My Dear Brothers!
Now, due to a sort of admonition, I have become quite certain that a wide‑ranging premonition I had forty years before the Risale-i Nur was written was realized both in myself and in our village and in our district. I would have liked to divulge this secret to my old students like Şefik and my brother Abdülmecid, but since Almighty God has bestowed many Abdülmecids and Abdurrahmans from among you, it is you I am now telling.
When I was ten years old I used to have great pride in myself, which sometimes even took the form of boasting and self‑praise; although I myself did not want to, I used to assume the air of someone undertaking some great work and mighty act of heroism. I used to say to myself: “You're not worth tuppence, what's the reason for this excessive showing-off and boasting, especially when it comes to courage?” I did not know and used to wonder at it, Then, a month or two ago [1944] the question was answered: the Risale-i Nur was making itself felt before it was written: “Although you were a seed like a common chip of wood, you had a presentiment of those fruits of Paradise as though they were actually your own property, and used to boast and praise yourself!”
Both my old students and the people from the region know that our village of Nurs loved exceedingly to make a show and used to boast about their superior courage. They wanted to assume a heroic stance as though about to conquer some great country. I used to be astonished at both myself and them. Now I have understood thanks to a true admonition that the village of Nurs and its people had a premonition that they were going to win tremendous acclaim through the light of the Risale‑i Nur and that their unknown province and district and village would be recognized as important, and they displayed their gratitude for that divine bounty in the form of boasting.
Also, in the district of Hizan, our district, through the influence of Shaykh Abdurrahman Taği, known as Seyda, so many students, teachers, and scholars emerged I was sure all Kurdistan took pride in them and their scholarly debates and wide knowledge and Sufi way. These were the people who would conquer the face of the earth!
When I was nine or ten years old I used to listen when they talked about famous ulema, saints, learned men, and spiritual masters. I used to think to myself that those students and scholars must have made great conquests in religion to speak in that way. Also, if one of them was a little more intelligent than the others, he was made much of. And when one won an argument or debate, he would be held in great esteem. I used to wonder at it because I felt the same way. Indeed, in our district and province there were such astonishing contests among the Sufi shaykhs and their circles as I never saw in other regions.
Now, in consequence of an admonition I am completely certain that those student friends of mine, those teachers who were like masters, those guides of mine, and those saints and shaykhs perceived with their spirits through a premonition without their minds realizing, that at a critical time a brilliant light would appear among those students and those teachers' pupils and those guides' followers and come to the aid of the believers. Now, despite the extremely severe and testing conditions, confronted with innumerable opponents and encompassed by the plots of suspicious and vindictive enemies, this extraordinary victory of the Risale‑i Nur in the lengthy investigations of two gruelling court cases, and its spreading lights concealed from view, and winning its freedom in spite of its enemies shows that it is worthy of that position. For just as Imam 'Ali (May God be pleased with him) and the Gawth al-A'zam (May his spirit be sanctified) foretold it; so did they perceive, like my village, district, province and I myself unwittingly perceived, that it would appear and they rejoiced in it.
I have told you of this private matter because I hold you to be Abdülmecids and Abdurrahmans, my old students and friends, my brother and nephew.
It means that forty‑four years ago I myself and my village and district perceived through a premonition the coming of the Risale-i Nur's rain of mercy, just like due to the dampness in the atmosphere my nerves and sensitivity perceive the coming of the divine mercy of rain twenty-four hours before it falls.
I send greetings to all my brothers and sisters and offer prayers for them, and request that they pray for me‥