comparisons show clearly the differences between them, besides seeing and learning to `read' the universe as the means to knowledge of God rather than casting it into oblivion, the main difference being that while in Sufism it is the `heart' that is the means to reaching reality through illumination and wonder-working, the Risale-i Nur addresses the reason as well as the heart and other subtle faculties. The conditions of the time demand this. With its proofs based on the modem understanding of the universe, it saves belief and raises it to a level of certainty whereby it can withstand all the doubts and assaults made against belief and religion at the present time. So also, Bediuzzaman writes, the Risale-i Nur does not only teach "with the feet of the reason" like the works of the Ulema, the religious scholars, "...rather, proceeding with the feet of the blending and combining of the reason and the heart, and the mutual assistance of the spirit and other subtle faculties, it flies to the highest peaks; it ascends to where, not the feet, but the eyes even of the philosophy which attacks (religion] cannot reach; and it shows the truths of belief to eyes that are blind even."
Bediuzzaman found that The Supreme Sign with its thirty-three degrees proving the Divine existence and Unity and Hizbü’l-Nuriye in particular illuminated the heart and other inner faculties. He wrote that when he read them, his "spirit, imagination, and heart expanded and unfolded to such a degree that when I gave the testimony `There is no god but God' that each degree declares, I was aware of the Divine Unity on a vast scale as though that universal tongue was mine. Thus, The Supreme Sign can impart lights of belief to the spirit like the sun. I formed the unshakeable conviction, and I saw it."

• `Regenerator of Religion'

In connection with its unparalleled role in strengthening and revitalizing belief in this century of severe attacks on religion, Bediuzzaman and the Risale-i Nur came to be recognized by many as fulfilling the requirements of Regenerator of Religion, promised by the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) in the well-known Hadith: "At the start of each century Almighty God will send someone to this