An article by journalist 'Isa 'Abd al‑Qadir, which appeared in the newspaper ad-Difā', published in Baghdad, in 1954
The Baghdad newspaper ad‑Difā' asked the following about the Risale-i Nur students:
Is there any connection between the Risale‑i Nur students in Turkey and the Muslim Brothers? Do they have any relations? And what are the differences between them? Are the Risale-i Nur students in Turkey an independent group or society like the groups called the Muslim Brothers working for Islamic unity in Egypt and other Arab countries? Are they attached to those groups or to any one of them? My reply is this:
The aim of both the Nur students and the Muslim Brothers is to serve the truths of Qur'an and belief and to work with the overall aim of securing Islamic unity and the happiness of Muslims in this world and the next. However, the Nur students differ from the Muslim Brothers in five or six respects:
First Difference: The Nur students are not involved in politics; they avoid theme If they are obliged to concern themselves with politics, they make them a tool of religion, so that they may demonstrate the sacredness of religion in the face of those who exploit politics for irreligion. They are in no way a political society.
Due to the situations in their countries, The Muslim Brothers, however, are involved in politics, in order to support religion, and they are a political society.
Second Difference: The Nur students do not meet with their Master and they are not obliged to do so. They do not feel themselves compelled to meet with him. They do not consider it necessary to be together with him in order to receive instruction. Rather, the whole country is like a place of instruction; on their obtaining the books, they are taught by them instead of by their Master. The treatises are each like a Said.
Moreover, as far as they possibly can, the Nur students write the treatises out for no wage and distribute them free of charge to the needy, so that they may read them and listen to them. In this way the whole country has become a vast place of learning.
The Muslim Brothers, however, meet with their guides and leaders in general centres, and go to visit them in order to receive instruction and orders. They also meet in the branches of that general society with their supreme Master and those who are the equivalent of his deputies and successors, and receive instruction and orders.
And they obtain for the required price the newspapers and books produced in the centres, and receive instruction from them too.
Third Difference: Just like the students of an elevated medrese (religious school) or university, the Nur students learn through scholarly exchanges. A large province becomes like a medrese. They teach each other and learn together although they do not see one another or know each other, and although they far apart.
However, due to the circumstances of their countries, The Muslim Brothers produce books and magazines and distribute them everywhere; they come to know each other through them, and receive instruction.
Fourth Difference: The Nur students have now spread to most of the Islamic countries, and they are numerous. In spreading in this way, they are present in various countries but they do not need to obtain permission from the governments to meet together and do their work. For their way is not a political way and they are not a political society, so they do not consider themselves obliged to obtain permission.
However, due to their circumstances, The Muslim Brothers are involved in politics and need to organize a society and open centres and branches, and are therefore obliged to obtain permission from the authorities wherever they are found. And they are not unknown like the Nur students. In this way they have opened numerous branches in their general centres, including Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Sudan, the Maghrib, and Baghdad.
Fifth Difference: There are numerous different levels among the Nur students, from seven or eight‑year-old children who are learning the Arabic alphabet in mosques to learn the Qur'an, to elderly men and women of seventy to ninety years old; and from villagers and porters to prominent members of the National Assembly; and from private soldiers to high-ranking officers. The sole aim of all these many levels of Nur students is to become illuminated by the guidance of the Noble Qur'an and truths of belief. All their endeavour is to spread knowledge, learning and the truths of belief. They are known for not being involved with anything else. The fearsome trials these last twenty-eight years and their cunning and jealous opponents have been unable to discover any aim apart from this sacred service, and have therefore been unable to convict them and rout them. The Nur students do not feel themselves compelled to search for customers and sup- porters; they say: “Our duty is to serve. We do not seek customers; let them come and seek us out and find us.” They attach no importance to quantity. They prefer one person who is truly sincere, to a hundred others.
For sure, like the Nur students, The Muslim Brothers encourage and urge others to adhere to the sciences and learning of Islam and the truths of belief, but due to their situations and countries and their involvement with politics, they attach importance to quantity and increasing their numbers, and they seek supporters.
Sixth Difference: Just as true, sincere Nur students attach no importance to material benefits, so some of them, with their maximum frugality and contentment and poverty, and fortitude and independence, they abstain in some respects with true sincerity and devotion in serving the Qur'an from the advantages of society. This is so that they will not be defeated in the face of the numerous, violent people of misguidance, nor give rise to doubts when calling the needy to the truth and to sincerity, nor make that sacred service the tool of anything other than divine pleasure.
Although essentially The Muslim Brothers follow the same aim, due to place and circumstances and other causes, they cannot give up the world like the Nur students. They do not consider themselves obliged to make that supreme self‑sacrifice.
'Isa 'Abd al‑Qadir