The Tenth TopicA Flower of Emirdağ
[An extremely powerful reply to objections raised against repetition in the Qur'an.]
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
Due to my wretched situation this Topic is confused and graceless, but I was certain that beneath the confused wording was a most valuable sort of miraculousness, though unfortunately I was incapable of expressing it. But however dull the wording, since it concerns the Qur' an, it is both worship in the form of reflection and the shell of a sacred, elevated, shining jewel. The diamond in the hand should be looked at, not its torn clothes.
Also, I wrote it in one or two days during Ramadan while extremely ill, wretched, and without food, of necessity very concisely and briefly, and including many truths and numerous proofs in a single sentence. Its deficiencies, then, should be overlooked!
My True, Loyal Brothers!
While reading the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition in Ramadan, whichever of the thirty‑three verses I came to that in the First Ray describe the allusions to the Risale-i Nur, I saw that the page and story of the verse also look to the Risale-i Nur and its students to some extent — in so far as they have a share in the story. Particularly the Light Verses in Sura al-Nur, just as they point to the Risale-i Nur with ten fingers, so the Darkness Verses following it point directly at those opposing it; these afford a further share. Quite simply, I understood that this station rises from particularity to universality and that one part of that universality is the Risale-i Nur and its students.
Indeed, in regard to the breadth, exaltedness, and comprehensiveness that the Qur'an's address receives from firstly the extensive station of the universal dominicality of the Pre‑Eternal Speaker, and from the extensive station of the one addressed in the name of mankind, indeed of all beings, and the most extensive station of all mankind's guidance in all the centuries, and from the station of the most elevated comprehensive expositions of the divine laws concerning the regulation of this world and the hereafter, and the heavens and the earth, and pre-eternity and post-eternity, and the dominicality of the Creator of the universe, and of all beings, this address displays such an elevated miraculousness and comprehensiveness that both its apparent and simple level, which flatters the simple minds of ordinary people, the most numerous group the Qur'an addresses, and its highest level, partake of it.
Addressing every age and every class of people, in its stories and historical narratives it does not recount one part or one lesson from them, but points out elements of a universal principle as though it were newly revealed. Particularly its often repeated threats of the wrongdoers, the wrongdoers, and its severe expositions of calamities visited on the heavens and the earth, the punishment for their wrongdoing — with these and the retribution visited on the 'Ad and Thamud peoples and on Pharaoh — it draws attention to the unequalled wrongs of this century, and with the salvation of prophets like Abraham (PUH) and Moses (PUH) gives consolation to the oppressed believers.
Indeed, all past time and the departed ages and centuries, which in the view of heedlessness and misguidance form a fearsome place of non‑existence and a grievous, ruined graveyard, the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition shows to every century and class of people in the form of living instructive pages, strange worlds, living and endowed with spirits, and existent realms of the Sustainer which are connected with us. With an elevated miraculousness, it sometimes conveys us to those times, and sometimes brings those times to us. Infusing with life the universe, which in the view of misguidance is lifeless, wretched, dead, and a limitless wasteland revolving amid separation and decease, with the same miraculousness this same Qur'an of Mighty Stature raises to life those dead beings, makes them converse with each other as officials charged with duties and hasten to the assistance of one another; it instructs mankind, the jinn, and the angels in true, luminous, and pleasurable wisdom. For sure, then, it acquires sacred distinctions like there being ten merits in each of its letters, and sometimes a hundred, a thousand, or thousands of merits; and if all men and jinn were to gather together, their being unable to produce the like of it; and its speaking completely appropriately with all mankind and all beings; and its all the time being inscribed with eagerness in the hearts of millions of hafizes; and its not causing weariness through its frequent and numerous repetitions; and despite its many obscure passages and sentences, its being settled perfectly in the delicate and simple heads of children; and its being agreeable like Zamzam water in the ears of the sick, the dying, and those distressed by a few words; and its gaining for its students happiness in this world and the next.
Its smoothness of style, which, observing exactly its interpreter's being unlettered, allows for no bombast, artificiality, or affectedness, and its descending directly from the heavens demonstrate a fine miraculousness. So too it shows a fine miraculousness in the grace and guidance of flattering the simple minds of ordinary people, the most numerous of the classes of men, through the condescension in its expression, and mostly opening the clearest and most evident pages like the heavens and earth, and teaching the wondrous miracles of power and meaningful lines of wisdom beneath those commonplace things.
By making known that it is also a book of prayer and summons, of invocation and divine unity, all of which require repetition, it demonstrates a sort of miraculousness by making understood in a single sentence and a single story through its agreeable repetitions numerous different meanings to numerous different classes of people. Similarly, by making known that minor and unimportant things in ordinary, commonplace events are within its compassionate view and the sphere of its will and regulation, it demonstrates a sort of miraculousness. For it attaches importance to even minor events involving the Companions of the Prophet when Islam was being established and the Shari'a codified, and those events being universal principles and general, and their producing most important fruits, as though they were seeds.
With regard to repetition being necessary due to the repetition of need, the repetition of certain verses which, as answers to numerous questions repeated over a period of twenty years, instructs numerous different levels of people is not a fault, indeed, to repeat certain sentences so powerful they produce thousands of results and a number of verses resulting from countless evidences, which describe an infinite, awesome, all‑embracing revolution that, by destroying utterly the vast universe and changing its shape at Doomsday, will remove the world and found the mighty hereafter in its place, and will prove that all particulars and universals from atoms to the stars are in the hand and under the disposal of a single Being, and will show the divine wrath and dominical anger — on account of the result of the universe's creation — at mankind's wrongdoing, which brings to anger the earth and the heavens and the elements, to repeat such verses is not a fault, but most powerful miraculousness, and most elevated eloquence; an eloquence and lucid style corresponding exactly to the requirements of the subject.
For example, as is explained in the Fourteenth Flash of the Risale‑i Nur, the sentence, In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, which constitutes a single verse and is repeated one hundred and fourteen times in the Qur'an, is a truth which binds the divine throne and the earth, and illuminates the cosmos, and for which everyone is in need all the time; if it were repeated millions of times, there would still be need for it. There is need and longing for it, not only every day like bread, but every moment like air and light.
And, for example, the verse, And verily your Sustainer is Exalted in Might, Most Compassionate which is repeated eight times in Sura Ta. Sin. Mim Repeating on account of the result of the universe's creation and in the name of universal dominicality, the salvation of the prophets whose stories are told in the sura, and the punishments of their peoples, in order to teach that that dominical dignity requires the torments of those wrongdoing peoples while divine compassion requires the prophets' salvation, is a concise, miraculous, and elevated miraculousness, for which, if repeated thousands of times, there would still be need and longing.
And, for example, the verse, Then which of the favours of your Sustainer will you deny? which is repeated in Sura al‑Rahman, and the verse, Woe that Day to the rejecters of truth!, in Sura al‑Mursalat shout out threateningly to mankind and the jinn across the centuries and the heavens and the earth, the unbelief, ingratitude, and wrongdoing of those who bring the universe and the heavens and earth to anger, spoil the results of the world's creation, and deny and respond slightingly to the majesty of divine rule, and violate the rights of all creatures. If a general lesson thus concerned with thousands of truths and of the strength of thousands of matters were repeated thousands of times, there would still be need for it and its awe-inspiring conciseness and beautiful, miraculous eloquence.
And, for example, the repetition of the phrase, Glory be unto You! There is no god but You: Mercy! Mercy! Save us, deliver us, preserve us, from Hell‑fire! in the supplication of the Prophet (PBUH) called al‑Jaushan al-Kabir, which is a true and authentic supplication of the Qur'an and a sort of summary proceeding from it. It contains the greatest truth and the most important of the three supreme duties of creatures in the face of dominicality, the glorification and praise of God and declaring Him to be All-Holy, and the most awesome question facing man, his being saved from eternal misery, and worship, the most necessary result of human impotence. So if it is repeated thousands of times, it is still few.
Thus, repetition in the Qur'an looks to principles like these. Sometimes on one page, even, with regard to the requirements of the position and the need for explanation and the demands of eloquence, it expresses the truth of divine unity perhaps twenty times, explicitly and by implication. It does not cause boredom but affords it a power and eagerness. It has been explained in the Risale‑i Nur with proofs how appropriate, fitting, and acceptable in the eyes of rhetoric are the repetitions in the Qur'an.
The wisdom and meaning of the Meccan and Medinan Suras in the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition being different in regard to eloquence, miraculousness, and detail and brevity is as follows:
In Mecca, the first line of those it was addressing and those opposed to it were the idolators of the Quraysh and untaught tribesmen, so a powerful and elevated rhetorical style was necessary, and a miraculous, convincing, persuasive conciseness. And to establish it, repetition was required. Thus, in most of the Meccan suras, repeating and expressing the pillars of belief and degrees in the affirmation of divine unity with a most powerful, elevated, and miraculous conciseness, it proved so powerfully the first creation and the Resurrection, God and the hereafter, not only in a single page, verse, sentence or word but sometimes in a letter, through grammatical devices like altering the positions of the words or sentences, making a word indefinite and omissions and inclusions, that the geniuses and authorities of the science of rhetoric met it with wonder.
The Risale‑i Nur and the Twenty-Fifth Word and its Addenda in particular, which prove in summary forty aspects of the Qur'an's miraculousness, and the Qur'anic commentary Ishārāt al-I'jāz from the Arabic Risale-i Nur, which in wondrous fashion proves the aspect of the Qur'an's miraculousness in its word-order, have demonstrated in fact that the Meccan suras and verses contain the highest styles of eloquence and the most elevated, concise miraculousness.
As for the Medinan suras and verses, since the front line of those they were addressing and who opposed them were the People of the Book, the Jews and Christians who affirmed God's existence, what was required by eloquence and guidance and for the discussion to correspond to the situation, was not explanation of the high principles of religion and pillars of belief in a simple, clear, and detailed style, but the explanation of particular matters in the Shari'a and its injunctions, which were the cause of dispute, and the origins and causes of secondary matters and general laws. Thus, in the Medinan suras and verses, through explanations in a detailed, clear, simple style, in the matchless manner of exposition peculiar to the Qur'an, it mostly mentions within those particular secondary matters, a powerful and elevated summary — a conclusion and proof, a sentence related to divine unity, belief, or the hereafter which makes the particular matter of the Shari'a universal and ensures that it conforms to belief in God. It illuminates the passage and elevates it.
The Risale‑i Nur has proved the qualities and fine points and elevated eloquence in the summaries and conclusions, which express divine unity and the hereafter, and come mostly at the end of verses, like: Indeed, God is powerful over all things. ∗ Verily God has knowledge of all things. ∗ And He is the Mighty, the Wise. ∗ And He is Exalted in Might, Most Compassionate. It explains in the Second Beam of the Second Light of the Twenty‑Fifth Word, ten out of the many fine points of those summaries and conclusions, and proves to the obstinate that they contain a supreme miracle.
Yes, in expounding those secondary matters of the Shari'a and laws of social life, the Qur'an at once raises the views of those it addresses to elevated, universal points, and transforming a simple style into an elevated one and instruction in the Shari'a to instruction in divine unity, it shows it is both a book of law and commands and wisdom, and a book of the tenets of faith and belief, and of invocation and reflection and summons. And by teaching many of the aims of Qur'anic guidance in every passage it displays a brilliant and miraculous eloquence different to that of the Meccan suras.
Sometimes in two words, for example, in Sustainer of All the Worlds and Your Sustainer, through the phrase, Your Sustainer, it expresses divine oneness, and through, Sustainer of All the Worlds, divine unity. It expresses the divine oneness within divine unity. In a single sentence even it sees and situates a particle in the pupil of an eye, and with the same verse, the same hammer, it situates the sun in the sky, making it an eye to the sky.
For example, after the verse, Who created the heavens and the earth, following the verse, He merges the night into the day, and He merges the day into the night, it says: And He has full knowledge of all that is in [men's] hearts. It says: “While creating the vast majestic earth and skies, He knows and regulates the sentiments of the heart.” With an exposition of this sort, it transforms that simple, unlettered level and particular discussion which takes into account the minds of ordinary people, into an elevated, attractive, and general conversation for the purpose of guidance.
A Question: “Sometimes an important truth is not apparent to a superficial view, and in some positions the connection is not known when a concise phrase expounding divine unity or a universal principle is drawn out from a minor, ordinary matter, and it is imagined to be a fault. For example, to mention the extremely elevated principle: And over all endued with knowledge, One Knowing when Joseph (Peace be upon him) seized his brother through subterfuge, does not appear to be in keeping with eloquence. What is its meaning and purpose? diye gayet yüksek bir düsturun zikri belâğatça münâsebeti görünmüyor. Bunun sırrı ve hikmeti nedir?”
The Answer: In most of the long and middle‑length suras, each of which is a small Qur'an, and in many pages and passages, not only two or three aims are followed, for by its nature the Qur'an comprises many books and teachings such as being a book of invocation, belief, and reflection, and a book of law, wisdom, and guidance. Thus, since it describes the majestic manifestations of divine dominicality and its encompassing all things, as a sort of recitation of the mighty book of the universe it follows many aims in every discussion and sometimes on a single page. While instructing in knowledge of God, the degrees in divine unity, and the truths of belief, with an apparently weak connection it opens another subject of instruction in the following passage, joining powerful connections to the weak one. It corresponds perfectly to the discussion and raises the level of eloquence.
A Second Question: “What is the wisdom in and purpose of the Qur'an proving and drawing attention to the hereafter, divine unity, and man's reward and punishment thousands of times, explicitly, implicitly, and allusively, and teaching them in every sura, on every page, and in every discussion?”
The Answer: It would not be excessive if the Qur'an were to draw attention to them thousands, or even millions of time, for it does so in order to teach man concerning the most momentous matters in the sphere of contingency, and the revolutions in the universe's history, and the most important, most significant, most awesome matters related to his duties, which — since he has undertaken the supreme trust and vicegerency of the earth will lead to either his perdition or everlasting happiness, and in order to remove his countless doubts and to smash his violent denials and obduracy, indeed, to make man affirm those awesome revolutions and submit to those most necessary essential matters which are as great as the revolutions. Indeed, those discussions in the Qur'an are read millions of times and they do not cause boredom, nor does the need cease. For example, since the verse, For those who believe and do righteous deeds are gardens beneath which rivers flow; They will dwell there forever, announces the good news of eternal happiness and "saves from the eternal extinction of death, which every moment shows itself to wretched man, both himself, and his world, and all those he loves, and gains for them an everlasting sovereignty if it were repeated thousands of millions of times and given the importance of the universe, it still would not be excessive nor lose its value.
Thus, in teaching innumerable, invaluable matters of this sort, and endeavouring to persuade, convince, and prove the occurrence of the awesome revolutions that will destroy the present form of the universe and transform it as though it were a house, the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition certainly draws attention to those matters thousands of times explicitly, implicitly, and allusively, and this is not excessive but renews the bounty which is like an essential need, the same as the essential needs of bread, medicine, air, and light are renewed.
And, for example, as is proved decisively in the Risale‑i Nur, the wisdom in the Qur'an repeating severely, angrily, and forcefully threatening verses like, But for those who reject (Allah) for them will be the Fire of Hell For wrongdoers there is a grievous penalty. is that man's unbelief is such a transgression against the rights of the universe and most creatures that it makes the heavens and earth furious and brings the elements to anger so that they deal blows on those wrongdoers with tempest and storm. According to the clear statement of the verses, And when they are cast therein, they will hear the [terrible] drawing‑in of its breath as it blazes forth ❋ Almost bursting with fury, Hell so rages at those iniquitous deniers that it almost disintegrates with fury.
Thus, through the wisdom of showing, not from the point of view of man's smallness and insignificance before such a general crime and boundless aggression, but the importance of the rights of the Monarch of Universe's subjects before the seriousness of the wrongful crime and the awesomeness of the unjust aggression, and the boundless ugliness in the unbelief and iniquity of those deniers — in accordance with the wisdom of showing this, if repeating in His decree most wrathfully and severely the crime and its punishment, thousands, millions, or even thousands of millions of times, it still would not be excessive and a fault, because for a thousand years thousands of millions of people have read such verses every day with total eagerness and need, never becoming bored.
Indeed, every day, all the time, for everyone, one world disappears and the door of a new world is opened. Through repeating There is no god but God a thousand times out of need and with longing in order to illuminate each of those transitory worlds, it makes it a lamp for each of those changing veils. In the same way, the Qur'an repeats them in truly meaningful fashion and in accordance with the wisdom of appreciating by reading it the penalties of those crimes and the severe threats of the Pre‑Eternal Monarch, which smash their obduracy, and of working to be saved from the rebellion of the soul, so as not to obscure in darkness those multiple, fleeting veils and renewed travelling universes, and not to make ugly their images which are reflected in the mirrors of their lives, and not to turn against them those guest views which may testify in favour of them. Even Satan would shudder at imagining to be out of place these powerful, severe, and repeated threats of the Qur'an. It shows that the torments of Hell are pure justice for the deniers who do not heed them.
And, for example, by repeating many times the stories of Moses (Peace be upon him), which contain many instances of wisdom and benefits, like the story of his staff, and of the other prophets (Peace be upon them), it demonstrates that the prophethoods of all the other prophets are a proof of the veracity of the messengership of Muhammad (PBUH), and that one who does not deny all of them cannot in truth deny his messengership. For this purpose, and since everyone does not always have the time or capability to read the whole Qur' an, it repeats those stories as it does the main pillars of belief, so as to make all the long and middle‑length suras each like a small Qur'an. To repeat them then is not excessive, it is required by eloquence and teaches that the question of Muhammad (PBUH) is the greatest question of mankind and the most crucial matter of the universe.
It has been demonstrated decisively in the Risale‑i Nur with many proofs and indications that by giving the highest position to the person of Muhammad in the Qur'an and including him in four pillars of belief and holding Muhammad is the Messenger of God equal to the pillar of There is no god but God, shows that the messengership of Muhammad (PBUH) is the greatest truth in the universe, and the person of Muhammad is the most noble of creatures, and his universal collective personality and sacred rank, known as the Muhammadan Reality, is the most radiant Sun of the two worlds. His worthiness for this extraordinary position has also been proved. One of these proofs is this: According to the principle of the cause is like the doer, since the equivalent of all the good works performed by all his community at all times enters his book of good works; and the light which he brought illuminates all the truths of the cosmos; and he makes grateful not only the jinn, mankind, and animate beings, but also the universe and the heavens and earth; and since the supplications of plants, offered through the tongue of disposition, and the supplications of animals offered through the tongue of their innate need, and the righteous of his (PBUH) community every day bequeathe to him their benedictions and supplications for mercy and spiritual gains, whose millions — and together with spirit beings, even, millions of millions — of unrejectable supplications are accepted, as we actually witness with our eyes; and since each of the three hundred thousand letters of the Qur'an yield from a hundred to a thousand merits, only with regard to the recitation of the Qur'an by all his community, infinite numbers of lights enter the book of his deeds; — the One All‑Knowing of the Unseen saw and knew that the Muhammadan (PBUH) Reality, which is his collective personality, would in the future be like a Tuba-tree of Paradise, and in accordance with that rank accorded him supreme importance in the Qur'an, and in His Decree showed the following of him and receiving of his intercession through adhering to his Illustrious Sunna to be one of the most important matters concerning man. And from time to time He took into consider- ation his human personality and human state in his early life, which was a seed of the majestic Tuba-tree.
Thus, since the truths repeated in the Qur'an hold such value, all sound natures will testify that its repetitions represent a powerful and extensive miracle. Unless, that is to say, a person is afflicted with some sickness of the heart and malady of the conscience due to the plague of materialism, and is included under the rule, A man denied the light of the sun due to his diseased eye, His mouth denied the taste of water due to sickness.
Two Additions, Which Form a Conclusion to the Tenth Topic
The First
Twelve years ago I heard that a fearsome, obdurate atheist had devised a conspiracy against the Qur'an, which was to have it translated. He said: “The Qur'an should be translated so that everyone can know just what it is.” That is, he hatched a dire plan so that everyone would see its unnecessary repetitions and its translation would be read in its place.
However, the irrefutable proofs of the Risale‑i Nur prove decisively that it is impossible to do a true translation of the Qur'an, and other languages cannot preserve its qualities and fine points in place of the grammatical language of Arabic. Man's trite and partial translations cannot be substituted for the miraculous and comprehensive words of the Qur'an, every letter of which yields from ten to a thousand merits; they may not be read in its place in mosques. Spreading everywhere, the Risale-i Nur foiled this fearsome plan. I surmise that it was due to the idiotic and lunatic attempts of dissemblers to extinguish the Sun of the Qur'an on account of Satan by puffing at it like silly children having taken lessons from that atheist, that I was inspired to write this Tenth Matter while under great constraint and in a most distressing situation. But I do not know the reality of the situation since I have been unable to meet with others.
The Second Addition
After our release from Denizli Prison, I was staying on the top floor of the famous Şehir Hotel. The subtle and graceful dancing of the leaves, branches, and trunks of the many poplar trees in the fine gardens opposite me at the touching of the breeze, each with a rapturous and ecstatic motion like a circle of dervishes, pained my heart, sorrowful and melancholy at being parted from my brothers and remaining alone. Suddenly the seasons of autumn and winter came to mind and a heedless‑ ness overcame me. I so pitied those graceful poplars and living creatures swaying with perfect joyousness that my eyes filled with tears. With this reminder of the separations and non-being beneath the ornamented veil of the universe, grief at a world-full of deaths and separations pressed down on me.
Then suddenly, the Light the Muhammadan (PBUH) Reality had brought came to my assistance and transformed my grief and sorrow into joy. Indeed, I am eternally grateful to the Muhammadan Being (PBUH) for the assistance and consolation which alleviated my situation at that time, only a single instance of the boundless effulgence of that Light for me, as for all believers and everyone. It was like this:
By showing those blessed and delicate creatures to be without function or purpose, and their motion to be not out of joy but as though trembling on the brink of non‑existence and separation and tumbling into nothingness, that heedless view so touched the feelings in me that desire immortality, love beautiful things, and feel compassion for fellow-creatures and life that it transformed the world into a sort of hell and my mind into an instrument of torture. Then, just at that point, the Light Muhammad (Peace and blessings by upon him) had brought as a gift for mankind raised the veil; it showed in place of extinction, non-being, nothingness, purposeless, futility, and separations, meanings and instances of wisdom to the number of the leaves of the poplars, and as is proved in the Risale-i Nur, results and duties which may be divided into three sorts:
The First Sort looks to the All‑Glorious Maker's names. For example, if a master craftsman makes a wondrous machine, everyone applauds him, saying: “What wonders God has willed! Blessed be God!” Similarly, the machine congratulates the craftsman through the tongue of its disposition by displaying perfectly the results intended from it. All living beings and all things are such machines; they applaud their Craftsman through their glorifications.
The Second Sort of the Instances of Wisdom looks to the views of living creatures and conscious beings. Beings each become an agreeable object of study, a book of knowledge. When they depart from the Manifest World and withdraw to the World of the Unseen, they leave their meanings in the sphere of existence in the minds of conscious beings and their forms in their memories, and on the tablets in the World of Similitudes, and in the notebooks of the World of the Unseen.
That is, they leave behind an apparent existence, but gain many existences pertaining to meaning, the Unseen, and knowledge. Yes, since God exists and His knowledge encompasses everything, from the point of view of reality in the world of believers there is surely no non‑being, extinction, nothingness, annihilation, and transitori- ness, while the unbelievers' world is full of non-existence, separation, nothingness, and transience. This is taught by the saying, which is on every- one's lips, “For those for whom God exists, everything exists; and for those for whom He does not exist, nothing exists; for them there is nothing.”
In Short: Just as at the time of death belief saves man from eternal extinction, so it saves everyone's private world from the darknesses of annihilation and nothingness. Unbelief, however, and especially if it is absolute unbelief, sends man and his private world to non‑existence with death, and casts him into infernal darknesses. It transforms the pleasures of life into bitter poisons. Let the ears ring of those who prefer the life of this world to that of the hereafter! Let them come and find a solution for this, or else let them enter belief and be saved from these dreadful losses!
Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All‑Knowing, All-Wise.
From your brotherwho is in much need of your prayers and misses you greatly,Saîd Nursî
A Letter From Husrev to Üstad Bediuzzaman Saîd Nursî Concerning the Tenth Topic
My Dear and Esteemed Master,
Endless thanks be to Almighty God that we have received A Flower of Emirdağ, the Tenth Topic of the Fruits of Denizli, which has alleviated our grief at our two months' separation and our distress at having been unable to communicate, and enumerates the virtues of the repetition of the Qur'an's glorious, august, merciful and compassionate verses, which infuse our hearts with fresh life and breathe into our spirits a fresh breeze, and explains the necessity, significance, and reason for the repetitions, and is also a brilliant defence of the Risale‑i Nur. In truth, the more we receive the scent of this flower, which is so deserving of praise and appreciation, the more it intensifies the yearning of our spirits for it. Just as how in the face of the difficulties of our nine months' imprisonment, the nine Topics of The Fruits of Belief showed their beauty by contributing to our release, so by pointing out the wonders of the concise miraculousness of the Qur'an, the Tenth Topic, their Flower, again exhibit their beauty.
Yes, my beloved Master, like the superb, delicate beauty of the rose makes the beholder forget the thorns on its stem, so this luminous Flower has made us forget the distress of those nine months; it has made it as nothing.
The manner of its writing does not cloy those studying it; it astounds the mind. Of the many beauties it contains, by showing fully the value of the repetitions in the face of the treachery of 'simplifying' the Qur'an in people's eyes by translating it, it has set forth its universal loftiness.
The Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition being proved to be fresh as though newly revealed, its followers adhering strongly to it every century and their perfect obedience to its commands and prohibitions; and its severe, awesome, and repeated threats to the oppressor in every century, and its compassionate and merciful regard for the oppressed; and among its threats which look to this century, the tyrants being made to cry out continuously for the last six or seven years at the heavenly hell which recalls a sample of deepest space; and the Risale‑i Nur students being at the head of the oppressed this century; and their being delivered from their plights, personal and general, truly like the prophets of old found deliverance; and its pointing out the blows dealt to the irreligious, its opponents, and hellish torments; and the Flower being concluded with two fine and subtle addenda; all these prompted this wanting student of yours, Husrev, to joyfully offer endless thanks. As I have mentioned to my dear Master, I have never before in my life experienced the joy and happiness this beautiful Flower gives me, as I have told my brothers on numerous occasions.
Almighty God placed on their feeble shoulders a great and heavy load. May God be pleased with our beloved Master and may He make them smile eternally by lightening their load. Amen!
Yes, my dear Master! We are forever pleased at God, the Qur'an, His Beloved, the Risale‑i Nur, and at you, our beloved Master, who is herald of the Qur'an. We in no way regret our following you. We harbour absolutely no intention in our hearts to do harm; we seek only God and His pleasure. As time passes, we increase our longing to meet God within the bounds of His pleasure. To refer to Almighty God without exception those who have done us evil and to forgive them, and to do good to everyone including those tyrants is a mark of Islam established in the hearts of the Risale-i Nur students. We offer endless thanks to God, Who proclaims this without our asking.
Your very faulty student,Husrev