The Eleventh Flash — The Stairway of the Sunna

On Birinci Lem'a

Eleven points on following the Prophet's practice (the Sunna) as the "antidote to the sickness of innovation": why adhering to it — even in small daily habits — turns ordinary acts into worship, guards belief against bid'at, and is the very path by which a person comes to be loved by God.

~12 min companion read

Companion notes — a map of the Flash, not Nursî’s own words.

"The Stairway of the Practices of the Prophet and Antidote for the Sickness of Innovations." Originally intended as the Fifth Flash; it ran to eleven points and so became the Eleventh.

Opening verses

قُلْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللَّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللَّهُ

“Say: "If you should love Allah, then follow me, [so] Allah will love you."” Qur'an 3:31

Translation: Sahih International

Arabic verse text is shown as-is. English meanings are limited, attributed quotations of individual verses for study reference.

Outline

Our structural map of the Flash.

Points 1–2 — the worth of the Sunna

A Hadith: holding to the Sunna when the community is corrupt earns "the reward of a hundred martyrs"; the brightest saints, Imam Rabbani says, made the Sunna the basis of their way.

Points 3–4 — two awakenings

Personal passages from Nursî's turn to the "New Said": his spiritual storm, and a vision of himself as a corpse amid the dying of all things.

Points 5 & 10 — "If you love God, follow me"

The verse (3:31) read as a tight logical chain: love of God leads to resembling His Beloved, which is following him, which draws down God's love — man's highest goal.

Point 6 — the degrees of the Sunna, and innovation

"All innovations are misguidance": since the religion was perfected (5:3), to slight the Sunna for novelties is bid'at; the Sunna's compulsory, voluntary and laudable degrees.

Points 7–9 — courtesy, compassion, and intention

The Sunna is good conduct (edeb); turning from it slights the Prophet's compassion (9:128); where one cannot follow every practice, intention and inclination still count, and following daily habits as he did turns them into worship.

Point 11 — the sources and categories of the Sunna

The Sunna flows from his words, acts and conduct, each in three categories — obligatory, voluntary and laudable.

Companion summary

The Eleventh Flash — “The Stairway of the Practices of the Prophet and Antidote for the Sickness of Innovations” — sets out, in eleven points, why following the Prophet’s example (the sünnet) matters so much, especially in an age when it is being let go.

Its opening points press the worth of the Sunna: a Hadith promises that whoever holds to it when the community is corrupt receives “the reward of a hundred martyrs,” and Nursî recalls Imam Rabbani’s testimony that the brightest of all the saints were those who made the Sunna the ground of their path. Following it, he argues, recalls the Prophet directly — and that recollection turns into an awareness of God’s presence, so that even eating, drinking and sleeping, done as he did them, become a kind of worship. Two more personal points record the spiritual storms of Nursî’s own turning, including a stark vision of himself as a corpse standing amid the dying of all living things.

At the centre is the verse “If you love God, follow me, and God will love you” (3:31), which he reads as a tight chain of reasoning: to love God is to want to act as He loves; that means resembling the one He loves; and resembling him means following him — so the road to being loved by God runs through the Sunna, which Nursî calls man’s highest goal. Against this he sets innovation (bid’at): because the religion was already “perfected” (5:3), to discard the Sunna for novelties quietly implies it was lacking — “all innovations are misguidance.” He is careful, though, to map the Sunna’s degrees (compulsory, voluntary, laudable) and to lighten the burden: not everyone can keep every practice, but intention, inclination and support for it still count, and even keeping the Prophet’s daily manners turns habit into worship. A final point traces the Sunna to its sources — his words, his acts, his conduct.

Read whole, the Flash is both an argument and an invitation; in Nursî’s own words it carries a warmth a summary can only point to. The full text is linked above.

Key concepts

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