► (096) ◄
My Dear, Loyal Brothers!
I was worrying because I hadn't received Husrev's letter written by himself; and no reply had arrived concerning the collections I had sent to Konya; and because our enemies and foremost the Minister of the Interior together with the anarchists were all pressurizing me; and because some of the dissemblers here had learnt from certain simple-hearted friends of ours that I had sent books to both Eskişehir and Konya and had received The Staff of Moses collections. Then suddenly in unprecedented fashion in this season, one and a half metres of snow fell and there was a terrible blizzard and cold spell. I wondered if such anger and wrath could be connected with the Risale-i Nur and its students, like the four earthquakes and drought last year. I asked if the calamity was general or just limited to the provinces of Afyon and Eskişehir, and they replied that it was limited to them. So I exclaimed: "All praise be to God! That means there is no general attack on the Risale-i Nur and its students; only on myself and the treatises I have with me." I had reckoned that Eskişehir, which I so trusted, would be a Nur School like Denizli, but it remained ten degrees below Denizli, the reason for which was the situation scaring them, like with Afyon and Emirdağ. Anyway, don't worry; just like with the Istanbul secular schools, God willing, this weather incident has caused the covert Masons to give up the new assault they were intending. Divine providence is protecting us.
Secondly: This time I received seven or eight letters. My situation, pen, and time do not permit me to write personal replies, so don't be offended. We added the letters from Mehmed Feyzi and Emin to The Additional Letters without touching them. I did not interfere with them since both of them have served me personally for eight years, and their descriptions which far exceed my due are a sort of prayer and source of encouragement and contentment, and a sign of good will and loyalty towards their Master in so far as he is the interpreter of the Risale-i Nur, and of their belief and attachment. And it is appropriate that Feyzi's description of his mother's beautiful, luminous death due to the lessons of the Risale-i Nur, a shining example of how it comes to the aid of its students at the time of death and other times of difficulty, should be included among The Additional Letters.
An immediate reply to Halil İbrahim's letter asking numerous questions about the whys and wherefores of divine decree and determining, would allow us to strive to perform good works, and would attract everyone's attention to the Risale-i Nur and get them to read it. But since it would call to mind some sort of objection to divine decree and determining, it would
