Victory! But not with the Sword of the Kuffar!

SECOND CURIOUS QUESTION

The last two months there has been a lively political situation in the face of which some attempt should have been made to alleviate conditions both for myself and the brothers with whom I am connected. While there was a strong possibility that this could have been achieved, I attached no importance to the situation, and on the contrary, had an idea in support of ‘the worldly’ who oppress me. A number of people were astonished at this. They said: “What do you think about the policies followed by those at the head of these innovators (bid’a) and in part dissembling people (munafik) who torment you, so that you do nothing to them?” A summary of my reply is as follows:

The greatest danger facing the people of Islam at this time is their hearts being corrupted and belief harmed through the misguidance that arises from science and philosophy. The sole solution for this is “nur”; it is to show “nur” so that their hearts may be reformed and their belief, saved. If one acts with the mace of politics and prevails over them, the unbelievers (kafir) descend to the degree of dissemblers (munafik). And dissemblers are worse than unbelievers. That is to say, the mace cannot heal the heart at this time, for then unbelief enters the heart and is concealed, and is transformed into dissembling. And at this time, a powerless person like myself cannot employ both of them, the mace and the “nur”. For this reason I am compelled to embrace the “nur” with all my strength and cannot consider the mace of politics whatever form it is in.(…) we only have two hands. Even if we had a hundred hands, they would be sufficient only for the “nur”. We do not have any other hands with which to hold the mace!

THIRD CURIOUS QUESTION

Why do you violently oppose war, although, with foreign forces like the British and Italians interfering in the government recently, it would have excited Islamic zeal – the true point of support and source of moral strength of this country’s government – and been a means to an extent of reviving the marks of Islam and repulsing innovations (bid’a)? Why have you offered prayers for its being settled by peaceful means and come out fervently in support of the innovators’ government? Is this not indirect support of innovations?

T h e  A n s w e r : We want relief (farac), release, happiness, and victory (futuhat), but not with the sword of the unbelievers. Let their swords be the end of them! We are not in need of any advantage proceeding from them. In fact it is those obstinate Europeans who have set the dissemblers to pester the people of belief, and have raised the atheists.

As for the calamity of war, it would cause great harm to our service of the Qur’an. The majority of our most valuable, self-sacrificing brothers are under the age of forty-five, and would be forced because of war to leave their sacred service of the Qur’an and enroll in the army. If I had the money, I would gladly pay the thousand liras necessary to exempt each of such valuable brothers from military service. With hundreds of my valuable brothers leaving the Qur’anic service of the Risale-i Nur and laying hands on the mace of physical jihad, I feel a loss in myself of a hundred thousand liras. These two years of Zekâi’s military service, even, have caused perhaps a thousand liras of his immaterial profit to be lost. Anyway… Like the One Powerful Over All Things sweeps and cleans in a minute the atmosphere filled with clouds and shows the shining sun in clear skies, so He may dispel these black, merciless clouds and show the truths of the Shari‘a like the sun, and give them without expense or trouble. We await it from His mercy that He will not sell them to us expensively. May He give intelligence to the heads of those at the top, and belief to their hearts; that would be enough. Then matters would put themselves to rights. (from the Flashes, Risale-i Nur Collection)

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