student of Said Nursi, whom we hold with the highest esteem as our Master, and who with these works has rectified our conduct religiously and advanced us, and has rejected it when we called him “Regenerator of Religion.” I can testify categorically and absolutely certainly that neither he himself nor his works nor his students have in any way attempted to breach state security. One of the matters concerning which we have been charged is the money obtained from sale of the books, concerning which Isparta Court was fully aware and was unable to find us guilty and sentence us. For just as we were in no need to secure our livelihoods through sale of the books, so we used the money obtained from their sale to buy the duplicating machine, paper, and ink. There is no possibility of this service, which we performed purely for God’s sake with pure intention, being a crime, and therefore request of your high court and consciences that the copies of the Risale-i Nur be returned.

Prisoner, Tahiri

***

[Zübeyir’s Defence]

To Afyon Criminal Court

I am charged with founding a secret society and breaching state security. As I shall set out below, since you will form the certain opinion that I have committed no such crime, I reject the charge here and now. Yes, I can say gratefully and outright that I am a Risale-i Nur student. It would be contrary to the virtue the Risale-i Nur has taught me to deny it, and I cannot commit such a misdemeanour. A person who reads the Risale-i Nur would not conceal it. On the contrary, he would proclaim it proudly and fearlessly. For it contains not a single word or sentence that demands hesitation.

I tried to describe the Risale-i Nur’s value in forty to fifty pages.