the Eleventh Ray, The Fruits of Belief. [^274] The Risale-i Nur was approaching its completion at this time. With the exception of Elhüccetü'z-Zehra, written in Afyon Prison, The Fruits of Belief was the last main piece to be written, and subsequent to this it was largely published in the form of collections.

[^274]:Nursi, Emirdağ Lahikası, i, 24.

At this time, the battle against atheism and unbelief was for the main part carried out with two collections, The Staff of Moses (Asâ-yı Mûsa) and Zülfikar. The first part of The Staff of Moses consisted of the eleven parts of The Fruits of Belief, and second, of eleven pieces from various parts of the Risale-i Nur, including the First Station of The Supreme Sign and the Treatise on Nature. Zülfikar consisted of the Nineteenth Letter, The Miracles of Muhammad, and the Twenty-Fifth Word, The Miraculousness of the Qur'an. Also, printed in 1947 in Eskişehir was A Guide for Youth, the collection mentioned in a previous chapter made up largely of pieces written originally for the schoolboys who became Bediuzzaman's students in Kastamonu.

The case of Bediuzzaman and his students at Denizli had been sent to the Appeal Court in Ankara on the prosecutor's demanding the acquittals be quashed. The Appeal Court however had upheld the decision of the Denizli judges, reaching its unanimous decision on 30 December 1944. This decision was announced on 15 February 1945. With all these legal delays it was not till 29 June 1945, that the Denizli lawyer acting for Bediuzzaman, Ziya Sönmez, was able to collect Bediuzzaman's books and copies of the Risale-i Nur. Hafız Mustafa then brought them to Emirdağ to hand over to Bediuzzaman. [^275]

[^275]:Ziya Sönmez, in Son Şahitler, ii, 183.

Legally there was no obstacle now for the publication and free distribution of the Risale-i Nur. In addition, since the Denizli trials, the demand for it had greatly increased. All over Turkey people were seeking the Risale-i Nur. It was at this point while Students in the Isparta and Kastamonu areas, Denizli and other places were working flat out writing out by hand copies of The Staff of Moses and Zülfikar, and other parts of the Risale-i Nur, that in 1946 or '47 the Çelebi's and other Risale-i Nur Students in İnebolu bought one of the first duplicating machines to come to Turkey. When it was seen that this was successful, Tahiri Mutlu came from Isparta to see it and then returned there via Istanbul, where he bought a second one. These two machines greatly facilitated the spread of the Risale-i Nur. They were bought and run by the Students, who with considerable sacrifice, pooled