Second Principle: Since it is one thing to reject something and something quite different not to act in accordance with it; and all governments have fierce opponents; and there were Muslims under Zoroastrian rule and Jews and Christians under the Islamic government of the Caliph ‘Umar; and all those who do not cause trouble to the government or disturb public order have personal freedom, and this may not be curtailed, and governments look to the hand and not to the heart; and since those who want to upset public order and the administration and interfere in politics will doubtless concern themselves with the newspapers and current affairs in order to learn about the movements, situations, and events that will assist them so they make no false moves; and since the Risale-i Nur so restrains its students that as my close friends know, for twenty-five years it has made me give up reading the newspapers and even asking about them or being curious and thinking about them; and since for ten years now I have withdrawn from social life to such an extent that apart from the German defeat and the spread of communism I have heard no news about what is happening in the world and the current situation; certainly and without doubt no one can attack me and my brothers like me on grounds of governmental wisdom, the laws of politics, and principles of justice; and if they do, it is bound to be due to delusions, or out of hatred or obduracy.
Third Principle: I am obliged to give the following lengthy details because of the meaningless and unnecessary objections of the public prosecutor of the former court, which he made due to a misunderstanding concerning not the law, but his bigoted love of a certain dead person.
Firstly: Before it fell into the hands of the Government, I treated the Fifth Ray as confidential. Moreover, it was not found in any of the searches. Also, its purpose was only to save the ordinary people from doubts concerning their beliefs and from denying allegorical Hadiths. It looks to worldly aspects of the Hadiths only indirectly, in third or fourth place. The predictions it makes are true. Moreover, it does not contest the politicians and worldly; it only makes predictions. Also, it does not specify anyone. It explains in general fashion a true meaning of a Hadith. But they applied that general truth to a fearsome person living in this century. They therefore objected to it, supposing it had been written in recent years. In fact, the original of the treatise was previous to the Darü’l-Hikmet. But it was set in order some time later, and included in the Risale-i Nur. It was like this:
Forty years ago, the year before the Proclamation of the Constitution,1
The Proclamation of the (Second) Constitution in July, 1908.