The Eleventh Topic
Hundreds of the innumerable fruits, particular and universal, of the sacred tree of belief, one of which is Paradise, another, eternal happiness, and another, the vision of Allah the Most High, have been set forth with proofs and explanations in the Risale‑i Nur. Referring further explanation of them to Siracü’n‑Nur (The Illuminating Lamp), therefore, here shall be set out a few examples of its particular and special fruits, rather than its universal pillars.
One of These: One day while reciting in a supplication: “O My Sustainer! In veneration of Gabriel, Michael, Israfil, and Azra’il, and through their intercession, preserve me from the evil of men and jinn,” I experienced an exceedingly pleasant and consoling state of mind on mentioning the name of Azra’il, which generally makes people tremble in fear. “All praise be to Allah!” I exlaimed and began to feel earnest love for him. I shall point out extremely briefly only one particular fruit of the many of this particular aspect of the pillar of belief in the angels.
Another: Everyone’s most precious possession and the one over which they most tremble, is their spirit. I felt sure that to surrender it to a strong and trustworthy hand thereby preserving it from being lost and annihilated and from aimlessness, afforded a profound joy. Then the angels who record human actions came to mind; I saw that they yielded numerous sweet fruits like the previous one.
Another: Everyone tries earnestly to preserve through writing, poetry, or even the cinema, a worthwhile saying or deed, in order to immortalize it. Particularly if the deeds produce everlasting fruits in Paradise, they are even more anxious to preserve them. The recording angels hovering over people’s shoulders so that they may show their deeds in eternal vistas and continually gain their performers reward, seemed so agreeable to me, I cannot describe it.
Then, when the worldly had isolated me from all aspects of social life and kept me from all my books, friends, assistants, and the things that console me, and I was being crushed by the desolation of exile and my empty world was tumbling down all around me, one of the many fruits of belief in the angels came to my assistance. It cheered up the universe and my world, filling it with angels and spirit beings, and making my world laugh for joy. It showed too that the worlds of the people of misguidance weep in desolation, emptiness, and darkness.
While enjoying the pleasures of this fruit, my imagination plucked one of the numerous fruits of belief in the prophets, which resembles it, and tasted it. Then suddenly my belief that all the prophets of the past were as though living, and my assent to them, lit up those times and made my belief universal and expanded it, and set thousands of signatures to their teachings concerning belief in the Prophet of the End of Time (UWBP), silencing the Satans.
Then, a question occurred to me the decisive answer to which is included in the Thirteenth Flash, about the wisdom in seeking refuge with Allah the Most High from Satan. In meaning it asked me:
“The people of guidance are assisted and strengthened by innumerable sweet fruits and benefits like these, the fine results of good deeds, and the Most Merciful of the Merciful’s compassionate succour and assistance, so why are they frequently defeated by the people of misguidance, and sometimes twenty or a hundred of them are routed?” While pondering over this, I recalled the mobilizations and angels in the Qur’an in the face of Satan’s feeble machinations, and Allah the Most High’s sending assistance to the people of belief. Since the Risale‑i Nur has explained the purpose and wisdom of this with decisive proofs, we shall here allude to it only briefly.
Yes, sometimes in the face of a single vandal trying to set fire to a palace which a hundred men have made, the palace can remain standing only through a hundred men protecting it and by having recourse to the government and the king. For its existence is possible only through the existence of all its conditions and causes, but its non‑existence and destruction may occur through the non-existence of a single condition. Just as the palace may be burnt to the ground by a layabout with a single match, so with some small actions, satans from among jinn and men cause vast destruction and terrible non-physical conflagrations.
Yes, the basis and origin of all bad, evils and sins is non‑existence, it is destruction. The non-existence and destruction are concealed beneath apparent existence.
Thus, relying on this point, satans from among jinn and men and evil beings withstand an infinite force with an extremely weak force, driving the people of truth and reality to continually seek refuge at the divine court, and to flee to it. The Qur’an therefore mobilizes great forces for their protection. It gives for their use ninety‑nine divine names, and commands them sternly to withstand those enemies.
From this answer became apparent the tip of a vast truth and basis of an awesome matter. It was like this:
just as Paradise bears the crops of all the worlds of existence and produces the eternal shoots of the seeds grown in this world; so in order to display the grievous consequences of the innumerable terrible worlds of non‑existence and nothingness, Hell scorches up the products of that non-existence, and among its other functions, that terrible factory cleanses the universe of existence of the filth of the world of non-existence. For now we shall not open the door of this awesome matter; Allah willing, it will be elucidated later.
Another Particular and Example of the Fruit of Belief in the Angels Concerns the Questioning Angels, Munkar and Nakir; it is this:
in my imagination I entered my grave, telling myself: “I am bound to enter here, the same as everyone else.” While taking fright at the bleakness and despair of the lonely, dark, cold, narrow solitary confinement of the grave, two blessed friends resembling Munkar and Nakir appeared. They began to debate with me. My heart and grave were broadened, illumined, and warmed; windows were opened up onto the world of spirits. I felt truly happy at that situation which I saw in the imagination then, and will see in reality in the future, and I offered thanks.
A medrese student who was studying Arabic grammar died and in replying to Munkar and Nakir’s question of “Who is your Sustainer?”, thought he was in his own medrese and said: “‘Who’ is the subject, ‘your Sustainer’ is its predicate; ask me something difficult; that’s easy.” It made both the angels, and the spirits who were present, and a diviner of graves who witnessed the incident, laugh, and brought a smile to divine mercy. Being delivered from torment, the late Hafız Ali, a martyr hero of the Risale‑i Nur, died in prison while writing out and enthusiastically studying the treatise of The Fruits of Belief. Just as he replied in the grave to the questioning angels with the truths of The Fruits of Belief – as he had in court here, so I and the Risale‑i Nur students shall reply to those questions with the brilliant and powerful proofs of the Risale‑i Nur, in the future in fact and now in meaning, and will cause the angels to confirm them and appreciate them and congratulate them; Allah willing.
Another Small Example of Belief in the Angels Leading to Worldly Happiness Is This:
An innocent child who had learnt his lesson from the Ilm‑i Hal, said to another child who was wailing at the death of his little brother: “Don’t cry, be thankful, because your brother has gone to heaven and is with the angels. He is enjoying himself there and having a better time than us. He is flying around like the angels, and taking a look at everything.” He turned his friend’s woeful tears into happy smiles.
Exactly like that weeping child, in the grim situation of this sorrowful winter I received news of two deaths. One was my nephew, the late Fuad, who had both come first in advanced schools, and had published the truths of the Risale‑i Nur. The second was my late sister, called Hanım, a scholar who went on the Hajj and died while circumambulating the Ka‘ba. These deaths of two relatives made me weep, like that of the late Abdurrahman, which is described in the Treatise for the Elderly. Then, through the light of belief I saw in my heart that the innocent Fuad and righteous Hanım had as companions angels and houris in place of humans and had been saved from the perils and sins of this world. Feeling overwhelming joy instead of that searing sorrow, I congratulated both them, and Fuad’s father, Abdülmecid, and myself, and I offered thanks to the Most Merciful of the Merciful. This has been included here as a prayer for mercy for the two departed.
All the comparisons and allegories in the Risale‑i Nur describe The Fruits of Belief that have as their consequences happiness in this world and the next. In respect of the happiness and pleasures of life they display in this world, those universal and extensive fruits give news that they will gain for human beings everlasting happiness, indeed, that they will produce shoots and develop in that way.
Five of those numerous universal fruits have been written at the end of the Thirty‑First Word as fruits of the Ascension, and five are included as examples in the Fifth Branch of the Twenty-Fourth Word. We said at the beginning that each of the pillars of faith have numerous different fruits, even innumerable fruits, and that similarly, a single fruit of the totality of the fruits is vast Paradise, and another is eternal happiness, while another and perhaps the sweetest is the vision of Allah the Most High. Also some of The Fruits of Belief yielding happiness in both worlds, this world and the hereafter, have been well described in the comparison at the end of the Thirty‑Second Word.
Evidence that belief in divine determining yields precious fruits in this world is the fact that the saying those who believe in divine determining are saved from unhappiness is widely known as a proverb. Two universal fruits of belief in divine determining are explained in the fine comparison at the end of the Treatise on Divine Determining, which is about two men who enter the lovely garden of a palace, and I myself in my own life have experienced thousands of times and understood that if one does not believe in divine determining, it destroys the happiness of this worldly life. But whenever, in grievous misfortunes, I looked from the point of view of divine determining, I saw that they were greatly lightened, and I would be astonished at how those who do not believe it can continue to live.
One of the universal fruits of the pillar of belief in the angels is alluded to in the Second Station of the Twenty‑Second Word like this: supplicating Allah the Most High, Azra’il (Upon whom be peace) said: “Your servants will be vexed at me and complain about me when I carry out my duty of seizing the spirits of the dying.” He was told in reply: “I shall make illnesses and calamities a veil to your duties, so my servants’ complaints will be directed at them and not at you.”
Azra’il’s duty is a veil in exactly the same way that the above are veils, so that unjustified complaints are not directed at Allah the Most High. For not everyone can see the aspects of wisdom, mercy, beauty, and advantage in death; they see its apparent face and start to object and complain. Azra’il was made a veil so that these unjustified complaints are not directed at the Absolutely Compassionate One.
In exactly the same way, the function of all the angels, indeed of all apparent causes, is to be veils to the dignity of dominicality, so that the dignity and holiness of divine power and comprehensiveness of divine mercy are preserved in things the beauty of which is not apparent and the wisdom of which is not understood; and they are not the target of objections, and so that in the superficial view divine power does not appear to be in contact with base, trivial, or cruel things. For the Risale‑i Nur has proved definitively with innumerable evidences that the stamps of divine unity on all things show clearly that no cause has an actual effect or the ability to create.
Creation and the giving of existence are particular to Him. Causes are merely a veil. Conscious beings like angels can do nothing other than a sort of voluntary duty in accordance with their natures and active worship which is called acquisition, and is insignificant and not creative.
Yes, dignity and grandeur demand that in the view of the mind causes are veils to the hand of power.
While unity and oneness demand that causes abstain from having any real effect.
Just as angels and the apparent causes employed in good works pertaining to existence are all means of exonerating dominical power of fault and tyranny in things the beauties of which are not known or seen, and of hallowing it and preserving it from the ascription of fault;
so too, satans from among jinn and men and harmful matters being employed in evil matters pertaining to non‑existence is to hallow and glorify Allah by saving divine power from being the target of complaint and wrongful accusations of cruelty. It is to exonerate Him and declare Him free of all the faults in the universe. For all faults arise from non-existence, or lack of ability, or destruction, or the failure to perform duties, which are all non-existence and acts which are not existent and pertain to non-existence.
The faults are ascribed to these satanic and evil veils, the objections and complaints are deservedly directed at them, and they are means of Allah the Most High being pronounced free of all defect. In any event, strength or power are not necessary for evil destructive works pertaining to non‑existence; sometimes extensive non-existence or destruction may occur through some petty act or insignificant power, or even the failure to perform a duty. It is supposed those doers of evil possess power, but they have no effect other than non-existence and no power other minor acquisition. But since the evils arise from non-existence, the doers of evil are the true agents. If they are intelligent beings, they deservedly pay the penalty. That is to say, in evils the perpetrators are the true doers,
but since good deeds and acts are existent, those who do them are not the true doers and do not have an actual effect. They are recipients rather, receiving the divine effulgence; the All‑Wise Qur’an states that their reward too is purely a divine favour, and says: Whatever good happens to you is from Allah but whatever evil befalls you is from yourself.
In Short: While the universes of existence and the innumerable worlds of non‑existence clash, producing fruits like Paradise and Hell; and all the worlds of existence declare: All praise be to Allah! All praise be to Allah! and all the worlds of non‑existence declare: Glory be to Allah! Glory be to Allah!; and while through an all‑encompassing law of contest angels and satans, and instances of good and instances of evil, as far as the inspirations and satanic whisperings of the heart, all struggle against each other; a fruit of belief in the angels is suddenly manifested, solving the matter and illuminating the universe. Showing us one of the lights of the verse, Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth, it shows us just how sweet is this fruit.
The Twenty‑Fourth and Twenty-Ninth Word – the latter of which demonstrates the marvels of the alifs – point out a second universal fruit, and prove in brilliant fashion the existence and functions of the angels. Yes, in everything in the universe, particular and universal, in every realm of being, is a compassionate, splendid dominicality which makes itself known and loved. Most certainly it is necessary to respond to that splendour, that compassion, that making known and loved, with thanks and comprehensive, conscious worship, declaring them to be free of all fault. And it is only countless angels that can perform the duty on behalf of unconscious inanimate creatures and the great elements, and can represent the wise, majestic activity of the sovereignty of that dominicality everywhere on the earth, on the Pleiades, in the foundations of the earth, and outside it.
Through this fruit, for example, the creation of the earth and its natural duties, which the soulless laws of philosophy show to be dark and desolate, are placed in luminous familiar fashion on the shoulders of, that is, under the supervision of, two angels called Thawr (the Bull) and Hut (the Fish). And a truth, a substance of the hereafter called sakhra, is sent as an everlasting foundation stone of the transitory earth, that is, as a sign that in the future part of it will be transformed into eternal Paradise, and is made a point of support for the angels Thawr and Hut. This was narrated by the old prophets of the Children of Israel, and also by Ibn ‘Abbas. Unfortunately, in the course of time, this sacred meaning and allegory was taken literally by the ordinary people and acquired a form outside the bounds of reason.
Since the angels travel through earth and rock and the centre of the earth the same as they do through the air, they, and the earth, surely have no need of physical rocks and a fish and ox to support them.
Also for example, since the globe utters divine glorifications to the number of its realms of beings, with tongues to the number of the members of those species, and to the parts, leaves, and fruits of those members, surely there will be an appointed angel with forty thousand heads and forty thousand tongues in each head, each of which will utter forty thousand divine glorifications, which will know that splendid, unconscious, innate worship, represent it consciously, and offer it to the divine court, as the Bringer of Sure News (UWBP) informed us absolutely correctly.
Also, the existence and extraordinary nature of angels like Gabriel (Upon whom be peace), who conveys and announces the dominical relations with man, the most important result of the universe’s creation; and Israfil (Upon whom be peace) and Azra’il (Upon whom be peace), who merely represent the Creator’s most awesome actions in the world of animate beings, which are the raising to life and giving of life, and the release from duties with death, and they supervise them in worshipful manner; and Michael (Upon whom be peace) who besides supervising the bounties of the Most Merciful in food, which is the most extensive and most pleasurable mercy in the sphere of life, consciously represents unconscious thanks – the existence and extraordinary nature of angels like these, and the immortality of their spirits, are necessitated by the sovereignty and splendour of dominicality. Their existence and that of their own species is as certain and free of doubt as the existence of the sovereignty and splendour that are to be seen in the universe as clearly as the sun. Comparisons may be made with this for other matters concerning the angels.
Yes, the All‑Powerful One of Glory and Beauty created four hundred thousand species of living beings on the earth, and created beings with spirits in great abundance, even out of common and rotting substances, filling everywhere with them. In the face of the miracles of His art He causes them to declare: What wonders Allah has willed! How great are Allah’s blessings! Glory be to Allah!, and before the gifts of His mercy: All praise be to Allah! All thanks be to Allah! Allah is Most Great! Most certainly and without doubt therefore He created inhabitants and spirit beings suitable for the vast heavens, who never rebel and perform constant worship. Not leaving the heavens empty, He populated them with these beings. He created too countless different sorts of angels, far greater in number than the animal species. Some in tiny form, mount raindrops and snowflakes and applaud the divine art and mercy in their own tongues. Others mount the travelling stars and on their journeys through space, through their divine exaltations and pronouncements of divine unity, proclaim to the world their worship before the grandeur, splendour and dignity of dominicality.
The agreement of all the revealed scriptures and religions since the time of Adam concerning the existence and worship of the angels, and the numerous unanimous reports in all ages of conversations and meetings of humans with the angels, proves that their existence is as certain as the existence of the people of America, whom we have never seen, and that they are concerned with us.
Now come and taste through the light of belief this second universal fruit; see how it fills the universe from end to end, making it beautiful and transforming it into a vast mosque and place of worship. In the face of science and philosophy showing it to be cold, lifeless, dark, and desolate, it shows it to be full of life and light, conscious, familiar, and agreeable, allowing the people of belief to experience a manifestation of the pleasures of immortal life according to their degree, while still in this world.
Conclusion:
Since through the mysteries of divine unity and oneness, the same power, the same names, the same wisdom, and the same art are found in every part of the universe, the Creator’s unity, disposal, giving of existence, dominicality, creativity, and sacredness are proclaimed through the tongues of disposition of all creatures, particular and universal. So too He created the angels, and caused the glorifications which all creatures offer unconsciously through the tongues of their beings to be offered consciously through the worshipful tongues of the angels.
None of the angels’ actions are in any respect contrary to the divine command. Apart from pure worship, they do nothing; they bring nothing into being, can intervene in nothing unless commanded, and cannot intercede even, without permission. They manifest to the utmost the meaning of: They are (but) servants raised to honour ❋ They act (in all things) by His command.
Conclusion
This forms a brief indication to a lengthy truth concerning a subtle point of miraculousness of great importance which was imparted to me after sunset and demonstrates clearly miraculous predictions of Sura al‑Falaq Say: I seek refuge with the Sustainer of the rising dawn concerning the Unseen.
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Say: I seek refuge with the Sustainer of the rising dawn ❋ From the evil of aught that He has created, ❋ And from the evil of the black darkness whenever it descends, ❋ And from the evil of blowers on knots, ❋ And from the evil of the envious when he envies.
Commanding Allah the Most High’s Messenger (UWBP) and his community to “Protect yourselves from the evil beings and satans among jinn and men who strive in the universe on account of the worlds of non‑being,” this mighty, wondrous sura looks to all ages, and through its allusive meaning looks to a greater degree to our strange age, even explicitly, and calls on the Qur’an’s servants to seek refuge with Allah the Most High. This miraculous prediction about the Unseen will be explained briefly in five signs, as follows:
All the verses of this sura have numerous meanings. Only in respect of its allusive meaning, its repeating the word evil four times in five sentences; and with a powerful relation and in four ways its pointing the finger with the same date to the four unparalleled, ghastly, stormy evils, material and immaterial, of this age, with its revolutions and clashes, and its implicitly giving the command: “withdraw from these;” is certainly guidance from the Unseen in a way befitting the Qur’an’s miraculousness.
For example, the sentence Say: I seek refuge with the Sustainer of the dawn coincides with the date 1352 or 1354 according to abjad and jafr reckoning, alluding to the Second World War, which was brewing up then erupted due to the prevalent ambition and greed of humankind and the First War, and in effect saying to the community of Muhammad (UWBP): “Do not enter this war, but seek refuge with your Sustainer.” With another of its allusive meanings, as a special favour to the Risale‑i Nur students, who are servants of the Qur’an, it hints to them that they were to be saved around the same date from Eskişehir Prison and an awesome evil, and that the plans to eliminate them would come to nothing. It was as though commanding them symbolically to seek refuge with Allah.
And for example, the sentence From the evil of aught that He has created makes 1361 – the doubled rā is not counted – and points the finger through both the Rumi and Hijri dates at the cruel, tyrannical destruction of this unmatched war. Coinciding too with the Risale‑i Nur students, who work with all their strength to serve the Qur’an, being delivered from an extensive plan to eliminate them and from a grievous calamity and Denizli Prison, it looks with an allusive meaning to them too. With a concealed sign it says: “Protect yourselves from the evil of creatures.”
And for example, making 1328 if the doubled letters are not counted and 1358 if the doubled lām is counted, the sentence the blowers on knots coincides with the dates when due to their ambition and greed the Europeans tyrants who caused the two World Wars, instigated a change of sultan and the Balkan and Italian Wars with the idea of spoiling the consequences of the Constitutional Revolution, which favoured the Qur’an; then with the outbreak of the First World War, through the political diplomats blowing their evils, material and immaterial and their sorcery and poison into everyone’s heads through the tongue of the radio and their inculcating their covert plans into the heart of human destiny, they prepared the evils that would savagely destroy a thousand years of the progress of civilization; thjis corresponds exactly to the meaning of the blowers on knots.
And for example, the sentence And from the evil of the envious when he envies makes 1347 – the doubled rā and tanwīn are not counted – and coincides exactly, and is consonant in meaning, with the significant upheavals which occurred in this country due to the enforced European treaties, and the changes that took place in this religious nation due to the oppression of philosophy, and the awesome envy, rivalry and clashes in various countries which paved the way for the Second World War. These are surely flashes of this sacred sura’s miraculous predictions concerning the Unseen.
A Reminder: All Qur’anic verses have numerous meanings. And all the meanings are universal; they have significations in every century. Those discussed here are only its level of allusive meaning which looks to our century. Within that universal meaning our age is one signification, but it has gained particularity and looks to it and its date. Since these last four years I have known neither the stages of the war, nor its results, nor whether or not peace has been declared, and I have not asked, I have not knocked on the door of this sacred sura to learn how many allusions it contains to this century and its wars. It has however been proved and explained in various parts of the Risale‑i Nur, and especially in Rumûzât‑ı Semaniye (The Eight Symbols), that this treasury contains many more mysteries, so referring readers to those, I am cutting this short.
The Answer to a Question That Might Occur to One:
In this flash of miraculousness, in the From the evil of aught that He has created at the beginning, both the from (min) and the evil (sharr) being counted, and in and from the evil of the envious when he envies at the end, only the word evil (sharr) being counted, and and from (wa min) not being counted, and in neither of these words being counted in and from the evil of the blowers on knots (wa min sharr al‑naffāthāt fi'l-‘uqad) is a sign indicating an extremely subtle relationship. For there is good as well as evil in people (khalq), and not all evil is visited on everyone. Alluding to this, from (min) and evil (sharr), which are partitive, are counted. But the envier is altogether evil when he envies, so there is no need for the partitive. And according to the allusion of the blowers on knots, there is no need for the word evil to be counted here, for all the works of those casters of spells and sorcerer diplomats who have set the globe ablaze for their own benefits are pure evil.
An Addendum to a Point About the Miraculousness of This Sura
Just as with four of its five sentences, this sura looks with its allusive meaning to the four largest evil revolutions and storms this century; so, with its allusive meaning and according to jafr reckoning, by its repeating four times the phrase from the evil (min sharri) – the doubling is not counted, it looks to and points the finger at the century of the dissension of Jenghiz Khan and Hulagu and the time of the fall of the ‘Abbasid dynasty, which was the most fearsome calamity experienced by the Islamic world.
Yes, without doubling, the evil (sharri) makes 500, and from (min) is 90. Numerous verses which look to the future, as well as Imam ‘Ali (May Allah be pleased with him) and Ghawth al‑A‘zam (May his mystery be sanctified), who alluded to both our century and those times in their predictions of the future, saw both our century and that century and made predictions in exactly the same way. With ghāsiq making 1161 and idhā waqab making 810, the words ghāsiq idhā waqab look not to these times, but to the significant material and immaterial evils of those times. If they are counted together, they make 1971, and give news of some ghastly evil at that date. If the crops of the seeds of the present are not rectified, the blows will certainly be terrible.
A Supplement to the Addendum of the Eleventh Topic
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
The verse, Let there be no compulsion (in religion; Truth stands out) from error, which is the complement of the Throne Verse, makes 1350; whoever rejects evil makes 1929 or 1928; and believes in Allah has grasped makes 946, corresponding to the name Risaletü’n‑Nur; the most trustworthy handhold makes 1347; that never breaks, and Allah is All‑Seeing, All-Knowing ❋ (Allah) (is the Protector of those who have faith) if counted together makes 1012, and if not counted together 945, with one doubling not being counted; from (the depths of darkness) He will lead them forth into the light makes 1372, without doubling; while those who do not believe, their patrons are (the evil ones) makes 1417; from the light (they will lead them forth into) the depths of darkness makes 1338, the doubling is not counted; they will be the companions of the Fire, to dwell therein for ever makes 1295, the doubling is counted. It was imparted to me that with their allusive meanings, these verses coincide exactly and twice with both the name of the Risaletü’n‑Nur and the form of its striving; and with the date the people of unbelief were attempting to extinguish the light of the World of Islam with the war of 1293 (1877‑78); and with the date the terrible treaties were signed in 1338 taking advantage of the First World War and in order to cast it into darkness in fact. It was imparted to me too that light and darkness are repeatedly contrasted in these verses, and in this immaterial struggle a light proceeding from the Qur’an’s light would become a point of support for the people of belief. I was compelled to set this down in writing. Then I saw that the relationship of its meaning with this century was so powerful that even had there been no sign through the coincidences, I would still have been certain that these verses were speaking with us through their allusive meanings, just as they look to all centuries.
Yes, Firstly, the sentence at the beginning, Let there be no compulsion (in religion; Truth stands out) from error points through abjad and jafr reckoning to the date 1350 [if Rumi, 1934, or if Hijri, 1931‑2], and through its allusive meaning, says: By the matters of religion being separated from those of this world on that date, freedom of conscience, which is opposed to force and compulsion in religion, and to religious struggle and armed jihad for religion, was accepted as a fundamental rule and political principle by governments, and this state became a secular republic. In view of this, jihad will be a non-physical religious jihad with the sword of certain, realized belief. Because it shows a flash of miraculousness indicating that a light will emerge from the Qur’an which will make known and set forth clearly proofs so powerful they will demonstrate almost visibly the guidance and truths of religion.
Furthermore, as far as the word khālidūn – to dwell therein for ever, by repeating the contrast between light and darkness, and belief and darkness – the source and origin of all the comparisons in the Risale‑i Nur and just like them – is a concealed sign that a great hero in the contest of the moral jihad (mânevî jihad) at that date is the Risale‑i Nur, which bears the name of light. For its immaterial sword has solved hundreds of the mysteries of religion, leaving no need for physical swords.
Yes, countless thanks be to Allah, for twenty years the Risale‑i Nur has demonstrated this prediction and flash of miraculousness in fact. It is due to this mighty mystery that Risale‑i Nur students do not interfere in the politics and political currents of the world and their material struggles, nor attach importance to them, nor condescend to any involvement with them. Its true students say to their most fearsome enemies in the face of their insults and aggression:
“You wretch! I am trying to save you from eternal annihilation and to raise you from the basest and most grievous level of ephemeral animality to the happiness of immortal humanity, although you are working for my death and execution. Your pleasures in this world are very few and fleeting and the penalties and torments you will suffer in the hereafter will be very great and very longlasting. For me, death will be a discharge from duties. Go away! I am not going to bother with you, do whatever you like!” They feel not anger at their enemies, but pity and compassion. They try to reform them, in the hope they shall be saved.
Secondly: And believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy handhold. These two sacred sentences have a powerful relationship, and according to abjad and jafr reckoning the first corresponds exactly with the name Risaletü’n‑Nur, and the second corresponds in meaning, and according to jafr reckoning with its being realized and perfected and its brilliant conquests. These correspondences are an indication that this century at this date, the Risaletü’n‑Nur is a most trustworthy handhold. That is, it is an unbreakable chain of great strength and a rope of Allah (ḥablullāh). They inform through their allusive meanings that those who lay hold of it and cling onto it will be saved.
Thirdly: Both in meaning and according to jafr reckoning, the sentence Allah is the Protector of those who have faith makes an allusion to the Risaletü’n‑Nur, as follows…
(The curtain descended here and permission was not given to write it. It has been postponed to another time.)
Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All‑Knowing, All-Wise.
NOTE: The reason permission was not given to write the remainder of this point for now is that it touches to an extent on politics and this world, and we are prohibited from considering these. Yes, the verse, Man is indeed overweening looks to this “ṭāghūt” and draws attention to it…
Said Nursi
Part of a Letter From Husrev, the Hero of TheRisale‑i Nur, in Connection with the Eleventh Topic OfThe Fruits of Belief
In His Name, be He glorified!
And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.
May the peace and mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you!
My Beloved and Esteemed Master!
With the great good it contains for this nation and country, with its Ninth Topic The Fruits of Belief was not only the means of salvation of its students while in the midst of their greatest enemies and the awesomely rebellious, but also with its Tenth and Eleventh Topics, it applauded the Risale‑i Nur students in particular on the ways of reality. Moreover, concerning the circumstances of the grave, which we are certain to enter, by making familiar that place under the earth, which makes everyone tremble and is a source of terror especially for the heedless, where we will meet and speak with the angels; it made us happy at their companionship and dispelled our terrible fears about that first stopping‑place, letting us breathe freely. In the hands of those like me who have not seen that luminous life, it resembles an electric lamp whose rays penetrate hundreds of thousands of years. It also resembles a model flower garden, the scents of which are ever a source of delight.
Yes, I suggest to our beloved Master that like students who everyday recite their lessons to their teacher, we should always describe to our beloved Master the effulgence we receive from the Risale‑i Nur. But for now our beloved Master is refraining from speaking.
My Dear Master! The reality of the Risale‑i Nur, the beauty of the Fruits, and effulgence of its flowers have driven me to utter a few words, gratefully, and in the name of my country, and have breathed life into many hearts which speak like mine. But now, due to the “flower” of the Eleventh Fruit of Belief, the steps taken against the Risale‑i Nur in our area and the hands raised against it, have become harsher and stronger, and have been stirred into action.
Your humble student,Husrev
A Letter Written in the Name of All TheRisale‑i NurStudents in Isparta to Offer Congratulations for Ramadan, Which Has Been Amended in Thirteen Sections
In His Name, be glorified!
And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.
Our revered Master, who through the effulgence of the Qur’an and truths of the Risale‑i Nur and aspirations of his loyal students weeps tears of blood for the well‑being of the Islamic world in this world and the next…
Who in these stormy days of the end of time is beset with more woes and ills than Job (Upon whom be peace),
and through the light of the Qur’an, the proofs of the Risale‑i Nur and efforts of his students works to cure the ills of the Islamic world like Luqman the Wise,
and has proved with thirty‑three verses of the Qur’an and the wondrous predictions of Imam ‘Ali and the Ghawth al-A‘zam that the Risale‑i Nur with its different parts is truth and reality…
Who although he is himself ill and elderly and weak and in a piteous condition, more than anyone sacrifices his life for the world of Islam and responds to those wrong him with the truths of the Qur’an and proofs of the Risale‑i Nur, and through the loyalty of the Risale‑i Nur students, with prayers and good works…
Who together with his students was sent to prison because one of his important works, The Supreme Sign, was printed,
and through the guidance of the Qur’an and teachings of the Risale‑i Nur and enthusiasm of his students turned the prison into a School of Joseph and place of learning,
and was the cause of all the ignorant among us there learning to read the whole Qur’an,
and despite being elderly and weak, through the sacred strength of the Qur’an and solace of the Risale‑i Nur and endurance of his brothers, took on himself the loads of all of us,
and through The Fruits of Belief and Defence Speeches which he wrote, the miraculousness of the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, and the powerful proofs of the Risale‑i Nur, and sincerity of his students, with divine permission had the prison door opened and won our acquittals,
and made that day a festival for us and for the Islamic world, and proving that in truth the Risale‑i Nur is “Light upon light,” won the right for it to be read and written out freely till the end of time…
Who has proved with the sacred sustenance of the Qur’an of Mighty Stature and otherworldly food of the Risale‑i Nur and appetite of its students, that the World of Islam has need for the Risale‑i Nur as it does for water and air, and that thousands of those who have read these treatises and written them out have entered the grave in a state of belief,
and has never defeated or embarrassed the students who follow him,
and through the heavenly teachings of the Qur’an, the principles of the Risale‑i Nur, the intelligence of its students, and the Tenth and Eleventh Topics of The Fruits of Belief and its flowers quenches the fires of separation that night and day sear our hearts, like the water of life and wine of Kawthar, filling them with joy and happiness…
Who, in accordance with the certain promises and threats of the Qur’an of Mighty Stature and the certain discoveries of the Risale‑i Nur and the observations of its late students and those among them who divine the happenings of the grave, has for the believers saved death – the thing most feared by all the world – from being eternal annihilation and transformed it into a discharge from duties
and shown that for the unbelievers and dissemblers it is eternal annihilation;
has proved in accordance with the certain news of the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, confirmed both by the thousand miracles of Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace) and its forty aspects of miraculousness, and endorsed by the proofs of the Risale‑i Nur – which proceeds from the Qur’an – which have defeated even its most obdurate enemies and are submitted to by the Risale‑i Nur students, and are corroborated too by many signs, experiences, and convictions, that the terrifying, cold, dark and narrow grave is for the believers a pit of Paradise and a door onto the gardens of Paradise,
while for the disbelievers and dissembling atheists is a pit of Hell full of snakes and scorpions; and has made the angels called Munkar and Nakir, who will enter there, familiar companions for the people of truth and those who have taken the way of reality;
and included the Risale‑i Nur students among students of the religious sciences, and discovered on the death of the late heroic martyr Hafız Ali that they reply to the questions of Munkar and Nakir with the Risale‑i Nur,
and who beseeches divine mercy that those of us who are still living will also reply with the Risale‑i Nur…
Who, through demonstrating an aspect of miraculousness pertaining to each of the forty levels of the Qur’an of Mighty Stature, and through it being the pre‑eternal Word of Allah, and through the works The Miraculousness of the Qur’an and The Eight Symbols from the Risale‑i Nur, and the extraordinary efforts of the heroic brothers and students of the Risale‑i Nur like the chief writer of the Rose Factory, and through Husrev, one of the heroic scribes of the Risale‑i Nur being commanded to “write!”, although no one since the time of the Prophet (UWBP) had been able to write it in such miraculous fashion, its being written like the Qur’an inscribed on the Preserved Tablet, – has proved in beautiful and brilliant fashion, never before seen or heard, that the Qur’an of Mighty Stature is the true Word of Allah, and the greatest of all the revealed books, and that there are thousands of Sura al‑Fatiha’s within one Sura al-Fatiha, and thousands of Sura al-Ikhlas’s within one Sura al-Ikhlas, and that its letters yield ten, a hundred, a thousand, and thousands of merits and good deeds…
Who has proved, through the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition demonstrating its miraculousness for one thousand three hundred years and halting those who oppose it, and through the proofs of the Risale‑i Nur that are so clear as to be almost visible, and through the diamond pens of the Risale‑i Nur students, that the Twenty‑Fifth Word and its Addenda, which have challenged the world and silenced even the most obdurate, are miracles of the Qur’an in forty aspects…
Who has proved in the treatise from the Risale‑i Nur called The Miracles of Muhammad (UWBP) thousands of miracles showing that Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace) was a true Messenger, the lord of all the twenty‑four thousand prophets, and the most virtuous of them, and through the Qur’an of Mighty Stature proclaiming to the universe that Allah the Most High’s Noble Messenger (UWBP) was sent as a Mercy to All the Worlds, and the Risale‑i Nur demonstrating from beginning to end that he was a Mercy to All the Worlds, and showing even to the blind that the Messenger’s deeds and conduct are the finest and best example to be followed in the world, and through the testimony of calamities being lifted when the Risale‑i Nur is disseminated in Anatolia and other countries, and disasters occurring when it is silenced, and through the firm and steadfast attachment to their work of the Risale‑i Nur students despite the extremely difficult circumstances, has shown how profitable it is to follow the practices of that Being (UWBP) and that to follow a single of his practices at this time gains the reward of a hundred martyrs,
and has proved absolutely certainly that for twenty years the Risale‑i Nur has repulsed the calamities and disasters that would otherwise have been visited on Anatolia, the same as alms‑giving repels disaster!
Now, since the Risale‑i Nur’s acquittal has filled with joy foremost our beloved Master, then us impotent, faulty students, then the Islamic world, and occasioned a second festival, we congratulate you on this great festival of yours, and offering our congratulations for Ramadan and the Night of Power, the third festival, we beseech Allah the Most High we shall see many more, and imploring forgiveness for our faults and the faulty among us, we send the greetings of all here and kiss your blessed hands, and beseech your prayers, o our Master!
The Risale‑i Nur studentsin Isparta and its environs
To modestly reject this letter, which far exceeds my due, would be ingratitude and an insult to the favourable opinions of all the students, while to accept it exactly as it is would tell of pride, egotism, and conceit. Therefore, adding thirteen sections, I am sending you a copy of this long letter written by the Risale‑i Nur’s scribe in everyone’s name, both by way of thanks and to be saved from pride and ingratitude. It may be added at the end of the Eleventh Topic with the title: A letter from the Risale‑i Nur students of Isparta and its environs.
Although I have amended the letter in this way, twice a pigeon alighted at my window. It was going to enter, but saw Ceylan’s head and did not. Several minutes later, another alighted in exactly the same way. It too saw the scribe’s head and did not come inside. I said: “Most probably they are bearers of good news like the sparrow and kuddüs bird before. Or because we have written this letter like numerous other secret letters, they came to congratulate us on amending the auspicious letter in this way.”
Said Nursi