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.They 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.