relations with my Master and been his writer of rough drafts and final drafts, for around eight months, I had been unable to benefit from the Risale-i Nur. We were astonished at this situation. Both I and my Master sought the reason, wondering why it was thus. Now we feel certain that those truths of the Qur’an are light and luminous, and cannot unite with the darkness of artificiality, flattery, and abasement. So the meaning of those truths’ lights were drawing away from me, appearing foreign to me and as strangers. I beseech Almighty God that He will grant me sincerity worthy of such service, and save me from hypocrisy and artificiality towards ‘the worldly.’ I request of firstly my Master and all my brothers that they pray for me.
“The most faulty,
“Şamlı Hafız Tevfik”
THE EIGHTH
This is Seyrani. Like Husrev, he was one of my students who was enthusiastic about the Risale-i Nur and had a good understanding of it. I consulted my students in Isparta about the ‘coincidences,’ which are a key to the mysteries of the Qur’an and to the science of jafr. They responded and took part eagerly, but because Seyrani had other ideas and points of interest, he did not respond, and in addition wanted me to give up the truth I knew to be certain. He wrote me a letter that upset me considerably. I said: “Alas! I have lost this student.” Certainly I wanted to enlighten his ideas, but a further meaning confused matters. He received a blow from divine compassion: he remained for nearly a year in a place of seclusion (that is, in prison).
THE NINTH
This is the Hâfız Zühtü the Elder. At a time he was as though supervising the Risale-i Nur students in Ağrus, not considering the students’ spiritual honour to be sufficient – although they had made it their way to follow the practices of the Prophet (UWBP) and avoid innovations – he took it on himself to teach a serious innovation in the hope of increasing his standing in the eyes of ‘the worldly.’ He perpetrated an error that was diametrically opposed to our way. He received an awesome slap from divine compassion. An incident occurred that completely destroyed his family’s honour. Unfortunately, Hâfız Zühtü the Younger was also affected by the grievous incident although he was not deserving of any slap. But God willing it will act as a beneficial surgical operation delivering his heart from worldly attachment and making it over totally to the Qur’an.