Our Master himself said: "When I was eight or nine years old, contrary to my family and everyone else in the vicinity, who were attached to the Naqshbandi tariqat and used to seek assistance from a famous figure called Ghawth Hizan, I used to say: 'O Ghawth Gilani!' Since I was a child, if some insignificant thing like a walnut got lost, [I would say] 'O Shaykh! I'll say a Fatiha for you and you find this thing for me!' It is strange and yet I swear that a thousand times the venerable Shaykh came to my assistance through his prayers and saintly influence. Therefore, however many Fatihas and supplications I have uttered in general in my life, after the per- son of the Prophet (PBUH), they have been offered for Shaykh Gilani. While I am a Naqshbandi in three or four respects, the Qadiri way and love of it prevail in me involuntarily. But preoccupation [with study of the religious sciences] prevented my becoming involved with the tariqat." [^8]

[^8]:Nursi, Sikke-i Tasdik-i Gaybî, 116.

Although, as is stated here, Said never joined a tariqat or followed the Sufi path — he was later to describe Sufism as being inappropriate for the needs of the modern age — his close relationship with Shaykh 'Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani continued throughout his life; on many occasions throughout his life Said received guidance and assistance through his saintly influence.

#### Said Begins His Studies

Said Begins His Studies

Said started his studies at the age of nine. He appears now as a pugnacious child, prone to quarrelling with both his peers and his elders. But this sprang not from any innate fault, but from the frustration at bearing within him a great and brilliant spirit which as yet could find no way to express itself, and at the incomprehension which he often met with, from both his teachers and his fellows.

It was his elder brother, Molla [^9] Abdullah's, example that first prompted the young Said to start studying. He had noticed how he had benefited from his studies. Abdullah had gradually improved and progressed so that when Said saw him together with his friends from the village who had not studied his self-evident superiority awoke in Said a strong urge to study himself. With this intention, he set off with him for Molla Mehmed Emin Efendi's medrese in the village of Tag, near İsparit. However, he fought with another student called Mehmed, and did not stay there long.

[^9]:Molla: a title denoting that a certain level of knowledge had been reached in the religious sciences — a teacher.

For the young Said also held himself in great esteem. He could not