order to gain permanent access to the Divine presence, it gains a level of the Divine presence as broad as the universe, and that a sphere of worship opens up as broad, universal and permanent as the universe. [^162]

[^162]:Ibid., 174-5.

Very often when explaining the way of the Risale-i Nur, Bediuzzaman compares it with Sufism, as in the above piece. Founding a new tarikat was something he was frequently accused of in Eskişehir Court. Many of his students were familiar with it. These comparisons show clearly the differences between them: besides seeing and learning to 'read' the universe as a means to knowledge of God rather than casting it into oblivion, the main difference is that while in Sufism it is the heart that is the means to reaching reality through illumination and wonder-working, the Risale-i Nur addresses the reason as well as the heart and other subtle faculties. The conditions of the time demand this. With its proofs based on the modern understanding of the universe, it saves belief and raises it to a level of certainty whereby it can withstand all the doubts and assaults made against belief and religion at the present time. So also, Bediuzzaman writes, the Risale-i Nur does not only teach "with the feet of the reason" like the works of the 'ulema, the religious scholars, "...rather, proceeding with the feet of the combining of the reason and the heart, and the mutual assistance of the spirit and other subtle faculties, it flies to the highest peaks; it ascends to where not the feet, but the eyes even of the philosophy which attacks [religion] cannot reach; and it shows the truths of belief to eyes that are blind even." [^163]

[^163]:Ibid, 10.

Bediuzzaman found that The Supreme Sign with its thirty-three degrees proving the Divine existence and unity and Hizbü'l-Nuriye in particular illuminated the heart and other inner faculties. He wrote that when he read them, his "spirit, imagination, and heart expanded and unfolded to such a degree that when I gave the testimony 'There is no god but God' that each degree declares, I was aware of the Divine Unity on a vast scale as though that universal tongue was mine, Thus, The Supreme Sign can impart lights of belief to the spirit as brilliant as the sun. I formed this unshakeable conviction, and I witnessed it." [^164]

[^164]:Nursi, Emirdağ Lahikası, i, 68.