Paradise. Nevertheless, according to the Shari'a, parents should encourage their child to perform the prayers when they reach the age of seven in order to familiarize them, and they should strongly encourage him when he reaches ten, to accustom him. That is to say, although it is not compulsory, as a sort of supererogatory worship, children who perform the prayers from the age of seven till the age of puberty like adults, and hold the fast, will be thirty-three years old in Paradise, in order to receive the large rewards of pious adults. Some commentaries included all children, without elucidating this point. It was supposed to be general, although it is specific. ∗∗∗

► (064) ◄

My Dear, Loyal, Thoughtful Brothers !

Firstly: Owing to many signs, I have formed the certain opinion that the reason covert atheists have deceived a number of officials, and insistently levelled their accusations at A Guide for Youth alone out of all the lengthy confidential treatises of the Risale-i Nur, and have caused me difficulties this last one and a half years, is the piece about the air (Hüve Nüktesi) in the Guide. [^17] For the true meaning of divine unity that the piece discloses most clearly and decisively, smashes absolute disbelief, In fact, in one part of it, it disallows every sort of doubt and hesitation. Because covert atheists could find nothing to combat this, they tried to prevent its spread by banning it officially. I am going to explain to you only three of many points related to the piece about the air that I expounded for the leading students of the Medresetü' z-Zehrâ the day before yesterday.

[^17]:"The Air: A Window onto Divine Unity," in A Guide for Youth, 101-7. [Tr.]

First Point: According to an inner meaning of the verse: "To Him ascend [all] good words" (Q 35:10), one elevated and important duty of the element air is to be an ever-changing page for the pen of divine power, in order to make heard to all the angels and spirit beings in the globe of the air the beautiful, meaningful, veracious words of belief inscribed by the pen of divine determining and spread through divine permission, and to convey them to the Supreme Throne. Since this is the most important of the air's sacred duties and of the wisdom in its creation; and since by means of the radio the face of the earth is made into a single dwelling and is a vast divine bounty for humankind; most certainly, as humankind's universal thanks, before anything else the words that the radio broadcasts should be foremost the Qur'an and its truths, which are divine speech and