In order to preserve the dignity of learning, since his early youth our Master never demeaned himself even before the loftiest leaders, nor did he ever accept the people's gifts. And now, even though he is weak and powerless, he cannot accept the gifts which religious scholars may receive, for they make him ill. Without giving something in return he is able to eat nothing we give him, his assistants, even. If he does not give something in return, it makes him ill. We are of the opinion that this condition has taken the form of an illness in order to preserve the maximum sincerity of the Risale‑i Nur, which can be the tool of nothing, for by it he is prevented from breaking his rule. Indeed, he felt intensely discomforted by the customary shaking of hands and meeting with scholars in connection with the splendid festival celebrating the Risale-i Nur's spreading everywhere, and even by conversing with his closest students and brothers at the religious festival, and by people looking at him, all of which betokened an illness visited on him to preserve that maximum sincerity. During the festival, we witnessed him telling his students: “My grave has to be unknown; no one must know its whereabouts except one or two of my students. This is my last will and testament. For surely a truth that prevents me from meeting with people in this world obliges me to enjoin the same after my death.”
So we asked our Master:
“Visitors to your grave will recite the Fatiha and gain merit. Why are you preventing them from this?”
He said in reply:
“In ancient times, desiring worldly fame and renown, the pharaohs attracted the attention of the people towards themselves with statues, pictures, and mummies. So too at this dreadful time, due to the heedlessness arising from egotism and self‑love, the worldly attract all the attention towards themselves through statues, pictures, and the press. They deflect attention from the other‑indicative way of looking at things towards the self-referential, and because they imagine a worldly future rather than the future of the hereafter, they accord excessive importance to the dead person's worldly fame and renown in opposition to the former practice of visiting graves solely for God's pleasure. They visit graves in that way. So I enjoin as my last will and testament that in accordance with the true meaning of sincerity, my grave should not be made known, so as not to damage the maximum sincerity of the Risale-i Nur. Whether in the east or the west, the Fatihas recited by everyone will go to the spirit intended.
A truth that prevents me from conversing with people in this world will surely enjoin this, not in respect of merit, but of this world.
His students in attendance on him