To Afyon Criminal Court
As has been communicated to me by the office of the Afyon state prosecutor, I have been sent to trial together with my Master, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, and his other companions in connection with the matter of inciting the people to breach state security by exploiting religious feelings.
I gave correct answers to the questions asked of me both in Isparta Magistrates’ Court, and in the office of the Afyon examining magistrate. Denizli Court, which acquitted us, returned all our books to us, and did not convict us for reading and writing out the treatises of my Master, Bediuzzaman, or for corresponding with our brothers who are his students. However, six years ago, without my Master’s permission, on my own initiative I had printed in Istanbul five hundred copies of the Seventh Ray by Bediuzzaman in the old letters. In accordance with the decision dated 20.7.1945, Denizli Court returned these in their entirety together with their box, handing them over to me in person. They were then distributed at cost price to Risale‑i Nur students eager for them.
In consequence of that court’s decision, which had been ratified by the Appeal Court and had been made final, two years ago I bought a duplicating machine in Istanbul and paper, and took them to Isparta.
Of the three collections which you have in your possession, two were written out by my brother Husrev Altınbaşak, and one was written out by myself. First of all we printed Zülfikâr, containing The Miracles of Muhammad (UWBP) and The Miraculousness of the Qur’an. This we in part sold, and with the money bought the paper for The Staff of Moses Collection (Asâ‑yı Mûsa). We then printed The Staff of Moses, and sold it. Then we bought the paper for The Illuminating Lamp Collection (Siracünnûr), and printed it. This continued for about a year.
Then, when bringing around thirty copies of these collections to Eğirdir, I was arrested on the way, and handed over to the judicial authorities in Eğirdir. Not much time had passed when on the initiative of the Isparta judicial authorities, Husrev Altınbaşak’s house was searched and both the duplicating machine and the collections were seized, and we were sent to court to be tried for the offences of a year previously. Since they were religious works which were not prohibited, Husrev Altınbaşak, myself, and one other friend were given sentences of one month for printing books without permission. We applied to the Appeal Court, and before it had come to a decision, I was sent to Afyon Prison.
Now, in your high court, because of this altruistic service of mine for my religion and co‑religionists, and particularly the question of the Fifth Ray, which contains interpretations of Hadiths and was returned by the former court, the Afyon state prosecutor wants to have me, and the Risale‑i Nur’s author, and Husrev Altınbaşak, and forty‑six other student brothers punished for “breaching state security,” because they wrote out these works and read them.
I say to you in your presence as a full citizen of this country, without deviating from the truth, that for years I have been the student of Said Nursi, whom we hold with the highest esteem as our Master, and who with these works has rectified our conduct religiously and advanced us, and has rejected it when we called him “Regenerator of Religion.” I can testify categorically and absolutely certainly that neither he himself nor his works nor his students have in any way attempted to breach state security.
One of the matters concerning which we have been charged is the money obtained from sale of the books, concerning which Isparta Court was fully aware and was unable to find us guilty and sentence us. For just as we were in no need to secure our livelihoods through sale of the books, so we used the money obtained from their sale to buy the duplicating machine, paper, and ink. There is no possibility of this service, which we performed purely for Allah’s sake with pure intention, being a crime, and therefore request of your high court and consciences that the copies of the Risale‑i Nur be returned.
Prisoner,Tahiri