Editorial

Bediüzzaman Said Nursî, concisely summarizes the causes of the
stagnation and backwardness of the Muslim communities during the
last few centuries: “We quitted the essence and the kernel of Islam and
limited our views with its appearance and crust and thus got deceived.
With misunderstanding and discourtesy we couldn’t carry out our due
respect to Islam, so that it hated us and hid itself with the clouds of
doubts and delusions.” The consequences of this proposition which influenced
deeply the Muslim communities need to be reconsidered.
Recent phenomena prevailing Muslim communities such as terror,
poverty, backwardness, dissention, oppression and internal strife and civil
war seem to conform this proposition. Therefore among the hottest
issues of debate are how Islamic world can get rid of this tough situation,
how Islam can be presented with its innate features like peace,
freedom, justice, morality and virtue; and how and with which methods
can Islam contribute to humanity in solving its various problems.
Another larger debate is about the theories concerning the future of
humanity. After the globalization the world turned into a village and in
order to correspond to increasing social, political, and economic changes,
the world need a new set of values. It is enigmatic to see what
Islamic world can contribute to a world where humanistic values and
searches for the general peaceful come forward? However the recent
developments in the Islamic world are disappointing, which make the
place and values of Islamic world debatable among the formulas that
will save humanity. Some other issues that confront us are the relations
between Islamic world and the West, the lack of establishing the
relationships among religion, politics and state on a sound ground; a
perception of Islam associated with terror; reflexes brought up by defeat
and backwardness; being a region remembered with oppression,
persecution, and coercion; and conflicts caused by ethnic tensions and
separations.
At a time period when the Islamic world is shattered with the bloody
disasters and civil wars, how these lands which once a time were known
with peace, brotherhood and tolerance can be met with the missed climate
of happiness again missed and how the Quranic values can be
introduced to the West are among important questions. Bediuzzaman
Said Nursi who carries the experience of the Age of Bliss to our day
with his life and works, Risale-I Nur, is a practical answer to the basic
questions and problems of the Islamic world and humanity and needs
to be understood. His practice of Islamic morality and beliefs in real life
which he formalized as “True Islam and Islamic Truthfulness” is very
important in understanding and practicing the Quranic concepts like
respect, love, freedom in Sharia, rights, justice, positive action, morality
and virtue. For this purpose Bediuzzaman Said Nursi draws the attentions
to Muslims’ capacity of representation, and points out to the ways
of building up a virtuous world by saying “If we were to display through
our actions the perfections of the morality of Islam and the truths of
belief, without doubt the followers of other religions would enter Islam
in whole communities.” Therefore the questions that how Muslims will
transfer the Islamic morality and beliefs into actual life; how will the
roads leading from the conscience to the state be ornamented with the
Quranic values; and how will it this experience be presented to humanity
as a role model are still waiting for answers.
So the Institute of Risale-I Nur planned the 11th Congress under
the title of “The True Islam in the East and in the West” and the topic
was discussed around 5 different tables in the dates of 14-15 May 2015
in Germany, Cologne. This issue of Köprü was allocated to some of the
papers presented in the congress. Therefore in this issue of Köprü you
will be able to read the papers presented at the table about “Terror and
the True Islam”
Without regarding its color, shape, and size; terror, as an action of
violence aimed at destroying the present system is a joint problem of the
world. The inefficiency of legal, military and security precautions taken
against the acts of terror; the inability of even very powerful states to
neutralize the terror; and the growth of the danger at a global scale and
its association with a particular religion are questions that must be discussed.
Assessment of acts of terror in the name of Islamic Jihad under
the light of the Quranic verses like, “if anyone slew a person unless it be
for murder or for spreading mischief in the land it would be as if he slew
the whole people” (Maide, The Table Spread: 32); the real meaning of
terror, terror and religion relationship, precautions to prevent terrorism,
Said Nursi’s suggestions against terror, precautions to be taken against
the association of terror with Islam, and the significance of the true Islamic
understanding are the main topics of the papers presented.
While we invite our readers to enjoy the papers, we hope to publish
the rest of the papers of the 11th congress of the Risale-i Nur in the
next issue our periodical.