Vauxhall Tea Party

Phase 3 · Cleaning the heart

Week 10

Prayer as Washing the Heart

The Words · The Twenty-First Word, First Station · The Ninth Word

01

Story

  1. 01A man great in years, in build and in rank tells Nursi: prayer (namaz) is good, but five times a day, every day, is too much. It never ends, and it wears you out (usanç veriyor).

  2. 02Long afterwards Nursi listens to his own soul (nefis) and hears the very same words. With the ear of laziness (tenbellik kulağı), it was taking the same lesson from Satan.

  3. 03“One who does not put his own soul right cannot put others right,” he says. “I will begin with mine.” And he gives it five warnings (beş ikaz).

  4. 04The third is a foolish commander (sersem kumandan). He sends troops to his right flank, where the enemy has already come over to him, and to his left, where no enemy has come yet, with the order to fire.

  5. 05The enemy strikes the empty centre and routs him. The right flank is yesterday: its pain gone, its reward kept. The left is tomorrow, not yet come. The centre is today.

From the First Station of the Twenty-First Word, retold in our own words. Nursi notes that the lesson was first given to a man working in an orchard, which is why it ends with the orchard and its harvest.

02

Meaning

The five daily prayers (namaz) wash the heart five times a day and feed it like bread, water and air, and each prayer time marks a turning point in the day, the year and a life.

The old man’s complaint sounds reasonable, and Nursi does not mock it: he hears it first in his own soul. His answer is that the boredom is a symptom, not a fact. It comes from imagining you will live for ever (tevehhüm-ü ebediyet), and from sending your strength to yesterday and tomorrow instead of today. Prayer (namaz) is not one more task squeezed into the day. It is the heart’s (kalb) bread, water and air, and the river at the door that washes it five times a day, at the five turning points (inkılab) of the day.

Six things these Words show

From two Words, the Twenty-First and the Ninth. Try each picture with your own hands.

  1. one hour of twenty-four · yirmi dörtten biri1 / 24boredom · usançeagerness · iştiyaktodayfor ever? · ebedî mi?short, and slipping away · ömrün azdır

    One hour of the day, given to prayer. How it feels depends on how long you think you have.

    01 / 06

    Boredom comes from imagining you will live for ever

    The First Warning goes straight to the root. What wears you down, Nursi tells his soul, is the illusion of permanence (tevehhüm-ü ebediyet): you complain as if you will stay in this world for ever. Do you hold any firm document (kat‘î sened) that you will live to next year, or even to tomorrow? Once you see that life is short and slipping away, one hour in twenty-four given to a light, merciful service stops feeling like a weight. It becomes a real eagerness (iştiyak).

  2. the house of the body · hane-i cisimthe body · bedenbread, water, airthe heart · kalbfood · gıdathe spirit · ruhwater of life · âb-ı hayatinner faculty · latifeair · havaevery need comes back · ihtiyaç tekerrür eder

    Four residents in one house. Watch them through the day, and feed them.

    02 / 06

    Food, water and air for the heart

    Every day you eat bread, drink water and breathe air, and none of it bores you, because the need comes back, so it brings pleasure (telezzüz). The five prayers do the same for the other residents of the house of the body (hane-i cisim): they are food (gıda) for the heart (kalb), the water of life (âb-ı hayat) for the spirit (ruh), and fresh air for the inner faculty made for eternity (latife-i Rabbaniye). In the stifling conditions of this world, Nursi says, that faculty can only breathe through the window of prayer (namazın penceresi).

  3. tomorrow · yarıntoday · bugünyesterday · dünnot come yet · gelmemişpain gone, pleasure stayselemi gitmiş, lezzeti kalmışyour patience · sabır

    The enemy is facing today. Choose where to send your patience.

    03 / 06

    Fight today’s battle only

    The Third Warning is the foolish commander. Brooding today over yesterday’s hard prayers and troubles, and picturing all the duties and sorrows still to come, leaves no strength for the centre, which is today. Yesterday’s hardship has already turned into mercy: its pain has gone and its pleasure stays (elemi gitmiş, lezzeti kalmış). Tomorrow has not come. So think only of today and say: I am spending one hour of it on a light, beautiful service with a great wage. Then bitter weariness turns into sweet effort. We are asked for three kinds of patience (sabır): in obedience, in keeping from sin, and in misfortune. The patience God has given is enough for all three, if we do not scatter it to the right and left.

  4. a day’s wage · yüz kuruşten minutes · on dakikaworth a hundred days’ wages · yüz liraSaturn’s rings,America’s chickensa diamond and an emerald · pırlanta, zümrüta foolish excuse · divanece bahane

    You earn a hundred kuruş a day. Someone says, dig here for ten minutes.

    04 / 06

    Ten minutes for an emerald

    The Fifth Warning answers the most common excuse: “I am too busy.” First, Nursi notes with a smile how much time goes on things that do not concern us, like the rings of Saturn or how many chickens there are in America (Zühal’in halkaları, Amerika tavukları), as if we were training to be astronomers and statisticians. Then the real answer. You earn a hundred kuruş a day, and someone says: dig here for ten minutes and you will find a diamond and an emerald worth a hundred lira. To refuse because ten kuruş will come off your wage would be a foolish excuse (divanece bahane). Prayer is those ten minutes. And done in God’s name and within His limits, the rest of the day’s work turns into charity (sadaka).

  5. one great clock, four hands · saat-i kübraa daydawn, before sunrisea yearearly springa lifeconception, in the wombthe worldthe first day of creationthe soul needsa point of support for the daynokta-i istinad

    Fajr: before the day loads its duties on him, a weak and needy soul asks for help and a point of support.

    05 / 06

    Every prayer time is a turning point

    The Ninth Word explains why the prayers fall when they do. Each prayer time is the start of an important turn (inkılab), and mirrors larger ones, the way the hands of a great clock (saat-i kübra) mirror each other: the days are its seconds, the years its minutes, the stages of a life its hours. Fajr recalls early spring, the womb and the first day of creation. Zuhr recalls midsummer and the prime of youth. Asr recalls autumn and old age. Maghrib recalls the end of autumn, death and the end of the world. Isha recalls winter, the grave and the world beyond (berzah). And the next morning recalls the Morning of Resurrection (sabah-ı haşr). At each turn the soul needs something: at Fajr a point of support (nokta-i istinad) for the day’s duties, at Zuhr a breath from the pressure and heedlessness (gaflet) of work.

  6. your world today · o günkü âleminthe lamp · namazthe switch · niyetdate stone · çekirdeksummary, detail · icmal, tafsil

    Each new day is the door to a new world, coloured by the mirror of your heart.

    06 / 06

    Each new day is a new world, and prayer switches on its light

    The First Station ends with Nursi’s most memorable picture. Each new day is the door to a new world, and that private world takes the colour of the mirror of your heart and actions, the way a palace looks black in a black mirror. Pray, and the world of that day is lit up, as if the prayer were an electric lamp and your intention (niyet) the touch on its switch (elektrik lâmbası, düğme). And do not say “what is my prayer next to the real thing?” A date stone (hurma çekirdeği) describes its whole palm; the difference is only summary and detail (icmal, tafsil). Even a distracted prayer holds a share of that light.

03

Read

اِنَّ الصَّلاَةَ كَانَتْ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ كِتَابًا مَوْقُوتًا

“Prayer is prescribed for the believers at set times.” (Qur’an 4:103) The Twenty-First Word opens with it.

Once a man great in years, in body and in rank said to me: “Prayer is good. But to pray it five times every single day is a lot. Because it never ends, it grows tiresome.” A good while after he said this, I listened to my own soul and heard it saying exactly the same words. I looked at it and saw that, with the ear of laziness, it was taking the same lesson from Satan. Then I understood that the man had spoken as if in the name of every soul that commands evil (nefs-i emmare), or had been made to speak. So I said: “My soul commands evil, and whoever does not set his own soul right cannot set others right. I will begin with my own.”

Your likeness in this impatience is a dazed commander (sersem kumandan). The enemy’s right wing has come over to his own right and become fresh strength for him, yet he sends a large force to the right and weakens the centre. On the left there is no enemy soldier, none has come yet, yet he sends a great force there too and gives the order: “Fire!” He leaves the centre with no strength at all. The enemy sees it, falls on the centre and scatters him. Yes, you are like this. The trouble of past days has turned into mercy today: its pain is gone, its pleasure remains.

Know too that each new day is the door of a new world, for you and for everyone. If you pray, and through your prayer turn to the Glorious Maker of that world, at once the world that faces you is lit up. It is as if the prayer were an electric lamp and your intention to pray the touch on its switch: it scatters that world’s darkness, and shows that the changes and movements in the tangled confusion of this world are a wise order and a meaningful writing of power.

Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, The Words, the Twenty-First Word, First Station (the opening, the Third Warning and the close)Working translation from the Turkish, made for this draft. Sersem, “dazed”, is Persian for “head-sick”. The Ninth Word, on the five prayer times, is on the same site. Check against a published edition before release.Read the Twenty-First Word in English and Turkish

04

Explore

One day, five turns

Move through one day in London, from Fajr to Isha. Watch the tree and the figure on the embankment: each prayer time is also a season and a stage of a life.

FajrDawn, until sunrise (fecir). It recalls early spring, the moment a life begins in the womb, and the first day of creation. The soul, weak and facing a whole day, asks for a point of support (nokta-i istinad).

ZuhrJust past noon (zuhr). It recalls midsummer, the prime of youth, and the age of humankind in the life of the world. The day is at its height and starts to turn. Step out of the pressure of work and breathe.

AsrLate afternoon (ikindi). It recalls autumn, old age, and the age of the last Prophet. The sun begins to lean and says we are guests here, on duty for a while; the day’s gifts have added up to a great sum.

MaghribSunset (akşam). It recalls the end of autumn, a person’s death, and the end of the world. With Abraham the spirit says, “I do not love those that set,” and turns to the One who does not.

IshaNightfall (yatsı). It recalls winter, the grave, and the world beyond (berzah). Before a sleep that resembles death, the last duty of the day, and a lamp for the dark ahead.

And then the second morning, which recalls the Morning of Resurrection (sabah-ı haşr). As sure as this night has a morning and this winter a spring, Nursi says, so does the grave. Five times a day the prayer stands at the turn and washes the heart, and none of it is wasted.

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