BETWEEN AUTONOMU and HETERONOMY:THE EXISTENTIAL REALITY of HUMAN LIFE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE of THE RISALE-I NUR (A CONTEMPORARY COMMENTARY on THE QURAN)

Umeyye Yazicioglu

Introduction

    Matters such as “anxiety, death, the conflict between the bogus and the genuine self,” which were hardly topics of analytic philosophy, came to the fore with existential philosophy in modern age.   Existentialism made us realize that people do die, people do struggle all their lives between the demands of real and counterfeit selves, and we do live in an age in which neurotic anxiety has mounted out of all proportion that even minds inclined to believe that all human problems can be solved by physical techniques begin to label “mental health” as the first of our public problems. ^[1]

    Indeed, the basic human anxiety is laid open naked in the modern age.  The modern age has witnessed, in the words of the renowned Protestant theologian, Paul Tillich, “a breaking-down of tradition that has few parallels.” ^[2]  Tillich notes that contemporary person has become insecure with the loss of previously working answers about the meaning of his/her life and of the world in general. ^[3]   Existentialism is in a sense a breakdown of the Enlightenment rationalism, the experiment of self-confidence seems to have failed and no alternatives are apparent in the horizon to the failed “autonomy.”  By “autonomy” we mean a culture that tries to forge a personal and social life “without any reference to something ultimate and unconditional, following only the demands of theoretical and practical rationality.” ^[4]  In the state of autonomy the person asserts that there is no need to refer to Ultimate, his/her own reason is sufficient to be the criteria of everything.  Yet, this self-sufficiency, as seen in the modern experiment, could not go too far and got stuck.

     Yet, even if a set of answers falls short, the questions remain: “Who am I? From whence I came and whither am I going?” These profound questions, asked by all human beings, in a multitude of ways and forms, demand an answer.  We have to find an answer, -unless we are content with the easy consolation of denying the answers simply because we could not find them on our own. But then, what to do? What is the alternative to autonomy?  At first sight, the only alternative seems to be heteronomy.   Heteronomy assumes that human being is “unable to act according to universal reason” and thus “must be subjected to a law, strange and superior to him.”  Hence, heteronomous culture “subjects the forms and laws of thinking and acting to authoritative criteria of an ecclesiastical religion or a political quasi-religion, even at the price of destroying the structures of rationality.” ^[5]   If I cannot be my own master and conduct my inner law, then, it seems that the only alternative is to submit to an alien master, if I cannot create my own meaning, I should let the other impose itself to me.  This alternative, however, is not a restful alternative.  Having tasted the inner freedom, having rejected the alien impositions, human soul cannot return to heteronomy.  Tillich perceptively points out that some churches, esp. the Roman Catholic Church, used the helplessness of modern people as an opportunity to call them back to a heteronomous authority of their churches.   Yet, this appeal does not work in the long run: “the man who enjoys autonomy-however feeble and empty it may be- has experienced something that he cannot easily surrender even if he wished to respond the appeal” of these churches.  Autonomy had come as a rejection of heteronomy, autonomy was a search in the face of the failure of heteronomy. It is no less problematic than the autonomy, and hence we cannot return to it.  As al Ghazali who notes that once the glass of taqlid are broken one cannot re-assemble it, once the heteronomy is abandoned for autonomy, it cannot be re-appropriated. ^[6]  Should existentialism either take refuge in absurd self-confidence, like Nietzsche’s, or hopelessly try to turn back to heteronomy?

     The crisis of modern human is precisely because of this plight:  it is assumed that there are no other alternatives to heteronomy and autonomy, if both has failed it means there is no way out.  The aim of this paper is to show that there is another real possibility, indeed a real solution, which Tillich terms as “theonomy.”  That is, one’s faithfulness to her own self is possible through her connection to her Maker.   Theonomy is the state of relating to the Divine that is at the same time the fulfillment of one’s own freedom.  For, “man himself” is “rooted in the divine ground which is man’s own ground: the law of life transcends man, although it is, at the same time his own.” ^[7]   It is the inability to see this third alternative that Nietzsche thought he had to fight God in the name of freedom of the self, thinking that if there is God, then human being cannot really be fulfilled.

     The aim of this paper is to argue that the Risale- i Nur’s exposition of the meaning of life is the one that escapes the extremes of autonomy and heteronomy and makes theonomy possible.   I will look at this in the framework of Risale-i Nur’s interpretation of the well-known Quranic verse: “And, I have not created the jinn and the human beings to any end other than that they may worship me.” (51:56)  Here, the aim of human existence is tied to worship of God.  My two central questions are: what does “worship” mean here? And, how does this aim escapes heteronomy as well as autonomy?

     What is remarkable in B. Said Nursi’s approach to this Quranic verse is that he does not understand this aim as something external or superimposed to human reality. Rather, as an attentive student of the Qur’an, Nursi astutely explains that only through this aim   human life becomes meaningful and worthwhile.  In what follows, I will analyze how Risale-i Nur demonstrates that knowing and worshipping the Creator is not simply a dry or even alien component of life, but a dynamic and holistic way of living.  According to the Risale-i Nur only the giver of life can teach us the true meaning of life.  Hence, quite reasonably, the Risale-i Nur harkens to the voice of transcendent, viz., to the Quran and the example of the Messenger in understanding the purpose of life.  In addition, the Risale-i Nur takes human experience and reason as a starting point in this reflection.  Indeed, the attentiveness to human existential reality is not at the expense of the revelation but because of it, it is Nursi’s faithfulness to the Quran that enables him to escape both heteronomy and autonomy. When reading the Quran, Nursi is aware that it is a revelation for human being, and thus it does not destroy the human so as to build the faith. ^[8]  In what follows I will look at how Nursi first starts with analysis of human self and then connects it with the aim of reflecting the Divine.

Part 1: The Human Existential Condition

Wa ma khalaqtu al jinna wa’l  insa illa li ya’buduni.  ^[9] Quran 51:56

    Like the early Muslim authority on the Qur’an, Ibn Abbas [ra], Nursi explains the term   “ya’buduni” [which is translated as ‘so as to worship Me’] in the abovementioned verse as “so as to know and to worship Me.”  Seeing the act of knowledge and recognition being implicated in the act of worship is a crucial start because it emphasizes that the worship is not limited to prescribed rituals.   And, Nursi takes the concept of worship in direct connection with ma’rifatullah and muhabbatullah, i.e. knowledge and love of God. ^[10]  The greatest aim of human life is to know, adore and declare her Maker.  For worship means to adore, and in order to adore one first has to know and witness the beauty, perfection and the generosity of the Maker.  After all, only beauty, perfection and gift are what make us love something. ^[11]  Thus, according to Nursi, the greatest aim of creation is the faith in God, and the greatest happiness lies in knowing [ma’rifatullah] and loving God [muhabbatullah]. ^[12]  This aim does not mean surrender to an alien authority; rather, it is connecting with one’s origin and it is the only way human experience on earth becomes meaningful, and beautiful.     In the next section we will see how an analysis of human nature supports the truth of this aim. 

a. Human Nature:  Capacities, Tensions and Vulnerability

[Abraham] said: ‘I do not love those that set.’ Qur’an, 6:76.

      A crucial aspect of the Risale-i Nur’s method is to start from the human condition and experience in the world when discussing the matters of faith.  Risale-i Nur follows the Quranic method by taking the seen world (‘alam al shahadah) as the basis in the journey to the Unseen (‘alam al ghayb.)   In our case, an analysis of human self will reveal the quest of theonomy inherent in human self.      

     Nursi observes that human beings have capacities and needs that spread all over the universe.  Unlike other creatures, the capacities of human being do not have a natural limit. ^[13]   The capacity of love and attachment, for instance, is boundless.  The list of what one can want, love or appreciate has no limit.   Human being has the capacity to relate to a huge range of “others.”   Human being is not only physically affected but also emotionally can care, relate, love all these creatures from her close friends, to stars to the beautiful fish deep in the ocean.  Even in terms of “fleshly” enjoyment human beings have the widest range; human taste buds, for instance, has the widest spectrum among all animals.  The love in human heart attaches her to any creature displays beauty and perfection, any object that benefits her. ^[14]  Here, Nursi’s note of inherent human link with the “other,” link of appreciation, need, attention to and from the “other,” calls to mind Immanuel Levinas’s beautiful notion of the right of “face of the other” on us and also reminds of Richard Rorty’s misplaced notion of human solidarity.   Not only that the human heart can absorb an infinite variety of loves, the human heart also has a deeply rooted longing: eternity.  This strong love for eternity lies under all of one’s loves: when one loves something, s/he imagines it to be eternal, for the human heart cannot love but the eternal. ^[15]

    This interconnectedness, intense capacity of love and appreciation does sound as a virtue, but alas, for a life with no opening to the transcendence, it only exacerbates one’s share from pain.  For, given the continuous flux in the world, nothing remains, the beloveds depart without a farewell, aging, degeneration, and death proves to be the end of all beauty. Consequently, the boundless love brings boundless pain. ^[16]

     Nursi never loses sight of the fact that the suffering comes precisely from being human: only a human being is fully connected with all the universe can love all and thus can suffer from the yearning for all; only a human being can yearn for eternity and be hurt by the fana.  In this insightful analysis Nursi is guided by Abraham’s (upon him be peace) cry in the Qur’an: “la uhibbul afilin,” [I do not love those that set] ^[17] is intensely human and Abraham’s celebrated faithfulness starts with his being honest with this fitra.  The crucial point, however, is that this uniquely human pain is meaningful only when it propels one to look for a true healing, not a symptomatic one.   In a state where one cannot find, unlike Abraham, the opening to the Eternal, all great delicate potentials and capacities that make one a real human lose their worth.  Even that great intellect, which enables one to question, remember, and make analogies, becomes a painful tool.  For, in the absence of the light of faith, the human intellect only helps to multiply suffering.  After all, only a thinking being can recognize in the face of one separation the sign of all separations. ^[18]   As, Nursi notes the intellect becomes “an ill-omened, noxious and debilitating tool that will burden your weak person with all the sad sorrows of the past and the terrifying fears of the future; it will descend to the rank of an inauspicious and destructive tool.” ^[19]

     Furthermore, the intense human love for the beauty, perfection, and taste becomes unbearable in the absence of a transcendent dimension.   For the beauty seems fleeting, the perfection seems unattainable and all the gifts of life are tainted with fana, temporariness. Since the human being longs for eternity, all her pleasures as well as her virtues are dependent on the eternity.  In the absence of connection with eternity, the human ability to care, to be devoted to, to appreciate, to be faithful starts to feather.  ^[20]  The love for beauty metamorphoses into a hatred for beauty.  In order to console herself in the face of impending separation, the lover of the beauty starts cursing it.  Indeed, an unattainable beauty means ugliness:

    One time a celebrated beautiful woman expelled a lover from her presence, whereupon his love turned into enmity and in order to console himself, he said: “Ugh! How ugly she is!” thus insulting and denying her beauty.  Indeed, man is hostile to what is unfamiliar to him in the same way that he quite simply wishes to be hostile to and discover the faults of things he cannot obtain or possess…[Indeed] man would only be able to cure the deep wounds caused by eternal separation from an Absolute Beauty that he loves and whose value he appreciates through enmity towards it, being vexed with, and denying it.  ^[21]

     All this, however, is a contradiction:  the most noble of creation seems to be more wretched than an insect, her high capacities seem to be meant for nothing but suffering, and the beauty paradoxically ends up being equated with ugliness.  Yet this contradiction cannot be accepted: the world displays too much beauty to be in reality a thinly veiled ugliness, the wisdom in the nature seems to give lie to the conclusion that all these human capacities are meant for no use.  This pain must mean something else, and in the Risale i Nur it means that we need a new perspective on life.

Part 2: Life as a Mirror to the Divine Names

Ya ayyuhannasu antum al fuqara illallah wallahu huwa al ghaniyyul hamid  ^[22] Qur’an 35:15

     The tensions of autonomy can only be relieved through recognizing the real meaning of existence.  This meaning of existence, the Risale-i Nur explains, is to point to its Creator.  The world with all its continuous flux is a book, which speaks of the Asma al Husna of its Creator.  Indeed, the whole flow of life is like a river running under the sun: each creature comes to this world, shines with the manifestations of Beautiful Names of God in differing levels, becomes a “sign” of God’s mercy, power, knowledge and love-, and then leaves, declaring that it is just a mirror, and not the Sun itself.  Since the source of all these shadows, the “Pre-eternal Sun of the universe” is eternal, one need not be overwhelmed with the temporariness of the light of “bubbles” in the river. ^[23] When one realizes the real beauty is enduring, she will stop being devastated with separation.  Instead of spoiling the pleasure, the flux in the world will increase her pleasure, for it would be a renewal of different manifestations. ^[24]

      The human heart can be in peace only when it is realized that the world is a place of tasting, not a place of quenching the thirst. The world, then, is a temporary guest house, whose Generous and Glorious Maker makes the human being witness from different ‘embroideries of the Beautiful Names’ so as to invite her to a permanent abode.  In the light of seeing this Eternal meaning, all the human qualities become meaningful and worthwhile: “to be sure, human being is temporary, but is created for the eternity, as a mirror to the Eternal One, and are given a mission that would have eternal fruits.”   Thus his task is to  “hold on to” the Eternal Names with all her tools and faculties, abilities, to turn her face towards the Baqi, the Eternal.  Just as her tongue would say “ya Baqi,” her heart, her soul, intellect and all feelings would say so, too. And thus her life would become a true worship. ^[25] 

     Indeed, the One who ‘installed’ such a yearning for eternity and perfection in human heart did not do this so as to make her an enemy of His beauty. Rather, human being is destined for eternity.  The spectator and admirer of the eternal beauty will be given eternity, for an enduring beauty only enduring spectators are fitting. ^[26]

      In this perspective, the intense human neediness and vulnerability also become a background over which the generosity and power of the Creator is reflected.  The person’s care and worry about her past and future, about her environment, her yearning for the eternity, her diverse, and infinite needs all become tools to enjoy the Divine gifts.  And, to enjoy and offer thanks forms the basis of ‘ubudiyyah. ^[27]

    Man is a living machine who is grieved with thousands of different sorrows and receives pleasure in thousands of different ways, and despite his utter impotence has innumerable enemies, physical and spiritual, and despite his infinite poverty, has countless needs, external and inner, and is a wretched creature continuously suffering the blows of death and separation.

    Yet, through belief and worship, he at once becomes connected to such a Glorious Monarch he finds a point of support against all his enemies and a source of help for all his needs, and like everyone takes pride at the honour and rank of the lord to whom he is attached, you can compare for yourselves how pleased and grateful and thankful and full of pride man becomes at being connected through belief to an infinitely Powerful and Compassionate Monarch, at entering His service through worship, and transforming for himself the announcement of the execution of the appointed hour into the papers releasing him from duty. ^[28]

     Just as with hunger the taste of food increases, by recognizing her inherent weakness and poverty, human being enjoys seeking refuge/ trusting the Merciful and Powerful One.  The different needs, ‘stomachs,’ become windows to the bounties of the Creator. The human being becomes a ‘machine of thanks.’  If it were not her need for food, for health, for friends, etc., human being would not be able to appreciate the divine bounties and recognize the divine names such as the Sustainer, the Healer, the Generous, the Powerful, and the Wise.   Indeed,

    As a result of this important comprehensiveness of man, the Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One has given him a stomach and appetite through which He allows him to understand all His Names and to taste all the varieties of His bounty, and He has generously laden the table with endless varieties of foods for man’s stomach. He has made life a stomach too, like the physical one, and before the senses, which are like the hands of the stomach of life, has spread a most extensive table of bounties. Through its senses, life offers thanks for each sort of benefit on the table of bounties. ^[29]

    This neediness indeed marks human being from the angels, “even the angels cannot know [these Divine bounties] in this manner.” ^[30]  It is this comprehensiveness of human nature that made Adam (upon him be peace) the vicegerent of God on earth and earned the prostration of angels before him. ^[31]

    With this aim of ubudiyyah, i.e. so as to witness and taste the signs on the face of creation and know and praise the Creator with His Asma al Husna, the human being’s experience in the world, including seemingly harsh experiences, becomes meaningful.  In order to explain this, Nursi gives the metaphor of a great tailor who hires a poor man as his model so as to display on him his wonderful art of dressmaking.  The tailor swiftly dresses the model with a beautiful garment and then starts to change the dress to display other beautiful styles.  In this situation does the model have the right to complain by saying, “why are you changing my beautiful garment and giving me discomfort by making me stand up and sit down?”  Surely he does not.  Similarly:

    in order to display the impresses of His Most Beautiful Names, the All-Glorious Maker, the Peerless Creator, alters within numerous circumstances the garment of existence He clothes on living creatures, bejewelled with senses and subtle faculties like eyes, ears, the reason, and the heart. He changes it within very many situations. Among these are circumstances in the form of suffering and calamity which show the meanings of some of His Names, and the rays of mercy within flashes of wisdom, and the subtle instances of beauty within those rays of mercy. ^[32]

     With this aim of ‘ubudiyyah, the relationship with the ‘other’ also becomes meaningful and enjoyable.  For, this encourages the believer to see the signs of God on the face of the other, i.e. to read the signs of the Glorious Maker all over the universe and worship God in praise and humility.  The joy of the other becomes her joy, and enables her to increase her praise to the Creator.  And her care for the other enhances her prayer and seeking refuge in God.  The comprehensiveness of human interest in “other” means a bigger abode for knowing and loving God.   Moreover, when the person is aware that her relations with the others are not limited to this temporary world, her ability to care and sacrifice for the other will be enhanced.  Furthermore, in this new picture, each of the human faculties has a higher function. The intellect, for instance, becomes a key for unlocking the Divine wisdom in the universe, while the eyes becomes a beholder of the Divine art. ^[33]

    There are many aspects that human being shares with other beings, like all other creatures she is also a letter making known the Creator.  A crucial difference, however, is that human being has self-consciousness, thus consciously reads the other as well her own self as a sign.  This self-consciousness, ana or I, serves as a point of reference in one’s knowledge of God.  The I, in fact, is the vital link in witnessing the names of God from the universe.  It is this capacity to know God through I which differentiates and elevates humans above all creation. For, even though an animal can also show mercy to its young, build a nest, or plan a plot, it does not have the self-consciousness in doing them, thus cannot relate to the Divine Names such as Merciful, Creator, and Wise. ^[34] 

Indeed, human being not only knows and adores the Creator through witnessing His art and bounty, but also becomes a mirror to the Divine through her conscious act.

     As repeatedly mentioned in the Risale-i Nur, human being is a microcosm, carrying in herself the key to whole universe:  A sample from each universe [‘alam] is trusted to human nature.  If the human being can use each of her faculties so as to thank God and obeys the shariah [Divne Law], then she becomes a window to each of these universes in which the divine names and attributes are manifested.  Through this she becomes a window to the Divine. ^[35]

The idea that in order to reflect the divine names perfectly one needs to submit to the Divine Law is a very interesting point, worth being a topic of separate paper.  Here, one can only note in passing that Nursi explicitly agrees with Ibn Arabi’s interpretation of the “so that they may know me” as “so that they reflect My beauty.” ^[36]

Conclusion

      Risale-i Nur’s answer to the question of meaning of life is deeply rooted in the Quran.   The light of the Qur’an infuses this seeming chaos with meaning, or rather reveals the meaning of life in general and human life in particular.  This meaning, as the Quran demonstrates, perfectly fits with human experience in the world.  Since human being is inextricably linked with the whole universe, her recognition of her purpose in life is directly linked with reading the universe as a mirror to the Divine.  A bird is also a meaningful word, an ode to the Creator, and all creation says bismillah.  Human being is part of this harmony, with the addition that, she carries the most comprehensive capacities to appreciate and reflect these great meanings.   

    Risale-i Nur explains this purposeful way of life as a journey in several dimensions. The first dimension is to witness and taste the different bounties spread in afaq, the outer world, and offer praises and thanks to the Creator. The second dimension is to connect, through an inner journey (in anfus, through ana), the different manifestations of Beautiful Names of God in all these bounties.  Third, is the level of being a mirror to these Names as well as the Divine Essence through conscious obedience to the fitra [human nature] and Shariah.  Only to the extent these aims of life are enacted, the seemingly meaningless and horrifying flux of life becomes a meaningful, worthwhile and a satisfying experience.       

     The aim of human life as worshipping God is neither against human nature, nor it is a closed tautology that gets stuck in the level of temporality of being human.  To put in Tillich’s words again, it is neither about autonomy, where the human seeks meaning only within itself, without reference to the Transcendent, and ends up in tensions and ironies.  Nor is this purpose of life an imposition from outside, a type of “heteronomy,” in which human being is alienated from herself by surrendering to a foreign authority.   Rather this purpose of life is “theonomy”, the state of finding one’s true freedom and fulfillment by submitting to and being a mirror to God, who is one’s “ground” of existence.  The tensions in the soul, the needs, the yearnings, are healed. The healing is not a closure but an opening in that it appreciates dynamism as well as the colorfulness of life.

      I would like to end on a practical note.  Risale-i Nur’s recovery of the concept of worship with its holistic approach to the Qur’an enables us to understand not only human reality but also the Qur’an better. The verses following the “I have not created the jinn and human beings to any end other than they may [know and] worship me” (51:56)  are: “No sustenance do I ever demand of them, nor do I demand that they feed Me: for verily, God Himself is the Provider of all sustenance, the Lord of all might, the Eternal!” (51:57-58).  Nursi understands these verses as emphasizing the primacy of ‘ubudiyyah as the purpose of life.  That is, working for livelihood or survival cannot be the main aim of one’s life, since it is God who ensures the survival, not the human being.  But, what does this mean in the light of the fact that a crucial part of human life is spent on livelihood?  Nursi reads the verse very carefully here and he infers that even the effort for livelihood should be a part of worship.  Even that work has to be done with the orientation of ‘ubudiyyah, as a part of one’s recognition of the Creator and as a means to know and reflect Him better through the manifestations of Asma, such as Razzaq, Rahim and Hakim. ^[37]  This must be a reason why the Shari’ah approves leaving the mosque after Friday prayer for looking for livelihood: “And when the prayer is ended, disperse freely on earth and seek to obtain of God’s bounty and remember God of often.”  (62:10)