monopoly of power, the RPP embarked on a programme of mass education in the principles of the `Kemalist Revolution. Opening thousands of `People's Houses', `People's Rooms', and later `Village Institutes' in every comer of the country, these were the means of instilling the six principles, particularly secularism and nationalism, and Western culture, into the Turkish people at grass roots level. The Qur'an, and traditional, Islamic, culture were to go, everybody had to identify with the new order. Eyes had to be turned from the Islamic past to a Godless future. If they could not impose their atheistic principles on many of the people of mature years, the young and the generations of the future could be made to accept them. It is said that the underlying intention of these programmes was the eventual establishment of communism or socialism in 'Turkey.
Thus, the above is a brief description of the main course of the `Kemalist revolutions', and prevailing atmosphere and conditions in 'Turkey during the twenty-five years of Bediuzzaman's exile, first in Barla and then in other places. And while it does not adequately express the tyranny, oppression, and injustice which accompanied these changes, it is hoped that as the story of Bediuzzaman's struggle in the face of them unfolds, the magnitude of that struggle and his success through the Risale-i Nur in overcoming these ill-gotten designs on the Qur'an and Islam will become clear.

• The Risale-i Nur

Within a month or two of arriving in Barla, Bediuzzaman wrote a treatise proving the Resurrection of the Dead and existence of the Hereafter; it was the first part of the Risale-i Nur to be written. This was followed by a succession of others, one of the most significant being. `The Miraculousness of the Qur’an', which proves the very points by which its enemies had attempted to discredit the Qur'an to be the sources of its "eloquence" and "miraculousness". By 1929 the first collection of the treatises, thirty-two in number, was completed, the thirty-third was added later, and Bediuzzaman gave it the name of Sözler, The Words. Thus began Bediuzzaman's silent struggle against the forces of irreligion.
The way the Risale-i Nur was composed was unique, just as its form and manner of exposition are unique. It was inspired directly by the Qur'an at this time when foremost in Turkey the Qur'an faced severe threats, and the greater part of the Islamic world too