THE RAYS COLLECTION — Part 2

THIRD POINT

My friends who wonder how I am and are astonished at my meeting every calamity silently with patience ask the following question: "How can you endure the difficulties and troubles with which you are faced, whereas formerly you were very proud and angry and could not endure even the least insult?"

The Answer:

Listen to two short incidents and stories and you shall receive your answer:

The First Story:

Two years ago an official spoke insultingly and contemptuously about me behind my back. They later told me about it. For about an hour I was affected due to the Old Said's vein of temperament. Then through Almighty God's mercy the following fact occurred to me; it dispelled the distress and made me forgive the man. The fact is this:

I addressed my soul saying: if his insults and the faults he described concern my person and my soul, may God be pleased with him, because he recounted the faults of my soul. If he spoke the truth, he drove me to train my soul and he helped in saving me from arrogance. If he spoke falsely, he has helped to save me from hypocrisy and undeserved fame, the source of hypocrisy. No, I have not been reconciled with my soul, for I have not trained it. If someone tells me there is a scorpion on my neck or breast or else points it out to me, I should be grateful to him, not offended. But if the man's insults were directed towards my belief and my attribute of being servant of the Qur'an, it does not concern me. I refer him to the Qur'an's Owner, Who employs me. He is Mighty, He is Wise. And if it was merely to curse at me, insult me, and destroy my character, that does not concern me either. For I am an exile, a prisoner, a

stranger, and my hands are tied, and it does not fall to me to try to restore my honour myself. It rather concerns the authorities of this village where I am a guest and under surveillance, then of the district, then of the province. Insulting the prisoner of a person, concerns the person; he defends the prisoner. Since the reality of the matter is this, my heart became easy. I said,

My [own] affair I commit to God; for God [ever] watches over His servants.{[*]: Qur'an, 40:44.}

I thought of the incident as not having happened. But unfortunately it was later understood that the Qur'an had not forgiven him...

The Second Story:

This year I heard that an incident had occurred. Although I only heard a brief account of it after it had happened, I was treated as though I had been closely connected with it. Anyway I do not correspond with anyone, and if I do, I only write extremely rarely concerning some question of belief to a friend. In fact I have written only one letter to my brother in four years. Both I prevent myself from mixing with others, and 'the worldly' prevent me. I have only been able to meet with one or two close friends once or twice a week. As for visitors to the village, once or twice a month perhaps one or two used to meet with me for one or two minutes concerning some matter to do with the hereafter. In exile, a stranger, alone, with no one, I was barred from everything, from everyone, in a village which was unsuitable for someone like me to work for a livelihood. Even, four years ago I repaired a tumble-down mosque. Although with the certificate I had from my own region to act an imamand preacher I acted as imam in the mosque for four years (May God accept it), this past Ramadan I could not go to the mosque. Sometimes I performed the five daily prayers alone. I was deprived of the twenty-fivefold merit and good of performing the prayers in congregation.

I displayed the same patience and forbearance in the face of these two incidents that befell me as I did towards the treatment of that official two years ago. God willing I shall continue to do so. I think like this and say: if this ill-treatment, distress, and oppression inflicted on me by 'the worldly' is for my faulty soul, I forgive it. Perhaps my soul will be reformed by means of it, and perhaps it will be atonement for its sins. I have experienced many of the good things in this guest-house of the world; if I experience a little of its trials, I shall still offer thanks. If 'the worldly' oppress me because of my service of belief and the Qur'an, it is not up to me to defend it. I refer it to the Mighty and Compelling One. If

the intention is to destroy the regard in which I am held generally, to expunge undeserved fame, which is baseless and causes hypocrisy and destroys sincerity, then may God bless them! For I consider being held in regard by people generally and gaining a name among them to be harmful for people like me. Those who have dealings with me know that I do not want respect to be shown to me, indeed, I can't abide it. I have even scolded a valuable friend of mine perhaps fifty times for showing me excessive respect. If their intention in slandering me, belittling me in the eyes of the people, and defaming me is directed towards the truths of belief and the Qur'an of which I am the interpreter, it is pointless. For a veil cannot be drawn over the stars of the Qur'an. "One who closes his eyes only himself does not see; he does not make it night for anyone else."

FOURTH POINT

The answer to a number of suspicious questions:

The First:

'The worldly' say to me: "How do you live? What do you live on since you do not work? We don't want people in our country who sit around idly and live off the labour of others."

The Answer:

I live through frugality and the resulting plenty. I am not obliged to anyone other the One Who provides for me and I have taken the decision not to become obliged to anyone else. Yes, someone who lives on a hundred para,or even forty para,does not become obliged to anyone. I do not want to explain this matter. To do so is most disagreeable to me, as it may make me feel a sort of pride or egotism. But since 'the worldly' ask about it suspiciously, I reply as follows: since my childhood, throughout my life, it has been a principle of my life not to accept anything from the people, even zakat,not to accept a salary -only I was compelled to accept one for one or two years in the Darü'l-Hikmeti'l-Islamiye on the insistence of my friends- and not to become obliged to people for a worldly livelihood. The people of my native region and those who have known me in other places know this. During these five years of exile, many friends have tried earnestly to make me accept their gifts, but I have accepted none of them. If, therefore, it is asked me, "So how do you manage to live?", I reply: I live through Divine bestowal and blessings. For sure, my soul deserves all insults and contempt, but as a wonder resulting from service of the Qur'an, I receive plenty and blessings which are a Divine bestowal in the matter of sustenance. In accordance with the verse,

But the bounty of your Sustainer rehearse and proclaim,{[*]: Qur'an, 93:11.}

I shall recall the bounties Almighty God has bestowed on me, and mention a few examples by way of thanks. But together with being thanks, I am frightened that it will induce hypocrisy and pride so that blessed plenty will be cut. For to make known a secret Divine gift of plenty causes it to cease. But what can I do, I am compelled to tell them.

The First:

This six months one bushel (kile){[*]: 36.5 lbs. [Tr.]} of wheat, consisting of thirty-six loaves of bread, has sufficed me. There is still some left, it is not finished. How much longer {(*): It lasted a year.} it will last, I do not know.

The Second:

This blessed month of Ramadan I received food from only two houses, and both of them made me ill. I understood that I am prohibited from eating the food of others. The rest of the time, in the whole of Ramadan, three loaves of bread and one okka{[*]: About 2.8 lbs. or 1,300 grammes. [Tr.]} of rice sufficed me, as was witnessed and told by Abdullah Çavus, the owner of a blessed house and a loyal friend who saw my economizing. The rice even was finished two weeks after the end of Ramadan.

The Third:

For three months on the mountain one kiyye{[*]: About 2.8 lbs. [Tr.]} of butter was enough for me and my guests, eating it every day together with bread. On one occasion even I had a blessed visitor called Süleyman. Both his bread and my bread were about to be finished. It was Wednesday. I told him to go and get some bread. For two hours' distance on every side of us there was no one from whom he could have got any bread. He said that he wanted to stay with me on the mountain on Thursday night so that we could pray together. Saying, Our reliance is on God,I told him to stay. Later, although it had no connection with this and there was no reason for it, we both began walking till we reached the top of the mountain. There was a little water in the ewer, and we had a small piece of sugar and some tea. I said to him: "Brother! Make some tea!" He set about making it and I sat down under a cedar-tree overlooking a deep ravine. I thought regretfully to myself: we have a bit of mouldy bread which will only just be enough for us this evening. What shall we do for two days and what shall I say to this ingenuous man? While thinking this, I suddenly turned my head involuntarily and I saw a huge loaf of bread on the cedar-tree in among the branches; it was facing us. I exclaimed: "Süleyman! Good news! Almighty God has sent us food." We took the bread, and looking at it saw that no bird or wild animal had touched it. And for twenty or thirty days no one at all had climbed to the top of that mountain. The bread was sufficient for us for the two days. While we

were eating and it was about to be finished, righteous Süleyman who had been the most loyal of loyal friends for four years, suddenly appeared from below with more bread.

The Fourth:

I bought this sack coat that I'm wearing seven years ago second-hand. In five years I have spent only four and a half lirason clothes, underwear, slippers, and stockings. Frugality and Divine mercy and the resulting plenty have sufficed me.

Thus, there are numerous things like these examples and numerous sorts of Divine blessings. The people of this village know most of them. But do not suppose I am mentioning them out of pride, I have been forced to, rather. And do not think they were due to my goodness. These instances of plenty were either bestowal to the sincere friends who have visited me, or a bestowal on account of service to the Qur'an, or an abundance and benefit resulting from frugality, or they have been sustenance for the four cats I have which recite the Divine Names "O Most Compassionate One! O Most Compassionate One!", which comes in the form of plenty and from which I benefit too.

Yes, if you listen carefully to their mournful miaowings, you will understand that they are saying, "Ya Rahim! Ya Rahim!O Most Compassionate One! O Most Compassionate One!" We have arrived at the subject of cats and it has recalled the hen. I have a hen. This winter every day almost without exception she brought me an egg from the treasury of Mercy. Then one day she brought me two eggs and I was astonished. I asked my friends "How can this be?" They replied: "Perhaps it is a Divine gift." The hen also has a young chick she hatched in the summer. It started to lay at the beginning of Ramadan and continued for forty days. Neither I nor those who assist me have any doubt that, being both young, and in winter, and in Ramadan, this blessed situation was a Divine gift and bestowal. And whenever the mother stopped laying, it immediately started, not leaving me without eggs.

Second Suspicious Question:

'The worldly' ask: How can we be confident that you will not interfere in our world? If we leave you free, perhaps you may interfere in it. Also, how do we know that you are not being cunning? How do we know that it is not a stratagem, showing yourself to have abandoned the world and not taking things from the people openly, but secretly?

The Answer:

My attitude and situation in the Court Martial and in the period before the proclamation of the Constitution, which are known by many, and my defence in the Court Martial at that time called The Testimony of Two Schools of Misfortune, show decisively that the

life I lived was such that I would not resort to the tiniest wiles, let alone cunning and subterfuge. If trickery had been resorted to in this last five years, application would have been made to you in sycophantic manner. A wilely man tries to ingratiate himself. He does not hold back; he always tries to deceive and hoodwink. Whereas I have not condescended to lower myself by responding to the severest attacks and criticisms levelled at me. Saying, I place my trust in God,I turned my back on 'the worldly.' Moreover, one who discovers the reality of this world and knows the hereafter, is not sorry if he is sensible; he does not turn back to the world and struggle with it again. Someone after the age of fifty who has no connection with anything and is alone, will not sacrifice eternal life for one or two years of the chatter and deception of this world. If he does so, he is not cunning, but foolish and crazy. What can a crazy lunatic do so that anyone should bother with him? As for the suspicion of outwardly abandoning the world while inwardly seeking it, in accordance with the verse,

Nor do I absolve my own self [of blame]; the [human] soul is certainly prone to evil,{[*]: Qur'an, 12:53.}

I do not exonerate my soul, for it wants everything bad. But in this fleeting world, this temporary guest-house, during old age, in a brief life, it is not reasonable to destroy eternal, everlasting life and eternal happiness for a little bit of pleasure. Since it is not profitable for the reasonable and the aware, my soul has willy-nilly had to follow my reason.

The Third Suspicious Question:

'The worldly' say: Do you like us? Do you approve of us? If you do like us, why are you stand-offish and have nothing to do with us? If you do not like us, that means you object to us, and we crush those who object to us.

The Answer:

Not you, if I had loved your world, I would not have withdrawn from it. I don't like either you or your world. But I do not interfere with them. For I have different goals, different points have filled my heart; they have left no place in my heart to think of other things. Your duty is to look to the hand, not to the heart. For you seek your government and your public order. So long as the hand does not interfere, what right do you have to interfere in the heart and say, "the heart should love us too," although you are in no way worthy of it? Yes, just as I desire and long for the spring during this winter, but I cannot will it nor attempt to bring it, so I long for the world to be righted and I pray for it and I want the worldly to be reformed, but I cannot will these

things, because I do not have the power. I cannot attempt them in fact, because it is neither my duty, nor do I have the capacity.

Fourth Suspicious Question:

'The worldly' say: we have experienced so many calamities, we no longer have confidence in anyone. How can we be certain that given the opportunity you won't interfere as you wish?

The Answer:

The previous points should give you confidence. In addition, since I did not interfere in your world while in my native region among my students and relatives, in the midst of those who heeded me and of exciting events, for someone who is alone in exile, with no one, a stranger, weak, powerless, turned with all his strength towards the hereafter, cut off from all social relations and correspondence, who has only found a few friends from far afield who are also turned to the hereafter, and who is a stranger to everyone else and whom everyone else regards as a stranger - for such a person to interfere in your fruitless and dangerous world would surely be a compounded lunacy.

FIFTH POINT

This concerns five small matters.

The First:

'The worldly' ask me: Why do you yourself not practise the principles of our civilization, our style of life, and our manner of dressing? Does this mean you oppose us?

My reply:

Sirs! What right do you have to propose to me the principles of your civilization? For as though casting me outside the laws of civilization, you have wrongfully forced me to reside in a village for five years prohibited from all social relations and correspondence. While you left all the exiles in the town with their friends and relations, then gave them the papers granting them an amnesty, without reason you isolated me and did not allow me to meet with anyone from my native region with one or two exceptions. That means you do not count me as a member of this nation and a citizen. How can you propose to me that I apply your civil code to myself? You have made the world into a prison for me. Such things cannot be proposed to someone in prison. You closed the door of the world on me, so I knocked on the door of the hereafter, and Divine mercy opened it to me. How can the confused customs and principles of the world be proposed to someone at the door of the hereafter? Whenever you set me free and return me to my native region and restore my rights, then you can require me to conform to your principles.

Second Matter:

'The worldly' say: "We have an official department for instructing in the precepts of religion and truths of Islam.

With what authority do you publish religious works? Being a convicted exile, you have no right to mix in these matters."

The Answer:

Truth and reality cannot be restricted. How can belief and the Qur'an be restricted? You can restrict the principles and laws of your world, but the truths of belief and Qur'anic principles cannot be forced into the form of worldly dealings, be given an official guise and offered in return for a wage. Those mysteries which are Divine gifts, those blessings, come rather through a sincere intention and giving up the world and carnal pleasures. Moreover, that official department of yours accepted me and appointed me as a preacher while I was in my home region. I accepted the position, but rejected the salary. I have the document in my possession. With the document I can act as an imam and preacher everywhere, because my being exiled was unjust. Also, since the exiles have been returned, my old documents are still valid.

Secondly:

I addressed the truths of belief which I have written directly to my own soul. I do not invite everyone. Rather, those whose spirits are needy and hearts wounded search out and find those Qur'anic remedies. Only, to secure my livelihood I had printed a treatise of mine about the resurrection of the dead before the new script was introduced. And the former governor, who was unfair to me, studied the treatise, but did nothing against it since he could find nothing in it to criticize.

Third Matter:

Some of my friends remain apparently aloof from me because 'the worldly' consider me with suspicion and in order to appear favourable to 'the worldly,' indeed, they criticize me. But the cunning 'worldly' attribute their aloofness and avoiding me not to their loyalty to 'the worldly' but to a sort of hypocrisy and lack of conscience, and they look on those friends of mine coldly.

So I say this: O my friends of the hereafter! Don't stand aloof from my being a servant of the Qur'an and run away. Because, God willing, no harm will come to you from me. Suppose some calamity is visited on you or I am oppressed, you cannot be saved by avoiding me. By doing that you will make yourselves more deserving of calamity and a blow. What is there, that you should have these groundless fears?

Fourth Matter:

I see during this time of my exile that certain boastful people who have fallen into the swamp of politics regard me in a partisan manner, with rivalry, as though I am connected with the worldly currents like they are.

Sirs! I am in the current of belief. Before me is the current of unbelief. I have no connection with other currents. Perhaps some of those who work for a wage see themselves as excused to a degree. But to take up a

position opposed to me in rivalry for no wage in the name of patriotism, and harass me, and oppress me, is a truly grievous error. For as was proved above, I have no connection at all with world politics. I have dedicated and vowed all my time and my life to the truths of belief and the Qur'an. Since it is thus, let the one who torments and harasses me in rivalry think that such treatment of his is similar to causing harm to belief in the name of atheism and unbelief.

Fifth Matter:

Since this world is transitory, and since life is short, and since the truly essential duties are many, and since eternal life will be gained here, and since the world is not without an owner, and since this guest-house of the world has a most Wise and Generous director, and since neither good nor bad will remain without recompense, and since according to the verse,

On no soul does God place a burden greater than it can bear{[*]: Qur'an, 2:286.}

there is no obligation that cannot be borne, and since a safe way is preferable to a harmful way, and since worldly friends and ranks last only till the door of the grave, then surely the most fortunate is he who does not forget the hereafter for this world, and does not sacrifice the hereafter for this world, and does not destroy the life of the hereafter for worldly life, and does not waste his life on trivial things, but considers himself to be a guest and acts in accordance with the commands of the guest-house's Owner, then opens the door of the grave in confidence and enters upon eternal happiness.

{(*): The reason for these 'sinces' is this: I take no notice of the wrongs and tyranny perpetrated against my person and give them no importance. I say, "They are not worth worrying about," and I do not interfere in the world.}

The Addendum to the Sixteenth Letter

In His Name!

There is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.

Without reason 'the worldly' became suspicious of a powerless stranger like myself, and imagining me to have the power of thousands of people, put me under numerous restrictions. They did not give permission for me to stay one or two nights in Bedre, a district of Barla, or on one of the mountains of Barla. I heard that they say: "Said has power equal to that of fifty thousand soldiers, we cannot therefore set him free."

So I say: You unhappy people whose view is restricted to this world! How is it that you do not know the matters of the world, despite working for the world with all your strength, and govern it like lunatics? If it is my person you fear, it is not fifty thousand soldiers, one soldier even could do more than me. That is, he could be posted at the door of my room and tell me: "You can't go out!"

But if it is my profession and my being herald of the Qur'an and the moral strength of belief that you fear, then you are wrong, it is not fifty thousand soldiers, you should be aware that in respect of my profession I have the strength of fifty million! For through the strength of the All-Wise Qur'an, I challenge all Europe including your irreligious people. Through the lights of belief I have published I have razed the sturdy bastions they call the physical sciences and Nature. I have cast down lower than animals their greatest irreligious philosophers. If all Europe was to gather, of which your irreligious people are a part, through God's assistance, they could not make me recant a single matter of that way of mine. God willing, they could not defeat me....

Since the matter is thus, I do not interfere in your world, so don't you interfere in my hereafter! If you do, if it will be of no avail.

What is determined by God cannot be turned by force;

A flame that if lit by God, cannot be extinguished by puffing.

'The worldly' are exceptionally and excessively suspicious of me; quite simply, they are frightened of me. Imagining things non-existent in me, which even if they were existent would not constitute a political crime and could not be the cause of accusation, like being a shaykh, or of significant rank or family, or being a tribal leader, and influential, and having numerous followers, or meeting with people from my native region, or being connected with the affairs of the world, or even entering politics, or even the opposition; imagining these things in me, they have been carried away by groundless fears. At a time even that they are discussing pardoning those in prison and outside, that is, those that according to them cannot be pardoned, they have quite simply barred me from everything. A bad and ephemeral person wrote the following good and enduring words:

If tyranny has cannon, shot, and forts,

Right has an untwistable arm, a constant face.

And I say:

If the worldly have rule, power, and strength,

Through the Qur'an's effulgence, its servant

Has unfaltering knowledge, an unsilenceable voice;

He has an unerring heart, an unquenchable light.

Many friends, as well as a military commander under whose surveillance I was, repeatedly asked: "Why don't you apply for the release papers and put forward a petition?"

The Answer:

I do not apply and I cannot apply for five or six reasons:

The First:

I did not interfere in 'the worldly's' world so that I should have been convicted and apply to them. I was convicted by Divine Determining; my faults are before it, and I apply to it.

The Second:

I believe and have certain knowledge that this world is a swiftly changing guest-house. Therefore, it is not the true homeland and everywhere is the same. Since I am not going to remain permanently in my homeland, it is pointless to struggle for it; it is not worth going there. Since everywhere is a guest-house, if the mercy of the guest-house's Owner befriends one, everyone is a friend and everywhere familiar. Whereas if it does not befriend one, everywhere is a load on the heart and everyone hostile.

The Third:

Application is made within the framework of the law. But the way I have been treated these six years has been arbitrary and outside the law. The Exiles' Law was not applied to me. They looked on me as

though I had been stripped of all the rights of civilization and even of all worldly rights. To apply in the name of the law to those whose dealings with me have been thus outside the law is meaningless.

The Fourth:

This year, the local official applied in my name for me to stay for a few days in the village of Bedre, which is a sort of district of Barla, for a change of air. How can those who reject such an unimportant need of mine be applied to? If they are applied to, it would be a futile and degrading abasement.

The Fifth:

To claim a right before those who claim a wrong to be right, and to apply to them, is a wrong. It is disrespectful towards right. I do not want to perpetrate such a wrong and show disrespect for right. And that is that.

The Sixth:

The distress and difficulty 'the worldly' have caused me has not been due to politics, because they know I do not meddle in politics and flee from it. Rather, knowingly or unknowingly, they torment me on account of aggressive atheism because I am bound to religion. In which case, to apply to them infers regretting religion and flattering the cause of aggressive atheism.

Moreover, Divine Determining, which is just, would punish me through their tyrannical hand on my applying to them and having recourse to them, for they oppress me because of my being bound to religion. As for Divine Determining, from time to time it represses me due to my hypocrisy before 'the worldly,' because of my deficiency in religion and in sincerity. Since this is so, for the time being I cannot be saved from this distress. If I apply to the worldly, Divine Determining would say: "Hypocrite! Pay the penalty for applying!" And if I do not apply, 'the worldly' say: "You don't recognize us, go on suffering difficulties!"

The Seventh Reason:

It is well-known that an official's duty is to give harmful individuals no opportunity to cause harm and to assist those who are beneficial. Whereas the official who took me into custody approached me, an elderly guest at the door of the grave, when I was expounding a subtle aspect of belief contained in There is no god but Godas though I was perpetrating some misdemeanour, although he had not been to me for a long time previously. He caused the sincere unfortunate who was listening to be deprived, and me to be angry. There were certain people here, and he attached no importance to them. Then when they acted discourteously in a way that would poison the life of the village, he started to be gracious and appreciative towards them.

Furthermore, it is well-known that someone in prison who has

committed a hundred crimes can meet with the person who supervises him whether the official be of high or low rank. But in this last year, although two important people in the national government charged with supervising me have passed by my house several times, they have absolutely neither met with me nor asked after my condition. At first I supposed that they did not come near to me due to enmity, then it became clear that it was due to their fearful suspicions; they were fleeing from me as though as I was going to gobble them up. Thus, to recognize a government whose members and officials are like those men and have recourse to it and apply to it, is not sensible, but a futile abasement. If it had been the Old Said, he would have said, like 'Antara:

The very water of life becomes Hell through abasement,

Whereas Hell with dignity becomes a place of pride.

The Old Said no longer exists, and the New Said considers it meaningless to talk with 'the worldly.' Let their world be the end of them! They can do what they like. He is silent, saying, we shall be judged together with them at the Last Judgement.

The Eighth Reasonfor my not applying: According to the rule, "The result of illicit love is merciless torment," Divine Determining, which is just, torments me through the tyrannous hand of 'the worldly' because I incline towards them, since they are not worthy of it. Saying, I deserve this torment, I am silent. For in the Great War I fought and strove as a Commander of a volunteer regiment. Applauded by the Commander-in-Chief of the army and Enver Pasha, I sacrificed my valuable students and friends. I was wounded and taken prisoner. Returning from captivity, I cast myself into danger through works like The Seven Steps, aiming them at the heads of the British, who had occupied Istanbul. I assisted those who hold me without reason in this torment and captivity. As for them, they punish me in this way for that help. Those friends here cause me in three months the hardship and distress I suffered in three years as a prisoner-of-war in Russia. And the Russians did not prevent me from giving religious instruction, although they regarded me as a Kurdish Militia Commander, a cruel man who had slaughtered Cossacks and prisoners. I used to instruct the great majority of my ninety fellow officer prisoners. One time, the Russian commander came and listened. Because he did not know Turkish, he thought it was political instruction, and put a stop to it. Then later he gave permission. Also, in the same barracks, we made a room into a mosque, and I used to lead the prayers. They did not interfere at all. They did not prevent me from mixing, or from communicating, with the others. Whereas my friends here, my fellow citizens and co-religionists

and those for whose benefits in the form of religious belief I have struggled, have held me in a tortuous captivity not for three years, but for six, for absolutely no reason and although they know I have severed all my relations with the world. They have prevented me mixing with others. They have prevented me from giving religious instruction, despite my having a certificate, and even from giving private instruction in my room. They have prevented me from communicating with others. They have even barred me from the mosque which I repaired and where I acted as prayer-leader for four years, although I had the necessary certificate. And now, to deprive me of the merit of performing the prayers in congregation, they do not accept me as prayer-leader even for three private individuals, my permanent congregation and brothers of the hereafter.

Furthermore, if, although I do not want it, someone is to call me good, the official who holds me in surveillance is jealous and angry. Thinking he will destroy my influence, he entirely unscrupulously takes precautions, and pesters me in order to curry favour with his superiors.

To whom can someone in such a position have recourse other than God Almighty? If the judge is also the claimant, of course he cannot complain to him. Come on, you say! What can we say to this? You say what you like, I say this: there are many dissemblers among these friends of mine. A dissembler is worse than an unbeliever. For that reason they make me suffer what the infidel Russian did not make me suffer.

You unfortunates, what have I done to you and what I am doing? I am trying to save your belief and am serving your eternal happiness! It means that my service is not sincere and purely for God's sake so that it has the reverse effect. In return, you torment me at every opportunity. For sure, we shall meet at the Last Judgement. I say:

God is enough for us and the best of protectors.{[*]: Qur'an, 3:173.} * The best of lords and the best of helpers.{[*]: Qur'an, 8:40.}

The Enduring One, He is the Enduring One!

Said Nursi

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

I shall explain in three 'Points' an effective solace for those who are experiencing the calamity of prison, and for those who kindly help them and faithfully supervise their food, which comes from outside.

First Point:

Each day spent in prison may gain as much as ten days' worship, and, with regards to their fruits, may transform those transient hours into enduring hours, and through five or ten years' punishment may be the means of saving a person from millions of years of eternal imprisonment. For the believers, the condition for gaining this most significant and valuable advantage is to perform the obligatory prayers, repent for the sins that were the cause of their imprisonment, and offer thanks in patience. For sure, prison is an obstacle to many sins; it does not provide the opportunity for them.

Second Point:

Just as the cessation of pleasure causes pain, so does the cessation of pain give pleasure. Yes, on thinking of past happy, enjoyable days, everyone feels a pang of regret and longing, and says: "Alas!", and recalling calamitous, unhappy days of the past, experiences a sort of pleasure since they are passed, and says: "Praise and thanks be to God, that calamity has left its reward and departed." He breathes a sigh of relief. That is to say, an hour's temporary pain and sorrow leave behind a sort of pleasure in the spirit, while a pleasurable hour leaves a pain.

Since the reality is thus; and since past calamitous hours together with their pains are no longer existent, and future distressing days are at the present time non-existent, and there is no pain from nothing, to continually eat bread and drink water today, for example, because of the possibility of being hungry and thirsty in several days' time, is most foolish. In just the same way, to think now of the past and future unhappy hours, which simply do not exist, and to display impatience, and ignoring one's faulty self, to moan as though complaining about God is also most foolish. So long as the power of patience is not scattered to left and right, that is, to the past and future, and is held firm in the face of the present of hour and day, it is sufficient. The distress is reduced from ten to one.

In fact, but let it not be complaining, Divine favour pointed out the above fact to me while, during a few days of material and spiritual affliction, illness and trial the like of which I had never before experienced in my life, I was being crushed in particular by the despair and distress of

the heart and spirit which resulted from my being unable to serve the Qur'an and belief with the Risale-i Nur. I was then content with my distressing illness and imprisonment. For, saying: "It is great profit for an unfortunate like myself who waits at the door of the grave to make one hour which might be passed in heedlessness ten hours' worth of worship," I gave thanks.

Third Point:There is great gain in compassionately aiding and assisting prisoners, in giving them the sustenance they need, and in soothing their spiritual wounds with consolation. Giving them their food which comes from outside is like alms-giving which, exactly to the amount of the food, is written in the book of good deeds of those, outside and inside, who do this, together with the warders concerned. Especially if the unhappy prisoner is old, ill, poor, or a stranger, then the reward of this alms-giving increases many times over.

The condition of this high profit is to perform the obligatory prayers so that such service is for God's sake. Another condition is to hasten to their assistance with sincerity, compassion and joy, and in such a way as to not make them feel obliged.

* * *

A Short Addendum from A Guide For Youth

In His Name, be He glorified!

Those in prison are in great need of the true consolation of the Risale-i Nur. Particularly those who having suffered the blows of youth, are passing their sweet, young lives in prison; they need the Risale-i Nur as much as they need bread.

Indeed, youth heeds the emotions rather than reason, and emotions and desires are blind; they do not consider the consequences. They prefer one ounce of immediate pleasure to tons of future pleasure. They kill for the one minute pleasure of revenge, then suffer for eighty thousand hours the pain of prison. And one hour's dissolute pleasure in questions of honour may result in life's enjoyment being utterly destroyed due to distress at the fear of both prison and enemies. There are many other examples, many pitfalls for the unfortunate young because of which they transform their sweet lives into the most bitter and pitiable lives.

Consider a vast state to the north; {[*]: This refers to Russia. [Tr.]} it has gained possession of the

passions of its young people and is shaking this century with its storms. For it has made lawful for its youths the pleasing daughters and wives of upright people, and these youths act only according to their feelings, which are blind to all consequences. By permitting men and women to go together to the public baths, they are even encouraging immorality. And they consider it lawful for vagabonds and the poor to plunder the property of the rich. All mankind trembles in the face of this calamity.

It is therefore most necessary in this century for all Muslim youths to act heroically, and to respond to this two-pronged attack with keen swords like The Fruits of Belief and A Guide For Youth from the Risale-i Nur. Otherwise those unfortunate youths will destroy utterly both their futures in this world, and their agreeable lives, and their happiness in the hereafter, and their eternal lives, and transform them into torment and suffering. Furthermore, through their abuses and dissoluteness, they will end up in hospitals, and through their excesses in life, in prisons. In their old age, they will weep copiously with a thousand regrets.

If, on the other hand, they protect themselves with Qur'anic training and with the truths of the Risale-i Nur, they will become truly heroic youths, perfect human beings, successful Muslims, and in some ways rulers over animate beings and the rest of the animal kingdom.

When a youth in prison spends one hour out of the twenty-four each day on the five obligatory prayers, and repents for the mistakes that were the cause of his disaster, and abstains from other harmful, painful sins, this will be of great benefit for both his life, and his future, and his country, and his nation, and his relatives, and he will also gain with his fleeting youth of ten to fifteen years an eternal, brilliant youth. Foremost the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition, and all the revealed scriptures, have given this certain good news.

If such a youth demonstrates through moderation and obedience, his gratitude for the pleasing, delightful bounty of youth, it will both increase it, and make it eternal, and make it a pleasure. Otherwise it will be both calamitous, and become painful, grievous, and a nightmare, and then it will depart. It will cause him to become like a vagrant, harmful for both his relatives, and his country, and his nation.

If the prisoner has been sentenced unjustly, on condition he performs the obligatory prayers, each hour will be the equivalent of a day's worship, and the prison will be like a recluse's cell. He will be counted among the pious hermits of olden times who retired to caves in order to devote themselves to worship. If he is poor, aged, and ill, and desirous of the truths of belief, on condition he performs the obligatory prayers and

repents, each hour will become the equivalent of twenty hours' worship, and prison will become like a rest-house for him, and because of his friends there who regard him with affection, a place of love, training, and education. He will probably be happier staying in prison than being free, for outside he is confused and subject to the assaults of sins from all sides. He may receive a complete education from prison. On being released, it will not be as a murderer or thirsting for revenge, but as someone penitent, proven by trial, well-behaved, and beneficial for his nation. In fact, the Denizli prisoners became so extraordinarily well-behaved after studying the Risale-i Nur for only a short time that some of those concerned said: "Studying the Risale-i Nur for fifteen weeks is more effective at reforming them than putting them in prison for fifteen years."

Since death does not die, and the appointed hour is unknown, it may come at any time; and since the grave cannot be closed, and troop after troop enter it and are lost; and since it has been shown through the truths of the Qur'an that for those who believe death is transformed into the discharge papers releasing them from eternal annihilation, while for the corrupt and the dissolute it is disappearing for ever into eternal annihilation, and is unending separation from their loved ones and all beings, most certainly and with no doubt at all, the most fortunate person is he who with patience and thanks fully benefits from his time in prison, and studying the Risale-i Nur works to serve the Qur'an and his belief on the straight path.

O man who is addicted to enjoyment and pleasure! I am seventy-five years old, and I know with utter certainty from thousands of experiences, proofs, and events that true enjoyment, pain-free pleasure, grief-free joy, and life's happiness are only to be found in belief and in the sphere of the truths of faith. While a single worldly pleasure yields numerous pains; as though dealing ten slaps for a single grape, it drives away all life's pleasure.

O you unfortunates who are experiencing the misfortune of prison! Since your world is weeping and your life is bitter, strive so that your hereafter will not also weep, and your eternal life will smile and be sweet! Benefit from prison! Just as sometimes under severe conditions in the face of the enemy, an hour's watch may be equivalent to a year's worship, so in the severe conditions you are experiencing, the hardship of each hour spent as worship becomes the equivalent of many hours, it transforms that hardship into mercy.

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

I offer you not my condolences but my congratulations. Since for some instance of wisdom Divine Determining has sent us to this third School of Joseph (Medrese-i Yusufiye),{[*]: Recalling the imprisonment of Yusuf, related in the Qur'an, Bediuzzaman called prison 'Medrese-i Yusufiye', the School of Joseph, impressing on his students that prison was essentially a place of study and training. [Tr.]} and has specified that we should eat some of the sustenance allotted us here and it is that sustenance that has summoned here; and since as we have understood certainly from our past experiences, Divine favour has manifested on us the meaning of the verse, It is possible that you dislike a thing which is good for you;{[*]: Qur'an, 2:21:6.} and since our new brothers here in this School of Joseph are in more need of the solace of the Risale-i Nur than anyone, and the members of the judiciary are more in need of the rules and other sacred laws set out in the Risale-i Nur than other officials; and since the very numerous copies of the Risale-i Nur are performing your duty outside and their conquests do not cease; and since each fleeting hour passed here is the equivalent of eternal hours passed in worship; surely, because of these points, we should joyfully offer thanks for this affair in perfect patience and with fortitude. I am going to repeat exactly to you all the short letters I wrote as consolation in Denizli Prison. God willing, those apposite notes will comfort you too.

* * *

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

Firstly:

I offer Almighty God endless thanks that heroes have emerged from among the Muftis, preachers, imams,and hojas, for it is they who in fact should lay claim to the Risale-i Nur. Up to now, it has been the youth, those educated in the secular schools, and their teachers who have been devoted to the Risale-i Nur. Now, thanks be to God, Ethem, the Ibrahim's and Ali Osman's have cleared the names of the students and teachers of the religious schools, and transformed their timidity into courage.

Secondly:

They should not worry about this incident, which occurred due to their whole-hearted activities and excitement. For in respect of its consequences, Denizli Prison caused those who had acted incautiously to be congratulated. Its difficulties were few and immaterial benefits, numerous. This third School of Joseph will not lag behind the second, God willing.

Thirdly:

Since the merit increases proportionately to the hardships, we

should offer thanks for these conditions. We should try to perform our duties of serving religious belief with sincerity, which is our duty, and not concern ourselves with being successful or obtaining good results, which is God's concern. We should say: "The best matters are the most difficult," {[*]: 'Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa', i, 55; Muhammad al-Shaybani, Sharh al-Sirat al-Kabir, i, 11.} and patiently offer thanks in the face of our difficulties in this place of trial. We should understand that it is a sign of the acceptability of our actions and a diploma for having passed the examination of our sacred struggle.

* * *

I have a petition I want to put before the prison administrators,

and chiefly the Prison Governor, which is apparently unimportant,

but has great importance in my eyes

After spending twenty-two years in total isolation, my seventy-five-year-old body cannot sustain inoculations. In fact, long ago they inoculated me, and it left a suppurating wound which persisted for twenty years. It was like a chronic poisoning. Two doctors in Emirdag and my friends there know this. Also, four years ago in Denizli they inoculated me together with all the other prisoners. Although it had no harmful effects on any of them, it made me ill for three weeks. Through Divine preservation, I was not forced to go to the hospital, which for me is dangerous. It is absolutely certain that my body cannot take inoculations. Both my excuses are powerful, and being extremely weak at the age of seventy-five, I can take the inoculation only of a ten-year-old child. Moreover, because I am in perpetual solitary confinement, I do not have contact with anyone. Also, two months ago the provincial governor sent two doctors to Emirdag to give me a thorough examination. They could find no trace of any contagious disease, only that I had lumbago, and was extremely weak, elderly, and alone. This condition of mine certainly does not oblige me to be inoculated.

I also have a very important request of you: Don't send me to hospital. Don't force me into a situation I could never have endured these twenty-two years of solitary confinement, that is, to be put under the command of nurses I do not know. I have started to think of entering the grave as being pleasant, but for now I have chosen prison, for the sake of the prison administrators, whose humanity I have witnessed, and to console the other prisoners.

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

Firstly:Don't be upset at my being ill-treated or at the contempt directed at my person. For they can find no fault in the Risale-i Nur so struggle against my unimportant and faulty self instead. I am pleased at this. I am bound by what I have learnt from the Risale-i Nur to proudly offer thanks, if for its well-being and honour, I suffer pains, misfortune, and insults even a thousand times greater. So you should not pity me in this respect.

Secondly:The widespread, fierce, and merciless attack has for now abated twentyfold. They rounded up a few people in place of thousands of 'special '(has){[*]: See, page 445, footnote 38.} Risale-i Nur students, and a handful of new brothers instead of hundreds of thousands of people who are concerned. That is, Divine grace made the assault very insignificant.

Thirdly:Through Divine grace, the former provincial governor, who for two years was conspiring against us, has been repulsed, and there is a strong possibility that the Interior Minister, whose suspicions had been excessively aroused about us, has ameliorated this fierce assault due to his being from the same place and his forefathers having been very religious. So do not despair or be alarmed!

Fourthly:Numerous experiences and events have shown in a way to make one completely certain that if the Risale-i Nur weeps, either the earth quakes or the skies weep too. As we have often seen with our own eyes and in part proved in court, the start of winter smiling like summer in unprecedented fashion coincided with the Risale-i Nur smiling at its being secretly duplicated by machine and published, and then on its weeping when it came to a standstill with the widespread searches and confiscations, this coincided with the sudden severe wrath and weeping of winter. It is my guess that this is a powerful sign that the Risale-i Nur is a supreme, shining miracle of the Qur'an this age, and that the earth and universe are concerned with it.

It was thus in Denizli Prison; all the prisoners who were enemies became brothers through the lessons of the Risale-i Nur. It was one reason for our acquittal, and caused even the irreligious and ungodly to say about those prisoners: "Masha'llah! Barakallah!"Also it was an utter relief for those prisoners. I myself have seen here a hundred men suffer inconvenience on account of one man and not go out to take exercise together. It is oppression towards them. A manly believer of sound conscience will not cause hundreds of other believers harm because of some petty error or benefit. If he makes a mistake and does cause harm, he should repent immediately.

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear,Loyal Brothers!

I congratulate both the Risale-i Nur, and you all, and myself, and give you the good news of Husrev, Hifzi, and Bartinli Seyyid. Those who went on the Hajj this year learnt that prominent scholars in Mecca were translating the main collections of the Risale-i Nur into both Arabic and Hindustani and were trying to have them published. They had also found such favour in Medina that they had been placed on the blessed tomb of the Prophet (PBUH) in the Rawdat al-Mutahhara.Haji Seyyid saw with his own eyes The Staff of Moses (Asâ-yi Mûsa)on the Prophet's tomb. That means it has been found acceptable by the Prophet (PBUH) and was met with pleasure by him (PBUH). As we told those who were going from here to make the Hajj, we had made the intention and the Risale-i Nur was going to visit those blessed places in our stead. Endless thanks be to God, one of the many benefits of the Risale-i Nur heroes publishing those collections after having corrected them, is that they saved me both from the task of correcting them myself and from that anxiety; so too, since those copies will form the source for others written out by hand, they have become like hundreds of 'correctors.' May the Most Merciful of the Merciful have written in the records of their good works, a thousand merits for each letter of those collections. Amen. Amen. Amen.

* * *

An Auspicious Dream

which turned out to be true

Ali, who assists me, came to me and said: "I had a dream in which you and Husrev kissed the hand of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him)." Then I received the letter telling me that the Hajjis had seen The Staff of Moses Collection, which had been written out by Husrev, on the Prophet's (PBUH) tomb. This is to say, in effect The Staff of Moses kissed the Prophet's (PBUH) hand in my place by means of Husrev's pen, and was found acceptable by the Prophet (PBUH).

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers and Companions in Prison!

Firstly:Do not worry that we have not been able to meet in person. We are constantly together in spirit. Whichever of the treatises of the Risale-i Nur you are able to get hold of and read, and which you listen to, you will see me within it, but as a servant of the Qur'an instead of my insignificant person, and you may converse with me. For my part, I meet with you in imagination in all my prayers and in what you have written, and it is as though we are all the time together in some sphere of existence.

Secondly:We say this to the new students of the Risale-i Nur in this new School of Joseph: as indicated by the Qur'an, and as even the committee of experts had to admit, "The faithful Risale-i Nur students will enter their graves in a state of belief. And through the effulgence its collective personality, according to his degree, each student receives a share of the spiritual gains and supplications of all his brothers. It is as though each seeks Divine forgiveness and worships with thousands of tongues." These two profits and results reduce to nothing all the difficulties and hardships of this extraordinary time; the two high profits are given their faithful customers at a very lost cost.

Said Nursi

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

The Afyon defences contain important truths concerning both ourselves, and the Risale-i Nur, and this country, and the Islamic world.

It is probably necessary to prepare five to ten copies of them in the new letters so they may be sent to the departments of government in Ankara. Whether they release us or punish us is of no importance, our task now is to inform both the Government, and the courts, and the nation of the truths the defences contain. Perhaps that was one reason Divine Determining sent us to this place of study. They should be written out by typewriter as quickly as possible. Even if they were to release us today, we would still be obliged to send them to Ankara. Don't be deceived and put it off; enough now! Let this be our last defence in the face of the extreme oppression and unprecedented torments we have suffered three times in fifteen years for the same matter on trumped-up charges. Since in

the previous courts they legally gave us a typewriter so that we could defend ourselves, they can cite no law for depriving us of the right here. If you find no solution officially, our lawyer should write out five copies outside on a typewriter, but he should pay great attention to their containing no mistakes.

Said Nursi

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Loyal New Brothers and Old Prisoners!

I have formed the firm conclusion that, in respect of Divine favour, you are an important cause in our entering here. That is to say, with its consolation and the truths of belief, the Risale-i Nur is to save both you from the distress of this calamity of prison and from much worldly harm, and your life from passing profitlessly and in vain through grief and sorrow and being wasted on the winds of fancy, and your hereafter from weeping like your world is weeping now; it is to provide you with true solace.

Since the reality of the matter is this, of course you must be brothers to one another, like the Denizli prisoners and students of the Risale-i Nur. You can see that they examine all your possessions, and food, bread, and soup which come from outside so that a knife does not get in among you and you do not attack one another. The warders who faithfully serve you suffer much trouble. Also, you do not go out to exercise together, as though you were going to attack one another like wild beasts. New friends, who are by nature bold and courageous! With great moral courage you should say to the group at this time:

"If not knives, but Mausers and revolvers were given us, and the order to fire as well, we would not hurt our friends who are unfortunate and suffering this calamity like ourselves. Through the guidance and at the command of the Qur'an, and belief, and Islamic brotherhood, and our interests, we have decided to forgive them and to try not to offend them, even if formerly there were a hundred reasons for our hatred and hostility," so transforming this prison into an auspicious place of study.

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

Just as every group of the worldly engaged in politics, art, or some duty, or some task related to the life of society, or some particular commercial activity, gathers together in congresses of a sort to discuss its work, so the Risale-i Nur students, who are engaged in the sacred service of certain, verified belief, {[*]: 'Certain, verified belief': an approximate translation of "tahkikî (Arabic: tahqiqi) iman." It also has the meaning of 'ascertained through enquiry,' 'resulting from investigation,' and 'confirmatory.' See also, page 569, footnote 1. [Tr.]} have gathered together in the congress of this School of Joseph at the order of Divine Determining, impelled by dominical grace. God willing, numerous valuable, beneficial and significant results will be bestowed in consequence, and that if the leading students have a value of 'one' in other places like an alif,{[*]: "Alif:" the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, the numerical value of which is one, and which is written as a vertical dash. [Tr.]} here coming shoulder to shoulder with three other alifsand meeting with them, they will become one thousand one hundred and eleven, and in consequence of this coming together their value, and God willing, their sacred service and reward, will be a thousandfold; the single alifwill become a thousand.

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

The reason they nailed up my window today was my greeting the prisoners in connection with the trial. They apparently made something else the pretext. Don't be at all anxious. On the contrary, since they are preoccupied with my unimportant person and not causing too much trouble to the Risale-i Nur and its students, I am earnestly and sincerely pleased. Since they are persecuting me by insulting and tormenting my person, it means they are not doing the same to you and the Risale-i Nur, and lessens to an extent their interfering with the Risale-i Nur, so I offer thanks in patience and am not anxious. You too should not be at all upset. I am of the opinion that our covert enemies' directing the attention of the officials towards my person is an instance of Divine favour and a good thing from the point of view of the well-being of the Risale-i Nur and its students. Certain of our brothers should not become angry and speak sharply. They should act circumspectly and not become alarmed. They also should not speak of this matter to everyone. For there are spies who attach the wrong meanings to what our naive brothers and those who are not yet accustomed to being cautious, say. The spies make mountains out of molehills

and may inform on them. Our situation now is no joking matter. Nevertheless, do not be at all worried. We are under Divine protection and are resolved to meet all hardships with perfect patience, indeed, with thanks. We are obliged to offer thanks, for a small amount of hardship yields plentiful mercy and reward.

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

For two important reasons, and in consequence of a powerful warning, I have been obliged to leave, with respect to the heart, the task of all the defences to the Risale-i Nur students who have been sent here and will be its leading students in the future, especially H, R, T, F, S.

{(*): Husrev, Re'fet, Tahiri, Feyzi, and Sabri.}

First Reason:I understood certainly both in the examining magistrate's office, and from numerous other signs, that as far as they possibly can they are trying to make difficulties for me and to prevent me defeating them intellectually, and that they have received official communications. They are not allowing me to speak on various pretexts as though if I do, I shall display political and scholarly prowess sufficient to silence the court, and practised diplomats. In fact, while being questioned, I replied "I don't know" to one of the questions. In astonishment the judge asked: "How could someone of your extraordinary intelligence forget something?" They suppose the wondrous elevatedness of the Risale-i Nur and its scholarly findings to be the product of my thought and they have taken fright. They do not want to let me speak. Also, they think that anyone who meets with me immediately becomes a devoted Risale-i Nur student, so they do not allow me to meet with anyone. The Head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs even said: "Whoever meets with him is immediately drawn to him; his power to attract is considerable."

This means that the best thing for us now is for me to hand over my work to you. And my old and new defence speeches, which you have, should take part in your consultations in my place. That is sufficient.

The Second Reason:This is being left to another time. However, a brief indication of that warning is this: an extremely powerful duty which looks to the hereafter and an effective state of mind, which for twenty-five years have made me give up politics, newspapers, and other transitory

things, and prevented me being occupied with them, are most definitely preventing me being preoccupied with this question in detail. When consulting with your two defence lawyers, you may sometimes discuss my duty too.

* * *

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

This was imparted to me now as I was performing the prayers: because of their excessively good opinion of you, your brothers await instruction and assistance, both material and spiritual, from you. Just as in worldly affairs you have handed things over to the 'special '(has)students, leaving them to the leading students (erkan)to confer over, and you were right to do so, so you have appointed the Risale-i Nur and the collective personality of its students to perform your scholarly work related to belief, the Qur'an and the hereafter, and the collective personality of those purely sincere 'special' students performs that duty of yours much more completely than you, in addition to the duties of its members. They always have done so up to now. For instance, someone who meets with you and receives brief, minor instruction and a little advice, may receive from a single part of the Risale-i Nur instruction a hundred times greater. They may also receive advice from it. Thinking that their collective personality, whose 'station' is extremely elevated and prayers acceptable, is an 'Ustad' and helper who, God willing, is always with them, it was consolation for my spirit, and good news, and made me feel at peace.

* * *

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

There being two small explosions in two days in extraordinary and meaningful fashion when there was no apparent reason for them, does not resemble chance.

The First:The cast-iron stove in my ward suddenly made a loud bang like a revolver, and the thick, strong iron of its lower part exploded like bomb, splitting into two pieces. Hamdi the Tailor was startled and we were left in astonishment. For on numerous occasions this winter it had been red hot with the coal, and had withstood it.

The Second:The second day in Feyzi's ward, for no reason at all the beaker on top of the water pitcher suddenly disintegrated in extraordinary fashion. It occurred to me that the terrible bombs prepared against us in

Ankara caused our defence speeches, which had been sent to six departments of government there, to explode, without causing us harm, God willing; and the angry stove which had been lit against us split into two without harming us. It is also possible that my beloved stove, my only and very useful companion, listened to my sorrows and entreaties, and was giving me the news: "You're going to depart from this dark dungeon, no need remains for me..."

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

Today, due to a spiritual warning, I felt a disquiet, a grief, on account of you. Just when I was feeling upset at those of my brothers who being anxious about their livelihoods want to be released quickly, a blessed memory occasioned a truth and some good tidings to be imparted to me: the 'Three Months' will begin in five days time, which are truly blessed and are the months of highly meritorious worship. For if the reward yielded by good works at other times are tenfold, in the month of Rajab they are more than a hundredfold, in Sha'ban they exceed three hundredfold, and in Ramadan they reach a thousandfold, while on Fridays in Ramadan they reach thousands and on the Night of Power may reach thirty thousand. It is certainly highly profitable therefore, to spend those three months -which are thus a sacred market for the trade of the hereafter earning plentiful gains for it, and an exceptional exhibition for the people of reality and worship, and in three months may secure for the believers a life of eighty years- in this School of Joseph, which increases the profits tenfold. Whatever the hardships suffered, they are pure mercy. As with worship, so with the service of the Risale-i Nur; with respect not to quantity but quality, its profits are fivefold. For people are continuously entering this guest-house, then being released, and they are means of the Risale-i Nur's lessons being disseminated. Sometimes one man's sincerity yields the benefits of twenty men. It is of no importance if such a man suffers a little hardship and distress so that the mystery of the Risale-i Nur's sincerity might spread among the unfortunate prisoners, who are inclined to be political heroes and are much in need of the Risale-i Nur's solace. In regard to the problem of livelihood, since these three months are a market for the hereafter, I felt perfectly easy at it and understood that being here inside until the Bayram {[*]: Bayram: Arabic, 'Id, the two big festivals in the Muslim calendar. Here, the festival marking the end of Ramadan. [Tr.]} is a great bounty, for

since all of you were sent to this prison in place of numerous other Risale-i Nur students, and some of you in place of a thousand, they will help out in your business outside.

Said Nursi

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

Firstly:I offer you congratulations with all my heart and soul for the month of Rajab and the holy night of Ragha'ibtomorrow.

Secondly:Don't give up hope, and don't worry or be alarmed. God willing, Divine grace will come to our aid. The bomb that was being prepared these last three months exploded. The news given by my stove, Feyzi's beaker, and Husrev's two drinking-cups turned out to be true. But it was not terrible, it was slight. God willing, the fire will be extinguished completely. All their assaults are to discredit my person and taint the Risale-i Nur's conquests. The blow the man more harmful than the covert dissembler in Emirdag and merely a pawn in the hands of secret atheists, and the 'semi- hoja'who favours the innovations, were trying to strike us as hard as they could was reduced twentyfold. God willing, they will cause us not even one wound, and what they think and intend and their plans to scare us away from each other and from the Risale-i Nur will come to nothing. It is absolutely essential that out of respect for these blessed months, trusting that they are gaining abundant reward for us, we steadfastly offer thanks in patience, and relying on God, submit to the rule 'He who believes in Divine Determining is saved from unhappiness.'

Said Nursi

To the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Justice,

and Ministry of Home Affairs

{(*): This piece was written by Ustad Bediuzzaman's lawyers, with his permission while he was being held in Afyon Prison, and was sent to the government ministries mentioned. Signed, Sungur}

All members of the Government who saw the Proclamation of the Constitution, the First World War, the Armistice Period, the setting up of the Nationalist Government, and the Republic know me well. Nevertheless, with your permission, we shall take a look at my life as though on a film.

I was born in the village of Nurs in the province of Bitlis. As a student, I debated with the scholars I encountered, and through Divine favour, defeating in scholarly debate all who opposed me, I came as far as Istanbul. In Istanbul, winning calamitous fame, a victim of my rivals' trouble-making, I was dragged to the lunatic asylum on the orders of Sultan 'Abdulhamid. On the Proclamation of the Constitution, I attracted the attention of the government of the Committee of Union and Progress with my activities during the Thirty-First of March Incident. I confronted them with the proposal to open an Islamic university in Van called the Medresetü'z-Zehra, resembling al-Azhar University. I even laid its foundations. On the outbreak of the First War, I gathered together my students and took part in the War as the Commander of a militia force. I fought on the Caucasian Front and was taken prisoner at Bitlis. I escaped from where I was being held and returned to Istanbul. I was appointed a member of the Darü'l-Hikmeti'l-Islâmiye. During the Armistice period, I worked against the occupying forces with all my might, and on the victory of the National Government, in appreciation I was summoned by it to Ankara, where I repeated my proposal to open the university in Van.

The life I had lived up to then had been that of a patriot. I had wanted to serve religion by means of politics. But from then on, I turned my back on the world completely, and in my own words, buried the 'Old Said'. As the 'New Said', devoting myself entirely to the hereafter, I withdrew from the world. Retiring from social life, I went into seclusion on the hill Yusha Tepesi in Istanbul. Later on I went to Bitlis and Van, in my native region, where I lived in a cave. I remained alone with the pleasures of my spirit and conscience. That is to say, taking as my principle "I seek refuge with God from the Devil and politics," I plunged into the depths of my own spiritual world. Passing my time studying the Qur'an of Mighty Stature, I started to live as the 'New Said.' But the manifestations of Divine

Determining sent me as an exile to other places. Then, getting those with me to write down the inspirations born in my heart from the effulgence of the Qur'an, a number of treatises came to be written. I gave them the name of the Risale-i Nur. This name was born in my conscience, for truly they were based on the light of the Qur'an. I believe absolutely certainly that this was Divine inspiration, and I said to those who were acting as scribes: "Barakallah!"For it is not possible to begrudge others the light of belief.

Exchanging copies, these treatises of mine were written out by a number of believers. I formed the opinion that they were driven on by God in order to strengthen the injured belief of Muslims. I understood that just as no believer could obstruct this Divine prompting, so I considered it a religious obligation to encourage it. Anyway these treatises, which now number one hundred and thirty, consist entirely of discussions of the hereafter and belief, and contain no deliberate mention of politics or this world. Nevertheless, they became the object of interest of a number of opportunists. Investigations were carried out into them, and I was arrested and sent to the prisons of Eskishehir, Kastamonu, and Denizli. Trials were held. As a result, truth was manifested and justice was executed, but those opportunists never wearied of hounding us. This time they arrested me and sent me to Afyon. I am under arrest and am being interrogated. They accuse me as follows:

1) You have founded a political society.

2) You publish ideas opposing the regime.

3) You harbour political aims.

The evidence for these are ten or fifteen sentences in two or three of my treatises. Respected Minister! As Napoleon said: "Bring me a straightforward sentence to which no second meaning can be attached, and I'll have you executed for it!" There is no sentence uttered by man which may not constitute an offence by having forced meanings attached to it. Especially the writings of someone like me who has reached seventy-five years of age, has withdrawn entirely from the life of this world, and has dedicated his life here to that of the hereafter - they will certainly be free. Being close to having a good intention, he will be fearless. It is unfair to study them simply in order to seek out offences in them. It is nothing other than unjust. Not one of any of my one hundred and thirty treatises comprises any purpose connected to the matters of this world. Proceeding from the light of the Qur'an, they are all to do with the hereafter and belief. In any event all the trials held up to now have come to the same conclusion and have resulted in acquittals. It is therefore a shame to busy the courts unnecessarily and take innocent believers away

from their work and business in the name of the country and nation. While the Old Said spent all his life for the sake of the happiness of the country and nation, how could the New Said be preoccupied with politics when he is seventy-five years old and has completely withdrawn from the world? This is your opinion too.

I have only one aim; it is this: at this time as I approach the grave, I hear the hooting of the Bolshevik owls in this country, which is a Muslim land. The sound is damaging the fundamentals of belief of the Islamic world. Making them lose their belief, it binds the people, and particularly the youth, to itself. Struggling against it with all my strength, I am calling the youth and all Muslims to believe. I am struggling against these unbelieving masses. I want to enter the Divine presence with this struggle of mine. This is all I do. As for those who prevent me from doing this, I am frightened that they are communists! For me it is a sacred aim to co-operate with the forces of religion who have embraced the struggle against these enemies of belief. Release me! Let me work to reform the youth, poisoned by communism, and for this country's faith! Let me serve Divine unity!

Prisoner

Said Nursi

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

Firstly:I congratulate you with all my heart and soul for the Night of the Ascension.

Secondly:It has been our claim for twenty years that as far as it is possible the Risale-i Nur students do not disturb public order. As a Divine favour, and as a wonder resulting from your loyalty and sincerity, the harm of our imprisonment has been reduced a hundredfold. For there was a strong possibility that those who attack us could have taken it as a sign supporting their main claim that we disturb public order and breach security and made it a pretext for refuting our case. The mountain was made into a molehill. Otherwise those who makes mountains out of molehills concerning us could have taken advantage of it and induced many people to believe their slanders against us.

Thirdly:Do not worry about me. My being in the same building as you reduces all my difficulties and distress to nothing. In fact, our being gathered together here is important in numerous respects, and it is in many ways beneficial for our service of belief. Indeed, since a number of significant facts in the supplement to my written objections have been sent to the six departments of government, and have come to their attention and influenced them to an extent, it has reduced all our troubles to nothing.

Fourthly:Busying oneself with the Risale-i Nur both dispels distress, and may be counted as five sorts of worship.

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

Firstly:In accordance with the meaning of "Good lies in what God wishes," there are many instances of good in our trial being delayed and those of our brothers who have been released being here on the day it recommences.

Yes, since the Risale-i Nur question is of importance for the Islamic world in general and this country in particular, there should be lively gatherings such as that in order to attract everyone's attention to its truths. For in its glittering fashion, beyond all our hopes and precautions, and our concealing it, and our enemies belittling it, and outside our wills, the Risale-i Nur teaches its truths openly to friend and foe alike. It unhesitatingly divulges its most private secrets to the most distant stranger. Since the truth is this, we should consider our trifling difficulties to be a bitter medicine like quinine, and offering thanks in patience, say: "This too will pass, God willing."

Secondly:I wrote this to the supervisor of this School of Joseph: just as when I was a prisoner-of-war in Russia, the Bolshevik storm first

erupted in the prisons, so the French Revolution first began in the prisons and with the prisoners known in the histories as "vagabonds." Because of this, in both Eskishehir and Denizli we Risale-i Nur students tried to reform the other prisoners as far as we possibly could. In both prisons it was extremely successful. Here it will be even more useful, for as a result of the Risale-i Nur's instuction at this sensitive time, the squall {(*): The squall was a revolt that broke out in the prison, but none of the Risale-i Nur students was involved.} that blew up was only a hundredth of what it would have been. Otherwise the harmful outside currents which take advantage of conflict and such incidents, and await such opportunities, would have ignited the gunpowder and caused a conflagration.

Said Nursi

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal, Unshakeable Brothers, who do not become dispirited at difficulties and abandon us!

Due to some physical and spiritual tribulation, my evil-commanding soul was feeling sad on your account when this was imparted to me: if you had suffered these difficulties ten times over in order to meet with all your brothers here at close quarters it still would have been cheap. It appears necessary that like in former times the people of reality used to gather together and meet at least once or twice a year, the Risale-i Nur students gather together every few years in the School of Joseph. In keeping with the God-fearing and ascetic way of the Risale-i Nur, and its teaching those most in need, everyone, even those who oppose it, and to allow its collective personality to speak, if it entails a thousand difficulties and tribulations, it is of no importance whatsoever. A few of our weak brothers becoming fed up in our previous prisons and leaving the circle of the Risale-i Nur caused immeasurable loss to them but no harm to the Risale-i Nur. More resolute and sincere students appeared in their stead. Since the trials of this world are transient and pass swiftly, leaving us their fruits and rewards, we should trust in Divine grace and offer thanks in patience.

Said Nursi

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

Firstly:Send the last two pages, in either the old letters or written by typewriter, unofficially to the Chairman of the Court by means of someone serious you consider suitable. When you do so, give him also the following note, written separately: "Said thanks you and says: 'They've unnailed the windows, but the prosecutor does not permit any of my brothers or those who attend me to come to me. And he requests that you give him his precious, miraculous Qur'an, which is in the court, so that he can read it during these blessed months. He sent three juz'{[*]: A juz' is a thirtieth part of the Qur'an. [Tr.]} of that wondrous Qur'an to the Directorate of Religious Affairs as samples so that they could print it photographically. Besides that, he requests one of the Risale-i Nur collections which is in the court so that he can read it in his loneliness, solitary confinement and severe distress, and it can comfort him and be a companion. In any event, three or four courts of law have seen those collections and not objected to them. Similarly, they have been much appreciated and praised by the leading scholars of Mecca, Medina, Damascus, Aleppo, and the university of al-Azhar in Cairo, and none of them has criticized or objected to them.'"

Said Nursi

* * *

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

Feyzi has two copies of the Hizb al-Nuri{[*]: Hizb al-Nuri: A forty-five-page Arabic piece which Bediuzzaman described as "manifesting the meaning of the Hadith 'An hour's reflective thought may be better than a year's [supererogatory] worship,' a luminous proof of the Risale-i Nur, a supreme invocation springing from it, and a small sample of it." [Tr.]} with him. If he is not in need of them, let one of them be sent to me, or let Mehmed Feyzi write out another copy. Also, the Treatise On Ramadan and the printed Supreme Sign (Âyetü'l-Kübra) are needed here. Quickly reduce the tension between you and repair the damage. Beware! Beware! The slightest deviation causes enormous harm to the Risale-i Nur circle. Don't get carried away by feelings arising from the difficulties. My stove exploding was an indication of this calamity.

Said Nursi

In His Name, be He glorified!

Firstly:At the suggestion of some hojas who support the innovations, the indictment has objected to a matter in the Fifth Ray, as though it does not accept the coming of the Islamic Antichrist (Dajjal), and numerous other Antichrists. An answer to this is the sound Hadith, a brilliant and certain miracle of the Prophet (PBUH): "The caliphate will continue with the sons of my uncle 'Abbas until it passes into the destructive hand of the Antichrist." {[*]: Musnad al-Firdaws, iii, 447; al-Hindi, Kanz al-'Ummal, xiv, 271, No: 33436; Suyuti, Ta'rikh al-Hulafa', 6, 16; Majma'u'l-Zawa'id, v, 187; Cam'u'l-Fawa'id, i, 849.} That is, the 'Abbasid caliphate will continue for the

lengthy period of five hundred years, then it will be wiped out by one of the three Antichrists, known as Jenghiz and Hulagu, then he will treacherously rule within Islam. That is, as is indicated by numerous Hadiths, there is clear evidence that three Antichrists will appear in the Islamic world. The predictions made by the above Hadith are two clear miracles.

The Firstis that the 'Abbasid Caliphate, which was to come into existence, would continue for five hundred years.

The Secondwas that it would come to an end at the cruel, destructive hand of an Antichrist called Jenghiz and Hulagu. Is it at all possible that the Owner of the Shari'a, who in the books of Hadith foretold even the most minor things related to the Qur'an and marks of Islam, should not have foretold the extraordinary events of our times? And is it at all possible that there should be no allusions to the Risale-i Nur students, who steadfastly serve the Qur'an in the midst of those strange events, in the widest sphere and under the severest conditions, and the fruits of whose service are affirmed by friend and foe alike?

Said Nursi

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

And they were covered by humiliation and misery.

{[*]: Qur'an, 2:61.}

[One fine point about this verse]

My Dear Brother Re'fet Bey, Commander of the Risale-i Nur and Servant of the Qur'an!

The Jewish nation has always been excessive in its love of life and this world, and has therefore deserved the blows of abasement and misery it has received every century. However, in the Palestine question it is not love of life and this world, but a significant sort of national and religious feeling because Palestine is where the prophets of the Children of Israel are buried, and the prophets belonged to their nation. In consequence they have received no swift blows. A small group could never otherwise have held out in the midst of the vast Arab lands; it would quickly have been humiliated.

Said Nursi

Question:

Is there any verse stating that the earth is round, and if so, which Sura is it in? I am hesitant as to whether it is flat or round. All countries are situated in lands surrounded by sea. What is there to keep in the outer edges of these seas? I request that you provide an explanation, and I kiss your hands.

Emirdagli Ali Hoca

The Risale-i Nur has solved questions of this sort. The Islamic scholars have accepted that the earth is round, and this in no way contradicts religion. The word 'sath'in the verse {[*]: See, Qur'an, 88:20.} does not indicate that the earth is not round. It has been laid down by the learned authorities that to be turned towards the qibla (istikbal-i kible)while performing the prayers is obligatory, and this is applicable to every part of the prayers, including the bowing and prostrating. Since according to the Shari'a, there is a luminous line from the Ka'ba upwards as far as the Divine Throne, and downwards to the ground, performing all the actions of the prayers in the direction of the qiblais possible with the earth being round.

Said Nursi

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.

{[*]: Qur'an, 17:44.}

May God's peace and mercy be upon you, and His blessings, for ever and ever

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

I congratulate you with all my heart and soul on the blessed month of Ramadan. May Almighty God make the Night of Power the equivalent of a thousand months for all of you, and accept it as an eighty-year lifetime of worship. Amen.

Secondly: I am of the opinion that there are numerous benefits and instances of good in our remaining here until the Festival. If we were to be released now, we would both lose out on all the good of this School of Joseph, and spoil Ramadan, which looks purely to the hereafter, and taint our spiritual states with worldly activities. In accordance with "good lies in what God wishes," we shall find great joy in this, God willing.

You have also understood in the court that since they can in no way

convict us with their laws, they discuss trifling things of no importance like some petty matters in some petty letters which have less connection with the law than a fly's wing. For they have found no way to attack the significant, universal matters of the Risale-i Nur. Also their slandering my person so as to deprive it of importance instead of the widespread, general Risale-i Nur and its students is very advantageous for us; Divine Determining does not allow them to interfere with the Risale-i Nur and its students, and preoccupies them with myself. So I say to you and to all my friends: for the well-being of you and the Risale-i Nur, I accept wholeheartedly, even with my evil-commanding soul's agreement, and with joy and gratitude, all the difficulties inflicted on my person. Just as Paradise is not inexpensive, so Hell is not unnecessary. The world and its tribulations are transitory and fleeting. Also, since we shall be avenged a hundred times over at the Last Judgement, and in part in this world, for the ill-treatment we receive at the hands of our covert enemies, we should feel sorry for them rather than angry.

Since the reality is this, it is truly good fortune to submit without alarm, and with caution, and perfect patience and thanks, to whatever Divine Determining has decreed for us and to trust in Divine grace, which protects us, and with truly sincere, consoling, and heartfelt friendliness and love for our brothers here, together with them busy ourselves with our supplications, which in Ramadan yield a thousandfold reward; and with our study and reading, try not to give importance to these minor passing hardships. The Risale-i Nur's giving instruction in this most important examination and trial, and its making its enemies read it, is a significant victory for it.

{(*): It is certainly bad that some of our brothers are unnecessarily denying that they are students of the Risale-i Nur, especially...., and that they are concealing their considerable past services. But because of that service we should forgive them and not feel angry at them.}

Said Nursi

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

Firstly:It is stated in sound narrations: "Seek the Night of Power in the second half of Ramadan, especially in the last ten days." {[*]: Bukhari, Fadl Laylat al-Qadr, 2, 3; Tahajjud, 21; Muslim, Siyam, 207-19.} It is therefore a great happiness to try to profit from the Night of Power, which may

gain for a person an eighty-year lifetime of worship, and which is probably among the coming nights.

Secondly:According to the meaning of "Whoever believes in Divine Determining is saved from grief and sorrow," and "Look on the good side of things," and,

Those who listen to the Word and follow the best [meaning] in it; those are the ones whom God has guided, and those are the ones endued with understanding,{[*]: Qur'an, 39:18.}

we should now look on the good side of everything, the aspect that affords ease of mind, so that meaningless, unnecessary, harmful, ugly, distressing, temporary circumstances do not hold our attention and preoccupy our minds. In the Eighth Word, one man entered a garden while another left it. The fortunate man looked at the flowers and beautiful things, and relaxed and enjoyed himself. But the unfortunate one looked only at the dirty, ugly things, although he was unable to clean them up, so he was nauseated and upset instead of resting, and then went on his way. Now, the stages of man's social life, and especially the School of Joseph, resembles a garden. It contains both ugly and beautiful things, and distressing and happy things. The sensible person is he who busies himself with the beautiful, happiness-inducing things, and ignores the ugly, distressing things, and offers thanks happily instead of complaining querulously.

Said Nursi

* * *

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

Firstly:There is a strong possibility that tomorrow night is the Night of Power. Some of the scholarly authorities stated it is tomorrow. Even if it is not in fact, since the Umma consider it to be so, God willing it will be accepted as such.

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

Firstly:If it had been free this year perhaps some of us would have made the Hajj. God willing, our intention will be accepted as though we had made it, and in these distressing conditions our service of belief and the Risale-i Nur will yield the high reward of the Hajj.

Secondly:Since we have repeatedly said that "the Risale-i Nur is a powerful and true Qur'anic commentary," it was imparted to me that I should explain a fact, since some inattentive people do not know the full meaning of this. The fact is this:

There are two sorts of Qur'anic commentaries:

The firstis the well-known sort of commentary. Commentaries of this sort expound and elucidate the Qur'an's phraseology, words, and sentences.

The second sortexplain, prove, and elucidate with powerful arguments the Qur'an's truths related to belief. This sort has great importance. Sometimes the well-known, externalist commentaries include this sort in summary fashion. But the Risale-i Nur has made it its basis directly, and is a commentary on the Qur'an's meanings which silences obstinate philosophers in unprecedented manner.

Thirdly:This morning I was going to write something, but did not. Now the same matter has come up, and the clerk Sâlim Bey gave permission. Husrev and Tahiri should come tomorrow in order to write a petition to the Cabinet.

Said Nursi

I received a severe warning and sign, and earnestly request of you for the sake of the Risale-i Nur and out of respect for this Festival and for the sake of our old rights that you try to heal this awesome new wound of ours. For our covert enemies are following two plans: one is to destroy my character with insulting treatment, and the second is to make us feel coldly towards each other. To criticize, object to, and be offended at chiefly Husrev is to cause division amongst us. I tell you that if Husrev had a thousand faults, I would still be chary of opposing him. For to oppose him now is to directly oppose the Risale-i Nur and myself and to support those who have ruined us. It is a terrible betrayal so that an extraordinary thing happened to me for no reason like my stove disintegrating. I am also of the opinion that the last torments to have been inflicted on me resulted from your meaningless and very harmful lack of solidarity. A fearful finger is stirring things up here, especially in Ward Six. Don't make me weep this Festival. Quickly make heart-felt peace!

Nurjus are true, sincere, positive devotees who act solely for God's pleasure and the hereafter, so that the fearsome secret societies of the Masons, communists, corrupters, atheists, godless, and Tashnaks have found no means to oppose them, and so want to ruin and scatter them through 'flexible' laws by deceiving the Government and judiciary. God willing, they can do nothing, only be the reason for the devotees of the Risale-i Nur and of the faith increasing in number."

Said Nursi

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

I am going to relate to you a question and answer of forty years ago which resembles that of yesterday. In those days of long ago, since the Old Said's students' passionate attachment to their Master was such they would sacrifice their very lives for him, the Old Said was able to halt the Armenian Tashnak revolutionaries around Van and Bitlis, where they were very active, and was able to silence them to a degree. He found Mauser rifles for his students, and for a while his medresewas like a barracks with guns and books side by side. Then a General from the army came and saw them and said: "This isn't a medrese,it's a barracks." Because of the Bitlis Incident he became suspicious, and ordered that they collected up our rifles. A month or two later, the Great War broke out and I reclaimed my rifles. Anyway...

They asked me in connection the above: "The Armenian revolutionaries, among whom are fervent devotees ready to sacrifice their lives, are frightened of you, so that when you climb the mountain Erek Dagi near Van, they withdraw and go elsewhere. What force do you have that makes them do that?"

An Astonishing Trait in Bediuzzaman's Character

[This appeared in the 15th Teshrin-i Evvel, 1948 number of the magazine Ehl-i Sünnet.It was written by the magazine's owner, who is a lawyer.]

Bediuzzaman was taken prisoner the same day that I was wounded and captured in Bitlis during the First World War. He was sent to Siberia, to one of the big prisoner-of-war camps. I was on the island of Nangün near Baku. One day, Nicola Nicolayavich visited the camp in order to inspect the prisoners. While passing in front of Bediuzzaman, Bediuzzaman ignored him, not so much as stirring a finger. This attracted the the Commander-in-Chief's attention. On some pretext, he passed by a second time, and again Bediuzzaman did not stir. He passed by a third time, and stopped, then the following exchange ensued:

"Do you know who I am?"

"Yes, I know. You are Nicola Nicolayavich, the Czar's uncle and Commander-in-Chief of the Caucasian Front."

"So why do you insult me?"

"Forgive me, but I have not insulted you. I merely doing what my beliefs demand."

"What do your beliefs demand?"

"I am a Muslim scholar. I have belief in my heart. Someone with belief in his heart is superior to one without belief. If I had risen to my feet, I would have been disrespectful to my beliefs. I did not stand up for that reason."

"In that case, by saying that I am without belief, you are insulting both my person, and the army to which I belong, and my nation, and the Czar. A military court will be set up at once and you shall be interrogated."

On this command, a military court was set up. The Turkish, German, and Austrian officers in the headquarters all pleaded with Bediuzzaman to apologize to the Commander-in-Chief. He replied like this:

"I want to travel to the realm of the hereafter, to the presence of God's Messenger (PBUH), and I have to have a passport. I can't act contrarily to my beliefs."

No one could open their mouths in the face of this, and awaited the results. The interrogation ceased, and they passed a sentence of execution for insulting the Russian Czar and army. Bediuzzaman said cheerfully to the officer leading the squad that came to carry out the sentence: "Allow me fifteen minutes to perform my duties." He took the ablutions, then while performing two rak'ats of prayers, Nicola Nicolayavich appeared. He said:

"Forgive me! I supposed you acted as you did to insult me, so I had you tried according to the law. But now I realize that you were merely acting out of your beliefs and were carrying out what they enjoin. The judgement is quashed. You are worthy of respect for the firmness of your belief. I disturbed you, again, forgive me."

A Major, one of Bediuzzaman's companions, described this high trait of his character and firmness of religion, which is a worthy example for all Muslims, as he himself witnessed it. When I heard it, involuntarily my eyes filled with tears.

Abdurrahim

{(*): Ustad did not ask for this article to be published in the newspaper, but being both of great interest, and an instructive example, and very exciting, it has been included here. Husrev}

My Brothers!

I have no appetite, and because gifts upset me I have sent you my share, which consists of three portions of butter, a basket of grapes, a bag of apples, two packets of tea, and sugar. I was going to give them to you as a gift, but I asked, and you have some too. With the money from them I am going to buy things like yoghurt, eggs, and bread, so the Medresetü'z-Zehrais not displeased at me, saying that I did not eat the gifts. Sell them to the needy, cheaply, and to the deserving, so that the gifts of the Medresetü'z-Zehraand its branches will be blessed in two respects, and be healing for both me and those who receive them. Let Husrev supervise it, and Ceylan and Hifzi sell them.

Said Nursi

* * *

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

Firstly:The following was imparted to me in connection with the newspaper article about me: an imperious Russian Commander swallowed his anger in the face of the dignity of your belief, and apologized, so if the officials who have seen the truly powerful, sincere teachings -a hundred times better than I could give- of the Risale-i Nur which gain firm belief for a person, persist in their obduracy and do not see the matter fairly, certainly no punishment other than Hell could purify them. The penalty for such a vast crime could not be paid in a brief lifetime. For if oil goes bad, it is inedible; it is not like milk and yoghurt. God willing, the Risale-i Nur will save most of them, before they are corrupted.

Secondly:Let Mehmed Feyzi write to Bedri and tell him that I am including all those he mentioned in his letter in my prayers. They too should pray for me.

Said Nursi

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

Firstly:It has been imparted to me that I should describe the astonishing and instructive treatment I have received during my two periods of captivity. As follows:

I was in a ward in Kosturma in Russia together with ninety other officers

The First:Our troubles being transformed into mercy.

Second:The pleasure to be found within the justice of Divine Determining, and the relief felt in submitting to it.

Third:The joy resulting from the Divine favour particular to the Nurjus.

Fourth:The pleasure of our tribulations being transitory and passing.

Fifth:Significant rewards.

Sixth:Not interfering in God's concerns.

Seventh:Suffering only little difficulty and slight wounds in the face of even the severest attacks.

Eighth:These hardships being very minor in comparison with those others suffer.

Ninth:Happiness at the effects of the widespread advertising of the Risale-i Nur, which arise from the exacting test and examination of serving the Risale-i Nur and belief.

These nine spiritual joys are a salve and medicine so soothing and sweet they are indescribable; they ease our terrible pains.

Said Nursi

* * *

My Dear, Loyal, Steadfast Brothers!

With all their stratagems, the dissemblers' attacks these last ten months and their getting hold of an official has not shaken even the youngest student. Their slanders are insignificant. In the face of the

hundred lies of his that we proved, he found one single error he said was contrary to the facts, in one of our letters, that a newspaper had reported that the former governor had been promoted. But the error was the newspaper's. Anyway... such slanders from such people have virtually no effect on us, and, God willing, they will cause no harm to the Risale-i Nur circle. As I told you before, don't give any importance to the written calumnies of that official, don't let them confuse your ideas. If there is any legal point the reply to which is not found in my defence, give a brief answer. And say: "Said says: So as not to vex the three courts which acquitted us, nor be in contempt of them, I am not going to afford importance to that malicious indictment by replying to it. My long defence, especially the ten points showing the ten ways it is illegal, furnishes a complete and apt reply."

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

Firstly:It is an instance of Divine favour that did not hear that man's slanderous indictment. I would otherwise have spoken vehemently. I would have said to the Chairman of the Court: I am taking you to court, that is, you and your injustice to the Supreme Tribunal at the Last Judgement, and I am taking your contempt of the law to the court of this world. And the reason I said I have no lawyer was to tell them that he is the lawyer of all of us in general matters, and only I can reply to the attacks on my person. You may tell Ahmed Hikmet this.

Secondly:Our former defences are sufficient to answer the prosecutor's charges.

Thirdly:Mustafa Osman and Ceylan wrote and told me what they thought of it and that it had caused them no discomfort, and that it would have no adverse effects in the Risale-i Nur circle either. I saw the hero Tahiri. He had the same idea. I was curious as to what Husrev, the Feyzi's, and Sabri thought.

Fourthly:I reckon it is because disbelief and misguidance now attack us in the form of secret societies and political groups that Divine Determining makes them torment us with this extreme tyranny and accusation of being a political society. That means there is overriding need for the believers to be united. We were unaware of that fact, so received the blow of justice from Divine Determining.

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

Firstly:What is necessary are caution, composure, and consultation.

Secondly:It was imparted to me that Zübeyir was given to me in place of my late nephew Abdurrahman, and Ceylan, in place of my late nephew Fuad. So here I am handing over my work to them.

My Brothers!

In a way totally opposed to the law, our documents and additional pieces for the appeal have not yet been sent to the Appeal Court. Our three authorized lawyers should find some way of ensuring that they are sent as soon as possible. For their prolonging our detention for eleven months on excuses, and not permitting me to speak in court, and their holding me in solitary confinement for eleven months in cold, tortuous, and distressing conditions, tells of a malicious bias unacceptable by justice. It is therefore essential that both our lawyers and you do everything in your power to have our trial transferred to a court in another province.

Said Nursi

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

My Dear, Loyal, Sincere, Steadfast, Devoted Brothers!

Firstly: The reason I don't keep a copy of 'The Mystery of To you have We granted'{[*]: Qur'an, 108:1.} with me is that long ago there was some confusion in two premonitions I had.

The First:I perceived through a premonition a terrible event that would occur in this country alone, and the rise of tyrants. The mighty mystery became apparent twelve years later as I had foretold, but in the large sphere, on the face of the earth. For sure it apparently altered what I had predicted, but in reality it turned out to be completely correct and the pure truth. For this reason, I do not keep that treatise with me and I do not give it to others.

Secondly:Forty years ago I used repeatedly to say: "I see a light." I used to give good tidings of it. I supposed the light to be on a country-wide scale. However, it was the Risale-i Nur; I reckoned the circle of the Risale-i Nur students to be the political sphere of the whole country, and I was in error.

Sir!

I thank you for having the flag of the Independence Holiday hung on my ward. During the national struggle in Istanbul, Ankara knew that I had performed the service of maybe a military division through publishing and distributing my work entitled The Six Steps against the British and Greeks, for twice Mustafa Kemal notified me in cypher wanting me to go to Ankara. He even said: "We have to have this heroic hojahere!" That is to say, it is my right to hang this flag this holiday.

Said Nursi

written with unsurpassed knowledge and is a true commentary on the Qur'an. Since that is the truth, why is he sent to court? My firmly held views on this subject are as follows:

Those who read the Risale-i Nur, especially the perceptive young, acquire a powerful belief. They become unshakeably self-sacrificing and religious, and devoted to their country. The immorality and vice inculcated by negative ideologies can find no foothold where there is indestructible faith. The more those with such belief increase in number, Freemasonry and communism cannot expand and spread. The Risale-i Nur proves rationally, logically, and in scholarly fashion with verses from the Qur'an and extremely powerful proofs and arguments, that materialist philosophy, on which communism is based, has absolutely no connection with truth and reality, and that its theories are completely unfounded. It illumines those who fall into the darkness of those rotten ideas, and saves them. It proves God's existence with powerful evidences that cannot be denied or objected to, to even materialists, who believe only what their eyes can see.

With its original and attractive style and elevated literary art, this wonderful work quite simply makes itself read, and by high school and university students in particular.

It is because of this that the communists and Masons know that the Risale-i Nur forms a powerful obstacle to the spread of their poisonous ideas. They have recourse to various stratagems and calumnies in order to eliminate the Risale-i Nur, or not to have it read, since, as a true Qur'anic commentary, it is a powerful source of belief. Although up to now there has been no sign whatsoever of any of the lies they have ascribed to us, they continue to attack us. It is understood from this that they want to intimidate us, make us give up the Risale-i Nur and at the same time put before us their own putrid publications. In this way, causing the nation and youth to lose their faith altogether, they want to bring about a decline in moral standards, and thus to make the country cave in on itself. It is their ambition to hand over this country and its people to a foreign power. In the presence of the bench of judges I say this fearlessly:

They should know this and tremble; we are not to be intimidated by mere threats. For we have seen truth and reality in the Risale-i Nur, and learnt it and believed in it. The Turkish youth is not sleeping. This heroic Islamic Turkish nation will not bow down under the yoke of another country. The religious, warlike Turkish nation, the believing, brave Turkish youth, fear nothing. It is for this reason that we read the Risale-i Nur, which raises us to the highest degrees of humanity, ensures that we

advance in every field, and instilling in us young people love of religion, country, and nation, makes us true lovers of religion who will sacrifice all our beings for them. And we shall read this work. As I stated above, I have read very little of the Risale-i Nur, and yet I have profited enormously. This work is of the very greatest benefit for this country and nation and for all humanity, and if I had wealth, I would spend all of it to publish it. For I am ready to sacrifice my whole being for my religion and the eternal happiness and well-being of my country and nation.

Moreover, I have not believed in the Risale-i Nur naively. Thirty-three verses of the Qur'an, and Imam 'Ali (May God be pleased with him) and 'Abd al-Qadir Geylani (May God be pleased with him) made predictions that the Risale-i Nur would be written and would offer guidance to the people of this age. Furthermore, the parts of the Risale-i Nur that I have read have made me form the opinion that this collection consists of works that teach truth and reality and that reform humanity.

I felt a great emptiness in my spirit, and when searching for a book to read, I came across the Risale-i Nur. Then when I read it, I could not be without it or put it down. I felt that the Risale-i Nur was meeting the overwhelming need in my heart. I found in it the rational proofs of belief to save me from doubts about belief and knowledge. In this way I was saved from the distress of scepticism. I understood from its truths that the Risale-i Nur was written for us, the people of this age.

Powerful belief is necessary so that one may acquire the elevated virtues necessary for good conduct and manners, and courtesy. Since the truths of belief are explained by means of extremely powerful proofs and clear examples in the Risale-i Nur, the more I read it, the stronger my belief became. In this way I was saved from giving up my religion, which is truth and reality and comprises the principles of the highest civilization, and from the calamity of being swallowed by the Red Monster. Thus, since the Risale-i Nur saves its readers from numerous calamities, material and spiritual; makes them more knowledgeable than a university graduate; instils in them love of Islam, country, and nation; and teaches them obedience to God, and to be hardworking and compassionate; no one who realizes its value would give it up, whatever the price. This sincere respect and veneration could be torn out of no one's heart.

The Risale-i Nur is described by the prosecution as a harmful work. I protest in the strongest terms at this lack of conscience and lie. And it is claimed that I encourage it. Yes, this is true. The hearts of all the enlightened who heard the other lie were pained, indeed they wept and gnashed their teeth. The twentieth century is a time Positivist ideas are dominant.

Things for which there are no proof and evidence are not believed in, and we do not believe in them. We want proof that the Risale-i Nur is harmful.

If another of the aims of our covert enemies who concoct these lies is to destroy the solidarity of those who read the Risale-i Nur, which is manifested as their embracing each other in exceptional fashion due to the bonds of Islam and for the sake of serving the Qur'an, and expresses only respect, compassion, and affection, and has no other goal in sight. Our enemies should not struggle against us for nothing. I am the most backward, the most ordinary of those who read the Risale-i Nur, yet I give them this reply:

Even if one of us is in the east, one in the west, one in the south, one in the north, one in the hereafter, and one in this world, we are still together. If the power of all the universe was to amass, it could not separate us from our exalted Master, Said Nursi, or from the Risale-i Nur, or from one another.

For we serve the Qur'an and we shall serve it. Because we believe in the reality of the hereafter, no force can root out this love and solidarity of ours. All Muslims shall gather together in the abode of eternal happiness.

With your permission, I shall describe an important fact concerning the well-being of our country and nation: one of the communists' secret plans is to incite the people against the Government.

False information was given the leaders of the Government so that Bediuzzaman Said Nursi should be sent to prison and his works be seen as harmful. But no one believed the negative propaganda. For years the people of this nation have believed so firmly that he is a unique Islamic scholar this age and in every way without peer that no propaganda can destroy their true conviction.

I offer praise and thanks to Almighty God that He has favoured me with profiting from the works of a great Master. I am indebted with all my heart and soul to him for being the means of my learning about belief and Islam, and benefiting immeasurably. Since my Master has saved me from the distress I suffered for years as I wrote, and my youth from becoming fodder for communism, and my being condemned to everlasting solitary confinement, I am prepared to languish in this worldly prison for years for him.

If I suffer capital punishment on the way of the Risale-i Nur, a Qur'anic commentary which in twenty years has taught millions of people religion, belief, Islam, and virtue, preserving them from irreligion, I shall run to the gallows crying: "Allah! Allah! Ya Rasulallah!" If I am

executed by firing squad on the way of the Risale-i Nur, which protects our young people from abandoning their religion and being swept away by communism to eternal perdition, and from crimes for which they would be shot as traitors to their country, without flinching I shall bare my chest to the bullets. And I beseech my Sustainer that if I am cut to pieces by knives for my Master Bediuzzaman, with my blood spurting in all directions I shall write: "The Risale-i Nur! The Risale-i Nur!"

Respected Judges of the Court!

The education the Risale-i Nur gives is truly marvellous and original; it is without equal. The purpose of other sorts of education is to gain material benefits and to attain various positions. People study mostly for materialist ends and to be able to become famous, or sometimes merely because they have to study. However, those who by reading its treatises, receive the Risale-i Nur education, which resembles an unorganized free university, nurture no worldly aims, only to serve the Qur'an and belief.

Nevertheless, the Risale-i Nur, which consists of serious, scholarly treatises about the truths of belief, is read with such enthusiasm, passion, and pleasure, that it awakens in those who read it faithfully the desire to read it over and over again. Even though those who read and write out the Risale-i Nur may find their lives in danger at the doors of the courtroom, they state openly that they read these wonderful works, and that they shall read them. Even if they know that the decision will be given for their execution, they do not hesitate to display this constancy. This characteristic of the Risale-i Nur, one of its many wonders, makes one ask: "Did those who admit this, find their lives by the wayside?"

This means that contained in the Risale-i Nur and Bediuzzaman is a truth so elevated that as well as not being harmful they did not deny it.

Normally students are made to study under the constraints of discipline and authority. However, Bediuzzaman compelled no one to study the Risale-i Nur, and hundreds of thousands of readers study it devotedly and resolutely, the majority of them without ever seeing him. Such a wondrous method of education was never seen in any medrese,either recently or previously, and was never encountered in any university.

The prosecutor said that "The respect in which Bediuzzaman is held has not been afforded to any other Qur'anic commentator."

That is correct. Seeing that respect and reverence are awarded in relation to greatness and achievement, and gratitude and thanks are offered to the degree one has profited, Bediuzzaman's works are profited from to an enormous degree so that respect for him and gratitude to him are unprecedented.

The Masons and communists expended every effort so that Bediuzzaman, the greatest Islamic thinker and writer of the twentieth century, would not be known by us, and especially by the young. But the wide-awake Turkish Muslim nation and youth recognized that hero of religion, our Master, and they benefited from him and allowed others to do so. It is because of this that their extraordinary attachment and confidence cannot be shaken.

Since the Qur'anic verses in the Risale-i Nur are expounded in Turkish with supreme art and skill without anything of their virtues, which are the Qur'an's greatest miracle, being lost, every class of people -men, women, officials, tradesmen, scholars and philosophers- can read and understand it. Profiting from it to the extent they can, they become ever more attached to it. High school students, university students, professors, lecturers, and philosophers all read it. These educated classes profit from it to an extraordinary degree, affirming its originality and the superior art of its composition, and feeling a strong desire to read the whole work.

When perceptive and appreciative people first come to know Bediuzzaman and the Risale-i Nur, they are infinitely regretful they did not know of them previously, and in order to make up for lost time, never waste their spare time, and if they have five minutes even, pick up the Risale-i Nur, and read it day and night. This extraordinary interest and demand has never ever been shown for the work of any psychologist, sociologist, or philosopher. Only the educated can benefit from them. If a middle school student or a housewife reads the work of a eminent philosopher, he or she does not profit from it. But everyone profits from the Risale-i Nur in accordance with his level. For this reason, the whole nation awaits your decision to acquit Bediuzzaman and the Risale-i Nur students. If in this time of tribulation Said Nursi had not impressed on his students the need for patience, endurance, and moderation, as when the commander of a volunteer militia force in the First War he mustered his students to fight, so out of the great honour in which they hold him thousands of Risale-i Nur students would have pitched their tents on the heights around Afyon and awaited the decision of Afyon Criminal Court to acquit him.

The work that Said Nursi and the Risale-i Nur students do cannot be considered within the framework of the law and be proved to be a secret society. Why can it not be proved? Is a legal expert who has risen to be chief public prosecutor incapable of proving it according to the law? No, he is certainly not incapable. But there is no organization that could be called a secret political society. That is why it cannot be proved.

It is a contradiction that the statement the prosecutor first gave, which

was completely accurate and in accordance with the law, said that "the Risale-i Nur students are not a political society," and then a bit later for some reason said that "they are a political society." Of course the latter is invalid. We are certain that the judges will see this fact clearly and give the decision that "there is no secret society."

Judges of the Court!

If when suffering sorrow and anguish a piece was broken off the heart, the news of a youth losing his religion should make the heart break into pieces to the number of its minute particles.

Thus, the acquittal you shall give shall be the cause of the Muslim youth and Islamic world being effectively saved from this terrible plague. This is another of the reasons binding me inseparably to Bediuzzaman and his works.

Your decision to acquit the Risale-i Nur and give it its freedom will save all the Turkish youth and all Muslims from the tragedy of irreligion. For without any doubt at all, one day the Risale-i Nur, a treasury of elevated truths, will be known throughout the world. Then you shall be appreciated by all mankind. Your decision to acquit the Risale-i Nur will make the present and future generations grateful to you, and the more it is read and benefited from, the more you shall be appreicated.

Beware! Do not suppose these sincere words of mine are hypocritical. Absolutely not! Because I am afraid of no one while Bediuzzaman is being tried, nor do I waver.

Only, with your permission, I want to say this much: if the prosecutor continues to make such despicable charges against the Risale-i Nur, which is a superlative means of preventing Freemasonry and communism in this blessed country, and against its author and readers, and he does not desist from making those entirely erroneous accusations, and carried away by his feelings, opposes them, he will be supporting communism and Freemasonry, and will be assisting the noxious atheists to multiply, against whom in truth these charges should be made.

[Part of Zübeyir's Supplement for the Appeal Court]

Through its proofs the Risale-i Nur repairs the belief of people which has been destroyed by the doubts and scepticism sown by the publications of secret atheistic organizations.

One of the least tangible reasons for the youth adhering to the Risale-i Nur as though electrocuted, is this: for years with unparalleled devotion and self-sacrifice, elderly and ill, at a time demanding extraordinary caution, with superhuman patience Bediuzzaman Said Nursi has endured the various torments of his enemies, the communists, Masons, and those hoodwinked by them. With his truth-seeing, realistic view, he has distinguished numerous treacherous stratagems against religion, and has written works about belief which will bring to nothing their fearsomely cunning, covert plans.

But what a regretable, sad and sorry situation it is, that for twenty-five years they have tried to eliminate this champion of Islam, this matchless person, in prisons and places of detention, in absolute solitary confinement. Even if due to animosity resulting from the unfounded suspicions given rise to by the treachery of communists, the Risale-i Nur's author has been punished, his works continue to be read with ever increasing interest and enthusiasm.

The first and most powerful evidence is this: the young people who read the work The Staff of Moses (Asâ-yi Mûsa),which has been duplicated in the new letters, quickly learn the Qur'anic alphabet in order to be able to read the rest of the works. This removes the obstacle of not knowing the Qur'anic script, which prevents a person learning numerous sciences and compels him to read works written specifically to distance him from religion and belief. Whenever the younger generation has been decked out and fortified with the Qur'an and the sciences that irradiate from it, the nation to which that youth belongs has begun to progress and advance. Here, the youth have begun to fill their spirits, burning with the need for belief and Islam, with the lights of the Risale-i Nur, a Qur'anic commentary. Thus acquiring certain, verified belief, our young people will struggle against irreligion and communism, and will on no account allow their country to be sold to the enemies of Islam. If the communists, therefore, find the opportunity to destroy all paper and ink, numerous youths like myself and older people will be ready to sacrifice themselves, and in order to publish the Risale-i Nur, a treasury of truth, would if it was possible make their skins into paper and blood into ink.

Yes! Yes! Yes! A thousand times!

In the indictment the prosecutor says: "Said Nursi is poisoning the university students with his works." In reply we say: "If the Risale-i Nur is poison, we are in need of tons of it and thousands of kilos. If he knows where it is to be found in abundance, he should send us there speedily by aeroplane!"

When we Risale-i Nur students suffer the persecution of tyrants for the sake of serving belief and Islam, we prefer to die in the corners of prison or on the gallows to dying on the couch of comfort. We know it to be a supreme Divine favour to die as martyrs in the prison into which we have been unjustly cast because of our service to the Qur'an, rather than living in captivity in what is apparently freedom but in reality absolute despotism.

Prisoner

Konyali Zübeyir Gündüzalp

Afyon Prison.

{(*): After this defence and its addendum were sent to the Court of Appeal, the Court authorities sent a telegraph ordering that Zübeyir should be released from prison.}

* * *

[Mustafa Sungur's Defence]

To Afyon Criminal Court

The prosecution wants to have me punished for belonging to the society of Nurjus and inciting the people against the government.

Firstly:There is no society called the Nurju Society, and I belong to no such society. I am a member of the sacred, Divine society of Islam, which every century for one thousand three hundred and fifty years has had three hundred million members, was founded by Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), the Glory of the Universe, and is vast and luminous and promises eternal happiness for all mankind. All thanks be to God, I am determined to obey its sacred injunctions with all my strength.

As for the Risale-i Nur, my being a student of which is considered to be a crime, it is a miracle of the Qur'an that teaches me my religious duties and those related to belief and that Islam is the highest and most sacred religion and the sole means of happiness for mankind. It proves with brilliant evidences that the Qur'an is a decree of the All-Glorious One, Who is the Owner of all beings, is all-present and all-seeing everywhere, and under Whose pre-eternal administration are all beings from minute particles to the stars and suns; it is a miraculous work whose view encompasses pre-eternity and post-eternity and all events; it is the pre-

eternal address of an Everlasting Sun which is superior to all other books and miraculous in forty aspects, and which by giving mankind the good news of eternal happiness, is the object of their eternal gratitude. It proves too that God's Messenger (Peace and blessings be upon him) was sent by the Creator of the Universe, and that with all his conduct and practices was the most perfect, the most loyal, the highest of all men, whose perfections were the most elevated, and through the light of Islam that he brought, gave the best of all news to men, and gave them the most sacred consolation, and who has taken under his spiritual rule fourteen centuries and one fifth of mankind, and to the book of whose good deeds pass the equivalent of all the good deeds performed for one thousand three hundred years by his community, and that he is the reason for the universe's existence and is God's Beloved. It proves also with brilliant proofs that both the hereafter, and Paradise and Hell are certain and definite.

With its words and sentences, the Risale-i Nur testifies that it is a pre-eternal and post-eternal light proceeding from the light of the Qur'an and the Light of Muhammad (PBUH). In respect of its belonging to the Qur'an and being a special commentary on it, it pertains to the heavens and the Divine Throne. Thus, with all its Words, all its Flashes and Rays, and all its Letters, the Risale-i Nur, which is supposed to be inciting the people against the Government, teaches the Divine truths, and principles of Islam, and mysteries of the Qur'an. Is it a crime, then, to read the Risale-i Nur, which is thus elevated and worthy of veneration, and teaches good morality and virtue and the truths of belief, and to copy out its parts, which bestow eternal happiness, or to serve it so that believers may profit from it with respect to their belief? Is that inciting the people against the Government? And to visit the author of such a blessed and sublime work, a monument of light who is decked out with the highest degree of belief, laudable morals, and virtue and is at the very summit of human perfections, and to be brothers on the way of the Qur'an and belief with the Risale-i Nur students, who with their good works, veracity, and unshakeable belief this century, have defended the honour of Islam and truths of the Qur'an, and upheld them, and who have no aim other than winning God's pleasure - is to do these things to found a political society? Which equitable, unsullied conscience could inflict a punishment for these?

Judges of the Court! The Risale-i Nur's veracity has been affirmed by the most advanced scholars, and with its gaining for its readers the highest level of belief and greatest love of Islam, there is no doubt that all its Words, and its Flashes and Rays are luminous commentaries on the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition. They are all brilliant suns which dispel

spiritual sicknesses and darkness. As is testified to by his pure and upright life, our Master has passed his life on the way of belief and the Qur'an, and enduring every sort of difficulty and distress, has by disseminating the truths of the Qur'an worked to save the sons of this blessed nation in particular from the awesome attacks of communism and every sort of irreligion, and was charged with the sacred duty of writing the Risale-i Nur at this time. He does not instruct us (God forbid!) in immorality and spoliation. He teaches us the saving of belief, the highest cause and most momentous question in the world of humanity. It is most certainly a Divine favour that for twenty-five to thirty years he has striven with the Risale-i Nur to save the religious belief of hundreds of thousands of believers, especially by teaching belief, the greatest happiness in life and its most important purpose, to unfortunates like myself who knew nothing of Islam. We say the following to those who in a way diametrically opposed to reality, consider him to be harmful for the life of society and deny his sacred service of belief and work for religion:

If it is a crime to adhere to God, and obeying the injunctions of religion, save people from terrible calamities such as immorality and being without religious belief, and to make them happy with the permanent happiness of Islam, then he may be said to be harmful to society. It is otherwise the greatest calumny and an unforgiveable crime. The Risale-i Nur's aim is not this world, it is the never-ending happiness of the hereafter and the pleasure of the Eternal Enduring One, the Compassionate One of Beauty, one shadow of the manifestation of Whose beauty is all the beauty and good in this world, and one flash of Whose love is Paradise together with all of its subtle wonders. Having a thus Divine, sacred, and truly elevated aim, a thousand times over I declare the Risale-i Nur to be free of all transitory things such as inciting the people against the Government. And we seek refuge with God from the evil of those who with slander of this sort try to crush us and prevent us from working for belief or from learning about religion.

Judges of the Court! As is indicated by thirty-three verses of the Qur'an, and pointed out by Imam 'Ali (May God be pleased with him) and Gawth al-A'zam (May God be pleased with him) and hundreds of investigative scholars, the Risale-i Nur is a light of the Qur'an those who adhere to which will save their belief, God willing. It most definitely cannot be extinguished or be lost. For example, the attacks made on it these last twenty-five years with the intention of eliminating it, have been the cause of its spreading and shining out in extraordinary fashion. For its Owner is the All-Glorious Monarch in Whose power and under Whose command is everything from pre-eternity to post-eternity. For its truths

are the Qur'an's truths, and through His protection and grace, Almighty God will always make it shine out, God willing.

Judges of the Court! If it is a crime to read and write out the Risale-i Nur -which teaches belief and Islam with the highest love and fervour, and recognizes no aim or purpose other than Divine pleasure, and is certainly a supreme miracle of the Qur'an this age and a luminous commentary on it- and to give its treatises, which teach the truths of belief, to one's believing brother; and if the bonds of religion and Islamic brotherhood, which are enjoined by religion, and the sacred, Divine fraternity of uniting on the way of the Qur'an and belief for love of God constitute a political society, for me to belong to such a society is the greatest good fortune, and is a happiness greater than that afforded by any favour or award. Endless thanks be to Almighty God, Who bestowed on a wretch like myself the great favour of being a Risale-i Nur student, which gains such happiness and good fortune for a person. My last word is:

For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs. * God suffices me, there is no god but He; in Him do I place my trust - He the Sustainer of the Throne [of Glory] Supreme!

Mustafa Sungur

Teacher

* * *

[Mustafa Sungur's Supplement for the Court of Appeal]

1. The Criminal Court: My reading the Risale-i Nur and writing it out and giving a part of it to a needy believing brother so that he might benefit from it was called "inciting the people against the Government," and deemed an offence. However, in my written objections to this charge I said: the Risale-i Nur, which is supposed to incite the people against the Government, is a true Qur'anic commentary. With all its parts it teaches the truths of belief, and bestows the greatest happiness on those who read and write it. Its aim is not anything transitory such as inciting the people against the Government, the way of disruptive, immoral layabouts; it is Divine pleasure, the most perfect of all happiness and good fortune. I am proud to read and write out the Risale-i Nur, which has gained for me the highest virtue and belief, the sweetest bounty, so that I am its luckiest student and most powerless servant. Although I said that I knew to be its student was a supreme Divine gift, and that I constantly thank my Sustainer who granted this vast bounty to a wretch like myself who was not worthy of it, without basing it on any law or evidence, my adherence to belief

and Islam was deemed a crime, and entirely contrary to truth and right I was punished.

2. While studying in Kastamonu Gölköy Institute, I myself witnessed the irreligion taught us by some teachers. They said, God forbid, that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had written the Qur'an, Islam was now abrogated, civilization had advanced, and that it was a great error and backwardness to follow the Qur'an this century. One day even, a teacher said that because Muslims performed the obligatory prayers and thought of the hereafter, they suffered constant distress and passed their lives unhappily; and that in the mosques of Islam there was a deathly atmosphere, while the Christian churches were always happy and full of life, and that with their musical instruments and other amusements, they enjoyed life and passed their time happily. They tried to break the bonds with Islam and belief in our hearts, and instil denial and disbelief in their place.

Then if through reading several treatises from a peerless light of the Qur'an like the Risale-i Nur -which pours out from the Qur'an's effulgence, and proves with brilliant evidences and arguments the truths of belief and Islam, and that the religion of Islam is a never-dying inextinguishable sun and means whereby humanity may attain happiness and well-being- a wretch in whom had been instilled the above poisonous ideas and whose spirituality they had wanted to kill with their noxious irreligious lessons, and had even been carried away by them and (God forbid) believing in those ideas had begun to disseminate them - if he had come to believe in the Qur'an, would not his offering the endless joy and happiness he felt to the compassionate, loyal, and true hero Ustad Bediuzzaman, who had gained these for him through the blessed Risale-i Nur he had written; would not his telling the Revered Master, who had been charged with the burdensome duty of writing the Risale-i Nur, how it had saved him from his former life of heedlessness and misguidance, leading him to belief and light, and how it was a sun of guidance and means of happiness for all humanity, and a Divine favour for all men and particularly for believers; and would not his calling "the destruction and corruption of a covert organization of the Sufyan," those who with their terrible aggressive assaults on the Qur'an and Islam, as described above, were urging the sons of this heroic Muslim nation to embrace irreligion, and trying to raze the sacred, Divine foundations of Islam, to whom millions of people are bound and destroy their eternal happiness and feeling compounded regret and disgust at the lunatics who applaud them and their base, aggressive, tyrannical destruction; and would not his saying to his former fellow students, who had fallen into doubt concerning their faith: "Come, let's give up following the lusts and whims of our souls;

let's bow before the truths of the Qur'an and hurry to the Risale-i Nur medrese,the guide to happiness this century. Let's leave those lying scoundrels whom we have been applauding for months or years and reject the falsehoods they showed to be the truth, and attach ourselves to Bediuzzaman Said Nursi's teachings and take them as our master. Let's turn our backs on the darkness and embrace the light;" would not these all arise from the joy he found in his belief and his love of the Qur'an and Islam, and from his adherence to them, and his devotion to his nation, and his desiring everyone to acquire true, verified belief and attain infinite happiness?

Is it a crime to attach oneself to God and proclaim that Islam is the loftiest religion and the bringer of virtue and happiness? At a time when with lies and slander, from every side there are overwhelming attacks on the Qur'an and Islam, and attempts are being made to refute the Qur'an and Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), which are extremely elevated, sacred, and precious, yet books which spread irreligion and atheism and rebellious, transient, worthless wretches who attack Islam are held in respect and innovations and the unlawful are applauded - at such a time is it a crime to believe and proclaim the sacredness and loftiness of the Risale-i Nur and that as a miracle of the Qur'an it is a Divine Light and dominical gift which explains and proves decisively and clearly the elevatedness, veracity, and sacredness of the Qur'an and Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him); and both God's existence and that the universe with all its beings and all its members and systems testifies to its Creator's necessary existence and unity; and because he possesses reason and can think and is the most comprehensive mirror of the Divine Names man is a sort of monarch over all other creatures; and that if he has a relationship with God through worship and belief and preserves himself against misguidance and vice and grievous sins, he becomes worthy of rising to the highest of the high, superior to all beings, and an esteemed guest who will be forever happy in Paradise, but if he denies his Creator through associating partners with Him and rebellion, or through heedlessness and misguidance, he falls lower than an animal, descending to the lowest of the low, coming to deserve everlasting Hell and unending torment and torture; and that the Qur'an is the true Word of God, which is constant, and that its injunctions and commands do not, and cannot, change; and that mankind's true and permanent happiness is possible only through following the Qur'an's commands and adhering to them?

The reading of novels and stories, written against Islam for five or ten minutes illicit pleasure, and the publishing of books extremely dangerous and harmful for the country and nation, and their being praised and

recommended are not considered crimes, so can it be deemed a crime if we read and write out the Risale-i Nur, which describes the Sun of Islam -which hundreds of millions of people have followed and in which they have found true happiness- or enumerated its elevated characteristics, which we lack the ability to praise? Can anyone who has an atom of belief in his heart and desires the well-being of the country and nation consider the above to be crimes?

Respected Judges of the Appeal Court! This case presented in your elevated presence is directly the case of belief and the Qur'an. It is the case of the eternal happiness and salvation of millions of people. Concerned with this case in effect are foremost God's Most Noble Messenger (Peace and blessings be upon him) and all the prophets (Peace be upon them), and all the saints and innumerable people of reality and believers, as well as all our forefathers who have departed for the eternal realm. You may now win the love and good will, the prayers and intercession, of those millions of the people of reality. The elevated reality called the Risale-i Nur is before you. Is its aim the lowly, transient ranks and positions of this world, or to win God's pleasure, the greatest happiness, the purest joy, and highest good fortune? And does it encourage people to be immoral, or does it deck them out with belief and the highest morality and virtue?

Before you is the Risale-i Nur, which pours out from the miraculousness of the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition and is a Divine Light. Since the greatest case facing people, more important than anything, is to win belief in order to be able to depart from this world for the realm of eternal happiness; and since through the effulgence of the Qur'an, the Risale-i Nur teaches the truths of belief, and as is testified to by hundreds of thousands of people who have read it and written it out, and as indicated by numerous Qur'anic verses and Hadiths of the Prophet (PBUH), and Imam 'Ali (May God be pleased with him) and many saints like Gawth al-A'zam (May God be pleased with him), it has definitely won that case; certainly and without doubt, through your elevated love of truth and justice, above every sort of transient anxiety, you will understand and appreciate the Risale-i Nur's veracious, Qur'anic face and its true value, and that its students pursue no aim other than God's pleasure.

Judges of the Appeal Court! With his high morality, virtue and compassion our esteemed and elevated Master, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, strives to save people from the dense darkness of false ideas and eternal solitary confinement, and enduring the severest distress and torments has risen to the highest degree of perfection at this time through being charged by Almighty God with the sacred duty of publishing the truths of

the Qur'an, yet entirely contrary to all truth and justice, he is cast into prison. Elderly, ill, and with no one, practising his beliefs and worship in most elevated fashion, possessing the most brilliant intelligence and learning, and having no aim other than saving the belief of people, the terrible suffering of our Master, who is seventy-five years old and truly loves humanity, in the intense cold of Afyon Prison, pierces the heart, causing the severest anguish. Trusting in your elevated truth-loving justice and true philanthrophy, we await the manifestation of justice's compassion.

Mustafa Sungur

* * *

[Mehmed Feyzi's Defence]

To Afyon Criminal Court

The indictment states that I am my Master, Said Nursi's, chief scribe, and am firmly attached both to himself and to the Risale-i Nur, and have served them, and it deems this an offence. For my part, I accept the charge with all my strength and am proud of it. For I have a powerful, innate yearning for knowledge. Evidence for this is that when during the Denizli affair my house was searched, it was officially established that found in it were more than five hundred various scholarly books, some in Arabic. It is an unusual desire to study and extraordinary love of learning that made me collect these five hundred books, that not one person in a thousand would have at this time, despite my impecuniosity and young years.

Because of this natural capacity of mine, I was searching for a true master. Endless thanks be to Almighty God that He gave me what I was searching for afar, from close by. Yes, my Master, Said Nursi's life testifies that his only aim in life has been knowlege and to learn the sciences of Islam. I have understood clearly both through my own observations, and from his published biography, and from what I have learnt from his old students, the innate love of learning that I have is found in my Master to an extraordinary degree, so that on his own in wondrous fashion, contrarily to all the other medreseteachers at this time, he has persisted in medreseteaching and endured every calamity. But then, because they did not understand my Master's extraordinary situation, the politicians attempted to link him with a sort of politics, with which he has no connection, even throwing him into prison. But later Almighty God made his passion for knowledge into a key to the Qur'an's truths, and the Risale-i Nur

emerged, which has left all scholars and philosophers in amazement. Around that time, as a Divine favour I found close by in Kastamonu the Master I had been searching for all my life, whose nature was similar to mine but infinitely more elevated. I shall offer thanks for this to the end of my days.

Just as since early days, in order to preserve the dignity of learning my Master never accepted such things as charity and gifts, so he did not allow his students to accept them. He would bow before no one. In fact, not condescending to crouch down in the trenches in the front lines in the War, or even to enter them, he preserved the dignity of learning. Similarly, heroically preserving the honour of scholarship and teaching in the face of three awesome commanders, he was completely unmoved at their anger and silenced them. I therefore accepted him as my true Master, since I knew that he was someone who had sacrificed everything to preserve the high honour of this nation and country and the Turkish learned establishment. Even, if to suppose the impossible a Master so truly devoted to his country and nation had a hundred faults, they should be looked on tolerantly and not objected to.

A example showing that this country's patriots in the Second Constitutional Period and the nationalists and patriots under the Republic appreciated in the name of the country and nation our Master's extraordinary service to learning was that the Committee of Union and Progress government gave nineteen thousand gold liras for his university in the east called the Medresetü'z-Zehra. This was to be organized along the same lines of al-Azhar University. Its foundations were laid in Van Province, but it remained unbuilt due to the First World War. Then the first government of the Republic twenty-four years ago allotted one hundred and fifty thousand liras on the agreement of one hundred and sixty-three deputies. Our Master's nearly succeeding on his own in founding a large university similar to al-Azhar, which was brought into being only through the enterprise of thousands of teachers, shows that all patriots and lovers of their country, together with the teachers of the medreses (religious schools) should appreciate and applaud him. As for us, because we found such a Master, we decided to endure every sort of hardship and difficulty. I have boundless respect for him as an exceptionally learned scholar at this time, who through the effulgence of his learning and truths of his one hundred and thirty works has caused me to advance on the way of belief and knowledge. God willing, this respect of mine will continue for all eternity.

There is no covert organization which exploiting religion and religious feelings aims to breach public security, in connection with which the prosecution wants to have me convicted. Despite months of investigations

and searches it has not been able to verify any such society, nor do we have any connection with such a thing. Our sole concern, within the framework of the laws of the Republic, is for the Risale-i Nur, which has undergone the toughest examinations and has met with due respect from the highest committees of experts and has been acquitted by authorized courts of law. This is not treason towards the country and nation, but scholarly striving in a way that is directly beneficial for country and nation. Other than this we have no political aim nor any other purpose. Thus, since our innocence and sincerity are clear in this matter, I seek the manifestation of justice from your just court and my acquittal, as in Denizli Court.

Prisoner

Kastamonulu Mehmed Feyzi Pamukçu

Afyon Prison

* * *

[Ahmed Feyzi's Defence]

To Afyon Criminal Court

Judges of the Court!

Is it not the duty and right of a believer to serve the Qur'an and the Prophet (PBUH) by meeting with a scholar of religion, reading and writing out his books about the truths of religion, and hastening to the assistance of his co-religionists? Is there any law prohibiting us from this service of religion? Is it a crime to criticize certain aspects of the atheistic immoral currents of our times? We are purely a body of religiously-minded people which has no connection whatsoever with politics or government. To think well of someone and consider him worthy is a personal opinion that may be held by anyone. We know Bediuzzaman to be the most elevated scholar of religion of our times. We know him to be someone who follows reality, and who expresses and explains the truths of religion without toadying to anyone. We call him a mujahidbecause of his service to religion and relying on the Qur'an's unshakeable truths, his undertaking the defence of our country against the currents of immorality and disbelief which threaten it. In a country in which freedom of religion and conscience are the rule, we cannot be held guilty of an offence because of the views we hold in the light of our consciences. Therefore, we are not obliged to give account to anyone.

As for the matter of the persons foretold in Hadiths to come at the end of time: we did not fabricate these. They have their origin in religion. In a

number of Hadiths, God's Messenger (Peace and blessings be upon him) said that the life of his community would not exceed one thousand five hundred years. The major historical events up to that time, which would have the greatest significance for the life of his community and for the life of the world, he gave news of, calling them "the signs of the end of the world." He drew the attention of the Muslim Umma to their evil. He said that those who were heedless and ignorant of these evils would meet with everlasting misery and loss. There are innumerable religious proofs of these. We believe in God, His Messenger, and the Qur'an. So as the result of this belief and belief in the Messenger's veracity, should we not strive to save ourselves from everlasting perdition? Should we not see what is happening around us? Wondering, "Have those perilous times come? Don't let it be us who are the generation that falls prey to those dangers," should we not point out how they may be applied to existent religious truths? If we disregard the positive evidences before us and the proven scholarly truths which take us to the Divine existence, and supposing the irreligion of Europe to be the greatest means of civilization and sole mark of knowledge, we abandon our religion, who will save us from eternal perdition? Should we not think of this? Would a person of this mind who recognizes nothing superior to the Qur'an and its truths, throw himself into everlasting perdition out of fear of temporary punishments? Or would he attach any worth to transient values? Would he give up his duty of serving God, and His Messenger, and His religion? These then are the true factors tying us to Bediuzzaman. Is there any other source of religion that can silence the pre-eternal needs of our spirits?

The prosecutor recommends to us the thousands of Arabic books which fill the libraries but do not interpret the spirit of today. He himself and those who think like him may not like the compendium of knowledge, treasury of freedom, and elevated reality called the Risale-i Nur, and they may criticize it. That is a matter for themselves. But they may not interfere in our preferring this or that work, or our attaching value to them. We like the Risale-i Nur. And we know it to be a true, unhypocritical book on religion and a Qur'anic commentary. Values and value judgements are questions of conscience. No one can interfere in them. Yes, we agree that the Risale-i Nur's author always teaches pure truth. The fact that he does not accept this does not shake our opinion. Moreover, our opinion is based not on his wonder-working in the physical realm, but on the wonders of his knowledge, the extraordinary manifestations of which we have observed in his teachings with the Risale-i Nur, which challenge all the world of knowledge. Can you show us a second Bediuzzaman who although his [official] period of study was no more than three months,

Respected Judges of the Court! We believe that you have understood the aims, intentions, and nature of the Risale-i Nur students, and have formed the opinion that we have no connection with the crimes with which we are charged by the prosecution. We therefore request from your high court and your consciences that our books are returned to us, free, and we are acquitted.

Prisoner

Emirdagli Halil Çaliskan

Afyon Prison

* * *

[Mustafa Gül's Defence]

To Afyon Criminal Court

I am not a member of any secret society. In any event, my Master Bediuzzaman Said Nursi never founded any such society. He always taught us about the truths of the Qur'an and warned us severely against being concerned with politics. I am only the student of the great Master Said Nursi. I am bound to him and to the Risale-i Nur with all my heart and spirit. I would be happy with any punishment inflicted on me for the sake of the Risale-i Nur and my Master. Through his works, my Master saved my belief and life in the hereafter. His aim is to save all Muslims and all our compatriots from unbelief and for them to win eternal happiness. It has become clear in all our trials that we have no connection with any political ambitions. Although the reality is this, we have again unjustly and irrelevantly been dragged to court. We have understood from this that they want to break our solidarity. Our solidarity is not turned to any worldly or political end or matter. We only have the very greatest respect for our Master. Those who read the Risale-i Nur acquire an extraordinary belief, Islam, morality, and perfection.

We are incapable of not having enormous love for our Master. I am attached with all my being to my Master and to the Risale-i Nur students. This attachment could not be severed or broken even if I was executed. I and all my brothers are innocent. We request with all our strength that the Risale-i Nur is left free. I request that my elevated Master and innocent Nurju brothers and myself are acquitted.

Ispartali Mustafa Gül

[Küçük Ibrahim's Defence]

To Afyon Criminal Court

Respected Judges!

The crime with which we are charged is both irrelevant and pertains to the world, it is political. But you, esteemed judges, understood at first sight whether or not we were people who would be involved in politics. However, even if hundreds of authoritative people were to ensure that this cold and alien charge was a hundred per cent realized, and my intelligence was a hundred times greater than it is, because of the feeling the Risale-i Nur and its esteemed author have given me, I would flee with all my being from that temporary, fleeting political thrill and adventure, and spend it on the way of belief in the hereafter and being saved from Hell. Both our respect for and attachment to the Risale-i Nur's worthy author, and reading and writing out the Risale-i Nur, and our corresponding with the Risale-i Nur students and our relations with them, all look directly to the hereafter, as was affirmed by Denizli Criminal Court and the Court of Appeal. So much so that because of the ideas we have acquired from the Risale-i Nur, we would not exchange these luminous beings for worldly and material values. We will persist in this belief until we die.

Respected Judges of the Court!

Since we are gathered together here due to this fearsome charge, I am bound by conscience and for the sake of the country to state an important fact: only in my own neighbourhood, due to the reform of people's characters brought about by the Risale-i Nur, over a period of ten years, in full sight of everyone, foremost myself and many others have learnt the way home. Vice and waywardness have been transformed into happy family lives. Mothers and fathers now pray for those who were the cause of it. You may listen to the stories of many people of this sort, in our province and around it. Particularly in Denizli Prison, when the Risale-i Nur entered there, it had such an overwhelmingly beneficial effect on the prisoners that it is still talked about. It was the same when I arrived here at Afyon Prison; whoever I spoke to, they described their former states and present states, and spoke gratefully of the Risale-i Nur students, praying for them. These facts are well-known. I am astonished that love for the Risale-i Nur, which has reformed me and my fellows to this great extent, both socially, morally, and with regard to the hereafter, and especially is an important Qur'anic commentary, and love for its esteemed author, and to write letters of consolation to my compatriots, could have been something political. Out of this astonishment I say that there cannot

be such a crime. At the most I can say that the covert enemies of the Qur'an and thus of the Risale-i Nur have made the judiciary and police suspicious about us for no reason, and have thus been the cause of our packing the prisons. For sure, the elevated judges will understand these facts, and placing their hands on their consciences will give their just decisions, concerning which good tidings are given by God Almighty, and they will make the Muslim Turkish nation, which throughout the country is eagerly awaiting their decision, grateful to them.

Prisoner

Inebolulu Ibrahim Fakazli

Afyon Prison

* * *

The Fifteenth Ray

The Shining Proof

This consists of two 'Stations'

[This lesson is a treatise which is apparently unimportant, but in reality is of the greatest importance, and is extremely powerful and comprehensive. It is a Qur'anic fruit of Paradise and of belief which was produced from the uniting -at the degrees of 'knowledge of certainty' and 'absolute certainty'- of my life of reflective thought and the spiritual life of the Risale-i Nur, which is based on ascertaining reality through its evidences (tahkikî).{[*]: According to Bediuzzaman, the aim of the Risale-i Nur is to gain for its readers or students 'true, verified belief '(iman-i tahkikî - Arabic: tahqiqi). This has been defined as: "To acquire certain knowledge of all the questions related to belief through close investigation, and to live that belief... Firm, unshakeable belief." See, Abdullah Yeğin, Yeni Lugat (3rd. ed.) Istanbul 1975, 271.} ]

Said Nursi

The First Station

[A concise summary of the Twentieth Letter, and Part One of the instruction given in the third 'School of Joseph'. {[*]: See, page 478, footnote 63.} It consists of three 'Parts']

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

And from Him do we seek help

I am someone who has spent thirty-five years in seclusion, and particularly at night forgets the world, and having for twenty-three years suffered the annoyance of being under hostile surveillance, has become unsociable. Being all alone, I become fed up if I am for even an hour with anyone

other than those who assist me or are desirous of the lessons of the Risale-i Nur. But then, on the pretext of the petition I wrote to the Court of Appeal about being held for eleven months in total solitary confinement in Afyon Prison, they forcibly transferred me to Ward Five and forbade my brothers to come to me. I was feeling truly alarmed that I would be unable to endure the crowded conditions when suddenly as a sign of wrath and anger, the cold became so severe I would not have survived had I remained in my former place. The hardship turned into mercy for me.

It occurred to me as I was reciting the tesbihatfollowing the prayers: "In all the wards the Risale-i Nur students are working as hard as they can at the Risale-i Nur and its lessons both on their own account and in your place. But because this fifth ward is somewhat isolated and is constantly being filled and emptied, the need here is greater for the Risale-i Nur's instruction. The youths and elderly people read the newspapers, which write about the assaults of Russia with its awesome denial of God, and are therefore in far greater need of its definitive, powerful instruction about belief in God's existence and unity." I was thinking of writing a brief summary of the Twentieth Letter and the sacred sentence:

There is no god but God, He is One, He has no partner; His is the sovereignty and His is the praise; He gives life and deals death, and He is Living and dies not; in His hand is all good; He is Powerful over all things; and to Him shall be your return,{[*]: Bukhari, Adhan, 155; Tahajjud, 21; 'Umra, 12; Jihad, 133; Bad' al-Khalq, 11; Maghazi, 29; Da'wat, 18, 52; Riqaq, 11; I'tisam, 3; Muslim, Dhikr. 28, 30, 74, 75, 76; Witr, 24; Jihad, 158; Adab, 101; Tirmidhi, Mawaqit, 108; Hajj, 104; Da'wat, 35, 36; Nasa'i, Sahw, 83-6; Manasik, 163, 170; Iman, 12; Ibn Maja, Tijara 40; Manasik, 84; Adab, 58; Du'a, 10, 14, 16; Abu Da'ud, Manasik, 56; Darimi, Salat, 88, 90; Manasik, 34; Isti'dhan, 53, 57; Muwatta, Hajj, 127, 243; Qur'an, 20, 22; Musnad, i, 47; ii, 5; iii, 320; iv, 4; v, 191; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, i, 538.}

which for years I have recited ten times after the morning prayer. For it points out the affirmation of Divine unity on a vast scale, and with its eleven phrases demonstrates in detail as clearly as the sun both eleven proofs of the Divine necessary existence and dominical unity, and eleven good tidings. According to one narration, it bears the Greatest Name. But then it was suddenly imparted to me that I should teach this concise summary to Nadir Hoja and the youths here. So saying: "In the name of God," I began:

This sentence demonstrating Divine unity contains eleven good tidings and eleven proofs of the truths of belief. For now, I shall point out briefly the proofs only and refer their further explanation and the good tidings to the Twentieth Letter and other parts of the Risale-i Nur. However, I

consider it appropriate to write here a few points I did not tell them when I was writing the lesson. Of the eleven phrases of the above sentence affirming Divine unity:

THE FIRST PHRASE: 'There is no god but God'

The proof here is the treatise called The Supreme Sign (Âyetü'l-Kübra),which has been printed. It was because it is a matchless wonder that in giving news of various parts of the Risale-i Nur, Imam 'Ali (May God be pleased with him) said: "And by the Supreme Sign preserve me from sudden death," and making that Supreme Sign an intercessor, through the treatise's victories in the Courts of both Ankara and Denizli and its spreading effectively and secretly, it was both the reason for the Risale-i Nur students being acquitted, and since its secret printing had led to the students' imprisonment for nine months, it both clearly affirmed Imam 'Ali's (May God be pleased with him) wondrous prediction, and his prayer for the Risale-i Nur students.

Yes, the Seventh Ray, The Supreme Sign, points out thirty-three vast, universal, unanimous proofs in all beings. Alluding to innumerable evidences in each universal proof, it proves firstly that heavens indicate the Necessarily Existent One's existence and unity with the words of the stars; the earth with the phrases and sentences of the animals and plants; and so on, until the universe as a whole, with the words of all its contents and beings, and the truths of contingency and createdness and change - it proves them as clearly as sunlight and as certainly as the day. Those who want unshakeable belief and seek an unbreakable sword to combat irreligion and anarchy should refer to The Supreme Sign.

THE SECOND PHRASE: 'He is One'

A concise indication of the proof in this phrase is as follows:

In every aspect of the universe a unity, a oneness, is apparent. For example, it displays a unity and oneness by being a well set-out city, a magnificent palace, a meaningful, materialized book, and a embodied Qur'an every verse, and even every letter and point of which is miraculous. Similarly, since the palace's lamp is one and the same, and its calendar-lamp, and fiery cook, and water-bearing sponges, and hundreds of thousands of other things it contains are all one and the same, it proves decisively that the owner, ruler, scribe, and author of the palace, city, book, and mighty embodied Qur'an is existent, one, and single.

THE THIRD PHRASE: 'He has no partner'

A brief indication of the proof in this is as follows:

The source, master, and basis of The Supreme Sign is the sublime verse:

Say: if there had been [other] gods with Him -as they say- behold, they would certainly have sought out a way to the Lord of the Throne![to the end of the verse], {[*]: Qur'an, 17:42.}

which is also called the Supreme Sign. That is, if God had any partners and others had intervened in creation and interfered in His dominicality, the order of the universe would have been spoilt." However, the perfect order in everything, small and large, particular and universal, from the wing of the tiniest fly and the cell of the pupil of the eye to the numberless birds which fly through the air and the solar system, furnishes indubitable and decisive evidence for the impossibility and non-existence of any such partners. It also testifies self-evidently to the existence and unity of the Necessarily Existent One.

THE FOURTH PHRASE: 'His is the dominion'

A concise indication of the lengthy proof contained in this phrase:

We see that behind the veil One of boundless power and knowledge makes the face of the earth into an arable field, and every spring sows in it all mixed up together the seeds of a hundred thousand species of plants. Then in perfect order without confusing any of their crops, He raises them and with the hand of mercy and wisdom, out of them distributes to the two hundred thousand animal species their sustenance and rations according to need. He performs these acts of disposal in His vast, rich dominions, especially on the face of the earth. Those, then, who do not recognize that All-Wise Disposer and Compassionate Owner are compelled to deny the earth together with its produce, like the foolish Sophists.

THE FIFTH PHRASE: 'His is the praise'

This is a very brief indication to the very extensive proof contained in this phrase:

Yes, we see with our eyes and understand clearly with our minds that this city of the universe, quarter of the earth, and barracks of men and animals is governed, supervised, and maintained by an All-Compassionate Provider, a Munificent Provider of Bounties. For in order to have His bounties praised and thanked for, He makes the earth into a merchant ship

and railway train bringing provender, and the spring into a waggon filled with a hundred thousand sorts of foods and packets of conserves called breasts, conveying them to the needy living creatures whose rations have been exhausted at the end of winter. Anyone with an iota of intelligence would agree that this was the work of an All-Compassionate Provider. While one who does not affirm it and deviates into denial is a foolish, harmful animal since he is then obliged to deny all the regular bounties and specific foods on the face of the earth, which are the cause of praise and thanks.

THE SIXTH PHRASE: 'He gives life'

An extremely brief allusion to the proof in this phrase:

Yes, it is proved in the Tenth Word and in other parts of the Risale-i Nur that every spring on the face of the earth a glorious army is raised to life which consists of three hundred thousand species of living beings of infinite variety. With its innumerable members, all of whose lives and necessities are given them with perfect order and regularity, it displays a hundred thousand samples, indeed, signs, of the supreme resurrection of the dead. All those innumerable different creatures which are intermingled and mixed up together are raised to life in perfect balance and order without error, mistake, or deficiency, with none being confused, disarranged, or forgotten. Those hundreds of thousands of animal species with their uncountable members, which all differ as regards their forms, art, and livelihoods, are resurrected from droplets of fluid called sperm which is all similar, from seeds resembling earth, from tiny grains which differ little from one another, from the tiny eggs of flies which are all similar, and the birds from the same air and from fluid and eggs which are either the same as or only a little different from each other. The person, therefore, who does not conclude that it is an Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One, an All-Knowing, Creative Giver of Life Who writes out on the page of the earth and the spring a hundred thousand different books, all together, one within the other, without error, perfectly, is surely compelled to deny both himself and all the living creatures throughout the earth, in all the springs attached to the string of time, and on the faces of the living earth and space, and must himself be the most foolish and wretched of living creatures.

THE SEVENTH PHRASE: 'And deals death'

A very brief indication of the proof contained in this phrase:

In the autumn when the three hundred thousand species of living creatures are being discharged from their duties under the name of death, the

registers and pages of the actions of each species and all their members, and the indexes of all they have done, and the lists of all they will do the following spring, and their seeds, which are spirits of a sort, are all entrusted in their places to the hand of wisdom of the All-Glorious Preserver. The person, therefore, who does not recognize that All-Wise Creator, the Ever-Living and Undying One, Who inscribes in the miniscule seeds of the fig-tree, each of which is like an immortal spirit and bears all the laws governing the tree's life, the story of the tree's life, which contains writing enough to fill a book, thus making it like a large volume - such a person is certainly not even an idiot and delirious animal, but more abject than the devils who stoke the fires of Hell, and will be condemned to eternal death.

Yes, just as it is a hundredfold impossibility and futility that the above universal, comprehensive, wise, purposive acts, which comprise numberless wonders and miracles and point to the proofs of these Phrases, should be without the one who performed them; so too, to attribute them to blind, impotent, unconscious, deaf, lifeless, confused, disorderly, overwhelming causes is impossible, precluded and unjustifiable a thousand times over. For if that was the case, every particle of earth would have to possess an infinite power and wisdom, and a wondrous, universal craftsmanship so that it could give form to all the plants and flowers; and as it says in the piece about the air in A Guide For Youth, every molecule of air would have to possess the ability to know all speech and all the words spoken on the radio and telephone, and to teach them to the other molecules. No satan even could make anyone accept such an extraordinary idea. The penalty for unbelief and denial, which is thus far from reason and reality and constitutes insult and aggression against all beings, could only be a terrible Hell, which is pure justice. We should surely declare in the face of such disbelievers: "Long live Hell!"

THE EIGHTH PHRASE: 'And He is living and dies not'

An extremely brief indication of the proof in this phrase is this:

For example, on the disappearance of the tiny suns reflected in the bubbles on the surface of a choppy sea or flowing river, the bubbles that replace them display the same tiny suns, thus pointing to the sun in the sky and testifying to it, and with their disappearance and death they indicate the existence of a perpetual sun. Similarly, the creatures on the surface of the constantly changing sea of the universe, and ever-renewed, infinite space, in the arable field of minute particles, and in the river of time, which with its flow draws all transitory beings into its embrace, continuously and speedily flow on and depart, and their apparent causes

die along with them. Every day, every year, a universe dies and a new one replaces it. Since the crops of travelling worlds and flowing universes are continuously reaped from the field of particles, certainly just as the bubbles and tiny suns point to a perpetual sun with their passage, so the deaths of those numberless creatures and endless crops, and their being discharged in perfect orderliness together with their apparent causes, testify with the clarity and certainty of daylight, indeed, of the sun, to the necessary existence and being and unity of an Ever-Living Undying One, an Eternal Sun, an Enduring Creator, a Most Pure and Holy Commander. All beings testify to these a thousand times more clearly and definitely than the existence of the universe.

Now you have certainly understood just how deaf, foolish, and offensive is someone who does not hear these loud voices and powerful testimonies that fill the universe, nor heeds them.

THE NINTH PHRASE: 'In His hand is all good'

A brief indication of the proof contained in this phrase is as follows:

We see that each sphere of the universe, each realm of being, each level, each individual and member, and even each cell of each body possesses a store or depot containing its reserve supplies of sustenance, an arable field or treasury producing and preserving all its necessities. For at exactly the right time, in perfect order and balance, with perfect wisdom and graciousness, all their necessities are given to those needy beings by a hidden hand, outside their power and will.

For example, mountains contain all the minerals and chemicals necessary for man and living beings, and the things necessary for life; on someone's command and through his planning, they are perfect stores and treasuries. Similarly, through the power of an All-Wise Provider, the earth is an arable field, a harvest, a kitchen, producing with perfect order and regularity the sustenance of all those living beings. Even, just as human beings and all their bodily members have treasuries and stores, and the cells of their bodies have tiny depots; so it goes on, till the world of the hereafter, a store of which is this world; and an arable field and store of Paradise are the world of Islam and true humanity, which produce the good, beauty, and lights of this world; and one storehouse of Hell are the filthy matters and groups of this world, which come from non-existence, which is evil, and yield the produce of evils, ugly things, and disbelief, and which pollute the worlds of existence, which are good. And the store of the stars' heat is Hell, while the treasury of lights is a Paradise. Alluding to all those infinite treasuries, the phrase 'In His hand is all good,' then, demonstrates a most brilliant proof.

Yes, this phrase, together with the phrase, 'In His hand are the keys of all things,' points out to anyone not totally blind an infinitely extensive, wondrous proof of Divine dominicality and unity. For example, consider only the following out of those endless treasuries and stores: just as with his command of "Awake!" and the key of His will, an All-Wise Disposer Who holds the keys of seeds and grains, which are all tiny stores containing the members and destinies of huge trees or shining flowers, opens up in perfect balance and order the minute door of a seed; so too throwing open with the key of the rain the treasury of the earth, without error He opens all the seeds, which are the tiny stores and seminal fluid of plants, as well as the storehouses of droplets, which receive the command to develop and are the origin of animals, and the seminal fluid composed of water and air of birds and flying insects. If you want to understand and see that He opens up with the hand of wisdom, will, mercy, and choice, all the treasuries and depots, physical and non-physical, universal and particular, in the universe, each with its particular key, consider your own heart, mind, body, stomach, and garden, and the spring, which is the flower of the earth, and its flowers and fruits, for they are all opened up by a hidden hand, with perfect order, balance, mercy, and wisdom, with all different keys which come from the workbench of "Be! And it is."{[*]: Qur'an, 2:117, etc.} That hidden hand draws out pounds of foods from a minute box weighing less than an ounce, and sometimes hundreds of pounds, and presents them to living creatures as a feast. Is it at all possible that blind force, deaf nature, aimless chance, or lifeless, ignorant, impotent causes could interfere in such a boundless orderly, knowing, and percipient act, in such totally wise, purposive art in which no chance played any part, in such error-free perfectly balanced disposals, and in such completely just dominicality which is free of all tryanny? Could any being who does not see and administer all beings together at once, nor holds under his command minute particles together with the planets and stars, intervene in this disposal and government which is in every way wise, purposeful, miraculous, and balanced?

As the verse, Well-nigh bursting with fury{[*]: Qur'an, 67:8.} states, Hell rages at the person who does not recognize the All-Compassionate Disposer, the All-Wise Sustainer, in Whose hand is all good and Who holds the keys of all things, and deviates into denial; it boils up in fury, saying through the tongue of disposition: "He deserves my boundless torments and is in no way worthy of compassion."

THE TENTH PHRASE: 'And He is powerful over all things'

An extremely concise indication of the proof contained in this phrase is as follows:

As soon as every conscious creature who comes into this guest-house of the world opens his eyes, he sees that a power holds in its grasp the whole universe, and within that power are a pre-eternal, all-embracing knowledge which never confuses anything and a most precise wisdom and favour which never act purposelessly or without balance. Just as, spinning a single particle from the army of particles like a Mevlevi dervish in ecstasy, it employs it in numerous duties; so at the same time and according to the same law, it causes the globe of the earth to travel a twenty-four thousand-year-distance in a year, again like an ecstatic Mevlevi. At the same time and according to same law, through which it sends to men and the animals the produce of the seasons, it makes the sun into a shuttle or spinning-wheel, and spinning it ecstatically so it exerts an attraction, it employs the planets, the army of the solar system, in various duties in perfect order and balance. At the same time and according to the same law of wisdom, that same power writes one within the other, without error or confusion, hundreds of thousands of species, which resemble books, on the page of the face of the earth, and displays thousands of samples of the supreme resurrection of the dead. That same power at the same time transforms the page of the atmosphere into a slate for writing and erasing. Employing all its particles, which are like the nibs of pens or the points of the book, in the tasks specified for them by will and command, it endows all of them with such ability that each receives all words and speech as though it knows them, and broadcasts them without confusion. It employs each as a miniscule ear and tiny tongue, proving that the element of air is a 'throne' of Divine will and command.

Thus, according to this brief indication, the one who makes the universe into a well-ordered city, a first-class apartment-building and guest-house, and a miraculous book and Qur'an, and holds in His grasp with the balance of knowledge and arrangements of wisdom all the levels, realms, and groups of creatures from the universe as a whole to minute particles, and disposes of them, is Most-Merciful and Compassionate. So the person who does not recognize that Most Merciful and Compassionate One, Who demonstrates as clearly as the sun and daylight His wisdom and mercy within His power, and makes known His existence and unity within His absolute dominicality, thus wanting recognition through belief in return for His making these known, and love through worship in return for His making Himself loved, and thanks and praise in return for His

bounties - the satans in human form who do not recognize Him, or try to love Him through worship, in fact foster a sort of enmity towards Him through denial, and are each minor Nimrods and Pharaohs, and are certainly deserving of infinite torment.

THE ELEVENTH PHRASE: 'And to Him is your return'

This means to say: just as beings will depart for His presence, going to the eternal world, the hereafter, and the everlasting realm of happiness; so it is He Who is the place of recourse of all the creatures in the universe. All the chains of causes are based on Him and rest on His power. They are all merely veils for the disposals of His power. All apparent causes are only screens for preserving the dignity and majesty of His sacred power. They have no effect whatsoever in creation. If it was not for His will and command, nothing, not even a particle, could move or act. A very brief indication of the proof contained in this phrase is as follows:

Firstly:

We refer to the Tenth Word and its addenda, the Twenty-Ninth Word, the Seventh Topic of The Fruits of Belief, the Third Ray, and to the treatises of the Risale-i Nur about belief, the proof, leading to completely certain belief, that the resurrection of the dead will occur and the hereafter and eternal life will be brought about as indubitably and definitely as the coming spring, as this sacred phrase states. Truly, those treatises have proved this pillar of belief in such a way with so many evidences that they compel even the most obdurate deniers to affirm that the existence of the hereafter is as certain as the existence of this world.

Secondly:

One third of the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition looks to the resurrection of the dead and the hereafter, and it constructs all its claims on them. Since this is so, all the miracles and evidences proving the Qur'an's veracity also indicate the existence of the hereafter. Similarly, all the miracles bearing witness to the prophethood of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), and all the evidences of his prophethood, and all the proofs of his truthfulness, testify also to the resurrection of the dead and the hereafter. For just as throughout his life, one of his most constant calls concerned the hereafter, so all the twenty-four thousand prophets (Peace be upon them) taught eternal life and everlasting happiness, giving the glad tidings to mankind, and proving them with innumerable miracles and certain evidences. Since this is so, all the miracles and evidences proving their prophethood and veracity testified to the hereafter and eternal life, which was their constant and most important teaching. Making an analogy with this, all the evidences proving the other pillars of belief testify also to the resurrection of the dead and the throwing open of the realm of bliss.

Thirdly:

In order to display His perfections and His power and dominicality, an All-Glorious Maker, a Beauteous Maker, an All-Perfect Allah creates the universe together with all its atoms, planets, parts, and levels. With perfect wisdom He continuously makes each being work at a task, indeed, at numerous tasks, and in order to display the eternal, endless manifestations of His Names, He sends caravan after caravan, indeed, world after travelling renewed world, and the tribes of creatures to the guest-house of this world and the arena of trial which is worldly life. He records for the cinemas of the hereafter set up in the World of Similitudes, with the cameras of the Intermediate Realm, all their images, deeds, and circumstances, and after releasing them from their duties, sends other tribes, caravans, and flowing, travelling worlds to the arena in order to perform those duties and be mirrors to the manifestations of His Names. Is it therefore at all possible that there should be no realm of reward and punishment, no resurrection of the dead and last judgement for men, who with consciousness and intelligence respond in this fleeting world to all the aims of the Creator, loving Him with all their capacity and making Him love them; recognizing Him and making Him known; beseeching with endless supplications everlasting happiness in the hereafter; and since, possessing intelligence, they suffer infinite pains, they long for eternal life, which is pure pleasure, with all their beings, spirits, and capacities? God forbid! A hundred thousand times, God forbid!

Since these brief indications are proved and explained brilliantly, powerfully and in detail in the Risale-i Nur, we refer you to that and here cut this long story short.

Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.{[*]: Qur'an, 2:32.}

* * *

A Brief Summary of Sura al-Fatiha

[Part Two of the only lesson I gave after having been transferred temporarily from solitary confinement in the third 'School of Joseph' to the company of others.]

This is a short sample of the lessons given to the Risale-i Nur students in prison:

While reciting Sura al-Fatiha during the prayers, it commanded me to expound one drop from its ocean and a single flash from the seven colours in the light of its sun. For sure we had written some very sweet and agreeable points from this sacred treasury in part of the Twenty-Ninth Letter, particularly in the journey of imagination taken in "the Nunof na'budu,"and the Eight Symbols (Rumuz-u Semaniye),and the Qur'anic commentary Signs of Miraculousness (Ishârâtü'l-I'caz),and in other parts of the Risale-i Nur, but I felt obliged to write down my reflections during the prayers, but only the allusions to the pillars of belief and their proofs from that very sweet Qur'anic summary, in the form of a concise extract and in the manner of Part One above. So referring the phrase In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate to two or three treatises of the Risale-i Nur, I am starting from All praise be to God:

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. * All praise be to God, the Sustainer of the All the Worlds. * The Merciful, the Compassionate; * Owner of the Day of Judgement; * You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help; * Guide us to the Straight Path; * The path of those whom You have blessed, not those who have received Your anger, nor those who have gone astray.{[*]: Qur'an, 1:1-7.}

FIRST PHRASE: 'All praise be to God'

A very brief allusion to the proof of the truths of belief in this phrase.

Filling the face of the earth, indeed, the universe, are intentional bestowals and bounties, which are the cause of praise and thanks, especially the sending of pure, clean, nutritious milk to infants from between blood and excrement; so too are there purposeful gifts and presents, and kindly benefactions and feasts. The price of these is to say "In the Name of God" at the start, "All praise be to God" at the end, and in the middle to perceive the bestowal in the bounty, and through it to recognize your

Sustainer. Consider your own self, your stomach, and your senses! How many things and bounties they need! See how many foods and delights they want for the price of praise and thanks, then compare all living creatures with yourself. Thus, the endless praise offered verbally and through tongues of disposition in response to these general bestowals shows as clearly as the sun the existence and universal dominicality of One Who is Worshipped and Praised, an All-Compassionate Bestower of Bounties.

SECOND PHRASE: 'The Sustainer of All the Worlds'

A very short allusion to the proof contained in this phrase:

We see with our eyes that within the universe are not thousands, but millions of worlds, small universes, mostly one within the other. Although the conditions for the administration and running of these are all different, they are organized, maintained, and administered so perfectly that like a single page held constantly in view the universe is renewed and changed, and like a line, each of all those worlds is written by a pen of power and determining. Every instant attestations, particular and universal, are made, boundless, unending testimonies to the number of minute particles and the beings formed of them, to the necessary existence and unity of a Sustainer of All the Worlds who administers these millions of worlds and travelling universes with an infinite knowledge, wisdom, and limitless all-embracing mercy within an infinite dominicality. Not to affirm, perceive, understand or see a dominicality which raises and administers with the same law, the same dominicality, the same wisdom, all beings from the arable field of particles to the solar system and the Milky Way, and from the cells of the body to the storehouse of the earth, to the universe in its entirety, certainly makes a person deserving of endless torment, and negates his worthiness to be pitied.

THIRD PHRASE: 'The Merciful, the Compassionate'

An extremely brief allusion to the proof in this phrase:

Yes, the existence and reality of a boundless mercy is as clearly apparent in the universe as the light of the sun. As certainly as light testifies to the sun, so this extensive mercy testifies to a Most Merciful and Compassionate One behind the veil of the Unseen. An important part of mercy being sustenance, that mercy is signified by the Name of Provider. As for sustenance, it points to an All-Compassionate Provider so clearly that anyone with an iota of intelligence is compelled to affirm Him. For example, He sends food to all living beings, particularly to the helpless and young, throughout the earth and the atmosphere, in truly wondrous

fashion beyond their wills and power, from seeds, droplets of fluid, and grains of earth which all resemble each other. He makes the hen-birds search out the food and bring it their wingless, frail chicks in the nests at the tops of trees. He subjugates the hungry lioness to her cubs, so she does not eat the meat she finds but gives it them. He sends the pleasant, nutritious, pure, white milk, like the water of Kawthar, from the springs of breasts to the infants of humans and young of other animals, without it being polluted by red blood and filthy excrement, sending also their mothers' tenderness to assist them. Then just as in truly wondrous fashion He causes the appropriate sustenance to hasten to all the trees, which need a sort of food, so He bestows an extensive table of foods on man's senses, which require sustenance physical and non-physical, and on his mind, heart, and spirit. It is as though the universe consists of hundreds of thousands of laden tables of every different kind and sort, all enfolded one within the other like the petals of the rose and shirts of the maize cob. With a multitude of various tongues, particular and universal, to the number of tables and the foods they bear and their bounties, these point out to everyone who is not completely blind a Most Merciful Provider, an All-Compassionate and Munificent One.

If it is said:

The calamities, ugliness, and evils in this world are contrary to that all-embracing mercy, and spoil it.

The Answer:

This question has been answered completely satisfactorily in various parts of the Risale-i Nur such as the Treatise On Divine Determining. Referring you to them, here we make only a brief allusion, as follows:

All the elements, all the realms of beings, and all creatures, have numerous duties, particular and universal, and each of those duties yields numerous results and fruits. For the most part these are beneficial, beautiful, good, and are mercy. Only a few of them encounter those lacking ability, those who act wrongly, or those who deserve punishment and disciplining, or those who will be the means of producing many shoots of good. An apparent, minor evil is ugliness; it is apparently unkind. But if for that minor evil not to occur, the element and universal being is prevented by mercy from performing its duty, then all its other good and beautiful results would not come into existence. Since the non-existence of a good is evil and the spoiling of beauty is ugly, evils, ugliness, and pitilessness would occur to the number of those results. Thus, hundreds of evil and instances of unkindness would be perpetrated just so that one evil would not occur, which would be entirely contrary to wisdom, benefit, and the mercy of dominicality. For example, things like snow, cold, fire, and rain have hundreds of benefits and purposes. If through their

own choice careless or imprudent people harm themselves, for instance if they put their hands in the fire and say there is no mercy in its creation, the innumerable good, beneficial, merciful uses of fire will give them the lie, and hit them in the mouth.

Moreover, man's selfish desires and lowly emotions, which are blind to consequences, cannot be the criteria, measure, or balance of the laws of mercy, sovereignty, and dominicality which are in force in the universe. He sees things according to the colour of his own mirror. A black-hearted, cruel person sees the universe as weeping, ugly, dark, and tyrannical. But if he looks through the eye of belief, he sees a macroanthropos clothed in seventy thousand beautiful garments one over the other, sewn of instances of mercy, good, and wisdom. Like a houri of Paradise dressed in seventy fine garments, it is always laughing, smiling with mercy. He will observe that mankind within it is a miniature universe, and each individual man a microcosm. He will exclaim with all his heart and spirit:

"All praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds * The Merciful, the Compassionate. * Owner of the Day of Judgement!"

FOURTH PHRASE: 'Owner of the Day of Judgement'

A very concise indication of the proof contained in this phrase:

Firstly:

All the evidences which testify to the proof of 'And to Him is your return,' and to the resurrection of the dead and hereafter at the end of the Part One of this lesson, testify to the extensive truth of belief which 'Owner of the Day of Judgement' indicates.

Secondly:

As is said at the end of the Tenth Word, just as the eternal dominicality, mercy, and wisdom of the universe's Maker, and his pre-eternal and post-eternal beauty, glory, and perfection, and His endless other attributes and hundreds of Names certainly require the hereafter; so does the Qur'an testify to the abode of the hereafter with thousands of its verses and proofs, as does Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) with his hundreds of miracles and evidences, and all the prophets (Peace be upon them) and the revealed books and scriptures, with their innumerable evidences. The person, therefore, who does not believe in the everlasting life of the hereafter casts himself into a sort of Hell in this world, arising from his unbelief, and suffers constant torment. As is described in A Guide For Youth, through their death and parting, all the past and the future and creatures and universes continuously rain down endless pains on his spirit and heart, making him suffer the torments of Hell before going there.

Thirdly:

'The Day of Judgement '(Yawm al-Din)alludes to a vast and powerful proof of the resurrection of the dead, but a situation has arisen here causing the postponement of that proof to another time. Perhaps too, no need remains for it. For various parts of the Risale-i Nur have proved with hundreds of powerful arguments that the morning and spring of the resurrection of the dead and Great Gathering will occur as certainly as day follows night and spring follows winter.

FIFTH PHRASE: 'You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help.'

It occurred to me that before pointing out the proof contained in this phrase, I should relate a true journey of the imagination which is described in the Twenty-Ninth Letter. It was like this:

As is explained in the Risale-i Nur, and especially in the Qur'anic commentary, Signs of Miraculousness (Isharat al-I'jaz)and The Eight Symbols (Rumûz-u Semâniye),one time when I was seeking out the Qur'an's miracles I found four or five miraculous predictions at the end of Sura al-Fath and an historical miracle in the verse: This day We shall save you in your body,{[*]: Qur'an, 10:92.} and even flashes of miraculousness in numerous other words and sometimes miraculous points in letters. Then, when reciting Sura al-Fatiha during the prayers, a question occurred to me in order to inform me of a miracle in the Nunof na'buduand nasta'in([You alone] do we worship [and from You alone] do we seek help).

Why was it not "You alone do I worship and from You alone do I seek help," rather than the first person plural, that is, "We worship You and We seek help from You"? Suddenly the broad arena of a journey of the imagination opened up through the door of that "Nun"(we). I understood experientially the mighty mystery and vast benefits of praying in congregation, and that this single letter is a miracle, and I actually saw this. It was as follows:

At that time while performing the prayers in Bayezid Mosque in Istanbul, I said: "You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help."I looked and saw that the congregation in the mosque was saying "Guide us!" the same as me; its members were all participating in my supplication, corroborating it. Then another veil was drawn back. I saw that all the mosques in Istanbul had as though become a huge Bayezid Mosque. All their congregations were exclaiming: "You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help"like me, setting their seals on my assertions and entreaties, and saying "Amen!" to them. Then within

their taking on the form of intercessors for me, a further veil was unfolded in my imagination. I saw that the World of Islam had assumed the form of a huge mosque, with Mecca and the Ka'ba as the mihrab. The rows of all the Muslims performing the prayers were in circles facing the sacred mihrab. Saying like me "You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help * Guide us..."each was both supplicating in the name of all, and testifying, and affirming it; also making all the others intercessors for himself. Then, when thinking: "What such a vast community claims could not be wrong and its supplications would not be rejected; it repulses Satanic doubts," and when affirming the vast, self-evident benefits of performing the prayers in congregation, another veil was unfolded. I saw that the universe and all the varieties of creatures were as though performing the prayers through the tongues of their beings and worshipping in a way particular to each. Responding with extensive worship to the all-embracing dominicality of the Glorious All-Worshipped One, each group affirmed the testimonies and affirmation of Divine unity of all the others. While observing that this was the case since they all take up positions proving the same result, yet another veil was unfolded. I saw that just as the universe, the macroanthropos, exclaims: "You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help"with the tongue of disposition, and numerous of its parts declare it through the tongue of capacity and innate need, and conscious beings say it verbally, all thus displaying their worship before the Creator's compassionate dominicality; in just the same way, through the silent tongue of need and submission to their Creator's dominicality, all the particles, powers, and senses of my body, like those of all my companions in that vast congregation, each resembling a tiny universe, declared: "You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help."In this way they showed that they were acting in accordance with the Divine will and command and were at every instant in need of their Creator's grace and mercy and assistance. And just as entering through the door of the Nun,I had observed in wonderment both the sacred mystery of performing the prayers in congregation and the beautiful miracle of the Nun,so I went out from it. "All praise be to God!",I exclaimed. Thereafter I became accustomed to reciting the verse, You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek helpon account of those three congregations and those companions, great and small.

Now we have completed the introduction and come to our main topic, and a brief indication of the proof alluded to by You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help:

Firstly:

We see with our own eyes that in the universe and especially

on the face of the earth, within an awesome, continuous, regular activity and creativity, a compassionate, administering absolute dominicality responds with perfect wisdom and favour to the pleas for help and entreaties made by act, tongue, and state, replying actively to each. Sound intelligences and the eye of belief see within the appearance of this dominicality, the response of the manifestation of an absolute Godhead, an Object of universal worship, to the thousands of sorts of worship of all beings, particularly living beings, and the voluntary, innate worship of all the groups of mankind in all its varieties. All the revealed scriptures and prophets also tell of this.

Secondly:

As signified by the nunof na'buduin the introduction above, each of the three congregations, and all of them, being engaged all together in their different, innate, voluntary worship, is without doubt a grateful response to a 'worshippedness,' and a boundless, unequivocal testimony to a Most Holy Object of Worship. As signified by the nunof nasta'in,the three congregations mentioned above, that is, every group and every individual from the totality of the universe to the congregation of the particles of a living body utters pleas for help and supplications both by act and state, testifying indubitably to the One Who administers them compassionately and hastens to assist them, and replies to and accepts their entreaties. For example, as is said in the Twenty-Third Word, the acceptance of the three sorts of supplications of all the creatures on the earth in a way which is truly wondrous and beyond all expectation, testifies definitely to a Compassionate Sustainer and Answerer of Prayer. Yes, before our eyes the supplications of grains and seeds to their Creator through the tongue of innate capacity to become shoots and trees, are accepted. Similarly, all living creatures seeking from someone through the tongue of innate need, their sustenance, which their hands cannot reach, and all their vital necessities and desires, which are beyond their power, testifies clearly to a Munificent Creator Who before our eyes accepts all those supplications they offer through the tongue of innate need, and at exactly the right time wisely makes strange, unconscious creatures speedily reply to their calls for help.

Thus, as in the above two paragraphs, the acceptance of the verbal supplications of all groups, especially the wondrous acceptance of the prophets' (Peace be upon them) supplications and those of the elite, attest to the proof of Divine unity which From You alone do we seek helpcomprises.

SIXTH PHRASE: 'Guide us to the Straight Path'

Yes, just as the shortest way among paths leading from one place to another, and the shortest of lines drawn from one distant point to another, are the straightest and most direct; in exactly the same way, the straightest and most direct of spiritual paths and interior ways are the shortest and easiest. For example, all the comparisons in the Risale-i Nur between the ways of belief and unbelief demonstrate decisively that the way of belief and the affirmation of Divine unity is extremely short, direct, straight, and easy, while the ways of unbelief and denial are extremely lengthy, difficult, and dangerous. That is to say, unbelief and the association of partners with God are not tenable in this straight, wise universe, in which everything is driven down the easiest and shortest path, and belief and the affirmation of Divine unity are as necessary and essential in the universe as the sun.

Also, the most comfortable, beneficial, and the shortest and safest way in human morality and conduct is the way of the straight path and moderation.

For example, if the power of reason deviates from the wisdom of the middle way and the easy, beneficial straight path, it falls into either excess and a pernicious wiliness, or deficiency and a calamitous stupidity, and is prey to all sorts of difficulties on their lengthy paths.

And if the power of anger does not follow the path of courage, which is the middle way, it descends into either excess and a most injurious, oppressive fury and arrogance, or into deficiency and an abased, painful cowardice and timidity, and as the penalty for the error of deviating from the straight path, suffers continuous torments of the conscience.

And if the power of animal appetites strays from the safe middle way of chastity, it falls into either excess and a calamitous, shameful debauchery and immorality, or into deficiency and frigidity, that is, an inability to experience pleasure, and suffers the torments of that spiritual sickness.

Thus, like these, in personal life and social life, in all their ways, the direct path is the easiest, shortest, and most beneficial. And ways other than the straight path are full of troubles, and are lengthy and harmful.

That is to say, just as Guide us to the straight pathis a comprehensive supplication and wide-reaching worship, so it indicates a proof of Divine unity, instruction in wisdom, and moral training.

SEVENTH PHRASE: 'The path of those whom You have blessed'

A concise indication of the proof contained in this phrase:

Firstly:

The answer to the question of who "those" are, is the verse:

Of the prophets [who teach], the sincere [lovers of the truth], the witnesses [or martyrs] [who testify], and the righteous [who do good].{[*]: Qur'an, 4:69.}

This verse lists the four classes of mankind who have received the bounty of right-guidance. That is, with "the prophets"it indicates Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), who is the leader of the four classes, with "the sincere [lovers of the truth]"Abu Bakr the Veracious, and with "the witnesses [or martyrs] [who testify]"'Umar, Uthman, and 'Ali (May God be pleased with them). With these prophecies, that after the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and after Abu Bakr, both 'Umar, and 'Uthman, and 'Ali would be both Caliphs and martyrs, this verse displays a flash of miraculousness.

Secondly:

The truth of Divine unity, which these most elevated, most true and rightly-guided four classes of mankind have taught with all their strength since the time of Adam, with innumerable proofs, miracles, wonders, evidences, and illuminations, and whom the majority of mankind have affirmed, is most certainly as definite as the sun. With their hundreds of thousands of miracles and proofs, these pre-eminent members of mankind have proved their veracity and truthfulness, and their consensus and agreement in positive matters such as Divine unity and the Creator's necessary existence forms such a proof it can be in no way doubted. They are the straightest and the most veracious and verified of guides and the leaders in perfection among mankind, and man is the most important result of the universe, the Divine vicegerent on earth, and of living creatures the most elevated and with the most comprehensive capacity. Those therefore who do not recognize a truth upon which those four classes have unanimously agreed, and deny the truths in which they believed unshakeably, with 'absolute certainty', 'vision of certainty', and 'knowledge of certainty', and in proof of which they put forward the universe together with all its beings, such deniers surely perpetrate an infinite crime and are deserving of infinite punishment.

EIGHTH PHRASE: 'Not those who have received Your wrath nor those who have gone astray'

A concise indication of the proof contained in this phrase:

Based on unanimous reports, and universal, certain events and observations, human history and the sacred revealed scriptures relate in clear, definite fashion how on thousands of occasions succour arrived wondrously from the Unseen for the prophets, the people of the straight path, and how what they sought was given them exactly, and how on hundreds of occasions wrath and heavenly blows were visited on their enemies, the deniers. This demonstrates conclusively and unmistakably that the universe and mankind within it have a sovereign, just, generous, munificent, mighty, subjugating Disposer and Sustainer Who in various historical incidents wondrously bestowed victory and salvation on many of the prophets such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, Hud, and Salih (Peace be upon them), and visited terrible heavenly calamities on numerous oppressors and deniers like the Thamud, 'Ad, and Pharaoh, as punishment in this world too for rebellion against the prophets.

Since the time of Adam (Peace be upon him), two mighty conflicting currents have come down to us. One is that of the people of prophethood, righteousness, and belief, who, following the straight path, receive the bounty of happiness in this world and the next. Since they act in accordance with the true beauty, order, and perfection of the universe, they both receive the favours of the universe's Owner, and experience happiness in this world and the next. Being the means of mankind rising to the level of the angels, or higher, through the truths of belief they attain to a sort of Paradise in this world, and to bliss in the hereafter, and they cause others to win these too.

As for the second current, because it deviates from the straight path and through excess and deficiency transforms the intelligence into an instrument of torture amassing pains, it casts humanity down to a degree lower than the animals. Moreover, in addition to receiving the blows of Divine wrath in return for their wrongdoing in this world, due to their intelligences, they see the universe as a place of universal mourning and as the slaughterhouse of living creatures toppling over in death, and as exceedingly ugly and confused, thus causing their consciences to suffer a perpetual Hell in this world and making themselves deserving of everlasting torment in the next.

Thus, the verse,

Not those who have received Your wrath nor those who have gone astray

at the end of Sura al-Fatiha informs us of these two mighty currents. It is also the source, basis, and master of all the comparisons in the Risale-i Nur. Since the treatises of the Risale-i Nur expound this verse with hundreds of comparisons, we refer you to them for further explanation, and here suffice with this brief indication.

NINTH PHRASE: 'Amen'

An extremely brief allusion to this:

The nunin na'buduand nasta'inpoints out to us those three great congregations, particularly the congregations of those who affirm Divine unity in the mosque of the World of Islam, and especially the congregations of millions performing the prayers at that time, and it places us among them and opens the way for us to receive a share of their intercession; we too, then, through the word "Amen," join in the supplications of that congregation of believing worshippers, affirming what they say, and offering a plea that their intercession and seeking of help will be accepted. It transforms our insignificant worship, supplications, and entreaties into universal, extensive worship, causing universal dominicality to respond to it. That is to say, through the mystery of the brotherhood of belief and Islamic unity, through the bonds of unity of the congregation of millions in the mosque of the Islamic world at the time of the prayers, and by means of 'spiritual radios,' the "Amen" at the end of Sura al-Fatiha acquires universality and may become millions of "Amens."

All praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds.

Glory be unto to You! We have no knowledge save that which you taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.{[*]: Qur'an, 2:32.}

{(*): Thus, if, according to his degree, an ordinary man receives a tiny share like a date-stone of this sacred truth, a perfected man who has advanced spiritually may receive a share like the palm-tree. But a person who has not advanced should not intentionally recall these meanings while reciting the Fatiha,* lest he impairs his sense of the Divine presence. When he advances to such a station, those meanings will anyway make themselves clear to him.

(*) We asked our Master what was meant by "intentionally" in the footnote above, and we are writing here exactly the answer we received:

I consider that to dwell on the comprehensive, elevated meanings of the Fatiha and tashahhud, not intentionally but indirectly, and not in detail, which induces a sort of heedlessness of the Divine presence, but concisely and briefly, dispels heedlessness and imparts a brilliance to the worship and invocations. This shows up completely the high value of the prayers, the Fatiha, and the tashahhud. What is meant by "not dwelling intentionally" at the end of the second part, is that sometimes to ponder over the meanings themselves in detail causes one to forget the prayers, lessening the sense of the Divine presence. But I feel that to dwell on them indirectly and concisely yields great benefits.

Signed in the name of the Risale-i Nur students of the third School of Joseph, Ceylan}

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

And from Him do we seek help

[Part Three of a single lesson of the third School of Joseph]

Introduction

Part Two was written at the implied command of Sura al-Fatiha in the five daily prayers, and through the effulgence of 'I testify that there is no god but God.' Now I have been obliged -for three reasons I am not at present permitted to disclose- to write this Third Part, prompted by the tongue of 'I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God,' and through the effulgence of the sublime verses at the end of Sura al-Fath:

It is He Who sent His Prophet with guidance and the Religion of Truth, to proclaim it over all religion, and enough is God for a Witness. * Muhammad is the Messenger of God; and those who are with him are strong against unbelievers, [but] compassionate among each other,{[*]: Qur'an, 48:28-9.}

which contain five miraculous predictions. Referring the details, explanations, and documented proofs to The Miracles of Muhammad in Zülfikâr,which is about the Messengership of Muhammad (PBUH), and to the Arabic al-Hizb al-Nuriin The Supreme Sign, here shall be written very briefly and concisely in the second and third of three 'Indications', a summary of the Hizb al-Nuriand a sort of translation of the part of the testimony of faith "Muhammad is the Messenger of God" which I constantly use in my Arabic reflective thought together with the affirmation of Divine unity, repeating them in the tesbihatfollowing the prayers.

FIRST INDICATION

Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), who responded with universal worship and teaching to the manifestation of the dominicality of the universe's Owner, and His eternal Godhead, and His infinite bounties, is as necessary for the universe as is the sun. For he is the supreme master of mankind and its greatest prophet, the Glory of the World, and the one addressed by "If not for you, if not for you, I would not have created the spheres." {[*]: al-'Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa', ii, 164; 'Ali al-Qari, Sharh al-Shifa', i, 26.} The Muhammadan Reality was the reason for the world's

creation, and is its result and most perfect fruit. So too, truths connected with the universe such as its true perfections and its being the enduring mirrors of an eternal Beauteous One of Glory, and the manifestation of His Names, and the works -charged with duties- of His wise acts, and His most meaningful missives, and its bearing an everlasting world, and its producing the result of the hereafter and an abode of bliss for which all conscious creatures yearn, - these are all realized through the Muhammadan (PBUH) Reality and his messengership. Since this is so, the universe testifies most powerfully and decisively to his messengership. Moreover, the messengership of Muhammad (PBUH) and the Muhammadan Reality give certain good news of eternal life, which, in order to be saved from non-existence, nothingness, eternal extinction, and absolute annihilation, foremost the World of Islam, and all mankind and all conscious creatures, constantly and earnestly seek, with all the powers of their comprehensive natures, with the tongues of all their abilities, and with all their supplications, worship, and entreaties. They thus testify to Muhammad's messengership and the Muhammadan Reality, endorsing that he is the pride of mankind and the most noble of creatures. Moreover, in accordance with the rule "the cause is like the doer," the equivalent of all the good works performed every day by three hundred and fifty million believers being recorded in Muhammad's (Peace and blessings be upon him) book of good works, and the single person of Muhammad (PBUH) attaining to a 'station' manifesting the universal worship and effulgence of hundreds of millions of righteous worshippers, and perhaps thousands of millions, testifies in truly powerful fashion to his messengership, affirming it.

SECOND INDICATION

The following indicates more than twenty testimonies, which I always ponder over reflectively in the course of my invocations:

Muhammad is the Messenger of God, ever faithful to his promise, through the testimony of his sudden appearance with a perfect religion, Islam, and Shari'a despite being unlettered, with the firmest belief, faith, and worship, the most elevated cause, supplications, and prayers, the most general message, utter steadfastness, and wondrous fruitfulness, all without equal.

A translation of the above15 and a brief exposition of its meaning are the following testimonies to the messengership of Muhammad (PBUH).

The First

is a proof of prophethood proceeding from eleven of his attributes and states. Yes, his appearing -despite being unlettered- suddenly and without experience with a religion which has left in amazement the learned men and philosophers of fourteen centuries and has won first place among the revealed religions is an attribute without equal.

Also unequalled is the fact that Islam, which emerged from his words, actions, and conduct, has at all times educated and trained the spirits, souls, and minds of three hundred and fifty million people, taking them to spiritual advancement.

Moreover, he appeared with such a Shari'a that for fourteen centuries it has ruled with its just laws one fifth of mankind, leading it to material and spiritual progress.

So too that Being (PBUH) appeared with such a faith and creed, and such strength of belief that all the people of reality have unanimously affirmed that, since they receive perpetual effulgence from it, his belief was at the highest and strongest degree. The opposition of his innumerable opponents at that time not causing him the slightest anxiety, doubt, or scruple, shows too that the strength of his belief was without equal or like.

He also displayed such worship of God and servitude to Him that bringing together the beginning and end of worship, imitating no one, he saw and conformed to the subtlest mysteries of worship, and fulfilled them even in times of greatest disturbance. This was an incomparable attribute, as was his offering such prayers, supplications and entreaties to his Creator that up to the present his degree has not been reached, even with the meeting of many minds. For example, in the supplication Jawshan al-Kabir,taking as intercessor a thousand and one Divine Names, he so describes and acquaints his Creator that it has no like. Thus, no one has attained to his knowledge of God.

He called people to religion with such steadfastness and announced his prophethood with such boldness that although his people, his uncle, the great powers of the world, and the followers of the former religions were all opposed and hostile to him, he did not fear or hold back even a jot, but challenged them all and successfully accomplished his task. This too was an unparalleled attribute.

Thus, these eight wondrous, matchless attributes form a truly powerful testimony to his veracity and prophethood. They show too that there is complete certainty concerning his utter seriousness, trustworthiness, veracity, and truthfulness. Every day in the tashahhudwith millions of tongues the World of Islam declares: "Peace be upon you, O Prophet! And may God's mercy and blessings be upon you." It submits to the

function with which he was charged, and affirming the good news of the eternal happiness which he brought, it gratefully says: "Peace be upon you, O Prophet!" in the face of the sure way leading to eternal life which mankind seeks and yearns for with an innate, profound longing, thus meeting with him in spirit and congratulating him in the name of three hundred million, indeed, thousands of millions.

The Second Testimony,

which comprises twenty universal testimonies, as well as many others: Through the testimony to his veracity of all truths of the pillars of belief.

That is, the truths, realities, and veracity of the six pillars of belief testify decisively to Muhammad's (PBUH) messengership and veracity. For the collective personality of his life as Messenger and the basis of all he claimed and the essence of his prophethood were those six pillars. In which case, all the evidences verifying the pillars of belief proved the truth of Muhammad's (PBUH) messengership, and his veracity. The evidences for the hereafter of the other pillars of faith are set forth in The Fruits of Belief (Meyve Risalesi)and the Addenda of the Tenth Word; and all the pillars together with their proofs form a proof of his messengership.

The Third Universal Testimony,

which comprises thousands of testimonies: Through the testimony of his self (Peace and blessings be upon him), through his thousands of miracles, perfections, and fine morality.

That is: he was a proof of himself as brilliant as the sun, through the powerful testimony to his messengership and veracity of his thousands of miracles, attainments and perfections, and his elevated character and fine morality. Yes, as is proved in the wondrous treatise of The Miracles of Muhammad (PBUH) through more than three hundred sound narrations, in accordance with the explicit verses

And the moon split,{[*]: Qur'an, 54:1.}

and

And when you threw, it was not you who threw; it was rather God that threw,{[*]: Qur'an, 8:17.}

the moon splitting in two at the sign of a single finger of his hand; and water flowing forth in five springs from the five fingers of the same hand, and an entire thirsty army drinking from these and testifying to it; and his casting a handful of dust with the same hand at an attacking enemy army, and their turning tail and fleeing when the dust entered the eyes of all of them; and

small pebbles uttering glorifications in the same hand, as though they were human, saying: "Glory be to God!" -hundreds of incidents such as these, which are related in 'sound' narrations; and some about which there are unanimous reports described in the histories, and miracles, which according to exacting scholars numbered around a thousand, appearing at his hand; and according to friend and foe alike his fine attributes and good character being of the very highest degree; {(*): The hero 'Ali (May God be pleased with him), whose courage was of the very highest order, said: "When we were frightened when fighting in battle, we used to hide behind God's Messenger (PBUH)." The histories relate how even his enemies of that time corroborated that all his virtues were superior, the same as his courage.} and the unanimous agreement -at the degree of 'absolute certainty'- of all the people of reality, who have attained to spiritual perfection through following him and reached 'the vision of certainty' in the realities, that Muhammad's (PBUH) perfections and attainments were of the very highest level; and the spiritual achievements of the World of Islam, which proceeds from his religion; as well as the truths of mighty Islam - all these furnish evidence for his wondrous perfections. This surely means that this Being (PBUH) testified in most brilliant and universal fashion to his own messengership.

The Fourth Testimony,

which comprises numerous powerful testimonies: Through the testimony of the Qur'an, with all its truths and proofs.That is, the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition testifies to his messengership and veracity with its innumerable truths and proofs.

Yes, with all its veracious truths, the Qur'an of Mighty Stature, which as is proved Zülfikâris miraculous in forty respects, has illumined fourteen centuries and governed through its unchanging laws one fifth of mankind; and from that time to this has challenged all those who have opposed it; and not even one of the suras of which anyone has dared to produce the like of; and as is proved in The Supreme Sign, whose six aspects are luminous and cannot be penetrated by doubts; and whose veracity is endorsed by six supreme 'stations'; which is based on six unshakeable truths; and is eagerly and respectfully recited every moment by hundreds and millions of tongues, and is inscribed with its sacredness on the hearts of hafizes;and from whose testimony proceeds all the testimony and belief of the World of Islam; and from whose source flow forth all the sciences of belief and of Islam; and just as it affirms all the previous revealed scriptures, so is it affirmed by them; - with all its truths and all its proofs of its veracity, the Qur'an of Mighty Stature testifies to the truthfulness and messengership of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him).

The Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Universal Testimonies:

Through the testimony of Jawshan al-Kabir,and the sacredness of its allusions; and the Risale-i Nur, and the power of its proofs; and the past, and the unanimity of its signs of a forthcoming prophet; and the future, and the confirmation of thousands of its events.

That is to say, Jawshan al-Kabir,which looks both explicitly and allusively to a thousand and one Divine Names; is a wondrous supplication that in one respect proceeds from the Qur'an; is superior to all the other invocations recited by those who advance in knowledge of God; which was brought as revelation by Gabriel during a military expedition, who said: "Cast away your armour and in its place read this Jawshan!"- the truths it contains and its perfectly accurate descriptions of the Sustainer testify to Muhammad's (PBUH) messengership and veracity. So too, through proving rationally and logically as a single proof with its one hundred and thirty parts all the truths of the messengership of Muhammad (PBUH), and teaching matters which in the view of philosophy are remote from reason in the most reasonable and easy fashion as though they were before one's very eyes, the Risale-i Nur -which in one respect received effulgence from the Jawshanand was born of it- testifies in universal fashion to Muhammad's (PBUH) messengership and veracity.

Also, the past was a universal witness to his messengership, for numerous incidents which occurred before the commencement of his prophethood called irhasat,and wonders which were counted as miracles of the coming prophet and are related unanimously in the histories and books of biography, testify in authentic fashion to his messengership. These are of many different sorts. A part of them are described in the coming 'Testimonies' below, and others are related in the form of sound narrations in Zülfikârand in books of history.

For example, close to the time of the Prophet's (PBUH) birth stones being rained down from the claws of the ababilbirds on the heads of Abraha's soldiers, who had come to destroy the Ka'ba; and on the night of his birth the idols in the Ka'ba all toppling over; and the palace of Chrosroes the Persian being destroyed; and the fire-worshipping Zoroastrians' fire being extinguished that night, which had been burning continuously for a thousand years; and on the certain reports of Bahira the Monk and Halima al-Sa'diya, clouds throwing shadows around his head; numerous events like these gave forewarning of his prophethood before its commencement.

Also, there were very many events of differing kinds that he predicted would occur in the future, that is, after his death. Some were prophecies

about his Family and Companions, and the conquests of Islam, which are given in The Miracles of Muhammad in Zülfikâr,together with their authentic sources. Others were eighty accurate predictions, including 'Uthman (May God be pleased with him) being martyred while reading the Qur'an, Husayn (May God be pleased with him) being martyred at Karbala, the conquests of Syria and Iran and Istanbul, and emergence of the 'Abbasid dynasty, and Jenghiz and Hulagu defeating and destroying it, have all been described in detail on the basis of sound narrations and the books of history and the Prophet's biography. This means that numerous predictions of future events, and the future, which proved Muhammad's (PBUH) veracity, testify also in powerful and universal fashion to Muhammad's messengership and its veracity.

The Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Testimonies:

Through the testimony of Muhammad's Family to his veracity through the power of their certain belief at the degree of 'absolute certainty;' and of his Companions, through their perfect belief at the degree of 'the vision of certainty;' and of the purified scholars through the power of their investigations at the degree of 'knowledge of certainty;' and of the spiritual poles, through the conformity of their illuminations and unfoldings with his messengership and its certainty.

That is, of the universal testimonies to Muhammad's (PBUH) truthfulness and veracity,

The Ninth:

With their unanimous and absolutely certain belief, and their unfoldings and illuminations, and the extraordinary guidance they gave the Umma and their wonder-working, the great saints of Prophet's (PBUH) Family, who in benedictions for the Prophet are held equal to the descendants of Abraham (Peace be upon him), who manifested the meaning of "The scholars of my community are the equivalent of the prophets of the Children of Israel," {[*]: al-'Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa', ii, 64; Tecrid-i Sahih (Turk. trans.), i, 107.} and 'Ali, Hasan, Husayn, and the twelve Imams of the Prophet's Family, and the spiritual poles and leaders like Gawth al-A'zam, Ahmad al-Rufa'i, Ahmad al-Badawi, Ibrahim al-Dassuqi, and Abu'l-Hasan al-Shazali all ratified through their belief and testimonies the messengership, veracity, and truthfulness of Muhammad (PBUH).

The Tenth:

The Companions of the Prophet, regarded as the most elevated and esteemed group after the prophets, through the light of Muhammad (PBUH) came in a short time to govern with justice from east to west despite being illiterate nomads, and becoming advanced, educated,

civilized masters, teachers, diplomats and just judges, they defeated world powers and made that century into an age of happiness. After scrutinizing every aspect of his conduct, through the power of the many miracles they witnessed with their own eyes, they abandoned their former enmities and the ways of their forefathers, and many of them such as Khalid ibn al-Walid and Ikrima Ibn Abu Jahl gave up the tribalism of their fathers. Their embracing Islam in truly devoted and self-sacrificing manner, and believing in Muhammad's veracity and messengership at the degree of 'vision of certainty' forms an unshakeable universal testimony.

The Eleventh:

The belief in Muhammad's messengership and veracity in reasoned, logical manner at the degree of 'knowledge of certainty' of the mujtahids,imams, and authoritative scholars, who are known as the purified ones and veracious ones, and of the thousands of investigative scholars such as the brilliant philosophers Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd, based on thousands of categorical arguments and definitive proofs, each following his own way, forms a testimony so universal that only one with the intelligence of all of them could oppose them.

One of those innumerable witnesses at the present time is the Risale-i Nur, before which the deniers have found themselves helpless, so deceiving the police and judiciary, have tried to silence it by means of the courts.

The Twelfth:

In their spiritual progress, the profoundest people of reality and researchers into the realities known as spiritual poles, each of whom drew into the circle of his instruction a significant part of the Umma in the World of Islam, and through his wondrous guidance and wonder-working caused those people to advance spiritually, and whose progress was based on illumination and disclosing the realities in place of proofs -they saw 'experientially' through their illuminations Muhammad's (PBUH) messengership and truthfulness and that his veracity was of the very highest degree. Their unanimous and mutually conforming testimony to his prophethood forms such a signature that no one who does not attain to a degree of perfections as elevated as all of them can erase it.

The Thirteenth Testimony,

which consists of four universal, most extensive and definite proofs:

Through the testimony of the past and the agreement in the tidings of the soothsayers, the voices from the Unseen, and the gnostics in all the periods of the past, and the testimony of the tidings of the prophets and Divine messengers, Peace be upon them, and the good news of the messengership of Muhammad, Peace and blessings be upon him, in the previous holy scriptures.

A brief explanation of the above passage will be given here, for there are precise details together with the chains of authorities in the end section of The Miracles of Muhammad, in Zülfikâr.

It is recorded with sound narrations, and in part with unanimous reports, in the histories and books of Hadith and the Prophet's biography that among the most prominent and famous of mankind in past times, foremost the prophets and the gnostics, soothsayers, and 'voices from the Unseen' foretold Muhammad's (PBUH) messengership and coming unanimously, explicitly and repeatedly in the form of irhasat.Since the most powerful and certain of those thousands of predictions are described in detail in The Miracles of Muhammad, we refer you to that and here only say by way of a brief indication: out of hundreds in the revealed scriptures of the Torah, Gospels, and Psalms, brought by the prophets, twenty verses about the prophethood of Muhammad (PBUH) which are close to being explicit are written in the Nineteenth Letter (The Miracles of Muhammad). While Husayn al-Jisri found a hundred verses about Muhammad's prophethood, despite the numerous corruptions in their texts made by Jews and Christians, and wrote them in his book. {[*]: Husayn al-Jisri, al-Risalat al-Hamidiyya [Turk. trans. Manastirli Ismail Hakki], Istanbul 1308, 4 vols.}

According to a sound narration concerning which were unanimous reports, the soothsayers, and foremost Shiqq and Satih, who by means of jinns and spirit beings gave information about the Unseen and are now called mediums, foretold explicitly the coming of God's Messenger (PBUH) and that he would wipe out the Persian Empire. They stated repeatedly in a way that could not be doubted that a prophet was shortly to appear in the Hijaz.

Similarly, Ka'b ibn Lu'ayy, one of the Prophet's forefathers and a gnostic, and many other gnostics and the saints of that time such as the rulers of Yemen and Abyssinia, Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan and Tubba, foretold clearly Muhammad's (PBUH) messengership, and proclaimed it in their poetry. The most important and certain of these are included in the Nineteenth Letter. One of those kings even said: "I would choose to be Muhammad's (PBUH) servant in preference to ruling this kingdom." Another said: "If I had lived to see him, I would have been his cousin." That is, I would have been a devoted servant and minister of his like 'Ali (May God be pleased with him). The histories and books of biography have published all these prophecies, showing that the gnostics affirmed Muhammad's (PBUH) messengership and veracity with a powerful, universal testimony.

Similarly, spirit beings called 'hatif,'which are heard but not seen, made predictions about Muhammad's messengership, the same as the gnostics and soothsayers, foretelling his prophethood in most explicit fashion. Also, by foretelling his prophethood, many other things affirmed his messengership and veracity, such as animals sacrificed to idols, idols, and gravestones, testifying through the tongue of history.

The Fourteenth Testimony:

The following Arabic piece alludes to the universe's powerful testimony:

Through the testimony of the universe to the comprehensive messengership of Muhammad (PBUH) through its aims and the Divine purposes in it, which would otherwise come to nothing, for through the sending of man and particularly of Muhammad its value and duties were established, and its beauties and perfections became clear, and the wisdom in its truths were realized. For his messengership revealed them and was the means of their realization. If it had not been for his messengership, this perfect universe, this eternal and meaningful mighty book, would have gone for nothing, its meanings would have vanished and its perfections declined utterly, which is impossible in numerous respects.

In The Supreme Sign, the above is interpreted as follows:

Just as the universe points to its Maker, Writer, and Inscriber, Who creates, administers, and organizes it, and Who decorating, determining, and planning it, has disposal over it as though it was a palace, a book, an exhibition, or place of display; so it requires and demands an elevated herald, a truthful discoverer, an exacting master, a faithful teacher, who will know the Divine purposes in its creation, and make them known, and will teach the instances of dominical wisdom in its changes, and announce the results of its dutiful motions, and proclaim its value and the perfections of the beings within it. Since this is so and it points to his existence, surely testifying in powerful and universal fashion to the veracity of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), who performed these duties better than anyone, and to his being the highest and most loyal official of its Creator, it declares: "I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God."

Yes, through the Light Muhammad (PBUH) brought the universe's nature, value, and perfections, and the duties, results, and value of the beings within it and the fact that they are officials, all became known and were realized. From top to bottom it became Divine missives full of meaning, an embodied dominical Qur'an, and a magnificent exhibition of Divine works. If not for his Light, it becomes a mere desolate ruin,

confused, a terrible place of mourning, toppling over into the darknesses of non-existence, nothingness, death, and obliteration. It is in consequence of this truth that the universe's perfections, purposeful transformations, and eternal meanings declare in powerful fashion: "We testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God!"

The Fifteenth Testimony:

The following is an Arabic piece which comprises numerous sacred testimonies. It indicates the sacred testimony to Muhammad's (PBUH) messengership given through the acts of the dominicality and deeds of mercifulness of the Necessarily Existent One Who has disposal over the universe, and through Whose will, command, and power occur all change and transformation, motion and rest, from minute particles to the planets, and all the disposals of life and death.

Through the testimony of the universe's Owner, its Creator and Disposer, to the messengership of Muhammad, through the deeds of His mercifulness and acts of His dominicality; such as the mercy of revealing to him the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition; and displaying many varieties of miracles at his hand; and assisting him and protecting him in all circumstances; and through perpetuating his religion together with all its truths; and by raising him to a position of high respect and honour and bestowal over all creatures, as is to be seen and observed; and His act of dominicality of making Muhammad's messengership a spiritual sun in the universe, and making his religion the index of the perfections of His servants; and making his reality a comprehensive mirror to the manifestations of His Godhead; and His entrusting him with duties necessary for the existence of creatures in the universe such as mercy, wisdom, and justice, as necessary as food and water, and air and light.

Referring details of this most extensive, certain, and sacred testimony to the Risale-i Nur, here we shall merely take a look at a brief and concise meaning of it.

Since -in accordance with the justice and wisdom, mercy, favour, and protection which we see in the regular, orderly disposals in the universe- it is the practice of dominicality to always protect the good and deal blows at the bad and liars, as demanded by 'the acts of His mercifulness,' this world's Disposer and Administrator revealed the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition to Muhammad (PBUH); and He bestowed on him nearly a thousand miracles of very many sorts; and compassionately preserved him in all circumstances and dangerous situations, even by means of a pigeon and a spider; and gave him complete success in all his duties; and perpetuated his religion together with all its truths; and caused his

religion of Islam to spread over all the earth and to all mankind; and by raising him to a position of honour above all creatures and a permanent rank of acceptance superior to all the pre-eminent of mankind and, as is agreed by friend and foe alike, bestowed on him the highest character and qualities, and made one fifth of mankind his community - all of which testify most decisively to his faithfulness and messengership; so we see from the point of view of 'the acts of dominicality' that this world's Disposer and Administrator made Muhammad's (PBUH) messengership a sun in the universe, and as is proved in the Risale-i Nur, caused it to dispel all kinds of darknesses and show its luminous truths, and make happy all conscious beings, indeed the universe, with the good news of eternal life; and He made his religion an index of perfections for all the acceptable people of worship and a sound programme for their acts of worship; and as is indicated by the Qur'an and Jawshan,He made Muhammad's Reality, which is his collective personality, a comprehensive mirror to the manifestations of His Godhead; and as is indicated by the above-mentioned truths, and by the fact that every day for fourteen centuries he has gained the equivalent of all the good works of all his community, and by his works and traces in man's social and spiritual life, He made him the highest leader, master, and authority of mankind; and sent him to the assistance of mankind with sacred, sublime duties, and made men as needy for his religion, his Shari'a, and the truths of Islam

{(*): In my old age and wretchedness, I perceived a millionth of the spiritual sustenance brought by Muhammad (PBUH). If I had been able, I would have thanked him by uttering benedictions for him with millions of tongues. It was like this:

I suffer greatly from separation and parting, but the world I love and the things in it leave me and depart. I know that I too shall depart. And it is only by hearing from Muhammad (PBUH) the good news of everlasting happiness and eternal life that I am saved from that severe pain and soul-searing despair and I find complete solace. In fact, when I say: "Peace be upon you, O Prophet, and God's mercy and blessings!" in the tashahhud during the prayers, I am both paying allegiance to him, and declaring my submission and obedience to his rank, and offering him congratulations on his duty, and expressing a sort of thanks and response to the good news he brought of eternal happiness. All Muslims offer these greetings five times every day.}

as they are for mercy, wisdom, justice, food, air, water, and light; thus offering sacred testimony to Muhammad's (PBUH) messengership with twelve universal, decisive proofs - since this is so, is it at all possible that the messengership of Muhammad (PBUH), which thus manifests these universal, extensive testimonies of the universe's Owner, Who is not indifferent to the ordering of the wing of a fly even or a flower, should not be a Sun of the universe?

Each of these fifteen Testimonies comprise numerous testimonies, and through the tongue of miracles the Second even comprises thousands, thus proving the profession "I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of

God" most powerfully and definitely and proclaiming its reality, value, and importance, so that every day five times in the tashahhudthe World of Islam announces it to the universe with millions of tongues. So too, thousands of millions of believers unhesitatingly accept and affirm that the Muhammadan (PBUH) Reality, which is the basis of that profession, is the original seed of the universe, a reason for its creation, and its most perfect fruit. And the universe's Owner (May His Glory be exalted) made that collective personality of Muhammad (PBUH) the loudest herald of the sovereignty of His dominicality; the accurate discloser of the talisman of the universe and riddle of creation; a shining exemplar of His favour and mercy; an eloquent tongue of His compassion and love; the most powerful bringer of the good tidings of everlasting life and happiness in the eternal realm; and of His messengers, His final and greatest Prophet.

It may be seen from this what a great error, foolishness, and crime those people commit who do not accept a truth such as this, or attach no importance to it, and what a terrible loss they suffer.

Thus, as indicated in Part Two, Sura al-Fatiha in the ritual prayers demonstrates with decisive proofs the affirmation of Divine unity in the profession "I testify that there is no god but God," which is said in the tashahhud,setting innumerable signatures to it; so too this Third Part sets forth powerful testimonies to the reality of messengership claimed in "I testify that Muhammad is God's Messenger," again stated in the tashahhud,stamping it with innumerable confirmatory signatures.

O Most Merciful of the Merciful! In veneration of Your Most Noble Messenger (PBUH) allow us his intercession, give us success in following his Sunna, and make us neighbours to his Family and Companions in the Realm of Bliss! Amen. Amen. Amen.

O God! Grant him blessings and peace, and to his Family and Companions, to the number of the letters of the Qur'an, both those recited and those written. Amen.

Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.{[*]: Qur'an, 2:32.}

* * *

The Shining Proof

Second Station

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

And from Him do we seek help

[One of the truths contained in the last verse of Sura al-Fatiha, which indicates the comparison of the people of guidance and the straight path and the people of misguidance and rebellion, and is the source of all the comparisons in the Risale-i Nur, is expressed also in wondrous and miraculous fashion by the verse of Sura al-Nur:

God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His light is as if there were a niche and within it a lamp; the lamp enclosed in glass; the glass as it were a brilliant star; lit from a blessed tree, an olive, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched it: Light upon Light! God guides whom He will to His Light; God sets forth parables for men; and God knows all things.{[*]: Qur'an, 24:35.}

and a subsequent verse:

Or [the unbelievers' state] is like the depths of darkness in a vast deep ocean, overwhelmed with billow topped by billow, topped by [dark] clouds...(to the end of the verse)] {[*]: Qur'an, 24:40.}

It is proved in the First Ray that the first verse above, the Light Verse, contains ten allusions to the Risale-i Nur; it miraculously foretells that Qur'anic commentary. This was the main reason the name 'Nur' (light) was given to the Risale-i Nur. In consequence of the description in the comparison of a journey of the imagination in a section of the Twenty-Ninth Letter, of a miracle resembling that of the "Nunof Na'budu"in the word "Nur" in this extraordinary verse, the traveller in The Supreme Sign (Âyetü'l-Kübra)questioned the whole universe and every sort of being in order to seek, find, and learn about his Creator. He came to know Him through thirty-three ways and cogent proofs with 'the certainty of knowledge' and 'the vision of certainty.' The untiring, insatiable traveller journeyed too with his mind, heart, and imagination through the centuries and

levels of the heavens and earth, and seeing and inspecting the whole world as a city, he mounted his reason sometimes on the wisdom of the Qur'an, sometimes on philosophy, and gazing at the most distant levels through the powerful telescope of imagination, he saw reality as it is, and in part informed us of it in The Supreme Sign.

Now, of those many worlds and levels he entered on his journey of the imagination, which had the meaning of a comparison and was completely in conformity with reality, we shall explain by way of example only three levels, extremely concisely, in order to illustrate the comparison at the end of Sura al-Fatiha. However, this will be only from the point of view of the power of reason. We refer you to the Risale-i Nur for the other observations and comparisons.

The First Example is like this:

The traveller, who had come into the world solely to find his Creator and become acquainted with Him, said to his reason: "We have asked everything concerning our Creator and have received perfectly satisfying answers. In order to learn about the Sun one has to ask the Sun itself, so now we shall make a further journey in order to find and become acquainted with our Creator through the manifestations of His sacred attributes of knowledge, will, and power, and through His visible works, and through the manifestations of His Names." So he entered the world. Then the people of misguidance, a second current, embarked on the ship of the earth. The traveller put on the spectacles of the science and philosophy which does not follow the wisdom of the Qur'an, and looking in accordance with the programme of the geography that does not read the Qur'an, saw that the earth was travelling seventy times faster than a cannon-ball, covering a twenty-thousand-year distance in one year in an orbit in the midst of the infinite void. It had taken upon itself myriad species of wretched, helpless living beings. He realized that if it confused its way even for a minute, or if a stray star collided with it, it would disintegrate, pouring all those wretched creatures into nothingness and non-existence. Perceiving the awesome calamity of the currents of

Not those who have received Your anger, nor those who have gone astray,{[*]: Qur'an, 1:7.}

and the suffocating darkness of

Or [the unbelievers' state] is like the depths of darkness in a vast deep ocean,{[*]: Qur'an, 24:40.}

he exclaimed: "Alas! What have we done? Why did we board this terrible ship? Is there any way of being saved from it?" Then smashing the spectacles of blind philosophy, he joined the current of "Those whom You have blessed."{[*]: Qur'an, 1:7.}

Suddenly the wisdom of the Qur'an came to his assistance. Giving to his reason a telescope which shows reality, it told him to look through it. He looked and saw the Name of Sustainer of the Heavens and Earth{[*]: Qur'an, 13:16.} rising like a sun in the constellation of

It is He who has made the earth subservient to you, so traverse you its tracts, and eat of its sustenance.{[*]: Qur'an, 67:15.}

The Sustainer had made the earth an orderly, safe ship, and filled it with living beings together with their sustenance, causing it to journey around the sun in the seas of the universe for numerous benefits and instances of wisdom, bringing the produce of the seasons to those who wished for sustenance. Two angels called Thawr and Hut had been appointed captains of the ship, and they took it on its voyage through the magnificent dominical regions for the enjoyment of the Glorious Creator's creatures and guests. The traveller understood that this showed the reality of "God is the Light of the heavens and the earth,"making known his Creator through this Name. With all his heart and spirit he exclaimed: "All praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds,"and joined the group of "Those whom You have blessed."

The Second Sample of what the traveller saw on his journey through the worlds:

The traveller alighted from the ship of the earth and entered the world of animals and men. He looked at that world through the spectacles of the natural science which does not receive its spirit from religion, and saw that although those innumerable animate creatures had endless needs and were assaulted by numberless vexatious enemies and pitiless events, their capital was only a thousandth, or even a hundred thousandth of what they needed. Their power too was perhaps a millionth of what was necessary to combat those harmful things. Being connected to them through his intelligence and out of compassion for his fellow beings, he so pitied them in their ghastly plight, and feeling a hellish pain was so sorry and despairing, that he regretted a thousand times over his ever having come to that wretched world. Then suddenly Qur'anic wisdom came to his assistance, and handing him the telescope of "Those whom You have blessed,"

it told him to look through it. He looked and saw that through the manifestation of "God is the Light of the heavens and the earth,"numerous Divine Names such as Most Merciful, All-Compassionate, Provider, Bestower, Munificent, and Preserver, each rose like the sun in the constellations of such verses as:

And there is no living thing but He has hold of its forelock.{[*]: Qur'an, 11:56.} * The beasts do not carry their own sustenance; God sustains them, and you.{[*]: Qur'an, 29:60.} * And we have ennobled the sons of Adam.{[*]: Qur'an, 17:70.} * And the pious shall be in bliss.{[*]: Qur'an, 82:13.}

They filled the world of men and beasts with mercy and bounties, transforming it into a temporary Paradise. He understood that they make known perfectly the generous host of this fine, instructive guest-house, which is well worth being gazed upon, and a thousand times he repeated: "All praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds!"

The Third Example of the hundreds of his observations during his journey:

The traveller from the world, who wanted to know his Creator through the manifestations of His Names and attributes, turned to his mind and imagination and said: "Come! Like the spirits and angels we shall leave our bodies behind and ascend to the skies. We shall question the inhabitants of the heavens concerning our Creator." His spirit mounted his imagination, and his mind mounted his thought, and together they rose to the heavens. They took astronomy as their guide, and looked with the view of the philosophy which does not heed religion, and the currents of "Those who have received Your wrath"and "Those who have gone astray."He saw thousands of heavenly bodies and fiery stars, a thousand times larger than the earth and travelling a hundred times faster than a cannon-ball, speeding one within the other, unconscious, lifeless, and aimless. If by chance one of them had confused its way for a second, it would have collided with another unconscious globe in that boundless, empty, infinite world, causing utter confusion and chaos, like doomsday.

Whichever direction he looked, the traveller was filled with terror and bewilderment; he was sorry a thousand times over he had ascended to the skies. His mind and imagination went utterly to pieces. They declared: "Our duty is to see and point out fine truths. We resign then from observing and understanding such infernally ugly and painful things. We do not

want any such thing." Then suddenly, through the manifestation of "God is the Light of the heavens and the earth,"numerous Names like "Subjugator of the sun and moon,"and "Sustainer of all the worlds,"each rose like suns in the constellations of verses such as:

And We have adorned the lower heavens with lamps,{[*]: Qur'an, 67:5.}

and

Do they then not look at the heavens above them, how We have raised them and adorned them,{[*]: Qur'an, 50:6.}

and,

Then he withdrew to the sky and formed it into seven heavens.{[*]: Qur'an, 2:29.}

They filled all the heavens with light and with angels, transforming it into a huge mosque or military encampment. The traveller entered the current of "Those whom You have blessed."He was saved from that of "Those who have gone astray"and "Or [the unbelievers' state] is like the depths of darkness in a vast deep ocean."He saw a magnificent land, as beautiful and well-ordered as Paradise. Observing that on all sides its inhabitants were making known the All-Glorious Creator, the value of his mind and imagination was increased a thousandfold, and their duties advanced likewise.

Referring to the Risale-i Nur the other observations of the traveller through the universe, which are comparable with these three examples out of hundreds, together with knowledge of the Necessarily Existent One through the manifestations of His Names, here we suffice with these brief indications and cut a long story short. Now, like that traveller through the world, we shall try to know the Creator of the universe through the works and manifestations of only three of His sacred 'seven attributes:'knowledge,will,andpower.For details, we refer you to the Risale-i Nur.

The following piece in Arabic is the sum and substance of the Arabic Hizb al-Nuri,

{[*]: See page 501, footnote 78.} which I constantly recite reflectively. It expounds three of the thirty-three degrees of the phrase "God is Most Great" (Allahu Akbar).This is followed by a sort of translation of the Arabic piece, consisting of brief indications, which opens up the way to acquiring belief in Divine knowledge, will, and power at the degree of 'the vision of certainty' through pointing out their manifestations in the universe, a subject which greatly preoccupied the scholars of theology and of the tenets of

belief. Through pointing out the manifestations of knowledge, will, and power, the following indications thus open up the way to complete belief -at the degree of knowledge of certainty- in the Necessarily Existent One's existence and unity, and to the affirmation of that belief.

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

Say: "Praise be to God, Who begets no son, and has no partner in [His] dominion; nor [needs] He any to protect Him from humiliation; Yes, magnify Him for His greatness and glory!"{[*]: Qur'an, 17:111.}

God is greater than everything in respect of power and knowledge, for He is knowing of all things with all-encompassing knowledge necessary to His Essence.{(*): And God's is the highest similitude: like all-encompassing light is necessary to the sun.} Nothing can be hidden from His knowledge because of the mystery of its presence and witnessing and all-encompassing luminosity; existence necessitates universality, and the light of knowledge encompasses all the world of existence. Yes, the balanced order, and regular balances, and general, purposeful wisdom, and all-embracing, particular favours, and the well-ordered decrees, and fruitful determining, and specified appointed hours of death, and the regular sustenance, and the wise skills, and the adorned solicitude, and the utterly perfect order, harmony, arrangement, proficiency, and balance, and absolute distinction with absolute ease all point to the all-encompassing knowledge of the One All-Knowing of the Unseen.

Should He not know, He that created? And He is the One Who understands the finest mysteries [and] is well-acquainted [with them].{[*]: Qur'an, 67:14.}

The comparison between man's fine art, which points to his consciousness, and the fine creation of man, which points to man's Creator, is the comparison between the tiny glimmer of a fire-fly on a dark night and the splendour of the sun at full noon.

Offering a concise translation of the above, we shall make brief indications to Divine knowledge, this most important truth of belief, and refer detailed discussion of it to the Risale-i Nur.

{(*): The remaining part of this treatise was written while I was suffering from a terrible illness, a result of being poisoned, such as I had never previously experienced in my life. My faults should therefore be looked on tolerantly. Husrev may modify, change, and correct any parts he considers inappropriate.}

Yes, just as mercy shows itself as clearly as the sun through the

wonders of sustenance and proves decisively a Most Merciful and Compassionate One behind the veil of the Unseen; so too, through the wisdom, purposes, and fruits of order and balance in things, knowledge, which is mentioned in hundreds of Qur'anic verses and in one respect is the chief of the sacred seven attributes, displays itself like the light of the sun, making known with certainty the existence of One Knowledgeable of All Things. Yes, the comparison between ordered, measured art, which points to man's consciousness and knowledge, and man's fine creation, which indicates the knowledge and wisdom of man's Creator, resembles the comparison between the tiny glow of the fire-fly on a dark night and the encompassing light of the sun at noon.

Now, before explaining the evidences of Divine knowledge, we shall mention briefly the sacred conversation which took place during the Prophet's Ascension. For Muhammad's (PBUH) Ascension indicates and testifies that, through its manifestations in the universe, the sacred attribute of knowledge shows the Most Pure and Holy One most clearly. When on that night he received the Divine address in God's presence, since he had been sent as an envoy on behalf of all living beings and every sort of creature, instead of giving the greeting (al-salam)of conscious beings, he said: "Salutations, blessings, benedictions and supplications, and good words - all are God's," {[*]: For further discussion, see The Sixth Ray, in the present work. [Tr.]} thus offering to his Creator the creatures' gifts, showing the manner they make known their Sustainer through the manifestations of the attribute of knowledge. That is, with the four words "Salutations, blessings, benedictions and supplications, and good words" he was alluding to the salutations, congratulations, worship, and recognition of the One All-Knowing of the Unseen of the four main groups of living beings which they offer through the manifestations of pre-eternal and post-eternal knowledge. For this reason, the recitation of this sacred conversation of the Ascension in its broad meaning has become an obligatory part of the tashahhudfor all Muslims. Referring detailed exposition of that sacred conversation to the Risale-i Nur, we shall explain one meaning of it in the form of four very brief indications.

The Firstis "Salutations to God" (al-tahiyyatu lillah).Briefly, its meaning is this: for example, a master craftsman invents a wonderful machine with his profound knowledge and miraculous intelligence, and everyone who sees it applauds and congratulates the craftsman, and praising and saluting him, offers him gifts both material and immaterial. The machine too, by displaying the craftsman's wondrously subtle art, and skill and knowledge, and working perfectly in exactly the way he wanted,

applauds him through the tongue of its being, in effect greeting him and offering him immaterial gifts. In exactly the same way, all the species of living beings in the universe, together with all their individual members, are in every respect miraculous, wonderful machines, which -like conscious beings, men, and jinn and angels, applaud and salute their Maker verbally- through the tongues of their beings and lives applaud and salute their craftsman, the All-Glorious Maker, Who makes Himself known through the profound and subtle manifestations of His all-comprehending knowledge, which sees the relationship of everything with everything else, and knows all the things necessary for the life of each and conveys them to it at the right time. Greeting Him, the beings declare: "Salutations to God!" They worshipfully offer the price of their lives directly to their Creator, Who knows all creatures together with all their states. On the night of the Ascension, in the name of all living creatures, Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) said "Salutations to God!" instead of the greeting of peace in the presence of the Necessarily Existent One, and offered the salutations, gifts, and greetings of all those species of living beings.

Yes, just as with its order and balance, an ordinary regular machine undoubtedly shows a painstaking, skilful craftsman; so each of the numberless living machines which fill the universe displays a thousand and one miracles of knowledge. Whatever the comparison between the light of the sun and the feeble glow of the fire-fly, that is the comparison of the former and the brilliance with which, through the manifestations of knowledge, the living beings testify to the necessary existence of their eternal Maker and Craftsman, and His fitness to be worshipped.

Tbe Second Sacred Word from the Ascensionis "blessings" (al-mubarakat).Since according to Hadiths, the ritual prayers are the believer's ascension {[*]: Bukhari, Salat, 39; Musnad, ii, 34, 36, 67, 129. (With the meaning of "The one who performs the prayers converses with his Sustainer.")} and receive the manifestation of the supreme Ascension; and since the traveller found in every world his Creator, the One Knowing of the Unseen, through His attribute of knowledge; accompanying the traveller, we shall enter the broad world of blessed things and "blessings," which make those who behold them declare: "How great are God's blessings!" Like the traveller, we shall behold that world of "blessed beings" and foremost the innocent, blessed infants of beings with spirits, and the seeds of animate creatures, which are the tiny containers of the programmes of their lives, and through studying them shall attempt to know our Creator with 'the knowledge of certainty,' through the miraculous, subtle manifestations of His sacred attribute of knowledge.

Yes, with our own eyes we see that through the knowledge of an All-Wise and Knowledgeable One, all those innocent young and blessed minute treasuries and boxes, -both altogether and singly- suddenly awaken and stir into motion, and proceed towards the aim of their creation. They cause those who see them as they are in reality to exclaim: "May God bless these a thousand times over! What endless wonders God has willed!"

For example, all seeds, eggs, sperm, and grains have a precise order which springs from knowledge; and the order is within a perfect balance, which arises from skill; and the balance is within a constant reordering, and the reordering is within a constant measuring and balancing; and the measuring and balancing are within a distinguishing and nurturing, each possessing marks intentionally distinguishing it from its fellows; and this distinguishing and nurturing are within an artful decorating and adorning; and this adorning is within the giving of wise, appropriate, perfect forms and members; and this giving of form is together with differences in the flesh and edible parts of those creatures and fruits, for the purpose of generously gratifying the tastes of those desiring sustenance; and this is within miraculous embroideries and adornments which reflect knowledge and are all different; and this is together with pleasing smells and delicious tastes which are all different. Thus, through the unfolding and development of all these forms with perfect orderliness and distinction, and while being different, without fault or error in absolute profusion, and with absolute speed and over an infinite area, and with this wondrous situation continuing throughout the seasons; all those blessed beings, singly and altogether, demonstrate visibly through the above fifteen tongues the marvels of their Craftsman's skills and His miraculous knowledge, making known as clearly as the sun the One All-Knowing of the Unseen, their Necessarily Existent Maker. It was because of this truly brilliant and extensive testimony of theirs and congratulations of their Maker, that on the night of the Ascension when speaking on behalf of all creatures, Muhammad (PBUH) used the word "blessings" instead of the greeting of peace.

The Third Wordis "benedictions" (al-salawat).This sacred word, which was spoken during the supreme Ascension of Muhammad (PBUH), hundreds of millions of believers offer to the Divine Court every day at least ten times in the tashahhudduring the obligatory prayers, which are the believers' ascension. They proclaim it to the universe. Since all the truths of the Ascension have been proved in the Thirty-First Word in most powerful and decisive fashion, even to obdurate, atheist deniers, which it in part addresses, for the proofs and details

we refer you to that Word, and here, extremely concisely, we shall take a look at the strange world of the various sorts of conscious beings and beings with spirits, which illustrates the broad meaning of this Third Word of the Ascension. We shall also try to understand by means of the manifestation of His pre-eternal knowledge, the perfect mercy and compassion of our Creator, and the vastness of His power and all-encompassing will, within His existence and unity.

Yes, we see in this world that even if not consciously and with their minds, by nature all beings with spirits feel and perceive that despite their boundless impotence and weakness, they have innumerable enemies and things detrimental to them, and despite their infinite want and need, they have endless needs and desires. Since their power and capital are insufficient to meet even a thousandth of these, they cry out and weep with all their strength, and by their nature implore and entreat. Each with its own particular voice and tongue offers supplications, entreaties, prayers of a sort, and benedictions to One All-Knowing and All-Powerful. Then while seeking refuge His Court, we see that suddenly an All-Wise and Powerful One Who is Absolutely Knowing and perceives all the needs of those crying out, understands their plaints and plight, and hears their innate petitions and supplications, comes to their assistance and does all that they wish. He transforms their weeping into smiles and their cries into thanks. This wise, knowing, compassionate assistance makes known in truly brilliant fashion through the manifestations of knowledge and mercy, an Assisting Answerer of Prayer, a Munificent and Compassionate One. During the Supreme Ascension, Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), and during the prayers, the lesser ascension, his community, all declare "Benedictions and supplications, and good words -all are God's," which has the meaning of offering specifically to Him all the benedictions and worship of the world of beings with spirits.

The Fourth Sacred Wordis "Good words-all are God's!" (al-tayyibat lillah).Since many of the truths of the Risale-i Nur have been imparted to me while reciting the tesbihatfollowing the prayers, quite simply I have been driven involuntarily to explain by means of brief indications the truths associated with both Sura al-Fatiha, and the words of the tashahhud.

The sacred word "good words," which was spoken during Muhammad's (PBUH) Ascension, refers to the good words and deeds and worship of those with knowledge of God and the believers, and of men, jinn, angels, and spirit beings, who possess universal consciousness, with which they beautify the universe. They look to the world of beauties, and understand fully the infinite beauties of the eternal Absolutely Beauteous

One and the perpetual beauties of His Names, which adorn the universe, and they respond to them with passion and ardour and universal worship. This word refers to the endless good words they utter to their Creator through the fragrant odours of their shining belief, extensive knowledge of Him, and praise and laudation. Since good words in this meaning were spoken during the Ascension, every day without wearying the whole Umma repeats that sacred word in the tashahhud.

Yes, the universe is the mirror of an infinite, sempiternal beauty and loveliness, and consists of manifestations of it. All the beauties and perfections of the universe come from that eternal beauty and become beautiful through their connection with it, and increase in value. The universe would otherwise be a ruin, a house of sorrows, a place of utter confusion. Their connection with that beauty is understood through the knowledge and affirmation of men, angels, and spirit beings, who are the heralds and announcers of the sovereignty of the Godhead. It was even imparted to me that there is a strong possibility that in order to broadcast everywhere the beautiful, sweet praise and laudation of those heralds and their extolling the One they worship, and to send them up to the Sublime Throne and present those good words at the Divine Court, the element of the air has been given a truly strange and wondrous state whereby its particles, like soldiers under orders, are miniscule tongues and ears.

Thus, just as through their belief and their worship, men and the angels make known the All-Glorious All-Worshipped One; so through making each of those announcers a microcosm connected to the whole universe through the comprehensive capacities, wondrous faculties, and subtleties of knowledge He has given them, that All-Glorious and Wise One makes Himself known in brilliant fashion. For example, He shows Himself and clearly as the sun by creating numerous wonderful machines in a space the size of a walnut in man's tiny head such as his faculties of memory, imagination, and thought, and by making his memory into a large library.

{(*): My severe illness does not permit me to continue; this is only a source and assistant to Husrev's duty of translation.}

We shall now allude to a very brief meaning of the Arabic piece mentioned above which points out universal proofs of all-encompassing knowledge, comprises innumerable proofs, bringing them together and making them one extensive proof, and demonstrates all-encompassing knowledge through fifteen evidences. We shall give a sort of translation of the piece.

The First of Fifteen Evidences: "The balanced order"

The measured regularity and balanced order observed in all creatures testify to an all-encompassing knowledge. Yes, there being in all things -from the universe, which resembles an orderly palace, and the solar system, and the page of the air, whose particles display an astonishing order in the broadcasting of words and sounds, and the face of the earth, which every spring with perfect order and regularity raises three hundred thousand different species, to the members, cells, particles, and bodily systems of all living beings- a balanced order and perfect regularity, which are the works of a profound, comprehensive, unfailing knowledge, means that they testify in extremely clear and decisive manner to an all-encompassing knowledge.

The Second Evidence: "And regular balance"

In all the creatures in the universe, particular, universal, from the planets to the red and white corpuscles in blood, in everything, there is an exceedingly orderly measure and appropriate balance which point self-evidently to an all-encompassing knowledge and testify to it decisively. Yes, we see for instance that the members and bodily systems of a fly or human being, and even the cells of the body and red and white corpuscles in the blood, are placed with so sensitive a balance and fine a measure, and they are so fitting and suitable for each other, and their mutual proportion with the other members of the body is so orderly, and they are in such harmony with them, that it is in no way possible that one lacking infinite knowledge could have given them those situations.

Similarly, a balance so perfect and measure so regular and unfailing govern in all living creatures and sorts of creatures from minute particles to the planets of the solar system that they prove conclusively an all-encompassing knowledge and testify to it with complete clarity. This means that all the evidences for knowledge are evidences also for the existence of the All-Knowing One. Since it is impossible and precluded that there should be an attribute without the one it qualifies, all the proofs of knowledge form a powerful and completely certain supreme proof of the Pre-Eternal All-Knowing One's necessary existence.

The Third Evidence: "And the general, purposeful wisdom"

In all the creativity and activity in the universe, and in all the changes, raising to life, employing in duties and discharging from them, all creatures and all species of creatures have functions, uses, and purposes which are so intentional and knowing that they leave no room for chance. We see that with respect to creation one who does not possess all-

encompassing knowledge could in no way lay claim to any of them. For example, although it is only a piece of flesh, together with its two main functions, the tongue, which is one of man's hundred members -man being only one of innumerable animate creatures- is the means to hundreds of instances of wisdom, results, fruits, and uses. Its functions of tasting foods, recognizing all their different savours, informing the body and the stomach, being an exacting inspector of the kitchens of Divine mercy, and an accurate interpreter and telephone exchange for the heart, spirit, and mind in the function of speech all point in most brilliant and decisive manner to all-encompassing knowledge. If through its purposes and fruits a single tongue furnishes such evidence, innumerable tongues and innumerable living beings, infinite creatures, point to and testify to an infinite knowledge with the clarity and certainty of the noonday sun. They proclaim that there is nothing at all outside the bounds of the knowledge of the One All Knowing of the Unseen, or outside His wisdom and will.

The Fourth Evidence: "And all-embracing, particular favours"

The favours and instances of compassion and protection bestowed on all living creatures in the world of conscious beings, on every species and individual, particularly and appropriately, point self-evidently to an all-encompassing knowledge, and offer innumerable testimonies to the necessary existence of One Gracious and All-Knowing Who knows those who receive the favours and their needs.

NOTE:The explanation of the words of the Arabic piece, which is the summary and essence of the Risale-i Nur, indicates the truths which the Risale-i Nur -being distilled from the Qur'an- has taken from the flashes of Qur'anic verses, and particularly the proofs and evidences for knowledge, will, and power. For the Risale-i Nur expounds the scholarly proofs which the Arabic words indicate. This means that rather than being elucidations, explanations, and translations of those Arabic words, each of these scholarly proofs explains an indication and fine point made by numerous Qur'anic verses.

To return to our main question. Yes, with our own eyes we see that there is an All-Knowing and Compassionate One Who knows us and all beings with spirits, and knowing them, protects them, and knows all their needs and plaints, and knowing them comes to their assistance with His favours. One out of numberless examples: the general and particular favours bestowed on man as sustenance, medicines, and the minerals he needs point most clearly to an all-encompassing knowledge, offering testimonies to a Most Merciful and Compassionate One to the number of foods, medicines, and minerals. Yes, wise and purposive works like the

feeding of man, and particularly of the helpless and infants, and especially their conveying from the kitchen of the stomach the nutrients necessary for all their members and even their cells, and the mountains being pharmacies and stores of all the minerals necessary for man, could only occur through an all-encompassing knowledge. Aimless chance, blind force, deaf nature, and lifeless, unconscious causes and the simple, overwhelming elements could in no way interfere in this feeding, administering, preservation, and planning, which is knowing, percipient, wise, compassionate, and gracious. Apparent causes such as those are merely employed and utilized within the bounds of the knowledge and wisdom of One possessing absolute knowledge, and at His command and with His permission, as a veil to the dignity of Divine power.

The Fifth and Sixth Evidences:'And the regular decrees and fruitful determining'

The forms and proportions of all things, particularly plants, trees, animals, and men have been cut out with skilful art according to the principles of Divine decree and determining, which are two sorts of pre-eternal knowledge, sewn in a way entirely appropriate to the stature of each, and clothed on them perfectly. Each is given most well-ordered, regular, and wise shapes. These singly and all together point to an infinite knowledge and testify to their number to an All-Knowing Maker.

Yes, out of innumerable examples, we look at only a single tree and a human individual, and we see that both outwardly and inwardly the fruit-bearing tree and multi-membered man have been delimited by unseen compasses and a subtle pen of knowledge, and that each of their members have been given perfectly ordered fitting forms so that they may produce the required fruits and results and perform the duties of their natures. As for this, since it could occur only through infinite knowledge, they testify to the number of plants and animals to the necessary existence and boundless knowledge of a Maker and Giver of Form, an All-Knowing Determiner Who knows the relationships of everything with everything else and keeps these in view, and knows the definition through the compasses and pen of the decree and determining of pre-eternal knowledge of the outsides and insides of their fellow-men and fellow-trees and their species, and of their measured proportions and form, and they testify to the One Who does this.

The Seventh and Eighth Evidences: 'And the specified appointed hour of death and fixed, regular sustenance'

Superficially, the appointed hour and sustenance appear to be un-known and unspecified, but for an important instance of wisdom under the veil of vagueness, the appointed hour is determined and specified on the page of every living being's destiny in the notebook of pre-eternal Divine decree and determining; it can be neither brought forward nor delayed. There are numerous evidences that the sustenance of every living being is also appointed and determined and inscribed on the tablets of decree and determining. For example, a huge tree leaving behind when it dies its seed, which is its spirit of a sort, to continue its duties in its place, and this occurring through the wise law of an All-Knowing Preserver; and milk, the sustenance of infants and young, flowing forth from breasts, and its appearing from between blood and execrement, and pouring into their mouths pure and clean without being polluted; reject decisively the possibility of chance and shows clearly that they occur through the compassionate law of an All-Knowing and Compassionate Provider. You can make an analogy with these two small examples for all living creatures and beings with spirits.

This means that in reality both the appointed hour of death is specified and determined, and each person's sustenance has been determined and recorded in the notebook of his destiny. But for most important instances of wisdom, both the appointed hour and sustenance are concealed behind the veil of the Unseen, and appear to be to be vague, unspecified, and apparently bound to coincidence. For if the appointed hour had been specified like the setting of the sun, the first half of life would be passed in absolute heedlessness and be lost by not working for the hereafter, and the second half would passed in ghastly terror, as one was as though every day taking one more step towards the gallows of death, exacerbating the calamity of death a hundredfold. For which reason the calamities one suffers, and the resurrection of the dead, which is the world's appointed hour of death, have mercifully been left in concealment in the Unseen.

As for sustenance, since after life itself it is the greatest treasury of bounties, and the richest source of thanks and praise, and the most comprehensive mine of worship, supplication, and entreaty, it has apparently been left vague and shown to be tied to chance. For in this way the door of seeking sustenance through the intercession of continuously seeking refuge at the Divine Court, and pleading and beseeching, and praise and thanks, is not closed. For if it had been clearly specified, its nature would have been altogether changed. The doors of thankful, grateful supplications and entreaties, indeed of humble worship, would have been closed.

The Ninth and Tenth Evidences:'And the regular excellence and careful adornment'

All the beautiful creatures which display the manifestations of an eternal beauty and loveliness especially in the spring on the face of the earth, for instance the flowers, fruits, small birds and flies, and especially the gilded, sparkling flying insects - in their creation, forms, and members are such a miraculous skill and precision, such a wonderful art, mastery, and excellence, and all sorts of shapes and tiny machines which show their craftsman's wondrous proficiency, that they point decisively to a truly comprehensive knowledge, and -let there be no mistake in the expression- an extremely skilful, scientific innate knowledge, and testify that it is impossible that aimless chance and unconscious, confused causes could interfere. While the phrase "and careful decoration" means that those fine artefacts are adorned in a way so agreeable, are decorated in a way so sweet, display a beauty and art so attractive, that their maker could create these works only through an infinite knowledge. He knows the best manner of everything, and wishes to display to conscious beings the beauty of exquisite craftsmanship and the perfection of its beauty. For He creates and decorates the most insignificant flower and tiniest fly with the greatest care, skill, and art, giving them the greatest importance. This attentive adorning and beautifying self-evidently point to a boundless and all-encompassing knowledge, and testify to the number of those beauties to the necessary existence of an All-Knowing and Beauteous Maker.

The Eleventh Evidence,

which comprises five universal evidences and proofs: 'The utterly perfect order, balance, and total distinction with absolute ease, and the creation of things in unlimited abundance with absolute skill and speed with absolute balance, to an unrestricted extent with perfect beauty and art, over infinite distances with complete congruence, with unlimited intermingling yet with complete distinction.'

This evidence is another and better form of the similar lines at the end of the Arabic piece above, but because of my severe illness it explains the five or six evidences it comprises in the form of a very brief indication only.

Firstly:Throughout the earth we see the making of wondrous living machines, some instantaneously and some in a minute or two, in orderly and measured fashion, each different from its fellows, with the greatest ease, arising from a thorough knowledge and skill, all of which point to an infinite knowledge and testify that the perfection of knowledge is proportionate to the ease resulting from the skill and knowledge in the art.

Secondly:Perfect creations of the greatest art within the greatest profusion and multitude, point to a boundless knowledge within an infinite power, and testify to their number to One Who is Absolutely Knowing and Powerful.

Thirdly:Creations which are of the finest balance and measure despite being made with absolute speed, point to a boundless knowledge and testify to their number to One Absolutely Knowing and Absolutely Powerful.

Fourthly:The making of innumerable animate beings on the broad face of the earth with the greatest craft, adornment, and beauty of art despite their wide extent, points to an all-encompassing knowledge which confusing nothing, sees all things together, and for which nothing is an obstacle to anything else. It testifies too that singly and altogether they are the artefacts of One Knowing of All Things, an Absolutely Powerful One.

Fifthly:The coming into being of the members of a species which are far from each other, with one in the east, one in the west, one in the north, and one in the south, in the same way, both resembling each other and differing, could occur only through the infinite power of One Absolutely Knowing and Absolutely Powerful Who governs the whole universe, and through His infinite knowledge, which encompasses all beings together with all their states, thus pointing to an all-encompassing knowledge and testifies to One All-Knowing of the Unseen.

Sixthly:The creation of a great multitude of living machines in confusing circumstances and dark places, for example seeds under the ground, without confusion, despite their similarity and all being mixed up together, in miraculous fashion without neglecting any single one of any sort, together with all their distinguishing features, points as clearly as the sun to pre-eternal knowledge and testifies as brilliantly as daylight to the creativity and dominicality of One Absolutely Powerful and Absolutely Knowing. For the details we refer you to the Risale-i Nur and here cut a long story short.

Now we begin the question of"Will,"

which is in Hulâsatü'l-Hulâsa, {[*]: Hulâsatü'l-Hulâsa: The 'sum and substance' in Arabic of The Supreme Sign, which describes in thirty-three degrees how all the realms of creation testify to their Creator's existence and unity. It is included in the collection of invocations and supplications called "Hizb Anwar al-Haqa'iq al-Nuriyya," which includes "Jawshan a l-Kabir." [Tr.]} the summary of The Supreme Sign: {[*]: Since the Turkish is given for the Arabic piece here, the English translation of the Arabic is not given. [Tr.]}

This piece consists of one long universal proof of Divine will, which comprises many of the proofs of Will. In a short translation of it, we set

out evidence proving decisively Divine will and choice and volition. All the above evidences for Divine knowledge are also evidences for will. For the manifestations and works of knowledge and will are apparent together in all creatures.

The meaning of the above Arabic piece in brief:

Everything exists through His will and volition. What He wills occurs, what He does not will does not occur. If He did not will it, nothing would occur. A proof is this:

We see that among infinite, confused possibilities and various fruitless ways, amid intervening and mutually opposing elements which flow like floods causing chaos, in the midst of numerous others resembling themselves, which is the cause of disorder, every creature with its own specific essence, particular attributes, individual character, and distinctive form, is taken within a precise, perfect, regular order; all its members and organs are weighed up with a sensitive, exact measure and balance and attached to it; its mutually opposing members are created living and with extreme art from simple, lifeless matter. For example, a human being is created with a hundred different organs from a droplet of fluid, and a bird is made with numerous different members and organs from a simple egg and clothed in a miraculous form, and a tree is drawn out of a tiny seed comprising simple, lifeless carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen, together with its branches and twigs and various members and parts, and dressed in an orderly, fruitful form. This self-evidently, indubitably, decisively, and necessarily proves that all those creatures together with all their parts and particles, form and nature, are given their particular perfect states through the will, choice, volition, and intention of One possessing Absolute Power. It proves too that everything is governed by an all-embracing will. These single creatures pointing in this indubitable way to Divine will shows that all creatures offer testimony to their number with a certainty as clear as the sun at noon to Divine will encompassing all things, and that they comprise numberless proofs of the necessary existence of an All-Powerful Possessor of Will.

All the evidences for Divine knowledge mentioned above are also evidences for Divine will, since both function together with power. One cannot be without the other. Just as all the correspondence and conformities between the members of species and sorts of beings indicate that their Maker is One and the same; so their features being distinctive and different from each other in wise and purposive fashion indicates definitely that their Single Maker of Unity acts with will and choice. He creates everything with will, choice, volition, and intention.

This marks the end of my explanations of the Arabic piece's meaning, which sets forth one universal proof of Divine will. I had intended to write many more important points, as for the question of Divine knowledge, but my brain was exhausted due to the illness I was suffering as a result of being poisoned, so it was postponed to another time.

The Arabic piece about Divine power:

God is Most Great! Through His power and will, greater than all things. For He is powerful over all things with absolute, all-encompassing power, necessary and intrinsic to His Most Pure and Holy Essence. It is impossible that the opposite of His power should intervene in it, for it has no degrees; equal before it are particles and stars, particulars and universals, the part and the whole, the seed and the tree, the world and man - through the mystery of the observable utterly perfect order, balance, distinction, and precision, together with the ease in the absolute abundance, speed, and intermingling; and through the mysteries of luminosity, transparency, reciprocity, balance, order, and obedience; and through the mysteries of the assistance of unity, facility of unity, and the manifestation of oneness; and through the mysteries of necessity, total detachment, and complete otherness of essence; and through the mysteries of unrestrictedness, not being bound by space, and indivisibility; and through the mysteries of the transformation of obstacles and obstructions into means of facility; and through the mystery of the intuition that the particular, the part, the seed and man are not inferior as regards art and eloquence to the star, and that the Creator of the universal, the whole, the tree, and the world is the Creator of the former; and through the mystery of the surroundings and wholes inevitably being in the grasp of the Creator of the things which are surrounded and the parts, like the miniature inscribed beings similar to them, or 'milked,' extracted droplets, for they and their likes are included in the former with the balance of His knowledge, or are 'milked' from them in accordance with the principles of His wisdom; and through the mystery of a Qur'an of Dignity inscribed with particles of ether on an atom or minutest particle not being of less eloquence or wondrous art than a Qur'an of Grandeur written with the ink of the stars and suns on the page of the heavens; similarly, through their relation to the power of the universe's Creator, the blooming rose not being of less eloquence and art than the star Venus; nor the ant being inferior to the elephant; nor the microbe inferior to the rhinoceros, nor is the bee inferior to the date-palm. Moreover, the extreme ease and speed in the creation of things causes the people of misguidance to confuse formation with self-formation,

which necessitates innumerable impossibilities and is a delusion; while it proves to the people of guidance that in relation to the power of the universe's Creator particles and the stars are equal, may His glory be exalted, for there is no god but He; God is Most Great!

Before giving a translation of this Arabic piece from the point of view of the truly vast question of Divine power, and a brief meaning of it, I shall disclose a truth which was imparted to me. It was like this:

The existence of Divine power is more certain than the existence of the universe. Indeed, singly and all together creatures are the embodied words of power; they demonstrate its existence with 'the vision of certainty.' They testify to their number to the Absolutely Powerful One, the One qualified by it. There is no need to prove that power with further proofs. But because it is one of the most important bases of faith, and the most necessary means to understanding the Qur'anic truths, and as claimed by the verse,

Your creation and your resurrection is but as a single soul,{[*]: Qur'an, 31:28.}

and because not everyone has found the way to it through the use of reason, some people have remained bewildered and uncomprehending before power and others have denied it, and it is therefore necessary to prove an awesome truth concerning it.

As for the above-mentioned basis, foundation, means, assertion, and truth, it is the meaning of the above verse. That is to say: "Men and jinn! The creation of all of you and your being resurrected and raised to life at the resurrection is as easy for My power as the creation of a single individual!" Divine power creates the spring as easily as it creates a single flower. For that power, there is no difference between particular and universal, small and large, many and few. It spins planets as easily as it spins particles.

In nine 'Steps', the above Arabic passage expounds a most conclusive, cogent proof of this awesome question. Very briefly, its meaning is as follows. The basis of the steps is indicated by this:

For He is powerful over all things with absolute, all-encompassing power, necessary and intrinsic to His Most Pure and Holy Essence; it is impossible that the opposite of His power should intervene in it, for it has no degrees; equal before it are particles and stars, particulars and universals, the part and the whole, the seed and the tree, the world and man.

That is, Divine power is such that it is powerful over all things, encompasses all things, is essential to the Necessarily Existent One, and according to logic, is "necessary" to Him; it is impossible that it should be separated from Him; there is no possibility that it could be. Since the Most Pure and Holy Essence possesses such necessary power, impotence, its opposite, could certainly in no way intervene in it. Impotence could not impinge on the All-Powerful Essence. Since the existence of degrees in a thing occurs through the intervention of its opposite -for example, the degrees and levels of heat occur through the intervention of cold, and the degrees of beauty, through the intervention of ugliness- impotence, the opposite of this essential power, can in no way approach it; there is no possibility whatsoever that it could. There can be no degrees in that absolute power. Since there can be no degrees in it, stars and particles are equal to that power, and there are no differences for it between the part and the whole, or an individual and a species. The raising to life of a seed and a huge tree, and the universe and man, and one individual and all beings with spirits at the resurrection of the dead is equal in relation to that power, and all are equally easy. There is no difference between great and small, many and few. Decisive witnesses to this truth are the perfect art, order, balance, distinction and profusion that we see in the creation of things with absolute speed, absolute ease, and complete facility.

First Step

Through the mystery of the observable utterly perfect order, balance, distinction, and precision, together with the ease in the absolute abundance, speed, and intermingling.

For the meaning of this, see the above truth.

Second Step

Through the mysteries of luminosity, transparency, reciprocity, balance, order, and obedience.

For detailed explanation of this we refer you to the end of the Tenth Word, the Twenty-Ninth Word, and the Twentieth Letter, and here make only a brief allusion. Just as with respect to luminosity and through dominical power, the sun's light is reflected as easily on the surface of the sea and in all its bubbles as is it on a single fragment of glass; the two are equal; so it is as easy for the luminous power of the Light of Lights to create and rotate the heavens and stars as it is to create flies and particles and rotate them; neither presents any difficulties for it.

Also, just as through the quality of transparency and through Divine power, the sun's image is present with the same ease in a tiny mirror or in

the pupil of the eye as, through the Divine command, its light is reflected on all shining things and droplets, and translucent motes, and on the surface of the sea; so too, since the inner faces of the essences of things are transparent and shining, the manifestation and effect of absolute power creates all living beings with the ease of creating a single individual; there is no difference between many and few, great and small.

Also, if two walnuts of equal weight were placed on a pair of scales which were absolutely precise and large enough to weigh mountains, and a tiny seed was added to one of the walnuts, it would raise one of the pans to the height of a mountain-top and lower the other to the bottom of the valley with the same ease as raising one pan to the skies and lowering the other to the valley bottom if two mountains of equal weight had been placed in the pans and a walnut added to one. In exactly the same way, in the terminology of the science of theology (kalam),contingency is equal in regard to existence and non-existence. That is, if there is nothing to cause their existence, things which are not necessary but contingent are equal in regard to existence and non-existence; there is no difference. Few or many, big or small are the same in regard to this contingency and equality. Thus, creatures are contingent, and since within the sphere of contingency their existence and non-existence are equal, it is as easy for the boundless pre-eternal power of the Necessarily Existent One to give existence to a single contingent being as to give all contingent beings existence and clothe everything in an appropriate being, spoiling the balance of non-existence. And when the being's duties are completed, He takes off its garment of external existence and sends it apparently to non-existence, but in fact to an existence within the sphere of His knowledge. This means that if things are ascribed to the Absolutely Powerful One, the raising to life of the spring becomes as easy as that of a flower, and the raising to life of all mankind at the resurrection of the dead as easy as raising to life a single soul. Whereas if they are ascribed to causes, a flower becomes as difficult as the spring, and a fly as difficult as all living beings.

Also, through the mystery of order, the setting in motion of a large ship or an aeroplane through pressing a button with one's finger is as easy as setting in motion the mainspring of a clock by turning the key with one's finger. So too since through the principles of pre-eternal knowledge, and laws of eternal wisdom, and universal manifestations of dominical will and its specified principles, all things, universal and particular, large and small, many and few, have been given an immaterial mould, particular measure and proportions, and sheer limits, they are entirely within the order of Divine knowledge and laws of Divine will. Certainly, it is as easy for the Absolutely Powerful One to rotate the solar system

and cause the ship of the earth to voyage around its annual orbit through His infinite power as it is for Him to make blood circulate in a body in orderly and wise fashion and the red and white corpuscles circulate in the blood, and the particles circulate in the tiny corpuscles, for without difficulty He creates a human being together with his wondrous organs from a droplet of fluid on the pattern of the universe. This means, if ascribed to that pre-eternal, infinite power, the creation of the universe is as easy as the creation of a single human being. But if not ascribed to that power, it becomes as difficult to create a single human being together with his wondrous organs, members and senses as to create the universe.

Also, through the mystery of obedience, compliance, and conforming to commands, with the command of "Forward march!" a commander impels a single soldier to attack, and with the same command he drives forward to the attack a large, disciplined army. So too, with innate desire and eagerness resembling soldiers totally obedient to the laws of Divine will and subservient to the signs of the dominical creational commands, creatures are a thousand times more obedient than the soldiers of an army -within the bounds of the line of action determined by pre-eternal knowledge and wisdom- and are completely compliant and subservient. It is therefore as easy through the dominical command of "Come into existence out of non-existence and get down to your business!" and in the manner determined by knowledge and in the form specified by will, for power to clothe an individual animate being in an existence particular to it, and take it by the hand and bring it into being as it is to create the army of living beings of the spring and to assign them their duties. That is to say, if everything is attributed to that power, the creation of the entire army of minute particles and divisions of stars is as easy and free of trouble as the creation of a single particle and single star. Whereas if attributed to causes, the creation of a particle in the pupil of a living being's eye or in its brain together with its ability to perform its wondrous duties, would be as difficult and troublesome as that of the army of animals.

Third Step

Through the mysteries of the assistance of unity, facility of unity, and the manifestation of oneness.

We shall look at the meaning of this by means of brief indications. That is, due to the unity of sovereignty and all his subjects acting in conformity to his commands alone, it is as easy for a ruler and commander-in-chief to govern a large country and numerous nation as it is to govern the people of a village. For due to the unity of his decree, the members of the nation become a means of facility just like the soldiers, and his commands

and laws are easily executed. Whereas if it was left to various rulers, in addition to sinking into confusion, to govern a village, or even a household, would be as difficult as governing the country. And since the obedient nation is attached to the single commander, like individual soldiers, through the strength of relying on the commander's strength, and his ammunition stores and army, each may take an enemy king captive and perform works far exceeding his own individual strength. His connection with the ruler obtains for him an infinite strength and power, so that he may perform great works. But if the relation is severed, he loses that vast strength, and with his own petty strength performs works only to the extent of the arms and ammunition on his back. For if it was required of him to perform all the works he carried out relying on the power of his connection with the ruler, he would have to have in his arm the strength of the army and on his back all the ruler's stores of arms and ammunition.

In exactly the same way, due to the unity of His sovereignty and absolute rulership, the Monarch of Pre-Eternity and Post-Eternity, the All-Powerful Maker, creates the universe as easily as a city, and raises to life the spring as easily as a garden, and raises to life all the dead at the resurrection as easily as creating the leaves, flowers, and fruits of the garden's trees in the spring. He easily creates a fly on the pattern of an eagle. He easily makes man the microcosm. Whereas if ascribed to causes, a microbe would be as difficult as a rhinoceros, and a fruit as difficult as a mighty tree. Perhaps too, every particle which performs its wondrous tasks in the body of a living creature would have to be given an eye that sees all things and knowledge that knows all things so that it could carry out those subtle and perfect vital duties.

Also, ease and facility reach such a degree in unity that they become necessary. For if the equipping of an army is from one hand, from one factory, it becomes as easy as equipping a single soldier. Whereas if numerous different hands interfere and the various parts of the equipment are all brought from different factories, quantitively a single soldier's equipment could be prepared only with a thousand difficulties; since numerous officers interfered, it would be as difficult as a thousand soldiers. Also, if the management and command of a thousand soldiers is given to a single officer, in one respect it becomes as easy as a single soldier, whereas if they were assigned to ten officers or the soldiers themselves, it would result in confusion and great difficulty.

In exactly the same way, if all things are attributed to the Single One of Unity, they become as easy as a single thing. But if they are attributed to causes, a single living creature becomes as difficult as the whole earth, and perhaps impossible. This means that in unity ease and facilty are at

the level of necessity. And with the interference of numerous hands, the difficulties amount to impossibility.

As it is said in Letters (Mektûbat),if the alternations of day and night, and the motions of the stars, and the seasons of the year, the autumn, winter, spring, and summer, are left to a single officer and organizer, that commander-in-chief commands the globe of the earth, which is a soldier: "Rise up, rotate, and travel!" Out of joy and delight at receiving the command, with two motions like a Mevlevi dervish in ectasy, it is easily the means to the daily and annual changes and the apparent, imaginary movements of the stars, thus demonstrating the total ease and facility of unity. But if it is left not to the single commander but to causes and the caprices of the stars, and earth is told: "You stop in your place and don't travel!", every night and every year thousands of stars and suns thousands of times larger than the earth would have to cut distances of thousands of millions of years, so that through their travelling, the situations of the earth and heavens such as the seasons and day and night, might come about. But it would be so difficult as to be impossible.

The phrase And the manifestation of onenessalludes to a vast and extremely subtle, profound, and extensive truth. Referring explanation and proof of it to the Risale-i Nur, we shall here set out a single point by means of a comparison.

Yes, just as through its light the sun illuminates the whole earth and is an example of unity, so through its image, reflection, seven-coloured light, and shape appearing in all the transparent things that face it, such as mirrors, it forms an example of oneness. If the sun possessed knowledge, power, and will, and the fragments of glass and droplets and bubbles in which the tiny suns appeared had the capacity, through the law of Divine will, in each and next to each a complete sun would be present together with its image and attributes, as well as in all the other places. There being no deficiency in its power of disposal, through the command, effect, and word of dominical power, it would be the cause of truly extensive manifestations, thus demonstrating the extraordinary ease and facility of oneness.

In exactly the same way, just as in respect of His unity, the All-Glorious Maker looks through His knowledge, will, and power, which encompass all things, and is all-present and all-seeing everywhere, so with respect to His oneness and through its manifestation, He is present together with His Names and attributes with all things, and particularly living things, so that easily, in an instant, He creates a fly on the pattern of an eagle and a human being according to the system of the universe. He creates living creatures

in a way so miraculous that if all causes were to gather together, they could not make a nightingale or a fly. And the One Who creates the nightingale, is the One Who creates all birds; and the One Who creates a human being could only be the One Who creates the universe.

The Fourth and Fifth Steps

Through the mysteries of necessity, total detachment, and complete otherness of essence; and the mysteries of unrestrictedness, not being bound by space, and indivisibility.

It being very difficult to express the reality of these two steps to everyone, their meaning will be explained in one or two very brief points. That is, in relation to the power of an Absolutely Powerful One Whose existence is at the degree of necessity, the most powerful and stable of the degrees of existence, and is pre-eternal and post-eternal, and Who is totally detached from and free of materiality, and Whose holy nature is totally different to all other natures, - in relation to His power, the stars are like minute particles, and the resurrection of the dead like the spring, and to raise to life all men at the resurrection is as easy as raising to life a single soul. For as much as a fingernail from the levels of existence that are powerful may hold a mountain from an insubstantial level of existence, and may manipulate it. For example, a mirror and faculty of memory from the level of powerful, external existence may hold a hundred mountains and a thousand books from the level of existence of the World of Similitudes and non-material existence, which are weak and insubstantial, and they may have disposal over them. Thus, however inferior as regards power the level of existence of the World of Similitudes is to the level of external existence, the created, accidental existences of contingent beings are thousands of times more inferior and weaker than a pre-eternal, everlasting, necessary existence, so that through the manifestation of a particle He can manipulate a world from the worlds of contingent beings. Regretably, for the time being, three important reasons do not permit me to explain this lengthy truth and its fine points in full, so we refer it to the Risale-i Nur and another time.

Sixth Step

Through the mystery of the transformation of obstacles and impediments into means of facility.

Through a law of the manifestation of Divine will called in science "the knot of life," and of the creational command, and through the command and will being turned towards them, the unconscious branches and hard twigs of a huge tree do not form obstacles or impediments to the necessary

substances and foods which pass to its fruits, leaves, and flowers from the "knot of life," which is like the tree's mainspring and stomach; indeed, they facilitate the process. In just the same way, since all [potential] obstacles in the creation of the universe and creatures cease being obstacles in the face of a manifestation of will and regard of the dominical command and become means of facility, eternal power creates the universe and all the species of creatures on the earth as easily as creating a single tree. Nothing at all is difficult for it. If all those acts of creation are not ascribed to that power, then the creation and administration of the single tree would be as difficult as the creation and administration of all trees, indeed, as the universe. For then everything would become obstacles and obstructions, and if all causes were to gather together, they could not send the necessary sustenance to the fruits, leaves, branches and twigs in orderly, regular fashion from the stomach and mainspring of a tree's "knot of life," which proceeds from command and will. Unless all the parts of the tree, and all its particles even, were given an eye, all-encompassing knowledge, and wondrous power which would see the entire tree together with its parts and particles, and know them and assist them.

So climb these five steps and take a look; see what difficulties -indeed, impossibilities- are present in unbelief and associating partners with God, and how distant they are from reason and logic, and how precluded they are. Then see what ease there is on the way of the Qur'an, indeed, that its facility is at the degree of necessity, and how acceptable and reasonable it is, and what certain and satisfying truth is found on its way, so certain as to be necessary. Understand this and say: "All praise be to God for the bounty of belief!"

(The difficulties I was suffering and my indisposition caused the remaining part of this important step to be postponed.)

Seventh Step

And through the mystery that the particular, the part, the seed and man are not inferior as regards art and eloquence to the star, the universal, the whole, the tree, and the world.

[NOTE: The basis, mine, and sun of the truths contained in these nine Steps are the verses: Say, He is God, the One; * God, the Eternal and Ever-Besought.{[*]: Qur'an, 112:1-2.} They are brief indications to flashes from the manifestation of Divine oneness and eternal besoughtedness. Making one or two points, we shall take a very brief look at the meaning of this Seventh Step, and for the details refer you to the Risale-i Nur.]

That is, a particle which performs wonderful duties in the eye or brain is not inferior to a star; nor is a part inferior to the whole; for instance, the brain and eye are not inferior to the human being as a whole; nor with regard to beauty of art and the marvels of its creation is a particular individual inferior to a universal species; nor with his strange members and faculties is a man inferior to all the animal species; nor in regard to fine craftsmanship and being treasury-like, and resembling an index, programme, and memory, is a seed inferior to a mighty tree; nor in regard to his creation, and wondrous, comprehensive organs and faculties created so as to perform thousands of amazing duties, is a man, the microcosm, inferior to the universe. This means that the One Who creates the particle cannot lack the power to create the star. And the One Who creates an organ like the tongue, certainly easily creates man. And the One Who creates a single man thus perfectly surely can create all animals, and this He does before our eyes. And the One Who creates a seed as a list, an index, a notebook of the laws issuing from the Divine command, and as a "knot of life," is certainly the Creator of all trees. And the One Who creates man as a sort of seed of the world and as its comprehensive fruit, and makes him the mirror to all the Divine Names, and connected to all the universe, and His vicegerent on earth, most certainly possesses such power that He creates the universe as easily as He creates man, and sets it in order. In which case, whoever is the Creator, Maker, and Sustainer of the particle, part, particular individual, seed, and man must be the Creator, Maker, and Sustainer of the stars, species, the whole, universals, trees, and the whole universe. That it should be otherwise is impossible and precluded.

Eighth Step

Through the mystery of the surroundings and wholes inevitably being in the grasp of the Creator of the things which are surrounded and the parts, like the miniature inscribed beings similar to them, or 'milked,' extracted droplets, for they and their likes are included in the former with the balance of His knowledge, or are 'milked' from them in accordance with the principles of His wisdom.

That is, the relation to the large universals which encompass them of the particulars which are encompassed, and of individuals, seeds, and grains which are within universals and wholes, is as tiny miniatures, and as the identical samples of the universal and wholes, inscribed in miniature in the very finest writing. Since this is so, the encompassing universal must be within the grasp of the Creator of the particulars and completely under His disposal so that through the balances of His knowledge

and its fine pens He can include that huge all-encompassing book in hundreds of miniscule sections and notebooks. The relation and comparison, then, of the encompassed parts and particulars with their surroundings is as droplets 'milked' from what encompasses them, like milk, or as if someone squeezed the surroundings and those points dripped from them. For example, a melon seed is a droplet milked from all its surroundings or a point in which is written the whole book, for it contains its index, list, and programme. Since it is thus, the encompassing wholes and universals must be within the hand of the Maker of those particulars, droplets, and points so that He can milk the individuals, droplets, and points from them with the sensitive principles of His wisdom. This means that the One Who creates the seed and individual must the One Who creates the whole and the universals, and the other universals and sorts, which encompass the latter and are bigger than them; it could not be anyone else. In which case, the One Who creates a single soul can only be He Who creates all mankind. And the One Who raises to life one dead person, can raise to life all jinn and men at the resurrection of the dead, and will raise them to life. So see, what is claimed and stated by the verse,

Your creation and your resurrection is but as a single soul{[*]: Qur'an, 31:28.}

is most definitely and brilliantly pure truth and reality.

Ninth Step

And through the mystery of a Qur'an of Dignity inscribed with particles of ether on an atom or minutest particle not being of less eloquence or wondrous art than a Qur'an of Grandeur written with the ink of the stars and suns on the page of the heavens; similarly, through their relation to the power of the universe's Creator, the blooming rose not being of less eloquence and art than the star Venus; nor the ant being inferior to the elephant, nor the microbe inferior to the rhinoceros, nor the bee inferior to the date-palm. Moreover, the extreme ease and speed in the creation of things causes the people of misguidance to confuse formation with self-formation, which necessitates innumerable impossibilities and is a delusion; while it proves to the people of guidance that in relation to the power of the universe's Creator particles and the stars are equal, May His glory be exalted, for there is no god but He; God is Most Great!

[I wanted to explain the meaning of this last step at length, but regretably I have been prevented by my extreme distress, arising from arbitrary oppression and harassment, and my weakness and serious

sicknesses, resulting from poisoning. I have therefore have been compelled to suffice with a brief indication.]

That is, if a Qur'an of Mighty Stature was written on a particle which is supposed to be indivisible and called in the science of theology (kalam)and in philosophy "jawhar-i fard,"in particles of ether, which is matter even finer, and if another mighty Qur'an was written in stars and suns on the pages of the heavens, then the two were compared, the microscopic Qur'an written in particles would not be inferior in respect of marvels and miraculous art than the vast Qur'an gilding the face of the heavens; indeed, in some ways it would be superior.

In exactly the same way, from the point of view of the originality and eloquence in their creation, in relation to the power of the universe's Creator, the rose is not inferior to the star Venus, the ant is not inferior to the elephant, and a microbe is more wondrous as regards its creation than a rhinoceros, and with its marvellous inborn faculties the bee is superior to the date-palm. This means that the One Who creates the bee can create all animals. The One Who raises a single soul to life can raise to life all men at the resurrection of the dead and gather them together in the arena of the Great Gathering, and will gather them together. Nothing at all is difficult for Him, for before our eyes every spring He creates a hundred thousand samples of the resurrection with the greatest ease and speed.

Very briefly, the meaning of the final Arabic sentence is this: since the people of misguidance do not know the unshakeable truths of the above 'Steps,' and since creatures come into existence extremely easily and extremely quickly, they imagine their formation and creation through a Maker's infinite power to be self-formation and that they come into existence of themselves. They have thus opened for themselves the door of in every way impossible and precluded superstitions, which no mind, and not even delusion, could accept. For example, in that case, every single particle of every animate creature would have to be ascribed an infinite power, knowledge, and eye that sees everything, and power sufficient to execute every art and skill. Thus, by not accepting a single God, they are bound by their ways to accept gods to the number of particles, and thus deserve to enter among the lowest of the low of Hell.

As for the people of guidance, the powerful truths and irrefutable proofs of the above 'Steps' afford to their sound hearts and straight minds the firmest conviction and most powerful belief and assent at the level of 'the vision of certainty,' so that they believe without doubt or misgiving and with peace of mind that in relation to Divine power there is no difference between stars and particles, or the smallest and the largest, for all

these wondrous things occur before our very eyes. And every marvel of art confirms the assertion of the verse,

Your creation and your resurrection is but as a single soul,

and testifies that what it states is pure truth and reality, and through the tongues of their beings they declare: "God is Most Great!" We too declare: "God is Most Great!" to their number. And with all our strength and conviction we affirm the verse's claim, and we testify with innumerable proofs that what it states is pure truth and reality.

Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.{[*]: Qur'an, 2:32.}

O God! Grant blessings and peace to the one whom You sent as a Mercy to all the worlds, and all praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds.

[A Eulogy which answers the questions: What is the Risale-i Nur? What is its true nature, and what is the true nature of its Interpreter?]

The high servants of religion who are described in Hadiths as coming at the start of every century are not innovators, they are followers. That is to say, they do not create anything new themselves, they do not bring any new ordinances; they adjust and strengthen religion by way of following to the letter the fundamentals and ordinances of religion and the Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH); they proclaim the true and original meaning of religion; they remove and render null and void the baseless matters which have been mixed up with it; they reject and destoy the attacks made on religion; they establish the Divine commands, and proclaim and make known the nobility and exaltedness of the Divine ordinances. Only, without spoiling the basic position or damaging the original spirit, they carry out their duties through new methods of persuasion appropriate to the understand of the age, and in new ways and with new details.

These dominical officials confirm their positions through their actions and deeds. They carry out their duty of reflecting the firmness of their belief and their sincerity. They display in their actions their degree of faith. They show that they follow to the letter the practices of Muhammad (PBUH) and that truly they have been invested with the Prophetic robe. In short: for the community of Muhammad (PBUH) they form perfect models in respect of deeds and morality and following and adhering to the Prophet's Sunna; they are examples worthy of being followed. The works they write expounding God's Book and elucidating the injunctions of religion, and their presenting these in accordance with the understanding of the age and its degree of learning, are not the products of their own elevated, fertile minds; they are not the result of their own intelligence and knowledge. They are directly the inspirations and promptings of the Pure Essence of Messengership (PBUH), who is the source of revelation. Jaljalutiyya, Mathnawi-i Sharif,and Futuh al-Ghayband such works are all of this sort. Those holy persons have a part in the ordering of those choice works, and in their manner of exposition; that is, they are the places where their meanings are manifested and reflected.

To come to the Risale-i Nur and its Interpreter: since in this lofty work are an elevated effulgence and endless perfection never before encountered in any similar work; and since it is observed that, in a way hitherto unseen in any work, it is the heir to the effulgences of the Qur'an, which

is a Divine lamp and the sun of guidance and moon of happiness; it is a fact as clear as the sun that its basis is the pure light of the Qur'an and that it bears the effulgence of the lights of Muhammad (PBUH) to a greater extent than the works of the saints, and that the share in it, and concern with it, and sacred disposal over it of the Pure Essence of Messengership (PBUH) are greater than in the works of the saints, and the attainment and perfections of the one who is its Interpreter and place of manifestation is elevated and matchless to the same degree.

Yes, while still in his childhood and never having studied, in the space of three month's study in order to be saved from externals, the Risale-i Nur's Interpreter was made heir to the early and later sciences, mystic knowledge, the realities of things, the mysteries of the universe, and Divine wisdom, which had been bestowed on no one previously. With his learning and moral fortitude, consisting of his being embodied chastity, and his extraordinary courage and complete self-sufficiency, he was a miracle of creation, an embodiment of Divine favour; his abilities were God-given.

As a matchless scholar, an extraordinary prodigy, challenging the whole world of learning before reaching the age of puberty, he silenced all the scholars with whom he debated, answered absolutely correctly and without hesitation just about all the questions posed to him, bore the mantle of 'master' from the age of fourteen, and continuously irradiated the effulgence of knowledge and light of wisdom. With the subtlety and profundity of his exposition, the conciseness and loftiness of his explanations, and his insight, perspicacity and light of wisdom, he astonished the scholars and learned, deservedly earning the illustrious title of 'Bediuzzaman' (Wonder of the Age). As someone who with his elevated qualities and scholarly virtues propagated and proved most perfectly the religion of Muhammad (PBUH), he surely received the highest favours of the Lord of the Prophets (PBUH), and was under his lofty protection and auspices. Doubtless he was one of noble virtue who advanced at the decree of the Most Holy Prophet (PBUH), and acted under his command, and was the heir to his truths and reflected his lights.

As indicated by his making the lights and knowledge of Muhammad (PBUH) and radiance of the Divine Candle (Qur'an) shine most brilliantly, and the mathematical significances of the Qur'an and Hadith being fulfilled in him, and the mathematical expositions of verses expressing the prophetic utterances concentrating on himself, there is no doubt that he was a burnished mirror to the Divine Messengership in serving the cause of belief, and the final luminous fruit of the tree of

Messengership, and the final mouth of reality in respect of the legacy of the tongue of Messengership, and a final happy bearer of 'the Divine Candle' in respect of serving belief.

Signed in the name of the Risale-i Nur students who attended the single 'lesson' of the third School of Joseph, consisting of The Shining Proof and Zühretü'n-Nur,

Ahmed Feyzi, Ahmed Nazif, Salâhaddin, Zübeyir, Ceylan, Sungur, Tabancali

They have accorded me a share far exceeding my due. But lacking the courage to offend these signatories, I remained silent, and accepted their eulogy in the name of the collective personality of the Risale-i Nur students.

Said Nursi

* * *

In His Name, be He glorified!

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings, for ever and ever!

Our Most Beloved, Blessed, Highly-Valued, Kindly Master!

Our revered Master, who has completely abandoned his own will and left all matters to dominical will, who sees the mercy and wisdom of Divine Determining in every apparent calamity and hardship, and with perfect trust and submission awaits in perfect patience the results of that dominical manifestation! In this terrible century when in some places the things on which the believers rely have begun to crumble, and with publications opposing the pillars of belief the deniers of God flaunt themselves openly and arrogantly, and to act in opposition to the Qur'an's commands and not believe in spiritual forces, and to ascribe the right of creation to unconscious, blind, deaf nature are considered marks of civilization and of being 'cultured' and intellectual -at such a time, our gracious Master wrote the Risale-i Nur, a miracle of the Qur'an, and offering its soothing cures to agitated, wretched hearts needy for the water of life of belief, gave them the good news of eternal happiness. On its highway of reality which proves its teachings with decisive, categorical arguments and proofs, and through the mystery of our Illustrious Leader (PBUH), to whom refers "the cause is like the doer," the equivalent of all the good deeds performed by hundreds of thousands of Risale-i Nur students who have saved their belief through the Risale-i Nur has passed to the register of his good deeds!

Just as in Denizli Prison Almighty God bestowed The Fruits of Belief,

whose remedies were sufficiently efficacious to reduce to nothing the distress of the incarceration, and that rose's sweet scent eliminated all the pains of its thorns, dispelling all our temporary distress; so too here in Afyon Prison, the physical discomforts of one day of which are equal to a month's discomfort in Denizli Prison, the Most Munificent and Compassionate One of Beauty has bestowed at the hand of you our beloved Master sublime proofs affirming Divine unity and praise, and the messengership of Muhammad (PBUH), which are cures and antidotes. We most faulty students of yours, who through the effulgences of the Risale-i Nur have learnt to read and write, consider these three short treatises to be both conclusive proofs of the Risale-i Nur's veracity and a sort of summary of it, in the same way that the programme and index of a mighty pine-tree is encapsulated in its seed.

We are incapable of describing the virtues of these three treatises, but on reading them our spirits experience a powerful relief, our physical sufferings are transformed into joy, and they bring us innumerable fruits from the garden of belief. With its eleven proofs of Divine unity, the first of them dispels the darknesses of disbelief, misguidance, and nature at this time. The second expounds with sacred proofs of belief Sura al-Fatiha, the source, basis, and master of all the comparisons in the Risale-i Nur. And the third explains brilliantly in a way that ensures complete certitude the part about the messengership of Muhammad (PBUH), which was imparted to you, our beloved Master, here in Afyon Prison.

Although we are in no way worthy of anything, we shall strive with all our power to publish these works, which we have received. Offering endless thanks to Almighty God, we pray to Him saying: "Most Merciful of the Merciful! May You be pleased with our Master for ever and ever!"

The Enduring One, He is the Enduring One!

In the name of the Risale-i Nur students,

Zübeyir, Ceylan, Sungur, Ibrahim

* * *

Introduction to the Turkish Translation of the Original Arabic

'Damascus Sermon'

In His Name, be He glorified!

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings for ever and ever!

My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

[With a presentiment of the future, the Old Said perceived the truths expressed in this Arabic sermon, which, on the insistence of the Damascus religious authorities, he delivered forty years ago in the Umayyad Mosque to a congregation of close on ten thousand, which included a hundred religious scholars; he gave news of those truths with complete certainty as though they were going to be realized shortly. However, the two World Wars and twenty-five years of absolute despotism delayed their realization; it is now that the signs of this, which were predicted then, are beginning to be seen in the World of Islam. Therefore, if you consider it appropriate, you may publish the translation of this most important and instructive piece, not as an old, outdated sermon, but as fresh, pertinent instruction on social and Islamic questions addressing directly, in 1371 instead of 1327, the congregation of three hundred and seventy (now more than a million) million in the mosque of the Islamic world, rather than in the Umayyad Mosque.]

It is fitting here to write the most important answer to a most important question. For the Old Said spoke prophetically in that lesson of forty years ago as though he was seeing the wondrous teachings of the Risale-i Nur and its effects. It is for this reason that I am writing that question and answer here. It is like this:

Many have asked both me and the Risale-i Nur students: "Why is it that the Risale-i Nur is not defeated in the face of so much opposition and so many obdurate philosophers and people of misguidance? By preventing to an extent the dissemination of numerous valuable, true books on belief and Islam, and by means of their worldly pleasures and vices, they have deprived many youths and others of the truths of belief. But their most violent attacks, vicious treatment, lies and propaganda have been directed at the Risale-i Nur, to destroy it and to scare people away from it and make them give it up. Despite this, the Risale-i Nur has spread in a way never seen in any other work, six hundred thousand copies of its

treatises being written out by hand with unflagging zeal and published secretly. How is it that it causes itself to be read with such enthusiasm, both within the country and abroad? What is the reason for it? In reply to the many questions of this sort, we say:

Being a true commentrary on the All-Wise Qur'an through the mystery of its miraculousness, the Risale-i Nur demonstrates that in misguidance is a sort of Hell in this world, while in belief is a sort of Paradise. It points out the grievous pains in sins, bad deeds, and forbidden pleasures, and proves that in good deeds and virtues and the truths of the Shari'a are to be found pleasures like the pleasures of Paradise. In this way it saves the sensible among those who have fallen into vice and misguidance. For at this time there are two awesome conditions:

The First:

Since man's emotions, which are blind to the consequences of things and prefer an ounce of present pleasure to tons of future joys, have come to prevail over mind and reason, the only way to save the dissipated from their vice is to show them the pain present in their pleasure and to defeat their emotions. Although they are aware of the diamond-like bounties and pleasures of the hereafter, as the verse,

They deem lovable the life of this world{[*]: Qur'an, 14:3.}

indicates, while being believers, the people of misguidance choose worldly pleasures, which are like pieces of glass soon to be shattered. The only way of saving them from this love of the world and from the danger of succumbing to it is by showing them the hellish torments and pains they suffer even in this world. This is the way the Risale-i Nur takes. For at this time, due to the obduracy arising from absolute unbelief and the intoxication caused by the vice and misguidance arising from science, perhaps only one in ten or even twenty can be induced to give up his evil ways by proving the existence of Hell and its torments, after having told him of Almighty God. Having heard this, such people are likely to say: "God is Forgiving and Compassionate, and Hell is a long way off," and continue in their dissipation. Their hearts and spirits are overcome by their emotions.

Thus, by showing through most of its comparisons the grievous and terrible results in this world of disbelief and misguidance, the Risale-i Nur makes even the most stubborn and arrogant people feel disgust at those inauspicious, illicit pleasures, leading them to repent. The short comparisons in the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Words, and the long one in the Third Stopping-Place in the Thirty-Second Word lead a person to feel repugnance at the vice and misguidance of the way he has taken, and

cause him to accept what they teach. As an example, I shall recount briefly the situations I beheld on a journey of the imagination, which were in fact reality. Those wishing for a more detailed account may look at the end of Sikke-i Tasdik-i Gaybi(The Ratifying Stamp of the Unseen Collection).

When on that journey of the imagination I looked at the animal kingdom through the eyes of materialist philosophy and the people of misguidance and heedlessness, the innumerable needs of animals and their terrible hunger together with their weakness and impotence appeared to me as most piteous and grievous. I cried out. Then I saw through the telescope of Qur'anic wisdom and belief that the Divine Name of All-Merciful had risen in the sign of Provider like a shining sun; it gilded with the light of its mercy that hungry, wretched animal world.

Then I saw within the animal world another grievous world which was swathed in darkness and would make anyone feel pity and in which young were struggling in their need and powerlessness. I was sorry I had looked through the eyes of the people of misguidance. Suddenly, belief gave me other spectacles and I saw the Name of All-Compassionate rise in the sign of clemency; it transformed and lit up that pitiful world in joyous and beautiful fashion, changing my tears of complaint and sorrow into tears of joy and thanks.

[This short treatise, called the Second Chapter, explains only nine of the countless lights and advantages of belief in God, which make man declare: "All praise be to God!"]

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

FIRST POINT

First of all, two things will be pointed out:

1. Philosophy is a pair of dark glasses which shows everything to be ugly and frightful. While belief in God is a transparent, clear, luminous pair of spectacles which shows everything to be beautiful and familiar.

2. Man is connected with all creatures, has a sort of commerce with all things, and by nature is compelled to meet, talk, and be neighbourly with the things that blockade him; so too he possesses six aspects: a left, right, upper, lower, front, and back aspect.

On wearing either of these two pairs of spectacles, man can see the creatures and things present in the aspects mentioned above.

Right Aspect:What is meant by this aspect is the past. When it is looked at through the spectacles of philosophy, what is seen is a vast, dark, terrifying, overturned graveyard, where the doomsday of the land of the past has come to pass. There can be no doubt that this sight casts man into great terror, fear, and despair.

However, when this aspect is looked at through the spectacles of belief, even if the land appears to have been turned upside down, as indeed it has, there has been no loss of life; it is understood that its crew and inhabitants have been transferred to a better world, one full of light. The graves and pits are seen to be underground tunnels, dug to lead to another, light-filled world. That is to say, the joy, relief, confidence, and peace of mind belief gives to man is a Divine bounty which makes him repeat thousands of times over: "All praise be to God!"

Left Aspect:

When the future is looked at through the spectacles of philosophy, it appears in the form of a huge, black, terrifying grave which is going to rot us and make us prey to snakes and scorpions which will eliminate us. But when it is looked at through the spectacles of belief, it is seen in the form of a repast comprising every variety of the finest and most delicious foods and drinks which Almighty God, the Most Merciful and All-Compassionate Creator, has prepared for man. So it makes him repeat many thousands of times: "All praise be to God!"

Upper Aspect:

This is the heavens. When a person looks at this aspect through the spectacles of philosophy, he feels an awful terror at the great speed and variety of the motions -like horse races or military manoeuvres- of the millions of stars and heavenly bodies in endless space. Whereas when a believer looks at them, he sees that just as those strange and wonderful manoeuvres are being carried out under the supervision of a commander and at his command, so the stars are adorning the world of the heavens and are light-giving lamps for him. As a result he feels not fear and fright at those horses racing, but familiarity and affection. It is surely little to say: "All praise be to God!"thousands of times for the bounty of belief which thus illuminates the world of the heavens.

Lower Aspect:

This is the earth. When man looks at this world with the eye of philosophy, he sees it as an untethered, unhaltered animal wandering aimlessly around the sun, or like a holed and captainless boat, and he is carried away by fear and anxiety. But when he looks with belief, he sees it in the form of a ship of the Most Merciful One ploughing its course around the sun under the command of God Almighty, with all its food, drink, and clothing on board, for the pleasure of mankind. So he starts to declare with great feeling: "All praise be to God!"for this great bounty which springs from belief.

Front Aspect:

If a person who indulges in philosophy looks at this aspect, he sees that all living creatures, whether human or animal, are disappearing group by group and with great speed towards it. That is to say, they are going to non-being and ceasing to exist. Since he knows that he

too is a traveller on that road, he goes out of his mind with grief. But for a believer looking with the eye of belief, men journeying to that aspect are not passing to the world of non-existence, they are being transferred from one pasture to another like nomads, and migrating from a transitory realm to an everlasting one, and from a farm of service and labour to the wages office, and from a country of hardship and difficulty to one of plenty and ease. The believer meets this aspect with pleasure and gratitude.

Difficulties which occur on the road like death and the grave are sources of happiness by reason of their results. For the road which leads to the luminous worlds passes through the grave, and the greatest happiness is the result of the worst, most grievous disasters. For example, Joseph (PUH) attained the happiness of being ruler of Egypt only by way of being thrown into the well by his brothers and cast into prison at the slanders of Zulaikha. In the same way, a child coming into the world from his mother's womb only reaches the happiness of this world as a result of the excruciating, crushing difficulties he experiences on the way.

Back Aspect:

That is, since one who looks at those who have remained behind with the view of philosophy can find no answer to the question: "Where have they come from and where are they going, and why did they come to the land of this world?", he naturally remains in a torment of bewilderment and doubt. But should he look through the spectacles of belief, he will understand that men are observers, sent by the Pre-Eternal Sovereign to contemplate and study the wonderful miracles of power displayed in the exhibition of the universe, and that after receiving their marks and ranks in conformity with the degree they have grasped the value and grandeur of those miracles of power and the degree to which the miracles point to the grandeur of the Pre-Eternal Sovereign, men will return to the Sovereign's realm. So he will say: "All praise be to God!"for the bounty of belief which has given him this bounty.

Since the praise offered in saying: "All praise be to God!"for the bounty of belief, which thus banishes the above-mentioned layers of darkness, is also a bounty, praise should be offered for it too. And praise should be offered a third time for this second bounty of praise, and a fourth time for the third bounty of praise... That is to say, an infinite chain of praise is born of a single uttering of the phrase: "All praise be to God!"

SECOND POINT

One should say: "All praise be to God!"for the bounty of belief which illuminates these six aspects, for just as since it disperses the darkness of the six aspects, it may be considered a great bounty for the warding off of evil, so too since it illuminates them it may be thought of as a

second bounty, for the attraction of benefits. Therefore, since man is by nature civilized, he is connected with all the creatures in the six aspects, and through the bounty of belief has the possibility of benefiting from the six aspects.

Thus, according to a meaning of the verse:

Wheresoever you turn, there is the countenance of God,{[*]: Qur'an, 2:115.}

man finds enlightenment in whichever of the six aspects he is found. In fact, someone who is a believer has a life which in effect stretches from the foundation of the world to its end. This life of his receives assistance from the light of a life which extends from pre-eternity to post-eternity. In the same way, thanks to the belief which illuminates the six aspects, man's narrow time and space are transformed into a broad and easy world. This extensive world becomes like man's house, and the past and the future like present time for his spirit and heart. The distance between between them disappears.

THIRD POINT

The fact that belief affords sources of support and assistance necessitates saying: "All praise be to God!"

Yes, because of their impotence and their multitudinous enemies, humankind are in need of a source of support to which they can have recourse to repulse those enemies. Likewise, because of the abundance of their needs and their extreme poverty, they need a source of assistance from which they may seek help, so that through it they may meet their needs.

O man! Your one and only point of support is belief in God. The only source of assistance for your spirit and conscience is belief in the hereafter. One who does not know of these two sources suffers constant fear in his heart and spirit, and his conscience is perpetually tormented. While the person who seeks support from the first point and help from the second, experiences many pleasures and delights in his heart and spirit, so that he is both consoled, and his conscience is at ease.

FOURTH POINT

Through showing that similar pleasures exist and will be bestowed, the light of belief removes the pain that occurs when lawful pleasures start to fade. Furthermore, through pointing out the source of bounties, it ensures that the bounties continue and do not diminish.

Similarly, through showing the pleasure of renewed acqaintance, it removes the pain of separation and parting. That is to say, while many pains occur at the thought of the passing of a single pleasure, belief removes them by calling to mind the recurrence of the pleasure. In any event there are further pleasures in the renewal of pleasure. If a fruit has no tree, its pleasure is restricted to and ceases on its being eaten, and its ceasing is the cause of sorrow. But if the fruit's tree is known, there is no pain when the fruit ceases to exist, for there are others to come in its place.

At the same time, renewal is in itself a pleasure. For what troubles the human spirit most are the pains arising from separation. Whereas the light of belief removes those pains through the hope of renewed meeting and the recurrence of similar encounters.

FIFTH POINT

The things among these beings man imagines to be hostile and foreign, and lifeless and lost as though orphans or dead, the light of belief shows to him as friends and brothers, as living, and as glorifying God. That is to say, a person who looks with the eye of heedlessness supposes the beings in the world to be harmful like enemies, and he takes fright; he sees things as foreign. For in the view of misguidance, there are no bonds of brotherhood between the things of the past and those of the future. There is only an insignificant, partial connection between them. As a consequence, the brotherhood of the people of misguidance is only for one minute within thousands of years.

In the view of belief, all the heavenly bodies appear as living and as familiar with one another. Belief shows each of them to be glorifying its Creator through the tongue of its being. It is in this respect that all the heavenly bodies possess a sort of life and spirit according to each. There is no fear and fright therefore when the heavenly bodies are considered with this view of belief; there is familiarity and love.

The view of unbelief sees human beings, powerless as they are to secure their desires, as ownerless and without protector; it imagines them to be grieving and sorrowful like weeping orphans on account of their impotence. The view of belief on the other hand, sees them as living creatures; not as orphans but officials charged with duties; as servants glorifying and extolling God.

SIXTH POINT

The light of belief depicts this world and the hereafter as two tables displaying numerous varieties of bounties from which a believer benefits through the hand of belief, his inner and external senses, and his subtle, spiritual faculties. In the view of misguidance, the sphere from which a living being may benefit diminishes and is restricted to material pleasures. While in the view of belief, it expands to a sphere which embraces the heavens and the earth. Yes, a believer considers the sun to be a lamp hanging in the roof of his house, and the moon to be a night-light. They thus become bounties for him, and the sphere from which he benefits is broader than the heavens. With the eloquent verses,

And He has made subject to you the sun and the moon,{[*]: Qur'an, 14:33.}

and,

He it is Who enables you to travel the land and the sea,{[*]: Qur'an, 10:22.}

the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition alludes to these wonderful bounties and blessings which arise from belief.

SEVENTH POINT

It is known through belief that God's existence is a bounty surpassing all other bounties, a great bounty which is a source, a fountain, containing endless varieties of bounties, innumerable sorts of blessings, and uncountable kinds of gifts. It is consequently incumbent on man and a debt to offer praise and laudation for the bounties of belief to the number of particles in the world. A number of these have been shown in various parts of the Risale-i Nur; discussing belief in God, they raise the veil from these bounties and point them out.

One of the bounties for which praise should be offered with all the praise that the phrase "All praise be to God!"indicates with the 'Lamof specification,' {[*]: 'Lam of specification'; that is, the li in al-hamdulillah. [Tr.]} is the bounty of Divine mercy. Indeed, mercy comprises bounties to the number of living beings which manifest Divine mercy. For man in particular is connected with all living creatures, and in this respect is gladdened by their happiness and saddened by their pain. Thus, a bounty found in a single individual is a bounty also for his fellows.

Another which comprises bounties to the number of children which are blessed with their mother's tenderness, and which deserves praise and laudation, is Divine compassion. Yes, a person with conscience who feels

sorrow and pity at the weeping of a motherless, hungry child, surely feels pleasure at a mother's compassion for her child, surely he is pleased and happy. Thus, pleasures of this sort are each a bounty and require praise and thanks.

Another of the bounties requiring praise and thanks to the number of all the varieties and instances of wisdom contained in the universe is Divine wisdom. For just as man's self is endowed with the manifestation of Divine mercy and his heart with the manifestation of Divine compassion, so too does his intellect take pleasure at the subtleties of Divine wisdom. So in this respect they require endless praise and laudation through the declaring of "All praise be to God!"

Another is the bounty of preservation, for which praise should be offered to the number of manifestations of the Divine Name of Inheritor, and the number of descendants who endure after the passing of their forbears, and the number of the beings of the next world, and the number of men's actions which are preserved so as to be the means of their receiving their rewards in the hereafter; praise should be offered with so great an "All praise be to God!"that it fills all space with its sound. For the continuation of a bounty is more valuable than the bounty itself. The perpetuation of pleasure is more pleasurable than the pleasure itself. To abide permanently in Paradise is superior to Paradise itself; and so on. Consequently, the bounties which Almighty God's attribute of Preserver comprise are greater and far superior to all the bounties existent in all the universe. Thus, this attribute requires an "All praise be to God!"as great as the world. You can compare the rest of the Divine Names with the four mentioned here, and since in each are endless bounties, each requires endless praise and thanks.

Likewise, the Prophet Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), who is the means of attaining the bounty of belief and has the authority to open all the treasuries of bounty, is also such a bounty that mankind bears for all eternity the debt of praising and applauding him.

Likewise, the bounties of Islam and the Qur'an, which are the index and source of all varieties of bounties, material and spiritual, require and deserve unending, infinite praise.

EIGHTH POINT

Praise be to God, Whom, according to the Qur'an of Mighty Stature, which is its expounder, this mighty book known as the universe praises and extols with all its chapters and sections, all its pages and lines, all its world and letters - the Most Pure and Holy One, Whom it praises and

extols through making manifest His attributes of beauty and perfection. It is as follows:

According to its capacity, whether great or small, each inscription in this mighty book praises and extols its Inscriber, Who is the Single and Eternally Besought One, through displaying His glorious attributes.

Likewise, each inscription in the book of the universe offers praise through exhibiting the attributes of Beauty of its Scribe, Who is the Most-Merciful and Compassionate One.

Likewise, through reflecting and mirroring the manifestations of the Most Beautiful Names, all the inscriptions and points and embroideries in this book utter the praises of the Most Pure and Holy One through lauding, glorifying, and exalting Him.

Likewise, each ode in this book of the universe extols and glorifies its Composer, Who is All-Powerful and All-Knowing.

NINTH POINT

.........

{(*): I do not have the key to these cyphers that I might decode them. Moreover, the head of one who is fasting can neither decypher them, nor disclose their meanings. Forgive me, I could do only this much, and that through the moral assistance of the author, the spiritual effulgence of the Night of Power, and being in the vicinity of Mawlana Jalaluddin.

The translator, Abdülmecid Nursi}

* * *

The Supplicant

My demolished grave in which are piled up

{(*): This line is his signature.}

Seventy-nine dead Said's{(*): Since the body is renewed twice every year, it means that [each year] two Said's have died. Also, this year Said is in his seventy-ninth year. It means one Said has died every year, so that he will live to this date. [Bediuzzaman died in 1379 according to the Hijri calendar, and his grave was demolished and moved in 1380. -Tr.]} with his sins and sorrows.

The eightieth is a gravestone to a grave;

Altogether they weep at Islam's decline.

{(*): With a premonition of the future, he perceived its present state, twenty years later.}

Together with my gravestone and moaning grave of dead Said's

I go forward to the field of tomorrow's future.

I am certain that the skies of the future and Asia

Will together surrender to Islam's clean, shining hand.

For it promises the prosperity of belief;

It affords peace and security to mankind.