Those who devote themselves to philanthropy should clamp tight to this holy creed and glorious ideal of service. They should develop projects for today and tomorrow; and most importantly they should writhe in the worry of communicating it to the rudest, toughest, most stubborn, most intolerant, and most unfaithful of people… Yes, it is this agony that will lead us to the climate of tolerance, and rise up to benignity, then from there to forgiveness, then from there to mercy, and finally to the most prosperous horizon of guidance, in terms of assisting others to eternal bliss.

Those who pioneered in good work in the past have accomplished their mission and have gone, resigning the trust to our generation expecting us to be the architects and thought-laborers of today. Following on, the generations succeeding us will take over the trust and carry it to a higher level. All these shall be realized as a favor of God Almighty bestowed upon our common inclination and the profoundness of our inner world.

On this issue, that we, by any chance, fall in any kind of worldly expectations and base our attitudes on that expectation is nothing else but insincerity. Thoughts like “I am doing all these by myself, I am achieving all those by myself,” and the expectations—no matter how minor—that pass through our minds for a moment, will destroy a side of the construction we are trying to erect and will harm our philanthropical work. Moreover, those expectations can gash into our souls in the course of time, and lead us to egoism and arrogance.

As a result of some of the good work we have done, some people may bear good opinion of us and offer us some positions. I think that no single person who has devoted himself to the good of others should fancy for or prioritize personal gains. Such a fanciful thought is a step in the wrong direction, and if not repented for promptly will be followed by further wrong steps to become a standing mentality. Then, a day may come when that person’s world would come crumbling down on them and s/he will lose everything.

An eminent thinker of our age and a hero of sincerity, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi was extraordinarily sensitive in this regard, and he pointed to the fragility of the issue under discussion through statements such as “without my free-will, I’ve been made to read certain books,” “I’ve been pushed to abandon books,” “in full unawareness, I’ve been guided to the word of God,” “I’ve been made to serve my faith fully out of my cognition.” To be a private, ordinary soldier, is something like gold dust for us. And best of all, as a private, we should wait in front of the door of God and should not conceive of any kind of expectations. Yes, it is true that a soldier is sometimes made to perform the task of a colonel; but this is something merely in the discretion of God and we have no say in this decision. Indeed, does Bediuzzaman not express the same concern? “My self is lower than all else, the mission is higher than all,” “you are to see yourself as the notorious sinner,” “do not suppose that you deserve the honor of all these beauties. As you do not represent them in full, you may only be a zone of reflection.” Ripples on the water reflect the image of the sun. What could they reflect if the sun did not exist? Therefore, all the beauties belong to the Beauty of Beauties. Yes, these considerations are of utmost significance. The greater the tasks God Almighty makes us perform, the more our modesty should increase and the further we should stand clear of expectations and claims. To remain in welfare both in this world and the Hereafter, indeed, depends on the soundness of heart:

Never suppose, the holy one, they will ask for gold or silver,
On the judgment day, they will call but of a sound heart.

Yes, this truth must penetrate deep into our souls. As ordinary as we are, we should not bear expectations exceeding ourselves, whether it is in the name of ourselves or the community we are in. We need to focus on giving our last breath with these thoughts.

Muslim peoples, who had for centuries been accustomed to having the upper hand in their relations with the other parts of the world, have felt the bitter taste of defeat in all fields of life. Shocked by successive waves of defeat and humiliation, like a gambler who, having lost the game all the time, continues to try his luck in despair, they have lost all that they had in desperate attempts to catch up with the victors. Continuing to lose, they have continued the game with new, desperate attempts to win, but to no avail.

Those whose eyes were once fixed on what would come from beyond the world, those whose hands were opened up only towards heaven, who believed that they had been created only to beg from the Creator, have all been beggars at the door of others. Mosques, which once served as platforms from which to rise to eternity, have lost their true, spiritual identity and served as places visited by ‘moving corpses’-people dead in spirit-who occasionally call in to observe ceremonies in the name of worshipping God. The institutions of education, which once served as laboratories where existence was profoundly studied like a book, and admiringly observed like an exhibition, have been reduced to places where superstitious dogmas and myths are taught. Nature, no longer able to attract their attention, has therefore been subjected to misinterpretation by others. The ecological balance has been destroyed and the natural world changed into a suffering, potentially uninhabitable, ‘hell’. Getting nothing from the mosque by way of spiritual satisfaction, or from the school by way of intellectual enlightenment, and unable to study nature-in short, with nothing to give them hope-the young have sought consolation in outlandish ventures and hysterical crazes and destructiveness. Deprived of any sublime ideals and aspirations to eternity, they have felt suffocated within the dark confines of the present time, disconnected from the past and with no promise of better in the future.

It was mere wishfulness to expect the young to be otherwise, seeing that they are offered as objectives for their energy only money, fame, show, attachment to life and egoism, in the context of the modern, artificial, dull and spiritless environments which have replaced our intimate old city quarters and traditional old homes. Spiritually and intellectually dissatisfied, the young have viewed life as consisting of only the satisfaction of bodily desires and material values, and dedicated their energies accordingly.

Some of those who, though lacking in idealism, zeal and energy, have offered themselves to the public as representatives of Islamic values, have in fact sought material rewards in return for whatever they appeared to do in the name of religion. Their attitudes have polluted the purity of Islam and led the bewildered masses to find other sources to satisfy their sincere expectations and spiritual needs. Furthermore, those who fantasize about implanting belief in hearts with ‘swords drawn’ and ‘daggers pointed’, have dragged religion down into a worldly-minded politics and distorted the meaning and content of this way leading to God and Paradise.

Despite their claims to be striving to revive the Islamic civilization on the basis of reason and scientific knowledge and Divine Revelation, those politically-oriented ones have not refrained from vengeance, hatred, violence and hostility, even going so far as to present such vicious attitudes as a requirement or condition of religious struggle. It is extremely difficult to regard them as soldiers of religion. They can only be the soldiers of their own caprices and their carnal selves. What is revealed of their intentions through their public speeches and their actions brings to our mind the image of gallows set up on the streets. Nothing else can be expected from such people as those who cherish no love, faithfulness, and respect for others in their hearts. It is vain to expect them to inspire confidence and assurance or to show respect for truth and acknowledge freedom of thought, freedom of action, for others.

Another barrier before the young has been the mass media. Either through voicing the interests of holding companies and cartels which own them, or through brain-washing in the name of certain centres of power, the mass media are largely responsible for the intellectual misguidance and moral per- versions of the young. Almost everyone, whether young or old, male or female, lettered or unlettered, is under the influence of the mass media. The mass media are capable of distorting realities and truths, presenting what is beautiful as ugly and vice-versa, and making immoralities and the satisfaction of bodily desires preferable to moral purity and lofty ideals. They also encourage backbiting, slander and gossip.

Most of the intelligentsia in the Muslim world have long given their minds and spirits over to blind imitation of the West. Putting on airs, as in the past medals were worn by the lords of the old aristocracies and monarchies, they show themselves in the forums where national or public issues are discussed and, unaware of their lack in necessary knowledge and sound judgement, behave like sycophants of foreign values and ideals. Being indifferent or even averse to their old, traditional values and with nothing of their own to offer for the well-being of the people and the future of their countries, and given that their interest in public affairs and the problems of the people is directly related to their own private interests, this class of intellectuals have nothing positive to offer that can solve the problems of the young.

But we are not hopeless, nor have we been so. It would be a disregarding of the truth not to notice and mention the growing portion of the young who, with their hope, belief, resolution, fervour and love of truth, have been doing their utmost to restore to human life its real value and dignity, to inject vigour and spirituality into mere existence, and to hold out to everyone a ‘feather’ from the ‘wings’ of angels. Unlike the masses drowned in despair and unlike those who seek to deceive people in the name of religion or of modern life and values, these noble-minded ones materialize their spirit on earth. With the colour of saints, pure scholars and Prophets on their faces, and a passionate yearning for eternity straining in their spirits, they carry the love, mercy and promise of the Prophets wherever they go and try to found a new world on the eternal values of the past, the enlightenment of true science and pure expectations from the future. Following the Prophetic Message and Divine wisdom, they are trying to tear apart the thick veils of ignorance, heedlessness, indifference to perennial values and obstinacy, striving to open the way at the end of which truth and mercy come together.

I hope that so long as they remain faithful to the One with infinite mercy ardently and with firm belief, Divine help will never leave them to manage on their own, but will open for them the way to realizing their goals. The point where aspirations are unified with lofty feelings and lofty feelings are based on Divine Revelation and sound judgement, is the point where human will is completely oriented by Divine universal Will. When its time is due, everyone will feel this orientation and come to understand that whatever was (or remains yet to be) suffered for such a result was really worth it.

There are two religious festivals in Islam. ‘Id al-Fitr, the festival of the breaking of the fast, comes at the end of the month of Ramadan, during which Muslims fast from dawn until sunset. ‘Id al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice, comes on the tenth of Dhu’I-Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic year in which the pilgrimage is performed. Both festivals enjoy a very special place in the life of Muslims and leave indelible impressions on the culture of Muslim people.

Religious festivals for Muslims are times of heightened Islamic thoughts and feelings when memories of a long and honourable past are revived, recalled and ‘lived’ afresh with all its joys and sorrows.

Religious festivals are, for Muslims, occasions of paradoxical feelings – pangs of separation and hopes of re-union, regrets and expectations, and joys and sorrows. While on the one hand, they feel sadness over losses in either individual or national spheres, on the other, they feel, paradoxically, the exhilarating pleasure of an expected revival, like the revival of nature in spring after a severe winter.

Muslims enjoy the pleasure of re-union and of a universal brotherhood on festival days. They smile at each other lovingly, greet each other respectfully, and pay visits to each other. Members of divided families whom modern, industrialized life has forced to live apart from each other in different towns, come together and feel the intoxicating pleasure of once more eating together and spending a few days together.

For Muslims, religious festivals are occasions for spiritual revival through seeking God’s forgiveness and praising and glorifying Him. They are enraptured by special supplications, odes and eulogies for the Prophet. Especially in traditional circles where the traces of the past are still alive, people experience the meaning of the festival in a more vivid, colourful fashion, on cushions or sofas, or around stoves or fire-places in their humble houses or cottages, or under the trees among the flowers in their gardens, or in the spacious halls of their homes. They feel the meaning of the festival in each morsel they eat, in each sip they drink and in each word they speak about their traditional and religious values.

Religious festivals are of a much greater significance for children. They feel a different joy and pleasure in the warm, embracing climate of the festivals, which they have been preparing to welcome a few days before. Like nightingales singing on branches of trees, they cause us to experience the festivals more deeply through their plays, songs, smiles and cheers.

Religious festivals provide the most practical means for improving human relationships. People experience a deep inward pleasure, they meet and exchange good wishes in a blessed atmosphere of spiritual harmony. It is especially when the festival permeates hearts with prayer and supplications performed consciously that souls are elevated to the realm of eternity. They then feel the urge to get rid of the clutches of worldly attachments and live in the depths of their spiritual being. In the atmosphere overflowing with love and mercy, a new hope is injected with life.

Believing souls welcome the religious festivals with wonder, expectations and otherworldly pleasures. It is, indeed, difficult to understand fully what believing souls feel during the religious festivals in the depths of their hearts. To perceive the feelings that the festivals arouse in pure souls who lead their life in ecstasies of otherworldly pleasures, it is necessary to experience such pleasures in the same degree.

Having reached the day of the festival after fulfilling their prescribed duty and responsibility, these souls display such a dignity and serenity, such a grace and spiritual excellence that those who see them think that they have all received a perfect religious and spiritual education. Some of them are so sincere and so devoted to God that each seems to represent the outcome of a long glorious history and to be the embodiment of centuries-old universal values. One may experience through their conduct and manners that taste of the fruits of Paradise, the peaceful atmosphere on the slopes of firdaws-the highest abode in Paradise-and the delight of being near to God.