

From the Twentieth Flash, the third of nine commands: take as your guide the rule of fairness (insaf). Whoever follows a right way may say, “My way is true,” or, “It is the more beautiful.” He may not say, “Only my way is true,” or, “Only mine is beautiful,” which hints that the way of another is false or ugly.

Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, The Flashes, the Twenty-First Flash (the footnote to the Second Rule, and the Fourth Rule) and the Twentieth Flash (First Point, Second Cause)Working translation from the Turkish, made for this draft. Check against a published edition before release.Read the Twenty-First Flash in full, in English with the Turkish original

04

Explore

Twenty-two lamps

One lamp for each week of the course, set in a ring. Scrub from the first evening to the last and watch a single flame become a lit circle.

Week 1One small flame in the dark: beginning in His name (Bismillah), like a traveller who is no longer crossing the desert alone.

FoundationsWeeks 1 to 4: honesty with yourself, the higher goal, contentment and trust. The first four lamps burn in a short arc.

Knowing the selfWeeks 5 to 8: our nature (fıtrat), the heart as king, the two faces of the “I” (ene), and taking stock of yourself without harshness.

Cleaning the heartWeeks 9 to 11: what the heart faces, prayer as its washing, a small daily routine, and sincerity (ihlas).

The NamesWeeks 12 to 15: the Names (esmâ), the self as their mirror, the levels of the self and the four steps, rising slowly by grace.

Reading lifeWeeks 16 to 20: Divine Determining (kader) and our share of choice, whisperings (vesvese) and how to tell the pulls apart, and a life lived far from home.

The lit circleWeeks 21 and 22: the higher goal again, and the last evening. The ring closes, a lamp is lit in the middle, and every lamp is joined to it.

Twenty-two lamps, and none of them was meant to be the last. Nursi asked that his Flash on sincerity be read at least once a fortnight. Keep reading, keep company, keep cleaning: the circle is not closing, it is deciding how to keep meeting.