Turkey: A Bridge
between Islam and the West - III
By Dr Muzaffar K. Awan
Michigan, USA
Although Gülen
is an Islamic intellectual/scholar, his accomplishments
and interests have gone way beyond the field of
theology. He is well versed in Islamic sciences
and at the same time is also knowledgeable of Western
thought. Gülen has read Hafiz as well as Goethe.
He has knowledge of Peyami Safa, a well-known Turkish
novelist, and Dostoyevsky. Having studied Islamic
sciences in his youth, he has a great talent for
memorization as well as synthesis. Even today, at
the age of sixty-six, he is able to recite the whole
Qur'an by heart. He is also versed in the field
of hadith, the sayings of the prophet (PBUH). It
would not be an exaggeration to say that Gülen
has also more than ten thousand hadiths memorized
in the original Arabic language.
Fethullah Gulen managed to establish a vast civil
society movement through his inspirational speeches
and writings. Since late 1960’s, his movement
has gradually evolved and grown in various areas
of social life. Avoiding partisan politics, the
movement developed an enlightenment project to fight
the social ills. It includes the establishment of
hundreds of modern schools and several universities
inside and outside of Turkey, a media network (such
as a TV national channel, a weekly news magazine,
Samna, a leading daily newspaper), and business
organizations. Influenced by Sufi traditions, the
Gulen movement's precepts of Turkish culture of
tolerance have been criticized by both extreme secularists
and Islamic groups. Journalists and Writers Foundation
is Turkey’s first and foremost NGO; its honorary
chairman is Fethullah Gulen. This NGO effectively
deals with interfaith dialogue and searches for
common ground.
A reputable academic journal published in the US,
“The Muslim World” in its July, 05 issue,
examined the views of Fethullah Gulen and his civil
society movement formed around him.
This special edition ran the headline “Islam
in Modern Turkey: Contributions of Fethullah Gulen”
and included articles on Gulen written by academics
such as Sidney Griffith, Zeki Saritoprak, Mucahit
Bilici, Lester R. Kurtz, Elisabeth Ozdalga, and
Thomas Michel.
Here the readers will find brief summaries of the
articles from this reputable journal in the US.
There was also an in-depth interview conducted with
Gulen by the journal that I will not be able to
include in this writing. The articles for this special
issue elaborate various aspects of Gülen's
personality and endeavors from different perspectives.
(
In the very first paper featured in this special
issue, Osman Bakar (1) focuses on Gülen's approach
to the relationship between science and Islam, examining
Gülen's understanding of the nature of religious
and scientific truths in a comparative way. He argues
that in contemporary Muslim discourse, it is uncommon
to find serious scholars among theologians who reflect
on issues of Islam and science. He contends that
Gülen belongs to this very small group of committed
theologians. Osman Bakar describes Gulen as an Islamic
scholar, whose roots lay in the traditional Islamic
sciences and who at the same time is quite familiar
with modern Western science. Bakar notes that Gulen’s
ideas on this matter have been shaped by its deep
faithfulness to Sufi intellectualism, even though
he is not an initiator of any Sufi order. Pointing
at Gulen’s efforts to reconcile Islam and
science, Bakar indicates that Gulen’s teachings
seek a sincere dialogue not just between Islam and
other faiths, but among religious men and scientists
from different societies as well. In this regard
Gulen’s views are important for the contemporary
world in multiple aspects, notes Bakar. (To be continued)
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