To Afyon Criminal Court
In the indictment the prosecution has charged me in two respects, one general, the other particular. The general charge is my service of the Risale‑i Nur and my sharing in the imaginary crime of my Master.
The particular charge is my life of seclusion, which is of no importance and constitutes no crime, as well as a number of circumstances related to my personal life.
In reply to the prosecution’s making me share in my Master’s imaginary crime because of my service to the Risale‑i Nur, I say this:
On the way my Master has taken, I participate with all my heart and soul in the imaginary crime with which he is charged, in the sacred service he performs through the Risale‑i Nur for the Islamic world and particularly for this country and nation. I shall offer thanks to Allah till the end of my days for having given me success in this service of religious belief.
Respected Judges!
Certain evidence of my success in serving the Risale‑i Nur is this:
It was my writing out the copies of the Qur’an, although I had little proficiency in Arabic calligraphy, in a wondrous and unprecedented way, perfectly, outside my will and power. One of these you have in your possession.
The Second Evidence Is my success in writing nearly six hundred copies of various parts of the Risale‑i Nur, which for twenty years has secured enormous benefits for this country and nation, and for religion and good morality. In fact, in the short time of one month I wrote out fourteen treatises, as my friends know.
I find it superfluous to defend also those points related to my part in my Master’s sacred service, which are supposed to be offences. I affirm with all my strength my Master’s written objections and their addendum, and I present them to your high court as my own objections.
Respected Judges!
Our Master follows no worldly or political aim at all in his blessed, sacred, and luminous works, which your court is still holding and which consist of the truths of belief and the Qur’an. Moreover, just as I and my friends confirm the sacred service he has performed for this country and nation, so did the patriots in the Union and Progress government confirm it. For at that time, they gave nineteen thousand gold liras for his university in Van, called the Medresetü’z‑Zehra. The lovers of their country admiringly confirmed his patriotic, scholarly endeavours. Then one hundred and sixty-three deputies out of two hundred allotted one hundred and fifty thousand liras, when funds were very scarce, for that university of his in the east.
Throughout his life, my sacred, blessed Master, whom the prosecution has designated a criminal, has compelled even his most obdurate and jealous enemies to submit and those who have sought his conviction in the courts, not permitting them to combat his vehement, sharp words. I inform your high court that I am proud of the service I have performed for the Risale‑i Nur this last twenty years, working as a scribe in his sacred service and all his learned activities, the aim of which is to secure the foundation stones of this country’s happiness and prosperity.
Prisoner,Husrev Altınbaşak