It is proved in the Risale-i Nur that sometimes justice is manifested through tyranny. That is to say, for some reason a person suffers an injustice or is the victim of oppression, or he is visited by a calamity and is convicted for a crime and sent to prison. It is unjust and the sentence is unwarranted, but the event is a means to the manifestation of justice. Divine determining inflicts the sentence on the person through an unjust hand because he deserved it or for some other reason, causing him to suffer the calamity. It is a sort of manifestation of divine justice.

I am thinking now, for twenty-eight years I have been made to move from province to province and from town to town. I have been dragged from court to court. Of what crime do those who inflict this persecution and torment on me accuse me? Exploiting religion for politics? But why have they been unable to prove this? Because in reality there is no such thing. For months and years one court was trying to find me guilty and convict me. It gave up and another court opened proceedings against me concerning the same case. For a while it pursued the matter and pressurized me, making me suffer every kind of torment. It too could conclude nothing so gave up, then a third court fastened itself onto me, In this way I have been dragged from misfortune to misfortune and from calamity to calamity. Twenty-eight years of my life have passed thus. Finally they themselves have understood that there is absolutely no truth in the crime they accuse me of,

Do they intentionally accuse me, or have they been carried away by some groundless fear? Whether intentional or unfounded, I know with complete and utter certainty that I have no connection whatsoever with such a crime. All those who are fair-minded know that I am not a person who would exploit religion for politics, In fact, my accusers know this. So why do they persist in persecuting me? Why have I been the object of such continuous oppression and persistent torture although I am innocent? Why have I been unable to be saved from this misfortune? Is this situation not opposed to divine justice?

For twenty-five years I could find no answer to these questions, but now I have understood the true reason for their persecution: I say with utter

regret that my crime was to make my serving the Qur'an the means to my progress, material and spiritual, and to my attainment of perfection.

I understand this now and feel it, and I offer Almighty God a thousand thanks that for long years outside my will powerful immaterial obstacles prevented me from making my serving belief a means to my spiritual and material progress, and to my being saved from Hell and torment, and even to my eternal happiness; they prevented my making it a tool of anything at all. These deep-seated feelings and inspirations left me in amazement. I was being prevented both in my spirit and heart from trying to attain spiritual rank and the happiness of the hereafter, which everyone wants, and from taking such a way, although it is a lawful right and causes no harm to anyone. I was shown that, driven by the innate desire for knowledge, I should only serve belief for God's pleasure alone. For at this time, a way of teaching the Qur'an is necessary which, having no other purpose at all, can be the tool of nothing and will effectively impart the truths of belief together with the worship which is innate to man, to those who do not know them and need to learn them. These have to be taught in a way that will save belief in this confused world and afford certainty to the obdurate; that is, in such a way that they are exploited for nothing. Only in this way can absolute disbelief and obstinate misguidance be smashed, and everyone gain complete certainty, At this time, in these conditions, this certainty may be gained through knowing that religion is being made the tool of nothing, be it personal, worldly, for the hereafter, material or immaterial. For an individual person who confronts the awesome collective personality of irreligion, proceeding from certain covert organizations and political societies, cannot dispel the doubts it gives rise to, even if he is at the highest spiritual rank. For the ego and soul of an obdurate person who wants to believe may say: "With his brilliance and extraordinary spiritual rank, that person has deceived us," and he will therefore continue to doubt.

Endless thanks be to Almighty God that for twenty-eight years, being accused of exploiting religion for politics, divine determining dealt me blows purely justly, through man's oppressive hand, so that involuntarily I exploited religion for nothing personal. It was warning me, "Beware! Do not exploit the truths of belief for your own person so that those needy for belief may understand that it is only the truth that speaks. Let all whisperings of the soul and diabolical suggestions cease, let them be silent!"

This, then, is the reason for the fervour the Risale-i Nur has given rise to in people's minds, like the towering waves of mountainous seas, and for the effect it has on their spirits and hearts; it is nothing else. Thousands of scholars have published hundreds of thousands of books about the same

truths that the Risale-i Nur discusses, and more eloquently, yet they have been unable to halt absolute disbelief. If in these extremely difficult conditions the Risale-i Nur has been successful to an extent in the struggle against absolute disbelief, the reason is this: there is no Said. Said has no power and no authority. It is only the truth that speaks, the truths of belief. Since the light of the truth has an effect on hearts needy for belief, let not one Said be sacrificed, but thousands.

Let all the tribulations and oppression I have suffered these twenty-eight years, all the torments to which I have been exposed, all the calamities I have endured, let them all be forgiven. All those who have persecuted me, moved me from town to town, insulted and wanted to have me convicted due to their various accusations, those who have readied places for me in the prisons - I have forgiven all of them.

And I say to just divine determining:

I deserved those compassionate blows of yours. For if like everyone I had taken a way thinking of myself, which is completely licit and harmless, and if I had not sacrificed the effulgences, material and spiritual, which I felt, I would have lost this supreme immaterial strength, present in serving belief. I sacrificed everything, material and immaterial, I submitted to all the misfortunes. I patiently endured all the torments. It is because of this that the truths of belief have spread everywhere. It is because of this that the Risale-i Nur school of knowledge has raised hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of students. They will now continue to serve the cause of belief, not departing from my way of sacrificing everything, material and immaterial. They will work for God's pleasure and God's pleasure alone.

Many of my students have suffered every kind of tribulation, torment, and oppression together with me. They have undergone severe tests. I want them to forgive all the injustices and those who have wrongfully persecuted them, like me. For unknowingly, without comprehending the mysteries and profound manifestations of divine determining, they have served our cause and assisted in the unfolding of the truths of belief. Our duty consists only of seeking their guidance. I recommend that none of my students harbour even the slightest desire for revenge against those who have persecuted and oppressed us, and that in the face of them they work loyally and steadfastly for the Risale-i Nur.

I am very ill. I have no strength now to either write or speak. Perhaps these will be my last words. Let the Risale-i Nur students of the Medresetü' z-Zehra not forget this testament of mine.

My Brothers!

This a truth of the greatest importance which was composed due to a spiritual admonishment, and which, if you deem it appropriate, may be given to the Prime Minister and religious deputies.

Introduction: I have given up politics for nearly forty years and most of my life has passed as a sort of recluse and I am not busy with social and political life, and therefore did not see a serious peril, Recently, I have perceived that a danger is preparing the ground to cause serious harm to both the Islamic nation and to this country and Islamic government. I am compelled therefore to explain three points which have been imparted to me as a warning for the politicians who work for the good of Islamic nationhood and sovereignty and this country, and for those who zealously work for the human community.

First Point: Although I have not listened to the newspapers being read, for the last year or two I have heard the phrase "accusations of political reaction" being repeated over and over again. I listened attentively with the Old Said's head and saw quite clearly that the covert enemies of Islam who exploit politics for irreligion are making iniquitous accusations - not of being Muslim or being zealously religious or having powerful belief, but of exploiting religion for political ends and even utilizing politics for religion and making them subservient to it. Those covert enemies who strive to revert to one of the most savage, primitive fundamental laws of humankind, and have donned the mask of patriotism, in completely unjust fashion brand with accusations of political reaction and imagine to be harmful for the country, those striving to reinforce this Islamic government with the moral strength of Islam and to secure for it four hundred million true brothers as a reserve force, and to save it from begging to certain tyrannical Europeans. The time has come to explain, in the second point, the chief of many examples, as a barrier against the awesome injustices of this century. There are two sorts of reactionism, which have two fundamental laws as their source:

The first is true reactionism, which is political and social. Its fundamental law has led to much abuse and tyranny.

The second is the basis of true progress and justice, but it is given the name of reactionism.

Second Point: Those who attack religion in the name of civilization and a fundamental law remaining from the primitive, savage eras of mankind, are reverting to similar savagery and primitiveness due to reactionism. That ghastly, barbaric fundamental law, which annihilates humanity's welfare

and justice and general peace, is now wanting to infiltrate our wretched country. Strife is appearing, as though the beginnings of obdurately biased partisanship are being inculcated. The fundamental law is this:

Due to the mistake of a single member of a group, or of a movement or tribe, all the members of those groups are condemned and falsely imagined to be enemies and responsible. One mistake becomes thousands. Brotherhood and citizenship, and love and fellow-feeling, which are the foundations of unity and unanimity, are overturned. Yes, obdurate opposing forces that clash, lose their power. Then due to the weakness arising from this loss of power, the nation and country cannot be served justly. The forces are obliged to give material and other bribes, and in order to find supporters for themselves, irreligious currents utilize the cruel, savage, primitive fundamental law mentioned above, In the face of this, in accordance with the revealed, sacred verse, «No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another» (Q 6:164 etc.), which is pure justice, is a fundamental law of the Qur'an which ensures true love and brotherhood and saves this country from this danger. It says: "No one can be held responsible for another's fault. No one may be said to share in a crime committed by his brother even, or his tribe or group, or party. If he supports him somehow in the crime, it is a sin for which he will be answerable in the next world, not in this world." If this fundamental law is not promulgated swiftly, human society will fall to the very lowest of barbaric reactionism, equal in destruction to that perpetrated during the two world wars.

The following is the basis of the politics of those wretches who give the name of reactionism to such sacred fundamental laws of the Qur'an as the above and accept the fundamental law of barbarism and savagery: "Individuals may be sacrificed for the good of the community. Personal rights may be disregarded for the welfare of the country. Minor injustices may ignored in the interests of state policies." It considers permissible the killing of a thousand people because of one criminal. Thousands of innocents may be thrown into misery due to one man being wounded. On such pretexts, two hundred men being lined up and shot is overlooked. In the First World War, thirty million wretched human beings were wiped out due to the errors of three thousand. There are thousands of such examples. So to label "reactionary" and leave under suspicion those self-sacrificing believers and students of the Qur'an who oppose the awesome injustices of that barbaric reactionism and who strive to secure true justice, unity and brotherhood in line with the fundamental law taught by the verse, «And no bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another,» which is one of hundreds of the Qur'an's fundamental principles, resembles preferring the

accursed Yazid's tyranny to the justice of the Caliph 'Umar. It resembles preferring a cruelly savage law of the Inquisition to the above-mentioned law of the Qur'an, which is the means to humanity's highest progress and justice. The politicians working with the Islamic government for the welfare of this country should hold these facts in view. The government will otherwise be weakened with the clashing of three or four obdurate opposing forces. Then since its weakened power, with which it has to secure the country's interests, will be insufficient to preserve its authority - even as a despotism - and public order and security, it will pave the way to sowing the seeds in this blessed Islamic country, of the French Revolution. One feels consternation at such a possibility.

Since, by reason of the weakness and powerlessness arising from disunity, extraordinary non-material bribes are being given in the face of the foreigners' policies and their insignificant, temporary aid, it gives the idea that no importance is being given to the brotherhood of four hundred million brothers and the way of millions of forefathers. Supposing themselves to be compelled to maintain power through so much wastefulness and fat salaries, bribes are given so that no harm comes to public order and politics, and the nation's poverty is disregarded, Most definitely it is absolutely essential that the politicians in this country should give gratis and as a harmless bribe to the four hundred million Muslim brothers who in the future will form the united states of the world of Islam, ten times the political and non-material bribes they now give to the West and the foreigners; to do so would be in the interests of this country and nation and Islamic state.

One such acceptable, necessary, most advantageous, permissible, and obligatory bribe is to take as guiding principles the sacred, fundamental laws taught by the following verses: «Indeed, the believers are brothers» (Q 49:10), «Hold firm to God's rope, all together, and be not divided among yourselves» (Q 3:103), and «No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another» (Q 6:164 etc.), «And fall into no disputes, lest you lose heart and your power depart» (Q 8:46).

The third point has been postponed for now.

Postscript: My brothers! Three things have led to the severe warning you received previously being changed:

The First: The Nur hero Husrev saying that twenty-five courts have ruled that the Risale-i Nur contains nothing incriminating.

The Second: One of the Risale-i Nur's heroic lawyers saying that it

would be appropriate if the vehement words were toned down, since the Ankara government is not opposed to Said.

The Third: A sign that the wrongful oppression of the Nurjus is being lessened and rebuffed is that although, according to certain reports, there was a plan to send to court at least six hundred active and capable Nur students due to Afyon Court saying that there were six hundred thousand of them and on the pretext of the Malatya Incident, {[*]:} only one out of twelve and then out of six was given a one-year sentence. It was in consequence of this that the severe expressions were toned down.

[A lesson from Signs of Miraculousness (Ishârât al-I'jâz) given by our Master to Santral Sabri and Sıddık Süleyman in Emirdağ.]

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

All praise be to God, the Lord of all the Worlds, and blessings and peace be upon our Master, Muhammad, and upon his Family and Companions, for ever and ever!

Signs of Miraculousness consists of only the first of what was going to be thirty parts. Our Master said that since the Risale-i Nur is a commentary on the Qur'an's meanings, he had greater need for it at this time, for it comprises what the remainder of the thirty parts were going to contain. Yes, it seems that Signs of Miraculousness is an index and list of the Risale-i Nur in its entirety, and a seedbed of that light garden, and a source elucidating the Qur'an's inimitability (i'jâz al-Qur'ân). Owing to its subtlety and profundity, only few scholars have comprehended it up to now. But whoever has seen it has appreciated its singularity and applauded it greatly. The Old Said's discerning the very finest relationships between the words and phrases in the Qur'an's miraculously concise composition, while in the front lines and sometimes on horseback during the fierce fighting of the First World War, and his being preoccupied with this, and the grievous

dangers of that terrible war not distracting him, nor the freezing cold, and his considering the subtleties of those relationships to be more important than anything are all examples of his truly wondrous devotion and self-sacrifice in serving the Qur'an. In fact, we look on the Old Said's scholarly and moral sacrifices in those terrible conditions, attaching no importance to the horrors as he composed Signs of Miraculousness, as even more wondrous than the self-sacrifice of the New Said these thirty years, and his not reading the newspapers for thirty-five years in the present strange times and for ten years neither knowing nor asking about the Second World War, and his never giving up writing the Qur'an's mysteries in prison despite being under threat of execution, and his totally disregarding all the dangers.

Secondly: In truth, some wonders are apparent in the printed copies of Signs of Miraculousness which allow no possibility of chance. It was therefore thought appropriate to reprint it in the same way, showing the wonders, to send to such places as Arabia and Pakistan. Nevertheless, the extremely succinct and concise sentences with which the Old Said elucidated the inimitability of the Qur'an's conciseness, and the fine relationships and eloquence, need to be elucidated and translated into Turkish.

One of the marvels of Signs of Miraculousness is its showing the inimitable flashes of miraculousness in the relationships between the Qur'an's verses, and between the phrases of each of its verses and between their words and letters, and in the meanings thereby intended, and in the composition and ordering of each of the verses, phrases, words, and letters; and its explicating the fine points in the composition as the second hand of a clock counts the seconds, the minute hand, the minutes, and the hour hand, the hours, and its elucidating the truths with proofs, and its showing that sometimes a single letter expresses a significant truth, It proves the meanings of all the verses concisely with decisive arguments so that they now form the seeds and summaries of the one hundred and thirty parts of the Risale-i Nur. And it expounds the fine points of the sentences, phrases, and letters and their implied meaning through the subtle rules of the science of rhetoric, and the rules of Arabic grammar and syntax, and the principles of the sciences of logic, the principles of religion, and other sciences. It discovers and elucidates, even, the very finest eloquent relationships undiscernible with a microscope and the hints of theme And since the Qur'an's view is universal, it may surely be said that its sacred words implicitly and symbolically allude to and indicate all true meanings and points, which are elucidated.