My blessed Master considers himself to be a Risale-i Nur student like us. This is what he claims. This may be seen easily in many of his letters, which you have in your possession, and especially in the Treatise On Sincerity, which is included in The Staff of Moses Collection (Asâ-yi Mûsa). He repeatedly says in his letters: “Enduring truths like the sun or diamonds cannot be constructed on transient persons, and transient persons cannot lay claim to those precious truths.” So to accuse him of boasting and of claiming to be the Mahdi and Regenerator of Religion is not something anyone of intelligence would do. For if you read carefully and fairly all his treatises and letters, you will form the certain conviction that the like of this profoundly learned scholar of the times has not been encountered for centuries. He is a saver of belief the like of whom will not be encountered, who at a time the red sparks of communism are licking the eaves of our houses is a patriot far more useful and productive for the country and nation than an army. I am regretful that I was not earlier the student of such a work and the esteemed Master who wrote it.

Respected Judges of the Court!

With the idea of performing a sacred service for the nation, so that like me the sons of this land might profit from the Risale-i Nur, whose endless benefits I myself had experienced, I had printed A Guide For Youth (Gençlik Rehberi) in Eskishehir. I ask you: how contrary is it to justice that while service of the Risale-i Nur, which is a true and irrefutable Qur’anic commentary, and thus to belief of an unfortunate like myself should have met with praise and appreciation, and encouragement, we received this severe treatment?

I request of your just court that you give the decision for the Risale-i Nur’s freedom, for it is the sustenance of our spirits, means of our salvation, and key to our eternal happiness. If the circumstances, some of which I have mentioned and enumerated above constitute a crime in your view, I shall accept with total resignation the harshest penalty you can inflict.

Prisoner, Emirdagli Ceylan Çaliskan,

Afyon Prison

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