Moreover, to try to put a peaked cap on my head — although three courts and the police of several provinces these last twenty years have not legally interfered with my dress and I have received no notification about the dress changes due to my solitude and being excused, — such an attempt could have caused the hundreds of thousands of people who for the past forty years have displayed brotherly interest in this country and especially in the teachings of certain affirmative belief to bring the very globe to anger in the midst of a terrible excitement and to weep as never before.
In any event, by reason of numerous signs I am completely certain that on foreign instigation that illegal treatment was meted out for the above-mentioned reasons as provocation to destroy public regard for me. But endless thanks be to Almighty God that as someone who is at the door of the grave, has no one, is world-weary, flees public attention and esteem, and has no desire for hypocritical fame and self-advertisement, I did not attach the slightest importance to their illegal insulting treatment. I refer it to Almighty God. I think of those who persecute me due to baseless suspicions being soon condemned to eternal nothingness when they die, and in truth I pity them. "O my Lord!" I pray, "Save their belief through the Risale-i Nur! Through the mystery of the Qur'an, transform everlasting non-being into the despatch papers for eternal life!" And I forgive them.
S a i d N u r s i ∗∗∗
► (014) ◄ The Answer to a Question Asked on Behalf of Many People By a Very Young Risale-i Nur Student Who Assists Me
In His Name, be He glorified!
The Answer to a Question Asked on Behalf of Many People
By a Very Young Risale-i Nur Student Who Assists Me
Question: Master! The prayers for rain have not been any use; they have yielded no result. Three times clouds gathered and then dispersed without producing rain. Why is this?
The Answer: Drought marks the time for prayers of this sort; they are not the cause or purpose of rain. Just as the prayers known as khusūf and kusūf are performed at lunar and solar eclipses, and the evening prayer is performed at sunset; so times of drought are when the supplications and prayers for rain are offered. The reason for prayer and supplication, and