the sake of public peace forty times greater. Whereas the person who is in the right is fair. He sacrifices and waives his own right, worth little, for the advantage of his friend, which is part of the public peace and worth much. The disturbance ceases and peace is restored. The ninety people in this ward can be comfortable. If the person in the right is helped, the noise would increase even more. In communal life of this sort, the general good takes precedence.
And so, my brothers! In this communal life of ours, do not say: “I am fed up with my brother, for he’s been unfair to me.” To do so is a great error. If such a friend of yours has caused you a little harm, your being angry with him causes us harm of high cost. It is possible it would even cause excessive harm to the Risale-i Nur. But, praise be to God, with our friends being prevented from repeatedly going to be questioned, no harm came to our powerful and rightful defences. Otherwise like getting something as tiny a fly’s wing in one’s eye or a spark falling into gunpowder, due to a little pique brothers who are vexed with one another can cause a great deal of harm.
S e c o n d S t o r y : There was once an elderly women who had eight sons. She gave each of them a loaf of bread from the loaves she had, but none remained for herself. So each of them gave her half his loaf. She then had four loaves, while theirs was reduced to half a loaf.
My brothers! I feel in myself half the pains of the share in this calamity of each of the forty of you. I take no notice of my own hardships. One day I felt excessively afflicted and studied my previous position wondering if I was paying the penalty for some error I had committed. I saw that I had no part at all in the fomenting and incitement of this calamity; on the contrary I had employed every possible means to avoid it. That means it is a divine decree. It has been planned against us by intriguers over the past year, and made inevitable. It was not possible to avoid it. It was inevitable that we should be embroiled in it. A hundred thousand thanks to Almighty God that He reduced the calamity from a hundred to one.
In consequence of this fact therefore, do not blame me saying “We are suffering this disaster because of you!” Forgive me rather, and pray for me. And do not criticize each other, saying: “If you had not done such-and-such, this would not have happened.” For example, with one of our brothers mentioning two or three signatures, the plan the mischief-makers were hatching in order embroil numerous people in a calamity, was restricted and many were saved from it. It was the cause not of harm, but of great advantage. It resulted in many innocent people being saved from this disaster.
S a i d N u r s i