resembles temporary, transient fragments of glass, and to be kind to him in that way, is to misuse that compassion.
A proof of this heroism of women in respect of compassion, which wants absolutely no recompense and nothing in return, and of their sacrificing their very spirits, which in no way seeks personal benefit and no show, is that a hen, which bears a tiny sample of that compassion, will attack a lion and sacrifice its life for its chicks.
Now, sincerity is the most valuable and most essential principle in Islamic training and in deeds pertaining to the hereafter. True sincerity is present in the heroism of this kind of compassion. If these two points begin to develop among women, it will lead to considerable happiness within the domain of Islam. When it comes to the heroism of men, it can never be for nothing; they always want recompense in perhaps a hundred ways. At the very least they want glory and renown. But regretably, unfortunate women practise hypocrisy in another form in order to be saved from the evil and oppression of tyrannical men; this sort arises from weakness and impotence.
SECOND POINT
This year, although I had withdrawn from the life of society and was in seclusion, I looked at the world for the sake of some of my brothers and sisters who were Risale-i Nur students. I heard from most of the friends who visited me complaints about their family lives. “Alas!”, I said, “Family life is the refuge of people, and particularly of Muslims, and a sort of Paradise, and a small world. Has this now started to break up as well?” I sought the reason and I understood that one or two covert groups were working to mislead the youth and drive the young to vice by exciting their appetites, so as to cause harm to Islamic social life and thereby to the religion of Islam. I also realized that one or two groups were working covertly and effectively to drive neglectful women down the wrong road. I understood too that a severe blow would be dealt to this Muslim nation from that quarter. I therefore categorically state the following to you my sisters and spiritual children:
The sole means of saving women’s happiness in the hereafter, and their happiness in this world, as well as saving their elevated innate qualities from corruption, is the training given by the religion of Islam; there is no other means. You hear about the situation into which the unfortunate women of Russia have fallen. It says in one part of the Risale-i Nur that no sensible man builds love and affection for his wife on her fleeting, superficial beauty of five to ten years; he should build it on her fine conduct, the