Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

1. A Prominent Islamic Teacherand Scholar 2. AN OVERVIEWHis early lifeWorldWar IAfter the warRisale-i Nur CollectionHis main aimSome of his maxims 3. HIS EARLY LIFEBediuzzaman Said Nursi was born in 1877in Eastern Turkey (the Village of Nurs) anddied in 1960 in Urfa in Turkey. 4. HIS EARLY LIFEAt the age of 9, he left hometo take Religious education.He changed a lot ofmadrasas, because he didntlike their education system. 5. HIS EARLY LIFEFrom his earliest years he was exceptional. Thisshowed itself by firstly, his displaying an instinctivedissatisfaction with the existing educational system.Secondly, after spending only brief periods inlocal madrasas (religious schools), at the age of onlyfourteen or fifteen, he was awarded the diploma forcompleting the established course of study. 6. HIS EARLY LIFEThat is to say, the young Said had both aphenomenal power of memory and anextraordinary ability to absorb knowledge.Hecould memorise one page by just reading once.It was because of hisextraordinary feats oflearning that sometime afterthis he was given the nameBedizzaman, which meansWonder of the Age. 7. HIS EARLY LIFEHe has a large-scale project for educational reform,which included the combined teaching of the Islamicand physical sciences, the democratization of theeducational system, and many other forward-lookingmeasures in this early period. 8. Therefore, he aimed to found a university in theVAN of the Eastern Provinces of the Empire. TheMedreset'z-Zehra, where his proposalswould beput into practice. 9. HIS EARLY LIFEIn 1907 his endeavours in this field took himto Istanbul and an audience with Sultan Abdulhamid.Although subsequently he twice received approval ofthe funds for the construction of his university, and itsfoundations were laid in 1913, it was never completeddue to war and the vicissitudes of the times. 10. WORLD WAR IIn theWar, he commanded the militia forces on theCaucasian Front against the invading Russians, forwhich he was later awarded a WarMedal. 11. WORLD WAR IBediuzzaman was takenprisoner in March 1916and held in Russia fortwo years beforeescaping in early 1918,and returningto Istanbul viaWarsaw,Berlin, and Vienna. 12. AFTER WORLD WAR IIn recognition of his servicesto the Independence Struggle,Bediuzzaman was invitedto Ankara byMustafaKemal (Ataturk), but onarrival there, he found out thatAtheistic ideas were beingpropagated among theDeputies and officials. 13. AFTER WORLD WAR IHe decided that those destructive Anti-Islam Forcescan be defeated only by the Spiritual Diamond Swordof the Quran. And so, when offered various posts andbenefits byMustafa Kemal, he declined them andleft Ankara for Van, where he withdrew into a life ofworship and contemplation and teaching; he wasseeking the best way to proceed. 14. AFTER WORLD WAR IIn early 1925 there was arebellion in the east inwhich Bediuzzamanplayed no part, but as aconsequence of which wassent into exile inwestern Anatolia alongwith many hundreds ofothers. 15. AFTER WORLD WAR IThus unjustlybegan twenty-fiveyears of exile,imprisonment, andunlawfuloppression forBediuzzaman. Hewas sent to Barla, atiny village in themountainsof Isparta Province. 16. RISALE-I NUR COLLECTIONIn Barla, Bedizzaman started towrite, the most important parts ofthe Risale-i Nur Collection, whichis a name given to the all books ofBedizzaman. 17. RISALE-I NUR COLLECTIONRisale-i Nur was written to expound and explain thetruths of the Qur'an and belief to modern man, whobewildered by the assaults of materialist philosophy,so that he may attain true and certain belief which willnot be shaken by those assaults. In explaining thesetruths, the Risale-i Nur demonstrates the Qur'an'ssuperiority in every aspect. 18. HIS MAIN AIMContrary to the practice of religious scholarsat that time, Bediuzzaman himself studiedand mastered almost all the physical andmathematical sciences, and later studiedphilosophy, for he believed that it was onlyin this way that Islamic theology(Kalm) could be renewed and answerssuccessfully could be given to the attacks toQur'an and Islam. 19. He vowed: "I shall prove and demonstrate to the worldthat the Qur'an is an undying, inextinguishable Sun" 20. HIS MAIN AIMFrom that time he strove to employ hissuperior knowledge of both the traditionalreligious and the modern sciences in theservice of the Qur'an; to prove itsmiraculousness, defend it against theattacks which were largely in the name ofscience and progress, and relate its truths inthe light of modern advances in knowledge. 21. SOME OF HISMAXIMS