My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
With a firm conviction and corroborated by numerous signs, we give the good news that in return for the light one‑month prison sentence the three students of the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ received and their suffering the judge's extremely unwarranted, meaningless, and cold anger, the spirit beings, angels, and coming generations will applaud them exceedingly in place of that man's trifling penalty and meaningless anger, and they congratulate such students. And because harrassment and torments of this sort are means of being saved from millions of years' punishment in everlasting imprisonment, they are as nothing and do not have the importance of a fly's wing; indeed, they make one pleased and proud.
The self‑important and famous Prince Bismarck, who a century ago was considered to be the world's most intelligent and scrupulous philosopher and imperious ruler, and although a Christian belittled all the former religions and their scriptures and was even so bold as to deny them, affirmed in writing that he had bowed before the All-Wise Qur'an and assented to it with all his strength, and he announced in the newspapers to all the world that he had renounced his obstinacy, egotism, and irreligion and surrendered to the Qur'an. Just when this was being published, the present terrible government to the north-east, which denies all the revealed religions, is sending many of its Muslim population to the Hajj to make a show before the Islamic world as though it has given up its irreligion, obduracy, and hostility, and no longer denies the Qur'an and as though it recognizes the Qur'an's importance better than the people here and is surrendering to its greatness and having recourse to it in a sort of way. They say that the authorities here are lagging behind them in this question and do not send as many people to the Hajj as they do. In the face of this, at a time our authorities are allowing complete freedom in the question of the Hajj and political propaganda of this type is being carried out, and the Nur students of the Medresetü'z-Zehrâ are publishing with their pens those vast and splendid truths of the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition with such wondrous treatises as Zülfikar and The Staff of Moses, and compelling the most obdurate atheists to affirm them — at such a time, the assaults of the people of misguidance surely cause not only the people of truth to weep, but also the spirit beings and angels, and even enrage the earth and the heavens.
Since a thousand copies of The Supreme Sign (Âyetü'l‑Kübrâ) printed in the old letters and all the treatises of the Risale-i Nur have been unanimously acquitted and returned having been scrutinized for two years, to deem it a crime to duplicate in the old letters a number of treatises that have been returned and impose a sentence is a matter of serious concern for the judiciary and insults its honour.
Secondly: I do not have a personal scribe now and the other scribes do not understand my language at all well. Also I am unwell and can only write slowly and with difficulty. Since yesterday, close on twenty letters have arrived and they contain the names of very many of our brothers and sisters. So I congratulate all of them on the festival and with all my life and spirit accept those who wish to be new students. May God Almighty be pleased with both them and those who so prompted them, and may He grant them success in whatever their hearts wish for.
Thirdly: Both myself and the whole Nur circle have been made pleased and happy by the fine letter of Sabri, the Nur Power Station, which will be added to The Additional Letters; and the sacred services of Ali Osman and Çilingir Ali in publishing the Risale‑i Nur; and by İbrahim Edhem's effective activities in Balıkesir and that region and many people entering the fold of the Risale-i Nur through his guidance; and similarly to Hasan Feyzi, by Ahmed Fuad's activity and devotion in the vicinity of Eflâni; and by Sabri from Konya's efforts to induce students of the secular schools to enter the fold of the Risale-i Nur in large numbers; and by the good will and ratifying stance towards the Risale-i Nur of foremost Hoja Vehbi Efendi, the Qur'anic exegetist, and other Konya ulema; and by the teacher Abdurrahman İhsan's sincere and earnest devotion in his letter; and by the two or three people described in the preacher Osman of Tavşanlı's letter who have with the utmost earnestness become Nur students; and by truly sincere Nurjus emerging in the villages of Eğirdir, as affirmed by Ali Osman and Halil İbrahim; and by Abdullah from Araç, who was the first of the Kastamonu secular-school students to embrace the Risale-i Nur and has performed many services for it in Ankara University and has described in his heartening letter which shows his firm adherence to belief and religion, his efforts to protect and defend Abdurrahman's son Vahdet in Ankara, and that due to the many readers of the Risale-i Nur there, they have insufficient copies of it, and that he is spreading it among the young people there together with his friend Mehmed from Konya; and by the prayers and descriptions of the Risale-i Nur's effectiveness in the sincere letter sent by Ali Akdağ, who is closely concerned with it and, God willing, will be a second Ahmed Feyzi in the region of Aydın: all these messages have filled both us and all the Nur circle with joy, and by implication are a vast gift this festival. May Almighty God be pleased with all of them. They should not be offended that I have been unable to write personally and separately to each of them.
I have approved without altering it Husrev's petition to the Court of Appeal; you may send your copy of it to the court. Since you have a copy, you can also add it to The Additional Letters without my sending this letter. You know better than I do concerning the price of A Guide for Youth, which you asked about in the letter that has just arrived, It shouldn't be less than one or one‑and-a-half liras. We say, may God grant blessings on Husrev's pen, which has started on the Fourth Word. May God grant him success. Amen!
I send in return for their festival congratulations, congratulations to the barber Hıfzı, the hero of Safranbolu, and his two innocent Nurju sons, Hüsnü and Yılmaz, and to the İnebolu heroes, Ali Osman and his two Nurju sons, and I offer prayers for their success.