While we were in prison, there would sometimes be talk of an amnesty, put about by the former cruel despots in order to deceive, and the miserable prisoners would ask me if this would happen. I would tell them that they were only saying it to hoodwink them. However, the Nur students had been sent to prison three times for the purpose of consoling the prisoners and getting ninety per cent of them to perform the prayers. I therefore hoped from divine mercy with powerful hope that it was a sign that a full amnesty would be granted to the prisons, and I gave good news of this. On many occasions I consoled many men with this. Endless thanks be to Almighty God that the heroic Democrats confirmed my hopes and predictions and were the means of saving many innocent prisoners from torments, for they were being crushed on the pretext of arbitrary, biased laws and certain hostile officials' partisanship. They also made the bold sections of the nation supporters of themselves and of public order. It led also to numerous prisoners completely reforming by reason of their attachment to the Risale-i Nur and the Nurjus, and their becoming useful - rather than harmful members of the nation and country.
In His Name, be He glorified!
Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings, for ever and ever!
Our Most Beloved and Esteemed Master!
We have sent the completely true piece, "The Risale-i Nur cannot be destroyed!" to the home addresses of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice, and to the official addresses of the other ministers. We are giving it to the deputies we meet and they all say they will do what they can for the matter. The deputy for Isparta, Tahsin Tola from Senirkent, is closely concerned and he said this: "The government has begun to fight communism, but the police are not sufficient for this. The Nurjus have been struggling against it for twenty years and are of great assistance to the government. They say that the Nurjus are the best and the most effective of the various movements today in the country." The preacher and deputy Ömer Bilen, and the elderly deputies Hasan Fehmi Ustaoğlu and Fehmi Çobanoğlu send you many respects and greetings. Both say that in the name of the Risale-i Nur's collective personality, our beloved Master is the true guide of the present age and that it was due to his influence that this unexpected victory was won. These two esteemed deputies say that they have received assistance in many respects from you, our beloved Master, and that relying on the Risale-i Nur's service, they look with great hope to the future, and that they await from divine mercy that Islam will shine in all its glory in the world of humanity. Yesterday, Wednesday, the three deputies said they would visit our Master on the 1st of December.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: I congratulate you with my whole life and spirit on the past Birthday of the Prophet (UWBP).
Secondly: The world of Islam will congratulate and applaud your success in publishing the Risale-i Nur. The signs are now appearing. For instance, Pakistan's deputy education minister came to visit me and took
some parts of the Risale-i Nur. He said that he would try to disseminate them among the ninety million Muslims there. He took them and went. Moreover, despite so many dissemblers working against us, the Risale-i Nur has been taken to far-off places in both Europe and Asia. Also, when the Germans in Berlin got hold of Zülfikar, they announced their praises of it in the newspapers, Also, the believers at home are reading The Staff of Moses and Zülfikar enthusiastically, attaching no importance to the prohibitions placed on them by the former Prime Minister and Interior Minister, who were the most opposed to them. Most of the readers are in Ankara. Also, prison directors in several places in two or three provinces have decided to make their prisons into Nur Schools so that their prisoners may reform through the Risale-i Nur, as they did in the prisons of Denizli and Afyon.
Thirdly: The late Burhan was an unlettered, secret hero of the Risale-i Nur. I offer my condolences to both his relatives, and Isparta, and the students of the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ. I received the news five or six days ago and during those five or six days, I have prayed for him perhaps a thousand times. For while reciting my invocations during those six days, I have intended him the nearly four hundred times I have pronounced "Save us from Hellfire I make over to Burhan all that I have read and recited.
Fourthly: The Risale-i Nur has begun to fill the secular schools with light. Their pupils are attaching themselves to it to a greater extent than the medrese (religious school) scholars, becoming students of it and spreading it. God willing, the inmates of the religious schools will slowly recognize the Risale-i Nur's worth, for in reality it belongs to them and is the product of their schools. Even now, many muftis and religious scholars appear to be enthusastic about it and are requesting it. The most important frequenters of the Sufi convents (tekye) are the followers of the Sufi way (ehl-i tarikat). It is absolutely essential that they illuminate the Risale-i Nur with all their strength and that they look on it as their own.
Up to now I have thought only of the reality of belief and have said that the present is not the time of the Sufi tarikat; innovations do not permit it. But now it is necessary and essential that all the followers of the tarikats who are within the bounds of the Prophet's (UWBP) Sunna should regard the circle of the Risale-i Nur, which is the summary of all the twelve major tarikats and is
their largest circle, as their own tarikat circle, and enter it. The present time has shown this. Also, even the most sinful followers of the tarikats cannot embrace unbelief easily; their hearts are not defeated by it. Therefore they are not completely shaken and may become true Nurjus. However, as far as is possible, they should not embrace innovations or commit any serious sins that destroy the fear of God.
Fifthly: There is one sole solution in the face of atheism, irreligion, and anarchy, the gravest dangers at the present time, and that is to embrace the truths of the Qur'an. For the human calamity that in a short time transformed vast China into a communist state, cannot be silenced with political, physical forces. The only thing that can silence it are the truths of the Qur'an. The effects of the matter explained in the Night of Power in A Guide for Youth are now to be seen in both America and Europe. For this reason, the true strength of our present government is to be found in relying on the truths of the Qur'an and serving them. By doing this, through Islamic brotherhood, it will gain a reserve force of three hundred and fifty million brethren within the bounds of Islamic unity. Formerly, the Christian states did not support Islamic unity, but now, because communism and anarchy have arisen, both America and the European states are compelled to support it and the Qur'an.
Sixthly: A deputy who is a Nur student came to visit me. He told me that he had visited the Ministry of Justice and told them about the decision to confiscate the Risale-i Nur. Özyörük, the Justice Minister, said that he had given orders to Afyon Court to return it in its entirety, and that he was going to return the copy of The Staff of Moses he had to its author. Halil Özyörük's saying this shows his support for the Democrats and for the Risale-i Nur.
I send many greetings to everyone.
In His Name, be He glorified!
And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise (Q 17:44).
Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings, for ever and ever!
My Dear, Loyal Brothers and Young Heroes of the Risale-i Nur!
Firstly: I congratulate you with my whole life and spirit on your wonderful work with the Risale-i Nur in a place like Ankara. Truly, in a way far surpassing our hopes, you have been the means of a significant awakening among the educators and students of the secular schools. The work you have achieved in one year in Ankara could only have been done in ten. You should be content with this duty you have performed for belief and the Qur'an in a short time, and not allow your morale to be broken by unimportant incidents. Indeed, they should spur you on to work even harder. Your service in such places at a time around twenty political and social currents from home and abroad are clashing boastfully and maliciously, and the university students are flocking appreciatively to the Risale-i Nur, pleases all the Nurjus enormously, just as in the future it will please the Islamic world, God willing. The rewards are abundant for your small service. Sometimes, one hour's watch in the army under severe conditions, may be the equivalent of a year's worship. Similarly, yourselves and the Istanbul University Nurjus have performed many duties in a short time. Even if the fruits of your efforts are few, be content with them. If some weak persons retreat from the front in war, it arouses even greater heroism in the brave; so if some nervous people withdraw, it should drive the devotees of the Risale-i Nur to greater efforts and resolution, and to work with even more enthusiasm. Yes, you have learnt instinctively an important truth of the Risale-i Nur, and you should still keep it in mind. It is this:
Our duty is to serve belief and the Qur'an sincerely. It is God's business to give us success and induce the people to accept it and to dispel opponents. We may not interfere in these. Even if we are defeated, it should not damage our morale or lessen our service. We have to be resigned on this point. For example, one time they said to Jalaluddin Khwarazmshah, a great champion of Islam: "You will be victorious over Jenghiz!" He replied: "Our duty is to wage jihad. To give us victory is God's business, I can't interfere in that!" Your unshakeable, sincere service up to now indicates that you have followed that champion. You should remain unshaken even if only one or two people out of a thousand accept you. Sometimes, one or two are the equivalent of a thousand.
Secondly: These days, attention in Ankara is excessively turned towards
this world. Those in power have not found the time to accept this principle entirely. Numerous parties, of course, work very hard to find supporters or to hide their mistakes, And some of the currents abroad which are opposed to Islam and the Qur'an have found some people here by means of whom, with propaganda aimed at making those who work seriously for religion nervous or give it up, they cause consternation to any who are not truly devoted or who are attached to this world or to too many friends, and they try to break the Nurjus' morale.
My Dear, Loyal, and Blessed Brothers!
Firstly: I have received both the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ's victorious produce from the Risale-i Nur, of which I was in great need, and the collections the heroic Tahirî sent in the name of his late wife and two daughters, and two weeks ago the most timely complete Letters (Mektûbat) of Mustafa, a worthy successor of the late Hâfız Ali, and the blessed collection written in his own hand by the Risale-i Nur's strong commander, Re'fet Bey, and his letter describing his wonderful and meaningful dream. I was indeed pleased. May Almighty God bestow on all of you a thousand merits for every single letter you have written, and may He bestow endless mercy on the spirits and graves of the late Hatice, the late Hicret, and the late Aişe. Amen!
Secondly: I was very pleased that, as stated in Mustafa Osman's letter, who is a second Husrev - a brother called Sabri wants to come here to serve me. I accept him as though he had come and served for a few months, but at the moment there is no need for anyone to come here from other places. When there is need, I shall let him know. In truth, young heroes resembling the Isparta champions are beginning to emerge in the region of Eflâni.
Thirdly: Contrarily to my rule, I have accepted the gift of fresh grapes sent by the old-established Nur scribe and student, Kâtib Osman, from the Risale-i Nur garden, and the most auspicious gifts from Sava, a leading branch and centre of the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ. Whoever I offer them to, I will do so for their merit.
Fourthly: I had written out in a notebook the most important parts of all the letters the Nur hero Husrev wrote to me while I was in Emirdağ, and particularly the parts containing summaries of the letters I had written. But
someone fancied it while I was in prison, and they took it and it got lost. I still have around forty of his letters. I am going to mark them, God willing, and if I can't have them copied out here, I'll send them to you. They can be put together in a notebook, and owing to their importance, perhaps be duplicated.
Fifthly: I have sent fifteen copies of The Words Collection to Ankara. They were very useful. The Nurjus there are working heroically behind the screen of caution.
Sixthly: I have corrected Letters (Mektûbat), which you do not have and which Husrev wants. I shall send it with someone. This time, I realized that the Twenty-Fourth Letter is very valuable, very subtle, very profound, and absolutely true.
I send many greetings to everyone.
My Dear, Loyal, and Blessed Brothers!
Firstly: Our brother, the İnebolu Husrev, Nazif Celebi, wrote to me and asked what would be appropriate to publish after finishing the Hizb-i Nûriye and Salâvat. If you agree, I think it would best to publish the treatises For the Sick and For the Elderly from The Flashes Collection, the short Letter of Condolence for a Child, which is the Seventeenth Letter, and the short letter about serving the elderly. But if the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ members deem it necessary, they can correct or excise any sentence or passage they think fit. And they may add to these any other short treatise. Send Nazif a reply in this vein quickly. That brother's publishing together the Jaushan al-Kabir and the Salâvat of the Hizb-i Nûriye is a considerable service for the Nurjus and the believers. May Almighty God bestow on him and his assistants a thousand merits for every single letter. Amen!
Secondly: The new government slowly understands that true power resides in the Qur'an and that they many withstand the destructive enemies through Islamic brotherhood and the truths of belief. Sometimes, a single destructive person may cause alarm to twenty repairers and may sometimes rout them. It is not material forces or external and internal policies and pacts that, when the twenty million Muslims here are quite simply in a situation of defeat, will halt the assaults against them of a force that made vast China submit to itself; it is only the Qur'an and truths of belief forming a
barrier against that force's destruction of the sensibilities of the heart (mâneviyat-i kalbiye), that force's greatest strength, and curing their spiritual wounds. The Education Minister of the new government has evidently felt this fact for, contrarily to his predecessors, he is giving greater importance to religious instruction and the spread of the truths of belief. Even, the newspapers have reported that two hundred thousand liras have been earmarked for a university in the east, called by them the University of the East, attaching considerable importance to it. Both Ankara and Istanbul Universities have certainly grasped the above-mentioned fact and that it is the truths of the Qur'an and belief that will save both the country and the youth from that awesome, destructive force, for the Ankara students presented a letter with one thousand seven hundred signatures congratulating the Education Minister on his including religious instruction in the compulsory schools. And in Istanbul University they told one of the leading members of the new government that in Anatolia there is a powerful current of support for religion, and he replied that they will allow few opportunities to both that current and the leftists. So the university representative told the government leader despite his being opposed to religious publications: "If the current you're referring to is the Risale-i Nur, neither yourselves nor Europe will be able to defeat it!" In connection with this matter, although it is opposed to my way and temperament, I say the following, donning for a minute or two the head of the Old Said:
There is nothing between belief and unbelief. There can be nothing in this country between communism and Islam and its struggle against it. Right and left and centre means three ways. It is fair enough if the English or French say this; they can say, Islam on the right, communism on the left, and Christianity in the centre. But in this country, there can be no other religion or sect besides Islam and belief and its struggle against absolute unbelief. For no true Muslims can ever become Jews or Christians. At the very most, they lose religion completely and become anarchists.
God willing, like the Education and Justice Ministers, the other leading members of the government will fully understand this facto In place of the terms right and left, they will rely on the power of the Qur'an and belief and strive to save the country from absolute disbelief, anarchy, and atheism, and their awesome destruction. We beseech this with our whole life and spirit from divine mercy, and hope for it.
... A couple of weeks ago, Ali Rıza, one of the leading professors of al-Azhar University in Cairo, sent a man here. Similarly, two days ago, a
prominent scholar came to visit me who is originally from Bukhara and lives in Medina and has connections with leading scholars in Egypt and particularly with our former Seyhülislam and my friend in the Darü'l- Hikmet, Mustafa Sabri Efendi. He had told them that he was coming here and in a way came in their name. I gave him as a gift for al-Azhar University eleven copies of my personal collections and sent them with him to that principal school of the Islamic world, which as he said, now has twenty-seven thousand students. And I told him that foremost Mustafa Sabri, and Ali Rıza and Mehmet Zahid Kevseri, should take up those collections from the Risale-i Nur in my place, and protect and inherit them, and try to have them translated into Arabic. I also wrote a letter. The scholar took them and departed.
I send greetings to all my brothers and sisters, and request their prayers.
Firstly: Endless thanks that now in what has the meaning of a small Nur School in Ankara, young Saids and devotees of the Risale-i Nur read one of the collections of the Risale-i Nur every evening; one person reads and the others listen and take lessons. Some high-ranking persons also attend when, on some occasions, there are conferences. In connection with the slanders of the Afyon journalist, some deputies told the Prime Minister and Interior Ministry, and said to the Nur students that Adnan Menderes and the Interior Minister had responded in a friendly manner and sent word that they [the students] should not worry or lose hope. The journalist in Afyon then evidently said that he was going to go to Emirdağ because he had two things to ask of our Master, and that he was going to request these and offer an apology, My students bought one hundred and sixty copies of the newspaper which was published against us, and destroyed them.
I was going to write some more, but I have cut it short due to my indisposition and have only a little time. I send greetings to everyone.
Just like the Isparta heroes, Eflâni and Safranbolu work continuously. In fact, this time, the invocation (Münâcât) was missing from some of the copies of A Guide for Youth. In a very short time, Eflâni wrote out seventy copies of it in the old letters and sent them to me. So we added them to the end of the Guide. God willing, many Sungurs are appearing there, and will appear.