And in another letter Bediuzzaman wrote: "I have understood and believe firmly that this world is a guesthouse undergoing rapid change. It is not, therefore, the true homeland and everywhere is the same... Since everywhere is a guesthouse, if the mercy of the guesthouse's Owner befriends one, everyone is a friend and everywhere is friendly. If it does not befriend one, everywhere is a load on the heart and everyone an enemy." [^64]

[^64]:Ibid., 68.

#### Abdurrahman's Death and Bediuzzaman's Students

Abdurrahman's Death and Bediuzzaman's Students

These letters were written to Hulûsi Yahyagil, [^65] "the first student of the Risale-i Nur". Then serving as a captain in the army stationed at Eğridir, he first visited Bediuzzaman in the spring of 1929. From Elazığ in eastern Turkey, he was to perform enormous services for the Risale-i Nur when he returned there eighteen months later. He formed a very close bond with Bediuzzaman identifying completely with The Words, and "his zeal and seriousness were the most important reason the last of The Words (Sözler) and most of the Letters (Mektubat) were written." [^66] More than this, Bediuzzaman considered him to be successor to his nephew, Abdurrahman. [^67]

[^65]:Hacı Hulûsi Yahyagil, in Son Şahitler, i, 33-55.

[^66]:Barla Lahikası, 18.

[^67]:Abdurrahman had remained in Ankara when Bediuzzaman left it for Van in 1923, finding himself a position as a scribe in the National Assembly. He married and had one son, called Vahdet. He died in Ankara in 1928, and is buried in what was at that time the village of Solfasol (Zü'l-Fazl) near Ankara. See, Şahiner, Said Nursi (8 th edn.), 202; (6 th edn.), 190 fn. 1.

Yes, together with all the other hardships he suffered at this time, Bediuzzaman was struck by this heavy blow: the death of his spiritual son, companion, and helper, Abdurrahman. Let us hear it from his own pen:

One time I was being held in the district of Barla in the province of Isparta in a distressing captivity called exile, in a truly wretched state suffering both illness, and old age, and absence from home, and in a village alone and with no one, barred from all social intercourse and communication. Then, in His perfect, mercy, Almighty God bestowed a light on me concerning the subtle points and mysteries of the All-Wise Qur'an which was a means of consolation for me. With it, I tried to forget my pitiful, grievous, sad state. I was able to forget my native land, my friends and relations, but, alas, there was one person I could not forget, and that was Abdurrahman, who was both my nephew, and my spiritual son, and my most devoted student, and my bravest friend. He had parted from me six or