A brief look at the Nursiyyah group – the followers of Shaykh Sa‘eed an-Nursi
Question

                I would like to ask about the Nursiyyah group – what are their good and bad points, and are their books regarded as Islamic books? Is it permissible for us to read them?
Praise be to Allah.It 
    says in al-Mawsoo‘ah al-Muyassarah fi’l-Adyaan wa’l-Madhaahib wa’l-Ahzaab 
    al-Mu‘aasirah (1/328-333): 

    The Nursiyyah is an Islamic religious group, which is closer in its setup to 
    Sufi tariqahs than to organised movements. Its founder focused on calling 
    people to the truths of faith and striving to purify the soul, creating an 
    Islamic trend, in an attempt to stem the tide of Kemalist Masonic secularism 
    which was sweeping Turkey following the fall of the Ottoman caliphate and 
    the takeover by Kamal Ataturk. 

    The founder of this movement was Shaykh Sa‘eed an-Nursi (Said Nursi, 
    1873-1960 CE). He was born to Kurdish parents in the village of Nurs, close 
    to Lake Van in the Hizan district of Bitlis province, in eastern Anatolia. 
    His early education was in his hometown, but when he grew older he showed 
    signs of intelligence and brilliance, to such an extent that he was given 
    the nickname of Badee‘ az-Zamaan ("Bediuzzaman", meaning "The most unique 
    and superior person of the time") and Sa‘eedi Mashhoor (the famous Sa‘eed). 
At 
    the age of eighteen years, he acquired religious knowledge and studied many 
    philosophical fields of study. He also learned shooting, wrestling and 
    horseback riding, in addition to memorising the Holy Qur’an. He also adopted 
    a lifestyle of asceticism and minimalism. 

    When the Allies occupied Istanbul, he was in the forefront of the 
    mujaahideen who fought against them. 
In 
    1908 CE, after the toppling of Sultan ‘Abd al-Hameed by the conspiracy of 
    the Committee of Union and Progress (İttihat 
    ve Terakki Cemiyeti), 
    whose slogan was “Unity, Freedom, Reform”, behind which they concealed their 
    evil plots and conspiracy against Islam and the Muslims, Badee‘ az-Zamaan 
    founded the Muhammadi Union (al-Ittihaad al-Muhammadi), and used the same 
    slogans as the Committee of Union and Progress, but with Islamic meanings, 
    so as to expose the deceitful slogans behind which they were hiding and 
    highlight their Masonic reality. 

    The secularists who ruled Turkey after the demise of the caliphate were 
    afraid of his call and vehemently opposed it with everything they could come 
    up with. They caused Badee‘ az-Zamaan to spend his life in prison, and 
    tortured him; they moved him from prison to exile, and from exile to further 
    trials in court.

     He spent the end of his life in Isparta, isolated from people. Three days 
    before his death, he went to Urfa (Şanlıurfa) without 
    official permission, where he lived for only two days. He died on the 
    twenty-seventh of Ramadan, 1379 AH (1960). 

    Badee‘ az-Zamaan told the court, when he was imprisoned in Iskashir: You 
    wondered whether I am one of those who follow the Sufi tariqahs. I say to 
    you: Our era is one of preserving the faith, not preserving the tariqah. 
    There are many who will enter Paradise without a tariqah, but no one will 
    enter Paradise without faith. 

    The official charges directed against Badee‘ az-Zamaan in the courts may be 
    summed up as follows: 

    1.Working to destroy 
    the Ottoman state and Kemalist revolution.

    2.Reviving the 
    religious spirit in Turkey.
    

    3.Forming a secret 
    society.

    4.Criticising 
    Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

    But he refuted all these charges on the basis of proof and evidence, to the 
    extent that these trials became an opportunity to propagate his ideas and 
    increase the number of his followers. 
He 
    focused all his efforts and his call on resisting the secularist tide, which 
    had led to the following: 

    1.Abolishing the 
    Ottoman caliphate.

    2.Replacing Islamic 
    sharia with man-made laws, especially Swiss civil law.

    3.Abolishing 
    religious education.

    4.Banning use of the 
    Arabic alphabet and making use of the Latin alphabet compulsory.

    5.Changing the 
    adhaan (call to prayer) from Arabic to Turkish.

    6.Imposition of 
    Turanism (belief in the racial unity and future greatness of the Ural-Altaic 
    peoples) and the belief that the Turks were the origin of all civilisations.

    7.Forcing people to 
    wear European headgear.

    8.Making Sunday the 
    official day of rest instead of Friday.

    9.Limiting wearing 
    of the black jubbah and white turban to clergy only.

    10.Translation of the 
    Qur’an into Turkish, which happened in 1350 AH/1931 CE, and copies were 
    distributed to the mosques.

    11.Prohibition on the 
    celebration of the two Eids of al-Adha and al-Fitr, abolishing of the Hijri 
    calendar, and introducing changes in the system of inheritance.

    12.Adoption of 
    Western lifestyles, trying to imitate the traditions, customs and other 
    cultural activities of the West.

    13.Attempts to erase 
    Islamic beliefs from people’s hearts in general, especially young people.

    The young people of this group (the Nursiyyah) were distinguished by their 
    chastity and cleanliness; they were young people who were committed to Islam 
    at a time when there was a great deal of confusion, temptation and 
    promiscuity. 

    However, there were some criticisms that could be made about this group: 
1.

    This group did not pay attention to spreading the beliefs (‘aqeedah) of the 
    early generations of Islam, and pure monotheism (Tawheed), among its 
    followers and among the Muslims in general, who need to correct their 
    beliefs before getting involved in other issues. 

    Rather they adopted the Maturidi ‘aqeedah, which had been supported by the 
    Ottoman state before them, and they did not try to get rid of this innovated 
    ‘aqeedah. 
2.

    They were not able to establish organised Islamic work that could stand up 
    to the Jewish conspiracy that infiltrated much of political life at that 
    time and was hostile to Islam and the Muslims. But – to be fair – we should 
    acknowledge the fact that circumstances surrounding the establishment of 
    this group were not conducive to the group presenting itself in any way 
    other than the way in which it did present itself. 
3.

    Badee‘ az-Zamaan’s participation with others in forming the “Muhammadi 
    Union” was no more than a reaction that soon faded away. Moreover, it led to 
    the Committee of Union and Progress focusing their conspiracy on him and 
    plotting to put an end to him and his call. 
4.

    The group abandoned politics and Sa‘eed an-Nursi adopted the slogan “I seek 
    refuge with Allah from the Shaytaan and politics.” That occurred from 1921 
    CE onwards.  This had a negative impact on the group’s followers, as some of 
    them fell prey to secularist parties. 
5.

    The shaykh may be criticised for letting down Shaykh Sa‘eed al-Kurdi and not 
    supporting him when he launched a revolution against Mustafa Kemal Ataturk 
    in 1925 CE, in support of the caliphate. There were huge battles between him 
    and the Kemalists in the region of Diyarbakır, in 
    which thousands of Muslims were killed. 
6.

    That was because he believed that striving to purify oneself took precedence 
    (over physical jihad), followed by the call to enlighten one’s thoughts. 
    Thus the group called for purification of the heart and not getting involved 
    in internal conflicts with Muslims with whom they differed, whether they 
    were rulers or subjects; they also called for adhering to peaceful methods 
    of da‘wah, taking a gradual approach and not resorting to armed struggle 
    except against an external enemy such as the disbelievers or the heretics. 
7.

    Some of the followers of the Nursiyyah group have recently developed 
    isolationist and supremacist feelings, which has caused them to lose the 
    ability to infiltrate different levels of Muslim society in order to call 
    them and spread awareness. 

    The number of members has reached more than one million, and one of them may 
    spend his entire lifetime making copies of 
    Risale-i Nur 
    (Risaalat an-Noor – a tafseer by Sa‘eed an-Nursi) and distributing 
    them; younger women were very active in that field. 

    End quote. 

    Based on the above, we do not advise reading the books of this group, except 
    for specialists and seekers of knowledge who have reached an advanced level, 
    because of what they contain of beliefs that are contrary to the views of 
    Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamaa‘ah. But the efforts of their Shaykh in spreading 
    Islam are to be praised, and we ask Allah to reward him for that. But that 
    does not make us praise his beliefs that were contrary to the Sunnah, and we 
    do not praise those followers of his group who came after him. His followers 
    split into many groups, and they cannot all be regarded as being the same; 
    rather each individual or group is to be judged on its own merits, according 
    to what it shows of beliefs or methodology. 

    And Allah knows best.