Fountain Magazine goes digital with 92nd edition

Fountain Editor-in-Chief Hakan Yeşilova (Photo: Today's Zaman, Kürşat Bayhan)
Fountain Editor-in-Chief Hakan Yeşilova (Photo: Today's Zaman, Kürşat Bayhan)


Date posted: April 2, 2013

The Fountain Magazine, which celebrates 20 years of publishing this year, has launched its digital edition available for iPads and Androids with its March-April issue. The 92nd edition of the magazine features contributors from around the globe including India, Pakistan, Italy, and the United States. It starts off with an article detailing Turkish intellectual and scholar Fethullah Gülen’s thoughts on life as an “abode of testing.”

Gülen explains that life is a chain of tests, a human condition experienced from childhood up until the moment we die. But he argues that testing should not be viewed as being totally negative: “For the discerning souls, each of these minor tests is an elimination to determine the souls that make it to the finals… A human being is purified through tests and gets hold of his or her inner essence, thus their life is saved from stagnancy and becomes colorful. Our spirit matures in the face of tests and becomes prepared for bigger challenges, as the bigger the tests and harder the questions are, the more entitled the human is to pass the class and to rise higher in the school of human values and perfection.”

In her article titled “Mixed Greens of Hope,” Katharine Branning reflects upon her experience as she walks into her regular salad bar for lunch — expecting nothing more than a short and simple exchange of civilities and a salad. But she soon realizes that the wisdom she receives from the young gentleman behind the counter has more variety than her salad.

In an article titled “YNU: Your Nature University,” Kelli Angelone interviews Dr. Sherra Theisen from the Texas Nature Project in Mason, Texas — a program initiated to help students develop a better relationship with nature. Theisen explains that schoolchildren of today do not know that milk comes from cows and eggs come from chickens. “They think it all comes from the refrigerator. And if it is not there, it comes from mom and she brings it home from the car.” The project aims at making children understand that bounties do not come from “mom’s small kitchen” but rather from “the generous kitchen of the All-Merciful and All-Providing, one as broad as the earth.”

In his review of Gülen’s masterpiece “The Messenger of God: Muhammad,” Mohammad Aleem, who also translated the book into his native Hindi, praises the work as follows: “Any person who enjoys reading would not be able to keep himself or herself unmoved if he or she gets the chance to go through such an emphasis made in this book encouraging readers to try their best to emulate the Prophet in every possible way and guide them to become a human as God has envisaged for them so that they can understand the intricacies of this world and the next.”

Finally, in his article “Philosophy of Horizons,” Rev. Dr. Pachomius Okogie from Italy presents a metaphor of the “horizon” as an endless opportunity for liberation: “Because the horizon has power to liberate us from the present, the immediate, the obvious…With the horizon, there are no closed doors, no human being is a finished project, no done deal, no finished once-and-for-all discussions, no insurmountable barriers. The horizon’s open field stretches into infinity.”

Source: Today’s Zaman 2 April 2013

 

 


Related News

Islamic scholar Gülen files libel case against PM Erdoğan

Gülen’s lawyer Nurullah Albayrak said on Monday that Erdoğan moved beyond borders of freedom of expression and used excessively harsh insults against the Islamic scholar. Gülen is demanding TL 100,000 in compensation for the allegedly denigrating remarks.

It is a great loss that Turkish Olympiads were not held in Turkey

The efforts of Justice and Development Party (AK Party) municipalities and districts to ensure that the Turkish Olympiads were not held in Turkey this year led to some strong reaction. Former Foreign Minister Yaşar Yakış, also one of the founders of the AK Party, expressed his sorrow about the obstacles that were deliberately manufactured to hinder the organization of the event.

GYV expresses concern over claims of government profiling of its citizens

The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), whose honorary chairman is Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, released a statement on its website on Thursday in which it said it is worried about the profiling of citizens, civic groups and public employees.

Votes of religious orders and communities [in Turkey]

The three-week debate between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Fethullah Gülen had a long past that falls under this category. Although the AK Party is powerful, the Gülen movement is not a piece of cake it can swallow easily. The AK Party is a political party that keeps its members together using the power and interests available to a ruling party. The Gülen movement, on the other hand, is an army of volunteers.

Profiled lawyer files criminal complaint against MİT, MGK

Taraf began publishing a string of confidential documents suggesting that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government and MİT had collected information on a large number of individuals through 2013 at the request of the MGK. The targets were reportedly members of the Hizmet movement, a faith-based community inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

Turkish groups call for global peace at historic İstanbul meeting

Inspired by esteemed Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, Turkish activists have established intercultural and interfaith organizations in more than 100 countries all around the world. The primary objective of these organizations is to encourage tolerance and build bridges across different ethnic and religious groups.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Zaman Editor-in-Chief: Turkish government no longer democratic

Erdoğan calls critics, civil movements ‘traitors,’ threatens investors

NBA star Enes Kanter on faith, basketball and political activism

What is going on in Turkey? Who is Fethullah Gülen?

Sophia Pandya on Hizmet Movement

Overshadowing the graft probe

İstanbul Transportation Authority cancels bus line to Fatih University

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News