Excerpts from The Risale-i Nur Collection by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

"The purpose for the sending of man to this world and the wisdom implicit in it, consists of recognizing the Creator of all beings and believing in Him and worshipping Him."

The Rays / The Supreme Sign - p.125

"Through the light of belief, man rises to the highest of the high and acquires a value worthy of Paradise. And through the darkness of unbelief, he descends to the lowest of the low and falls to a position fit for Hell. "

The Words / Twenty-Third Word - First Chapter - p.319

"He who created the eye of the mosquito is the one who created the sun.The one who ordered the stomach of a flea is also the one who ordered the solar system."

Letters / Seeds Of Reality - p.542

"Do not suppose yourself to be free and independent. For if you look at this guest-house of the world with the eye of wisdom, you will see that nothing at all is without order and without purpose. How can you remain outside the order and be without purpose?"

The Words / Fourteenth Word - Conclusion - p.184

"Belief is both light and strength. Yes, one who acquires true belief may challenge the whole universe and be saved from the pressure of events in accordance with the strength of his belief."

The Words / Twenty-Third Word - First Chapter - p.322

“Every village must have its headman; every needle must have its manufacturer and craftsman. And, as you know, every letter must be written by someone. How, then, can it be that so extremely well-ordered a kingdom should have no ruler?"

The Words / Tenth Word - p.60

"Yes, we look and see that all the atoms in blood are so orderly and perform so many duties that they are not inferior to the stars. All the red and white corpuscles in blood work with such a degree of consciousness in protecting and feeding the body that they are more efficient than the best commissaries or bodyguards. All the cells of the body manifest such orderly processes and incomings and outgoings that their administration is more perfect than the best-run body or palace. All plants and animals bear such a seal on their faces and such machines in their chests that only one who created all of them could situate those seals and machines in their places. And all the species of living beings have spread over the face of the earth in such orderly fashion and have intermingled with the other species having mutual relations with them, that one who could not simultaneously create, administer, regulate, and raise all those species, and not place that veil on the face of the earth, and not weave that most ornate, artistic, living tapestry with its warp and weft of the four hundred thousand plant and animal species - one that could not do all these could not create and administer a single species. If analogies are made with these for other things, it will be understood that in respect of creation and bringing into existence, the universe is a whole that may not be split up into parts, and in respect of dominicality and management is a universal whose division is impossible."

The Rays / The Second Ray - Second Station - p.35

"The prescription for a sick age, an ailing nation, an ill member, is to follow the Qur’an. (Seeds of Reality)"

"The prescription for a glorious though unfortunate continent, an illustrious though hapless state, a noble though ownerless people, is Islamic Unity. (Seeds of Reality)"

"One who does not have the strength to raise and turn the earth and all the stars and suns as though they were beads of a tesbih cannot lay claim to creating anything in the universe. For everything is tied to everything else. (Seeds of Reality)"

"He who created the eye of the mosquito is the one who created the sun. (Seeds of Reality)"

"The one who ordered the stomach of a flea is also the one who ordered the solar system. (Seeds of Reality)"

"The lure and attraction in the conscience, which is the essential nature of conscious beings, is felt through the appeal of a drawing truth. (Seeds of Reality)"

"Life is a sort of manifestation of Unity within multiplicity, and therefore leads to unity. Life makes one thing the owner of everything. (Seeds of Reality)"

"The most wretched, distressed, and suffering of men is the man with no work. For idleness is the cousin of non-existence, while striving is the life of existence and the waking state of life. (Seeds of Reality)"

"Materialism is a spiritual plague which has infected man with a fearsome fever, causing him to be visited by Divine wrath. The more the ability to inculcate and criticize expands, so does that plague spread. (Seeds of Reality)"

"Unfortunate truths become worthless in worthless hands. (Seeds of Reality)"

"The prohibited statue is either petrified tyranny, or embodied lust, or personified hypocrisy. (Seeds of Reality)"

"The represented forms of little smiling corpses have played a large role in making the evil-polluted perverse spirit of modern man what it is. (Seeds of Reality)"

"Distress teaches vice. Despair is the source of misguidance; and darkness of heart, the source of distress of the spirit. (Seeds of Reality)",
"The prescription for a sick age, an ailing nation, an ill member, is to follow the Qur’an. (Seeds of Reality)"

"The prescription for a glorious though unfortunate continent, an illustrious though hapless state, a noble though ownerless people, is Islamic Unity. (Seeds of Reality)"

"One who does not have the strength to raise and turn the earth and all the stars and suns as though they were beads of a tesbih cannot lay claim to creating anything in the universe. For everything is tied to everything else. (Seeds of Reality)"

"The inner dimensions of things, where Divine Power has its connection, are transparent and pure. (Seeds of Reality)"

"The Manifest World is a lace veil strewn over the Worlds of the Unseen. (Seeds of Reality)"

"Yes, we look and see that all the atoms in blood are so orderly and perform so many duties that they are not inferior to the stars.(Risale-i Nur)"

"Life is a sort of manifestation of Unity within multiplicity, and therefore leads to unity. Life makes one thing the owner of everything. (Seeds of Reality)"

What gives life to people is hope, while what kills them is despair.(Risale-i Nur)

Those who seek everything in materiality know only what their eyes see, and such eyes are blind in spiritual matters.(Risale-i Nur)

Fame also ascribes to man what is not his.(Risale-i Nur)

A general disaster results from the error of the majority. Disaster is the result of crime, and the introduction to reward.(Risale-i Nur)

A martyr thinks he is alive. Since he did not suffer the pangs of death, he considers the life he sacrificed to be perpetual and not to have been severed. Only, he finds it purer.(Risale-i Nur)

. The pure justice of the Qur’an does not spill the life and blood of an innocent, even for the whole of humanity. The two are the same both in the view of Divine Power, and in the view of justice. But through self-interest man becomes such that he will destroy everything that forms an obstacle to his ambition, even the world if he can, and he will wipe out mankind.(Risale-i Nur)

Fear and weakness encourage outside influences.(Risale-i Nur)

Obduracy is this: if Satan assists someone, he calls him “an angel,” and calls down blessings on him. But if among his opponents he encounters an angel, he calls him “a satan who has changed his clothes,” and curses him.(Risale-i Nur)

The remedy for one ill person may be poison for another. If a remedy exceeds its limit, it is the cause of ills.(Risale-i Nur)

If there was no Paradise, Hell would not be torment.(Risale-i Nur)

As time grows older, the Qur’an grows younger; it signs become apparent. Like light sometimes appears as fire, sometimes intense eloquence appears as exaggeration.(Risale-i Nur)

Degrees in heat occur through the intervention of cold; the degrees of beauty occur through the intervention of ugliness. Pre-Eternal Power is essential, necessary, and inherent. Impotence cannot penetrate it; there can be no degrees it in; everything is equal in relation to it(Risale-i Nur)

So long as it remains unknown who are the saints among men, which moment prayers are accepted on Fridays, which night in Ramadan is the Night of Power, and which among the Divine Names is the Greatest Name, other things retain their value and importance is given to them. Twenty years of doubtful life is preferable to a thousand years’ life the end of which is specified.(Risale-i Nur)

Temporary pains should be smiled on rather than temporary pleasure being smiled on, and should be welcomed. For past pleasures cause one to say: “Alas!”, and “Alas!” is the interpreter of a concealed pain. While past pains cause one to say: “Oh!”, and “Oh!” tells of a permanent pleasure and bounty.(Risale-i Nur)

Forgetfulness is also a bounty. It allows one to suffer the pains of only one day, and causes the rest to be forgotten.(Risale-i Nur)

In every calamity is a degree of bounty, like a degree of heat. Greater calamities should be thought of and the degree of bounty in the small one noted, and God should be thanked. For if the calamity is blown up, it will grow; and if it is worried over, it will double; the image, the imagining, in the heart will be transformed into reality; and that will pound the heart as well.(Risale-i Nur)

Our globe resembles a living being; it displays the signs of life. If it was to be reduced to the size of an egg, would it not become a sort of animal? Or if a microbe was enlarged to the size of the globe, would it not resemble it? If it has life, it has a spirit too. If the world was reduced to the size of man, and the stars made like the particles and substance of his being, would that not also be a living conscious being? God has many such animals.(Risale-i Nur)

There are two Shari‘as:

The First is the Shari‘a that we know which orders the actions and conduct of man, the microcosm, and proceeds from the attribute of Speech.

The Second is the Supreme Shari‘a of Creation, which orders the motion and rest of the world, the macroanthropos, proceeds from the attribute of Will, and is sometimes wrongly called Nature. The angels are a vast community; they are the bearers, representatives, and personifications of the creative commands which proceed from the attribute of Will and are the Shari‘a of Creation.(Risale-i Nur)

The Qur’an, which is a mercy for mankind, only accepts a civilization that comprises the happiness of all, or at least of the majority. Modern civilization has been founded on five negative principles:

1. Its point of support is force, the mark of which is aggression.

2. Its aim and goal is benefit, the mark of which is jostling and tussling.

3. Its principle in life is conflict, the mark of which is strife.

4. The bond between the masses is racialism and negative nat-ionalism, which is nourished through devouring others; its mark is collision.

5. Its enticing service is inciting lust and passion and gratifying the desires. But lust transforms man into a beast.

However, the civilization the Shari‘a of Muhammad (PBUH) comprises and commands is this: its point of support is truth instead of force, the mark of which is justice and harmony. Its goal is virtue in place of benefit, the mark of which is love and attraction. Its means of unity are the ties of religion, country, and class, in place of racialism and nationalism, and the mark of these is sincere brotherhood, peace, and only defence against external aggression. In life is the principle of mutual assistance instead of the principle of conflict, the mark of which is accord and solidarity. And it offers guidance instead of lust, the mark of which is human progress and spiritual advancement.

Do not loosen your hands from Islam, the preserver of our existence; cling onto it with all your strength, or you shall be lost!(Risale-i Nur)

Spirit is a law possessing external existence, a conscious law. Like the stable and enduring laws of creation, spirit comes from the World of the Divine Command and the attribute of Will. Divine Power clothes it an existence decked out with senses. He makes a subtle, flowing being (corona) the shell to that jewel. Existent spirit is the brother of the conceivable law. They are both enduring and come from the World of the Divine Command. If Pre-Eternal Power had clothed the laws governing in the species of beings in external existence, they would have been spirits. And if the spirit banishes consciousness, it still would be an undying law. (Risale-i Nur)

Nature resembles a printing-press, not the printer. It is an embroidery, not the Embroiderer. It is passive, not active. It is a pattern, not a source. It is an order, and not the Orderer. It is a Law, not a Power. It is a code of Laws proceeding from a will, not an external reality. (Risale-i Nur)

To create a Particle or an Atom requires an infinite Power which can create the entire Universe. Because, each letter of the great book of this Universe, especially the animate one, has a face and eye looking at each and every sentence (a relationship with all creatures in the Universe) in this book.(Risale-i Nur)