Biography of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi | PART ONE - The Old Said | 20
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know all of them or none of them."
Whichever of the books Said studied, he would understand it without seeking the assistance of anyone else. He was able to study and master the most difficult works of two hundred pages or more, like Cem'u'1-Cevami’, Serhu'l-Mevakif, and ibnu' 1-Hacer in twenty-four hours. He gave himself over to studying to such a degree that all his ties with the outside world were cut. On whichever subject he was questioned, he would give the answer correctly and without hesitation.
While in Beyazid, Said passed much of his time, and even the nights, in the mausoleum of the Kurdish saint and literary figure Ahmed Hani, so that the people said he was specially privileged with Ahmed Hani's spiritual radiance. One night Said's friends from the medrese missed him and started searching for him. Finally they looked in the mausoleum and found him there studying by the light of a candle. But he rebuked them saying: "Why are you disturbing me in this way?" On the one hand Said thus plunged himself into studying, while on the other he started to follow the way of the Illuminist (israkiyyun) philosophers and to practice extreme self-discipline and asceticism. The Illuminists had accustomed their bodies to such practices gradually, but Said ignored the necessary period of adjustment and suddenly undertook the most rigorous ascetic exercises. His body could not support it and he grew progressively weaker. He would make one piece of bread last three days, trying to emulate the Illuminists in their practice of the theory `asceticism serves to expand the mind'.
Not being content with this, he followed Imam Gazzali's Sufistic interpretation of the Hadith, `Give up what you are doubtful about for that about which you have no doubts' from Ihya 'Ulumi'd-Din, and for a time gave up eating bread, even, and existed on grasses and plants. Furthermore, he rarely spoke.
At the end of three months, Said obtained his diploma from Seyh Mehmed Celali, the Principal of the Beyazid Medrese, and
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Biography of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi