Respect Graduate School, a private, Pennsylvania-based Islamic graduate school, in collaboration with Ohio’s John Carroll University, will hold a conference on November 14-16 to discuss the writings of the late Islamic scholar Said Nursi, whose teachings have inspired millions of people in Turkey and around the world.
The “Future of Risale-i Nur Studies in the West” conference will take place at the campus of John Carroll University, a private Jesuit university in University Heights, Ohio. The university has a Bediüzzaman Said Nursi Chair in Islamic Studies, established in 2003.
Nursi, who died in 1960 after spending the final years of his life in isolation in western Anatolia, faced persecution from the very secular Turkish government of the time due to his efforts aimed at encouraging better understanding of the messages of the Quran. He spent the last three decades of his life in and out of prison.
The Risale-i Nur is a collection of religious writings by Nursi, who viewed this work as a spiritual commentary on the Muslim holy book, the Quran, seeking to prove the truth and value of the Quran in the face of the materialism and skepticism of the 20th century.
The collection includes an analysis of Islamic sources and a reinterpretation of the Quran’s text for the “mentality” of Nursi’s time period, aiming to bring about a religious revival in Turkey.
The conference, which will also be streamed online, will feature 21 scholars from various universities around the world and will include keynote speeches from Dr. Albert Frolov of Respect Graduate School and Prof. Zeki Sarıtoprak of John Carroll University.
Scholars will examine and discuss the teachings of Nursi on a range of issues, including nationalism, women, peace-building in Islam and how his writings could inspire future generations to work toward a better world.
The conference, which will be conducted in English, will close with a session remembering the late Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish Islamic scholar who was greatly influenced by Nursi’s writings and who promoted reading and understanding the Risale-i Nur books among his followers throughout his life.
Gülen, who inspired a global social movement with millions of followers worldwide, died at a Pennsylvania hospital at the age of 83 on October 20. He is known for his promotion of education, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, although he spent the last decade of his life facing accusations from the Turkish government about involvement in revelations of corruption investigations in late 2013 and a coup attempt in 2016. Gülen strongly denied these claims.
The opening session of the “Future of Risale-i Nur Studies in the West” conference will be broadcast live on YouTube. Registration to attend online can be made at https://shorturl.at/Pgg64, while those who wish to attend in person should register using this form: https://forms.gle/djiqk4JoSXtdTpVM6.
Respect Graduate School opened in 2015. It currently offers a Master of Arts in Islamic Studies degree and runs various continuing education programs to suit the needs of Turkish-speaking communities all around the world. The school also houses the Centre for Risale & Hizmet Studies, a non-profit organization that provides information, research, analysis and critique of the Risale-i Nur and civil society movement inspired by Gülen.