I do not have the time to weigh up the ideas of Mustafa Sabri and those of Musa Bekûf. I shall only say this much, that the one was excessive, and the other, deficient. Mustafa Sabri was right relatively to Musa Bekuf, but it is not right to denigrate someone like Muhyiddin who was a miracle of the Islamic sciences.

Yes, himself, Muhyiddin was rightly-guided and acceptable, but in all his works cannot be the guide and instructor. Since he very often proceeded in the realities without balance, he opposed the rules of the Sunnis and some of the things he said apparently express misguidance. However, he himself is free of misguidance. Sometimes, a word may appear to be unbelief, but the one who spoke it is not an unbeliever. Mustafa Sabri did not take these points into consideration; he was extreme concerning certain points of Sunni law, due to bigotry.

As for Musa Bekûf, due to being excessively in favour of renewal and because of the concessions he made to modernity in respect of his ideas, he was very much in error. He corrupts some of the truths of Islam with his false interpretations. By holding someone rejected like Abu’l-A’la al-Ma’arrî to be superior to authoritative scholars, and favouring disproportionately matters of Muhyiddin opposing the Sunnis because they suited his own ideas, he went far to excess.

Muhyiddin said: “Those who are not one of us and do not know our station should not read our books, for it may be damaging for them.” Yes, at this time it is harmful to read Muhyiddin’s books, especially the matters about the Unity of Existence.

S a i d N u r s i

FOOTNOTES

1. Mustafa Sabri(1869-1954). A leading religious scholar and public figure in the last decades of the Ottoman Empire, he was publisher of the journal Beyanu’l-Hak, and Shaykhu’l-Islâm 1919-1920. He left Turkey in 1922, and remained in exile in Egypt till his death.

2. Mûsa Jarullah Bigi(yef). A native of Turkestan and ‘reformist’ Islamic scholar and prominent figure. He was sent into exile by the Russians 1904 together with Abdurrashid Ibrahim, and was the author of many works.