Description
Book SynopsisThis is the first book of its kind about the Turkish Muslim scholar, Fethullah Gülen, since the July 2016 events in Turkey, the trauma experienced by Gülen, and the disruption to initiatives inspired by his teaching, known as Hizmet. Drawing on primary interviews with Gülen and Hizmet participants and a literature review, this Open Access book locates the clear origins of Gülen’s teaching in the Qur’an and Sunnah in dynamic engagement with their geographical, temporal and existential reception, translation, and onward communication. It argues that as Hizmet cannot be understood apart from Gülen and his teaching, Gülen and his teaching cannot be understood apart from Hizmet, while exploring the heritage of both. A more geographically focused case study is set out in author Paul Weller’s Hizmet in Transitions: European Developments of a Turkish Muslim-Inspired Movement, also published by Palgrave Macmillan (2022).
Trade Review“Weller’s book gives us insight into the views of a circle of Hizmet ad-herents, who are not afraid to be critical of the movement at times, while remaining committed, perhaps even devoted, to it. It also includes a valuable interview with Gülen himself.” (Martin Whittingham, Journal of Dialogue Studies, Vol. 10, 2022)
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction
1.1. The Focus of the Book
1.2. A Religious Studies Approach
1.3. Situating in the Wider Literature
1.4. Evidence, Aims and Methods
Part I: Turkish Muslim Scholar, Preacher and Activist
Chapter 2: Person, Places and Developments
2.1. Biography of Fethullah Gülen
2.2. Erzurum: Traditional Contextualisation
2.3. Edirne: Secular and Plural Contextualisation
2.4. Izmir: Creative Contextualisation Through Differentiation
2.5. Istanbul: Withdrawal and Cosmopolitan Engagement
2.6. Pivotal Role of Educational Initiatives
2.7. Europe, Turkish Eurasia and Beyond
2.8.‘Enemy of the State’
Part II: Islamic Rootedness, Taboo-Breaking and Socio-Religious Implications
Chapter 3: Biography, Context and Substance in Interplay
3.1. Turmoil as Turkish Context
3.2. Distinctive Scholar, Teacher and Innovator
3.3. Sources, Places, Times and Revelatory Dynamic
3.4. Overcoming Secular-Political Taboos
3.5. Overcoming National-Cultural Identity Taboos
3.6. Overcoming Religious Boundary Taboos
Chapter 4: Islamic Spirituality and Social Processing
4.1. Muslim Insecurity, The ‘Heroic’ Tradition, and Alternative Hermeneutics
4.2. Spirituality, The True Human, Love and Service
4.3. For Human Freedom
4.4. Against Theocracy and for Democracy
4.5. Islam, Terror and Deradicalization by Default
Part III: Islamic Heroism, Hizmet Loss and a Future Beyond Gülen?
Chapter 5: Learning from Loss?
5.1. Wounded Exile
5.2. Gülen, Hizmet and Dealing with Trauma
5.3. The Hijrah Interpretation and Post-Fact Religious Causality
5.4. Self-Criticism and its Limits
Chapter 6: Inheritance, Methodology, Integrity and Creativity
6.1. Evaluating Gülen Interactively with Hizmet
6.2. Distinctive Normativity and Normality
6.3. Gülen and Hizmet Now and Beyond
6.4. Linguistic Deposits, Interpretive Processing and Informed Application
6.5. The Methodology of Learning by Doing
6.6. Love, the Human and Ecumenical
Ijtihads in Action
6.7. Going Beyond Gülen?
