In His Name, be He glorified!
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Today, on receiving a spiritual warning, I felt a disquiet, a grief, on account of you. Just when I was feeling upset at those of my brothers who being anxious about their livelihoods want to be released quickly, a blessed memory occasioned a truth and some good tidings to be imparted to me:
The Three Months will begin in five days time, which are truly blessed and are the months of highly meritorious worship. For if the reward yielded by good works at other times are tenfold, in the month of Rajab they are more than a hundredfold, in Sha‘ban they exceed three hundredfold, and in Ramadan they reach a thousandfold, while on Fridays in Ramadan they reach thousands and on the Night of Power may reach thirty thousand. It is certainly highly profitable therefore, to spend those three months – which are thus a sacred market for the trade of the hereafter earning plentiful gains for it, and an exceptional exhibition for the people of reality and worship, and in three months may secure for the believers a life of eighty years – in this School of Joseph, which increases the profits tenfold. Whatever the hardships suffered, they are pure mercy.
As with worship, so with the service of the Risale‑i Nur; with respect not to quantity but quality, its profits are fivefold. For people are continuously entering this guesthouse, then being released, and they are means of the Risale‑i Nur’s lessons being disseminated. Sometimes one man’s sincerity yields the benefits of twenty men. It is of no importance if such a man suffers a little hardship and distress so that the mystery of the Risale‑i Nur’s sincerity might spread among the unfortunate prisoners, who are inclined to be political heroes and are much in need of the Risale‑i Nur’s solace.
In regard to the problem of livelihood, since these three months are a market for the hereafter, I felt perfectly easy at it and understood that being here inside until the Bayram is a great bounty, for since all of you were sent to this prison in place of numerous other Risale‑i Nur students, and some of you in place of a thousand, they will help out in your business outside.
Said Nursi