from them, the numerical value of which is 1316, it overturned his ideas and changed the direction of his interest. He understood that he should make all the various sciences he had learnt steps by which to understand the Qur'an and prove its truths, and that the Qur'an alone should be his aim, the purpose of his learning, and the object of his life. Thus, the Qur'an's miraculous ness became his guide, teacher, and master. But unfortunately, due to many deceiving obstacles in that period of youth, he did not in fact take up the duty. It was a while later that he awoke with the clash and clamour of war. Then that constant idea sprang to life; it began to emerge and be realized."

Thus, as this passage states, the explicit threats of the British Colonial Secretary to the Qur'an and Islamic world caused a revolution in Bediuzzaman's ideas, clarifying them and setting him in the direction he would now follow. The threats caused him to declare: "I shall prove and demonstrate to the world that the Qur'an is an undying, inextinguishable Sun!" Using the knowledge he had acquired to prove its truths, he would defend the Qur'an against the deliberate efforts to discredit it and corrupt the Muslim community. In a letter he wrote in 1955, Bediuzzaman stated that he found two means of doing this, one was the Medresetu'z-Zehra, his eastern university which took him to Istanbul and even to an audience with Sultan Abdulhamid, and the second was the Risale-i Nur. But this second means only became realized with the emergence of the New Said subsequent to the First World War. Until that time, Bediuzzaman was both actively involved with the compelling events of the times and for the most part served the cause of Islam through active participation in social and political matters, and also, as shall be described in a later chapter, he was preoccupied with `human' science and philosophy, and hoped to follow his aim through them.