Every day, millions of people log on to online environments, seeking a second life in virtual worlds. It is noticeable that the average user is 26 years old, and spends 22 hours per week in his/her alternative lives [1]. After such dedicated players spend this much time in these worlds, not much is left for their offline activities. They literally live “in” these virtual worlds. What leads them to prefer a virtual life over a real one? Is something missing from the daily life? Why are people not happy or satisfied with what they have? Are they asking for more or looking for something they don’t have?

In Second Life, users can create a new character for themselves, a lifestyle, an environment or anything else they might imagine. Second Life, with about 17 million users, has its own economy and currency (Linden). Residents are able to buy and sell amongst themselves directly using Linden, which is also exchangeable for US dollars. Second Life’s GDP (2007) is estimated between $500 million and $600 million [2], which is larger than the GDP of 19 countries in the world. In October, 2008 users spent approximately $30 million. Although Second Life does not have a government, many countries have embassies in Second Life. The online world even has an in-world newspaper.

Many forms of sports activities have also appeared in Second Life. Residents can watch or participate in football, soccer, boxing, wrestling, and auto racing. Virtual art centers and museums allow artists to create and exhibit their works in a way which might not be possible in real life because of physical constraints or high costs. Streaming vocal and instrumental music or inworld instruments allow performances of live music. Live theater is also available in Second Life. The British act Redzone toured for their new album on Second Life (2007).

There are several studies [3] discussing how these online worlds could be used for educational purposes. There are regions in the virtual world of Second Life for educational purposes, and a variety of topics are covered. Virtual worlds are favored because they are thought to provide more engaging experiences than traditional online learning. Virtual worlds can provide an interactive imitation of real life classroom environments. 80 percent of British universities have teaching and learning activities in Second Life. More than 300 universities around the world are taking advantage of the platform to provide educational services at lower costs.

Good and evil exist in Second Life, so religion is also finding its way into this world. Many religious organizations have opened churches, cathedrals and meeting places in Second Life. People are more willing to explore and discuss spiritual things in a virtual world [4]. Second Life also has a place to perform the Hajj ritual, providing a virtual experience before making the actual pilgrimage in person. However, some residents find the idea of virtual worship odd. They prefer spending their time flying, shopping, or engaging in other activities.

Are all these activities making users happier or just helping them to forget their real life? The more users spend time in these worlds, the more they became addicted to their new lifestyle, becoming alienated from the events and responsibilities of real life.

Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish scholar, addresses this question in one of his latest articles [5] as follows: “In spite of the dizzying developments brought by science, the new opportunities offered by technology, and so many means promising us welfare and happiness, the people of our time do not seem very happy. On the contrary, they are overcome by unease and depression more than ever. Although it should not be expected to be any other way, mere worldly opportunities, which are not supported by personal relationships to faith or knowledge of God, are not deepened or given meaning, and obviously do not mean much.”

Despite the large number of educational and social features available in virtual worlds, the main motivation that leads players to games like Second Life seems to be a lack of satisfaction with their real lives. People are either not happy with their work, lifestyle or social environment, or they are seeking a second chance in life, a fresh start. These worlds approximate real life ever more closely with each new technological development. It remains to be seen how virtual worlds will affect real human relationships. One day people may not realize the difference between real and virtual worlds. Is Second Life simply taking over real life?

Gulen makes a similar connection between technological developments and the afterlife: “Even though it would not be correct to speculate today on the days to come, people who predict the future claim that the world will become so attractive for the people of physicality and carnal pleasures that it will make them forget Paradise. With a feeling and passion that gives priority to immediate pleasures and delights, they will say like Omar Khayyam, ‘The past and future are all but tales; enjoy yourself now, do not spoil your life.’ Thus, they will see life as only eating, drinking, and resting, constantly making their choices in favor of worldly ease and comfort.” The belief that on a particular day all humans will be held accountable before God for their actions in this life helps to support and protect the social dynamics of society. Success in the afterlife depends on remembering that one day we will be held responsible for every single deed of our earthly life.

Social dynamics and problems related to online gaming have been discussed widely in academic arenas. The large amount of time, money and resources spent on these games, as well as the associated social and behavioral problems, and loss of productivity are only some of the issues that come to mind. Scholarly articles on ethical issues of life in virtual worlds [6] have increased lately, and many topics are broached, including matters of privacy, monitoring and eavesdropping, the fear of exploitation, identity theft, the ethical impact of aesthetic decisions, values and ethics that are manifested in the social processes and their relevance to activities, professional ethics, standards of integrity, given identity issues and practices, malevolence and altruism, legal and ethical doctrines of confidential and privileged information, ethics for students and instructors, ethical development stages and issues, vandalism, harassment and crime.

Are we living our lives to the fullest? Everyone has the opportunity to choose how they live in this world. If this time is not well spent, that is, acting as if there is no responsibility or judgment for every action, what would be the difference between people living in this world as if it is a game, and those playing their lives away in these online worlds? The Holy Qur’an says: “This life of the world is but a pastime and a game, but the home of the Hereafter, that is Life if they but knew” [7]. Some people prefer their online lives to real life, and unfortunately many others are not aware that their actions evince their preference for the real life over the afterlife.

The movie Matrix has a similar story. The Matrix is a virtual world for people whose bodies are connected to the Machines, which use the bioelectricity and thermal energy of humans as their energy supply. Humans live out their lives in this virtual reality that resembles the 21st century without knowing that they are in a simulation. In the movie, a group of free humans attempts to rescue (unplug) others from the Matrix. The main challenge here is to make others believe that there is another life which is more real or important than the one they are living. In fact, as human beings we are all confronted with the same challenge. Either we gain an understanding of the meaning of our existence in the world and live accordingly, or we are enslaved by worldly ease and comfort, immediate pleasures and delights.

I would like to end with a point the Gulen made on happiness: “It seems that until human beings come to realize their essence, it will not be possible for them to put their affairs in order or to attain the happiness they long for. And this is particularly so if they are trying to suppress their spiritual appetite through luxury, comfort, and seeking to satisfy their physical pleasures because they are unable to realize their real problems.”

Acknowledgment: This article has been produced at MERGEOUS [8], an online article and project development service for authors and publishers dedicated to the advancement of technologies in the merging realm of science and religion.

Halil I. Demir is postdoctoral scholar in the area of Informatics, and lives in Iowa.

References

[1] Yee, N. “The demographics, motivations, and derived experiences of users of massively-multiuser online graphical environments.” Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 15:309–329.

[2] Wikipedia, Linden Dolar, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linden_dollar

[3] Delwiche, A. (2006). “Massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) in the new media classroom.” Educational Technology & Society, 9 (3), 160-172.

[4] Anselmo, D., 08/01/2007, “A ‘Second’ Way to Save Souls” (churchsolutionsmag.com).

[5] Gulen, M. Fethullah, “Days of Depression and Our Atlas of Hope,” The Fountain Magazine, Issue 67, 2009.

[6] Emerging Ethical Issues of Life in Virtual Worlds, Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, NC, June 15, 2009.

[7] The Holy Quran (29:64).

[8] Mergeous, http://www.mergeous.com

Dear Peter, in your body, which is built like a well-functioning factory, I am the most essential sanitary device. As the heart pumps blood to take food and oxygen to all your organs, you obtain the energy you need. But do you ever think about the disposal after so splendid activities are carried out in your body? If you burn a stove, you need to dispose of the smoke and the ashes if you want to keep it working. Likewise, as you burn your calorie intake, you dispose of the smoke (carbon dioxide) with your lungs and the waste with nitrate-poisonous after a certain level of intensity-thanks to my quietly and perfectly working filters. That is, I am an organ which saves your life by removing the poisonous substances in your blood. I do not only filter your blood, but also play a role at controlling the balances of the sensitive levels of water, sugar, amino acids and different minerals in your body. In short, I am a tiny but strategic laboratory.

The acid-base balance in your body and the amount of water and different salts are significant values which concern all of your bodily activities. When their balance is upset, different troubles arise in different units of your bodily mechanism. I am such a blessing, which works so sensitively to adjust the levels of water and mineral salts in your body while you don’t even realize it.

A watery environment is needed for the thousands of biochemical activities taking place in your body. In addition, activities like the contracting of the muscles and transmission of electrical stimuli between your neurons are realized with the presence of a pinch of mineral salt you don’t even give a thought about. Sometimes you sweat due to running or hot weather. The white stains on your shirt are the salts you lose after the water evaporates. When you suffer from diarrhea, you lose salt again, for the salt in the nutrients are thrown out without being absorbed. Especially when little children are concerned, this loss is of vital importance. The transfer between the blood and the liquid in the tissues is mainly realized through the concentration differences which are kept in a certain balance. If your body holds too much water, your tissues swell. You particularly feel it when you press your finger over the flesh near your shins.

Dear Peter, I will not list all of my duties in detail in order not to confuse you. However, let me tell you one more. Since not everyone knows this duty of mine, they just see me as an organ of liquid disposal. But I also take part in controlling the blood production! Surprised? Well, I also have the duty of secreting the hormone which stimulates blood production in the bones. I must always stay alert and maintain this balance in the best way; if you start losing blood, for instance, I must increase the hormone and accelerate blood production.

Yes Peter, I’ve told you about a few of my basic duties, but haven’t told you about how wonderfully designed I am. I am a bean-shaped organ and a single kidney like me weighs 130-160 grams on average. We are approximately 10 grams lighter in female bodies. I am surrounded by a soft but protective membrane. I need 35 grams of daily oxygen supply to survive and I use 13 % of your total body energy.

As an army is made up of individual soldiers, I am like a complex army, and a single soldier of mine is called a “nephron,” which does the real job. Thus, you can see me as a body of nephrons. Millions of these nephrons are brought together to make up one kidney.

A single nephron is a thin tubular structure with closed ends, and its length is about 3-4 cm. So the total length of my nephrons is about 50 km. The cup-like sac at the beginning of a nephron is named the “Bowman’s capsule.” The main artery bringing blood to the kidneys branch into smaller units, and one road leads to every nephron. The knot of capillaries (glomerulus) inside this double-walled capsule is more complicated than any road map you might have seen. The total length of the capillaries is nearly 25 km. The unwelcome substances in the blood are passed to the capsule thanks to blood pressure, and they proceed through the tubule. The total surface area of my tubules is about 20 m2. Within five minutes the whole of your blood passes through us. That is to say, an average of 1.2 liters of blood per minute, and 1800 liters a day are filtered by my nephrons, leaving the toxic substances in me. As this amount of blood (nearly 400 times the normal amount in your body) pass through my tubules and return to the veins they leave behind an average of 180 liters of liquid in me. In this case, you could be supposed to throw out 180 liters of urine a day. However, if you really did that, you would neither be able to find a sufficient supply of water nor salt. Fortunately, Providence granted you the mechanism to absorb back nearly 178.5 liters of this filtered substance. This way, the thickened urine throws out the toxic nitrogen-containing byproducts together with a little amount of water. Therefore, I give you back the substances you need with an amount of 1.5 liters of liquid disposal a day. This reabsorbing is realized in what you call the Henle loop. The cells in the walls of my tubules have neither intellect, nor consciousness, nor any knowledge of physiology; in spite of this, they work as if they were perfectly aware of their duty to adjust the amounts and types the substances to be kept or released. To give you an idea, you can think about the huge dialysis machines your engineers design to fulfill the job my tiny tubules do. You decide which one of us is the perfect work of engineering.

A rich network of veins surround the Heinle loop and the reabsorbed substances are released into the bloodstream. The drops to be disposed of are collected and then passed to your bladder. When the liquid in your bladder amounts to a certain value it tightens the bladder walls. The muscles blocking the way out give way and the urine is disposed of. However, know that the bladder has the capacity to expand as large as 1.5 liters when you cannot find the proper time and place.

Peter, most people take for granted the blessings they enjoy. If you visit the nephrology service in a hospital and talk to the patients waiting to be dialyzed, you understand what I mean better. Do not forget that many people who suffer from kidney failure need that huge machine to filter the whole of their blood and they pray for a kidney suitable for transplantation to be found at once.

Incidentally, thinking of chronic kidney failure recalled various reasons which ruin me: long lasting infections, long-term use of certain medicine, different chemicals like ethylene and mercury, heavy loss of blood, high blood pressure, serious burns, and wrong blood transfers etc. In such cases I can receive irreparable damage.

Another issue which troubles me is the formation of kidney stones. The stones which form owing to failures in different metabolic processes really hurt. When excessive decrease of liquids or increases of salts in the body upset my sensitive balance, some dissolved substances remain, begin to collect, and form stones. These stones hinder urine flow and might cause infections. You may drink water abundantly to prevent these stones. Most importantly do not wait too much before going to the toilet. If you excuse me, I also strongly recommend you to urinate in sitting position; this helps emptying your bladder completely and reduces the risk of kidney stones.

I do my job properly until I lose 90 % of my working capacity. When a considerable part of me loses its capacity, the remaining good part boosts its activity to make up for the loss. When one of our twins are taken out with an operation, the other one does not complain at all; it grows a bit bigger and keeps working.

As the nature of honey depends on the nectars bees collect, the ingredients of the urine I produce depend on what’s in your body. Therefore, a urine analysis tells much in the case of illness. For example, I normally do not release valuable substances like glucose and protein in your blood into the urine, but return them to the bloodstream. As my friends cannot fulfill this function in diabetic patients, their urine analyses reveal glucose. As for medicines, I throw them out right away since they are alien substances to me.

Peter! You are young and healthy but be careful and do not get cold around the waist, otherwise I might trouble you. There’s a lot to tell you Peter, but I do not want to confuse you. Like any other organ, I do not like being taken for granted and I just wish for you to appreciate what a blessing I am. Let me note that my perfect cooperation with the rest of your body is another wonder in itself. Anyway, the urea in your blood is increasing, so I must go help my twin now. Goodbye Peter!

Irfan Yilmaz is a professor of biology at Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir.

(continued from the previous issue)

Using the distinct groves and folds on the hemispheres as a guideline, a map drawn on the cortex identifies focal points, where the various senses are concentrated, and activities in particular regions. Each of these different colored schematic centers has a specific name and performs specific functions. For example, the region above the neck at the back of the head (occipital lobe) is the field of sight; the sections that coincide with the temporal region is the field of hearing; immediately in front of this, on the left, is (generally) the field of speech; in the forehead region (frontal lobe), on the anterior wall of the middle canal is the initial center of planning of movement; on the top section of the front region is the field of complex movement; immediately behind here, in the middle-side region, is the field of simple movement; the area behind this, next to the hearing field and extending upwards, is defined as the touch receptive field. However, these areas are not confined, but rather spread out, and have a very complex connection network. The duty of the adjoining areas of these regions is to display and decipher the meaning of the signals received from the nerves. As the received signals regenerate past experiences and memories, the object or event sending the signal is recognized. To perform voluntary complex movements, the plan of movement must initially be defined in the mind and then the combination of this plan is conveyed through my nerve fibers to the movement regions. As complicated activities in humans, such as talking, and activities that involve the sensory integration mechanisms are miracles in themselves, it is quite astonishing that certain people claim that humans evolved from apes, later learning how to speak. The spinal cord (medulla spinalis) that extends from the skull in the form of a long cord, is the central nervous system sending signals to the body regions under the neck. The grey matter of the brain is located on the surface, while the white matter lies beneath the cortex; however with the spine, the butterfly shaped grey matter is inside, and the white matter on the surface covers the grey matter. In this central nervous system, all of the sensual messages that are received from the entire peripheral system, in particular from your skin and muscle, are immediately connected with the synapses or connections of the movement cells, and thus a spinal reflex is produced. As a section of the connecting cells (synapses) responds with a reflex, the other section transmits the signal to me to determine the appropriate voluntary response. For instance, if you tread on a nail, as the nail goes into the foot, a signal is transmitted by the sensor fibers to the spine, and to avoid a loss of time, the spine immediately signals the movement nerves before me, and a command is transmitted to your muscle you to raise your foot. And after your foot is saved by instant reflex, you begin to perform the other conscious activities, for example; you avoid putting weight on the foot, and bandage the wound if it is bleeding.

31 pairs of nerves (right and left) emerge from the spinal cord; 12 pairs from the brain area lay beneath the skull. These are all nerves that emerge from the central nervous system, and are distributed to various organs of the peripheral nervous system. All of the head nerves that emerge from the skull, with the exception of the tenth nerve, called the vagus nerve, control activities related to movement and senses in the head and neck region. Each of the 31 nerves exit from a space in the side of the vertebrae, and each of these nerves has two roots, an afferent nerve (sensual nerve), and an efferent nerve (movement nerve). These roots join immediately outside the spinal cord, and form the cords that carry the sensual and movement nerve fibers. These nerve cords are distributed in a plan and system that is specific for each organ. For example, the receptor sensor cells that sense a needle pricking your finger transmits this signal to the spinal cord through the receptor cell of the arm. The responsive reflex of pulling the hand away, a reflex from the spinal cord, is sent to the arm and hand muscles, and you pull your hand away. This is an example of a simple reflex. The movement nerve cells of the peripheral nervous system are divided into two, the somatic nervous system, which is distributed to the skeletal muscles, and the autonomic nervous system, which is distributed to the inner organs. Whilst the majority of the activities of the somatic systems occur voluntarily at the conscious level, the activity of autonomic systems is mainly involuntarily, or below the level of consciousness. The autonomic nervous system controls the smooth muscles of the heart, glands, blood vessels, respiration, digestion, urination and reproduction systems without our even realizing it. Dear Peter! Could you manage to do all this if you were in control? Your self control can only intervene until you place food in your mouth. Then the digestive secretions, the stomach and bowel activity, and the excretion of waste are all conducted automatically, totally beyond your control. Your breathing continues while you sleep, your kidneys never cease to function, your heart never rests, and your liver never relaxes while you sleep; your pancreas continues to produce insulin. All of your internal organs and blood vessels continue to function with the smooth muscles whenever necessary. And all this activity is conducted without you even being aware of it. If you tried to do all this, you would become exhausted within five minutes, lose interest and become unable to cope.

The nerve cords of the autonomic nervous system are divided into two, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic. These two systems have been created in such a way that they respond in opposition to one another, and every organ is provided with a stem from both. Therefore, no organ of the body is left uncontrolled. Whilst one signals and encourages the organ to function quicker and generate more outcomes, the other acts to the contrary, sending signals that encourage the organ to slow down. In which case, with these two contrasting signals, the organ protects its optimal functioning tempo according to the situation and conditions. The sympathetic system generally responds in cases of stress and shock, preparing the body for the effects of such situations. For example, an increase in your blood pressure, blood-sugar level, and perspiration, the dilation of your pupils, and an increase in the flow of blood in your muscles all occur from the effect of the sympathetic fibers. The parasympathetic system sends adverse signals, such as reducing blood pressure and so on, so that the organs return to their neutral state and continue their normal functions.

From the very beginning I have described many of my sections and signals, but I have not yet told you about my key to life, my nerve cells, and how my nerve cells function. 30 billion cells, known as neurons, are the actual units that function in every part of my system. A neuron has a cell body and emerging filaments like tree branches. The single thicker filament like the tree trunk is called the axon, and the thinner filaments that emerge in larger quantities like tree branches are called dentrites. The nerve signals advance from the axon to the dentrite in the form of an electrical pulse. In the space between the connection point (synapses) of a nerve cell axon and the other cells, the dentrite, a chemical substance, called the neurotransmitter, is released. When these substances, in the form of neuropeptides, amino acids, acetylcholines, and monomines, reach the wall of the opposite cells, it an electrical pulse is immediately ignited in the dendrite. Just like a row dominos, falling down one after the other, or football fans performing the Mexican wave, a wave-like effect is generated and these electrical messages are fired with great speed from one end of the cell to the other, advancing in the form of tiny electrical pulses to be transmitted to neighboring cells. While a cell at rest has a potential of 70m V, the action potential of up to +30 – +40m V can transmit all types of information. Every cell can transmit up to 1,000 signals per second.

While you still do not recognize the true value of what you call the memory, which records hundreds of experiences every day, various theories are presented regarding how this bank which stores information in your brain actually functions. But we all know that the answer to this question lies within the millions of neurons that constitute me. Just as all of the senses, thoughts and actions occur from electrical and chemical signals that are transmitted from one cell to another they are presumably recorded in the same way, that is, with electrical and chemical signals.

It is difficult to define a precise center for the boundaries of the memories in me; memory could be interconnected with all of my regions. The storing of certain memories, some voices, visions, smells, or dreams, or the sense of resentment, anger or joy, is all carried out in different forms. You could not even begin to imagine the greatness of the memory storage! I have two types of memory, one short and one-long term. In my short term memory, I can store up to between seven and nine different things at any one time. Nothing remains in my short-term memory for more than a few minutes. Everything that you remember after this is stored in my long-term memory. In my long-term memory things can remain for days, months or even years. Everything you know and learn is stored in your long-term memory. By the time you are eight years old, the information in your memory is enough to fill one million pages. However, this is a mere drop in the ocean; the long-term memory is so vast that it can never become full. Even when you reach a hundred, I will have the capacity to store new information, so never assume that you are overloading a child’s mind and never deprive them of education…Some presumptuous people say; “Never force a child to memorize at a young age, it will affect the brain.” Do not believe them! The learning of foreign languages, the Qur’an and religious education is recorded in my memory by electric pulses and this is so much easier and healthier in the early stages of life. In fact, such activities at a young age can even strengthen the memory. The event called ‘recollection’ is the repeat of the electric pulse codes that are recorded at the actual time of an event. Occasionally you try to remember a person’s name, and although the name is on the tip of your tongue, you just cannot remember. You struggle and eventually give up. Then suddenly, two days later the name comes to your mind. You are quite puzzled and of course pleased that you have remembered, but have you ever wondered how this happens? As you try to remember, you control each of my nerve cells individually, because you are not sure where you placed the files that bear this information. But you are unable to find which section of the millions of cells bears the information. As you have not used this information often, or because you did not consider it to be important, you did not register it in a particular place. But you would never forget your father’s name, as it is important to you and use it often, so the file is in front of you constantly. Well, you get frustrated at not being able to remember and stop searching; however, what you call the subconscious is in fact a much more mysterious mechanism. It begins to search without you being aware of it. Then to your surprise it produces the file two days later. The subconscious is a very mysterious place, it affects everything about you. Only the most sincere feelings are recorded in the subconscious; no veil, no hypocrisy, only actual thoughts are recorded. And also events that deeply affect you, the sad or bad memories you experience, and of course sins…The subconscious is what causes the sense of guilt or an inferiority complex; this is reflected in much of your behavior. But problems like guilt or an inferiority complex are something we can change; it all depends on you. If you are a person who has self-control, you perform good, favorable deeds, and are continuously patient; thus you can eventually renew the contaminated sections of your subconscious so that it will not upset you anymore. Indeed, this is the reason why, of all the creatures on earth, only humans were blessed with the sense of remorse and faith. If you suppress feelings of guilt and sin in the subconscious, the autonomic system affects the organs without you even realizing it; the thalamus, hypothalamus, or the pituitary gland (hypophsis), which are small in size, but bear a great responsibility; eventually this disturbs the balance of the whole body and you become ill. Although this may not be an organic complaint at first, due to psychosomatic symptoms which are caused by suppressing your subconscious, over time this will affect the functions of one of your organs and you become ill. Of course the exact opposite is also possible, with inspiration, pleasant thoughts and good actions the positive signals transmitted to the affected organ may possibly be the means to recovery.

Dear Peter! I have so many more facts and mysterious functions to describe to you, but unfortunately the pages here are not enough. Well, I suppose I must stop somewhere. I really wanted to talk to you about a number of different things, like dreams, mental illnesses such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, strokes, sleep, hypnosis, and the damage caused by drugs. However, each of these subjects is so vast, and many of them have already been explained in previous issues, so for now I will leave it to others to describe these subjects to you, and say my last words…

Dear Peter!… While your hand is writing and reading these words, or explaining what you have read to your friends, or learning all this information and passing it through the filter of thought, you are constantly using my nerves and my systems. There is not a single moment where I am not informed of events that occur in your body. Who knows just how much of the mysteries in me you will use in order to rise to the peak of accomplishment with the blessings that have been bestowed upon you by the Creator. Even the greatest computers made by human beings are mere toys compared to me. Nevertheless, the knowledge of engineers and craftsmen which design, plan, and place every piece into these computers with total accuracy is only possible because of me. Presumably you are not denying those who designed, constructed, and made the computer operate, are you? In which case you should thank God, the One who created me, an organ whose capacity exceeds that of thousands of computers, with His eternal power and wisdom; always remember to use me in good, blessed, and honest actions!…May God protect you!…

Irfan Yilmaz is a professor of biology at Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir. 

“There were no lovers left for me in the world, I used to think,
Then I took leave of my self and saw all were nothing but lovers.”

The above couplet from Niyazi Mýsri describes the state of a “perfect human,” or insan al-kamil in Sufi terminology. Departing from glorifying our own virtues at the expense of fair judgment of others, is an important challenge for anyone who seeks truth in this transient life. For a true believer who has managed to “take leave of” the carnal self, the universe is a palace, all things in existence are servants welcoming him or her in, and every event in the cosmos is an entertainment glorifying its Owner, Who deserves all praise. For those who cannot attain this level, this life is a horrifying tunnel of darkness, and far from being a true lover, every object and person is a potential threat to their security. The recent Gulen conference in Germany in May, the Turkish festival in Turkey in June, and the coming conference in Melbourne this month have made me ponder this couplet once again. An attraction on this scale with such wide-reaching global reach could only be possible for a person if he can represent insan al-kamil, in the true sense, with an all-embracing love for the whole of humanity.

Reflecting this summer’s busy schedule of activities related to the Gulen Movement, this edition of The Fountain features articles by two scholars who study this civil society movement. Kerim Balci of Today’s Zaman shares with us his observations of the conference “Muslims between tradition and modernity-the Gulen Movement as a bridge between cultures,” jointly organized by the University of Potsdam’s Institute of Religion and the Forum for Intercultural Dialogue, Berlin. He mentions the paper of Dr. Bekim Agai of Halle University, Germany, who commented that thanks to the activities of the Gulen Movement, Turkish migrants in Europe are no longer a part of the problems of Europe, but are problem solvers, and not only on issues relating to migrants themselves.

The second article comes from Maimul Ahsan Khan, a professor of law in Bangladesh, who introduces Gulen as a “modern-day Rumi.” For Khan, “Gulen has brought [Rumi’s] glorious tradition [that cut across the lines between nationalistic and sectarian differences] back to the minds of millions of modern and religious Turks.” Professor Khan notes that for Gulen the question is how well Muslims can represent the universal message of Islam to build a global society based on equality, tranquility, and humane treatment for all.

Also in this issue comes a thought-provoking interview with Dr. Lynn Mitchell, a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Houston. Having taught a course titled “The Bible and Modern Science” for many years, Dr. Mitchell offers noteworthy insights into the history of the relationship of science and religion.

“The work of Gulen’s followers in Turkey shows that Islam-as taught by Gulen-seeks tolerance, not conflict; it aims for a better society, not political power; and it manifests itself in prayer and concrete local action.”

“As early as the eighteenth century, Goethe knew that the East and the West were inseparable. However, today’s society has not been able to fulfill Goethe’s dream, although plenty of time has passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Societies remain trapped in prejudices and stereotypes that strengthen the view of a separate East and West. European enlargement has made this even more pronounced and overwhelming. But fortunately, today there are voices in the world which inspire courage; voices which are not given due attention, voices which, nevertheless, have for years promoted a different world view and have successfully served people and the public good,” read the invitation to a Potsdam University conference about the renowned Turkish scholar Fethullah Gulen and the movement named after him. The conference, titled “Muslims between tradition and modernity-the Gulen Movement as a bridge between cultures,” was jointly organized by the University of Potsdam’s Institute of Religion and the Forum for Intercultural Dialogue, Berlin and was supported by the German Orient Institute, Abraham Geiger College, and the Protestant Academy of Berlin.

Attended by thirty-two academics who presented papers and about 500 observers from all over the world, the conference was the first of its kind in that it had no Turkish or Muslim scholars on its editorial board, which instead featured academics such as Professor Karl-Josef Kuschel from Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Professor Christina von Braun from Berlin’s Humboldt University, and Professor Markus Witte from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt. Judging by this fact only, it may be said that the conference was a platform of outsiders looking at and discussing the Gulen Movement.

An outsider’s observations are always fruitful for a social movement, both when they are affirming and when they are critical. An outsider’s eye is the mirror where a social entity, whether it be an individual self or a collective personality, watches and re-defines its self. There were both admiring and critical presentations in the Potsdam Conference. Participants in the Gulen Movement must have recorded both the “commendations and condemnations” and will probably act to strengthen the former and correct the latter.

Strikingly there was a common point between the laudatory and critical presentations: both groups believed that the Gulen Movement offers the Western world a series of opportunities that should not be missed. Both affirmed that the principles of the Gulen Movement may help the Western world to deal with its problems, not only when they relate to Muslims, but also when they relate to the very roots of Western civilization. This point necessitates further discussion and may even open new “zones of activity” for the Gulen Movement and other similar Muslim social entities.

Professor Dr. Leonid R. Sykiainen, a professor of Islamic law and comparative legal studies as the State University–Higher School of Economics in Moscow, suggested, for example, that the Gulen dialogic approach should be adopted to the comparative study of Islamic and Western legal systems. Sykiainen claimed that at developed levels of dialogue the universal language of law should be utilized. “A comparative study of Islamic jurisprudence, which is on its own a magnificent art, should be one of the topics of a future Gulen conference,” he said. This call was important in the sense that it digressed from the established conference mode of “speaking about Fethullah Gulen and the Gulen Movement” and suggested “speaking about a legal issue through the Gulen paradigm.”

A similar suggestion came from Professor Dr. Reverend Simon Robinson, a professor of applied and professional ethics at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK, who underlined that the work of Gulen provides a basis for expanding the theory and practice of corporate responsibility. Robinson related the Gulen Movement’s sense of responsibility to the strong creation theology that develops a complex view of responsibility in terms of accountability, imputability, and moral liability. He observed how this core view of responsibility reinforces and validates plural responsibilities, including civil and global responsibility. “Hence, a conceptual bridge is established between religion, corporate responsibility, citizenship, and sustainability,” he said. Robinson called on the Gulen Movement to become involved more explicitly in the ongoing dialogue about global responsibility and to extend further the dialogue and practice of responsibility in business beyond its present networks to include, wherever possible, other faith networks and secular corporations.

Dr. Sylvia Powels-Niami, a lecturer in the Religious Studies and Jewish Studies departments of Potsdam University, claimed in her paper that with its focus on intercultural and interfaith dialogue, the Gulen Movement has assumed the important task of continuing the ancient Islamic dialectical tradition that gave birth to the development of Kalam as speculative theology by bringing reason and religion into harmony. Powels-Niami observed that the Gulen Movement’s activities are not only building bridges between the East and the West, faith and science but they have also the potential to revive the abandoned religious sciences of Islam and even develop new ones.

A suggestion for furthering Muslim–Christian–Jewish scholarly contacts and thus facilitating the emergence of new multi-disciplinary studies came from Professor Dr. Admiel Kosman, an organizer of the conference from Abraham Geiger College. Urging that the findings of the conference should be conveyed to the general public, Kosman suggested that a “joint study house” should be founded in either Berlin or in Istanbul where Muslim, Christian and Jewish texts and traditions can be studied and a new generation of imams, priests and rabbis can be educated with the kind of openness and tolerance Gulen promotes. Kosman was also the person who read the greeting letter which Fethullah Gulen sent to the conference.

In his letter Gulen reaffirmed his conviction that dialogue will bring about universal peace and the good nature of the human being is going to come to the fore sooner or later. “What we need to do in order to reach this hopeful day is to set off on the journey. In this journey, every single step is important and is worth respect and praise. On this way, each step has to be based on mutual respect and understanding and this is not true only for states and nations, but also for individuals. Leading this dialogue is not a duty that falls only on the shoulders of governments or governmental organs. In order to light this torch of respect and peace, voluntary services run by civil society and individuals are at least as important as official ones. Humanity needs people that will carry that torch,” Gulen wrote in his letter.

A paper that received much applause from the audience was that of Dr. Rainer Hermann, an academic and a journalist with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Dr. Hermann has been observing the Gulen Movement for more than ten years. He was the very first western intellectual to realize that the Gulen Movement did not offer an alternative to the secular-democratic system, but to the politicization of Islam. At Potsdam, Hermann skillfully placed the Gulen Movement on the social map of modern Turkey: “The Republic of Turkey is not a secular state with a separation between religion and state, but rather a laicist state whose elites have long attempted to banish religion from society. Indeed, the ruling Kemalist elites still believe that the moment a religion expands beyond the private domain, it must necessarily become political and impose a theocratic order upon the state and society. Fethullah Gulen deserves the credit for overturning these prejudices. Gulen has made Islam into a social force that has fuelled much of Turkey’s democratization and modernization. People, and not politics, form the focus of his sermons and ideas… All this is new for Turkey, where the official discourse has never focused on the individual, but rather on the perceived need to fight the motherland’s inner and outer foes to preserve national security,” he told the conference. “Gulen’s work has fostered a form of Islam in Turkey that lives in harmony with the West and modern ideas without sacrificing any precepts of its faith. The work of Gulen’s followers in Turkey shows that Islam-as taught by Gulen-seeks tolerance, not conflict; it aims for a better society, not political power; and it manifests itself in prayer and concrete local action,” he said.

Dr. Rainer Hermann focused on the activities of the Movement in Turkey only. Hermann had seven points for the audience: (1) the Gulen Movement is a social and apolitical movement; (2) Gulen is a modern Muslim who looks for a synthesis of Islam and science and of Turkish culture, a culture of dialogue and tolerance, and Western civilization; (3) Gulen has promoted science as a means to understand the creation and as a means to prosperity; (4) Gulen leaves no doubt that Islam and democracy are compatible; (5) Gulen’s interpretation of Islam fits to Europe; (6) Gulen owes his success to various reasons, including the elevated social position of preachers; (7) Fethullah Gulen makes a crucial contribution to the modernization of Turkey.

Hermann was not the only one who expressed appreciation of the work of the Gulen Movement. Dr. Bekim Agai of Halle University, Germany, told the audience that thanks to the activities of the Gulen Movement, Turkish migrants in Europe are no longer a part of the problems of Europe, but are problem solvers, and not only on issues relating to the migrants themselves. Ercan Karakoyun, a PhD candidate at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, and a participant in the Gulen Movement himself, informed the audience about the activities of the Movement in Germany and the contribution these activities have made to the integration of Turkish migrants into the general German society.

A controversial paper was presented by Swedish academician Dr. Klas Grinell. Though he accepted that the Gulen Movement is not engaged in party politics and is not attempting to gain political power, Grinell claimed that the Movement has a political stance: “This Movement supports democracy, human rights and EU membership for Turkey. This is a political position,” he said. Grinell said that having studied Gulen textually he regards Gulen as a conservative leader. But on the other hand he named Gulen as a perfect match for decolonial political theory. “Gulen is looking for dignity from within and not from outside when it comes to producing knowledge,” he said. This is a revolutionary position in epistemology indeed. Grinell had no explanation for labeling Gulen as both a conservative and a revolutionary, but his contribution underlined the fact that the Gulen Movement should not be studied in reference to the Jesuits, Opus Dei, or the Focolare Movement. If decoloniality is a party of Gulen’s revolutionary epistemology, it should be studied in reference to its own dynamics only. This should be the theme of a future conference.

Thus, the conference ended with the clear conviction that further studies need to be done on the Gulen Movement and on the solutions it proposes for the problems of the modern world. Though several questions were left untouched, the conference was a great success in the sense that it not only clarified certain reservations of the participants, but it also managed to reach the general public through media attention to the issue.

Kerim Balci is a columnist at Today’s Zaman, a leading English newspaper published in Turkey. He is also a PhD candidate on Philosophy of Language, Durham University, UK.

Intention and sincerity

Excluding childhood and the time spent in sleep, an average person has about thirty years in total for everything else during his or her lifetime. Out of these thirty years, we spend most of our time on eating, school, work, family commitments, and other essential, but non-religious activities. As a matter of fact, in today’s world where everybody is busy, even a person who deems himself or herself “religious” might be considered lucky if he or she can spend an hour a day on traditional religious activities such as reading religious books, praying, and so on. Assuming an hour a day for thirty years, we would spend about fifteen months in total on traditional religious activities, and this is perhaps the upper limit for most people. So, the finite-to-infinite dilemma becomes even more interesting: keeping in mind that even one trillion years is nothing compared to eternity, how can one earn eternal paradise in all its beauty that is far beyond human imagination by spending not more than fifteen months to earn it? The answer is what Bediüzzaman Said Nursi describes as one of the four culminations of his life: intention.

The intention of an action can simply be defined as the true motive behind that action. A “sincere and pure” intention, in a religious context, can perhaps be defined as the true motive of drawing closer to God, and drawing closer to God only. Nursi states that “Intention changes ordinary acts and customs into acts of worship. It is a penetrating and pervading spirit through which inanimate states and deeds acquire life and become ‘living’ acts of worship. It is also through a special quality of intention that evil changes into virtue or good deeds. Intention is a ‘spirit’ that causes ordinary deeds and customs to become ‘living’ acts of worship.” Our intentions are indeed the soul of our actions and, provided that we believe in God, what makes our actions worthy of earning eternal paradise solely lies in the sincerity of our intentions. In a sense, our actions are a sequence of zeros and a sincere intention is a positive 1 in front of those zeros, whereas an insincere intention is a negative 1. That being said, we must pay particular attention not to act against well-established principles of the religion and claim that our actions still carry a good intention. For instance, under no circumstances is one allowed to harm an innocent civilian, even during war, and therefore there can be no good intention behind this crime.

By striving to achieve purity and sincerity in our intentions (known as ikhlas), we can expect the Most Compassionate and Most Merciful God to treat our activities as if we spend our entire life worshipping Him while still leading a regular, balanced life-provided that we respect the basic principles of the religion and avoid committing major sins. Throughout the Risale-i Nur collection, Nursi places tremendous emphasis on sincerity of intention. Nursi describes the fundamental characteristics of ikhlas in the Twenty-first Gleam: “[I]n this world, and particularly in the services done for the afterlife, a most important foundation, and a greatest power, and a most acceptable intercessor, and a firmest point of reliance, and a shortest way to the truth, and a most answerable prayer, and a most blessed and marvelous means of achieving one’s goal, and a most sublime virtue, and a purest form of worship is sincerity, or doing something good or any religious deed purely for God’s sake.” Nursi points out the relationship between actions, intentions, sincerity, and salvation as follows: “[Intention’s] ‘soul’ is sincerity or acting solely for God’s sake. Salvation is found only in sincere actions done in His way. Sincerity multiplies an action’s worth, and through it one can reach Paradise with a little action and in a short life.” Obviously, we can do only a finite number of good deeds during a finite lifetime. Thus, at least from a technical point of view, we cannot earn eternal paradise unless infinite reward is given to our finite actions. God is so merciful that He promises Heaven to believers with the good deeds of a short lifetime, and in order for this to happen, He demands purity and sincerity in the intentions of those good deeds. In other words, the secret component in this finite to infinite transformation is nothing but sincerity of intention.

So it turns out that ikhlas, that is, sincerity of intention, is not optional: it is mandatory, and it is of the utmost importance. So, how do we achieve ikhlas? Nursi defines the first rule for gaining and preserving ikhlas as follows: “You should pursue God’s good pleasure in your actions. If He is pleased with you, even if the whole world is displeased, it is of no consequence. If He approves, it has no effect even if all others reject your ideas and actions. When He is pleased and approves, even if you do not seek the approval of others, should He will it to be so and His Wisdom requires it, He will make others accept it and be pleased with you.” In our daily lives, we might be performing daily prayers, reading religious books, and performing other traditional worship activities. During these activities, it is critical that we make sure that our intention is to draw closer to God and nothing else. A prayer performed to make others think one is pious, a fast observed for health benefits, a Pilgrimage made to enjoy the journey, or wealth distributed to obtain good reputation will not only dishonor the owner of these deeds in the hereafter, but also be rejected as the intentions behind these actions are impure, insincere, and have no ikhlas in them.

There are numerous other activities in our daily lives that are essential to our well-being and social lives, but nonreligious in nature. We go to school or work every day, we eat, we sleep, we love our parents, spouses, and children, we spend time with our families and friends, we brush our teeth, and so forth. God the Most Merciful tells us that he will treat these activities as worship, but only if they are done with good, sincere intention (again, conditioned upon respecting the basic principles of the religion and avoiding major sins).

The key to being rewarded for simple, regular activities such as those above and achieving ikhlas in our daily lives is to ensure that our sole intention in every one of our activities is to draw closer to God and to draw closer to God only. Every individual can achieve ikhlas in different ways in different situations, but the ultimate goal is always the same: to have good intention and be sincere about it. For example, a man might work late every day so that he earns halal money to provide for his family and still has enough money to make donations for just causes. Another person might go to school to study, thus recognizing the names of God, the All-Knower and All-Wise. One might eat in order to be grateful for the food and be healthy enough to perform the daily prayers. Another person might sleep to rest and be more productive at work so as to really earn his or her wages honestly. A person might brush his or her teeth because he or she knows the body is a gift from God and he or she is responsible for taking good care of it. Another way to achieve ikhlas in our lives, as Nursi suggests, is to make sure that love for worldly things, such as delicious foods and fruits, parents, spouses, children, and friends, is for the sake of God and that all this love is given to God Almighty’s essence, attributes and names. Again, from an ikhlas perspective, perhaps we should reconsider plans to buy a huge flat-screen TV, or a luxury SUV, or a house by the lake with ten bedrooms and start asking ourselves how things such as these that we intend to do in the future will help us draw closer to God, if they ever will.

As argued above, good intention is able to convert daily activities into worship through sincerity and therefore earn its owner eternal paradise by the mercy of God. A second critical dimension of sincerity in intention is its continuity. That is to say, if a sincere believer lived not sixty or seventy years, but a thousand years, he or she would still be doing what he or she was doing all along: trying to respect the basic principles of the religion, avoid major sins, and do as many good deeds as possible with pure and sincere intention. This would not change if he or she lived five thousand years, or even fifty thousand years, and thus, he or she would still be seeking ways to draw closer to God even he or she did live in this world forever. This is why it makes sense that eternal paradise can be earned within a short lifetime.

If God is pleased with our intentions in our activities and if He wishes to do so, He might bestow upon us worldly rewards as well, such as success in career, health, or blessed offspring. A potential pitfall here is that the person might start expecting these rewards to continue and see his or her actions as a prerequisite for them, losing the purity in his or her intention as well as those worldly rewards. Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, “If anyone’s intention is to seek the hereafter, God will place his sufficiency in his heart and order his affairs, and the world will come to him submissively; but if anyone’s intention is to seek worldly good, God will place poverty before him and disorder his affairs, and only so much of it as has been ordained for him will come to him.”

Nursi warns that believers should avoid things which would harm sincerity the same as they would avoid snakes and scorpions. One should, however, keep in mind that achieving sincerity in each and every one of our actions is a process and might not happen right away. Yet we also should keep in mind that nothing done for His sake shall go unrewarded.

Denying or recognizing Infinite Attributes of God

All the attributes of Almighty God are infinite, although what we see in this world is a finite projection of those infinite attributes, as the world itself is a finite domain in all respects. For example, God is the All-Knower, but what we know about God’s knowledge is very limited. God is the All-Wise, but we do not know the reason behind many things. God is the Absolute Ruler, but the universe that God rules is finite. God is the All-Powerful Creator, but there are only a finite number of creatures in this world. All these examples illustrate that what we experience in this three-dimensional world is a vague shadow of God’s true attributes.

A nonbeliever who claims that there is no Creator and that things just happen by themselves therefore ignores God’s attribute of being the All-Powerful Creator. Someone who claims that there is no God and that there is nobody who rules this universe thus ignores the Absolute Ruler attribute of God, and so on. Denying God’s existence and ignoring God’s infinite attributes is the biggest sin that can ever be committed and it deserves infinite punishment-the fact that this sin is committed in only a short lifetime is irrelevant. (This is the case in worldly affairs too: punishment is determined according to the nature of the crime, not on how long it takes to commit the crime. For instance, a person can commit a murder in one minute, but the murderer may spend the rest of his or her life in prison.) Similarly, consider someone who believes in God, recognizes His infinite attributes, and tries to do good deeds with pure and sincere intention. It makes sense for this person to be rewarded with eternal paradise. From a similar point of view, it can be argued that even one hour of adult life spent with the firm belief in God and in His attributes is sufficient for paradise, and even one hour spent denying God’s existence and his infinite attributes suffices for eternal hellfire.

The intentions argument can also be used to explain how a nonbeliever deserves eternal punishment. As in the case with a sincere believer, a nonbeliever has the intention to continue to commit the sin he or she has been committing: if a nonbeliever lived not sixty or seventy years, but a thousand or five thousand years, or even infinitely many years, he or she would still be doing what he or she was doing all along: denying God’s existence and ignoring God’s infinite attributes, and this is why it makes sense for a nonbeliever to deserve eternal punishment.

A word of caution

It should be noted that this article does not claim to provide a complete logical explanation of why there is an afterlife, why the afterlife is eternal, or why some people will go to Heaven and some people will not. This article simply attempts to illustrate that all these concepts are reasonable and they make sense. Lastly, these are issues of faith and the author believes that matters related to faith and religion cannot be confined within the boundaries of logical, physical, or mathematical principles. After all, it was God who created the universe and everything in it, including the rules of logic, physics, and mathematics. Matters of faith are just that, and it is by our free will that we choose what to believe in. That being the case, one should still keep in mind that if there is indeed eternal life after death, paradise, and hellfire (which we believe there is), disbelief in them will not make them just disappear (just like closing our eyes will not make the sun disappear).

Vedat Akyuz has a PhD in applied mathematics and statistics.

Notes

1. Nursi, Bediüzzaman Said. Al-Mathnawi Al-Nuri, NJ: Tughra Books, 2007, p. 113.
2. Ibid.
3. Nursi. The Gleams, NJ: Tughra Books, 2008, p. 225.
4. Nursi, 2007, p. 113.
5. Nursi, 2008, p. 226.
6. Nursi. The Words, NJ: Tughra Books, 2005, pp. 649–650.
7. Tirmidhi 5320.
8. Holy Qur’an, Al-Zalzalah 99:7.

It is quite interesting to find that although Nursi clearly states the necessity of interfaith alliance in the Risale-i Nur, and consequently encourages his followers to practice dialogue to establish this alliance, he does not dedicate any section of the Risale-i Nur to the principles of this interfaith dialogue and alliance. In other words, Nursi never titled any part of his works “The Principles of Interfaith Dialogue and Alliance.” Hence, the present article inquires whether Nursi simply ignores the principles of interfaith dialogue and alliance or whether there are implicit interfaith principles in his works.

It is my claim that it is possible to find implicit interfaith principles in the works of Nursi, and that the Twentieth and Twenty-First Gleams and the Twenty-Second Letter are especially good sources for these principles. In these sections, Nursi mainly deals with the different reasons for conflict among Muslims and teaches them his conflict resolution principles to end these conflicts with peaceful alliance. Therefore, it is easy for us to extract the principles of interfaith dialogue and alliance from these sections by paraphrasing Nursi’s conflict resolution principles in the context of interfaith dialogue because most of the principles in these sections are not related specifically to Islam, but to human nature in general.

Before presenting the list of paraphrased conflict resolution principles in the context of interfaith dialogue and alliance, we would like to demonstrate an example of paraphrasing: For instance, in the Twentieth Gleam, Nursi advises the following principle to resolve a conflict between different Muslim groups: “Adopt the just rule of conduct that the follower of any right outlook has the right to say, “My outlook is true, or the best,” but not that “My outlook alone is true,” or that “My outlook alone is good,” thus implying the falsity or repugnance of all other outlooks.” Although the context of this principle is the interactions between Muslims, it is perfectly right to practice this principle in the interfaith context because it is not related to Islam, but to human nature in general. Consequently, we can paraphrase this principle as follows: In dialogue activities, as Muslims, we can believe or even say that Islam is the right religion or even preferable to that of other religions, but we do not have right to say that other religions have no right in them at all. Similarly, in dialogue activities, Christians can believe or even say that Christianity is the right religion or even preferable to that of other religions, but they do not have right to say that other religions have no right in them at all.

After introducing this example, we can list the paraphrased interfaith principles from Twentieth and Twenty-First Gleams and the Twenty-Second Letter:

1. In our dialogue activities, as Muslims, we should only aim for our Lord’s good pleasure, not the acceptance of the members of other religions because “if Almighty God is pleased, it is of no importance even should the whole world be displeased.”

2. God commands in the Qur’an (Baqara 2:41), …do not sell My Revelations for a trifling price (such as worldly gains, status, and renown). Therefore, in dialogue activities, we should not water down our religious rules and dignity.

3. Human self is prone to make mistakes and deviate from the right path. Therefore, while dialoging with others, we should not trust our selves but God and always seek his help and forgiveness:

Yet I do not claim my self free of error, for assuredly the human carnal soul always commands evil, except that my Lord has mercy (which saves us from committing evil acts). (Yusuf 12:53)

4. If we want to dialogue with the members of other religions, we should accept them in their position and not criticize their religious beliefs and practices. If we like to be respected in our own beliefs, we should respect the beliefs of others. Similarly, in dialogue meetings, we should not excite the envy of the members of other religions by displaying or implying superior virtues.

5. Our primary aim in dialogue activities is God’s good pleasure and his help. Faith alliance is our secondary aim. In other words, we seek faith alliance because it attracts God’s help and support to us. Therefore, if we cannot establish faith alliance with the members of other faiths after all of our sincere efforts, we should not be disappointed. For God is the helper of his sincere servants and no alliance can be superior to God’s alliance.

6. In dialogue events, our actions should always be based on positive motives. That is to say, what motivates our actions should be the love of our own outlook, not the enmity of others’ outlooks. We organize or participate in dialogue events to represent our outlook, not to diminish the outlook of others.

7. In dialogue activities, by focusing on commonalities such as a shared land, a shared language, our common humanity, universal needs and fears, and so on, we will recognize again that what we have in common far exceeds what sets us apart from each other.

8. Because we need unity and inclusion within Muslims and among the People of the Book far more than division and exclusion, let us for now leave aside discussion of the issues that divide us.

9. In our dialogue activities, we should keep in mind that unity among Muslims and the People of the Book attracts for us the help of our Creator against irreligion.

10. The aim of interfaith dialogue is not to argue with the members of other religions. In order to refrain from argumentation, we should know that one who prevails in an argument finds himself in a dangerous position in comparison with his partner, first because he might fall into arrogance in his heart, and second because he may learn nothing new from the discussion. On the other hand, his partner learns new knowledge and his heart is safe from arrogance.

11. In our dialogue activities, we should seek sincere religious people because the people who are sincere in their religion will most probably be sincere in their dialogue with us as well.

12. If we see any hostility from the people that we dialogue with, we should remember the following principle: “If you wish to defeat your enemy, respond to his evil with good. For if you respond with evil, enmity will increase, and even though he will be outwardly defeated, he will nurture hatred in his heart, and hostility will persist. But if you respond to him with good, he will repent and become your friend.”

13. While we dialogue we should keep in mind that people all have different characters and one bad character in a group does not mean that all the people of that group have a similar character. In other words, it would be wrong to generalize one person’s mistake to the whole community. The Qur’an says, …no soul, as bearer of burden, bears (and is made to bear) the burden of another.” (Fatir 35:18)

14. Similarly, one negative aspect of a person does not necessitate that the person is bad as whole.

15. In dialogue activities, all that we say should be true, but we should not say all that is true. For one of insincere intention may sometimes take unkindly to advice, and react to it unfavorably.

16. In times when evil actions prevail, what could we need more than unity, friendship, and inclusion?

17. In times of conflict of opinions, we should act in a positive way, not a negative one. That is to say, we should strive to promote and diffuse our own belief, not seeking to tear down and destroy that of the other, but rather to improve and reform it.

18. In dialogue activities, we should remember that insisting upon consensus in our methods and approaches after finding agreement upon our aims and goals might be a fruitless wish.

19. At every stage of a dialogue activity, the following principle must be our guide: Love for the sake of God, dislike for the sake of God, judge for the sake of God.

In conclusion, we could say that although Nursi does not state interfaith principles explicitly, it is possible to find them mentioned implicitly in The Risale-i Nur and the above list is a good enough source for carrying out any dialogue interaction in a fruitful way.

Suleyman Eris is the author of Islam: A Brief Guide – Belief and Practice.

Four principles emerge as we examine the life of the Prophet Muhammad from a time management perspective [Canan 1994]. Interestingly, these are also the principles agreed upon by most contemporary experts of time management [Taylor 1998, Jasper 1999, Covey, Morgenstern 2000]. These are:

1. Appreciation of the value of time and, consequently, making the best use of every piece of available time.

2. The guidance of a mission, a set of values, and priorities in planning every activity.

3. Establishment of a time policy or a time budget.

4. The scheduling and completion of activities within allocated time slots.

Now we will give examples of how these principles were put to practice in the prophetic tradition.

Appreciation of the value of time

The value of time is emphasized in many verses of the Qur’an and in many prophetic sayings. In particular, God swears by time at the beginning of the chapter Asr in the Qur’an, meaning “time through the ages” or “afternoon.” It is the general opinion of the interpreters of the Qur’an that such references are intended to draw attention to those concepts and emphasize their importance. The remaining two verses of this short chapter reinforce this view: “1. By the (token of) time (through the ages)! 2. Verily man is in a state of loss. 3. Except those who believe and do righteous deeds, and exhort one another to truth and exhort one another to steadfastness.” Another such oath is to be found at the beginning of Chapter 93, Ad-Dooha or “The Morning Hours”: “(1) By the morning hours, (2) And by the night when it is still.” (*) The particular translation we have adopted here is by Uzunoglu [Uzunoglu 2003]. Other contemporary translations of the Qur’an include Abdel Haleem [AbdelHaleem 2004] and Cleary [Cleary 2004].

In the prayer books attributed to the Prophet Muhammad we see that there are prayers for every occasion [Gulen 2000]. Examples include prayers for beginning an activity, beginning a meal, ending a meal, leaving for a journey, returning from a journey, during the journey, looking in a mirror, during ill health, for rain, against excessive rain, against cold or extreme heat, when entering the bathroom, when exiting the bathroom, and countless others. From these prayers we learn that there is almost no time slot in the Prophet’s life that was not occupied with a useful activity or a prayer. It was observed on one occasion that the Prophet refused to greet a person who was sitting idly. He greets the very same person on his way back upon seeing them occupied with an activity. The following Prophetic saying summarizes his attitude: “The majority of humanity is at a loss as they do not recognize the value of two of God’s gifts: Health and (discretionary) time.” [Bukhari, Riqaq, 1997]

Guidance of a mission

After receiving the divine call, the life of the Prophet Muhammad was focused on living and conveying the message. His ultimate goal was to fulfill his mission as a servant and messenger of God. This involved two aspects: On the personal front a spiritual ascension towards the state of being a perfect human (insan-i kamil) as a servant of God and on the social front sharing the faith and practicing conduct that was pleasing to God and others. His values and priorities were shaped completely by the scripture as well as by the other communications of God that he received, which did not become part of the scripture. In his farewell sermon during his last pilgrimage, he is reported to have asked the present audience, which numbered in the tens of thousands: “Do you bear witness that I have fulfilled my mission as God’s messenger?” Of course the answer was a resounding yes, accompanied by tears [Gulen 2000].

Weekly time policy

In a weak prophetic tradition narrated by Ibn Abbas [Canan 1998, Harf 2000], the cousin of the Prophet, the regular activities of his days are listed: “Sunday is the day for planting seeds and construction. Monday is for travel. Tuesday is for giving blood. Wednesday is for acquisition and alms giving. Thursday is for bringing community matters to the governor. Friday is for weddings and spending time with your family. Saturday is for hunting for livelihood.” The authenticity of this narration is weak and therefore we cannot conclude that it is obligatory to perform these duties on these days. However, it does give the idea of designating specific days of the week for specific projects or activities. In another, stronger prophetic tradition, the Prophet was heard to say, “Seek knowledge on every Monday” [Fayz al-Qadr 1/543]. Other prophetic sayings emphasize the importance of Friday as a day of festivity and the early part of Friday as the time to clean the body and care for one’s clothing. Another established prophetic tradition is to fast voluntarily on Mondays and Thursdays. From the observations of his companions it has been firmly established that the Prophet, peace be upon him, established a weekly schedule with preferred activities on each day.

Daily time policy

The most detailed information about the time management of the Prophet Muhammad is available concerning his daily schedule. Two types of activities occupied his time: The spontaneous (un-programmed) activities and the regular (programmed) activities. The spontaneous activities included giving an audience to an envoy or a representative group, the meeting of an urgent need, or helping a stranger who spontaneously sought help. Such activities were accommodated within the time slots that were not dedicated to programmed activities. Furthermore, if a representative body were to arrive in Medina for a one-off meeting, then it would be scheduled at the first available time. However, if the group was to stay in Medina for a while, then the meetings with this group were included in the regular plan of activities. An example of such accommodation can be seen in the case of the representative group from the tribe of Thaqif. As the group was to stay in Medina for a while, the Prophet visited them and talked with them after each night prayer. When one evening he delayed his visit, the group asked him: “O Messenger of God, you did not come at the time you used to come today; you were late, what is the reason for this? [Usd al-Gaba 1/168].

Regular/scheduled activities

Regular prayer times form the framework around which all other regular activities are scheduled. Two aspects of the Prophet’s daily schedule were (1) The same activities were scheduled in the same time period every day, and (2) each activity had a designated time limit.

Regular daily prayers are ordered by God at specific times [The Qur’an 4/103] and the start and end times for each prayer were taught to the Prophet Muhammad by the Archangel Gabriel. In authentic prophetic traditions we learn that Archangel Gabriel asked the Prophet Muhammad to join him in performing each prayer at the beginning of the time period time throughout one day. The next day, they performed each prayer at the very end of the period that was dedicated to that prayer. The Prophet said “The best of deeds in God’s sight is the prayer that is performed in time” [Bukhari, Mawaqit al-Salat; Muslim, Iman]. While the beginning time for each prayer period is preferred, the prayer can be done anytime between these limits. If the time limit is exceeded even by a minute, the prayer is invalidated and the person has to perform a makeup prayer in the next period. It is easy to see that regular observation of these prayer times gives a person a high level of time consciousness. It also reveals the fallacy of the view that precise timing and punctuality are modern traditions.

Various accounts of the Prophet’s daily life tell us that he was very careful in the observation of his daily schedule. We understand this particularly from the observation that when the Prophet changed his schedule, this was a cause for worry in the community. For instance, one companion relates: “The Messenger of God (upon whom be peace and blessings) left his home at a time when normally nobody saw him outside.” [Usd al-Gaba 1/168, cited in Canan 1994]. Another one is: “The Messenger of God (upon whom be peace and blessings) ascended to the pulpit. He was never seen on the pulpit except on Fridays before.” [Ibnul Maja, Fitan, 33, cited in Canan 1994].

Night activities

The narrations from his companions tell us that the Prophet used to divide his night into three segments. One segment was dedicated to worship, one to his family and one segment to his personal matters. At times, he is seen as giving his personal time to his community in meeting with them and trying to address their needs.

The Prophet was observed to halt his daily activities after sunset [Mustadrak: 3/461, cited in Canan 1994]. This does not mean, however, that he rested for the remainder of the evening; he sometimes held meetings after evening or night prayer. As a general principle, he did not like sleeping before the night prayer or talking after it [Bukhari, Mawaqit, 13/23, cited in Canan 1994]. His wife Aisha (may God be pleased with her) reports that the Prophet, upon whom be peace and blessings, used to sleep during the early part of the night and wake up for worship during the later part [Ibn Maja, Iqama, 182, cited in Canan 1994]. On exceptional circumstances, the Prophet was observed to stay awake and deal with community affairs until late hours of the night.

The night stances (qiyam al-layl), the hours he spent in worship, reflection and prayers all occupy an important place in the Prophet’s life. He is reported to have spent on average between 2/3 to 3/4 of each night in worship, remembrance, reflection, and supplication. This corresponds to a period of 4 to 7 hours each night, depending on the season. He explains this emphasis on night prayers in the following way: “God descends to the first heaven of the earth every night and announces, ‘Is there anyone who repents; I will forgive, is there anyone who prays; I will accept,’ and this continues until early dawn” [Usd al-Gaba: 6/91; Ibn Maja, Iqama, 182, cited in Canan 1994]. He also likened his night stances to those of the Prophet David: “The best nightly prayer in God’s sight is that of David. He used to sleep during the early part of the night, then wake up and spend a third of the night in prayers and sleep a little again before dawn” [Bukhari, Tahajjud, 7; Muslim, Siyam, 189; Nasai, Qiyam al-layl, 14, available in Harf 2000].

Daytime activities

The Prophet prohibited his companions from sleeping after the morning prayer. He used to stay at the mosque until sunrise and have group conversations with his companions. The subjects of these conversations were both religious as well as entertaining, for example, poetry would be read or the dreams of the previous night would be related. It is understood that these hours were spent in a felicitous way, with companions laughing at times and the Prophet smiling [Nasai, Sahv, 98, Muslim, Ruya, 23, cited in Canan 1994]. The Prophet underlines the significance of these hours held for him with the following saying: “Sitting together with a group of companions and remembering God with them after the morning prayer until the sunrise is more valuable to me than fighting in the cause of God. The same is true for the hours after the afternoon prayer before sunset” [Usd al-Gaba: 2/466, cited in Canan 1994].

Following the conversation with his companions, the Prophet would then spend time with his family. On days when he was not fasting, he would have breakfast during this period. He is known to have eaten two meals each day, a late breakfast and a dinner. Towards noon, he would take a nap and encourage others to do the same, as this would help them to stay awake at night for prayers [Mednick 2002]. After the noon prayers came the time for community matters. The afternoon prayer was followed by time for the family once again. In the Meccan period, the Prophet was married to Khadeeja for 25 years, his only wife during this time. His multiple marriages occurred after she had passed away, when he was already over 50. The reasons and occasions for these marriages form the subject of a separate article. But suffice it to say that in general these marriages could be categorized into three types: (1) Marrying the widow of a martyr to take care of her and to honor the family. (2) Marrying the daughter or other relative of a community leader to establish family ties with that community to avoid armed conflicts. (3) Marriage with a woman of a special status so that woman could become a teacher and role model for Muslim women. This third function was especially important, as the aspects of faith that pertain to special circumstances of women could only be taught by the experience of the wives of the Prophet. The Prophet was observed to visit and spend equal, fixed times with his wives during his family time. Figure 1 depicts the time allowances in a regular day of the Prophet as estimated by this author.

Human biorhythm and activity changes

Researchers on human biorhythms tell us that multiple periodic biorhythms operate within the human body with different cycle times, changing from 90 minutes (ultradian) to daily (circadian), to longer than a day [Smolensky 2001]. As the human body operates with chemicals, hormones, and electrical signals, it needs to replenish these resources once in a while [Chafetz 1992]. One mechanism for achieving this is having a short break such as a nap [Rossi 1991, Mednick 2002] and another is to change one’s activity when feeling tired. the Prophet Muhammad points to this important fact by saying “Relieve us O Bilal!” Bilal was the chief caller to prayer. The Prophet was indicating that they were tired and less productive in the activity in which they were involved and that it was a good time to take a break and pray. “Relieve us” means “Please make the call to prayer” so the community will gather in the mosque for a congregational prayer. The interweaving of different activities in his daily schedule is another indication that the Prophet was cognizant of the effect of the biorhythm on one’s productivity.

Conclusion

The popular mental picture of the Prophet Muhammad in the non-Muslim world depicts a person who spent most of his time in the battlefield or enjoying the spoils of war. Nothing can be further from truth. In this article we examined the life of the Prophet Muhammad from a time management perspective. The picture that emerges from this analysis is very different from the popular perception in the west. We learn that the Prophet spent most of his time engaged in worship, prayer, remembrance, and supplications. The next two most important activities in his life were community matters, including spreading God’s message and family matters. We also learn that the Prophet was a very punctual time keeper. He did not waste even the smallest amount of time and admonished those who did. We learn that he kept a tight daily schedule to the extent that his companions became worried when this schedule was not observed. He designated certain days and hours of each day for certain activities. He encouraged staying awake after dawn and having a short nap at noon. He practiced such principles as eating moderately, sleeping moderately, and talking moderately, all of which ultimately help with better time management. He took advantage of every discretionary moment in life for remembering God and offering prayers. Every activity in his life was guided by his main goal of living and sharing God’s religion for a happy life on the Earth and in the Hereafter. Interestingly, many of these practices are now recognized and recommended by modern experts of time management. In summary, we witness a life that was lived fully and productively, yet opportunities for smiling were not neglected.

Yuksel A. Aslandogan is the Vice President of Institute of Interfaith Dialog, Houston, Texas.

References

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Being one of the liberal arts, rhetoric can be defined in such a way that is freed from its usual literary references. Thus, rhetoric is an inquiry into the core of the problem, resulting in a “change” in the state of the subject matter from its current state to a preferred one.

Change in a rhetorical inquiry happens by discovery and invention. Discovery is about becoming aware of existence, whereas invention is about finding new connections within existence. Rhetoric is discovery and invention in a sequence of events. A rhetorician first finds a topic with a particular problem; the definition of the topic is the discovery. The rhetorician then searches for possibilities, uses his judgment about facts, questions the problem, and reaches new issues that will become subheadings of topics. Issues are at the heart of an argument. The rhetorician finds solutions to the problem by merging two contrasting issues and allowing them to work together, which results in invention. Having reached the invention, the rhetorician then uses arrangement, expression, memory, and delivery to resolve the rhetorical inquiry. So, the meaning most frequently associated with rhetoric is actually this last step that comes after discovery and invention.

To make my argument clear, I would like to give the example of Muhammad Yunus, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2006 “for his efforts to create economic and social development from below” (Nobel Prize Statement). From the perspective of rhetoric, Muhammad Yunus is a perfect example of rhetorical inquiry. He first identifies the problem of poverty in Bangladesh and then defines his topic as economic development. In searching for possibilities, he comes up with the issues of “financial loans” and “poverty.” Normally, financial loans are thought to be designed for people who have financial credibility, while poverty, in general is seen as being removed from economic development.

Muhammad Yunus did not think so. He took these two contrasting issues and merged them, arriving at the micro-credit idea; i.e., that if an institution gives small loans to poor people, this will result in a massive change and economic development, which can help the poor to stand on their feet, helping them to survive and recover from poverty. His idea was realized with the institution of the Grameen Bank, which has provided more than $5.1 billion US dollars to 5.3 million people. To guarantee payment, the bank developed a system called “solidarity groups,” which are small-scale unofficial groups that apply together for loans. The group members act as co-guarantors of repayment, supporting one another’s efforts in economic self-advancement.

To restate, Muhammad Yunus took a rhetorical stance and used it as a way to solve the problem of poverty in his country. His argument was based on two issues, one being poverty, the other financial loans. He merged the two issues and invented the micro-credit concept. The implementation of the idea was dependent on the facts of the situation, whereas judgments of the facts relied on objectivity. The realization of the idea of “loans for the poor” was so successful that it resulted in other activities, such as loans for housing, fisheries, etc.

Another example of a rhetorical invention is that of the Turkish scholar Fethullah Gulen who took the education of individuals as his topic, and inspired people to initiate intercultural dialogue and education institutions in order to eradicate cross-cultural ignorance and misunderstandings in society. The general concept of positivist thinking which drives education is that science and moral values are two separate things that should not be considered together. And when it comes to understanding the other, it is stereotypes that control people’s opinions.

But Fethullah Gulen did not think so. He merged science and moral values, which resulted in educational institutions that teach both of these subjects to the students, while merging different cultures by emphasizing the common moral values in intercultural and interfaith dialogue activities. These educational institutions have been breaking the so-called norms and reaching people from all over the world by providing a highstandard education equal for all. Simultaneously, NGOs that focus on dialogue activities have reached people of different faiths, from Jewish rabbis to Buddhist priests, in order to spread the idea of understanding others.

To restate this example, Fethullah Gulen presents a strong rhetorical stance about the problem of ignorance. He suggests education as the topic, and comes up with sciences, culture, and common values as the issues. To reach possible solutions, he blends these issues, and his teachings provided inspiration for the establishment of the institutions that focus on education and in the NGO’s that focus on dialogue activities. The strength of the educational institutions is their emphasis on equity and brotherhood while keeping a high-level academic approach. An effort that spans the entire world, these schools not only provide modern education to poor and developing countries, but also support the solution to the problem of crosscultural ignorance in the world.

In conclusion, both Muhammed Yunus and Fethullah Gulen have triggered “change” in the world under very different circumstances, one in economics, the other in education, but by using a common tool. This common tool is rhetorical thinking, which is rooted in people’s capability to develop arguments. If we return to the question posed at the beginning it would be easier now to define rhetoric. Rhetoric is an art of invention that has its own methodology and which helps to solve the serious problems of the world over a wide spectrum.

At this point, it is important to note that the motives for Muslims to engage in dialogue with non-Muslims have their roots embedded not in the recent past, but date back to the seventh century. Dialogue is not a civilized virtue of modern times, but rather a duty upon every Muslim, who is following the footsteps of the Prophet of Islam. Dialogue is not a temporary activity, but a way of living that spans a lifetime. In the very first days of his mission, the Prophet sought every possible means of communication with his fellow townsmen; despite fierce opposition and in the face of all kinds of dangers and threats, he was the one who took the first step and initiated “dialogue.” This attitude was not only limited to the Mecca period when Muslims were few in number and powerless to defend themselves. The Blessed Prophet sent aid to Mecca when his hometown was suffering a deadly famine; this happened when Muslims had won battles against Meccan pagans and the city state of Islam was laying its foundations more strongly than any other establishment in the Arabian Peninsula. It is also well known that the Prophet’s shield was in the custody of a Jew when he passed away; he never stopped making peaceful contacts with non Muslims.

Some of the articles in this issue focus on some significant concepts like tolerance, jihad, and dialogue between Muslims and Christians. The lead article shows believers how to respond to “. . . the coarsest thoughts and the crudest ideas, without losing our temper.” “Mildness is reminded in such situations we cannot tolerate, a kind of mildness presented in the Qur’an as “gentle words” which “is the result of a tender heart, a gentle approach, and mild behavior.”

Galymzhan Kirbassov analyzes Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” theory.

Studying interstate disputes during the post-Cold War period, his analysis proposes a qualitative result that conflicts occur more because of other reasons than civilizational differences. Evan Radford’s piece explores the Islamic concept of “jihad” that is highly unpopular in the West. Radford thinks this unpopularity is a result of misinformation; Westerners and some extremists have misinterpreted jihad and use this concept as a veil and as a means to legitimatize their politically motivated violent activities.