It has also become apparent from this incident that being attached to the Risale-i Nur holds much importance and has a high price. If he is sensible, one who gives this price and takes up a position of striving against irreligion in the name of the Islamic world, will not abandon this way which has the value of diamonds, and embrace other ways.

Question: What is the reason for the great concentration of arguments concern­ing the pillars of belief in the Risale-i Nuri Our former teachers taught us that a great saint's belief is similar to that of an ordinary believer.

The Answer: Both in The Supreme Sign, and in the Second Point of the Third Matter of the Twenty-Eighth Letter, is the statement of Imam Rabbani, the Regenerator of the Second Millenium, which says: "The end and most important aim of all the sufi paths is the unfolding of the truths of belief. Clarity and certainty in a single matter of belief is preferable to thousands of illuminations and instances of wonder-working." Also, the part of the letter right at the end of The Supreme Sign, taken from the Lahika (additional) letters, and the explana­tions of all of it, answer the question, as does the Tenth Topic of The Fruits of Belief , which is about repetition in the Quran, and the fact that the wis­dom of the frequently repeated emphasis on divine unity and the pillars of belief in the Qur'an is present in just the same way in the Risale-i Nur, which is a true commentary on it.

Also, all the parts of the Risale-i Nur that explain the nature of certain, affirmative belief, imitative belief, abbreviated belief, and detailed belief, and demonstrate that belief will withstand and remain unshaken in the face of all assaults, misgivings, and doubts, form such an answer to Küçük Ali's letter that no need remains for me to add to them.

Second Aspect: Belief is not restricted to a brief, imitative assent. It has degrees and unfolds from being seed-like to being like a mighty date-palm, and from being like the sun that appears in the mir­ror you hold to its reflection on the surface of the sea, and even the sun in the sky. Belief is related to the above number of truths, to thousands of divine names, and to the cosmic truths pertaining to the pil­lars of belief. It is for this reason that those who have penetrated to the realities have stated unanimously that "the greatest of all sciences, knowledge, and human attainments and perfections are belief and the detailed sacred knowledge of God based on proof which springs from certain, affirmative belief."