On Sekizinci Mektup

This is the letter of our sister in the hereafter and a student of the Risale-i Nur, Müzeyyene. Respected Teacher, my eyes, which are immersed in the sorrows of this fleeting world, when they are firmly attached to your luminous and eloquent words and your influential and healing treatises, and as I read them more and more, I cannot describe with any words how great a guide your treatises are. Yes, your words tear apart the curtains of darkness and ignorance that have descended upon this world and this time, shattering them and scattering that darkness and ignorance. What mind is there that, seeing the veil of truth and witnessing the light of truth shining upon it, would close its eyes to it and instead cling to the veil of darkness? I, too, hope by Allah not to fall into darkness. Now, having experienced hardship and thus become fortunate, I cannot fall back into misfortune. Teacher, unlike my other brothers, I am deprived of personally receiving lessons from you. However, once a week or once a month, I receive a spiritual lesson from your sublime words and listen to them with imagination, as if I were personally receiving lessons from you. All day long, I pray to Allah that the safety of the people of Islam and the transformation of this condition of mine from darkness to light may be granted, with you leading the way and us following behind. May Allah, with His grace, grant us good. My tongue, my weakness, and my shortcomings do not allow me to speak more. I confess my shortcomings to my Teacher. Insha'Allah, through the influence of your treatises, one day we will be able to escape from the situations we have unintentionally and unwillingly committed, just as the pious brother, Mustakim Lütfü Efendi, did, by following the guidance of your words. We received the seventeenth treatise, the eighteenth letter, the twentieth letter, and the precious treatises illuminated with the light of the thirty-three windows from our brother Zekai. We are studying them. The true Teacher, the Glorious Qur'an, is in our hands. Müzeyyene • • •

Barla Lâhikası ·Mektup 239 ·machine translation (qwen3-32b-sre)

Our Lord, do not deviate our hearts after You have guided us, and grant us mercy from Yourself, indeed You are the Bestower. O Allah, send prayers and peace upon our master whom You sent as mercy to the worlds, and upon his family and companions altogether. THIRD QUESTION An important issue that cannot be resolved with wisdom and reason: 3 And He does what He wills. 4 Every day He is in a matter. Question: What is the secret and wisdom behind the continuous and amazing activity in the universe? Why do these things not stop, but constantly rotate and renew themselves? Answer: The explanation of this wisdom requires a thousand pages. Therefore, we will abandon the detailed explanation and summarize it very briefly in two pages. Indeed, just as a person performs a natural duty or a social duty and works with enthusiasm for that duty, the one who pays attention to him understands that there are two things that cause him to perform that duty: First: The benefits, advantages, and utilities derived from the duty, which are called "illa-i gaiya." Second: There is a love, a desire, and a pleasure that motivates him to perform the duty with enthusiasm, which is called "dâi ve muktazî." For example, eating food is a pleasure and desire that comes from instinct, which drives one to eat. Then, the result of eating is nourishing the body and sustaining life. Similarly, 5 And Allah has the best example. This amazing and astonishing endless activity in the universe is for two comprehensive wisdoms, each of which is infinite, and they are based on two categories of divine names:

Mektubat ·On Sekizinci Mektup ·machine translation (qwen3-32b-sre)

SECOND IMPORTANT ISSUE Question: The issue of unity of the body is considered by many to be the highest rank. However, in the high rank of wilayah, beginning with the Rightly Guided Caliphs among the Companions and also the Infallible Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt, especially the Five of the Household of the Prophet, and also the Mujtahids and Tabi'ins, especially the Four Imams, such a path of unity of the body has not been seen at all. So, have those who came after them gone further, or found a more perfect great path? The answer: God forbid! From that exalted generation, the closest stars and nearest relatives of the sun of prophethood, no one can possibly go beyond them. Perhaps the great path is theirs. Unity of the body is a path, a state, and a deficient rank. However, because it is pleasurable and intoxicating, when many enter that rank in the journey of tariqa, they do not want to leave it, remain there, and consider it the ultimate rank. Indeed, if the possessor of this path has freed himself from materialism and the veil of causes, and if his soul has witnessed the divine presence, then it is not unity of the body, but perhaps a unity of witness (shuhud), not a knowledge-based but a state-based unity of body, that can be a perfection and a rank for him. Indeed, he may even reach the point of denying the universe in the account of God. Otherwise, if he is immersed in causes and attached to materialism, then his claim of unity of the body may lead to denying God in the account of the universe.

Mektubat ·On Sekizinci Mektup ·machine translation (qwen3-32b-sre)

Listen to this symbolic story that will explain this truth. It is as follows: Once upon a time, there were two shepherds of the people of the heart. They had milked some milk into a wooden bowl and left it beside them. They placed their flutes, called "kaval," over the milk bowl. One of them said, "I am sleepy," and lay down. He remained asleep for a while. The other watched the one who was sleeping. He noticed something like a fly coming out of the sleeper's nose, looking at the milk bowl, then entering the flute, exiting from the other end, and going away, entering a hole under a log and disappearing. After some time, that thing returned again, passed through the flute again, and entered the sleeper's nose; the sleeper then woke up and said: "My friend, I had a strange dream." The other asked, "May God forbid, what was it?" He replied, "I saw a sea made of milk. There was a strange bridge over it. The bridge was covered and had windows. I passed through that bridge. I saw a grove of trees with sharp tops. Under that grove, I saw a cave. I entered it and saw a treasure full of gold. What could be the interpretation?" The wise friend said, "The sea of milk you saw is this wooden bowl. That bridge is our flute. That grove of sharp-topped trees is this log. That cave is this small hole. Come, bring the pickaxe, and I will show you the treasure." They brought the pickaxe. They dug under the log and found the gold that would make both of them happy in this world. Indeed, the sleeping man saw the truth. He saw it correctly; however, because he was unaware during the dream and lacked the insight to distinguish the physical world from the spiritual world, his interpretation was partially incorrect, as he said, "I saw a real, physical sea." But the wise man, who could distinguish the symbolic world from the physical world, had the correct interpretation, saying, "What you saw is true, but it was not a real sea. Perhaps this milk bowl appeared to your imagination as a sea, the flute as a bridge, and so on..." This shows that it is necessary to distinguish the physical world from the spiritual world. If they are mixed together, their meanings become misunderstood. For example, you may have a small room. However, four large mirrors are placed on the four walls. When you enter, that small room appears to you as a vast space.

Mektubat ·On Sekizinci Mektup ·machine translation (qwen3-32b-sre)

Indeed, some of the learned people, without weighing it according to the Book and the Sunnah, have described the seven layers of the earth, and these descriptions are not merely material conditions from the perspective of geography. For example, they have said: "One layer of the earth is made of jinn and ifrits. It is thousands of years thick." But in our sphere, which completes its cycle in one or two years, such strange layers cannot exist. However, if we imagine our sphere as the size of an acorn in the world of ideas, the world of forms, the world of light, and the world of the unseen, then the symbolic tree that emerges from it would be as large as a big cedar tree in comparison to that acorn. Thus, some of the witnesses, in their spiritual visions, see some of the layers of the earth as very vast in the world of forms, and they see that these layers take thousands of years to traverse. What they see is true. But because the world of forms resembles the material world, they mistakenly equate the two worlds and describe them as such. When they return to the world of the senses, since they are unmeasured and they write down their experiences as they are, they are considered to be in contradiction to the truth. Just as in a small ritual, the symbolic forms of a great palace and a large garden can be established. Similarly, within the material world's span of one year, symbolic forms and spiritual truths can exist over a span of thousands of years. CONCLUSION: From this matter, it becomes clear that the degree of witnessing is far below the degree of faith based on certainty. That is, the boundless knowledge of a group of the people of wilayah who rely only on witnessing cannot reach the level of the heirs of prophethood, the ascended and the certain, who do not rely on witnessing but on the Quran and revelation, on hidden yet pure, comprehensive, and correct religious truths. Therefore, the measure of all conditions, knowledge, visions, and observations is the Book and the Sunnah. And the standards are the sacred verses of the Book and the Sunnah, and the intuitive principles of the ascended and the certain.

Mektubat ·On Sekizinci Mektup ·machine translation (qwen3-32b-sre)

Yes, the main street is the street of the Companions, the Followers, and the ascetics. 1 "The realities of things are established" is their general principle. And according to the meaning of 2 "Nothing is like Him," there is no likeness to Him. He is free from any resemblance and emanation. His relation to existence is that of the Creator. As the proponents of the unity of existence say, existence is not mere illusion or imagination. Even the visible things are the signs of the Almighty. It is not "He is," but "He is the Being." 3 For the created cannot be the eternal. We will try to understand this matter through two examples. First: For example, there is a sultan. This sultan has a court of justice under the name of "just ruler," which demonstrates the reflection of that name. Another name is "caliph"; a caliphate and a religious institution are the manifestations of that name. Another name is "commander-in-chief"; the military institutions operate under that name, and the army is the manifestation of that name. Now, if someone were to say, "That sultan is only a just ruler; there is no other institution besides the court of justice," then necessarily, within the judicial officials, the characteristics and conditions of the scholars in the caliphate institution would be applied to them in a metaphorical sense, and a metaphorical and illusory caliphate institution would be imagined within the real court of justice. Similarly, the conditions and dealings of the military institution would again be considered in a hypothetical way within those judicial officials, and a non-real military institution would be imagined, and so on. In this case, the true name and true authority of the sultan is the name of "just ruler" and the authority in the court of justice. The names of "caliph," "commander-in-chief," and "sultan" are not true names but metaphorical. However, the true nature of sultanhood and the reality of sovereignty encompasses all names as true. True names require and encompass true institutions.

Mektubat ·On Sekizinci Mektup ·machine translation (qwen3-32b-sre)

In the Eighth Letter 2 And indeed, nothing exists but praises Him,1 by His name, exalted is He. This letter concerns three important matters. FIRST IMPORTANT MATTER Prominent saints such as the author of the Fütûhât-ı Mekkiye, Muhyiddin-i Arabî (may peace be upon him), and the author of the famous book called "The Perfect Man," Seyyid Abdülkerim (may peace be upon him), speak about the seven layers of the earth, the white earth behind Mount Kaf, and the strange things they call "meşmeşiye" in the Fütûhât. They say, "We have seen them." Now, are these statements true? If they are true, yet these places have no actual location on earth. Moreover, geography and science do not accept these claims. If they are not true, then how can these people be considered saints? How can those who speak in contradiction and falsehood be considered people of truth? The answer is: They are indeed people of truth and reality, and also people of sainthood and direct knowledge. What they saw is true; however, because their state of direct knowledge is boundless, and because their descriptions of their visions are similar to dreams, their interpretations are partially incorrect. Just as a person in a dream cannot interpret their own dream, those who have direct knowledge and visions also cannot interpret their own visions while in that state. Those who can interpret them are the "asfiya," the true inheritors of prophethood. Indeed, when those people of direct knowledge reach the rank of "asfiya," they understand and correct their mistakes through the guidance of the Book and the Sunnah, and they have done so.

Mektubat ·On Sekizinci Mektup ·machine translation (qwen3-32b-sre)