The Twenty-Sixth Flash

Treatise For The Elderly

[This Flash consists of twenty-six hopes, lights, and solaces.1]

REMINDER: The reason I have described my sorrows and afflictions at the beginning of each Hope in a truly grievous way that will sadden you is in order to  show the extraordinary efficaciousness of the remedies proceeding from  the  All-Wise  Qur’an.  This  Flash,  concerning the  elderly,  has  been unable to preserve its beauty of expression in three or four respects:

The  First:  It  is  about  my  life  the  events  of  which  I  revisited  in  my imagination; it was written in the state of mind of those times. It was not possible,  therefore, to preserve an orderly arrangement in the way it is set out.

The Second: It was written at a time I felt extreme fatigue, after the morning prayers,  and  I  was  also  compelled  to  write  it  at  speed;  its  manner  of expression therefore became confused.

The Third: There was not always someone with me to write, and the scribe who generally accompanied me had four or five other duties connected with the Risale-i Nur. We therefore could not find sufficient time to correct it and it remained in a disordered state.

The  Fourth: We were both tired  after  its  composition,  and  not  thinking carefully of the meaning, made do with correcting it only superficially; so there  are  bound  to  be  faults  in  the  manner  of expression.  I  request  the generous elderly to look tolerantly on such errors and to include us in their prayers when they raise their  hands to the divine court, since divine mercy does not reject the prayers of the blessed elderly.

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1   It is written in a handwritten copy of this Flash corrected by the respected author: “The remaining Hopes, from the Fourteenth to the Twenty-Sixth, have not been written due to the well- known calamity (Eskişehir Prison); the time of writing them having passed now, it has remained without them.” (The Fourteenth to the Sixteenth were composed subsequently. Tr.)