Preface
When the treatises of the Risale‑i Nur first began to be written in 1926 in the village of Barla in Isparta Province in south-western Turkey, the students of its author, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, who lived in the region wrote to him expressing their feelings of respect and gratitude and explaining how they had benefited and profited from his writings, and they sought answers to their questions and problems. The letters contained in the volumes entitled Barla Lahikası, Kastamonu Lahikası, and Emirdağ Lahikası and named after the three main places of Bediuzzaman's exile, thus consist of the letters written by Bediuzzaman to his students and the letters written by the students to Bediuzzaman. These three volumes of additional letters form the Twenty-Seventh Letter of the Risale-i Nur Collection.
Barla Lahikası — Barla Letters
This consists of letters written by Bediuzzaman to his first students in Barla and letters written by them to him describing how they were benefiting from his new writings with their hearts, minds, and spirits. The letters cover the period of his stay in Barla until July 1934, when he was removed to Isparta. He remained in Isparta under surveillance until the following May, when he was sent to Eskişehir Prison, together with numbers of his students.
Kastamonu Lahikası — Kastamonu Letters
On being released from Eskisehir Prison in March 1936, Bediuzzaman was sent to Kastamonu, a provincial centre south of the Black Sea, where his compulsory residence continued until September 1943, when he was arrested and sent to Denizli Prison. During these years, Bediuzzaman corresponded continually with his students in Isparta, who persisted despite the difficult conditions in writing out copies of both these letters and the treatises of the Risale‑i Nur, and distributing them. The letters explain to the students both the nature of the Risale-i Nur and its function of saving and strengthening belief, and the method of service its students should follow, and many other pertinent questions. The Kastamonu Letters thus hold great value in that they consider from the point of view of belief and in the light of those times, many social questions, which affords them universal relevance.
Emirdağ Lahikası — Emirdağ Letters, Volumes I and Ii Volume I:
The letters in this volume cover the period from 15 th June, 1944, when Bediuzzaman was acquitted by Denizli Court and released, then sent to Emirdağ, where he had been ordered to reside by the Cabinet. He remained there until the end of 1947, when he was again arrested and sent to Afyon Prison together with numbers of his students. Many of these letters concern the work of his students in duplicating and disseminating the Risale‑i Nur in Isparta, Kastamonu, Istanbul, Ankara, and other places in Anatolia, among whom were now university students. Others are replies to their questions and other matters.
Volume Ii:
The letters in this volume were written following Bediuzzaman's release from Afyon Prison on 29 th September, 1949, after twenty month's imprisonment. Following his release, he returned to Emirdağ, where he remained till 1951, when he went to Eskisehir. In 1952 and 1953 he visited Istanbul, on both occasions remaining for three months, then returning to Emirdağ. His 1952 visit was in response to the summons to attend the Guide for Youth trial, which resulted in an acquittal. After 1953, Bediuzzaman spent most of his time in Isparta. The greater part of the letters in this second volume of Emirdağ Letters were written prior to this and cover many subjects including matters connected with the court cases and trials of the Risale‑i Nur and his students.
Bediuzzaman wrote fewer letters after 1953. The letters and notes he wrote to his students while in the prisons of Eskişehir, Denizli, and Afyon were included by their author in The Rays Collection as the Twelfth, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth Rays. Bediuzzaman himself attached great importance to these additional letters, which were written contemporaneously with the Risale‑i Nur. For together with explicating matters contained in the Risale-i Nur and explaining the method of service Bediuzzaman envisaged in the conditions of the times, they offer guidance to the students concerning their conduct towards others in the various, often hostile, situations in which they found themselves, and motivated them and urged them to persist in their sincerity, devotion, and unwavering steadfastness. The letters set out the principles of their service.
In a letter written to Bediuzzaman by 'the first Nur student,' Hulusi Bey, he points out his need for such guidance. He wrote: “If you want to forget the world and withdraw from it, you may not, for even if there were no other reason, you cannot leave without answer those people who have become bound to The Words and who seek explanations of them … The various matters which are not included in The Words and which you have clarified and expounded in your invaluable writings for those who love you for God's sake and have sought explanations, show quite definitely that neither has the need ceased nor is your service completed.”
The additional letters that subsequently met the need thus expressed, confirm the apt words of that blessed person.
As may be seen from these letters, the Risale‑i Nur's author, Bediuzzaman, attached the greatest importance to the reading and writing out of the Risale-i Nur, and continuously encouraged his students to be occupied with it.
For the present age has seen the rapid spread of the physical and mathematical sciences and their exploitation by materialists and naturalists, who represent absolute disbelief and recognize no religion. With their numerous and various anti‑religious publications, such atheistic currents seek to mislead the youth who study science, and to distance them from belief in God; they threaten all humanity. Certainly, at such a fearsome time, there is intense need for the dissemination and study of a work like the Risale-i Nur. In the face of the destruction — wrought by atheistic currents — of the inner, moral human faculties, the Risale-i Nur repairs and restores the human being, and gains for believers the mighty, inner strength which proceeds from certain, affirmative belief.
It performs this task through the guidance and inspiration of the Qur'an. By teaching reflective thought on the divine works in the universe, it points out the light of divine unity in the very matters the materialists and naturalists have floundered and become submerged. It demonstrates the truths of belief with proofs and comparisons taken from the physical world, and proves them as clearly as the sun in the very matters of science taught in the universities.
In this and many other ways, the Risale‑i Nur is a diamond sword in the hands of believers which should be given primary importance at the present time by Muslims and believers. It consists of lessons inspired from the stars of the Qur'an's verses and of universal proofs of knowledge of God, and addresses the needs and understanding of the age. In this respect, the Risale-i Nur has gained considerable prominence and importance in this country.
Our nation for centuries acted as the standard‑ bearer of the Qur'an and illuminated the world with its religion. Now, once again, it will furnish an example of fine morality and virtue for the world, and will show how humanity may be saved from its present crises. The sole solution for the corruption, anarchy, and destruction that are dealing awesome blows at humanity and are threatening it, are the eternal truths of revealed religion and the reality of Islam. The Risale-i Nur presents to humankind the truth of the Qur'an and Islam supported by sound argument and proof, for its consideration and examination.
The Risale‑i Nur's author says in a letter: “I have dedicated my life, not to secondary matters which are the cause of internal partisanship, discord, and dispute, but to the pillars of belief, which are a question of paramount importance for all humanity, and to the truths of belief taught by the Qur'an, which may lead to the happiness of humankind and are the foundation of Islam and bonds of brotherhood.” In saying this he was stating that the circle of the Risale-i Nur is so broad and all-embracing as to encom- pass all service to Islam and religious questions; that it affirms and encourages religious service of every sort; and that it is a highway of the Qur'an, and embraces Islam and all believers.
In the same letter, he continues: “I offer friendship to not only Muslims, but also Christians, and invite them to forgo enmity.” He points out the dangers posed by the Second World War and the anarchy underlying communism, which intimate the transience and ephemerality of this world and its separations, thus implying that people should give up their hostility to one another, and heeding the Qur'an, unite, or else be ruined. He points out the need and necessity for the Risale‑i Nur and its method of service, which is conformable with the conditions of the times, and with the wise guidance of the Qur'an and divine practice.
Thus, the volumes of additional letters are concerned with matters such as these. They teach the principles of a way of Qur'anic service that is fitting for the contemporary world and its conditions.
Students of Bediuzzaman Said Nursiwho are in attendance on him,Tahiri, Zübeyir, Hüsnü Bayramoğlu,Mustafa Sungur, Bayram