[Halil Çaliskan’s Defence]

To Afyon Criminal Court

Respected Judges of the Court!

In the indictment read to me by the prosecution my service of my Master is cited as a serious crime. My Master came to our town in 1944 and resided there for four years. For forty years he has given up all the pleasures and comforts of the world and worked only for belief and Islam and to save the eternal happiness of Muslims, particularly in our country, on the way of belief and the hereafter. With the Risale-i Nur’s teachings on belief and morality, he has constructed a barrier against the noxious ideas of communism, which are causing great harm to our religion, and particularly among our nation, which is Muslim and Turkish. The material and spiritual harm it causes is excessive. He prevents too similar things harmful to the nation. Does my proud service on and off for three years of the Risale-i Nur and my Master, who is worthy of being applauded by all the scholars in the world, constitute a crime in the view of justice? It is also shown to be a crime that I left being a tailor to perform that service. But if I was to sacrifice my very life for the Risale-i Nur, which is truth and reality and a true commentary on the Qur’an, and for my Master, should it be deemed a serious offence and myself known as a traitor to my country? I ask you.

Respected Chairman of the Court! I read some parts of the Risale-i Nur and I wrote some out. Endless thanks be to Almighty God that due to the yearning I had long felt for knowledge, I began to profit from these treatises. Although I was closely concerned with them, I saw nothing in them about inciting the people against the Government, or disturbing public order, or founding a secret society. Nor did I hear anything from my Master about being the Mahdi or Regenerator of Religion, or anything about such movements. The sole aim of the Risale-i Nur and our Master and us students is to serve Islam, and particularly the Turkish nation, with respect to belief and morality. Certainly, the Risale-i Nur and its servants should not be harassed because of this service. Our sole aim and purpose was this and nothing else. And we performed this duty for God’s pleasure. In any event we could not exploit such a sacred