A Meaningful and Subtle ‘Coincidence’

The ‘coincidence’1  of Article 163,2  under which the Risale-i Nur students were charged and sentenced, and the number of deputies, one hundred and sixty-three out of two hundred, who allotted one hundred and fifty thousand liras for the medrese3  of the  Risale-i  Nur’s  author  in  effect  says  this:  the  appreciative  signatures  of  one hundred and sixty-three deputies of the government of the republic quashes the ruling of Article 163 of the Criminal Code concerning him.

Another subtle and meaningful ‘coincidence’ is this: the one hundred and twenty- eight  parts of the Risale-i Nur are put together in one hundred and fifteen booklets. The number of  days from when the Risale-i Nur students and its author were first arrested on 27th April, 1935 to the date on which the court passed judgement on 19th August, 1935 was one hundred and fifteen coinciding with the number of books of the Risale-i Nur. In addition, the one hundred and fifteen people found guilty coincides with  the  number  exactly,  showing  that  the  calamity  visited  on  the  Risale-i  Nur

students and its author is being regulated by a Hand of Favour.4

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1   For ‘coincidence’ (tevâfuk), see, note 22, page 199. (Tr.)

2   Article 163 of the Turkish Criminal Code. (Tr.)

3   This refers to the Medresetü’z-Zehra. See, note 21, page 325. (Tr.)

4   It is worth noting that the arrests of some of the Risale-i Nur students started on 25 April 1935. Thus, because in the indictment one hundred and seventeen people were cited as guilty – the names of two of them had been repeated – the number shown for the students was one hundred and seventeen, this coincided with the one hundred and seventeen days from the date that group were arrested to the date of the court’s judgement, adding a further subtlety to the former ‘coincidence.’