Vauxhall Tea Party

Phase 4 · The Names and the mirror

Week 15

Rising Through the Levels

The Words · The Thirty-Second Word · The Thirtieth Word

01

Story

  1. 01One Ramadan in Istanbul, as the Old Said was turning into the New (Eski Said, Yeni Said), he saw himself in a vast desert (sahra) under a dark, choking cloud. No breeze, no light, no water.

  2. 02He was driven into a tunnel under the earth (tünel). Everywhere he saw the footprints of famous thinkers and heard their voices, until the voices stopped. Most had drowned on the way.

  3. 03Brought back, he had to cross the face of the earth: raging seas, storms, the bodies of travellers. One in a thousand (binde bir) got across.

  4. 04Brought back once more, he saw things coming down from above like lifts (asansör), aeroplanes and baskets. Whoever jumped on, according to his strength, was carried up. He jumped.

  5. 05In a moment he was above the cloud, on green mountain-tops in gentle light, and lifts were everywhere. Now he understood: they are the verses (âyât) of the Qur’an.

Nursi’s own vision, from the end of the First Aim of the Thirtieth Word, retold in our words. He reads the three ways as the three paths at the end of al-Fatiha.

02

Meaning

We rise through belief, worship, sincerity and service, not by willpower alone. Progress (terakki) is slow and slips are part of the path; the rungs are given from above, and our part is to hand over the weight and step on.

The traveller tried two ways out of the desert on his own: under the ground by his own thought, and over the surface by his own effort. Both were long, and most who took them never arrived. The third way came down to him. His part was to jump. That is how Nursi sees rising (terakki): not a climb we power by willpower, but rungs (basamak) given from above, the straight path (sırat-ı müstakim) that is shortest, easiest and safest. We still have to step on, again and again, and we still slip. But we no longer carry ourselves. We hand over the weight (tevekkül), and ride.

Six things this reading shows

From the Thirty-Second Word and the end of the Thirtieth. Try each picture with your own hands.

  1. the cloudThree ways out of the desertthe end of al-Fatiha · Fâtihaarrived: 0 / 12

    Twelve travellers under a choking cloud. Choose the way they take.

    01 / 06

    Not by willpower alone

    Nursi reads the three ways out of the desert as the three paths at the end of al-Fatiha. The tunnel is the way of those who try to reach the truth by their own reason, sunk in nature and its philosophy (tabiat): the footprints of Plato and Aristotle, the voices of Ibn Sina and Farabi, and then silence. The long road through storms is the way of those who give real power to causes (esbab). The lifts are the way of those God has blessed: the luminous highway of the Qur’an (cadde-i nurâniye), shortest, easiest and safest, and open to everyone. The traveller does not climb above the cloud. He jumps on, each according to his strength and capacity (kuvvet ve istidad), and is carried.

  2. His power and mercy · kudret ve rahmethis lifemy life · hayatwork · işfamily · aileprovision · rızıkthe world · dünyathe loads of one life

    Add his loads one by one, then choose who carries them.

    02 / 06

    Hand over the weight, and ride

    In the Thirty-Second Word Nursi sets two paths side by side. On the first, a person who does not know God or trust Him cannot carry even his own being, yet he loads the whole world onto his weak back and head: he suffers hell before he reaches it, and numbs it with the drunkenness of heedlessness. On the second, the Qur’an treats weakness and need with trust (tevekkül) in One All-Powerful and Compassionate. He hands the load of his life over to His power and mercy, and instead of carrying his life, he is as if riding it (hayatına ve nefsine biner). He is not “a rational animal” (nâtık bir hayvan) but a true human being and a welcome guest of the Merciful (misafir-i Rahmân).

  3. the world has an Owner · dünya sahibsiz değilAll-Wise, Compassionate · Hakîm, Rahîmhis part: a prayer, a gift · dua, sadakaa war far awayan earthquakea faminean injusticea friend in hospital

    Bring in the headlines one at a time, and choose how he holds them.

    03 / 06

    Do not try to be kinder than God

    One passage speaks straight to anxious, conscientious people. The Qur’an says: the world is not without an owner (dünya sahibsiz değil), so do not load its weight onto your own head and fret over its state. Its Owner is All-Wise and All-Knowing, and you are a guest: do not meddle where it is not your place. People and animals are not left to themselves; they are officials with duties (vazifedar memur), in the sight of One All-Wise and Compassionate. Do not push your compassion (şefkat) further than the mercy of their Compassionate Creator (Hâlık-ı Rahîm’inin rahmetinden daha ileri şefkatini sürme).

  4. for His sake · lillah“How beautiful” · ne güzeldiryears: 0parents · vâlideynwife · refikayouth · gençlikspring · baharfood · taamloved for themselves · mana-i ismî

    Five loves from Nursi’s list. Choose how they are loved, then let the years pass.

    04 / 06

    Love everything, but for His sake

    Someone objects: love (muhabbet) is not chosen. I love good food, my parents, my children, my wife, my friends, the prophets, my youth, spring and the world. How can I turn all that to God? Nursi answers: we do not say “do not love them”; love them on God’s account and in the name of His love. Love food as a gift of the Merciful, and it becomes thanks. Love your parents for the mercy that raised you through their hands; the sign that this is for God is that you love them more when they are old and difficult. Love your wife for her character and compassion, which grow with the years, not for a face that fades. In short, love the world as a word that points beyond itself (mana-yı harfî). Say “how beautifully made” (ne güzel yapılmış), not “how beautiful” (ne güzeldir).

  5. the nafs rides him · nefis ona binerto whim · hevâto guidance · hüdâthe nafsloved for itself · nefis hesabına

    A man and his nafs. Choose how he loves it, then let a desire pull.

    05 / 06

    The nafs will not ride you; you will ride it

    The Fourth Point lists what each love brings. Love that is only for the self brings pain: compassion becomes a calamity because you are helpless, love becomes a misfortune because of separation, pleasure becomes a poisoned drink because it ends. But love of your own nafs, when it is for God, means pitying it, training it (terbiye) and keeping it from harmful desires. Then, in a line worth remembering, the nafs will not ride you or make you a prisoner of its whims (hevâ); you will ride it, and steer it towards guidance (hüdâ): nefis sana binmez, belki sen nefsine binersin. Rising through the levels means, in practice, that the rider and the horse change places.

  6. the highest of the high · a‘lâ-yı illiyyînthe lowest of the low · esfel-i sâfilînrungs · basamakthe recordgood ×10bad ×100

    Climb out of the pit. Step up, slip, turn back, and watch the record.

    06 / 06

    Slow, with slips, on rungs

    Progress is slow, and slips are part of the path. Nursi says illicit pleasure throws a person down to the lowest of the low (esfel-i sâfilîn), where no civilisation or philosophy can pull him out. But the Qur’an raises him, through belief (iman) and good deeds, to the highest of the high (a‘lâ-yı illiyyîn), and fills that deep pit with the rungs of inner progress (terakkiyat-ı maneviyenin basamakları). And from week 5: a bad deed is written as one, a good deed as ten, and the door of turning back (tövbe) stays open. A loyal official, he adds, crosses his king’s provinces quickly, by aeroplane, ship and train; one tied to the eternal King by belief crosses this world and the next the same way.

03

Read

اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ۝ صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ

“Guide us on the straight path, the path of those You have blessed.” (Qur’an 1:6–7)

I looked, and saw things that had come down from above, just like lifts, of different kinds: some like aeroplanes, some like cars, some like baskets (asansör, tayyare, zenbil). Whoever threw himself onto them, according to his strength and readiness, was drawn upwards. I jumped onto one as well, and within a minute it had brought me out above the cloud, onto beautiful green mountains. The layer of cloud did not reach even halfway up them. Now I understand: these are the manifestations of the verses of the All-Wise Qur’an.

The Qur’an treats a person’s weakness and helplessness, his poverty and need, with trust in One All-Powerful and Compassionate (tevekkül). He hands the load of his life and being to His power and mercy and does not load it on himself; then he finds a place of ease, as though he were riding his own life and self (hayatına ve nefsine biner). The world is not without an owner, that you should load it onto your own head and fret over its state. Its Owner is All-Wise, All-Knowing, and you are a guest (misafir). Do not push your compassion beyond the mercy of their Compassionate Creator.

We do not say: do not love the things you have listed. We say: love them on God’s account and in the name of His love. The sign that love for your parents is for God’s sake (lillah) is that when they are old, of no more use to you and a trouble to you, you love them and pity them all the more. Love the world for what it points to, not for itself. Say “how beautifully it is made”, not “how beautiful it is”. Then the nafs will not ride you; you will ride your nafs (nefis sana binmez, sen nefsine binersin).

Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, The Words, the Thirtieth Word (end of the First Aim) and the Thirty-Second Word (Third Stopping-place, Second Topic, and the Important Question, Second and Fourth Points)Working translation from the Turkish, made for this draft. Check against a published edition before release.Read the Third Stopping-place of the Thirty-Second Word in full, in English with the Turkish original

04

Explore

The king’s apple

A great king gives you an apple. There are two ways to love it. Drag the line of light across the same throne room and see what each love does.

Loved as an appleYou turn your back and eat it in front of him. That love is for the apple and for yourself (nefisperverane), not for the king, and he may even dislike it. The pleasure is small, it ends with the apple, and only regret (teessüf) is left.

Loved as his favourYou face him and lift the apple to your brow, because it carries his kindness (iltifat-ı şahane). That pleasure is greater than a thousand apples, it is thanks itself, and it does not end when the apple does.

Every good thing in a life is an apple from the King: a meal, a parent, a friend, a spring. The question is only whether we eat it with our back to Him. Here the fourth phase closes. We met the Names through the self, saw the self as a mirror, walked the four steps, and now know that the road up is travelled by grace, with slips, on rungs that are already there.

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