Peace on those who follow guidance, and may those who follow their own desires be censured!
You frequently ask about my situation and how I am, and why I have not applied for my release papers, and concerning my indifference towards politics and the state of the world. Since you have asked these questions on numerous occasions, and also ask them implicitly, I am compelled to reply not as the New Said, but in the language of the Old Said.
Having given up politics and withdrawn from the world, I was living in a mountain cave and thinking of the hereafter when the worldly wrongfully plucked me from it and sent me into exile. The All-Compassionate and Wise Creator turned the exile into mercy; He transformed the solitude on the mountain, which was unsafe and exposed to factors that would harm sincerity, into a retreat in the safe and sincere mountains of Barla. While a prisoner-of-war in Russia I made up my mind to withdraw into a cave towards the end of my life and prayed for it. The Most Merciful of the Merciful made Barla the cave and bestowed the benefits without burdening my
. ‘The worldly’ (ehl-i dünya): those people whose view is restricted to the life of this world and who disregard the hereafter, or those who sell religion for this world. (Tr.)