My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
It came to my heart that I should explain four matters to you.
The First Matter: This is the reply to a question that has been asked both verbally and tacitly and in other ways.
It has been asked: Since the Risale‑i Nur is the source of wonders, and leads to an unfolding of the truths of belief greater than the Sufi tarikats and some of its loyal students are in one respect at the level of sainthood (velâyet), why don't they appear to manifest spiritual experiences and illuminations and physical wonders like the saints? Why don't its students seek such things? What is the reason for this?
The Answer:
Firstly, the reason is true sincerity. Because for people who do not completely conquer their souls, temporary pleasures and miraculous wonders become their goal in this world and the reason for their works of the hereafter, and this spoils sincerity. For the works of the hereafter may not be sought with worldly goals and pleasures; if they are, it destroys true sincerity.
Secondly: Wonder‑working and illuminations are only for those ordinary people who travel the Sufi way but whose belief is merely imitative and has not reached the level of realization. Sometimes miracle-like wonders strengthen the weak and the convictions of people given to whispering doubts. Whereas the proofs of the truths of belief the Risale-i Nur adduces leave no place for doubts; they afford certainty and leave no need at all for wonders and illuminations. So since the certain affirmative belief it induces is far superior to illuminations, spiritual delights, and wonder- working, its true students do not seek anything of that sort.
Thirdly: A principle of the Risale‑i Nur is to know one's own faults and without rivalry to serve humbly seeking God's pleasure alone. But in this era of egotism, differences and a sort of rivalry between the followers of the Sufi way who perform wonders and seek the pleasure of illuminations, cause the heedless to think ill of them and to accuse them of egotism and selfishness. This shows that it is absolutely imperative that the Risale-i Nur students do not wish for wonders and illuminations for themselves nor run after them.
Also, the individual person is not given importance on its way; owing to the spiritual partnership and the brothers' wholehearted identification with each other, such divine bestowals as the thousands of wonders associated with knowledge and the facility in the work of dissemination, and the plenty experienced in the livelihoods of those who work at it, are sufficient for all and they do not seek any personal attainments or wonders.
Fourthly: Because they are short‑lived, a hundred gardens of this world are not equal to a single tree of the next world, which is undying. In consequence, since the blind human emotions are captivated by immediate pleasure and prefer an ephemeral present fruit to an eternal garden of the hereafter, the Risale-i Nur students do not seek spiritual delights and illuminations in this world, lest their evil-commanding souls exploit this natural tendency.
In olden times there lived a person who resembled the Risale‑i Nur students in this respect. Both he and his wife were of high spiritual rank, but due to their straitened circumstances she remarked to him on their extreme need.
Suddenly, a golden brick appeared before them. She exclaimed: “Look! A brick from our mansion in Paradise!”
But then the blessed women said: “It's true that we're needy and that we'll have loads of bricks like that in the next world, but this one shouldn't be wasted on this fleeting life so that it's missing from our mansion there! Offer a prayer that it returns to its place; we don't need it!” It disappeared, and it is told that with their spiritual discernment they beheld it in its place.
These two heroic people of truth offer excellent examples for the Risale‑i Nur students and their not chasing after the worldly delights of wonder-working!
Second Matter If the coincidences (tevâfuk) appear in numerous different forms and in such a way as to corroborate one another, they may afford a degree of certainty that is conclusive and explicit.
A sign that some of the letters we wrote after leaving prison were both acceptable, and very significant, and that people were very needy for them at this time, was that a sparrow, a kuddûs bird, and some pigeons came into my room most strangely and in a way quite out of the ordinary and all coinciding with the others. Then when Halil İbrahim, one of our brothers from Milas, received the letter describing the kuddûs bird and opened a locked room, in the same extraordinary way a kuddûs bird flew in and tried to fly round the room, thus coinciding with our bird. Then when the students of the Nur School read the letter, two grasshoppers appeared and perched on the letter. And just as these miniature birds corroborated and coincided with the coincidences of the former birds, so, as endorsed by our loyal brothers in İnebolu, when they were reading that same letter, they were frightened out of their wits by an owl alighting at the window and beating the panes with its wings as though saying: “I'm taking an interest in that letter too; don't imagine that I'm not concerned!” The large bird was fully confirming the interest shown by the other birds and was coinciding with them.
If an imaginary wide‑thinking and intuitive person who dwelt on the relationships between the events of the book of the universe from the viewpoint of humanity's situation this century were to endorse so many coincidences looking to the same matter and the importance of the questions discussed briefly in the letters, would he not be right? For it is as though with their very numerous aeroplanes and human birds, men have frightened the birds of the air, which is their world, and in consequence, with a terrible excitement in that world, the birds show serious concern in the face of men's actions and ask if there is no one to respond to those tyrannous, destructive, savage birds, so as to force them to give up their destruction and to work for the profit of humankind and for their prosperity and happiness. Wouldn't it be apt to say they are showing an interest in the questions of the Risale-i Nur? Wouldn't such a thing be possible? Could one way it is a meaningless fancy?
Third Matter Recently I read the Hizb‑i Nuriye, a summary of The Supreme Sign (Âyet-ül-Kübrâ), which was composed three years ago in Ramadan and published freely this Ramadan. It took me over an hour. Then again in Ramadan, a ten or fifteen-minute summary of that summary occurred to me. When I read it, I experience on reading two or three pages of Arabic an unfolding of belief and of what is denoted by, An hour's reflection is better than a year's supererogatory worship as though I were reading the whole of The Supreme Sign. I can't find the time to write to you with my own pen; God willing, sometime I shall do so. Those who understand the piece as I do may read it from their own copies or write it out at the end of either The Supreme Sign or the Hizb‑i Nuriye, after the tesbihat and the supplication, instead of our tesbihat lā ilāha illā Allāh, which is recited thirty‑three times, but only thinking of the meaning of the morning tesbihat.
The Fourth consists of two points.
First: Our brothers in Isparta, especially Husrev, the Rose Nur hero, ask about my material winter needs, and want to help me, I thank them, but say this:
their services for the Risale‑i Nur are both profitable for the eternal happiness of all the students, and assist my needs for the winter that will follow the grave, my true winter. They perform these so perfectly that they exceed a thousandfold any aid for this temporary passing winter and its needs. If I had been able, I would have tried with all my life and spirit and the greatest pleasure to meet all their material needs. Don't worry about me; frugality and contentment are two inexhaustible treasuries.
Second Point: I was truly pleased by the fine, sincere letters of our brothers in İnebolu and that district, which at one time won the name of “Little Isparta” and more than anywhere suffered the calamity of prison recently in connection with our matter. Nevertheless, I am concerned that two heroes of the Risale‑i Nur, father and son, have been unable to agree completely due to their differing temperaments. But however unfair a father is, his son is obliged to seek his pleasure. And however rebellious a son is, his father should not deny him his natural compassion. But for the sake of the Risale-i Nur and on account of the mutual self-identification of its students and their not criticizing one another and forgiving one another's faults, let alone such a father and son and such select, honourable, and leading Risale-i Nur students, even ones that are far from each other and enemies even, should not allow worldly, trifling, and emotional matters to cause dispute among them. In addition to the respect and compassion demanded by fatherhood and sonship, for my sake these two brothers whom I love should, as Nur students, disregard one another's faults and forgive one another, and not criticize each other,
I send greetings to each and every one of my brothers, and offer prayers for them‥