Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings, for ever and ever!
Firstly: The leader of the new government has evidently understood the importance for the Islamic world and the nation of building a large Islamic university resembling al-Azhar, the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ, in Van Province, a matter I have been following for the past forty years. Sultan Reşad assigned twenty thousand gold liras for its construction, while the former tyrannical government earmarked one hundred and fifty thousand liras, endorsed in the National Assembly by the signatures of one hundred and sixty-three deputies. The President made the statement given below among all the pressing affairs of state, which I am sending to you as good news. Even if it is not realized materially, it is indeed auspicious that the idea of it has been understood.
The President, Celâl Bayar, said in the Parliament while dealing with other high-priority matters, that the Ministry of Education was making enquiries concerning the construction of the University of the East in the region of Van. He said:
"All the difficulties will be surmounted for the founding of such an institution of learning in Van, in the eastern provinces. Work on it will commence in the next financial year."
This means that the university students who presented the biography, gave the President to understand the value of the Risale-i Nur.
Secondly: This very significant announcement by the President is a sign that it is now understood that the Risale-i Nur has performed invaluable services for this country and nation and will perform more. One should offer thanks, not complain, that all the difficulties the Nurjus have suffered have yielded this result of great consequence.
Our Dear, Loyal Brothers, Ziya and Abdülmuhsin!
Our Master says:
"Eşref Edip has been a companion of mine in serving belief for forty years; he now writes articles in Sebilürreşad and represents some of our acclaimed brothers who have now died, and is a true mujahid of Islam. He is a protector of the Risale-i Nur, and if I am to die, I find true consolation in Eşref Edip being among the Nurjus.
"Nevertheless, since the Risale-i Nur and the Nurjus have nothing to do with politics, and the Risale-i Nur can be the tool of nothing apart from divine pleasure, those attached to it do not want to get involved in social and political movements as far as they can. Only, in so far as mujâhids like Sebilürreşad and Büyük Doğu try to defend the truths of belief against the attacks of the people of misguidance, we praise and applaud them with all our lives and spirits, and are friends and brothers to them; but not in respect of politics. For those who come to receive instruction in belief may not be considered in biased fashion. While receiving lessons, there is no difference between friend and foe. Political bias damages this; sincerity is harmed. For this reason, the Nurjus have endured unparalleled torments, yet have exploited the Risale-i Nur for nothing. They have never grasped the club of politics. It was imagined that because the Risale-i Nur had broken absolute disbelief and eliminated the anarchy underlying it and the absolute despotism above it, that it had some sort of connection with politics. Whereas the Risale-i Nur's interpreter has claimed in courts of law that he would not exchange a single matter of belief for rule over the whole world, and has proved it with the way he has lived for twenty-five years and with other indications.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: We congratulate you with our whole life and spirit on your activity and successes. The activities and triumphs of the Medresetü'z- Zehrâ are a remedy for all my pains and illnesses.
Secondly: I wrote a note for The Staff of Moses' being translated into good Arabic. I was going to send it with Zübeyir to Seyyid Salih in Ankara. I was also going to send to you via Ankara, a sincere letter from a retired officer in Tarsus and a letter requesting some books from the Risale-i Nur. Then suddenly Ibrahim Efendi arrived here having come as far as Afyon together with his wife in the name of the devoted Nurjus of Elmalı near Antalya, where he works at publishing the Risale-i Nur, so I sent them with him. With greetings to everyone.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
I am referring an important matter to the leading members of the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ. Seyyid Sâlih said that he had understood from his journey in Arabia that there was much need for The Staff of Moses there and that it would be most beneficial and should be translated into Arabic. My condition and illness do not permit me, so in my place the leading students of the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ should get in touch with four different places with a view to having a good translation done. One letter should be sent to al-Azhar University with Kılınç Ali, where a number of literary persons should translate it. Another should be sent to the Directorate of Religious Affairs in Ankara where one or two scholars who sincerely appreciate the Risale-i Nur and are attached to it should translate it. Another letter they should send to my brother Abdülmecid, who is the Mufti of Ürgüp near Kayseri, and who although he should have worked with all his strength for the Risale-i Nur these last twenty years, he didn't, so to make up for it, he should now work with all his might at translating it into Arabic. And the other should be sent to the scholars in the region of Isparta who are within the fold of the Risale-i Nur; dividing up The Staff of Moses among themselves, each should translate a part into Arabic.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: We were delighted at your surpassing good news, which is a preliminary to the Risale-i Nur's complete freedom. The Isparta judiciary held the books in a house for three years, so as its rent, in exchange for that three hundred liras, send me fifty copies of the biography printed in the new letters at the price of two liras per copy out of the five hundred liras that was left to me, so the price will be the equivalent of those three hundred liras. Send me copies of The Staff of Moses and Zülfikar to the value of fifty liras, since they have suffered imprisonment for four years and are most precious in my eyes, I am sending you the fifty liras now.
Secondly: Bârekâllah! Mâsha'llah! to Nazif a thousand times over! He has proved that he is a second Husrev and that İnebolu is a second Isparta. The Medresetü'z-Zehrâ is the most important matter in the biography and I reckon that Nazif's publications have played a role in the President's serious efforts to found an eastern al-Azhar University, called the University of the East, which bears the meaning of the Medresetü' z-Zehrâ.
Thirdly: Write in reply to the meaningful letter of the Imam Süleyman of Baraklı near Dinar that it is definitely true that the Prophet Muhammad (UWBP) praised the Turks. He indicates their importance in several places. There are Hadiths, but because I do not have any Hadith books with me and do not know the correct wording. But it is certain that the Turkish nation was praised by him. One example is the Hadith about Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror.
The letter sent by Hulûsi Bey, one of the oldest Nur students, is very fine and meaningful and urges his friends in Ankara to enter the fold of the Risale-i Nur. It shows too that he offers a fine example with the unwavering services he has performed for the Risale-i Nur these last twenty-five years. I send many greetings to all my brothers and sisters.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: Endless thanks be to Almighty God that we have joyfully received five copies of The Staff of Moses and The Ratifying Stamp of the Unseen, which had been imprisoned in the court for the last three years. May Almighty God be pleased with you for ever and ever!
Secondly: The errors in the copy of Zülfikar returned by the court had not been corrected. The «Lâm» in the eighth line on page one hundred and ten of the Fourth Addendum to The Miracles of the Qur'an is wrong; it
should be «Lâ», because in the Qur'an, «Lâm» is thirty thousand, and «Lâ» nineteen thousand.
Thirdly: In a letter written in the new letters, a person from the Sümerbank factory in Isparta asks a question. You can advise him for me to read the treatise on divine determining. I am both unwell, and unable to write personal letters. Also, Zübeyir has gone to Ankara. Anyway, I don't know the new letters. I am sending it to you for your information.
Fourthly: I have sent my own subsistence, another fifty liras, with the driver Abdurrahman. You can work out how much I owe for the books you sent me and The Words Collection. This was written in haste. I send many greetings to everyone.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: I congratulate you. The petition sent this time by Husrev to the ministers is a splendid historical document. But in a wire I received from Sungur a couple of days ago, it says that orders have been given for the return of one hundred and eighty-five works. We could not understand the numbers here. We asked the clerk of the telegraph office. He had evidently written it down wrong. I heard the machine with my own ears: "It means all the works are being returned." I wondered if possibly they had counted some parts of the one hundred and thirty treatises, making it one hundred and eighty-five. We could not understand it. Also, as reported in the Yeni Sabah newspaper, we heard that the President said about a large Islamic university called the University of the East - the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ - that they were endeavouring to overcome all the difficulties to found it. God willing, they will be compelled to build it for the benefit of the country and nation, for it is a goal I have been pursuing for the past forty years.
Secondly: I have sent to a number of important places several of the copies of Zülfikar and The Staff of Moses you sent, which like us were imprisoned for three years. For instance, Abdurrahîm from Vastan, who is Imam in the mosque in Cezire (Cizre) and is one of my old students, came all the way here to visit me. I gave him ten of the most important books. But then I remembered that in two places in the Fourth Addendum to "The Miracles of the Qur'an" in Zülfikar, one in the eighth line and one in the tenth, «Lâm» had been written instead of «Lâ», but in the Qur'an, «Lâm» is thirty thousand, and «Lâ» nineteen thousand. This error had been partially corrected in the other copies, but it had not been corrected in the copies of Zülfikar
that were held by your court. I had forgotten this here. I am referring this to you: via the mufti of Cezire, write to Imam Abdurrahîm and ask him to correct this error of the scribe. In this way, the leading students of the Medresetü' z-Zehrâ will also be in contact with Cezire.
I also understood from Husrev's letter that Zübeyir had mistakenly sent there the note he was going to send to Nazif. Husrev also made a small mistake, for I had sent a short letter to Nazif about the Tenth Principle of the Twenty-Fourth Word, not the Twenty-Fourth Letter. There is no copy of it left here. I had told him to send the copy of the Tenth Principle to Nazif so that he might send us a copy of the note. Nevertheless, his brilliant, long petition reduced to nothing that small error and had it forgiven. What this means is this: as a meritorious act, Nazif duplicated on the machine Jaushan al-Kabir, which is a supplication much favoured by the Nurjus. He had written to me about duplicating with it, the piece in the footnote about its wondrous merits and virtues which are described in figurative Hadiths, I told him that I had read the footnote only three or four times although I had recited the Jaushan every day for the last thirty-five years. To add it verbatim would be inappropriate, for opponents and atheists might make it a pretext to criticize it, God willing, in the near future, the blessed Jaushan al-Kabir will illuminate the Nurjus and fire them with enthusiasm.
Thirdly: The Nurju university students in Ankara and Istanbul are printing two thousand copies of A Guide for Youth. I assume it is the large Guide. That would be better. God willing, it will be a substantial guide for the young people. Write to Kılınç Haji Ali so that he is in touch with the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ, and say that literary scholars should translate The Staff of Moses. Then, by means of the translation, those masters of the Islamic world will be concerned with the Risale-i Nur.
Fourthly: I am curious to learn whether or not our brother Marangoz Ahmed has returned safely from the Hajj. Also, write to Husrev and his assistants that Mustafa Gül and his companions should add the prayer which is at the end of Zülfikar and The Staff of Moses to the end of The Words Collection.
Unending greetings to all of you.
Muallim Osman was Ceylan's friend in prison. He learnt a thorough lesson from him and has the ability to be a second Ceylan. It is astonishing, I received a letter saying that the two Sufi-inclined people I mention in my prayers everyday by name within the circle of the Nurjus, had attacked me and the Risale-i Nur with the idea of selling themselves. I was not offended and prayed for them even more. Just like years ago with the elderly well-known shaykh who maligned us in Istanbul due to the machinations of the former [People's] Party, I looked on them as brothers to me and friends, and I forgave them. But I would like them to read the two Flashes on sincerity.
My brothers! You should not be offended by such people, and do not get into arguments with them.