To Afyon Criminal Court
The indictment states that I am my Master, Said Nursi’s, chief scribe, and am firmly attached both to himself and to the Risale‑i Nur, and have served them, and it deems this an offence. For my part, I accept the charge with all my strength and am proud of it. For I have a powerful, innate yearning for knowledge. Evidence for this is that when during the Denizli affair my house was searched, it was officially established that found in it were more than five hundred various scholarly books, some in Arabic. It is an unusual desire to study and extraordinary love of learning that made me collect these five hundred books, that not one person in a thousand would have at this time, despite my impecuniosity and young years.
Because of this natural capacity of mine, I was searching for a true master. Endless thanks be to Allah the Most High that He gave me what I was searching for afar, from close by. Yes, my Master, Said Nursi’s life testifies that his only aim in life has been knowlege and to learn the sciences of Islam.
I have understood clearly both through my own observations, and from his published biography, and from what I have learnt from his old students, the innate love of learning that I have is found in my Master to an extraordinary degree, so that on his own in wondrous fashion, contrarily to all the other medrese teachers at this time, he has persisted in medrese teaching and endured every calamity. But then, because they did not understand my Master’s extraordinary situation, the politicians attempted to link him with a sort of politics, with which he has no connection, even throwing him into prison.
But later Allah the Most High made his passion for knowledge into a key to the Qur’an’s truths, and the Risale‑i Nur emerged, which has left all scholars and philosophers in amazement. Around that time, as a divine favour I found close by in Kastamonu the Master I had been searching for all my life, whose nature was similar to mine but infinitely more elevated. I shall offer thanks for this to the end of my days.
Just as since early days, in order to preserve the dignity of learning my Master never accepted such things as charity and gifts, so he did not allow his students to accept them. He would bow before no one. In fact, not condescending to crouch down in the trenches in the front lines in the War, or even to enter them, he preserved the dignity of learning. Similarly, heroically preserving the honour of scholarship and teaching in the face of three awesome commanders, he was completely unmoved at their anger and silenced them. I therefore accepted him as my true Master, since I knew that he was someone who had sacrificed everything to preserve the high honour of this nation and country and the Turkish learned establishment. Even, if to suppose the impossible a Master so truly devoted to his country and nation had a hundred faults, they should be looked on tolerantly and not objected to.
A example showing that this country’s patriots in the Second Constitutional Period and the nationalists and patriots under the republic appreciated in the name of the country and nation our Master’s extraordinary service to learning was that the Committee of Union and Progress government gave nineteen thousand gold liras for his university in the east called the Medresetü’z‑Zehra. This was to be organized along the same lines of al-Azhar University. Its foundations were laid in Van Province, but it remained unbuilt due to the First World War. Then the first government of the republic twenty-four years ago allotted one hundred and fifty thousand liras on the agreement of one hundred and sixty-three deputies.
Our Master’s nearly succeeding on his own in founding a large university similar to al‑Azhar, which was brought into being only through the enterprise of thousands of teachers, shows that all patriots and lovers of their country, together with the teachers of the medreses (religious schools) should appreciate and applaud him.
As for us, because we found such a Master, we decided to endure every sort of hardship and difficulty. I have boundless respect for him as an exceptionally learned scholar at this time, who through the effulgence of his learning and truths of his one hundred and thirty works has caused me to advance on the way of belief and knowledge. Allah willing, this respect of mine will continue for all eternity.
There is no covert organization which exploiting religion and religious feelings aims to breach public security, in connection with which the prosecution wants to have me convicted. Despite months of investigations and searches it has not been able to verify any such society, nor do we have any connection with such a thing. Our sole concern, within the framework of the laws of the republic, is for the Risale‑i Nur, which has undergone the toughest examinations and has met with due respect from the highest committees of experts and has been acquitted by authorized courts of law. This is not treason towards the country and nation, but scholarly striving in a way that is directly beneficial for country and nation. Other than this we have no political aim nor any other purpose. Thus, since our innocence and sincerity are clear in this matter, I seek the manifestation of justice from your just court and my acquittal, as in Denizli Court.
Prisoner, Kastamonulu Mehmed Feyzi Pamukçu,Afyon Prison