“Life is a shared bridge of “passing over” and “coming back.” It is a passing over to other cultures and faiths, not to disown one’s own heritage, but to come back to incorporate new wisdoms and insight into one’s own worldview. The Gülen Movement is one such bridge.”

What the religious scholar John Dunne wrote in the 1970s remains true today:

What seems to be happening in our world today is what we might call ‘passing over,’ passing over from one culture to another, from one way of life to another, from one religion to another. Passing over is a shifting of standpoint, a going over to the standpoint of another culture, another way of life, another religion. It is followed by equal and opposite process of what we might call ‘coming back,’ coming back with new insight into one’s own culture, one’s own way of life, one’s own religion. The holy man of our time [is] . . . a figure like Gandhi, a man who passes over by sympathetic understanding from his own religion to other religions and comes back again with new insight into his own. Passing over and coming back is the spiritual adventure of our time. (1972, ix)

I think that this spiritual adventure of passing over and coming back also occurs in the person of Fethullah Gülen. But more importantly, his passing over and coming back has led to a bridge that makes it possible for the rest of us, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Humanists, to engage in the spiritual adventure of our time. We too can use the “Gülen bridge” to pass over from our standpoint, be it in America as a Christian (as for myself) or from Turkey as a Muslim, as for my new Turkish friends. We can pass over and come back with new appreciation of Islam, a new understanding of the Anatolian culture, and a transformed spirit. Muslims too can be transformed as they pass over into American life and its religious diversity and come back to Islam with a renewed perspective. But I will share how my encounter with this movement and the people involved in the movement affected my outlook and shaped my spirit.

Who is Fethullah Gülen? And what sort of bridge did he build for us? Mr. Gülen himself was nurtured in the religion of Islam, as that religion expressed itself in Turkey during the latter half of the 20th century. Turkey has an unusual history in the 20th century. To make a long and complex story somewhat shorter, the Ottoman Empire that ruled a region that is greater than present day Turkey until the 1920s had a close relation to Islam. Islamic law, Sharia, was the law of the land. But when the empire began to crumble, the reformers successfully pushed for a new secular Turkish republic that outlawed religion in the public square. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the new nation of Turkey, considered religion to be antithetical to modernization, and so pushed religion and its institutions into the private sphere. Ataturk himself schooled in the European philosophy of laicite, or radical secularism, advocated a strict separation of church and state. The free exercise of religion is allowed so long as it stays at home; religion is not accommodated but rather it is actively suppressed from public expression. The new Turkish state sought to create a homogenous society based on science and Turkish nationalism, and therefore tried to root out all other influences, especially religious ones, in the life of the people. So overnight, a Muslim culture was to be wiped away and replaced by scientific secularism in the interest of modernization.

One might imagine that such a project will have no success, but to some degree it has been achieved in Turkey. Still, religion is not easily eradicated; religion has a way of transforming itself and emerging in unforeseen ways. Religion can be privatized, but it will not always stay at home, for religion is an expansive force in human life, it is an urge toward greater good, toward greater freedom, and this urge found a decisive vehicle in the person of Fethullah Gülen. Gülen was raised in a Muslim home, but by all accounts, it was a progressive home life. As Helen Ebaugh says in her study of the movement: “Mr. Gülen was raised in a circle of people who were constantly exploring spirituality and its place in the modernizing world” (2010, 24). As a young man he was introduced to the writings of Said Nursi, the great Sufi scholar of the revolution. Although Ataturk’s secularism won the day after the revolution, Nursi’s progressive Islam continued to influence many Turks, and Gülen’s own developing vision of Islam for our global society is greatly indebted to Nursi’s thinking. To quote Ebaugh again: “Nursi had developed ideas of a modern Islam that insisted on the necessity of a significant role for religious beliefs in public life while embracing scientific and technological developments” (2010, 24).

What is Gülen’s vision of a modern Islam, and how does religion become a public force in a secular state that suppresses its expression? My trip to Turkey helped me to see the answer to such questions. I witnessed two cornerstones of the Gülen movement: education and dialog. Both of these are essential elements of the bridge that Gülen has built between Islam, the U.S., and the rest of the world. The Islam that Gülen advocates stresses that education is not enemy of religious faith but an ally. As part of his own crossing over and coming back, Gülen followed in the footsteps of Nursi and learned everything he could about European culture, especially the scientific mentality, but also the economic, political and social scientific developments. And he then synthesized this with his vision of a progressive Islam. Progressive Islam means an Islam that sees the Qur’an and the traditions as compatible with reason and experience. Education in Gülen’s vision means an education in the sciences, but also an education that stresses moral character and spiritual development. The result is a worldview that is both spiritually rich and intellectually sophisticated. How did I discover this?

During my trip to Turkey we visited numerous schools that have been founded by the Gülen movement. We visited with the principals and teachers, the deans and the faculty, and of course the students. I witnessed their commitment, their diligence and their joy in learning. The educational institutions the movement is sustaining for the children of Turkey, (and growingly across the globe), will greatly increase the real-life opportunities for these children to develop into the full personhood that God intended. These schools integrate scientific knowledge with ethical values; they address the whole person. As Gülen himself says, “The main duty and purpose of life is to seek understanding. The effort of doing so, known as education, is a perfecting process through which we earn, in the spiritual, intellectual and physical dimensions of our beings, the rank appointed for us as the perfect pattern of creation” (2006, 202). Nothing could be more important to a country’s development; GDP is important, but real human development is more important. We know this is so in America, but we are not emphasizing it as strongly as many in the Gülen movement are. We could learn something about education here.

Not only did we visit schools, but I was welcomed into the homes of volunteers active in the Gülen movement. While we enjoyed Turkish foods, we discussed serious matters: what was the aim of the movement? What was taught in the schools? Did instruction include ethics and religious matters? What did the “reading circles,” the gatherings of followers of Gülen, read and discuss? How will the movement be affected when Gülen passes away? And the individuals whose homes I visited wanted to hear about my impressions of Turkey; they wanted to learn about America: What was happening to education in America? What was the religious climate like in America? Who are the leaders? We engaged in genuine substantive dialogue about faith and life. How refreshing to visit with adults and discuss topics of real significance!

What was really transformative for me, and what led me to realize that this is a movement of profound depth, were these visits with individuals and families committed to the movement’s aims of education and dialog. The people involved in the Gülen movement are on a spiritual adventure; they are not defending a static vision, but one that affirms dialog across cultures and religions. They are passing over and coming back. I will confess to you that my study of religion and other cultures had been (up to this point) mostly of East Asian traditions, especially Buddhism. I came to appreciate Buddhist perspectives on the human spiritual situation. I have not disowned my Christian heritage, but I have incorporated some of the Buddhist wisdom in my Christian faith. I passed over and came back. But now I have passed over and come back again; I have come back to my faith with a new appreciation of Islam, and I now incorporate the wisdom of the Gülen movement into my Christian worldview.

Finally, I think that the Gülen movement has been so successful in large part because of the soil from which it emerged. This soil was a culture where religion was looking for a way to express itself in public without overstepping what was (to most Turks) an increasingly successful process of modernization. But that is true for many places in our world today. People are hungry for a world view that does not ask them to deny their spiritual heritage, that allows them to express their faith in public ways, but one that also does not ask them to deny their neighbor’s religious standpoint, but learn from their neighbor, nor to deny the science and technology that have lead to great gains for human life today. I predict that the Gülen movement will afford many people an answer to these yearnings; it provides a vision for a post-modern spirituality, one at home in an interdependent pluralistic world.

The Sociologist Peter Berger has written that there are “three options that all contemporary religious communities now face: to resist pluralism, to withdraw from it, or to engage with it. None is without difficulties and risks, but only engagement is compatible with liberal democracy. Engagement means that the tradition is carried into the open discourse of the culture and that those who represent the tradition make unapologetic truth claims” (Berger, 2005). The Gülen movement is a religious vision that is engaging our pluralistic world; the movement is not simply compatible with democracy, it is a force for democracy in our world. Furthermore, the Gülen movement proves that we can engage in diversity, that we can take our spiritual voice into the public square of liberal democracy, and make our truth claims while we yet listen to, acknowledge and evaluate the other parties’ truth claims. Indeed, the movement that bears Fethullah Gülen’s name is a way to spiritually pass over and come back, come back enriched and transformed. The Gülen movement is spiritual bridge for our time.

Dr. Mehl is a Professor of Philosophy & Religion at the University of Central Arkansas. 

References

• Berger, Peter. “Religious Pluralism for a Pluralistic Age” http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/berger1/English (accessed February 21, 2012)
• Dunne, John S. 1972. The Way of All the Earth: Experiments in Truth and Religion, Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
• Ebaugh, Helen Rose. 2010. The Gülen Movement: A Sociological Analysis of a Civic Movement Rooted in Moderate Islam, New York: Springer.
• Gülen, M. Fethullah. 2006. Toward a Global Civilization of Love and Tolerance, Somerset, NJ: The Light, Inc.

Nowadays, children and parents are estranged, employees and employers are continuously at odds, the government is deaf to the public and the public seems to be unaware of the government, the teacher and the pupil no longer talk the same language; these phenomena can all be explained when we realize the serious lack of communication that we are facing. What has gone wrong?

The reason that we are removed from one another in terms of communication, despite physical distances having been lessened, is that we either are unaware of that important component of human communication, empathy, or we are not giving it due consideration. There are many definitions of empathy; a brief definition is that it is the ability to recognize and understand another person’s perceptions and feelings and to accurately convey that understanding through a com- passionate response. In other words, it means understanding another person so well that you feel as he/she does. Native Americans expressed this as walking a mile in another person’s moccasins. It is being able to listen so intently and to identify so closely with another that you experience that person’s situation, thoughts and emotions. Empathy has many different descriptions, but they all narrow down to the same thing: developing the ability to see the world from another’s point of view without judging. Being empathetic is a bit like being an anthropologist; when an anthropologist goes to study a different people or tribe, there is no judgment or criticism involved, the anthropologist just accepts and describes the way of life, the way of seeing things. One must develop the ability to put oneself in another’s shoes, to see the world as they see it, without judgment or criticism or over-identification and agreement. Good therapists are said to do this; the same can be said for good friends. It is only with empathy that we can understand each other thoroughly and proceed to build close and reliable relationships.

Empathy acts as an inhibitor of aggression and violence. A person with greater empathy tends to act in pro-social ways simply because such a person is able to identify and recognize the plight of others. On the other hand, people acting in antisocial ways are likely to lay the foundations for violent and aggressive patterns. In this respect we can say that there is a strong relationship between empathy and morality. Morality can be explained as a set of principles or ideals that help an individual distinguish right from wrong. It is a term used to cover those practices and activities that are considered significantly right or wrong, the rules that govern these activities and the values that are embedded, fostered or pursued by these activities and practices. It would be correct to say that a man of high moral values is at the same time highly empathetic. This is true because the ability to see the world from another person’s point of view without personal biases or judgments usually leads one to a correct understanding of the situation and therefore assists one in making a correct decision. An empathetic person always places him/herself in the place of the people with whom he/she is in contact, looks at events from their perspective and thereby is able to attain a deep understanding of the situation. When it comes to making comments about the situation, such a person still assumes that he/she is still in the other person’s place and talks as if he/she is not talking to somebody else, but to him/herself. The result of such behavior is perfect comprehension and a correct evaluation of the situation.

To be empathetic in this way is a difficult human relations skill to gain. It would be relatively easier if there were only few people with whom one is in contact. At least then one would know each of these people’s characteristics and could understand each of their situations more easily. But what if there are many people with whom one is in contact, each having his/her own personal differences? Now it is that communicational ability arises and that one must be able to adapt to each situation, without being self-centered. This can only be achieved by a skill that has been fostered by high moral values. A person who has such skills is one that creates a feeling of intimacy and well-deserved trust in others. Such a person becomes someone to whom a story can always be told in confidence, and such a person may even understand a situation better than the person involved.

This is how the Almighty Creator wants us to be and how he expects us to be. This reality is evident in the religions that God has sent to us with His messengers. What is called The Golden Rule is a prevalent idea of Christianity. The golden rule is best interpreted as saying: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. To use this rule, one must imagine oneself to be in exactly the same place of the person who is involved in the action. If we act in a given way toward another person, yet are unwilling to be treated that way ourselves under the same circumstances, then we have violated this rule. To apply the golden rule adequately, we need both knowledge and imagination. We need to know what effect our actions will have on the lives of others. And we need to be able to imagine ourselves, vividly and accurately, in another person’s place in a given situation. With knowledge, imagination, and by applying the golden rule, we can progress far in our moral thinking.

The golden rule is best seen as a principle of consistency. It does not replace regular moral norms. It is not an infallible guide by which to judge the correctness of an action; it does not provide all the answers. It only prescribes consistency – that is that we not let our actions (toward another person) be out of harmony with our desires. It tests our moral coherence. If we violate the golden rule, then we are violating the spirit of fairness and compassion that lies at the heart of morality.

Moreover, Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, the Messenger of Islam, says He who does not feel the hunger of his neighbor when he goes to sleep in his comfortable bed cannot in any way share our values. It is of utmost importance to put effort in empathizing with another’s circumstances and to understand other people well. Islam actually states that the most important of all the divine characteristics that a person should have is their personal relations with other people. That is the only thing for which God, the All Merciful, will not directly show His compassion when the time comes to account for our sins after death. In other words, suppose that you have mistreated somebody in this world; God will first ask the person who has been mistreated whether you are to be forgiven. This is God’s absolute justice, an important part of His character.

There is no doubt that God gives particular importance to communication among people and to their understanding of one another. Taking into consideration the scientific finding that almost 90 percent of human communication is comprised of non-verbal elements, empathy plays a great role in the part of good communication. In the history of humanity so much has changed, but the main component of communication, empathy, has maintained its place as before. It is the invisible bridge that connects our hearts to one another through which we understand and feel one another, a bridge that God wants us to construct to span our hearts, a bridge via which God’s love can be acquired.

Surely We created humanity of the best pattern. Then We reduced humanity to the lowest of the low, except for those who believe and do good deeds. (95:4-5)

In the following five points, we will explain five out of the thousands of virtues of belief.

First point

Through the light of belief, we reach the highest degree of perfection and become worthy of Paradise. On the other hand, the darkness of unbelief reduces us to the lowest level so that we become worthy of Hell. Belief connects us to our Majestic Maker, and our value derives from using our belief to demonstrate the Divine art and manifest the Divine Names. Unbelief breaks this relation, thereby veiling the Divine art and reducing our value to that of a mere and almost valueless physical entity, for we are no more than a perishable thing, a transient animal. We will explain this truth through a parable.

The value of the iron (or any other material) from which a work of art is made differs from the value of the art expressed in it. Sometimes they may have the same value, or else the art’s worth may be far more valuable than its material or vice versa. An antique may fetch as much as a million dollars, while its material is not even worth a few cents. If taken to the antiques market, it may be sold for its true value because of its art and the brilliant artist’s name. If taken to a blacksmith, it would be sold only for the value of its iron.

Similarly, each of us is a unique, priceless work of God Almighty’s art. We are His Power’s most delicate and graceful miracles, beings created to manifest His Names and inscriptions as miniature specimens of the universe. If we are illuminated with belief, these meaningful inscriptions become visible. Believers manifest them through their connection with their Maker, for the Divine art contained in each individual is revealed through such affirmations as: I am the work of the Majestic Maker, the creature and object of His Mercy and Munificence. As a result, and because we gain value in proportion to how well we reflect this art, we move from insignificance (in material terms) to beings ranked above all creatures. We communicate with God, are His guests on Earth, and are qualified for Paradise.(1)

But if unbelief is ingrained in us, all of the Divine Names’ meaningful manifestations are veiled by darkness and therefore non-expressive. If the artist is unknown, how can the aspects expressing the art’s worth be identified? Thus, most meaningful instances of that sublime art and elevated inscriptions are concealed. In material terms, unbelievers attribute them to trivial causes, nature, and chance, thereby reducing them to plain glass instead of sparkling diamonds. They are no more significant than any other material entity, self-condemned to a transient and suffocating life. They are no better than a most impotent, needy, and afflicted animal that eventually turns to dust. Unbelief thus spoils our nature by changing our diamond into coal.

Second point

Just as belief illuminates us and reveals the messages inscribed in our being by the Eternally-Besought-of-All, so does it illuminate the universe and remove darkness from the past and the future. We will explain this truth through what I experienced regarding the meaning of: God is the Protecting Friend of those who believe. He brings them out of the layers of darkness into the light (2:257).

I saw myself standing on an awe-inspiring bridge set over a deep valley between two mountains. The world was completely covered by a thick darkness. Looking to my right, I imagined I saw a huge tomb. Looking to my left, I felt as if I were seeing violent storms and calamities being prepared amid tremendous waves of darkness. Looking down, I imagined I was seeing a very deep precipice.

In that dreadful darkness, my torch’s dim light revealed a horrifying scene. All along the length of the bridge were such horrible dragons, lions, and monsters that I wished I had no torch. Whichever way I directed it, I got the same fright. This torch brings me only trouble, I exclaimed, angrily casting it to the ground and breaking it. All of a sudden, the darkness was replaced by light, as if I had switched on a huge light by breaking my torch. I saw everything in its true nature.

I discovered that the bridge was a highway on a smooth plain. The huge tomb was a green, beautiful garden in which assemblies of worship, prayer, glorification, and discourse were being led by illustrious persons. The turbulent, stormy, frightening precipices now appeared as a banqueting hall, a shaded promenade, a very beautiful resting place behind lovely mountains. The horrible monsters and dragons were, in fact, camels, sheep, and goats. Praise and thanks be to God for the light of belief, I said, and then awoke reciting: God is the Protecting Friend of those who believe. He brings them out of the layers of darkness into the light.

The two mountains are the beginning and end of this life, and the life between death and Resurrection. The bridge is the lifespan, between the two phases of the past (on the right) and the future (on the left). The torch is our conceited ego that, relying on its own achievements, ignores Divine Revelation. The monsters are the world’s events and extraordinary creatures.

Those who have fallen into the darkness of misguidance and heedlessness because of their confidence in their egos resemble me in the former state”in the dim light of a torch. With their inadequate and misguided knowledge, they see the past as a huge tomb in the darkness of extinction, and the future as a stormy scene of terror controlled by coincidence or chance.

The torch shows them events and creatures. In reality, these are subjugated to the All-Wise and All-Merciful, fulfill specific functions, and serve good purposes in submission to His Decree. However, they see such things as harmful monsters. These are the people referred to in: As to those who do not believe, their protecting friends are false deities. They bring them out of light into layers of darkness (2:257).

But if people are favored with Divine guidance so that belief enters their hearts and their Pharaoh-like egos are broken, enabling them to listen to the Book of God, they will resemble me in my later state. Suddenly the universe will fill with Divine Light, demonstrating the meaning of: God is the light of the heavens and the Earth (24:35).

Through the eye of their hearts, such people see that the past is not a huge tomb; rather, each past century is the realm of authority of a Prophet or a saint, where the purified souls, having completed the duties of their lives (worship) with: God is the Greatest, flew to higher abodes on the side of the future.

Looking to the left and through the light of belief, they discern, behind the mountain-like revolutions of the intermediate world and the next life, a feasting place set up by the All-Compassionate One at palaces of bliss in gardens of Paradise. They understand that such events as storms, earthquakes, and epidemics serve a specific function, just as the spring rain and winds, despite their apparent violence, serve many agreeable purposes. They even see death as the beginning of eternal life, and the grave as the gateway to eternal happiness.

Adapted from Bediuzzaman’s Twenty-third Word, First Chapter.

Footnote

1. For example, prayer is a form of communication with God, who speaks to us through Prophets, inspiration, or Scriptures.