Lahika dergisi Filipinler Risale-i Nur Enstitüsünün resmi yayın organı. Lahika Filipin dilinde ‘sen farklısın! – lahika!’ demek.  Önümüzdeki hafta derginin üçüncü sayısı yayınlanmış olacak. Birinci sayısı umum Filipinler hizmetleriyle alakalı bir tanıtım dergisi mahiyetinde olmuştu, ikinci sayısında Cevdet Baybara Ağabeyin şehadeti münasebetiyle, iman, hicret ve cihad-ı manevi konularının işlendiği bir dergi piyasaya çıkmıştı. Bu sayının ana mevzusu ise ‘değişim=transformasyon’.

Risale-i Nur’u okuyup, istifade eden, cemaate gelen, İslamiyet ile tanışan Filipinli Nur talebelerinin hayatlarındaki değişimi anlatan anekdotlarla dopdolu bir dergi geliyor.

Eğitimin en temel gayesi ve en mühim neticesi davranış değişikliğidir. Lemaat’ta Üstadımızın ifade buyurduğu şu fıkra meselemizle alakalı çok manidardır;

‘Nurani bir nar olur, bazı olur bir nazar, Fahmi elmas ediyor. Bazı olur bir temas, taşı iksir ediyor. Bir nazar-ı Peygamber.

Birdenbire kalbeder; bir bedevi cahil, bir arif-i münevver. Eğer mizan istersen; İslam’dan evvel Ömer, islamdan sonra Ömer.’

Tarih-i İslam asr-ı saadetten ta şimdiye kadar misal-i Ömer gibi milyonlar misallerle doludur. Zira İslam esasen akıllarda, ruhlarda, nefislerde ve kalplerde yapılan en aziz, en muazzez, en ali bir inkılab-ı manevidir.

19. Söz’de Üstadımızın Efendimizi (asv) tarif ettiği ve nübüvvetine delil olarak gösterdiği bir husus da o asr-ı cehalet ve sefahatte ve kabail-i anudane arasında insanların hayatlarında yapmış olduğu inkılabattır.

Risale-i Nur bu asırda hem Kur’an’ın bir dersi ve hem Resulullah (asv)’ın talimi olması hasebiyle kendisini ihlas, sadakat, kanaat ve takva ile okuyanların hayatında azim inkılablar yapıyor.

Risale-i Nur’u sair kütüb-ü islamiyeden ayıran en mühim hususlardan birisi onun salt bir ilmi kitap olmayışı ve fakat derin bir marifetullah dersi ile, huzuru tam vererek davranış değişikliğine vesile olmasıdır. Yenilerin diliyle informativ değil transformativ bir kitaptır Risale-i Nur. Sadece davranışlarda mıdır gerçekleştirilen değişim elbette ki hayır. Nurların hayatımızdaki müsbet değişime emsali saymakla bitmez. Mevcudatta tecelli eden esma ve sıfatı göremeyen gözleri o hazineleri görecek hale çevirmek (transformation), kainatta terennüm eden musikay-ı ilahiyeyi duyamayan kulaklara o ulvi sadayı duyurmak, her bir zerre onu hamd ve tesbih ederken o tesbihatı hissedemeyen ruha o manaları ihsas ettirmek, eşyada gözle görünen nizam, intizam, muvazene, hikmet, adalet, sanatlı hilkatı zihinlere de göstererek basarın gördüğünü basirete fehmettirmek ve daha nice nice manaları ihata ettirip hayatımızda büyük bir değişime vesile olmak. İşte Risale-i Nur bu noktadan eğitim sahasına Transformative Model of Education dediğimiz davranış değişikliği esaslı bir metodoloji sunuyor.

Geçtiğimiz sene Endonezya’nın Ternate Adasında ‘Risale-i Nur as Transformative Educational Model in the Higher Educational Curriculumandintegration of itsapproachtothemadaris in the 21st century = 21.yy’da Risale-i Nur Modelinin Medrese Eğitim Sistemine Entegresi ve Yüksek Öğretim Müfredatına Eğitimde Davranış Değişim Modeli olarak Entegrasyonu’ konulu bir sunumum olmuştu. Buna benzer bir sunumda Filipinler Eğitim Sisteminde Risale-i Nurun entegrasyonu ve Bilimin İslamileşmesi (İslamization of Knowledge) adı altında Kuala Lumpurda Uluslararası İslam Üniversitesinde olmuştu. Bütün bu sunumlarda benim en çok üzerinde durduğum husus hep davranış değişikliği üzerine olmuştu.

Son yıllarda Amerika ve Avrupa’da özellikle üzerinde durulan en önemli konuların başında ‘valueseducation=değerler eğitimi’ geliyor. Risale-i Nur ve değerler eğitimi ile alakalı geniş çaplı bir çalışma hazırlığı içerisindeyiz ve ümid ederim bu çalışma Türkiye’de Milli Eğitimin dikkatine sunulabilir. Değerler Eğitiminde öne çıkan hususlar; doğruluk, kardeşlik, vatanperverlik, sevgi, hoşgörü, vefa, ana babaya saygı vs gibi Nurlardan muhakkak istifade edilebilecek konulardan oluşuyor. Ve burada mühim olan husus bu ders verilmeden önce ve verildikten sonra öğrencilerin durumlarının bir teste tabi tutulabilmesi ve bir değerlendirme yapılabilmesidir.

Filipinlerde ta Birleşmiş Milletlerin dahi dikkatini çeken husus Risale-i Nurun insanlar üzerinde yaptığı müsbet davranış değişikliği olmuştur. Bu Değerler Eğitimi ve Risale-i Nur konusunu bir başka vakte talik bırakıp Lahika Dergisine dönelim.

Lahika dergisinin bu sayısında Filipinlerdeki Nur kardeşler Risale-i Nur’u okuduktan sonra yaşamış oldukları değişimi anlatıyorlar. Bir kardeşimiz mesela diyor ki, “iki hafta derslere katıldım, Hıristiyandım ama Ramazan gelince oruç tutmaya başlamıştım. Ramazanın hikmetleri risalesini okuyup ta gündüz yemek yemeyi kendime yediremiyordum. Sahurdan da haberim yoktu. Akşam güneş batınca bir kenara çekiliyor yemeğimi yiyor ve ertesi gün akşama kadar hiçbir şey yemiyordum. Kadir gecesinde Müslüman oldum...”

Bir başka kardeşimiz dersane-i nuriyeyi ashabı kehfin mağarasına teşmil ediyor ve asrın dalalet ve sefahat fitnesinden kurtuluşunu anlatıyor.

Risale-i Nur’u okuduktan sonra tövbesini anlatan, mücadele ruhunu, uzletini, takvasını, verasını, zühdünü, havf ve recasını, hüznünü, huşu ve tevazusunu anlatan, nefse muhalefetini, hased ve gıybeti terkinden bahseden, kanaatının ziyadeleşmesini, evindeki bereketi, tevekkülünü, şükrünü, yakinini, murakabesini, ibadet ve iradesini, istikamet ve ihlasını, sadakat ve hayasını, zikrini, ferasetini, ahlakını, gayretini, duasını ve edebini ve marifetullah-muhabbetullah semasındaki terakkisini ifade eden Filipinli Genç Nur Talebeleriyle buluşacağız yeni sayıda.

Lahika dergisi bu sayısıyla hidayet haberine susamışlara ma-i zemzem sunuyor.

Risale-i Nur’un akıllara hayret veren, kalpleri ürperten, ruhlara suud buudu vadeden bu hususiyetidir ki bizleri ve milyonlarcasını kendisine hayran etmiştir. Elhak Risale-i Nur bu asırda Kuran’ın bir barika-i elması, bir seyfüddini ve bir mucize-i maneviyesidir. İşte binler hayat bu davaya hayatlarındaki inkılabatla imza atıyorlar.

Aşağıya meraklıları için Lahika’ da yer alan makalalemi de İngilizce olarak ekliyorum; Risale-i Nur; Bir Değişim Tecrübesi... 

Risale-iNur; A Transformative Experience

All praises and thanks are due to Allah, in the numbers of all particles of the universe.

He, the Lord of the Worlds, has sent down the Holy Qur’an which addresses all classes of humanity and whose truths will surely exist unto the Day of Judgement. Thank be to Him who appoints mujaddids from the family of Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him). Mujaddids are those, who appear at the turn of every century, to revive Islam removing from it any extraneous elements and restoring it to pristine purity. They are the inheritors of the prophets helping Muslims in times of hardship and violence.

Peace and blessings be upon the Pride of the Universe, the Most Loved One, The Prophet Muhammad in the numbers of letters that were written and words that were uttered. Peace and Blessings be Upon Him who gave us good news saying: “Surely Allah will send for this Ummah at the advent of every one hundred years a person who will renovate its religion for it” and paid tribute to those scholars expressing “The scholars of my ummah are like the prophets of Bani Israel (sons of Israel)”. As the Quran is the word of Allah, it is a never-ending treasure. As this divine order comes out from the eternity past (azal), it goes through the eternity future (abad). Many tafasir (interpretations of the Qur’an) were written in every century with the same basic which aimed at the benefit of humanity and have many lovely details, each mind-blowing detail has its own beauty.

Those truthful scholars have prescribed the remedies for every age inspired by the Qur’an and have cured the diseases of their age compiling the medicines from the unique pharmacy of the Sacred Words of the Qur’an. During this century, humankind has been driven into a spiritual calamity and depression which has never been seen in the history of humanity, as stated in the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (asw) as fitna (trial) during the end of time (akhir al-zaman). On the one hand, the struggle of systemizing the denial of uluhiyyah (godhood) which has been attacking the tenets of belief in the name of philosophy and science, on the other hand, even the most destructive manners are welcomed across the governments’ scale, and this kind of ideology has been spreading around the world like an epidemic via means of mass media. Other than that, immoral enjoyments and vulgarity have turned into chronic moral anarchism and these harmful so-called-enjoyments are deliveredunder some deceiving masks and methods so that they all become the fundamental reasons for the spiritual crisis of our time.

Islamic world, being left without a leader and protector, have been exposed to the hatred and hostility of some countries for a thousand years. They had seized an opportunity to act disdainfully in the aftermath of the fall of the Great Islamic Ottoman Empire. Imam Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, who has had an ultimately massive influence on our age, witnessed the wellplanned distortions, and struggled against them with an inexhaustible energy during the last years of hardships of the would-finish-Islamic Caliphate. He expressed Qur'anic prescriptions and some ways out in Damascus in his khutba (sermon) to ten thousand people.

“The recipe for a diseased age, a sick community and a suffering man is to follow and obey the Qur’an. The recipe for the magnificent but unfortunate continent, a glorious but ill-fated state, a rich but ownerless nation is the unity of Islam.

The Risale-iNur collection is a six-thousand-page commentary on the Quran written by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi in accordance with the mentality of the age. Since in our age faith and Islam have been the objects of the attacks launched in the name of so called science and logic, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi therefore concentrated in the Risale-iNur on proving the truths of faith in conformity with modern science through rational proofs and evidence, and by describing the miraculous aspects of the Quran that relate primarily to our century.          Bediuzzaman understood an essential cause of the decline of the Islamic world to be weakening of the very foundations of belief. This weakening, together with the unprecedented attacks on those foundations in the 19th and 20th centuries carried out by materialists, atheists and others in the name of science and progress, led him to realize that the urgent and over-riding need was to strengthen, and even to save, belief. What was needed was to expend all efforts to reconstruct the edifice of Islam from its foundations, belief, and to answer at that level those attacks with a 'manevi jihad' or 'jihad of the of the word.' Thus, in exile, Bediuzzaman wrote a body of work, the Risale-iNur, that would explain and expound the basic tenets of belief, the truths of the Quran, to modern man. His method was to analyse both belief and unbelief and to demonstrate through clearly reasoned arguments that not only is it possible, by following the method of the Quran, to prove rationally all the truths are the only rational explanation of existance, man and the universe.

Risale-iNur is playing a vital role on education of mankind and particularly muslims in the contemporary time. As Quranic exegesis, different from many other sources Imam Nursi based his collection on transformation of society through transformation of individuals.  

Imam Bediuzzaman Said Nursi focused on personal renewal of the muslims through studying Quran and Risale-iNur.

Risale-iNur is a community of individuals united by common religious vision and purpose rather than organizations bylaws and membership lists. It is an informal school where the teaching based on transformation of its students. Education becomes a learning if there is a change of attitude from bad to good, from negative to positive, from darknes to light. Risale-iNur is a school where our emotions are being transformed according to their righteous path. For instance, lets see how Bediuzzaman talks about the changing of direction od our emotions;

“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. Seeing it in this way, he may rise swiftly to the rank of winning Allah’s pleasure, the highest rank. Such a person will not give the price of a lasting diamond for something as valueless as glass, doomed to be broken. He will pass his life uprightly and with pleasure. Yes, matters to do with this world are like pieces of glass that will be broken, while the lasting matters of the hereafter are as precious as flawless diamonds. The intense curiosity, fervent love, terrible greed, stubborn desires, and other intense innate human emotions were given to gain the matters of the hereafter. To direct them fervently towards the transitory things of this world is to give the price of eternal diamonds for doomed fragments of glass.”{Letters}

For example, passionate love is an ardent sort of love. When it is directed towards transitory objects, it either causes its owner perpetual torment and pain, or, since the ephemeral beloved (transient lover) is not worth the price of such fervent love, it causes the lover to search for an eternal one. Then passing love is transformed into true love. In reality, love is nothing what it seems…Love is more than what an individual feels towards a transient second party. Love is love only when it is directly or indirectly Divine, if it is not then is a complete lie full of imperfections.

Likewise, our body is a gift, a blessing from Allah (swt) that is so unique and priceless and each one of our organs and emotions is sent down with a purpose as unique as we are. Man possesses thousands of emotions and each one of them has two degrees, two sides as we mentioned in the “ego – ana” essay. For further explanation I wish to give a few examples:

Firstly, we sometimes intensely get anxious about our future but then we see that we have no guarantee that we will reach the future that we get anxious about and sometimes we get anxious about our livelihood but then again when consider thoroughly our livelihood isn’t in our hands, we don’t get what we earn but we get what is reserved for us in our Lord’s presence. Sometimes we earn but we cannot have all those money by ourselves since it is not in our destiny. So, we look beyond the grave which is long-lasting and which hasn’t been promised for the heedless. Our point of view changes towards the right direction.

Secondly, we also display very intense ambition for possessions and rank, then we see that this worldly, transient property that has been temporarily put under our supervision isn’t worth such a intense ambition for the worldly properties leave us in the door of grave, we cannot take them with us there, and the calamitous fame and high ranks are also not worth it since they are dangerous and lead to hypocrisy, the elderly celebrities know this best when asked them how it is to be end up in loneliness after all these fame. Then, we turn away from the worldly properties and fame and ranks towards the spiritual ranks and degrees in closeness to Allah (swt) and the provisions of hereafter and our good deeds which are our true property in the hereafter. We will see the worldly ambition which is a bad quality is transformed into true ambition and a lofty quality.

Thirdly, we sometimes expend our emotions on trivial, fleeting, transient things with wilful obstinacy. Then, we see that we pursue for a very long time something that is not worth even a minute obstinacy and being obstinate we insist on something that is damaging and harming us that is eroding us, rotting and burning us inside out. Then, we see that this powerful emotion isn’t given to us for such things, we see that expending this emotion on them is contrary to wisdom and truth. So, we start to utilize this intense obstinacy not on those unnecessary transient matters but on the elevated and eternal truths of belief and essentials of Islam and service and duties pertaining to the hereafter. Thus, worldly obstinacy, a base quality, is transformed into true obstinacy; that is, ardent steadfastness and constancy in what is right, a fine and good quality.

As these few examples show, if we use these faculties that we are given to us as blessings (emotions) on account of worldly pleasures and our nafs and if we behave heedlessly as if we were going to stay in this world forever, those emotions will be the cause of bad morals and will be misspent and futile. But if we expend the lesser of them on the matters of this world and the more intense of them on spiritual duties and tasks pertaining to the hereafter, they become the source of laudable morals and the means to happiness in this world and the next in conformity with wisdom and reality and this is what is seeing the world what it truly is because it is the opportunity to gain peace the hereafter.

A prominent scholar of our time, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi takes our attention at the end of his lesson to a very crucial matter of tabligh, it is as follows:

“My guess is that one reason the advice and admonitions given at the present time have been ineffective is that those offering them say: “Don’t be ambitious! Don’t be greedy! Don’t hate! Don’t be obstinate! Don’t love the world!” That is, they propose something that is apparently impossible for those they address like changing their inborn natures. If only they would say: “Turn these emotions towards beneficial things, change their direction, their channel,” both their advice would be effective, and they would be proposing something within those persons’ will power.”

Risale-iNur therefore as a commentary of Holy Quran teaches Islam, teaches Islam in a way that will help people to be transformed. Its goal of teaching is not to give mere information, but gives transformation in three different dimensions.  At the core of Transformative Learning theory, is the process of "perspective transformation", with three dimensions: psychological (changes in understanding of the self), convictional (revision of belief systems), and behavioral (changes in lifestyle).

These three dimensions can be found in every page of Risale-iNur.

One who reads 31^st window of 33 windows in The Words, one who will deeply study 23^rd word, 11^th word and of course many other parts of Risale-iNur Collection will definitely discover the self. “I” or ‘self’ which we are very much desire to know about it will open its secret to us in the pages of Risale-iNur. Thus “Who am I?” “Where did I come from?” “What is this place in which I find myself?” “What is my duty here?” “Who is responsible bringing me into existence?”- these are questions which each of us answers in his own way. And Risale-iNur Collection is a guidance for the one who is seeking answers to these questions. Let us now examine how Dr. Colin Turner had experienced transformation in the pages of Risale-iNur;

Turner says; “New converts are invariably enthusiastic to know as much as possible about their religion in the shortest possible time. In the few years that folowed, my library grew rapidly. There was so much to learn, and so many books ready to teach. Books on the history of Islam, the economic system of Islam, the concept of government in Islam; countless manuals of Islamic jurisprudence, and, best of all, books on Islam and revolution, on how Muslims were to rise up and establish Islamic governments, Islamic republics. When I returned to Britain in early '79 to begin a University course, I was ready to introduce Islam to the West.”

If you study this paragraph of Dr. Turner, you will see that the books he was mentioning were all about information. In a certain extend no one can deny the necessity of information on acquiring knowledge and those information has te be taken as steps towards transformation, but however in the case of this age, the age of egoism, time of self-pride, era of pharaoh like souls; those informative acquisition stays as a tool of “I-ness”. As Bediuzzamanexpreses in one of his letter to his Doctor Friend; “ if you check your brain, you will find out like me that there are so many unnecessary information like a dry woods. You should burn them with the light of Quran so that it will become beneficial transformative lights in your mind which will illuminate your past and future”

Dr. Turner continues;

“It was to these books that I turned for an answer to the question "What is the meaning of La ilahailla Allah?" Again I was disappointed. The books were about Islam, not about Allah. They covered every subject you could possibly imagine except for the one which really mattered. I put the question to the imam at the University mosque. He made an excuse and left. Then a brother who had overheard my impertinent question to the imam came over and said: "I have a tafsir of La ilahailla Allah. If you like we could read it together." I imagined that it would be ten or twenty pages at the most. It turned out to have over 5000 pages, in several books. It was, as I'm sure you're aware, the Risale-iNur by UstadBediuzzaman Said Nursi.”

…

After this brief introduction Dr. Turner invites us to have a voyage with him in the pages of Risale-iNur and see with our own eyes how these books are powerful on transformation. This transformation is about belief. A revolutionary transformation of man; and here it is how Bediuzzaman explains this transformation at the end of one of his treatise;

“God willing, this Thirty-Third Letter of Thirty-Three Windows will bring to belief those without belief, strengthen the belief of those whose belief is weak, make certain the belief of those whose belief is strong but imitative, give greater breadth to the belief of those whose belief is certain, lead to progress in knowledge of God - the basis and means of all true perfection - for those whose belief has breadth, and open up more brilliant vistas for them. You cannot say, therefore, that "One window is enough for me." Because if your reason is satisfied, your heart wants its share as well, and so also does your spirit want its share. The imagination too will want its share of that light. As a consequence, the other Windows are also necessary, for each contains different benefits.”

And Dr. Colin’s own experience of transformation with Risale-iNur; “ The Supreme Sign does not presuppose belief in God; rather it travels from the created to the Creator. And it affirms that anyone who sincerely wishes to answer the questions, and who looks upon the created world as it is, and not as he wishes or imagines it to be, must inevitably come to the conclusion La ilahailla Allah. For he will see order and harmony, beauty and equilibrium, justice and mercy, dominicality and munificence; and at the same time he will realise that those attributes are pointing not to the created beings themselves but to a Reality in which all of these attributes exist in perfection and absoluteness. He will see that the created world is thus a book of names, an index, which seek to tell about its Owner.

In Nature, Cause or Effect?,Bediuzzaman takes the interpretation of La ilahailla Allah even further. The notion that he examines is that of causality, the cornerstone of materialism and the pillar upon which modern science has been constructed. Belief in causality gives rise to statements such as: It is natural; Nature created it; it happened by chance, and so on. With reasoned arguments, Bediuzzaman explodes the myth of causality and demonstrates that those who adhere to this belief are looking at the cosmos not as it actually is, or how it appears to be, but how they would like to think it is.

In TabiatRisalesi [Nature, Cause or Effect?], Bediuzzaman demonstrates that all beings, on all levels, are interrelated, interconnected and interdependent, like concentric or intersecting circles. He shows that beings come into existence as though from nowhere, and, during their brief lives, each with its own particular purpose, goal and mission, act as mirrors in which various attributes, and countless configurations of names, are displayed. Their createdness, transience, impotence and contingence, their total dependence on factors other than themselves prove beyond doubt that they cannot be the owners of that which they appear to possess, let alone bestow attributes of perfection on beings that are similar to or greater than themselves.

The materialists, however, see things differently - they do not see different things. They ask us to believe that this cosmos, whose innate order and harmony they do not deny, is ultimately the work of chance. Of chaos and disorder, of sheer accident. They then ask us to believe that this cosmos is sustained by the mechanistic interplay of causes - whatever they may be, and not even the materialists know for sure - causes which are themselves created, impotent, ignorant, transient and purposeless, but which somehow contrive, through laws which appeared out of nowhere, to produce the orderly works of art of symphonies of harmony and equilibrium that we see and hear around us.

Like Abraham in the house of idols, Bediuzzaman destroys these myths and superstitions. Given that all things are interconnected, he reiterates, whatever it is that brings existence to the seed of a flower must also be responsible for the flower itself; and given their interdependence, whatever brings into existence the flower must also be responsible for the tree; and given the fact that they are interrelated, whatever brings into existence the tree must also be responsible for the forest, and so on. Thus to be able to create a single atom, one must also be able to create the whole cosmos. That is surely a tall order for a cause which is blind, impotent, transient, dependent and devoid of knowledge of our purpose.

…

My aim was not to summarize the Risale-iNur, but to show how far removed my previous conceptions about Allah were before reading this work. I thought that by saying La ilahailla Allah, I had said all there was to be said about Allah. Thanks to the Risale-iNur, I was now able to see that previously, God had been something that I had brought in to complete the occasion, an unknown factor placed almost arbitrarily at the beginning of creation to avoid the impossiblity of infinite regression. He had been the 'First Cause,' the 'Prime Mover,' a veritable 'God of the gaps.' He had been rather a constitutional monarch of the English variety, who must be treated with the utmost respect but not allowed to interfere in the affairs of everyday life.

Inspired by the verse La ilahailla Allah, the Risale-iNur shows that the signs of God, these mirrors of His Names and attributes, are revealed to us constantly in new and ever- changing forms and configurations, eliciting acknowledgement, acceptance, submission, love and worship. The Risale-iNur showed that there is a distinct process involved in becoming Muslim in the true sense of the word: contemplation to know-ledge, knowledge to affirmation, affirmation to belief or conviction, and from conviction to submission. And since each new moment, each new day, sees the revelation of fresh aspects of Divine truth, this process is a continuous one. The external practices of Islam, the formal acts of worship, are thus in a sense static. Belief, however, is subject to increase or decrease, depending on the continuance of the process I have just mentioned. Thus it is the reality of belief that deserves most of our attention; from there the realities of Islam will follow on inevitably.

Thus I can say that I had been a Muslim but not a believer; that which I had assumed was belief was in reality nothing more than the inability to deny. Bediuzzaman was not responsible for introducing me to Islam - which anyone could have done - but for introducing me to belief. Belief through investigation, not through imitation.

  In Risale-iNur transformative learning becomes the expansion of consciousness through the transformation of basic worldview, self, knowledge, certainty of belief and understanding the specific capacities of the self; transformative learning in Risale-iNur therefore is facilitated through consciously directed processes such as appreciatively accessing and receiving or we may say learning and putting it to action;

the repentance-tawba-, striving –mujahada-, fear of God –taqwa- hope –raja-, humility and submissiveness –Khushuwattawadu’-, opposition of self –muhkalafatunnafs-, avoiding envy –hasad-, avoiding backbiting –ghiyba-, having contentment –qanaa-, trust in God –tawaqqul-, thankfulness –shukr-, certainty of eeman –yaqeen-, patience –sabr-, servitude –hidmah-, righteousness –istiqama-, sincerity –ihklas-, truthfulness –sidq-, shame –haya-, remembrance –ziqr-, visionary insight –farasah-, morality –hkuluq-, gnosis – marifa-, love –muhabba-, longing –shawk- etc. ( contents of the unconscious and critically analyzing underlying premises.)

Nevertheless these transformative learning does not take place in a day. An important part of transformative learning is for individuals to change their frames of reference by critically reflecting on their assumptions and beliefs and consciously making and implementing plans that bring about new ways of defining their worlds. This process is fundamentally rational and analytical. Therefore it takes time for the change to be seen in ones life. But what I personally observed among those who just met Risale-iNur is that they even without reading a parts about salat starts to pray five times a day.

Risale-iNur proves it and makes the Muslim realise that belief contains heaven and prayers contain heavenly pleasures. Also it proves in a reasonable way that unbelief contains hell and sins contain hellish torments, and non-believer lives their whole lives in hellish misery. This is the result of critical and analytical approaches that Risale-iNur offers to his readers.

In this 3^rd volume of our Lahika Magazine, you will meet those people’s experience whose life has been changed by reading and joining Risale-iNur group in Philippines.

Anyone who has studied the Risale-iNur would not have any trouble in recognizing the transformative effect of collection on people who has read any part of its six thousand pages.

As I expressed at the beginning of this composition that Risale-iNur is a commentary for our times on the treasures of the Quran. In fact if we look at to the Quran as the guidelines to the universe, then Risale-iNur is a guide book to the Quran. As you would agree with me that the sickness of this age is the weakness of belief, Bediuzzaman sets out to explain the central teaching of Quran based on criteria set by Quran itself. (Tafsirul Quran bil Quran) That is to say Risale-iNur gives priority to the priorities of Quran such as Tawheed – unity-, Hashr – resurrection-, Nubuwwah – prophethood-, Adalawalibada –justice and worship- which are commonly known as maqasidularbaa –four fundamental aims of Holy Quran-. The main difference between the Risale-iNur and other works of exegesis is that the Risale-iNur gives attention to the question of “belief through investigation” tahqiqieeman, plus the fact that it speaks in terms that are relevant to 20^th century man. This tahqiqieeman is actually a transformative learning which is experienced by thousands of Nur students.

As Dr. Colin says at the end of his well known presentation; “to those Muslims who are not studuntes of the Risale-I Nur, I would also say one thing: if you are looking for a way to Allah that is safe and sure, tried and tested, then approach the RisaleiNur with an open mind and an open heart; you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

A work such as the risale-I Nur, which reflects the loight of Quran, illuminates the cosmos and gives meaning to human existence can not be iognored. For only islam-submission to the Creator-stands between modern man and catastrophe; and I believe that the future of Islam depends on RisaleiNur and on those who follow, and are inspired by, its teachings.