These lines express the soldier's stand in field of jihad:
Like a rearing horse, I'll pull on its bloody bit;
1 won't sell my identity to the cunning enemy.
For me to lose my identity is captivity;
What torment to suffer such abasement!
I ever yearn for unending union;
My belief is a citadel, built by the hand of power.
How happy my heart at this sacred ambition;
My martyr forebears have long awaited me in heaven.
My life is eternal so long as my spirit lives;
Death is departure for Allah, and union sublime.
Originally, I wanted to study Ustad's scholarly, Sufi, and literary sides, as well as his ideas. But I realized that these most profound and compre¬hensive subjects could not be summarized in a few pages, and so decided to mention them in a few sentences.
If God grants it to me, I want with all my heart to study these subjects together with the Risale-i Nur Collection and its students, analytically, in an extensive independent work. I request our esteemed Master's prayers in this matter, as well as those of my dear brothers.
* * *
• Ustad's Scholarly Front
With the couplet,
"The truth of the matter appears in the mirror;
The degree of a person's intelligence is seen is his works;" Ziya Pasha expressed a great truth that has been passed down the genera¬tions.
It would be as superfluous as describing the sun at noon to attempt to offer details about the knowledge of the Risale-i Nur's author, for it is a vast compendium of knowledge and belief. With it he has instilled a sacred light in Muslims' hearts.
Nevertheless, as the melancholy poet said:
"Beauty is such that whoever beholds it, loses grasp of his will." to speak of the knowledge and learning, the fine morals and attainments, of one who at every stage of his life was graced with divine manifestations, affords a pleasure of a very different sort. So I cannot stop myself from saying more.
In the Risale-i Nur, Ustad discusses matters related to religion, society, morals, literature, law, philosophy, and Sufism, and in all these was extraordinarily successful.
The most astonishing point is that he both solved with the greatest clar¬ity and certainty, complex subjects about which many 'ulama had gone dangerously astray, and following the luminous path of the Sunnis, arrived at the safe shore, having escaped the swirling vortex, and landed there both his works and his readers.
For this reason I feel honoured to present the Risale-i Nur Collection to every class of our noble people, with perfect confidence and sincerity. It treatises are all shining droplets from the Qur'an's ocean and scintillating shafts of light from the sun of guidance. It is therefore every Muslim's most sacred duty to spread these works, to save belief. For it has often been seen in history that a single work has led to the guidance and happiness of numberless persons, families, and societies. How fortunate the person who is the means of saving his brother's faith!
• Ustad's Front Related to Thought
It is well-known that all thinkers have their own systems of thought, their particular aims with their thought, and their own ideals, which they hold dearer than anything. When discussing these, they first set out lengthy preliminaries. But Bediuzzaman's system may be summarized in a single sentence: