Although some view worship, servanthood, and devotion as synonymous, most Sufi scholars and masters say that these words have different meanings and connotations. ‘Ibada (worship) means fulfilling God’s commands in one’s daily life and fulfilling the obligations of being His servant, while ‘ubuda (servanthood) is interpreted as living in the consciousness of being a servant. Thus, one who observes his or her religious duties is called ‘abid (worshipper), while one who lives in consciousness of being a servant of God is usually called ‘abd (servant).

There is another, more subtle difference between worship and servanthood. Acts of worship consist of all financial and physical duties: those requiring sufficient financial resources and physical ability, and that are accomplished with difficulty, in fear and hope, and with the intention of pleasing God (e.g., the five daily prayers, fasting, alms-giving, pilgrimage to Mecca, offering a sacrifice, and mentioning or reciting God’s Names). A servant of God, however, understands these responsibilities or acts of worship in a different manner: each fulfillment of such a duty has a deeper (inner) dimension that requires a certain degree of consciousness and awareness on the part of the servant.

The deepest dimension of religious duties and demands is devotion, which requires total care and awareness. Ibn al-Farid states: “The acts of worship and duties of servanthood required by every station or rank that I have reached during my spiritual journey have been fulfilled by my devotion.”

Some Sufis have defined worship as the servanthood of ordinary people, servanthood as the duty required by being a servant of God and carried out by individuals possessing insight and awareness, and devotion as the responsibility of those distinguished by their nearness to God. The first group contains those striving to advance on the path of God; the second group contains those whose mental and spiritual attitudes allow them to overcome all seemingly insurmountable obstacles and difficulties they encounter; the third group contains those whose mental and spiritual states cause them to turn to God wholeheartedly and with a profound feeling of being in His company.

Other Sufis have summed up the above explanations in two terms: worship of the Absolute Divine Essence, and worship of the Restricted Divine Attributes. The first term means always being conscious of the relationship between the Creator and created, the Worshipped One and the worshipper, the Overseeing and the overseen, the Sustaining and the sustained, and thinking, feeling, and acting in the most profound awareness of these relationships. The second term means fulfilling one’s daily duties as required by this awareness, which causes one’s awareness to increase. Those performing these duties can be categorized by their intention, resolution, determination, and sincerity as follows: those who desire to enter Paradise, those who hope to be rescued from Hellfire, those who love and stand in awe of God, and those who feel that they must do so as a requirement of the relationship between God as the Creator (Who alone deserves worship) and human beings (created beings who must worship their Creator).

Each group has another name: merchants, slaves, lovers, and the devoted or faithful. These words of Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiya, a female Muslim saint who lived during the second century of Islam, are quite appropriate:

O Lord. I swear by the beauty of nearness to You that I have not worshipped You either for fear of Hell or out of the desire for Paradise. I have worshipped You because of You.

Servanthood is a source of honor and dignity for men and women. Nothing is more esteemed or valuable than being honored with servanthood and devotion to God. Although other, more valuable ranks may be conferred for a limited time, servanthood is constant and continuous, and therefore the most valuable rank. This is why God Almighty described the best of creation, upon him be peace and blessings, as His servant in the most beautiful words: There is no deity but God, and Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, and He crowned his servanthood and these blessed words with his Messengership.

Also, when inviting the Prophet, the glory of humanity and the peerless, unique one of time and creation, to honor the heavens by the Ascension, He began His invitation with the complimentary phrase: He carried His servant by night (17:1), thereby referring to the matchless greatness of his servanthood. This is even more meaningful, as on this occasion when space and time were almost transcended and the all-pervasive light of Divine Grace and Beauty welcomed him, God Almighty again stressed his servanthood and declared: He revealed to His servant what He revealed (53:10).

Rumi does not present himself as a saint or an individual of profound spiritual depth, but as a servant:

I have become a servant, become a servant, become a servant;

Whereas I rejoice when I become Your servant.

According to some, the following should also be considered when discussing worship and servanthood. A servant should:

• Be aware of his or her faults and worry about them even if he or she thinks that the acts of worship have been per-formed perfectly.

• Endeavor to worship perfectly, and then attribute to God whatever is achieved in the name of servanthood. Each moment of life should be spent in the awareness of his or her being a servant to the eternal Lordship of God.

• Regard all facets of existence as shadows of the Light of His existence, and never attribute to oneself the existence of anything or any accomplishment. There should be no self-pride concerning the blessings conferred, or despair concerning the withholding of all spiritual gifts and radiances.

• Be aware of the honor and dignity of being attached to Him, and never imagine being honored with other kinds of ranks.

No other rank or honor is as great as or greater than servanthood. If any rank or honor may be considered as such, it may be freedom, but only in the meaning of not setting one’s heart on anything other than God and renouncing whatever is other than Him. Those who have not made great progress on the path to God can only feel freedom, while those who have reached the destination experience it fully. I think that the true freedom to which one must aspire, one that will be appropriate for his or her grade and dignity, is this one. A friend of God draws attention to this fact:

O son! Unchain yourself and become free!

How much longer will you remain a slave of silver and gold?

Junayd al-Baghdadi warns that unless one is freed from slavery to others, one cannot attain true servanthood to God. Another friend of God expresses the meaning of servanthood and freedom by advising that a servant of God should never consider any other than God in all of his or her thoughts, imaginings, feelings, and manners:

If you would like to beat the drum of honor, go beyond the wheel of stars;

As this circle filled with rings is a drum of humiliation.

O God! Enable us to attain to what is loved by and pleasing to You.

Notes:

1. The Ascension (mi‘raj) was a miraculous event during

which the Prophet journeyed throughout the realms of existence

to God.

2. Al-Qushayri, Al-Risala, 201.

We photons are the envoys of the sun. Our duty is to carry the energy that was stored in the sun during the creation of the universe to the earth. In the sun’s center, during the nuclear reaction called fusion, four hydrogen nuclei form one helium nucleus. The mass of four hydrogen nuclei is 4 x 1,6726 x 10 ^-24 grams (i.e. 6,6904 x 10 ^-24 grams); the mass of one helium nucleus is 6,6447 x 10 ^-24 grams. It is clear that the mass of one helium nucleus is a little smaller than the mass of four hydrogen nuclei. If we calculate the difference: 6,6904 x 10 ^-24 g – 6,6447 x 10 ^-24 g = 0,0457 x 10 ^-24 g. This small mass difference is transformed into great energy by order of the Creator, and in this way we and our relatives, neutrinos, are created.

Our Lord has created us as the fastest particles in the universe. We cover 300,000 kilometers in a second. Although we move so fast, the sun’s center is very dense. The density is about 150 times greater than the density of water (1 g/cm3). Thus, as soon as we move, we crash into the hydrogen and helium nucleuses around us. They swallow us, but then they immediately set us free; then yet another strike waits for us immediately. In every collision, our energy is reduced a little, and we divide into several light particles with lower energy levels. Most of our lives-perhaps 100 thousand years-is spent in these collisions.

If we left the center of the sun without any collisions, the earth would be blasted to pieces in a moment when we hit it. As a result of the collisions, we, who have a high energy level in the beginning, are converted into low energy level light particles.

So many of us are created in the sun that at every second a four-million-ton mass is converted into energy. In the sun, which is 5 billion years old, approximately a hundred times the mass of the earth has been converted into energy up to today.

While we are created in the center of the sun, we reach the outer layer of the sun, the photosphere, by passing slowly through the layers from the center to the surface of the sun. On leaving the surface, our energy decreases, our number increases, and our temperature goes down to 5,800 degrees C. You may consider this temperature very high, but you should not forget that our temperature in the beginning was 15 million degrees C.

We pass the 700,000 kilometers from the center of the sun to the photosphere layer in 100,000 years. The photosphere’s density is so low that it is only one percent of the atmosphere’s density at sea level. We leave this layer fast without any collisions. To reach the earth, there is 150 million kilometers of space ahead of us. Here we show our speed, which we did not have a chance to display earlier because of the collisions we have inside the sun. We travel the 150-million-kilometer distance in 8.5 minutes and reach the earth. There are some of us with extremely high energy levels who can cause damage on earth. The ozone layer is responsible for picking them off. The non-dangerous ones among us reach the face of the earth by traveling through the 100-kilometer-deep atmosphere in 1/10000 of a second. Finally, it is time to deliver the energy we have carried to you.

Every photon has a duty. Some of us heat the earth; some of us vaporize the water in the seas to bring the merciful rains. We have many other duties as well as these. Perhaps our most important duty is to be swallowed by the chlorophyll in plant leaves, so as to provide the energy in the food you eat and in the oxygen you breathe.

Possibly the energy that you have used while reading this essay was obtained from a bean you ate in your lunch. Do not forget that we brought from the sun’s center both the energy in the bean you ate and the energy in any plant that was food for any animal whose meat you have eaten.

We also carried the energy that was in the gas of the truck that brought these pages to you. If our brothers that came to the earth a million years ago had not brought energy to the plants at that time, could those plants have been transformed into oil or coal by decaying underground?

Our Lord gave us light particles a mission to carry the energy that is stored in substances so that the energy will be a source of life for you. We fulfill our duties without any error so that you might think and learn a lesson from these facts.

In your next meal, consider looking at the blessings on your plate from the following perspective: “I am about to eat energy that was heated approximately 100,000 years ago at 15 million degrees C in an oven in the sun’s center and later cooled and made appropriate for the bodies of human beings.”

It is our observation that the popular image in Romania of the Turk as an enemy is a late, nineteenth-century acquisition, triggered by the political motives of contending Romanian groups at the time, and it has rolled on ever since with no real justification in “third-form History,” including in school textbooks. For the first four hundred years or so of common, close ties in Romanian–Turkish history there is no serious indication leading us to think that the Turk’s image was the image of the “enemy” for Romanians as a whole. The Turk’s image, as it emerges from the chronicles of the time, is essentially based on religious difference-he is “the Pagan,” the believer in a “wrong belief,” just like the Catholic (“the Papist”) or the Mosaic (“the Jew”). The difference in religion does not necessarily entail hostility or enmity.

Things change in the nineteenth century when Moldova and Walachia are disputed by the Russian and the Ottoman empires, to the point that legends of the Moldovan capital of Iasi say that the local princes had a huge double-sided painting with a portrait on one side of the Sultan and on the other side of the Tsar: according to which empire’s troops entered the capital, they would display one side of the painting or the other. This is probably a legend or an exaggeration, but it is illustrative of the political atmosphere in the extra-Carpathian Romanian Principalities, an atmosphere proper for the development of pro-Russian and pro-Ottoman partisan groups-political parties, in all but name. Later, there would also emerge a pro-Western “party.” It was in order to accomplish their immediate and local goals that the anti-Ottoman “parties” forged the image of the Turk as an enemy.

This image was forged against a rather favorable popular image the Turk had gained after centuries of rather tolerant suzerainty. A popular rhyme of the time-still quoted by the national poet Mihai Eminescu late in the second half of the nineteenth century-claimed that “Our affairs would have been prosperous if the Turk was not as he is; a master warrior, but a poor diplomat.” (“Bine ne-ar fi fost în toate, dacă turcul n-ar fi fost / Mester numai la războaie, da-n diplomatică, prost!”). The evaluation, while notably precise-the Ottomans fought bravely and successfully the Tsarist troops in the 1806–1812 war, but made a disadvantageous peace, handing over the eastern part of Moldova to Russia, on account of the betrayal of their grand dragoman, the Greek Nicolae Moruzi-does not lack sympathy and understanding for the Turk. But instead of this Romanian frustration taking an anti-Russian or even anti-Greek form, it took, thanks to “third-form history,” an anti-Turkish form. Like all biases, this one too proved to be self-entertaining, and rolled through the centuries with nothing to fuel it after the 1877 Romanian Independence war, a war of doubtful utility for Romania, in Mihai Eminescu’s opinion (as well as, modestly, in ours), since after the 1829 Adrianopolis peace, the advantages of Turkish suzerainty far outweighed the disadvantages.

But the change for the worse of the Turk’s image as a result of local political interests in the nineteenth century is frustrating to the truth-seeking researcher for reasons lying deeper in history, namely, the fact that the Romanian people owes to a degree the free conservation and development of its identity throughout the late Middle Ages to the full observation by the Turks of the original treaties between the two nations. We shall further develop this subject.

The original peace treaties between the Ottoman Empire and the principalities of Walachia and Moldova-the so-called “old capitulations”-were agreed by the Turks with the greatest princes in the history of these countries: with Mircea the Old for Walachia at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and with stefan the Great for Moldova, at the end of the same century. Both these treaties were agreed after the Romanians had obtained brilliant military victories against the Turks. Therefore, their accepting Turkish suzerainty was considered, according to Islamic principles, as willing surrender, not as surrender obtained by force. Walachia and later Moldova were thus considered “Dar-ul-Sulh,” Lands of Peace. According to the Qur’anic recommendations, such countries received much better treatment than countries conquered by the sword-“Dar-ul-Harb,” or Lands of War. This treatment was inferior only to that received by Muslim countries-“Dar-ul-Islam,” or lands of Islam. While the neighboring peoples-Bulgarians, Serbians, for a short time Hungarians-received the “Dar-ul-Harb” treatment and lost their autonomy, being ruled by Turkish generals, the Romanian principalities of Walachia, Moldova and for a short time Transylvania enjoyed the “Dar-ul-Sulh” treatment.

Practically, this meant three main provisions in the “old capitulations”:

a) the interdiction of Turks’ ownership of land north of the Danube (with the exception of four bridgehead cities-“raia”).

b) the interdiction of religious proselytism by Turks north of the Danube.

c) the political autonomy of the principalities, which were to be ruled by Christian princes.

Later, the “old capitulations” were repeatedly transgressed by the Moldovan and Walachian princes, allowing in principle the Turks to transgress in their turn the three above-mentioned main provisions. However, they felt Qur’an-bound and Islam-bound to continue treating the two principalities as “Dar-ul-Sulh.” It is our opinion that this constancy of the Turks in observing the treaties, namely the three provisions, allowed the Romanians to maintain and develop their national and religious identity during the late Middle Ages in much better conditions than the neighboring peoples.

And it is a pity that this merit of the Turks, and of Islam, does not find its way into “third-form History” textbooks in Romania for presentation to the young.

Died on January 8, 2009, Victor Nitelea was a former expert, Romanian Commission for UNESCO and a leading Romanian journalist.

In memory of a dear friend

Victor Nitelea (April 8th 1952 – January 8th 2009) was my best friend in Romania. He was a unique person in many ways-an intellectual with a vast ability to incorporate sound knowledge and wisdom in politics and history as well as in mathematics and engineering. When he told me that he had written a dissertation on table tennis, I told him that it would not be a surprise if he came out with another thesis on spacecraft.

The Great Stefan told his child with his dying breath, “You can always trust Turks as they never betray you.” Victor had a deep trust in me as his Turkish friend. We had long, delightful discussions. He was a good listener, while his knowledge was enough to be the only speaker in any conversation.

He wrote fourteen books, was columnist on several journals, and appeared regularly on TV shows. He had a beautiful mind and was a popular face in the community. It was very sad hearing the news that he had lung cancer. I could not imagine the coming days without his company. Romania was not only losing an intellectual but also a good believer. Victor was a monotheist, saying that God cannot be associated with partners. He had deep respect for the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

Before he died, he gave me an article about the relationship between Turks and Romanians. For him, it was because of Turks that Romania still exists as a nation and as a country. Sharing this essay with The Fountain readers is, I hope, a fair treatment of his legacy.

I had the chance to meet him many times. I hope this essays provides an opportunity for The Fountain readers to have a conversation with Mr. Nitelea.

Dr. Ahmet Ecirli, University of Bucharest, Department of Sociology

“… there is a stable order in the world as well as a well-established connection, constant norms and fundamental laws. In this sense, the world is analogous to a clock or a well-designed machine. Every single wheel, every single screw, every single nail not only has a role in order of a machine and an impact in its final benefit but also positive consequences for all living beings, especially for humans.” (Signs of Miraculousness, Seven Heavens, p. 186)

There is a strong parallel between the general principles to be observed for a healthy social structure in a society and the necessary conditions that enable cells to make up a healthy tissue. The laws prevalent in the universe present amazing parallels since they derive from the same divine source. In order to have healthy development in societies, it is necessary to have healthy connections, reciprocal understanding, and correct information transfer between people. Similarly, having healthy cells, which can be considered as micro-societies, also depends on the cells’ continual use of complex signal connection networks and their maintenance of connections with their environments. In order to maintain a harmonious and healthy life in the cell, there must be dense information transfer (through chemical molecules) at all levels with neighbor cells. Thanks to the connection networks that start at their membranes, cells can recognize warnings coming to them and produce responses. Through such information networks, a continuous connection is established in living organisms, starting from their lowest level mechanisms (i.e. molecules in cells and organelles) to their highest level mechanisms (i.e. organs, systems, organisms, populations, ecosystems), in order to ensure a healthy and harmonious processes of development, reproduction, differentiation and aging. Organized as a tissue (micro-society), one of the most amazing features of cells is the way they behave in accord with the society they live in, rather than acting as individualistic beings. Cells behave in a way to make micro-societies possible. In cytology (study of cells), this feature is known as “contact inhibition” (i.e. maintenance of healthy and harmonious operation and development that is based on connection), and its damage may lead to cancer. Every cell is sensitively programmed to receive all signals, coming from inside and outside, and to manage the proper responses to them. Here, the question arises whether a lack or disorder of connection is caused by pathological conditions in cells or whether the emergence of pathological conditions is caused by connection problems. It is generally assumed that, molecular changes in the cell occur first (i.e. mutation) and then this mutation leads to abnormalities and connection problems at the levels of tissue, organ, and even organism. Damage to communication or connection and disorders in this system are a very important reason for the appearance of some pathological conditions (such as an abnormal increase of cells, cancer and death). Thus, diagnosis and treatment of many diseases today depends on knowledge of how biological communication and connection are harmoniously established.

Cells are designed to control their behavior through special signal molecules that can themselves function as stimulatory. For instance, using signal molecules, cells can establish colonies or biofilms. Moreover, plant cells, through channels known as plasmodesmata, maintain their connection with neighboring cells and trade certain materials. In the state of illness, the density (among cells) of signal molecules that are transferred in the plasmodesmata changes.

Hormones, reproduction factors and neurotransmitters are charged with ensuring transportation and communication at different levels. Cell and tissue elasticity and their adaptability are increased by this diversity in signal operations. Different ways are used to transmit signals into the cell depending upon the characteristics of the signals. For example, hydrophobic (water-avoiding) molecules like steroid hormone pass directly through the cell membrane and connect to their receptors in the cell. The receptors that are responsible for decoding genes stimulate the decoding of related genes. If a problem (mutation) occurs in the molecules that are responsible for transportation and communication, the transportation and communication breaks down and the cancer process is triggered. The existence of continuously reproducing cells in inappropriate times and places is an important symptom of cancer initiation. For example, in colon and rectum cancer, if a mutation occurs on the Ras protein, which is one of the signal proteins that takes the “Reproduce!” message from the cell membrane the cutting off of the GTP molecule, which is responsible for turning the signal molecule on and off, is blocked, and since the molecule stays permanently active a signal like “Reproduce!” is permanently sent inside the cell. Thus, the benefits of the medicines that are used in cancer treatment and that show their effects by hindering signals on the cell membrane level are observed in the non-existence of this mutation on Ras proteins. If the mutation happens the medicines mentioned above cannot be effective. Today, the presence of the mutation can be determined by a biopsy taken from the patient, thus, it has become possible to choose the type of therapy that will be most helpful to that person.

Communication inside the cell can be carried out through ion channels (such as sodium, potassium, and calcium). These channels in membrane behave selectively for every different ion. For example, while voltage-gated channels open and close according to electric charge ligand, (key)-gated (receptor) channels let ions transfer when ligands are tied up. Sodium and potassium ions and the molecular channels that these two passes are responsible for organizing the changes that effect the communication of nerves in the membrane potential. The calcium channel, on the other hand, plays an important role in muscle contraction, and biological incidents like the formation and deformation of bone.

In recent years, the proteins (matrix) that fill the vacancies among cells have been shown to be the main actor in the general control of communication between cells and in the integration of signals coming from their surroundings by hundreds of proofs. It has been pointed out that CCN proteins, which are one of the adaptors, as well as proteins with multiple modules that are responsible for the connection between cell membranes and matrix proteins have a regulatory role at different levels in the control of signal transfers in ion channels, cell differentiation, adherence of cells to each other, cell collapse, programmed cell-death, cartilage formation and the synthesis of new veins. The multi-dimensional and dynamic communication and connections mentioned above related to cells also apply to people. When individuals develop a healthy connection between their inner world and other people, a healthy society emerges. Every individual is granted these potential connection points, which make the existence of an individual possible. The development of a healthy person depends upon activating these connections, organizing them dynamically and keeping them active.

If we place human beings at the center of creation, the first connection that the individuals should make between their Creator and their ego (nafs) is called worship. The ego is both a help and a hindrance to the construction of this connection. The second connection, which is between individuals and their friends, is ensured by good morals, good conduct, and personal virtue. The construction of a healthy social life depends on how many people have good morals, good conduct and virtuous character in a society. If virtue is not accompanied by knowledge, it is highly unlikely that knowledge will raise an individual to a standard of human perfection.

The third essential, the individual’s healthy connection with their surroundings is established through the “ecological dimension of ego,” which is sensitive to the external world. It is very difficult for people whose dimension of ego, which is sensitive to ecological problems and the environment, has not developed to keep the environment clean and take precautions against pollution. The fourth connection that individuals should establish is the connection with their internal world (heart-consciousness, transcendental ego, real self). “O Man! Know yourself first!” and, “The one that knows himself knows his God,” are expressions pointing out the importance of this connection.

For individuals, groups, and societies to have a healthy life as well as to maintain their health at all levels depends on activating these four connections, in other words, establishing coordination and harmony among them and then maintaining this state. When one ignores one of the connections or some of them, or when the coordination between these connections is defective, troubles and illnesses at various levels emerge. Hence, the links that a healthy individual establishes may include those in civil society organizations, and through these further networked and reciprocal communications. Like our cells, which maintain their connection with their environment and neighboring cells via the “contact inhibition” mechanism so that we feel healthy, for people to become healthy at personal and societal level, individuals should actively join civil society organizations and service-centered communities that can enable activation of these four connections and ensure harmony and coordination among them. The Islamic scholar, Bediüzzaman Said Nursi paid special attention to connection in the letters he wrote to his students (the Kastamonu letters) and highlighted it as a point of progress that should be reached:

Since, in today’s world, saving people’s belief for the sake of God is a very important mission that is above everything; since quantity is not very significant compared to quality; since transient and changing political worlds are trivial compared to everlasting, constant, stable services in the name of God-they should not be even compared; they can never be objectives; therefore, we should be satisfied with valuable positions that are granted in the circle of Risale-i Nur. Instead of having extremely well-thoughts about other people or seeing them at high positions superfluously, we need to have extreme loyalty and steadfastness, and utmost connection and sincerity. We should have progress on these points.

Hamza Aydin has a PhD in bio-medicine. He is a freelance writer from Izmir, Turkey.

from the memoirs of an inventor that lived long, long ago

I especially love when the spider webs shine with the sunrise. The little water beads on them make an extraordinary scene in the early morning. Talking about spiders, how they make their webs is also another beauty. It still blows my mind that they can make such long arches despite their tiny bodies. With the colorful designs on their bodies, spiders are the manifestation of beauty that penetrates even into the smallest holes of the earth. As I am talking about spiders, I would like to tell you a lovely memory of mine about how my admiration of them led me to the discovery of my life.

At the time, there was not much to do other than hunting and picking leaves and fruit. I wanted to do something else. For example, the skins that animals had on them were so fitting, flexible, and nice. We used to take them to put on ourselves; but they did not fit us. They did not cover our bodies totally, and they were stinky. I had a desire to come up with a new way of covering our bodies. I used to sit by the spiders and reflect on this idea a lot while watching them make their webs.

Unfortunately, not everyone was appreciative of the spiders and my interest in them. Whenever my father caught me watching the spiders, he used to mock me and reprimand me for being lazy. He always told me that we needed to get going to hunt something edible, in order not to sleep with empty bellies. You can imagine what torture it was for me to hunt. Killing something of beauty is not beautiful… I knew we had to eat to survive. But maybe I was not the right person to do the killing part. I could cook, I could pick fruit…

One day, when I was watching a spider, I saw a cocoon hanging down from the tree. That was it! The cocoon’s cover was what I was looking for: a large spider web woven densely enough to cover us up. You should have seen me when the idea first came. I couldn’t help but smile so broadly. It had been a long time since I had smiled such a joyous smile. I started running and climbed the hills. To get some rest, I watched the valleys below. Then, once again I took off, and soared down from the hill running; my arms wide open like a bird’s wings.

When I came home, empty-handed to be sure, my mother was not happy at all. “If you don’t want your dad to ruin your night, go and find something before he comes,” she said. Fortunately, I knew some trees that were in fruit just then. I rushed to gather from them to make everybody happy.

Later that night, I had a very scary dream. I was running, and then I suddenly fell into a pit where there was a long snake. The snake started to wind itself around me so that I was totally covered. Then I saw that there was a scorpion in the pit, but it could not approach me because of the snake. Frightened, I woke up screaming. My parents came in to check on me. After a second’s silence, my father said, “I told you not to watch those spiders too much.”

Although I was not really bothered, my parents were getting more and more concerned about me. I was growing to the age of marriage, and they wanted me to have sound spiritual health. The next day, we went to the respected man of God in the village for him to interpret my dream and to get some advice. He said, “The snake in your dream did not harm you. So, it is to be hoped that God will bless you with a cover that is going to protect you from worldly and heavenly harms.” This interpretation was definitely unexpected both by me and by my parents.

Soon after that dream, I talked about my inspiration to my mother, and she told me something invaluable. She said that our great great-grandparents had had beautiful things to wear before they came to this world. When they were sent down here, their beautiful clothes were ripped off. Now that I was thinking about making beautiful garments, maybe this was a heavenly message. Mom wanted me to keep this secret.

I did keep my hopes and inspirations secret, but I did not stop working on them. I was finally inspired by another creature: birds. They made their nests by weaving plants and branches together. That observation brought me to the brim of the discovery of my life, but I was not aware of it at the time.

One day, mom wanted to have a private conversation with me. She said that now I was not a girl anymore but a young woman it was time that I united my life with someone else’s. She said that the guests that had come a few days earlier had come to talk about that issue. They asked my parents for me. At first, I was perplexed to hear all this. I wanted to have some time to prepare myself for the idea. Not long after, the preparations for the wedding were underway, and I was very willing because of the person asking for me.

My groom was the man of God that had interpreted my dream. To suit his status, I wanted to wear something special on the day of the wedding, something never seen before. The days were running by too fast, and bothered by my inability to come up with that special thing, I started spending more time with the spider webs by myself. Mom thought that a gloomy state had befallen on me due to my prospective wedding. She tried to reassure me, calm me, but that was not the case at all. As my state persisted, my parents’ worries grew too. They did not want any trouble in this wedding.

Then one day, I received the first gift for my wedding, before the wedding actually happened. I was inspired to weave the leaves and stems of plants to cover myself just like the winding of that snake in my dream and the cocoon of the spider. With the joy of this heavenly gift, I quickly finished making my garment. This discovery was certainly a heavenly beauty that was sent to celebrate my wedding. With the new garment on me, I was so beautiful, and with the man of my life, I was so happy.

Seth Mette has a PhD in Aerospace Engineering and is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow at West Virginia University. He has a special interest in psychological fiction.

Physicists study on the biggest and smallest physical measures, on the strongest and weakest forces, and they have calculated the ratio between some of them and attained results close to 1040 several times. For example, it has been proven that “strong nuclear force,” which keeps protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus together, is 1040 times stronger than the force of gravity. Although some consider this situation a result of coincidence, there are also some people who have shown the courage to question the accuracy of this result and open it to discussion. Since then, obtaining the same number several times has inevitably led to the belief that the number was determined and calculated before. This situation resembles the situation of a chess player who hears somebody telling him the opponent’s next move, or the situation of a composer who hears a melody from upstairs that perfectly fits his lyrics while he is trying to write the melody for his lyrics. Is it not amazing when somebody says what is going to be especially at a time when you least expect such a vision? Questions emerge: Have all actions and incidents in the universe and the values corresponding to them been determined in advance? Is there a certain logic behind the behavior of materials without intellect or consciousness?

Perhaps when Comte de Buffon (1707–1788) started to do research into probability calculations concerning falling matches and needles three centuries ago, he did not think that he would make such an astonishing discovery. According to his calculations, the probability of dropped needles hitting a pair of parallel lines that are drawn a certain distance apart is proportional to the number pi (π) (Figure 1–2). When the distance between the parallel lines are drawn the length of a match, this probability becomes exactly 2/π. This was a theoretical result that was calculated on paper, but trying it out would raise interesting results. In other words, when a certain number of tests were conducted, it could be expected that a number of matches equal to the number that was found through the theoretical calculations would hit the lines; and, indeed, that was what happened. In addition, mathematicians found another way to calculate pi by using this method since the ratio of the number of matches or needles that hits the lines to the total number of matches or needles should give a pi-proportioned number. In 1901, Mario Lazzarini threw one needle 3,408 times and, as a result, got the ratio 355/133 or 3.1415929; the difference between this value and the real value is only 0.0000003.

The experimental proof of this fact is not difficult. When the experiment, which has been conducted thousands of times up to today, was first tried by a group of mathematicians dropping 3,000 needles, the number of the needles that touched the lines was close to 1,900, which was the desired result, and the result was amazingly found to be proportionate to pi.

Although the real relation is like the equation given in Figure 3, when the length of the needles and the distance between the lines are equalized, the desired ratio becomes 2/π. What does this mean? Does the number pi, which was created with the universe and which we meet in different fields, play a role in showing the manifestation of the Majestic Will about where an object will fall-through having a result that can not be explained by coincidence? Is falling not an ordinary incident?

While this reality makes even falling an extraordinary incident, it opens a perspective on understanding the reality behind the verse: “…it was not you (O Messenger) who threw but God threw,” which was revealed about the Battle of Badr in the Qur’an. Actually, it is impossible even for a leaf to fall without the knowledge and the calculation of Our Lord, who is closer to us than our jugular vein.

Let us think about a group of creatures that lives with different physical laws in a different universe. Assume that they live on a flat, circular world (Figure 4) and their steps get longer when they come close to the center. For this kind of creature, the shortest distance between two points is not a straight line as it is for us (A–B). Since their steps get longer as they get closer to the center, they travel close to the center. Yet, since they make the way a little longer in this way, the shortest distance would be an oblique line that takes these two variables into account and that passes by partially approaching the center. So, what would we think if we saw these creatures walking in this way all the time? Or if we knew that the creatures acting in this way were inanimate beings? In these circumstances, we might wonder whether these beings are very intelligent or whether One who knows and sees everything, and is present in every place at every time, directs them.

For a soccer forward to find the best time to attack when he is facing the goal keeper or for a tennis player to choose the best timing and position to hit the ball requires a fine calculation. In tennis, the player sometimes approaches very close to the net to meet the ball. In this way, the player gains great advantage since, by his or her positioning, the player reduces the area into which the ball can fall to the minimum, and increases his or her own chances of returning the ball (Figure 5). Nevertheless, since the ball reaches the player faster and harder, there is also a raised probability of the player’s failing to return the ball. Therefore, advancing right up to the net may not always be advantageous. Thus, the best position for the player may lie at any point between the net and the baseline when area and speed variables are considered. Similarly, the most advantageous point for the goal keeper lies between the attacking forward and the goal line, at a point which depends upon the variables of the speed of the ball and the area.

Naturally, we do not find tennis and soccer players’ positionings as described above strange since we expect them, as reasonable people, to play in this way. Yet, how would we interpret and explain it if we saw inanimate things acting in the same way? There is a phenomenon that applies this logic consciously but itself does not have consciousness. A phenomenon that astonishes people: light.

Let us think of a rectangular racetrack with points A, B, C, D. While the shortest distance for a horse that will run from one end of this racetrack to the other is the AC diagonal when the ground is homogenous, there will be a reroute if the ground is not homogenous. Assume the length of the racetrack is 80 meters and its width is 60 meters. Half of it is grass and the other half is sand (Figure 6). Also, assume the horse’s speed on the sand is half of its speed on the grass (it runs 10 meters in 1 unit of time on the grass). Under these circumstances, the horse will run the AC diagonal in 15 units of time while it will run AEC route in 14.5 units of time. The ABC route is much longer. Thus, any route which passes between these two routes will be shorter than these two. The point O, which the shortest route (AOC) passes, will be between the points M and E. When we look carefully, we understand that this is the route light follows as it enters environments of different densities; for example, the route it follows when passing from air to water (see a spoon’s broken image in a water-filled glass). As you see, light finds that specific mysterious point and follows that particular path. In other words, while entering different environments of varying densities, it finds the shortest way and follows it in an amazing way.

All these detailed calculations and functioning with great wisdom show that even inanimate beings and atoms are in the hands of a Majestic Will.

Every atom contains two truthful testimonies to the Necessarily Existent Being’s Existence and Unity. Despite being powerless and insentient, it bears decisive witness to the Necessarily Existent Being’s Existence by carrying out important duties and functions as though it were conscious. It also testifies to the Unity of the same Being, Who owns all material and immaterial dominions, by conforming to the universal order in general, and to the rules of each place it enters in particular. It settles in every place as if it were its homeland. All of this shows that the One Who owns the atom owns all the places it enters. By carrying out very heavy duties incompatible with its size and weakness, the atom shows that it acts at the command and in the name of One with absolute power. (The Thirtieth Word, Second Point, Risale-i Nur Collection)

Notes

1. See Al-Anfal 8:17.
2. “… And He knows whatever is on land and in the sea; and not a leaf falls but He knows it” (Al-An’am 6:59).

As I gave my ears to the speakers, my mind took me all the way back to 1966. I realized that throughout the years I had witnessed many different developments without understanding what they really meant. A historical incident came to my mind: following the discovery of electricity, an exhibition was set up to present it to the public. At the exhibition, a guest asked Benjamin Franklin, “What is this new energy good for?” He replied with a question: “What is a newborn child good for?” It was obvious that human beings could not appreciate innovation very quickly. Yet, today we realize the importance and potential of this wonderful energy source.

Similarly, I had no idea that meeting Fethullah Gulen forty-three years ago would be the turning point of my life. He was a unique teacher who constantly astonished us with his extraordinary ideas. He was a person who did not limit his ideals to suggestions but acted upon them; hence, he was practicing what he taught. Gradually, I realized that his teachings, manners and unique behavior were no different to the teachings of the Holy Qur’an and the Messenger of God. In actual fact it seemed as they were a carbon copy of the Qur’anic doctrines.

Although we were aware of such Prophetic traditions as fasting on Mondays and Thursdays and also staying vigil at night, we had never witnessed anyone practicing these until we met Gulen. He would observe this Prophetic fast even in the tremendous heat of the summer in Izmir. Inspired by his total commitment to Prophetic tradition, we would hand him a list of the names of those of us who also wished to practice their faith as he did. Like an affectionate father, he would wake us up in the night so that we could perform the voluntary prayers (tahajjud) and join him at Suhoor (the pre-dawn meal to sustain us through the all-day fast). It was not easy to control the carnal self but the self-discipline and the feeling of tranquility that originated from this Prophetic tradition made it a unique experience.

During our stay at the boarding facility in Izmir, we also received additional lessons in our dorms. We were supported with supplementary classes which helped our education at local state schools. Our teachers were also experts on Islamic studies. They would work additional hours to help us with our studies, and even during lunch they would sit with us in the canteen to eat. Of course, they were all paid something for their efforts. However, Gulen was different. Salary meant nothing to him because he would spend most of it on students who were so poor that they did not even have pocket money. He refused to take any money for the additional work he did. There were times when he had given ten lessons in a day and then he took on the duty of staying at the dorm throughout the night. We were shocked to find out that he even paid for the food, electricity and water during his stay there. Talking about the notion of self-sacrifice is one thing, but witnessing it with your own eyes was an extraordinary experience which planted many new seeds in our souls.

We were amazed by the way he explained incidents that had occurred over one thousand four hundred years ago. He would explain stories about the Companions of the noble Prophet as if he had been among them at that very moment. His sermons were all about the practical interpretation of the Holy Qur’an. Everything we experienced felt like an original event. It was as if we were hearing the revelations from the Holy Qur’an for the first time in our lives. He was encouraging us to follow the example of the Prophet and his beloved Companions, and we were making the effort to do so. With every effort we made, a new door opened before us. It was as if we were entering into an entirely different realm as we tried to emulate the actions of the Companions. Eventually, there was no room for indolence or lassitude in our lives. As the famous Sufi poet Yunus Emre said, we enjoyed the gratification of being reborn with each new day.

Then came the day when we were encouraged to engage in educational activities that would benefit the whole of humanity. In all of us there was a unique sense that persuaded us to open a new era in the field of education. People who observed our dedication from outside were fascinated by our enthusiasm. One after another they came running to lend a helping hand. Students, teachers, merchants, shop owners and businessmen were all united in the goal of establishing educational facilities. Before long, private schools were established all over Turkey, followed by hundreds of schools all over the world. At the same time we started publishing educational materials, beginning with a bulletin titled Zuhur (Emergence). Eventually, this led to the establishment of magazines, journals, newspapers, radio and TV stations. These efforts, encouraged by Gulen, became so popular that a new horizon had opened before us of a global dialogue between cultures and faiths.

As dedicated volunteers of education and dialogue carried the welcoming smile of Anatolia around the globe, many sincere souls were attracted by its warmth. They began to visit Turkey, the home country of these self-sacrificing educators. Their visits were not like those of tourists. They had come to observe and understand the source of the enormous sincerity and the unique hospitality of the Anatolian people. On returning to their homelands, they explained what they had witnessed. You could see the excitement on their faces even after many months had gone by since their visit. This was another fruit of global dialogue.

As the conference continued at the Catholic University in Melbourne, my memories confirmed the significance of the work that had begun in Izmir many years before. Speakers constantly emphasized the praiseworthy efforts of these extraordinary educators and champions of dialogue. Silently, I said to myself, “What a great distance has been covered.”

One of the speakers was Orhan Cicek, Executive Advisor of the Australian Intercultural Society. He stressed that this conference was a great opportunity to strengthen Muslim–Christian relations. He said that this event, in which prominent academics from Australia and overseas were explaining their views and suggestions in relation to the vision of Gulen, was also paving the way to strengthen the multicultural structure and harmony of Australian society. He concluded with a wish that the event would become an important step towards cooperation that would attend to the common problems of humanity.

It was a wonderful event that gathered academics from Australia, Turkey, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria and Indonesia. The conference dealt with the different aspects of the Gulen Movement and its practical approach to intercultural and interfaith dialogue.

During my visit to Australia, I also had the pleasure of meeting Barney Zwartz, a renown columnist from one of Australia’s biggest newspapers. In our conversation, he asked me about the future of this education and dialogue movement. He wondered how far it would go. I explained that we wished to reach every human being in the world and become true friends with them. He smiled and asked if such a dream was possible. I replied with an analogy. I said there is a story about an ant that decided to make the holy pilgrimage to Mecca. When they asked him, “How do you plan to reach Mecca with those tiny feet of yours?” the ant answered, “I am aware of the fact that I will never get there, but the least I can do is to die on the way.” On hearing this, Barney asked me, “Can I be your baggage?”

Abdullah Aymaz is an author of numerous books in Turkish. He is also a columnist at Zaman, a leading newspaper in Turkey.

Note

1. On 21 July 2009, Barney Zwartz article analyzing the Gulen movement appeared in The Age newspaper.

Rwanda is a country that has passed through a disastrous conflict and genocide with devastating effects. But the lessons learned in the aftermath of the genocide have changed the country forever.

Rwanda, a small country located in central Africa, has been home to nine million people from two tribes known as the Hutu and the Tutsi which have lived side by side in peace for centuries. There was no known ethnic conflict or major conflict between Hutus and Tutsis until the last fifty years. Rwanda was first colonized by Germany in 1899. Belgium took control of the country in 1919. In 1961, Rwanda’s monarchical government was removed by a referendum and the first parliamentary elections were held but at the expense of a number of massacres. In the following year, the country gained its independence.

Although the country became independent in 1962, the effects of colonialism lingered until recently. An example of this is the ethnic division between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. During the colonial period, the Belgian colonizers and the Church significantly favored the Tutsis over the Hutus. The colonizers had followed a divide and rule strategy and used the Tutsis in power instead of controlling the country directly; this widened ethnic differences. The colonizers had made membership of the Tutsi tribe a means of getting better education or obtaining a government or administrative position. Since both tribes speak the same language and have the same skin color, it was virtually impossible to tell them apart, so the colonizers had issued ethnic identity cards based on the measurement of people’s nose length. Until World War II, the Tutsis were masters of the country with a proven long record. However, the strategies of outsiders including the Church had changed in the mid-twentieth century so that Hutus gained more access to positions of power. In the 1950s, the Hutus took power and controlled the country. Considerable numbers of Tutsis were exiled to neighboring countries on many occasions. Until the 1990s, Hutu power was largely unchallenged in Rwanda. However, Tutsi exiles were organizing in neighboring countries and this was perceived as a grave threat to Hutu rule. Political conflict over the control of power and resources resulted in an exponential increase in ethnic violence. The Hutu government conceived Tutsi empowerment as a threat to their own interests and launched a media campaign calling for genocide. After a chain of events, including the death of the Rwandan president in a plane crash, a terrifying genocide commenced. For a while, Hutu people were strongly encouraged to kill their Tutsi neighbors, and those who did so were rewarded for their actions.

As a result, the genocide exploded quickly between April and June 1994. The world did not attempt to prevent the massacres. Men and women, children and the elderly, all were identified by their ethnicity and executed wherever they were found. Hatred was at its peak so that even relatives turned against each other. While a Hutu husband was among the survivors, his Tutsi wife was killed, and their children were kept alive as they were seen as sharing their father’s Hutu ethnicity. More than 800,000 people (Tutsis and moderate Hutus), according to official records, were massacred by the army and the extremists.

At last, without any international help, the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), a Tutsi-led rebel movement, overthrew the regime in June 1994 and the genocide was stopped. The country has been at peace ever since; however, Rwandans continue to struggle with the legacy of genocide.

After the Rwandan Genocide, one of the biggest challenges for the new RPF government was handling the detention and prosecution of more than 100,000 people who were accused of genocide-related crimes. Pointing to the seriousness of the situation one of the RPF government ministers said, “When we captured Kigali, we thought we would face criminals in the state; instead, we faced a criminal population.” The genocide orders were given by executives of the state but the crimes were carried out by hundreds of thousands of ordinary people. The pink uniform of prisoners is well known in Rwanda today since the transfer of prisoners from one place in the country to another is common. By 2000, approximately 120,000 people accused of genocidal acts were being held in the prisons, which were populated far beyond their capacity. In ten years, the courts have only managed to prosecute about 10,000 suspects. In other words, it would require at least another 110 years to prosecute all prisoners accused of genocide-related crimes. Although almost half of the prisoners have been released to ease the system at various times, the courts still need to work faster.

To overcome the backlog in the legal system the Rwandan government introduced the Gacaca (pronounced “gachacha”) courts, a community justice system inspired by traditional procedures for cultural communal law enforcement. Gacaca means “justice on the grass” and the court is launched in an open grassy area or village green, near the main street. The main advantages of these courts are the ease of assembling the court in public, and the way they provide the opportunity for everyone to exercise their right to speak through an interactive court. Gacaca is the latest means used by the Rwandan government to realize truth, justice, and more importantly the reconciliation and healing of the community much sooner than would otherwise have been possible. Rwandans have welcomed the Gacaca. One man who lost his brother in his twenties and another who abandoned his wife since she belonged to the so-called hostile tribe have found the Gacaca court in their local area a valuable place to express their feelings and seek justice in the shadow of ineradicable memories. Yet other people, who participated in the genocide, have found the opportunity and encouragement to admit their wrong-doing and relieve the pain of their remorse.

Gacaca has its pros and cons, which I will not go into here; however, the genocide carries important lessons both for Rwanda and the world. It showed how lack of tolerance and understanding of negligible differences can indeed turn into cruelty and brutality, resulting in one of the biggest genocides in history. Rwandans, who were previously divided as Hutus and Tutsis, now do not even pronounce the words Hutu and Tutsi in public in their daily life. Rwanda today exemplifies a good example of living together with differences despite the fact that those differences were recently the cause of a tragic conflict.

Indeed the Rwandan people, who once killed each other without mercy, can tolerate with no discomfort a diversity that in other nations is a great source of potential conflict, an area of interaction that other countries have been struggling with for a long time. Rwandans welcome all religious traditions in their cultural richness. Saturdays and Sundays are like a festival time; Christians all dress in their best clothes and walk to church. (Many Christians observe and practice Saturday Sabbath in Rwanda.) Although Muslims are in a minority, the adhan (call to prayer) is recited from mosque loudspeakers; the shifting Islamic holidays are accepted as national holidays. If religious differences were a cause of fighting, then Rwanda would still be one of the most problematic countries in the world today. In contrast, Rwanda is a good example of how the establishment of accountability combined with tolerance and understanding can help to transform and strengthen a country even when it has fresh memories of one of the biggest genocides in history.

Mehmet Sen is an engineer in San Francisco Bay Area. He visited Rwanda many times for business purposes.

References

• Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda, Princeton University Press, 2001.
• Reyntjens, Filip and Stef Vandeginste. 2005. “Rwanda: An Atypical Transition.” In Roads to Reconciliation, edited by Elin Skaar, et al. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
• Stover, Eric and Weinstein, Harvey (2004). My Neighbor, My Enemy: Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Susanne Buckley-Zistel (2006): “The Truth Heals?” In Gacaca Jurisdictions and the Consolidation of Peace in Rwanda. Die Friedens-Warte Heft 1–2, pp. 113–130.

For many, math is the most difficult class. Is it because of our own laziness, or is much math too abstract to comprehend? Ali Unver says, “educators who see the beauty at the center of mathematics and can make their students see it that way, are more likely to be able to get their students’ attention and teach them more effectively.” He explains in “Mathematics and the Universe” that mathematics is not only for keeping track of our checkbooks.

Mary and Jesus, peace be upon them, are the subject of a considerable amount of Islamic literature. Ahmet Cetinkaya contributes with a thesis on the question of whether Jesus had any brothers and sisters. Drawing on sources of Islamic tradition and the Bible, Cetinkaya lays out interesting information on the topic, which is also a matter of debate between some Christian denominations.

“Romania – Dar-ul Sulk” discusses how historical truths are sometimes forsaken for the sake of political interests. Victor Nitelea presents an exemplary account of the mutually beneficial centuries-long relationship between the Ottomans and Romania and how the positive image of Turks as a tolerant society was replaced by an image of barbarians. This account also explains how the school curriculum can be manipulated according to political trends at the expense of causing intolerance and conflict between East and West.

“Can I Be Your Baggage?” Barney Zwartz, a journalist from Melbourne asks Abdullah Aymaz, who spoke about the emergence of the Gulen Movement in an international conference organized by the Australian Catholic University back in July. Whose baggage did he want to be? Zwartz was referring to the educational movement started in the 1960s among a small circle of young people like Mr. Aymaz who were inspired by Fethullah Gulen. In this issue, Aymaz shares with us his observations of the conference with some flashbacks to his first encounters with Mr. Gulen and how the movement started to take shape.

Two mechanisms of the mind

According to science, everything is bound to a cause. Without understanding a single cause or a set of causes, one cannot reach the knowledge of existence. Modern science, which does not accept the metaphysical dimension of being, does not seek wisdom in the creation; rather, it only searches for a cause–effect mechanism that is based on self-interest. For modern thought, all individuals are the lords of their selves and they interpret life according to their own reasoning.

In reality, however, the mind works in two ways: it is either a toy in hands of the nafs (the evil-commanding self) or it functions as a department of the heart. Thus, one can either think with one’s evil-commanding self or with one’s heart. In the former case, since everybody thinks according to their wishes, there is no doubt that an environment of chaos will emerge in social life. Modern philosophy, however, relying upon a wrong perspective, generalizes this idea to the entire existence and imagines the universe as an environment of chaos. For this reason, Frederic Nietzsche argued that the good is to acquire power, and he divided people into two groups, the aristocrats (or powerful) and the ordinary. In this view, those who are materially deprived seek to escape material realities and try to find a source of empowerment somewhere else in order to satisfy them. Hence, searching for metaphysical truth has its roots in lack of power. In reality, however, is impotence a result of non-recognition of religion, or is it a reason to search for metaphysical truth or religion?

The impotence of human beings

Indeed, human beings, who are in the best form among all living creatures, do not own themselves. To give an analogy, consider that a soldier has some money. If the money is granted to the soldier to be employed in the service of the government, he can only use it in certain ways. In other words, the soldier does not have absolute ownership of the money. Similarly, human beings do not absolutely own themselves or their bodies since they cannot always use their bodies as they wish. Sometimes, they become sick; they even cannot raise an arm when they want to. The very fact that they die against their wishes shows that they do not have absolute ownership of themselves or their bodies.

Human beings, if they do not lose their mind and awareness, see the world as a place of mourning since they feel pity at the sorrows of others. However, in the eyes of modern man, who assigns every self (nafs) absolute ownership, this world is a place where brute force triumphs because, as Sartre asserted, humans are left to themselves as they do not know what they should do. According to this view, what is heard everywhere is the voices of tyrants and the mourning of the oppressed. The contradictions of this modern view, which overlooks religion, have loaded humans’ hearts and souls with burdens of grief and have granted them impotence. Here, what I mean by “impotence” is that condition of spiritual weakness of the one who learns the outside world while having no point of reliance within the self.

The understanding that “conflict is always essential in the world” is based on a totally wrong perspective as well. The help and assistance of the sun and the moon to plants and animals; animals (and plants) being put at the service of humans; food materials being found in nurturing fruits; atomic sustenance nourishing body cells are some examples that show how helping one another is an obvious truth in the world. This fact is so critical that even an absence of one cause in the universe could lead to enormous negative consequences. For instance, let us imagine nitrate bacteria were to be absent in the circulation of nitrogen. In that case, plants would not be able to use nitrogen, their metabolisms would be greatly weakened, photosynthesis would stop, oxygen in the air would decrease as carbon dioxide increased, and the earth would turn into a place which would not support human life. Likewise, small or big, all kinds of balances in the universe indicate a law of reciprocal help and assistance.

The place and nature of causes

Additionally, assigning all events to certain results and regarding causes as the absolute power in the universe is a result of modern philosophy’s being deprived of transcendental truth. Bediüzzaman Said Nursi summarized the influence of causes thus: “For physical causes only gather and join together. It is confirmed by people of reason that they cannot create out of nothing what is not present in them.” When an ordinary result is looked at, a deep consciousness, a transcendental knowledge and supremacy and similar attributes are seen. Causes do not own these attributes and therefore cannot be the real architect of the result. Besides, every cause is contingent (al-mumkinat, plural of mumkin, or “possible”), its presence and absence has equal consequences. Therefore, every cause depends on another cause, which depends on a further third cause, in the same way as the feet of chairs lean against one another for support. At the end, however, for this chain to stand, there is still a need for One who is not contingent, whose presence is essential and of Himself (Wajib al-Wujud), and who is the Causer of causes (Musabbib al-Asbab). If human beings, who can be considered as the most developed cause, cannot create the tiniest thing from nothing, then no other cause can possibly be the real architect.

Thus, a human being who thinks according to modern science of trying to get knowledge of the physical world through pure reason and experimental method will assign everything (from the smallest sphere to the largest one) to causes. Since the “modern” scientist regards the perfect balances that he or she discovers, from those in one small cell to those in the universe as a whole as a gift of causes, he or she thinks that any cause can also destroy the perfect stability; for destruction is much easier than construction. Therefore, modern scientists load an enormous burden on their backs. All the discoveries that they make and everything they assign to causes in the path of science will soon become a source of fear for them. Now, knowledge grants them impotence. Under the pressure of this subjection, they seek a source of empowerment. It might sometimes be their own self (or ego), sometimes technology, and at other times nature.

As can be seen, contrary to the arguments of the mechanical worldview that separates metaphysics from physics and regards causes as sources of everything; and as opposed to the “modern” understanding that assigns absolute authority to every self, assumes chaos in the world, and considers force the only way to win a conflict; turning to belief is not because of impotence. On the contrary, it is one’s not turning to belief that results in impotence and helplessness.

Note

1. Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, Asa-yı Musa (“The Staff of Moses”), Istanbul: Yeni Asya Yayıncılık, 2005, p. 273.