A RELIGIOLOGICAL COMPARISON OF THE SUFI THOUGHT OF SAID NURSI AND FETHULLAH GULEN by SULEYMAN ERIS (Under the Direction of Alan Godlas) ABSTRACT In this religiological comparison, I compared two Muslim scholars, Said Nursi (d.1960) and Fethullah Gulen (b.1938) from the perspective of their Sufi thought. Although, Gulen has always been known as a strict follower of Nursi and has acknowledged Nursi as a great scholar and the founder of Nursi movement, he has differed from him especially with regard to Sufi thought. In this thesis, I have focused on the differences between Nursi and Gulen and presented a different angle from the commonly accepted one. Some of the most important differences concern their general approach to Sufism and doctrines of methodology. INDEX WORDS: Said Nursi, Fethullah Gulen, Religiology, Sufism, Turkish. A RELIGIOLOGICAL COMPARISON OF THE SUFI THOUGHT OF SAID NURSI AND FETHULLAH GULEN by SULEYMAN ERIS B.S., Uludag University, Turkey, 1998 A Thesis Submitted to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for The Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2006 © 2006 Suleyman Eris All Rights Reserved A RELIGIOLOGICAL COMPARISON OF THE SUFI THOUGHT OF SAID NURSI AND FETHULLAH GULEN by SULEYMAN ERIS Major Professor: Alan Godlas Committee: Kenneth Honerkamp Carolyn Medine Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2006 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge the great help of my major Professor Alan Godlas. He was the major figure for my education in UGA. I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Medine from the depth of my heart. Her encouragement meant a lot to me. I also would like to thank Dr. Kenneth Honerkamp. It was just a pleasure to be with him. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS..........................................................................................................iv INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................1 LIFE AND SUFI THOUGHT OF NURSI...................................................................................3 LIFE OF NURSI ..................................................................................................................3 EPISTEMOLOGY ...............................................................................................................8 ONTOLOGY .....................................................................................................................27 ANTHROPOLOGY ...........................................................................................................40 PSYCHOLOGY.................................................................................................................52 TELEOLOGY....................................................................................................................64 METHODOLOGY.............................................................................................................74 LIFE AND SUFI THOUGHT OF GULEN ...............................................................................95 LIFE OF GULEN...............................................................................................................95 EPISTEMOLOGY ...........................................................................................................102 ONTOLOGY ...................................................................................................................122 ANTHROPOLOGY .........................................................................................................144 PSYCHOLOGY...............................................................................................................162 TELEOLOGY..................................................................................................................181 METHODOLOGY...........................................................................................................189 v RELIGIOLOGICAL COMPARISON OF NURSI AND GULEN ...........................................200 EPISTEMOLOGY ...........................................................................................................205 ONTOLOGY ...................................................................................................................208 ANTHROPOLOGY .........................................................................................................210 PSYCHOLOGY...............................................................................................................212 TELEOLOGY..................................................................................................................214 METHODOLOGY...........................................................................................................216 CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................219 BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................................................222 vi INTRODUCTION In this thesis, I will compare the Sufi thought of two scholars, Said Nursi (d.1960) and Fethullah Gulen, who is generally regarded as Nursi’s successor. This comparison will be in the format of religiology. Religiology is a method used to examine and understand beliefs in a systematic and a coherent way. This method was invented by Dr. Alan Godlas at UGA, and, among its epistemological virtues is than it addresses two types of problems: haphazardness and fragmentation of the knowledge. Religiology approaches beliefs in the following order: epistemology, ontology, anthropology, psychology, teleology, and methodology. By systematically using these six analytical categories, Religiology attempts to resolve the problem of haphazardness of knowledge. The knowledge of any belief system can be ordered with these religiological categories and then scientifically examined by means of the main questions inherent in each of the categories. The second problem Religiology addresses is the fragmentation of the knowledge. Belief systems are usually so vast complex. Every piece of information contained in these systems is related in many largely unrecognized ways to other pieces; and these pieces present to the researcher a very complex map of information. Religiology, after putting this complex map of information into an order, maps and lays out important relationships of these bits of information and elevates them from the level of fragmentation to the level of coherence. This thesis is the religiological comparison between the Sufi thoughts of Nursi and Gulen. In this regard, the thesis will have four sections. The first section is the religiological presentation of the Sufi thoughts of Said Nursi. The second section will present the Sufi thoughts 1 of Gulen in the religiological format. The third section will compare the Sufi thoughts of these two scholars in their reloigiological order and the fourth section will be the conclusion. In comparing these two scholars it will become apparent that although Gulen shares the same thoughts and beliefs with Nursi in many subjects and he is commonly regarded as a strict successor of Nursi, Gulen, especially in his Sufi thought, has independent and different ideas from Nursi. In sum, this thesis possesses two unique merits: one is its use of religiological analysis and, most importantly, the other is its groundbreaking conclusions concerning the differences between Nursi and Gulen. 2 A. THE LIFE AND SUFI THOUGHT OF NURSI I. THE LIFE OF NURSI There are some uncertainties regarding the birth date of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi. In the official biography of Nursi first published in 1958, his birth date is proposed as being 1873. In later editions the date given is 1877. However, the Risale-i Nur Institute (dedicated to research on Nursi and his writings) insists that Nursi was born in 1878.1 The reason for these discrepancies is simply that different calendars were used during Nursi’s lifetime. Nursi was born in the town of Bitlis (which is currently located in sought east of Anatolia), though he was from a small village called Nurs. The name Nursi refers to a person originating from Nurs. His father’s name was Mirza, his mother’s, Nuriye. The name Bediüzzaman is an epithet meaning “the wonder of the age”.2 Two stories are given concerning the origin of this nickname. The first concerns the fact that, from a very early age, Nursi distinguished himself as an extraordinarily gifted student. By the age of fourteen or fifteen, Nursi had completed the standard madrasa curriculum of the time, despite having studied under Shaykh Muhammad Celali for only three months. His teacher granted him his diploma and with it the right to wear the turban of a scholar, even though Nursi was still very young. From this point on, he began to engage other scholars in debate, successfully answering all the difficult questions that he was asked. In view of this extraordinary success, the first account reports, Nursi received the nickname Bediüzzaman from Molla 3 Fethullah Efendi. 1Risale-i Nur Enstitüsü, “Bediüzzaman Hangi Tarihte Doğdu?”, Risale-i Nur Enstitüsü http://www.risaleinurenstitusu.com/index.asp?Section=SaidNursi&Subsection=DogumTarihi (accessed April 13, 2006). 2 Said Nursi, Risale-i Nur Külliyatõ, 2th vol., (Istanbul: Nesil, 1996), 2212. 3 Şükran Vahide, “Bediuzzaman Said Nursi and the Risale-i Nur,” in Globalization,