► (020) ◄
My Dear, Loyal Brothers !
According to The Hidden Indications of the Ghawth al-A'zam and Imam 'Ali (İşârât-ı Gaybiye-i Gavsiye ve Aleviye), [^23] that the writing of the Risale-i Nur will be completed in '64. [^24] This means that after that date only explanations, appendices, and glosses will be written. In this connection, and by way of a reminder, two points occurred to my heart.
[^23]:For these two works, see fn 12 above. [Tr.]
[^24]:'64 refers to 1364 on either the Hijri or Rumi calendars; if Hijri, it was 1945 according to the Gregorian calendar, and if Rumi, 1943. See, The Second Point in the text (page 57) below for an explanation. [Tr.]
The First: The Risale-i Nur will have students conformably with contemporary conditions and the nature of things, and foremost innocent children. For if a child is not taught the questions of belief thoroughly when small, in later years he can only assimilate the pillars of Islam and belief in his spirit with the greatest difficulty. Quite simply, it is as difficult as a non-Muslim accepting Islam, for its seems alien. It is even stranger for him if he observes that his parents are not religious and his mind is educated only with the secular sciences. The child is then contemptuous of his parents in this world and is a sort of tribulation for them, longing for them to die. And in the next world, he will be a plaintiff against them, rather than an intercessor, saying: "Why didn't you give me Islamic training and save my belief?"
In consequence, the most fortunate children are those who enter the fold of the Risale-i Nur, and serving and honouring their parents with good works, have merits written in their parents' records of good deeds and become intercessors for them according to their degree.
The Second Group of Risale-i Nur Students are women, who by nature need the Risale-i Nur since they may have shied away from the world or felt vexed with it. Especially if they are getting old, the Risale-i Nur may offer them true spiritual sustenance. For one of its four principles is compassion, which proceeds from the manifestation of the divine name of Most Compassionate (Rahîm), and compassion is the most essential quality of women and the leaven of their natural duties.
The Third Group are the sick and the elderly, for even if not an innate need but due to their situations, they need the Risale-i Nur as they do medicine and sustenance. For it makes known eternal life as clearly as the sun as well as the transitory nature of worldly life, and those of them whose worldly lives have been stricken by illness or old age imagine out of their heedlessness or misguidance that death is the end. They are thus truly in