ABSTRACT
In 1955, some dozen Arabic rasā’il [epistles; treatises] of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi were collected, edited, and collated as the single-volume compendium alMathnāwī al-‘Arabī al-Nūrī (or, Mathnawi al-Nuriye, as it will be called here).1 These essays date from 1920-21, a period of self-imposed spiritual retreat from political activism and military service. It was during this period of deep theological reflection and personal transformation that Nursi (now in his 40s) began to call himself the “New Said.”2 Among this set of Arabic essays we find Lā Siyyamā (In Particular): a treatise on the certainty of life beyond earthly existence. In this chapter, I comment on the structure of this treatise, reflect upon its themes, and locate it in the Nursi canon as a whole. I do this as a Christian moral theologian in the Anglican tradition who has long enjoyed the close reading of classical Islamic writings on the doctrine of resurrection.
