My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: A leading, most worthy Nur student asked me in the name of many of them: “A number of sincere, leading Nur students persistently suppose you to be the supreme guide who is to come at the end of time and will belong to the Prophet's (UWBP) family. They insist on this despite your holding back so much. You do not accept this idea of theirs that they so insist upon and you shrink from it. For sure, they have decisive proof and are in possession of some truth, yet you do not concede to it for some reason or owing to some truth. This is a contradiction and come what may we want to solve it.”
I say in reply to the many matters that this person represents:
Those select Nurjus are in possession of some truth, but it has to be defined and interpreted in two respects:
The First Respect: As I have indicated in many of my letters, the collective personality of the sacred community that the Mahdi of the Prophet's (UWBP) family will represent, has three functions. We may await from divine mercy that if the end of the world does not happen soon and humankind does not stray from the path completely, his community and the community of sayyids will perform those functions. He will have three major functions.
His First Function: Since science and philosophy are now dominant and the plague of materialism and naturalism has spread among the human race, before everything belief should be saved in such a way that it silences philosophy and materialism. Since preserving the people of belief from misguidance necessitates leaving aside both this world and everything in it and demands prolonged and devoted study, neither the Mahdi's time nor his situation would permit him to perform this duty himself; preoccupation with the rule of the Caliphate of Muhammad (UWBP) would not leave him the time. Most probably a group preceding him will perform it in some respect. He will take the work which that group wrote as a result of lengthy study as a pre‑prepared programme for himself, and with it will find the first duty to have been performed to the full, The force or spiritual army which has undertaken this duty consists only of a number of students who possess fully the attributes of sincerity, loyalty, and mutual support. However few they are in number, in meaning they should be deemed as powerful and valuable as an army.
His Second Function: With his title pertaining to the Caliphate of Muhammad (UWBP), this is to revive the marks of Islam, and making the unity of the Islamic world his source of support, to save humanity from material and spiritual dangers and from divine wrath. This function will require armies with millions of men to support it and serve it.
His Third Function: Since many Qur'anic precepts have suffered harm with the vicissitudes of the times, and the Shari'a of Muhammad (UWBP) has been suspended to an extent, the person in question will try to perform that mighty task with the moral assistance of all the believers, the help of Islamic unity, and with the participation of all the scholars and saints, particularly the millions of devoted sayyids, who are descended from the Prophet (UWBP) and every century are numerous and powerful.
Although the reality of the matter is this, since the duty of saving belief, the primary duty and highest way, and instructing the people generally in certain, affirmative belief and even making the belief of the common people thus, is guidance and instruction both in spirit and in fact — since the Nur students have beheld this duty fully in the Risale‑i Nur, they rightly consider the collective personality of the Risale-i Nur to be a sort of Mahdi, and the second and third duties to be in second and third place. And since they suppose one representative of that collective personality to be a collective personality arising from the mutual support of the Risale-i Nur students, and a sort of representative of that collective personality to be the unfortunate interpreter, they sometimes give him that name too. This is actually a point of confusion and an error, but they are not responsible. For since early days he has been looked on too favourably, and this was never objected to. So I look on those excessively good opinions of my brothers as a sort of prayer and good wish and a manifestation of the perfect belief of the Risale-i Nur students, and I do not rebuke them. In fact, some of the saints of olden times foresaw with their wondrous predictions that the Risale-i Nur would be the guide at the end of time, and this is understood through these verifications. This means that there are two points of confusion, which need to be explained.
The First Point: For sure in reality the second two functions are not equal in degree to the first, but in the general view, particularly in the view of the the mass of people and of politicians in particular, and especially in contemporary thought, pursuing Islamic rule on the face of the earth with the armies of the Caliphate of Muhammad (UWBP) and Islamic unity appear a thousand times more extensive than the first function. And when someone is given that name, the latter two functions come to mind and it is given a political meaning; indeed, it may infer self‑advertisement, or even hint at the wish for fame, glory, and high standing. There always have been, and still are, many ingenuous rank-seeking people desiring and claiming to be the Mahdi. It's true that a guide, a sort of Mahdi and Renewer appears every century, and has appeared, but because each has performed only one of the Mahdi's three functions, none has been accorded the title of the Supreme Mahdi of the end of time.
Also, in Denizli Court, the experts' committee said to me in connection with this belief of some of the students:
“If he claims to be the Mahdi, all his students will accept it.”
So I told them: “I don't know whether or not I'm a sayyid People's genealogies aren't known today. But that great figure of the end of time will belong to the Prophet's (UWBP) family.
For sure, I'm a sort of spiritual son of Imam 'Ali (May God be pleased with him) and have received instruction in the realities from him, and since in one meaning the family of Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace) encompasses true Nur students, I too may be counted among his family. But the present is the time of the collective personality, and in the way of the Risale‑i Nur there can be no egotism of any sort, or personalities, or the desire for personal rank or for winning fame and renown. And since it would totally opposed to the mystery of sincerity, and since, endless thanks be to God Almighty, He did not make me fond of myself, I would not fasten my sights on personal positions and ranks infinitely higher than my due such as that. Even if I were to be given high rank in the hereafter, I would consider myself obliged to refuse it so as not to spoil the sincerity of the Risale-i Nur.” I said this, and the experts' committee were silent.