My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Firstly: I congratulate you on the Night of the Prophet's (UWBP) Birth with all my life and spirit, and I give you the good news of your success and the extraordinarily effective spread of the Risale‑i Nur, And we congratulate the Nurjus.
Secondly: This blessed night, I received a severe admonishment in my heart due to which two ideas occurred to me in connection with the Istanbul University Nur students describing the wonders of the Old Said and New Said in the biography.
The First: My friends have formed an opinion of me far exceeding my due, concerning some prodigious sainthood. And among opponents and philosophers an apprehension has formed, again far surpassing my due, of a truly wondrous genius, and among some of them even, of powerful magical powers, An explanation of this has been sought from me in many places, as to what the truth is. So owing to the powerful warning I received this night, I have been obliged to explain a fact with many preliminaries.
First Preliminary: The seed of the pine, as tiny as a grain of wheat, is the source of a mighty pine tree; divine power creates the vast tree from the seed. Only one part out of a million is found in the seed, yet in meaning it is an index written with the pen of divine determining. Otherwise, as many factories as a village would be necessary for the vast tree to be formed with all its branches and twigs. Thus, a proof of grandeur and divine power is that it creates things as huge as mountains from a particle.
In just the same way, without intending any humility or modesty, I proclaim with full conviction that the services I have performed and the course of my life have been a sort of seed. Divine providence bestowed the Risale‑i Nur, which proceeded from the Qur'an and is a lofty, fruit-bearing tree, in order to be the source of a crucial service for religious belief at this time. I swear that I never saw in myself due to the wonders that have happened throughout my life, any ability or virtue or anything needing extraordinary talent. I used to be quite astonished. Let alone possessing a wonderful genius or marvellous sainthood, I did not consider myself capable of organizing myself and participating in social relations. It is true that some traits like self-advertisement were apparent in my life, but that was a sort of involuntary boasting so as not to give the lie to people's favourable opinions. Because I did not know the wisdom in my not being as the people supposed and thought that I was no use for the world, I considered that my thus being held in regard a thousand times higher than was my due was totally opposed to right and truth. But endless thanks be to Almighty God that now at the end of this life of seventy to eighty years we have understood the wisdom in it to a degree through divine grace, and I am going to indicate a part of it briefly. I am explaining a few examples out of many.
First Example: The method followed in the medreses requires at least fifteen years' study so that the Islamic sciences and religious truths may be fully acquired. At that time, what was observed in Said was not a wondrous intelligence or spiritual power, but a state or condition whereby, in extraordinary fashion outside all abilitiy and talent, in three months after acquiring in two years the basics of Arabic grammar and syntax, astonishingly he as though read forty to fifty books in three months and received his diploma.
Sixty years later this situation showed directly that a Qur'anic commentary would emerge that, in the short period of three or four months, could teach people and that the wretched Said would be employed in its service. And it also suggested the idea and predictions that a time would come when there would be no medreses where the sciences of belief could be learnt in fifteen years, or even in one, or else they would be reduced in number.
Second Example: I confess and believe certainly that Said's debating with prominent scholars in his youth long ago, and his answering their questions, and even to his replying correctly to their most complex questions without being asked, occurred through neither my wondrous intelligence nor my outstanding abilities. I am quite certain that my answering correctly although I was a helpless, childish, confused, noisy youth who would have been defeated by ordinary hojas or young students, let alone leading scholars, did not result from my capabilities and intelligence. I was amazed at it for seventy years.
But now through divine grace I have understood one reason for it which is that a tree which would be a seed to the medrese sciences would be bestowed and that the person who served the tree would have numerous rivals and opponents.
Thus, despite it being the custom among Muslims for the adherents of different ways and outlooks to criticize one another and publish opposing works, like the Sunnis and the Mu'tazilites; and at this time, the most effective and devastating opponents who would strike at that Nur tree's servant should have been the medrese hojas, endless thanks be to Almighty God that contrarily to that longstanding custom, the hojas have been unable to produce works critical of the Risale‑i Nur. A reason for this is that as a youth, Said answered the ulema's questions correctly and evidently disheartened them, for nowhere have jealous hojas opposed the Risale-i Nur although by their profession they are strongly opposed to Said. I have thus formed the opinion that this is one instance of wisdom in that situation. For if it had been otherwise and in these strange times the people of the medreses had started to oppose it, it would have provided our covert enemies, the supporters of irreligion, with a powerful means of refuting both the Risale-i Nur and the ulema. Endless thanks be to Almighty God that the official ulema, whom the Risale-i Nur offends most, have been unable to oppose it.
Third Example: I am now quite certain that one instance of wisdom in Said not accepting since the childhood of the Old Said, and his not being able to accept, alms and gifts, although both he himself and his father were poor, and his not accepting presents although he was greatly in need, and his never going to collect subsistence although the custom in Kurdistan was for the students' food to be donated from the people's homes together with zakat and their expenses, and his not knowingly accepting zakat even —
I am now certain that one reason for this was that I was made to feel disgust at that acceptable custom and harmless practice, and to accept extreme poverty and need, and to avoid awaiting charity from people, so that later in life a sacred task like the Risale‑i Nur concerned solely with belief and hereafter should not be exploited for worldly ends or personal benefits, and true sincerity, the true strength of the Risale-i Nur, should not be impaired. I also perceive a sign in this that in the future, the religious scholars will suffer defeat due to need and the struggle for livelihood.
Fourth Example: In the face of the worldly's oppressing the New Said in his old age for twenty‑eight years with extreme severity, in a way completely opposed to the law, fairness, conscience, and even humanity, although he has tried to withdraw totally from politics and the world; and their raining down blows on his head and insulting him vilely, although he could not endure even the bite of a fly; he has been given an unprecedented patience and forbearance. I feel quite certain that one instance of wisdom in this, and also, with the courage proceeding from belief in the truth “the appointed hour is fixed and does not change,” in his remaining patiently silent in cowardly and abject fashion although he is extremely nervous and highly strung and not cowardly by nature, and also in fact, somewhat later, after the torments, relief being imparted to his spirit, was the politicians being given the groundless suspicion about Said that he was exploiting religion for political ends, so that he should not exploit the Risale-i Nur, which expounds the All-Wise Qur'an's truths of belief, for personal benefits or spiritual ranks or for anything.
I have the firm conviction that, to prevent Said with torments and imprisonment from making religion the tool of politics, the cruel rulings of the politicians were the compassionate slaps of divine determining, saying: “Beware! Don't exploit the Risale‑i Nur, a commentary expounding the truths of belief, for your personal benefits or even for your spiritual attainments, or to be saved from calamities and harmful things, lest true sincerity, the Risale-i Nur true strength, be spoiled.”
In fact, whenever I have neglected the Risale‑i Nur's service and become excessively preoccupied with my life in the hereafter and worship, the worldly have pertinaciously fallen upon me, inflicting torments on me.
We refer further explanation of this fourth example to one of the letters written recently, which concerns understanding the wisdom in the politicians imprisoning Said with accusations of his exploiting religion for political ends, and on his perceiving that these rulings were the compassionate slaps of divine determining, his forgiving the politicians and his enduring it.
Fifth Example: Everyone used to be astonished that this wretched Said's handwriting was so poor that he could not write as much as a clever child could write in ten days, although his need to do was so great and he had been busy with that occupation for seventy years, and on some days was compelled to correct as many as two hundred pages. And Said was not altogether lacking in ability, I am now quite certain that the reason for his being semi‑literate despite his blood brothers all having fine handwriting and he was much in need of it, was this:
a time would come when personal, minor strengths would be unable to withstand the assaults of awesome, immaterial enemies, and it would become necessary to earnestly seek people with fine handwriting to share in the work, and to serve that nonmaterial tree like the water, air, and light serves a seed. Then a universal, general, and powerful pen would be needed in place of that personal, minor service, so as to attain true sincerity by melting icey egotism in that blessed pool, and serving belief in this way. The wisdom was this.
The Enduring One, He is the Enduring One!