in fact Bediuzzaman that attracted them and infused them with this zeal? Or did the the Risale-i Nur itself possess some attractive power that drew them and held them? First we can say that Bediuzzaman always directed attention away from his own personality and self towards the Risale-i Nur, shunning any sort of adulation that would damage the absolute sincerity he considered necessary for the task to which he had been appointed. Also, he considered that all of himself had gone into the Risale-i Nur. And as was mentioned before, he saw himself not as the source of the Risale-i Nur, but merely as its "translator", as the means of its being written. He said of himself: "Just as an ordinary private can announce the commands of a field marshal, and a bankrupt can shout out the wares of a shop full of priceless jewels and diamonds, so I announce the wares of the sacred shop of the Qur'an." [^81] He also wrote: "I do not say about The Words out of modesty but to state a fact, that the truths and perfections in The Words are not mine, they are the Qur'an's, and have issued from the Qur'an." [^82] Thus, it may be said that it was the lights of the Qur'an shining through the Risale-i Nur that were attracting and illuminating ever-increasing numbers of people.

[^81]:Nursi, Mektûbat, 329 (Eng. tr.: Letters, 417).

[^82]:Ibid., 344 (Eng. tr.: Letters, 434).

#### "Divine Favours" Associated with the Writing of the Risale-i Nur

"Divine Favours" Associated with the Writing of the Risale-i Nur

As a form of thanks and also in order to encourage his students in their work in the difficult conditions of the time, Bediuzzaman dedicated a long section of one of his letters to describing a number of "divine favours" associated with the writing of the Risale-i Nur which strengthen this claim. He told them that without their knowledge and beyond their will, someone was employing them in these important matters. And his evidence for this was these favours and the fact that things were made easy for them. He then enumerated some of them, calling them Indications. [^83]

[^83]:Ibid., 345-50.

Firstly was the question of the coincidences, mentioned above in connection with the Tenth Word. Here Bediuzzaman takes the Nineteenth Letter as an example, which in certain handwritten copies displayed some truly extraordinary examples of these agreements or coincidings. He also used it as an example for others of the points, including the great ease and speed with which most of the Risale-i Nur was written, for the most part when he was suffering most from illness and the torments of the authori-