ing, and to encourage us to be steadfast and strong. So I wrote them down, It does not matter if to do so inflated my ego or caused my fall even. I am more than happy if I have to sacrifice my life in this world and in the next for this work; that is, to save the believers from absolute misguidance. I would agree to go to Hell even so that my thousands of friends and brothers might enter Paradise. ∗∗∗

► (004) ◄ The Unanimous Report of the Ankara Experts' Committee

The Unanimous Report of the Ankara Experts' Committee

The total of five full boxes of books were opened by ourselves and read. [^2] Studied by ourselves were the following: the parts of the Risale-i Nur, both printed and otherwise; letters on religious and scholarly subjects written by Said Nursi and his students; commonplace letters written by his students to each other and to himself which included newspaper cuttings. These were considered to be within the scope of our powers. They may be divided into two sorts:

[^2]:The critical sections of the experts' committee's report have not been included here since they were replied to decisively in the court and written at the end of my defence speech. They anyway consisted of only ten minor matters in three or four of the treatises, and were scholarly criticisms, not political. Moreover, it was proved in court with documentary evidence that they were incorrect and mistaken. [Author]

The Risale-i Nur: Ninety-nine per cent of all its parts consist of expositions of verses of the Qur'an or of Hadiths; scholarly matters written in the form of parabolic comparisons in order to illustrate clearly tenets of belief concerning religion, belief, Allah, the Prophet, the Qur'an, and the hereafter; moral guidance addressing the elderly and the youth; exemplary occurrences from the author's own life; and beneficial stories about shopkeepers and tradesmen. In all these parts the author is both sincere in what he writes and altruistic, and does not depart from scholarly and religious principles. There is no evidence of exploitation of religion, or forming a religious association, or of any movement intending to disturb public order. The mundane correspondence between Said Nursi and his students is also of this kind.

1. Said Nursi says that the fame and acclaim he was accorded in Istanbul resembled a deep sleep, a temporary oppressive dream, a sort of stupefaction. And he depicts this as the death of the world because he unthinkingly became involved in politics for a year or two. He says that due to this