In His Name, be He glorified!

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.

My friends in prison and brothers in religion!

It occurred to me to explain a truth to you which will save you from both worldly torment and the torment of the hereafter. It is as follows:

For example, a person killed someone's brother or one of his relatives. A murder which yields one minute's pleasure of revenge causes millions of minutes of both distress for the heart and the anguish of prison. And the fear of revenge by the murdered man's relatives, and anxiety of finding himself face to face with his enemy drives away all his pleasure in life. He suffers the torment of both fear and anger. There is only one solution for this, and that is reconciliation, which the Qur'an commands, and truth, reality, benefit, humanity, and Islam require and encourage.

Certainly, what is required in reality is peace, because the appointed hour is set, it does not change. Since his appointed hour had come, in any event the murdered man would have stayed no longer. As for the murderer, he was the means of God's decree being carried out. So long as there is no reconciliation, both sides perpetually suffer the torments of fear and revenge. It is because of this that Islam commands that "one believer should not be vexed with another believer for more than three days."¹ If the murder was not the result of a vindictive grudge and enmity, and a two-faced trouble-maker instigated the discord, it is essential to make peace quickly. Otherwise, that minor disaster becomes a large one, and continues. If they make peace, and the murderer repents and prays continuously for the man he killed, then both sides will gain much and become like brothers. In place of one departed brother, he will gain several religious brothers. He will be resigned to Divine Decree and Determining and forgive his enemy. Especially since they heed the lessons of the Risale-i Nur, both individual and public peace and well-being, and the brotherhood that there is in the sphere of the Risale-i Nur, require that they put aside all the hard feelings that exist between them.

It was thus in Denizli Prison; all the prisoners who were enemies became brothers through the lessons of the Risale-i Nur. It was one reason for our acquittal, and caused even the irreligious and ungodly to say about those prisoners: "Masha'llah! Barakallah!" And it was an utter relief for those prisoners . I myself have seen here a hundred men suffer inconvenience on account of one man and not go out to take exercise together. It is oppression towards them. A manly believer of sound conscience will not cause hundreds of other believers harm because of some insignificant and minor error or benefit. If

he makes a mistake and does cause harm, he should repent immediately.

***

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1.Muslim, Birr,25