Page 180 - Self-Sacrifice in the Qur'an's Moral Teachings

Self-Sacrifice in the Qur'an's Moral Teachings

wrote the 14th and 15th parts of The Rays, thus completing the Risale-i
Nur's compilation.
The following excerpts tell of Said Nursi's days in prison and the
deliberate oppression and unjust treatment that he was forced to endure:

Then they arrested me during the most intensely cold days of winter on
some trite pretext and put me into solitary confinement in a large and
extremely cold prison ward, leaving me for two days without a stove.
Having been accustomed to light my stove several times a day in my
small room, and always having live coals in the brazier, due to my ill-
ness and weakness I was only able to endure it with difficulty. While
struggling in this situation with both a fever from the cold and a dread-
ful degree of distress and anger, through Divine grace a truth unfolded
in my heart. It uttered the following warning to my spirit: "You called
prison the Medrese-i Yusufiya—the School of Prophet Yusuf (Joseph).
And while in Denizli, things like relief a thousand times greater than
your distress, spiritual profit, and the other prisoners benefiting from
the Risale-i Nur, and its conquests on a larger scale, all made you offer
endless thanks instead of complaining. They made each hour of your
imprisonment and hardship like ten hours' of worship, and made those
passing hours eternal. Allah willing, those struck by calamity in this
third 'School of Yusuf' are benefiting from the Risale-i Nur and finding

consolation [in it] will heat this cold, severe distress of yours and trans-
form it into joy." 68
Then, as though I had committed some heinous crime, they nailed up
my windows. The smoke from the stove was a great discomfort to me,

and I insisted that they leave one window open. Now they have nailed
that up too. Also, although according to prison practice, solitary con-
finement usually lasts around a fortnight I was in total isolation for

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