The First Letter
- BEDİUZZAMAN SAİD NURSİ
- Feb 1
- 14 min read
IN THE NAME OF GOD,
THE MERCIFUL, THE COMPASSIONATE
And from Him do we seek help
The First Letter
In His Name, be He glorified!
And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise. (1)
[This consists of the brief answers to four questions.]
FIRST QUESTION
Is Khidr alive? If he is alive, why do some leading religious scholars not accept
it?
T h e A n s w e r : He is alive, but there are five levels of life. He is at the
second. It is because of this that some religious scholars have been doubtful about it.
The First Level of Life is that of our life, which is very restricted.
The Second Level of Life is that of Khidr and Ilyas (May God grant them peace), which is free to an extent. That is to say, they can be present in numerous places at the same time. They are not permanently restricted by the requirements of humanity like we are. They can eat and drink like us when they want to, but are not compelled to like we are. Saints who attain to direct vision and knowledge of reality have reported virtually unanimously their adventures with Khidr and these elucidate and prove this level of life. One of the degrees of sainthood, even, is called the degree of Khidr. A saint who reaches it receives instruction from Khidr and meets with him. But it sometimes happens that such a person is mistakenly thought to be Khidr himself.
The Third Level of Life is that of Idris and Jesus (May God grant them peace), which is removed from the requirements of humanity, and is an angelic level of life and acquires a luminous fineness. Quite simply, Idris and Jesus are present in the heavens with their earthly bodies, which have the subtlety of bodies from the World of Similitudes and the luminosity of astral bodies. There is a Hadith that states that at the end of time, Jesus (Upon whom be peace) will come and will act in accordance with the Shari‘a of Muhammad (UWBP).(2) This indicates that at the end times the religion of Christianity will be purified and divest itself of superstition in the face of the current of unbelief and atheism born of naturalist philosophy, and will be transformed into Islam. At that point, on the one hand the collective personality of Christianity will kill the fearsome collective personality of irreligion with the sword of heavenly revelation; and on the other, representing the collective personality of Christianity, Jesus (Upon whom be peace) will kill the Dajjal, who represents the collective personality of irreligion; that is, he will kill atheistic thought.
The Fourth Level of Life is that of the martyrs. According to the Qur’an, the martyrs are at a level of life higher than that of the other dead in their graves. Since they sacrificed their worldly lives in the way of truth, in His perfect munificence Almighty God bestows on them in the Intermediate Realm a life resembling earthly life, but without its sorrows and hardships. They do not know themselves to be dead and suppose only that they have gone to a better world. Enjoying themselves in perfect happiness, they do not suffer the pains of separation that accompany death.(3) For sure the spirits of the dead are immortal, but they know they are dead. The happiness and pleasure they experience in the Intermediate World are not equal to the martyrs’ happiness. Like if two men in their dreams enter a beautiful palace resembling Paradise: one knows that he is dreaming and the pleasure and enjoyment he receives are deficient. He thinks: “If I wake up, all this enjoyment will disappear.” While the other man is unaware that he is dreaming, and he experiences true pleasure and delight.
Thus, the martyrs partake of life in the Intermediate Realm differently to the other dead. It has been definitely established by innumerable incidents and narrations that they manifest life in the way described above and suppose themselves to be alive. Indeed, their level of life has been illuminated and proved on numerous occasions by such occurrences as Hamza (May God be pleased with him) – the lord of the martyrs – protecting those who have recourse to him, and his performing and making performed tasks in this world. I myself, even, had a nephew and student called Ubeyd. He was killed at my side and in my place and became a martyr. Then, when I was being held as a prisoner-of-war at a place three months’ distance away, I entered his grave in a true dream, which was a sort of dwelling-place under the earth, although I did not know where he was buried. I saw him living the martyrs’ level of life. He evidently thought that I was dead and said that he had grieved over me greatly. He thought he was alive, but having retreated before the Russian invasion, had made himself a good home under the ground. Thus, owing to such indications, my unimportant dream convinced me about the above-mentioned truth as certainly as having witnessed it.
The Fifth Level of Life is that of the spirits of the dead in their graves. Yes, death is a change of residence, the liberation of the spirit, a discharge from duties; it is not annihilation, non-existence, and a going to nothingness. Many evidences illuminate and prove this level of life, such as the innumerable occasions the spirits of saints have assumed forms and appeared to those who unveil the realities, and the other dead have communicated with us while awake or sleeping and have told us of things that are conformable with reality. In fact, the Twenty-Ninth Word, which is about the immortality of man’s spirit, demonstrates this level of life with incontrovertible proofs.
2 Bukhari, Mazalim, 31: Buyu’, 102; Muslim, Iman, 242, 343; Ibn Maja, Fitan, 33. (Go back ↑)
3 See, Tirmidhi, Jihad, 6; Nasa’i, Jihad, 35; Ibn Maja, Jihad, 16: Darimi, Jihad, 7 (Go back ↑)
SECOND QUESTION
Who creates death and life that He may try you, which of you is the best in conduct.(67:2)
Verses like this in the All-Wise Qur’an, the Criterion of Truth and Falsehood, make it understood that death is created like life; it too is a bounty. But on the face of it, death is dissolution, non-existence, decay, the extinction of life, the annihilator of pleasures; so how can it be created and a bounty?
T h e A n s w e r : As was stated at the end of the answer to the first question, death is a discharge from the duties of life; it is a rest, a change of residence, a transformation of existence; it is an invitation to eternal life, a beginning, the introduction to an immortal life. Just as life comes into the world through an act of creation and is appointed and determined, so departure from the world is created and determined, and is planned wisely and purposively. The ways plants die, plant life being the simplest level of life, show their death to be a more orderly work of art than life. For although the death of fruits, seeds, and grains appears to occur through their decay and dissolution, it is in fact a sort of kneading that comprises exceedingly well- ordered chemical reactions and a balanced combining of elements and wise formation of particles; their unseen, orderly and wise deaths appear through the life of the new shoots. That is to say, the death of the seed is the onset of the shoot’s life. Indeed, since its death is like life itself, it is created and regular the same as life is.
Moreover, the death of living fruits or animals in the human stomach is the beginning of their rising to the level of human life; it may therefore be said that being thus, their death is more orderly and created than is their life.
If the death of plant life, the lowest level of life, is created, wise, and ordered in that way, the death that befalls human life, the highest level of life, must be the same. Similarly, as a seed sown in the ground becomes a tree in the world of the air, so a man who is laid in the earth will surely produce the shoots of an everlasting life in the Intermediate Realm.
Now for the aspects of death that are bounties; we shall point out four of them.
The First: Death is a great bounty because it means one is freed from the duties and obligations of life, which become burdensome. It is also a door through which one passes in order to join and be united with one’s friends, ninety-nine out of a hundred of whom are already in the Intermediate Realm.
The Second: It is to be released from the narrow, irksome, turbulent prison of this world, and to receive an expansive, joyful, troublefree immortal life, and to enter the sphere of the Eternally Beloved One’s mercy.
The Third: There are numerous factors like old age which make life arduous and show death to be a far superior bounty. For example, if together with your very elderly parents who cause you much distress you beheld before you your grandfather’s grandfathers in all their pitiful state, you would understand what a calamity life is, and what a bounty, death. Another example: one can imagine how difficult life is in the harsh conditions of winter for the beautiful flying insects, the lovers of the beautiful flowers, and what a mercy death is for them.
The Fourth: Just as sleep is a comfort, a mercy, a rest, particularly for those afflicted by disaster and the wounded and the sick, so too is death, the elder brother of sleep, a pure bounty and mercy for the disaster-struck and those who suffer tribulations that drive them to suicide. However, as is proved decisively in many of the Words, for the people of misguidance, death is pure torment the same as life, and pure affliction, but that is outside the discussion here.
THIRD QUESTION
Where is Hell?
T h e A n s w e r :
Say: the knowledge is with God alone.(67:26) * None knows the Unseen save
God.(27:65)
According to some narrations, Hell is beneath the earth.(1) As we have explained in other places, in its annual orbit the globe traces a circle around an area that in the future will accommodate the Great Gathering and Last Judgement. It means that Hell is beneath the area of its orbit. It is invisible and imperceptible because it consists of veiled, lightless fire. Within the vast stretch of space travelled by the earth many creatures are found that are invisible because they are without light. Just as the moon loses its existence when its light recedes, so we are unable to see numerous lightless globes and creatures, although they are before our eyes.
There are two Hells, the Lesser and the Greater. In the future, the Lesser will be
transformed into the Greater and is like its seed; in the future it will become one of its habitations. The Lesser Hell is under the earth, that is, at the earth’s centre. It is the inside and centre of the globe. Geology informs us that in digging downwards, the heat for the most part increases one degree every thirty-three metres. That means that since half the diameter of the earth is around six thousand kilometres, the fire at the centre is at a temperature of around two hundred thousand degrees, that is, two hundred times hotter than fire at the circumference; this is in agreement with what is stated in Hadiths.(2) The Lesser Hell performs many of the Greater Hell’s functions in this world and Intermediate Realm, and this is indicated in Hadiths. Just as in the world of the hereafter, the earth will pour its inhabitants into the arena of the resurrection within its annual orbit; so at the divine command it will hand over the Lesser Hell within it to the Greater Hell.
Some of the Mu‘tazilite authorities said that Hell will be created later, but such an idea is mistaken and foolish, and arises from Hell not having completely opened up at the present time and developed into a form entirely appropriate for its inhabitants. In order to see with our worldly eyes the dwelling places of the next world within the veil of the Unseen and to demonstrate their existence, either the universe has to be shrunk to the size of two provinces, or our eyes have to be enlarged to the size of stars, so that we can see and specify their places. God knows best, the dwelling-places of the hereafter are not visible to our worldly eyes, but as indicated by certain narrations, the Hell of the hereafter is connected with our world. A Hadith says about the intense heat of summer: “It gives an inkling of Hell.” (3) That is to say, the Greater Hell is not visible to the tiny, dim eyes of this world’s minds. However, we may look with the light of the divine name of All-Wise, as follows:
The Greater Hell beneath the earth’s annual orbit has as though made the Lesser Hell at the earth’s centre its deputy and made it perform some of its functions. The possessions of the All-Powerful One of Glory are truly extensive; He situated the Greater Hell wherever divine wisdom required. Yes, the All-Powerful One of Glory, the All-Wise One of Perfection, who issues the command of “‘Be!’ and it is,”(36:82) has tied the moon to the earth before our very eyes with perfect wisdom and order, and with vast power and perfect order tied the earth to the sun, and has made the sun travel together with its planets at a speed close to that of the annual rotation of the earth, and with His majestic dominicality, according to one possibility, made it travel towards the sun of suns, and like a fleet decked out with electric lights has made the stars luminous witnesses to His sovereign dominicality. It is not far from the perfect wisdom, tremendous power, and sovereign dominicality of one thus All-Glorious to make the Greater Hell like the boiler of an electric-light factory and with it set fire to the stars of the heavens that look to the hereafter, and give them heat and power. That is, give light to the stars from Paradise, the world of light, and send them fire and heat from Hell, and at the same time, make part of that Hell a habitation and place of imprisonment for those who are to be tormented. Furthermore, He is an All-Wise Creator who conceals a tree as large as a mountain in a seed the size of a finger-nail. It is surely not far then from the power and wisdom of such an All-Glorious One to conceal the Greater Hell in the seed of the Lesser Hell in the heart of the globe of the earth.
I n S h o r t : Paradise and Hell are the two fruits of a branch of the tree of
creation, which stretches out towards eternity. The fruits’ place is at the branch’s tip.
And they are the two results of the chain of the universe; and the places of the results are the two sides of the chain. The base and heavy are on its lower side, the luminous and elevated on its upper side. They are also the two stores of the flood of events and the immaterial produce of the earth. The store-places vary according to the produce,the bad beneath, the good above. They are also the two pools of the flood of beings, which flows in waves towards eternity. As for the pool’s place, it is where the flood stops and gathers. That is, the obscene and filthy below, the good and the pure above. They are also the two places of manifestation, the one of beneficence and mercy, the other of wrath and grandeur. Places of manifestation may be anywhere; the All-Merciful One of Beauty, the All-Compelling One of Glory, situates His places of manifestation where He wishes.
As for the existence of Paradise and Hell, they have been proved conclusively in the Tenth, Twenty-Eighth, and Twenty-Ninth Words. Here, we only say this: the existence of the fruit is as definite and certain as the existence of the branch; the result is as definite as the chain; the store as the produce; the pool as the river; and the places of manifestation are as definite and certain as the existence of mercy and wrath.
1 al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa’, i, 281; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, iv, 568. (Go back ↑)
2 See, Bukhari, Bad’ al-Khalq, 10; Muslim, Janna, 30; Tirmidhi, Jahannam, 7; Musnad, ii, 313. (Go back ↑)
3 Bukhari, Mawaqit, 9, 10; Adhan 18; Bad’l-Khalq, 10; Muslim, Masajid, 180, 181, 183, 184, 186; Abu Da’ud, Salat, 4; Tirmidhi, Mawaqit, 5; Nasa’i, Mawaqit, 5; Ibn Maja, Salat, 4; Tibb, 19; Darimi, Salat, 14; Muwatta’, Waqut, 27, 28, 29; Musnad, ii, 229, 238, 256, 266, 285, 318, 324, 393, 394, 462, 501, 507; iii, 9, 53, 59; iv, 250, 662; v, 155, 162, 176, 368. (Go back ↑)
FOURTH QUESTION
Passing (mecazî) love for things can be transformed into true love, so can the passing love most people have for this world also be transformed into true love?
T h e A n s w e r : Yes, if a person who loves with passing love the transitory face of the world sees the ugliness of the decline and transience on that face and turns away from it; if he searches for an immortal beloved and is successful in seeing the world’s other two, beautiful, faces, of being a mirror to the divine names and the tillage of the hereafter, his illicit passing love then starts to be transformed into true love. But on the one condition that he does not confuse with the outside world his inner fleeting, unstable world, which is bound to his life. If like the people of misguidance and heedlessness he forgets himself, plunges into the outside world, and supposing the general world to be his private world comes to love it, he will fall into the swamp of nature and drown. Unless, extraordinarily, a hand of favour saves him. Consider the following comparison which will illuminate this truth.
For example, if on the four walls of this finely decorated room are four full- length mirrors belonging to the four of us, then there would be five rooms. One would be actual and general, and four, similitudes and personal. Each of us would be able to change the shape, form, and colour of his personal room by means of his mirror. If we were to paint it red, it would appear red, if we were to paint it green, it would appear green. Likewise, we could alter it by adjusting the mirror; we could make it ugly, or beautiful, or give it different forms. But we could not easily adjust and change the outer, general room. While in reality the general and personal rooms are the same, in practice they are different. You could destroy your own room with one finger, but you could not make one stone of the other stir.
Thus, this world is a decorated house. The life of each of us is a full-length mirror. Each of us has a world from this world, but its support, centre, and door is our life. Indeed, that personal world of ours is a page and our life is a pen; many things that are written with it pass to the page of our actions. We love our world, but later see that since it is constructed on our life, like it it is fleeting, transitory, and unstable. We perceive and understand this, and our love for it is redirected to the beautiful impresses of the divine names to which our personal world is the mirror and which it reflects; it switches from our world to the manifestations of the names. Moreover, if we are aware that that personal world of ours is a temporary seed-bed of the hereafter and Paradise, and if we direct our feelings for it like intense desire, love, and greed, towards the benefits of the hereafter, which are its results, fruits, and shoots, then that passing love is transformed into true love. Otherwise, manifesting the meaning of the verse,
Those who forget God; and he made them forget their own souls. Such are the rebellious transgressors,(59:19)
a person will forget himself, not think of life’s fleeting nature, suppose his personal, unstable world to be constant like the general world, and imagine himself to be undying; he will fix himself on the world and embrace it with intense emotions; he will drown in it and depart. Such love will be boundless torment and tribulation for him. For an orphan-like compassion, a despairing softness of heart will be born of that love. He will pity all living beings. Indeed, he will feel sympathy for all beautiful creatures which suffer decline, and the pain of separation, but he will be able to do nothing, he will suffer in absolute despair.
However, the first man, who is saved from heedlessness, finds an elevated
antidote for the pain of that intense compassion. For in the death and decline of all the living beings he pities, he sees that the mirrors of their spirits are immortal, for in
them are depicted the perpetual manifestations of the enduring names of an Ever-Enduring One; his compassion is transformed into joy. He also sees behind all beautiful creatures, which are subject to death and transience, an impress, a making beautiful, an art, adornment, bestowal, and illuminating that are permanent and that make perceived a transcendent beauty, a sacred loveliness. He sees the death and transience to be renewal, the purpose of which is to increase the beauty, refresh the pleasure, and exhibit the art, and this augments his pleasure, his ardour, his wonder.
The Eternal One, He is the Eternal One
S a i d N u r s i
1 Bediuzzaman explained as follows his reasons for heading his letters with this verse (17:44): “This was the first door opened to me from the sacred treasuries of the All-Wise Qur’an. Of the divine truths of the Qur’an, it was the truth of this verse that first became clear to me and it is this truth that pervades most parts of the Risale-i Nur. Another reason is that the masters in whom I have confidence used it at the head of their letters.” (See, Barla Lahikası, 335.) (Tr.) (Go back ↑)
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