O you unhappy person who is alarmed at the great numbers of the unbelievers and their agreement in denying some of the truths of belief, and as a result is shaken in his faith! You should know that value and importance do not lie in quantity and number. For if man is not a true human being, he is transformed into a diabolical animal, and the more man increases in animal greed, the more animal he becomes—like some Europeans and their imitators. You can see that with regard to quantity and number, men are extremely few in comparison to the boundless numbers of animals, and yet they are sovereign rulers over all the animal species and God’s vicegerents on earth.

Thus, the harmful unbelievers and those depraved wretches who follow in their way are a vicious species among Almighty God’s animals which the All-Wise Maker has created for the development and prosperity of the world. He has made them a unit of measurement in order to let His believing servants know the degrees of the bounties He has bestowed on them, and finally will consign those animals to the Hell they deserve.

There is no power in the unbelievers and misguided denying and negating a truth of belief. Their agreement has no power; a thousand deniers are equal to one denier. For example, even if the whole population of Istanbul denies seeing the new moon at the beginning of Ramadan, the proven testimony of two witnesses invalidates the negation and agreement of that great multitude. Since in reality unbelief and misguidance are negation and denial, they are ignorance and non-existence, and the agreement of unbelievers in great numbers even has no significance. In matters of belief, which are true, established, and whose validity is proved, the judgement of two believers based on certain witnessing takes preference and prevails over the agreement of those vast numbers of the misguided. The reason for this fact is as follows:

Superficially, the claims of those who deny are the same, but in fact they are diverse and cannot unite in order to gain strength. While the claims of those who affirm unite and receive strength from each other. This is because a person who does not see the new moon of Ramadan in the sky says: “In my view, there is no moon. It has not appeared that I can see.” And another says: “In my view, the moon has not appeared.” And so does another. Each says that in his own view, there is no moon. Since the view of each is different, and the causes that prevent them seeing it may also be different, their claims are all different as well; each claim cannot reinforce the other claims. But those who are affirming it are not saying: “In my view and opinion the new moon is there,” but, “The reality of the situation is that the new moon has appeared in the sky.” Those who sight it all make the same claim and say: “The reality of the situation is...” That is to say, all the claims are the same. While, since the views of those who are denying it are all different, their claims also are different. They are not making the judgement according to the reality of the situation. Because negating the reality of the situation cannot be proved; for that, an all-embracing proof is necessary.

It is an established rule that “absolute non-existence can only be proved with extreme difficulty.” Yes, if you claim that a particular thing exists in the world, it is enough to merely point that thing out. But if you say it does not exist and you deny it, the whole world has to be sifted through in order to demonstrate it so that the denial can be proved. It is as a consequence of this that the unbelievers denying a truth is like solving a problem or passing through a narrow hole or jumping over a ditch; a thousand men are the same as one man, because they cannot help one another. But since those who affirm look at the heart of the matter and reality of the situation, their claims unite, and the individual strength of all of them combines and assists them. It resembles lifting a great boulder: the more hands there are, the more strength they receive and the easier it becomes.