“Imagining or reflecting on unbelief is not unbelief, and picturing or reflecting on misguidance is not misguidance. For imagination, conceptualization, picturing, and reflection are different from confirmation by reason and acceptance by heart; they are voluntary to certain degree. It is hard for the free will to control them so that we should be answerable for them.

Confirmation and acceptance are deliberate, for they depend on certain criteria and intentional reasoning. In addition, just as the former are not the same mental activities as confirmation and acceptance, neither are they the same as doubt and hesitation. However, they may pave the way to doubt if they are repeated unnecessarily and become established. If people continually support the opposing side on the pretext of objective reasoning or fairness, they may favor it involuntarily and thereby fall into danger.”¹⁾

“There are levels of knowledge in the mind that can be confused with one another and whose results are different. One first imagines something, then conceives of it, and clothes it in a form.

Afterwards, one reasons and reflects on this thing, then confirms it, and then has full conviction of it. Then they fully support it; then they become committed or devoted to it.

Your commitment is different, and so is your support, each of which results in a different state or attitude:

Steadfastness arises from commitment or devotion, while adherence comes from support or advocacy. Compliance proceeds from conviction and partiality from reasoning, while no ideas are formed at the level of conception.

If you remain at the level of imagination, the result will be sophistry. A beautiful, scenic description of falsehood and deceptive things will both injure and mislead simple minds.”²⁾

“One of the most dangerous stratagems of Satan is that he causes some sensitive and simple-minded people to confuse imagining unbelief with confirmation of unbelief. He shows the unintentional perception of misguidance as misguidance itself, and causes some ugly thoughts and concepts to occur to such people. Also, by presenting a possible occurrence as an intentional conviction of its possibility, he leads people to worry about the certainty of their belief. Consequently, such poor, simple people imagine that they have fallen into misguidance or unbelief, and despairing of their belief, they become a plaything for Satan. Satan works both on their despair and these weak spots, and confused by what is imaginary and what is the reality, they either go mad, or actually embrace misguidance in utter despair that there is no longer anything else to do.”³⁾

“The Words that have been written are not imagination or conception but affirmation, not mere submission but faith, not knowledge but witnessing, not imitation but verification, not mere commitment but full conviction, not mysticism but truth, not just a claim but proof within the claim itself.”⁴⁾

“Every believer’s prayer is a kind of ascension for him. And the words worthy of that Divine Presence are those spoken during the Great Ascension of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. By reciting them, that sacred conversation is recalled. Through that recollection, the meanings of those blessed words expand from the particular to the universal; their vast and holy significance is envisioned or may be envisioned. And by that envisioning, their worth and light grow and are elevated.”⁵⁾

“Existence is related to being and/or identity, nature and the existent beings themselves, and is unquestionably manifest. This is a view shared by numerous Muslim thinkers, as well as by many modern philosophers. However, existence is different from the existent beings, identity, and nature. The existing being and nature are conceived of before existence. For example, we can conceive of an amount of water with its being or identity and nature, even if it does not exist here. Its existence is additional and accidental to its being or identity. Something cannot exist without its essential qualities being combined with certain accidental elements. As regards our example, different states and qualities of water are additional to its essential being or identity. Although the essential identity always remains as it was, without any changes, accidental and additional qualities can be replaced with similar others. Water, while remaining as water in essence, can change into ice or vapor.”⁶⁾

“The beginning of unity is admitting that the Divine Being is beyond and above all concepts that occur to the mind concerning Him, the result of this being that there is no room for any thing else save Him in one’s heart, according to the depth of the spiritual state and pleasures, and fixing one’s eyes on Him alone.”⁷⁾

“Truthfulness (sidq) is an exalted word that expresses being upright not only in speech and action but also in feelings, thoughts, intentions, and inner vision; remaining sincerely loyal to truth and reality; always filled with fidelity toward friends; never betraying or turning back no matter the conditions; never leaving the door to which one has given one’s heart; and being free from hypocrisy, pretension, and calculations of material or spiritual gain, binding oneself to the path of God with pure intention. Those who make truthfulness part of their very nature in word and deed—who act honestly in their dealings with people, who never part from honesty whether in daily conversation, in humor, in friendly gatherings, or in speeches made for the sake of conveying the truth, and who always preserve the loyalty required by friendship—such people are called ‘sadiq’ (the truthful). They are the embodiment of trustworthiness.”⁸⁾

“Prophets are uniquely endowed, special human beings. Considering their mission, they cannot be called ‘geniuses,’ nor can their actions be described as ‘ingenious,’ nor their goals as mere ‘ideals.’ Ziya Gökalp used the word ‘mefkûre’ (ideal) instead of ideal in Turkish. Yet the Prophets’ aims were not products of their own imagination. For this reason, describing their goals as a ‘gaye-i hayal’ (a supreme aspiration) is more fitting, and that is the term used by the Sage Bediüzzaman. Such a supreme aspiration is the high goal formed in the heart of a believer—a mixture of convictions, designs, and conceptions such as seeking God’s pleasure, exalting His Word, or striving to be a righteous human being.”⁹⁾

“If meanings that come to the heart can pass through the filters of imagination, conception, and reason while preserving their identity until they reach the level of expression, then a perfect word is attained. Sometimes, however, a word does not pass through these stages intact; it remains inward and does not reach expression. If a word is expressed exactly as it was imagined—when intention and the determination to express fully match the expression—then that word is complete…

If conception fails to embrace the fullness of imagination, then the expression is deficient compared to the original. If reason cannot carry its burden into expression, then some of its depth is lost. Thus, words often lose much when filtered down through imagination. But when a meaning, concept, and intention are expressed in full depth as first imagined, that is a complete expression. And the only unmatched masterpiece of such perfection is the Qur’an itself.”¹⁰⁾

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