Fethullah Gulen Tolerance, Dialogue and Peace
London`s Centre for Hizmet Studies`s recent report, “A Hizmet Approach to Rooting out Violent Extremism”, offers a way to explore Hizmet`s direct theological response to, and rejection of, violent extremist ideology that claims and Islamic justification.
Fethullah Gulen espouses the interpretation of an extremely influential twentieth-century Kurdish Islamic scholar, Said Nursi (1877-1960), who says that every form of life manifests a unique combination of God’s names and attributes which we as humans were created to see and reflect upon in our spiritual journey of ‘travelling’ from the created to the Creator and arriving at a higher form of understanding and awareness of ourselves and God, which is the purpose of creation.
Thus, one interpretation of the Qur’anic verse ‘the unjust killing of one person is like the killing of all humankind’ (Al-Ma’idah 5:32) can be, in addition to its inherent value, every form of life, be it human or not, is a unique species in and of itself.
Based on this interpretation, people have a positive responsibility to appreciate one another and ensure the continuation of life. Furthermore, since, according to Fethullah Gulen, humans are key to the purpose of creation, unjust killing is a grave injustice not just against the person killed and their loved ones, but also against the entire universe to which their existence gives meaning.
Fethullah Gulen on Terrorism
Likewise, this interpretation places a positive responsibility on humans towards all forms of existence, whether animate or inanimate, and prohibits them from ending any life or changing its form of existence out of heedlessness and outside the realms of permissibility. According to Fethullah Gulen, everything continues its existence in a state of constant dependence on God and we do not exist in a state of dependence on laws upon which God has conferred or delegated powers but in a state of dependence on his constant and continual creation. This recognized pattern in Islam it is called sunnatullah (God’s practice) together with ‘the laws of nature’.
This is the reasoning behind Fethullah Gulen`s statement after 9/11 ‘a true Muslim cannot be a terrorist and a terrorist cannot be a true Muslim’ because they are so fundamentally and diametrically opposed to each other, not just according to the ‘letter of Islam’ but also according to the ‘heart, soul and spirit of Islam’.
Theologically speaking, a person who believes in the letter and spirit of Islam is called a mu’min (literally, ‘believer’), which means trust, trustworthiness, peace and security – attributes that should be upheld by a true believer. Similarly, a believer must always follow the concept of sirat al-mustaqim (‘the middle way’), avoiding harmful extremity at every level of life including thought, feeling and even in the practice of religion. According to Al-Buhari (vol.8, book 76, no. 491) Prophet admonished those who were too extreme in their fasting and praying to the point of neglecting their homes and families. A mu’min of this type is one from whom others are safe with respect to what he says and does.
