In His Name, be He glorified!
To the Chief Judge of the Court
I request that you listen to this very brief statement about the very lengthy story of my life of persecution. The following are the reasons they have given for the last twenty‑eight years of unprecedented ill-treatment, surveillance, and imprisonment:
The First: They accuse me of being opposed to the regime. We say in reply:
Every government has opponents. On condition they do not disturb public order or infringe security, no one is answerable for an idea or way of conducting themselves which they believe in with their hearts and consciences. For although the more than one hundred million Muslims who were under the rule of the English and their tyrannical, religiously bigoted government for a hundred years, rejected their infidel regime due to the Qur'an and did not accept it, up to the present the English courts have not bothered them in that respect. And although the Jews and Christians who since early times have had a place among our nation and in its governments, and have been opposed to its religion and sacred regimes, and have held contrary, critical views, at no time have the courts of law interfered with them in any way.
Furthermore, during his own caliphate, 'Umar (May God be pleased with him) was tried by a court together with a common Christian. The fact that the Christian's [religious] views were not taken into consideration by the court despite his being opposed to both the Muslims' sacred regime, and their religion, and their laws, shows that a court of law cannot be partisan, but has to be unbiased. For the vicegerent of the earth was tried together with a common infidel.
Thus, relying on hundreds of verses of the Qur'an, not only myself but all people of conscience are opposed to a temporary regime that has replaced the Qur'an's sacred laws, and on account of the anarchy of corrupt civilization and behind the screen of the liberties of the Republic is an absolute despotism, and may be used as a tool to tyrannize religious people. Moreover, opposition to any government can never be deemed a crime.
The Second: They have inflicted punishments on me for thirty years on the pretext of the possibility of disturbing the peace and breaching security. I say this in reply:
Although according to the investigations of the court there are both five hundred thousand devoted Nur students, and for twenty‑eight years we have been subjected to this cruel ill-treatment, the six provinces and six courts of law that have been concerned with the Nurjus have been unable to record any incident involving them. This proves that the Nurjus are the protectors of public security. Through their instruction in belief, they instil a prohibitor in everyone's head and preserve public order. The fair-minded police of three provinces have affirmed this.
The Third: They have declared me guilty saying, He wants to exploit religion for political ends. A decisive reply to this is my article entitled, “It is Only the Truth that Speaks,” in the one hundred and sixteenth issue of Sebilürreşad. A summary of it is as follows:
The Answer: Those who accuse of exploiting religion for politics a person who is over eighty years of age and at the door of the grave, and whose whole life testifies that he is ready to sacrifice his whole world for religion and if necessary his personal life in the hereafter, who has absolutely nothing in this world, and has given up politics for thirty‑five years, and concerning this matter five courts have found no certain evidence — those making this accusation are totally wrong, unjust, and unfair. In addition to these slanders, they say that he wants to disturb public order and security. But the lesson in truth he has taken from the Qur'an and he has taught to his students, is this:
If one innocent man is found in a house or on a ship together with ten criminals, the justice of the Qur'an forbids the burning down of the house or sinking of the ship lest harm comes to the innocent man. To burn or sink them in order to destroy one criminal when they hold nine innocent people is therefore a grievous wrong, cruelty, and perfidy. In consequence, since divine justice and the truth of the Qur'an severely forbids harming or placing in danger by disturbing public order and security, ninety innocent people due to ten criminals, owing to that lesson of the Qur'an we consider ourselves compelled religiously to preserve public order with all our strength.
There is no doubt that our covert enemies who accuse us of these three or four matters and preoccupy the courts with us unnecessarily, want either to exploit politics for irreligion or under the veil of communism, either knowingly or unknowingly, to establish anarchy in this blessed country. For any Muslim who leaves the fold of Islam becomes an apostate and anarchist, and spreads poison in the life of society. For anarchy recognizes no rights and transforms human nature into that of savage animals. The Qur'an alludes to the fact that the secret society of Gog and Magog, which will appear at the end of time, will be composed of anarchists.
Saîd Nursî