I Have a Few More Points I Want to Submit to the Authorities of Afyon, and to Its Court and Police
The First: Most of the prophets appearing in the East and in Africa, and most of the philosophers emerging in the West and in Europe is a sign of pre‑eternal divine determining that in Asia religion is dominant and philosophy is in second place. In consequence, even if those ruling in Asia are not religious, they should not interfere with those who work for religion; they should encourage them.
The Second: The All‑Wise Qur’an is the intellect and power of thought of the head of the earth. If, I seek refuge with Allah the Most High, the Qur’an were to depart from the globe, the globe would go mad. It is not far from reason to suppose that another planet colliding with its head emptied of reason, would cause doomsday to erupt. Yes, the Qur’an is a chain, a “rope of Allah,” binding the earth to the divine throne. It preserves the earth more than gravity.
Thus, the Risale‑i Nur, which is a true and powerful commentary on the Qur’an of Mighty Stature, is a supreme divine bounty which has been demonstrating its effectiveness for twenty years in this century, an insuppressible miracle of the Qur’an. The government therefore should not be interfering in it and trying to scare its students away from it, but protecting it and encouraging people to read it.
The Third: In Denizli Court I said the following in connection with all the believers assisting with prayers for forgiveness those who have departed for the past, and their bequeathing good works on their spirits:
When you are asked by millions of believing plaintiffs at the Supreme Tribunal: “Why did you want to ruin with imprisonment and persecution the Risale‑i Nur students, who were striving to save the country and nation from anarchy and irreligion and immorality and their compatriots from eternal annihilation, although because of the liberty laws you looked tolerantly on the publications of atheists and communists and political societies that produce anarchists, and did not bother them?” What answer will you and those who want to convict and ruin the Risale‑i Nur students, who serve the truths of the Qur’an, give? I am asking you the same thing! I said that to them and those just and fair‑minded people acquitted us, demonstrating the fairness of the judicial system.
The Fourth: I was expecting to be taken for interrogation to a place of consultation, in either Ankara or Afyon, where questions would be asked and answered about matters of overriding importance and the Risale‑i Nur’s relation to them. Yes, matters connected with finding ways of restoring the brotherhood, love, and good will of three hundred and fifty million Muslims for this nation and country, and their moral assistance for it. An indication that the Risale‑i Nur is the most effective means of achieving this is the following:
In Mecca this year, a scholar of great eminence translated the main collections of the Risale‑i Nur into both one of the Indian languages and Arabic, and sending them to India and Arabia, said: “Just as he strives through the Risale‑i Nur to secure unity and Islamic brotherhood, our most powerful support, so he demonstrates that the Turkish nation is always progressive in religion and belief.”
I was also expecting that momentous questions would be asked like “What is the extent of the service the Risale‑i Nur can provide in the face of the danger communism poses to this country, because it turns into anarchy? How can this blessed country be defended against this terrible torrent?” It should have been thus, but having been blown up out of all proportion due to the petty and personal slander of the spiteful, matters holding not the slightest importance and which are in no way crimes, were discussed, which caused me distress in these serious conditions, the like of which I have never before suffered in my life. Meaningless questions were asked about one or two minor personal matters which three previous courts had previously examined then acquitted.
The Fifth: The Risale‑i Nur cannot be contested or defeated. It has been silencing the most obdurate philosophers for twenty years. It demonstrates the truths of belief as clearly as the sun. The rulers of this country should profit from its strength.
The Sixth: Destroying my unimportant character because of my personal faults, and through contemptuous treatment poisoning public opinion about me does not harm the Risale‑i Nur, in fact it strengthens it in some ways. For in place of my mortal tongue are the undying tongues of a hundred thousand copies of the Risale‑i Nur, and they cannot be silenced; they will speak out. And as they have up to now, the thousands of powerful tongues of its sincere students will continue that sacred, universal service till the end of the world, Allah willing.
The Seventh: As I stated in the previous trials putting forward the proofs, our enemies and those who oppose us both officially and unofficially, deceiving the government, making some of its leading members suspicious about us and causing the judiciary to move against us, are either seriously deceived or have been deceived by others, or are exceedingly treacherous revolutionaries working on account of anarchy, or cunning atheists struggling against Islam and the truths of the Qur’an on account of apostasy. Calling absolute despotism “the republic” in order to attack us, and making the regime a screen to absolute apostasy, and calling absolute dissipation “civilization,” and calling arbitrary compulsion on account of disbelief “the law,” they have both ruined us, and deceived the government, and preoccupied the judiciary with us for no reason. Referring them to the wrath of the All‑Compelling and Glorious One, we take refuge in the citadel of
For us Allah suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs
so as to defend ourselves against their evil. The Eighth: Last year the Russians sent numerous people to make the Hajj as propaganda in order to show that they are more respectful towards the Qur’an than other nations and, because of religion, to try to turn the Islamic world against the religious people of this country. But the main collections of the Risale‑i Nur were being spread at that time in both Mecca, and Medina, and Damascus, and Egypt, and Aleppo, attracting the appreciation of the religious scholars, which both negated the communist propaganda, and showed to the Islamic world that like formerly the Turkish nation and its brothers are supporting religion and the Qur’an and are the elder brothers of the other peoples of Islam and their heroic commander in the service of the Qur’an. Those collections from the Risale‑i Nur demonstrated this in those sacred centres. Will it not the bring the earth to anger if this valuable national service of the Risale‑i Nur is responded to with torments in this way?
The Ninth is a brief summary of a matter that was proved and elucidated in my defence in Denizli.
If through his genius and intelligence a great military commander arrogates to himself all the positive virtues of the army and ascribes to the army his own negative evils, the courageous actions and virtues of the soldiers, which equal them in number, will be reduced to one, while the commander’s evils will be equal in number to the soldiers, which is an awesome wrong and contrary to the truth. This being so, I said to the public prosecutor in our previous trials, who was attacking me because of the slap a Hadith I expounded forty years earlier dealt that person:
“It’s true I’m offending him due to predictions made by Hadiths, but I’m also defending the army’s honour and preserving him from serious error. As for you, for the sake of one single friend of yours, you are affronting the honour of the army, which is the Qur’an’s standard‑bearer and an heroic commander of the Islamic world.” Allah willing, the prosecutor saw the matter more fairly and was saved from his error.
The Tenth: It is because in the administration of justice the essence of justice and the rights of everyone who applies have to preserved without discrimination and the duty of those involved is to work solely for the sake of right, that during his caliphate, Imam ‘Ali (May Allah be pleased with him) sat together with a Jew in court and they were tried together. On another occasion, a just judge saw that an official was angry with a delinquent thief when he was cutting off his hand as demanded by the law. He immediately sacked the official, and full of regret said: “Officials who up to now have been influenced by their feelings in this way while executing the law have perpetrated great wrongs.” Yes, “even if in executing the law he does not pity the convicted man, he should not be angry; if he is, he is acting tyrannically. If he carries out capital punishment angrily, even if it is in retaliation (kısas), he becomes a sort of murderer.”
Thus, in courts of law it is this pure, unbiased truth which rules. But although three courts have acquitted us, and perhaps if they knew, ninety per cent of this nation would testify that the Risale‑i Nur students are harmless and beneficial for nation and country, the students are being angrily and contemptuously mistreated, despite being innocent and much in need of consolation and the indulgence of the law. But since we have decided to meet every calamity and insult with patience and forbearance, we are silent, referring it to Allah the Most High and saying: “Perhaps there is some good in this.” However, I was afraid that these innocent unfortunates being treated in this way due to unfounded suspicions and the malicious reports of informers would lead to the visitation of disaster, and I was therefore obliged to write this. Anyway, if there is any fault in this matter, it is mine. These unfortunates assisted me solely seeking Allah the Most High’s pleasure and to save their religious belief and lives in the hereafter. For them to receive such treatment when they were deserving of praise and appreciation, is enough to make anyone angry.
Moreover, it is amazing, but again they are making unsupported assertions about a political society. However, both three courts have scrutinized this aspect of the case and acquitted us, and neither the courts, nor the police, nor the experts’ committees have discovered any sign of any society that could justify such an accusation: the Risale‑i Nur students are a brotherhood which looks to the hereafter, like the students of a teacher, or university students, or the students of a Qur’an teacher who is teaching them to memorize the Qur’an. Those who have made charges against them calling them a political society, have to look on all tradesmen, preachers, and school‑children as belonging to such societies. I therefore see no necessity to defend those imprisoned here as a result of such meaningless and baseless charges.
However, there is nothing at all to prevent me defending the Risale‑i Nur with the same facts that I have defended it with three times previously, for it closely concerns both this country and the Islamic world, and it is the beneficial cause of plenty and blessings, material and spiritual, for this nation and country. No law or politics prohibits this or could prohibit it.
Yes, we are a society, but we a society which every century has three hundred and fifty million members. Every day with the obligatory prayers, its members demonstrate five times with perfect veneration their attachment to the principles of that sacred society, and their wish to serve it. In accordance with the sacred programme of Indeed, the believers are brothers, they hasten with their supplications and spiritual gains to assist one another. Yes, we are members of that holy and vast society. And our particular duty is to convey in confirmatory form to the people of belief the Qur’anic truths of faith, and save them and ourselves from eternal annihilation and perpetual solitary confinement in the Intermediate Realm. We have absolutely no connection with any worldly, political, plotting society, political or revolutionary, as has been imputed to us; we do not condescend to any such meaningless, purposeless secret society. In any event, four courts of law have investigated this down to the finest details, and then acquitted us concerning it.
Said Nursi