Kezban Tokpinar, the mother of Theologian Author Cemil Tokpinar, passed away on April 30, 2019 without being able to see her son and grandchildren living abroad. Tokpinar was one of the fortunate ladies who saw Bediuzzaman Said-i Nursi.
While Cemil Tokpinar, who guided people with his conversations and the works he wrote, longed for his mother abroad, mother Kezban Tokpinar passed away longing for her son. Mrs. Kezban Tokpinar closed her eyes to life a day after the anniversary of the death of her husband, who died 33 years ago. She passed away with longing for her children and grandchildren.
In an interview with Kezban Tokpinar, she told about her memories of her mother and said the following;
“I was born in Bolvadin in 1932. I have seven children. At the birth of my first child, my uncle’s wife was reading Cevsenü’l-Kebir. ’When you read this prayer, every prayer is accepted,’ they told me. So I went to him, and said ‘Give me the prayer. Let me read it too’. When it was said, ‘All prayers will be accepted’, my mind was stuck there. ‘No, we can’t,’ he said. ‘Why?’ I asked. He said, ‘You can read it only if you become a student of Nur.’ And I said, ’Whatever the Nur is, let it be’. ‘You will go to the Şahide mother, you will take a book from her and you will come back, she will tell our Üstad to you immediately,’ he said. The mother Şahide was living very close to us, I knew her. But I had never heard of a Üstad or anything like that until then. However, he was also in Emirdag. Of course, at that time I was an 18-year-old bride with a child. I didn’t know anything. I agreed, but when I was thinking about how to go in secret from my husband, my mother-in-law, my late husband was passing through there. We hit the window. He came, we got permission and we walked to the mother Sahide. The blessed woman looked at me as if she had read my heart. Before I could say anything to her, she said to her daughter, “Ulker, my child, bring a Cevsenu’l-Kebir to your aunt.” Since the houses were searched, the books had been removed to another side. At that time, the prayers were one by one. It wasn’t all together like it is now. My Üstad had not yet bound it. Ülker brought Cevsen to me. I brought it home. I hugged him like a traveler. I have three single sister-in-laws at home, and a co-sister-in-law. How do we get up in the middle of the night, we all grab Cevsen from each other, saying ‘I will read first’. After that, she sent Delâilunnur once a month, then Hulâsatu’l-Hülâsa, Tahmidiye… We were reading them all. As we read, our hearts were getting younger and relieved. Ustad said, “You will pray the Cevsen”. So, you will never quit. “How can we not read Cevsen? When this prayer came to our Prophet, Gabriel said, ‘Take off your armor, read this’. What does it mean not to read such a treasure-like prayer?”
RESOURCES:
https://www.yeniasya.com.tr/2010/03/07/yazarlar/ygulecyuz.html