and watched by a number of gendarmes. Later when the burden of work became too heavy, the Çaliskan's eventually found a light horse-drawn carriage for him, called a phaeton, which Bediuzzaman then travelled in, usually taking just one student with him as driver. It became a familiar sight in the area. Despite his preoccupation and the efforts to isolate him, Bediuzzaman always concerned himself with all those he encountered. The children of Emirdag and surrounding villages would flock round him and run after the phaeton whenever they saw it, shouting: "Hoca Dede!" "Grandpa Hoca!" Bediuzzaman always acted very kindly towards them, saying that they were the Risale-i Nur Students of the future. And just as he captivated them, so too he drew the people from every class that he met while driving round the country. He would tell the shepherds, workers, farmers, or whomever he met: "This work you do is of great service to others; so long as you perform the prescribed prayers five times a day, all of it will be like worship and benefit you in the hereafter."
The guidance and close concern Bediuzzaman offered these people had considerable effect, for large numbers of those children did become Students of the Risale-i Nur in the future and serve the cause of religion and the Qur'an, and so also in addition to the people in the countryside who benefited, in Emirdag itself the honesty and uprightness of the shopkeepers, traders, and craftsmen became well-known. A plainclothes policeman sent to spy on Bediuzzaman in 1947, even, remarked on this, when, while buying some butter, he saw the shopkeeper weigh the paper separately. In his words, "It was Bediuzzaman that made Emirdag like this!"


• The Risale-i Nur
• !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If Hafiz Mustafa had written to Sadik Bey from Denizli that Bediuzzaman had left in good health, Bediuzzaman described himself as being extremely ill, weak and wretched when a short time later he was settled in his house in Emirdag in the month of Ramazan. It was poison that caused him to write to his students in Isparta, which he so loved his first letter from Emirdag, that it was