To the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of Home Affairs
All members of the government who witnessed the proclamation of the constitution, the First World War, the Armistice Period, the setting up of the nationalist government, and the republic know me well. Nevertheless, with your permission, we shall take a look at my life as though on a film.
I was born in the village of Nurs in the province of Bitlis. As a student, I debated with the scholars I encountered, and through divine favour, defeating in scholarly debate all who opposed me, I came as far as Istanbul. In Istanbul, winning calamitous fame, a victim of my rivals’ trouble‑making, I was dragged to the lunatic asylum on the orders of Sultan Abdülhamid. On the proclamation of the constitution, I attracted the attention of the government of the Committee of Union and Progress with my activities during the Thirty-First of March Incident. I confronted them with the proposal to open an Islamic university in Van called the Medresetü’z-Zehra, resembling al-Azhar University. I even laid its foundations.
On the outbreak of the First War, I gathered together my students and took part in the War as the commander of a militia force. I fought on the Caucasian Front and was taken prisoner at Bitlis. I escaped from where I was being held and returned to Istanbul. I was appointed a member of the Darü’l‑Hikmeti’l-İslâmiye. During the Armistice period, I worked against the occupying forces with all my might, and on the victory of the national government, in appreciation I was summoned by it to Ankara, where I repeated my proposal to open the university in Van.
The life I had lived up to then had been that of a patriot. I had wanted to serve religion by means of politics. But from then on, I turned my back on the world completely, and in my own words, buried the Old Said. As the New Said, devoting myself entirely to the hereafter, I withdrew from the world. Retiring from social life, I went into seclusion on the hill Yuşa Tepesi in Istanbul.
Later on I went to Bitlis and Van, in my native region, where I lived in a cave. I remained alone with the pleasures of my spirit and conscience. That is to say, taking as my principle I seek refuge with Allah from the Devil and politics, I plunged into the depths of my own spiritual world. Passing my time studying the Qur’an of Mighty Stature I started to live as the New Said.
But the manifestations of divine determining sent me as an exile to other places. Then, getting the people with me to write down the inspirations born in my heart from the effulgence of the Qur’an, a number of treatises came to be written. I gave them the name of the Risale‑i Nur. This name was born in my conscience, for truly they were based on the light of the Qur’an. I believe absolutely certainly that this was divine inspiration, and I said to those who were acting as scribes: “Barakallah!” For it is not possible to begrudge others the light of belief.
Exchanging copies, these treatises of mine were written out by a number of believers. I formed the opinion that they were driven on by Allah the Most High in order to strengthen the injured belief of Muslims. I understood that just as no believer could obstruct this divine prompting, so I considered it a religious obligation to encourage it. Anyway these treatises, which now number one hundred and thirty, consist entirely of discussions of the hereafter and belief, and contain no deliberate mention of politics or this world.
Nevertheless, they became the object of interest with a number of opportunists. Investigations were carried out into them, and I was arrested and sent to the prisons of Eskişehir, Kastamonu, and Denizli. Trials were held. As a result, truth was manifested and justice was executed, but those opportunists never wearied of hounding us. This time they arrested me and sent me to Afyon. I am under arrest and am being interrogated. They accuse me as follows:
1. You have founded a political society.
2. You publish ideas opposing the regime.
3. You harbour political aims.
The evidence for these are ten or fifteen sentences in two or three of my treatises.
Respected Minister! As Napoleon said: “Bring me a straightforward sentence to which no second meaning can be attached, and I’ll have you executed for it!” There is no sentence uttered by anyone which may not constitute an offence by having forced meanings attached to it. Especially the writings of someone like me who has reached seventy‑five years of age, has withdrawn entirely from the life of this world, and has dedicated his life here to that of the hereafter – he will certainly write freely. Having nearly achieved a good intention, he will be fearless. It is unfair to study them simply in order to seek out offences in them. It is nothing other than unjust.
Not one of any of my one hundred and thirty treatises comprises any purpose connected to the matters of this world. Proceeding from the light of the Qur’an, they are all to do with the hereafter and belief. In any event all the trials held up to now have come to the same conclusion and have resulted in acquittals. It is therefore a shame to busy the courts unnecessarily and take innocent believers away from their work and business in the name of the country and nation.
While the Old Said spent all his life for the sake of the happiness of the country and nation, how could the New Said be preoccupied with politics when he is seventy‑five years old and has completely withdrawn from the world? This is your opinion too.
I have only one aim; it is this: at this time as I approach the grave, I hear the hooting of the bolshevik owls in this country, which is a Muslim land. The sound is damaging the fundamentals of belief of the Islamic world. Making people lose their belief, it binds them, and particularly the youth, to itself. Struggling against it with all my strength, I am calling the youth and all Muslims to believe. I am struggling against these unbelieving masses. I want to enter the divine presence with this struggle of mine. This is all I do. As for those who prevent me from doing this, I am frightened that they are communists! For me it is a sacred aim to co‑operate with the forces of religion who have embraced the struggle against these enemies of belief. Release me! Let me work to reform the youth, poisoned by communism, and for this country’s faith! Let me serve divine unity!
PrisonerSaid Nursi