now while subject to the assaults of terrible serpents, unfortunate religious scholars and the people of religion make an excuse of minor faults like mosquito bites, and assist in the destruction of serpents and atheistic dissemblers and kill themselves with their own hands. [^186]

[^186]:Ibid., 186

The secret of the Risale-i Nur's success in combating the destruction of atheism lay in this sincerity:

The Risale-i Nur's victorious resistance against so many fearsome and obdurate deniers arises from the mystery of sincerity, and being a tool for nothing, and looking directly to eternal happiness, and following no aim apart from the service of belief, and attaching no importance to the personal illuminations and wonder-working that some followers of the tariqats consider important, and in accordance with the mystery of the legacy of prophethood, only disseminating the lights of belief and saving the faith of the believers, like the Companions of the Prophet, who possessed supreme sainthood... And they do not interfere in anything outside their own duties such as being successful or not, which is God's duty, or making the people accept or demand [their service], or making it to prevail or receiving the fame, illuminations, or Divine favours they deserve. They work with pure, total sincerity, saying: "Our duty is to serve. That is sufficient." [^187]

[^187]:Ibid., 200

The true students of the Risale-i Nur see the service of belief as superior to everything; should they be accorded the rank of spiritual pole even, out of  sincerity, they would prefer that of service. [^188]

[^188]:Ibid., 190

It was in order to develop a collective personality, a characteristic of the modern age, that the Students of the Risale-i Nur had to renounce all the demands of the ego; to "transform the 'I' into 'We', that is, give up egotism, and work on account of the collective personality of the Risale-i Nur" [^189]

[^189]:Ibid., 135

The present is not the time for egotism and the personality for those who follow the path of reality; it is the time of the community. A collective personality emerging from the community rules, and may persist. In order to have a large pool, the ego and personality, which are like blocks of ice, have to be cast into the pool and melted. [^190]

[^190]:Ibid., 102

While in the past, the age of individuality, individuals of great stature like 'Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani, Imam Ghazali, and Imam Rabbani had been