He temporarily gave up his service of the Risale-i Nur. Suddenly,  a court case was opened against him, which was a sort of slap dealt by divine compassion.  He was going to have to pay a fine of a thousand liras. He was subject to the threat for a year, until he came here and we met, and on his return he again took up his service of the Qur’an and the duties of being a Risale-i Nur student. Then the compassionate slap’s sentence was lifted, and he was acquitted.

Later a further duty commenced for the students, which concerned the writing out of the Qur’an in a new way.13 A section was given to Hakkı Efendi. He embarked on it  enthusiastically and wrote out a thirtieth part of the Qur’an. But because of his

straitened circumstances he felt compelled to secretly undertake someone’s defence in a court case. He suddenly received another compassionate slap. He broke the finger he used to hold his pen with. It was as though warning him: “This finger won’t write out both a lawyer’s case and the Qur’an!” We were astonished at his finger because we did not know about his taking on the case. Then it was understood that the sacred, pure service of the Qur’an did not want to involve the fingers which were particular to it in other work. Anyway I know Hulûsi Bey like  I know myself and spoke in his place, and Hakkı Bey is just the same. If he does not like my acting as his proxy, he can write about his slap himself!

THE SIXTH

This is Bekir Efendi.14  He  is  not here at present, so in the  same way that  I deputized for my brother Abdülmecid, relying on his confidence and loyalty and what all my close friends like fiamlı Hafız and Süleyman Efendi say and know, I say this: Bekir Efendi had the Tenth Word printed. Then we sent him the Twent y-Fifth Word, about the Qur’an’s Miraculousness, to print before the new letters were introduced.15

We also wrote that we would send him the printing costs, as we sent him the costs of printing the Tenth Word. But thinking of my poverty and seeing that the printing costs would be around  four hundred liras, Bekir Efendi thought to himself: “Perhaps the Hoja won’t be pleased if I pay it out of my own pocket,” and his soul deceived him. It was not printed  and caused  considerable harm to our service of the Qur’an. Two months later nine hundred liras of his were stolen and he received a compassionate but severe blow. God willing, the lost nine hundred liras was like a sort of almsgiving.

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3 This refers to its being written so as to show the miracle of the ‘coincidences.’ (For

‘coincidences’, see note 1, page 56 – Tr.)

14 Bekir Dikmen 1898-1954. He was a merchant of Barla. (Tr.)

15 That is, the introduction of the Latin alphabet at the end of 1928. (Tr.)