I have a question: What is the reason I have been treated in this extraordinary way because I sought my rights in the name of humanity?
Firstly: I did not present the complaint I wrote and have held it for a year. But now I have sent it to someone so that it may be passed to the Ankara authorities by way of the police. I said that the Afyon police chief is fair-minded and I sent him a copy by hand. But while awaiting a favourable result and improvement of my situation, he evidently wrote to the people who pressurize me here, saying: "This fine handwriting isn't his; investigate who wrote it!" But to disregard a serious and absolutely right complaint and evince curiosity about an unimportant, harmless note and disturb myself, is like disregarding a thousand liras and placing paramount importance on five para. Is that not so? What law demands that people who write out the hundred and thirty treatises of the Risale-i Nur be investigated, despite the fact that three courts have scrutinized every part of them and most of those who wrote them out were in court with me, and the
treatises were found to contain not an atom's worth of anything reprehensible? What benefit is there is this? What need is there to summon an unfortunate like myself to the police station, particularly in response to a denunciation? But I say to you that if I so wished, thousands of people would copy out my writings. And they are writing them out everywhere so that the nation and country may benefit from them.
Secondly: I request from you in the name of humanity that until the festival (bayram) you do not turn my attention towards this world. I don't think of you, so don't you think of me. Don't force an unfortunate like myself who is weary of this world to be preoccupied during these blessed months with quite worthless worldly matters.
I was curious about this new, meaningful earthquake. I said in my heart: If it was so severe in other places, the Nur students must have been subject to aggression again. I asked if it was only connected with my letter and they said that it was hardly felt in Ankara, was more powerful in Afyon and Eskişehir, but was most severe in this town of Emirdağ. But it is astonishing that although there were four severe quakes, there was no damage. A reason for this is that a categorical order was given to bring Said forcibly to the government offices. The guards and a corporal came. I had shut my door and locked it. They announced that they would rather resign than break the door down. They turned and left. That is to say, like the earthquakes described in my defence speech, this particular one was connected with the Risale-i Nur and remained particular and caused no damage despite its severity. If they had broken down the door of the tiny Nur School here, it would have resulted in a serious blow and would not have been merely a warning. It's true this assault was minor and petty, but I can't hide that I have never been so annoyed as I was this time. Nevertheless, I put up with it in wondrous fashion for the sake of the Risale-i Nur and the Nurjus. For that wretch abused me as he sat in his chair of office and he ordered my assistant: "Go and tell him!" He arrogated government power to his own sluggard self and challenged it, and really nettled a vein of character that remained in me from the Old Said. But the absolute necessity for calm, self-control, moderation, patience, and forbearance made me retain my composure.
Thirdly: Marangoz Ahmed, who has wholly filled the place of the late wondrously loyal Marangoz Mustafa Çavuş of Barla, had the idea of a resting
place of the Intermediate Realm and hereafter, a grave, for me on Mount Davraz near Sava, and wrote about this. He truly pleased me and made me weep sorrowfully.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
We again congratulate you on the blessed month of Ramadan. We also congratulate with all our life and spirit Süleyman Rüştü's blessed daughter who is working on a typewriter at Zülfikar Mu'cizat and is like the eighth of two heroic brothers' seven children in The Miracles of Muhammad. And congratulate too their undertaking with great self-sacrifice to duplicate the beautiful and careful writings of Husrev and Tahirî. May God bless them and grant them success thousands of times over for the superhuman, valuable and fruitful services they have up to now performed for the Risale-i Nur! What wonders God has willed!
I have received a letter from Mehmed Zekeriya, who lives in the vicinity of İnebolu and is one of our brothers who has performed many services for the Risale-i Nur with his fine pen. It dispelled my anxieties and filled me with joy. He writes that he is now busy with teaching children the Qur'an and instructing them in matters of belief, which is one of the duties of the Risale-i Nur. You write and tell him that what he is doing now is as valuable for the Risale-i Nur as were his previous services.
Also, the many treatises that you write out serve the spreading of the Risale-i Nur in your place. He should not worry, he preserves his former position.
Recently, due to my indisposition, I have been reading the Awrad-i Baha'iyya (Evrad-ı Bahâiye) from the book and not from memory. I never used to read its conclusion, which is the closing passage at the end (ikhtitam) because I did not know it. I said to myself: "Let's read it this time," and I saw that on one page and in six and a half long lines, were the words «nur nur nur (light light light)» nineteen times. I felt certain that like the Gawth al-A'zam, Shah Naqshband had disclosed and observed the Risale-i Nur and its sacred service and that applauding and predicting it, it was alluding to it. So I added only those six lines and the line at the top and the end line to my Baha'iyya invocations of thirty years, in the hope that those angels should assist in the Risale-i Nur's publication.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: I earnestly share in the sufferings of those struck by the calamity of the Isparta fire, for just as I am a native of Isparta in numerous ways; so with its soil and rocks that blessed town holds great importance in my view, and is like the centre of the Risale-i Nur's al-Azhar university and Medresetü'z-Zehrâ.
Tell those calamity-stricken people from me that according to Hadiths, property belonging to believers that is lost in such calamities is counted as almsgiving. Especially in these times, such transitory property which is a hundredfold almsgiving, is transformed into much more numerous everlasting belongings. So one has to offer thanks in one respect, in patience. God willing, in this world too the Most Merciful of the Merciful will bestow substitutes for those losses, which go as atonement for sins.
Convey my sympathies to them and tell them not to worry for no purpose.
Secondly: One reason for occurrences of this kind: notwithstanding an ugly error, it is incumbent on Isparta, which more than anywhere is the Risale-i Nur's source and school, to protect it and to preserve the respect and value of the month of Ramadan. It is obliged to protect the marks of Islam against vice and dissipation.
And for example, the following passage which elucidates "Were it not for you, were it not for you, I would not have created the spheres," needs to be altered to, "although this address is apparently directed to the Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace), it implicitly refers to life and animate beings." For since the universal Muhammadan (UWBP) Reality is both the life of life, and the locus of the supreme manifestation of the greatest name, and the light of all spirit beings, and the original seed of the universe, and the aim of its creation and its most perfect fruit, the address looks directly to him. Then on his account it looks to life, consciousness, and worship.
Also, for example, some sentences which touch on philosophy: such terms as "it formed a crust in the passage of time, then it turned into soil, then the plants appeared, and then the animals found existence" suggest natural philosophy in regard to divine creation and the giving of existence, which is not in keeping with the Risale-i Nur's explanations of divine art and bringing into being.
My brother Abdülmecid! Notwithstanding this tiny mistake, you have learned perfectly about the resurrection of the dead from the Risale-i Nur's matchless proofs, which is powerful evidence that as you were a distinguished student of the Old Said, so, God willing, you will be such a student of the Risale-i Nur and an exacting scholar of it. When I have the time, I shall either correct or alter some of the words, and calling it "An Explanatory Addendum to the Question of Resurrection," will include it in The Additional Letters and send it to people like you who have absorbed the Risale-i Nur's lessons thoroughly. Together with your children and Fuad, you are everyday together with me in spirit and in my prayers. I congratulate you with all my life and spirit for teaching children the Qur'an, in connection with your official post. May God bestow abundant blessings on you!
Convey my greetings to all friends and relations both around you, and in our native region. Since Zülfikar Mu'cizat and The Staff of Moses are being reproduced in the centre by the duplicating machine, you should devote yourself to the corrections with all your strength, and with your fine pen and accurate knowledge.
Has Re'fet had his operation? How is he? I am concerned. Many prayers have been offered for him. The heroic Tahirî has given The Staff of Moses Collection in trust to someone in Istanbul. It was written by Hatice, the daughter of the heroic Ahmed from Sava. It encourages the women to embrace the Risale-i Nur, so don't let it get lost. It can be sent to me if it is no longer needed, then it won't remain unused.
I congratulate you on Ramadan, the Night of Power, and the festival. While I was in Kastamonu, the select Nur students Âsiye, Ulviye, and the Lütfiyes, Zehras, Şerifes, Hacers, Nimets, and Aliyes were everyday with me in my prayers and spiritual gains, and it is still just the same.
I don't forget you, Recently, even, I was wondering about Ulviye and Lütfiye then two days later I received their letters and gifts; it was an indication of their loyalty. Although it has long been my custom not to accept presents, this evening, the Night of Power, I wore your robe (cübbe) and waistcoat and accepted them in the name of Âsiye and all the Nur students in Kastamonu. But so as not to break my rule, in return Lütfiye and Ulviye should take those parts of the Risale-i Nur that they want which Emin has. Or else Mehmed Feyzi and his companions can write out any on my account that they want.
The innocent children of the sisters who have visited me on many occasions are within the fold of the Nur students' children, whom I often think of.
I offer endless thanks and praise, for this letter of yours has dispelled all my crushing worries about Husrev and his friends and their duplicating machines, and Nazif and his assistants and his machine, and whether they would be able to continue with this new work, All praise be to God a thousand times over!
In fact, the day before I received your letters, I had gone for a drive round in a car. Suddenly, as though it wanted to convey some good news, a bird resembling Solomon's hoopoe followed us for around fifteen minutes, flying to right and left and then perching, then flying off and returning. I had never before seen such a strange thing and I felt sure that the next day I would receive some good news. I said this to Nureddin, who was driving me; he too was amazed at the bird's strange antics, Then it suddenly disappeared because I had divulged its secret. The next day I received both Nazif's comforting letter and the new products of his machine; and Abdurrahman Salâhaddin's curiosity-arousing letter and the news that Nevzat,
the governor of Ankara who had harassed me because of the hat question, had committed suicide and punished himself with his own hand, and that there were no assaults on the work on Zülfikar and it was continuing; and the news that the heroes of the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ were persisting with Zülfikar without getting agitated and describing the reality of the situation; and the letters of congratulation of Tahirî and Abdullah, the heroes of Ata-bey, with which I am closely concerned, and heirs of Lütfi and deputies and heirs of the late Hâfız Ali and his capable companions in the service of the Risale-i Nur; and in the face of this latest assault, the meaningful, correct replies of the Ali Köyü Imam, Hâfız Ali, to the government's questions in a way that was most courageous and befitted a Nur student. I exclaimed: "See! The hoopoe's good news was right!"
Just as The Staff of Moses saves from misguidance those submerged in nature and is a necessary antidote for everyone at this time, especially those fallen into doubt and denial; so too, Zülfikar is essential for the believers and scholars, and particularly for the hâfizes (memorizers) of the Qur'an. All hafizes have great need for this collection at the present time; it explains forty aspects of the Qur'an's miraculousness (i'jaz) and every one of them should have a copy.
At no time in history has there been a work like the Risale-i Nur that has received so little and so light criticism from those who attack the many schools and ways. Indeed, in return for their hundredfold sacred service and striving with a hundredfold less trouble, its students have suffered a mere one or two terms of imprisonment and two or three calamities which were providential and victorious, unimportant, temporary, and in respect of their results, beneficial.
I send everyone many greetings and pray for their success.
I am forming the opinion that this wondrous machine being given to us so easily just when we were obliged to duplicate large numbers of Zülfikar and The Staff of Moses, and the unprincipled printers too were holding back, is a sign of those two collections' acceptability, and a wondrous bestowal of divine providence and a wonder of the Risale-i Nur.
Yes, just at the time I was officially ill-treated and abused eight times and they were asking: "Who wrote this?" about one commonplace letter of mine, the machine was producing out of eight hundred pages, one thousand five hundred copies and a million pages. It is most certainly a Nurju and scribe of a thousand pens who has come to our assistance from the World
of the Unseen. It does not matter, therefore, if some of the pages are indistinct. The parts that are clear will suffice us for now. The parts that are less legible should be made up separately; the wielders of the diamond pens can each correct one or two copies.
Whenever the railway arrived in a country, the carters used to be dismayed and they supposed that their trade was finished. But because activity increased with its arrival, the need for carriages and carts increased twofold. God willing, the writers-out of the Risale-i Nur will not halt their activity, but will record greater numbers of good works in their books of good deeds with increased writing.
In the face of all the the politicians' torments, I have decided to say: «For us God suffices and He is the best disposer of affairs» (Q 3:173), and to abide in patience. In the past I had some relations with Kâzım Karabekir. I wonder if he still preserves the manly stance which was the cause of our relations. You may convey my greetings to him if he does so, and would cause no harm to the Risale-i Nur and be of possible benefit, and if he is friendly. But since the politicians do not condescend to apply to the Risale-i Nur for everlasting life, I don't condescend to apply to them for this fleeting life, which is worth practically nothing in comparison, neither do I forward any complaint or petition for my own well-being.
I have received the two large and truly fine Nur gifts of Küçük Ali, who is fully the heir of the elder Ali and works on his system, and is the veritable equivalent and successor of Abdurrahman, and the heroic champion of the blessed people. However, the piece from the Hizb-i Nûriye was not written at the end of Zülfikar; let him write it with that wondrous pen of his, and send it to me.
In my native region, when one of the medrese students finished a book or began one, it was the custom to give them a sweet or some such thing, called a muftihane and mahtumane. I observed this very same rule in the scribe Kâtib Osman. At just the time I had finished the corrections of The Staff of Moses he had written, these grapes arrived as mahtumane, which was a sweet and subtle event and a pleasant reminder of medrese life.
Because compassion is a basic principle of the Risale-i Nur and women are more advanced in that respect, they embrace the Risale-i Nur earnestly. When I say my brothers, I mean that women are included among them. They too are addressed in all my letters.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Don't worry at all; I am telling you about my illness now, which is severe and has resulted from an attempt on my life and is similar to what I wrote to you about before, solely in order to receive your prayers. But in no way must you be anxious. Endless thanks be to God, it does not prevent my supplications or correction duties. God willing, it will yield plentiful recompense and good. For myself, owing to this, I am in a way pleased; so don't you be distressed. Anyway, my duties are about to finish. Every copy of the Risale-i Nur, especially the collections, may perform Said's duties far better than you suppose due to your good will towards him, and they are performing them. And every one of the select Nur students may carry out Said's duties perfectly, and will do so fully in the future, God willing. One defective Said remains among you; but hundreds of collections, which are Saids in meaning, and thousands of physical Saids among you may perform those duties sincerely and perfectly, and they are performing them. In consequence, you should not attach importance to my person and the events that have befallen me. Just pray a lot for me; assist me with your prayers in my old age, weakness, and my excessive sensitivity, for in my view they are undoubtedly acceptable.
The heroic Tahirî's innocent Nurju daughter departing this world for Paradise truly saddened me. The loss of a Nur student and hardworking child such as Hicret grieved me on account the Risale-i Nur. God willing, many will appear in her place and not leave it unoccupied. Indeed, the young Haydar from Uşak has appeared just recently, pleasing us with his saying that he will perform his departed sister's tasks. May Almighty God bestow perfect patience on Hicret's parents and relatives, and make her an intercessor for them, and make that departed innocent happy in paradise together with my departed sister, Hanım. Amen.
Congratulate Uşaklı Haydar for me, and tell him that I am praying for his success in serving the Risale-i Nur and that he has been included among the Nur children. And I send many greetings to his teacher, İzzet.
The Nur students have never interfered in politics and have never joined any party. For belief belongs to everyone. There are people in every group who need it and who profess it. The students do not take sides. They take up sides only against disbelief, atheism and misguidance. Brotherhood between believers is a fundamental principle of the Risale-i Nur's way.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
I should have explained this matter to you long ago, but I forgot. It is this: most of the verses in the treatise The Miraculousness of the Qur'an, the Twenty-Fifth Word, have been criticized by atheists or objected to by scientists, or have been the object of the doubts and scepticism of satans among jinn and men. The treatise, therefore, explains the true meanings and fine points of those verses in such a way that the very points that the atheists and scientists supposed were faulty are flashes of miraculousness and sources of the perfections of the Qur'an's eloquence. These are proved according to scholarly rules and decisive answers are given, but so as not to cause confusion, their doubts are not mentioned. Their doubts are mentioned only in explanations of such verses as «And the mountains [its] pegs» (Q 78:8) and «And the sun runs its course to a place appointed» (Q 36:38), and three or four verses in the First Station of the Twentieth Word.
Moreover, for sure The Miraculousness of the Qur'an is very short and condensed and was written at speed, but its matters are elucidated in so learned, profound, and powerful a fashion in respect of the sciences of rhetoric and Arabic that it left the scholars in amazement. Not all attentive readers will fully understand and benefit from all the discussions, but everyone may pick a significant share from its garden. Although it was written hastily and in disturbed conditions, and the manner of expression is faulty in places, it explains and clarifies matters of the greatest importance in the light of those sciences.
Now that the Risale-i Nur is being duplicated by machine and is spreading generally and many school children and teachers who study modern
science and philosophy are holding fast to it, there is a point that needs explanation:
The philosophy the Risale-i Nur strikes at fiercely and attacks is not absolute; it is the harmful sort. For the philosophy and wisdom that serve the life of human society, and morality and human attainments, and industry and progress, are reconciled with the Qur'an. Indeed, such philosophy serves the Qur'an's wisdom and does not oppose it. This sort the Risale-i Nur does not bother with.
As for the other sort, since it both leads to misguidance, atheism, and the swamp of nature, and is the cause of vice and dissipation, heedlessness and misguidance; and since with its spellbinding wonders it opposes the Qur'an's miraculous truths; the Risale-i Nur attacks and deals slaps at it with the powerful proofs in the comparisons contained in most of its parts. It does not attack beneficial, rightly-guided philosophy. Members of the secular schools, therefore, can embrace the Risale-i Nur without hesitation or objection.
Nevertheless, completely meaninglessly and unjustly, secret dissemblers are turning a number of hojas against the Risale-i Nur, which is the rightful property of the hojas and the people of the medreses (religious schools), and they similarly excite the scholarly pride of certain philosophers. It is possible that they may do this to harm the Risale-i Nur, so it is appropriate to include this piece at the beginning of the collections, The Staff of Moses and Zülfikar.
A brother of ours and select Nur student, a retired teacher from the village of Mülâyim in the district of Eflâni near Safranbolu, wants to donate the greater part of his capital for the printing and publication of the Risale-i Nur, and requests that this is accepted. I cannot refuse this devoted and special brother's sincere and self-sacrificing request, but since worldly goods have no place in my personal rules and I do not accept aid for myself, I do not know the advantages of this matter. I am therefore referring the matter to the two heroes of Isparta and Husrev and Tahirî and their friends, and to Nazif and his companions. I could not prevent something so good and beneficial for the Risale-i Nur's publication. You may accept either the whole amount he intends or part of it, in two instalments; one may be given to the large duplicating machine in Isparta, and the other to the smaller machine there. You should please that select brother by accepting his gift as he wishes, either as charity, or similarly to others who have
helped, with some sort of return in the future, or from the Risale-i Nur, or in any other way if he so wants.
The Eight Symbols (Rumûzat-i Semâniye) was composed and written very hastily. Relying on what remained in my memory from earlier days, I used two approximate criteria: I wrote down the mysteries of the Qur'an's letters in respect of its miraculousness (i'jaz), basing it on what I remembered of the reckoning of ulema of former times. Then I looked at the explanations about the merits of the Qur'an's letters and words in the famous tafsir called al-Miqyas of Majd al-Dîn al-Firuzabadi, the famous author of the Qamus, and ninety per cent coincided with our reckoning; they differed in only four or five places. Then we calculated them again to verify them, and ours turned out to be correct and his, typographical errors. Saying, small differences and errors are not detrimental in such huge totals, I did not find the time to count the whole Qur'an with all its letters, words, and phrases and verify them exactly, and to corroborate the subtleties of its miraculousness. The tyrants did not allow me the time. I made do with those approximate calculations, what I remembered, the reckoning of the old ulema, and my figures in the Kanz al-'Arsh supplication.
I have received the festival congratulations sent by Nazif Çelebi in the name of our devoted brothers in İnebolu, and his letter saying that the important work on Zülfikar continues meticulously and circumspectly; that he has completed the text of The Miracles of the Qur'an and some of its addenda; that Abdurrahman Salâhaddin has sent The Staff of Moses and Miracles of Muhammad as a gift in our name to al-Azhar University by reliable means, and that he has been reading them to the American missionaries for four or five months; and that the valuable Nur student, Ahmed Kureysi, has given a hundred liras to meet the expenses of their duplicating machine.
I congratulate with all my life and spirit our brother the heroic Nazif, and the truly earnest, constant, and fully committed Nurjus of İnebolu, and Ahmed Kureysi and his companions, on both the festival, and their continuing service, and their elevated loyalty, and their successes and the printing of Zülfikar, and Salâhaddin's efforts in establishing relations between the Medresetü' z-Zehrâ and al-Azhar University. May Almighty God grant them every success and make their service entirely acceptable. Amen.
The two copies sent to the ulema of al-Azhar University had not been corrected by me and there are bound to be errors in some of the Arabic words and their vowel points. I saw numerous grammatical mistakes in other copies, particularly in the writing of the Arabic Khulasat al-Khulasa at the end. So when you deem fit, send a copy each of The Staff of Moses and Zülfikar to al-Azhar that have been examined closely by Arabic teachers, and write them a letter saying that the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ of the Risale-i Nur is an offspring, a pupil, of al-Azhar University which is in much need of its kindness; it is a student of it which is the target of fierce enemies' assaults; it is a small department and branch of the great al-Azhar University, which is the head of all medreses and perpetually illuminates the world of Islam. So we await the assistance of that high-standing master, that kindly father and zealous supreme guide, for its wretched sons and students. As for the two books that have been presented to that grand master, like a school boy shows to his father and teacher in the evening the lessons he has learnt that day, we offer our two lessons to the gaze of those benevolent and compassionate scholars of great learning.
I have received a letter from one of our leading students, Muharrem, in Denizli, which is a foremost centre of the Risale-i Nur, for which it has performed much work in a short time, and with which I am closely concerned. Together with conveying congratulations for the festival in the name of the Husrev of Denizli and his most earnest and loyal companions, especially the just judge, and Muharrem, Hâfız Mustafa and the rest, the
letter gave news of Hasan Feyzi's severe and dangerous illness. I felt absolutely certain that Hasan Feyzi had assumed the greater part of my calamity similarly to the martyr Hâfız Ali (May God have mercy on him), performing an act of self-sacrifice. Just as Hâfız Ali, according to several signs, departed for the Intermediate Realm in my stead; so too with Hasan Feyzi, for exactly concurrently with my illness, at the same time, for the same period, in the same way, and in the coincidence of distressing constriction, was a powerful sign that that brother of ours who so kindly pitied me had partly taken my illness on himself. There was just one difference in this four-sided coincidence: my illness was due to poisoning, while he had caught cold. Certainly, the Treatise for the Sick consoled him in our place and enquired about him like a visit to the sick, and transformed the ailment into great rewards and the suffering into joy. May Almighty God grant him a speedy recovery. Amen!
One time, in a treatise I wrote in Barla as a parable, two men were on their way to Istanbul. Ninety-nine out of a hundred friends of one of them were already there, so he set out eagerly. With the other one, it was the opposite, and so on; it was written in similar fashion. Now, alerted in the same way by this illness, I travelled to the past and toured in the imagination around the places I had spent my life at that time. Of the hundred friends in the places I had spent those sweet times, I could see only one or two. The others were all in the Intermediate Realm. Even in my own village of Nurs, I saw that my sole nephew and student Molla Dâvud (May God be pleased with him) had departed to join my old friends and relations there. In places like Barla and Kastamonu, which are to be counted as second homes of twenty years' standing, I saw only two out of the three groups of friends; the others were about to depart. In consequence of the truth of this vision, to depart for the Intermediate Realm did not weigh down on me but filled me with longing, since through the light of the Risale-i Nur we saw it to be truly luminous. Remaining behind me in this world were hundreds of Nur heroes: Husrevs, Tahirîs, Mustafas, Nazifs, Osmans, Abdurrahmans, Alis, Sabrîs, Feyzis, Ahmeds, Mehmeds, Atıfs, Mustafas, Sadıks, Osmans, and the rest, who would carry out my duty in my place and win reward, thus greatly alleviating the burden of death for me, With the thought that I was dying only in regard to sin and living in respect of good works, I offered endless thanks to Almighty God.
Firstly: "Who say when afflicted with calamity: To God we belong, and to Him is our return" (Q 2:156). The death of Hasan Feyzi, who had assumed the late Hâfız Ali's position and was one of the Risale-i Nur heroes, is a great loss for Denizli, for the fold of the Risale-i Nur, for this country, and for the world of Islam. But with his truly sincere, genuine, unique lessons and instruction, he prepared the ground for the raising of numerous Hasan Feyzi's in his place, God willing, then he departed. He performed in two years ten years of valuable services for the Risale-i Nur, just as my nephew Abdurrahman did. They performed the tasks of ten years in one or two as though both knew that they would soon depart from this world. I congratulate Hasan Feyzi's person on his death, and offer earnest condolences to Denizli, the Nur students, and this country; it is a great calamity to lose a true believer, erudite scholar, elevated litterateur, teacher, eloquent preacher, and educator of this sort whose profound knowledge embraced matters of this world and the next. God willing, He will produce many people from the heroes' hearth of Denizli with the spirit of Hasan Feyzi who will espouse the Risale-i Nur and publish it. Just as one seed enters the earth and dies then a hundred shoots emerge from it; so we nourish hopes from divine mercy that Hasan Feyzi will produce many such shoots and many Hasan Feyzis will appear within the fold of the Risale-i Nur and carry out his duties to an even greater degree.
Secondly: Each one of us should assign to that heroic brother's book of good deeds his spiritual gains as though he were still alive, to him personally just as we do to all of us generally. I have decided to bestow my spiritual gains on him as the fifth member after Hâfız Ali, Hâfız Mehmed, Ahmed of Sava, and Mehmed Zühtü, of the elite group of great saints. The pieces he wrote about the Risale-i Nur under the harshest conditions, which have done so much to spread it, are in The Additional Letters; you may add one each of those powerful letters to the end of any collections you deem suitable. Those living pieces are being included in The Staff of Moses and Zülfikar so that they may serve the Risale-i Nur in his place.
Convey my condolences for me to his relatives in the tiny Nur School which is his house, and to his companions and students and the Nur students in the large Nur School of Denizli and its vicinity, and tell them that I have never in all my life been so saddened at a death and so wept as at his.
Also, it has now become clear that my intense anger and mental disturbance which were reflected in the letter I wrote you before, began on the day that heroic brother died. Its effect negated my will. I thought I was
going to die and dictated my will to my assistant. That is to say, Hasan Feyzi was as though my second spirit and died in my place and is dying. In fact, in a way that was totally opposed to my normal custom, I could not open the letter giving news of his death for one and a half hours, although I was holding it in my hand. Anyway, when faced with all these grievous sorrows, divine providence came to our assistance, and I congratulated happily with all my life and spirit both myself, and him, and the Nurjus. "Endless blessings and mercy be upon him!" I exclaimed, and I applauded his release.
Thirdly: Just as I was thinking sorrowfully about the late Hasan Feyzi departing for the Intermediate Realm and his position remaining vacant, and as an esteemed teacher his being a shining example for pupils in the secular schools and those teaching the modern sciences when I unexpectedly received a letter from Hâfız Hasan of Daday. He is a teacher and, with his two children, is a Nurju and is also called Hasan. I had not heard from him for three years and did not know how he was or that he continued to serve the Risale-i Nur. Through Hâfız Hasan, Ahmed Fuad, an exceptional and self-sacrificing teacher like these two Hasans, had entered the fold of the Risale-i Nur. I said: One teacher called Hasan has departed but in his place another teacher called Hasan and one called Ahmed have arrived!
At the same time, someone called Hasan from Bolvadin, who had recently returned from the Hajj, entered the fold of the Risale-i Nur; he obtained some of its treatises and began to spread its lights.
Three or four hours later, the doctor Hayri, who is a Husrev and Feyzi of Emirdağ, came to see me. He said: "A respected schoolteacher here wants to become a Nur student. If you agree, we'll give him The Staff of Moses." I told him to give it to him. (This teacher performed as many services for the Risale-i Nur as Feyzi did.)
Also, I saw the letter that had arrived that day from Mustafa Osman, our brother who like the late Hasan Feyzi has performed many services in a short period of time. He had written describing how Mustafa, who had attended the secular schools and spread lights in the Kastamonu Lycee to an extent and was now trying to do the same in the university, had drawn attention to the Press Laws lest harm should come to the Risale-i Nur due to the duplicating machine and had mentioned the need for caution when communicating.
I exclaimed: Endless thanks be to Almighty God! One teacher was released but in his place two Hasans, two Mustafas, three teachers, and one hardworking educator are performing the Denizli hero's duties in addition to their own duties. This is a sign that just as Hâfız Ali departed and Denizli took his place and dispelled all the pain and sorrow; so Hasan Feyzi has departed and in his place a modern school and university will emerge, God willing, and again make the pain subside.
Greetings to all our brothers.
Firstly: With their services for the Risale-i Nur with the duplicating machine and in other ways, the hero Nazif and his friends, who in truth have his spirit and loyalty, are making this country indebted to them. May Almighty God grant them every success! Amen. It is a great triumph. The work produced by the machine is both attractive, clear, and correct. Almighty God has bestowed on Nazif many Salâhaddins and İbrahims.
A piece in my own handwriting is needed at the beginning of Zülfikar. Because of my illness, I am unable myself to write the four waxed pages they have sent, so I shall dictate and my permanent scribe will write it, and I shall write just a few words.
I have received the three sorts of material gifts (teberrük) that our brother Nazif sent for the festival and New Year in the name of the Nurjus of both Istanbul and İnebolu. I have accepted them in the name of all of them, although it is not my habit. May God be pleased with them, Amen! I broke my rule for their sake. And I have received the two collections sent by Mustafa Osman, our brother who is as loyal and attached as Nazif: one, the paradisaical Nur Zülfikar in the name of the second Salâhaddin, the young İbrahim; another, the greater part of The Words (Sözler), written most beautifully by himself and sent in the name of all the Safranbolu Nurjus. May Almighty God write in the books of their good deeds and those of İbrahim and Mustafa and İzzet and their friends and helpers, merits to the number of the letters of Zülfikar and those two collections, and a hundred instances of mercy for each letter. Amen!
Indeed, Mustafa Osman has found two dedicated and very hardworking wings. Like Nazif has Salâhaddin and İbrahim, Mustafa Osman
has found the teacher Ahmed Fuad and Mustafa Oruç in the university; he will get much work done for the Risale-i Nur with those two wings, God willing. Now that people like Mustafa Oruç and the teacher Ahmed Fuad have started to serve the Risale-i Nur so effectively, it lessens a little the pain of Hasan Feyzi's death, who was the Denizli hero. Then the facts that Küçük İbrahim is a second Salâhaddin and is working earnestly for the Risale-i Nur with the duplicating machine together with his family, brother, and wife; and Salih, Gülcü Hüseyin, Osman, Zühtü, İzzet, Ömer and the other Nurjus there who are named in the letter are all progressing in their service steadfastly and unshakeably pleased us immeasurably, and showed too that in the future they will make the country grateful to them. As God wills, they have proved that İnebolu is a small Isparta and in every respect a Nur School.
Secondly: We have already sent some collections in the old letters to Mustafa Oruç, a very industrious university-student Nurju who has the abilities of an Abdurrahman and a Salâhaddin and is related to the village of Nurs, my name of Nursi, and the Risale-i Nur. At his request we have sent eight or nine pieces in the new letters since he says that the university students have much need of them and are eager for them. But as a young student, he is inexperienced and not capable of safeguarding the Risale-i Nur, so in order that it should be given to suitable people and not remain unused, any Nur students who are near Istanbul or who visit there or who live there should help him with spreading its treatises and safeguarding it.
Thirdly: The Denizli hero Hasan Feyzi's (Mercy be upon him) going to join the Isparta hero Hâfız Ali (Mercy be upon him) certainly saddens us terribly, but as his select student, the loyal Nur student Muharrem, said, and I too say: In one respect he has not died; he completed his duty hastily, and was released and departed to rest in the Intermediate Realm. Together, he and Hâfız Ali are assisting with their intercession and the powerful works connected with the Risale-i Nur they left behind; they are still working at the Risale-i Nur. Since they are surely martyrs of a sort, we hope and seek from divine mercy that like the medrese student in the Eleventh Topic of The Fruits of Belief who thought he was still busy with his Arabic grammar lessons, the two are busy discussing the truths of the Risale-i Nur within the circle of the Nurjus who have died. God willing, He will raise up many Hasan Feyzis to carry on his duties in this world.
However, it was mistake that that blessed brother did not avoid taking official medicines, as I do. I suffered much more distress than he did, but thinking that the Nurjus' supplications would suffice, I did not seek material medicines or anyone's opinion about the illness, and so did not suffer any anxiety. Our late brother did not manage to comply with me on this point. He had given his word in his brilliant pieces about the Risale-i Nur that he would sacrifice himself for this wretched brother of his, so performed his duties for the Risale-i Nur with great speed and departed for the world of rest and repose. Once again I offer my condolences to his relatives and to his valuable, dedicated students like Muharrem, and to the Nurjus of Denizli and its surroundings, and suggest that like us they make our late brother a partner in their good works by inscribing them in his book of good deeds as though in respect of good deeds he has not died. And I send them many greetings and seek divine mercy for him.
Fourthly: The behaviour of the hoopoe-like bird - like Solomon's hoopoe - during the work of the Risale-i Nur, belonging to the notable Nur student Mustafa Yıldız, is not strange or unique. He is one of the heroes of Sava, where at one time the Risale-i Nur was being written out with a thousand pens. There are numerous such examples; on many occasions birds have shown an interest in the Risale-i Nur.
I send my congratulations to Sadık Bey, who completely true to his name worked together with Hilmi in prison and unforgetably served myself, the unity of the Nurjus, and the co-operation of the Nurjus and other prisoners, and beforehand and afterwards worked heroically in his home region. I send my congratulations to him and his mother and relatives, and may God grant them abundant blessings for the sacrifice they offered in my name. Also, we send greetings to Salih's son Osman, who is a Nur student and sent us greetings via him, and we accept him within the fold of the Risale-i Nur.
"The ink of the scholars (ulema) will weigh equally to the blood of the martyrs."
"Whoever adheres to my Sunna when my community falls into disorder will receive the recompense of a hundred martyrs."
Inspired by the above Hadiths, I am declaring only a few of the numerous benefits in this world and the next of writing out the Risale-i Nur, which are mentioned in it and have been affirmed by the experiences of its students,