In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
And from Him do we seek help
This petition, which after eighteen years’ silence I am compelled to present to the court and a copy of which I am sending to Ankara, comprises My Written Objections Concerning the Indictment, which I am obliged to put forward.
This is a summary of a short defence speech: it should be known that it is exactly what I twice told the public prosecutor and police inspector, and on the third occasion the police chief and six or seven inspectors and police, who three times came to search my house in Kastamonu; and what I said in reply to the questions of the public prosecutor in Isparta, and the courts of Denizli and Afyon. It is like this:
I told them: I have been living alone for eighteen to twenty years. I lived for eight years in Kastamonu opposite the police station, and in other places for twenty years, under constant surveillance and supervision, and the place where I was staying was searched on several occasions but not the slightest hint or sign of anything related to this world or politics was found. If there had been anything irregular on my part and the police and judiciary did not know, or they did know but ignored it, then surely they are answerable to a greater extent than me. And if not, why, although nowhere in the world recluses are bothered who are preoccupied with their lives of the hereafter, do you bother me unnecessarily to this extent, to the detriment of the country and nation?
We students of the Risale‑i Nur do not make the Risale‑i Nur a tool of worldly currents, nor even of the whole universe. Furthermore, the Qur’an severely prohibits us from politics. For the Risale‑i Nur’s duty is to serve the Qur’an through the truths of belief and through extremely powerful and decisive proofs, which in the face of absolute unbelief – which destroys eternal life and also transforms the life of this world into a ghastly poison – induce even the most obdurate atheist philosophers to believe. Therefore we may not exploit the Risale‑i Nur for anything.
Firstly: In order not to reduce to the value of fragments of glass in the view of the heedless, the diamond‑like truths of the Qur’an by giving the false idea of political propaganda, and not to betray those precious truths.
Secondly: Compassion, truth and right, and conscience, the fundamental way of the Risale‑i Nur, severely prohibit us from politics and from interfering in government. For dependent on one or two irreligious people fallen into absolute unbelief and deserving of slaps and calamities are seven or eight innocents – children, the sick and the elderly. If slaps and calamities are visited on the one or two, those unfortunates suffer also. Therefore, since the result is doubtful, we have been severely prohibited from interfering in the life of society by way of politics, to the harm of government and public order.
Thirdly: Five principles are necessary, essential, at this strange time in order to save the social life of this country and the nation from anarchy: respect, compassion, refraining from what is prohibited (haram), security, the giving up of lawlessness and being obedient to authority. The evidence that when the Risale‑i Nur looks to the life of society it establishes and strengthens these five principles in a powerful and sacred fashion and preserves the foundation‑stone of public order, is that over the last twenty years it has made one hundred thousand people into harmless, beneficial members of this nation and country. The provinces of Isparta and Kastamonu testify to this. This means that knowingly or unknowingly the great majority of those who try to hamper the Risale‑i Nur are betraying the country and nation and dominance of Islam on account of anarchy. The great good and benefit for this country of the one hundred and thirty treatises of the Risale‑i Nur cannot be refuted by the imaginary harms of two or three of its parts which are fancied to be harmful in the superficial view of the deluded heedless. Anyone who refutes the former with the latter is an exceedingly unfair tyrant.
As for my own unimportant personal faults, I am unwillingly obliged to say this: I am someone who has lived alone and in solitude in an exile resembling solitary confinement. During this time I have not gone once of my own will to the market and well‑attended mosques. Despite suffering much persecution and distress, I have not once applied to the government for my own comfort, unlike all my fellow exiles. In twenty years I have not read a single newspaper, nor listened to one, nor been curious about one. As is testified to by all my close friends and those I met with, for a full two years in Kastamonu and seven years in other places I knew nothing of the conflicts and wars in the world, and whether or not peace had been declared, or who else was involved in the fighting, and was not curious about it and did not ask, and for nearly three years did not listen to the radio that was playing close by to me. But I triumphantly confronted with the Risale‑i Nur absolute unbelief, which destroys eternal life and transforms the life of this world even into compounded pain and suffering; and with the Risale‑i Nur, which issued from the Qur’an, I have saved the belief of a hundred thousand such people, as has been attested by them, and for a hundred thousand people have transformed death into discharge papers. Is there any law demanding that such a person is harassed to this degree and made to despair, and by making him weep to make hundreds of thousands of those innocent brothers of his weep too? What advantage does it offer? Is it not unprecedented tyranny in the name of justice? Is it not an unprecedented miscarriage of justice on account of the law?
If you accuse me like some of the officials who searched my house, saying:
“You and One or Two of Your Treatises Oppose the Regime and Our Principles…”
The Answer:
Firstly: These new principles of yours have absolutely no right to enter the retreats of recluses.
Secondly: To reject something is one thing, not to accept it wholeheartedly is something else, and not to act in accordance with it is something quite else. Those in authority look to the hand, not to the heart. All governments have vehement opponents who do not interfere in government and public order. In fact, the Christians who were under the Caliph ‘Umar’s (May Allah be pleased with him) rule were not interfered with although they rejected the law of the Shari‘a and the Qur’an. According to the principles of freedom of thought and conscience, so long as they do not upset the government, if some of the Risale‑i Nur students do not accept the regime and your principles on scholarly grounds and act in opposition to them, and even if they are inimical to the regime’s chief, they may not be touched legally. As for the treatises, I said they were confidential and prevented their publication. In fact, in regard to the treatise that was the cause of this affair, only once or twice in eight years in Kastamonu did someone bring me a copy. The same day I put it away somewhere. Now you are forcibly publicizing it and it has become famous.
It is well‑known that if there is some fault in a letter, only the faulty words are censored, and the rest are permitted. As a result of the four months of close investigation in Eskişehir Court, only fifteen words were found in a hundred treatises of the Risale‑i Nur that were the cause of criticism, and now on only two pages of the four‑hundred-page Zülfikâr are explanations of Qur’anic verses about inheritance and the veiling of women, which were written thirty years ago and do not now conform to the Civil Code. This proves decisively that they have no worldly aim, and everyone is in need of them. The four‑hundred-page Zülfikâr, which everyone has need of, may not be confiscated because of two pages. Those two pages should be excised and the collection returned to us; it is our right that it is returned.
If you say like those who suppose irreligion to be politics of a sort and in this episode have said: “You are spoiling our civilization and our pleasure with these treatises of yours…”
I reply: It is a universal principle accepted worldwide that no nation can continue in existence without religion. Particularly if absolute unbelief, it gives rise to torments more grievous in this world than Hell, as has been proved with complete certainty in A Guide For Youth. That treatise has now been printed officially. If, Allah forbid, a Muslim apostasizes, he falls into absolute disbelief; he cannot remain in a state of doubting unbelief, which keeps him alive to an extent. He also cannot be like irreligious Europeans. And in respect of the pleasure of life, he falls infinitely lower than the animals, for they have no sense of the past and future. Because of his misguidance, the deaths of all past and future beings and his being eternally separated from them, overwhelm his heart with continuous pain. If belief enters his heart and he comes to believe, those innumerable friends are suddenly raised to life. They say through the tongue of disposition: “We did not die and we were not annihilated,” transforming his hellish state into Paradise‑like pleasure. Since the reality is this, I warn you: do not contest the Risale‑i Nur, for it relies on the Qur’an. It cannot be defeated. It would be most regretable for this country. It would go somewhere else and illuminate there. Also, if I had heads to the number of the hairs on it and every day one was cut off, I would not bow this head, which is devoted to the Qur’an, to atheism and absolute disbelief, I would not and could not give up this service of belief and the Risale‑i Nur.
Certainly, any faults in the statement of someone who has been a recluse for twenty years will be disregarded. He is defending the Risale‑i Nur, so it cannot be said he deviated from the subject. Eskişehir Court found nothing after studying its hundred treatises, both confidential and otherwise, for four months, apart from one or two points touching on a subject necessitating a light penalty, and it gave six‑month sentences to fifteen people out of one hundred and twenty. I served the sentence as well. And since a few years ago all the parts of the Risale‑i Nur came into the hands of the Isparta authorities, who after studying them for several months, returned them to their owners; and since after serving that sentence, nothing was found to concern the police and judiciary during my eight years in Kastamonu despite the minute searches; and since during the last search in Kastamonu some of my treatises came to light, in a condition they could never have been published, having been hidden under piles of firewood several years previously, as was verified by the group of police; and since although the Kastamonu police chief and judiciary gave their certain word to return those harmless books of mine that had been hidden, I was moved on without receiving those trusts, since on the second day the order suddenly came from Isparta for my arrest; and since the courts of Denizli and Ankara acquitted us and returned all my treatises; certainly and without doubt, as a consequence of the above six facts, it is demanded by their positions that Afyon Court and its public prosecutor take into consideration this very important right of mine, as did Denizli Court and public prosecutor. I am hopeful that the public prosecutor, who defends the rights of the people, will also defend my personal rights, which due to my relation with the Risale‑i Nur are like important public rights; and I await this from him.
The New Said has for twenty‑two years withdrawn from social life, and does not know the present laws and how defences should be carried out, and is presenting to this new court the irrefutable hundred-page defence he presented to Eskişehir and Denizli Courts; he paid the penalty for his errors up to that time, and after that in Kastamonu and Emirdağ lived in a sort of solitary confinement under constant surveillance; he is therefore now falling silent and leaving it to the Old Said to speak.
And the Old Said says this: Since the New Said has turned away from the world, he does not speak with the worldly unless absolutely compelled to defend himself, and considers it unnecessary. But numerous innocent artisans and tradesmen being arrested in this affair due to some slight connection with me aroused my extreme sympathy, since at this busy time they have been unable to earn livelihoods for their families. It upset me deeply. I swear that if it had been possible, I would have taken all their difficulties upon myself. Anyway, if there is any fault, it is mine. They are innocent. Because of this grievous situation, I say, despite the New Said’s silence: since the wretched New Said answered the hundreds of unnecessary questions of the public prosecutors of Isparta, Denizli, and Afyon, it is my right to ask of the present Ministry of Justice, with the intention of defending my rights, The Three Questions I asked the Ministry of Home Affairs, and chiefly Kaya Şükrü, thirteen years ago.
The First: Which law states that one hundred and twenty people including myself should be arrested because of the merely verbal argument with a gendarme sergeant of a man from Eğirdir, who though not a Risale‑i Nur student was carrying an unimportant letter of mine? Then with the exception of fifteen, the innocence of all of them was established by their being acquitted after four months of investigation by the court. According to what principles are possibilities cited instead of occurrences? According to what rule of justice are seventy unfortunates caused the loss of thousands of liras although they had previously been acquitted by Denizli Court after nine months of investigations?
Second Question: According to the fundamental principle, No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another, even a blood‑brother cannot be held responsible for his brother’s faults, so under which law of justice was it to arrest me in Ramadan because of a short treatise whose publication I had prevented, which had passed into my hands once or twice in eight years, was originally written more than twenty-five years ago, saves believers from doubting a number of important points and prevents them denying some misunderstood allegorical Hadiths, – because this treatise was found on someone I did not know a long way away from me, and the wrong meaning was given to this, and an offensive letter was found in Kütahya and Balıkesir; and to arrest now in this freezing cold numerous artisans and tradesmen for having in their possession some old, commonplace letter written by me, or for having driven me around in their carriage, or because of their friendship towards me, or for having read one of my books, and to ruin them, and cause them, and the country and nation, material loss and immaterial loss of thousands of liras, – what law demands this? Which article of which law necessitates it? I request to learn of these laws so I do not take any false step.
Yes, one reason for our arrests at both Denizli and Afyon was this: even if to suppose the impossible the Fifth Ray did look to this world and politics, – although it was written long ago while I was in the Darü’l‑Hikmeti’l-İslâmiye, and the original was written even before that, with the idea of saving the belief of the ordinary people in the face of those who denied some Hadiths because they thought they were irrational, since they did not known how they should be interpreted – and even if it had been written at this time, since it was private, and was not found with me in the searches, and its predictions about the future turned out to be true, and it dispels doubts on questions of belief, and does not disturb public order, and is not confrontational, and only gives news of things, and does not specify any individuals, and sets out a scholarly truth in general form, – since this is the case, surely even if the Hadith’s meaning is seen to conform to certain persons at this time, and before it was exhibited and made public in the courts it had been held to be confidential in order not to give rise to dispute, it cannot in any way constitute a crime. I also do not consider it possible that in any court of law in the world it is considered a crime to say “to reject something is one thing, and not to accept it on scholarly grounds or not to act in accordance with it is something completely different. That treatise does not accept on scholarly grounds a regime that was going to emerge in the near future.”
In Short: The Risale‑i Nur has for thirty years killed at the root absolute disbelief, which destroys eternal life, turns the life of this world into a ghastly poison, spoiling all its pleasures; it has successfully killed the atheistic ideas of the naturalists; has proved brilliantly with wonderful arguments the principles that will bring happiness to this nation in both this life and the next; and is based on the Qur’an’s reality, from the divine throne. I claim, and am ready to prove it, that not one or two points of a short treatise such as that, but if it contained a thousand errors, its thousand significant good aspects would cause them to be forgiven.
Third Question: It is the rule that if in a letter of twenty words five are considered reprehensible, the five are censored and the rest are permitted. So since after scrutinizing it for four months Eskişehir Court could find only fifteen words out of a hundred thousand that to the superficial view were imagined to be harmful; and since the Cabinet questioned only the explanations of two Qur’anic verses, because they contravened the present law although they had been written thirty years previously, on two of the four hundred pages of Zülfikâr; and the Denizli and Ankara committees of experts questioned only fifteen errors; and since up to the present it has been the means of reforming the characters of hundreds of thousands of people, the Risale‑i Nur has brought to pass a thousand things widely beneficial for this country and nation; – since this is so, which principle of the government of the republic does it conform to, to arrest in this work‑season and bitter winter unfortunates like the Çalışkans who serve me seeking Allah the Most High’s pleasure, because they have performed some small service for the Risale‑i Nur, or written out one of its treatises because it had saved their belief, and were brotherly towards me out of kindness because I was elderly and a stranger in Emirdağ? Which of its laws would permit such a thing?
Since in accordance with the law of freedom of conscience the principles of the republic do not interfere with those without religion, surely it necessitates that they do not interfere with religiously‑minded people who are not involved in the world as far as it is possible, and do not dispute with the worldly, and strive usefully for their lives in the hereafter, their belief, and their country too. I know that the politicians who govern in Asia, where the prophets appeared, will not, and cannot, ban taqwa and good works, which for a thousand years have been as essential for this nation as food and medicine. Humanity demands that anything not conforming to the current view in the above questions is overlooked, since, having lived in solitude for twenty years, they were asked with the head of the Said of twenty years ago.
I consider it my patriotic duty to recall the following, for the benefit of the country, nation, and public security: to arrest and make resentful in this way because of some slight connection with me and the Risale‑i Nur, numerous people who are religiously beneficial for the country and its security, and may turn them against the government thus opening up the way to anarchy. Yes, far in excess of a hundred thousand people have saved their belief through the Risale‑i Nur and have become harmless and highly beneficial for the nation. With their moderation and usefulness, they are perhaps to be found in every large department of the government of the republic and in every level of society. It is essential that these people are not offended but protected.
I feel a strong anxiety that certain official persons who do not heed our complaints or allow us to speak out, and repress us on various pretexts are opening up the way to anarchy to the harm of this country.
Also, for the good of the government I say this: since the courts of both Denizli and Ankara scrutinized the Fifth Ray and did not object to it but returned it to us, it is essential for the government that proceedings are not reopened officially, giving rise to rumours and gossip. Just as I concealed the treatise before it passed into the hands of the courts and they publicized it, so the Afyon authorities and court should not make it the object of question and answer. For it is powerful and irrefutable. It made predictions, and they turned out right. Moreover, its aim is not this world, at the most one of its many meanings fits a person who is dead and gone. For the sake of the country, nation, public order, and government, I am bound by conscience to warn against making those predictions and meanings official due to bigoted friendship for him, and further publicizing it by reprimanding us.