Page 182 - Self-Sacrifice in the Qur'an's Moral Teachings

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

congregation's belief. In my 80 or so years of life I have known nothing
of worldly pleasure. My entire life has been spent on battlefields, in
prison camps, or in the jails and court rooms of my country. There is no

suffering or torment to which I have not been subjected. I have been
treated like a monster by military courts, and exiled from place to place
like a vagabond. I have been condemned to months of solitary confine-
ment in the country's prisons. I have been poisoned many times, sub-
jected to all forms of insult … My nature cannot bear humiliation and
insult. Islamic courage and reason forbid me from being in this state.
When faced with such an incident, I will not belittle myself no matter
with whom I may be dealing, be it even the cruellest, most barbaric
enemy commander. I will strike him in the face with his cruelty and
barbarity. He may throw me in a dungeon or even lead me to the execu-
tioner's block. It is of no importance. Indeed, that is what happened. I
have seen all of these things. If the heart, the conscience, of that barbaric
commander had been able to resist such cruelty a few minutes more,
Said would today have been hanged and joined the assembly of the in-
nocent. All my life has passed with such trouble and difficulty, disaster
and catastrophe. I have sacrificed my self, my world, on the path of be-
lief, happiness, and soundness of the society. So let it be. I do not even
curse them, because thanks to this, the Risale-i Nur has at least reached

a few hundred thousand people, or a few million. I do not know the
number, but that is what they say. The Afyon prosecutor said five hun-
dred thousand. Maybe it has been a means of saving more people's be-
lief. By dying I would have saved only myself, but by remaining alive
and bearing difficulty and troubles I have helped to save so much belief.
A thousand thanks to Allah. 71

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