“I claim and justify that Husrev, who was behaved badly in bad conditions and who was suffering from ill health (Sallamallahu Ta’ala – may Allah give him well-being) and who was supposed to be dangerous for the nation and the country, is a great spiritual hero of the Turkish nation, and is a saviour of this country, and the nation’s sincere and self-sacrificing man to be proud of. As he has the full sense of ikhlas (sincerity), and doesn’t have egoism and hypocrisy and is not addicted to fame, therefore the time has come to reveal one or two of his many services for the country and the nation.

With his exceptional and pleasant pen, this person has written out about six hundred or more treatises and spread them all around the country. Doing this, he broke out and stopped the anarchism, which was trying to corrupt the society under the cover of communism. bilgi-ustad-bsnIn order to save the sacred country and this heroic nation from the poison (of communism), he sent out the powerful medicament (which is the Risale-i Nur). He attempted to rescue the Turkish youth and the future generation from this danger…”

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

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Ahmed Husrev Efendi was born in AH 1315 / AD 1899 in Senirce village, Isparta. His father, Mehmed Bey, was the grandson of one of the last Isparta governors of the Great Ottoman Islamic Empire, Haci Edhem Bey. The forebears of his father, who are among Isparta’s notable men, are known as Green Turbans and their family tree dates back to the Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) companion Sayyidina Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him). And his mother was a descendant of Sayyidina Hussein, the grandson of our Prophet, (May Allah be pleased with him).

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He met the revered Imam Bediuzzaman Said Nursi in 1931, and adhered to him. From then on, he served as an important senior student, an advising friend, and an assistant to Imam Nursi and the most important element in the service of Nur.

Before he could finish the secondary school, he joined the Turkish Independence War as a second lieutenant. He was taken a POW in a battle with the Greek army. After one and a half years of a life in captivity, he returned home.

Ahmed Husrev Efendi was the student that the Imam Nursi mentioned most in his works. Both as a student and a struggle associate who successfully continued Bediuzzaman’s service of the Quran, he was a hero of Islam who served, suffered and sacrificed greatly in the forefront of Bediuzzaman’s struggle to save the sacred values of believers against corruption and to maintain and revive the pillars of faith.

1451He was tried together with Bediuzzaman in Eskişehir (1935); in Denizli (1943) and in Afyon (1947). They suffered in the prisons of the country for years.

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Following the death of Bediuzzaman in 1960, he began to direct and manage the service of Risale-i Nur, conveying Bediuzzaman’s spiritual heritage to the future.

He was tried in Isparta in 1963 and in Eskişehir in 1971, and was imprisoned for years. Particularly during the 1971 military coup, Ahmed Husrev Efendi, at age 72, was taken to court along with 96 students under horrific conditions which cannot be expressed in words. This counts as a historical proof as to how Ahmed Husrev Efendi struggled to stop the oppression of Muslims even at that old age.

He established Hayrat Foundation in 1974, and continued his struggle for the truths of Qur’an and faith till the end of his life just like his Ustad, Imam Said Nursi, had done.

Ahmed Husrev Altınbaşak passed away in August (Ramadan) 1977 and was buried in Isparta. Rahmatullahi Alayh.