ing to Ankara. With a good result in Ankara, all our business everywhere will be resolved, God willing, It evidently had to be, especially in Ankara, that at this time attention is turned towards the truths of belief in the Risale-i Nur. God willing, our case being transferred there will lead to a significant raising of awareness.

Your brother,

Zübeyir ∗∗∗

► (112) ◄ A Letter of Our Master Concerning Visitors

A Letter of Our Master Concerning Visitors

I am obliged to explain a matter to all my friends and especially to visitors:

Most of my life has passed in solitude, and since for the past thirty to forty years I have been the object of surveillance and assaults, I am averse to meeting and conversing with people unnecessarily and feel disinclined to do so. Also, since my early life, gifts both material and otherwise, have made me uncomfortable. Also, at the present my visitors and friends have multiplied, and they expect something from me. Just as a physical sweet given as a gift now makes me ill, so is being visited a non-material gift, as is meeting with people. Especially if the visitors come from other places and take trouble just to shake hands; to do so is a significant immaterial gift, But I have nothing to give in return. Moreover, such gifts are not cheap; indeed, in effect they are expensive. I do not consider myself worthy of reverence and respect; I cannot respond to that in kind either. So for now I have been prevented from unnecessary meetings and conversations, which are like immaterial gifts for me, just like material gifts. They sometimes make me ill, just as material gifts do when I cannot give their full equivalent in return. So no one should feel offended or upset.

Reading the Risale-i Nur is ten times more profitable than meeting with me. In any event, if anyone meets with me, it is on account of the hereafter, belief, and the Qur'an. I have severed all relations with the world, so to meet with me on its account is meaningless. As for the hereafter, belief, and the Qur'an, the Risale-i Nur leaves no need for me. Especially the letters in the biography. I do not speak unnecessarily even with my select brothers who attend on me. If I meet with certain people to discuss some of the conquests of the Risale-i Nur and its dissemination, it may be permissible and does not distress me, I say this to those who come to visit me with-