The Reply: "Even if results in the sea, it will be a spacious grave. If I am executed, I shall rest in the heart of a nation. Also when I came to Istanbul, I brought my life as a bribe; do whatever you like. And I say seriously that I want to give a practical warning to my fellow-countrymen that if one forms a connection with the State, it should be to serve it, not to grab a salary. And someone like me serves the nation and State through advising and admonishing. And that is through making a good impression. And that is through expecting nothing in return. And that is through being unprejudiced, which is through being without ulterior motives, which is through renouncing all personal benefits. As a consequence, I am excused from not accepting a salary."

The Minister: "Your aim of spreading education in Kurdistan is being discussed by the Cabinet."

The Reply: "According to what rule do you delay education and speed up salaries? Why do you prefer my personal benefits to the general benefit of the nation?"

The Minister became angry.

Bediuzzaman: "I have been free. I grew up in the mountains of Kurdistan, which is the place of absolute freedom. There is no point in getting angry; do not tire yourself for nothing. Send me into exile; be it Fizan or Yemen, I do not mind. I will be saved from falling from a height."

The Minister: "What do you want to say?"

Bediuzzaman: "You have drawn a veil as thin as a cigarette paper over everyone in the face of all these ideas and emotions which are boiling over, and called it law and order. Underneath everyone is groaning at your oppression like moving corpses. I was inexperienced, I did not go in under the veil, I remained top of it. Then one time it was rent in the Palace. I was in an Armenian's house in Şişli; it was rent there. I was in the Sweetmakers' Han; it was rent there, too. I was in the mental hospital. And now I am in this place of custody.

"In short, you do so much patching up that I am annoyed as well. I was well-acquainted with you while I was in Kurdistan. And now the above-mentioned events have taught me your secrets well. Especially the mental hospital, it explained these texts to me clearly. So I thank you for these events, because I used always to think favourably, instead of distrusting. [^107]

[^107]:Nursi, Asar-ı Bedi'iyye, 330-1; Şahiner, Said Nursi, 95-7.

And finally, a newspaper article on the subject written later by the journalist and writer Eşref Edip, who was a close associate of Bediuzzaman and played an active role in the constitutional movement with his writings