This letter, which our Master wrote long ago, was added to the court decision since it answers fully the accusations of securing personal influence and exploiting religion for political ends.
It is Only the Truth that Speaks
It is proved in the Risale‑i Nur that sometimes justice is manifested through tyranny. That is to say, for some reason a person suffers an injustice or is the victim of oppression, or he is visited by a calamity and is convicted for a crime and sent to prison. It is unjust and the sentence is unwarranted, but the event is a means to the manifestation of justice. Divine determining inflicts the sentence on the person through an unjust hand because he deserved it or for some other reason, causing him to suffer the calamity. It is a sort of manifestation of divine justice.
I am thinking now, for twenty‑eight years I have been made to move from province to province and from town to town. I have been dragged from court to court. Of what crime do those who inflict this persecution and torment on me accuse me? Exploiting religion for politics? But why have they been unable to prove this? Because in reality there is no such thing.
For months and years one court was trying to find me guilty and convict me. It gave up and another court opened proceedings against me concerning the same case. For a while it pursued the matter and pressurized me, making me suffer every kind of torment. It too could conclude nothing so gave up, then a third court fastened itself onto me, In this way I have been dragged from misfortune to misfortune and from calamity to calamity. Twenty‑eight years of my life have passed thus. Finally they themselves have understood that there is absolutely no truth in the crime they accuse me of,
Do they intentionally accuse me, or have they been carried away by some groundless fear? Whether intentional or unfounded, I know with complete and utter certainty that I have no connection whatsoever with such a crime. All those who are fair‑minded know that I am not a person who would exploit religion for politics, In fact, my accusers know this. So why do they persist in persecuting me? Why have I been the object of such continuous oppression and persistent torture although I am innocent? Why have I been unable to be saved from this misfortune? Is this situation not opposed to divine justice?
For twenty‑five years I could find no answer to these questions, but now I have understood the true reason for their persecution: I say with utter regret that my crime was to make my serving the Qur'an the means to my progress, material and spiritual, and to my attainment of perfection.
I understand this now and feel it, and I offer Almighty God a thousand thanks that for long years outside my will powerful immaterial obstacles prevented me from making my serving belief a means to my spiritual and material progress, and to my being saved from Hell and torment, and even to my eternal happiness; they prevented my making it a tool of anything at all. These deep‑seated feelings and inspirations left me in amazement. I was being prevented both in my spirit and heart from trying to attain spiritual rank and the happiness of the hereafter, which everyone wants, and from taking such a way, although it is a lawful right and causes no harm to anyone. I was shown that, driven by the innate desire for knowledge, I should only serve belief for God's pleasure alone. For at this time, a way of teaching the Qur'an is necessary which, having no other purpose at all, can be the tool of nothing and will effectively impart the truths of belief together with the worship which is innate to man, to those who do not know them and need to learn them. These have to be taught in a way that will save belief in this confused world and afford certainty to the obdurate; that is, in such a way that they are exploited for nothing. Only in this way can absolute disbelief and obstinate misguidance be smashed, and everyone gain complete certainty, At this time, in these conditions, this certainty may be gained through knowing that religion is being made the tool of nothing, be it personal, worldly, for the hereafter, material or immaterial.
For an individual person who confronts the awesome collective personality of irreligion, proceeding from certain covert organizations and political societies, cannot dispel the doubts it gives rise to, even if he is at the highest spiritual rank. For the ego and soul of an obdurate person who wants to believe may say: “With his brilliance and extraordinary spiritual rank, that person has deceived us,” and he will therefore continue to doubt.
Endless thanks be to Almighty God that for twenty‑eight years, being accused of exploiting religion for politics, divine determining dealt me blows purely justly, through man's oppressive hand, so that involuntarily I exploited religion for nothing personal. It was warning me, “Beware! Do not exploit the truths of belief for your own person so that those needy for belief may understand that it is only the truth that speaks. Let all whisperings of the soul and diabolical suggestions cease, let them be silent!”
This, then, is the reason for the fervour the Risale‑i Nur has given rise to in people's minds, like the towering waves of mountainous seas, and for the effect it has on their spirits and hearts; it is nothing else. Thousands of scholars have published hundreds of thousands of books about the same truths that the Risale-i Nur discusses, and more eloquently, yet they have been unable to halt absolute disbelief. If in these extremely difficult conditions the Risale-i Nur has been successful to an extent in the struggle against absolute disbelief, the reason is this: there is no Said. Said has no power and no authority. It is only the truth that speaks, the truths of belief.
Since the light of the truth has an effect on hearts needy for belief, let not one Said be sacrificed, but thousands. Let all the tribulations and oppression I have suffered these twenty‑eight years, all the torments to which I have been exposed, all the calamities I have endured, let them all be forgiven. All those who have persecuted me, moved me from town to town, insulted and wanted to have me convicted due to their various accusations, those who have readied places for me in the prisons — I have forgiven all of them.
And I Say to Just Divine Determining:
I deserved those compassionate blows of yours. For if like everyone I had taken a way thinking of myself, which is completely licit and harmless, and if I had not sacrificed the effulgences, material and spiritual, which I felt, I would have lost this supreme immaterial strength, present in serving belief. I sacrificed everything, material and immaterial, I submitted to all the misfortunes. I patiently endured all the torments. It is because of this that the truths of belief have spread everywhere. It is because of this that the Risale‑i Nur school of knowledge has raised hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of students. They will now continue to serve the cause of belief, not departing from my way of sacrificing everything, material and immaterial. They will work for God's pleasure and God's pleasure alone.
Many of my students have suffered every kind of tribulation, torment, and oppression together with me. They have undergone severe tests. I want them to forgive all the injustices and those who have wrongfully persecuted them, like me. For unknowingly, without comprehending the mysteries and profound manifestations of divine determining, they have served our cause and assisted in the unfolding of the truths of belief. Our duty consists only of seeking their guidance. I recommend that none of my students harbour even the slightest desire for revenge against those who have persecuted and oppressed us, and that in the face of them they work loyally and steadfastly for the Risale‑i Nur.
I am very ill. I have no strength now to either write or speak. Perhaps these will be my last words. Let the Risale‑i Nur students of the Medresetü' z-Zehra not forget this testament of mine‥