The Addendum to the Statement Made While Being Interrogated in Emirdağ and Presented for Its Information to the Judiciary's Collective Personality and to the Interior Minister
I had not read any newspaper for twenty years, nor listened to one, then the day before yesterday a person who assists me read me part of a paper. When I heard that both the Ministry of Education in Ankara (with two million liras worth of damage), and a garage again in Ankara, and at the same time a large factory in İzmir, and a large building in Ada had all been completely burnt down, I was extremely sorry and pitied this penurious nation. At that very same time, feeling a distress I had never felt before in my life, though elderly and ill and unlike in any court, I was interrogated continuously for four and a half hours. If the judiciary here had not been humane and kind to a degree, I would never have been able to endure it, and I decided to say something harsh in this cold and being sick so as to be sent to prison. In fact, we decided that one of my helpers should put someone to bed in my room and beat someone up so as to join me in prison to assist me. But the humanity shown by the judiciary here and divine providence gave me patience, and I endured it.
I was curious about this extraordinary situation and true reason for their suspicions. A Guide for Youth being printed and published officially had illuminated many secular schools; valuable youths in Ankara University and Istanbul University had learnt the Risale‑i Nur's principles and understood that they were a means of securing the happiness of this country and nation; and many teachers were enthusiastically showing interest in the Risale-i Nur out of national and patriotic zeal and for scholarly concerns, and all this had attracted the attention of the Ministry of Education and they wanted to inhibit the Risale-i Nur somehow since they dislike it,
Even, here, informers said: “The young people are being lost to us; school children are being turned towards religion through the printed Guide for Youth.” Whereupon, both myself and most of the Risale‑i Nur students in a number of provinces were subject to harassment, Although I ought to have expected the assistance of the hojas (teachers of religion) since I was educated in the medrese, I wanted to rely with all my strength on the Ministry of Education and the secular school teachers, and to depend on them. For it is mostly people from the secular schools who enter the Risale-i Nur's fold and there are only a few hojas. The latter mostly hold back, while since the secular school pupils and teachers appreciate the Risale-i Nur and take it up, I used to hope fervently that the Ministry of Education would protect the Nur students. But while awaiting their help, the passage at the end of the printed Guide for Youth which says: “Now there is government permission, Nur students should open Nur study centres as far as they can,” led to this new assault, and with it our covert enemies tried to turn the Education Ministry against us.
Uptil the present those enemies of ours have many times wanted to wreck us with their strategems and the judiciary, but they have been unsuccessful and their plans have misfired. Then they tried to incite the bigoted, egotistical hojas in high positions against us, and again they failed, Now, by using the Education Ministry against us, on whose assistance I had most relied, they are trying to get certain officials in this government to accuse the unfortunate, innocent Nur students of belonging to Sufi orders and political societies, concerning which we have been acquitted by three courts, and to deprive them and myself of studying the Risale‑i Nur. The Education Ministry's catching fire at exactly the same time as my pitiful interrogation for four and a half hours, and there being no means of extinguishing the fire and its being completely burnt down does not resemble a coincidence; it seems to be more a mark of anger.
At the end of my statement and at the same time, I said: “Don't prevent me in my loneliness and exile from studying my books; it'll be a shame both for me, and for this country. Perhaps the earth will again shake with an earthquake and anger.” Three minutes later an earthquake occurred that lasted three seconds. Then at the same time I repeated that passage in court, the earth attacked the Education Ministry with fire, and as has been proved four times in court, numerous times, whether night or day, earthquakes have happened simultaneously with assaults on the Risale‑i Nur and its students, which surely could be no coincidence. This means that since the Risale-i Nur is a weighty foundation stone of this country and nation's order and security, with such occurrences and blows, its truths turn the nation's attention to itself, which is a true, veracious, and powerful commentary on the Qur'an, and urging the nation towards itself, it deals compassionate slaps at its opponents.
It is now established that just as almsgiving repulses calamities, so the Risale‑i Nur is a means of repulsing disasters. The calamity of the fire occurring just when the Risale-i Nur was being attacked proves that the Risale-i Nur is a means of repulsing disasters.