ADNAN OKTAR: With the spread of materialism and Darwinism among people, he says, he will first silence that ideology and thus teach a lesson to mankind. And that is Hazrat Mahdi’s (as) first task: Darwinism and materialism. He describes this very comprehensively. Said Nursi says Hazrat Mahdi (as) will primarily direct his attention toward materialism and Darwinism. And by the wisdom of Allah we are now in the time when Darwinism and materialism are in the most parlous state. They are dead or dying, as we can see. This is how Said Nursi describes the matter. He says that as he has described several times in his Letters there is a holy community represented by Hazrat Mahdi (as), and that community will persist. First, he says, they will appear under the guise of science and philosophy and will afflict people with irreligion and scourges, and that Darwinism and materialism are a pestilence when they appear among people, and that his first duty will be to silence this philosophy, Darwinism and materialism, and thus to rescue religious belief. He says that Hazrat Mahdi (as) will preserve faith with evidence and prevent believers from falling into unbelief. And he will do this by abandoning all else in the world, in other words by involving all aspects of life, and that since this will require much study and research, Hazrat Mahdi (as) will not have the time or means to discharge that duty personally. In other words, he will not have the time to devote to it, he says, since he will be very busy. He says he will lack the means to do all that research himself. In other words, he says he will not be the kind of classic ulama we are familiar with, meaning he will have a new kind of knowledge. He will not have a madrassa education or be like a madrassa scholar, says Said Nursi. His activities will not leave him enough time to concern himself personally, says Said Nursi. He predicts that a group of followers will occupy themselves with it before him. In other words, some people will do research before him. The person, Hazrat Mahdi (as) will draw up a program using works prepared for him as a result of that lengthy investigation. He says he will take advantage of ready prepared works and books, and will combine these together for his own work. He will draw up his own program. And thus he will discharge his first duty. His colleagues will have the strength and spiritual power that this task relies on and they will be very devout and devoted to him. In other words, he says, they will be highly devoted to Islam, the Qur’an and Allah. And he says they will be allied, will be tightly bound to one another. And no matter how small their numbers, they will be as strong and valuable as a whole spiritual community. He says they will be very few in number.