Abstract
This paper aims to answer the question “why did God create the world” by examining Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s magnum opus, the The Epistles of Light (Risale-i Nur), to demonstrate that, from a Nursian perspective, divine love is the raison d’etre for the creation of the world. The first section will investigate the notion of divine love as reflected in the wider Muslim scholarly literature. This will be followed by a discussion on the theology of divine names, with special attention to Nursi’s perspective, illustrating the critical role that this concept plays in Nursian theology particularly as it relates to cosmic creation. The third section will explore the metaphysics of love, the important implications of God’s love in the creation of the world, and its role as the driving force for the dynamism and activities within the structure of the universe. The Qur’anic presentation of love, maḥabba, as well as the significance of the reciprocal nature of love between God and humankind will be explored next. The final section will shed light on the synergy between divine love and the Qur’anic notion of ibtilā, trial and tribulation, to demonstrate its instrumentality in man’s spiritual journey.
Highlights
Throughout Muslim intellectual history, the Qur’an, the revealed text and the foundation stone of the religion of Islam, has been considered the highest and the most influential source of Islamic scholarship
This paper aims to answer the above question by examining Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s magnum opus, the Risale-i Nur (‘The Epistles of Light’), to demonstrate that, from a Nursian perspective, divine love is the raison d’etre for the creation of the world
The first section will investigate the notion of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1877–1960), was a distinguished scholar from Eastern Anatolia whose magnum opus, the six thousand-page exegesis of the Quran entitled The Epistles of Light (Risale-i Nur) is arguably the most significant theological work to come out of Turkey in the past five hundred years
Summary
Throughout Muslim intellectual history, the Qur’an, the revealed text and the foundation stone of the religion of Islam, has been considered the highest and the most influential source of Islamic scholarship. This paper aims to answer the above question by examining Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s magnum opus, the Risale-i Nur (‘The Epistles of Light’), to demonstrate that, from a Nursian perspective, divine love is the raison d’etre for the creation of the world.. The first section will investigate the notion of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1877–1960), was a distinguished scholar from Eastern Anatolia whose magnum opus, the six thousand-page exegesis of the Quran entitled The Epistles of Light (Risale-i Nur) is arguably the most significant theological work to come out of Turkey in the past five hundred years. Religions 2020, 11, 667 divine love as reflected in the wider Muslim scholarly literature This will be followed by a discussion on the theology of divine names, with special attention to Nursi’s perspective, illustrating the critical role that this concept plays in Nursian theology as it relates to cosmic creation. The final section will shed light on the synergy between divine love and the Qur’anic notion of ibtilā, trial and tribulation, to demonstrate its instrumentality in man’s spiritual journey
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