Reflections

It is true that if that person had not intended to benefit you, the favour would not have reached you. This explains why the favour might fail to reach you. Yet, according to what has already been explained, that intention is merely one condition among many and cannot be regarded as the true cause of the favour itself.

For example, some of our brothers among the students of the Risale-i Nur, such as Husrev and Refet, benefited greatly, through Allah’s favour, from the truths of the Qur’an. Yet they confused iqtirān with true causation and therefore entertained an excessively favourable opinion of me.

In reality, Allah bestowed two favours at the same time: the favour by which they benefited from the truths of the Qur’an, and the favour by which I was enabled to explain those truths.

Because they did not understand this distinction, they thought:

“If our master had not come here, we would never have received these lessons. Therefore, his exposition is the true cause of our receiving them.”

So I said:

“O my brothers! Allah’s favour toward you and His favour toward me were bestowed simultaneously. The true cause of both favours is the mercy of Allah.

At one time, like you, I too confused iqtirān with true causation and entertained an excessively favourable opinion of you because you had written out and multiplied copies of the Risale-i Nur with your pens. I said to myself: ‘How could a half-illiterate, helpless person like me, who can read but cannot write, ever write down and reproduce these truths if these brothers did not exist?’

Later I understood that Allah had bestowed upon you a blessed gift in your pens, while granting me success in explaining the truths of the Qur’an. He bestowed these two favours simultaneously; therefore, one cannot be the true cause of the other.

Instead of being excessively grateful to you, I congratulate you. And rather than being grateful to me, I ask you to pray for me and congratulate me.”

In this Fourth Matter, it becomes clear how many different forms heedlessness can take.

The Fifth Matter

It is unjust to attribute property belonging to a group of people to a single individual. It is likewise unjust for someone to appropriate for himself a charitable endowment formed through the contributions of a community. In the same way, it is unjust to attribute to the leader or master of a group the result, honour, or blessings that arise through the labour and effort of all those who belong to that movement. This harms not only the members of the group, but also its leader or master, because it excites his ego and drives him toward pride. Although he merely performs the function of a doorkeeper, it causes him to imagine that he is a sultan. In this way, such a person wrongs his own soul, and it may even open the way to a form of hidden shirk.