#selfcomposure

My Dear, Loyal Brothers! 

Firstly: There is a strong possibility that tomorrow night is the Night of Power. Some of the scholarly authorities stated it is tomorrow. Even if it is not in fact, since the Umma consider it to be so, God willing it will be accepted as such. 

Secondly: I am anxious about the comfort of our brothers in Ward Six, where there was a disturbance. There is a finger from outside which stirs up the prison, and particularly Ward Six. Our brothers there should be careful and cautious, and not get mixed up in anything. 

Thirdly: Have you sent the piece to the lawyer, to have it read to the Chairman of the Court? Also, because it is the same matter, Halil Hilmi is not only Sabri’s lawyer, but everyone’s. That is how I look on him. He should now assist our first lawyer on account of all of us. Fourthly: I gave Tasköprülü Sadik Bey’s introduction to Sabri to write out. If it has already been written out, the part that has been corrected should be sent to him. A newly written-out copy should be sent to me. I have a copy of Sadik’s short poem here. If you do not have a copy, I shall send it to you. 

S a i d N u r s i * * *

My Dear, Loyal Brothers! 

Firstly: I send congratulations both for your Festival, and for that of your fellow-prisoners. I consider those who exchange greetings with you to have greeted me. It is as though I have made the Festival visits on all of them; you should know this and you should tell them. 

Secondly: Due to the warning of my cast-iron stove disintegrating without reason, and our acting with complete caution and self-restraint in consequence, the force of that ‘squall’ was reduced a hundredfold and the gunpowder did not ignite. Now again my water-flask disintegrating extraordinarily without reason informs us that we should again behave with perfect selfcomposure, patience, and caution. It was imparted to me that covert dissemblers want to employ depraved profligates and apostacizing communists against the religiously-minded people; they are even trying to interfere here. * * * 

My Dear, Loyal, and Unshakeable Brothers! 

I congratulate you with all my heart at your quickly healing that wound of ours. I felt completely easy last night as a result. In fact, the Medresetü’z-Zehrais expanding, and the true sincerity, selfsacrifice and abandoning of egotism, and complete humility of the Risale-i Nur circle are being adopted and are spreading. Certainly, very petty and temporary sensitivity, irritability, and petulance cannot spoil its powerful teachings and the bonds of brotherhood. The Treatise On Sincerity is the best advice on this point. Their worst strategy now in striking at us and the Risale-i Nur and agitating us, is to make the Risale-i Nur students look coldly on each other by playing on differences in their ideas and temperaments, and to separate them from each other. For sure, it was only a minor tiff, but only a hair on the eye causes the pain of a stone, so that my flask gave news of it as though it was a major incident. The late Hafiz Ali (May God be pleased with him) complaining shortly before his death about a very minor such situation has come to mind perhaps a hundred times, and saddened me.