Thus, Bediuzzaman explains that it is because of this great breadth and profundity that the matter of resurrection is difficult to comprehend rationally. But he adds that thanks should be offered that the way had been shown by the Qur'an where man's reason on its own had remained impotent.

#### Life in Barla

Life in Barla

Barla's spring and summer rains are famous. The sunny skies suddenly cloud over, the thunder crashes, the lightning flashes, and the heavens open. Then the air is filled with the sweet smell of the soaked earth.

On one of the early days of the first summer he was in Barla, Bediuzzaman was walking alone in the surrounding country when the skies darkened and just such rain started to fall. Finding nowhere to shelter in the mountains, he made his way back to Barla drenched to the skin. On entering the village, he slowly climbed the narrow streets to the common water tap with his by now ripped black rubber shoes in his hand and white woollen stockings soaked in mud. There, a group of the villagers were gathered together chatting. One of them, seeing "the Hoja" in this sorry and lonely state, parted from the group and came up behind him.

Sensing there was someone behind him, Bediuzzaman turned and seeing Süleyman as he was called, said to him: "Come, my brother!" Süleyman hurried forward, and taking the torn and muddy shoes, washed them in the trough, then together they climbed on up the hill to Bediuzzaman's house. This Süleyman attended to Bediuzzaman's needs with complete willingness and faithfulness for the next eight years. Bediuzzaman called him 'Sıddık Süleyman', Süleyman the True. The Twenty-Eighth Word, about Paradise, was written in his garden. To this day it is known as the Paradise Garden. [^57]

[^57]:Şahiner, Said Nursi, 278-9.

Bediuzzaman continued to suffer from bad health all the time he was in Barla. It was also his habit to eat only just sufficient to keep body and soul together. This had always been his practice and had often been noted by those who knew him, generally a small bowl of soup and a small piece of bread. The first four years he was in Barla, his soup came from Muhajir Hafız Ahmad's house, brought by his two seven and eight year old children, who were huffaz [^58] of the Qur'an like himself. Bediuzzaman would always without fail give them the price of the soup in return, ten kuruş in

[^58]:Pl. of hafiz.