So also Salahaddin Çelebi in İnebolu — Bediuzzaman called him Abdurrahman Salahaddin — struck up relations with some American missionaries and over a period of months read them The Staff of Moses and Zülfikar collections, and gave them copies. [^279]

[^279]:Ibid., 154; 179.

In connection with this, in the face of the growing threat of communism described in the following section, with his extraordinarily clear-sighted view of the future, in accordance with certain Hadith, Bediuzzaman advocated co-operation between truly religious Christians against this threat. He wrote: "In connection with Selahaddin giving the American The Staff of Moses, we say this:

It is essential that missionaries and Christian clergy as well as Nurjus are extremely careful, for certainly, with the idea of defending itself against the attacks of the religions of Islam and Christianity, the current from the North will try to destroy the accord of Islam and the missionaries. [^280] , [^281]

[^280]:Ibid., 156.

[^281]:Also in this connection, it is worth noting that in a footnote to the Twentieth Flash, On Sincerity, written in 1934, Bediuzzaman spoke of this co-operation. He wrote: "It is even recorded in authentic traditions of the Prophet that at the end of time the truly pious among the Christians will unite with the People of the Qur'an and fight their common enemy, irreligion. The people of religion and truth will sincerely unite not only with their own brothers and fellow-believers but also with the truly pious clergy of the Christians, refraining from the discussion and debate of points of difference in order to combat their joint enemy — aggressive atheism." Lem'alar, 146 (Eng. tr.: Flashes, 203-4 fn 8).

#### Conditions

Conditions

The writing of the Risale-i Nur, then, was virtually complete within a few months of Bediuzzaman's coming to Emirdağ, and a large part of his time here was spent in correcting the copies sent to him of the Risale-i Nur, both handwritten and duplicated — this work even sometimes taking part of the time he set apart each day for worship and contemplation. In many of his letters directing his students' activities, together with encouraging them and insisting on the continued importance of the handwritten copies, he urged them to pay attention to writing out the pieces accurately, so as to assist him in this laborious and time-consuming task. So too he constantly urged caution on them, and to act circumspectly, aware that their enemies were always seeking ways of halting their work.

Bediuzzaman's three and a half years in Emirdağ were truly torturous for him. This is also clear from his letters. So also the people of Emirdağ and his students testified to the entirely unlawful and vindictive treatment