Modern interpretation of the Qur’an: The contribution of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

This book aims to analyse distinguished modern Muslim scholar Said Nursi and the methodology of his Qur’anic exegesis in his Risale-i Nur Collection with special reference to the views of the early Muslim modernist intellectuals such as Muhammad ‘Abduh. It seeks to locate Nursi within modern Qur’anic scholarship, exploring the difference between Nursi’s reading of the Qur’an and that of his counterparts. It examines how Nursi relates the Qur’anic text to concerns of the modern period.

The existing literature indicates Nursi’s multi-disciplinary approach in his collection. Nursi has a Qur’an-based methodology and combined the essence of what the Islamic disciplines included in a different form. This book emphasizes that Nursi’s revival of Islam and his renewal (tajdid) are based on Islamic systematic theology (kalām), and Nursi seeks to formulate an Islamic metaphysics and theology primarily based on the Qur’an by using multiple fields. Moreover, Nursi’s collection is a kind of spiritual exegesis (maʿnawī tafsīr), a commentary on the Qur’an’s meanings. In addition, while the main books of the collection can also be considered as a kind of thematic exegesis, he primarily developed the theory of the word-order (naẓm) in his one-volume commentary on the Qur’an.