Said Nursi’s Twentieth Century Islamic Natural Theology

Of twentieth century theologians, the Kurdish Said Nursi (1877-1960) has probably the largest influence on the Muslim community of today’s Türkiye. This is largely due to his creative application of the insights of classical Islamic philosophical theology to the twentieth century scientific picture of the world, in response to challenges modern science allegedly raises to the continued relevance of traditional religious belief. This paper will examine the ‘32nd Word,’ and ‘23rd Flash’ from Said Nursi’s (1877-1960) magnum opus, Risale-I Nur. First, we will review a parable Nursi uses to present his ‘second proof’ of God in the context of a modern “scientific” image of the Cosmos. Secondly, we will examine the metaphysical principles operative in the proof, showing that they are as applicable to the modern scientific paradigm of Nursi’s context, as they were to the Aristotelian paradigm of his predecessors in the classical period of Islamic theology. Finally, we will show how Nursi anticipates the ‘historical turn’ in the philosophy of science, pose the question whether the prospect of relativism it raises threatens his theological project, and propose an answer, based on Nursi’s text, which responds to a central theme in the story of modern philosophy.