On one of the early days of the first summer he was in Barla, Bediuzzaman was walking alone in the surrounding country when the skies darkened and just such rain started to fall. Finding nowhere to shelter in the mountains, he made his way back to Barla drenched to the skin. On entering the village, he slowly climbed the narrow streets to the common water tap with his by now ripped black rubber shoes in his hand and white woollen stockings soaked in mud. There, a group of the villagers were gathered together chatting. One of them, seeing the `Hoca' in this sorry and lonely state, parted from the group and came up behind Bediuzzaman.
Sensing there was someone behind him, Bediuzzaman turned. and seeing Süleyman as he was called, said to him: "Come, my brother!" Süleyman hurried forward, and taking the tom and muddy shoes. washed them in the trough, then together they climbed on up the hill to Bediuzzaman's house. This Süleyman attended to Bediuzzaman's needs with complete willingness and faithfulness for the next eight years. Bediuzzaman called him `Siddik Süleyman', Süleyman the True. The twenty-eighth Word, about Paradise, was written in his garden. To this day it is known as the Paradise Garden.
Bediuzzaman continued to suffer from bad health all the time he was in Barla. It was also his habit to eat only just sufficient to keep body and soul together. This had always been his practice and had often been noted by those who knew him. Generally a small bowl of soup and a small piece of bread. The first four years he was in Barla, his soup came from Muhacir Hafiz Ahmed`s house, brought by his two seven and eight year old children, who were ‘hafiz’ es of the Qur'an like himself. Bediuzzaman would always without fail give them the price of the soup in return, ten kurus in those days. The four ears following this it was provided by another of the villagers, Abdullah Çavus.
Particularly the first years Bediuzzaman was in Barla, he was very much alone, and he described this isolation in several letters, two of which are given below. However he also raised a lot of interest in the area, and on occasion received visits from local people from all