Ustad Nursi perceived the tremendous changes brought about by the new struggle and he faced them with the truths of the Qur'an, which he presented in the light of natural, rational logic and the sciences of his time.

Nursi was able to prove the Qur'an's miraculous nature on the basis of the completed section of his commentary comprising this present work, and to demonstrate to his readers and students that it is easy to adhere to his rational, learned, pleasurable way. He saw that it was appropriate and sufficient, so he dedicated the rest of his life to the most pressing question, that of saving the belief of Muslims at the time of an awesome worldwide struggle. As a result he wrote more than ten books and numerous treatises, which represented a new way, in order to inflict intellectual defeat on the atheistic enemies of Islam and those pursuing Westernization.

It would be an injustice to the present work to suggest that it contains nothing of the method Ustad Nursi developed for the new struggle; indeed, I can claim here from what I have learnt about his thought through reading his works of the later period, that there is no idea that he expounds, explains, and expands in those works but it is found in concise and essential form, or is elaborated, in this learned and substantial book, especially his presenting the fundamental Islamic beliefs in a contemporary scientific style. However in this book he was addressing his select students, combining the terminology of classical kalanı and the beginnings of his new method, which found its definitive form in the Risale-i Nur.

Perhaps it was because it is a true commentary on the Qur'an that the Risale-i Nur was given this name, and in truth Nursi persisted in expounding the Qur'an and teaching its verses to Muslims until the final moments of his life, so full of tribulations and sorrows, and knowledge and learning and calling others to adhere to Allâh's Book and the Sunna of His Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace).

The publication of this book in new form offers a fresh analysis of rhetoric and eloquence to those concerned with the critical study of contemporary works on the Qur'an's miraculousness, inimitability, and eloquence -especially scholarly circles. They will find expositions of the beliefs of Islam that utilize logical reasoning, augmented by the profound rational and scholarly discussions that Ustad Nursi appends to his analyses of the first part of Sura al-Baqara. (...)

(Prof.) Muhsin 'Abdulhamid, Faculty of Education, University of Baghdad

2 Sha'ban 1407/1987

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