Description
The present work forms the second volume of the Risāla-i Nūr Collection and consists of letters written by Badī’uzzaman Said Nursi to his students mostly between 1928 and 1932 while in exile in Barla, an isolated village in the province of Isparta in south-western Anatolia. Its original title is Mektubat. Other letters belonging to this period are included in one of the collections of additional letters, also volumes of the Risāla-i Nūr, called Barla Lahikasi (Barla Letters). The letters in the present volume cover many subjects and were set in order and numbered, not chronologically, by the author. They were largely written in reply to questions put by his students, and to offer proofs of matters related to belief and Islām at a time of rapid change. In order to enable readersunfamiliar with Badī’uzzaman and his life and works to see the letters in clearer perspective, included here is a brief outline of his life, the background to the writing of the Risāla-i Nūr and Letters, and a description of their main characteristics.