someone will arise from among the theologians and the scholars of the science of theology. He will prove all the truths of belief and Islam with rational proofs and the utmost clarity. I wish to be that man and maybe I am.(1)” He continued his instruction by saying that belief and the assertion of Divine unity were the foundation, substance, light and life of all human perfection; that the Hadith “An hour’s reflective thought is better than a year’s worship(2)” refers to reflection on belief; and that the silent mode of invocation practised in the Naqshbandi Order is a form of this most excellent reflection.

The traveller listened with utmost care. He turned and addressed himself as follows: “It is thus that this heroic Imam speaks. To increase the strength of one’s belief by as much as an atom is worth more than a ton of gnosis or other form of perfection and sweeter than the honey of a hundred visionary experiences.

“On the other hand, the philosophers of Europe have leagued together for a thousand years to invent objections and doubts in their hostility to faith and the

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(1) Time has proven that the man referred to here is not in fact an individual, but the Risale-i Nur itself. It maybe that the people of unveiling happened to notice the insignificant interpreter and proclaimer of the Risale-i Nur and hence came to speak of “a man.”
(2) al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa, i, 310.