Nurism () is an

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

movement that was founded in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

in the early 20th century and based on the writings of Said Nursi (1877–1960).Svante E. Cornell ''Azerbaijan Since Independence'' M.E. Sharpe p. 283 His movement is based on

Hanafi The Hanafi school or Hanafism is the oldest and largest Madhhab, school of Islamic jurisprudence out of the four schools within Sunni Islam. It developed from the teachings of the Faqīh, jurist and theologian Abu Hanifa (), who systemised the ...

law and further incorporates elements of

Sufism Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

. He emphasized the importance of salvation in both this life and the

afterlife The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's Stream of consciousness (psychology), stream of consciousness or Personal identity, identity continues to exist after the death of their ...

through education and freedom, the synthesis of Islam and science, and democracy as the best form of governance within the rule of law. Through faith by inquiry instead of faith by imitation, Muslims would reject philosophies such as

positivism Positivism is a philosophical school that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positivemeaning '' a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. Gerber, ''Soci ...

materialism Materialism is a form of monism, philosophical monism according to which matter is the fundamental Substance theory, substance in nature, and all things, including mind, mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. Acco ...

and

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the Existence of God, existence of Deity, deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the ...

emerging from the

Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...

at the time. His notion of sharia is twofold.

Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...

applies to the voluntary actions of human beings and denotes the set of laws of nature. Both of them ultimately derive from one source, God. His works on the Quran in the '' Risale-i Nur'' were translated into almost all of the languages of

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. The Nur Movement promotes the concept of the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

as a "

living document A living document, also known as an evergreen document or dynamic document, is a document that is continually edited and updated. An example of a living document is an article in Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that permits anyone to freely edi ...

" which needs to be continually re-interpreted. From the Nur Movement other movements such as the

Gülen movement The Gülen movement () or Hizmet movement () is an Islamist fraternal movement. It is a sub-sect of Sunni Islam based on a Nursian theological perspective as reflected in Fethullah Gülen's religious teachings. It is referred to by its membe ...

derived. The group was opposed by the government during the 1960s and 1970s as an Islamist movement. The group became substantially fragmented in the 1970s and 1980s. In a 1999 academic publication, the Nur movement was said to have between 2 and 6 millions adherents. After Said Nursi's death on March 23, 1960, many Nurist groups emerged as a result of differences of opinion on issues such as the understanding of governance, view of political events, ethnic origin, and service method. It was stated by Said Nursi that "people who are alleged to be hidden enemies" broke the unity of the Nurists. In 2009, a number of people affiliated with the Nurist movement were arrested in Azerbaijan.

References

{{Authority control Sunni Islamic branches Quranic exegesis Naqshbandi order