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FROM THE RISALE-I NUR COLLECTION

 

 

 

THE GUIDE FOR THE YOUTH

 

 

BY BEDIUZZAMAN SAID NURSI

 

 

 

Gençlik Rehberi

(Ýngilizce  Tercümesi)

 

 

FOREWORD

This guide for the youth was printed with the new alphabet and also  published with the old (Ottoman) alphabet in Isparta and the government  and the police department did not interfere with it and it’s being  studied on and spread everywhere with enthusiasm show that  : 

This guide is very beneficial for the nation especially for the young  generation. Although the chief of police department in Ankara  questioned the sentence in the fifty second page, eighth line “it is  necessary to open a small study center of Light in every neighbourhood if  possible”  without reading the sentence in the fifth line,  “due to  government’s permission to open private schools for religious  education”. But he understood the true situation and did not prevent it’s  publishing.

Although “the Point on He”  is profound, not everybody immediately  can understand. However that subtle point turn into pieces the foundation  stone of the Naturalists and unbelievers and it is astaunding many  stubborn philosophers and introduced to many of them the belief  and through the key of spiritual travel in the universe of similitude  which is opened with the key of that subtle point a cinema of the  other world has been observed “with the certainty of vision”. However it was not  published because it  was too fine.

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi.  


In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

 

THE FIRST WORD

Bismillah, In the Name of Allah, is the start of all things good. We too shall start with it. Know, O my soul! Just as this blessed phrase is a mark of Islam, so too it is constantly recited by all beings through their tongues of disposition. If you want to know what an inexhaustible strength, what an unending source of bounty is Bismillah, listen to the following story which is in the form of a comparison. It goes like this:

Someone who makes a journey through the deserts of Arabia has to travel in the name of a tribal chief and enter under his protection, for in this way he may be saved from the assaults of bandits and secure his needs. On his own he will perish in the face of innumerable enemies and needs. And so, two men went on such a journey and entered the desert. One of them was modest and humble, the other proud and conceited. The humble man assumed the name of a tribal chief, while the proud man did not. The first travelled safely wherever he went. If he encountered bandits, he said: "I am travelling in the name of such-and-such tribal leader," and they would not molest him. If he came to some tents, he would be treated respectfully due to the name. But the proud man suffered such calamities throughout his journey that they cannot be described. He both trembled before everything and begged from everything. He was abased and became an object of scorn.

And so, my proud soul! You are the traveller, and this world is a desert. Your impotence and poverty have no limit, and your enemies and needs are endless. Since it is thus, take the name of the Pre-Eternal Ruler and Post-Eternal Lord of the desert and be saved from begging before the whole universe and trembling before every event.

Indeed, this phrase is a treasury so blessed that your infinite impotence and want bind you to an infinite power and mercy; it makes that impotence and want a most acceptable intercessor at the Court of One All-Powerful and Compassionate. The person who acts saying, "In the Name of Allah," resembles someone who enrolls in the army. He acts in the name of the government; he has fear of no one; he speaks, performs every matter, and withstands everything in the name of the law and the name of the government.

At the beginning we said that all beings say, "In the Name of Allah" through the tongue of disposition. Is that so?

Indeed, it is so. If you were to see that a single person had come and had driven all the inhabitants of a town to a place by force and compelled them to work, you would be certain that he had not acted in his own name and through his own power, but that he was a soldier, acting in the name of the government and relying on the power of a king.

In the same way, all things act in the name of Almighty Allah, for minute things like seeds and grains bear huge trees on their heads; they raise loads like mountains. That means all trees say: "In the Name of Allah," fill their hands from the treasury of Mercy, and offer them to us. All gardens say: "In the Name of Allah," and become cauldrons from the kitchens of Divine Power in which are cooked numerous varieties of different foods. All blessed animals like cows, camels, sheep, and goats, say: "In the Name of Allah," and become fountains of milk from the abundance of Mercy, offering us a most delicate and pure food like the water of life in the name of the Provider. The roots and rootlets, soft as silk, of all plants, trees, and grasses, say: "In the Name of Allah," and pierce and pass through hard rock and earth. Mentioning the name of Allah, the name of the Most Merciful, everything becomes subjected to them.""

Indeed, the roots spreading through hard rock and earth and producing fruits as easily as the branches spread through the air and produce fruits, and the delicate green leaves retaining their moisture for months in the face of extreme heat, deal a slap in the mouths of Naturalists and jab a finger in their blind eyes, saying: "Even heat and hardness, in which you most trust, are under a command. For, like the Staff of Moses, each of those silken rootlets conform to the command of, And We said, O Moses, strike the rock with your staff,

and split the rock. And the delicate leaves fine as cigarette paper recite the verse, O fire be coolness and peace 2

 against the heat of the fire, each like the members of Abraham (A.S.).

Since all things say, "In the Name of Allah," and bearing Allah's bounties in Allah's name, give them to us, we too should say, "In the Name of Allah." We should give in the name of Allah, and take in the name of Allah. And we should not take from heedless people who neglect to give in Allah's name.

Question: We give a price to people, who are like tray-bearers. So what price does Allah want, Who is the true owner?

The Answer: Yes, the price the True Bestower of Bounties wants in return for those valuable bounties and goods is three things: one is remembrance, one is thanks, and one is reflection. Saying, "In the Name of Allah" at the start is remembrance, and, "All praise be to Allah" at the end is thanks. And perceiving and thinking of those bounties, which are valuable wonders of art, being miracles of power of the Unique and Eternally Besought One and gifts of His mercy, is reflection. However foolish it is to kiss the foot of a lowly man who conveys to you the valuable gift of a king and not to recognize the gift's owner, to praise and love the apparent source of bounties and forget the True Bestower of Bounties is a thousand times more foolish.

O my soul! If you do not wish to be foolish in that way, give in Allah's name, take in Allah's name, begin in Allah's name, and act in Allah's name.

THE SECOND STATION OF THE 13TH WORD

[A conversation held with some young people who, though surrounded by temptation, had not yet lost their power of reason.]

Being assaulted by the deceptive, seductive amusements of the present time, a group of young people were asking: "How can we save our lives in the Hereafter?", and they sought help from the Risale-i Nur. So I said the following to them in the name of the Risale-i Nur:

The grave is there and no one can deny it. Whether they want to or not, everyone must enter it. And apart from the following 'Three Ways', there is no other way it can be approached:

First Way: For those who believe, the grave is the door to a world far better than this world.

Second Way: For those who believe in the Hereafter, but who approach it on the path of dissipation and misguidance, it is the door to a prison of solitary confinement, an eternal dungeon, where they will be separated from all their loved ones.

Third Way: For the unbelievers and the misguided who do not believe in the Hereafter, it is the door to eternal extinction. That is to say, it is the gallows on which both themselves and all those they love will be executed. Since they think it is thus, that is exactly how they shall experience it: as punishment.

These last two Ways are self-evident, they do not require proof, they are plain for all to see. Since the appointed hour is secret, and death may come any time and cut off one's head, and it does not differentiate between young and old, perpetually having such an awesome and serious matter before him, unhappy man will surely search for the means to deliver himself from that eternal extinction, that infinite, endless solitary confinement; the means to transform the door of the grave into a door opening on to an everlasting world, eternal happiness, and a world of light. It will be a question for him that looms as large as the world.

The certain fact of death, then, can only be approached in these three ways, and one hundred and twenty-four thousand veracious messengers-the prophets, in whose hands are miracles as signs of confirmation-have announced that the three ways are as described above. And, relying on their illuminations and visions, one hundred and twenty-four million saints have confirmed and set their signatures on the prophets tidings. And innumerable exact scholars have proved it rationally with their categorical proofs at the level of certainty at the degree of knowledge.1They have all unanimously declared it to be a ninety-nine per' cent certain probability, saying: "The only way to be saved from extinction and eternal imprisonment, and be directed towards eternal happiness, is through belief in Allah and obedience to Him."

If a person considers but does not heed the word of a single messenger not to take a dangerous road on which there is a one per' cent danger of perishing, and takes it, the anxiety at perishing that he suffers will destroy even his appetite for food. Thus hundreds of thousands of veracious and verified messengers announced that there is a one hundred per' cent probability that misguidance and vice lead to the gallows of the grave, ever before the eyes, and eternal solitary confinement, and that there is a one hundred per cent probability that belief and worship remove those gallows, close the solitary prison, and transform the ever-apparent grave into a door opening onto an everlasting treasury and palace of felicity; and they have pointed out signs and traces of these. Confronted as he is, then, with this strange, awesome, terrifying matter, if wretched man-and especially if he is a Muslim-does not believe and worship, is he able to banish the grievous pain arising from the anxiety he suffers as he all the time awaits his turn to be summoned to those gallows, ever-present before his eyes, even if he is given rule over the whole world together with all its pleasures? I ask you.

Since old-age, illness, disaster, and on all sides death open up the frightful pain and are a reminder, even if the people of misguidance and vice enjoy a hundred thousand pleasures and delights, they most certainly experience a sort of hell in their hearts, but a profound stupor of heedlessness temporarily makes them insensible to it.

Since for the people of belief and obedience the grave, which is always before their eyes, is the door to an everlasting treasury and eternal happiness, and since, by reason of the 'belief coupon', a ticket from the pre-eternal lottery of Divine Determining for millions upon millions of poundsworth of gold and diamonds has come up for each of them, they all the time await the word, "Come and collect your ticket" with a profound and true pleasure and real spiritual delight. This pleasure is such that if it materialized and the seed became a tree, it would be like a private paradise. However, one who abandons the delight and great pleasure due to the drives of youth, and chooses in a dissolute and licentious manner temporary illicit pleasures, which resemble poisonous honey polluted with those innumerable pains, falls to a degree a hundred times lower than an animal.

Furthermore, such a person will not be like unbelieving foreigners, for if they deny the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), they may recognize the other prophets. And if they do not know Allah, they may possess some good qualities which are the means to certain perfections. But a Muslim knows both the prophets, and his Sustainer, and all perfection by means of Muhammad the Arabian (PBUH). If one of them abandons the Prophet's instruction and puts himself outside his chain, he will not recognize any other prophet, neither will he recognize Allah. Nor will he know any of the fundamentals within his spirit which will preserve his perfections. For, since Muhammad (PBUH) is the last and greatest of the prophets, and his religion and summons are for the whole of mankind, and since he is superior to all with regard to his miracles and religion, and acts as teacher to all mankind in all matters concerning reality, and has proved this in a brilliant manner for fourteen centuries, and is the cause of pride for mankind, a Muslim who abandons Muhammad (PBUH)'s essential training and the principles of his religion will most certainly be able to find no light, nor achieve any perfection He will be condemned to absolute decline.

And so, you unfortunates who are addicted to the pleasures of the life of this world, and with anxiety at the future, struggle to secure it and your lives! If you want pleasure, delight, happiness, and ease in this world, make do with what is licit. That is sufficient for your enjoyment. You will surely have understood from other parts of the Risale-i Nur that in each pleasure which is outside this, and is illicit, lies a thousand pains. If the events of the future- for example, of fifty years hence-were also shown in the cinema in the same way that they show at the present time the events of the past, those who indulge in vice would weep filled with horror and disgust at those things which now amuse them.

Those who wish to be permanently, eternally happy in this world and the Hereafter should take as their guide the instruction of Muhammad (PBUH) within the sphere of belief.

* * * * 

Footnote: Just like that some time ago, some Secret Organizations who were  against the Islamic Education were trying to corrupt and seduce the youth; at the  present time some Atheist secret organizations are trying to seduce  the helpless women.

In order to avoid the slanders of these mischief-maker  organizations, those who have the Guide for the Youth should be  given the above article.

And  the women should read “the Guide for the Old and Young  Women” which is a “Conversation with the Women”  instead of those  two pages.


1 One of these is the: Risale-i Nur. And it is there for all to see.

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