tions of the public prosecutors of Isparta, Denizli, and Afyon, it is my right to ask of the present Ministry of Justice, with the intention of defending my rights, the three questions I asked the Ministry of Home Affairs, and chiefly Kaya Shükrü, thirteen years ago.
The First: Which law states that one hundred and twenty people including myself should be arrested because of the merely verbal argument with a gendarme sergeant of a man from Egirdir, who though not a Risale-i Nur student was carrying an unimportant letter of mine? Then with the exception of fifteen, the innocence of all of them was established by their being acquitted after four months of investigation by the court. According to what principles is it to cite such possibilities instead of occurrences? According to what rule of justice is it to cause loss of thousands of liras to seventy unfortunates who had previously been acquitted by Denizli Court after nine months of investigations?
Second Question: According to the fundamental principle, No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another,1 even a blood-brother cannot be held responsible for his brother’s faults, so under which law of justice was it to arrest me in Ramadan because of a short treatise whose publication I had prevented, which had passed into my hands once or twice in eight years, was originally written more than twenty-five years ago, saves believers from doubting a number of important points and prevents them denying some misunderstood allegorical Hadiths, —because this treatise was found on someone I did not know a long way away from me, and the wrong meaning was given to this, and an offensive letter was found in Kütahya and Balıkesir; and to arrest now in this freezing cold numerous artisans and tradesmen for having in their possession some old, commonplace letter written by me, or for having driven me around in their carriage, or because of their friendship towards me, or for having read one of my books, and to ruin them, and cause them, and the country and nation, material loss and immaterial loss of thousands of liras,— what law demands this? Which article of which law necessitates it? I request to learn of these laws so I do not take any false step.
Yes, one reason for our arrests at both Denizli and Afyon was this: even if to suppose the impossible the Fifth Ray did look to this world and politics, —although it was written long ago while I was in the Darü’l-Hikmeti’l-Islâmiye,2 and the original was written even before that, with
Qur’an, 6:164, etc.
The Darü’l-Hikmeti’l-Islâmiye was a learned body set up in 1918 to find solutions for the problems confronting the Islamic world, and to provide scholarly answers for attacks made on Islam. It was attached to the Shaykh al-Islam’s Office and was composed of nine permanent members and various officers. Bediuzzaman’s appointment was ratified by the Caliph in August 1918.