son is dead, or, he has been wounded, or, he is in prison, my father used to laugh and enjoy it immensely. He would say: "Masha'llah! My son is doing something of importance again, he is demonstrating his courage and daring; that is why everyone is talking about him." My mother would weep unhappily in the face of his pleasure. But then time would very often prove my father to be right. [^48]

[^48]:Ibid., 65-6; Nursi, Emirdağ Lahikası, i, 135.

#### Bitlis

Bitlis

Molla Said was to stay two years in Bitlis on the insistence of the governor, Omer Pasha, in whose residence he stayed. It was his characteristic fearless defence of right that earned him the governor's respect and the invitation to stay there.

For Molla Said had heard one day that the governor and some officials were having a drinking session. Finding it unacceptable that government representatives should behave in such a way, he went and interrupted them. And reading out a Hadith about the drinking of alcohol, he rebuked them in strong terms. The governor evidently suppressed the anger he had felt on being addressed in this way, and did nothing. When leaving, the governor's aide-de-camp asked Molla Said why had had acted in such a way, which would normally have led to being executed. But Said merely replied:

"Being executed didn't occur to me, I was thinking of prison or exile. Anyway, if I die repulsing a denier of God's law, what harm is there in it?"

And when, a couple of hours later, two policemen sent by the governor brought him back, the governor rose to his feet when Said entered his office and treated him with great respect, saying: "Everyone has a spiritual guide; you shall be mine and you shall stay with me." [^49]

[^49]:Tarihçe, 42-3.

During the next two years, Molla Said was able to greatly extend his knowledge of the Islamic sciences. We are told that until about this time all Said's knowledge had been of the sort called sünûhat. That is to say, he had understood the subjects he had studied without much thought; understanding had come to him as a sort of inspiration without his exercising his reasoning faculty unduly. Because of this, he had not found it necessary to study the subjects at great length. But whether due to his increasing maturity or because he had become involved in politics, this former ability now slowly began to disappear. And so, in order both to preserve his position among the 'ulema, and especially to refute the works of Western orientalists on Islam and answer the doubts they had raised, Molla Said embarked