‘Approach not the prayers.’” When they reminded him that the verse continued “When you are intoxicated,”1 he told them: “I have not memorized the whole Qur’an.” They take a single sentence from the Risale-i Nur, and disregarding what follows it, which puts it in context and explains it, use it against us. Thirty to forty examples of this are to be seen in the defence I shall present, when comparing it with the indictment. I shall recount a subtle incident which is one of those examples:
The prosecution in Eskişehir Court used a phrase about the Risale-i Nur’s instruction in belief which was anyway the result of an error, like “it corrupts the people.” Although it later did not use it, one of the Risale-i Nur students called Abdürrezzaq, said a year after the trial:
“You unfortunate! The Risale-i Nur has received the indirect praise of thirty-three Qur’anic verses, its value for religion has been established by three miraculous predictions of Imam ‘Ali (May God be pleased with him) and the powerful allusions of Gawth al-A‘zam (May his mystery be sanctified); these twenty years it has caused the Government no trouble whatsoever, and besides not harming anyone at all, has illumined and guided thousands of the sons of this land, and strengthened their belief and rectified their conduct, and yet you call that guidance ‘corruption.’ You have no fear of God! May your tongue be cursed!”
Now, the prosecution has seen these words of that student, so I refer to your fairness and conscience the expression: “Said has spread corruption.”
With the idea of interfering in the social teachings of the Risale-i Nur, the prosecution said: “The place of religion is the conscience; it cannot be tied to laws and regulations. Formerly there was social unrest because it was tied to laws.” So I say: “Religion does not consist only of belief; its second half is righteous action. Is fear of imprisonment or being seen by a government detective sufficient to deter those who commit numerous grievous sins which poison society, like murder, adultery, theft, gambling, and drinking? If that was so, there would have to be a policeman or detective stationed permanently in every house, or at everyone’s side even, so that obdurate souls would restrain themselves from those filthy acts. Whereas, in respect of good deeds and belief, the Risale-i Nur places a permanent immaterial ‘prohibitor’ next to everyone. It easily saves them from bad deeds by recalling the prison of Hell and Divine wrath.
Also, due to the signature in one treatise of a wonderful and extra-ordinary ‘coincidence,’ the prosecution made a meaningless inference, saying “the members of a political society.” Are the holders of signatures
Qur’an, 4:43.