
Gülen says, “Where you are [your ego], He is not; where you are not [your ego], He is.” In the Naqshibandi Sufi order there are four steps to reaching spiritual enlightenment “forget [forsake] the world, forget the [rewards of] the afterlife, forget your ego, forget [all these acts of] forgetting,” lest being conscious of them risks making one proud. So forgetting, or in the case of tamsil, not being aware of or intending to show or guide from the outset is key.

By Tasmin Mahfuz At the SVA theatre in New York City, the Peace Islands Institute sponsored an exclusive screening of the award-winning documentary, “Love is a Verb.” Director Terry Spencer Hesser started the film three years ago when she was working on a travel series for PBS. The film takes viewers on a journey to […]

Turkey’s first-ever joint mosque-cemevi complex has been under construction in Ankara since last September. The project, which is being carried out by the CEM Foundation and the Hacı Bektaş Veli Culture, Education, Health and Research Foundation, was first suggested by Turkish-Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who lives in the US in self-imposed exile.

The film directed by Terry Spencer Hesser who has won Emmy three times informs audience about Gülen who inspired Hizmet Movement — a volunteer-based grassroots movement that works in the field of education around the world and encourages interfaith dialogue.

The Turkish relief organization Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anyone There) has also provided assistance. Yusuf Yıldırım, manager of their international aid department, said they are working closely with municipalities in Bosnia and their partner association in Bosnia, Izvor Nade (Spring of Hope), to ensure the aid is distributed directly to the people in need.

The Cameroon delegation had meetings with KYM officials, as a part of a newly founded charitable foundation in Cameroon. They seek benefiting from KYM’s experiences and using them in their charity work. They were pleased with the warm reception and KYM Bursa director Sadullah Hizan’s presentation on the foundation’s work.

The Hizmet Movement, as an organization, with Fethullah Gulen’s inspiration for the movement, is a bright light for the Muslim-American community because of the focus of the organization in doing community service through relief work, and in focusing on education, in scientific education in particular, and also, with regards to interfaith and intercultural exchange.

The Hizmet movement, a fairly religious group that expresses a tendency for solidarity among its members, who are self-confident, well-educated and active in different parts of the world, had alienated itself in the eyes of religious people as well as regular people. Such a perception had emerged as a result of the level of education they have attained and their presence abroad.

The faithful people of Anatolia who were alienated for many years, educated and trained themselves with the scope given by the “leader” of the movement. They sacrificed and worked a lot in order to get to those governmental positions. They got to these positions with their great effort and labor. They utilized these positions for God`s sake, for their homeland and their nation.

The Public Relations Officer of the Istanbul branch, Ms. Fatima Demirtas, told THISDAY about Kimse Yok Mu’s collaboration with the Nizamiye hospital in Abuja to provide 1,000 cataract surgeries for indigent Nigerians. The NGO would pay for the cost of each unit of materials used for the surgeries.

Fethullah Gulen dearly paid the cost of this truth-telling with many false allegations followed by years of trials and tribulations. Similarly he did not mind being politically incorrect when he raised his voice about the ongoing governmental corruption. Without violating the presumption of innocence, he said these allegations should be investigated thoroughly, and whether wrongdoers are affiliated with a political party or the Gulen movement, should be brought to justice.