Due to my illness these days, I have been unable to endure the intense cold. On numerous occasions I have experienced that as a result of a general error, the air and earth grow angry and give news of divine wrath through earthquakes and storms, and display conditions opposed to the ordinary. I perceived in this signs of a non-material storm. I wondered in my heart if a general mistake had again been made, causing harm to Islam and the truths of belief. I asked what there was in the newspapers and what the news was, although it is not my custom and I have given up world politics. They told me that the law ensuring the freedom of religious people who disseminate religion has been postponed, while the law concerning leftists has been expedited and ratified.
It occurred to my heart that before anything else, for the benefit of this country and Islam it is essential that the law ensuring the freedom of religious people be both expedited, and ratified, and urgently implemented in schools. For together with winning for this country with such a ratification, the moral strength of the nearly forty million Muslims in Russia and the four-hundred-million world of Islam, as a reserve force, it would halt the moral and spiritual depradations of communism. For while due to its thousand-year enmity Russia should first of all have attacked us, rather than America or Britain, what obviated such an attack was doubtless the truths of the Qur'an and belief. In which case, before anything else, in the face of that extraordinary force, it is absolutely essential to actively grasp the truths of the Qur'an and to construct a Qur'anic barrier before irreligion, like an insuperable barrier of Dhu'l-Qarnayn. For it is only the truths of belief and the Qur'an which have prevented Russia from attacking us and halted it, although up to the present it has overrun half China and half Europe. Since the judiciary can respond to the Russians' moral destruction only by giving material penalties to one man out of a thousand; moral and spiritual bombs are needed against that force which hands over the property
of the rich to vagabonds and the poor and proffers the daughters and wives of the honourable to licentious youths, and in a short time has seized half of Europe, Those bombs are the atom bombs of the truths of the Qur'an and belief; they may halt that dreadful leftist current. Such a universal force cannot be halted with the material penalties, dealt out to one man out of a hundred, by the judiciary.
For this reason, the religious deputies postponing this matter, which should be expedited, has led to the globe of the atmosphere objecting to it with severe cold, as we have previously experienced many times.
Humanity has experienced a powerful awakening as a result of the two ghastly world wars, due to which, most certainly, no nation can now exist without religion. Russia cannot remain without religion, nor will it return to Christianity. At the very most, it will be reconciled with the Qur'an, which smashes absolute disbelief, is based on truth and reality, and is founded on proof and evidence and persuades the intellect and heart; or it may follow it. Then, it will not draw the sword against the four hundred million adherents of the Qur'an.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: I congratulate you on the Night of the Prophet's (UWBP) Birth with all my life and spirit, and I give you the good news of your success and the extraordinarily effective spread of the Risale-i Nur, And we congratulate the Nurjus.
Secondly: This blessed night, I received a severe admonishment in my heart due to which two ideas occurred to me in connection with the Istanbul University Nur students describing the wonders of the Old Said and New Said in the biography.
The First: My friends have formed an opinion of me far exceeding my due, concerning some prodigious sainthood. And among opponents and philosophers an apprehension has formed, again far surpassing my due, of a truly wondrous genius, and among some of them even, of powerful magical powers, An explanation of this has been sought from me in many places, as to what the truth is. So owing to the powerful warning I received this night, I have been obliged to explain a fact with many preliminaries.
First Preliminary: The seed of the pine, as tiny as a grain of wheat, is the source of a mighty pine tree; divine power creates the vast tree from the
seed. Only one part out of a million is found in the seed, yet in meaning it is an index written with the pen of divine determining. Otherwise, as many factories as a village would be necessary for the vast tree to be formed with all its branches and twigs. Thus, a proof of grandeur and divine power is that it creates things as huge as mountains from a particle. In just the same way, without intending any humility or modesty, I proclaim with full conviction that the services I have performed and the course of my life have been a sort of seed. Divine providence bestowed the Risale-i Nur, which proceeded from the Qur'an and is a lofty, fruit-bearing tree, in order to be the source of a crucial service for religious belief at this time. I swear that I never saw in myself due to the wonders that have happened throughout my life, any ability or virtue or anything needing extraordinary talent. I used to be quite astonished. Let alone possessing a wonderful genius or marvellous sainthood, I did not consider myself capable of organizing myself and participating in social relations. It is true that some traits like self-advertisement were apparent in my life, but that was a sort of involuntary boasting so as not to give the lie to people's favourable opinions. Because I did not know the wisdom in my not being as the people supposed and thought that I was no use for the world, I considered that my thus being held in regard a thousand times higher than was my due was totally opposed to right and truth. But endless thanks be to Almighty God that now at the end of this life of seventy to eighty years we have understood the wisdom in it to a degree through divine grace, and I am going to indicate a part of it briefly. I am explaining a few examples out of many.
First Example: The method followed in the medreses requires at least fifteen years' study so that the Islamic sciences and religious truths may be fully acquired. At that time, what was observed in Said was not a wondrous intelligence or spiritual power, but a state or condition whereby, in extraordinary fashion outside all abilitiy and talent, in three months after acquiring in two years the basics of Arabic grammar and syntax, astonishingly he as though read forty to fifty books in three months and received his diploma.
Sixty years later this situation showed directly that a Qur'anic commentary would emerge that, in the short period of three or four months, could teach people and that the wretched Said would be employed in its service. And it also suggested the idea and predictions that a time would come when there would be no medreses where the sciences of belief could be learnt in fifteen years, or even in one, or else they would be reduced in number.
Second Example: I confess and believe certainly that Said's debating
with prominent scholars in his youth long ago, and his answering their questions, and even to his replying correctly to their most complex questions without being asked, occurred through neither my wondrous intelligence nor my outstanding abilities. I am quite certain that my answering correctly although I was a helpless, childish, confused, noisy youth who would have been defeated by ordinary hojas or young students, let alone leading scholars, did not result from my capabilities and intelligence. I was amazed at it for seventy years. But now through divine grace I have understood one reason for it which is that a tree which would be a seed to the medrese sciences would be bestowed and that the person who served the tree would have numerous rivals and opponents. Thus, despite it being the custom among Muslims for the adherents of different ways and outlooks to criticize one another and publish opposing works, like the Sunnis and the Mu'tazilites; and at this time, the most effective and devastating opponents who would strike at that Nur tree's servant should have been the medrese hojas, endless thanks be to Almighty God that contrarily to that longstanding custom, the hojas have been unable to produce works critical of the Risale-i Nur. A reason for this is that as a youth, Said answered the ulema's questions correctly and evidently disheartened them, for nowhere have jealous hojas opposed the Risale-i Nur although by their profession they are strongly opposed to Said. I have thus formed the opinion that this is one instance of wisdom in that situation. For if it had been otherwise and in these strange times the people of the medreses had started to oppose it, it would have provided our covert enemies, the supporters of irreligion, with a powerful means of refuting both the Risale-i Nur and the ulema. Endless thanks be to Almighty God that the official ulema, whom the Risale-i Nur offends most, have been unable to oppose it.
Third Example: I am now quite certain that one instance of wisdom in Said not accepting since the childhood of the Old Said, and his not being able to accept, alms and gifts, although both he himself and his father were poor, and his not accepting presents although he was greatly in need, and his never going to collect subsistence although the custom in Kurdistan was for the students' food to be donated from the people's homes together with zakat and their expenses, and his not knowingly accepting zakat even - I am now certain that one reason for this was that I was made to feel disgust at that acceptable custom and harmless practice, and to accept extreme poverty and need, and to avoid awaiting charity from people, so that later in life a sacred task like the Risale-i Nur concerned solely with belief and hereafter should not be exploited for worldly ends or personal benefits, and true sincerity, the true strength of the Risale-i Nur, should not be impaired.
I also perceive a sign in this that in the future, the religious scholars will suffer defeat due to need and the struggle for livelihood.
Fourth Example: In the face of the worldly's oppressing the New Said in his old age for twenty-eight years with extreme severity, in a way completely opposed to the law, fairness, conscience, and even humanity, although he has tried to withdraw totally from politics and the world; and their raining down blows on his head and insulting him vilely, although he could not endure even the bite of a fly; he has been given an unprecedented patience and forbearance. I feel quite certain that one instance of wisdom in this, and also, with the courage proceeding from belief in the truth "the appointed hour is fixed and does not change," in his remaining patiently silent in cowardly and abject fashion although he is extremely nervous and highly strung and not cowardly by nature, and also in fact, somewhat later, after the torments, relief being imparted to his spirit, was the politicians being given the groundless suspicion about Said that he was exploiting religion for political ends, so that he should not exploit the Risale-i Nur, which expounds the All-Wise Qur'an's truths of belief, for personal benefits or spiritual ranks or for anything. I have the firm conviction that, to prevent Said with torments and imprisonment from making religion the tool of politics, the cruel rulings of the politicians were the compassionate slaps of divine determining, saying: "Beware! Don't exploit the Risale-i Nur, a commentary expounding the truths of belief, for your personal benefits or even for your spiritual attainments, or to be saved from calamities and harmful things, lest true sincerity, the Risale-i Nur true strength, be spoiled." In fact, whenever I have neglected the Risale-i Nur's service and become excessively preoccupied with my life in the hereafter and worship, the worldly have pertinaciously fallen upon me, inflicting torments on me. We refer further explanation of this fourth example to one of the letters written recently, which concerns understanding the wisdom in the politicians imprisoning Said with accusations of his exploiting religion for political ends, and on his perceiving that these rulings were the compassionate slaps of divine determining, his forgiving the politicians and his enduring it.
Fifth Example: Everyone used to be astonished that this wretched Said's handwriting was so poor that he could not write as much as a clever child could write in ten days, although his need to do was so great and he had been busy with that occupation for seventy years, and on some days was compelled to correct as many as two hundred pages. And Said was not altogether lacking in ability, I am now quite certain that the reason for his being semi-literate despite his blood brothers all having fine handwriting
and he was much in need of it, was this: a time would come when personal, minor strengths would be unable to withstand the assaults of awesome, immaterial enemies, and it would become necessary to earnestly seek people with fine handwriting to share in the work, and to serve that nonmaterial tree like the water, air, and light serves a seed. Then a universal, general, and powerful pen would be needed in place of that personal, minor service, so as to attain true sincerity by melting icey egotism in that blessed pool, and serving belief in this way. The wisdom was this.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
We congratulate you on the blessed festival. God willing, you will live to see a great festival for the Islamic world. There are numerous signs that, as the source of sacred constitutions for the United Islamic States, the All-Wise Qur'an will prevail fully over the future and bring about a grand festival for all humankind.
Secondly: No doubt remains that the Risale-i Nur and the Nur students are under the protection of divine providence for despite the sensitivity of the times, with their arbitrary laws and interminable obduracy they have been able to cause one per cent of harm to the Nur students. The plan was to preoccupy six hundred of the active Nur students with court cases, but only six of them were subject to punitive treatment. In fact, as described by the Nur champion, twenty-five courts could find nothing indictable in hundreds of thousands of copies of the Risale-i Nur's treatises and hundreds of thousands of Nur students. It is decisive evidence that these numerous courts admitted that they could find nothing reprehensible in the Risale-i Nur. For just as such courts as Istanbul and Afyon did not convict me although what I said in them was completely opposed to their sensitive and easily misinterpretable laws; so too, they could find nothing indictable in the Risale-i Nur, although it confounds the unjust laws of civilization. This demonstrates clearly that the truth contained in the Risale-i Nur has defeated those who contest it and induced the law courts to be fair and just. Divine providence preserves the Risale-i Nur, which is a miracle of the Qur'an, from its opponents. Its adversaries' attacks make it shine even brighter and are means of its spreading.
Our Master says:
Although those government officials who have had dealings me these twenty-eight years have always oppressed me, the police have never troubled me; in fact, some of them have been protective. I am now pronouncing the reason for this, which is that it is now realized that the Nur students and the Risale-i Nur work to secure public order and security like moral police, and in sacred fashion, and that with their admonishments in regard to belief, they lodge a prohibitor in people's hearts. Evidently, the police perceived this and always appeared friendly to us. The underlying meaning of this is as follows:
In accordance with a fundamental law of the Qur'an, so that no harm should come to ninety innocents because of ten criminals, the Nur students and the Risale-i Nur prevent those who try to disturb public order. In consequence of this, despite the existence of awesome non-material destructive forces struggling to disturb public order, and despite their endeavouring to do this in this blessed country to a greater degree than in France, Egypt, Morocco, and Iran, the chief reason they have been unable to do so is that, as a moral force for the police, six hundred thousand copies of parts of the Risale-i Nur and five hundred thousand Nur students have withstood that spiritual and moral destruction. The police have felt this, for contrarily to the officials these last twenty-eight years, they have behaved towards the Risale-i Nur fairly and kindly.
Our Master also says:
More than the hojas and even the Sufis, the duty of members of the police force demands that they should be God-fearing, preserve themselves from serious sins, and perform their religious obligations. There is intense need for this, for then they may carry out to the letter their duties connected with public order and security against the forces wreaking moral and spiritual destruction.
[This letter, which our Master wrote long ago, was added to the court decision since it answers fully the accusations of securing personal influence and exploiting religion for political ends.]