Panel: EQUALITY WITHOUT SAMENESS: SAID NURSÎ'S MORAL AND LEGAL CRITIQUE OF INEQUALITY IN MUNA?ARAT (DISPUTATIONS)



918.1 - "EQUALITY WITHOUT SAMENESS:" JUSTICE, DIGNITY, AND NON-DOMINATION IN SAID NURSÎ'S MUNĀẒARĀT

AUTHORS:
Yildiz A. (Fatih Sultan Mehmet Foundation University ~ İstanbul ~ Turkey)
Text:
This paper examines Said Nursî's conception of equality as articulated in Munāẓarāt (Disputations), situating it as a religious-moral critique of modern forms of inequality grounded in law, governance, and social hierarchy. Written in the context of late Ottoman constitutional debates, Munāẓarāt engages questions that remain central to contemporary discussions on religion and (in)equalities: equality before the law, political inclusion, minority rights, social stratification, and the moral foundations of freedom. Nursî advances a conception of equality that explicitly rejects both hierarchical domination and reductive egalitarianism. Equality, in his framework, does not imply sameness of belief, virtue, or social role; rather, it is anchored in justice, human dignity, and freedom understood as non-domination. Legal equality before the law is treated as absolute, while moral and religious differences are preserved within a pluralistic social order. Political authority is redefined as service rather than sovereignty, allowing for inclusion without confessional hierarchy. The paper argues that Munāẓarāt offers a layered account of equality—legal, political, social, and moral—that enables a sustained critique of despotism as a structural source of inequality. By locating injustice in systems of domination rather than in religious difference itself, Nursî reframes religion as a resource for resisting inequality rather than legitimizing it. By reading Munāẓarāt as a normative political text rather than a confessional treatise, this paper contributes to broader interdisciplinary debates on how religious moral frameworks can challenge inequality while avoiding both homogenization and exclusion. It thus positions Nursî's thought as a historically grounded yet conceptually relevant contribution to contemporary discussions on religion, justice, and equality. Keywords: Said Nursî, Munāẓarāt, Constitutionalism, Equality before the law, Non-domination, Human dignity