The Tenth TopicA Flower of Emirdağ
An extremely powerful reply to objections raised against repetition in the Qur’an.
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Due to my wretched situation, this Topic is confused and graceless. But I knew definitely that beneath the confused wording was a most valuable sort of miraculousness, though unfortunately I was incapable of expressing it. But however dull the wording, since it concerns the Qur’an, it is both worship in the form of reflection, and the shell of a sacred, elevated, shining jewel. The diamond in the hand should be looked at, not its torn clothes.
Also, I wrote it in one or two days during Ramadan while extremely ill, wretched, and without food, of necessity very concisely and briefly, and including many truths and numerous proofs in a single sentence. Its deficiencies, then, should be overlooked!
My True and Loyal Brothers!
While reading the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition in Ramadan, whichever of the thirty‑three verses I came to that in the First Ray describe the allusions to the Risale‑i Nur, I saw that the page and story of the verse also look to the Risale‑i Nur and its students to a degree – in so far as they have a share of the story. Particularly the Light Verse in Sura al‑Nur, just as it points to the Risale‑i Nur with ten fingers, so the Darknesses Verse following it points directly at those opposing it; these afford a further share. Quite simply, I understood that this station rises from particularity to universality and that one part of that universality is the Risale‑i Nur and its students.
Indeed, in regard to the breadth, exaltedness, and comprehensiveness that the Qur’an’s address receives from firstly the extensive station of the universal dominicality of the Pre‑Eternal Speaker, and from the extensive station of the one addressed in the name of humankind, indeed of all beings, and the most extensive station of all humankind’s guidance in all the centuries, and from the station of the elevated comprehensive expositions of the divine laws concerning the regulation of this world and the hereafter, the heavens and the earth, pre-eternity and post-eternity, and the dominicality of the Creator of the universe, and of all beings, this Address displays such an elevated miraculousness and comprehensiveness that both its apparent and simple level, which flatters the simple minds of ordinary people, the most numerous group the Qur’an addresses, and its highest level, grants a full share to all.
But it is as though, in addressing every age and every class of people, not with only one share of a story or one moral of a historical tale, but with the elements of a universal principle, it is newly revealed. Particularly its often repeated threats of the wrongdoers, the wrongdoers, and its severe expositions of the calamities coming from the heavens and the earth, – visited as retribution on the ‘Ad and Thamud peoples and on Pharaoh in punishment for their wrongdoing – with these it draws attention to the unequalled wrongs of this century, and through the salvation of such prophets as Abraham (UWP) and Moses (UWP) gives consolation to the oppressed believers.
Indeed, all past time and the departed ages and centuries, which in the view of heedlessness and misguidance appear to be a fearsome place of non‑existence and a grievous, ruined graveyard, the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition presents to every century and class of people as living instructive pages, strange worlds, living and endowed with spirits, and existent realms of the Sustainer which are connected with us; with an elevated miraculousness, it sometimes conveys us to those times, and sometimes brings those times to us. Infusing with life the universe, which in the view of misguidance is lifeless, wretched, dead, and a limitless wasteland revolving amid separation and decline, with the same miraculousness this same Qur’an of Mighty Stature raises to life those dead beings, makes them converse with one another as officials charged with duties and hasten to the assistance of one another. Thus showing the universe to a book of the Eternally Besought, a city of the Most Merciful, an exhibition of dominical workmanship, it instructs mankind, the jinn, and the angels in true, luminous, and pleasurable wisdom. For sure, then, it gains sacred distinctions, such as each of its letters yielding ten merits, and sometimes a hundred, a thousand, or thousands of merits; and if all men and jinn were to gather together, their being unable to produce the like of it; and its speaking completely appropriately with all mankind and all beings; and its always being inscribed with eagerness in the hearts of millions of hafizes; and its not causing weariness through its frequent and numerous repetitions; and despite its many obscure passages and sentences, its being settled perfectly in the delicate, simple heads of children; and its being as agreeable as Zamzam water in the ears of the sick, the dying, and those distressed by a few words; and its gaining for its students happiness in this world and the next.
Its smoothness of style, which, observing exactly its interpreter’s being unlettered, allows for no bombast, artificiality, or affectedness, and its descending directly from the heavens, demonstrate a fine miraculousness. So too it shows a fine miraculousness in the grace and guidance of flattering the simple minds of ordinary people, the most numerous of the classes of men, through the condescension in its expression and mostly opening the clearest and most evident pages such as the heavens and the earth, and teaching the wondrous miracles of power and meaningful lines of wisdom beneath those commonplace things.
It makes known too that it is also a book of prayer and summons, of invocation and divine unity, which require repetition. For it demonstrates a sort of miraculousness by making understood in a single sentence and a single story through its agreeable repetitions, numerous different meanings to numerous different classes of people. Similarly, it demonstrates a sort of miraculousness by making known that minor, unimportant things in ordinary, commonplace events are within its compassionate view and the sphere of its will and regulation. For it attaches importance to even minor events involving the Companions of the Prophet (UWBP) when Islam was being established and the Shari‘a was being codified, showing those minor events to be general and universal principles which would produce most important fruits, as though they were seeds.
With regard to repetition being necessary due to the repetition of need, the repetition of certain verses is not a fault, for as the answers to numerous repeated questions over a period of twenty years, they instruct numerous different levels of people. Indeed, it is most powerful miraculousness and most elevated eloquence to repeat sentences so powerful they produce thousands of results and verses resulting from countless evidences. For they describe an infinite, awesome, all‑embracing revolution that by destroying utterly the vast universe and transforming it at Doomsday, will remove this world and found the mighty hereafter in its place, and will prove that all particulars and universals from atoms to the stars are in the hand and under the disposal of a single Being, and will show the divine wrath and dominical anger – on account of the result of the universe’s creation – at mankind’s wrongdoing, which brings to anger the earth and the heavens and the elements. Such repetition demonstrates an eloquence and lucid style corresponding exactly to the requirements of the subject.
For example, as is explained in the Fourteenth Flash of the Risale‑i Nur, the sentence, In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate, which forms a single verse and is repeated one hundred and fourteen times in the Qur’an, is a truth that binds the divine throne and the earth, and illuminates the cosmos, and of which everyone is in need all the time; if it is repeated millions of times, there is still need for it. One needs and longs for it not only every day like bread, but every moment like air and light.
And, for example, the verse, And verily your Sustainer is Exalted in Might, Most Compassionate. This verse, which recounts the salvation stories of the prophets and the punishments of their peoples, is repeated eight times in Sura Ta. Sin. Mim. To repeat them on account of the result of the universe’s creation and in the name of universal dominicality, in order to teach that dominical dignity requires the torments of those wrongdoing peoples while divine compassion requires the prophets’ salvation, is a concise, miraculous, and elevated eloquence, for which, if repeated thousands of times, there would still be need and longing.
And, for example, the verse, Then which of the favours of your Sustainer will you deny? which is repeated in Sura al‑Rahman, and the verse, Woe that Day to the rejecters of truth!, in Sura al‑Mursalat shout out threateningly to mankind and the jinn across the centuries and the heavens and the earth, the unbelief, ingratitude, and wrongdoing of those who bring the universe and the heavens and earth to anger, spoil the results of the world’s creation, and deny and respond slightingly to the majesty of divine rule, and aggress against the rights of all creatures. If a general lesson thus concerned with thousands of truths and of the strength of thousands of matters is repeated thousands of times, there would still be need for it and its awe-inspiring conciseness and beautiful, miraculous eloquence.
And, for example, the repetition a hundred times of the phrases, Glory be unto You! There is no god but You: Mercy! Mercy! Save us, deliver us, preserve us, from Hell‑fire! in the supplication of the Prophet (UWBP) called Jaushan al‑Kabir, which is a true and authentic supplication of the Qur’an and a sort of summary proceeding from it. These phrases contain the greatest truth and the most important of the three supreme duties of creatures in the face of divine unity: the glorification and praise of Allah the Most High and the declaration of His all‑holiness, and the most awesome question facing humankind, to be saved from eternal misery, and worship, the most necessary result of human impotence. It is still few, therefore, if they are repeated thousands of times.
Repetition in the Qur’an looks to principles like these. Sometimes on one page, even, with regard to the requirements of the position and the need for explanation and the demands of eloquence, it expresses the truth of divine unity perhaps twenty times explicitly and by implication. This does not cause boredom, but imparts a power and agreeableness to it and inspires eagerness. In the Risale‑i Nur it is explained with proofs how appropriate, fitting, and acceptable from the point of view of rhetoric the repetitions are in the Qur’an.
The reason for the Meccan and Medinan suras in the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition being different in regard to eloquence, miraculousness, and detail and brevity, and its wisdom and purport, is as follows:
In Mecca, the first line of those it was addressing, who were also opposed to it, were the Qurayshi idolators and untaught tribesmen, so a powerful and elevated rhetorical style was necessary, and a succinct, convincing, persuasive conciseness, and repetition, were required in order to establish it. Therefore, in most of the Meccan suras, it repeated and propounded the pillars of belief and degrees in the affirmation of divine unity with powerful, elevated, and miraculous conciseness. It proved so powerfully the first creation and the resurrection, and Allah the Most High and the hereafter, not only in a single page, verse, sentence or word, but sometimes in a letter, through such devices as inverting the words or sentences, making a word indefinite, and omissions and inclusions, that the geniuses and leaders of the science of rhetoric met it with wonder.
The Risale‑i Nur, and the Twenty‑Fifth Word and its Addenda in particular, which prove in summary forty aspects of the Qur’an’s miraculousness, and the Qur’anic commentary, Ishārāt al‑I‘jāz from the Arabic Risale‑i Nur, which in wondrous fashion proves the aspect of the Qur’an’s miraculous inimitability in its ordering and composition, have demonstrated in fact that the Meccan suras and verses comprise the highest styles of eloquence and the most elevated, concise miraculousness.
As for the Medinan suras and verses, since the first line of those they were addressing, who opposed them, were the People of the Book, such as the Jews and Christians who affirmed Allah the Most High’s existence, what was required by eloquence and guidance and for the discussion to correspond to the situation, was not explanation of the high principles of religion and pillars of belief in a simple, clear, and detailed style, but the explanation of particular matters of the Shari‘a and its injunctions which were the cause of dispute, and the origins and causes of secondary matters and general laws. Thus, in the Medinan Suras and verses, through explanations in a detailed, clear, simple style, in the matchless manner of exposition peculiar to the Qur’an, it mostly mentions within those particular secondary matters, a powerful and elevated summary; a conclusion and proof, a sentence relating to divine unity or the divine names, belief, or the hereafter which makes the particular matter of the Shari‘a universal and ensures that it conforms to belief in Allah. It illuminates the passage and elevates and universalizes it.
The Risale‑i Nur has proved the qualities and fine points and elevated eloquence in the summaries and conclusions, which express divine unity and the hereafter, and come mostly at the end of such verses as: Indeed, Allah is Powerful over all things. ❋ Verily Allah has knowledge of all things. ❋ And He is the Mighty, the Wise. ❋ And He is Exalted in Might, Most Compassionate. When elucidating in the Second Beam of the Second Light of the Twenty‑Fifth Word, ten out of the many fine points of those summaries and conclusions, it has proved to the obstinate that they contain a supreme miracle.
Yes, in expounding those secondary matters of the Shari‘a and laws of social life, the Qur’an at once raises the views of those it addresses to elevated and universal points, and transforming a simple style into an elevated one and instruction in the Shari‘a to instruction in divine unity, it shows it is both a book of law and commands and wisdom, and a book of the tenets of faith and belief, and of invocation and reflection, supplication and summons. And by teaching many of the aims of Qur’anic guidance in every passage, it displays a brilliant and miraculous eloquence different to that of the Meccan suras.
Sometimes in two words, for example, in Sustainer of All the Worlds and Your Sustainer, with the words, Your Sustainer, it expresses divine oneness, and with, Sustainer of All the Worlds, divine unity. It expresses the divine unity within divine oneness. In a single sentence even it sees and situates a particle in the pupil of an eye, and with the same verse, the same hammer, it situates the sun in the sky, making it an eye to the sky.
For example, after the verse, Who created the heavens and the earth, following the verse, He merges the night into the day, and He merges the day into the night, it says: And He has full knowledge of all that is in [men’s] hearts. It says: “Within the vastly majestic creation of the earth and the skies, He knows and regulates also the thoughts of the heart.” And with an exposition of this sort, transforms that simple and unlettered level and particular discussion which takes into account the minds of ordinary people, into an elevated, attractive, and general conversation for the purpose of guidance.
A Question: “Sometimes an important truth is not apparent to a superficial view, and in some positions the connection is not known when an elevated summary concerning divine unity or a universal principle is drawn from a minor and ordinary matter, and it is imagined to be a fault. For example, to mention the extremely elevated principle: And over all endued with knowledge, One Knowing when Joseph (Upon whom be peace) seized his brother through subterfuge, does not appear to be in keeping with eloquence. What is its meaning and purpose?”
The Answer: In most of the long and middle‑length suras, which are each small Qur’ans, and in many pages and passages, not only two or three aims are followed, for by its nature the Qur’an comprises many books and teachings, such as being a book of invocation, belief, and reflection, and a book of law, wisdom, and guidance. Thus, since it describes the majestic manifestations of divine dominicality and its encompassing all things, as a sort of recitation of the mighty book of the universe, it follows many aims in every discussion and sometimes on a single page; while instructing in knowledge of Allah the Most High, the degrees in divine unity, and the truths of belief, with an apparently weak connection it opens another subject of instruction in the following passage, joining powerful connections to the weak one. It corresponds perfectly to the discussion and raises the level of eloquence.
A Second Question: “What is the purpose of the Qur’an proving and drawing attention to the hereafter, divine unity, and man’s reward and punishment thousands of times, explicitly, implicitly, and allusively, and teaching them in every sura, on every page, and in every discussion?”
The Answer: To instruct in the most important, most significant, and most awesome matters in the sphere of contingency and in the revolutions in the universe’s history concerning man’s duty and the means to his eternal misery or happiness – man who undertook the divine vicegerency of the earth – and to remove his countless doubts and to smash his violent denials and obduracy, indeed, to make man confirm those awesome revolutions and submit to those most necessary essential matters which are as great as the revolutions, if the Qur’an draws his attention to them thousands, or even millions of times, it is not excessive, for those discussions in the Qur’an are read millions of times, and they do not cause boredom, nor does the need cease. For example, the verses, For those who believe and do righteous deeds are gardens beneath which rivers flow ❋ They will dwell there for ever. These verses show the truth of the good news of eternal happiness, which “saves from the eternal execution of the reality of death, which every moment shows itself to wretched man, both himself, and his world, and all those he loves, and gains for them an everlasting sovereignty,” so if they were to be repeated thousands of millions of times and given the importance of the universe, it still would not be excessive and would not diminish their value.
Thus, in teaching the innumerable, invaluable matters of this sort, and endeavouring to persuade, convince, and prove the occurrence of the awesome revolutions which will destroy the universe’s present form and transform it as though it were a house, the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition certainly draws attention to these matters thousands of times explicitly, implicitly, and allusively, and this is not excessive. Indeed, it renews the bounty which is an essential need, just as the essential needs of bread, medicine, air, and light are renewed.
And, for example, as is proved decisively in the Risale‑i Nur, the Qur’an repeats severely, angrily, and forcefully, such threatening verses as, But for those who reject (Allah) for them will be the Fire of Hell For wrongdoers there is a grievous penalty. The wisdom in this is that man’s unbelief is such a transgression against the rights of the universe and most creatures that it angers the heavens and earth and brings the elements to anger so that they deal blows on those wrongdoers with tempest and storm. According to the clear statement of the verses, And when they are cast therein, they will hear the [terrible] drawing‑in of its breath as it blazes forth ❋ Almost bursting with fury, Hell so rages at those iniquitous deniers that it almost disintegrates with fury.
Thus, in accordance with the wisdom of showing, not from the point of view of man’s smallness and insignificance before such a general crime and boundless aggression, but the importance of the rights of the Monarch of Universe’s subjects before the gravity of the wrongful crime and the awesomeness of the unjust aggression, and the boundless ugliness of those deniers’ unbelief and iniquity – in accordance with the wisdom of showing this, if repeating in His decree wrathfully and severely, the crime and its punishment, thousands, millions, or even thousands of millions of times, it still would not be excessive and a fault, because for a thousand years thousands of millions of people have read these verses every day, not with boredom, but with complete eagerness and need.
Indeed, every day, all the time, for everyone one world disappears and the door of a new world is opened to them. By repeating There is no god but Allah a thousand times out of need and with longing in order to illuminate each of those transitory worlds, the Qur’an makes There is no god but Allah a lamp for each of those changing veils. In the same way, for the purpose of reading the Qur’an and recalling the penalties of those crimes and the Pre‑Eternal Monarch’s severe threats to smash their obduracy, and of working to be saved from the rebellion of the soul so as not to obscure in darkness those multiple, fleeting veils and renewed travelling universes, nor uglify their images which are reflected in the mirrors of their lives, and not to turn against them those guest views which may testify in favour of them, the Qur’an repeats them in most meaningful fashion. Even Satan would shudder at imagining to be out of place these powerful, severe, and repeated threats of the Qur’an. They show the torments of Hell to be pure justice for those deniers who do not heed them.
And, for example, in repeating many times the stories of Moses (Upon whom be peace), which contain many instances of wisdom and benefits, such as those of the staff of Moses, and the stories of the other prophets (Upon whom be peace), the Qur’an demonstrates that the prophethoods of all the other prophets are a proof of the veracity of Muhammad’s (UWBP) prophethood and that anyone who does not deny all of them cannot in truth deny his messengership. For this purpose, and since everyone does not always have the time or capability to read the whole Qur’an, it repeats those stories similarly to the main pillars of belief, in this way making each of the long and middle‑length suras like a small Qur’an. To repeat them, then, is not excessive; it is required by eloquence, and teaches that the question of Muhammad (UWBP) is the greatest question of humankind and the most important matter of the universe.
It has been demonstrated decisively in the Risale‑i Nur with many proofs and indications that by affording the highest position to the person of Muhammad (UWBP) in the Qur’an and including him in four pillars of belief and holding Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah equal to the pillar of There is no god but Allah, that Muhammad’s (UWBP) messengership is the foremost truth in the universe, and that the Person of Muhammad (UWBP) is the most noble of creatures, and his universal collective personality and sacred rank, known as the Muhammadan Truth, is the most radiant Sun of the two worlds. His worthiness for this extraordinary position has also been proved. One of these thousands of proofs is this:
According to the principle of the cause is like the doer, with the equivalent of all the good works performed by all his (UWBP) community at all times entering his book of good works; and the light which he brought illuminating all the truths of the cosmos; and his gratifying not only the jinn, humankind, the angels, and animate beings, but also the universe and the heavens and earth; and the supplications of plants, offered through the tongue of disposition, and the supplications of animals offered through the tongue of their innate need, and the righteous of his (UWBP) community every day bequeating to him their benedictions and supplications for mercy and spiritual gains, whose millions – and together with spirit beings, even, millions of millions – of unrejectable supplications are accepted, as we actually witness with our eyes; and since each of the three hundred thousand letters of the Qur’an yield from ten to a hundred or a thousand merits and fruits, with infinite numbers of lights entering the book of his deeds, only with regard to the recitation of the Qur’an by all his community, the One All‑Knowing of the Unseen saw and knew that the Muhammadan (UWBP) Reality, which is his collective personality, would in the future be a Tuba tree of Paradise. It was in accordance with that position that He gave him such supreme importance in the Qur’an, and in His Decree showed the following of him and receiving of his intercession through adhering to his Illustrious Sunna to be one of the most important matters concerning man. And from time to time the One All-Knowing of the Unseen took into consideration his human personality and human state in his early life, which was a seed of the majestic Tuba tree.
Thus, since the truths repeated in the Qur’an are thus valuable, all sound natures will testify that its repetitions comprise a powerful and extensive miracle. Unless, that is to say, a person is afflicted with some sickness of the heart and malady of the conscience due to the plague of materialism, and is included under the rule, Man denied the light of the sun due to disease of the eye, His mouth denied the taste of water due to sickness.
Two Additions, Which Form a Conclusion to the Tenth Topic
The First:
Twelve years ago I heard that a fearsome, obdurate atheist had instigated a conspiracy against the Qur’an, which was to have it translated. He said: “The Qur’an should be translated so that everyone can know just what it is.” That is, he hatched a dire plan with the idea that everyone would see its unnecessary repetitions and its translation would be read in its place.
However, the irrefutable proofs of the Risale‑i Nur proved decisively that “A true translation of the Qur’an is not possible, and other languages cannot preserve the Qur’an’s qualities and fine points in place of the grammatical language of Arabic. Man’s trite and partial translations cannot be substituted for the miraculous and comprehensive words of the Qur’an, every letter of which yields from ten to a thousand merits; they may not be read in its place in mosques.” Then the Risale‑i Nur spread everywhere and confounded that fearsome plan. I surmise that it was due to the idiotic and lunatic attempts of dissemblers to extinguish the sun of the Qur’an on account of Satan by puffing at it like silly children having taken lessons from that atheist, that I was inspired to write this Tenth Matter while under great constraint and in a most distressing situation. But I do not know the reality of the situation since I have been unable to meet with anyone.
Second Addition:
After our release from Denizli Prison, I was staying on the top floor of the famous Şehir Hotel. The subtle, graceful dancing of the leaves, branches, and trunks of the many poplar trees in the fine gardens opposite me at the touching of the breeze, each with a rapturous and ecstatic motion like a circle of dervishes, pained my heart, sorrowful and melancholy at being parted from my brothers and remaining alone. Suddenly the seasons of autumn and winter came to mind and a heedlessness overcame me. I so pitied those graceful poplars and living creatures swaying with perfect joyousness that my eyes filled with tears. With this reminder of the separations and non‑being beneath the ornamented veil of the universe, the grief at a world-full of deaths and separations pressed down on me.
Then suddenly, the Light the Muhammadan (UWBP) Truth brought came to my assistance and transformed that endless grief and sorrow into joy. Indeed, I am eternally grateful to the Muhammadan Being (UWBP) for the assistance and consolation which alleviated my situation at that time, only a single instance of the boundless effulgence of that Light for me, like for all believers and everyone. It was like this:
By showing those blessed and delicate creatures to be without function or purpose, and their motion to be not out of joy, but as though trembling on the brink of non‑existence and separation and tumbling into nothingness, that heedless view so touched the feelings in me of desire for permanence, love of good things, and compassion for fellow-creatures and life that it transformed the world into a sort of hell and my mind into an instrument of torture. Then, just at that point, the Light Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace) had brought as a gift for humankind raised the veil; it showed in place of extinction, non-being, nothingness, purposeless, futility, transience and separations, meanings and instances of wisdom to the number of the leaves of the poplars, and as is proved in the Risale‑i Nur, results and duties which may be divided into three sorts:
The First Sort looks to the All‑Glorious Maker’s names. For example, if a master craftsman makes a wondrous machine, everyone applauds him, saying: What wonders Allah has willed! Blessed be Allah! Similarly, the machine congratulates the craftsman through the tongue of its disposition, through displaying perfectly the results intended from it. All living beings and all things are such machines; they applaud their Craftsman through their glorifications.
The Second Sort of the Instances of Wisdom looks to the views of living creatures and conscious beings. Beings each become an agreeable object of study, a book of knowledge. They leave their meanings in the sphere of existence in the minds of conscious beings and their forms in their memories, and on the tablets in the World of Similitudes, and in the notebooks of the World of the Unseen, then they depart from the Manifest World and withdraw to the World of the Unseen. That is, they leave behind an apparent existence, but gain many existences pertaining to meaning, the Unseen, and knowledge.
Yes, since Allah exists and His knowledge encompasses everything, in the view of reality, in the world of believers there is surely no non‑being, extinction, nothingness, annihilation, and transitoriness, while the world of unbelievers is full of non-existence, separation, nothingness, and transience. This is taught by the saying, which is on everyone’s lips, “For those for whom Allah exists, everything exists; and for those for whom He does not exist, nothing exists; for them there is nothing.”
In Short: Just as belief saves man from eternal annihilation at the time of death, so it saves everyone’s private world from the darknesses of annihilation and nothingness. Whereas unbelief, and especially if it is absolute unbelief, both sends man and his private world to non‑existence with death, and casts him into infernal darknesses. It transforms the pleasures of life into bitter poisons. Let the ears ring of those who prefer the life of this world to that of the hereafter! Let them come and find a solution for this, or else let them embrace belief and be saved from these dreadful losses!
Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All‑Knowing, All-Wise.
From your brother who is in much need of your prayers and misses you greatly,Said Nursi
A Letter From HusrevTo Üstad Bediuzzaman Said Nursi Concerning the Tenth Topic
My Dear and Esteemed Master,
Endless thanks be to Allah the Most High that we have received A Flower of Emirdağ, the Tenth Topic of the Fruits of Denizli, which has ameliorated our grief at our two months’ separation and our distress at having been unable to communicate, and enumerates the virtues of the repetition of the Qur’an’s glorious, august, merciful and compassionate verses, which infuse our hearts with fresh life and breathe into our spirits a fresh breeze, and explains the necessity, significance, and reason for the repetitions, and is too a brilliant defence of the Risale‑i Nur. In truth, the more we receive the scent of this flower, so deserving of praise and appreciation, the yearning of our spirits for it increased. Just as how in the face of the difficulties of our nine months’ imprisonment, the nine Topics of The Fruits of Belief showed their beauty by contributing to our being released, so through pointing out the wonders of the concise miraculousness of the Qur’an, the Tenth Topic, their Flower, again exhibited their beauty.
Yes, my beloved Master, like the superb, delicate beauty of the rose makes the beholder forget the thorns on its stem, so this luminous Flower has made us forget the distress of those nine months; it has made it as nothing.
The manner of its writing does not cloy those studying it; it astounds the mind. Of the many beauties it contains, by showing fully the value of the repetitions in the face of the treachery of simplifying the Qur’an in people’s eyes by translating it, it has set forth its universal loftiness.
The Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition being proved to be as fresh as though it was newly revealed, its followers adhering strongly to it every century and their perfect obedience to its commands and prohibitions; and its severe, awesome, and repeated threats to the oppressor in every century, and its compassionate and merciful regard for the oppressed; and among its threats which look to this century, the tyrants being made to cry out continuously for the last six or seven years at the heavenly hell which recalls a sample of deepest space; and the Risale‑i Nur students being at the head of the oppressed this century; and their being delivered from their plights, personal and general, truly like the prophets of old found deliverance; and its pointing out the blows dealt to the irreligious, its opponents, and Hellish torments; and the Flower being concluded with two fine and subtle addenda; all these prompted this wanting student of yours, Husrev, to joyfully offer endless thanks. As I have mentioned to my dear Master, I have never experienced in my life the joy and happiness this beautiful Flower gives me, as I have told my brothers on numerous occasions.
Allah the Most High placed on their feeble shoulders a great and heavy load. May Allah be pleased with our beloved Master, and may He make them smile eternally by lightening their load. Amen!
Yes, my dear Master! We are forever pleased at Allah (May His glory be exalted!), the Qur’an, His Beloved, the Risale‑i Nur, and at you, our beloved Master, who is herald of the Qur’an. We in no way regret our following you. We harbour absolutely no intention in our hearts to do harm; we seek only Allah and His pleasure. As time passes, we increase our longing to meet Allah within the bounds of His pleasure. To refer to Allah the Most High without exception those who have done us evil and to forgive them, and to do good to everyone including those tyrants is a mark of Islam established in the hearts of the Risale‑i Nur students. We offer endless thanks to Allah, who proclaims this without our asking.
Your very faulty student,Husrev