Listening to Gülen

Last Updated on Wednesday, 03 June 2009 08:23 by Hüseyin Gülerce, Today's Zaman Thursday, 28 May 2009 06:32

I am listening to the esteemed Fethullah Gülen, sitting just in front of him. Mr. Gülen has long been striving to make sure Muslims resort to the very essence of religion and ethics preached by the Quran and achieve an exemplary quality.

When in a promotion meeting of the Journalists and Writers Foundation in İstanbul in 1994, he said that there would be no retreat from democracy in Turkey and around the world, and his words were regarded by many as striking. It was a first for a spiritual leader of Muslims to stress democracy in such a pronounced manner. Naturally, there were also his critics. They asked: How sincere was he? Was he just pretending to have faith in democracy?

Fifteen years have passed since then. The education and dialogue services advised by Mr. Gülen have reached out to many places around the world. In this scope, students coming from 115 countries will be attending the Turkish Olympiads next week. Irrespectively of their differences in color, language, faith and culture, a new generation of young people can gather together in an atmosphere of fraternity, love and dialogue.

Mr. Gülen has introduced new horizons to devout people concerning democracy. Devout people have never attached such a critical importance to democracy. When we look at the Muslim world, we see that almost all Islamic movements are reactionary ones. On the other hand, Mr. Gülen suggests that we can remain as ourselves and revive our own values and simultaneously integrate with the world. But to do this, we must first analyze Turkey and the world correctly. Second, we must realize that we are living in a world where diversities are becoming more and more salient. We will choose to regard these diversities either as causes for conflict or as additional assets. Mr. Gülen has recommended that Muslims treat them as assets by empathizing with diverse people and creating reasonable grounds for dialogue and peace.

The ways available for this purpose were the expanded freedom of religion and conscience, pluralism, accountability, fair distribution of income and transparency. The common ground would be advanced democracy, which is more human oriented and value laden.

What are duties of Muslims in this quest? Mr. Gülen has two profound answers to this question: First, nothing can be done without dialogue. Indeed, dialogue implies removing the gap in between. Dialogue can be defined as being respectful of everyone's position. Whoever seeks respect for his or her position should pay respect to other people's positions. Second, dialogue is not sufficient as one step forward; we must start to share [our values].

If devout people believe in the importance of dialogue and if they agree to share and meet over universal values, then there is one thing left to do: To "love Creatures out of reverence for their Creator" and embrace everyone with love and try to attain their love.

This is the hard road. It entails transcending oneself. It requires self-sacrifice. It seeks altruism, which is specific to human beings.

This is the road advised by Mr. Gülen: to be model Muslims and reintroduce truly human qualities to human beings with a self-styled movement.

After the asr prayer last Sunday I was sitting in front of Mr. Gülen, and what I heard from him for the first time gave me a sense of spiritual relief. "The tenderness of Ali is superior to that of Mevlana," he said. "Refrain from uttering curses or malediction," he advised. I felt a chilling sensation when he added: "Uttering curses is not expected from people of merit as it will degrade one's merit." As he spoke, I felt as though my spirit was being cleansed.

He prayed: "O my God! Lead them to the straight path. Remove their feelings for evil acts and pour goodness into their hearts. If this is Your choosing, it is You who knows best."

Then, he turned to us and continued: "Those who do not know you as such are accusing you out of misconceptions and illusions. They do not act fairly. They blame you when a meteor hits the earth. Nevertheless, we have to act tenderly and compassionately. This is the Prophet's attitude. If we claim to follow the path of the Prophet, then we must not deviate from it. A true conquest is the conquest of hearts. Those conquests that rely on force will end, but the conquest of hearts will prevail."

It was good of me to come to the true source of communion.