thought, and contemplation. Thus, what was to be known as the Tenth Word, the Treatise on Resurrection and the Hereafter, was the first fruit of those five or six years of inner search, the answer to his prayers and supplications.

On revisiting Barla in 1954 with some of his students, Bediuzzaman described to them how it was written. They had gone to the fields and orchards on the slopes to the east of Barla down towards Lake Eğridir when Bediuzzaman rose to his feet and pointing to the orchards, told them:

My brothers! It was about thirty years ago and just this same season. I was walking through these orchards and the almond trees were in blossom. Suddenly the verse, "So think on the signs of God's Mercy, how He gives life to the earth after its death; indeed, He it is Who will give life to the dead, and He is powerful over all things" [^47] came to mind. It became clear to me that day. I was both walking and repeating that verse over and over again at the top of my voice. I recited it forty times. Then in the evening I returned and together with Şamlı Hafız Tevfik wrote the Tenth Word. That is, I dictated and Hafız Tevfik wrote it down. [^48]

[^47]:Qur'an, 30:50.

[^48]:Mustafa Sungur, in Aydınlar Konuşuyor, 395.

Unlike most subsequent parts of the Risale-i Nur when they were first written, Bediuzzaman was able to have the Tenth Word printed. Immediately it was written, a local merchant, Bekir Dikmen, took the manuscript to Istanbul and gave it to one of Bediuzzaman's old students from the East, Müküslü Hamza Efendi, who had a thousand copies printed. When the sixty-three-page books were ready, Bekir Dikmen brought them back to Eğridir, from where they were taken by boat to Barla, and there handed over to Bediuzzaman. He then corrected each copy and had them distributed. [^49]

[^49]:N. Şahiner, Said Nursi, 272-3.

A number of these copies Bediuzzaman had sent to Ankara and distributed among the Deputies in the National Assembly and top government officials, It happened that this coincided with moves in government circles to officially inculcate ideas denying bodily resurrection in the Turkish people. [^50] Bediuzzaman later described this as follows:

[^50]:Nursi, Barla Lahikası, 171.

The Council for Education had met in Ankara in order to discuss their programme for uprooting religious ideas and imposing their atheistic views on school children and students. They decided that this should be carried out through the teaching of philosophy and denial of the resurrection of the