The Utility of Analogical Reasoning for Knowing God in the Secular Age: A Nursian Perspective

Ibn Arabi’s famous statement to Imam Razi that knowing God is different from knowing His existence is generally held true among Muslims. Ideally, knowing God entails for Muslims building a connection with Him through a recognition of His attributes. The Islamic tradition has developed many methods to enable this recognition and connection, but the advent of modernity mostly dismantled the institutional structures wherein those methods could be operationalized. The famous scholar of Islam from the late Ottoman Empire and early Turkish Republic, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1878-1960), revitalized one such method with Qur’anic foundations and prevalence among the earlier generations of Muslims to deliver knowledge of God in the adverse conditions of the “Secular Age.” Based on the concurrence of the information that can be attained from the Qur’an, the Prophetic example, empirical observation of the cosmos, and the human self, this method Nursi called “analogical reasoning” (kıyas-ı temsilî) appears uniquely versatile in inferring what he claimed to be “demonstrative” knowledge about God and His creation from observed reality. In this presentation, we will try to understand the foundations of Nursi’s method of analogical reasoning.