Thirdly: I send my greetings to the preacher Mehmed and Tevfik, who are in the whereabouts of Eflâni; his dream is auspicious.

Fourthly: I have this minute received the fine letter of Mehmed Feyzi, the Husrev of Kastamonu, containing the good news of the Risale-i Nur's conquests and his congratulations. And with all my life and spirit, I congratulate foremost that valuable brother of ours, and Hilmi, Emin, and the Beşkardeş's, and our Nurju sisters the Ulviyes, Zehras, and Lütfiyes, on both the Ten Nights, and the festival. Also, we are sending attached the letters of both Hulûsi and Feyzi. ∗∗∗

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My Dear, Loyal Brothers !

Firstly: A leading, most worthy Nur student asked me in the name of many of them: "A number of sincere, leading Nur students persistently suppose you to be the supreme guide who is to come at the end of time and will belong to the Prophet's (UWBP) family. They insist on this despite your holding back so much. You do not accept this idea of theirs that they so insist upon and you shrink from it. For sure, they have decisive proof and are in possession of some truth, yet you do not concede to it for some reason or owing to some truth. This is a contradiction and come what may we want to solve it."

I say in reply to the many matters that this person represents: Those select Nurjus are in possession of some truth, but it has to be defined and interpreted in two respects:

The First Respect: As I have indicated in many of my letters, the collective personality of the sacred community that the Mahdi of the Prophet's (UWBP) family will represent, has three functions. We may await from divine mercy that if the end of the world does not happen soon and humankind does not stray from the path completely, his community and the community of sayyids will perform those functions. He will have three major functions.

His First Function: Since science and philosophy are now dominant and the plague of materialism and naturalism has spread among the human race, before everything belief should be saved in such a way that it silences philosophy and materialism. Since preserving the people of belief from misguidance necessitates leaving aside both this world and everything in it and demands prolonged and devoted study, neither the Mahdi's time nor his situation would permit him to perform this duty himself; preoccupation