DISSEMINATION OF RISALATUN NOOR AND AHMED HUSREV ALTINBAŞAK
It was just after the fall of the Great Ottoman Empire that there were gloomy days and nights many people were hesitant to struggle against. They were punished harshly if they attempted to take any action for the sake of Islam.
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi and the Noor students who gathered
around him were resisting all negative movements During that time, it was hard to find men willing to struggle.
Many were desperate however he was hopeful and looking ahead to the future with great determination. They were trying to save Muslims, especially the youth of the future, from the fataan (trials) of the end of time which were awaiting them.
For the sake of preserving and spreading the truths of Imaan
(belief) and tenets as well as the shaa’er (symbols) of Islam,
they were accused of founding an illegal community, being in favour of shari’a and being involved in activities to change the basics of the State aiming at re-building the Islamic khilafah.
The hero of sufferings, the great figure of the time, Ustad Bediuzzaman Said Nursi describes the outline of his life in his biography:
“I have never tasted pleasures of the worldly life in my eighty-or-more-years-lifespan. Each and every year of my life passed through in the battle fields, dungeons of exile or the prisons of my country and the courts of the state.
They haven’t left any pains that I didn’t suffer from and any tortures that I didn’t agonize. I was treated in martial courts as if I was a mass murderer. I was sent into exile from one region to another like a vagrant. I was prohibited from communication for months in countryside prisons. I was poisoned so many times and was exposed to many sorts of insults. [29]
Ustad’s students shared his sufferings and were exposed to similar pains in the same cause together with him. Among them, one was the closest to him in pains and sufferings. He was his pioneering student Ahmed Husrev Altınbaşak.
Husrev Altınbaşak was tried with Ustad Bediuzzaman and other Noor students in Eskisehir, Denizli, Afyon courts. When they were poisoned together with Ustad in Denizli Prison, they were all able to survive except one of the precious Noor students. Hâfiz Ali (May Allah’s mercy
be upon him), who became a martyr losing his life in the way of Allah. Even after Ustad Bediuzzaman passed away, Husrev Efendi’s sufferings didn’t decrease but continued.
After new allegations and courts he was placed in prison again.
Under these unbearable circumstances, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi compiled his treatises from wherever he was exiled, imprisoned, or held under custody. He used to send these Noor treatises in the form of letters to Husrev Efendi who was in the centre of their Islamic service, Isparta.
Under control and supervision of Husrev Efendi, these works were being hand-duplicated in the original scripture.
Noor students were hand writing the treatises and these were then being copied in duplicating machines. Afterwards,
they were sent to many other places in Turkey.
Letters of many Noor students around the country were transmitted to Ustad via Ahmed Husrev Efendi. Most of the time responses were written by him upon Ustad’s desire.
Imam Said Nursi names Ahmed Husrev Efendi as a “Rose Factory” [30] and tells the duty and the place of him in the management of Noor Service as follows:
“We congratulate Husrev and pray for his success in his duty of correction, distribution, supervision, communication as well as spreading the Noor (treatises) and educating students around him. In addition to his important duties, we behold the beauty of his pleasant and brilliant handwriting in many copies of the Noor treatises.”[31]
“Husrev’s constant wonderful, pointed and useful ideas were always
valuable in the service of the Qur’an.” [32] Bediuzzaman Said Nursi authorized Husrev Efendi to make changes if necessary, which he did not give to anyone else among his students, and showed us Husrev Efendi’s vital role in the service of Noor saying “Husrev has the authority to amend, replace and improve any parts that he regards improper.”
[33]
When poisoned in Emirdag, Ustad Bediuzzaman confirmed
this point one more time in his reply to Husrev Efendi’s letter where Husrev Efendi wanted to die on behalf
of him:
“The hero of the Risale-i Nur, Husrev, sincerely and seriously desires to die in exchange for me and to become ill on behalf of me. I do declare: This is not the time of compilation, it is of spreading. Your handwriting to spread the truths is more valuable than mine. For the service of Noor, your life, too, is more precious than mine.”
Were I be able to do, I would give from my life and health to you with pleasure.” [34]