We have been given a magazine called «as-Siddîq,» which is published in Pakistan. We saw that nearly half of the fifty-page magazine consisted of articles from the Risale-i Nur. On the front page and given pride of place was the First Topic of the Twenty-Second Letter, written as an invitation to the verse: «Indeed, the believers are brothers!» (Q 49:10) and to Islam. The Turkish original of the treatise, which the Arabic magazine translated, was presented a year ago to the public, and especially to the leaders of this Islamic government and its deputies. There are three or four reasons for again presenting it for their information:

The First: It is now established through the hundreds of certain signs and evidences in The Ratifying Stamp of the Unseen Collection from the Risale-i Nur which have been affirmed by numerous events, that by performing fully the function of a Qur'anic barrier against the moral and spiritual devastation of anarchy, communism, naturalism, and materialism, and doubts, suspicions, and absolute disbelief, the Risale-i Nur is a means of preserving this country within the perilous storms that shake the world, like acceptable almsgiving. It has become abundantly clear that it forms an immaterial shield against the calamity of the Second World War, preventing the disasters that are occurring in other countries from entering this country. The most obdurate scientistic philosophers, even, who have studied the Risale-i Nur have had to affirm this fact. With its five hundred thousand students and the six hundred thousand copies of its treatises and with its instruction in belief its placing a prohibitor in everyone's hearts

and ensuring the maintenance of public order; and with its striving to apply the Qur'an's fundamental law, «No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another» (Q 6: 164 etc.), that is, no one is answerable for another's sins; and with none of its millions of readers having received any harm; it has been proved to be a miracle of the Qur'an at this time and a means of repulsing calamities from this country and nation. Despite this, although for the past twenty-five years secret, subversive societies that act on account of anarchy have attempted through their intrigues to incite the courts against us, and five major courts in five provinces have been unable to find a single indictable point having studied all the parts of the Risale-i Nur in the greatest detail and have acquitted it; and although twenty judiciaries in twenty places have also been involved with it, they decided that it contained nothing which constituted an offence, and Afyon Court twice ruled that the treatises should be returned to their owners; for five years due to the deceptions, stratagems, and excuses of secret societies, that same court has postponed returning them, despite their return and free publication are required legally. For, as has been noted by some of the major police headquarters and members of the policeforce, no harm has been observed in the hundreds of thousands of copies of the Risale-i Nur and no disturbance or incident involving the Nur students has been recorded, which proves that like acceptable almsgiving, the Risale-i Nur serves as a foundation of public order and security, and proceeding from the essential truth of the Qur'an, is a means of preserving this country from material, moral, and spiritual dangers.

A Guide for Youth is a most beneficial part of the Risale-i Nur that has trained and instructed thousands of youths to the advantage of this country, nation, and public order. In connection with its trial, during which one hundred and twenty police tried to disperse the crowd, and despite his illness, our Master twice attended the court which unanimously ruled that both himself and A Guide for Youth be acquitted. But then, although all the treatises among which was the Guide had been acquitted by five courts and it should have been returned in fifteen days, fifteen months later it still has not been returned. It may therefore be said that the present events, which have caused the country losses of one and a half thousand million liras, have come about due to the above and due to Afyon Court delaying for five years the return of the treatises in spite of the decisions of the criminal courts of Denizli and Ankara, and due to the seizure of the personal copies, paid for by himself, of a person who in respect of belief, religion, and public order, is more beneficial than a hundred preachers for the region of Diyarbakır and the eastern provinces, thus preventing his useful services to the

country and nation. Such services resemble acceptable almsgiving and are a means of repulsing disasters, and their being obscured in this way has resulted in the calamity finding a way and occurring. If, following the decisions of the five courts and Istanbul for the acquittals, A Guide for Youth had been published, the Muslim youths would have taken lessons from it and would certainly not allowed the corruption of the revolutionaries or others, and would have displayed every effort to save the nation from these huge losses, They would not have permitted the blot of this loss.

Yes, indeed, our Master understood while a prisoner-of-war in Russia during the Great War that the dangers threatening the youth with moral and spiritual corruption would be visited on our country. He was alarmed and since that time has written numerous works like A Guide for Youth to shield them from it. He has published numerous lessons from the All-Wise Qur'an, which, all thanks be to God, have been instrumental in saving very many young people. Since the politicians are now seeking general reconciliation and national unity, they should permit the publication of the treatise printed in the magazine as-Siddiq, to which Pakistan has attached so much importance.

In His Name, be He glorified!

According to an inner meaning of the verse, «No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another» (Q 6:164 etc.), no one is answerable for another's error, even the perpetrator's brother. So is there any law in the world that could lay charges against one hundred and thirty books with their hundred thousand pages on account of one page of a hundred-page treatise, even if in the view of the obdurately unfair it contained an error? In any event, five courts of law have acquitted the same books over the past thirty years. Also, twenty courts were involved with them due to the Malatya Incident. Those twenty courts said they could find nothing reprehensible in them. Also, no one has been in any way harmed by the six hundred thousand copies that have been disseminated both in this country and abroad, and even Christians have read them in the place they call the Nur Study Centre inside one of Europe's leading schools, and they have been regarded highly in the Islamic world and have spread there, and a treatise from the Risale-i Nur printed in the Pakistani magazine as-Siddîq was even sent to the Directorate of Religious Affairs, and although it has been published so widely no religious scholar has objected to it. All this shows that

to protect the Risale-i Nur is a genuine duty of the Religious Affairs Directorate. For like the Office of the Şeyhülislam, the Directorate is the religious instructor not only of Turkey but of all the Islamic world, with which it has relations and connections. It is essential at the present time especially, that the world of Islam looks completely favourably on it and does not entertain doubts about it. Furthermore, the Risale-i Nur has been met favourably everywhere in the Islamic world and even in Europe and effectively disallows the Islamic governments which are not allied with Turkey looking negatively on the Directorate, and thus defends the Directorate's honour. It is therefore imperative that the Directorate publishes the Risale-i Nur as one of its own works. The experts' committee should give due consideration to this point. For these reasons, the members and hojas of the Directorate should be concerning themselves with the Risale-i Nur a hundred times more than wretched Said Nursi and Nur students, so that it may be protected and preserved in the face of the assaults of the irreligious. The intriguers should be silenced who are preventing its publication despite its numerous acquittals.

In His Name, be He glorified!

Peace be upon you, and God's mercy and blessings!

In Ankara, on the pretext of The Staff of Moses and A Guide for Youth, they came to take all the Risale-i Nur off one of our brothers. He showed them the Criminal Court's acquittal of The Staff of Moses, so they did not take it. Without being aware of it, they put some books on top of the ten copies of A Guide for Youth which they had found and placed before their eyes. When they were set to go, they searched everywhere for the Guide, but could not find it. In this way, the Guide protected itself as an instance of its own wonder-working. The copies they took of one each of the treatises and collections other than the Guide and The Staff of Moses were subsequently returned by the police.