Beyond the ‘Modern’: Saʿīd al-Nūrsī’s View of Science​

The advancing tide of Western scientific thought, which began to spread in the Muslim world at the beginning of the nineteenth century, was one of the most pressing challenges faced by Muslim intellectuals of that time and it continues to have major implications for our own times. Many Muslim scholars of Ottoman Turkey, with its capital, Istanbul, lying halfway between Europe and the East, viewed this tide as a threat to the Islamic worldview and tried to form barriers to curtail this intellectual onslaught. However, by the time they realized its impact, the encroachment had already gone too far, leading to a confusion in knowledge which often weakened their responses and stances. This confusion was experienced first hand by Bedi uzzaman Sa id al-Nursi (1873-1960), one of the most important Turkish scholars of the period whose intellectual journey and torments were not unlike those experienced by a great many Sufis of previous centuries, al-Ghazali (d. 1111) in particular. This article provides an overview of the historical and intellectual milieu in which al-Nursi lived and experienced, worked and evolved. It explores some of his spiritual and intellectual struggles as well as ideas which bring into relief his general response to modern scientific thought.

Keywords: Qur'anic view of science; Sa id al-Nursi's view of science; Islamic science; secularization; cosmos; ayat; al-Ghazali; logic; Prophethood; revelation; harfi and ismi meanings; shirk; human philosophy of science; cosmic revelation; causation; universality.

Journal of Islam & Science, Vol. 2 (Winter 2004) No. 2

Yamine Mermer
Indiana University, Bloomington​

Redha Ameur
University of Melbourne