You can send a petition to the justice-loving Democrats in the following vein. I am ill, so write it in whatever way you deem appropriate.
The letter we received yesterday from our lawyer states that in a way that conforms with no law, they have made a pretext of one single word out of thousands and with the idea of vindictively preventing the spread of the Risale-i Nur, said it constitutes an offence and have not returned that treatise. Although according to the decision of the Appeal Court which totally quashed their decision, what they showed to be an offence was not against us, and although we proved decisively the eighty errors in the public prosecutor's indictment and his malice, now with the same malice they have stated that a few lines about Islamic dress and inheritance in the four-hundred-page Zülfikar Collection that were written thirty or forty years ago, about which a hundred thousand Qur'anic commentaries have said the same things, constitute an offence and they have confiscated the work and refuse to return it. Is there any law in the world that would permit this?
Also, with the exception of two short pieces about repetition in the Qur'an and the angels, all the works held by Afyon Court have been acquitted by both Denizli Court and Ankara Criminal Court, having been investigated for two years, and the same works were all returned to their owners by the Isparta authorities after having been seized at some time. Then Zülfikar and The Staff of Moses were confiscated and held for four years on the pretext that they were published in the old script without permission, and all one hundred and seventy copies of the collections were returned to us with no losses because they could find nothing reprehensible in them. And what they showed to be our most serious offence, our objecting in the name of truth to some of the leaders of the former party, are now being reiterated a hundred times more violently in the official newspapers and religious journals. Whereas, a confidential piece of the Risale-i Nur
proved when expounding a truth that specifically pinpointed the present, that it was "a dead leader."
Although that is the truth, the judges' panel in Afyon Court stated at the end of its decision, which was also written in the old script, not in the name of justice but out of bigoted love of that dead man and chiefly due to the prosecutor's malice: "Said and his friends called Mustafa Kemal a wrecker of religion and the Sufyan, and they have tried to destroy the people's love for him. That's why we're convicting them."
Could there be a public trial for such a criticism of a person who is dead and gone, even if it were a thousand times stronger. To give such a judgement in a court of justice surely means that there is some other matter at hand.
Although the books of the Risale-i Nur that such people are holding have four times been acquitted, and the present Interior Minister and former Justice Minister have three times ruled for their acquittal and stated that they contain nothing reprehensible, and that with the quashing of the Afyon decision to convict us, they contain nothing constituting an offence, now at the time the whole nation awaits justice, compassion, and service of religion from the Democrat government, to leave the Risale-i Nur to the abitrary whims of the evil-intentioned due to the machinations of the former despots, is grievous treachery towards the Democrat government and destroys the nation's hopes of consolation.
My deputy in Ankara is Mustafa Sungur. He gave the good news in the telegraph he sent on 17.11.1950 that the decision had been taken to return all the parts of the Risale-i Nur to us. So although the just Justice Minister has three times acquitted them and now according to Sungur's letter, orders have been given for their return, Afyon Court is collecting all the slanderous reports and denunciations of sixteen years as well as the records of the Denizli and Eskişehir trials, and with the announcement of the amnesty and the court acquittals, is mixing up those blessed works and those reports and records in order to refute them, and is depositing them all in its store. The affairs of the Risale-i Nur should not be left to the devices of those persons who have deceived us this last three years. I am presenting this most important matter for the attention of the Prime Minister, Minister of Education, and Interior Minister.
Private Secretariat, the Vatican
No: 232247
22 February, 1951
Dear Sir,
Your fine, handwritten work Zülfikar has been presented to His Holiness the Pope, having been sent by means of Papal Nuncio's Office in Istanbul. His Holiness states that he is most touched by your kind gift and entreats Almighty God for His blessings upon you. I offer my deepest respects ,
Chief Secretary of the Vatican.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: I congratulate you with all my life and spirit on the month of Rajab and the Three Months and I beseech Almighty God that these months will be the means of winning for you and for me an everlasting life of eighty years. Amen.
Secondly: For the last thirty to forty days, as a sort of assault on the believers and three religiously-minded deputies, a general upset has been caused in order to hinder the restoration of the marks of Islam. They found the Nurjus to be the most powerful of those working for the cause of belief, so many cunning plans were laid on false pretexts in order to induce them to be neglectful and to dampen their enthusiasm. They wanted with these extraordinary intrigues in Emirdağ, as in Tarsus and Istanbul, to anger me and incite a disturbance. But through the grace of God, I was given extraordinary patience and forbearance. Their plans were completely thwarted. There is the possibility, even, that three high-ranking officials here and in Afyon will be dismissed. And the three deputies put in a good word for us. That is to say, divine providence protects us as ever, all praise be to God. Don't be anxious about things like this, but it is advisable to always be cautious.
Thirdly: The hero Ahmed Feyzi, who may be counted the Risale-i Nur's lawyer, is involved with the duplicating of the Risale-i Nur in Izmir and with the general awakening there, and has undertaken to do the corrections.
Bayram, who in prison was a young Nur hero, brought me a letter describing how the brothers who are helping him there, like Mehmed Yayla and Abdurrahman, are continuing their involvement with the duplicating. Ahmed Feyzi sent some olives and olive oil with Bayram. Although I did not accept my own brother Abdülmecid's gift, I was obliged to accept Ahmed Feyzi's, since I look on him as even closer to me than my brother. But so as not to break my rule, in return, you send to him on my account, one Words Collection, five Jaushan al-Kabirs, and three Hizb-i Nûriyes which belong to me, as Nazif mentioned in his letter, and which will be sent to you from Istanbul.
Two Nurjus have gone to Ankara. The Prime Minister, the Interior Minister, and the Minister of Education all support us. We received the good news, so don't worry about us. I feel a spiritual joy at the difficulties we suffer.
In His Name, be He glorified!
This year, fifteen students will go to the Hijaz together. The Hijaz will pay all their expenses there. On their return, Sâlih and two of his friends will attend the Islamic Youth Conference in Pakistan as members, after travelling through Iran and other countries. The government may pay for their expenses. We await your orders concerning this matter.
Abdurrahim Zapsu saw 'Ali Akbar Shah and Sa'id Ramazan; they were treated with great respect in Pakistan. Their hands were kissed in place of our Master's, and your prayers were requested.
Firstly: I enquire after your health, I kiss your hands and feet, and pray to Almighty God for your health and well-being, and await your prayers, for which I am in great need.
Secondly: There is nothing to worry about here now. The anxiety on the 5th of March was dispelled on the 18th of April, The police station became a Nur station. The Tarsus public prosecutor, having studied the books,
ordered that they should be returned. The chief inspector told me to go to Mersin to get the books that were there, so they could all be returned together. The police in Mersin said that they had sent all the books to Ankara and they would give them to me if they were returned, but that there were none there. So I went back to the inspector in Tarsus. He was very apologetic and said that they only act under orders and that they could not return them without receiving the orders. Then on 18th April they said that the books had arrived and that we should go and get them. I went immediately. I understood from the paper in which they were wrapped that five of our books, Zülfikar, The Ratifying Stamp of the Unseen, The Mysteries Collection, your Afyon defence speeches, and the Hulâsa, had arrived, having been sent from Ankara.
They handed over the books to us with a note saying that they contain nothing to prevent their sale. I gave the chief inspector a copy of The Mysteries Collection, and the police chief a copy of the Hulâsa and the biography in the new letters. They were both very pleased. Both have become Nurjus.
My Master! You told me that my duty lay in this region. I gave my word, and when I left Isparta I said that I would come in March. But my spirit tells me that I have not fully accomplished my duty since I was unable to reach Gaziantep and Maraş.
My Master! A year before I went to Eskişehir, three or four months after I first visited you, I had a dream in which you, my Master, came to our house. You asked me: "If I send you somewhere, will you go?" I replied: "Of course I will!" You told me: "I'm going to send you somewhere for three months." I immediately set off, and you told me: "Stop!" I stopped. You asked: "Did I tell you to go now?" I woke up then, and ever since I have been wondering: "Is it for this year that he gave me that order to make the three-month journey?" Day and night I wept. That is to say, it was destined to happen now. This is from the bounty of my Lord!
My Master, I kiss your hands and feet, longingly and with respect.
The Egyptian radio spoke so much about the Ascension on Wednesday night, that I celebrated it on both Wednesday night and on Thursday night.
Secondly: Evidently, one of the commanders of the Afyon gendarmerie was angry at Ishârât al-I'jâz (Signs of Miraculousness) being seized from us, seeing that it is a scholarly work that was written years ago. The Afyon Public Prosecutor's Office decided that it should be returned to us. They summoned us on Friday and Hayri on the day of the Ascension, and returned it. I considered this to be a sign of the Ascension that, as with the return in Tarsus, the spread of the Risale-i Nur cannot be prevented. God willing, we shall get back our Qur'an and other treatises from Afyon. Concerning the copies of A Guide for Youth which were given to the Public Prosecutor's Office in Istanbul, foremost the lawyer Mehmed Mihrî, who was a leading student of the Old Said, and his son-in-law the defending lawyer Asım, said that they were going to take this matter to court with fifty other lawyers, but, God willing, there will be no need for that and he will get them back with going to court.
Thirdly: The piece called, "Complaint to the Supreme Tribunal at the Resurrection of the Dead," and the piece consisting of ten matters that addressed the Parliament twenty-eight years ago and was printed at that time, and also the piece consisting of three matters about Mustafa that was written four years ago for the President of the Republic, have all been sent to Ankara to show to some of the present deputies and to the believing members of the government. I am also sending them to you for your information.
Fourthly: Mehmed Çavuş and his brother from the village of Baraklı near Dinar came to visit me together with another man. They appeared to me to be quite serious. Subsequently, they wrote some things in a letter and I am sending you a part of it attached. The brother asks some questions, but the Risale-i Nur leaves no need for this; it supplies answers to everything in my place. Only, in his question about the verse, «Immortal youths will [attend on] them» (Q 56: 17, 76: 19) in the letter of condolence on the death of a child, it says in some old commentaries that in Paradise everyone from children to the elderly will be thirty-three years of age. God knows best, but the meaning is this, that the term "youths (wildân)" in the unambiguous verse means that children, for whom it is not compulsory to perform the religious obligations and they are absolved from them, and who die before the age of puberty, will remain as lovable children worthy of
Paradise. Nevertheless, according to the Shari'a, parents should encourage their child to perform the prayers when they reach the age of seven in order to familiarize them, and they should strongly encourage him when he reaches ten, to accustom him. That is to say, although it is not compulsory, as a sort of supererogatory worship, children who perform the prayers from the age of seven till the age of puberty like adults, and hold the fast, will be thirty-three years old in Paradise, in order to receive the large rewards of pious adults. Some commentaries included all children, without elucidating this point. It was supposed to be general, although it is specific.
My Dear, Loyal, Thoughtful Brothers!
Firstly: Owing to many signs, I have formed the certain opinion that the reason covert atheists have deceived a number of officials, and insistently levelled their accusations at A Guide for Youth alone out of all the lengthy confidential treatises of the Risale-i Nur, and have caused me difficulties this last one and a half years, is the piece about the air (Hüve Nüktesi) in the Guide. For the true meaning of divine unity that the piece discloses most clearly and decisively, smashes absolute disbelief, In fact, in one part of it, it disallows every sort of doubt and hesitation. Because covert atheists could find nothing to combat this, they tried to prevent its spread by banning it officially. I am going to explain to you only three of many points related to the piece about the air that I expounded for the leading students of the Medresetü' z-Zehrâ the day before yesterday.
First Point: According to an inner meaning of the verse: «To Him ascend [all] good words» (Q 35:10), one elevated and important duty of the element air is to be an ever-changing page for the pen of divine power, in order to make heard to all the angels and spirit beings in the globe of the air the beautiful, meaningful, veracious words of belief inscribed by the pen of divine determining and spread through divine permission, and to convey them to the Supreme Throne. Since this is the most important of the air's sacred duties and of the wisdom in its creation; and since by means of the radio the face of the earth is made into a single dwelling and is a vast divine bounty for humankind; most certainly, as humankind's universal thanks, before anything else the words that the radio broadcasts should be foremost the Qur'an and its truths, which are divine speech and
"good words," and the lessons of belief and fine morals, and the essential needs and benefits of mankind. Then it may be thanks for that vast bounty. For if thanks are not offered for bounties, they become harmful for people.
It is true that human beings have need for some enjoyable entertainments, as they have need for true facts and reality, but amusements should be only one in five. It is otherwise contrary to the air's purpose, Moreover, while being a vast bounty for humankind, it is the cause of laziness and vice and the neglect of necessary duties, thus becoming a serious calamity. For it destroys people's enthusiasm for work and effort, which they need.
Now, before my very eyes is the tiny machine of a radio, which was brought to my room so that I might listen to the Qur'an. I listened to it and saw that only a tenth of it was allotted to "good words." I understood this to be a human error. God willing, they will correct it, And as thanks for this bounty of the radio, which should be a means of transforming the whole face of the earth into an enlightened council and elevated dwelling and a school teaching religious belief, four fifths of what it broadcasts will be "good words" which will be spoken to win everlasting life for human- kind.
Second Point: It says in the Risale-i Nur that "one who cannot create the universe, cannot create an atom. Only the Being who creates the whole universe can create an atom in its right place and make it perform its orderly duties."
One particular proof of this sentence's universal proofs is this: the handful of air in this small radio I have with me, which is the container and receptacle of words, demonstrates decisively the following: a single phrase of the Qur'an, for instance, "all praise be to God!" with all its letters and in the mode and style particular to the reciter, reaches our ears with no change through the handful of air in the radio, over distances varying from one hour to a year from one of the nearly two hundred radio stations whose names appear written in this machine. In order for the phrase to reach our ears and in order to convey it to them without its being altered or distorted, there have to be found in every atom of that handful of air, an infinite power and comprehensive will, and knowledge so all-embracing it knows all the different modes of the Qur'an reciters in those centres all over the earth. For if there were no all-seeing eye to see them and ear to hear every- thing everywhere at the same moment, most certainly that miracle of power would not come into existence. That is to say, this handful of air molecules can manifest such a miracle of power only through a knowledge and will that encompass the whole universe, and the power of a Being possessing hearing and sight, and an Absolutely Powerful One for whom nothing
is difficult and for whom the greatest thing is as easy as the smallest. For to ascribe the existence of air waves to the creation of imaginary haphazard chance, blind force, and deaf nature, means making every single molecule an absolute ruler that sees, knows, and does everything in the globe of the atmosphere covering the whole earth. This is a totally impossible superstition which is infinitely distant from reason.
Third Point: The following fact is understood from the miracle of power that the handful of air displays in the tiny machine of this radio, a receptacle which acts as a flowerpot for the blooms of words: every one of the air's molecules describes Almighty God together with His Being and attributes, and every one of them proves them. With their extensive, lengthy proofs, the philosophers and religious scholars who investigate the universe, take the whole of it into consideration when proving the existence and unity of the Necessarily Existent One. Only then do they attain fully to knowledge of God. However, just as a fragment of glass displays the sun when it appears, the same as the surface of the ocean displays it, and it points to the sun; so too, in consequence of the above-mentioned truth, all the particles in that handful of air display in themselves the manifestation of divine unity and of the divine attributes and perfection, the same as the ocean of the universe. Thus, since the Risale-i Nur, which is a flash of the miraculous meanings of the All-Wise Qur'an, has elucidated this fact, an attentive Nurju is not compelled to say: "There is no existent save God" in order to attain a constant sense of the divine presence and be perpetually aware of knowledge of God. And the Nurju does not need to say: "There is none witnessed save Him" in order to attain a constant sense of the divine presence like some of the people of reality. For the sacred window of the shining truth of "In everything is a sign indicating that He is One!" is sufficient for him. A brief explanation of this Arabic phrase is as follows:
Everyone in this world has their own world, their own universe. Quite simply, there are universes and worlds one within the other to the number of conscious beings. The pillar of each person's personal world, universe, and world is his own life, If he has a mirror in his hand and holds it up to a large palace, he will have a palace in his own mirror. Similarly, each person has his own personal world. Saying, "There is no existent save He," some of the people of reality denied this personal world, and in accordance with the inner meaning of abandoning everything other than God, found a
permanent sense of the divine presence and knowledge of God. Another group of the people of reality said: "There is nothing observed save Him" in order to find permanent cognizance of God and an awareness of the divine presence, and consigned their personal worlds to oblivion. They drew a veil of transience over them, and finding a sense of the divine presence, transformed all their lives into worship of a sort.
Now at the present time, in accordance with the inner meaning of "And in everything is a sign indicating that He is One," which has become apparent through the miraculousness of the Qur'an's meanings (i'caz-i mânevî), there is a window revealing divine unity in everything from particles to the stars, and there are signs (âyet), that is, indications and evidences, making known directly the Single One of Unity together with His attributes. Thus, in the piece about the air (Hüve Nüktesi) are succinct indications to the above-mentioned sacred truth concerning belief and the divine presence. The Risale-i Nur has proved and elucidated it. In former times, the people of reality explained it somewhat briefly and summarily. This means that these ghastly times are more in need of this truth, since it has been bestowed in detail through the All-Wise Qur'an's miraculousness and the Risale-i Nur has disseminated it.
Such parts of the Risale-i Nur as Zülfikar, The Miracles of the Qur'an Collection, which the Hajis saw had been placed next to the Black Stone in Mecca out of respect, and The Staff of Moses Collection, which they say had been placed on the Prophet's (Upon whom be blessings and peace) tomb in Medina, are means of securing the world of Islam's true brother- hood for us. But for four years, moves have been made to destroy them by confiscating them and leaving them to rot in court repositories as though they were pernicious rags. This is despite four courts having ruled for their acquittal and free publication, and on numerous occasions our having applied to the authorities and sent petitions requesting their return, and the Prime Minister having said that uptil now no harm has come to country due to the propagating of religion. And now the religiously minded are
alarmed at the law ensuring religious freedom being postponed although it should have had priority and been ratified urgently, and they are worried that in the nation's eyes the religious deputies are failing to perform their most crucial religious duties. We too are alarmed and so that internal covert atheists and traitors who work on account of communism do not take advantage of this situation, out of patriotism I am compelled to explain the following fact to you. The fact is this: