Historic ijma meeting in İstanbul

İhsan Yılmaz
İhsan Yılmaz


Date posted: May 1, 2013

İHSAN YILMAZ

Last weekend, a meeting organized by the Yeni Ümit and Hira magazines and supported by the Hizmet movement aimed to elaborate on the issue of ijma, or consensus of Islamic scholars, and collective consciousness.

This two-day meeting was titled “Ijma as a Common Roadmap and Collective Awareness.” I very much wished to attend but since I was in the US, I could not. I sense that I have missed a historic event that will be described as one of the first few events that paved the way for the emergence of the ummah as a civilian theological, but not political, entity that is in tune with modern times. My reading of Islamic sources suggests that God will be pleased with an ummah that reconciles Islam’s unchangeable fundamentals with the needs and necessities of the time. Such meetings are essential for this purpose.

In the meeting, Islamic scholars, men and women, from 80 countries exchanged views about ijma. Among the speakers of the event were Professor Ahmed Abbâdi, Muhammed Saad Ebu Bekir, former Egyptian Mufti Professor Ali Gomaa, Professor İsam Beshiri, Professor Muhammad Imara, Islamic scholar Selmân Hussein en-Nedvî and Professor Nadia Mustafa of the University of Cairo. Fethullah Gülen and Rashid al-Ghannushi also sent messages to the event organizers saying they were unable to attend because of their poor health.

Yeni Ümit, published in Turkish by the Hizmet movement, is a monthly magazine on Islamic knowledge and literature. It reaches out to around 100,000 people every month. Renowned Islamic scholars Professor Hayrettin Karaman and Suat Yıldırım are among the members of the magazine’s advisory board. Hira, the other organizer, is another magazine published by Hizmet. Hira is published in Arabic. It reaches out to people in many Islamic countries. Among the contributors to Hira are many writers, thinkers and intellectuals from the Arab world. Its editor-in-chief, Nevzat Savas, was spot-on in explaining the purpose of the meeting when he said that the Islamic world has good and solid ideas, but Muslims have difficulties exchanging these ideas. I hope that this event becomes an annual meeting of Islamic scholars and will serve as a platform for exchanging not only Islamic theological and jurisprudential ideas but also thoughts on Muslims’ and all humanity’s pressing concerns.

It may not directly come to mind but ijma, or consensus of Islamic scholars, implies the diversity and plurality of opinions, or ijtihad, of Islamic scholars. Thanks to the concept of ikhtilaf, or agreeing to disagree, as long as an agreed Islamic methodology is followed and the fundamentals of the faith are respected, conflicting opinions are considered legitimate. These two concepts, ijtihad and ikhtilaf, have helped Islamic scholars to creatively contribute to the lives of Muslims. With the help of ijma, shared opinions made sure that a unity within diversity has also been maintained.

When Islamic scholars were free of state pressure, this civilian activity reached its peak and Islamic civilization gave birth to several genius minds. Whenever ulama accepted state positions and became civil servants of the state, ceasing to be civilian scholars, this activity stagnated. One of the fatal mistakes of the Ottomans was to make ulama civil servants who lost their, to use a modern term anachronistically, checks and balances function. As a result, political leaders in the Muslim world, with some notable and honorable exceptions, have become authoritarian rulers and have acted as if Judgment Day will never come. It is thus imperative that this initiative remains a civilian platform. Politicians’ involvement will also create doubts on the intentions of such meetings. As history has shown, politicians will try to make inroads at such events or will try to create alternative, parallel ones, but this must be denounced by the Islamic scholars who must not attend similar state or politician-sponsored events.

SourceToday’s Zaman, 1 May 2013


Related News

Parents protest demolition of Fatih College wall

Parents from Merter Fatih College gathered in front of the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality building on Wednesday to protest the demolition the wall of the school as well as a security cabin in the school’s courtyard by municipal teams in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Turkey’s post-coup brain drain

Bekir Cinar was working as an assistant professor at the political sciences department of Suleyman Sah University when it fell victim to the crackdown. He says that many academics with different views were working at the university. Cinar is currently continuing his scientific work at a British university. He considers this a major loss for Turkey, not least because it takes 20 to 30 years to become an academic.

Symposium concludes: Hizmet (Gulen) Movement Contributes to World Peace

Professors said that Hizmet is an anti-violence group that uses education and dialogue to achieve its goals. One of the highlights of the symposium was Dr. Martha Kirk’s presentation called Iraqi Women of Three Generations. There are 32 Hizmet schools in Iraq and she said these institutions teach Iraqi women self confidence.

Kimse Yok Mu enables African girls to go to school

Kimse Yok Mu Foundation, with a record of charitable efforts in 113 countries around the world, has enabled African girls to go to school with the water wells it has established across the continent. These girls had to carry water from miles away and thus were unable to go to school. The foundation’s 1735 water wells in 20 different countries across the African continent have been serving some 3 million locals. Additionally, it reached out to 65,000 orphans in 50 countries.

The İmralı peace process and defaming the Hizmet movement

İHSAN YILMAZ After the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan’s comments to the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies visiting him on İmralı Island were leaked to the press, almost everybody asked who was behind the leak. The main suspicion was that it was leaked by one who did not want the peace negotiations […]

Minister’s remarks on Gülen cause AK Party members to resign

“The reason we have decided to quit is the defamation campaign launched against the Hizmet movement and its moral leader, Gülen, after the Dec. 17 operation that has occupied the [country’s] agenda for the last month,” Kara said, adding that the ugly allegations and defamation campaign against Gülen have offended their consciences.

Latest News

Erdogan’s Failed Crusade: The World Rejects His War on Hizmet

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?

In Case You Missed It

Statement on Chapel Hill Shootings

Civil Rights, the Hizmet Movement, and the Liberative Power of Education

Gulen sees rise of ‘totalitarianism’ under Erdogan’s rule

Turkish schools behind Turkey’s soft power in Middle East

Erdoğan gov’t signals change to allow re-trial of officers

Pak-Turk students shine at Kenya climate olympiad

AK Party gov’t treats critical letters, columns as ‘treachery’

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News