Emirdağ Addendum
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Part of the Conversation With the Interior Minister

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I have been the target of an injustice the like of which has never at any time occurred on the face of the earth, and of cruel persecution which is illegal in ten respects. It is like this:

I am both ill at having been poisoned due to a violent conspiracy, and an extremely weak elderly seventy-one-year-old; I am all alone in piteous exile; and so poor as to sell my slippers to buy bread; and I'm solitary and unsociable and, having lived alone for twenty-five years, can meet only with one out of a thousand people who is totally loyal. This person, myself, has been declared innocent by three courts of law and the Ankara experts' committee, which having scrutinized down to the finest details his life and works of twenty years, gave the decision unanimously for their acquittal and ruled that his works were harmless for the country and nation, indeed, were beneficial. He is a son of this land who performed important services in the First World War; and is a patriot who with all his strength strives with his effective works which are there for all to see to save this nation and country from anarchy and the corruption of foreigners; and is a harmless person who, as has been proved by seventy witnesses in court, has not read a newspaper for twenty-five years nor has been curious about the news, and for seven years has not shown any interest in the Second World War nor asked about it, nor known about it, and whose works contain powerful proofs showing that he has severed all connections with politics, and concerning whom your judiciary has officially admitted that he has not interfered in your world. I, this wretched Said, who flees with all his strength from public regard lest harm comes to his sincerity and life of the hereafter, and shrinks from and dislikes his brothers' good opinions and praise of him, - which of your benefits demands that you, the Interior Minister, set the Governor of Afyon and Emirdağ police to pester me, and inflict on me in one day the torments of a month's solitary confinement,

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and compel me to remain all alone by myself in lonely isolation? What law permits this dire cruelty? I am informing the Interior Minister of the above by means of the high office of the judiciary, which protects the rights of the public.

Said Nursi,
who is wrongfully deprived of all civil and human
rights and the right to life.
***

Recently, two high-ranking colonels (both were gendarme officers) and a deputy who was a party inspector visited our Master. Having held a long conversation with him, they decided with complete resignation to be friends with him. And now one of them has become a Nur student. The deputy and chief inspector was evidently a friend of the Old Said. After they had gone, we learnt that through him that Hilmi Bey, the former Interior Minister and now General Secretary of the party, was going to visit our Master privately and have a friendly meeting with him. We have therefore sent this note to you so that an exact copy should be given him and this matter should be discussed. Our Master gave us permission to send it to you to inform you before he comes.

He also wrote a prayer at the end of the short treatise written out by Hüsnü, Re'fet Bey's blessed son, and we include this as an enclosure. Endless thanks be to Almighty God that a kaymakam has been appointed here who is both a Nurju, and an earnest friend, and religious. We are sending also the piece called "A Conversation with the Interior Minister." Our Master is going to read it to him as well.

***

The hero Nazif and Yâkub Cemal say that the coinciding (tevâfuk) with the publication of Zülfikar of the acceptance of the Qur'an by three states in the north-west, and this confirming the statement last year that if Zülfikar was to appear it would lead to great conquests at home and abroad, is truly auspicious, and we share in the conviction of those two brothers. It is most significant that in this stormy and godless century three states should openly acknowledge humanity's intense need for the Qur'an, and one, the German, should do so secretly. It is indeed good news for us and for the Islamic world that three states in far-off lands should all

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together affirm the Qur'an. In fact, it would be good news if only ten famous people or scientists (feylesof) affirmed it; it would truly boost the morale of the people at large.

***

The wisdom in the Qur'anic symbols and coincidences in such parts of the Risale-i Nur's Twenty-Ninth Letter as The Six Attacks (Hücumat-ı Sitte) and its appendix, and The Seven Signs (İşârât-ı Seb'a), and The Nine Allusions (Telvihat-ı Tis'a) was their being a factor that silenced the courts and the committee of experts and our not being held guilty because of them. It is as though those symbols and subtle, profound matters told them in unexpressed words to be fair-minded and not to bother those working at such deep mysteries of the Qur'an. Now, the confused arrangement of the symbols and coincidences in those treatises is quite inapt, for only one person out of twenty is needy for them and may understand them, whereas nineteen out of twenty people may need and understand them in the other treatises.

The Nur students here say that their brothers in Denizli have examined our miraculous Qur'an for three years, so they should now permit us to peruse it for three months. The students here are also going to get in touch with Istanbul from here, to have the Hizb-i Nûriye and Hizb-i Kur'aniye printed photographically.

***

Tell that friend and brother of ours who wants to send Zülfikar and The Staff of Moses to the Muslim committee in America via the American ambassador that because ambassadors' heads are busy with politics and the Risale-i Nur is unconcerned with politics, such political heads cannot quickly appreciate it. In addition, the Risale-i Nur does seek customers; the customers have to seek it out and plead for it. America follows even the most trifling events here inquisitively, so it will certainly be curious about the Risale-i Nur, the event of greatest importance here, and will seek it out. Subsequently, you and the select students who represent the Risale-i Nur's collective personality will manage all our affairs. I too have a vote for now.

Your brother who sends thousands of greetings to all our brothers and prays for their well-being and requests their prayers.

***
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Endless thanks be to Almighty God, for owing to the wondrous effects (kerâmet) of true solidarity and unshakeable unity, the pillars of the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ are overcoming all difficulties and obstacles and are being successful in getting the Risale-i Nur's diamond Zülfikar and its miracuIous proofs to those in need. Even if the troubles we suffer in securing this result were a thousand times greater, they would count for little and be insignificant.

We congratulate the three children Münevvere, Nazmiye, and Sâim, who our brother Re'fet says in his letter, have in three months succeeded in reading the whole Qur'an having started from scratch (lit. elif), and in addition to their Qur'an lessons, listen innocently and eagerly to the truths of belief of the Risale-i Nur. We congratulate them and their teachers and parents. God willing, Münevvere and Nazmiye will complete the tasks connected with the Risale-i Nur that Abdülbaki and Mehmed Celâl left unfinished.

May Almighty God restore to health the sick person mentioned in the heroic Burhan's letter, who has filled us and the Risale-i Nur with gratitude, and may God bestow mercy on our brother's Zekâi's mother, who has died. Amen.

Sabri, who is the Nur power station and one of the pillars of the Risale-i Nur and a fine representative of those who are hojas, tells me in his letter that Ahmed Fuad wants to sacrifice his life for his elderly Master, whose duties are almost fulfilled, and to go soon to the Intermediate Realm in his stead, and that he wants to be the successor in service of the late Hâfız Ali and Hasan Feyzi. Sabri says too that if possible he wants to give his life as well, as the fourth of them, and is persuading his soul and his heart. I declare "Bârekâllah!" a thousand times over to this staunch, most useful brother of long-standing who has dedicated his life to the Risale-i Nur, and I accept the life he has dedicated to me like Ahmed Fuad and entrust what remains of my life to those two brothers, those two new Saids, so that they may persist in the service of belief and the Risale-i Nur in my place.

He also says in his letter that Sıddık Süleyman's son Yûsuf is learning under Şamlı Hâfız Tevfik, the chief scribe of Barla's Nur School, the script and lessons of the Qur'an and the Risale-i Nur, like the sons of the late Mustafa Çavuş and Ahmed; and that Hulûsi and Hâfız Hakkı are enthusiastically writing out the Risale-i Nur; all of which strengthened my hopes for Barla and caused me deep joy and happiness. May Almighty God grant them success. Amen! And to Tevfik. Amen!

I was also greatly pleased with the letter included in Sabri's letter from Hüseyin, the nephew of Sıddık Süleyman, who assisted me so much while

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I was in Barla and whom I often remember. It also satisfied my curiosity. Mâsha'llah, he continues his previous involvement, just like the old Sıddık Süleyman!

Also sent with Sabri's letter were those of Şükrü, Süleyman, and Osman Çavuş, Nur students from the village of Cire near Eğirdir, which show their serious and sincere attachment to the Risale-i Nur, to which I say: Bârekâllah! May Almighty God bless them and grant them success!

I have received the treatises sent by the Husrev and Rüştü of Kastamonu, Mehmed Feyzi and Emin, that belonged to me and remained in Kastamonu and were being held in trust by them. Mehmed Feyzi, the Risale-i Nur's chief scribe, has written a glossary for The Staff of Moses, which I have sent to you. It is written in truly fine and learned fashion although he is ill. He included a noteworthy piece at the head of it, and sent me a letter also. His wondrous loyalty and superior devotion, and his serving belief in various ways, despite the numerous difficulties and obstacles there, show that just as he is a young Husrev, so he is fully a Hasan Feyzi. But because when I was there, I was not bothered by a very high-ranking and egotistical person who had formerly been an official and had leanings towards Sufism, and a most notable, knowledgeable hoja who was deeply involved in the world and was a politically oriented businessman, I did not attempt to draw them into the fold of the Risale-i Nur, and I did not bother them, Now, Mehmed Feyzi wants to deliver Kastamonu from their ascendancy, but is unable to achieve this as in Denizli. Moreover, such Nur champions as Hilmi, Sadık, and Ahmed Kureyşi are away in their villages, so Feyzi's work remains a bit personal. God willing, sometime they will succeed in this completely.

In another field (in the world of women), Kastamonu's Zehrâs, Hacers, Lütfiyes, Ulviyes, and Necmiyes accompany Feyzi in serving the Risale-i Nur.

It says in Feyzi's letter that thanks to the efforts of the Risale-i Nur students, an official Qur'an school has been opened and that the first to attend it were the Nur children and particularly Emin's children and they have been the first to read the Qur'an from beginning to end and to learn some of it by heart. I congratulate them and their fathers and the other students there, and say: "Bârekâllah!" a thousand times over for those innocent children.

Our worthy sister Zehrâ has come here twice in connection with the Risale-i Nur work; her donating two hundred liras to cover the paper expenses of the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ shows that among the women are Husrevs, Feyzis, and Ahmeds.

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I have received the joint letter of the Nur heroes Hilmi Bey and Emin in Kastamonu and signed by Hâfız İhsan. I send with much longing, greetings to those valuable, steadfast, unshakeable old brothers and the other Nur students there. Also, where is İhsan who was together with us in prison and assisted us so much there? I am curious.

Thanks to the wondrous loyalty and devotion of such people in the vicinity of Safranbolu as the Mustafas, Ahmed Fuad, the late Hıfzı, and Rahmi, our eight years of service for the Risale-i Nur in Kastamonu did not remain fruitless; they prove materially that there will be a shining Nur School in Safranbolu. I consider to be most significant the good news given in Mustafa Osman's latest letter that the Risale-i Nur will make many conquests among the hundreds of young people and workers in the manufacturing town of Karabük.

It is truly most auspicious what the two young Nur heroes, Mustafa Sungur and Rahmi, tell in their fine letter of Ahmed Fuad's earnest efforts to teach the Risale-i Nur in their villages, and the district of Eflâni coming to resemble a Nur School like Barla, with its people attending the lessons enthusiastically; and two young teachers embracing the Risale-i Nur still in the old script; and the children starting to learn the Qur'anic script, and starting to write out the Risale-i Nur. May Almighty God grant success to those innocent children and may He be pleased with their teachers and parents. They are included among the children mentioned in my prayers. We congratulate the district of Eflâni, and foremost Ahmed Fuad, Mustafa, and Rahmi.

Mustafa Sungur, one the young Nur heroes, has written out the conclusion of the Eleventh Topic of The Fruits of Belief perfectly in a short space of time in the old letters, and Rahmi, the other, has written out beautifully A Guide for Youth in the old letters, and sent these to me together with my books that arrived from Kastamonu. In truth, this pleased me so much, it was as though two new nephews resembling Abdurrahman and Fuad had come into the world.

***

An immigrant in Balıkesir and follower of Jalal al-Dîn al-Rumi called Edhem Hoja has for nearly twenty years been busy teaching the Qur'an to children and acting as a village hoja, and now works for the Risale-i Nur in Balıkesir and the vicinity of Kırkağaç. The lengthy letter he has written in the name of the Nur students in that area and signed İbrahim Edhem, Imam of the village of Alamescid near Sandıklı, contains some important passages

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as well as some slaps for the cowardly hojas, whom he invites and encourages to embrace the Risale-i Nur. I congratulate him earnestly. May Almighty God grant him success! And I send my greetings to both to himself and to the many Nurjus and the new ones whose names are mentioned in his letter. But owing to my illness, I am unable to correct and moderate his long letter. The excessive praise of me needs to be either excised or to be altered. I am sending you a copy to include among The Additional Letters. God willing, just as Hasan Feyzi and Ahmed Feyzi drew the teachers to the Risale-i Nur, so this enterprising brother will attract the hojas.

I also send my greetings to the baker Mustafa, who from time to time assisted me together with his son while I was staying in the hotel in Denizli, and brought me and embers for heating and bread, and sent me a letter via Tahir Çavuş.

I send many greetings to everyone and pray for their well-being.

***