Journal of Islamic Studies 12:3 (2001) pp.

291311 # Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies 2001

THE CENTENNIAL RENEWER: BEDI U ZZAMAN SAI D NURSI AND THE D* TRADITION OF TAJDI
University of California

HAMID ALGAR

Some scholarly attention has nally been paid in recent years to Bediu zzaman Said Nursi (b. 1876 or 1877, d. 1960), one of the most inuential gures in the twentieth-century history of Islam in Turkey.1 Over a period of thirty-ve years and under the most unfavourable of circumstances, he devotedly drew up a vast compendium of reections on essential themes of Islam, to which he gave the title Risale-i Nur. It is this text that forms the basis of a movement popularly known as the Nurcusthat has withstood state persecution and internal division to survive down to the present. Studies of the Nurcu movement tend to concentrate, however, on the perceived impact of the Risale-i Nur on Turkish culture and society, often applying to its study criteria and terms drawn from the analysis of quite different movements elsewhere in the Islamic world.2 Few scholars have engaged with the text itself, in all its opaque bulk and complexity, a task essential for comprehending the highly distinctive nature of Bediu zzaman's claims and the response they received.
A preliminary version of this paper was read as the keynote address to the Conference on Bediu zzaman Said Nursi and the Renewal of Islamic Thought at the Faculty of Islamic Studies, National University of Malaysia, Bangi, on 21 August 1999. 1 See Ursula Spuler, `Nurculuk: Die Bewegung des Bediu zzaman Said Nursi in der modernen Tu rkei', Bonner Orientalische Studien, Wiesbaden, 27 (1973), 10083; ead., `Zur Organisationsstruktur der Nurculuk-Bewegung', Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des Vorderen Orients: Festschrift fu r Bertold Spuler, ed. H. R. Roemer (Leiden, 1981), 423 42; S erif Mardin, Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey: The Case of Bediu zzaman Said Nursi (New York, 1989); Camilla T. Nereid, In the Light of Said Nursi: Turkish Nationalism and the Religious Alternative (Bergen, 1997); and The Muslim World, lxxiv. 34 (Jul.Oct. 1999), a special issue devoted to Bediu zzaman Said Nursi. 2 It should be added that some of these essays in interpretation have been encouraged by one wing of the Nurcu movement. At its invitation, scholars have gathered in international conferences on Bediu zzaman who have studied Islamic movements elsewhere in the Islamic world and are sympathetic to the Nurcus but lack the requisite knowledge of Turkish.
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Central to those claims was the assertion that the Risale-i Nur fullled, for its own time, the function of centennial renewal (tajd d) derived from the well-known Hadith. The following is an analysis of that assertion, necessarily preceded by a survey of the earlier instances of tajd zzaman sought d that formed a tradition which Bediu both to perpetuate and to modify. **** Many are the traditions of the Prophet that are both well-known and frequently invoked without due attention being paid to their precise wording and implication. One such Hadith is that in which the Messenger is reported to have said: `Certainly Allah will send to this community at the beginning [or end] of every hundred years one who will renew for it its religion.'3 Included by Abu ]u Da d in his Sunan on the strength of an isna d that goes back through six transmitters to Abu Hurayra, this Hadith has generally been accepted as authentic by Sunni traditionists; al-Ha kim, for example, classies it as sah h in his al-Mustadrak.4 wording The of the Hadith clearly suggests a historical pattern of regular decay that is arrested and repaired each hundred years, resulting in an indenite prolongation for the life of the umma. It is therefore remarkable that Abu ]u Da d includes it at the very beginning of his Kita b al-Mala him, the segment of his Sunan devoted to the slaughters and disorders that will come at the end of time, thus contextually implying that the emergence of the mujaddid heralds the last days. This placing has been taken to mean (although not by Muslim scholars) that the notion of the renewer (mujaddid) must originally have had apocalyptic implications, that it reected the expectations of a swift end to the world that were allegedly rife in the early Islamic community.5 Alternatively, the juxtaposition of tajd d with `the signs of the hour' has been explained to mean that at the beginning of every century Allah inicts a trial (mihna) on the umma which He then counterbalances with the kindness (minha) of
See the text of the Sunan as included in Muhammad Shams al-Haqq al-[Az ]u ma ba d , [Awn al-Ma[bu d f Sharh Sunan Ab Da d (Madina, 1389/l969), The Hadith is not to be found in Sh xi. 385. [ collections, even with a narrator other than Abu [ scholars. Hurayra, who is generally regarded as unreliable by Sh Occasionally, however, lists of Sh [ renewers are to be found; see e.g. [Al Dava n , Vah n d-i Bihbaha (Tehran, 1362 sh/l983), 2930. 4 Al-[Az ma ba d , [Awn al-Ma[bu d, xi. 385. 5 See Yohanan Friedman, Prophecy Continuous. Aspects of Ahmad Religious Thought and its Medieval Background (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1989), 94 101.
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sending a mujaddid.6 This seems a little arbitrary, for the numerous trials that have beset the umma do not occur neatly and predictably at the beginning of a century or at regular intervals of one hundred years. Moreover, included in the Kita b al-Mala him are events that have already come to pass, such as the conquest of Constantinople, so that their occurrence must be regarded as the removal of one obstacle to the coming of the Hour, but not necessarily as a sign of its propinquity.7 The eschatological context in which Abu ]u Da d places the Hadith may perhaps be best understood with reference to the concept of ineluctable decay that is presupposed by tajd d: the nal consequences of that decay are in a sense delayed by the labours of the mujaddids in each century, so that they act both as reminders of the End of Time and as agents of its postponement. In any event, it is only in collections of Prophetic tradition that the Hadith is cited in the context of apocalyptic events; it otherwise stands independently as the formulation of a pattern to be discerned in Islamic history. If in relatively advanced times and particular geographical contexts connections of various types have been established between the mujaddid and the Mahd , this must be attributed to the circumstances of the times and places in question, not to the conditions under which the Hadith rst entered circulation. Also requiring clarication is the point of departure for reckoning each hundred-year cycle. Four possibilities have been put forward: the birth of the Prophet, the beginning of his mission, his migration from Makka to Madina, and his death. The second of these might seem to be the most appropriate, for the beginning of the Prophet's mission marked the origin both of the umma and of its religion, so that the rst repair of decay would fall due in about 92/710, some eighty-one lunar years after his death. It is nonetheless the Hijra (or rather the year in which it occurred) that has been regarded almost universally as the time inaugurating the rst centennial cycle of renewal.8 One might object that the choice of the Hijra as the beginning of the Islamic era was the work of [Umar b. al-Khatta b, and that the Prophet could not therefore have meant a century of the Hijr calendar when he spoke of `every hundred years'. The traditional assumption, based on the account given by al-Tabar , that it was the second caliph who introduced the Hijr calendar is, however, questionable: al-Bala dhur quotes a message from the
6 [Al t Mirqa t al-Su[u Sunan Ab ]u al-Bajma[w , Daraja d ila Da d (Cairo, 1298/1881), 182. 7 Al-[Az ma ba d , [Awn al-Ma[bu d, xi. 401. 8 Ibid. 386.

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Prophet himself that includes the date 9 ah in its text.9 In any event, the convenience of tying the emergence of a mujaddid to either the end or the beginning of each century of the Islamic era must ultimately have been decisive for the discarding of competing possibilities. To propose these alternatives, `beginning' and `end', as translations for ra]s may seem questionable. Although ra]s belongs to the category of al-adda d, words that convey antonymous meanings, its occurrence in the Hadith of tajd d is almost always taken to mean `beginning'. The choice between the two possible meanings may also appear unimportant, for the end of one century is automatically followed by the beginning of the next; whichever sense is assigned to ra]s, the meaning will be the same, that a mujaddid will emerge at the turn of the century. The question is nonetheless signicant, for it is connected with the identication of the mujaddids for at least the rst and the second centuries of the Islamic era. The traditionist al-Zuhr (d. 124/740) and Ima m Ahmad b. Hanbal are agreed that the mujaddid of the rst century was [Umar b. [Abd al-[Az z, who attempted during his brief tenure of the caliphate to right some of the wrongs committed by the Umayyads, and that the mujaddid of the second century was Ima m al-Sha [ . Now [Umar b. [Abd al-[Az z died in the year 101, and al-Sha [ in the year 204, shortly after the beginning of the second and third centuries respectively, so that their activity of tajd d must have taken place in the preceding centuries, the rst and the second. If this identication of the rst two mujaddids be accepted, it follows therefore that ra]s in the Hadith under discussion must mean `end,' not `beginning'.10 In accordance with this understanding of ra]s, the mujaddid has been dened as, inter alia, `a scholar who is alive, well-known and referred to when a period of one hundred years comes to an end'.11 Despite all of this, and the fact that no alternative candidates for the title of mujaddid have been proposed for the rst two centuries, the popular and sometimes scholarly understanding has been that ra]s means `beginning' in the Hadith of tajd d. In any event, chronology is the supreme criterion; birth substantially after the beginning of a new century or death substantially before its ending would seem to prevent any scholar, however distinguished or accomplished, from qualifying as a mujaddid.
Al-Bala b al-Futu dhur , Kita h (Beirut, 1957), 801. Al-[Az ma ba d , [Awn al-Ma[bu l al-D n al-Suyu , al-Tahadduth d, xi. 3867; Jala t bi Ni[mat Alla h, ed. E. Sartain (Cambridge, 1975), ii. 216. 11 Al-T b , al-Suyu , and Ibn al-Ath r, quoted in al-[Az ma ba d , [Awn al-Ma[bu t d, xi. 386.
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There is consensus that the mujaddid must be a scholar (although [Umar b. [Abd al-[Az z does not t easily in that category and in the tenth/sixteenth century some rulers with dubious scholarly credentials were proclaimed mujaddids for reasons of dynastic propaganda). In addition, some traditionists have held the view that he must be from the Ahl al-Bayt, in view of the Hadith in which the Prophet is reported to have said: `Allah will grant [or send] the followers of His religion at the beginning [or end] of every hundred years a man from the People of my Household who will clarify for them the concerns of religion.'12 Among others, Ahmad to b. Hanbal accepted the validity of this Hadith, but proceeded dene Al al-Rasu l broadly enough to include both [Umar b. [Abd al-[Az z and al-Sha [ .13 Considerations of sayyid status have not gured prominently or consistently in the identication of mujaddids. However, the possibility raised by the Hadith just cited that the mujaddid must be from the Ahl al-Bayt suggests one possible reason for the connection made in later centuries between his function and the emergence of the Mahd , who by universal agreement will indeed have such exalted descent. For if the mujaddid is seen to be preparing the ground for the coming of the Mahd , it is surely appropriate that like him he should belong to the lineage of the Prophet. There is broad agreement that the function of the mujaddid is the restoration both of correct religious knowledge and of practice, and as its corollary the refutation and eradication of error; pure erudition in the absence of moral suasion in society is inadequate. Thus al-[Alqam dened tajd d as `reviving any part of acting in accordance with the Book and the Sunna that has fallen into desuetude and enjoining its implementation.'14 Similarly, al-Ha kim reported, on the authority of Abu l-Wal d H assa n b. Muh ammad al-Faq h, the utterance of an unnamed elder that al-Sha [ , in his function of mujaddid, `made the Sunna manifest and put to death inadmissible innovation (bid[a)'.15 This, according to the traditional understanding, is the essence of tajd d: the revival of Sunna and the eradication of bid[a; it is not part of the responsibility of the mujaddid to bring about comprehensive change on the political plane. Admittedly, certain persons identied as mujaddids have been engaged in the political realm (most obviously [Umar b. [Abd al-[Az z), and it can certainly be argued that the revival of Sunna and the eradication of bid[a necessarily have an impact on state and
12 13 14 15

Al-Suyu h, 21617. , al-Tahadduth bi-Ni[mat Alla t Ibid. Cited in al-[Az ma ba d , [Awn al-Ma[bu d, xi. 386. Ibid. 388.

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society. It is, however, a strictly modern (not to say modernist) expansion of the concept of tajd d to have it include political activism as a dening element. As for the identication of a mujaddid in each century, whether at its opening or close, it is generally deemed possible that more than one individual should qualify, irrespective of the precise chronological criterion applied. The text of the Hadith can, after all, be read to imply a plurality of renewers: man yujaddid could be either a singular or a plural. Furthermore, unanimity on the identity of the mujaddid ceased to prevail in the fourth century, four candidates being proposed for that cycle. Al-Suyu therefore remarks that `the t mujaddid might be one person in the entire world, as was the case with [Umar b.[Abd al-[Az z because of his exclusive possession of the caliphate, _ or it might be two people or a group of people in the absence of a consensus concerning a single person.'16 To this it might be added that with the expansion of the Islamic world on the one hand and its fragmentation on the other, few if any scholars were in a position to exert a function of universal renewal. There is, then, the possibility of legitimate plurality of opinion concerning the identity of the mujaddid, but only among his contemporaries who are directly aware of his accomplishments and his inuence. To cite al-Suyu once more: `The determination of the mujaddid takes t means of the predominant opinion (ghalabat al-zann) place by the among the scholars contemporary with him, and by means of benet that is had from him, from his companions, and from his writings.'17 The mujaddid is therefore by denition successful in his mission; a failed mujaddid is a contradiction in terms. Furthermore, no valid identication of a mujaddid can be made after a lapse of several centuries, even if the candidate comes to be regarded more favourably by posterity than he was by his own contemporaries.18 Also excluded in view of the widely accepted formula of al-Suyu t is an individual's self-proclamation as mujaddid. Despite his palpably high estimate of his own scholarly worth, the most that he felt it permissible to write with respect to himself, at the end of his discussion of tajd d, was that `this indigent one requests of the divine
Al-Suyu h, i. 2256. , al-Tahadduth bi-Ni[mat Alla t Ibid. 226. 18 Mawla na Mawdu 's identication of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1327) as a d mujaddid can be taken only as an indication of his own regard for him, not as a sound estimate of his historical role or as a reection of the opinion of Ibn Taymiyya's contemporaries (Mawdu , A Short History of the Revivalist Movement in Islam, d 2nd edn., Lahore, 1972, 639).
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favour that he might be the renewer of this century.'19 In expressing such a hope, he had been preceded by al-Ghaza l (d. 505/1111), who overshadowed all other candidates as the mujaddid of the fth century. The great scholar and Su was careful to tie his tentative wish to precise chronological data. When he conceived the intention of emerging from isolation to resume a life of teaching in Nishapur, he rst sought the advice of `men of insight' (arba b al-qulu b wa-l-musha hada t), and their counsel strengthened his resolve. Then he realized that, `Allah decreed that this move should take place at the end of the present century, and He had promised that His religion would be revived at the end of each century. The wish was therefore conrmed within me _ Allah enabled me to set out for Nishapur to undertake this task [the resumption of teaching] in the month of Dhu l-Qa[da in the year 499 [JulyAugust 1106].'20 Later Sus who regarded themselves or encouraged others to regard them as centennial renewers frequently went beyond tentative and allusive claims such as that advanced by al-Ghaza l ; they joined to an explicit self-proclamation as mujaddid ecstatic claims with messianic overtones. **** Whatever may be seen as problematic or in need of interpretation in the Hadith of the centennial renewer, there is no mistaking its central promise: that at intervals of one hundred years, an individual will be sent by Allah to renew the understanding and practice of religion by the Islamic umma. This individual will not be selfappointed (and, as can be deduced from al-Suyu , ought not to be t self-proclaimed), for he is divinely sent; it is remarkable that the same verb (yab[athu) is used for the mujaddid in the Hadith as is used in the Qur]a n for the prophets.21 This surely implies that the renewer enjoys divine authority, and that he should therefore be sought out, regularly, assiduously, and as a matter of religious duty, for the guidance he dispenses. The attention paid to the mujaddid in Islamic history has, however, been remarkably uneven; it cannot be said that even the pious have regularly attempted to identify the mujaddid of their age at each turn of the century. For several centuries, it was primarily the Sha [ s who were interested in
Al-Suyu h, 227. , al-Tahadduth bi-Ni[mat Alla t l Al-Ghaza min al-Dala l (Cairo, 1303/1886), 43. Al-Ghaza , al-Munqidh l 's of his return to Nishapur at the end of the mention of `revival' (ihya ]) in the context fth century can be taken as a sure indication that he saw his masterpiece, the Ihya ] [Ulu m al-D n, as testimony to his rank as mujaddid. 21 See Qur]a n, 3: 164, 7: 103, 10: 745, 16: 36, 17: 15, 28: 59, 40: 34, 62: 2.
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identifying mujaddids, and not surprisingly the candidates they favoured belonged without exception to their madhhab. Ta j al-D n [Abd al-Wahha b ibn al-Subk (d. 728/1326), compiler of the great biographical dictionary, al-Tabaqa t al-Sha [iyya, went so far as to assert that the function of the mujaddid includes the propagation of the Sha [ school.22 There have also been certain regions, such as the Bila d al-Su n, where a particularly strong and recurrent da interest in recognizing the mujaddid of the age has been observable andnot coincidentallyextraordinary importance has been attached to the ofce. Thus the celebrated Shehu Usumanu dan Fodio (d. 1232/1817) of Hausaland claimed unambiguously to be the mujaddid of the twelfth Hijr century, having been appointed as such by the Prophet, the Four Caliphs, and Shaykh [Abd al-Qa dir G la n , in a vision he experienced in 1209/1794. In addition, he conated the function and title of mujaddid with the twelve righteous caliphs whose rule was foretold in Hadith, by proclaiming himself to be both the last mujaddid and the last of the twelve caliphs; immediately after him would come the Mahd , whose path he was preparing by a jiha d destined to last until the emergence of that justice-dispensing saviour.23 To the scholarly functions of the mujaddid were thus added a military mission and an apocalyptic dimension. Of greater relevance to Bediu zzaman Said Nursi's own understanding and invocation of tajd d was the Indian tradition of renewers that was inaugurated by Shaykh Ahmad Sirhind (d. 1034/1624), known to his admirers as Ima m-i Rabba n , or more signicantly as mujaddid-i alf-i tha n , the Renewer of the Second Millennium. Sirhind was a major gure in the history of the Naqshband tar qa, standing at the origin of an initiatic line known as Mujaddid in accordance with his claim to be the millennial renewer, and
22 Ibn al-Subk t al-Kubra , quoted in al-Suyu , al-Tabaqa , al-Tahadduth bi-Ni[mat t predominance of Sha mujaddids, Ella Alla h, 218. Given this [ s among the early Landau-Tasseron has argued that the Hadith of the centennial renewer was rst put into circulation in order to justify the `innovations' of Imam al-Sha [ in legal methodology; her argument hinges on the dubious contention that tajd d may in some contexts be lexically equivalent to bid[a (`The Cyclical Reform: A Study of the Mujaddid Tradition', Studia Islamica, 70 (1989), 79117). 23 Usumanu dan Fodio also sought to buttress his claim to be the mujaddid in a more temperate and traditional fashion by composing a book on the revival of the Sunna and the uprooting of bid[a, the Ihya ] al-Sunna wa-Ikhma d al-Bid[a. On his see Muhammad Shareef's introduction to claim and the conclusions he drew from it, his translation of this work (Revival of the Sunna and Destruction of Innovation (Faireld, Calif., 1418/1998), pp. xiixv, liiiliv), and Mervyn Hiskett, The Sword of Truth: The Life and Times of the Shehu Usuman dan Fodio (New York, 1973), 66.

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Bediu zzaman made frequent mention of him in his work.24 For Sirhind , the advent of the second millennium of the Islamic era endowed the function of the mujaddid with particular signicance. `Let it be known,' he wrote, `that the centennial renewer is one thing, and the millennial renewer something else; the difference between them is as great as the difference between a hundred and a thousand or even greater.'25 The passage of one thousand years since the beginning of the Islamic era had, in his view, created qualitatively new circumstances: `In previous ummas, the passage of one thousand years required the sending not simply of any prophet, but of a major prophet (payghambar-i u lu l-[Azm); what is needed at the present time is a scholar and a gnostic of perfect accomplishment who will take the place of the major prophets in previous ummas.'26 It is true that when discussing the role of the renewer of the second millennium Sirhind describes his own time as being `full of darkness',27 but it appears that for him the emergence of that renewer resulted as much from a process of maturation as from one of decay. For the completion of the rst millennium now enabled him, as the renewer of the second, to `borrow from the niche of lights of prophethood'28 and to discover, among other things, `perfections of prayer (kama la t-i nama z) _ that have come into existence after a thousand years.'29 The function of the millennial mujaddid is thus not simply to restore or correct what has been damaged or distorted by the passage of time, but to expound matters that were previously unknown, by uniquely direct access to the prophetic knowledge. Two centuries later Usumanu dan Fodio connected the function of mujaddid with the emergence of the Mahd and thereby with the future of sacred history; Sirhind by contrast looked back to the prophetic age and saw the millennial mujaddid as embodying a belated and partial prolongation of prophethood itself. Using bold metaphorical language, he suggested that he had some share in the `residue' (baqiyya) of prophethood that was left over after the sealing of the prophetic ofce with the Messenger: `Although none other has any share in the unique Muhammadan fortune (dawlat-i kha ssa-yi and Muhammad ), it stands to reason that after the formation perfection of the Prophetpeace and blessings be upon himsome
See my article `Susm and Tariqat in the Life and Work of Bediu zzaman Said Nurs ', forthcoming in Journal of the History of Susm. 25 Sirhind t (Karachi, 1393/1973), ii. 21. , Maktu ba 26 Ibid. i. 390. 27 Ibid. 28 Ibid. ii. 21. 29 Ibid. i. 454.
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residue of that fortune should have remained; for does not a surplus result from any banquet hosted by the generous, and is not that remainder given to the servants?'30 Sirhind does not himself provide any account of precisely how or when the function of millennial renewer was vested in him, but several hagiographers have compensated for his silence. Thus Khwa ja Muhammad Ihsa n relates that on the night of Rab [ al-Awwal 3, 1010 1602) the Prophet came to Sirhind (13 September , accompanied by all the supreme angels and the awliya ] and with his own hand bestowed on him `an extremely splendid cloak, the like of which no one had ever seen and which appeared to be pure light', declaring `this is the cloak of the renewer of the second millennium.'31 The bestowal of an actual cloak, albeit by non-miraculous means, played a comparable role in Bediu zzaman's emergence as a mujaddid in his own view and that of his followers, as will be seen below. Somewhat obscure is the relationship between Sirhindi as renewer of the second millennium and the centennial mujaddids that were to succeed him. However, it may be assumed that he presided over them in some fashion, for it is asserted by Naqshband s of the Mujaddid branch that each subsequent mujaddid must belong to his initiatic lineage, an echo, perhaps, of the monopolistic claim earlier made by some Sha f [ s.32 Several claimants to the dignity of centennial renewer emerged among the initiatic descendants of Sirhind , most notably perhaps Sha h Wal ulla h Dihlav (d. 1176/1763). He reports that, like Sirhind , his appointment to the ofce was signalled by the divine bestowal of a `renewer's cloak' (khil[at al-mujaddid ya), at the time he had completed his study of philosophy (daurat al-hikma). which This was followed by the gift of a second cloak, the nature of is not immediately apparent from the name given it by Sha h Wal ulla h, al-khil [ at al-H aqqa niyya . Its effect, however, was that he lost all speculative and intellectual knowledge, so that he began to wonder how he might exercise his function as mujaddid. A particular method was then displayed to him whereby he might combine the resulting `unletteredness' (al-ummiyya) with the ofce of mujaddid. Despite these multiple divine favours, he had been granted, at the time of writing, only a general understanding of tajd d, consisting of the ability to reconcile opposing views concerning questions of
Ibid. ii. 51819. at al-Qayyu Khwa ja Muhammad Ihsa n, Rauz l Ahmad m ya, Urdu trans. Iqba i. 1589, 164, 170. Fa ru (Lahore, 1409/1989), q 32 He is even reported as sayingadmittedly by a late and not necessarily reliable sourcethat the Mahd himself will be a Mujaddid (Ghula m Sarwar La hu , r Khaz ] (Lucknow, 1868) i. 613. nat al-Asya
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jurisprudence (al-mukhtalafa t) and the insight that independent opinion (al-ra]y), although reprehensible in matters pertaining to the Shari[a, was a blessing in judicial affairs.33 This somewhat incoherent account of the matter goes together with other claims of far-reaching type, some being reminiscent of the pretensions of Sirhind . He announced that perfections had been bestowed on him that none before him had possessed, and that as mujaddid he was the legatee (was ) of the Prophet, a term more commonly encountered a Sunn in a Sh [ than context.34 Also strikingly Sh [ in its connotations was his claim to be Qa ]im al-Zama n, the one divinely entrusted with the welfare of the age.35 Furthermore, Allah caused him to understand that the light of the names Mustafa and [Isa was reected in him, so that `henceforth none will draw close to Me without your having some share in his training, outwardly and inwardly; it will be thus until Jesusupon whom be peacedescends [anew to the earth].' By contrast with his African near-contemporary, Usumanu dan Fodio, who saw himself as preparing the way for the coming of the Mahd , Sha h Wal ulla h believed that his own exalted qualities had postponed that event indenitely. For Allah informed him that `through you, it may be that the earth will become so luminous that all oppression and injustice depart from it; you will convey requests to the Mahd and thereby postpone him [i.e. his appearance] for a long time.'36 The immediate predecessor as mujaddid to Bediu zzaman Said Nursi, in his own view and that of his devotees, was another initiatic descendant of Sirhind , Mawla na Kha lid Baghda d, (d. 1242/1827), celebrated by them as the renewer of the thirteenth Hijr century. He counts as a Naqshband -Mujaddid by virtue of his training at the hands of Sha h [ Abdulla h (also known as Ghula m [ Al ) Dihlav (d. 1240/1824), but having received from him unrestricted authority to propagate the Naqshband tar na qa in Western Asia, Mawla Kha lid became the originator of a distinct and extremely wide spread line of transmission known after him as the Kha lidiyya. There is no trace of self-proclamation as mujaddid in the letters of
33 Sha t al-Ila h h Wal ulla h Dihlav , al-Tafh m Mustafa Qa sim ma ya, ed. Ghula (Hyderabad (Sind), 1387/1967), ii. 160. 34 Sha t al-Ila h h Wal ulla h Dihlav , al-Tafh ma ya, ii. 67. For a general equation of the mujaddid with the was , see ibid. 171. 35 , Fuyu Sha h Wal ulla h Dihlav d al-Haramayn, cited in Saiyid Athar Abbas (Canberra, Rizvi, Shah Wali-Allah and his Times 1980) 216. These echoes of Sh [ terminology are particularly remarkable in view of Sha h Wal ulla h's implacable hostility to Sh [ism, expressed most fully in his polemical work, Tuhfa-yi Ithna [ashar ya (Istanbul, 1990). 36 Sha t al-Ila h h Wal ulla h Dihlav , al-Tafh ma ya, ii. 145.

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Mawla na Kha lid, which for the most part deal with organizational matters concerning the diffusion of the tar qa and show greater interest in questions of kala he was in general m than of Susm; innitely more sober than either Sirhind or Sha h Wal ulla h. He occasionally manifests a sense of crisis, but in purely political terms, and the single reference that he makes to the signs of the times and the proximate appearance of the Mahd appears to have no great signicance.37 There is only indirect and anecdotal evidence that he may have regarded himself as the mujaddid or encouraged others to do so. It is said that Halet Efendi (d. 1238/1822), primarily Mevlev in his afliations while being linked to a non-Kha lid Mujaddid lineage, once denounced Mawla na Kha lid in the presence of the Ottoman Sultan Mahmu n d, whom he addressed on this occasion as al-sulta . This may indicate that Mawla al-mujaddid na Kha lid had acquired a reputation as the mujaddid and that Halet Efendi was seeking obsequiously to assure Sultan Mahmu d that he, the monarch, was the true renewer of the age.38 In addition, calls for the meticulous observance of the Sunna and the avoidance of bid[aessential hallmarks of the mujaddid according to the classical understanding do occur with some frequency in Mawla na Kha lid's letters to his devotees.39 There can also be no doubt that he met fully one more of the requirements set forth by al-Suyu for the mujaddidthe exercise of t
37 See Mawla jid na Kha lid's letter to Jal za de [Abdulla h Ka k in Bughyat al-Wa f t Mawla na Kha lid, a collection of his correspondence compiled and Maktu ba annotated by Muhammad As[ad Sa hibza da (Damascus, 1334/1916), 161. How ds, the poet and statesman Izzet Molla (d. 1245/1829), did ever, one of his mur proclaim the coming of the Mahd to be at hand in a treatise he wrote advocating governmental reform. Almost two centuries later, another Kha lid Naqshband , Osman C atakl of Istanbul, a khal fa of the celebrated Mehmed Zahid Efendi (d. 1980), is also said to regard matters so sombrely that the coming of the Mahd must be at hand (conversation with one of his followers, Istanbul, 1996). Another Turkish Naqshband lu, took the process a step further by proclaiming , Iskender Evrenosog himself the Mahd in April 1996; his claim passed virtually unnoticed outside his own narrow circle. 38 Ibra lid Mana qib Mawla na Kha lid (Istanbul, h m Fas h Efendi, al-Majd al-Ta The same source reports that Mawla 1292/1875), 456. na Kha lid entrusted the task of punishing Halet Efendi for his impudence to his spiritual patron, Jala l al-D n Ru , m with the result that not long after he was strangled in Konya by royal command. It may be worth noting that another Mevlev , the celebrated poet Gha lib Dede (d. 1213/ 1799), had already addressed Sultan Mahmu d's predecessor, Selim III, as mujaddid; Osmanllarda Devlet-Tekke Mu see the line of verse cited by Irfan Gu ndu z, nasebetleri (Istanbul, 1984), 130. 39 See e.g. his letter to three of his khal jid, 111. fas in Baghdad, Bughyat al-Wa

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ascertainably wide inuence through his own person and his students and followers. **** In around 1940, when Bediu zzaman Said Nursi was living in the Turkish city of Kastamonu, he received from a certain Asiye Hanm the gift of a cloak that Mawla na Kha lid had bestowed on her grandfather, Ku c u k As k, who had been one of his numerous khal na fas.40 The gift was interpreted as coming directly from Mawla Kha lid himself, `across a gap of one hundred years,' and thus as transmitting the function of centennial renewer to Bediu zzaman.41 He may not have been aware of the association between receiving a cloak and assuming the ofce of mujaddid that had existed in the cases of Sirhind and Sha h Wal ulla h; this makes the parallel all the more striking. Continuity between Mawla zzaman was also na Kha lid and Bediu implicit in a signicant utterance attributed to a Kha lid shaykh of Isparta, Bes kazalzade Osman Efendi. He is reported to have said in 1293/18767, which was the year both of his own death and of the birth of Bediu zzaman, that `the mujaddid who will save belief in religion has just been born this year.'42 This awareness was evidently preserved in the family, for, thirty-ve years later, Osman Efendi's youngest son, Ahmed Efendi, was asked, `Who is this mujaddid of whom you constantly speak, and where is he?' He contented himself with replying, `Yes, he is now present, and he is thirty-ve years of age.' On another occasion he was asked whether it was true that his father had predicted that one of his sons would meet and shake hands with the promised mujaddid, to which he replied that such was indeed the case, for he, Ahmed Efendi, had made contact with the mujaddid.43 The transmission of tajd zzaman na Kha lid to Bediu d from Mawla seemed, moreover, to be mathematically conrmed by a whole series of striking chronological correspondences between the careers of the
40 For more details of this event, see my forthcoming article, `Susm and Tariqat in the Life and Work of Bediu zzaman Said Nursi'. 41 Bediu zzaman Said Nursi, Kastamonu Lahikas (Istanbul, n.d), 63. 42 Only the year of Bediu zzaman's birth seems to be known, not the day or even the month. 43 Bediu zzaman Said Nursi, Sikke-i Tasdik-i Gaybi (Istanbul, n.d.), 47. The source for these statements of Osman Efendi and Ahmed Efendi appears to have been another Su of Isparta, Topal S u kru ; see ibid. 9. Ahmed Efendi may not have met the promised mujaddid in Isparta, for it was not until 1953 that Bediu zzaman took up residence there.

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two men. A certain Haz S aml Tevk pointed out that Bediu zzaman was born exactly one hundred lunar Islamic years after Mawla na Kha lid; that he came to the Ottoman capital, Istanbul, for the rst time exactly one hundred years after Mawla na Kha lid arrived in the Moghul capital, Delhi, to begin `his struggle for religious renewal' [tecdid-i din mu cahedesi ]; and that he quit Ankara for Van in disgust at the political scene in the capital exactly one hundred years after Mawla na Kha lid had, for political reasons, left Baghdad for Damascus. S aml Haz Tevk concluded that the function of the Risale-i Nur as an agent of tajd d was therefore proven, `according to the clear text of the had th' (nass- hadisle), with its specic mention 44 of `every hundred years'. These links with Mawla na Kha lidand by implication with all the centennial renewers who had preceded himwere clearly important for Bediu zzaman. That he had, however, his own distinctive interpretation of tajd d and its functioning is apparent from the following passage:
Those exalted servants of religion, the glad tidings of whose coming at the head of every century have been proclaimed in a had th are not innovators (mubtadi[) in the matter of religion, but obedient followers. They do not create anything new of themselves, nor do they proclaim any new ordinances. Rather, by following the letter of the bases and ordinances of religion and the Sunna of the Prophetpeace and blessings be upon himthey straighten religion and make it rm; clarify its essence and true nature; refute and disprove the absurdities which some have attempted to mix with religion; repel and annihilate all attacks on religion; establish all the commands of Allah; and proclaim and make manifest the nobility and sublimity of all divine ordinances. However, at the same time, without in any way damaging the fundamental nature of religion or violating its essential spirit, they full their duties [as mujaddid ] by employing new methods of explanation, new means of persuasion that are consonant with the age, and new forms of detailed instruction. These divinely appointed servants conrm the mission entrusted to them with their own deeds and conduct. They express in their persons the rmness of their faith and the purity of their sincere devotion, actively demonstrating the degree of faith they have attained. They act entirely in accordance with the ethical model of the Prophetupon whom be peace and blessings imitate his conduct and garb themselves in his attributes. In short, by virtue of their conduct and character and their rm adherence to the Sunna, they are models for the umma and examples for it to follow. The works that they write interpreting the Book of Allah, or explaining and vindicating the ordinances of religion in a manner suited to the understanding and degree of knowledge prevailing in their time, are not the product of their own minds or
44

Ibid. 1416.

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exalted perceptions, the fruit of their own intelligence or knowledge. Rather they are directly inspired and inculcated from the source of revelation itself, the pure essence of the Prophet, upon whom be peace and blessings [dog rudan dog ruya menba-i vahy olan Zat- Pa k-i Risalet]in (A.S.M.) manev ilham ve telkinatdr]. The Jaljalu -yi Shar f, the t ya, the Masnav Futu h al-Ghayb, and other similar books are all works of this type.45

The early part of this proclamation reafrms the denition of tajd : the revival of the Sunna and the d put forward by al-Suyu t zzaman puts it, `the absurdities eradication of bid[a (or, as Bediu which some have attempted to mix with religion.') Novel and distinctive, however, is Bediu zzaman's assignation to the mujaddid of the task of `employing new methods of explanation, new means of persuasion'. This formulation clearly reects Bediu zzaman's own assessment of the times in which he lived and the mission he saw himself called on to full. The very foundations of belief had come under attack, he noted, as a result of the spread to the Muslim lands of European nineteenth-century rationalism: `In former times the foundations of faith were secure; submission to them was rm _ Recently, however, misguidance has stretched out its hand against the pillars and foundations of the faith.'46 The `new methods of explanation and persuasion' employed by Bediu zzaman in the Risale-i Nur cannot be adequately examined here, for our purpose in this article is primarily to situate him in the tradition of tajd d.47
45 Bediu zzaman Said Nursi, S ualar (Istanbul, n.d.), 670. The Jaljalu t ya is a versied prayer with quasi-magical numerical properties apocryphally attributed to Imam [Al ; see Ziya mu s haneli), compiler, Majmu b ] ad-D n Kumushkha naw (= Gu [at al-Ahza (Istanbul, 1311/1893), i. 499531. Bediu l zzaman's inclusion of the Masnav of Jala ad-D n Ru and the Futu dir G la n among the books m h al-Ghayb of [Abd al-Qa `directly inspired from the source of revelation' implies that their authors were the mujaddids of their respective centuries, not a view that can be documented from sources contemporary to them. 46 Bediu zzaman Said Nursi, Barla Hayat (Istanbul, n.d.) 68. 47 No study of Bediu zzaman specically as a mujaddid, based on a careful and detailed reading of the Risale-i Nur, has yet been undertaken. In his `al-Tajd d wa Badi [ al-Zama n Sa[ n' (Bad [ al-Zama d al-Nu rs f Mu]tamar [Alam hawl Tajd d al-Fikr al-Isla with a m (Istanbul, 1417/1997), 20114), Colin Turner contents himself few generalities before concluding that he `does not know of anyone who deserves the title of mujaddid more than Bediu zzaman' (p. 212). John Voll, in his article `Renewal and Reformation in the Mid-Twentieth Century: Bediu zzaman Said Nursi and Religion in the 1950s' The Muslim World, 89: 34 [Jul.Oct. 1999], 24557), after much sociological lucubration, permits himself the remarkable conclusion that Bediu zzaman stood at the beginning of `a new post-modern Islamic paradigm' (p. 257). Oliver Leaman has compared Bediu zzaman's essays in what he calls `the ihya ] tradition' with those of al-Ghaza l and, in more recent times, Muhammad Iqba l, both

of whom he nds defective by comparison (`Nursi's Place in the Ihya ] Tradition', ibid. these authors have 31424). It must be said that the interpretive efforts of all three of

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Crucial, however, are his regular invocations of what has aptly been called `the machinery of nature' and the claim that the Risale-i Nur has for the rst time provided irrefutable, rationally convincing proofs for all the major doctrines of Islam, thus enabling the believer to advance from faith by imitation (taklid iman) to faith by investigative certainty (tahkik iman).48 This has the ring of an unmistakably modern objective. It should not, however, be concluded that the Risale-i Nur, as an essay in tajd d, is simply an extended attempt to engage materialism on its own rationalist terms. The `machinery of nature' appears in it far less frequently than does traditional, Su-derived material such as dreams, visions, predictions, and abjad-based speculations on Qur]a zzaman claims an extraordinarily nic verses. In addition, Bediu exalted status for his book as a whole by assigning its origins to a realm that transcends all rational thought. All mujaddids, he afrmed, had fullled their mission in part by composingit might almost be said, `receiving'books of authoritative nature, but the Risale-i Nur was unique:
As for the Risale-i Nur and its spokesman [or interpreter: tercu man, i.e. Bediu zzaman himself], this exalted work contains a sublime effusion [ feyz] and innite perfection that have never been encountered in any similar book. It is manifest that it has inherited, in a fashion unattained by any other work, the effusions [ fu yuza t] of the Qur]a n, which is a divine lamp, the sun of guidance, and the star of felicity. It is therefore a truth as bright as the sun that the foundation of the Risale-i Nur is the unmixed light of the Qur]a n; that it carries the effusion of the Muhammadan Lights [ feyz-i enva r- Muhammed ] more than do the works of all preceding Friends of Allah [Evliya ]ulla h]; that the share in the Risale-i Nur of the immaculate being of the Prophetpeace and blessings be upon himhis connection to it, and the sacred inuence [tasarruf-u kuds ] that he has exerted upon it, are also greater than in the case of those earlier works; and that the perfections of the entity [manev za t] in which that being becomes manifest and which acts as its spokesman are accordingly exalted and incomparable.49
been vitiated by their lack of acquaintance with the full Turkish text of the Risale-i Nur. Some of the relevant passages of the Risale-i Nur have been assembled and analysed by Nevzat Kosog lu, Bediu zzaman Said Nursi, Hayat, Yolu, Eseri (Istanbul, 1999), 24967. 48 On `the machinery of nature', see S erif Mardin, Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey: The Case of Bediu zzaman Said Nursi (Albany, NY, 1989), 20316. 49 Bediu zzaman Said Nursi, S ualar, 670. The putative disjunction between Bediu zzaman and the Risale-i Nur inspired one of his admirers who suspected that part of the text had been suppressed to cite the Qur]a n, 3: 187 (`Allah took a covenant from the People of the Book to make it clear and known to mankind and not to conceal it _') and revealingly to remark that `Bediu zzaman was no doubt not a prophet but he

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Despite the convoluted nature of this conclusion to Bediu zzaman's description of the mujaddid and his functioneven more evident in the Turkish original than in the translation provided hereit is plain that by `the entity' which acts as manifestation and spokesman for the Prophet, Bediu zzaman intended not himself, but the Risale-i Nur, of which he in turn is not so much the author as the `spokesman', `interpreter', or servant. The function and title of mujaddid have thus been transferred from a person to a book. This deference to the Risale-i Nur might be taken at rst sight as a token of sobriety and extreme modesty on the part of Bediu zzaman. However, the inescapable corollary to his disavowal of conventional authorial engagement with the text of the Risale-i Nur is an implicit claim to being the chosen medium for its transmission, surely a privileged and unique status. This is not to impute arrogance to Bediu zzaman, but to suggest that like al-Suyu , an earlier aspirant to the rank of t mujaddid, he, too, was engaged in `the proclamation of divine favour' (al-tahadduth bi-l-ni[ma).50 Bediu zzaman's attempted withdrawal from view of his undeniably charismatic personality in favour of the book of which he was the carrier might also be thought to have neutralized any messianic associations surrounding his exercise of tajd d. The matter, however, was not that simple, for some of Bediu zzaman's followers evidently did regard him as the Mahd . Thanks to the proclamations made by persons such as Bes kazalzade Osman Efendi, which made him the heir to Mawla na Kha lid as mujaddid, Bediu zzaman reports, some of the `elite students of the Risale-i Nur (Nurun fevkala de has kirdleri), had mistakenly ascribed him a rank `one thousand times s a in excess of the truth' (bin derece ziyade hisse vermis ler). This view of Bediu zzaman as the Mahd was not only erroneous but also harmful to the cause of the Risale-i Nur, for it inspired anxiety among `the worldly and the politicians' (ehl-i du nya ve ehl-i siyaset) and provoked objections on the part of `some men of religion' (bir ksm hocalar).51 He therefore sought to clarify the matter once and for all by specifying that the Mahd (or, as he calls him, `the one whose coming at the end of time is awaited by the Umma') will have three principal duties. `The most important, the greatest and most valuable' of
was the greatest of all mujaddids and he came with a book' ( Bilal Alikan, `Muhterem Abdu lkadir Badll Ag abey!', Dava, 6: 623 [ Jun.Jul. 1995], 24). 50 The title of al-Suyu 's schematic intellectual autobiography (see n. 8 above) is an t 11 (`As for the favour of your Lord, proclaim it'). allusion to the Qur]a n, 93: 51 Bediu zzaman Said Nursi, Sikke-i Tasdik-i Gaybi, 910.

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the three will be to `disseminate faith by investigative certainty (ima n- tahkik ) and to save the believers from misguidance'. Next comes the implementation of the Shari[a, a task that will require `great material power and governmental authority'. Finally, the Mahd will (re)establish the Caliphate on the basis of a comprehensive unity among all Muslims, and serve Islam by forging an alliance with the `Christian priesthood' (Isev ruhan leriyle ittafak edip).52 If Bediu zzaman had mistakenly been identied by some of his followers with the Mahd , it was because they realized that the Risale-i Nur had accomplished the rst of these three tasks, `precisely and completely' (aynen bitema miha). This being the case, Bediu zzaman continued, `that blessed personage who is yet to come will disseminate and implement the Risale-i Nur as his programme' (bir program olarak). Although a mere mujaddidor the bearer of an inspired text to which the task of tajd zzaman thus d has been assignedBediu claims to have fullled the most important function of the Mahd in advance of his coming; all that will remain for him is essentially to implement the ready-made programme furnished him by the Risale-i Nur. It is true, Bediu zzaman concedes, that the second and third functions of the Mahd m) more seem to the masses (umum ve ava important than the rst, for their implementation will take place on a spectacularly global scale, but this is only because the ignorant do not understand the true nature and value of that primary function.53 By means of this remarkably bold and ingenious argument, Bediu zzaman at once distances himself from the potentially dangerous consequences of a claim to mahd hood and, by explicitly preempting what he identies as the most important function of the Mahd , positions himself as his inspired patron and ideologuein a word, as his superior. In addition, there remains a sense in which it is permissible to discern mahd zzahood, if not in the person of Bediu man, then in the book he conveyed. Tradition raises the possibility of a multiplicity of what might be called `preliminary' or `interim' mahd spersons whose divine mission of guidance is restricted to a particular time and who serve to prepare the way for the nal and universal Mahd zzaman, these mahd .54 According to Bediu slike
This reinterpretation of the goals of the Mahd zzaman's is connected to Bediu belief in the necessity of Muslims and Christians making common cause against the then-looming danger of Bolshevism. It can hardly be reconciled with the mission of the Mahd to spread Islam universally, to the obvious detriment of all other religions, and still less with the prediction that he will smash crucixes wherever he nds them. See Ibn Hajar al-Haytham ma t al-Mahd , al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar f [Ala al-Muntazar (Cairo, n.d.), 42.
53 54 52

Bediu zzaman Said Nursi, Sikke-i Tasdik-i Gaybi, 9. On multiple mahd s, see Ibn Hajar, al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar, 72, 74.

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mujaddidscome once every hundred years; far from being incompatible with this type of mahd hood, the ofce of mujaddid thus comes close to being identical with it: `The Most Noble Messenger, upon whom be peace and blessings, proclaimed, on the basis of revelation, that a mahd would come in each century in order to preserve the spiritual strength of the believers and to prevent them from being cast into despair by disasters.'55 For Bediu zzaman, near-synonymity exists not only between mujaddid and mahd , but also across a wide range of other titles and functions: God Almighty, out of His extreme mercy and in order to protect the eternity of Islam, has sent in every age when the umma has been aficted by corruption a reformer (muslih), a renewer (mu ceddid), a glorious caliph (halife-i z s an), a supreme pole (kutb-u a zam), a perfect guide (mu rs id-i ekmel), or a blessed personage that counts as a kind of mahd hu kmu nde).56 It was in (bir nevi mehd conformity with this perspective that Mustafa Hulus , a favoured disciple of Bediu zzaman, interpreted one of his dreams. He beheld a young man dressed in green emerging from a white tent with a book bound in red in his hand and proclaiming to all who would listen, `this is an address that no imam has delivered ever before.' The young man, he speculated, might be either [Abd al-Qa dir G la n or Sirhind , but the red-bound volume was without any doubt the Risale-i Nur, `which is a mahd and a mujaddid of the present time'. That book is, he continued, the `vanguard and herald of the [Final] Mahd dar ve mu jdecisi) for whom men (Mehdi hazretlerinin pis have been searching for one thousand years.'57 There remains, however, a difference between the `preliminary mahd ' and the centennial mujaddid in that the former must belong to `the luminous lineage of the Ahl al-Bayt', examples being [Abd al-Qa zzaman ascribes a Hasan dir G la n (to whom Bediu descent) and Ima ms Zayn al[ A bid n and Ja [ far al-S a diq; by virtue of this lineage they foreshadow the Mahd of the Last Day more clearly than does the mujaddid.58 When accused during his trial at Denizli of claiming to be the Mahd zzaman defended himself easily , Bediu

Bediu zzaman Said Nursi, Mektubat (Istanbul, n.d.), 176. Ibid. 415. 57 Bediu zzaman Said Nursi, Barla Lahikas, 1389. 58 Idem, Mektubat, 176. This specication that the `provisional mahd ' must be a sayyid somewhat undercuts the identication of the Risale-i Nur as a mahd , unless it be that Bediu zzaman was after all a sayyidsee the next noteand transferred this lineage, together with the title mujaddid, to his book.
56

55

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enough by responding, `I am not a sayyid, whereas the Mahd will be a sayyid.'59 If the mujaddid is a species of mahd foreshadowing the Final Mabdi, it follows that that ruler of the Last Days should also be the greatest mujaddid; he will be both the heir of the renewers who have preceded him and the one who transcends them all. The titles thus ultimately collapse into each other: `During the last days, at the time of the greatest corruption, Allah will of a certainty send a luminous personage who will be the greatest muja hid and the greatest mujaddid, he will be a ruler and a mahd ; a murshid and a supreme pole (kutb-u a zam), and belong to the progeny of the Prophet.'60 At a lesser level, a similar interchangeability between mujaddid and mahd zzaman Said Nursi, at least in the view of applied to Bediu his followers. For ve of the most prominent of them saw t to eulogize him with the following litany of honorics: `A supreme muja zam), a most perfect hid, a most exalted mahd (bir mehdi-i a mujaddid (bir mu ceddid-i ekmel), an utterly unique individual (bir ferd-i ferid ) _'61 **** Irrespective of the claims he advanced for the uniquely inspired nature of the Risale-i Nur, there can be little doubt that Bediu zzaman Said Nursi conformed fully to the key element in al-Suyu 's deniton t by one's of the mujaddid: palpable and broad inuence attested contemporaries. His effect on a great number of Turkish Muslims has been profound and lasting, resulting in the renewal of their faith and commitment to Islam at a time of great danger and oppression. He was, moreover, conscious of the tradition of tajd d to which he was heir and inscribed himself in it, even while modifying it in certain respects. Bediu zzaman may turn out, indeed, to have been the nal mujaddid, for it is a paradox of recent Muslim history that at a time when more is being said and written about `resurgence', `renewal', and `revival' than ever before, by Muslims and nonMuslims alike, the concept of tajd d in both its classical and Su
59 Abdu lkadir Badll, Bediu zzaman Said-i Nurs e-i Hayat, 2nd : Mufassal Tarihc edn. (Istanbul, 1998), i. 51. The author of this work is nonetheless convinced that Bediu zzaman was a sayyid, at least in the sense of being spiritually linked to Imam [Al ; see i. 4963. 60 Bediu zzaman Said Nursi, Mektubat, 415. 61 Cited in Badll, Bediu zzaman Said-i Nursi, i. 54. This citation suggests that even for the close followers, the devolution of the title mujaddid from person to book, from Bediu zzaman to the Risale-i Nur, was neither complete nor absolute.

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formulations has fallen into obscurity. This is not to say that it remains uninvoked, generally by or on behalf of persons whose scholarly qualications range from the minimal to the non-existent, but it is almost always confused with isla h, `reform', an imported term Sunna which bears largely with no grounding in the Qur]a n and on the socio-political plane and has little to do with the sciences of religion. If any attempt is made to connect a candidate for the rank of mujaddid with a given century, it is almost invariably the Christian calendar that is used, even though this represents a disruption comparable to xing Ramada n in December. This is not surprising, of the third Christian millennium was given the fact that the beginning far more widely noticed and celebrated in the Muslim world than the beginning of the fteenth century of the Hijra had been twenty years earlier. It may, in fact, be a sign of the times, in more senses than one, that Muslims have forfeited their own measure of time in an age of pseudo-tajd d.