divine favour bestowed because of need, with himself as the means. In some of his letters he writes that he feels justified in describing these "divine favours which pertain to the service of the Qur'an" to his students, in order to encourage them in the exceedingly difficult conditions of the time, since they were a mark of the acceptability of both his writings and their service. A number of them were mentioned above.

In relating these divine favours to his students, he was impressing on them the importance of the Qur'anic way of the Risale-i Nur and its function of saving and strengthening belief at that time when the very foundations of Islam were being threatened. In a way outside their own will and knowledge, they were being employed, they were being made to work. Indeed, within the twenty-five years of Bediuzzaman's exile, the handful of students grew into many thousands, the Risale-i Nur movement and its service to belief and the Qur'an spread throughout Turkey, despite all efforts to stop it.

After 1950, the period of what Bediuzzaman called the Third Said, there was a great increase in the number of students, particularly among the young and those who had been through the secular education system of the Republic. At the same time the number of students outside Turkey increased. It is no exaggeration to say that by its conveying the Qur'anic message in a way that addresses and answers modern man's needs, the Risale-i Nur played a major role in keeping alive the Islamic faith in Turkey in those dark days, and in the resurgence of Islam that has occurred subsequently. Bediuzzaman indeed continues to "prove and demonstrate to the world that the Qur'an is an undying, inextinguishable Sun." ∗ ∗ ∗