first step on the road to scientific advance and civilization:

Freedom has made manifest nationhood. The luminous jewel of Islam within the shell of nationhood has begun to appear. It has given news of Islam's stirring and motion [showing] that each Muslim is not independent like an atom, but is part of a compound, interconnected and ascending. Each is united with all the other parts through the general attraction of Islam. [^147]

[^147]:Nursi, Münâzarat, 23.

And:

Islamic Freedom and the consultation enjoined by the Shari'a have made manifest the sovereignty of our true nationhood. The foundation and spirit of our true nationhood is Islam... Thus, through the bond of this sacred nationhood, all the people of Islam become like a single tribe... They assist one another morally and if necessary, materially. [^148]

[^148]:Nursi Hutbe-i Şamiye, 47 (Eng. tr.: Damascus Sermon, 51).

A further point Bediuzzaman frequently stressed was that in this modern age material progress was the most effective way of 'upholding the Word of God', with which every believer is charged. In other words, it was a fundamental duty of all Ottomans and Muslims to work for progress.

Each believer is charged with 'upholding the Word of God'. In this age, the chief means of this is to progress materially, for the Europeans are morally crushing us under their tyranny with the weapons of science and industry. We, therefore, shall wage holy war with the weapons of science and industry on the greatest enemies of 'upholding the Word of God', which are ignorance, poverty, and conflicting ideas. And we shall refer external holy war to the diamond sword of the certain proofs of the illustrious Shari'a. For the civilized are to be conquered through persuasion and being convinced, not through compulsion as though they were savages who understand nothing. [^149]

[^149]:Nursi, "Hakikat," Volkan, No. 70, 26 Şubat 1325/5 March 1909, in Asar-ı Bedi'iyye, 368.

For Bediuzzaman, then, "Constitutionalism within the sphere of the Shari'a" was "the means of upholding the might of Islam and exalting the Word of God." [^150]

[^150]:Nursi, "Lemean-i Hakikat ve Izale-i Şübehat," Volkan, No. 101, 29 Mart 1325/11 April 1909, in Asar-ı Bedi'iyye, 393.