Since his youth and even his childhood, our Master has exhibited independence from people and self-reliance so as to preserve the dignity of learning. He has never accepted zakat or charity, nor has he accepted gifts, as is explained in the Second Letter. In His mercy, Almighty God has transformed this principle of his into an illness so that he may continue to practise it in his old age and weakness. That is to say, an unreciprocated mouthful, even, immediately makes him ill. He cannot eat it. In his youth, our Master was not so needy. When he lived alone, he had very few expenses. But now he provides the subsistence of many of his students and he suffers from various illnesses, so Almighty God makes him ill from unreciprocated presents to preserve that principle of his.
Similarly, being held in high esteem resembles a non-material gift for our Master, so he shrinks from the people's veneration and from having his hand kissed. As testified to in his biography and in the Twenty-Sixth Flash for the elderly, in his youth exceptionally to his peers, he went into seclusion in the township of Tillo near Siirt; when a medrese student, he withdrew to the tomb of Ahmad Khani in the province of A grr, while a prisoner-of-war in Russia, he retreated into solitude in a tiny, unfrequented mosque of the Tatars near the camp, although ninety or so of his fellow-prisoner officers used to attend his religious homilies willingly; while enjoying a glittering social life as a member of the Darü'l-Hikmeti'l-İslamiye, he chose to withdraw into solitude on Mount Yuşa, on returning to Van, he rejected an enjoyable life among his numerous students, old and new, and retired to a cave on Mount Erek; and finally these past thirty years, when sent to various prisons as a result of appalling injustices, he never complained when he was held in solitary confinement for twenty months or throughout his imprisonment, despite the legal limit for such confinement being a fortnight.
All the events show that the desire for solitude has always one of his dominant innate characteristics. But so that this should persist in his old age when he is in much need of assistance, help, and conversation, he has been given a sort of illness. If he speaks for five minutes even, he is overcome by intense thirst and can emit no sound. In fact, since he follows the Shafi'i School, he should recite the Fatiha in the prayers loudly enough for himself to hear, but because he cannot emit any sound, he has to perform them following the Hanafi School. He has two reports from two leading doctors concerning this illness. They may be shown if required.
We have formed the opinion that now, when the Risale-i Nur is making
unprecedented conquests and is being very favourably received by the Islamic world, and enemies even are becoming friends, our Master's unsociableness, that is, his retreating from society, and his inability to speak and emit sounds, and his feeling as though he has received a blow if his hand is kissed, is a divine visitation in order to preserve the maximum sincerity of the Risale-i Nur, which means not making it the tool of anything other than divine pleasure, be it the ranks and stations of either this world or the next. In fact, our Master even forgave the person who divulged his indispositions.
We asked our Master why he does not meet with people now that the Risale-i Nur is spreading so splendidly and his enemies have been defeated and are showing themselves to be friendly. He replied:
"Those people who want to meet with me are either opponents or friends. If they are friends, the hundreds of thousands of copies of the Risale-i Nur speak with them fully in my place, and leave no need for me at all. If those people who want to meet me are hostile, numerous courts of law and experts' committees these past thirty years have found nothing incriminating in the Risale-i Nur or among the Nur students despite their investigating them closely. The facts that twenty-four trials have concluded that the Risale-i Nur contains nothing reprehensible, and four courts have ruled for its acquittal, and on these rulings being finalized, all its books and letters have been returned to their owners, all reply in my place to all those who object to and oppose us. No need remains for me. If any of them want to meet with me personally, all the Nur students are the defence lawyers in one sense of this wretched Said, or seeing that I have lawyers in Ankara and Istanbul, they may see them."
His students who are assisting him in essential tasks due to his severe illness and the infirmities of old age
In His Name, be He glorified!
Our Master said the following:
The newspaper Cumhuriyet, which opposes us, completely misreported my defence speech and distorted the meaning, including such nonsensical sentences as "to save ten innocent people from darkness because of one criminal" instead of, "so that no harm should come to ten innocent people due to one criminal," Moreover, although the answer I wrote was stated exactly five or six years ago in the Istanbul Second Magistrates' Court and was part of my defence which earned an acquittal in the matter which holds most importance for me, a month or two ago during my trip to Istanbul, completely meaninglessly and maliciously and in order to provoke a storm in a teacup, a public prosecutor handed over the case to the Isparta
public prosecutor and officially sent two policemen to take my statement. I told them that the matter had been replied to five years previously and that my reply was still the same. They accepted this and had it written by typewriter, and they sent it to the wretch. Now, someone esle has evidently again meaninglessly given it to a kaymakam a long way off from us. Then the calumniating newspaper wanted to raise suspicions among some weak Nur students by saying that "the kaymakam gave it to the public prosecutor." The Risale-i Nur's many lawyers must write refutations of this article. There are four reports from the Istanbul health authorities about the matter involved. I had not condescended to show them to anyone since it was unimportant. And it is still unnecessary.
Postscript: I send many greetings to the two police chiefs in Ankara. They should attach no importance to such matters.
In His Name, be He glorified!
Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings, for ever and ever!
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: Our Master sends congratulations to you for the Night of Acquittal, and many greetings, and he prays for you.
Secondly: According to what is written in the letter we received yesterday from Diyarbakir, around two hundred Nur study centres (ders-hane) have been opened in the east including the region of Diyarbakir. There are also four or fives study centres just for women. God willing, this augurs well. The Nur Schools, which our Master spoke of ten years ago, explaining their extensive advantages, are now being realized. At that time he said: "Now, as a result of the official permission to open private institutions for religious instruction, the Nur students should open little Nur Schools as far as they can. It is true that everyone may benefit themselves though not everyone will understand every matter fully, but because they are explanations of the truths of belief, they are both learning, and knowledge of God, and worship, and they yield a sense of the divine presence.
God willing, the Nur Schools will secure in five to ten weeks the results the old medreses secured in five or ten years, and so it has been doing for the last twenty years.
Our Master has dedicated to the Risale-i Nur as a Nur School, the house he lived in for nine years in Barla, This was the first Nur School and the seed of the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ, which extends over six provinces. And now, following this, Nur study centres are being opened in both Isparta and surrounding towns and villages, and in Diyarbakir and the east.
The Risale-i Nur being read in this way in such places gains for those who persist in doing this and those who study it the honour of being students of the religious sciences (talebe-i ulûm). Some authoritative scholars (müçtehid) have stated that the actions of such students and even their sleep may be counted as worship.
Thirdly: The fact that the first radio broadcast of the Risale-i Nur to Anatolia and the Islamic world coincided with the Night of Acquittal, is a sign and indication presaging great good for this country and the Islamic world, favouring the Risale-i Nur.
In His Name, be He glorified!
I am proclaiming this last will and testament to all my friends and my Nur brothers: Regarding myself, I no longer have the strength to fulfil the duties of the Risale-i Nur. And perhaps no need remains for me to do so. It is as though I can no longer endure to remain alive due to the many times I have been poisoned and the infirmity of old age and other ailments. Even if death, for which I so yearn, does not befall me, I am writing this will as though I have died to outer life,
Endless thanks be to the Most Compassionate and Merciful Creator that when studying sixty to seventy years ago, contrarily to custom the Old Said did not seek the charity of others, particularly when engaged in acquiring the sciences of belief, and despite his utter penury. During his childhood and youth, he tried to provide the subsistence of twenty to thirty
of his students so that they should not be obliged to earn money by selling their knowledge and learning. Just as they succeeded in doing this at that time through practising frugality and contentment, so too, all thanks be to the Most Merciful of the Merciful, the Risale-i Nur has begun to produce through its publication the subsistence of its true students. One fifth of the profits of its copies that are sold is the right of the Risale-i Nur itself. This is just sufficient for its select students, especially those who are unable to meet their own needs. It now yields sufficient capital for fifty to sixty students. I - this wretched Said - have no right to be counted as one of them. It was only the Risale-i Nur's own value and the complete loyalty of the students' collective personality that gave rise to this festival of the Risale-i Nur.
I am now appointing as my absolute deputies four or five of the students who are with me and nearest to me and serve my person and know to an extent my practices and have seen how I act, but this is not to say that they are superior to the other students. If I die, or am alive but unconscious, they know my way of doing things and should carry out the Risale-i Nur's work to the letter. For now, I am appointing Tahirî, Sungur, Ceylân, Hüsnü, and one or two others as my absolute deputies. The capital accruing from the sale of copies of the Risale-i Nur belongs to the Risale-i Nur. Said is also a servant of it, and may receive his subsistence from it, Recently, death has seemed very near to me. The last two or three years, I intended firmly to provide the subsistence of fifty to sixty students in six provinces out of the Risale-i Nur's capital, but I gave this up thinking that perhaps certain obstacles would cause some of them to give up performing the services incumbent on the students. Now, however, I have written my will.
With the phrase, "ta'îshu sa'îdan" (prosperous livelihood) in a section of the predictions the Gawth al-A'zam, Shaykh Geylani (May God be pleased with him) alluded to the Risale-i Nur and its author, he foretold that our Master would live comfort- ably and happily as regards his livelihood. We neverthless observed that his poverty and independence were apparently contrary to this. This prediction of the Gawth is now to be seen in our Master's life in fact, for as a child of ten he would not eat his uncle's soup to avoid becoming obliged to him, and then he himself would provide the livelihoods of the students he taught, and now, in just the same way, he is again providing for fifty to sixty of his students. All this shows that the prediction has been realized fully.
Tahirî, Sungur, Ceylân
In His Name, be He glorified!
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Thinking that since the appointed hour is not known, it could occur any time, this will and testament, which confirms the one I wrote previously, was imparted to me due to a severe, internal illness I am suffering. So I declare this:
On the one hand, the capital being held in Eskişehir is for printing photographically our miraculous Qur'an which shows the coincidences; and on the other, is the Risale-i Nur's capital which I hold in trust. Endless thanks be to the Most Merciful of the Merciful that as a divine bounty and bestowal, seventy or so years ago I provided the subsistence of my students, despite my own impecuniousness and contrarily to the customs of those times. And now, fifty to sixty years later, as a result of the divine bestowal of those times, the capital I hold is for the subsistence of the sincere students of the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ who are unable to provide their own livelihoods. This capital will be spent on their subsistence. I adjure my spiritual sons and my heirs to carry this out, exactly as I have these past few years.
If, God willing, the Risale-i Nur starts to spread further, the capital will be sufficient for devoted students far exceeding the numbers of students who now have dedicated themselves to the Risale-i Nur; Nur Schools and Medresetü'z-Zehrâs will open in many places. I request my spiritual sons, and my select, self-sacrificing assistants, and my heroic brothers who have dedicated themselves to the Risale-i Nur and are known by everyone, that they assist in implementing this last will and testament in my place. Since, with regard to the Risale-i Nur no need remains for me, to depart for the Intermediate Realm is a cause of joy for me. You should not feel sad. You should rather congratulate me, for I am going from troubles to mercy.
Yes, we bear witness to this last will and testament of our Master,
Çalışkan from Emirdağ, Mustafa Acet, Hüsnü from Safranbolu, Zübeyir from Ermenek, Bayram from Çoğol
In His Name, be He glorified!
Our Esteemed Brother, Tahsin Bey!
We congratulate you on the Night of Power and wish you success. Our Master sends you his particular greetings. He said:
"The biography that Tahsin published has been as useful as twenty large collections, and has made that many conquests. He should in no way worry about their now bothering him a little. Their doing this has attracted attention to the biography and been effective advertising. Just as the twenty large collections have made great conquests these last twenty years by spreading underground; so, God willing, the biography will produce similar results by spreading unobtrusively.
Secondly: Almighty God graciously placed you in Ankara to be the commander-in-chief of the Risale-i Nur there; and now you have been granted the publication of the Qur'anic commentary Ishârât al-I'jâz (Signs of Miraculousness) from the Risale-i Nur, which elucidates one of the forty aspects of the Qur'an's miraculous inimitability, its composition and ordering (nazm). There are seven sorts of this latter aspect, one of which is the coincidences (T, tevâfukât; Ar. tawâfuqât). And one sort of these are the clear coincidences in the name Allah.
Our miraculous Qur'an shows these latter coincidences. God willing, it will fall to you also to print and publish it. Previously our Master sent you ten thousand liras; now he is sending six thousand, six hundred, and sixty- six liras, which is exactly the equivalent of the Qur'an's verses, and is the amount remaining from two years of the students' subsistence. There is a great mystery in this, which is blessed like money of gold. It should not be spent on anything else. We are sending this together with a number of sections (cüz') of the Qur'an, and our greetings.
In His Name, be He glorified!
One of the main reasons I have come to Ankara this time is to see Namık Gedik, the Interior Minister, who is a serious supporter of Islam, and to say the following to the hero of Islam, Adnan Bey, and prominent persons like Tevfik İleri.
In order to greatly strengthen the Democrats as did the Arabic call to prayer, and to win support for them as did permitting the Risale-i Nur's publication, and to please the Islamic world and even some Christian states, it is to cleanse Aya Sophia of extraneous matters and make it suitable for worship. It was just for the sake of this question that I wanted to see Namık Gedik, although I have given up politics for thirty years, so I came. For the sakes of Adnan Bey, Namık Gedik, and Tevfik İleri I did not go elsewhere.
Moreover, just as in accordance with a fundamental law of the Qur'an, the Risale-i Nur has silenced communism with its five hundred thousand copies; so too, evidence that it has ensured public peace and security in Anatolia and the eastern provinces is this: ten years or so ago, the Afyon public prosecutor said: "He's got six hundred thousand devoted students and has published five hundred thousand copies of the Risale-i Nur; per- haps he'll disturb public order." So Said replied to him: "It's true he's got six hundred thousand devoted students, and these last fifteen years they have been persecuted mercilessly, but neither the police nor the courts have discovered any such incident."
I also said: "Public prosecutor! If the Risale-i Nur has not assisted in maintaining public order as much as a thousand public prosecutors and a thousand police chiefs, may God damn me! You can give me any penalty you wish!" He could find nothing to say in reply to this.
Only, a year or two after this, a young student of the Risale-i Nur was going to commit suicide because he imagined that harm would come to the Risale-i Nur because of him. But his Master prevented him and a very minor incident occurred, but the two were reconciled.
Whereas if a master has ten devoted students, then one of them greets someone and receives a blow in return and another kisses someone's hand and is then treated with contempt, they all remain silent so as not to create a disturbance. For they had heard from Said: "If I had a thousand lives, I would sacrifice them all to maintain public order and security." Therefore, in accordance with the fundamental law, «No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another» (Q 6:164 etc.), so that no harm should come to ninety innocents due to five criminals and in order not to treat unjustly ten innocent children and parents because of one criminal, the Risale-i Nur ensures public order with the services it performs for the cause of belief and lodges a prohibitor in everyone's hearts against wrongdoing. The biography proves that if I had a thousand lives, I would sacrifice all of them for this fundamental law of the Qur'an, and it is there for all to see. And courts of law have also concurred with this.
He even looks on public demonstration of oneself as hypocrisy, self- advertisement, and egotism, and so has given up meeting with the people, and through the grace of divine mercy he has lost his voice too so that he is not obliged to meet with his friends and they are not offended.
In His Name, be He glorified!
Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings, for ever and ever!
A letter arrived for our extremely ill Master from a high-ranking official. It says that some leading members of the former party (Republican People's Party) who did not want his biography to be published, made some large concessions and drove some of its officials to make the mistake. So our Master said:
The main parts of the biography have been published three times by Sebilurreşad, and four times over the past thirty to forty years in both the old letters and the new. And recently, one or two religious scholars have sent several appreciative letters from abroad, from such places as Medina, by way of elucidation and thanks. In which case, the courts can in no way interfere officially.
Secondly: The Risale-i Nur has on its own spread in the Islamic world in wondrous fashion despite all the politicians' harassment, so now that there are millions of people disseminating it, let alone the former party, if
the whole world were to gather together, it could do nothing to stop it. It is quite impossible. It would be more like an advertisement; the Nur students need not worry.
Thirdly: On the one hand I have forgiven the former party all its unjust persecution of me. On the other, in accordance with the verse, «No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another» (Q 6:164 etc.), that is, no person, or his party or relatives, is answerable for another's errors, the Risale-i Nur has spread both in Anatolia and in the eastern provinces and has performed effective services for public order and security. Like a non-physical, moral police force, it leaves a prohibitor in everyone's heart. It has not blamed the errors of five men on ninety-five, so has not aggravated them twenty or thirty times. Most of the former party's followers should therefore be as grateful to the Risale-i Nur as the party in power. For if it had not taught that lesson from the above fundamental Qur'anic principle, the errors of the five men would have been attributed to thousands.
Fourthly: It is now quite certain that the Risale-i Nur is a lesson proceeding from the All-Wise Qur'an's miraculousness that will protect this nation and the world of Islam against the absolute disbelief that assaults from outside, for no atheistic philosopher has found any means of opposing it. We have received certain news that in some places abroad, a million youths are saying that general peace may be secured by the Risale-i Nur. We have heard too that they have started to translate the Risale-i Nur in some countries that are seeking universal peace, such as Germany and America.
Fifthly: If officials misinterpret some of the new laws and object to one or two lines from the Risale-i Nur, say in my place: "Should twenty thousand neighbours be punished and cast into prison because of one man's fault? Is there any law in the world that demands it?" So if one line of a five-hundred-page book with twenty lines on every page deals someone a hard blow, but there is no specific name and nothing prosecutable; and even supposing there was, the line would be deleted as with the censor. So to seize the book is illegal and an injustice unheard of in the world, like sending ten thousand people to prison. Moreover, seeing that the other twenty thousand lines have strengthened the belief of twenty thousand people, it surely absolves the error and causes it to be forgiven.
I would have spoken more if I had not been so extremely ill. You, my assistants, must correct and emend it. Even, if you deem it appropriate, while more than anyone the police should be in favour of the Risale-i Nur's lessons, which strengthen them considerably in their duties of securing the peace, my spirit is not easy at giving them to those policemen who
are acting as official detectives, which is contrary to their profession. But tell them that I forgive all of them.
Sixthly: While expecting some means of venerating the Three Months on the Night of the Ascension, the search on account of the biography caused me intense sadness and grief. In accordance with the Hadith, "Almsgiving repulses calamities," the Risale-i Nur has become like almsgiving that repulses calamities from Anatolia, and when it is acquitted and given its freedom calamities are repulsed, but when it is attacked, calamities descend. There are a hundred events showing this; sometimes it is shown with earthquakes and storms, and this time, a cold spell I had never before witnessed with temperatures of nearly minus 18Y coincided with assaults and the searches.
Our Master is so ill, he could not speak any more. He told his assistant: "Send this to some friends and some officials for their information so that they do not worry."
[The time has come to explain a strange mental state of our Master in the face of the public prosecutors.]
I am presenting this absolutely true letter which our Master wrote for you.
His student, Sungur
He said to me:
"Although during these thirty to forty years of oppression in prison and exile, I have been the object of the severity of the public prosecutors, who are charged with duties related to public law, known as "hukûkullah" (lit. God's law), I have never felt angry at them or offended. I realized that I did not see in them the faults that were the cause of their apparent anger. Then some time later I saw that the compassionate slaps of divine deter- mining were dealt at the hand of the prosecutors due to my own faults. Because the slaps came from divine determining, I accepted them with all my spirit and heart and I forgave the prosecutors' harshness, for they were only the apparent causes. Now, thanks be to God, some of the prosecutors,
in performing their duties of defending the public rights - in so far as they are «hukûkullah» - are not treating me so severely, on the contrary, in respect of true justice and the service the Risale-i Nur performs for belief, which is beneficial for all Muslims and even humanity, they are giving up their severity and are as though seeing the compassionate slaps of divine determining and assisting us despite their apparent torments. As a consequence of this great mystery, I have assumed a friendly attitude towards all such prosecutors and I pray for them. The situations which appear to be severe judgements against me are advertisements of a sort for our work for belief.
"I now send my greetings to them and to all who understand that public law has become like hukûkullah and I pray for them. I forgive their severity and vehemence towards me."