Üsküdar University Risale-i Nur Research Platform (RİNAP) discussed the Journey of Translating Risale-i Nur into Arabic in the program it organized. The guest of the program, held via Zoom, was Author İhsan Kasım Salihi. The moderation of the program was carried out by the Head of the Philosophy Department of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof. Dr. İbrahim Özdemir.
“The ethics of Nur students inspired Risale-i Nur”
Salihi, stating that the Nur students possess warmth of faith and warmth of love, said; “The ethics of Nur students inspired Risale-i Nur. That is, what I saw in Nur students is the warmth of faith, the warmth of love, the warmth of sincerity. Nur students do not know Arabic, they have not studied much fiqh, they have been deprived of the call to prayer and prayer for a long time, but still, I saw that they possess a much higher faith than us. This is the blessing of Risale-i Nur. El Ansar-i resolved two things in his answer. He said that Risale-i Nur is the interpretation of Esmaü’l Hüsna, of Islam, from beginning to end. It explains Esmaü’l Hüsna from beginning to end. Whenever the duty of Esmaü’l Hüsna on earth ends, Risale-i Nur will also end then. Otherwise, Risale-i Nur will always continue. Secondly, there was a glass in front of him. He lifted it and said, ‘Look, this glass is full of honey.’ Someone, a chemist, comes, takes that glass and says, ‘It contains this much of this, and that much of that.’ He puts a label on the glass and says, ‘Honey contains these.’ He says, ‘True, honey is this much.’ Now, this is not honey; it is a sacred verse. An interpreter comes and explains it. Then Üstat Hazretleri comes, opens the lid of this honey, takes out a spoonful of honey, and puts it in his mouth. You taste the honey, you get its flavor. Now, when Üstat Hazretleri puts a verse at the beginning of a Risale, you see it speaking of something else. He puts you in a position to understand that verse and to live by that verse.”
“As if Allah formed a committee”
İhsan Kasım Salihi, talking about how he decided to translate and how he was supported, said; “They forced me into translation. I am not a translator. Neither my Turkish nor my Arabic is at that level, but may Allah be pleased with the brothers and the cultured people around us who said, ‘You know better than us, you do it and we will help.’ One says, ‘I will help with literature,’ another says, ‘I will help with grammar,’ another says, ‘I will help with writing,’ and another says, ‘I will help with the hadiths in the footnotes...’ It was as if the destiny of the Lord of the Worlds formed a committee. This committee was from Kirkuk, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, and Mosul. That is, it was a committee from northern Iraq. We also have some brothers from Baghdad. So, people in such a large area. We had a brother, Süleyman. He was very good at Turkish and Arabic. I begged him to do it. He said, ‘I can’t, you do it.’ I would do it, show it to him, and he would read it. He would say, ‘İhsan, this paragraph smells of translation.’ What is the smell of translation? He would say, ‘When an Arab reads this, they will say that an Arab did not write it, a Turk wrote it.’ That’s why he would tell me to translate it again, and I would go and re-translate it.”
“He makes mistakes as a human”
Salihi, recounting an anecdote he experienced with a Nur student in Australia, said; “We went to Australia, where there were lessons for Nur students. During the lesson, someone stood up and said, ‘Does the master make mistakes?’ This is a bit heavy. How can you say ‘the master makes mistakes’ in front of Nur students? Yes, he does, he makes mistakes as a human, but who knows his mistakes? Me? Now, I said, think about it. There’s a heart surgeon, a successful, professor doctor in this field. He has opened your brother’s chest and is working on his heart. Can you say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ Can you say, ‘How did you touch my brother’s heart with a knife?’ Who else can say to him, ‘You are making a mistake’? It’s possible, but we don’t know it, so let’s know our limits.”