Istanbul Foundation for Science and Culture
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In His Name, be He glorified!

One of the main reasons I have come to Ankara this time is to see Namık Gedik, [^79] the Interior Minister, who is a serious supporter of Islam, and to say the following to the hero of Islam, Adnan Bey, [^80] and prominent persons like Tevfik İleri. [^81]

[^79]:Namık Gedik (1911-1960) was one of the founders of the Democrat Party and acted as Interior Minister in Menderes' last cabinet. [Tr.]

[^80]:Adnan Menderes (1899-1961); politician and statesman, and founder member of the Democrat Party. He was Prime Minister 1950-1960, and unjustly executed (17 September 1961) following the May 1960 military coup. [Tr.]

[^81]:Tevfik İleri (1911-1961), acted as Minister of Education and of other departments in all the Democrat governments of the 1950s. [Tr.]

In order to greatly strengthen the Democrats as did the Arabic call to prayer, and to win support for them as did permitting the Risale-i Nur's publication, and to please the Islamic world and even some Christian states, it is to cleanse Aya Sophia of extraneous matters and make it suitable for worship. It was just for the sake of this question that I wanted to see Namık Gedik, although I have given up politics for thirty years, so I came. For the sakes of Adnan Bey, Namık Gedik, and Tevfik İleri I did not go elsewhere.

Moreover, just as in accordance with a fundamental law of the Qur'an, the Risale-i Nur has silenced communism with its five hundred thousand copies; so too, evidence that it has ensured public peace and security in Anatolia and the eastern provinces is this: ten years or so ago, the Afyon public prosecutor said: "He's got six hundred thousand devoted students and has published five hundred thousand copies of the Risale-i Nur; per- haps he'll disturb public order." So Said replied to him: "It's true he's got six hundred thousand devoted students, and these last fifteen years they have been persecuted mercilessly, but neither the police nor the courts have discovered any such incident."

I also said: "Public prosecutor! If the Risale-i Nur has not assisted in maintaining public order as much as a thousand public prosecutors and a thousand police chiefs, may God damn me! You can give me any penalty you wish!" He could find nothing to say in reply to this.

Only, a year or two after this, a young student of the Risale-i Nur was going to commit suicide because he imagined that harm would come to the Risale-i Nur because of him. But his Master prevented him and a very minor incident occurred, but the two were reconciled.

4–6 October 2026 · Istanbul

13th International Bediuzzaman Symposium

Visit the symposium website for the programme, papers and registration.