Chairman of the Court!

Three matters have been made the basis of the Indictment:

The First is a political society. I cite as witnesses all the Risale-i Nur students here and those who have met with me, and those who read or write out the Risale-i Nur; you may ask them. I have not said to anyone that we were going to set up a political society or a Naqshbandi association. I always told them that we were going to work to save belief. No society has been mentioned among us apart from the sacred community of Islam, which includes all believers and has more than three hundred million members. Through the brotherhood of all believers and because of our service of the Qur’an, we found ourselves in the ‘Party of the Qur’an’ (Hizb al-Qur’an), which in the Qur’an is called the Hizb Allah. If this is what is meant in the Indictment, we admit to it wholeheartedly and with pride. But if something else is meant, we know nothing of it!

The Second Matter: As is stated in the Indictment and confirmed by the report of the Kastamonu police, some books like the Treatise On Islamic Dress (Tesettür Risalesi) and The Six Attacks (Hücumat-i Sitte) and its addendum, were found in nailed boxes under piles of firewood and coal in a condition that would in no way allow them to be published. They had been scrutinized and criticized by Eskishehir Court, a light sentence had been served for them, and they had most certainly been treated as private. Now, reading false meanings into some of their sentences, it wants to take us back nine years and charge us again with a crime the penalty of which we have already served.

The Third Matter: In several places in the Indictment, phrases have been used which express possibility rather than actual occurrences, like “he may breach state security or he may harm it.” It is possible for everyone to commit murder, but are they to be charged with it due to the possibility?

Prisoner

S a i d Nu r s i

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