Freedom and Progress from Social Cohesion Point of View in Gulen`s Understanding

According to Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic scholar, preacher and social advocate, true freedom is civilized freedom, which wears the diamond chain of religion and morals, and the golden collar of sound thinking.

From Gulen`s point of view, true freedom is the freedom of the human mind from all shackles that hinder it from making material and spiritual progress, as long as we do not fall into indifference and heedlessness.

Gulen`s understanding of freedom comes from a broad, universal context. He says: ”Freedom allows people to do whatever they want, provided that they do not harm others and themselves and that they remain wholly devoted to the truth.”

Gulen explains the underlying principles and values of freedom with the following: “True freedom, however, the freedom of moral responsibility shows that one is human, for it motivates and vitalizes the conscience and removes impediments before the spirit.”

After giving the contextual framework of the true freedom, Gulen opens that up to a nation`s development and progress, which, in his words, depends upon the intellectual and spiritual training given to the people who live within its borders.

Gulen also emphasizes that a nation whose members are lacking in intellectual and spiritual developments should not be expected to develop and progress. Accepting the status quo as a given does not satisfy Gulen, who says: ”Being content with things as they are indicates a lack of effort, while true progress is the realization of development. A nation`s people must have the same goal in order to experience national development. A nation cannot develop and progress if some of its members say “black” and others say “white” for the same thing, regardless of how much activity it engages in.”

Social cohesion comes from the marriage of this kind of progress and development according to Gulen, who warns that: “A community that has not trained its people in a shared tradition eventually splits into different groups based on their different knowledge and upbringing.” As a result, the hostility between these groups is inevitable, which makes it is impossibly difficult for such a fractured community to progress.

In order to live in a peaceful environment of social cohesion and for true and beneficial progress to be made, Gulen suggests that people must evaluate the present conditions and use the experience of former generations intelligently. Otherwise, if coming generations do not learn from the experience of their predecessors, and if each generation follows its own way, Gulen warns that “the nation will begin to move backward”, which would undermine the progress and development towards social cohesion and as a result would constraint freedoms.