“And if the possibility of death is not one in hundreds of thousands but a hundred per cent probability, if we have a jot of sense, we will not be frightened and abandon him and flee!” For it has been seen through repeated experiences, and it is seen, that the calamity which is visited on those who betray their elder brother or their Master in times of danger, strikes them first. And they are punished mercilessly and they are looked down upon contemptuously.  Both physically dead  and their spirits  abased, they are in effect dead. Those who torment them feel no pity for them, for they say: “Since they betrayed their Master who was loyal and kind to them, they must be completely despicable and deserve contempt, not pity!”

Yes, the reality is this. Also, if a tyrannical, unscrupulous man throws someone to the ground and stands over him certain to crush his head with his foot, and the man on the ground kisses that savage oppressor’s foot, due to his abasement his heart will be crushed before his head, and his spirit will die before his body. He will lose his head, and his self-respect and pride will be destroyed. By displaying weakness before the savage  tyrant  without  conscience,  he  encourages  him  to  crush  him.  But  if  the oppressed man spits in the tyrant’s face, he will save his heart and his spirit, and his body will be a wronged martyr. Yes, spit in the shameless faces of the oppressors!

One time when the British had destroyed the guns on the Bosphorus and occupied Istanbul,  the  head  clergyman  of the Anglican  Church,  the main religious establishment of that country, asked six questions of the Shaikh al-Islam’s Office. I was a member of the Darü’l-Hikmeti’l-Islamiye at the time. They asked me to answer them, saying that they wanted a six-hundred-word  reply to their six questions. But I told them: “I’ll answer them not with six hundred words, or even with six words, or even a single word, but with a mouthful of spit! For you can see that government; the moment it set foot on our Bosphorus, its clergyman arrogantly asked us six questions. Faced  with this,  we should  spit  in his face.  So spit  in the pitiless  faces of those tyrants!” And now I say:

My brothers! At a time a tyrannical government like the British had occupied us the protection of the Qur’an was enough for me, although it was a hundred per cent certain that harm would come to me from confronting them in this way through the tongue of the press, so it is definitely a hundred times more sufficient for you in the face of the harm that may come to you at the hand of these insignificant bullies, which is only a one in a hundred possibility.