In His Name, be He glorified!
God's peace be upon you, and His mercy and blessings!
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
I have now received the literary, lengthy, and extraordinarily panegyrical letters of Hasan Feyzi, who is one of the chief heirs of the late martyr, Hâfız Ali, and a lofty representative of the Denizli Nur students, and interpreter of that town's extraordinary attachment to the Risale-i Nur. His letter elucidates fully my brief explanations of the Risale-i Nur's exceeding
value in the letter I wrote in connection with its being returned to us, about our brother Hâfız Mustafa's work. His letter elucidates also the statements I made in my letters about premonitions, and is a powerful testament of Denizli testifying in favour of the Risale-i Nur, and as a scholar and retired teacher of the modern sciences of long standing, I consider his shining testimony to the Risale-i Nur to hold great importance. However, in my view, it would be appropriate if the parts concerning myself are either skipped or amended. Two or three passages should not be shown to everyone, so I have underlined them and sent the letter to you as an addendum to the Twenty-Seventh Letter or its supplements. You can write out and put this part of my letter at the beginning of his letter. Our brother Hasan Feyzi should not be offended at our skipping a number of sentences, for they are unnecessary for all the students, but may be left in some confidential copies.
Hasan Feyzi has entered the body of the Risale-i Nur's collective personality, which is as though directly a collective personality of the truths of belief and the Qur'an, and having assumed the dress of its members, addresses it with extraordinary praise and applause. As I looked at it, objections occurred to me and I thought it excessive, but then the reality of the Qur'an responded in meaning: "Don't concern yourself with the body and the dress; look to me! He is speaking of me and what he says is right!" So I stopped objecting. However, any eulogizing terms about the Risale-i Nur's interpreter that are either explicit, allusive, or indicative, or exceed his due should be moderated. He should feel no offence, for according to our way and in the face of others, especially those critical of us, such favourable views of my wretched self are not acceptable.
He (Bediuzzaman) is the Risale-i Nur's servant. He would have been a millionaire today if he had sought the world and accepted all the gifts and presents offered to him, and the alms and charity, donations and bequests. But just like 'Umar (May God be pleased with him), he said: "If I take on an excessive load, I shall never attain to Muhammad the Arabian (Upon whom be blessings and peace), the heart of the speaking cosmos and God's beloved, nor to his friends and those perfected persons who have attained to him. I would only get half way. Complying with the Prophet's (UWBP) reply to the dictum: "I created all the spheres, everything, for you, my beloved!," "I have abandoned all of them for you!" he abandoned the world and all that is in it, and love and passion, and even abandoned abandoning,
and dedicated all of his efforts and endeavours and his life to spreading the lights of the Qur'an. Because of this, all the difficulties he suffered are now mercy, and all the services he performed, wisdom. He revealed the beauty on the face of glory and the world was transformed into a flower-bed of perfection.
One unaware that His favour and ire are the same, suffers torment;
Be delivered from that torment! He who is sovereign, knows us.
Like Niyazi Misri, the interpreter here saw everything to be good, turned a droplet into an ocean, non-being into man, and caused his light to rule the world. The fact he was called "Kurdi," and with the inversion and omission in the word «ya mudrikan» in the qasida of Imam 'Ali (May God be pleased with him) alluded to the word "Kurd," does not indicate that he was actually a Kurd, nullifying his descent from the Prophet (UWBP) (lit., his being a sharif and a sayyid). This cognomen is merely to announce to the world his being the Risale-i Nur's interpreter, who was born and grew up in Kurdistan and became famous with the name; it is not to prove his Kurdishness. His knowing Kurdish and wearing local dress and appearing thus was to conceal and hide himself; in my view, his purpose was not to deny his true identity and nationhood. It must be indeed meaningful and full of wisdom that he had great love for the Turkish nation, which for centuries served the World of Islam and humanity and Mecca and Medina, and that he spent and large portion of his life together with the Turks.
O Lord!
For the sake of Your noble beloved,
For the sake of the blood spilt at Kerbela,
For the sake of the eyes weeping at separation,
For the sake of the face dragged through the dust of love,
Grant victory to the Risale-i Nur, to Ustad, and to Islam. Amen!
... ...
Their intention is to extinguish God's light [by blowing] with their mouths; but God will complete [the revelation of] His light, even though the unbelievers may detest [it] (Q 61:8).
Respected Ustad!
I wrote these pieces with the Risale-i Nur's hand, pen, and tongue, a
tiny spark which sprang from them to my lowly heart. I seek your acceptance and help so that inspiration should not cease, And I kiss your hands respectfully and await your prayers.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
It came to my heart that I should explain four matters to you.
The First Matter: This is the reply to a question that has been asked both verbally and tacitly and in other ways.
It has been asked: Since the Risale-i Nur is the source of wonders, and leads to an unfolding of the truths of belief greater than the Sufi tarikats and some of its loyal students are in one respect at the level of sainthood (velâyet), why don't they appear to manifest spiritual experiences and illuminations and physical wonders like the saints? Why don't its students seek such things? What is the reason for this?
The Answer: Firstly, the reason is true sincerity. Because for people who do not completely conquer their souls, temporary pleasures and miraculous wonders become their goal in this world and the reason for their works of the hereafter, and this spoils sincerity. For the works of the hereafter may not be sought with worldly goals and pleasures; if they are, it destroys true sincerity.
Secondly: Wonder-working and illuminations are only for those ordinary people who travel the Sufi way but whose belief is merely imitative and has not reached the level of realization. Sometimes miracle-like wonders strengthen the weak and the convictions of people given to whispering doubts. Whereas the proofs of the truths of belief the Risale-i Nur adduces leave no place for doubts; they afford certainty and leave no need at all for wonders and illuminations. So since the certain affirmative belief it induces is far superior to illuminations, spiritual delights, and wonder- working, its true students do not seek anything of that sort.
Thirdly: A principle of the Risale-i Nur is to know one's own faults and without rivalry to serve humbly seeking God's pleasure alone. But in this era of egotism, differences and a sort of rivalry between the followers of the Sufi way who perform wonders and seek the pleasure of illuminations, cause the heedless to think ill of them and to accuse them of egotism and selfishness. This shows that it is absolutely imperative that the Risale-i Nur
students do not wish for wonders and illuminations for themselves nor run after them. Also, the individual person is not given importance on its way; owing to the spiritual partnership and the brothers' wholehearted identification with each other, such divine bestowals as the thousands of wonders associated with knowledge and the facility in the work of dissemination, and the plenty experienced in the livelihoods of those who work at it, are sufficient for all and they do not seek any personal attainments or wonders.
Fourthly: Because they are short-lived, a hundred gardens of this world are not equal to a single tree of the next world, which is undying. In consequence, since the blind human emotions are captivated by immediate pleasure and prefer an ephemeral present fruit to an eternal garden of the hereafter, the Risale-i Nur students do not seek spiritual delights and illuminations in this world, lest their evil-commanding souls exploit this natural tendency.
In olden times there lived a person who resembled the Risale-i Nur students in this respect. Both he and his wife were of high spiritual rank, but due to their straitened circumstances she remarked to him on their extreme need. Suddenly, a golden brick appeared before them. She exclaimed: "Look! A brick from our mansion in Paradise!" But then the blessed women said: "It's true that we're needy and that we'll have loads of bricks like that in the next world, but this one shouldn't be wasted on this fleeting life so that it's missing from our mansion there! Offer a prayer that it returns to its place; we don't need it!" It disappeared, and it is told that with their spiritual discernment they beheld it in its place.
These two heroic people of truth offer excellent examples for the Risale-i Nur students and their not chasing after the worldly delights of wonder-working!
Second Matter
If the coincidences (tevâfuk) appear in numerous different forms and in such a way as to corroborate one another, they may afford a degree of certainty that is conclusive and explicit. A sign that some of the letters we wrote after leaving prison were both acceptable, and very significant, and that people were very needy for them at this time, was that a sparrow, a kuddûs bird, and some pigeons came into my room most strangely and in a way quite out of the ordinary and all coinciding with the others. Then when
Halil İbrahim, one of our brothers from Milas, received the letter describing the kuddûs bird and opened a locked room, in the same extraordinary way a kuddûs bird flew in and tried to fly round the room, thus coinciding with our bird. Then when the students of the Nur School read the letter, two grasshoppers appeared and perched on the letter. And just as these miniature birds corroborated and coincided with the coincidences of the former birds, so, as endorsed by our loyal brothers in İnebolu, when they were reading that same letter, they were frightened out of their wits by an owl alighting at the window and beating the panes with its wings as though saying: "I'm taking an interest in that letter too; don't imagine that I'm not concerned!" The large bird was fully confirming the interest shown by the other birds and was coinciding with them. If an imaginary wide-thinking and intuitive person who dwelt on the relationships between the events of the book of the universe from the viewpoint of humanity's situation this century were to endorse so many coincidences looking to the same matter {(40): We had just received this letter from our Master. I, that is, Husrev, was reading it and my friend Tahirî was writing it out. A bird came and perched on our window, then seeing Husrev's head, flew off. Husrev, Tahirî} and the importance of the questions discussed briefly in the letters, would he not be right? For it is as though with their very numerous aeroplanes and human birds, men have frightened the birds of the air, which is their world, and in consequence, with a terrible excitement in that world, the birds show serious concern in the face of men's actions and ask if there is no one to respond to those tyrannous, destructive, savage birds, so as to force them to give up their destruction and to work for the profit of humankind and for their prosperity and happiness. Wouldn't it be apt to say they are showing an interest in the questions of the Risale-i Nur? Wouldn't such a thing be possible? Could one way it is a meaningless fancy?
Third Matter
Recently I read the Hizb-i Nuriye, a summary of The Supreme Sign (Âyet-ül-Kübrâ), which was composed three years ago in Ramadan and published freely this Ramadan. It took me over an hour. Then again in Ramadan, a ten or fifteen-minute summary of that summary occurred to me. When I read it, I experience on reading two or three pages of Arabic an unfolding of belief and of what is denoted by, "An hour's reflection is better than a year's supererogatory worship" as though I were reading the whole of The Supreme Sign. I can't find the time to write to you with my
own pen; God willing, sometime I shall do so. Those who understand the piece as I do may read it from their own copies or write it out at the end of either The Supreme Sign or the Hizb-i Nuriye, after the tesbihat and the supplication, instead of our tesbihat «la ilaha illa Allah,» which is recited thirty-three times, but only thinking of the meaning of the morning tesbihat.
The Fourth consists of two points.
First: Our brothers in Isparta, especially Husrev, the Rose Nur hero, ask about my material winter needs, and want to help me, I thank them, but say this: their services for the Risale-i Nur are both profitable for the eternal happiness of all the students, and assist my needs for the winter that will follow the grave, my true winter. They perform these so perfectly that they exceed a thousandfold any aid for this temporary passing winter and its needs. If I had been able, I would have tried with all my life and spirit and the greatest pleasure to meet all their material needs. Don't worry about me; frugality and contentment are two inexhaustible treasuries.
Second Point: I was truly pleased by the fine, sincere letters of our brothers in İnebolu and that district, which at one time won the name of "Little Isparta" and more than anywhere suffered the calamity of prison recently in connection with our matter. Nevertheless, I am concerned that two heroes of the Risale-i Nur, father and son, have been unable to agree completely due to their differing temperaments. But however unfair a father is, his son is obliged to seek his pleasure. And however rebellious a son is, his father should not deny him his natural compassion. But for the sake of the Risale-i Nur and on account of the mutual self-identification of its students and their not criticizing one another and forgiving one another's faults, let alone such a father and son and such select, honourable, and leading Risale-i Nur students, even ones that are far from each other and enemies even, should not allow worldly, trifling, and emotional matters to cause dispute among them. In addition to the respect and compassion demanded by fatherhood and sonship, for my sake these two brothers whom I love should, as Nur students, disregard one another's faults and forgive one another, and not criticize each other,
I send greetings to each and every one of my brothers, and offer prayers for them.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
The First: Why is it that apart from work related to the Risale-i Nur, you don't want to meet personally with people who have a good opinion of your person and look on you as holding a high station, yet have powerful relations with the Risale-i Nur and whom you love dearly? Why do you prefer to meet with those who don't nurture such a high opinion of you and you pay more attention to them?
The Answer: As I said in the Second Letter of the Thirty-Third Word, people at this time sell their favours very expensively to those in need. For example, they suppose an unfortunate like myself to be righteous or a saint and give me a loaf of bread, then they want an acceptable prayer in return. But rather than paying such a price, I don't accept the favour. Just as I cite this as a reason for not accepting gifts, so people other than the special students of the Risale-i Nur display powerful interest and services thinking that I hold a high station. In return, in this world they want luminous results like the saints (ehl-i velâyet). Then they perform services for us and evince interest and this implies favours. But because I don't possess the price they want in return for favours of this sort, I am ashamed. Then they are disillusioned when they realize my unimportance and even become slack in their service. It's true that ambition and lack of contentment are acceptable in some ways in matters pertaining to the hereafter, but on our way and in our service - due to certain faults - it leads to complaint and hopelessness arising from disillusionment instead of thanks, and even to the abandonment of service. For this reason, because the contentment of our way leads always to thanks, steadfastness and resoluteness, we are obliged to be content with the fruits and results of our service although we are ambitious and aspiring in the performance of it.
For example, thanks to the service of the Risale-i Nur, this result has ensured for thousands of believers in Isparta and its environs an extraordinary strength of belief, and is sufficient for our extraordinary service. Even if someone were to appear who was as illustrious as ten spiritual poles and were to raise a thousand people to the level of sainthood, he still could not lower this degree of the Risale-i Nur's achievement. The true students of the Risale-i Nur content themselves with results like this. In place of the heartfelt contentment of that lofty pole's followers, ensured by his extraordinary station and his rulings, the Risale-i Nur's unshakeable proofs satisfy
its students to a far greater degree, and, moreover, their state of mind and belief spreads to others and is beneficial for them. The satisfaction of those followers, however, is particular to them and personal.
In fact, what they call in logic qaziye-i makbûle, that is, accepting without proof the words of the great, does not in logic express certainty and surety; it is only a probable assumption. The certain proofs of logic do not look to the good opinions of people and people who are generally accepted, they look to irrefutable evidence; all the proofs of the Risale-i Nur are of this conclusive type. For exactly like the realities and truths of belief which the saints experience through their pious acts and worship and asceticism, and on their spiritual journeyings, and which they observe behind veils, the Risale-i Nur has opened a way to reality in knowledge in place of worship; it has opened up a way leading to the essence of reality within logical proofs and scholarly arguments in place of spiritual journeyings and recitations; it has opened up a way of the greater sainthood directly within the science of theology (kalam), the science of the tenets of belief, and the science of the principles of religion, in place of the science of Sufism and the tarikat. It has conquered the misguidance arising from [modern] science and philosophy, which this age has defeated the currents of Sufism (hakikat ve tarikat cereyanları), as is clear for all to see. Let there be no mistake in the simile, just as the powerful, logical truth of the Qur'an has delivered other religions from the assaults of naturalist philosophy and its overwhelming them, becoming a point of support and to an extent preserving their fundamental principles, which are based on compliance and not reason; so too, the Risale-i Nur, a miracle and light of the Qur'an at this time, has saved the imitative faith of the ordinary believers from the assaults of the misguidance arising from materialist philosophy, and as a point of support for all believers, has become an unassailable citadel for those near and far. In the face of today's awesome, unprecedented misguidance, it preserves the ordinary believers' belief from doubts and their Islam from baseless scruples.
Just at the time the believers everywhere, even in India and China, are being shaken by the predominance of the fearsome misguidance of the age, and they are falling into doubt as to the truth of Islam, they hear that a work has appeared that proves conclusively all the truths of belief, and defeating philosophy, silences atheism. Their doubts and scruples disappear, and their belief is saved and strengthened.
The Second Part of the Question: In one of your letters, you described seriously a poetical subtle point, that some birds came to you and your students when your letters were being read and written out. But birds aren't
acquainted with the state of the world and don't know the usefulness of the Risale-i Nur in the face of it, do they?
The Answer: At the divine command and with divine permission and through dominical power and strength, all animals have a shepherd or supervisor from among the angels, as do the birds. Even if they are not aware of it, at the divine command and through dominical inspiration, their shepherd drives them on. That natural impulse results from the inspiration that comes to the birds; they manifest the inspiration. A day-old bee flies a day's distance in the air through that natural inspiration; through that dominical impulse it returns to its hive without losing its way.
Indeed, just as the globe of the earth objected to the oppression visited on the Risale-i Nur and its students, and the atmosphere responded with lack of rain and cold to its confiscation, and the clouds applauded with rain on its being returned; so too, the birds may well take interest.
For sure, in the face of the crimes of men which destroy a village and kill a thousand people with the egg of a bomb laid by artificial birds, and those destructive human birds which lay those hellish eggs, and the tyrannous, cruel ruination of the globe and of humankind, those animate birds will applaud the Risale-i Nur, which illuminates the future so effectively. It is these very subtle points that those letters contain.
My Brothers!
I was truly gratified by the letter written by the keeper of the Risale-i Nur power station, who knows fully the worth of The Fruits of Belief (Meyve Risalesi) and has earned the name of Fruit Seller. For, like Hulûsi and Hakkı, the sincere friendship and brotherhood between them have been constant and continuous for close on twenty years; and their attachment to the Risale-i Nur and connection with it and loyalty towards it also persist, and like the sincere relations between them, become firmer and are not shaken by events. I offer thanks to Almighty God that He has bestowed on the Risale-i Nur such loyal and utterly sincere students who are good examples for others and offer thanks in patience (Sabri) in their service of the Risale-i Nur, ever sincere (Hulûsi) in right (Hakkı). My brothers in the vicinity of the Fruit Seller, and especially the loyal people of Barla whose names I can't say but are known, very often draw me in the imagination to the past and that region and take me around Barla and its mountains. I very often think of them and those places and I can't forget them.
I send them countless greetings.
The letter from Hasan Şükrü, the preacher from Kozca, pleased me greatly; I send him my greetings. I send greetings too to foremost the innocent children, the unlettered, the sisters, and those who write with their pens, and to all my brothers, and offer prayers for them.
I saw the letter of Küçük Ali, the hero of the Auspicious Group (mübârekler hey'eti), which was returned to me by the court having been seized from the post before it ever reached me; he had decided to write out the whole Risale-i Nur once every two years, and has done so. With this heroic act he affirmed my premonition that having seen a true Abdurrahman in Büyük Mustafa, the first student of the Risale-i Nur, I would see many more after him, for he carried out that blessed Mustafa's duty to the letter. And Hâfız Mustafa showed in prison after having been a full assistant during Hâfız Ali's lifetime that after his death he was a full heir. That is to say, in that elevated and blessed group they have performed to the full the work of the Risale-i Nur that I had hoped for eighteen years ago, and continue to do so. The seeds they sowed produce fruits in their places, even if they do not work at it.
I send greetings to each and every one of our brothers, and offer prayers for them.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: I congratulate you with all my life and spirit on the blessed Ten Nights and holy Festival. Through His mercy and munificence, and protection and support, and aid and guidance, may Almighty God grant you success in the printing and publication of the Risale-i Nur and the printing of the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition which shows the coincidences (tevâfuk). Amen.
Secondly: For a long time I have recited in the tesbihat following the prescribed prayers the thirty-three phrases expressing divine unity, which are like an epitome (hulâsatü'l-hulâsa) of The Supreme Sign and the Hizb-i Nuriye, which are summaries of the Risale-i Nur. Most of the truths of the Risale-i Nur unfold on reciting the tesbihat and my imagination expands enormously; all the realms of creatures in the cosmos recite each of those phrases through the tongues of their beings and I as though recite them through their tongues, and that universal tongue of being becomes one with my particular spoken word. I recite them with pure pleasure, and am sending you a copy. I have no doubt now that this epitome of the Hizb-i Nuriye that can be recited in fifteen minutes, holds the mystery of the Hadith, "A hour's reflection ..." the same as the Hizb-i Nuriye. Those people who do not know Arabic will understand this Arabic piece perfectly if they have a good understanding of the degrees in The Supreme Sign. If they take a look at both of them a few times, they will understand it fully. I recite it once every twenty-four hours, either following the tesbihat after the morning prayers, or at some other time when I feel fed up or distressed. It gives me a feeling of elevated expansiveness and banishes the boredom. It will be appropriate to append it to The Supreme Sign and Hizb-i Nuriye. It is meaningful that just as the majority of the truths of the The Supreme Sign and the Risale-i Nur were imparted during Ramadan and the tesbihat, so was the Epitome imparted during Ramadan and the tesbihat.
Thirdly: I received news recently that the Cabinet has decided to transfer my official registration from Kastamonu to Emirdağ. It is understood that they cannot find any reason to bother the Risale-i Nur and its students, so they direct attention to my unimportant self and make records of everything. I assure you that I proudly accept with all my life and spirit their bothering me instead of bothering the Risale-i Nur and its students. As though in other places they fix themselves on me but can find no way to prevent them, and now suppose that here they've found the solution and treat me like this. But don't be upset by this; my situation here will lead to triumphs for the Risale-i Nur students. It is my conviction that divine providence and mercy will transform this injustice of the worldly towards me into considerable advantages. In any event, in our way, time and place cannot be an obstacle to our conversing; we are together whether in the east or west, or even in the next world or in the Intermediate Realm. For instance, Hâfız Ali (May God be pleased with him) in the Intermediate Realm is
everyday with us in spirit. In consequence, we attach no importance to apparent separation, or death even.
Fourthly: It was truly subtle, the nightingale of Marangoz Ahmed, one of the heroes of the Nur School, affirming the nightingale of the blessed rosy scribe of the Rose Factory. Anyway, in the spring, the nightingales act as orators for all the birds in the face of the caravans of plants bringing provisions for the animals, and they applaud them in the name of the other birds. Surely the nightingale should be seen as foremost amongst the birds that are concerned with the Risale-i Nur, and it has been seen.
Our sincere, steadfast friend from Safranbolu, Mustafa Osman, says that he sent letters to our brothers here but is worried at receiving no reply. He shouldn't be worried. A separate letter wasn't sent to him, out of caution and relying on communications via Isparta. They shouldn't be anxious, nor should our brothers in Kastamonu. My official registration being transferred here will not diminish my concern for them; on the contrary, it binds me to them more strongly. Most of the time, in meaning and imagination I find myself in the blessed mountains of Kastamonu, together with those brothers of mine.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers and True Heirs!
I have received numerous letters congratulating me on the festival, I don't have the time to answer all of them, and my circumstances don't allow it. One of our select brothers wrote all the letters for many other brothers; and some of them contain other important points, which pleased and gratified me.
In short: Husrev's letter of congratulation in the name of the Rose and Light Factories made me weep for joy. In fact, one of Husrev's distinguishing characteristics is that not one of the letters I have received to date has offended me; they are soothing, even if they arrive at grievous times, and relieve my spirit. For myself, I am most grateful to him in this respect too.
Hulûsi the Second, Sabri's, congratulatory letter on account of the known brothers, filled me with profound joy. Those special brothers of ours being ahead in appreciation and praise and their fine words about Husrev and Hasan Feyzi indeed made me happy. And Hasan Feyzi's congratulations in the name of the Denizli students showed also his lofty connection and powerful concern.
The letter of congratulation of Feyzi and Emin, the Husrev and Rüştü of
Kastamonu, in the name of its devotees, and their writing that the incident Feyzi was involved in was nothing to cause concern, on the contrary, had become like a whip of encouragement, dispelled our anxieties.
Nazif's letter of congratulation in the name of the brothers of that region, and his unshakeable loyalty and attachment and powerful hope, allowed us to breathe freely. I was anxious because of the personal rivals he had.
I received the congratulations sent by Halil İbrahim (May God be pleased with him) whose courage is as powerful as his loyalty, which he had sent directly to my address. I send my greetings first and foremost to himself and the Risale-i Nur's cautious lawyer and to all of them, and congratulate them on the festival.
One of the heroes of the Nur School, Şükrü Efe's, letter, which shows the birds' and sparrows' interest, corroborates the heroic carpenter's corroboration and also pleased us.
We haven't found the time to reply to the question in Ali Osman's letter, who is one of our brothers in Atabey and an heir of Lütfi.
With all our life and spirit we congratulate each and every one of these brothers and the friends whom they represent, and give a thousand welcomes to our brother Re'fet the Elder. And I conclude my words by congratulating on this the third of your festivals the groups of innocent children, unlettered elderly, and self-sacrificing sisters among all our brethren, and offering prayers for their well-being and happiness.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
The collection called The Ratifying Stamp of the Unseen (Sikke-i Tasdik-i Gaybî) of the Blessed Ones' champion and Abdurrahmans' hero, Küçük Ali, who is small in name but great in spirit, is indeed fine and appropriate. He arrived together with the books which belonged to the martyr Hâfız Ali. It would, however, be better if the letters you deem appropriate in The Additional Letters (Lâhika) especially in Emirdağ Lahikası about the Risale-i Nur's wonder-working; for instance, about the earthquakes, rain, and birds, are included at the end of The Ratifying Stamp of the Unseen. In this connection I again congratulate the Auspicious Group on the festival and Küçük Ali a thousand times over.
I have read the admirable letter of self-sacrificing Mustafa Osman, the Safranbolu champion, which he sent to the students here. Like Hasan
Feyzi, he wrote in a fine, literary style and showed his extraordinary loyalty and good will. However, he credited me with a station far higher than is my due, instead of ascribing it to the Risale-i Nur's collective personality; he saw his Master to be very brilliant in his own shining mirror. So I accepted his commendation as a prayer. We congratulate both himself and our brothers in that district on the festival.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Up until the present, covert dissemblers have attacked the Risale-i Nur by deceiving members of the government, making use of the law and judiciary, and from the point of view of public security and administration. And we, when forced to, assumed a defensive position because we act positively. Now their plans have been confounded. Indeed, their assaults extended the Risale-i Nur's influence. Our intention now to print The Staff of Moses (Asâ-yi Mûsâ) in the new letters, seems as though the Risale-i Nur is being made to assume an offensive stance, outside our will. A significant reason for this must be as follows:
I reckon that because the Risale-i Nur is a spiritual saviour of this blessed land, the time has come, or will come, for it to make an appearance in the world of publishing, and to give instruction, in order to repulse two awesome calamities.
One of those calamities is the awesome current of irreligion which has emerged to the north and breeds anarchy, and has defeated Christianity. It occurred to my heart that similarly to the barrier of Dhu'l-Qarnayn, the Risale-i Nur might act as a Qur'anic barrier against the flood overrunning this blessed country, and that it had become necessary to speak with the printed word in order to reply to and dispel the fierce criticisms and accusations of the Islamic world against this country's people.
I am not informed about the state of the world, but just as the Risale-i Nur's truths are a fortress withstanding the monstrous current which is overwhelming Europe and is not based on the revealed religions; so too those truths are a Qur'anic miracle which may dispel the present objections and accusations of the Islamic world and continent of Asia and regain their love and brotherhood. This country's patriotic politicians should come quickly to their senses and publish the Risale-i Nur officially, so that it may act as a shield against those two calamities.
I wonder, if it had not been for the Risale-i Nur's so potently spreading
certain affirmative belief in this blessed land these last twenty years, would this land have been able to preserve its Qur'an and belief from the terrible blows of the revolutions and explosions of this dreadful age? However. The Risale-i Nur may not attacked due to its allegedly harming the country and government; they can no longer get anyone to believe such a thing. But now, switching their front and behind the veil of religion, dissemblers are employing sly tricks to use simple-minded hojas or supporters of innovation or egotistical sufistically inclined people against the Risale-i Nur, as they did two years ago in Istanbul and in the region of Denizli; they are trying to attack the Risale-i Nur and its students on another front. God willing, they will not succeed. So acting with perfect caution and circumspection, the Risale-i Nur students should pay no attention when they are attacked and should not get drawn into arguments. If they are attacked by religious scholars or believers who have been deceived, they should be friendly towards them and pacify them saying: "We don't bother you, so don't you bother us!"
Secondly
Küçük Ali, small in name but great in spirit, a hero among the blessed who bears a resemblance to both Abdurrahman and Lütfi and Hâfız Ali the Elder, asks a question. Its answer, however, is written in a hundred places in the Risale-i Nur. He asks: What is the reason for the great concentration of arguments concerning the pillars of belief in the Risale-i Nur? Our former teachers taught us that a great saint's belief is similar to that of an ordinary believer.
The Answer: Both in The Supreme Sign, in the discussion about the degrees of belief, and near its end, is the statement of Imam Rabbani, the Regenerator of the Second Millennium, which says: "The end and most important aim of all the Sufi paths is the unfolding of the truths of belief. Clarity and certainty in a single matter of belief is preferable to thousands of illuminations and instances of wonder-working." Also, the part of the letter right at the end of The Supreme Sign, taken from The Additional Letters, and the explanations of all of it, answer the question, as does the Tenth Topic of The Fruits of Belief, which is about repetition in the Qur'an, and the fact that the wisdom of the frequently repeated emphasis
on divine unity and the pillars of belief in the Qur'an is present in just the same way in the Risale-i Nur, which is a true commentary on it.
Furthermore, all the sections of the Risale-i Nur which explain the nature of certain affirmative belief (îmân-ı tahkikî), imitative (taklidî) belief, abbreviated (icmâlî) belief, and detailed (tafsilî) belief, and demonstrate that belief will withstand and remain unshaken in the face of all assaults, misgivings, and doubts, form such an answer to Küçük Ali's letter that no need remains for me to add to them.
Second Aspect: Belief is not restricted to a brief and imitative assent; it has degrees and unfolds from being seed-like to being a mighty date-palm, and from resembling the sun which appears in the mirror you hold in your hand to resembling its reflection on the surface of the sea, and even to the sun in the sky. Similarly, belief is related to the above number of truths, to thousands of divine names, and to the truths of the universe pertaining to the pillars of belief, It is for this reason that those who have penetrated to the realities have stated unanimously that the greatest of all sciences, knowledge, and human attainments and perfections are belief and the detailed sacred knowledge of God based on proof which springs from certain, affirmative belief.
Imitative belief may be swiftly overcome by doubts. Being much more powerful and comprehensive, certain affirmative belief contains numerous degrees. One of these is the degree of knowledge of certainty (ilmelyakîn), which may withstand thousands of doubts with the strength of its many proofs, whereas imitative belief may sometimes defeated by a single doubt.
There is also a degree of certain affirmative belief known as the vision of certainty (aynelyakîn), and that contains numerous degrees. Indeed, it contains degrees to the number of manifestations of the divine names; it reaches the degree at which the whole universe may be read as though it were a Qur'an.
Another of its degrees is absolute certainty (hakkalyakîn), which also contains numerous degrees. If troops of doubts assail persons with such belief, they cannot provoke any confusion. The thousands of books written by the scholars of the science of theology based on reason and logic have demonstrated only one way, based on proofs and reasoning, of that belief and knowledge of God. And the hundreds of books, based on illumination and spiritual unfolding, of the people of reality have depicted another aspect of that belief and knowledge of God. However, the truths of belief and sacred knowledge of God which the miraculous highway of the Qur'an points out, far surpasses in strength and loftiness those of the scholars and saints.
The Risale-i Nur, then, expounds the latter all-embracing, universal, and
elevated highway of knowledge, and replies in the name of the Qur'an and belief to the general destructive currents which for a thousand years have acted against the Qur'an on account of the worlds of non-existence to the detriment of Islam and humanity. It defends against them. It therefore certainly needs to muster innumerable forces so that, through the light of the Qur'an, it may be the means of withstanding those innumerable enemies, and of preserving the faith of believers.
It is written in a Hadith: "Should one person come to believe through you, it is better for you than a plain-full of red sheep," and that, "Sometimes a hour's reflective thought may be better than a year's worship." In fact, the great importance the Naqshbandis attach to inward remembrance of God is in order to attain to reflective thought of this kind.
We send thousands of greetings to all our brothers and offer prayers for them. Overlook any errors; this was written in haste. You may correct it.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Don't be upset at the secret agents seizing The Treatise on Sincerity and the copies of the letters. To have them read them together with The Predictions of 'Ali (İhbar-ı Aleviye) was necessary for the Risale-i Nur and its conquests. Furthermore, the demonstrations against communism in Istanbul at the time of this incident will also powerfully aid its conquests in that the two forces that attack the Risale-i Nur covertly have begun to take up positions opposed to each other. Even if temporarily we suffer some minor attacks, it is of no importance. Because as I see it, it is only the extraordinarily powerful truths of the Risale-i Nur that can combat the anarchy that communism instils in Muslims through absolute disbelief and naturalistic thought, those truths thus opening a way for patriotic politicians and religiously minded people and lovers of their country to support the Risale-i Nur and make peace with it and make it a shield against those harms.