Reintroducing Our Nur-the Light Magazine!

Brief History: The first issue of Nur-the Light Magazine was published in August, 1974. Since that time, its publishing has unfortunately been interrupted three times. Now with renewed energy and enthusiasm, we pick up from where we left off to continue publication of this treasured Magazine. By way of reintroduction, we have put together some examples of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s faith-building, mind-opening, and spirit-comforting guidance that many have been looking for to hang on to. The kind that makes you truly happy, healthy, and strong. Nur-the Light Magazine developed into further book publishing through our Risale-i Nur Institute of America. Nur-the Light is deeply indebted to the following great individuals: The late Attorney Bekir Berk Abi (death, June 14, 1992) who supported immensely its publication and the late Mehmet Buker Abi (death, 2005) who, in 1975, helped us purchase our very first printing machine.  Additionally, we give special mention to the late Huseyin Demirkan who recently passed away on February 5, 2012 for his selfless efforts to help us start the Risale-i Nur service in the U.S. We humbly share our thoughts and feelings during this great effort to finally see our newly printed spring magazine with Bediuzzaman’s Risale-i Nur works.  During our preparation of the magazine, two interesting things occurred which were not planned. I really don’t know what they mean for sure, but they gave us all great hope and happiness in our efforts to get our magazine finished. The first thing happened when I brought the unfinished product home to proofread and make final editing. In the middle of our work a small bird, sparrow,  flew into our house through the patio door which was opened very slightly for our cat, Dusty. This had never happened before in the 19 years we’ve lived here. Despite the danger of our cat who was still inside, the bird circled around in the kitchen for quite some time even though our cat was trying to catch him. We immediately put the cat outside for the bird’s sake. Then we opened the front door and amazingly the bird flew out to safety. This led me to recall the story of Umit Simsek when he and I were working on Nur-the Light Magazine for the February, 1976 issue when a bird then, too, visited us. The pictures of this story are included on Page 9 of our newly released March/April, 2012 issue, the little bird can be clearly seen on a flower pot, fourth photo from the left. We thank our friend Umit Simsek for sending these photos. The second interesting thing I noticed two days ago on March 20th. I realized all the printing of our first reintroduced issue of our magazine was completed on March 20th, the first day of spring in 2012. This really made our day because we’re coming out together and being renewed with all of God’s creation. What a heart-warming message this is for us, although some people may see this as insignificant. –Osman Birgeoglu, Ph.D. P.S. We kindly ask our readers to send us some mailing addresses of sincere and devoted family, friends, colleagues, or others who may benefit from a complimentary copy of Nur-the Light Magazine.