Thus, in the course of time the belief of the mass of believers in the fundamentals of Islam had lost its vitality, primarily as a result of the doubts and scepticism planted in the common mind by philosophy of Western origin. This process had received a powerful impetus with the deliberate policy of Westernization favoured since the establishment of the Republic. It was the Risale-i Nur with its concentration on developing belief from being merely imitative into "certain" belief, and into the degrees beyond this, that had the ability to reverse the decline and help rebuild the structure of Islam. While in Kastamonu Bediuzzaman wrote The Supreme Sign, to which he attached great importance as one of the parts of the Risale-i Nur most effective at developing "certain belief". We can look at it briefly in order to learn both what Bediuzzaman meant by belief of this kind, and the new method he put forward in the Risale-i Nur by which it could be attained.

#### The Supreme Sign

The Supreme Sign

The Supreme Sign is a key to understanding Bediuzzaman's view of existence and his way of worshipping, for he said of it that he wrote it for himself according to his own understanding. [^157] The treatise comprises "the observations of a traveller questioning the universe about his Maker", and describes a journey in the mind through the universe made by a traveller most curious to learn about and become acquainted with "the Owner of this fine guesthouse, the Author of this vast book, the Monarch of this mighty realm." He questions first the heavens with their suns and stars and heavenly bodies, then the atmosphere with its thunder and lightning, winds, clouds and rain, then the earth, and so on, each of which proves the necessary existence and unity of its Maker. With the "thirty-three degrees in the necessary existence and Unity of the Creator" proclaimed by these "thirty-three universal tongues", it forms thirty-three degrees of belief. That is to say, as the traveller travels through the universe questioning each of its realms and learning of their testimony to the Divine existence and Unity, his belief gains universality and strength with each degree, and passes from being "imitative belief" to the degree of "certain and true belief", and beyond.

[^157]:Nursi, Şualar, 82 (Eng. tr.: Rays, 123).

One of the central features in this new way which the Risale-i Nur opened up to renew and strengthen belief in God, is that it "blends" the heart and the mind. That is, both the reasoning faculty and the subtle inner