بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَ الصَّلاَةُ وَ السَّلاَمُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَ عَلَى آلِهِ وَ صَحْبِهِ اَجْمَعِينَ

WOMEN – 4

1. The role of Jewish women and girls in the life of dissipation (safahat):

The eloquence and conciseness of the Quran are so comprehensive and wonderful that, if one pays attention, it becomes visible that, sometimes, like showing an ocean in a jug, with a simple part or a particular event, the Quran compassionately presents very vast, long and universal principles and general laws to simple and ordinary understandings. We shall point out only two examples of this out of thousands.

…

The Second Example is the phrases and parts of the story of Mûsâ ‘Alayhissalâm, which is frequently repeated in the Qur'an; each of its phrases, even each of its parts, is shown as the tip of a universal principle and expresses that principle.

…

And for example,

يُذَبِّحُونَ اَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَاءَكُمْ1

With the title “An event that occurred during the time of a Pharaoh”, which is the slaughtering of the sons of the Children of Isrâîl and letting their women and daughters live, the Qur’an expresses the multiple massacres that the Jewish people have been subjected to in every age, as well as the role their women and girls have played in the social life of dissipation (safahat).

Twenty-Fifth Word-1st Light-2nd Ray-5th Flash-4th Light

2. A civilisation of dissipation (safahat) taken from European foreigners does not suit the Muslim nation:

O you, who are asleep while awake! And you, who think you are awake while asleep!

Do not approach civilised people with tolerance in religious matters and by resembling them. You think you can be a bridge and fill the valley between us and them. Definitely not! Because the distance between mu’min and kâfir is infinite, and the valley between us is extremely deep, and you cannot fill it. Instead, you would join them or fall into a deep dhalâlah.

Al-Mathnawî Al-Nûrî- 276

 

O sons of this land 2 ! Do not imitate Europeans! I wonder, after the immense cruelty and enmity committed against you by Europe, with which mind do you follow and trust their dissipation and bâtil ideas? No! No! You, who imitate them in depravity! You do not just follow them but rather put yourselves and your brothers to death unconsciously by joining their side. Be cautious that the more you immorally follow them, the more you lie in the claim of patriotism! Because following them in this way is despising your nationality, and it is ridiculing the nation!

17th Flash-Fifth Note

 

Why does Sharî’ah reject this civilisation? {What we refer to as 'civilisation' are the virtues of civilisation and its goodness that are beneficial to mankind; it is not the sins and evils of it. The fools imitated the sins and dissipation of civilisation by supposing them to be virtues, and they destroyed what belongs to us. Due to the sins of civilisation prevailing over its goodness and its evil being preferred to its virtue, mankind received two ghastly slaps, and the sinful civilisation was demolished by two world wars; mankind vomited it out so violently that it stained the face of the earth with blood. InshâAllah, with the strength of Islam in the future, the virtues of civilisation will prevail, cleanse the face of the earth from filth and establish general peace.}

I said: It has been founded on five negative principles. Its point of support is force, and the necessary consequence of it is transgression. Its aim is benefit, and the necessary consequence of it is jostling. Its principle in life is conflict, and the necessary consequence of it is collision. Its bond that ties the masses to each other is racism and negative nationalism, which is nourished through devouring others, and the necessary consequence of it is such a severe clash. Its enticing service is to encourage, facilitate and satisfy the desires, appetites and wants of nafs. And as for the desires of nafs, the necessary consequence of encouraging them is to degrade humanity from the exalted level of malâikah to the lowest level of a dog. It is to cause man to change, in a ma’nawî manner3, into a beast (maskh). A majority of these civilised individuals would appear to be draped in the skins of wolves, bears, snakes, pigs and monkeys if they were turned inside out.

It is for this reason that the current civilisation has thrown eighty per cent of mankind into difficulties and misery, and it elevated ten per cent to a false happiness and left the remaining ten per cent in the middle. True happiness is that which brings joy to the majority or most of the people; however, this happiness is only for the smallest minority. The Qur'an, which is rahmah to all mankind, can only accept a civilisation that guarantees happiness for all, or at least the majority.

Moreover, under the dominance of the freed desires of nafs, non-essential needs have become essential needs. While a man in Bedouin life needed only four things, civilisation has made him need a hundred things and cast him into poverty. Since the work performed for a livelihood does not cover expenses, this civilisation has led man to haram and cheating, thereby corrupting the foundation of morality. Despite the wealth and glory that it bestowed upon the community and mankind, it has rendered individuals poor and immoral.

This civilisation vomited the accumulated savagery of previous eras all at once.

Sünuhat (45)

3- The sharr currents use women as tools for their corruption:

This year, while in seclusion and withdrawn from social life, for the sake of some of my Nur student brothers and sisters, I looked at the world. I heard complaints from most of the friends who visited me about their own family lives. I said, "Alas! Family life is the refuge of man, particularly Muslims, and a sort of Jannah and a small world for them. Has this started to corrupt as well?" I sought its reason. I knew that just as in order to harm the social life of Islam and consequently, the religion of Islam, by employing the desires of the youth, a couple of committees work to lead the youth astray and drive them into dissipation (safahat). In the same way, I felt that a couple of committees work effectively under the veil to lead the ghâfil ones among miserable women into the wrong ways. And I certainly knew that a terrifying blow to this Muslim nation was coming from that direction.

The Twenty-Fourth Flash-A conversation with women

 

Both Dajjals are supposed to possess tremendous power because they won the assistance of an undercover committee of Jews, which seeks severe revenge against Islam and Christianity, and the help of another terrible committee that is under the guise of women's liberation, and the Dajjal of Islam even won the support of the Mason committees by deceiving them.

The Fifth Ray- The Third Aspect and Reason

 

Women Left Their Homes and Led Mankind Astray; They Must Return to Their Homes

اِذَا تَاَنَّثَ الرِّجَالُ السُّفَهَاءُ بِالْهَوَسَاتِ ٭ اِذًا تَرَجَّلَ النِّسَاءُ النَّاشِزَاتُ بِالْوَقَاحَاتِ4

{*It is the basis of Risale on Tasattur. Twenty years later, a court of law that made that risale the cause of conviction of its author eternally shamed and convicted itself and its judges.}

Vile civilisation made the womankind flee from their homes; it destroyed their blessedness and the respect towards them and made them common goods.

As a rahmah, the Sharî’ah of Islam invites them to their former homes. It is there; they are respected; their comfort is in their homes, in family life.

Purity is their adornment; goodness of character is their splendour; innocence is their grace and beauty; compassion is their perfection’s beauty; their children are their amusement.

Despite the numerous causes of corruption, she must be as strong and firm as steel so that she can withstand them.

When a beautiful woman enters a gathering of brothers, riyâ, rivalry, envy and selfishness stir the veins. Sleeping desires of nafs suddenly awaken.

The increased freedom of women has led to a sudden unfolding of immorality in mankind.

Little corpses, the smiling deads, which are called images, have played a great role in the violent-tempered rûh of civilised mankind. {**Just as looking with lust at a dead woman shows extreme despicability of nafs, in the same way, to look with carnal desires at a beautiful picture of a helpless female corpse needy of compassion extinguishes the elevated feelings of the rûh.}

The statues and images prohibited by Sharî’ah are either dhulm transformed into stones, embodied riyâ, or frozen desires of nafs. Or it is a talisman that attracts those evil rûhs.

Gleams

 

Once, I was sitting by the window in Eskişehir Prison. The older girls of the high school opposite the prison were laughing and dancing in the schoolyard. I saw them as the houris of Jahannam in that Jannah of the world. Then, suddenly, their situation fifty years later appeared to me. Their laughter had turned into excruciating weeping. From this, the following haqiqah was uncovered. That is to say, with a ma’nawî and imaginary cinema, I have seen their situation fifty years later. I saw that fifty of those sixty laughing girls were suffering torments in their graves and had turned into earth, while ten of them, in their seventies, had become ugly and were drawing hateful looks from everyone. I wept for them.

The essence of the fitnah of âkhirzaman has become clear to me: the most terrifying and attractive aspect of that fitnah emerges from the shameless faces of women. Negating the will, they throw people into the fire of dissipation (safahat), like moths, and make them prefer a single minute of this worldly life to years of eternal life.

One day, while I was looking at the street, I saw and felt a powerful sample of that fitnah. I felt great pity for those young people I saw. I said, “These unfortunates cannot save themselves from the fire of this magnet-like attractive fitnah.” As I was thinking this, the ma’nawî collective personality of apostasy that ignites this fitnah and teaches it suddenly materialised before me. I said to it and to those mulhids who receive lessons from it:

O you wretched one who sacrifices his religion for the path of taking pleasure from the houris of Jahannam, who willingly plunges into dhalâlah full of dissipation, who accepts ilhad and irreligion for the path of pleasures of the desires of nafs, who worships life and is terrified of death, who refuses to remember the grave and is on the brink of apostasy!

The Youth Guide 18-19

 

The following paragraph, written by our Ustadh, should be included in The Youth Guide.

It is more appropriate to remove pages "Twenty-three and Twenty-four" entitled "An important matter" at the beginning of The Youth Guide sent from Mersin. Because women, more so than men, exhibit genuine, sincere and firm interest in the Risale-i Nur, as compassion is the important principle of Nur. May our blessed sisters, the heroes of compassion, not be occupied and become distressed with the harsh content of these two pages. This matter was written as a warning to a group of Muslim girls who were trying to look like the immodestly dressed, half-naked Greek and Armenian girls in places such as Istanbul.

However, the munafiqs and Freemasons opposing The Youth Guide in Istanbul, along with some antagonistic newspapers, have currently misinterpreted this point, which has become the basis for their slander aimed at diminishing the interest of some women in the Risale-i Nur.

For now, those two pages should be removed. Instead, the guide for women entitled "Conversation with Women" should be placed there.

Said Nursî

Note: Just as undercover committees antagonistic to Islamic tarbiyyah work to corrupt the youth, so do certain irreligious and undercover committees work to lead the unfortunate women astray.

A copy of the above paragraph should be handed out to everyone who has a copy of The Youth Guide, to prevent being slandered by these committees of corruption.

Instead of the two removed pages, women should also read the guide for elderly and young women titled "Conversation with Women". The paragraph by our ustadh that was mentioned above should be included instead of the two removed pages.

An important matter that was suddenly warned about

It is understood from the narrations of the hadith that it will be women and their fitnah that will play the most terrifying role in the fitnah of âkhirzaman. Yes, just as it is reported in the history books: in ancient times, a military unit composed of highly skilled warrior women called ‘Amazons’ fought remarkably in battles. In the same way, at present, in the war of dhalâlah of the zandaqa against Islam through the plan of nafs al-ammarah, it is the half-naked women who are the most frightening group deployed under the command of shaytan; with their naked legs, which are terrifying knives, they attack and assault the people of îmân. By working to close the road to marriage and widen the road to houses of debauchery, they enslave many of the people’s nafs and wound their hearts and rûhs with kabâir; they indeed kill some of those hearts.

Those legs with knives will be the logs of Jahannam and burn first as a perfect punishment for displaying them to the desires of the nafs of non-mahram men. And because she lost her trustworthiness and loyalty in this world, she cannot find a suitable husband, whom, by her fitrah, she desires and needs greatly, and even if she finds one, he will only bring trouble to her. It is even understood from the narrations of the hadith that, as a result of this situation, in âkhirzaman, due to lack of interest and respect in marriage, women will be left without a guardian and become so unimportant and valueless that, in some places, one man will look after forty women.

Since the haqiqah is this, and since every beautiful one loves their beauty and wants to preserve it as much as they can and does not want it to be spoilt. And since beauty is a ni’mah, if shukr is offered for a ni’mah, it increases in a ma’nawî manner, while if shukr is not offered, it becomes ugly. Surely, if she has a mind, she will run away with all of her strength from using her beauty and charm to reap sins for both herself and others, making her beauty and charm ugly and poisonous and transforming that ni’mah into a source of torment due to ingratitude. And to make her transient beauty of five or ten years eternal, she will offer shukr for that ni’mah by using it within the limits of Sharî’ah. Otherwise, in her old age, she will be subjected to long periods of contempt and will weep despairingly.

It is definitely established in the hadiths that if her beauty is beautified with the adornment of Qur’anic âdâb within the sphere of Islamic tarbiyyah, that transient beauty will be eternal in a ma’nawî manner, and in Jannah, it will be given to her in a more graceful and shining fashion than the beauty of the houris. If that beautiful woman has even an iota of mind, she will not allow this beautiful, shining and eternal outcome to slip from her hand.

The Youth Guide 23-27

 

بِاسْمِهِ سُبْحَانَهُ

This is a Note to the Second Station of the Thirteenth Word among the comparisons of the Risale-i Nur.

Prisoners are in great need of the true consolation found in the Risale-i Nur. Especially those who have suffered the brunt of youth and spent their young, sweet lives in prison need the Risale-i Nur as much as they need bread. Yes, the vein of youth listens to emotions rather than the mind... As for the emotions and the desires of nafs, they are blind; they do not see the consequences. And they prefer grams of present pleasure to kilos of future pleasure, murder for the pleasure of one minute of revenge and suffer eighty thousand hours of the torments from imprisonment. And driven by an hour of pleasure of the debauchery, a lifetime of happiness is ruined by countless days of anguish, plagued by the fears of imprisonment and the enemy due to an affair of honour. There are many pitfalls, such as these, for the unfortunate young; they transform their sweetest lives into the most bitter and pitiable ones, and especially in the north, a large state shakes this century with its storms by employing the desires of the youth. Because this state makes the beautiful daughters and wives of the honourable people permissible and accessible for young men who act with blind emotions that do not see the consequences. Indeed, by permitting men and women to be together in the public baths naked, it encourages this indecency. It makes the property of the rich halal for the vagrants and the poor; all humanity trembles before this calamity.

Therefore, in this century, it is necessary for Muslim and Turkish youth to act heroically and confront this danger attacking them from two sides with sharp swords, such as The Fruit and The Youth Guide from the Risale-i Nur. Otherwise, that wretched young man will transform his worldly future, his happy life, his eternal bliss in âkhirah and his eternal life into torments and excruciating pains and destroy them. And he will end up in hospitals due to misuse and dissipation (safahat), and in prisons due to the excesses of his feelings. In his old age, he will cry a lot with regrets and sorrows. When he protects himself with the tarbiyyah of the Quran and the haqiqahs of the Risale-i Nur, he will be a perfect, heroic young man, a perfect human being, a happy Muslim and a kind of sultân over other living beings and animals.

The Youth Guide (41-42)

 

Sixth Matter: In the riwâyât, it was mentioned that "the fitnah of âkhirzaman will be so terrible that no one will restrain his nafs." It is because of this that the whole ummah has sought refuge with Allah (isti‘âdha) from that fitnah for one thousand three hundred years, on the command of the Prophet (asm).

مِنْ فِتْنَةِ الدَّجَّالِ وَ مِنْ فِتْنَةِ آخِرِ الزَّمَانِ 5

became the wird of the ummah after seeking refuge from the torments of the grave.

اللّٰه أعلم بالصواب 6

A ta’wîl of it is this: those fitnahs will attract the nafs of the people to themselves and infatuate them. People will perpetrate them voluntarily, indeed, with pleasure.

For example, in Russia, men and women bathe naked together in public baths. And since, by fitrah, women have a strong inclination to show off their beauty, they willingly plunge themselves into that fitnah and are led astray. Men, too, who, by fitrah, worship beauty, are defeated by their nafs and fall into the fire and are burnt with drunken joy. Entertainment, kabâir and bid’ahs of the time, such as dance and theatre, draw, by means of attraction, those who worship their nafs around them, like moths, and daze them. But if this occurs through absolute compulsion, since the will is invalidated, it will not even be a sin.

The Fifth Ray-Sixth Matter

 

Eleventh Matter: In the riwâyât, it was mentioned that "in âkhirzaman, one man will look after forty women."

اللّٰه أعلم بالصواب 7

It has two ta’wîl:

First: Lawful marriage will decrease at that time, or, like in Russia, it will disappear. A man, who flees being tied to one woman and remains carefree, becomes a shepherd to forty unfortunate women.

Its second ta’wîl: It is an allusion that, at that time of fitnah, most men will be killed in wars, leading to a greater number of girl children being born as a result of a hikmah. Perhaps since the independence and total freedom of women intensely inflame the lust of the women, they will acquire superiority over their men regarding their fitrah. Since it attracts the gender of the child to its mother, girl children will be more numerous through the command of Allah.

The Fifth Ray-Eleventh Matter

What will save mankind from falling into this state is obedience to the command of Allah concerning tasattur. It is as follows:

يَا اَيُّهَا النَّبِىُّ قُلْ ِلاَزْوَاجِكَ وَبَنَاتِكَ وَنِسَاءِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ يُدْنِينَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِنْ جَلاَبِيبِهِنَّ8

to the end thereof... This âyah commands tasattur. However, the depraved civilisation opposes this decree of the Qur'an and does not consider tasattur suitable for fitrah; it says that tasattur is slavery. {Part of the defence that is written to the Court of Appeal, which opposed the Court and silenced it: "I say to this court of law that if there is any justice on the face of the earth, it will surely reject this unjust decision and nullify this judgement that convicts a man who has made the tafsir of the most sacred, true and right principle of Allah applied in the social life of three hundred and fifty million people, in every age, for one thousand three hundred and fifty years through relying on the confirmation and consensus of three hundred and fifty thousand tafsirs and following our ancestors’ beliefs they had for one thousand three hundred and fifty years!..."}

The Answer: We shall declare only four of the many hikmahs that indicate that this decree of Al-Qur’an Al-Hakîm is perfectly suitable for fitrah, and the opposite of it is contrary to fitrah.

First Hikmah: Tasattur is appropriate for women’s fitrah, and their fitrah requires it because women have a fitrî inclination not to be subjected to abhorrence, to make themselves loved and not to be hated since, by creation, they are weak and delicate and are in need of a man's protection and assistance for themselves and for their children whom they love more than their own lives.

Furthermore, six or seven out of ten women are either old or ugly, and they do not want to show their old age and ugliness to everyone. Or they are jealous; they do not want to appear ugly compared to those who are more beautiful than themselves, or they fear aggression or being accused; by fitrah, they want tasattur so as not to be subjected to attacks nor to be accused of betrayal by their husbands. As evidence, it can be mentioned that, if observed carefully, the old women are the ones who hide themselves the most. And out of ten women, only two or three can be found who are both young and beautiful and not ashamed to display themselves. It is well known that women are embarrassed and affected by the looks of men who they abhor or do not like. Even if a beautiful woman dressed immodestly enjoys the looks of two or three out of ten men, surely, she abhors seven or eight of them. Furthermore, since a beautiful woman, who is not tainted and whose morality is not corrupted, is sensitive and quickly affected, she will certainly be embarrassed by the poisonous and dirty looks, the effects of which have been experienced physically. We even hear that in Europe, the land of immodest dressing, many women, by being annoyed with this intense stare, report to the police, stating that "These vile men are harassing us with their stares."

It means that the abrogation of tasattur by civilisation is contrary to fitrah, and the Qur'an's command of tasattur is suitable for fitrah. The Qur'an's command of tasattur saves women, who can be the mines of compassion and worthy eternal companions, from degradation, abasement, ma’nawî slavery and misery through tasattur.

Furthermore, by fitrah, women are timid and afraid of strange men. As for the fear, by fitrah, it requires tasattur. Because there is the possibility of suffering the calamity — which will extremely make the eight or nine minutes of pleasure bitter — of eight or nine minutes of illicit pleasure for eight or nine years due to carrying with difficulty the heavy load of a child, as well as the tarbiyyah of a child without a protector. And since this happens frequently, their fitrah truly fears non-mahrams intensely, and their innate disposition wants to avoid them. And their weak creation commands and severely warns not to excite the appetites of non-mahrams and not to give any opportunity for their aggression and shows that their shield and fortress is their charshaf (jilbâb).

As I heard: The bare-legged wife of a world high-ranking man being molested in the centre and capital city of government, in a bazaar, in the daytime, in front of everyone, by a very ordinary shoepainter, gives a slap to the shameless faces of those who are against tasattur!

Second Hikmah: The extremely essential and intense relationship, love and connection between man and woman are not only based on the needs of worldly life. Yes, a woman is a life companion of her husband not only in worldly life but also in eternal life. Since she is her husband's life companion in eternal life too, surely, she should not attract the eyes of other men to her beauty aside from her husband, her eternal friend and companion, and should not offend and make him jealous. Since, in consequence of the mystery of îmân, her mu’min husband's connection to her is not confined to worldly life, and his love is not only animal-like, temporary and restricted to the time of her beauty, but rather he is attached to her with true and sincere love and respect in terms of her being his life companion in eternal life, and he carries that sincere love and respect for her not only during her youth and at the time of beauty but also at the time of old age and ugliness. Indeed, in return for this, devoting her beauty to his eyes alone and restricting her love only to him is the requirement of humanity. Otherwise, she would gain very little but lose a lot.

According to Sharî’ah, the husband should be equivalent to the wife; that is, they should be suitable for each other. The most important aspect of this equivalence is the point of being religious. Happy is the husband who sees the piety of his woman and emulates her, and he becomes pious in order not to lose his companion in eternal life.

Happy is the woman who sees the piety of her husband and embraces taqwâ in order not to lose her eternal friend.

Alas for the man who enters dissipation, which will cause him to lose his sâliha woman eternally. How unfortunate is the woman who does not follow her muttaqî husband and loses her blessed eternal friend.

A thousand alas for the unfortunate husband and wife who imitate the fisq and dissipation of each other! They help one another get thrown into the fire!

Third Hikmah: A family’s happiness in life continues through mutual trust, sincere respect and love between husband and wife. Lack of tasattur and modesty in dressing destroys trust and undermines mutual respect and love because out of ten immodestly dressed women, only one does not try to make herself admired by strangers, as she does not see any better than her husband. As for nine of them, they see other men better than their husbands. And only one out of twenty men does not see a more beautiful one other than his wife. Then, it can awaken a terribly ugly and exceedingly despicable feeling along with loss of sincere love and mutual respect. It is as follows:

By fitrah, man cannot carry a lustful feeling towards his mahrams, such as his sisters, because the faces of his mahrams break the lustful inclinations of nafs since their faces evoke in him compassion and licit love arising from kinship and being mahram. But to leave the parts of the body naked, like the legs, which are not permissible (jâiz) to show even to mahrams according to Sharî’ah, can awaken a terribly ugly feeling in the people who have an inferior nafs. Because the face of a mahram is a reminder of being forbidden in terms of close kinship, and it does not look like that of a non-mahram, but, for example, a bare leg is the same as that of non-mahrams. Since it does not carry any distinguishing mark, which is a reminder of being a mahram, it may awaken a bestial, lustful look in mahrams with an inferior nafs. Such a look is a hair-raising decline of humanity.

Fourth Hikmah: It is well-known that everyone desires the abundance of generations. There is no nation or government that does not support multiple successive generations. Ar-Rasûl Al-Akram ‘Alayhissalâtu Wassalâm decreed: تَنَاكَحُوا تَكَاثَرُوا فَاِنِّى اُبَاهِى بِكُمُ اْلاُمَمَ  (As he said) That is, "Marry and increase, for in the qiyâmah, I will take pride in your great numbers." However, the abrogation of tasattur does not increase marriage but highly decreases it. Because even the most depraved and modern young man wants a chaste and righteous life companion. Since he does not want her to be modern like himself, that is, he does not want her to dress immodestly, he remains unmarried and even enters fornication, but a woman is not like that; she cannot restrict her husband to that extent. Because her most essential moral quality should be loyalty and trustworthiness since, on account of being the domestic administrator in the family life, a woman is an official in protecting all of her husband's possessions, his children and everything that belongs to him, and immodest dressing destroys this loyalty; in her husband’s eyes, she loses trustworthiness, and she makes him suffer the torment of conscience. Even courage and generosity, two admirable moral qualities in men, are negative traits in women, as they undermine loyalty and trustworthiness. However, a husband's duty does not include loyalty and being a treasurer to the wife, but rather protection, mercy and respect. Therefore, he cannot be restricted. He can also marry other women.

The continent of the Islamic world is not comparable to the European continent. Because, there, amid the immodest dressing, honour is preserved to a degree through violent means, such as the duel. One who looks at the wife of an honourable man with impure eyes wraps his shroud around his neck and then looks. Also, in Europe, the continent of cold countries, temperaments are cold and stiff, like that continent. Asia, the continent of the Islamic world, is the place of warmer countries compared to Europe. It is well known that the environment affects the morality of man. In those cold countries and those cold people, immodest dressing that will sharpen appetites and stimulate animal desires might not result in waste and misuse; however, in warm countries, immodest dressing that will continually excite the desires of nafs of quickly affected and sensitive people is certainly the cause of much waste, misuse, weakness of generation and a loss of strength. Instead of once a month or twenty days, the need of fitrah, he supposes himself to be obliged to waste every few days. Then, since he is obliged to avoid his wife for fifteen days every month due to occurrences, like her menstrual cycle, he will even incline to promiscuity if his nafs defeats him.

The Twenty-Fourth Flash-Risale on Tasattur

4. Why was Hazrat Bediüzzaman not looking at the women?

It is well-known to those who know my life: fifty-five years ago, when I was about twenty years old, I stayed at the residence of the late Governor ‘Umar Pasha in Bitlis for two years because of his insistence and his great respect for ‘ilm. He had six daughters; three were younger, and the other three were older. Despite living in the same residence with them for two years, I was unable to identify and differentiate the three older ones from one another. I never paid attention to them, nor did I know them. An ‘âlim came to visit me, and within two days, he was able to identify and differentiate them. Everybody was surprised by this state of mine and asked me, “Why do you not look at them?”

I would tell them, “Protecting the dignity of ‘ilm prevents me from looking.”

Moreover, forty years ago, during a special Kâğıthane festival in Istanbul, thousands of immodestly dressed Greek and Armenian women and girls, as well as those from Istanbul, lined up around both sides of the Golden Horn, all the way from the Bridge to Kâğıthane. At that time, the late parliament member, Mullah Sayyid Taha, another parliament member, Haji Ilyas and I were together on a boat and were passing by those women. I was not aware. However, Mullah Taha and Haji Ilyas confessed after an hour of travelling on that boat that they had been testing me and were watching me in turn. They said, “We are amazed at your state; you did not look even once.”

I said, “I do not want to look because the consequences of unnecessary, temporary and sinful pleasures are pains and regrets.”

Biography (519-520)