modern presses in the new, Latin, script. The figure given for hand-written copies is 600,000.

It may be seen from the above figure how the Risale-i Nur movement spread within 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 with 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.

Above all, the people of this age want reasonable answers to everything, they want to know "why?" And although science has opened up the universe from the minutest sub-atomic particles to the obscurest, most distant reaches of space, it has remained impotent before this question; it has been unable to provide the answer to the question "why?" Whereas, taking its inspiration from the Divine Revelation of the Qur'an, the Risale-i Nur looks at things from the point of view of wisdom; it explains the wisdom, purposes and aims of all the various matters it discusses. It points out the purposes of everything, from the universe and all the beings in it and all the realms of creation to man and his comprehensive disposition and his duties of worship; it answers the question "why?" In addition it provides reasonable, satisfying answers to all sorts of questions to do with belief, life, man, and existence; parts of it are even written in the form of question and answer. One of the Risale-i Nur's most important characteristics is this, which accounts for its unparalleled success in saving and strengthening the belief of many hundreds of thousands, and probably millions, of people throughout the world. Materialistic philosophy, and science when in the service of such philosophy, cast the world into ultimate meaninglessness and man into a mire of doubts, fears, and ultimate hopelessness. In explaining the Qur'anic message for man in this modern age, the Risale-i Nur raises man out that dark hopelessness by illuminating with meaning both himself and the world in which he finds himself. ∗ ∗ ∗