If it is easy, it would be appropriate if the books that are being sent to Istanbul could be sent via here. It would also be useful if twenty or thirty copies could be bound for me in Istanbul and then sent to me. I do not at present have the money for them to send, and there are numerous people I am obliged to give copies to.
I am obliged to explain the inner meaning of something, because when one or two doctors who are leading Nur students come to visit me, I do not consult those sincere, loyal persons concerning my illness although it is very severe, nor do I take their medicines despite my acute need and pains. I say nothing about the illness, so they become anxious and eager to know. Thinking that it may be useful for you too, I am writing it here. I told them:
Prompted by Satan's whisperings, both my covert enemies and my soul search out my weak points so that by means of them they may get a grip on me and damage the purely sincere service of the Risale‑i Nur.
Illness is a person's weakest point and the most serious obstacle. The more he attaches importance to illness, the more the bodily and instinctive senses come to rule him, compelling him to submit to them and silencing his spirit and heart. They make the doctor a dictatorial ruler, forcing the person to obediently take his medicines. This is detrimental to self‑sacrificing, sincere service.
My covert enemies have tried to exploit this weak point of mine and they are still trying, just as they have tried to exploit fear, greed, and the desire for fame and renown. But they failed with respect to fear, one of man's weakest points, for they understood that we attach not the slightest importance to their threats of capital punishment.
Then they conducted numerous investigations about our means of livelihood with a view to greed and ambition, another human weakness, but they could find nothing. So they realized that worldly wealth and possessions, for which they themselves had sacrificed all things holy, held no importance for us whatsoever; on numerous occasions this was proved to them. Even, over a period of ten years more than a hundred times they made official inquiries through the local authorities to learn what I lived on.
Then they received orders to try to catch me out with respect to fame, renown, and rank, desire for which is another human weakness and one of my weak points. But they in no way succeeded despite dealing out grievous insults, humiliations, and riling torments. So they understood certainly that the worldly fame and acclaim that they so worship, we look on as hypocrisy, self‑praise, and showing off. We attach not the slightest importance to the high worldly ranks and prominence that they exalt above everything; in fact we look on them as crazy in that respect.
Then there were spiritual ranks and advancing through the degrees of sainthood and considering oneself to be the recipient of such divine bounties, which we consider to be weak points in connection with our service but everyone considers acceptable in respect of reality and is eager to attain. There is no harm in these, only benefits, but at a time when egotism, self‑interest, selfishness, and saving oneself alone prevail, personal spiritual ranks should not be sought through the service of belief, which rests on true sincerity and being made the tool of nothing. They should be neither desired nor considered in one's actions lest true sincerity be spoiled. It was in consequence of this that those who were attempting to fasten on my weak points understood that I was not seeking outside of the Risale-i Nur's service the wonders, illuminations, and spiritual attainments that everyone seeks. They were defeated on this point.
I send my greetings to each and every one of our brothers, and seeking the intercession of the Night of Power, I beseech divine mercy that for all the Nurjus that night will be the equivalent of an eighty‑three-year lifetime of worship.
The Enduring One, He is the Enduring One!Your brother,Saîd Nursî