While doing the corrections recently, I suddenly felt violently angry, not at the hojas who are within the fold of the Risale‑i Nur and work at it, and the Konya hojas, but at the others. For there are devoted Nur students who do not know Arabic and they make numerous mistakes and errors. This causes me great trouble, so I shouted at the hojas who used to be my students and my brother and the official hojas who are now in Istanbul and Ankara, saying:
“You mean‑spirited people! Why don't you help me, although it is your duty and the Risale-i Nur is a product of the medreses, and it is obligatory for you to serve belief, which is so necessary? Your indifference may cause many to withdraw from it. You are earning a share of the slap Imam 'Ali (May God be pleased with him) dealt at a group of hojas at the end of time.” While berating them thus, three things suddenly occurred to me in defence of those hojas whose hearts are uncorrupted.
The First: For various reasons it is inappropriate to divulge, two scholarly committees in two large centres are employing every means to induce the various groups of hojas to withdraw from the Risale‑i Nur. Utilizing such things as official posts and the struggle for a livelihood, they draw the unfortunate hojas into their own fields and distance them from the Risale-i Nur. It isn't that the hojas don't know its value; the struggle to make a living, or relying on the high-ranking hojas on the committee and supposing that the religious knowledge they have acquired is sufficient to save their own belief, they remain indifferent and issue fatwas and concessions for themselves.
The Second: Due to unwarranted fears that an incident like that of Menemen or Shaykh Said might erupt, my enemies have twice tried to eliminate the Risale‑i Nur students and made them subject to terrible assaults and persecution and for a long time have opposed me covertly, and have twice vindictively induced some members of the government to have us charged officially in respect of the law, government, and politics, and sent to prison. Their employing official and unofficial means of propaganda in this way to scare everyone away from us and from the Risale-i Nur of course causes considerable consternation to sensitive and somewhat weak hojas, and constitutes an excuse for them. Therefore, not the majority but those of the hojas who displaying unusual courage and enterprise, enter the fold of the Risale-i Nur, are the cause of those of them who don't enter to be forgiven to a degree.
The Third: This has been postponed. Some hojas interpret literally a number of similes and metaphors which veil the truth such as: “A man as tall as a minaret,” and “On his forehead will be written …”, and “His hand will be pierced by water,” and make this a pretext although it is inappropriate that such predictions in the Risale‑i Nur should be interpreted superficially, and they thereafter keep aloof from it. But endless thanks be to Almighty God that the Risale-i Nur contains a truth which the mass of Muslims are in dire need of at this time as a point of support and which they have found in it. This is such a truth that it can be exploited for nothing nor tainted by any hostile purpose or aim; it disallows all doubts and scepticism, and no enemy can refute it, and only those who work at it seeking truth and reality will find it. Worldly objectives may not be combined with this truth, for then the believers who are far from it may have complete confidence in it and in its loyal disseminators, and they may save their belief in the face of the objections and denials of atheists and the irreligious, and the philosophers who are violently opposed to religion.
Yes, through the tongue of disposition the believers will say that since so many fierce enemies could neither refute this truth nor object to it, and its students follow no aim other than serving it; it must be pure truth and veracious reality; it will form evidence as powerful as a thousand proofs, strengthening their belief and saving it; they will not be beset by doubts about the veracity of Islam.
Twice, Abdurrahman Salâhaddin, who is enterprising but not always successful, has wanted to send The Staff of Moses and part of Zülfikar to al‑Azhar University, but unusually some difficulties arose and they were not sent to that very necessary and important place. In accordance with the rule, What God wishes is best, since I had not looked at the two copies and corrected them, it occurred to me that it would be better if complete and thoroughly corrected copies of both works were sent to those ulema, who study everything with the greatest attention. For the copies contain errors that are serious and would attract the ulema's objections. So Salâhaddin should send them to me and I'll have a look at them. Later, God willing, we shall send both the complete Zülfikar, and The Staff of Moses, and The Mysteries Collection (Tılsım Mecmuası) together with a letter of explanation.
It is understood from the letter of Haji Abdüllatif, who is a follower of Mawlana Jalal al‑Dīn Rumi (May God sanctify his mystery), one of my masters, that he knowingly and appreciatively is going to serve the Risale-i Nur. I was anyway expecting that some Nur heroes would emerge from the Mevlevis. God willing, he will be one of them. I send him many greetings. He should not be offended that my circumstances do not allow me to write to him personally. I send many greetings to Sabri and his children and the Nur students there, and to Hoja Vehbi and the other hojas, and await their prayers.