man included the following piece entitled, "Answer to a Scheming Cleric Who Wanted to Pour Scorn on Us":

"Someone has thrown you down into the mud and is killing you. Although he is pressing his foot on your throat, he asks mockingly what school of law you follow. The best answer to this is to feel the offence, be silent, and spit in his face. So not to him, but in the name of the truth:

Q. What does the religion of Muhammad consist of?

A. The Qur'an.

Q. What has it given to life and thought?

A. Divine Unity and moderation.

Q. What is the remedy for man's troubles?

A. The prohibition of interest and usury and the obligatory payment of zakat.

Q. What does it say concerning the present upheavals?

A. 'Man has nought save that which he strives' (Qur'an, 53:39). 'And those who amass gold and silver and do not spend it in the way of God; announce to them a most grievous punishment' (Qur'an, 9:34)." [^352]

[^352]:Nursi, "Rumûz," in Asar-ı Bedi'iyye, 85.

Bediuzzaman's most effective work at this time, however, was a short work called The Six Steps, in which he pointed out six ways in which the British, and the Greeks, sowed discord and dissension in the Muslim community. It has at its head the verse: "And do not follow in the footsteps of Satan" (Qur'an, 2: 168), and he later described it as having "turned the Istanbul 'ulemas opinions against the British and in favour of the national movement", [^353] and as having "spoilt the fearsome plan of the commander of the British forces occupying Istanbul." This plan was "to prepare the ground for the defeat of the National Forces and victory of Greeks by sowing strife among Muslims, and even deceiving the Şeyhü'l-İslam and some of the 'ulema and inciting them against each other, and by making the sup- porters of the two main political groupings contend with each other [that is, those of the by then disbanded Committee of Union and Progress and those of the Freedom and Accord Party]." [^354]

[^353]:Nursi, Şualar, 385 (Eng. tr.: Rays, 453).

[^354]:Nursi, Şualar, 379 (Eng. tr.: Rays, 445).

To illuminate this further, it should be mentioned that the source of the conflict lay in the fact that, according to the official account, Sultan Vahideddin, [^355] the Istanbul government, some of the 'ulema, and others, opposed the national movement in Anatolia absolutely. They considered those

[^355]:See Chapter 8, note 9.