behave exactly like Tahiri in Tahiri’s ward, which is his medrese, and should encourage his students in place of the those that have been released with lessons from the Qur’an and Risale-i Nur, and with writing out its treatises. The notebooks of the new students, which he sent me yesterday, turned my sorry state into one of joy. “All praise be to God,” I declared.

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This time, the assault is on a very large scale. Due to their groundless suspicions the Prime Minister and Cabinet attacked us in accordance with some plan. According to information I have received, and numerous signs, due to the false reports and intrigues of covert dissemblers, they have shown us to be closely connected to the Caliphate movement and a secret community belonging to the Naqshbandi Order, indeed to be leading it, and have caused the Government to be greatly alarmed about us. For evidence they point out the large collections of the Risale-i Nur being bound in Istanbul and published throughout the Islamic world and being well-received everywhere, and have scared the Government, and unjustifiably turned the jealous official hojas and suspicious officials against us. They reckoned that numerous documents and plentiful evidence would be brought to light, and that in the vein of the Old Said, I would be unable to endure it and would create a disturbance. But endless thanks be to Almighty God, He reduced the calamity a thousandfold. In all their searches they found nothing to connect us to any secret community or society. We have no connection so that they should have found it. The prosecutor was therefore compelled to resort to lies and slander, giving things the wrong meaning, and making allegations about things that were not offences. Since the truth is this, we and the Risale-i Nur have been delivered from ninety-nine per cent of the calamity. In which case, we should not complain, but offering endless thanks and beseeching Almighty God, await the completion of this manifestation of Divine favour in patience. And with the lessons of the Risale-i Nur, we should console those needy and eager people who constantly enter and depart from this place of study.

S a i d N u r s i

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