Independence and birth of the modern Republic of Turkey, in all of which he was actively involved in some respect. This was the period he called the Old Said. The second main period of his life, that of the New Said, began in the years following the First War. It coincided with the founding of the Republic and coming to power of the new regime, the chief objective of which was the westernization of Turkey, and the next twenty-five years were ones of exile, imprisonment, and oppression for Bediuzzaman. They were followed in 1950 by an easing of conditions and the emergence of a Third Said. These last ten years of his life, from 1950-1960, differed from the previous period in so far as he once again took a closer interest in social and political matters.

A further factor limiting the present biography is the paucity of information about a number of areas of Bediuzzaman's life, particularly the early period. When his official biography was being written, he instructed the group of his close students who were preparing it to cut out the majority of passages describing himself and his personal achievements and adventures — for indeed his life reads like an adventure story — and to include only parts which looked to the "the fruit" of his life, the Risale-i Nur and the services it performed in the way of belief and the Qur'an.

As the conditions of the times required, the Old Said's struggles for the cause of Islam were largely active; in the public domain and in the realm of politics. But on the emergence of the New Said, Bediuzzaman virtually discounted this colourful early period of his life and withdrawing from social and political life, concentrated on the struggle to save and strengthen belief in God and the other truths of faith, which were then under threat. It was during this period and for this purpose that he wrote, rather, was inspired to write, the Risale-i Nur. Despite the attempts to suppress the work, a Qur'anic commentary proving the truths of belief by a method developed by Bediuzzaman which blends science and the truths of religion and uniquely addresses the mentality of modern man, and the attempts to silence him and his students, it had unparalleled success in strengthening belief and combating atheism and materialist philosophy, so that by the 1950's it had many thousands of students in Turkey and beyond.

Bediuzzaman wrote that his life was "a seed" out of which in His mercy, Almighty God had created "the tree of the Risale-i Nur." Thus, when his biography was being prepared, he wanted attention to be directed towards this work for the cause of religious belief, rather than towards his own self and personality. That is to say, particularly in regard to the Old Said, among his varied activities and exploits Bediuzzaman wanted recorded only those which in some way looked directly to the New Said's