THE CENTENNIAL RENEWER: BEDİÜZZAMAN SAİD NURSİ AND THE TRADITION OF

"TAJDĪD"
Author(s): HAMID ALGAR
Source: Journal of Islamic Studies , September 2001, Vol. 12, No. 3 (September 2001), pp.
291-311
Published by: Oxford University Press

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Journal of Islamic Studies 12:3 (2001) pp. 291-311
<: Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies 2001

THE CENTENNIAL RENEWER:

BEDiUZZAMAN SAID NURSI AND THE
TRADITION OF TAJ DID*
HAMID ALGAR
University of California

Some scholarly attention has finally been paid in recent

Bediiizzaman Said Nursi (b. 1876 or 1877, d. 1960), one of
influential figures in the twentieth-century history of Islam in
Over a period of thirty-five years and under the most unf
of circumstances, he devotedly drew up a vast compen
reflections on essential themes of Islam, to which he gav
Risale-i Nur. It is this text that forms the basis of a movement—
popularly known as the Nurcus—that 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 Bediiizzaman's claims and the response they received.

A preliminary version of this paper was read as the keynote address to the
Conference on Bediiizzaman 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 Bediiizzaman Said Nursi in der
modernen Tiirkei', Bonner Orientalische Studien, Wiesbaden, 27 (1973), 100-83;
ead., 'Zur Organisationsstruktur der Nurculuk-Bewegung', Studien zur Geschicbte
und Kultur des Vorderen Orients: Festschrift fiir Bertold Spuler, ed. H. R. Roemer
(Leiden, 1981), 423-42; §erif Mardin, Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey:
The Case of Bediiizzaman 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. 3-4 (Jul.-Oct. 1999), a special issue devoted to
Bediiizzaman 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 Bediiizzaman 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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292 HAMID ALGAR

Central to those claims was the assertion that the Risale-i Nur
fulfilled, for its own time, the function of centennial renewal (tajdld)
derived from the well-known Hadith. The following is an analysis
of that assertion, necessarily preceded by a survey of the earlier
instances of tajdld that formed a tradition which Bediiizzaman sought
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 Da'ud in his
Sunan on the strength of an isnad that goes back through six
transmitters to Abu Hurayra, this Hadith has generally been accepted
as authentic by Sunni traditionists; al-Hakim, for example, classifies
it as sahib in his al-Mustadrak.4
The wording of the Hadith clearly suggests a historical pattern of
regular decay that is arrested and repaired each hundred years,
resulting in an indefinite prolongation for the life of the umma. It is
therefore remarkable that Abu Da'ud includes it at the very beginning
of his Kitab al-Malahim, 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 reflected the
expectations of a swift end to the world that were allegedly rife in
the early Islamic community.5 Alternatively, the juxtaposition of
tajdld with 'the signs of the hour' has been explained to mean that
at the beginning of every century Allah inflicts a trial (mibna) on the
umma which He then counterbalances with the kindness (minba) of

3 See the text of the Sunan as included in Muhammad Shams al-Haqq

al-'AzImabadl, 'Awn al-Ma'bud fi Sharh Sunan Abl Da'ud (Madina, 1389/1969),
xi. 385. The Hadith is not to be found in Shl'I collections, even with a narrator other
than Abu Hurayra, who is generally regarded as unreliable by Shl'I scholars.
Occasionally, however, lists of Shl'I renewers are to be found; see e.g. 'All DavanI,
Vahld-i Bihbahdnt (Tehran, 1362 sh/1983), 29-30.
4 Al-'AzImabadl, 'Awn al-Ma'bud, xi. 385.
5 See Yohanan Friedman, Prophecy Continuous. Aspects of Ahmadi Religious
Thought and its Medieval Background (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1989), 94-101.

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 THE CENTENNIAL RENEWER 293

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 Kitab al-Malahim 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 Da'ud
places the Hadith may perhaps be best understood with reference
to the concept of ineluctable decay that is presupposed by tajdid: the
final 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 Mahdl, this must be attributed to the circumstances
of the times and places in question, not to the conditions under which
the Hadith first entered circulation.
Also requiring clarification 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 first 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 first 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-Khattab,
and that the Prophet could not therefore have meant a century
of the Hijrl calendar when he spoke of 'every hundred years'. The
traditional assumption, based on the account given by al-Tabari,
that it was the second caliph who introduced the Hijrl calendar
is, however, questionable: al-Baladhurl quotes a message from the

6 'All al-Bajma'wi, Darajat Mirqat al-Su'ud ila Sunan Abi Da'nd (Cairo,
1298/1881), 182.
Al-'AzImabadl, 'Awn al-Ma'bud, xi. 401.
8 Ibid. 386.

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294 HAMID ALGAR

Prophet himself that includes the date 9 ah

event, the convenience of tying the emergen
either the end or the beginning of each centu
must ultimately have been decisive for the disca
possibilities.
To propose these alternatives, 'beginning' and '
for ra's may seem questionable. Although ra's be
of al-addad, words that convey antonymous mea
in the Hadith of tajdid is almost always taken
The choice between the two possible meanin
unimportant, for the end of one century is aut
by the beginning of the next; whichever sense
meaning will be the same, that a mujaddid wi
of the century. The question is nonetheless sign
nected with the identification of the mujaddids
and the second centuries of the Islamic era. The traditionist al-Zuhrl
(d. 124/740) and Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal are agreed that the mujaddid
of the first century was 'Umar b. 'Abd al-'AzIz, 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 Imam al-Shafi'I. Now 'Umar b. 'Abd al-'AzIz died in
the year 101, and al-Shafi'I in the year 204, shortly after the beginning
of the second and third centuries respectively, so that their activity
of tajdid must have taken place in the preceding centuries, the first
and the second. If this identification of the first 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 under
standing of ra's, the mujaddid has been defined 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 first two centuries, the popular and sometimes
scholarly understanding has been that ra's means 'beginning' in
the Hadith of tajdid. 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.

9 Al-Baladhurl, Kitdb al-Futuh (Beirut, 1957), 80-1.

10 Al-'Azimabadl, 'Awn al-Ma'bud, xi. 386-7; Jalal al-Din al-Suyutl, al-Tabaddnth
bi Ni'mat Allah, ed. E. Sartain (Cambridge, 1975), ii. 216.
11 Al-Tlbl, al-Suyutl, and Ibn al-Athlr, quoted in al-'AzImabadl, 'Awn al-Ma'bud,
xi. 386.

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 THE CENTENNIAL RENEWER 295

There is consensus that the mujaddid must be a scholar (although

'Umar b. 'Abd al-'AzIz does not fit 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
b. Hanbal accepted the validity of this Hadith, but proceeded to
define Al al-Rasul broadly enough to include both 'Umar b. 'Abd
al-'AzIz and al-Shafi'I.13 Considerations of sayyid status have not
figured prominently or consistently in the identification 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 Mahdl, 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 Mahdl, 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-'Alqaml defined tajdid 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-Hakim
reported, on the authority of Abu 1-Walld Hassan b. Muhammad
al-Faqlh, the utterance of an unnamed elder that al-Shafi'I, 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 tajdid: 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 identified as mujaddids have
been engaged in the political realm (most obviously 'Umar b. 'Abd
al-'AzIz), 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 Al-Suyuti, al-Tahaddutb bi-Ni'mat Allah, 216-17.
13 Ibid.
14 Cited in al-'AzImabadl, 'Awn al-Ma'bud, xi. 386.
15 Ibid. 388.

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296 HAMID ALGAR

society. It is, however, a strictly modern (no

expansion of the concept of tajdid to have it inc
as a defining element.
As for the identification of a mujaddid in each
at its opening or close, it is generally deemed po
one individual should qualify, irrespective of the
criterion applied. The text of the Hadith can,
imply a plurality of renewers: man yujaddid
gular or a plural. Furthermore, unanimity on
mujaddid ceased to prevail in the fourth cent
being proposed for that cycle. Al-SuyutI theref
mujaddid might be one person in the entire w
with 'Umar b.'Abd al-'AzIz because of his exc
the caliphate, ... or it might be two people or a g
absence of a consensus concerning a single p
might be added that with the expansion of the
one hand and its fragmentation on the other, fe
in a position to exert a function of universal re
the possibility of legitimate plurality of opin
identity of the mujaddid, but only among his
are directly aware of his accomplishments and h
al-Suyuti once more: 'The determination of
place by means of the predominant opinio
among the scholars contemporary with him,
benefit that is had from him, from his comp
writings.'17 The mujaddid is therefore by def
his mission; a failed mujaddid is a contradicti
more, no valid identification of a mujaddid can
of several centuries, even if the candidate come
favourably by posterity than he was by his own
Also excluded in view of the widely accepted f
is an individual's self-proclamation as mujad
ably high estimate of his own scholarly wor
felt it permissible to write with respect to him
discussion of tajdid, was that 'this indigent one

16 Al-Suyuti, al-Tahadduth bi-Ni'mat Allah, i. 225-6.

17 Ibid. 226.
18 Mawlana Mawdudl's identification of Ibn Taymiy
mujaddid can be taken only as an indication of his own
sound estimate of his historical role or as a reflection of th
contemporaries (Mawdudl, A Short History of the Reviv
2nd edn., Lahore, 1972, 63-9).

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 THE CENTENNIAL RENEWER 297

favour that he might be the renewer of this

such a hope, he had been preceded by a
who overshadowed all other candidates as
fifth century. The great scholar and Sufi wa
ative wish to precise chronological data. W
intention of emerging from isolation to resu
Nishapur, he first sought the advice of 'men
wa-l-musbabadat), and their counsel streng
he realized that, 'Allah decreed that this mov
end of the present century, and He had pr
would be revived at the end of each century
confirmed within me ... Allah enabled me
to undertake this task [the resumption of
of Dhu 1-Qa'da in the year 499 [July-Aug
who regarded themselves or encouraged o
centennial renewers frequently went beyo
claims such as that advanced by al-Gha
explicit self-proclamation as mujaddid ecstat
overtones.

Whatever may be seen as problematic or in need of inte

in the Hadith of the centennial renewer, there is no mis
central promise: that at intervals of one hundred years, an
will be sent by Allah to renew the understanding and p
religion by the Islamic umma. This individual will n
appointed (and, as can be deduced from al-Suyutl, ought
self-proclaimed), for he is divinely sent; it is remarkabl
same verb (yab'atbu) is used for the mujaddid in the Had
used in the Qur'an for the prophets.21 This surely implies t
renewer enjoys divine authority, and that he should the
sought out, regularly, assiduously, and as a matter of religi
for the guidance he dispenses. The attention paid to the
in Islamic history has, however, been remarkably uneven; i
be said that even the pious have regularly attempted to
the mujaddid of their age at each turn of the century. F
centuries, it was primarily the Shafi'Is who were inter
19 Al-SuyutI, al-Tahadduth bi-Ni'mat Allah, 227.
20 Al-Ghazall, al-Munqidb min al-Daldl (Cairo, 1303/1886), 43. Al
mention of 'revival' (ihya') in the context of his return to Nishapur at th
fifth century can be taken as a sure indication that he saw his masterpiec
'Uliim al-Din, as testimony to his rank as mujaddid.
21 See Qur'an, 3: 164, 7: 103, 10: 74-5, 16: 36, 17: 15, 28: 59, 40: 34

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298 HAMID ALGAR

identifying mujaddids, and not surprisingly the

favoured belonged without exception to their ma
'Abd al-Wahhab ibn al-Subkl (d. 728/1326), compi
biographical dictionary, al-Tabaqat al-Sbafi'iyya,
assert that the function of the mujaddid includes
of the Shafi'I school.22 There have also been certain
the Bilad al-Sudan, where a particularly stron
interest in recognizing the mujaddid of the age has
and—not coincidentally—extraordinary impor
attached to the office. Thus the celebrated Shehu Usumanu dan
Fodio (d. 1232/1817) of Hausaland claimed unambiguously to be the
mujaddid of the twelfth Hijrl century, having been appointed as such
by the Prophet, the Four Caliphs, and Shaykh 'Abd al-Qadir GllanI,
in a vision he experienced in 1209/1794. In addition, he conflated
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 Mahdl, whose path he was
preparing by a jihad 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 Bediiizzaman Said Nursi's own under
standing and invocation of tajdid was the Indian tradition of renewers
that was inaugurated by Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindl (d. 1034/1624),
known to his admirers as Imam-i RabbanI, or more significantly
as mujaddid-i alf-i thanl, the Renewer of the Second Millennium.
Sirhindl was a major figure in the history of the Naqshbandl tarlqa,
standing at the origin of an initiatic line known as Mujaddidl
in accordance with his claim to be the millennial renewer, and

22 Ibn al-Subkl, al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, quoted in al-Suyutl, al-Tahadduth bi-Ni'mat

Allah, 218. Given this predominance of Shafi'Is among the early mujaddids, Ella
Landau-Tasseron has argued that the Hadith of the centennial renewer was first put
into circulation in order to justify the 'innovations' of Imam al-Shafi'I in legal
methodology; her argument hinges on the dubious contention that tajdld may in some
contexts be lexically equivalent to bid'a ('The Cyclical Reform: A Study of the
Mujaddid Tradition', Studia Islamica, 70 (1989), 79-117).
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 lhya' al-Sunna wa-Ikhmad al-Bid'a. On his
claim and the conclusions he drew from it, see Muhammad Shareef's introduction to
his translation of this work (Revival of the Sunna and Destruction of Innovation
(Fairfield, Calif., 1418/1998), pp. xii-xv, liii-liv), 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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 THE CENTENNIAL RENEWER 299

Bediiizzaman made frequent mention of him in his work.24 For

Sirhindl, the advent of the second millennium of the Islamic era
endowed the function of the mujaddid with particular significance.
'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 (paygbambar-i ulu 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 Sirhindl 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 first 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 (kamalat-i namdz) ... 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 Mahdl and thereby with the
future of sacred history; Sirhindl 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 office with the Messenger: 'Although none other has
any share in the unique Muhammadan fortune (dawlat-i khassa-yi
Muhammadi), it stands to reason that after the formation and
perfection of the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—some

24 See my article 'Sufism and Tariqat in the Life and Work of Bediuzzaman Said
NursI', forthcoming in journal of the History of Sufism.
25 Sirhindi, Maktubat (Karachi, 1393/1973), ii. 21.
26 Ibid. i. 390.
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid. ii. 21.
29 Ibid. i. 454.

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3<oo HAMID ALGAR

residue of that fortune should have remaine

surplus result from any banquet hosted by the
that remainder given to the servants?'30
Sirhindl does not himself provide any accou
or when the function of millennial renewer wa
several hagiographers have compensated for his
Muhammad Ihsan relates that on the night of R
(13 September 1602) the Prophet came to Sir
by all the supreme angels and the awliya' and
bestowed on him 'an extremely splendid cloak, t
one had ever seen and which appeared to be p
'this is the cloak of the renewer of the secon
bestowal of an actual cloak, albeit by non-mirac
a comparable role in Bediiizzaman's emergen
his own view and that of his followers, as will
Somewhat obscure is the relationship between
of the second millennium and the centennial
to succeed him. However, it may be assumed
them in some fashion, for it is asserted by
Mujaddid! branch that each subsequent mujaddid
initiatic lineage, an echo, perhaps, of the monop
made by some Shaff Is.32 Several claimants to th
renewer emerged among the initiatic descendan
notably perhaps Shah Wallullah Dihlavl (d. 11
that, like Sirhindl, his appointment to the offic
divine bestowal of a 'renewer's cloak' (kbil'at
the time he had completed his study of philosop
This was followed by the gift of a second cloak
is not immediately apparent from the nam
Wallullah, al-kbil 'at al-Haqqaniyya. Its effect
he lost all speculative and intellectual knowledge
wonder how he might exercise his function as m
method was then displayed to him whereby h
resulting 'unletteredness' (al-ummiyya) with th
Despite these multiple divine favours, he had
time of writing, only a general understanding
of the ability to reconcile opposing views con

30 Ibid. ii. 518-19.

31 Khwaja Muhammad Ihsan, Rauzat al-Qayyiimiya, U
Faruql (Lahore, 1409/1989), i. 158-9, 164, 170.
32 He is even reported as saying—admittedly by a late a
source—that the Mahdl himself will be a Mujaddidl (
Khazlnat al-Asfiya' (Lucknow, 1868) i. 613.

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 THE CENTENNIAL RENEWER 3GI

jurisprudence (al-mukhtalafat) 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
Sirhindl. He announced that perfections had been bestowed on him
that none before him had possessed, and that as mujaddid he was
the legatee (wasl) of the Prophet, a term more commonly encountered
in a Shl'I than a SunnI context.34 Also strikingly Shl'I in its
connotations was his claim to be Qa'im al-Zaman, 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
reflected 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 Jesus—upon whom be peace—descends
[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 Mahdl, Shah Wallullah believed that his own
exalted qualities had postponed that event indefinitely. 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 Mahdl and thereby postpone him
[i.e. his appearance] for a long time.'36
The immediate predecessor as mujaddid to Bediiizzaman Said
Nursi, in his own view and that of his devotees, was another initiatic
descendant of Sirhindl, Mawlana Khalid Baghdad, (d. 1242/1827),
celebrated by them as the renewer of the thirteenth Hijrl century.
He counts as a Naqshbandl-Mujaddidl by virtue of his training at
the hands of Shah 'Abdullah (also known as Ghulam 'All) DihlavT
(d. 1240/1824), but having received from him unrestricted authority
to propagate the Naqshbandl tarlqa in Western Asia, Mawlana
Khalid became the originator of a distinct and extremely wide
spread line of transmission known after him as the Khalidiyya. There
is no trace of self-proclamation as mujaddid in the letters of
Shah Wallullah Dihlavl, al-Tafhimat al-Ilahiya, ed. Ghulam Mustafa QasimI
(Hyderabad (Sind), 1387/1967), ii. 160.
34 Shah Wallullah Dihlavl, al-Tafhimat al-Ilahiya, ii. 67. For a general equation of
the mujaddid with the wasi, see ibid. 171.
35 Shah Wallullah Dihlavl, Fuyud al-Haramayn, cited in Saiyid Athar Abbas
Rizvi, Shah Wali-Allah and his Times (Canberra, 1980) 216. These echoes of Shl'I
terminology are particularly remarkable in view of Shah Wallullah's implacable
hostility to Shl'ism, expressed most fully in his polemical work, Tuhfa-yi lthna
'ashariya (Istanbul, 1990).
36 Shah Wallullah Dihlavl, al-Tafhimat al-Ilahiya, ii. 145.

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302, HAMID ALGAR

Mawlana Khalid, which for the most part deal wi

matters concerning the diffusion of the tariqa a
interest in questions of kalam than of Sufism; h
infinitely more sober than either Sirhindl or Sh
occasionally manifests a sense of crisis, but in pure
and the single reference that he makes to the signs of t
proximate appearance of the Mahdl appears to
significance.37 There is only indirect and anecdotal
may have regarded himself as the mujaddid or enco
do so. It is said that Halet Efendi (d. 1238/1822), pri
his affiliations while being linked to a non-Khalidl
once denounced Mawlana Khalid in the presence
Sultan Mahmud, whom he addressed on this occ
al-mujaddid. This may indicate that Mawlana Kha
a reputation as the mujaddid and that Halet Efe
obsequiously to assure Sultan Mahmud that he, t
the true renewer of the age.38 In addition, calls for
observance of the Sunna and the avoidance of bid'a—essential
hallmarks of the mujaddid according to the classical understanding—
do occur with some frequency in Mawlana Khalid'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-Suyutl for the mujaddid—the exercise of

37 See Mawlana Khalid's letter to Jallzade "Abdullah Kakl in Bughyat al-Wajid

fi Maktubat Mawlana Khalid, a collection of his correspondence compiled and
annotated by Muhammad As'ad Sahibzada (Damascus, 1334/1916), 161. How
ever, one of his murids, the poet and statesman Izzet Molla (d. 1245/1829), did
proclaim the coming of the Mahdl to be at hand in a treatise he wrote advocating
governmental reform. Almost two centuries later, another Khalid! Naqshbandl,
Osman (Jatakli of Istanbul, a khalifa of the celebrated Mehmed Zahid Efendi
(d. 1980), is also said to regard matters so sombrely that the coming of the Mahdl must
be at hand (conversation with one of his followers, Istanbul, 1996). Another Turkish
Naqshbandl, Iskender Evrenosoglu, took the process a step further by proclaiming
himself the Mahdl in April 1996; his claim passed virtually unnoticed outside his own
narrow circle.
38 Ibrahim Faslh Efendi, al-Majd al-Talid fi Manaqib Mawlana Khalid (Istanbul,
1292/1875), 45-6. The same source reports that Mawlana Khalid entrusted the task of
punishing Halet Efendi for his impudence to his spiritual patron, Jalal al-Dln RumI,
with the result that not long after he was strangled in Konya by royal command. It may
be worth noting that another MevlevI, the celebrated poet Ghalib Dede (d. 1213/
1799), had already addressed Sultan Mahmud's predecessor, Selim III, as mujaddid;
see the line of verse cited by Irfan Giindiiz, Osmanlilarda Devlet-Tekke Miinasebetleri
(Istanbul, 1984), 130.
39 See e.g. his letter to three of his khalifas in Baghdad, Bughyat al-Wajid, 111.

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 THE CENTENNIAL RENEWER

ascertainably wide influence through his own per

and followers.

In around 1940, when Bediiizzaman Said Nursi was living in

the Turkish city of Kastamonu, he received from a certain Asiye
Hanim the gift of a cloak that Mawlana Khalid had bestowed on
her grandfather, Kiigiik A§ik, who had been one of his numerous
khalifas.40 The gift was interpreted as coming directly from Mawlana
Khalid himself, 'across a gap of one hundred years,' and thus as
transmitting the function of centennial renewer to Bediiizzaman.41 He
may not have been aware of the association between receiving a
cloak and assuming the office of mujaddid that had existed in the
cases of Sirhindl and Shah Waliullah; this makes the parallel all
the more striking.
Continuity between Mawlana Khalid and Bediiizzaman was also
implicit in a significant utterance attributed to a Khalidi shaykh of
Isparta, Be§kazahzade Osman Efendi. He is reported to have said in
1293/1876-7, which was the year both of his own death and of
the birth of Bediiizzaman, 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-five 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 him
self with replying, 'Yes, he is now present, and he is thirty-five 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 tajdld from Mawlana Khalid to Bediiizzaman
seemed, moreover, to be mathematically confirmed by a whole series
of striking chronological correspondences between the careers of the

40 For more details of this event, see my forthcoming article, 'Sufism and Tariqat in
the Life and Work of Bediiizzaman Said Nursi'.
41 Bediiizzaman Said Nursi, Kastamonu Labikast (Istanbul, n.d), 63.
42 Only the year of Bediiizzaman's birth seems to be known, not the day or even the
month.
43 Bediiizzaman 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
Sufi of Isparta, Topal §ukrii; see ibid. 9. Ahmed Efendi may not have met the promised
mujaddid in Isparta, for it was not until 1953 that Bediiizzaman took up residence
there.

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3°4 HAMID ALGAR

two men. A certain Hafiz §amh Tevfik pointed o

was born exactly one hundred lunar Islamic y
Khalid; that he came to the Ottoman capital, Ist
time exactly one hundred years after Mawla
the Moghul capital, Delhi, to begin 'his struggle
[tecdid-i din miicahedesi]-, and that he quit Anka
at the political scene in the capital exactly one h
Mawlana Khalid had, for political reasons,
Damascus. §amh Hafiz Tevfik concluded that
Risale-i Nur as an agent of tajdid was therefo
to the clear text of the hadith' (nass-i hadisle), wi
of 'every hundred years'.44
These links with Mawlana Khalid—and by i
the centennial renewers who had preceded him—
ant for Bediiizzaman. That he had, however,
interpretation of tajdid and its functioning i
following passage:
Those exalted servants of religion, the glad tidin
the head of every century have been proclaimed in a h
(mubtadi') in the matter of religion, but obedient
create anything new of themselves, nor do they procl
Rather, by following the letter of the bases and ordin
Sunna of the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon
religion and make it firm; clarify its essence and tr
disprove the absurdities which some have attempted
repel and annihilate all attacks on religion; establi
Allah; and proclaim and make manifest the nobili
divine ordinances. However, at the same time, witho
the fundamental nature of religion or violating it
fulfil their duties [as mujaddid] by employing new m
new means of persuasion that are consonant with the
detailed instruction.
These divinely appointed servants confirm the mission entrusted to them
with their own deeds and conduct. They express in their persons the firmness
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 Prophet—upon 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 firm 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. 14-16.

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 THE CENTENNIAL RENEWER

exalted perceptions, the fruit of their own intelligence

they are directly inspired and inculcated from the sour
the pure essence of the Prophet, upon whom be p
[dogrudan dogruya menba-i vahy olan Zat-i Pak-i
manevi ilbam ve telkinatidir]. The Jaljalutiya, the M
Futiih al-Gbayb, and other similar books are all works

The early part of this proclamation reaffirms

tajdid put forward by al-Suyutl: the revival of
eradication of bid'a (or, as Bediiizzaman puts i
which some have attempted to mix with rel
distinctive, however, is Bediiizzaman's assignati
of the task of 'employing new methods of expl
of persuasion'. This formulation clearly reflects B
assessment of the times in which he lived and the mission he saw
himself called on to fulfil. 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
firm ... 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 Bediiizzaman 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 tajdid.47

45 Bediiizzaman Said Nursi, §ualar (Istanbul, n.d.), 670. The ]aljalutiya is a versified
prayer with quasi-magical numerical properties apocryphally attributed to Imam 'All;
see Ziya' ad-Din Kumushkhanawl (= Giimu§haneli), compiler, Majmu 'at al-Ahzdb
(Istanbul, 1311/1893), i. 499-531. Bediiizzaman's inclusion of the Masnavi of Jalal
ad-Din RumI and the Futuh al-Ghayb of 'Abd al-Qadir Gllanl among the books
'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 Bediiizzaman Said Nursi, Bar/a Hayati (Istanbul, n.d.) 68.
47 No study of Bediiizzaman specifically as a mujaddid, based on a careful and
detailed reading of the Risale-i Nur, has yet been undertaken. In his 'al-Tajdid wa
Badi' al-Zaman' (Badi' al-Z,aman Sa'id al-Niirsl ft Mn'tamar 'Alami bawl Tajdld
al-Fikr al-Islaml (Istanbul, 1417/1997), 201-14), Colin Turner contents himself with a
few generalities before concluding that he 'does not know of anyone who deserves the
title of mujaddid more than Bediiizzaman' (p. 212). John Voll, in his article 'Renewal
and Reformation in the Mid-Twentieth Century: Bediiizzaman Said Nursi and
Religion in the 1950s' The Muslim World, 89: 34 [Jul.-Oct. 1999], 245-57), after
much sociological lucubration, permits himself the remarkable conclusion that
Bediiizzaman stood at the beginning of 'a new post-modern Islamic paradigm' (p. 257).
Oliver Leaman has compared Bediiizzaman's essays in what he calls 'the ihya'
tradition' with those of al-Ghazall and, in more recent times, Muhammad Iqbal, both
of whom he finds defective by comparison ('Nursi's Place in the Ihya' Tradition', ibid.
314-24). It must be said that the interpretive efforts of all three of these authors have

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3<d 6 HAMID ALGAR

Crucial, however, are his regular invocations of

called 'the machinery of nature' and the claim t
has for the first time provided irrefutable, r
proofs for all the major doctrines of Islam
believer to advance from faith by imitation (
by investigative certainty (tahkiki iman).48 Thi
unmistakably modern objective.
It should not, however, be concluded that th
essay in tajdid, is simply an extended attempt t
on its own rationalist terms. The 'machinery
it far less frequently than does traditional, S
such as dreams, visions, predictions, and abjad-b
Qur'anic verses. In addition, Bediiizzaman claim
exalted status for his book as a whole by assig
realm that transcends all rational thought. All m
had fulfilled their mission in part by composin
said, 'receiving'—books of authoritative nature,
was unique:
As for the Risale-i Nur and its spokesman [or interpreter: terciiman, i.e.
Bediiizzaman himself], this exalted work contains a sublime effusion [feyz]
and infinite 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 [fiiyuzat] of the Qur'an, 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'an; that it carries the effusion of the Muhammadan Lights [feyz-i
envar-i Muhammedi] more than do the works of all preceding Friends of
Allah [Evliya'ullah]; that the share in the Risale-i Nur of the immaculate
being of the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—his connection to it,
and the sacred influence [tasarruf-u kudsi] that he has exerted upon it, are
also greater than in the case of those earlier works; and that the perfections
of the entity [manevi zat] 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 Kosoglu, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Hayati, Yolu, Eseri (Istanbul,
1999), 249-67.
48 On 'the machinery of nature', see §erif Mardin, Religion and Social Change in
Modern Turkey: The Case of Bediiizzaman Said Nursi (Albany, NY, 1989), 203-16.
49 Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, §ualar, 670. The putative disjunction between
Bediuzzaman and the Risale-i Nur inspired one of his admirers who suspected that
part of the text had been suppressed to cite the Qur'an, 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 'Bediiizzaman was no doubt not a prophet but he

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 THE CENTENNIAL RENEWER

Despite the convoluted nature of this conclusio

description of the mujaddid and his function—
in the Turkish original than in the translation
plain that by 'the entity' which acts as manifestat
for the Prophet, Bediiizzaman intended not himse
Nur, of which he in turn is not so much the author
'interpreter', or servant. The function and titl
thus been transferred from a person to a book. T
Risale-i Nur might be taken at first sight as a
and extreme modesty on the part of Bediiizza
inescapable corollary to his disavowal of conve
engagement with the text of the Risale-i Nur is a
being the chosen medium for its transmission, sur
unique status. This is not to impute arrogance t
to suggest that like al-Suyutl, an earlier aspir
mujaddid, he, too, was engaged in 'the procl
favour' (al-tahaddutb bi-l-ni'ma).50
Bediiizzaman's attempted withdrawal from view
charismatic personality in favour of the book o
carrier might also be thought to have neutral
associations surrounding his exercise of tajdid. Th
was not that simple, for some of Bediiizzaman's fo
did regard him as the Mahdl. Thanks to the procla
persons such as Be§kazahzade Osman Efendi, wh
heir to Mawlana Khalid as mujaddid, Bediiizzam
of the 'elite students of the Risale-i Nur (Nur
§akirdleri), had mistakenly ascribed him a rank 'o
in excess of the truth' (bin derece ziyade bisse ver
of Bediiizzaman as the Mahdl was not only e
harmful to the cause of the Risale-i Nur, for it ins
'the worldly and the politicians' (ehl-i diinya v
provoked objections on the part of 'some men of r
bocalar).51
He therefore sought to clarify the matter once and for all by
specifying that the Mahdl (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
Abdiilkadir Badilh Agabey!', Dava, 6: 62-3 [Jun.-Jul. 1995], 24).
50 The title of al-Suyuti's schematic intellectual autobiography (see n. 8 above) is an
allusion to the Qur'an, 93: 11 ('As for the favour of your Lord, proclaim it').
51 Beditizzaman Said Nursi, Sikke-i Tasdik-i Gaybi, 9-10.

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308 HAMID ALGAR

the three will be to 'disseminate faith by investigativ

tahkiki) and to save the believers from misguida
the implementation of the Shari'a, a task that w
material power and governmental authority'. Fi
will (re)establish the Caliphate on the basis of a
unity among all Muslims, and serve Islam by fo
with the 'Christian priesthood' (isevi ruhanileriyl
If Bediiizzaman had mistakenly been identified b
lowers with the Mahdl, it was because they realized
Nur had accomplished the first of these three tas
completely' (aynen bitemamiha). This being the c
continued, 'that blessed personage who is yet to come
and implement the Risale-i Nur as his programm
olarak). Although a mere mujaddid—or the bearer o
to which the task of tajdld has been assigned—B
claims to have fulfilled the most important functio
advance of his coming; all that will remain for him
implement the ready-made programme furnished h
Nur. It is true, Bediiizzaman concedes, that the s
functions of the Mahdl seem to the masses (umum
important than the first, for their implementation w
spectacularly global scale, but this is only because th
understand the true nature and value of that primar
By means of this remarkably bold and ingen
Bediiizzaman at once distances himself from the pote
consequences of a claim to mahdihood and, by explic
what he identifies as the most important functi
positions himself as his inspired patron and ideo
as his superior. In addition, there remains a sen
permissible to discern mahdihood, if not in the p
man, then in the book he conveyed. Tradition raises
of a multiplicity of what might be called 'prelimina
mabdis—persons whose divine mission of guidance i
particular time and who serve to prepare the way f
universal Mahdl.54 According to Bediiizzaman, th
52 This reinterpretation of the goals of the Mahdl is connec
belief in the necessity of Muslims and Christians making com
then-looming danger of Bolshevism. It can hardly be reconcile
the Mahdl to spread Islam universally, to the obvious detriment
and still less with the prediction that he will smash crucifixes wh
See Ibn Hajar al-Haythaml, al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar fi 'Alamat
(Cairo, n.d.), 42.
53 Bediiizzaman Said Nursi, Sikke-i Tasdik-i Gaybi, 9.
54 On multiple mahdis, see Ibn Hajar, al-Qawl al-Mukhtasa

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 THE CENTENNIAL RENEWER

mujaddids—come once every hundred years; far

patible with this type of mahdlhood, the office
comes close to being identical with it: 'The Mos
upon whom be peace and blessings, proclaimed
revelation, that a mahdl would come in each ce
preserve the spiritual strength of the believers an
from being cast into despair by disasters.'55
For Bediiizzaman, near-synonymity exists no
mujaddid and mahdl, but also across a wide ra
and functions: God Almighty, out of His extreme m
to protect the eternity of Islam, has sent in every
has been afflicted by corruption a reformer (
(miiceddid), a glorious caliph (halife-i zi§an), a sup
azam), a perfect guide (miir§id-i ekmel), or a bless
counts as a kind of mahdl (bir nevi mehdi hiikm
conformity with this perspective that Mustafa
disciple of Bediiizzaman, interpreted one of his
a young man dressed in green emerging from a
book bound in red in his hand and proclaimin
listen, 'this is an address that no imam has delivere
young man, he speculated, might be either 'A
or Sirhindl, but the red-bound volume was with
Risale-i Nur, 'which is a mahdl and a mujaddid of
That book is, he continued, the 'vanguard and h
Mahdl (Mehdi bazretlerinin pi§dari ve mujdeci
have been searching for one thousand years.'57
There remains, however, a difference between
mahdf and the centennial mujaddid in that the fo
to 'the luminous lineage of the Ahl al-Bayt', ex
al-Qadir GllanI (to whom Bediiizzaman ascribes
and Imams Zayn al-'Abidln and Ja'far al-Sadiq;
lineage they foreshadow the Mahdl of the Last Da
does the mujaddid.5H When accused during his
claiming to be the Mahdl, Bediiizzaman defend

55 Bediiizzaman Said Nursi, Mektubat (Istanbul, n.d.), 176.

56 Ibid. 415.
57 Bediiizzaman Said Nursi, Barla Lahikasi, 138-9.
18 Idem, Mektubat, 176. This specification that the 'provisional mahdf must be a
sayyid somewhat undercuts the identification of the Risale-i Nur as a mahdi, unless it
be that Bediiizzaman was after all a sayyid—see the next note—and transferred this
lineage, together with the title mujaddid, to his book.

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3io HAMID ALGAR

enough by responding, 'I am not a sayyid, whereas

a sayyid.'59
If the mujaddid is a species of mahdl foreshad
Mabdi, it follows that that ruler of the Last Da
the greatest mujaddid; he will be both the heir of t
have preceded him and the one who transcends th
thus ultimately collapse into each other: 'During
the time of the greatest corruption, Allah will of a
luminous personage who will be the greatest mujabi
mujaddid, he will be a ruler and a mahdl; a mursb
pole (kutb-u azam), and belong to the progeny of th
At a lesser level, a similar interchangeability b
and mahdl applied to Bediiizzaman Said Nursi, at lea
his followers. For five of the most prominent of
eulogize him with the following litany of honor
mujabid, a most exalted mahdl (bir mehdi-i azam
mujaddid {bir miiceddid-i ekmel), an utterly un
{bir ferd-i ferid) . ..'61

* * * *

Irrespective of the claims he adva

nature of the Risale-i Nur, there can
Said Nursi conformed fully to the ke
of the mujaddid: palpable and bro
contemporaries. His effect on a gr
has been profound and lasting, result
and commitment to Islam at a time o
He was, moreover, conscious of the
was heir and inscribed himself in it, e
respects.
Bediiizzaman may turn out, ind
mujaddid, for it is a paradox of r
time when more is being said an
'renewal', and 'revival' than ever
Muslims alike, the concept of tajdi

59 Abdiilkadir Badilli, Bediiizzaman Said-i

edn. (Istanbul, 1998), i. 51. The author of th
Bediiizzaman was a sayyid, at least in the se
'All; see i. 49-63.
60 Bediiizzaman Said Nursi, Mektubat, 415
61 Cited in Badilli, Bediiizzaman Said-i Nursi
for the close followers, the devolution of the
Bediiizzaman to the Risale-i Nur, was neithe

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 THE CENTENNIAL RENEWER 311

formulations has fallen into obscurity. This is not to say that it

remains uninvoked, generally by or on behalf of persons whose
scholarly qualifications range from the minimal to the non-existent,
but it is almost always confused with isldh, 'reform', an imported term
with no grounding in the Qur'an and Sunna which bears largely
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 fixing Ramadan in December. This is not surprising,
given the fact that the beginning of the third Christian millennium was
far more widely noticed and celebrated in the Muslim world than the
beginning of the fifteenth 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-tajdid.

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