The paper explores forms of meditative reflection on nature and existence (tefekkür) within the Suffa foundation, one of the many offshoots of the Nur movement in Turkey. This is a method which the inspirer and founder of this movement – Said Nursi (1876-1960) – elaborated in relation to his Qur'anic commentary, the Risale-i Nur. In this work Nursi re-interpreted the Naqshbandi Islamic tradition in which he had been educated in a reform-minded fashion, by merging the mystical poetical imaginaries and cosmologies of this tradition with a modern scientific view of nature. This allowed him to subvert the way that conventional Turkish secularists used science in their confutation of religion while, at the same time, offering Muslims with new avenues for cultivating their spirituality in a secularized society. In particular, I will show how the practice of tefekkür, even though usually thought of as being in opposition to other Sufi exercises such as dhikr, is based on an essentially mystic vision of existence, structured around the dichotomy between the manifest reality of this world and the hidden Reality of God. While in their discourses community brothers might wink with complicity at modern scientific discourse, and put a modernist emphasis on reasoning rather than on more ecstatic practices, their reflective method nevertheless aims to make people gain an awareness of such a true Reality lying behind the veil of this world’s appearances. Quoting both arguments from brothers in positions of authority and their reinterpretation by ordinary participants in community meetings, I will illustrate how during such meetings the Nur brothers reflect upon existence through the dense metaphors and poetical images offered by this cosmological framework. Finally, I will show that the Risale provides the Nur brothers with precise ontological discourses about the meaning and significance of life and death, in critical counterpoint to hegemonic modern liberal understandings of human freedom, responsibility and action.