Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 June 2006 14:00 by Fethullah Gülen Sunday, 09 April 2006 02:00
Your birth is also the birth of humanity. All of mankind has had the opportunity to make an assessment of their rights and wrongs with the light you emanated and they have attained conviction. Thanks to your celestial message we have been able to reach the true understanding and realization of Heaven and the eternal serenity thereof which is written in our hearts . . . under the captivating cascade of your word we depart in the direction towards a search for the Will of God.
If today we live, even if only to a small extent, in glorification and appreciation of the Divine, and our hearts beating with the excitement of the reunion, it is you who was the spark for these exalted sentiments. You illustrated pinnacles of being truly human; you laid in our souls the embers of love and provided a way for us to enjoy both love and a longing for reunion at once; you disclosed the secret of existence to those who have turned in due respect to your aura. What is more, millions and billions of people testify with gratitude that you granted to the rightful souls certain invariable principles of guidance; you showed everyone the road to remain as they are.
With your guidance, your message has awakened in hearts the spiritual and the love and they have been the unfailing representatives of human virtues. Their exalted poignant voices are filled with humane profundity, as if they breathe nothing but love and respect. A majority of mankind have witnessed their inner selves in your words, and felt the thrill of an awakening conscience which they had not discovered until then. Indeed, thanks to your coming, a diversity of people, in one sense even the jinn and the spirits, have started to voice things which they had not even felt, or things which they felt but could not describe or could not find the right words to express; this is how they have overcome countless troubles.
Our hearts are your throne. Since the day you honored the earth, you have decoded the secrets of epiphany and the profound nature of humanity as expressed in "created of the best stature."[1] And you have untied the tongues; you have taught the crows to become nightingales and instilled in each and every person the motivation to feel and express whatever they possess inside from different angles. You revealed the universal human denominators and gathered thousands of interpretations and understandings into one cauldron around one soul, and thus made everyone listen to the numerous blessings from within their own hearts. All of mankind, even the jinn and the spirits, have begun a process of change from the essence of your message, leaving behind rigid ideas. Perhaps not everyone is aware of it, but humanity as a whole has realized countless innovations and accomplishments thanks to your system of belief and the humane goals you illuminated.
The world was in darkness until the day you rose on the horizon of humanity; everyone shivered with the cruelty of the nonexistence-to-come and suffered immense problems. All the souls reared up with the hope that arrived with your inspiring message which could solve all the problems, answer all questions, and promise realization of all that was longed for. The breeze of hope cooled down the hearts that writhed with misfortune and everywhere echoed with your comforting words. This breeze guaranteed serenity to broken hearts, always mentioning love and being loved, restoring long dormant human relations, piling love upon love, triggering and dignifying human virtues which had been inactive for centuries in people's hearts, leading people to appreciate their own values by introducing them their inner wisdom.
Your earnest breath has revived hearts which were thirsty for love, hope, and happiness, enthused blissfully those who have responded to your call, led those lofty souls into serious search and investigation with a fervent servanthood to God, and illuminated most brightly the path to enlightenment for seekers.
With your peerless faith, perseverance, courage, and determination you could overcome any obstacle and with the lasting support of your loyal Companions you were after a transcendent goal in order to make yourself heard by all humanity. You eagerly strived every second of your life to carry humanity towards eternal happiness with an effort beyond your individual capacity and power. You never paused or hesitated, for you had the utmost loyalty and fidelity; you could not pause as you came with a message that would make all human dreams true, that would ultimately bring value to all human toil, and that would respond to the desires of the souls thirsty for eternity. You were resolute with your message to meet the heartful, soulful, and corporal needs of humanity, to establish love, and to be blessed with happiness both in this world and in the hereafter.
Your message was universal, in a way most fitting to the individual sphere of all, in due proportion to each person's perception of and benefit from it. Your message was utterly natural in essence, the legal rules it possesses were in compliance with the rules of created nature. It conforms to the point where the faculties of the heart, soul, and mind intersect and takes a form conversant of these three in such a way that each conscience welcomes this message and thereby comes to know deeper the secrets of the cosmos. Despite their transcendent foundations, we are embraced by whatever we can read from your behavior and actions at a wavelength that brings it down to a level where we can perceive and delight in it, and where we can comprehend and interpret. Our emotions are moved, and we feel their intimacy and warmth as if they have sprouted from our individual hearts. Our humanness was shrouded by these actions and we were enchanted by their taste and tone. All of these were your virtues and you are peerless regarding them.
You spoke to everyone at an all-encompassing pitch that included special individuals and cultures in a magnificent elegance and which did not contradict any single person. You inspired capable souls. You increased the value of limited words with your particular references, signs, and allusions, and folded them up into a compact oratory. You opened the mysterious gates of the natural phenomena and cosmic events for those who were to come, half for some, fully for others, enabling them to taste the unattainable bliss of the beyond. With all respect to your blessed memory, we bow in your exalted presence on every occasion at which your celestial gifts, preserved in the purity in our souls, are manifested and expounded with new commentary—your throne is the highest summit of our hearts. This is your right, and a duty incumbent upon your servants whose hearts are filled with loyalty.
You are a matchless gift by God Almighty for all worlds. Your message and teachings are His trust. Those who are aware of this have always regarded you as much worthier than their own souls and have felt indebted to you; and in return, their loyalty has always been rewarded.
But a day came, and some wicked souls emerged from nowhere stood up to cry out their unbelief and shouted in spite of you. They dared to utter unbecoming things about you and your blessed message, locking you up in a narrow slice of time saying "he belonged to that time and that people." They incited a world of people boiling with revenge and hatred and paved the ground for spiteful cartoons and insolent pictures. You were under crossfire from both your own community's disloyalty and a group of enemies at the same time. With the exception of our ancestors' lofty endeavors, we have not been able to teach about you in due fashion. Witnessing such attacks happening in your realm, we wail over our disloyalty.
I have no doubt about the revival of your people, sooner or later, in your compassionate and merciful climate, for they possess the purity of their ancestors in their genes.[2] People of this world hunger for a new Age of Happiness. There are hundreds of thousands of people surviving with the expectation of such a time.
We are embarrassed to ask forgiveness from you; however, we have never doubted your vast kindness. Our eyes have never swerved from your footsteps, even at times when our horizons were darkened, when sorrows prevailed, roads were destroyed and bridges demolished. We voiced our loyalty to you as Ketencizade[3] did: "[You are] my dear, my guide, my master, my teacher, my illuminating candle / My two worlds are the light of my endeavors / All my companions join me in this regard." Our deficiency and errors are countless, but when compared with your grace they are like a drop in the ocean. Then,
Show kindness, O Master, do not deprive the poor,
Would it ever suit the kind one to abstain from kindness to the beggar?
(M. Lutfi)
Translation by Hakan Yesilova
[1] Tin 95:4.
[2] The author refers to theUmmah, or the community of Muslims, which is comprised of all races, nations, and colors. Although no racist thought is intended in this sentence, there is still no harm to be proud of the good deeds one's ancestors have done in the past.
[3] Ketencizade Mehmet Rüştü Efendi (1834-1916): A prominent scholar and poet of Erzurum in eastern Turkey.
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