Âyet’ül Kübra, Said Nursi, Philosophy, Islam 

Webinar Series 

Scholars of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi will be aware of his frequent use of comparison, analogy and representation throughout the Risale-i Nur. In Âyet’ül Kübra (The Supreme Sign), for example, he asks the reader to imagine a traveller who takes a journey of reflective contemplation throughout the cosmos – a journey in which the traveller observes the manifestations of the Divine Names in all the universe’s phenomena. Elsewhere, Nursi draws an analogy between human and Divine rulers, arguing that just as there cannot two headmen in a village without disorder ensuing, so too there cannot be multiple gods ruling the orderly universe. Nursi harnesses these representations and analogies as pedagogical devices and as means for augmenting the rational force and transformative capacity of his arguments. But in relying on representations and ‘analogical reasoning’ in these contexts, Nursi does not make mere ‘arguments from analogy’. For there are other, more robust kinds of reasoning couched within his analogies and representations. In Âyet’ül Kübra, this implicit reasoning appears, in the first instance, to take the form of an ‘inference to the best explanation’ (IBE). This suggestion may appear to be problematic given the degree of certainty that Nursi takes his reasoning to afford. However, it will be contended that this apparent conflict can be resolved by, inter alia, viewing IBE as a deductive mode of inference.
 

About the presenter: Turhan Yolcu is doctoral candidate at the University of Melbourne, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies. His doctoral thesis is focussed on the issue of philosophical scepticism, and particularly the relation between external-world scepticism and a priori scepticism. He has contributed a chapter to a forthcoming volume on Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s perspectives on creation. In addition to the thought and writings of Nursi, his research interests include epistemology, the philosophy of religion, the philosophy of science and particularly, the problem of induction. He is married and has two young boys.