ZANDAQA – زندقة

 

Literally means: Heresy, ditheism, materialism and absolute atheism. Etymologically rooted in ancient Persian religious deviations, it denotes lawlessness and the total rejection of the decrees of Allah.

As an Islamic Term: The organised, irreligious currents and covert committees that actively work to undermine the foundations of Islam. In the light of the Risale-i Nur, it represents a systematic, ideological and destructive warfare aimed at corrupting the îmân and morality of society under the guise of progressivism or philosophy. It operates not merely through individual disbelief, but as an aggressive, collective movement seeking to substitute the order of Allah with a secularised existence.

Selected excerpts from the Risale-i Nur on zandaqa:

My ‘azîz brother, that Topic1 holds immense importance. For the master (ustadh) of the disciples of zandaqa is shaytan. If shaytan is not confounded and refuted, his imitators cannot be dissuaded.

26th Letter/4th Discussion-Sixth Matter

 

My ‘azîz, siddiq brother, and a zealous and earnest companion in this fleeting world!

…

Thirty years ago, while I was a member of the Dar al-Hikmah, one day one of our friends, a fellow member of the Dar al-Hikmah, Sayyid Sa‘deddin Pasha, said to me:

‘I have been informed through a reliable source; a zandaqa committee, whose roots are abroad and whose presence is here, has read a work of yours. They said: “If the author of this work remains alive in this world, we will never be able to make this nation accept our path (that is, zandaqa, which is irreligion). We must eliminate his existence.” Thus, they have decreed your execution. Protect yourself.’

And I replied: تَوَكَّلْتُ عَلَى اللهِ2

The appointed time of death is decreed and it does not alter.

Indeed, for thirty or forty years, this committee has both expanded and employed every kind of intrigue in its struggle against me. They have attempted to imprison me twice for my extermination and to poison me eleven times (it has now become nineteen times). Their latest terrible plan has been to deploy the former minister of the interior, the former governor of Afyon and the former acting district governor of Emirdağ against me, thereby using the influence of the official government against me with all its severity.

Although I saw that those three official authorities directed such propaganda against a helpless one like me — who is weak, elderly, reclusive, poor, in ghurbah and in great need of assistance — and intimidated everyone to such an extent that if an official greeted me, they would reassign him the moment they found out, meaning no official except spies ever visited me, and some of my neighbours out of their fear never greeted me at all; the ‘inâyah and protection of Allah granted me a patience and endurance. This unprecedented torture and this oppression did not compel me to bow down to them.

Emirdağ Addendum-1 ( 193 )

 

The authorities of the government, the politicians, the administration officials, the officials of public order, the judiciary and the police have absolutely no business with us. If they ever do, it is only that through the bigotry of zandaqa, arising from kufr al-mutlaq — which no government in the world can defend and no rational person would like — and arising from a terrible plague upon humanity caused by materialism, certain secret zindiqs deceive and incite certain official authorities against us by causing them to fall into groundless apprehensions through shaytanic deceit.

And we say: Let alone a few such deluded officials, even if they were to incite the entire world against us, by the power of the Qur’an and through the ‘inâyah of Allah, we will not flee. We will never lay down our arms to that apostate kufr al-mutlaq and to that zandaqa!

Said Nursî

The Twelfth Ray