The Nineteenth Letter
The miracles of Prophet Muhammad
(NOTE: All Traditions related in this treatise are from memory, for I have no reference books to consult. If there are mistakes in the wording, please correct them or consider them as paraphrases. According to the prevailing opinion among Tradition scholars, such paraphrasing is permissible.)
THIS TREATISE ILLUSTRATES MUHAMMAD’S MIRACULOUS MESSENGERSHIP through more than 300 miracles that he worked, and is a marvel because of the following:
FIRST: Although this treatise covers more than 100 pages and is based on Traditions and narrations, I wrote it while in the countryside, working 2 or 3 hours each day. I finished it in 2 or 3 days, working completely from memory.
SECOND: Despite its length, this treatise does not bore the scribes and it is pleasant in its readers’ eyes. In fact, it has aroused such enthusiasm, even in some lazy scribes, that in these hard and distressing times as many as 70 copies have been hand-written in this neighborhood within a year.37 Those aware of this treatise’s distinction conclude that it must be a marvel coming from his Messengership’s miraculousness.
In the copies hand-written by nine scribes, including one inexperienced and unaware of tawafuq,38 the words referring to the Prophet were found to be arranged unintentionally beneath one another throughout the treatise. This is the same in the Fifth Part for the words referring to the Qur’an. The fair-minded will not see this tawafuq as mere coincidence, but rather as a mysterious sign and a wonder derived from his miraculous Messengership. The essentials explained at the treatise’s beginning are very important. The Prophetic Traditions related in it are all authentic, according to the Traditionists, and report the most established phenomena concerning his Messengership. To enumerate this treatise’s usefulness, another one of the same length would be needed. Therefore we invite those who desire to discover its usefulness to read it.
His miracles
In His name, glory be to Him.
There is nothing that does not glorify Him with His praise.
In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.
He has sent His Messenger with the guidance and the religion of truth, that He might uplift it above every religion. God suffices as a witness. Muhammad is the Messenger of God. (48:28-29)
Since Muhammad’s Prophethood is proved in the Nineteenth and Thirty-first Words, here we point out only some of the gleams of that great truth in 19 signs as an addendum.
Said Nursi
[Said Nursi sometimes draws attention to his writings. This is not done out of self-praise. Rather, as a Muslim guide and inspired scholar dedicated to explaining the pillars of Islamic belief, worship, and morality as well as to establishing them in people’s minds and hearts, and being completely confident of the truth of what he writes, he follows a style required by guidance. We should keep this in mind, as well as the period during which he wrote—a very difficult time during which there was severe persecution of Islam. (Tr.)]
37 The Nur (Light) treatises were hand-copied secretly until 1950, because the government of that time was hostile to Islam and persecuted Muslims. (Tr.)
38 Tawafuq: God’s arranging things and events so that His servants obtain a good effect, such as the unintentional arrangement of key words one beneath the other on a page or in the same place on different pages. (Tr.)