to open an Islamic university in Van called the Medresetü’z-Zehra, resembling al-Azhar University. I even laid its foundations. On the outbreak of the First War, I gathered together my students and took part in the War as the Commander of a militia force. I fought on the Caucasian Front and was taken prisoner at Bitlis. I escaped from where I was being held and returned to Istanbul. I was appointed a member of the Darü’l-Hikmeti’l-Islâmiye. During the Armistice period, I worked against the occupying forces with all my might, and on the victory of the National Government, in appreciation I was summoned by it to Ankara, where I repeated my proposal to open the university in Van.

The life I had lived up to then had been that of a patriot. I had wanted to serve religion by means of politics. But from then on, I turned my back on the world completely, and in my own words, buried the ‘Old Said’. As the ‘New Said’, devoting myself entirely to the hereafter, I withdrew from the world. Retiring from social life, I went into seclusion on the hill Yusha Tepesi in Istanbul. Later on I went to Bitlis and Van, in my native region, where I lived in a cave. I remained alone with the pleasures of my spirit and conscience. That is to say, taking as my principle “I seek refuge with God from the Devil and politics,” I plunged into the depths of my own spiritual world. Passing my time studying the Qur’an of Mighty Stature, I started to live as the ‘New Said.’ But the manifestations of Divine Determining sent me as an exile to other places. Then, getting those with me to write down the inspirations born in my heart from the effulgence of the Qur’an, a number of treatises came to be written. I gave them the name of the Risale-i Nur. This name was born in my conscience, for truly they were based on the light of the Qur’an. I believe absolutely certainly that this was Divine inspiration, and I said to those who were acting as scribes: “Barakallah!” For it is not possible to begrudge others the light of belief.

Exchanging copies, these treatises of mine were written out by a number of believers. I formed the opinion that they were driven on by God in order to strengthen the injured belief of Muslims. I understood that just as no believer could obstruct this Divine prompting, so I considered it a religious obligation to encourage it. Anyway these treatises, which now number one hundred and thirty, consist entirely of discussions of the hereafter and belief, and contain no deliberate mention of politics or this world. Nevertheless, they