Question: “Peaceful settlement is better” (Nisa 4:128) reads a Qur’anic verse. What are the messages to be drawn from this verse?

Answer: The basic factor that lies in the basis of clashes and fights today is entanglement with oneself. Everybody is seeking to establish their own model of the individual, family, city, state, and world. In a world where everybody runs after their own model and structure it is not possible to meet in the middle with a compromise. Accordingly, when every intellectual, movement, and state envisions some ideas and systems of theirs, they take these as the sole criteria and expect others to comply with them too, it will obviously result in such a mess. Unfortunately, such a reality underlies behind the tensions, disorder, and confusion we experience today.

Tolerance and clemency

The best elixir to solve these confusions is tolerance and clemency, being open to agreement and reconciliation with almost everybody, and our readiness to engage in dialogue with others. To realize that, we need to shake off our own caprices, greed, and the diseases of asserting their own feelings and thoughts as the only right way to go. Doubtlessly, this depends upon a person’s ability to break free of arrogance, destroy the egotism of “I,” and take some rest in the stopover of “us,” and then journey onto “Him” (to God) afterwards.

It is very difficult for those taken by their egotism, considerations of affiliation, or by love of their groups to stand open to peace and meet different ideas with respect. As far as they hold the benefits of their own group above everything else and cannot rid themselves of bigotry, they cannot form strategies of peace for the good of humanity. Actually, it is very difficult to say that those people ever have such a goal in mind since they are consistently so uncompromising to diversity.

In the globalizing world of our time, there is no other alternative than tolerance and dialogue in order for humanity to live in peace. As for letting a culture of tolerance prevail, it is necessary for both individuals and societies to give up seeing themselves as the absolute representatives of truth and to always deem the possibility that other’s thoughts and approaches can also be correct. Even if different ideas and thoughts are not completely true, it should not be forgotten that there may be a grain of truth in them at least. Remember the statements of Said Nursi who said that there is a grain of truth even in the Mu‘tazilite and Fatalist (Jabriya) schools of thought, but that these sects went wrong since they saw the truth as exclusive to themselves.

Today, everyone has a peculiar “correct” viewpoint of their own, and others’ opinions are wrongfor the sole reason that they belong to others. Such a bias does not allow suitable grounds to discuss whether they are correct or not. We sometimes try to defend ideas even we don’t believe.

Peace begins in the family

Actually, by decreeing that “peaceful settlement is better” (Nisa 4:128) the Qur’an invites people to reconciliation and agreement, to accept that there can also be a share of truth in others’ statements and actions. As is known, this verse was revealed about the family, the smallest molecule of society. God Almighty showed the way to be followed against occasional discord and situations between spouses; He taught that they are not supposed to consider divorce right away but instead it is necessary to seek mutual agreement while preserving the family.

Given that the Qur’an demands resolving dents and fissures by peaceful means, even in a familial level, approaching problems at the scope of a town, city, state, or world with peace will be much more desirable.

In this respect, no matter which aspect of society is concerned, the duty that falls upon people is being in pursuit of maintaining peace and all of the beneficial and good byproducts that come from peaceful means. The fact that people have different religions, cultures, ethnical identities, and worldviews should not be seen as an obstacle to this issue. It must be shown that peaceful coexistence is possible even between people who follow different religions or who do not believe in any religion.

Therefore, it is necessary to develop projects for maintaining such a general peace and to develop reasonable strategies because maintaining that is not as easy as it might seem. The maintenance of peace calls for very serious efforts and endeavors. On the way to obtain such an important outcome, sometimes it is necessary to be ready to forget certain fights that occurred in the past, to be ready to forgive, and to make concessions when needed. In short, it is needed to forbear everything possible for the sake of letting people live together in an atmosphere of peace. Of course, while doing so no one should compromise the honor of a people or nation.

Obstacles are overcome with mature people

It is only those alive with regards to their spirit, heart, senses, feelings, and thoughts who will succeed at building a spirit of unity and a culture of reconciliation in society. Those with high spirit can spark vibrancy in others, too. For people who have reached a serious level of satiation, satisfaction, and contentment in the spiritual sense, even very big problems become very little. Such people even pass over enormous trenches with the ease of jumping over little pits. However, as for a person who has not been able to break free from their ego, who has not been able to abandon being physical-oriented, and who has not been saved from being directed by fancies and desires, in short, a person who has not started journeying into the life degrees of the heart and spirit will not do much for the peace and happiness of humanity.

This is a significant reason for the breakings, cracks, conflicts, and fights that are happening in our time. People who are not sufficiently mature are so touchy and easily offended by even the slightest things. As they have not been able to rid themselves of their roughness, they get offended and hurt right away when they cannot find the looks they desired and the attitudes that they expected. If someone gives them a nudge in the ribs to invigorate, warn, or to stimulate them, they react as if they were hurt with a spear.

The duty that falls to believers is not being heartbroken even in the face of offensive behavior. Instead of accusing those who behave negatively and making negative assumptions about them, they should turn to God and say: “O God, we are probably facing these difficulties because of our failure to be properly righteous; please set them, and us, right!”

One must be very determined about not being heart broken and offended by anyone. If we devoted ourselves to serving humanity, then it is necessary to lay our heads under their feet with utter self-sacrifice. To put it in the words of Seyyid Nigari:

“Will one who seeks the Beloved be concerned for his own life?
And will one concerned for his own life be in quest of the Beloved?”

I think this is the very thought to let humanity, which has miserably doubled up, to straighten up again.

As is known, the noble Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) positioned a group of archers before the Battle of Uhud on a hill and gave strict instructions that they were not supposed to leave their position no matter what happened. However, most of the archers who had not grasped the critical importance of precision at following the orders left their positions upon seeing the enemy fleeing the ground; they thought that their duty was over. It is after this point that the Muslims were surrounded from behind with a new maneuver by the polytheist army and received a very serious blow. Even the noble Prophet received an injury to his blessed head and his tooth was broken. But he gathered his Companions again as if nothing had happened and held a consultation with them. He did not embarrass them by mentioning their fault and did not reproach them in the slightest degree. What a breeze of kindness that was!

Who knows how humiliated they felt because of the judgmental error they had made. By means of referring to their consultation again about the new steps to be taken, he relieved the hearts of his Companions who were aware of their fault and were suffering with due remorse. This is the way to spur heroism in spirits and to mend the breakages and cracks that occur.

The Peace of Hudaybiya

At this point, I think most people will not help but remember the treaty of Hudaybiya, because the noble Prophet had made concessions upon concessions for the sake of making that treaty. Although accepting some of the articles was so hard on him, he forbore with that solely for the sake of maintaining reconciliation and forming an atmosphere of peace.

While departing from Medina, the Messenger of God had promised to his Companions a pilgrimage visit to the holy Ka‘ba. For the sake of realizing this promise, they had covered a distance of more than 400 km riding their horses and camels and come to the vicinity of Mecca. They had even put on their ihram garbs for this visit and taken their sacrifices with them. However, the polytheists of Mecca accosted them in Hudaybiya and said, “we neither let you enter Mecca, nor do we let you visit the Ka‘ba.” Thanks to the endeavors and prophetic intelligence of God’s Messenger, the polytheists were convinced to sign the peace treaty of Hudaybiya. However, they also stipulated as an article of the treaty that the Muslims would go back without observing their pilgrimage visit. This was very heavy on the Companions who had been homesick for Mecca and the Ka‘ba for eight years. So much so that they reminded the noble Prophet about the promise he had made but received the answer that he had not specified it to be in that year, but they also received a promise from him that they would observe it the following year. It is not so difficult to imagine how much this situation must have hurt the Prophet, the paragon of kindness.

During this confrontation at Hudaybiya, the Meccan commander Khalid ibn Walid, who had not become a Muslim then, kept spurring his horse here and there in a manner of challenging the Muslims, and he even tried to provoke them. In addition, Mecca’s representative Suhayl ibn Amr objected to the title “Messenger of God” to be written in the treaty and they stipulated the noble Prophet’s name to be written as “Muhammad, son of Abdullah.” In the meantime, the same Suhayl ibn Amr’s son Abu Jandal, who had been imprisoned by his father broke free and came up until Hudaybiya in a pitiable condition by dragging the shackles on his leg. He sought refuge with the Messenger of God. However, the father demanded his son to be given back to him as required by the treaty and for the sake of not upsetting the established peace, God’s Messenger had to accept it unwillingly.

Note that all of these conditions were not to be accepted easily. The more so when the noble Prophet is concerned, a person with such a high degree of honor, dignity, and esteem; because great personages have sensitivity and caring beyond our estimation. Nevertheless, the Qur’anic statement meaning, “It may be that you (O Messenger) will torment yourself to death because they refuse to believe” (Shuara 26:3) also expresses his lofty degree of caring. However, the Messenger of God managed to suppress all of these by exercising an extraordinary degree of self-possession. He did not make these offenses a matter of honor.

In a way, this meant having a holistic perspective and seeing very well the beautiful future that peace and tolerance promised. With this attitude, the Pride of Humanity was at the same time giving Muslims a lesson that they should not be obstinate at certain matters, not act for the sake of their ego, to keep away from superficial and casual evaluations, from being farsighted, not being offensive to others, and from not generating problems in the future by resorting to brutality and violence. This is the way to keep away from intertwined troubles and spiral of problems.

The Treaty of Hudaybiya Is the Conquest

Such are the heavy conditions that the peace treaty of Hudaybiya was signed under. This had felt hurtful to the dignity and honor of Muslims. However, the Qur’an gave the glad tidings that this treaty was a plain victory and the results of the treaty also proved this. Only after this treaty was it that Muslims had an opportunity to travel freely and express themselves in the Arabian Peninsula, grudge, hatred, and animosities abated, many people got to know Muslims more closely.

Based upon this practice, we can say the following: If contemporary Muslims as well want to build such an atmosphere of peace in their country and abroad then they must know to make serious sacrifices. If they cannot tolerate certain unpleasant situations that they do not approve of but always bring their honor and pride to the fore, then they will be deprived of large-scale examples of goodness to be obtained by means of peace.

If the conditions of the contemporary world are considered, it will be seen that the humanity is in dire need of such agreement and reconciliation more than ever. Because solving so many gangrenous problems, saving countries from disintegration, and maintaining security of roads are dependent on this. In this respect, the logic and reasoning in the peace of Hudaybiya need be comprehended and practiced very well.

The feeling of pity is the quiver of a person’s heartstrings and spirit, a quiver that resonates from a sincere sense of compassion deep in one’s soul. Feeling pity, as it were, can be found in all living beings and is a manifestation of many Divine names of compassion[1]; yet, it is actually a Divine grace special to humanity with its distinctive profundities. It is by this extraordinary gift (if a person is not completely distanced from humane qualities) that a person begins to suffer in the spirit and mind before a harrowing scene. Proportional to their sensitivity, such individuals are immersed in grief and sighs.

Feelings of compassion and pity are indispensably found in all living beings, primarily in humankind and especially in parents. People try to eliminate whatever triggers this emotion, even if it means risking and sacrificing one’s own life or standing against fires without considering what pity might cost. When feeling pity, one completely erases from the heart the feeling and thought of living. A hen attacks a cat or dog for the sake of protecting her young; a rabbit ventures death against wolves and hyenas; cattle defy lions or tigers with their horns. And human beings in particular, if they have not lost this magnanimous feeling and inner profundity, will virtually burn from within in the face of scenes that trigger pity; they will dare jumping into fires and walk against death without hesitation when feeling deep pity.                                                                                                                                    

Feelings of compassion and pity are directly proportional to the flourishing of the person’s heart. In lofty souls, it goes beyond every frame and reaches to the horizons of those closest to God. They react to selfish considerations expressed as, “an ember burns the very spot it falls on” (those who really suffer are only the first persons involved); instead they say, “no matter where it falls, that fire burns me up from within!” Thus, they run to extinguish the fire, shouting warnings and holding extinguishers of humane compassion.

In great personages, and more so in prominent ones among them, this feeling is so deep and sincere that they feel agonized on seeing those who suffer. With such an outburst and stupor of compassion, they do not see or feel themselves anymore; thus, they keep saying, like Nursi once did once: “Given that I see the faith of my people saved, I even accede to burning in the flames of Hell. For, as my body smolders in fire, my heart will transform into a rose garden.” They voice their feelings with notes that remind of the noble Prophet who returned down to the world after his journey up to the heavens (Mi’raj) for the sake of eternal bliss for humanity, and they even consider throwing themselves in the fire to burn instead of those victims. Their feelings of compassion and pity are of a nature to make angels envious and of a quality to serve as an invitation to rays of Divine beneficence to come from beyond.

With a resolution that can only be surpassed by that of a Prophet, they keep running for help night and day, offering prescriptions of all kinds to extinguish the fires of pity. Moaning with a melody of most heartfelt compassion, they say, “here I am.” They knock on every door they reach with laments to wake up those inside, and then they leave only to turn back a few more times. They leave as they turn over the duty to wake to the morning breeze. They do not feel sick and tired of their visits, of meeting insult and disrespect, because their road is that of the Prophets which averts people from Hell and takes them closer to Paradise and beyond; and they are well aware of the requirements of this path.

The source of inspiration for those distinguished servants was the conscientious magnanimity of the Master of the Prophets. He had ascended to the heavens to meet with the Divine; then, he had gone to the furthest boundary[2] and approached the Divine, as close as two bow lengths. A day of the former and a moment of the latter are more pleasurable than thousands of years in the world. He had the opportunity to stay up there, but he bid a temporary farewell to Paradise and returned to this realm of tribulation for the sake of saving others from falling to the lowest of the low and directing them to the highest horizons. He did it with a feeling of compassion and sense of deep pity special to him, for those who drifted towards Hell. He did it to let others also feel what he felt and allow them to enjoy what he had seen and to present brightness to unfortunate ones in pitiable condition who go through deformations of the heart and spirit.

With such a degree of altruism, while he was giving his loftiest character and mission their due, he was showing the ways to save people from the dark end unbelief is bound for, together with directing them to the ascent leading up to what faith promises. Actually, as that matchless person saw poor souls who had not completely lost their human quality but were struggling in a whirlpool of unbelief and misguidance, he writhed under their situation with a perpetual feeling of compassion and pity; and with that immense spirit of altruism he was blessed with, he would lament for them and immediately call everybody to his radiant course. These sighs and moans had even moved dwellers of heavens. The following counsel of moderation implied compliment while also reminding him of the frame of his duty: “Yet, it may be that you (O Muhammad) will torment yourself to death with grief, following after them, if they do not believe in this Message,” (Kahf 18:6). Thus, some water of relief was poured on his blazing heart.

Along with similar moderation and counsel, many other elucidating verses of the Qur’an also made emphasis to his noble character in this respect and gave a lesson of self-possession to those who took that course. They understood him, received their lesson, and contributed with their voices to that heavenly voice with a consideration of being a vanguard on the way to Paradise. The souls oriented to the lofty circle that followed his footsteps at every issue also showed the same attitude of beneficence and compassion; they kept sighing by adding new ones to his ballads of pity.

After them, neither did such moans cease nor the feeling of pity in hearts disappear. New compositions with melodies of the realms beyond were presented to those who staggered on; they were given glad tidings of a possibly blissful future. In the face of those who were taken by currents of unbelief and deviation and were drifting toward the destined fires, everybody was called to help: “Come, fetch water, hurry up! There is fire!” They cried to put off that inevitable end. As the glad tidings voiced a different aspect of compassion, the warnings aimed to stop the flowing towards Hell. They had belief in God and the Prophet; they saw their thoughts and actions as the necessity of being truly human—which can be in the sense of feeling pity, compassion, or purity of heart—and thus they acted without expecting anything in return. The theme and meaning is from God; the lyrics—as an outcome of their playing the part that falls to their freewill—are from the blessed Prophets and particularly the final one; and the composition is from those in the lofty circle and from the distinguished servants who are overjoyed with beholding the realms beyond the mundane world.

This blessed ember was so heartfelt to make the earth and the heavens whirl like dervishes, and its impact was forceful. Those who heard the melody, which sounded as if blown from the Trumpet of Israfil[1], were invigorated in accordance with the horizons of their comprehension, and, after some continuation, there would come a time when they also contributed to it with the sound of their own hearts. In time, this would turn to a tune of resurrection that resonated in ears. A time would come when those on the road, whose condition and feelings in terms of human values lagged much behind, also joined this feeling of compassion and pity. This humble author of yours remembers how he once wept for half-an-hour out of compassion and feeling of pity after the death of a bee – it was unthinkable for such a person not to wail on seeing intertwined problems causing different vicious circles of deformation in the world of humanity. By taking these into consideration, this humble servant also wished to join that sacred symphony and said, “I feel pity!” He sang ballads of pity for pitiable ones and offered moans for the waking of those who stumble their way on. With this, he expressed his pity for those who walk in the swamps of unbelief without a purpose and ideal, in spite of the blessed course of the Prophets.

“The universe is a great book of God all around,
whichever letter you try, you will find that its meaning points to God.”
(Recaizade)

I feel pity for those who have been blind all their lives and fail to study this book of the universe and what lies behind it. I feel pity for those who disregard the Hereafter and eternal life by falling for the outward beauty of this world and its deceptive magnificence and pomp. I feel pity for those who live blind and deaf to the eternal life in favor of transient sovereignty and ostentation. I feel pity for the slaves of an inferiority complex and who despise their past in slums and now boast of moving from one villa to another. I feel pity for those out of their mind to the degree of preferring this ephemeral and perishable worldly life over Paradise and Divine Beauty. I feel pity for the thickly heedless, who fell so low as to be bought off for the sake of this short-lived worldly life and fantasies of status, rank, money, and luxury. I feel pity for the dead at soul, the unfortunate ones who spend their time laughing and consuming vain entertainment in spite of the present violations of our dignity and honor. I feel pity for the mute devils who do not speak against intertwined destructions and irreparable collapses. I feel pity for those who eat, drink, and lie lazily, unaware of being no different than beasts in God’s sight. I feel pity for those in outward human form, unaware of the blessing of “the best stature” that the human is and what being one requires from us. I feel pity for those who came forward by saying “rights and justice!” like the Prophets did, but ended up as henchmen of the Pharaoh. I feel pity for those who treat human values like a cheap commodity, at a time when lying is so popular, betrayal is seen as a necessity, and rights are only entrusted to God. I feel pity for the hypocrites who make up religious legitimacy to deceive and slander in their attempt to pass these off as “battle tactics.” I feel pity for the so-called religious scholars who let their dignity be trampled under feet with sycophancy for the sake of a cursed appreciation or a dirty medal. I feel pity for the unfortunate “sold” ones who give rulings in return for a few banknotes.

I feel pity for those who go astray with light hearted statements like “let them steal…” I feel pity for the chameleons who vilify believers to obtain a short-lived worldly rank. I feel pity for those notorious ones oblivious to truth and who declare lies to be true and truths to be lies for fear of losing their lawful or unlawful benefits and titles. I pity those worshippers of worldliness who turn a blind eye to atrocities not even committed by crusaders. I pity those hypocrites who use their pen for besmirching people and call this vice a “war strategy.”

And I also pity myself for I was overcome by my good opinion of others and failed to tell about these atrocities to the masses. I pity myself for mistaking everybody as a friend by disregarding the truth I expressed in this poem:

“The heart always keeps seeking a true friend
but sometimes one who appears a friend turns out to be a hypocrite!”

I feel deep pain within and sigh for having failed to recognize and having fallen for the faith of a couple of hypocrites. I feel remorse and pains in my bosom for failing to keep up this principle: “Have good opinion of others, but be cautious, too.”

I try to find consolation by saying that, “we should view the past and misfortunes from a perspective of Divine decrees,” but I still feel pangs of conscience for failing to take a stance in line with the Quranic teachings against what happened and thus feel to be in a pitiable condition. Although waves and rays of oppression and malice struck my horizons of thought in a very early phase, I accuse myself for having failed to take shelter in Divine protection in utter confidence in Him and feel agonized with pains.

How I wish that it would have been possible to detect hypocrisy when they spoke of rights and justice and gave pompous lip service to respecting believers while things were shifting towards a disaster like Karbala[2]; then innocent people wouldn’t be martyred and bloodshed wouldn’t amount to streams. But it is too late; oppression and malice have reached a level to incur Divine wrath. What falls to us after this point is to say, “goodness is what God has decreed,” by taking shelter in serenity from God (sakina), self-possession (tamkin), reliance on (tawakkul) and submission to (taslim) Him, commitment (tawfidh) and utter confidence (siqa) in Him, and then expect for extra graces from the Almighty concerning those completely astray; and this should be the very attitude indispensably expected from a believer.

Footnotes

[1] Like ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim, al-Hannan, al-Mannan

[2] Lote Tree (Sidrat al-Muntaha)

Notes

[1] Israfil: the angel to give start for the apocalypse.

[2] The heart-rending incident where the Prophet’s grandchildren and their company were brutally murdered.

The opposite of altruism is the stinginess and selfishness that arise from avarice and attachment to this world. Both stinginess and selfishness are regarded as reasons for becoming distanced from the Creator, the created, and Paradise.^[1] While stinginess arises from avarice and attachment to the world, generosity, benevolence, and perfect goodness arise from altruism.

Generosity means that believers give some of their belongings to others without feeling any unease in the heart. Benevolence means considering one’s own happiness as dependent on the happiness of others and, more than that, putting the welfare of others ahead of one’s own happiness. As for perfect goodness or excellence (ihsan), it means preferring others, even when one is in need oneself. The Qur’an points to such excellence or the highest degree of altruism in this verse (59:9): They feel in their hearts no displeasure because of whatever the others are given, but rather give them preference over themselves, even though poverty be their own lot.

Altruism is valuable when one attains and follows it freely; it has no value if one is forced or if one performs such an act not out of one’s own free will.

The generosity and benevolence that arise from and are dimensions of altruism have degrees, as follows:

• Sacrificing one’s soul in God’s way (for God’s cause), therefore for the sake of belief and for the good of the believers, is considered the highest degree of nobility.
• Being able, when it is necessary, to renounce a (rightful) claim to leadership or similar high position for the well-being and unity of society, is seen as altruism one step below the first degree.
• Preferring the (economic) welfare of others over one’s own, is a third degree of nobility.
• Allowing others to benefit from one’s knowledge and ideas without expecting anything in return, is a virtue not quite as noble as the previous ones.
• Giving to others out of one’s income – this includes responsibilities for the giving of the prescribed and voluntary alms (zakah and sadaqa).
• Showing warmth, speaking soft and kind words, being of use to others, and being the means of various instances of good – these are examples of altruism that almost anyone can strive for in any situation.

The first of these degrees of generosity and benevolence is a profound and fundamental dimension of altruism that not everyone can achieve. Mawlana Jami’,^[2] the author of Baharistan (The Land of Spring), expresses it most memorably:

It is easy to show generosity with gold and silver
Worthy of respect is he who shows generosity with his soul.

Among the characteristics and degrees of those who practice altruism are:

• Offering food and feeding others at the cost of one’s own hunger and thirst, and neglecting oneself in the provision of others. Provided that no one’s rights are violated, this is a virtue characteristic of truly pious, saintly people.
• Despite all adversities, spending whatever one has as a favor from God in God’s way and purely for His good pleasure, and in such a disinterested manner that one forgets what good one has done. This virtue is particular to those with considerable nearness to God, who take far greater pleasure in giving than receiving.
• Attributing to God exclusively all the accomplishments with which one is favored without seeing oneself as the agent of any good and, without expecting any return, even in the form of spiritual pleasures, for all that one does for God’s sake, always being aware of Him and experiencing oneself as the shadow of the light of His existence.

This last one is the attitude and practice of those nearest to God, including primarily the noblest of humankind and the greatest of all times and places, upon him be peace and God’s blessings. His Ascension is a demonstration of his being accorded the highest honor and being sought after (by all the angels and many among human beings and jinn) as a reward for his incessant efforts for perfect knowledge of God. His return from the realms beyond the heavens to be among people in this world is such a great degree of altruism that nobody else has ever been able to achieve it. His emerging from Paradise and letting his profuse tears fall into the pits of Hell for the salvation of humankind expresses the greatest possible altruism.

O God! For the sake of your chosen Prophet, Muhammad, make us of those who do not begrudge what has been given to their brothers-in-religion, but prefer them to themselves, even though poverty be their lot, and may Your blessings and peace be on our master Muhammad and on His family and Companions.

^[1] Sunan al-Tirmidhi, “Birr,” 40.

^[2] Mawlana Nur al-Din ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad al-Jami’ (1414-1492), commonly called the last great classical poet of Persia, and saint, composed numerous lyrics and idylls, as well as many works in prose. His Salaman and Absal is an allegory of profane and sacred love. Some of his other works include Haft Awrang, Tuhfat al-Ahrar, Layla wu Majnun, Fatihat al-Shabab, Lawa’ih, al-Durrah. (Trans.)

From another perspective, austerity is described as holding back from carnal pleasures in order to acquire piety, righteousness, and nearness to God, and to discover the hidden realities of existence and the Divine truths. It combines the following of God’s way without any deviation, making use of willpower and conscience in the best way by taking refuge in the atmosphere of spiritual life against the pressures and excessive desires of the carnal soul.

“State” and “station,” regarded as crystal-like indicators of a person’s spiritual life, are certain “pools” of indescribable spiritual pleasures mixed with the breezes from the worlds beyond that one can experience through austerity on the way to God. These are based on love of God and the attainment of His approval. Reaching these “pools” and feeling and living in the spacious world of the spirit within the love of God and His good pleasure is possible through austerity and through training the carnal soul, and can be achieved by enhancing the spirit with virtues.

A person capable of sustaining an austere life is a person of tested faith or loyalty in relationships with the Creator, the Ultimate Truth, and also in relationships with the created. This is the natural state for austerity-the ambition to become a person of truth by liberating oneself from worldly ambitions and carnal inclinations and becoming devoted to the Almighty Truth. Austerity is training the carnal soul to realize true humanity and to make the love of God the source of human feelings, thoughts and behavior. In other words, the purpose of an austere life is to think for the sake of God, to speak for the sake of God, to love for the sake of God, and to remain in the sphere of doing or not doing something only for the sake of God, to obtain His approval and good pleasure-purely because God wants us to do it or not to do it-and to always be with God.

Some see austerity as humiliating the carnal soul, which we can interpret as the annihilation of the evil-commanding soul which always pursues evils, or as being freed from selfishness and self-conceit or overcoming bodily desires in accordance with the maxim, “Die before you die!” From this perspective, austerity can be regarded as plowing the carnal soul, as one plows a field, in order to sow the seeds of goodness and virtue, and bringing them into flower by giving them the necessary water and heat in favorable weather.

The couplet,
Be soil, such fertile soil, that roses can grow in you;
For nothing other than soil can have the honor of growing roses.

describes this state of soul which has acquired perfection, humility, and self-annihilation. Sufi scholars and thinkers have also taken another approach to austerity. They distinguish two types of austerity. The first is “austerity in manners,” which means being freed from weaknesses and vices in order to acquire a second nature, while the other is “austerity in goals,” which means having the best goal and pursuing it in this world. This approach can also be summed up as disciplining the carnal soul and acquiring good, laudable virtues. The statement found in the Lujja, “The wisdom in austerities is training the reason and the soul” confirms this approach.

Some who have acquired austerity in the most approved manner have made another classification of austerity, as follows:

• The austerity followed by those who are at the beginning of the Sufi way to God consists of combining and adorning good morals or good nature with knowledge, and the practice of religion with sincerity and purity of intention, and to observe both the rights of the Creator and the rights of the created.
• The austerity followed by those who have advanced on the Sufi way to God is to become free of all considerations with respect to anything other than God and, by paying heed to the voice of the inner sense of reliance on God and of seeking help -something that everyone feels in their conscience-to remain true to the direction to which their conscience points. Furthermore, this degree of austerity also demands being oblivious of even the way one is following, because of absorption in seeking God’s good pleasure.
• The austerity followed by those who have reached the end of the way enables them to experience the Divine manifestations free from all differences and polarities. That is, it enables them to feel in the depths of their heart the unity and harmony of apparently opposed Divine Names and Attributes, with all their manifestations. It is, therefore, a way to see and experience God without seeing any difference between His being the All-Favoring and the All-Requiting or the All-Expanding and the All-Straitening or the All-Granting and the All-Preventing.

In fact, such a journey is not specific to humanity: all creatures come into being in order to go through a difficult journey according to their level. And then they keep flowing into different molds and undergoing constant transformations until they reach their own identity; sometimes, they even transform into a second existence. They do this through pain, suffering, death, and resurrection, a few times in every moment.

Water cannot vaporize and attain purity without the challenge of the heat; a seed cannot sprout and rise to a higher life form without cracking and decomposing. Rivers cascade down and hit rocks to become as pure as the raindrops of a cloud. Spring does not come without winter. Even if it did, it would not be appreciated. Gold owes its value and brightness, and steel owes its hardness and durability, to the melting pots they were formed in. A bone dry land revives and serves as a bed for thousands of flowers in proportion to the amount of lightning flashing over it. Darkness cocoons light in its bosom, to its own disadvantage. Winter always weaves its canvas for the benefit of spring. Hence, a spring follows every winter, and a day follows every night. Deaths are for resurrection, and sufferings are for attaining a more beautiful life. By dying and resurrecting thousands of times throughout their lives, individuals are freed from the dark and deceiving pressures of the “ego” and reach eternity in their soul. A community ripens, matures, and attains immortality through the sufferings it undergoes and by clawing its way against the troubles it faces.

What a pleasure it is to die and resurrect time and again in order to attain eternal existence! How enjoyable it is to consider every blow a warning, telling us to come to our senses! What a great heroism it is to maintain hope and embrace the future in the face of so many misfortunes! Those who live their lives with faith and consciousness fly away through this journey of tribulations with wings of hope, under the bright light of their thoughts, through this land of trials and its seas of pus and blood. They are aware that they have come here to be distilled and purified. And they know that they can be skinned like the great Sufi Nesimi (d. 1417) or executed like Mansur (d. 922). Since they welcome both divine wrath and grace, and since they see the cure within the affliction, they watch what befalls them with pleasure and admiration, and they never panic. Every new misfortune becomes a plectrum, sounding out different tunes in their hearts and invigorating them with fresh excitements. For them, sufferings are no different than snowstorms on high mountaintops. They are nothing unusual. We can even say that living without suffering at all becomes an irresistible torment for them; it would mean their death. This is particularly true if their people are suffering and their values are being destroyed!

The most glorious servants of God did not spend a moment without suffering with such concerns. The same can be said for those who guided their nations to light: Imam Abu Hanifa (d. 767), one of the immortal guides of humanity with his fresh ideas and well-placed comments, was subjected to a raw deal and thrown into prison; he endured a life of suffering. Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855) was mistreated like a worthless person and underwent the meanest tortures – and this lasted for years! Sarahsi (d. 1096) wrote his masterpiece Al-Mabsut in the bottom of the well in which he was imprisoned. And there were many more who suffered …

As those mature souls were subjected to tortures, as if they were being squeezed in presses, their blessed heads reached the realms beyond the heavens, and they became infinite sources of light with their enlightened hearts on the path to the revival of their people. People like Campanella (d. 1639), Cervantes (d. 1616), and Dostoyevsky (d. 1881) discovered themselves in captivity and reached immortality in the hearts of their people.

Everybody who bears the thought of serving humanity must know that the duty is sacred; the journey is long; the roads are steep; and different evils await them on this road. At every corner they will face death. They will be insulted, as if they were contemptible criminals, and most of the time they will be deprived of their right to live like human beings. They should be dedicated to this blessed cause with such awareness. Otherwise, some immature and heedless souls might change their course and direction due to petty hardships and deprivations.

O, you lazy soul! You expect it to rain without any thunder; you expect greenery without any seeds being cracked and no grains being sacrificed! You expect mothers to deliver babies, but without any labor pains! Namely, you expect the general course of divine destiny and order, in spite of its splendid wisdom, to be shaped according to your personal considerations. No! You have not come to this world for fun, for living according to your fancies and fantasies. You have come for the sake of realizing your inherent human potentials and cultivating the exalted qualities in your essence, for the sake of your inner enlightenment. So that you may become a mirror to reflect the divine, you will be put into melting pots many times over and burned in fire; you will be pushed through barrels of needles and undergo many trials!

These are the rules of the way, and the rest is futile and deceptive!

“Do not, then, be faint of heart, nor grieve,
For you are always the superior side if you are (true) believers.”

Here is the reviving breath to cure hearts!

All the errors, offences and sins committed by humans vary greatly in nature, form, and severity. A majority of these mistakes and sins have been portrayed and clearly defined within the disciplinary guidelines revealed in both the Divine revelation and in the Prophetic traditions, therefore referring to them is usually sufficient for a person to recognize prohibitions, mistakes, offences and sins. One may think, for instance, that not everyone has an equal capability of understanding matters entailing detailed knowledge in accordance with the original sources of religion, however a person of faith, a sincere believer should make every effort to strive, and learn the essential matters of faith to the best of their individual ability. Besides there is sufficient literature available for those who make an effort to read and learn. The main goal here is to purify oneself of these mistakes and sins at the first possible opportunity.

Repentance

If a person has been lured into, or trapped in one of the various dungeons of evil, he should strive in every way possible to repent, to ask his Lord for forgiveness and escape from sin at the first possible opportunity. He should reform himself and throughout life continuously bare the shame of this sin in his conscience, for a true believer is a person who never forgets sins of the past. Of course a person may have repented to God for his sins, and these sins may have been long forgiven, and may have repented with deep sincerity sufficient to eliminate his sins many times over. But even if years pass, a believer of perfection should constantly sense an emotion of regret and distress in his soul every time he remembers, as if he committed the sin yesterday, with the constant thought: “O Lord! How did I commit these sins when I know You exist, when I believe in You, when Your commands were clearer to me than the shinning sun” and continually interrogate his own self.

Such a belief and such an approach can lead to the elimination of sin, and it can even earn a person reward. This reward may be described as the virtue for suffering, the reward for finding the truth, a reward for repenting today for a sin of the past, or the reward for abandoning a recent sin and turning towards the Creator in repentance. Therefore it is appropriate to say that every time a believer regrets, or suffers for a sin he committed in the past, he is rewarded with a good deed which purifies the blemished pages in his book of actions and deeds.

The second point regarding the matter is that constantly remembering past sins with anguish and grief in fact prevents new mistakes and sins, for instance when an individual has the sincere understanding that: “Sinning was a huge mistake, an error which could spoil my relationship with God. For someone like me to act in such a way was sheer disrespect towards my Creator. I cannot ignore, or ever forget my disrespect and heedlessness, and I will continue to sense this grief and remorse until the day I die” He will continuously remember and sense the regret of committing sin, and when faced with the same situation again will seriously consider: “Only yesterday I hated myself for committing such a sin, so how can I possibly have the audacity of making the mistake and repeating this evil action again? Which spiritual understanding can possibly accept, or explain the tendency to repeat sin.” Therefore the probability of a person who sincerely repented for committing sin repeating the same mistake again is quite rare.

Such a person’s approach to the bestowal of rewards will be that even if he performs the greatest of deeds, or induces a deed more significant than we can possibly imagine, he will still think “I have not been successful in achieving a desirable result, under the same conditions somebody else could have achieved much more than I did.” He will continuously attempt to fulfill or substitute personal deficiencies with kindness and good deeds.

In terms of religious discipline, these observations are both a clear account and a guide of the limitations of mistakes, sins and deficiencies for humans.

Identifying intention and guiding the soul

In addition to the specified mistakes and sins, there are also prescribed judgments in accordance with certain conditions, or an individual’s actual intention of actions and behavior, for example if a person has the intention of committing evil. There are certain aspects that can prevent or deter from evil actions: this may be a person’s environment, friends or various other factors. The main problem here is that this person has the determination and tendency in his soul to commit evil as soon as the opportunity arises. Only the individual knows his true abilities and characteristics relating to this matter, therefore we are compelled to make an accurate decision between the “prohibited and lawful” as prescribed in the Divine commands, and the human conscience is the evaluator and judge between the two. If we go back to the previous example of questioning the self-conscience, we see that this is the only true means of an individual reaching a conclusion if he actually avoided an evil action due to an obstacle ordained by God, or by his own accord and willpower.

In one of the traditions, the Prophet referred to this subject: “God the Almighty ordered His angels: ‘Whenever My servant intends to do a bad deed, do not record it against him until he actually commits evil. If he commits a bad deed, write it down as one sin. But if he refrains from it for My sake, write down this as a good deed in his favor'” (Bukhari).

The subjects here are both the servant’s intention, and self-determination of avoiding evil for the sake of his Creator, thus the individual is rewarded by God for his willpower and self exertion. As we see in this tradition of the Prophet, even the human’s willpower of abstaining from evil can lead to virtue, but is this the case if the servant’s willpower or determination is not in question? Although this may not be recorded as a major sin, if a person is deterred from evil due to an obstacle beyond self-control, he may be called to account for it as a minor sin on the Day of Judgment. Therefore in every aspect of life, a human must constantly take both his good deeds and sins into consideration, and act accordingly.

There are of course many examples to be mentioned on this subject. For instance imagine a preacher who conveys to his audience some famous quotes from a scholar like Bediuzzaman Said Nursi: “Work for God’s sake, meet with others for God’s sake, labor for God’s sake; act within the sphere of ‘For God, in God’s name, on account of God’s pleasure.'” And if this preacher has the sincere intention to evoke emotions and excitement of acting for the sake of God deep in his soul, he most certainly will be rewarded accordingly. But if these words are conveyed solely to impress others with his knowledge or self-esteem, this is nothing but ostentation, and of course a sin. Again the only one able to judge this is the individual himself, his own conscience.

Considering this case as it appears from outside, this preacher is conveying the good message of God to others and speaking of Truth. But a true judgment of his speech depends on how much self-pretense and self-expression are involved. Keeping oneself out of the way is the basis of a true conversation of the Beloved. In fact it is a person’s duty to consider “If it was not me who said those words, they may have made more profound impact; it is because I said those words that some among the audience reacted negatively.” So if a person has the slightest emotion of self-expression or self-recognition in his soul while conveying the words of God, and the Prophet, or explaining belief to others, he is in fact committing a sin.

“If my good deeds are this impure…”

Similar considerations may be relevant even in the context of prayer, which is in fact a twin sister to faith. A person who is exalting God almighty should utter the words “God is the greatest” in a low voice, only audible to the individual himself. So if a person stands for communal prayer with the intention of portraying an image of submission and concentration, but lacks sincerity and consciousness, and repeats these words “God is the greatest” in a loud voice, instead of obtaining reward for performing worship, his vain behavior is recorded as a sin.

Another example is of a person who leads the prayer and recites the verse “True believers are only those who, when God is mentioned, their hearts tremble with awe, and when His Revelations are recited to them, it strengthens them in faith, and they put their trust in their Lord” (8:2) and during this recitation, this individual becomes so excited, as if his soul is overcome with submission and awe. He is displaying the conduct of a person desperate to obtain the pleasures of the Lord, just as the Companions stood in worship during the time of the Prophet. If this individual’s behavior is solely to imitate or resemble others, he is in fact corrupting his prayer, for even though these actions are not objected to if they occur as the result of indigenous motivation, deliberately portraying this type of conduct for show or self esteem does affect the merit of worship, and can also lead to sullied thoughts and opinions. It is the duty of every individual to behave according to his self-conscience and honor, thus when a person prostrates, and recites:

“Glory be to my Lord, the most high” he can become so overwhelmed with emotion that without even realizing, he recites this in a loud voice. The passion portrayed here is not a sin, but if there is the slightest emotion or desire of expressing self esteem in these actions, the individual blemishes the prayer with evil, thus adding to the list of bad deeds.

So following all these examples, if we return to the main topic we realize that although on many occasions there is no specific definition of the sins or mistakes recognized solely by a person’s instinct, it is the duty of every believer to question his actions, and his good and bad deeds in every aspect of life in order to determine and amend mistakes and sins. A sincere believer should constantly seek refuge and plead for forgiveness from the Creator in conduct which may seem favorable, but in fact could possibly entail evil or sordid intent. He should continuously bear the question and doubt in his soul: “What will become of a person like me whose good deeds can bear such impurity?” A true believer must acknowledge his faults, and repent to the Lord asking forgiveness for sins: “O Lord of Mercy and kindness! This servant of weakness, heedlessness, disobedience and ignorance who strayed from the path of truth acknowledges, and repents for the sins he committed, and seeks refuge in Your compassion, for only You are the forgiver of sins.”

Primarily a person must purify his egoistic desires, and recognize the ego as the essence of disobedience and sin in order to purify the soul of evil. A believer who lives with the constant fear in his heart will always recognize mistakes and deficiencies in every aspect of life, and with God’s will and mercy, as a result of his awareness, he will never be exposed to serious downfalls in life. As for repentance from minor sins, such a person turns to the tidings of forgiveness in the Divine declaration “If you avoid the major sins which you have been forbidden, We will blot out from you your minor evil deeds and make you enter by a noble entrance (to an abode of glory)”(4:31), seeking forgiveness from God the most Merciful, the most Gracious with the sincere aspiration that He will forgive our minor sins.

Nursi says that people are “connected with almost all beings” and because of this “a boundless capacity to love [these things] has been included in [our] nature[s].” However, even though individuals have the freedom to love transient things, these finite objects cannot fulfill them in the same way as the Enduring One (al-Baqi) can. What most people do not realize is that they “constantly suffer the pain of separation” because their infinite capacity for love, which has been given to them by God, is not fulfilled by things of this world. Like Rumi’s reed-flute, people yearn for a return to their reed-bed. By “misusing [their love] and spending it on transitory beings, [people have] done wrong and suffer the punishment for [this] fault through the pain of separation.” Individuals do not need to live in the state of suffering, however, and Nursi’s Third Flash offers them a way to transcend it.

The first part of the Sufi phrase calls people to sever that desire give one’s love to the finite things of this world. True, “the shadows of the shadows of the manifestation of His Most Beautiful Names” are beautiful and able to be loved in this world, but they themselves are not God and are not fit for the love that only God deserves. When people love only things of this world, they suffer; when they focus their love on the Enduring One (al-Baqi) they are brought closer to God and are fulfilled in ways not of this world. When they sever their ties to finite love, they open themselves to a Higher Love, an Infinite Love. The purpose of the first part of the Sufi phrase is to comfort people with knowledge of an Ever Enduring Love, and remind them that the love of this world pales in comparison to God’s everlasting love.

The second part of the Sufi phrase not only heals people’s spiritual wounds, but also acts to satisfy “the intense wish for immortality in [their] natures[s].” Nursi says that people long for immortality, because God is immortal and “the matter most important to [people], [their] most pressing duty is to form a relation with the Enduring One,” who is immortal. By placing their love in the finite, in loving only things of this world, people are limiting their capacities for Eternal Love and as a result they suffer. The only fulfilling love is love for the al-Baqi, the Enduring One, the Immortal and Undying Love of God. Once human beings separate themselves from the love of this world, as the first part of the Sufi phrase directs, people can then be healed by the knowledge that God is the Enduring One, and God’s love will never fade away.

Nursi insists that it is not only possible, but preferable, to live a life of infinite love in the present moment. To explain this point, he uses the illustration of the hands of a clock:

Just as the hands of a clock counting the seconds, and those counting the minutes, hours, and days superficially resemble each other, but differ in respect to speed, so too the spheres of the body, soul, heart, and spirit in man differ from each other.

Nursi says that the spiritual nature of humans is not bound by time. Yes, the physical existence of people’s pasts are extinct, and their futures not yet existent, but the present moment in which they live, in the minutes and hours that they live for the Love of God, they are immortal-“Yes, one second on the way of love, knowledge, and pleasure of the Truly Enduring One is a year.” Although it may often seem that “time flies when we are having fun,” in reality a “moment’s union for God’s sake within the bounds of the Enduring One of Glory’s pleasure is a window of union, not only for a [moment], but [permanently].” Speaking of the human perception of time and place, Nursi seems to anticipate Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity-“The broad Earth with enemies is like a drinking-glass, while the eye of a needle with friends is like a broad arena.” Understanding this imagery, a moment in God’s love can be an eternity of pleasure and fulfillment, and a moment without God’s love can seem like an eternity of suffering. It is because of this that Nursi, and the multitudes of Muslims before him and since, have prayed the five prescribed daily prayers to God. Through prayer Muslims are linked to God and are reminded of God’s Enduring Love; and through remembrance of the Enduring Love of God the transitory becomes eternal (baqi).

Sufi tradition also gives two other images for this enduring love: that of the fabric of life, and that of the “conveyor belt.” For the first image, life is seen as fabric. If during one’s life a person does nothing of merit, nothing of love for God, then the fabric remains plain, unbeautiful, and transient. If one does bad things and denies God’s love, the fabric becomes dirty and tattered and the fabric suffers. However, if one does what is beautiful and one remembers the Enduring One, flowers are embroidered on the fabric and these flowers last through all eternity, sustained by God’s Infinite Love. Likewise, the image of the conveyor belt symbolizes the transience of this world-for every deed done in this life, something goes on to the next. If one does nothing beautiful, nothing for God, then nothing is placed on the conveyor belt and nothing goes into the next life. If one does bad things or good things in this life, then these things go on into the next life, not to be seen again until death. One day, the conveyor belt stops and at that moment there is nothing left that one can do.

Similar to the Catholic Jesuit notion of Ad Meiorem Dei Gloriam (that is, living for the Greater Glory of God), Nursi’s reflections on the work of humans for God alludes to how spiritually profitable a life devoted to God can be:

Serve for the sake of God, meet with others for the sake of God, work for the sake of God; make all of your actions ‘in God, for God, and to God,’ then, all the moments of your life will become like years.

When working for the sake of God, when loving people for the sake of God, when living life for God;, a moment is like a year. Just as in our dreams a day can seem like a year, a life dedicated to and in love with God can feel like an eternity-in fact, a moment with God is an eternity, a glimpse of the Enduring Love of God.

This Sufi phrase of al-Baqi, which is formed under the name of God, ‘al-Baqi,’ calls people to cut ties with the finite love that this world offers. It also comforts human beings by reminding them that only God’s infinite love can bring us healing, fulfillment, and an everlasting union. In his Third Flash, Nursi eloquently affirms that within the Love of God there is the promise of an Enduring Love, a love that cannot be found in the worldly shadows alone.

Michael David Graskemper is a graduate student at John Carroll University, Department of Religious Studies

Reference

Nursi, Bediuzzaman Said, The Flashes Collection, Sozler Nesriyat, Istanbul: 1995, pp 29, 30.

Derived mainly from the witchcraft practices of Europe in the Middle Ages, Satanism has also been seen to be on the rise in Muslim countries. It has become a problem that now appears frequently on the agenda in Muslim countries, as it has begun to attract the young people as a rebellious alternative to the philosophy and lifestyle of their parents. Brought to the attention of the Turkish nation when two students at the Alman Lisesi (German High School), Asl and Alp, committed suicide in Atakoy, Istanbul, June 22, 1998, Satanism tends to find a place among high school students. Moreover, it has been reported that Satanism has spread among students at private schools and has even become popular with primary school students.

Research reveals that young people involved in Satanism share common characteristics. For example, they are mostly children of well-to-do families or families with an above average income. They receive a better education than their peers, and have little responsibility. They are generally brought up in an upper-middle class environment. How can such a movement find opportunity to spread in a country like Turkey, where the majority of the population are Muslim? What do these young people lack that impels them to adopt a movement like Satanism? How can a movement that originated among the children of Western proletarian families become popular among children of wealthy Muslim families? Who spreads Satanism among our young people and how? Most important of all, why do the young commit suicide for the sake of Satan? People are already asking, What are the reasons that lie behind these incidents? This article will look into the answers to these questions as impartially as possible.

1. How Does Satanism Spread?

Of the factors that help in the spread of Satanism in countries like Turkey, computers and the Internet are at the fore. It is striking that young people who are interested in Satanism are mostly high school students. As most of these young people have learnt a foreign language, they can easily gain access to Satanism via the computer and the Internet. Those who want to learn about Satanism first turn to these resources. It is also known that there are people, with evil intentions, who intentionally encourage young people to become Satanists. The information given in documents and books on Satanism (verified by what happens in practice) indicates that there are some people who are trying to tempt young people into being Satanists, intentionally and systematically. I do not think that either non-Satanists, or those who claim to be Satanists in Muslim dominated countries, really know what Satanism is, which is quite natural. However, venturing blindly into an unknown subject may lead to unexpected results. The young people who were drawn to suicide, who were raped, or murdered are the bitterest indications of this. Insufficient information and ignorance are among the leading reasons for the spread of Satanism among young people. What one must ask here is why the young people in these countries want to become Satanists.

2. Why Do Young People Become Satanists?

Of the answers received to this question, asked to young people who claim to be Satanists, the following ones are especially striking: I became a Satanist because I was angry with God who took away my parents when I was little. I became a Satanist to be a Satanist. I joined the Satanists because I was looking for peace. I sold my soul to Satan because I understood that it was meaningless to live in this world and that I did not belong here. or I wanted more freedom. As can be seen, some young people are angry with God, because of some loss or hardship that they experienced as small children. Some do not even know why they became Satanists. Some look for peace, purpose or freedom in such a cult that they cannot find in their families. Satanism seems attractive to these young people as it encourages them to be rebellious and reactionary against the principles and institutions around them.

The answers given above demonstrate that behind the problem of Satanism lies a lack of spiritual knowledge and education. If young people are taught correctly about God, Who created man as an honorable creature and placed him above all living things, they would learn not to be angry with God and would not side with Satan. Similarly, if they are taught that man was not created in vain, that life and creation serve a purpose, that even man himself does not have the right to take his own life, that such an action incurs terrible consequences, and that there is another world in the Hereafter, they would not desire to end their lives and they would not conceive of life in this world as being meaningless.

Another important point to be made is that no precautions are being taken to combat Satanism, despite the fact that young people are being drawn into this spiritual abyss. They are clearly embroiled in a quest for happiness. They are searching for satisfaction everywhere: in the family, at school, in the community, and in society. Here the question of what kinds of young people join Satanist cults springs to mind.

3. Which Groups Tend More toward Satanism?

Research shows that there are certain groups of young people who are more likely to be drawn into Satanism. Some of these are as follows: children from broken homes or disfunctional families, or children who are neglected or not given the necessary care by their parents. Children who have trouble estab- lishing relationships with their peers and are therefore cast out by their friends and environment, leaving them lonely and vulnerable are also at risk. Children who are not supported or cared for by society and those who have difficulty in the full realization of their identities or personalities, and who are therefore pushed into depression, are vulnerable. Young people with spiritual or psychological problems, those who have failed to overcome the problems of adolescence and therefore suffer from depression, are often targeted by such groups, while those who are trying to find themselves by joining different groups and by being different from others, and those with a rebellious spirit, who “ rightly or wrongly – react against their family, their environment, and their teachers, are easily persuaded to join such groups. Sometimes those born with some disability or who are challenged in some way can rebel against God. On the other hand, those who are financially satisfied, healthy and sound, but who are spiritually hungry, and therefore questing fulfillment, can often be misled. Sometimes, young people can go astray merely due to their adventurous spirits, or their curiosity, or simply because they have not been given a sound religious education.

Moreover, some young people unintentionally fall into Satanism without being aware of its nature, becoming ensnared by their boyfriends or girlfriends.

Research also reveals that a great majority of the young people who tend toward Satanism and commit suicide for its sake are either high school students or of such an age. This leads to the question, Why do students at high-school age tend more toward Satanism? This can be answered as follows: the ages of the young people who tend toward Satanism range from 14 to 20. In Turkey, this range extends to 25. However, as the ages of 14 to 20 correspond to the high school years, the tendency to move toward Satanism is more likely to be seen in this age group, the years of adolescence. During this period, some physical and psychological changes occur in young people, a phenomenon that can lead to several spiritual and psychological problems. Since this age group is emotionally sensitive, these young people are more susceptible to influence and direction. They react emotionally when they make friends or join groups, and they cannot always make logical decisions on whether the friends or the groups that they are joining are sound or not. At the same time, the ages of 14 to 20 are the years when young people form their identities. Consequently, one of the main reasons why young people at high school age tend toward Satanism is the fact that they have not yet fully developed their personality, and some are suffering from some sort of identity crisis. This is also a period when individuality and freedom gain priority, and young people become more reactionary, looking for an alternative life style, something that may be shocking to the older generation. Young people at this stage in their life are easily influenced by events.

4. Some Means Used to Convert Young People to Satanism

Other than computers and the Internet, books, magazines, cassettes and CDs, there are several means used for the promulgation of Satanism. Sex, alcohol, drugs, parties, friends, and money are frequently employed as means of successfully winning new members. Anton Szandor LaVey, the founder and representative of modern Satanism, used music to promulgate his satanic thoughts; he would gather people together by organizing parties, and try to impose his satanic thoughts on people through music.Today Satanist thinking and ideas are given an introduction into young minds through music, especially heavy metal and rock music. Young people are not told, Come and be a Satanist, or We’re Satanists; Come and be like us. On the contrary, they are encouraged to join such gatherings by being told, We are going to get together with some friends. We have a really cool time, we listen to music, it’s really fun. Or Hey, we’ll teach you how to play the guitar. Meanwhile, the young girls who take part in such gatherings make it all the more attractive. Boys are urged to date any girl they want and to have sexual intercourse with her. As far as we know, this is the most effective method of luring youngsters, and girls who join have to submit. They do not even have the right of choice. Once more, LaVey was the first person to use femininity (primarily) at spreading his Satanist ideas and to abuse young girls in this respect. LaVey stated the following, addressed to young girls: Being a Satanist means submittting to every kind of illicit intercourse. It is for this reason that we stress the point that young people do not know exactly what Satanism is. We believe that a young girl would never agree to be a Satanist if she were to know in advance that she would be considered as little more than a prostitute. Unfortunately, young girls constitute the majority of those who commit suicide or who are murdered for the sake of Satanism. In order to convert young people to Satanism, alcohol and drugs are provided for those who come along, in an attempt to lure them into the group. After a recruit has at- tended several such meetings, the members disclose their true identity and say things like, We’re Satanists and now you too are a Satanist. When some young people understand exactly what is going on and want to leave the group, the Satanists show their real nature, saying, That’s out of the question. You’ve been with us up until now and we have provided you with many things. Now you say you want to leave. You are betraying us and our beliefs. It is in this way that young people become a part of a Satanist group and are entrapped in Satanism. LaVey explicitly states that Satanism is a blind alley, impossible to exit, with his threatening words, Satanism is not for everyone. Whoever wishes can become a Satanist; whoever does not wish does not become one. However, once a Satanist, it is no longer possible to get out of Satanism. It seems that most young people just say they are Satanists or take part in Satanist groups without questioning what Satanism really is, without reading anything written on the subject. Basically, being a Satanist is a matter of choice, and one just does not become a Satanist by simply saying that one is so. In conclusion, young people need to be very careful when they choose their friends; they must learn to investigate any group that is asking them to join.

5. Satanic Publications

The Internet and Satanic groups that operate under titles like The Church of Satan are undoubtedly the primary means of spreading Satanism in the West. Also, books written by leading figures like LaVey that include the beliefs and philosophy of Satanism play a significant role in the promulgation of Satanism. Moreover, it is known that some satanic groups publish magazines. In addition, music, CDs and cassettes are used in the promulgation of Satanism. Pieces of music composed by Satanic black metal orchestras lead young people unwittingly into the trap of Satanism. Some kinds of music, like Suicide Song and Lyric, are a prayer to Satan and satanic powers. There are many songs that the Church of Satan recommends, but, as we do not want to provide free publicity here, we will not give their titles. In fact, describing and publicizing the untrue serves its purposes. It cannot be denied that the so-called wars against trends like Satanism and substances like drugs seem to add to their appeal and promote their spread. It is hard to claim that Satanists in countries like Turkey have serious publications in great numbers; Satanism is still quite a recent phenomenon. They have not yet been fully organized. To the best of our knowledge, they have neither the means nor the ability to publish books, journals, etc. on a regular basis. Nevertheless, after a murder and rape occurred in Ortakoy, Istanbul, the newspapers announced that the police had raided places where the Satanists frequented, seizing journals, booklets, cassettes and CDs that were to be sold in certain bookstores.

6. Why Do Satanists Sacrifice Cats?

When Satanism was high on the agenda, some television channels broadcasted some satanic rituals. It was at this time that it became known that they sacrificed cats in some satanic rituals, roasting their meat and drinking their blood. Questions like Why do they sacrifice cats? started to be asked. First, it must be emphasized that Satanists do not only sacrifice cats, but also other animals, such as roosters or rabbits. The shedding of blood is fundamental to satanic rituals. Satanists prefer cats for several reasons. Some people think that this is because cats are considered by some to be unfaithful animals. Some others liken cats to Satan. Since Satanists ultimately wish to destroy Satan and wield ruling power in the world; they realize this symbolically when they sacrifice a cat. Cats are also believed to be one of the animals that represent evil. Moreover, they are easy to find and catch. Yet, there are more sinister reasons behind this choice. First of all, cats are loved by people and fed in their homes; destroying everything that people love and value is one of the principles of Satanism. There is one final reason; Muslims sacrifice animals such as sheep and cattle, the meat of which is considered permissible. Satanists, on the other hand, prefer animals that are not permissible because Satanism strives to represent opposition, siding with the other side, and performing anything that religions forbid. They drink cat blood, thinking that it will give them the feeling of immortality. A reason for imbibing blood is that Satan is regarded as a blood sucker.

7. Why Do Young People Commit Suicide?

Before answering this question, we should first ask two questions. Why does a person commit suicide? How can young people at the age of fifteen or sixteen take the chance of death for the sake of Satan, when they are in the spring of their life without any responsibilities, when they do not have to worry about earning a living, when they have no financial worries, when they should be clinging to life? It is wrong to ascribe young people’s suicides for the sake of Satan to a single reason. There might be numerous reasons. For a Satanist, to die for the sake of Satan or to take the chance of dying when necessary are sacred ways of dying. In other words, Satanists regard dying for the sake of Satan as a glorious act, in the same way as mainstream religions regard martyrdom. In addition, dying for Satan is a sign of loyalty to him. Therefore, a young person who dies for the sake of Satan proves his or her sincerity for the cause. Moreover, some young people are led to confusion when they chat on the Internet. They are drawn toward dead ends and complications with words like Satan wants to sacrifice you! Some young people end up committing suicide. Some are chosen to be sacrifices by ill-intentioned people and en-couraged to commit suicide or threatened with death if they fail to do so. It is in this way that Satanists make their sacrifices. The notes left by young people who have committed suicide contain messages like, We have sold our souls to Satan. Satan sent us a message and ordered us to die. We understood that life is empty and it would be meaningless to live here any more. One of the three suspects who were accused of having killed Sehriban C., as a sacrifice for Satan in Ortakoy, Istanbul, said in the trial at the Second Criminal Court that he had been receiving messages from Satan: There is a certain agreement between Satan and me. At first I was hearing voices. I thought they were all in my head for a long time. Then Satan started talking to me. He gave me orders. He has been leading me for a year. Once I didn’t carry out his order and he punished me. My arm became swollen. I have no religious beliefs. Satan told me that I was his messenger. And I do not belong to this world. I’m fed up with life. ˜Take me,’ I said. He said, ˜First prove yourself, then I’ll do it.’ One day he ordered me to sacrifice a girl. I had to prove that I was the messenger of Satan. I did it with Zinnur and Omar. Satan congratulated me. I passed a great test. This statement reveals that such young people are suffering a spiritual emptiness, have psychological problems, and were not brought up in such a way that they were able to become aware of the realities of society and our values. Here a question springs to mind: Do people really receive messages from Satan? Indeed, Satan can inspire people. One does not have to be Satanist to be inspired. Prophet Muhammad, upon him peace and blessings, says, Every person has a Satan. (Tirmidhi, Adab, 78) Also, the Holy Qur’an mentions that the evil ones inspire their friends (6:121). On the other hand, Satan has no authority over people. His sole duty is to en-courage people to do evil and to deny God (14.22). Moreover, he cannot influence good people. To follow Satan or not is a matter of human will. Thus, Satan can inspire not only Satanists but also any other person. The question is whether one heeds Satan’s inspirations and misinformation. The fact that young people who drift toward Satanism and attempt or commit suicide for its sake in Turkey are mostly children of wealthy families and are in general better educated than the norm, according to Turkish standards, leads us to the question: Is there something wrong with the Turkish educational system? I believe that we can find the answer to similar questions in the words of a young graduate of a foreign school in Turkey who had attempted suicide and was saved at the last moment: ‘At school we had difficulty answering questions like ‘Who am I? What do I expect in life? Where will I go? What’s the meaning of life?’ Using drugs… Having meaningless conversations… Listening to foreign pop music and memorizing the lyrics… Living in this music and atmosphere as if it were real. It was the thing most dear to us.’ This person also mentioned that the deaths of two of his friends had been covered up. He underlined the fact that they were living in a world of emptiness, away from Europe and isolated within Turkey in the following words: ‘Our high school was like an island. Children who had everything lacked sincerity and real friendship on this island. We lived a certain jargon, a subculture in this frame of odd estrangement. We weren’t yet interested in politics. On the other hand, our school taught us how to think. In English and German classes we discussed the meaning of life after reading Kafka, Camus; but the world our foreign teachers took us to was far away. We weren’t living in Europe. We also were completely isolated from Turkish society. If we had been living in Germany, we would have learned individualism, egoism, how to protect our interests from nursery school on. However, everything we wanted was procured immediately, even our breakfast. Our Turkish teachers would enter our classes, however, they were not of the same status as us, and they felt inferior. Foreign teachers would come for a period of 4-5 years and were familiar with neither Turkey nor the Turkish mentality.’ As is evident in these words, some young people read books by writers like Kafka and Albert Camus, books based on existential philosophy. These books tell of how human beings fall in this world and criticizes the meaninglessness of life, encouraging young people to think about the values of the community in which they live. This can be a dangerous thing if a young person does not come from a family with deeply rooted values, or lives in a society where there are no healthy alternatives offered to the traditional values of that society. These young people are brought up in isolation from the history, culture, national and spiritual values of their society, causing them to rebel against their own identity and personality. Such circumstances push young people, if they lack spiritual support, into a spiritual emptiness and finally into a dead end, where the only way out may be suicide. One of the fundamental reasons for such suicides is that these children are being taught nihilist ideals and are being brought up in an artificial environment, an environment which has been transplanted from the West, but one in which only the outward trappings have been taken, and the roots, i.e. the values, have been left behind. This can in no way be a healthy situation, the environment that these children find themselves in is foreign to the environment of their families and neigborhoods, and is lacking everything. Is it any wonder then that these children end up as suicides?

8. Who is Merely Called a Satanist and Who is Really a Satanist?

We should be very careful when we talk about Satanism and we should avoid explicitly calling anyone a Satanist. We should follow the precept ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ Unless a person says that he is Satanist or decisive proof is brought forward, sorting people into various categories and regarding some young people as Satanists may lead to uneasiness and reaction in society. To put it more simply, any wrong move or action made by officials may cause those who are not Satanists to join them. As mentioned before, Satanism is a reactionary movement. One needs to be very careful. These issues were discussed in September-October of 1999, when Satanism was high on the agenda and some reactions were voiced, such as, ‘People should not be categorized according to the music they listen to, the color of their clothes, the style of their hair, or the earrings they wear, and they should not be regarded as Satanist according to such.’ Indeed, not everyone who listens to rock, metal, or heavy metal music is a Satanist. Similarly, not everyone who wears black T-shirts and jeans is a Satanist. People should be able to decide what clothes they wear for themselves. On the other hand, it should be kept in mind that young people who claim to be Satanists listen to rock and metal music, and prefer black because it represents the ‘dark powers’.

9. What Should be Done to Prevent Young People from Falling into the Trap of Satanism?

There is no doubt that the main responsibility for preventing young people from drifting toward Satanism lies with the family. Families play a crucial role in the shaping of a young person; a dysfunctional family may well help in determining whether a young person is inclined toward Satanism or not. We know that young people from broken or dysfunctional families cannot find the essential love, care and support from their families, and thus are in danger of becoming interested in Satanism. Parents should take care of their children as a trust from God and be careful about whom they make friends with, where they go, whether they acquire undesirable habits, what time they get home in the evenings, and whether they attend school regularly. It should be remembered that Satanism spreads in Muslim countries through young people and cliques. A good friend is also a good example and a bad friend a bad example. Moreover, parents should neither oppress their children, yet nor should they be too permissive. They should try to be their friends at times, while trying to understand them. They should try to fulfill the wishes of their children, if it is for something legitimate or they should dissuade the child when such a desire is wrong. They should remember that their children need both financial and spiritual support and they should look for ways to spiritually satisfy their children. Many children today complain that they look for happiness outside their families, mostly in their groups of friends, because they cannot find love, support, and happiness. Finding the love and support that one desires from one’s own parents outside the family is impossible, if the parents fail to provide it. It is not enough to provide young people with money. They need love, care, and compassion as much as they need material things. Parents do not do their children any favor if they grant all their wishes, provide them with endless financial means, and leave them free to make their own choices. Parents should know when to say no, restrict certain behavior, and even make children earn their own pocket money. It seems that some young people have tried everything and have everything they want in life, leaving only Satanism; therefore, they want to try this too. What all this goes to show is that youngsters should be brought up in accordance with the realities of life and should learn how to shoulder certain responsibilities. Some families whose children have been trapped by Satanism say that they fulfilled every financial need, but these families never mention what they failed to provide. To put it more clearly, they, for example, begrudge their child, from whom they withhold no material desire, a religious or moral education. The real reason behind the growth of Satanism is a lack of religious education. In addition, certain precautions should be taken, considering the fact that young people who enter such groups are mostly high school students; motives of sex and freedom play an important role in young people joining such groups, and the tendency to prove themselves is especially powerful at these ages. School principals and teachers can also play an important role in protecting young people from harmful movements like Satanism. They should regard every student as being entrusted to their safekeeping and should struggle to train them first as a good person and then a good citizen. They should inform the children of harmful movements like Satanism, warn them to stay away from such groups, and help those who have entered them. Educators must have sound information about such subjects in order to teach the students properly. However, they should be very careful when teaching such subjects and avoid making them attractive. Furthermore, the parent-school relationship should be strengthened and students should be prepared for life and future with reciprocal communication. Officials also play an important role in the proper education of the young people to whom we will entrust our future. Governments should not neglect these movements, they should not make the mistake of considering them as marginal. Something should be done even if one individual is lost to Satanism. Moreover, we observe that Satanism spreads rapidly among youngsters and that no serious precautions have been taken. However, Satanism is not the only harmful movement that sweeps up young people. The sinister country of alternative, harmful movements includes those entrapped by Satanism, but at the same time there are the glue-sniffers in dark corners or in subways. We should look after all the young people who have fallen into this dark country and protect them from all harmful movements; nobody can guarantee that today’s glue-sniffer will not become tomorrow’s Satanist. Members of the mass media should also take this matter seriously. They should inform people responsibly and with accurate information, sticking to the objective and un-biased principles of journalism. They should not simply regard movements like Satanism as a piece of sensational news, but try to bring forth the real causes that foster the tendency of young people toward such movements. Moreover, they should not ascribe every incident of suicide to Satanism, publicizing the issue by exaggerating it or by putting it on the agenda frequently, making it a matter of curiosity. On the other hand, parents and all institutions should also attend to the youngsters who have been entrapped by Satanism. They should not cast them out or regard them as dangerous people that belong to an eccentric movement, but rather they should try to help them back to the mainstream. They should also look after those who have been prosecuted and those have served a sentence; most youngsters do not know what Satanism is or how dangerous a path it is. If they had known, they probably would not have tended toward such a movement. If parents sense that their children are interested in such a movement, they should not try to cover it up in shame, but rather they should bring it out into the open, asking for help from those are familiar with the subject or from a psychologist or psychiatrist. Those who see such a tendency in their friends should also look after them and inform the parents and teachers of their friends immediately. If school principals or teachers feel that their students have such a tendency, they should attend to these children, in cooperation with the family. They should not try to cover up the issue, in the fear that it might harm the school’s reputation; nothing is more important than human life.

Research has shown that young people who tend toward Satanism or commit suicide for its sake have little religious faith, having had little or no religious education. This is a reminder of the fact that man is not simply a physical being, but also a spiritual one, a bipolar being. If a person is not spiritually satisfied, they will search for satisfaction in another place, sooner or later, no matter their financial status. This search can sometimes lead down the wrong path; Satanism is the most obvious example. Unfortunately, the education given in our schools today does not fill this spiritual void. In fact, it is not aimed at doing so. The rapid growth in the number of youngsters who resort to Satanism, drugs, etc. is the most distressing result of this. Similarly, recent research shows that the age for drinking alcohol has dropped to 13, a fact that jeopardizes the future of these young people and consequently of our society. Parents, educators, religious officials, theologians, society, and government officials should fulfill a role in order to fill the spiritual void suffered by young people. Whether one has religious beliefs or not, we should provide our people with religious information; the majority of the population in Turkey are Muslim. The support our young people need is only available through proper religious education. If we neglect this issue, a spiritual void will emerge. Certain people will exploit this emptiness and the result will be, as in Satanism, that some youngsters will worship inappropriate objects, and even take on the risk of death for their cause. In fact, Satanism is a phenomenon contrary to human nature, as all monotheistic religions regard Satan as man’s greatest enemy, the representative and promoter of all evil. Satan is neither an object of worship nor does he have a claim for divinity. Moreover, he did not in fact reject God (Abraham, 14/22). This is the very reality that lies under the contradiction and inconsistency of Satanism. There is a creature called Satan and some youngsters worship him and accept the risk of death for his sake. This is an anomaly that should be dealt with seriously. If we had informed our young people about God, the Prophet and Satan, nobody would now be worshipping Satan; Satan is a being that should be avoided and stayed away from. However, it is a sad fact that some of our young people worship Satan, man’s greatest enemy, and in this way they help him to ask for help from his enemy.

Conclusion

To sum up, let’s not categorize our young people ac- cording to the music they listen to, the color of their clothes, the length of their hair, or the earrings they wear. At the same time, it is important not to reduce Satanism to certain types of music or certain clothes, hair styles or accessories. If this were the case, then why and for what cause did these young people die or take their own lives? What is to be done now is not to categorize young people into certain groups with certain names, but rather to look for and produce sound and permanent answers to these two questions: What should we do to prevent young people from being entrapped by Satanism? What should we do for those who are already entrapped? Satanism is not a problem that can be solved by security precautions; it is a matter of acceptance or denial. Several social, psychological, familial, and societal reasons might lie behind young people’s drifting toward Satanism, however the real reason for such a tendency toward harmful movements is a lack of religious education and a spiritual void. If a young person regards Satan as a being to be worshipped and dares to commit suicide for his sake, then it is impossible to explain the situation in another way; Satan has become a matter of faith. Immoral behavior that is under the scope of faith can only be corrected by proper religious instruction. We are sorry to say that some families today are paying the price. If we do not want to pay greater penalties, we must attend to our young people; it is to they that we will entrust our future.

References

• Barton, Blanche, The Church of Satan, USA, 1990, 152-158
• Guc, Ahmet, Satanizm: Seytana Tapınmanın Yeni Adı (Satanism: The New Style of Worshipping Satan), Istanbul 1999
• Gunay, Nasuh, Seytana Tapinmada Modern Yol Satanizm (Satanism, The Modern Way of Worshipping Satan), Arayislar (Quests), Isparta 1999
• Russell, Jeffrey Burton, Seytan: Antikiteden Ilkel Hristiyanliga Kotuluk (Translation of The Devil: Perceptions of Evil From Antiquity to Primitive Christianity Ithaca: Cornell, 1977 by Nuri Plumer), Istanbul 1999

As love is an innate need, we love delicious foods and fruits; our parents, spouse, children, friends, and companions; pious people, Prophets, and saints; life and youth; the season of spring, beautiful things, and the world. When all of these things and people either abandon us, due to their absence, whether temporary or permanent, or cause us to suffer, due to their own sufferings (e.g., illness, death, old age) that touch our hearts, we cannot help but ask: “Since I cannot stop myself from loving them, can I love them in a way that will not cause me any pain?” Is there a recipe for painless love?

By means of the will, love’s face may turn from one object of love to another. For example, when a beloved displays some ugliness or shows that he or she is a veil or mirror to another beloved, who is truly worthy of love, then love’s face may be turned from the metaphorical beloved to the true beloved.

Recipe for painless love

Love may cause pain due to one’s separation from the beloved, the beloved’s decline, or the beloved’s lack of response. In order to experience painless love, then, the subject of our love must be everlasting, immune to decline, and sure to respond. Only God, Who is eternal and everlasting, does not decline, and always answers our love for Him, has these attributes.

Therefore, the recipe for painless love is to dedicate our true love to God and to love everything for His sake. It is unreasonable to expect a person not to love that which he or she loves. But it is possible to love them for God Almighty’s sake and in the name of His Love? Let’s consider some examples:

Love of delicious food

The love of delicious food and luscious fruit can be changed to a love for God’s sake by seeing them as the bounties of God Almighty, the All-Merciful and Compassionate One. In this way, our love for them becomes a love of His Names, the All-Merciful and the Bestower of Bounties. Moreover, it takes on the meaning of thanks. Such love seeks gain contentedly within the sphere what is permissible, thereby showing that it is both for the sake of the instinctual soul and in the name of the All-Merciful One. It is to enjoy something thoughtfully and with gratitude.

Love of parents

Love and respect for one’s parents, for the sake of the Divine Wisdom and Mercy that compassionately entrusted you to them and caused them to bring you up with tender care, pertain to God Almighty’s love. The sign that this love, respect, and compassion are for God’s sake is that when they are old, useless, and troublesome, we become even more loving, kind, and compassionate toward them. The Qur’anic verse: Your Lord has enjoined you to worship none but Him, and to show kindness to your parents. Should one of them, or both, attain to old age in your care, never say to them a single word of contempt, nor rebuke them, but speak to them kind words (17:23), exemplifies this attitude. Being kind to parents also is mentioned in Qur’an 2:83, 2:215, 4:36, 6:151, 17:23-24, 19:14, 19:32, 29:8, 31:14, 46:15, and 71:28.

God’s Unity and not associating any partners with Him is the Qur’an’s most important message. Yet in the Qur’an 2:83, 6:151, 17:23, 31:14, treating one’s parents with kindness is ordered right after this most important principle. This demonstrates how important our parents’ rights are, and how ugly it would be to show any ingratitude to them.

Parents deserve their children’s utmost love and compassion. A father desires that his children, more than anyone else, be much better than himself. Furthermore, the children cannot claim any rights over their father. In other words, there is no inherent cause for dispute between parents and children, for disputes arise from envy and jealousy, neither of which the father feels toward his children. Or they arise from an abuse of rights, and the children are not in a position to claim any rights against their father. If a father does not fulfill his responsibilities or if he abuses his children it may not be reasonable to expect the children to be respectful of his behavior. But this does not necessitate rebellion in other affairs nor does it justify showing disrespect. Under such circumstances, the children can still obey their father in manners approved by God and pray for him.

Even more importantly, the mother deserves the highest degree of everyone’s love and respect. In an authenticated prophetic tradition, Prophet Muhammad says: “Paradise lies beneath the feet of mothers” (Ahmad, Nasai). It is also reported in the prophetic tradition that a man came to the Prophet and said, ‘O Messenger of God! Who among the people is the most worthy of my good companionship?’ The Prophet said: ‘Your mother.’ The man said, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: ‘Then your mother.’ The man further asked, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: ‘Then your mother.’ The man asked again, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: ‘Then your father.’ (Bukhari, Muslim).

Love of children

The love and protection of children with complete compassion and tenderness pertain to God when we see them as gifts of the All-Compassionate and Generous One. The sign indicating that this love is for Almighty God’s sake is the display of patience and thankfulness when they die, rather than crying out in despair. It is to say: “He/she was a lovable little person created and owned by my Creator, Who entrusted him/her to my supervision. Now that His wisdom requires it to be thus, He has taken him/her from me … to a better place. If I had one apparent share in that little person, 1,000 true shares belonged to his/her Creator.” It is to submit by saying: “All authority is with God.”

Love of friends

As for friends and acquaintances, if they are friends of God Almighty due to their belief and good works, according to the meaning of “love for God’s sake,” that love also pertains to God.

Love of spouse

Love between spouses is for God’s sake when it is not conditioned on transient attributes. A husband loves and cherishes his wife as a companionable and gracious gift of Divine Mercy. He does not fasten his love to her physical beauty, which swiftly fades. Rather, a woman’s most attractive and agreeable beauty is her fine character, which accompanies her unique delicacy and refinement.

Her most precious and sweet beauty is her earnest, sincere, sublime, and luminous compassion. This beautiful tenderness and fine character continues and increases until the end of her life. Moreover, that weak and delicate person’s rights of respect are protected by that love. Otherwise, she will lose her rights when her superficial beauty fades, a time when she most needs them.

Similarly, a wife loves her husband not for his looks, strength, or wealth, as these are only transient things. Instead she loves him as her everlasting companion in the garden of Paradise, and as a compassionate partner in this world who sacrifices his time, energy, and wealth for his family’s well-being.

Love of pious people

Our love of the Prophets and saints as God Almighty’s most esteemed servants is for His sake and in His Name, and not for their persons. In this form, it pertains to Him. Such love, if not done for God’s sake, may cause us to turn them into idols.

Love of life and youth

Our love of life is for God’s sake when we love and preserve life as the most precious wealth and capital that will gain us a happy eternal life. We see life as a comprehensive treasury yielding eternal perfections, something that Almighty God has given to us and to all humanity. When we employ our time, which is what life is made of, in His service, our love of life pertains to the True Object of Worship. Similarly, our love of youth becomes a painless love when we see it as a fine, sweet, and beautiful bounty of Almighty God and put it to proper use in God’s guidance.

Love of the spring and this world

Our love of the spring turns into a love of His Names when we love it thoughtfully as being the page of the subtlest and most beautiful inscriptions of Almighty God’s luminous Names. In this perspective, we see the spring as the most finely adorned and glittering exhibition of the All-Wise Maker’s supreme art. Similarly, our love of this world can be for God’s sake when we love it as the tillage for the Hereafter, as a mirror of the Divine Names, and a missive of God Almighty. We see it as a temporary guesthouse in which we train our souls to reach spiritual heights by struggling against the carnal self’s evil commands.

In short, loving for God’s sake requires that we love this world and its inhabitants as indicating, like words, a meaning beyond themselves, rather than loving them just for themselves. When we see a beautiful member of creation we say: “How beautifully it has been made” instead of “How beautiful it is.”

True love for God’s sake does not give any opportunity for other loves to enter one’s inner heart, because the inner heart is the mirror of God, the Eternally Besought One, and pertains only to Him. This love is crystallized in the following prayer: “O God, grant us love for You, and love for that which will draw us closer to You.”

When it assumes this form, each type of love enumerated above gives a painless pleasure, and, in one respect, leads to an unending union. Moreover, all of them increase our love of God. Due to their connection with the Eternal One, these forms of love are feelings of gratitude and a source of pure pleasure and joy.

The parable of the apple

To understand the difference between loving something for its own sake, as opposed to loving it for its giver’s sake, consider the following parable: If a mighty king were to give you an apple, there would be two types of love for that apple and two types of pleasure in it. First, you would love the apple because it is beautiful and delicious. The pleasure associated with this love is specific to, and is concerned only with the existence of, the apple. This love does not concern the king. Those who feel this kind of love, who eat the apple in the king’s presence, love the apple itself and their own souls rather than the king. The king is not pleased with the type of love that nourishes the instinctual soul; in fact, he detests it. Moreover, the pleasure that the apple gives is very limited and passes quickly. After it has been eaten, only the regret of its departure remains.

The second type of love, however, acknowledges the king’s favor. Those who consider the apple to be something precious, as if it were the sample and embodiment of a royal favor, show their love for their king. Moreover, the pleasure in that fruit, which is a sort of container for the favor, is far greater than the pleasure obtained from 1,000 apples. This pleasure, then, is the essence of thankfulness, and this love is a respectful love for the king.

Conclusion

If we love all bounties and fruits for themselves and delight in them only for the material pleasures that they yield, our love is merely love of self. Also, such pleasures are transient and bring pain. But if they are loved as favors proceeding from God’s Mercy and as fruits of His Munificence, then they always remind us of their source.

When the pleasure is obtained from them with a good appetite, appreciating the degree of kindness in that Divine Munificence and Favor, then it has both the meaning of gratitude and is a pain-free pleasure. The taste of the fruit may vanish, but the Giver of the gift of fruit is eternal. The beloved may die, but the Creator and the Sustainer of every being is eternally alive. The apparent beauty may decay, but the Source of true beauty is not subject to decay.

The recipe for painless love, then, is to direct our love away from transient things and toward the Eternal One, and to love everything else in His sake. The thirteenth-century Turkish mystic poet Yunus Emre expressed this paradigm concisely in his poem: “We love the creation because of the Creator.”

References

‘ Ali, A. Y. An English Interpretation of the Holy Qur’an with Full Arabic Text. Kazi Publications: 1995.

‘ Emre, Y., K. Helminski, R. Algan, E. Helminski trans. The Drop That Became the Sea: Lyric Poems of Yunus Emre. Shambhala Publications: 1999.

‘ Khan, M., trans. Sahih Al-Bukhari: The Translation of the Meanings. Darussalam Publishers: 1997.

‘ Siddiqi, A. H., trans. Sahih Muslim. Kitab Bhavan: 2000.

‘ Harf Information Technology. Hadith Encyclopedia. Egypt: 1996.

‘ Nursi, S. “The 32nd Word,” The Words. Kaynak A.S.: 1997.

First of all, every individual is a traveller and therefore, in some sense, an emigrant. His journeying starts in the world of spirits and continues through the stations of his mother’s womb, childhood, youth, old age and his grave, and from there to a completely new world, Although he is among millions of people, each individual is born alone, lives his own life. endures his own death, and will be resurrected alone, Likewise, each of those men of high stature who throughout history have guided mankind started his sacred mission from his single self, then disseminating light from the torch be carried and illumining the minds and hearts of others, inculcating hope and faith in his followers and transforming the lands once submerged in darkness into pools of light. And each one of these guides had to emigrate from one place to another for the sake of his cause.

Belief, emigration and holy struggle are the three pillars of a single, sacred truth. They are the three ‘taps’ of a fountain from which the water of life flows for the ‘holy ones’ to drink from so that they may convey their message without being wearied, and, when the opposition is too formidable to overcome, set out for a new land without regard for their home, property or family.

However sacred the cause, however useful and original the thoughts or brilliant the message, those who hear it for the first time are naturally bound to question and oppose it. For this reason, the one who wants to arouse the people to new sentiments, new faith, new love and new ideas must, either persist in his mission in his homeland in the face of all kinds of resistance, or set out for new minds and hearts to pour out his inspirations, to offer his message.

Every new idea or message has always been resisted where it has appeared, and those who have offered it have usually been welcomed in new places where their pasts were unknown. It is for this reason that the fate of the ‘holy ones’ is almost the same: they begin with belief and love, followed by struggle against the deviation and error of the masses, and then comes the turn of emigration for the sake of the well-being of mankind, even at the cost of sacrificing their own homes and families.

In every movement of revival, prior to emigration, two stages are of great importance. In the first stage, a man with a cause develops his character, overflows with belief and is inflamed with love, and surpassing his own self, grows into a passionate slave of The Truth, He struggles, in this stage, against the temptations of his carnal self to build his genuine, spiritual character. This is called ‘the major or greater struggle’- al-jihad al-akbar. Then he rises, in the second and stage, to radiate the lights of belief to the world around him, this stage is, in fact, the door to emigration.

Emigration should not, of course, be understood only in the material sense. Rather, a man experiences emigration throughout his life in the spiritual sense. Each inner intellectual or spiritual transformation, from indolence to action, from decay to self-renewal, from suffocation in the atmosphere of sinfulness to exaltation in the realm of spirit, may be regarded as an emigration. It is my conviction that only those who have been able to actualize these inner emigrations can find in themselves the strength and resolution to leave their homes and families for the sake of a sublime ideal. It is almost impossible for those who have not succeeded in emigrating’ from the carnal self to the realm of spirit, from the pomp and luxury of the world to the riches of intellect and spirit, and from the pleasures of selfhood to an altruistic life, to emigrate for the good and welfare of humanity.

Emigration with its two dimensions, spiritual and material, was first represented by the great Prophets, Abraham, Lot, Moses and Jesus, upon them be peace, who shone like suns, on the horizon of humanity, and in its most comprehensive meaning and function, was realized by the greatest of them, namely the Prophet Muhammad, who is the pride of mankind, upon him be peace. The door to emigration has since been open to all those who would walk in his footsteps.

Emigration in the way of Truth and for its sake is so sanctified that the community of holy ones around the Last Prophet, who sacrificed their possessions and souls for the sake of the cause they believed in, and of the matchless representative of that cause, were praised by God as (and have since been called) ‘the Emigrants’. We can see its importance in the fact that the beginning of the sacred era of this holy community was marked, not by the birth of the Prophet or by the first revelation or such victories as Badr or the conquest of Makka, but by the emigration to Madina.

Every individual who has emigrated for the sake of a sublime ideal will always deeply feel the pressure of the ideal which urged him to emigrate and design his life according to that ideal. Secondly, be will be freed from the criticism regarding some faults he might have made in childhood or youth. Whereas, in his own land, be is probably remembered and criticized for past faults, and has little influence upon people because, besides the factors mentioned, he is an already familiar one in his society, in the land he has emigrated to, be will be known for his spiritual brilliance, unadulterated ideas, pure intentions and extraordinary sacrifices. For these and other reasons, it has almost always been emigrants who changed the flow of history and started new eras in the life of humanity.

Toynbee, the renowned British historian, mentions twenty-seven civilizations founded by nomadic or migrant peoples. This is because no one can overcome such dynamic people. They are not habituated to ease and comfort, are ready to sacrifice everything worldly, used to every kind of hardships, and always ready to march wherever their cause requires them to go.

The ‘holy ones’ around the Last Prophet, who were elevated from the darkness of ignorance and savagery to become the founders of the most brilliant civilization in human history and the first teachers of a universal religion, which is still the hope of mankind for a happy future, set the best example in this mater for those coming after them. Those who later walked in their footsteps found ease and serenity in fighting with difficulties, and found vigour and life in despising death and everything worldly, and eternity in constant renewal in thought, spirit and action. They migrated from land to land to convey knowledge, morality and civilization everywhere that they settled.

It is incumbent upon us to save the young generation from indulgence and attachment to the comfort of life, and in doing so to equip them with lofty ideals so that they know how to suffer with the pains and sorrows of mankind. It is only when this is accomplished to a significant degree that our old world will be able to witness an over-all felicity.