sometimes translated as `liberals', but by which he meant supporters of `hürriyet-i Seri'ye', the `Freedom in accordance with the Seriat' the establishment of which he had worked for during the Constitutional Period in the early decades of the century, and which path he hoped they would take. That is to say, Bediuzzaman supported gradual change and the gradual achievement of what he believed was the inevitable future supremacy of Islam and the Qur'an. He saw `democracy' as a licit means of achieving this, and attached the greatest importance to the maintenance of the status quo and public order and security. As he frequently pointed out, despite all the provocation and attempts to implicate and involve Risale-i Nur Students in disturbances by those who made it their business to disrupt order, none had been recorded. The way of the Risale-i Nur and its Students was service to belief and the Qur'an by peaceful means and "positive action". It was peaceful struggle or `cihad of the word' (cihad-i mânevi) in the face of the moral and spiritual depredations of atheism and unbelief, to instill certain belief in hearts and minds. While in many Muslim countries violent change had been brought about by revolution in which thousands of innocents were killed, the way of the Risale-i Nur was "the positive service of belief which results in the preservation of public order and stability." The destruction caused by atheism and unbelief was of a moral, spiritual or non-material nature (manevi), so internal cihad against it had to be of the same nature; it was to work for the spread and strengthening of belief with sincerity and "not to interfere in God's business" that is, not to be precipitate and expect immediate results; leave the results to Almighty God.

• Emirdag

On being released from Afyon Prison in the early morning of 20 September ,1949, Bediuzzaman was escorted by two police officers to a house in the town which had been rented by some of his students, released earlier than himself. Among these were Hüsrev and Zübeyir Gündüzalp. Again under close surveillance, with two or three policemen permanently posted at the house who took down the names of all visitors, Bediuzzaman remained here around two