Do we know our debt?

We had said that the city is the place where a human being can realize his dreams about the world with all his capacities, reflect his ideals, follow his values, and put forth his designs.

That is why great states, states that have had claims from the outset, have tried to put forward their claims through the cities they founded.

Alexander the Great, influenced by Aristotle's philosophy of the state, is famous on his celebrated great Eastern campaign (interpreting his master in his own way, of course, even in ways he did not intend) also for the cities he founded. It is known that in all the cities he founded there was a tremendous foresight that saw well what was to come, and order.

Indeed, what shaped these cities of his, with their squares, streets and markets, with the arrangement in which all the streets open onto the square, where people could live, was not only the philosophical design in Alexander's mind but also the bad experiences of the legendary city of Athens.

Athens is regarded as the cradle of democracy, but with its narrow streets where two horses or donkeys could hardly pass side by side, its extremely chaotic urban structure and its poor municipal services, it is in fact a place with a very low quality of life.

One of the things that reduce the quality of life may well be its democracy. In a city in which different balances of power operate, elements that could not be controlled, urban initiatives or actors that could not be managed from the center, by setting up their homes wherever they wished and carrying out their activities, pushed the city into a chaotic state in which establishing order was very difficult. There was democracy in the city, but it operated at the same time with an effect that destroyed people's responsibilities toward one another in the city.

The city had to be designed differently. An authority was also needed that would watch over people's rights toward one another, that would know the common good and be able to establish it. Alexander could not fix Athens or the Greek cities already founded, but in the new cities he would found from scratch he would set out in search of realizing this ideal.

Founding the city with this discipline and creating a structure suited to the cosmos required, of course, a state authority. Indeed, according to Ibn Khaldun, the very first emergence of the phenomenon of the city required strong state wills.

True, we have now passed the founding stage. That is, in cities founded from scratch it is possible to do many things, but what about the situation in cities founded long ago, subjected to different treatments in every era under different philosophies, interests or initiatives, and turned into veritable living mounds?

As if the ruthless destruction of the old with a complete vandalism against history were not enough, which philosophy, which character, which lack of faith is the work of cities that cannot see even five years ahead even in newly founded places, and that jam up within a short time both in terms of traffic flow and building density?

In cities founded in the past, the development of the city fifty to a hundred years later was taken into account, the needs of the cities in which grandchildren would live were foreseen, and suitable cities were built. What is interesting is that today, despite so much accumulated history and experience, in the cities being founded now things are done with a haste that does not take into account even a few years ahead. The sufficient road width and parking lot size that the huge blocks built one after another will need are not taken into account, and these new districts of the city begin to suffocate very soon after they are built.

The problems we complain about so much today, concerning cities having no identity, stem largely from this lack of foresight. But the matter is not only a lack of foresight; of course there are serious dimensions related to our understanding of responsibility.

Responsibility should in fact be the first and most fundamental value and feeling of being a city dweller. The state of being a city dweller begins with the realization of our responsibility toward others.

The city was named medina by our Prophet. We say Medina is the name of civilization, but civilization (medeniyet) was in fact named in reference to Medina. What is essential is Medina, not civility, that is, in the Western term, civility.

Medina, in turn, is derived from the word din. Medina is the place where religion will be lived in its most ideal form, where the ideals of religion, the human relations it foresees, are lived in their most ideal form, in accordance with the essence of tawhid, leaving no room for servitude to a servant. The word that has the same root as din is deyn. That also means debt. Medina, that is, the city, expresses in the essence of the human being his indebtedness.

The person who lives in the city is indebted to the other people in the city. Sociologically, because of the division of labor in the city, everyone is indebted for the comfort he lives in to other people who are doing their part in the division of labor. The most important way to pay this debt is for him too to do the work he has taken on in this division of labor in the most beautiful way, with the love of worship, as if paying his debt, as if paying the expiation for his sins. Every undertaking that falls short of that is the debt not being paid, that is, religion remaining incomplete.

Everyone who lives in the city is indebted to everyone. And everyone is indebted to God, the owner of religion. God is the pursuer and guarantor of all debts. One who neglects to fulfill his responsibilities toward others has in fact committed an offense against God.

Within the division of labor that city life imposes by itself, no one is exempt from debt. Of course, depending on the nature of the duties, the debt may be greater, but everyone owes his existence in this city to the services of others.

Our civility begins first with recognizing this debt and resolving to pay it.

It is not permissible for those who do not know and do not recognize this debt to undertake the management of the city, and managing a society made up of those who do not feel this debt is an entirely different test.