My Dear and Loyal Brothers!

Copies written out by fifty to sixty of the Risale-i Nur's young and innocent students have been sent to us, and we have collected them into three volumes. We have noted down some of their names: Ömer 15 years old, Bekir 9 years old, Hüseyin 11 years old. Their serious efforts at this time show that ... the Risale-i Nur provides a greater pleasure, joy, and eagerness that than the various amusements and incentives they have created to entice children to study in the new schools. It also shows that the Risale-i Nur is taking root. God willing, nothing will be able to eradicate it and it will continue down the generations.

In the same letter he writes that they had gathered together the forty or fifty pieces written by the illiterate elderly, who had learnt to write after the age of fifty. So too "harvesters, farmers, shepherds, and nomads" were all putting aside their own pursuits and working for the Risale-i Nur. He goes on to mention that the difficulties in correcting all these copies were compensated for by the fact that he was compelled to read them slowly and carefully, and by the pleasure he received from hearing the Risale-i Nur's lessons from "their sincere and innocent tongues." [^196]

[^196]:Tarihçe, 278-9.

In other letters, which encourage these Nur Students so tactfully and kindly, Bediuzzaman mentions that they had made up five and seven volumes of these pieces, one of which included pieces written out by children that illustrated examples of the coinciding of letters. [^197] Women too, he said, had a close affinity with the Risale-i Nur and he had long expected them to respond warmly to it. He wrote:

[^197]:Nursi, Kastamonu Lahikası, 82-3.

In fact, since the chief foundation of the way of the Risale-i Nur is compassion, and women are mines of compassion, I had long expected the Risale-i Nur's true nature to be understood in the world of women. Thanks be to God, the women here are more active and work with greater enthusiasm than the men hereabouts... These two manifestations are a auspicious sign that [in the future] the Risale-i Nur will shine and make many conquests in those mines of compassion. [^198]

[^198]:Ibid., 62.

Although it was while in the Darü'l-Hikmeti'l-İslamiye that Bediuzzaman had written the treatise on the wisdom in Islamic dress for women, which he renamed the Twenty-Fourth Flash while still in Barla, it was only during these years that he consented to receive women from time to time for the purpose of teaching them from the Risale-i Nur. It was also at this