To Afyon Criminal Court
Making a mountain out of a molehill, because of my service to my Master and the Risale‑i Nur, of which I am proud, the prosecution portrays me as a prominent diplomat or cunning plotter. In reply to his apportioning me a large share of the imaginary crime with which the Risale‑i Nur is charged, I say this:
I am closely attached to my Master, Bediuzzaman, from whom, by reading his works on religion, belief, and morality, I have profited to such an extent that I would readily sacrifice my life for his sake. However, my attachment is not as the prosecution said, harmful for the country and nation, in order to incite the people against the state; it is rather an unseverable attachment on the way of saving myself from the eternal annihilation of the grave, from which no one can escape, and saving the belief of my brothers in religion, which, like me, they are in need of saving in these perilous times, correcting their conduct, and becoming useful members of the nation and country.
I am one of those close to him. From time to time for four years I have proudly attended on him. During this time, I have witnessed nothing other than total virtue. I have not once heard him say a single word about his being the Mahdi or the Regenerator of Religion. More than a hundred thousand copies of the Risale‑i Nur and hundreds of thousands of pure intentioned Risale‑i Nur students, who have saved their belief by reading its treatises, can testify that he is the very epitome of humility.
My blessed Master considers himself to be a Risale‑i Nur student like us. This is what he claims.
This may be seen easily in many of his letters, which you have in your possession, and especially in the Treatise on Sincerity, which is included in The Staff of Moses Collection (Asâ‑yı Mûsa). He repeatedly says in his letters: “Enduring truths like the sun or diamonds cannot be constructed on transient persons, and transient persons cannot lay claim to those precious truths.” So to accuse him of boasting and of claiming to be the Mahdi and Regenerator of Religion is not something anyone of intelligence would do.
For if you read carefully and fairly all his treatises and letters, you will form the certain conviction that the like of this profoundly learned scholar of the times has not been encountered for centuries. He is a saver of belief the like of whom will not be encountered, who at a time the red sparks of communism are licking the eaves of our houses is a patriot far more useful and productive for the country and nation than an army. I am regretful that I was not earlier the student of such a work and the esteemed Master who wrote it.
Respected Judges of the Court!
With the idea of performing a sacred service for the nation, so that like me the sons of this land might profit from the Risale‑i Nur, whose endless benefits I myself had experienced, I had printed A Guide For Youth (Gençlik Rehberi) in Eskişehir. I ask you: how is it that while service of the Risale‑i Nur, which is a true and irrefutable Qur’anic commentary, and thus of belief, of an unfortunate like myself should have met with praise and appreciation, and encouragement, we received this severe treatment? Is it not contrary to justice?
I request of your just court that you give the decision for the Risale‑i Nur’s freedom, for it is the sustenance of our spirits, means of our salvation, and key to our eternal happiness. If the circumstances, some of which I have mentioned and enumerated above constitute a crime in your view, I shall accept with total resignation the harshest penalty you can inflict.
Prisoner, Emirdağlı Ceylan Çalışkan,Afyon Prison