those days. The four years following this it was provided by another of the villagers, Abdullah Çavuş. [^59]

[^59]:Şahiner, Said Nursi, 281.

Particularly the first years Bediuzzaman was in Barla, he was very much alone, and he described this isolation in several letters, two of which are given below. However he also raised a lot of interest in the area, and on occasion received visits from local people from all walks of life. One of these was by a local District Official called İhsan Üstündağ, who visited Bediuzzaman together with the District Doctor, the Finance Officer, and a chemist, sometime between 1926 and 1930. As a firsthand account as well as because of its interest, his description of the visit is included here:

While on the way to Barla in the boat, a conversation started up on religious matters. The chemist had little religious belief, and he said to us: "You say God exists, so why did He create evil?" , denying God. We could in no way convince him. So we spoke to him of Bediuzzaman and told him: "Don't say anything else or we'll throw you in the lake! We're going to Barla, so ask the Hoja Efendi there; he'll give you your answer." We went the District Chief's house and before drinking our coffee even, sent word that we wanted to go to Bediuzzaman. He received us gladly, greeting us standing. "While it should have been I that visited you, you have come to visit me", he said, and before we could ask any questions, opened the subject of good and evil. He continued: "Now I'll explain to you how evil can be good." We gasped in amazement. He gave this example: "Cutting off an arm infected with gangrene is not evil, it is good, because if it isn't cut off, the body would go. That means Allah created that evil for good." Then he turned to the doctor and the chemist, and said: "You are a doctor and a chemist, you know this better than I do." On hearing this, the chemist turned as white as chalk. He was completely tongue-tied. [They had not said who they were.] Hoja Efendi then gave an additional example: "If a number of eggs are put under a turkey and nothing comes of some of them, but from the others chicks hatch, can it be said that this is evil, because each chick that hatches is worth five hundred eggs?" Finally he described the heart from the medical point of view, giving a lot of scientific facts. Several days later, Dr. Kemal Bey said to me: "I had never before heard such a fine scientific exposition of the heart from professors even!" [^60]

[^60]:İhsan Üstündağ, in Son Şahitler, iv, 300.

The following are extracts from the two letters describing Bediuzzaman's solitude. All his letters begin with the words, "In His Name, be He