The boundaries of faith and blasphemy according to Gazzâlî and Said Nursi

In this study, we tried to analyze Said Nursi and Gazzâlî's perceptions, who put forward many works on the nature of faith, blasphemy and heresy notions, of the faith, blasphemy and heresy and how Islamic sects interpret these notions. The variable views on the meaning and nature of faith has been a surviving topic until today since the times of companions of prophet Muhammad. Some sects believe that faith is made of belief, some believe that faith is both belief and practice, without practice faith cannot exist and one without practice would be a heretic. In general, Gazzâlî and Said Nursi, who play important roles in the Islam world, embark on the idea that faith is the belief in the heart and one without the practice cannot be declared as heretic. Gazzâlî composed many works to end the unjust declaration of heresy and draw the boundaries of faith and heresy and he supported that, by putting forward refutation, bog of heresy would come to an end. He revealed the boundary of Tawil and supported that verses of Quran and rumored hadiths that are not applicable to Tawil are cannot be interpreted in accordance with Tawil and they are to be refuted, therefore, he declared some philosophers and esoteric people who follow this path as heretics. In his works of "Risale-i Nur", the endeavor to save the faith of people and strife against the deniers show that Said Nursi was also a supporter of "tecdid" -renewal- like Gazzâlî. By depicting the pillars of faith in a new way, Nursi believes that declaring one as a heretic due to actions or expressions is not a divine command. If one does not directly and certainly show an act of blasphemy or the one has deeds that do not suit the laws of faith but the deeds of deniers, yet these deeds still do not directly show an act of denial or it is unknown whether they are denial or not, declaring the one as a heretic is wrong.