A week later, they had an exam and his teacher noticed from his writing that he had difficulties in grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. The teacher decided to talk with his parents about the problem. His mother said the following:

“When he was very young, I noticed that he was not able to speak like the other children; however, I thought he was going to speak sooner or later. What was the importance of speaking earlier or later for children? There will not be any difference between children after they all learn to talk.
Also, I know that his father spoke very late when he was a child, so I thought that my child would also speak later. But I did not know that it would bring such difficulties for his future.”

As we can understand from this situation, it is very dangerous to ignore children who have speech and language delays. Let’s think about a machine (e.g. a car) that is not working properly. Would we delay its restoration and say, “I should wait and see whether or not it will be fine in a week”? The answer is absolutely not!

However, when it comes to our own children, most people say: 

“Let’s see, whether or not he or she will be able to speak once they turn three; if not, then we should go to a language therapist or child psychologist.”

How do we know that this child will be able to speak after they turn three? Even if they might speak after this age, it could be too late to overcome self-confidence and psychological problems. Research shows that speech and language delays are the most common developmental disorders for kids and they affect at least one out of ten children (1).

When considering the importance of language development for children, it can be said that language is a tool that enables people to socialize and express themselves without any extra effort. So, children who have language delays could show aggressive behavior towards other people or they could damage themselves due to their frustration at being unable to express themselves. Over the long term, such difficulties could negatively affect their academic life (2), social-emotional development, and self-confidence (3), as exemplified earlier.

In order to overcome the available negative factors and also to decrease possible future disadvantages, the backgrounds and causes of the problem should be thoroughly examined. There are a variety of factors that can cause speech and language delays and each of these factors should be addressed separately by professionals so as to apply the most appropriate method of treatment.

* Problems that are classified as external could be the cause of a language delay. It should be examined whether or not children have problems in their mouth, tongue, and hearing system. For example, if a child has some degree of hearing loss, it would directly affect his speaking, communication abilities, and social life. Also, in the long term, it could affect his writing skills and academic life. Research shows that early diagnosis of hearing issues and early intervention programs can minimize the disadvantages of language delay. Children experiencing such problems should be seen by a professional. Then, in accordance with their level of hearing issues, the most appropriate intervention should be applied by a speech and language therapist.

* If a child only has a speech delay but does not have any another developmental impairment in their social, motor, or cognitive development, the delay could be due to neurological problems. In this case, it is important to consult a neurologist and then a child psychologist.

* There are also a variety of different factors that could affect children’s language development:

Parent’s behavior: Some parents can be over-protective and this might not allow their child to develop independence. This can be the case if the child refuses to speak and only uses body language to show what they want. This may lead the child to express himself with body language instead of learning verbal language. Parents should encourage their children to express themselves verbally.

Parent-child interaction: It is very important to spend sufficient time with a child via playing games and interacting with them every day. If parents only buy some useful materials for their child’s development, such as books, puzzles, and toys, and then leave them alone, the child will not benefit from these materials. According to Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development theory, children may need assistance from an experienced person when they are trying to do or learn something. Though unable to complete such tasks alone, with help, they can be successful. Because children are learning about the outside word with the aid of games and imitation, both their mother and father should play and interact with them in the flow of daily life. Thus, instead of children looking at a storybook on their own, parents could read it by using vocabulary that is suitable to the child’s age.

Electronic devices and television: It is not recommended that children under two watch television since it directly affects their language and speech development (4). Also, after two years old, children can be introduced to educational programs, but it is very important to restrict their television time and arrange it according to their age.

Poverty: Research shows that there is a significant relationship between poverty and language delay (5). It was found that there is a link between socio economic factors and parental stress which could negatively affect their behavior towards a child. Also, it was found that parents living in poverty are less likely to have a high education level, so they might have a limited vocabulary when interacting with children. As a result, their child’s word count is affected by this situation. Instead of expecting something parents cannot provide, social organizations should take responsibility and detect such at-risk children and provide them with the appropriate materials. Also, parents who have financial problems can use libraries to borrow books for their children and also apply to voluntary institutions for financial support.

Additionally, it is important to consider bilingual children who are learning two languages at the same time. Bilingual children might start to speak a little bit late when comparing them with monolingual children. However, this delay should not be long. Their language should be delayed only several weeks or perhaps months. Importantly, if these children do not use any words, although they are 18 months old, this could be a sign of a serious problem. It may also be seen that bilinguals might confuse two languages and use both languages’ vocabularies when they are speaking. They will usually speak both languages competently when they turn five years old (4).

In the light of our story, if the parents had contacted a professional earlier and had started to solve their child’s problem before he began primary school, this child might not have faced speaking, reading, and academic issues. At the very least, the effects of language delay might have been minimized through the appropriate interventions. Parents who are in similar situations should not ignore their child’s disability and make excuses. Instead, they should accept it, because research shows that accepting a disorder helps all involved to address the problem and produce a solution as quickly as possible. Furthermore, there is no difference found between professionals and parents in terms of applying a method of intervention. Parents can be trained by professionals and learn suitable intervention methods.

Let’s think about what would happen if the same child’s language problem had been noticed earlier and the parents would have decided to contact a professional to learn what the background of the problem was and how they could solve it:

“It was just an ordinary day for him. His teacher asked him to read a text from our book and he started to read the book; while initially his voice was shaky, he took a deep breath and tried to be confident. Finally, he read the text confidently and fluently like his other peers. Then the bell rang and he went out to play games with the other children.”

Fatma Canan is a Child Psychologist and PhD Candidate in the UK.

References

1. http://www.answers.com/library/Children%27s+Health+Encyclopedia-cid-4643111
2. Bickford‐Smith, A., Wijayatilake, L., & Woods, G. (2005). Evaluating the effectiveness of an early years language intervention. Educational Psychology in practice, 21(3), 161-173.
3. Law, J., Garrett, Z., & Nye, C. (2003). Speech and language therapy interventions for children with primary speech and language delay or disorder. Campbell Collaboration.
4. Kayiran, S. M., Şahin, S. A., & Cure, S. (2012). Pediatri Perspektifinden Çocuklarda Konuşma ve Dil Gecikmesine Yaklaşım. Marmara Medical Journal,25(1).
5. Hoff, E., & Tian, C. (2005). Socioeconomic status and cultural influences on language. Journal of Communication Disorders, 38(4), 271-278.

The Sufi way of poverty involves severing relationships with all that is other than the Eternally Besought-of-All, and depending only on Him to meet one’s needs. For this reason, the more detached one is from whatever is worldly and temporary and the more annihilated one is in depending on the Divine Attributes and Essence, the more one has attained poverty and can repeat the saying of the Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings: Poverty is my pride.^[1]

As stated in a blessed saying, when poverty becomes a dimension of faith and submission, one no longer depends on the help, will, and power of that which is not God. Even if such a person has enough wealth to fill the whole world, as the world is subject to decay and exhaustion, one does not depend upon it, but rather turns to God with all of one’s strength and feeling, conscious of his or her essential poverty and helplessness. How beautiful is the following couplet of Nabi, a seventeenth-century Ottoman poet:

Do not look on poverty with contempt, O Nabi!
Poverty is the mirror where independence of others is reflected.

Rumi made another fine observation about poverty:

Poverty is the essence and all else is form;
poverty is a remedy and all else the disease.
The whole world consists in vanity and conceit;
but poverty is the real core and meaning of existence.

Even if a person cannot discern his or her essential weakness and poverty with the light of belief, it is a reality that he or she is weak, poor, and needy. God Almighty declares: O humankind! You are all poor before God and in absolute need of Him, whereas He is the All-Wealthy and Self-Sufficient, the All-Praiseworthy (35:15). As absolutely everybody needs His act of choice, will, and decree to come into existence, His Self-Subsistent and All-Subsisting Existence is also needed at every moment to survive.

An individual’s poverty and neediness before the Almighty is not a means of humiliation; rather, one’s increased awareness of one’s poverty engenders higher degrees of dignity, for such awareness before the Absolutely Wealthy One is richness itself.

The believer becomes aware of his or her non-dependence on others, and acquires the consciousness of independence to the extent that one feels in his or her conscience that God is the sole source of power and wealth. His help is sought, and it is therefore to Him that one turns. Even if such a person is materially poor, he or she feels no need for anything or anyone else.

The believer is convinced that whatever or whoever exists, including himself or herself, essentially belongs to the Almighty, for all elements of creation are only shadows of the shadow of His absolutely independent Existence. This degree of conviction of God’s Unity is called annihilation in God, two steps ahead of which is subsistence with God. Concerning this, Hayali, another Ottoman poet of the seventeenth-century, says:

Hayali, cover your naked body with the shawl of poverty;
This is their pride, they know not of satin or silk.

Poverty is the goal of saints, the (natural) state of purified scholars, and the most manifest sign of love of God. The Almighty has placed poverty in the hearts of His friends so that those hearts may prosper through it. Poverty is a key of light to open the eye of the heart to the inexhaustible treasuries of God. One who has this key is the richest person in the world, for poverty is the door to richness. Those who pass through this door reach in their conscience the infinite treasuries of the Owner of all property and discover that poverty is identical with the real richness. For this reason we can say, as Junayd al-Baghdadi did:

Richness is no more than the final, perfect degree of poverty.^[2]

When one is perfectly conscious of one’s essential poverty before God and one’s absolute dependence on Him, one is absolutely rich, for such a person no longer feels any need. This is what must be meant by the famous saying: The real richness is the richness of the heart. When one has attained this degree of richness, it is as if he or she has found a credit card that is valid everywhere. One who has such mysterious capital can be considered neither poor nor powerless. This is what is described in the following lines:

His is power, by which we are powerful.
We are well-known by His Name or fame.
We go beyond peaks and continue our way;
we overcome all difficulties with ease.
We possess nothing worldly, but are absolutely rich,
and are dignified and respectable with His Dignity.
We follow the way of reflection, so
whatever exists is a source of the knowledge of God for us.^[3]

^[1] al-‘Ajluni, Kashfu’l-Khafa’, 2:87.

^[2] al-Qushayri, ar-Risala, 273.

^[3] M. Fethullah Gülen, Kırık Mızrap (Broken Plectrum), 38–39.

I contend that Money has acquired a character, a personality, if you like. So there you are, you have Mr. and Mrs. Average on the street, and then there is Money. It is best to keep Money otherwise anonymous, for it has become uppity enough. In the old days, people would say that “money talks” and that inference has been made fact. Nowadays, Money makes a dialogue to fit its own ends and Money knows where it is going, with whom it is having dinner tonight, whom it is going to embarrass due to its immediate absence, and the person or company it is going to ruin in the morning.

Money, you might say, has got Greece on the skids. It is not really the fault of Greece or Grecians in general, because, you see, Money has become sly, altogether its own boss.

Nevertheless, despite the awful Cloud of Unknowing hovering over Athens, the Greeks of our acquaintance have been generous to a fault. We have been offered many a meze (a small plate of olives, feta, sausage, etc.), coffee or glass of ouzo free of charge. There has been a bon vivant air to our relationships, but we are convinced that due to the rather cavalier handling of their monetary means, these jolly persons do not wish to have a mainland psyche.

Who was it who said that “only a millionaire can afford to be a communist”? Never mind, the notion is perfectly applicable to Greece and its very nice people. It could mean that either they are all transcended souls and have seen something that we have not, or simply don’t give two figs for the idea of poverty. This is true on the islands, that is! Athens is another matter altogether.

In much the same way that there are countries in which poverty means a less strenuous existence than in some others. (Being poor in Austria, for example, is bearable. Poverty in some other countries, which we do not name, would be quite horrid.) Life for the Greek islanders is obviously less affected than life for those living in Athens. In the islands in other words, Money has none of the packed dependents that a metropolis offers to exert its lack of presence. Athens may well be the seat of government, but the islands seem to require little governing. One can’t shake off the feeling that Money has made itself essential to the running of a financial capital and nowhere else, because that is what financial capitals are for. See? The capital cities of this world are all a home-from-home for Money. We shudder at the thought of Brussels, which obviously needs paying for, going the same way.

My wife and I have decided to have no truck with money (we have de-capitalised it for a start). Should money stray our way, we will toss it into a corner and let it sulk for a bit; we may send it to a Third World country, which is where it belongs, but we will NOT go out and spend it. Moreover, we will excommunicate it from our feelings; we will not thrill at the thought of it; we will not indulge in sprees, thereby refusing to have a good time on the strength of money. Above all, we will resist the attraction of what money can buy. (There is a lovely little chrome-vanadium ratchet-spanner set that keeps beckoning to me when I pass its shop window.) We have pierced this monetary fog of collusion with the searchlight of our mind. We may want something but we rarely need it. That may sound like a pretty ordinary thought process, but one does require a certain resolve to carry the cross. Thus, down with glitter, down with sell, and back to the village life that serves us well.

The lady (one’s financially bemused wife) is a bit unsure of all this, despite the fact that she can circulate through a supermarket (“they always give me a headache”) and emerge with a full trolley in ten minutes flat, while one is still wrestling with the urge to buy a needless gadget.

The answer is obvious! We must drop out! We may be in the world but we will not be of it! We will say “get thee behind me – thou shalt follow and not lead.”

But can one avoid money? The machine one writes on was purchased with money. We may feel smug and contend that it is paid for and that’s that! But money has induced some manufacturers to produce goods that are set to implode within three years. Thus, money needs to circulate to feel OK, to do the rounds, check out the joints and the venues, get fluttered every so often, muscle in on things and throw its weight about, get turned into cheques and then get cashed, get wired somewhere, get bought and sold. My goodness, can one really buy and sell money? If so, what does one use in the process of buying and selling? A popular brand of beer sold in Greece is called Mythos. Go figure!

Lawrence Brazier is a writer living with his wife in rural Austria. His main interest is mystical experience.

With his new book, Insights from the Risale-i Nur, Thomas Michel sets out to answer some of these questions. Michel states his goal very early in the book: as a Jesuit priest, he wants to know where, if at all, he can find “points of convergence” between Christianity and Islam within Bediüzzaman Said Nursi’s (d. 1960) seminal “Risale-i Nur.”

It turns out there aren’t just a few points, but many. And throughout Michel’s book – which is a collection of essays, speeches, and presentations the priest has delivered over the last two decades – he lays the groundwork for a healthy, constructive dialogue between not just Christians and Muslims, but peoples of all faith.

Nursi wrote the “Risale-i Nur” in the wake of two world wars. He’d watched as the secular advances of Western civilization had led to the near total destruction of Europe – not once, but twice. The collateral damage had deeply affected his home, Turkey, and its neighbors. And he endured the ill effects of Turkey’s own modernization efforts, as he was repeatedly persecuted and imprisoned for his faith.

Under such circumstances, it would have been understandable if his book had been rife with anger. Instead, as Michel astutely shows throughout his own thoughtful book, Nursi’s commentary is remarkably hopeful. He sought these “points of convergence” while also stressing what he believed as the truth of his own faith. Michel adeptly uses Nursi’s words to draw out the common ground between different faiths, and looks at how these similarities can be applied in our equally fraught contemporary age.

Both Christianity and Islam pinpoint the destruction wrought by war and poverty as having germinated not from faith, but from rampant materialism run to its natural conclusion. In a quote that Michel returns to, time and again, Nursi writes:

Europe is two. One follows the sciences which serve justice and right
And the industries beneficial for the life of society it has received from
True Christianity; this first Europe I am not addressing. I am rather
Addressing the second, corrupt Europe which, through the darkness of
The philosophy of naturalism, supposing the evils of civilization to be
Its virtues, has driven mankind to vice and misguidance.

Michel routinely connects Nursi’s, and Islam’s, distress about materialism and greed with Christianity and Judaism’s distress about the same things. The book’s second essay charts the overlaps between Nursi and Pope John Paul II in their approaches to forgiveness. Both men believed that materialism, and the selfishness it fosters, are antithetical to healthy, fulfilled communities. People of faith, no matter their belief systems, believe that a truly rich life involves more than the simple acquisition of transient materials. This common desire – for communities based on mutual love and respect instead of self-interest – is a major point of convergence. As Nursi writes, “Our enemy, that which is destroying us, is Lord Ignorance, his son [Master] Poverty Efendi, and grandson, [Mr] Enmity Bey.”

Michel shows that, although Nursi believed adamantly in the truth of his faith, he also believed that true followers of the other “revealed religions” were friends and allies of Islam. Writing after the Second World War, Nursi stated that innocents who had died “were martyrs of a sort, whatever religion they belonged to.” In the aftermath of an invasion that mostly destroyed the city of Van, Nursi “…wept without distinction for both the Christian and Muslim victims, who had been his ‘friends and acquaintances.’” In these acts of kindness, Michel finds common ground with Nursi – both of their faiths value the dignity of every human life.

In a world in which the pursuit of wealth and immediate satisfaction guides so many human interactions, this value is not always present. All too often, people from different walks of life are viewed as obstacles to a person attaining the material satisfaction they’ve come to believe is rightfully theirs.

Michel sums up this perspective succinctly in one of the most important essays in the book, “Dialogue among Believers.” He writes, “Instead of fostering fellowship and mutual aid among nations, social values are too often oriented toward providing the populace with amusements, distractions, and opportunities for instant gratification.”

Such striving for material rewards – the pursuit of which lies at the heart of capitalism, which often functions as a “secular” religion – has resulted in the debasement and poverty of a large portion of the world’s population. This dehumanization and desacralizing of human life is at the root of most religious concerns about contemporary culture. Instead of working towards a “higher good” – community, peace, or God – people are focused on self-actualization through consumption. But as Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 4, verse 4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The Qur’an echoes this when it says, in chapter 63, verse 9, “Let not your properties … divert you from the remembrance of God.” It’s not difficult to interpret these quotes to mean that humanity should not simply honor and respect God, but should also honor and respect God’s creations through reverence and peace. Material possessions alone cannot fill a person’s spirit; this is a belief almost all religions share.

Both Nursi and Michel feel that the absence of religion – and not the differences between faiths – has led to the wars and poverties of the last century. This is a belief that many, many people of faith share. The essays in the book continually return to these themes of common interest. By having a dialogue with Nursi’s text, and by viewing that text in its best possible context, Michel establishes a space for further dialogue between people of all faiths to occur. Both men express their adamant belief that faith – be it Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or something else – has an important, vital role to play in establishing a broad, lasting peace. Michel, like Nursi before him, remains hopeful about the future role faith will play in a more peaceful, tolerant world. This book serves as a dialogue between two religions, and it builds a foundation for future dialogues. It is a foundation built of respect, devoted faith, and a deep commitment to the dignity of every life. These are not Christian, Muslim, or Jewish values – they are universal values.

With half the world living on less than $2.50 per day and with 46.2 million people in the United States living below the poverty line, poverty is a growing concern.

The United States is known all over the world to be a very powerful and rich country. It is not just American people who believe in the American Dream, but also many people from other countries have been dreaming of coming to the US to live in better conditions. Although the US is thought to be a rich country, we still see hungry and homeless people, especially women and children in the streets. Women, who are either married or unmarried, whether supported by their husbands or single mothers with no support, struggle to earn money for food, clothes, safe shelter, and other intangible needs such as love and happiness. When observed closely, it is easy to understand the reasons why this is so. It is because of the wage gap between men and women, the decreased amount of opportunities in having high income jobs, and the fact that more women are the head of their household compared to men, means that the ratio of poor women is rising, and the increased need for governmental help makes “welfare” necessary.

Understanding the definition of poverty becomes very important because it categorizes people into groups which are poor and wealthy. Richard Ropers states that poverty can be understood and described in numerous ways, and that people will not understand the meaning of poverty if they do not recognize the situation of the poor. To be poor means to not have any sustenance, shelter, or any support from family. However nowadays, living alone, or being pushed out of society, being under depression of unchanging destitution also describes poverty. Being fired from a job, losing self-esteem, having no power, or being away from cultural values are also other parameters to describe poverty (Ropers, 25). Ropers also describes “widespread poverty” as a disloyalty to the democratic values’ failure to gain optimism. Successful leaders must aim to provide economical comfort for their citizens. If the majority of the people are not happy because of poverty, it means the government is not as strong to deal with the problems.

The official poverty line is inadmissible as an accurate system to determine the number of poor people. “The US government identifies the poverty line by multiplying the cost of a minimally nutritious diet by three,” then the number of people who live in the same house is calculated (Popers 35). According to the Census data for 2011, 46.2 million people in the United States lived below the poverty line. According to Peter Edelman, a law professor in Georgetown University, even though there are so many hard working people, they are still living in poverty or just barely above the poverty line (Bilitteri, 723). These people are not given the necessary governmental support. There is also a huge gap between the poor and the wealthy people in the US (Cooper, 337). The highest income is $102,000 for households, just 1% of the population, and the lowest earning is $250 for people, who make up 90% of the population, explains Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez (Bilitteri, 723).

One given image portrayed in the media is that “the poor have only themselves to blame” (Mantsios, 638). The problem of poverty is not just one individual’s problem. There is a strong connection between the poor and society. How can a defenseless child be responsible for being poor, not having shelter, and for not earning any money? How can a single or divorced mother with a little baby, without any family help, be expected to work full time without feeding the little one for hours. The term “poor are eyesores” (Mantsios, 637) is not a responsible and thoughtful depiction, rather, it is a way of not being able to see the problems of the people outside and breaking away from the realities of the poor.

More and more women, especially single mothers, are experiencing poverty at a higher rate than the rest of society. Ropers notes that 58% of women are facing poverty, and in this category 48% of the women are the head of their household. According to Albelda and Tilly, 50% of single women are below the poverty line with no support of a husband. In 1993, while 16% of families struggled against poverty, simultaneously, 52% of single mothers, bereft of husband or family support, experiences real difficulty to provide for their basic needs. Most women work at least two jobs at the same time. On the one hand they work at home without earning any money, and on the other hand work outside to earn money (Albelle & Tilly 307). In 1947, about 38% of women were working mostly in paid labor jobs; however, in 1954, the number of working women who were African American, doubled to 54%. Then in 1996 the ratio of working women rose up to 88%, as reported by Albella and Tilly. Even though the number of hard working women is increasing year by year, they are still, except for a small percentage, earning low income and their situation still remains below the poverty line. According to Albelda and Tilly, “women’s earnings are considerably lower than men’s, approximately 70 cents to the man’s dollar.” This difference makes women’s lives miserable as they try to work outside and head the household all at the same time.

For so many years, women have been endeavoring to have the same rights, opportunities, and benefits as men have in their working lives. Although women’s working situations are not as bad as some years ago, women still face graceless and unpleasant discrimination when they look for jobs. Even though women are more educated nowadays and have more opportunities to get a job, there are distinctive wage gaps between men and women. Being the head of the family (Bernstein, 370), giving birth to a child, being under differentiation of occupation, and being sexually abused by employers are some of the common reasons as to why women are behind men when it comes to the benefits of the jobs (Wage Project, 373).

Family responsibilities are one of the most common reasons why women work in a part time job instead of having a full time job (Bernstein, 371). There are so many married or single women who do most of the household responsibilities while trying to work in a job. It is hard to deal with the chores and manage the expectations at work at the same time. For this reason, women in these kinds of situations prefer to work in part time jobs. According to Bernstein, only 25% of women are able to work full day, for the rest of the women cannot dedicate their whole day for work. This being the case, women cannot get the equal remuneration like other women who work in full time jobs. Interestingly, there is also a huge payment gap between women who work full time and men who work full time. Bernstein explains that “on average women work a lot less than men: 1,498 hours a year, vs. 2,219 worked by the typical man.” According to The Wage Project, part time women employees make only 38% of men’s full time yearly salary. Bernstein also mentions the Hartmann and Rose’s data which shows that women employees can have the same benefits if they leave all the family responsibilities behind and come to work behaving like a “traditional man.” The continuation of such unfair treatment is sure to wear down woman, a situation that’s already strained them enough.

Another reason for the wage gap between men and women is the choice a women makes to have a child (Wage Project, 378). Bernstein says after quoting Bergland that after delivering a child, women have to work part time or stay away from work for a while because they do not receive the necessary help from the society.

Nowadays, the position of women employees is assumed to not be as powerful as men’s by most bosses (Wage Project, 377). Even if men and women have the same educational level (Bernstein, 372) and women show more talent, the suggestions made by women are mostly not considered important until, of course, there is no other choice but to accept (Wage project, 375). Bernstein states that women’s yearly salary is much less than men’s, even when they are at the same educational level.

Sexual harassment is another important factor for women to leave their jobs (Wage Project, 377). Sometimes in situations like these, women are unfortunately seen as sexual means by their bosses. If the women, even if they are educated, do not accept the advances of their bosses, they have no choice but to leave or drop out of their jobs, benefits, emotional solidity, and sometimes even their lives (Wage Project, 377). Women encounter such discriminatory situations at the same time while they are dealing with difficulties which they have in their personal lives.

Some people think that people are getting welfare because they are too lazy and they don’t want to work. This theory can be true for just a few people. Making this kind of generalization for all people who are in poverty is derogatory against them. Albelda and Tilly say that the reasons for the poverty experience by single mothers and their families is not because of their laziness or lack of ambition. They are in poverty because they don’t have parent support, they face job discrimination, they earn less than men, and they have the added responsibility of taking care of their children. Blaming the poor is so easy, but being aware of their situation and helping them out of it would be the best thing for all.

Making reforms on the welfare program will make it work well. Some malicious people display themselves as poor to get support from welfare. Under the welfare program, the situation of the applicant must be clarified through an attentive investigation. Determining the really needy persons, eliminating their needs, and opening free high qualified career courses will make welfare a more beneficial program for the poor and will reduce the complaints made against the program.

Being in poverty is mostly not a personal choice. People in poverty don’t just lack food or safe shelter, but they have also lost their hope and happiness. Women, especially single mothers with no support, encounter the most difficult situations of all. Having an income less than men, taking care of their children without any support, facing job discrimination, and heading the family are the most common adversities faced by women today. Receiving no government support will not help reduce their problems; on the contrary, having access to effective government support will let people in poverty know that there are people with helping hands, people who care about them and who think about them. Poor people need helping hands, at least to not let them give up their hopes and dreams.

References

• Albelda, Randy.,& Tilly, Chris. 2001. “‘Women, Income, and Poverty’: There’s a Family connection.” Race, Class, and Gender in The United States. Ed. Paula S. Rothenberg. New Jersey: Worth,. 305-314.
• Billitteri, Thomas J. “Gender Pay Gap.” CQ Researcher 18.11 (2008): 241-264. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. Elisabeth Sturn Library, Reno, NV. “Domestic Poverty.” CQ Researcher 17.31 (2007): 721-744. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. Elisabeth Sturn Library, Reno, NV. Cooper, Mary H. “The Working Poor.” CQ Researcher 5.41 (1995): 969-992. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. Elisabeth Sturn Library, Reno, NV. 5 Nov. 2008 “Income Inequality.” CQ Researcher 8.15 (1998): 337-360. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. Elisabeth Sturn Library, Reno, NV. 5 Nov. 2008
• Glazer, Sarah. “Welfare Reform.” CQ Researcher 11.27 (2001):601-632. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. Elisabeth Sturn Library, Reno, NV. 5 Nov. 2008 Berstein, Aoron. 2007. “‘Women’s Pay: Why the Gap Remains A Chasm.” Race, Class, And Gender in The United States. Ed. Paula S. Rothenberg. NJ: Worth. 370-372. Mantsios, Gregory. 2007. “‘Media Magic: Making Class Invisible.’” Race, Class, And Gender in The United States. Paula S.Rothenberg. New Jersey: Worth. 636-643. Ropers, H. Richard. 1991. Persistent Poverty, New York: Plenum. Rothenberg, Paula S. (Ed.). 2007. The Wage Gap And Its Costs. Race, Class, And Gender in The United States. NJ: Worth. 373-378.

M&B: Would you please tell us a little bit about the current status of poverty and lack of development in the world?

The world today is very divided. There are more people than at any time in human history who have a decent life, who have wealth and prosperity. There’s also a large group of people in the middle, but there are about a billion people, a sixth of the world’s population that lives in great misery and maybe half the world’s population that lives at levels that are far less than they could be. When you look you can see good news and bad news. The good news is that there are fewer people who are poor than ever. It’s worth remembering that through most of the world’s history, most people have lived short lives, a quarter of children have died before they were five, very few people had education, very few people even were able to travel more than ten kilometers from where they were born. So today’s world is a very different world. It’s a world where vastly more people have opportunities and even in the last 50 years more people have a chance for a decent life than at any time in the past, and we have to remember that there has been extraordinary progress. Second, I think that there is an awakening of the moral conscience of the world that we see in the millennium development goals, in speeches of leaders all over the world that the situation, the historic reality that most of the world’s people were poor is no longer acceptable and is no longer necessary. The bad news is, today we know that this poverty is unacceptable. We know the kinds of lives that people live. We have images, we have data, we have knowledge, and we know that it doesn’t need to be. We know that we have the resources to change it.

M&B: How are the millennium development goals related to moral awakening?

Around the turn of the millennium, there was a great deal of reflection about what had come before and what should come in the future. One of the frustrations that many people had is that there had been meeting after meeting about the environment, about women, about health, about transportation, about every subject that you could imagine, and at each meeting there were promises made. Wonderful speeches given, wonderful texts written, declarations … but when you looked back the promises had very rarely been kept. So that when the United Nations organized a meeting of world leaders in September 2000 to mark the transformation to the new millennium there was an agreement that things should look different in the future. And so there was a historic moment, a historic declaration when all the leaders of the world, every one of them agreed to sign on to a millennium declaration to end poverty. But they also decided to use some of the tools that came from business. So they decided to set deadlines, they decided that if you can’t measure it nobody cares, nobody will look back, and so the millennium development goals that emerged were first of all just a few, just eight millennium development goals, so that people would not forget them. They all have numbers associated with them and there’s a date (the year 2015), and there’s an accountability structure – who’s responsible, who’s going to be held to account for the achievement of these goals. So these goals are a very exciting departure. In some ways they’re a very minimal. For example, they want to reduce poverty by half by the year 2015. How can you tell that to a group of poor people that only half of you will be out of poverty? It only says that all children will receive primary education. It barely looks at equality between men and women. It’s a very simple set of goals, but what it represents is a historic change and first a very clear determination to end poverty in our lifetime.

M&B: How can or should technology facilitate the transition from poverty to wealth? What role do you think technology should play in this process?

Technology plays roles in many ways. Perhaps the most dramatic is health. Many of the diseases that killed billions of people throughout human history now can be cured or prevented. Remember how many children through most of history have died of respiratory diseases, have died of diarrhea, those are important.

The changes in educational technology are also a huge advance, as are the changes in the understanding of how economies work, in the production of food, transportation, the ability to communicate. For example, when there is a disaster, the knowledge of it is transmitted within hours. Through most of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there were famines in Cape Verde where literally hundreds of millions of people died, and no one knew until long after the fact. Today that doesn’t happen anymore. So many different threads of the progress of science and technology, engineering, and communications really have transformed the outlook of what we know and therefore what we can do.

M&B: Technology has an important role and surely change requires the investment of capital. But today economists are considering non-traditional capitals such as human capital, social capital, and spiritual capital in order to achieve social change. What do they mean? Are they interchangeable or related in some way?

One of the most important realizations of the development in the world over the past twenty years is that there is nothing more important than investing in human beings. The term that’s used is human development, human capital. It can be used in a narrow sense such as investing in education, investing in healthcare, making sure that when a young person finishes school, the whole investment is not lost when they cannot find a job. But human capital has a new meaning today. It means developing the potential of human beings to the fullest.

There’s a new dimension that’s been added more recently, and it goes perhaps in some circles under the name of spiritual capital, and it grows I think from a realization that living life without meaning, just living life to earn a living, eat, work, and sleep is a futile exercise. There has to be an appreciation of what the purpose of life is, and that’s what spirituality means for most people. That means looking for this meaning both individually for their own spiritual paths, but also for the spiritual life of the community. It is the virtues of compassion, caring, helping your neighbors. It is perhaps the most common theme through all the world religions-do unto others as you would have them do unto you. So people are starting to study what kind of investment goes into spiritual development.

M&B: There are also some important spiritual elements that have direct impact on the economy, such as trust and compassion.

The ideal of how traditional communities operate is this: people take care of each other, they know each other, and they’re compassionate. If someone is ill, the neighbors come and take care of them. The villagers or the community trust each other, they trust their religious leader. They trust their political leader. Sadly the realities in the past, but also in the present, are often very different. There are people in almost any community who are left aside. So the ideal of a community is not the reality. But the ideals, the ideals of compassion and the ideals of trust of believing in human nature are a very important spiritual heritage of human kind today.

Now faced with modernization, the ideals of traditional societies are much harder to practice. Today more than half the world’s people live in cities, and the projections are that this number will rise. In cities of tens of millions of people, trust takes on a very different meaning. People are often anonymous, and communities and individuals can be completely lost in the sea of humanity. No one knows your name, no one knows who you are. So in today’s world we need to build new kinds of trust, and new kinds of trust come in strange ways. I think it’s fascinating that young people today find trust in Facebook, in MySpace, and social networking, but they also find trust in a new found belief in a spirituality that they choose, that they have discovered in their adult life.

M&B: Today you lead Berkley Center’s program on Religion and Global Development at Georgetown University. But you also led the World Bank’s faith and ethics work 2000-06. How did you get involved with that?

In the 1980s there was a period when the World Bank and the British Development Aid were at odds with many leaders and organizations from the world of religion. Religious people were demonstrating in the streets, and the development organizations closed their doors and ignored what was happening. But gradually there was in awareness that this made no sense because these were natural allies who should be working together, who were both inspired by a vision to poverty. So some leaders got together and started to have a dialogue, and their first conclusion was that they knew very little about each other and that there were tremendous misunderstandings. Second, they found out that there was a great common interest, a passion, and a commitment to dealing with the issues of poverty. And third, there were some very difficult issues. Different ways of looking at economic growth, different ways of looking at the meaning of wealth, different ways of looking at models. Therefore a dialogue about these complex issues was needed.

I worked for many decades on development, mostly on Africa but also on East Asia, on Latin America, and many different parts of the world, and one day the President of the World Bank, Jim Wolfenson asked me to help him with a project to bridge the worlds of religion and development, and so I was reluctantly drafted. This was in about 1999. I knew very little about the world of religion, but I knew quite a lot about issues of poverty and was very interested in the social dimensions and in the anthropological, social, historical approach, which I believed in very strongly. So I saw it as an opportunity to learn and to move into a whole new world.

M&B: Based on your experience, what can you say about the role of religions in progress and development?

I started to work the links and the overlap and the disjunctions between religion and development in about 1999. At first it seemed like a logical, relatively straightforward challenge because religious organizations, the Catholic Church, Muslim organizations, Buddhists, and Hindus play such active roles in providing social services, and they are so obviously important for poor people as well as for rich people in most parts of the world. We were surprised by how controversial this proposition has been to try to link religion and development. What it showed is that for many people there are many levels of hesitation about the role that religion plays in today’s world. For some people, there has been an assumption that with modernization and scientific progress, religion would simply die out or become an option for perhaps an occasional Sunday or Friday and that it would no longer play a significant role in people’s lives because they were at a different stage of development. Now that assumption has been very clearly proved to be quite false because today, if anything, religion is becoming more important in societies, rich and poor, than it ever was before, in a much more varied plural form, but it still is very clear that this hypothesis has been proved to be wrong. But people also have other concerns about the role that religion plays. For many, religion is seen as very political and divisive, particularly in societies where there are different religious traditions and some history of tension. Some people are still very nervous about the role that religion plays, and they sometimes forget the role that religion plays in social peace as well as in giving meaning to life.

Also in religious traditions as well as in politics, it is completely untenable that the poor people in the world would be expected to sacrifice so that the rich world can continue their consumption and that they would need to continue to live at a much lower resource level. For most people, the answer is first trying to curtail unnecessary use of resources, so much more conservation. And the second is there needs to be a much more energy put into the new technological developments so that people can benefit from the good of modernization without destruction of the earth. But I think there is a subject that needs much more attention which is the meaning of equity. The meaning of a kind of society where there is much more balance and where there is much more fairness. For me, it is impossible to imagine a future where we do not have a much more balanced world, much less divides between rich and poor, where we benefit from creativity, where we benefit from human development, but where these ideas are shared across all societies in the world.

M&B: What is the most efficient way to achieve the results?

In social change, people working together at the community level, those who know the situation, who know their realities, and who know their world are absolutely necessary to make change. That’s true in Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and the United States as well as in Europe. Communities really make the difference. On the other hand, there are also a million wasted efforts where communities start something, and then it fails because they’re frustrated by some kind of an obstacle that’s outside of their control. So we need also to recognize that leadership is an essential ingredient in change. Political leadership, having a vision of what’s happening in other places, and having ideas that cross boundaries are absolutely essential to change as well. So my formula, the formula that I believe in very strongly, is that to see the kind of changes that we’re looking for in the world you need the fire from above. You need the leadership, you need the inspiration, you need the policy framework, as boring as policy may seem. You must have the economic and social policy that’s from above. But you also have to have the drive that comes from the community, the fire from below, the organization, the ideas, and the knowledge. And the key, the place where you see transformation is when you have the two working and coming together.

M&B: Would you please give us an example where a problem is brought to the table and a community helps in planning? Can you give us some examples?

The easiest example where you see that is when a community has a wonderful set of ideas for marketing crops or for bringing new land under cultivation or for building a set of schools, but they don’t have the resources locally and someone from outside – whether it’s a foundation or a government or an organization like the World Bank – brings the resources and magically it’s transformed into some kind of change. Reality is usually more complex, and it’s a process of give-and-take because one thing we know is that money alone does not solve all problems. So that what you will see is an idea that comes from a community. Let’s take an idea for building a new school and from outside someone will raise the question: why are the girls in the community not going to school? The first answer that may come is that there are practical obstacles. The girls are needed at home or the girls are not safe when they go to school, and so an idea might be offered from another community in another place or from another country to solve those problems, and then perhaps the girls do go to school but they don’t succeed because the expectations in the community are that girls really are going to be married and so they shouldn’t go to school anyway. And then a political leader or a religious leader will give an inspiring speech or a woman leader will come to visit the village and will show the girls what is possible, that it’s possible to be a doctor or a political leader or an engineer and slowly through the alchemy of different ideas coming from different places, the understanding of what success is will change, and the resources will multiply, and we’ll transform the visions of what a good life is from a rather narrow traditional view to one that takes the genius of the community and builds it with other ideas that come from outside.

So the coming together of the practical technical side of benefitting from the advantages of modern technology with a revival of some of the best traditions of spirituality I think is part of the magic that we might look to in today’s world.

Interview conducted by Mustafa Tabanli for Ebru TV for the Emmy Award winning television series Matter and Beyond.

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.

Contrary to the practice of religious scholars at that time, Bediuzzaman himself studied and mastered almost all the physical and mathematical sciences, and later studied philosophy, for he believed that it was only in this way that Islamic theology (kalam) could be renewed and successfully answer the attacks to which the Qur’an and Islam were then subject.

In the course of time, the physical sciences had been dropped from madrasa education, which had contributed directly to the Ottoman decline relative to the advance of the West. Now, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Europe had gained dominance over the Islamic world, and in efforts to extend its dominance, was attacking the Qur’an and Islam in the name of science and progress in particular, falsely claiming them to be incompatible. Within the Empire too was a small minority which favored adopting Western philosophy and civilization. Thus, all Bediuzzaman’s endeavor was to prove and demonstrate the falseness of these accusations, and that far from being incompatible with science and progress, the Qur’an was the source of true progress and civilization, and in addition, since this was the case, Islam would dominate the future, despite its relative decline and regression at that time.

Nursi on God

The modern world’s rejection of God is one of the most harmful aspects of the so-called “modernity”. This philosophy has become to be known as the existential approach to life, which denies and rejects the religious and spiritual side of ethics and moral values.

If we consider it from the point of view of neo-liberalism, do such problems express any meaning for an individual or society which espouses a world-view dominated by a mass of hypotheses which do not accept that there is an order and harmony in nature or any ecological system and balance; which take its fundamental principle to be conflict and transgression against the weak, deem self-interest to be the most important principle in life, and consider it licit and fair to sacrifice not only the environment, but people even, for these benefits and interests? Can it be expected of someone who does not believe that he comes only once to this world and then will depart for the next world; considers force to be the sole measure of right and truth; and that the only purpose of life is the unlimited satisfaction of the limitless desires and needs of his/her soul – can it be expected that he/she should feel concern at environmental problems or bother himself with the rights of forthcoming generations, or with extinct species, or injustices, poverty, etc; for example? These questions are debatable.

But the answer given by the contemporary thinker and historian Arnold Toynbee was negative. Toynbee describes this as follows:

People, carried away by greed and materialism, narrow-mindedly say: after me the storm. They should know that if they cannot limit their greed, they are condemning their children to extinction. They may love their children, but their love may be insufficient to allow them to sacrifice a part of their wealth in order to guarantee their children’s futures. In my opinion, so long as this goal is not bound to a form of religious belief (using the word religion in its widest meaning), it will not be possible to persuade the modern generations of the advanced countries to make any sacrifices to their own cost (ecosystem).

It was for these reasons that in order to be saved from the nihilist, absurd world-view which takes force as its absolute point of reference, and to have a meaningful life, Said Nursi declared: “Knowledge of the Maker is man’s sole refuge and point of support.” In the early period of his life, he said:

If man does not believe in the All-Wise Maker, Who performs everything wisely and with order, and unthinkingly attributes everything to chance; and if he thinks of the inadequacy of his power in the face of those calamities; it will result in a hellish and heartrending state for him, of compounded fright, fear, alarm, and anxiety. Being the noblest and best of creatures, he will be more wretched than anything, thus opposing the reality of the perfect order of the universe.

In the Risale-i Nur, Said Nursi on the one hand attempted to reply to the challenges of modernity, and on the other, offering a new understanding of Divine revelation, he emphasized above all else the order, harmony, measuredness, and beauty of the world, which he called the book of the universe, and in this way set out to demonstrate God’s existence together will all His Most Beautiful Names. Thus, in the very place that modern materialist philosophy attacks belief and instills doubts, he demonstrates convincingly foremost God’s existence, the hereafter, and prophethood.

In Nursi’s philosophy, as it has been noted, this world in the sheer sense is a clean being. The reasons for this may be reduced to two:

• This world is the work of God. It receives its existence from Him. It is also evidence for His existence.

• This world was given to men by God so that they might win clean livelihoods from it.

This article has been extracted from Dr Kamran Mofid’s paper “To Heal Our Broken World: Bringing Economics, Religions and Spirituality together for the Common Good” presented at the International Conference on Spiritual Dimensions of Said Nursi’s Risale-i-Nur, in Istanbul, August 2005.

We introduce a new dimension to psycho-pathology’s one-dimensional and nonreligious approach to spiritual disorders. Along with chemotherapy, religious strength or spirituality, a lack of which is the real cause of depression, will serve as a radical solution. In short, we propose the cooperation of psychiatry and religion.

The Two Fundamental Causes of Suicide

Preparatory Causes: The most important preparatory cause is religious debility, for religion (especially Islam) protects one from depression and thus from suicide.(1) One who cannot comprehend creation’s purpose and does not fear or love God is prone to depression and so experiences trouble and discomfort. But one whose heart is content with remembering God and who always feels His presence, as He is closer than his or her carotid artery, cannot become depressed.(2) True believers cannot follow a path that might imply rebellion against God; rather, they thank God and rely on Him during abundance and poverty.(3)

Humanity was created for a reason. This worldly life is ephemeral and a test to differentiate the good from the evil. Believers endure and continue to struggle. Besides, humanity is created with these feelings.(4) Those who read and understand the Qur’an properly will overcome their depression.(5)

The carnal self (nafs) urges evil, unless God has mercy on that person.(6) Thus a self that is not controlled by religious training stimulates evil (including suicide) and rebellion against God. Suicide is the result of the self working with Satan to urge the subconscious toward evil. Those who fear God and train their self can avoid this trap.(7) Perhaps Freud meant carnal (nafs-related) desires and feelings when he stated that the subconscious is full of evil desires (pan-sexuality). Perhaps what he called the œid was actually a perception of the carnal self. Perhaps his distance from any religion, especially Islam, caused him to characterize it incorrectly.(8)

Stimulating Causes: Weak faith, the primary cause, leads to depression and desperation. Islam prevents this and thus deters suicide.(9) Poverty and forlornness are the most important stimulating (secondary) causes. Even the Prophet sought refuge in God from poverty.(10) Materialists who cannot reach their financial or materialistic goals are likely to become depressed and commit suicide.

Although suicide has many causes, I consider economic causes paramount. Moreover fractiousness, the primary cause of divorce, is economic helplessness. But although suicide is inconsistent with human dignity and thus rebellion against God, its rates continue to increase.

People commit suicide for various reasons. Table 1 and Figure 1 show that suicide rates are highest in communist or former communist societies. This is due to the lack of spiritual and religious training and a long-standing policy of inculcating atheism and anti-religious sentiment.

For underdeveloped and developing countries, the reason is not primarily poverty. But for prosperous countries, which offer many opportunities to their people, the reason is the perceived spiritual and moral hollowness in the eyes of those searching for spiritual satisfaction. Thus they are more inclined to commit suicide. The highly prosperous countries of North America, Australia, Norway, and Sweden have the highest suicide rates; Muslim countries have the lowest rates, thanks to Islam. In Muslim countries, the primary reason is economic in nature.

Conclusion and Solution Suggestions

More psychiatric clinics or antidepressant drugs are not solutions. Drug therapy might provide a temporary symptomatic relief, but not a radical cure. Given this, religious and moral education should come first when developing a cure. This can be realized with religious education in the triad of family, house of worship, and school.

Believers will not know fear or sadness or be unfortunate.(11) Seekers of salvation elsewhere than in God’s mercy, however, eventually become depressed due to fear or melancholy, the primary causes of suicide and depression in general.

Depressed people should be urged to transcend aimless rehabilitation activities and engage in those with a spiritual or religious meaning. Prayer is the most important activity, for it protects people from evil.(12) As depression and suicide are spiritual sicknesses, prayer could cure them. People experiencing spiritual and psychological distress often display a lack of willpower and concentration. Prayer is the perfect medicine for such ailments.

In addition, the deep and humble reverence forming the goal of each prayer represents the summit of meditation and reflection. Qur’an 23:1 says that such prayers saves people. Those who pray also gain spiritually and economically: Thousands of stressed-out people flow into meditation centers, but prayer will discharge them with no cost and will gain God’s consent.

In conclusion, religion is as a shield that prevents evil, including suicide. Given this, psychiatry and religion must cooperate. In either diagnosis or therapy, success lies in such a cooperation.

Footnotes

1. Islam literally means peace, bliss, security, and soundness, and is the religion with which God is content. See Qur’an 3:19, 20, 83, 85, 102; 4:115; 5:3.
2. Qur’an 2:165, 5:100, 13:28, 39:22, 43:36, 50:16, 57:4, 103:1-4; Ramooz al-Ahadith, 2:369 and 1:46.
3. Qur’an 4:29-31; Tacreed Translation, 12:1940, 1989; 9:1413.
4. Qur’an 3:14; 4:77; 6:32; 9:38; 10:4; 16:41; 18:46; 21:36; 23:115; 29:2-4, 45; 42:36; 45:21; 67:2; 68:5-6; 75:36; 76:2; 90:4; 91:7-10.
5. Qur’an 2:155, 177; 3:134; 13:24; 16:126; 28:54, 42:43; 51:56; 68:35.
6. Qur’an 12:53
7. Qur’an 2:168, 4:29-30, 6:151, 12:53, 39:53, 43:36, 79:40, 91:7-10; Ramooz al-Ahadith 2:369.
8. The Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary defines œid as œone of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that is completely unconscious and is the source of psychic energy derived from instinctual needs and drives
9. Qur’an 12:87, 39:53; Ramooz al-Ahadith, 1:46.
10. Fath al-Kabir, 1:1285-89.
11. Qur’an 2:38, 274; 6:48; 7:35; 20:123; 46:13.
12. Qur’an 29:45.