Bediüzzaman Saïd Nursi’s writings are foundational texts. They speak to the audiences of the time in which they were created, but also speak to succeeding generations—in Nursi’s case both in the original Turkish and through translation for new audiences in other languages. In translation, Nursi’s writings are often accompanied by sensitive introductory essays on how to comprehend Nursi, the appeal to his original audience, and his lasting significance.

Colin Turner’s analysis of Nursi’s Epistles of Light presents Nursi’s commentary on the Qur’an in an especially interesting manner for an English-speaking audience. Some Qur’anic commentaries adhere specifically to the text in question. Qur’anic commentary (tafsir) is an established Muslim genre for thinking about the basics of faith, belief and existence. Often, however, the original text serves as a touchstone for thinking about wider issues merely inspired by the original text. In this sense, Nursi’s Epistles of Light is “good to think with” (bon a penser), to borrow a phrase from Claude Lévi-Strauss. The topics of Nursi’s epistles—including nature and causality, belief and unbelief, righteous action, sincerity and brotherhood, love, and politics—cover the gamut of human existence and reflections on humankind’s place in the universe.

Colin Turner’s The Qur’an Revealed is a remarkable exercise in “thick description,” a method of inquiry popularly associated with Clifford Geertz, that places a text or set of events in a context that allows outsiders to understand its significance. Moreover, Turner’s text emulates Nursi’s in style. Turner basically offers a commentary on Said’s commentary, explaining the context of Nursi’s ideas, attempting the Herculean task of “reflecting the ebbs and flows of Nursi’s own personal intellectual and spiritual development over time.” Turner projects us into the past and leads us into Nursi’s world, and the incremental transformation of what many call the “old Said” into the “new Said.”

We benefit from Turner’s close reading of the Epistles, which takes us into Said’s constantly developing world of ideas. Many critical commentaries double as lapidary guides to the original. Turner invites us, as did Nursi in the original Epistles, to slow down and reflect on the broader significance of words, events and things. Turner’s approach invites the reader to a slower, more focused pace away from the invocation of a large number of external texts and secondary sources. It is hard to think of a more apt companion to Nursi’s Epistles of Light.