lawful freedom which, adorned with the customs and observances of the Shari‘a, will cast out the evils of dissolute Western civilization. The freedom born of the Shari‘a, which arises from belief, enjoins two principles:

Belief necessitates not humiliating others through oppression and despotism and not degrading them, and secondly, not abasing oneself before tyrants. Someone who is a true servant of God cannot be a slave to others. Do not make anyone other than God lord over yourselves. That is to say, someone who does not recognize God ascribes relative degrees of mastery to everything and everyone, and piles worries on his own head. For sure, the freedom born of the Shari‘a is a bounty of Almighty God through the manifestation of His Names of AllMerciful and AllCompassionate; it is a characteristic of belief.

Long live truthfulness! Death to despair! Let love endure! Let mutual consultation find strength! Let those who follow their own whims and desires be the object of blame, reproach and detestation! And on those who follow rightguidance be peace and wellbeing! AMEN.

If it is asked: Why do you attach this much importance to mutual consultation? And how may the life and progress of mankind, in particular Asia, and particularly Islam, be achieved through mutual consultation?

We would answer: As is explained in the TwentyFirst Flash of the Risale-i Nur, the Treatise on Sincerity, since just consultation results in sincerity and solidarity,