Mustafa Sungur (1929-2012)
“Bitlis and Tblisi are siblings. This veil of despotism will soon be torn and I shall come here and establish a medrese”. Eighty years after these words of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (that were aimed at the Russian police) it was officially announced that Bitlis and Tblisi are “twin cities”. Also, one of the students who was closest to Bediuzzaman, Mustafa Sungur, eventually came to Tblisi to open a medrese there.
Mustafa Sungur was one of the two people to which Bediuzzaman had said “My life will continue through you”. He was committed to the service of the Nur with every breath of his fruitful life, and he saw many dreams of Ustadh start to come true and be realised, one after another. He used to convey to Ustadh, though he be residing in the grave, many of the good tidings that had arisen. “Sungur, you will come to see. You will see”, Ustadh had once told him, “You will see the fruits of this faith-service, and you will come to my grave and relate to me of its results”.
Mustafa Sungur was born in the town of Elfani, located in the Turkish Black Sea region. After leaving Kastamonu Golkoy Village Institute, Sungur started to become a teacher by profession and it was from then on that he became acquainted with the Risale-i Nur throughout the ensuing years. In 1947 he visited Nursi in Emirdag. His life then became fully animated with the love both of Ustadh and the Risale-i Nur. As somebody following Ustadh and in his footsteps, he strived for many months to reach him while he was in Afyon prison. After he succeeded in his aim, he became transformed as a teacher, was newly married and had two children. After Afyon he spent time in prison again in 1953, in Samsun. From 1954 onwards he joined the other Risale students - Zübeyir Gündüzalp, Ceylan Çalışkan, Tahirî Mutlu, Bayram Yüksel and Hüsnü Bayram – all of them choosing to continuously reside with Bediuzzaman. At this time they were all subject to being arrested and being continuously put on trial as well as being in and out of prison. After the death of Said Nursi, it became clear that Sungur was among the students who became a shining torch for carrying Iman (Islamic Belief) not only in Anatolia but to the wider regions beyond it. Hundreds of thousands of people became acquainted with the Risale-i Nur as a result; and as a leading light of the Nur he helped save peoples’ lives in the Hereafter and proved Ustadh’s prediction of being the one who would continue Nursi’s life after his death.
