MAN’S JOURNEY THROUGH FLEETING LIFE

On the Nature and Purposes of Man, Life and All Things by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi( From the Risale-i Nur Collection )

SUBJECTS : What is the purpose of man’s creation ? Why is this universe created for ? Where do man and other creations come from and where are they

going to and what are they for ? What is man’s essential duties and why he has been sent to this realm

(alem) ? What are the meanings of such changes and acts in the universe ? What is the meaning and wisdom of Life ? What is the mystery and truth of death ? Where are we going after the death ? What is the highest Knowledge in this World ? What eternal happiness is necessitete ? Conclusion

Thus, such as thousands of smilar questions are the diffucultly resolved talismans and these questions only can be found answer in Believing God and hereafter.

SO WHAT ?WERE YOU

ONLY CREATED AND

PERFECTED FOR

SUCH A SHORT TIME

IN THIS WORLD ?

WERE YOU

ONLY CREATED FOR THIS WORLD ?

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING TO NOTHINGNESS

AFTER THE DEATH ?

MAN'S CONSCIOUS NATURE,

• Man's needs encompass the whole universe.

• They exceed it even.

• For man has intense need for life after death, and all his

senses want immortality and eternity.

• However, on his own he does not have the power to meet any of these needs.

• And such power is not to be found in anything else, since everything is created

like himself.

• Man has been decked out with extremely fine senses, and all the time feels the

need to find a point of support in the face of his obvious impotence.

• He sees, in fact, that his life, youth, senses, the food which he enjoys eating, his

clothes, in brief all the bounties bestowed on him, are day by day being lost to

him, that they are leaving him. He can find no power in himself to prevent their

departure.

He longs for his youth not to depart, for those he

loves not to abandon him,

but he can do nothing apart from

desiring these things.

MAN’S ETERNAL NEEDS !!!• The sphere of need stretches as far as the eye can

see.

• In fact, wherever the imagination goes, the sphere of need extends that far. There is need there too.

• Whatever man lacks, he is in need of.

• That which he does not have, he needs.

• And what he lacks is endless.

• But then the extent of his power extends only as far as his short arm reaches.

• That means my want and needs are as great as the world.

The Words ( 226 - 227 )

He is a guest with many dutiesand in a brief lifetime is charged with preparing

all the necessities for eternal life. The Words ( 274 )

One day the world will bid us

to leave it

And will close its ears to

our cries,

We must forego our love of it NOW !

through the warnings of

these illnesses,

Before it drives us OUT.

We must try to

abandon it in our hearts

before it abandons

us.

The fact that those who come to this

world continuously depart,

and the young grow old,

and man perpetually

revolves amid death

and separation testifies that

he did not come to this world

to enjoy himself and receive pleasure.

Moreover, while man is the most perfect, the most elevated, of living beings and the best endowed in regard to members and faculties,

Do you suppose the

sole aim of the delicate and subtle

senses, the sensitive faculties

and members, the well-ordered limbs

and systems, the inquisitive feelings

and senses included in the machine of

your life is restricted to satisfying the low desires of the base soul in this fleeting

life ?

God forbid! There are two

main aims intheir creation

andinclusion in

your essentialbeing :

The First ; consists of making known to you all thevarieties of the True Bestower's bounties, andcausing you to offer Him thanks. You should be

aware of this, and offer Him thanks and worship.

The Second ; is to make known to you by means of your faculties all the sorts of the manifestations of the sacred Divine Names manifested in the world and to cause you to experience them

And you, by recognizing them through experiencing them, should come to

believe in them.

Thus, man develops and is perfected through

the achievement of these two basic aims.Through them, man becomes a true

humanbeing.

The Words ( 139 )

he passes only a grievous, troublesome life,

lower than the animals.

And future pains, through thinking of past pleasures

This means that man did not come to this world in order to live in fine manner and pass his life in ease

The Flashes ( 267 ) 3rd Remedy

You are a guest wherever you

are.

Guests do not set their hearts upon what does

not concern them

or accompany

them on their trip.

You will depart from here soon,

and from this town you will either

go out of it or be buried in it.

Since the appointed hour is secret, and death may come any time and cut off his head,

and it does not

differentiate

between young and old,

perpetually having such an awesome and serious matter before him,

unhappy man will surely search for the means to deliver himself from that eternal extinction,

that infinite, endless solitary confinement;

the means to transform the

door of the grave into a door opening

on to an everlasting

world,

ATTAINING KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

SO WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE ?

WHAT IS MAN’S ESSENTiAL DUTIES ?

• PROCESS OF WORSHIP NECESSITATES THREE STEPS, WHICH CONSIST OF :

• FIRST; recognizing the Creator of all beings, getting to know Him, and believing in Him.

• SECONDLY; love of the Creator is only possible in proportion to believers’ knowledge of Him. Thus, as believers get to know the Creator through His Divine Attributes, they cannot but love Him.

• THIRTLY; a natural outcome of love is worship, which entails adoration. The primordial duty of humanity and the obligation incumbent upon them is to know God (Marifatullah), to believe in Him (to affirm His existence and unity) in submission and absolute certainty

(Nursi, The Rays, p. 71-74).

• Creation’s highest aim and most sublime result is belief in God.

• The most exalted rank of humanity is knowledge of God.

• The most radiant happiness and sweetest bounty for jinn and humanity is love of God contained within knowledge of Him;

• The spirit’s purest joy and the heart’s purest delight is spiritual ecstasy contained within love of God.

• All true happiness, pure joy, sweet bounties, and unclouded pleasure are contained within the knowledge and love of God.

• There are three great and universal things which make known to us our Sustainer.

• One is the book of the universe, • Another is the Seal of the Prophets (Peace

and blessings be upon him), the supreme sign of the book of the universe.

• The other is the Qur'an of Mighty Stature..The Words ( 243 )

• man, who is the fruit of the universe, is a most comprehensive, most wonderful, most weak, and most subtle miracle of power,

• You will leave this transient world or be expelled from it.

So abandon and renounce

it, with honor and dignity, before you

are expelled in humiliation.

• The Universe is a vast, constantly working factory and …

the Globe of the earth hostel and guest-house which is continually filled and emptied.

DISPOSITION (CREATION) OF MAN REQUIRES ETERNITY !

• His desires extending to eternity, • his thoughts that embrace all of creation and • his wishes that embrace the different varieties of

eternal bliss that demonstrates he has been created for eternity and will indeed proceed to eternity.

• This world is like a hospice for him, a waiting room for the hereafter.

(The Tenth Word/Eleventh Truth)

How can you set your heart on what

will leave you when you die

Since the world is transitory, it is not worthy of the heart's attachment (The Seventeenth Letter/Fifth Point)

For if you look at this guest-house of the world with the eye of wisdom,

you will see that nothing at all is without order and without purpose.

• The universe is a tree, and

• its branches are such basic elements as earth, water, air, and fire.

• Its leaves are plants, its blossoms are animals,

• and its fruits are men and women.

THE MOST FORTUNATE PERSON IN THIS WORLD !• The most fortunate

person in this worldly life is he who sees the world as a military guest house,

• and submits himself and acts accordingly.

• Through seeing it in this way, he may rise swiftly to the rank of winning God's pleasure,

• the highest rank. (The Ninth Letter )

We are departing , there is no use of deceiving

ourselves.

Is it at all possible that man should have the most important duty in all of creation and be endowed with the most important capacities;

WHAT IS RELIGION FOR ?

RELIGION is

an examination,

a test, proposed by God.

so that in the arena of competition

elevated spirits and base spirits may be distinguished from one another.

Just as materials are plunged in the

fire so that diamonds and coal, gold and

earth, separate out from one

another,

So too religion is a trial

concerning the obligations placed

on man by God and a driving to

competition, which is what this abode

of examination consists of.

In this way the elevated jewels in the mine of man's abilities become separated out from the

dross. (The Twentieth Word/The Second Station)

• that man's Sustainer should make Himself known to him with all His well-ordered works, and man should then fail to recognize Him in return by way of worship

• or that God should make Himself beloved of men through the numerous adorned fruits of His mercy, and man should then fail to make himself beloved of God through worship

• or that God should demonstrate His love and mercy to man through His variegated bounties and man should then fail to respect Him with thanks and with praise

• is it at all possible that man should remain unpunished, left to his own devices, or that that powerful Possessor of splendor and glory should not make ready for him a realm of requital ?

• The Words ( 76 )

Were you created only for this world

that you spend all your time

on it ? (The Twenty First Word / First Station)

SUPPLICATION MEANING !

• Supplication has the meaning of worship and man's

acknowledging his servitude to God.

• As for worship and servitude to God, it should be purely and

sincerely for God's sake. • Man should only proclaim his

impotence and seek refuge with Him through supplication, he should not interfere in His

dominicality. • He should leave the taking of

measures to Him and rely on His wisdom.

• He should not accuse His Mercy.

The Words ( 326 )

O my wretched soul ! Sunk in heedlessness, which sees this life as sweet, has forgotten the hereafter, and seeks only this world !

Do you know what you resemble ? An ostrich ! it sees the hunter, but cannot fly, so sticks it head in the sand so the hunter

will not see it. Its bulky body remains in the open, and the hunter sees it. Only, its eyes are closed in the sand and it cannot see him.

The Fourteenth Words/Conclusion

• He is All-Knowing, • All-Wise, • All-Powerful, • All-Merciful, • All-Compassionate, • All-Providing, • All-Munificent, • All-Wealthy, • All-Living, • Self-Subsistent, • All-Aware, • Everlasting, • Permanent,

• and Deserving of Worship.

These truths form one composite truth showing that this universe has one Owner,

Ruler, and Sustainer Whose Existence is absolutely necessary.

LOOK AT YOURSELF INSTEAD OF WHAT IS NOT

FOR YOU.

• What are you? • What is your value?

• What do you rely on? • You are an embodiment

of impotence and neediness,

for whatever you have is conferred on you by

God.

I am a guest in this body,

Your property that You have entrusted to

me.

As for man, he needs to learn everything when he comes into the world;

he is ignorant, and cannot even learn completely the conditions of life in twenty

years. Indeed, he needs to go on learning till the

end of his life.The Words ( 324 )

Also he is sent to the world in a most weak and impotent

form,

and can only rise to his feet in one or two

years.

Only in fifteen years can he distinguish

between harm and benefit,

and with the help of

mankind's experience

attract things advantageous

to him and avoid others

that are harmful.

and to proclaim his worship of God and servitute to Him through

Supplication (DUA).

The Words (324)

This means that

man’s innate duty is to be

perfected through

Learning

“I created not Jinn and mankind except that

they might Worship Me”

AS A TRAVELLER , WE MUST OBSERVE AND QUESTIONING THE UNIVERSE

ABOUT HIS MAKER,• "Through whose compassion is my life so wisely

administered in this way ? • Through whose generosity am I so kindly raised ? • Through whose graciousness am I so delicately

nurtured and ministered to? • It is to beseech and supplicate the Provider of

Needs through the tongue of impotence and poverty; it is to seek from Him.

• It is to fly to the high station of worship and servitude to God on the wings of impotence and poverty.

• This means that man came to this world to be perfected by means of knowledge and supplication.

• In regard to his nature and abilities everything is tied to knowledge.

• And the foundation, source, light, and spirit of all true knowledge is knowledge of God, and its essence and basis is belief in God.

(The Twenty Third Words / First Chapter)

• Be Certain Of This, That The Highest Aim Of Creation And Its Most Important

Result are Belief In God. • The most exalted rank in humanity and

its highest degree are the knowledge of God contained within belief in God. • The most radiant happiness and

sweetest bounty for jinn and human beings are the love of God contained

within the knowledge of God. • And the purest joy for the human spirit

and the sheerest delight for man's heart are the rapture of the spirit contained

within the love of God.

WHAT IS THE HIGHEST AIM OF CREATION ?

Indeed, all true happiness, pure joy, sweet bounties, and

untroubled pleasure lie in knowledge of God and love of God; they cannot exist without

them.One who knows and loves God Almighty is potentially able to

receive endless bounties, happiness, lights, and mysteries.

While one who does not truly know and love him is afflicted spiritually and materially by

endless misery, pain, and fears.

• Even if such an impotent and miserable person owned the whole world, it would be worth nothing for him, for it would seem to him that he was living a fruitless life among the vagrant human race in a wretched world without owner or protector.

• Everyone may understand just how wretched and bewildered is man among the vagrant human race in this bewildering fleeting world if he does not know his Owner, if he does not discover his Master.

• But if he does discover and know Him, he will seek refuge in His mercy and will rely on His power.

• The desolate world will turn into a place of recreation and pleasure, it will become a place of trade for the hereafter.

The Letters ( 265 )

CONCLUSION• If you want a friend, God is sufficient.

Yes, if He is your friend, everything is friendly.

• If you want companions, the Qur’an is sufficient. For in the imagination one meets with the prophets and angels in it, observes the events in which they were

involved, and becomes familiar with them.

• If you want possessions, contentment is sufficient. Yes, the person who is content is frugal; and the frugal person receives the blessing of plenty.

• If you want an enemy, the soul is sufficient. Yes, the person who fancies himself is visited with calamities and meets with difficulties, whereas the one who is

not fond of himself, finds happiness, and receives mercy.

• If you want advice, death is sufficient. Yes, the person who thinks of death is saved from love of this world, and works in earnest for the hereafter.

• Thank you for listening and your kind attention.

ALLAH BLESS YOU ALL !