impotent at this time?” If they are friends, they experience disappointment, and if opponents, find their opposition justified.

S a i d N u r s i

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My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

In my view your prison fruits31 are as agreeable and valuable as fruits of Paradise. They confirm the great hopes I had for you and what I had claimed, as well as demonstrating beautifully the power of solidarity. As when three or four ‘alifs’32 are put side by side, those blessed pens uniting while suffering severe oppression showed a value of three or four hundred. The state of mind which preserves your unity in these confused conditions proves what I said yesterday. Yes —there is no error in the comparison— just as according to the Sunnis the position of a great saint regarding service of Islam is lesser than that of a Companion of the Prophet (PBUH), so a sincere brother who forgoes the pleasures of the soul in serving belief at this time and practising humility preserves solidarity and unity, is afforded a position higher than that of a saint. This was the conclusion I came to and you confirm it constantly. May God be eternally pleased with you. Amen!

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My Dear, Loyal Brothers!

The Fruits of Belief is most important and very valuable. It is my hope that in time it will achieve great triumphs. It seems you have thoroughly understood its value, for you have not left this place of study without lessons. On my own account I say that if the fruit of all this trouble and expense is only this treatise and Müdâfaa Risalesi (The Defence Speeches), and being together with you in the same place, it reduces to nothing the expense and the trouble, and even if I were to suffer this calamity ten times over, it would still be cheap.