Rocks or Rainbows: Lessons for Interreligious Dialogue
More than two decades ago, as a new professor at a small college, I was assigned a course…
Fear
28 articles
Inside a Patient’s Room
Hospital chaplains often intersect a person’s life at the time of their most desperate need. An unwed mom…
Taqwa (Piety)
Taqwa is derived from wiqaya, which means self-defense and avoidance. Sufis define it as protecting oneself from God’s…
Zuhd (Asceticism)
Zuhd, which literally means renouncing worldly pleasures and resisting carnal desires, is defined by Sufis as indifference to…
Khawf and Khashya (Fear and Reverence)
In Sufism, khawf (fear) denotes abstaining not only from all that is forbidden, but also from deeds from…
The Eighty-Twenty Rule in the Risale-i Nur
The famous Islamic scholar Bediüzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1960) referred to mathematics in various forms in various places in…
Muhasaba (Self-Criticism or Self-Interrogation)
The word muhasaba literally means reckoning, settling accounts, and self-interrogation. In a spiritual context, however, it takes on…
Resonant Egos and The Art of Married Life
Life is an arena where individuals can reveal the secrets hidden in their ego by interacting with the…
What are the greatest dangers and pitfalls that a believer faces, and what precautions can be taken?
Humanity is being tested in this world. Life itself, from the beginning until the end, is full of…
Love: the Reason for the Creation of the Universe
Said Nursi frames his treatise of the Twenty-Fourth Word in his collection of words on a well known…
The Solution to Suicide
Why does humanity remain unhappy despite recent scientific and technological advances and the spread of modern services? Technology…
Why should I believe in the Resurrection and the Afterlife?
Q: Why should I believe in the Resurrection and the Afterlife? A: After belief in God, this is the…
Turkish and Greek Relations on 17th Century
I, hereby declare and record this decree for my followers. Regarding the Christians, known or unknown, in East…