3. The charge of “Carrying Bediuzzaman’s picture as though it was something sacred, and collecting his letters, and corresponding with him.” To carry not a simple picture, but one decorated in gold and jewels, of the universal scholar and esteemed author who through his works has saved my spiritual life and eternal life from extinction, and allowed me to experience the pleasure and happiness of physical life, and who has saved the belief of thousands like me, and to send him letters and congratulate him, and to get to know others who love him, is my right as it is for all members of humanity. I do not suppose this right of mine to constitute a crime, and finally I say: as the police of two provinces and numerous towns can testify, in order to be able to serve this country, nation, and humanity, for long years the Risale-i Nur students have saved themselves through the Risale-i Nur from being aimless, and have been the means of saving others. Although the patriotic service they have performed for this country and its government has in reality been greater than a police force of thousands, and is worthy of recognition and appreciation, it has been misinterpreted and we have been arrested, as though deliberately on behalf of some foreign power. All our work and businesses have gone to rack and ruin and our wretched families and children have been left weeping and destitute. Which laws of democracy does this conform to? Which just decisions of which just judges? I request from your respected Court, which executes justice in the name of the just Turkish nation and its high Assembly, that these works, the numerous benefits and advantages of which are obvious and undeniable, are left free and that we are acquitted.
Prisoner, Safranbolulu Mustafa Osman,
Afyon Prison
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[Hıfzı Bayram’s Defence]
I am charged with reading some of the works —which teach the truths of the Qur’an and belief and are of great benefit for the nation and country— of the Islamic scholar Bediuzzaman, who is accused of attempting to breach state security by exploiting religious feelings; and with obtaining and giving —on request— to a number of acquaintances some of his treatises, from which I had greatly benefited in respect of belief and religion and which had led me to acquire Qur’anic manners, in the hope that it would be for their good and they would profit from his teachings about