As for us, in the face of this sublime truth which we perceive, we are inca¬pable of expressing our gratitude to mankind's saviour and the dominical official overspreading millions of human beings. But still, through your prayers and blessings, we have understood that we are unable to repay even the amount we benefit from a single line of this wondrous work, which is a miracle of the Noble Qur'an. We therefore only beseech Almighty God as follows:
"O Lord! Preserve our beloved, kindly Master from the machinations of his tryannical enemies, for through his incomparable work, the Risale-i Nur, he has delivered us from everlasting imprisonment and offered us the key to a treasury of truths that may gain for us happiness in an eternal realm. Always grant him success in his service of the Qur'an and belief, and bestow good health on him, and well-being, and long life!"
Dear Master! We, a number of young people at university who have received the supreme bounty of studying the Risale-i Nur attentively and reflectively, believe, not just conjecturally or through having a good intention but as a result of close study and investigation, and with unshakeable certainty based on knowledge, that Bediuzzaman will succeed in freeing the face of the earth from irreligion and atheism, which this age has given rise to appalling savagery never ever witnessed before.
This conviction of ours is not merely simplemindedness or a surmise, but based on reasoned evidence and investigation. Even those opposed to it will assent to this fact with all their hearts. Kindly continue to pray for us so that we may devote ourselves to the service of the Qur'an and belief, and study the Risale-i Nur never wasting a moment of our time, and write it out, and acquire complete sincerity.
In the name of the Nur Students in Istanbul University,
Muhsin
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. And from Him do we seek help!
[The preface to Bediuzzaman's official biography, written by an eminent scholar living in Madina al-Munawvvara.]
In the preface I wrote about the great Iqbal, I said: "When reading about the lives of great people, and lofty memories of them, and stories, one feels one has entered another world. One's heart is seared by the pure fire of love and is enveloped in a divine effusion. History sometimes tells us of men so great others seem small in comparison.
When recalling the great who honoured history,
The spirit rises to broad worlds from the earth;
It is flooded with a thousands scents
From the rose gardens of the Paradise of the past. This profound truth overwhelms me in all its splendour as I write this preface. For the work I am presenting to our esteemed readers with all sin¬cerity and good will, belongs to the conqueror of hearts, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, every stage of whose long and fruitful life of nearly a century wit¬nessed thousands of wonders; and to his Risale-i Nur Collection, which consists of one hundred and thirty parts; and to the Risale-i Nur Students, whose fine conduct and virtues, sincerity and good will, belief and knowl¬edge, offer worthy examples not only to one age group in one country, but to the whole world of humanity.
The introduction to a book is said to summarize the work, but how could the contents of this mighty book, every topic of which is too pro¬found and comprehensive to be contained in a single independent work, be contained in the few pages of the introduction?
Never in anything I have written, either poetry or prose, have I felt myself to be at such a loss and so bewildered. So those who will read this work with real pleasure, divine happiness, and joyous excitement, will be amazed to see that from his childhood Bediuzzaman was a distinguished scholar whose education was exceptional and who throughout his life was the recipient of divine manifestations.
Having studied this great human being in the minutest detail, as well as his works and students, and having lived in that world of light with my spirit, mind, and senses, I learnt through some lines of an ancient Arab poet that he expressed a most profound truth: "It is not difficult for Almighty God to bring together in one person the whole world."