Over two years the courts in Ankara and Denizli and the experts' committee studied all the parts of the Risale-i Nur and took the unanimous decision both for our acquittal and the return all of the Risale-i Nur to me; there is therefore nothing to prevent their publication. The pieces in the present collection were among the treatises returned to me.
All the developments favouring religion in the schools and the mosques in Isparta may be looked on as conquests of Zülfikar. Just as Isparta became the Nur School and the teacher of the other provinces, so, God willing, it will offer a fine example to be followed with regard to the marks of Islam (şeâir-i İslâmiye).
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: Just when I was suffering both the distressing physical and spiritual illness of this severe winter, in addition to the pains of possible separation from my very close Nurju brothers due to departing from this world, Sıddık Süleyman and Nur Santral Sabrî arrived here in the name of all my brothers in that region and my relatives, as though they were Abdülmecid and Abdurrahman. I offer thanks to Almighty God, for their arrival was a medicine and cure for me. Contrary to my custom here, I invited them to visit me come what may, and they came. For two or three hours, I listened and learnt all that I was curious about, particularly how my friends in Barla
were, and we made a joyful tour of the imagination around my time there. I received such relief and consolation, all my grievous sufferings were dispelled. I wanted them to stay here for a couple of days, but these bad times and the suspicions and circumstances here did not permit it, I accepted those brothers on account of all of you, and I sent you two living letters in my place.
Secondly: The second day I received a letter telling me that nine true Nurjus, young Salâhaddins and Abdurrahmans, are making a serious effort to illuminate the young university students, whom I was most curious about and interested in. Those young Abdurrahmans are Mustafa Oruç, Ziya from Konya, Sabri's grandson Feyzi, Bahaeddin, Abdurrahim, Ömer from Kastamonu, Aziz, Şükrü, and Sabrî. Earnest young Nurjus like these embracing the Risale-i Nur pleased me as much as the idea of ten youths like my late nephews Abdurrahman and Fuad returning to this world and embarking on their Nur service. It alleviated my illness considerably
Thirdly: It is a good fortune for the Nurjus, and for the whole country even, that the duplication of Zülfikar by machine is nearly completed. But so as not to lose that good fortune, you must take whatever precautions you can. If to suppose the impossible - God willing it won't happen - there is a search like there was with The Supreme Sign, not all the copies should be exposed to the assault. There shouldn't be any such assault now; there can't be, for they are trying to be conciliatory. But covert atheists are sure to be looking for pretexts so as to save themselves from the curses of the future and they deceive the powers that be. So relying on divine protection and providence, you must act circumspectly. God willing, Zülfikar will preserve itself from attack and will either rout the aggressors or bring them to believe.
My Dear, Loyal Brother and Zealous, Earnest Friend in This Transitory World!
Firstly: Out of all my friends and compatriots, I am truly most grateful to yourself and to certain people from Erzurum for your serious and kindly concern for me in these torturous and oppressive circumstances, and for your hastening mentally to my assistance. I shall never forget this till my dying day and I beseech God's grace and blessings for you.
Secondly: Completely contrarily to my way and the lessons I have taken
from the Risale-i Nur, and contrarily to the rule of my life for the past ten years, which is not to concern myself with the passing, inconsequential matters of this fleeting world, just for your sake and your long letter and the questions you asked about, I am going to explain a few matters related to my situation and the oppressors' torments.
The First: One day thirty years ago while I was a member of the Darü'l-Hikmet, Seyyid Sadeddin Pasha, who was a friend of mine and also a member, told me: "I have received through means that are certain that an atheistic secret society which is present here but the roots of which are abroad has read one of your works and declared that if its author remains in this world, it shall be unable to persuade this nation to accept its doctrine, that is, atheism and irreligion, so has decided to eliminate him. That is, it has given the order for your execution. You must look to protect yourself." I replied: "I place my trust in God! The appointed hour is fixed and won't change!"
These last thirty or forty years that secret society has both spread, and has employed every device to struggle against me, It has tried to eliminate me twice with imprisonment, and eleven times by poison (now it is nineteen times). Its worst plans were its using the full force of official government influence against me through the former Interior Minister, the former governor of Afyon, and the former deputy kaymakam of Emirdağ. Those three officials so intimidated everyone and conducted such propaganda against me, a weak, elderly, solitary, impoverished stranger in need of assistance, that except to spy on me no official would come near me, for if any greeted me he would be posted elsewhere, and out of their fear some of my neighbours would not greet me at all. But divine protection and providence bestowed patience and forbearance on me, and their unparalleled torments and oppression did not compel me to have recourse to them.
The Second: Perhaps you recall that in the president's office in Ankara when disputing with Mustafa Kemal, I responded fiercely to what he said, declaring to his face: "Those who neglect the obligatory prayers are traitors, and the words of traitors are to be rejected!" He did not find the courage to respond to that insult and disparagement, but here, a low-ranking officer and a sergeant heaped similar abuse and insult on me. Their intention was to infuriate me and provoke an incident, but divine protection and providence bestowed patience and forbearance on me.
The Third: In their investigations of two years two courts could find nothing legally reprehensible in any part of the Risale-i Nur, but on their acquitting us and the Risale-i Nur, the secret atheistic society made use of certain dissembling officials, and hatching an official plan in the centre of government, isolated me from all my friends and students completely illegally, and calling it exile, sent me to the place most detrimental to my health, to a life of solitary confinement in Emirdağ. It has now emerged that they did this for two reasons:
The First: I have never ever accepted insults. So they wanted to infuriate me by humiliating me and to incite an incident and pave the way to finish me off. Then because they didn't manage that, they tried to put an end to me by poisoning me. But through divine providence, the panacea-like prayers of the Nur students and the remedial properties of patience and endurance foiled that plan of theirs and drove off the dangers of the poison, both physical and spiritual. Certainly at no time in history has any government perpetrated such torments and oppression in the name of law and order. Indeed their constant surveillance vexed me and their scaring everyone away from me made me angry, but it suddenly occurred to my heart that I should pity these tyrants, not be angry at them, as follows: Soon each one of them will be subject to everlasting agony in place of the temporary sufferings they have inflicted on you and to hellish torments, physical and mental, a thousandfold greater. Revenge will be taken on them a thousand times more severely. And some of them, if they have any sense, will suffer the anguish of guilty consciences and fear of eternal death so long as they remain in this world till they meet their end. So I ceased feeling angry at them and pitied them, saying: May God reform them!
Moreover, I was earning great reward from their torments and ill-treatment, and since they were busying themselves with and tyrannizing me instead of the Nur students, it was of great benefit for the Nurjus and served their well-being and I therefore offered thanks to Almighty God and felt joy within all the distress I was suffering.
The Fourth: Concerning the matter in your letter about my living conditions
and if I was capable of it, to go to the Hijaz and Damascus, and your applying to the present government for me:
Firstly: If I had been in Mecca, I would have had to come here in order to save belief and serve the Qur'an. For the need is greatest here, If I had a thousand spirits and suffered from a thousand sickness and was afflicted with that many difficulties, I would again decide due to the lessons I have received from the Qur'an, to stay here to serve this nation's belief and happiness, and I have so decided.
Secondly: Concerning being treated with respect rather than insultingly, you say in your letter: If you had been in Egypt or America, you would have been cited in the histories with honour and esteem.
My dear, attentive brother!
In accordance with our way, we are strongly averse to respect and reverence, and acclaim, gifts, and tributes for my person. Especially the desire for fame, which is extraordinary hypocrisy, and to be mentioned in histories and to appear fine to people, which is alluring self-advertisement, are the opposite of sincerity, which is a basic principle of the Risale-i Nur and its way, and are opposed to it. I seek none of these things; indeed, I flee from them. But since the Risale-i Nur proceeds from the abounding light of the Qur'an, and is a flash of its miraculousness, and expounds its truths and discloses its mysteries, we want the Risale-i Nur to be sought after, and for everyone to feel the need for it and to appreciate its high value, and to make known its perfectly clear wonder-working, and that it has defeated the irreligion of the atheists in respect of belief and that it will continue to do so, and we await this from divine mercy,
As a postscript, I am adding a trifling and unimportant paragraph about my person:
Receb Bey and Kara Kâzım are friends of yours and I reckon they had some relations with the Old Said; I don't want any favours from them, but like their predecessors they shouldn't permit the meaningless, unnecessary persecution and ill-treatment of my person. I can't abide the physical and spiritual atmosphere here. My distress is excessive. I lock the place I stay on both the outside and the inside. I am completely alone. I have no neighbours really, and pass my life in an oppressive room, all alone and ill. Sometimes one day's anguish here is greater than a month of travails in Denizli prison. Enough now of these twenty years of infringements on my liberty and the terrible distress. In any event, with the two-year scrutinies of two courts and the failure of the dissemblers' plots against me, it has become absolutely clear that they can no longer deceive anyone with the groundless suspicious allegations that I and the Risale-i Nur cause harm to
this country and nation. It would be appropriate if like everyone else I had my freedom and there was permission for me to visit some of the villages around here with a more temperate climate. I send many greetings to you and to my Nur friends there, and I offer prayers for you.
An indication of the acceptability of Mustafa Osman's service, who like the late Hasan Feyzi has carried out much work in a brief space of time and is earnestly devoted to the Risale-i Nur, is his finding two teachers resembling Hasan Feyzi in spirit and loyalty, Ahmed Fuad and Mustafa Sungur, and two higher education students, Mustafa Oruç and Rahmi, and his working at the Nur service with those powerful hands. It is a great good fortune for that region.
The wonderful joint letters of Mustafa Osman and the teacher Mustafa Sungur, which we have added with some alterations to our Additional Letters, shows that shoots of Hasan Feyzi's sort have started to sprout and grow who will save the belief of many wretched people, God willing. Both the Nurjus and myself were especially pleased at the devotion of the fourteen-year-old schoolboy called Rahmi in making his Nur lessons his life's aim, thus resembling the innocent young heroes of Isparta. It is a good omen that the young people's belief in that area will be saved.
Hâfız Mustafa has provided immense assistance for the spread of Zülfikar and the other collections, and writes in the very best way that the late martyr Hâfız Ali wrote, and is a loyal deputy to him and truly diligent friend of his in the Nur Factory. I congratulate with all my life and spirit Ahmed Fuad, who ensured that all the parts of the Risale-i Nur which had been left to Hâfız Mustafa on trust, reached him and the region of Safranbolu and all our brothers there. God willing, every lira given for Zülfikar will yield a thousandfold profit and will produce thousands of good works. I send my greetings to both him, and our brother İbrahim, and the new dedicated teacher Mustafa Sungur, and the young Salâhaddin Rahmî, and to Mustafa Osman and Hıfzı and all our brothers there.
Our Respected, Blessed, Esteemed, Kind, and Virtuous Master!
Firstly: "And in the face of every calamity: We belong to God and to Him is our return" (Q 2:156). The death of our elder brother and his departing to join the Risale-i Nur champion and late martyr Hâfız Ali saddened us grievously. I send my condolences to foremost you our Master and to all the Nur students, all the members of his spiritual and actual family, his Nur School, and the people of Denizli, and I share in their sorrow. While offering my paltry gifts at the divine court, I beseech that he may be engulfed in mercy and blessings. And I entreat from divine mercy that in accordance with the verse: «Every soul will taste death» (Q 3: 185), he has been taken from this world to the world of spirits, and as indicated by «But those who believe and do deeds of righteousness - to them We give a home in heaven lofty mansions beneath which flow rivers, - to dwell therein for aye, - an excellent reward for those who do [good]!» (Q 29:58) as recompense He shall bestow the shoots of numerous Hasan Feyzis.
Esteemed Master! According to what I have heard, one day seventy to eighty years ago in Denizli, a lofty saint called Hasan Feyzi told his students: "Today a saint was born in Kurdistan," alluding with this good news to yourself. I consider that your coming to Denizli so many years later made that saint's spirit rejoice. Then a short time later the late Hasan Feyzi, who bore the same name, emulated the first Hasan Feyzi in his respect for the Risale-i Nur and his passion for it, and entering its fold, strengthened this conviction of mine immeasurably. I thought: Said appeared and attained the fullness of years after the first Hasan Feyzi's death, and the second Hasan Feyzi also fulfilled his duties, and immersed in the Risale-i Nur he summoned many Hasan Feyzi's to replace him, then departed this life. I implore and entreat the Most Merciful of the Merciful that He bestow numerous Hasan Feyzis on the Risale-i Nur and on our Master who will cause them to forget their grief, and I hope from His abundant grace, mercy, providence, bestowal, bounty, and favour that He will grant our Master a long and felicitous life at their head,
At this distressing time when my soul was vexing me and triggering impatience, this piece silenced it completely and induced me to offer thanks. It is attached here in the hope that it will be useful for you too, for I have it hanging beside me.
1. O my soul! In seventy-three years you have received more than your share of pleasures, and none is now owing to you.
2. You want passing pleasures to persist and start weeping when they disappear. You receive slaps for this error of yours, arising from blind emotions.
3. Underlying the injustices and calamities you suffer is the justice of divine determining. People oppress you for something you didn't do, but due to your secret faults divine determining both trains you through the hand of those calamities, and they are atonement for those faults.
4. My impatient soul! As a consequence of hundreds of experiences, you believe certainly that divine providence dispenses truly sweet results beneath apparent calamities. The verse, «It may be that you hate a thing but it is good for you» (Q 2:216) teaches a certain truth. It constantly recalls it. Moreover, the divine law that turns the wheel of the firmament, that vast law of divine determining, will not be changed just for your sake.
5. Make the sacred rule: "The believer in divine determining suffers no grief" your guiding principle. Don't run after fleeting, trivial pleasures like capricious unthinking children. Know that passing pleasures leave behind pains and regrets, whereas difficulties and suffering yield spiritual pleasures and rewards in the hereafter. If you aren't crazy, you will seek temporary pleasures only for thanks. They are anyway given to prompt the offering of thanks.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: Although it is personal, it occurred to me that I should write and tell you about a strange dispute I had with myself. It was like this:
Although the poster you know about that hangs beside me had totally silenced my evil-commanding soul, last night my blind emotions, which employ the weapon of the soul even more insistently, exacerbated certain
veins of temperament. With an excessive irritability and sensitivity caused by illness and poison, and an extraordinary state of mind arising from the whisperings of Satan and a natural love of life, those blind emotions, which resemble a second evil-commanding soul, touched my heart and spirit acutely, and made me feel an awful despair and sorrow at the possibility of death, and a powerful ambition, thrill, and pleasure.
My soul and those emotions asked: "Why don't you try to live a comfortable life? For indeed you reject such a thing and you don't seek an innocently pleasurable life within the circle of the Risale-i Nur, but are quite happy to die. Why is this?" Suddenly two powerful facts silenced that second evil-commanding soul and Satan.
The First: When I die, the Risale-i Nur's sacred work for belief will unfold with greater sincerity; and in no way will it be accused of being utilized for worldly ends, or for egotism or self-interest. And since my being personally alive excites rivalry, its service will continue more sincerely and perfectly. It's true that I can help a bit while I'm in this world, but rivals and critics can accuse my unimportant self, which may harm the Risale-i Nur and cause people to hold back from it. And if the person who acts as watchman lays down, all the enthusiasts in his luminous circle become alert and watchful; there are then thousands of guards instead of just one. That is to say, if death were to come, it would be welcome.
Furthermore, since many of the Nur students have devoted their property, and their comfort, and their worldly pleasures, and if necessary their lives to serving the Risale-i Nur, why should you be niggardly, O my soul!
Also, know certainly that if it were necessary to depart from this transitory, troublesome life while working to save the eternal lives of numerous unfortunates, or if the time were to come, it would be a pleasurable honour to meet it happily.
The Second: If a weak and powerless man was to be burdened with a heavy load although he could not bear a light one, and if his friends looked on him as strong and wanted his help although it was really him that needed help due to his concealed weakness, it would be most grievous and distasteful for him to try, by being artificial and false, which are extremely burdensome, to appear big and powerful just so as not to offend them or appear inferior. In just the same way, O my evil-commanding soul, you have become engulfed in blind emotion! With your ordinary person and virtually worthless abilities, you could not be the source and fountainhead of the truths of the Risale-i Nur, which are far beyond you and purely a divine favour. In this dark, sick age, those truths have emerged from the sacred pharmacy of the Qur'an and been placed in your hands by divine
mercy. Indeed, just so as not to spoil my friends' good opinion of me nor offend their sensibilities, despite my being wretched and needy and a beggar at the Qur'an's door and a mere means conveying it to the needy, this wretched person they call Ustad has given up meeting with friends even if not in connection with the work of the Risale-i Nur, and has been obliged to do so by his spirit, for their sake, so as not to appear far inferior to them nor be forced to be false and artificial, which is most painful and burdensome. For to appear more worthy than I am, and to show myself as holding some high rank in order to please those who have too high an opinion of me, and to appear lofty and to seek the harmful, fleeting pleasures of the ego behind the veil of high dignity, which is absolutely opposed to the meaning of sincerity, would reduce to nothing all those pleasures, o my soul!
O my soul! O miserable blind emotions, always seeking pleasure! If you were to receive thousands of worldly pleasures even, they would still degenerate in this situation and turn into pure pain! Since out of a hundred of my old friends, ninety are calling me to the grave - or so it seems, I have to abandon the ten that remain here. Surely, the non-physical life of the Intermediate Realm is a thousand times preferable to this life of old-age and loneliness.
Thanks be to God, the above two facts silenced the second evil-commanding soul completely. It was content with the pleasures emanating from the heart and spirit. Satan was silenced too. Even the physical sickness in my arteries lessened considerably.
In Short: If I die, the work of the Risale-i Nur will unfold with greater sincerity, and without any rivalry or accusations.
Moreover, it means being saved from the burdensome, cold and unpleasant pains of empty formalities and troubles of self-advertisement and harms of artificiality, which usurp the minor, temporary pleasure which I don't seek and the pleasure at seeing with worldly eyes the victories of the Risale-i Nur.
Furthermore, O soul! With your spirit and heart, this year you have travelled both in fact and in the imagination through the regions I passed my old pleasurable life for which you so long, to see the friends with whom I was so familiar and the brothers at the parting with whom I was so sad. But you too saw that in those many regions you could find only one or two out of a hundred of those friends. The rest had departed for the Intermediate Realm, and the pleasing living tableaux had changed and had taken on a dejected, mournful appearance. Never again would one want to see those empty, friendless places. So with complete dignity and self-respect, we
should give up these fleeting pleasures and bid this life and world farewell before they drive us out unceremoniously.
With greetings to and prayers for all our brothers, your ill but joyful brother,
On the occasion of the death of the esteemed Nur School Master, Haji Hâfız Mehmed, I offer my condolences to all the Risale-i Nur students, particularly the students of the Nur School, and the late departed's relatives. For as long as we remain in this world, on account of the Risale-i Nur we shall continue to pray with all our whole spirit that divine mercy be bestowed upon him and that between Hâfız Ali and Hasan Feyzi he receive a share of all our spiritual gains. He was a blessed person who successfully fulfilled vital tasks for the Risale-i Nur, then completed his duty and leaving behind numerous spiritual offspring as successors, departed and withdrew released to the world of mercy and rest. When dontating my gains to the high-ranking masters, Hâfız Ali, Hâfız Mehmed, Mehmed Zühtü, Ahmed of Sava, and Hasan Feyzi, I involuntarily beheld Haji Hâfız Mehmed among them during the last ten days he was alive. I told myself that he had a place among them, and I did not interfere. But I was surprised that someone who was still alive should have a place among those masters. Now it is understood from your letter that he was making his death felt as a wonder of his sincere and sacred service. He was indicating that he had a position between Hâfız Ali and Hasan Feyzi. May Almighty God inscribe in his book of good works and bestow on his spirit instances of mercy to the number of the letters of the Risale-i Nur written out and read in the Sava Nur School. Amen! And may He grant success to his successor and son, Hâfız Mehmed, and grandson, Ahmed Zeki, in continuing his duties in accordance with his method. Amen! And may He bestow perfect patience on them all. Amen!
In His Name, be He glorified!
May God's peace be upon you, and His mercy and blessings!
My Dear, Loyal Brothers and the Young Heroes Among the Nur Students!
At the end of some copies of The Staff of Moses, there is the answer I gave to a question asked by one of our brothers, Küçük Ali, who is small in name but great in spirit. Read it, for some critics said to him, in an effort to belittle the Risale-i Nur, "Everyone knows God; the common man believes in God just like the saint." They wished in this way to present the exalted, valuable, and most essential discussions contained in the Risale-i Nur as superfluous. Now too in Istanbul, with a still more sinister intention, some hypocrites of anarchist persuasion who have fallen prey to utter unbelief wish cunningly to deprive everyone of the truths of belief that are contained in the Risale-i Nur and are as essential to man as bread and water. They say: "Every nation and every individual knows God; we have no great need for new instruction in this matter."
To know God, however, means to have certain belief in His dominicality encompassing all beings, and in all things, particular and universal, from the atoms to the stars, being in the grasp of His power, action, and will; it means believing in the truths of the sacred words, "There is no god but God," and assenting to them with one's heart.
For simply to say, "God exists," and then to divide His sovereignty among causes and nature and attribute it to them; to recognize causes as sources of authority, as if - God forbid - they were partners to God; to fail to perceive His will and knowledge as present with all things; to refuse to recognize His strict commands and to reject His attributes and the messengers and prophets He has sent - this has nothing to do with the reality of belief in God. The person who does all this, then says "God exists," does so only in order to find some relief from the torment he suffers in the world after his unbelief has made it a hell for him. Not to deny is one thing; to believe is something completely different.
No being endowed with consciousness, in the whole universe, can indeed deny the All-Glorious Creator to whom every particle of existence bears witness. Or if he does make such a denial, he will be rebuffed by all of creation, and hence become silent and diffident.
But believing in Him is, as the Qur'an of Mighty Stature informs us, to assent in one's heart to the Creator with all of His attributes and names,
supported by the testimony of the whole universe; to recognize the messengers He has sent and the commands He has promulgated; and to make sincere repentance and feel genuine regret for every sin and act of disobedience. Conversely, to commit every kind of sin and then never to seek pardon for it or concern oneself with it, is a sure sign of the absence of any element of belief.
Thus my spritual offspring, an important event has become the occasion for a brief exposition of a long and complex matter. I now look on you as important students of the Risale-i Nur. It is most fortunate that Mustafa Oruç so quickly found you, to work according to his system in his spirit and with his seriousness. Now there are ten Mustafas,
My Dear, Esteemed Brother!
I read your lengthy treatise-like, comprehensive, precisely researched and eager letter with the greatest interest. In the first place I have to tell you that Imam 'Ali (May God be pleased with him) is the Risale-i Nur's master, and with his symbolic allusions in his ode al-Jaljalutiya shows much concern for the Risale-i Nur and is my particular master in the truths of belief. In accordance with the verse, «Say: I ask no recompense of you save love of close kin» (Q 42:23), love of the Prophet's (UWBP) family is a fundamental principle of the Risale-i Nur and our way, so Wahhabism should not be espoused in any way by any true Nur student. Since at the present time atheists and the people of misguidance profit from differences and confuse the believers, and corrupting the marks of Islam, form powerful currents opposed to the Qur'an and belief, the door of disputed minor questions should not be opened in the face of this awesome enemy.
Moreover, the Sunnis stated that there is no need to vilify the dead, for they have departed for their place of punishment in the hereafter, and love of the Prophet's (UWBP) family does not necessitate publicizing their faults harmfully and unnecessarily; they opposed discussion of the dissension that occurred at the time of the Companions. The Sunnis said that since at the Incident of the Camel, Zubayr, Talha, and 'A'isha al-Siddiqa (May God be pleased with them) of the ten promised paradise were present, the war resulted from an independent ruling (ijtihad), so even if Imam 'Ali was right and the other side was wrong, it would be forgiven.
The Sunnis also consider it harmful to discuss the rebels at the Siffin War, lest either those inclined to Wahhabism or extremist Shi'is cause harm to Islam.
The prominent authority of the science of theology (kalam), Sa'd al-Dîn al-Taftazani, said about villains like Hajjaj the Tyrant, Yazid, and Walid, that it is permissible to curse them, but he did not say that it was compulsory or that it was a good thing or earned reward. For there are innumerable people who deny both the Qur'an and the Prophet (UWBP) and the Companions' sacred conversations; there are many of them everywhere. There is no harm according to the Shari'a if a person does not recall those deserving of execration and does not curse them. For unlike goodness and love, execration and vilification are not included among good works, and if they are harmful, that is far worse.
At the present time, there are covert dissemblers everywhere who, inclining towards Wahhabism, exert an influence over certain hojas, who more than anyone are charged with protecting Islam and the truths of the Qur'an; they accuse the people of truth of Alevî-ism, exploit one against the other and try to deal awesome blows at Islam. You wrote briefly about this in your letter. In fact, you know that they found the hojas to be the most effective tool to wield against myself and the Risale-i Nur. The Wahhabis, who rule the two sacred mosques of Mecca and Medina, and, - with the fascinating works of the famous, awesome geniuses Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzi having long since got into the hands of some Istanbul hojas - a group of hojas who favour the innovations and want to use them against the saints (evliya) and to screen their permissive way, may make a pretext of your ruling (ijtihad) which arose from love of the Prophet's (UWBP) family and should not now be publicized, and deal a blow at both yourself and the Nur students. There is no command in the Shari'a not to vilify and accuse of unbelief but there is an injunction concerning such actions, and to unjustly execrate and impute unbelief causes serious harm. If it is justifiable, there is no good or reward involved. Those who deserve it are innumerable. But there is no injunction in the Shari'a concerning not vilifying or accusing of unbelief, so it is not harmful in any way. It is because of this fact that the people of reality, the Sunnis, and foremost the Four Imams and the Twelve Imams, took the sacred law based on the above truth as their guide, and did not consider it permissible among Muslims
to make that time's strife the subject of discussion and debate, saying that to do so was without benefit, and harmful.
Also, leading Companions were found on both sides in those wars, and if one talks about those conflicts, taking one side or the other, one might feel opposed to or critical of some of the ten promised paradise such as Talha or Zubayr (May God be pleased with them). If they committed any faults, there is a strong possibility that they repented. As for returning to those times and dwelling on those events unnecessarily and harmfully, without the sanction of the Shari'a, and adopting a stance that infers disregard of those who at this time are dealing awesome blows at Islam in fact and deserve to be execrated and loathed, does not befit a believer and is not congruent with the sacred duty of any conscientious person,
In fact, I can't conceal it from you that your minor dispute with Sabri caused considerable harm to the dissemination of both the Risale-i Nur and the truths of belief. I felt it here at that very time, and was affected and saddened. Then while awaiting from both a discerning scholar like yourself, and Sabri, who had gone there to work for the Risale-i Nur, that both of you would perform useful services, I felt and understood that, on the contrary, harm had been caused to the Risale-i Nur in three respects. I was wondering about the cause of this when two or three days later I received news that Sabri had argued with you in meaningless, unwarranted fashion, and that you had become angry. Alas! I exclaimed, "O God! Make peace between these two people who have come from Erzurum to assist me; settle the dispute between them!" As it says in the Twentieth Flash on sincerity, at the present time the believers should unite not only with their Muslim brothers but also with religiously-minded Christians, and avoiding questions of dispute, not engage in argument and debate. For absolute disbelief is on the attack. I appeal to your religious zeal, scholarly experience, and attachment to the Risale-i Nur, and request that you try to forget the argument with Sabri, and forgive him and waive your rights. For he was not voicing his own views but was repeating things he had heard from the hojas of the former times, and started arguing in uncalled-for manner. It would be a good act and meritorious, and atonement for many sins, as you know. Sabri, my fellow-countryman, has performed such services for the Risale-i Nur and through it for belief that they would cause a thousand faults to be forgiven. With your magnanimity, for the sake of his service you should look on him as a friend, fellow-countryman, and companion in the work of the Risale-i Nur,
In those wars, a group of the Companions followed relative justice as permitted by the Shari'a and abandoned the pure justice and adherence to
the Shari'a that Imam 'Ali (May God be pleased with him) followed, and his ascetic, self-denying way. Since due to this ruling they joined the opposing side, and Imam 'Ali's brother 'Aqil, and 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas, who was known as Hibr al-Umma, even, joined it for a time, the true Sunnis took as their rule, "Closing the gate of dissension is one the beauties of the Shari'a," and declaring, "God did not allow us to spill their blood, so as thanks for His great favour we shall hold our tongues" considered it appropriate not to put too much emphasis on the matter. They argued that even if some of them deserved criticism, some of the leading Companions and members of the Prophet's (UWBP) family who were on the opposing side, and some of the ten promised paradise like Talha and Zubayr (May God be pleased with them) would be objected to and vilified, causing enmity, so they favoured closing that door. In fact, Sa'd al-Dîn al-Taftazani, one of the greatest authorities of the Sunnis and of the science of kalam, permitted the execration of Yazid and Walid, and the pronouncement of their unbelief, In response to this, other Sunni scholars such as Sayyid Sharif al-Jurjani, said: "For sure Yazid and Walid were iniquitous, cruel sinners, but it is not known whether or not they died without believing. And because it is not known with any certainty, since there is no definite record or incontrovertible evidence, there is a possibility that they repented and died in a state of belief. In which case, it is not permissible for particular persons such as them to be cursed. It may be permissible to curse in a general sort of way, saying 'May God curse the wrongdoers and the dissemblers.' Otherwise it is harmful and unnecessary."
The reasons I have been unable to reply at length to your scholarly and detailed letter, are my serious illness and pressing occupations. I have therefore only been able to write this much hastily.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: Two hours after the sparrow had given the good news, I joyfully received safe and sound Zülfikar and its companions, which are fruits of paradise and the pages of good works of the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ's executive committee and the books of their good deeds. I exclaimed, "May God grant them grace and success and happiness in this world and the next!' and with all my life and spirit congratulated both yourselves and this country. There are signs with the preliminary appearance of Zülfikar, of the emergence of powerful currents favouring religion and the cessation of attacks on it, and of some sectors retreating and trying to make up for their former mistakes. Its publication and dissemination, therefore, will secure great benefits for the country with respect to Islam, God willing, and indicates that it will disperse the layers of darkness.
Yes, it is only the Risale-i Nur that will halt the current of absolute dis- belief descending from the north; neither politics nor diplomacy can perform this task. For this reason, patriots, nationalists, and politicians are obliged to embrace it. I beseech from divine mercy that for those who worked for Zülfikar with its seven hundred pages, it will form a single page of good deeds at the resurrection of the dead and will be included in the book of deeds of their collective personality, indeed, of each one of those who worked at it. Since those truths of belief are elevated worship and pious deeds and save the belief of numerous people, they comprise thousands of pious deeds; with each one of those who worked at it reading, listening to, and believing in it, it becomes like a document for the hereafter resembling the book in which is recorded the good deeds of each. Most certainly, it is the mark of an infinite mercy for Zülfikar, with its seven hundred pages, to be published and included as one page in the book of good deeds in the hereafter of themselves and their collective personality.
Secondly: For sure, the Risale-i Nur is victorious wherever it goes, but as far as they possibly can, obdurate, intransigent atheists and materialists employ every stratagem to impede its victories and arouse the politicians' suspicions. God willing, they won't be able to mess things up. But it is always advisable to be cautious. The rule, " ... illuminates discreetly" ("sirran tanawwarat") still persists. It is essential to be circumspect and act with composure until several more collections like this one are
published. Actually, although I have not seen the symbolic treatise about the inner meaning of «To thee have We granted» (Q 108: 1) for thirteen years, it would be both somewhat contrary to the rule of caution to send it here, and not everyone would understand it, for it has to be interpreted (te'vil) and expounded (tefsir). I wrote in one letter in The Additional Letters that two truths had been imparted to me briefly:
One of them: A light was shown in a somewhat restricted area; I understood this as meaning an extensive sphere and gave the good news forty years ago that we would behold a light. Even before the Second Consitutional Period, I repeatedly gave that news to my old students. I supposed it would be in the broad sphere of politics, whereas it was subsequently imparted to me that we would see the Risale-i Nur in the sphere of belief and Islam and the life of Islamic society, for which this country had greatest need. With a premonition, I insistently and repeatedly told of it, and altered that true and veracious matter's form.
The second: It was imparted to me that those who were dealing blows at the marks of Islam and Islamic politics would themselves receive severe blows in twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and sixteen years. Contrarily to the previous matter, I interpreted the events that would occur in the broad sphere and the blows that would be dealt on those large communities as happening in the form of blows dealt at individuals in the narrow sphere. But then exactly as predicted, in both spheres, broad and narrow, twelve years later the most terrible of them quitted this world, and in the broad sphere fearsome communities like his received blows in the years twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and sixteen, and it was imparted to me that they would continue to do so. With my previous interpretation, I applied the large sphere to the small, then with 'the light' question above, I interpreted the small sphere and the event of the Risale-i Nur and its pertaining solely to belief as occurring in the extensive sphere of politics. For this reason, not everyone would understand at once the meaning of «To thee have We granted.» Also, since personal names should not be included in scholarly questions, it is quite apt that for thirteen years I have had no copies of that treatise. Nor should my brothers be curious about it. If anyone is really curious about it, he should read the section that begins with "And for now secondly" at the beginning of «To thee have We granted,» and the piece about the same matter in The Additional Letters. Otherwise he should not read it. The end of the Second World War and departure of that fearsome person, and now with his policies falling back and contrarily to them, some people officially making moves in favour of religion, and the believers being saved to a degree from absolute depotism, and with slight differences the
predictions made in that short treatise occurring on the same dates, all constitute a flash of that sura's miraculousness (i'caz). But my enthusiastic interpretations concealed the truth.
My Dear, Esteemed Brother!
To think of and exacerbate the most grievous, the very worst, wound of the Islamic world, which for one thousand three hundred years has caused it to weep and all the people of reality to sigh at the pity of it, causes me distress greater than I can bear as a follower of my particular path, For twenty-five years, serving the cause of belief sincerely and truly has held me back from every sort of politics and not allowed me to have the newspapers read to me. Similarly, the state of mind I have had to adopt has allowed me to apply to the government only with my court defences lest, while a prisoner, I concern myself with political life; and it has made me completely disregard the ghastly World War lest the work for belief be impaired or tainted by politics or sincerity marred. But although compliance with the Qur'anic command to save belief is obligatory since at the present time fearsome monsters are attacking the believers before our very eyes on the front of the truths of belief, and they have sunk their fangs into many of them, to turn one's back on the present and return to the past to gaze on the atrocities visited on the Prophet's (UWBP) family crushes my spirit and breaks my morale, and heaps on it torment after torment.
Numerous unjust events that were perpetrated in the name of the cruel principle of tyrannical politics, namely, that individuals may be sacrificed for the community, claimed to be the lesser of two evils and a sort of relative justice and advantageous for their rule. In this century, even, due to that cruel principle and on the deluded pretext that harm would come to their policies, five or ten men have ruined thousands and have wiped out a village because of one man's fault.
Since in early times this cruel principle was adopted to an extent by Muslims, the pious forefathers and the Sunni authorities felt compelled to remain silent and closed those doors. Saying: "God did not involve us in their quarrels and kept our hands clean. So in gratitude for this, we shall keep our tongues clean by not talking about them," they did not open those doors.
Since those who inflicted such suffering on the Prophet's (UWBP) family are now suffering severe torments in the hereafter, there is no need for us to attack them in order to assist his family members. His family received so high a reward in return for that temporary oppression that we cannot comprehend it with our minds. We should not pity them but congratulate them on the infinite mercy they have received. For on the one hand, by suffering a few years' hardship they gained eternal bliss of infinite proportions in the hereafter, and on the other, they won the ranks of spiritual monarchs, shahs of the world of reality, in place of the petty, transient sovereignty and temporary rule, and confused politics of their time in this world. Instead of being governors, they became the commanders of saints and spiritual poles; their gain was not a thousandfold, but millions.
It is for this reason that from the New Said's special masters, Imam Rabbani, Gawth al-A'zam, and Imam Ghazali - and especially from these two masters that I was taught the supplication Jaushan al-Kabir of Zayn al-'Abidin (May God be pleased with him), And through the instruction I received from Hz. Husayn and Imam 'Ali (May God exalt him), and especially in my constant spiritual link with them these last thirty years through the Jaushan al-Kabir, I received the former truth and the way that has now been imparted to us from the Risale-i Nur. To look to or even think about the tyrants' atrocities, let alone probe them, is opposed to our way. For they and the other victims have received reward and recompense far exceeding what we can conceive of. To dwell on those matters is detrimental to the Qur'anic duties with which we are now charged in the face of the present calamitous assaults on religion. The rules of the science of the principles of religion (usul al-dîn) which the learned theologians of the science of theology (kalam) and erudite scholars of the principles of religion and of Sunnism agreed on after their minute studies and reasoned debates, and weighed up on the Qur'an's verses and Hadiths, about the Islamic articles of faith, command the preservation of the Risale-i Nur's way, and corroborate and strengthen it. No one anywhere, not even the innovators, have been able to criticize it. Since it preserves the true meaning of sincerity, Muslims of every shade enter its fold. Bigoted Shi'is, the most materialist
and scientistic Wahhabi philosophers even, and the most egotistical narrow-minded hojas are beginning to enter its fold together, some in brotherly fashion. There are even signs that some missionaries and truly spiritual clergy of the religion of Jesus (Upon whom be peace) will enter it. Feeling the need for co-operation and reconciliation rather than attacking each other, they avoid putting forward matters that lead to dispute. That is to say, the Risale-i Nur, which Imam 'Ali (May God be pleased with him) predicted almost explicitly with thirty to forty allusions, is an effective remedy for the awesome wounds of the present. Its sphere suffices us and we do not go beyond it.
It is one thing to attack and strike at Imam 'Ali's (May God sanctify his mystery) person and life and politics, which were founded on the way of true justice. But his collective personality, perfections of knowledge, rank of sainthood, and being heir of the Prophet (UWBP), which are thousands of times higher than his outward personality, worldly life, socio-political activities, have not and cannot be struck. Who can be so bold as to attack them? In consequence, the attacks of those who oppose him imagining that they can unite his two sides, appear to be very fearsome. They cause bewilderment by asking how such events could have happened between the people of belief? Whereas with the exception of iniquitous persons like Yazid and Walid, the great majority of people were not trying to denigrate Imam 'Ali's (May God be pleased with him) perfections, wonders, and being heir of the Prophet (UWBP), but only to strike a blow at his government of society; and they were in error.
It is essential to break off minor internal hostilities when powerful external enemies are attacking. Otherwise it is tantamount to aiding the formidable enemy. For this reason, from early times within Islam, Muslims who had adopted partisan positions opposing one another, temporarily forgot their internal hostilities; the interests of Islam demand this.
My Dear, Loyal, Fortunate Brother, Süleyman Rüştü!
With all my life and spirit and in the name of the Risale-i Nur and all its students, I congratulate you, your brother's heroic [son] Burhan, your two blessed, innocent children and the members of your household. Isparta and in the future this country will applaud your success in performing a service so sacred that in the next life it will earn you perpetual reward, and here many prayers for your well-being. God willing, you will achieve numerous successes like Zülfikar. Such an achievement in these severe conditions, is
a wonder of both Zülfikar and your loyalty. Your truly auspicious dream was a manifestation the Angel Gabriel's duty - giving the Qur'an to the Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace) at the divine command. It is a sign that this service of yours is in accord with divine pleasure and that of the Prophet (UWBP). It may be interpreted as The Miracles of the Qur'an (Mu'cizat-i Kur'aniye) being conveyed to Muhammad's (UWBP) community (umma) by means of the treatise The Miracles of Muhammad (UWBP).
Just as the sun's image reflected in a fragment of glass becomes related through its light to the person holding the glass, conversing with him in a sort of way; so particular manifestations in dreams such as these - and the pious forefathers had such dreams - are signs of acceptance and approval. The person you saw with the Prophet (UWBP) was the Risale-i Nur and the collective personality of its students.
Our duty is, with sincerity, steadfastness and mutual support, and circumspection to affirm by deed the guidance of Imam 'Ali alluded to by "... illuminates discreetly", to act in accordance with it. We should not respond to opponents or be alarmed at their attacks. Success, the conquests of the Risale-i Nur and its spreading and being sought, are all God's business. We should look to our own business and duties, and not interfere in His. I said this and was consoled both for myself and for you.
Of those five Ahmeds, Fuad Ahmed, who has taken the place of Hasan Feyzi in Safranbolu as his full heir, told me in his most earnest and devoted letter that like Hasan Feyzi and Hâfız Ali died in my stead, he was praying that he might give the remainder of his life to me and to depart for the Intermediate Realm before me. However, his being alive now is much more useful for the Risale-i Nur. Thinking that an industrious brother who is younger than me will fulfil my tasks for the Risale-i Nur after me like my other brothers, I await my death with a perfectly peaceful heart. God willing, He will bring many such self-sacrficing people to it.
The Nur medrese hero of long standing, and most loyal, most capable, and most steadfast Marangoz Ahmed describes in his beautiful, sad letter about the death of Haji Hâfız, the school's master, the pious attitude of the school's students towards their master, and how the rain stopped so as not to cause them trouble or wet them or cause them to catch cold, and then started again when they had finished and how this was a sign that vast mercy had been sent down on the late departed's spirit. May Almighty God bestow mercy on him and on them to the number of those rain droplets. Amen!
Sadık Bey has performed extraordinary services for the Risale-i Nur for eight years together with his son and late wife, and has worked loyally with his pen, bringing numerous people into its fold like the other heroes in prison. Now Hilmi Bey, known as the Little Shaykh, who has done so much for Sadık Bey, and to make my life easier, and for co-operation among the Nur students, and together with such select Kastamonu students as Feyzi, Emin, İhsan, and the Ahmeds, has performed many services for the Risale-i Nur, has told me in his letter of his wife's death, who was a Nurju. Thanks to the departed, for the last month or two while mentioning the Zehrâs in my prayers, I have also mentioned the Hacers, intending also the departed although I did not know of her death. May God Almighty grant her abundant mercy and bestow patience on her relatives. Amen.
While doing the corrections recently, I suddenly felt violently angry, not at the hojas who are within the fold of the Risale-i Nur and work at it, and the Konya hojas, but at the others. For there are devoted Nur students who do not know Arabic and they make numerous mistakes and errors. This causes me great trouble, so I shouted at the hojas who used to be my students and my brother and the official hojas who are now in Istanbul and Ankara, saying: "You mean-spirited people! Why don't you help me, although it is your duty and the Risale-i Nur is a product of the medreses, and it is obligatory for you to serve belief, which is so necessary? Your indifference may cause many to withdraw from it. You are earning a share of the slap Imam 'Ali (May God be pleased with him) dealt at a group of hojas at the end of time." While berating them thus, three things suddenly occurred to me in defence of those hojas whose hearts are uncorrupted.
The First: For various reasons it is inappropriate to divulge, two scholarly committees in two large centres are employing every means to induce the various groups of hojas to withdraw from the Risale-i Nur. Utilizing such things as official posts and the struggle for a livelihood, they draw the unfortunate hojas into their own fields and distance them from the Risale-i Nur. It isn't that the hojas don't know its value; the struggle to make a living, or relying on the high-ranking hojas on the committee and supposing that the religious knowledge they have acquired is sufficient to save their own belief, they remain indifferent and issue fatwas and concessions for themselves.
The Second: Due to unwarranted fears that an incident like that of Menemen or Shaykh Said might erupt, my enemies have twice tried to eliminate the Risale-i Nur students and made them subject to terrible assaults and persecution and for a long time have opposed me covertly, and have twice vindictively induced some members of the government to have us charged officially in respect of the law, government, and politics, and sent to prison. Their employing official and unofficial means of propaganda in this way to scare everyone away from us and from the Risale-i Nur of course causes considerable consternation to sensitive and somewhat weak hojas, and constitutes an excuse for them. Therefore, not the majority but those of the hojas who displaying unusual courage and enterprise, enter the fold of the Risale-i Nur, are the cause of those of them who don't enter to be forgiven to a degree.
The Third: This has been postponed. Some hojas interpret literally a number of similes and metaphors which veil the truth such as: "A man as tall as a minaret," and "On his forehead will be written ...", and "His hand will be pierced by water," and make this a pretext although it is inappropriate that such predictions in the Risale-i Nur should be interpreted superficially, and they thereafter keep aloof from it. But endless thanks be to Almighty God that the Risale-i Nur contains a truth which the mass of Muslims are in dire need of at this time as a point of support and which they have found in it. This is such a truth that it can be exploited for nothing nor tainted by any hostile purpose or aim; it disallows all doubts and scepticism, and no enemy can refute it, and only those who work at it seeking truth and reality will find it. Worldly objectives may not be combined with this truth, for then the believers who are far from it may have complete confidence in it and in its loyal disseminators, and they may save their belief in the face of the objections and denials of atheists and the irreligious, and the philosophers who are violently opposed to religion.
Yes, through the tongue of disposition the believers will say that since
so many fierce enemies could neither refute this truth nor object to it, and its students follow no aim other than serving it; it must be pure truth and veracious reality; it will form evidence as powerful as a thousand proofs, strengthening their belief and saving it; they will not be beset by doubts about the veracity of Islam.
Twice, Abdurrahman Salâhaddin, who is enterprising but not always successful, has wanted to send The Staff of Moses and part of Zülfikar to al-Azhar University, but unusually some difficulties arose and they were not sent to that very necessary and important place. In accordance with the rule, "What God wishes is best," since I had not looked at the two copies and corrected them, it occurred to me that it would be better if complete and thoroughly corrected copies of both works were sent to those ulema, who study everything with the greatest attention. For the copies contain errors that are serious and would attract the ulema's objections. So Salâhaddin should send them to me and I'll have a look at them. Later, God willing, we shall send both the complete Zülfikar, and The Staff of Moses, and The Mysteries Collection (Tılsım Mecmuası) together with a letter of explanation.
It is understood from the letter of Haji Abdüllatif, who is a follower of Mawlana Jalal al-Dîn Rumi (May God sanctify his mystery), one of my masters, that he knowingly and appreciatively is going to serve the Risale-i Nur. I was anyway expecting that some Nur heroes would emerge from the Mevlevis. God willing, he will be one of them. I send him many greetings. He should not be offended that my circumstances do not allow me to write to him personally. I send many greetings to Sabri and his children and the Nur students there, and to Hoja Vehbi and the other hojas, and await their prayers.
One of the Nur students asked about my spiritual belongings and rights, which would pass to you after my death, and in accordance with the meaning of "Die before you die!," specifying you as my heirs before my death. He asked what the reason was and said that they hoped I would be among them for a long time to come, God willing.
I replied: If these belongings of mine pass after my death to my true and veracious heirs, they would be divided up just like worldly goods; each
person according to his position would become the rightful owner of a part of the property; no one person could be the owner of all of it. But if they are made over to the heirs before death, each may be considered owner of all of it, of that light-scattering lamp, according to his degree. Each would become a young Said and there would be thousands of guards instead of just one. Receiving one share of Said's legacy out a thousand, each would not be just a Nurju, but fully a young Said. For example, if that property the Risale-i Nur - were a treasury, on its distribution, thousands of Nurjus would each receive twenty or a hundred gold pieces or whatever. But if they were to receive it before my death, owing to a great mystery, each would do so according to his capacity and the elect might receive a million pieces at once. This mystery bears a profound meaning which I cannot now divulge.
That student then asked: "Would all those select students sacrifice their lives and ease as you have done, that they might receive that vast property all at once?" I replied: Mutual support and co-operation hold a vast mystery so that, just as three alifs put side by side become a hundred and one and acquire commensurate strength, so the strength yielded by the genuine mutual support of the select students should not be less than the self-sacrifice, supposed by you to be superhuman, of a wretched person like myself, God willing.
Mehmed Çavuş, one of the Sava Nur School heroes, saw the police chief with the copy of Zülfikar he had written for me. He told the chief that it was his and that he should return it to him. But the police chief replied that he had enjoyed reading it and that he wanted to hold on to it for another week or two, to which Mehmed Çavuş agreed. Now, if you think it appropriate, tell the police chief, and the superintendent who confiscated it: "Said sends you his greetings and says that that other person wrote it because his own handwriting is not good."
I look on Isparta as blessed together with its earth and stones and all its people, and therefore regard its administrators and especially its police as earnest friends. As has been admitted by the police of three provinces, and established by numerous experiences and the acquittals granted unanimously by three courts and the praise and appreciation of three committees of scholars and experts, the Risale-i Nur with all its treatises and its students are highly effective moral keepers of the peace and public order. They ensure public peace, security, and discipline, which is the duty of the
police chief and his men, and in the face of the bad behaviour of the unruly, induce obedience more effectively than the police superintendants. The police, therefore, should look on us approvingly as the police chief does, not suspiciously. Because he said that he really liked Zülfikar and that he was going to read it. Anyway, you do whatever you think is best.
Also, tell the police chief: "Our brother Said says that if you really do like Zülfikar you can have that copy as a gift, because it is his. And he says too that he will also give you a copy of The Staff of Moses, which is just as important as Zülfikar."
I have absolutely no time to write personal replies to the gratifying letters that have arrived from Denizli and Tavas and my circumstances do not allow it, so they should not feel offended. It is understood from Çakır. Yusuf's letter that he is totally committed and a full heir of Hasan Feyzi.
The nine-year-old innocent child of our brother, a Nur commander and the Hulûsi of Isparta, Re'fet Bey, has written out the First Word from the Risale-i Nur so well that it shows he is destined to be a blessed Hüsnü and young hero among the children like the eleven-year-old Hüsnü of Safranbolu. May Almighty God give him to the Risale-i Nur and grant him success. Amen. I shall correct and send the copy I have written out, God willing.