have strengthened the Risale-i Nur students' morale have been made known to me and I have been occasioned to write down things of this sort so as to gather moral forces around the Risale-i Nur and to show that it is as powerful as an army and has no need for others. For, God forbid, self- advertisement and trying to make yourself liked and seeking praise destroy sincerity, which is one of the Risale-i Nur's chief principles.

God willing, just as the Risale-i Nur both defends itself and demonstrates its own value, so it will defend us and have our faults forgiven. ∗∗∗

► (028) ◄

My Dear Brothers !

Now, due to a sort of admonition, I have become quite certain that a wide-ranging premonition I had forty years before the Risale-i Nur was written was realized both in myself and in our village and in our district. I would have liked to divulge this secret to my old students like Şefik and my brother Abdülmecid, but since Almighty God has bestowed many Abdülmecids and Abdurrahmans from among you, it is you I am now telling.

When I was ten years old I used to have great pride in myself, which sometimes even took the form of boasting and self-praise; although I myself did not want to, I used to assume the air of someone undertaking some great work and mighty act of heroism. I used to say to myself: "You're not worth tuppence, what's the reason for this excessive showing-off and boasting, especially when it comes to courage?" I did not know and used to wonder at it, Then, a month or two ago [1944] the question was answered: the Risale-i Nur was making itself felt before it was written: "Although you were a seed like a common chip of wood, you had a presentiment of those fruits of Paradise as though they were actually your own property, and used to boast and praise yourself!"

Both my old students and the people from the region know that our village of Nurs loved exceedingly to make a show and used to boast about their superior courage. They wanted to assume a heroic stance as though about to conquer some great country. I used to be astonished at both myself and them. Now I have understood thanks to a true admonition that the village of Nurs and its people had a premonition that they were going to win tremendous acclaim through the light of the Risale-i Nur and that their unknown province and district and village would be recognized as important, and they displayed their gratitude for that divine bounty in the form of boasting.