My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Endless thanks be to the Most Merciful of the Merciful that in these extraordinary times and strange place He permitted us by means of you to win the honour of being students of the religious sciences and to perform important services. It has been seen on numerous occasions by those who divine the state of people in their graves that like martyrs, some enthusiastic and serious students of the religious sciences who die when busy with their studies suppose themselves to be alive in their graves and still studying.
Indeed, while observing a student who died when studying grammar and syntax, one such diviner of graves was curious what answer the student would give to Munkar and Nakir in his grave, and he heard that when the questioning angel asked him: Who is your Sustainer?, the student replied: “Who is the subject, and your Sustainer is its predicate.” He gave a grammatical answer, supposing himself to be in his medrese.
Thus, like that incident, I know the late Hafız Ali to be a student of the religious sciences working at the Risale‑i Nur, the highest of the sciences, at the degree of martyrs and at their level of life. With that conviction, in some of my supplications I pray for him, and like him for Mehmed Zühdü and Hafız Mehmed, saying:
O Allah! Allow them to be busy till the resurrection of the dead with the truths of belief and mysteries of the Qur’an in the guise of the Risale‑i Nur in perfect happiness and contentment. Amen!