and not abasing oneself before oppressors. Someone who is a true slave of God cannot be a slave to others." [^140] "That is to say, however perfected belief is, Freedom will shine to that degree." [^141]

[^140]:Nursi, Hutbe-i Şamiye, 53 (Eng. tr.: Damascus Sermon, 57).

[^141]:Nursi, Münâzarat, 19.

Bediuzzaman says that Freedom is not to be absolved from all the ties of social life and civilization, "Rather, what shines like the sun, is the beloved of every soul, and is the equal of the essence of humanity is that Freedom which is seated in the felicitous palace of civilization and is adorned with knowledge, virtue, and the good manners and raiment of Islam." [^142]

[^142]:Ibid., 18.

The positive results of Freedom with regard to progress were in part noted above in the Address to Freedom: unity, love of the nation, the end to "personal enmity and thoughts of revenge", and also to extravagance and vice; the elimination of the chains on human thought; the rearing of a new generation of able men to run the country. In another work he says it is Islamic Freedom "which teaches mankind exalted aims in the form of competition for exalted things, and causes them to strive on that way; which shatters despotism; and excites exalted emotions and destroys jealousy, envy, malice, and rivalry, and is furnished with true awakening, the eagerness of competition, the tendency towards renewal, and the predisposition for civilization... It has been fitted out with the inclination and desire for the highest accomplishments worthy of humanity." [^143]

[^143]:Nursi, Hutbe-i Şamiye, 29-30 (Eng. tr.: Damascus Sermon, 37).

Indeed, Freedom was the means of "the progress of Islam". Bediuzzaman declared that "Freedom is the only way of delivering three hundred and seventy million strong Islam from captivity." [^144] And that: "The Ottomans' Freedom is the discloser of mighty Asia's good fortune. It is the key to the prosperity of Islam. It is the foundation of the ramparts of Islamic unity." [^145]

[^144]:Nursi, Divan-ı Harb-i Örfî, 41.

[^145]:Nursi, Münâzarat, 21.

Bediuzzaman explains this in terms of a reawakening of the consciousness of "Islamic nationhood" among individual Muslims. That is to say, as a result of Freedom, sovereignty now lies with the nation, or Islamic community, and "each individual Muslim possesses an actual part of the sovereignty." [^146] His use of scientific language and metaphors in the first of the following passages shows that he wanted to demonstrate that this was the

[^146]:Nursi, Divan-ı Harb-i Örfî, 41.