objected to it vigorously and setting out the errors and his corrections, presented them to the court together with a request for a committee of qualified scholars to be set up in order to examine the Risale-i Nur. After some delay, his request was accepted and on 9 March 1944, all the material of the case was sent to the First Ankara Criminal Court. A committee of three established scholars was then appointed under the chief judge of the court, Emin Böke, and it set about studying in detail the entire Risale-i Nur and all Bediuzzaman's letters and those of his students.

In the meantime the court hearings continued in Denizli. Bediuzzaman offered his defence and answered all the charges. His students too presented their defences. Mehmet Feyzi noted that Bediuzzaman sent a petition to the court seeking permission not to attend on the grounds of illness, but when he saw the positive attitude of the chief judge, Ali Rıza Balaban, who had the courtroom arranged like an amphitheatre, he took it back. And the judge did prove to be fair, both in the final outcome of the case, and in allowing Bediuzzaman to sit while the court was in session despite the objections of the prosecutor. [^239] They walked from the prison to the court, a line of seventy handcuffed in pairs. It was the only time the Students from the various parts of the prison could meet. They handcuffed Bediuzzaman to a different person each time. Accompanied by more than thirty gendarmes with fixed bayonets, the people of Denizli lined their route and expressed their sorrow and sympathy. [^240]

[^239]:Mehmed Feyzi Pamukçu, in Son Şahitler, ii, 163.

[^240]:Selahaddin Çelebi, in Son Şahitler, i, 145.

#### Extracts from Bediuzzaman's Defence

Extracts from Bediuzzaman's Defence

In His Name, be He be glorified!

Sirs!

I tell you with certainty that apart from those here who have no connection or little connection with us and the Risale-i Nur, I have as many true brothers and loyal friends on the way of truth as you could wish. Through the certain discoveries of the Risale-i Nur, we know with the unshakeable certainty of twice two equalling four that through the mystery of the Qur' an for us death has been transformed from eternal extinction into a discharge from duties, and that for those who oppose us and follow misguidance certain death is either eternal extinction (if they do not have certain belief in the hereafter), or everlasting, dark solitary confinement (if they believe in the hereafter and take the way of vice and misguidance). Is there a greater or more important question for man in this world that it can be a tool for it?