Risale-i Nur

Phase 2 · Knowing the self

Week 06

The Heart as King

The Words · The Twenty-Third and Twenty-Fourth Words · The Flashes · The Nineteenth Flash

01

Story

  1. 01A young man studies with the great Shaykh Abdulqadir Gilani. He is his elderly mother’s only son.

  2. 02She visits his cell and finds him thin from discipline (riyazet), eating a piece of dry black bread. Her heart aches.

  3. 03She goes to complain, and finds the Shaykh eating roast chicken. “Master, my son is starving, and you eat chicken!”

  4. 04The Shaykh says to the bird, “Rise, by God’s leave” (kum bi-iznillah). The bones gather, and a living chicken jumps from the dish.

  5. 05“When your son reaches this level, then let him eat chicken too.”

A miracle of a saint (keramet) that Nursi tells in the Nineteenth Flash, and calls widely reported. The wording here is ours, the story is his. The two palaces of the Twenty-Third Word are in week 3.

02

Meaning

A 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.

Nursi tells the story for one sentence. The Shaykh did not mean “never eat chicken”. He meant: when your son’s spirit rules his body, his heart rules his self, and his mind rules his stomach (ruhu cesedine, kalbi nefsine, aklı midesine hâkim), and he wants pleasure for the sake of thanks (şükür), then he may eat what is delicious. A person is a house with many residents. The question is never whether they are there, only who runs the house. Nursi’s answer is the heart (kalb): not the organ, and not the feelings, but the centre where a person comes to know God.

Six things these readings show

From the palaces, the chicken, the First Fruit on love and fear, and one footnote. Try each picture with your own hands.

  1. dog · hevaspirit · ruhIs this all?inner heart · sır…mind · akılBut what if…heart · kalbTowards what?conscience · vicdanIs this right?senses · göz, kulakLook at that!self · nefs, at the doorI want it. Now.dutypleasurepain

    Choose a resident to see its own work. Each one has a real job.

    01 / 06

    A house with many residents

    Nursi explains his vision of the palaces: each palace is a person, and the household are the inner faculties (letâif): the eye and the ear, the heart (kalb), the inner heart (sır), the spirit (ruh) and the mind (akıl), with the self and its whims (nefs ve heva) and the powers of appetite and anger (kuvve-i şeheviye, kuvve-i gazabiye). Each has its own duty of worship (vazife-i ubudiyet), its own pleasures and its own pains. Elsewhere he adds the conscience (vicdan) and says ten of them became famous (letâif-i aşere).

  2. body · cesetspirit · ruhupsidedownruled,and servedself · nefsheart · kalbupsidedownruled,and servedstomach · midemind · akılupsidedownruled,and serveddry bread,for nowpleasure, for thanksşükür

    Each pair is upside down. The one meant to serve is giving the orders.

    02 / 06

    The heart is meant to rule

    The order of rule is in the Gilani story: the spirit over the body, the heart over the self, the mind over the stomach. The heart here is not the organ and not the moods. It is the place of belief and of knowing God. A hadith known in every Muslim home says there is a piece of flesh in the body which, if sound, makes the whole body sound, and it is the heart. And look at the end of the story: the young man is not told “never”. Ruling the self (nefs) is not starving it. Pleasure comes back, taken with thanks.

  3. upstairs, emptyevery floor at workdoorkeeper · nefsdog · hevathe heart,lord of the houseping · · ·let inturned away

    Every ring brings the lord downstairs. The gate is lively; the house behind it is empty. That is a fall, not progress.

    03 / 06

    The doorkeeper and the dog

    Nursi says it plainly: the self and its whims, with the powers of appetite and anger, are like a doorkeeper and a dog (nefs ve heva). A doorkeeper and a guard dog are useful. They keep out what should not come in. The disaster in the first palace is that the lord has come down to play with the dog at the gate, and the doorkeeper runs the household. Making the high faculties serve the self and forget their first duties, he says, is a fall, not progress (sukut, terakki değil), however lively the door looks.

  4. a love that could fill the universethe heart · kalbenough… for a whileworthy of itthe promotionthe flatthe citysomeone

    The heart is the seed of the universe’s fruit. Try filling it.

    04 / 06

    A love big enough for the universe

    The Twenty-Fourth Word opens its First Fruit with a large claim: love (muhabbet) is a cause of the universe’s existence, the tie that holds it, its light and its life. Since a human being is the universe’s most comprehensive fruit, a love that could overrun the whole universe has been placed in the heart, the seed of that fruit. Only One of endless perfection (kemâl) is worthy of a love without end. The heart is not too needy. It is too big for anything smaller.

  5. ← creatures · halkthe Creator · Hâlık →love · muhabbetfear · havfdoes notknow youleaves withouta goodbyelooks downon youhappinesswithout humiliationthose who willnot pity youa whip intomercy’s arms · kamçı

    Both needles point at creatures. Love and fear will point somewhere; they cannot be switched off.

    05 / 06

    Two instruments, love and fear

    Two instruments are built into human nature (fıtrat): love (muhabbet) and fear (havf). Either way they will be turned to creatures or to the Creator (halk or Hâlık). Fear of creatures is a painful affliction: you fear those who will not pity you. Love of creatures alone is a troubled calamity: what you love does not know you, or leaves without a goodbye, like youth and money, or looks down on you for loving it. So in metaphorical loves (mecâzî aşk), nearly every lover complains of the beloved. The inside of the heart (bâtın-ı kalb) is the mirror of the Self-Sufficient (Samed), too heavy a worship for any passing beloved. Turned to God, fear becomes a whip (kamçı) that drives you into the arms of His mercy, the way a mother startles her child so that it runs to her.

  6. the King · a link with the Lordnoisehurrya grudgethe screenthe earpiece · kalbsignal

    The line is there. The tunnel is the problem.

    06 / 06

    The heart’s private line

    In a footnote to the Tenth Word, every head of department in the King’s service has a private telephone to the King. Nursi explains: the telephone is a link with the Lord (nisbet-i Rabbaniye) that runs out from the heart, which is the mirror of revelation (ma’kes-i vahy) and the place where inspiration lands (mazhar-ı ilham). The heart is its earpiece. So the heart is not only the ruler of the house. It is the room with the line out.

03

Read

أَلَا وَإِنَّ فِي الْجَسَدِ مُضْغَةً إِذَا صَلَحَتْ صَلَحَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ وَإِذَا فَسَدَتْ فَسَدَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ أَلَا وَهِيَ الْقَلْبُ

“In the body there is a piece of flesh. If it is sound, the whole body is sound; if it is corrupt, the whole body is corrupt. It is the heart.” (Hadith, al-Bukhari and Muslim)

That city is the social life of humankind, the city of human civilisation. Each of those palaces is a human being. The household of the palace are the subtle faculties in a person, the eye, the ear, the heart, the inner heart, the spirit and the mind, and the self, its whims, and the powers of appetite and anger. In every person each faculty has its own duty of worship, its own pleasures and its own pains. The self and its whims, with appetite and anger, are like a doorkeeper and a dog. To make those high faculties serve the self and its whims, and forget their first duties, is surely a fall, not progress.

Two instruments, for fear and for love, are set in human nature. Either way, that love and fear will turn towards creation or towards the Creator. To fear God is to find the way to the tenderness of His mercy and take refuge in it. Fear is a whip that throws you into the arms of His mercy. A mother startles her little one and draws it to her breast, and that fear is sweet to the child, because it draws it to compassion. And the compassion of every mother is one glimmer of the Divine mercy.

This is what the Shaykh’s command means: when your son’s spirit rules his body, his heart his self, and his mind his stomach, and he wants pleasure for the sake of thanks, then he may eat what is delicious.

Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, The Words, the Twenty-Third and Twenty-Fourth Words, and The Flashes, the Nineteenth FlashWorking translation from the Turkish, made for this draft. Check against a published edition before release.The Twenty-Fourth Word on risaleglobal.com, in English and Turkish

04

Explore

Who sits on the throne?

The same inner room, the inside of the heart (bâtın-ı kalb), with the same household around it. Choose who sits on its throne, and watch what happens to everyone else.

The selfThe self (nefs) takes the seat. It is loud and never full, and the household bend to serve it. The mirror above the throne goes dark.

A worldly loveA passing beloved, set up like an idol (sanem-misâl), is asked to carry a worship that only the Self-Sufficient can. It looks away, and the throne is too big for it.

The heart turned to GodThe heart takes its own seat, and turns. The mirror catches the light from above, and every resident stands at its own post, lit.

The word kalb comes from a root that means to turn (q-l-b). A heart is always turned towards something. A well-known prayer asks the One who turns hearts (Mukallibe’l-kulûb) to keep ours firm. Next week the same question goes to the “I”.