Reading Elmalılı M. Hamdi Yazır does one a great deal of good

Recently the CHP held, in Istanbul, a panel on Elmalılı Muhammed Hamdi Yazır, with the participation of Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and Provincial Chair Canan Kaftancıoğlu. So many unusual things have happened in Turkey in recent years that our level of surprise at this too has probably remained quite low because of these habits. Yet in my view, both in terms of the CHP’s routines and in terms of Turkey’s general course of change, this was one of the events that could be considered a turning point.

With questions such as what business the CHP could possibly have with Elmalılı, and how much it can understand him anyway, I will not spoil the pleasure this event might produce, nor deny in advance the possible good that may come of it. Besides, if there is a possible good that Allah has written, no one has the power to prevent it, nor does anyone have the authority. The Qur’an is not a book addressed only to me, to us, that is, to this or that group, party, community. It is a message from our Lord, who created us, addressed to all humanity without making any distinction. I have a firm belief that, if those who want to receive this message open their ears, a light that will speak to their hearts will surely descend from that message.

What Elmalılı Muhammed Hamdi Yazır did is, in the end, nothing other than, in Akif’s expression and excellent description, trying to make the Qur’an speak to the understanding of the age. If the aim is to understand the Qur’an, this is possible by reading the Qur’an itself directly, and, if there is a shortfall in language and historical knowledge, by taking help from books of commentary. The Qur’an is the most perfect guide for humanity that has lost its way in this world to find its way, a guide of guidance for the muttaqin, an excellent road map that awakens the consciousness of resisting servitude to creatures and for struggle. It is a book that stipulates, as a condition for truly understanding itself, being muttaqi, that is, believing in the unseen, performing the prayer and spending from the sustenance Allah has given (Baqara, 2-3). It is Allah’s direct answer to the prayer we make, many times every day in Surat al-Fatiha, to be guided to the straight path (Fatiha, 6).

The Qur’an is not the monopoly of anyone, a power or a trade capital; it is a favor and generosity of Allah to us, His servants. And Elmalılı is, for a Turkish reader, one of the most suitable people from whom the Qur’an itself can be heard. For he is a man who is deeply versed in the Qur’anic sciences, as well as one who is concerned about understanding and living the Qur’an, a thinker who has grasped the understanding of the age well, and a translator and author who has attained the ability to make the Qur’an speak to it. He is certainly not the only person to whom one who is concerned with understanding the Qur’an will turn, but from his work, too, one can learn a great deal; it is an ocean. Of course, like all works, everyone takes their share from this ocean according to their own capacity and ability. But what comes before capacity and ability is intention.

As is known, even the Qur’an itself does not guarantee to people that it will always be a guide to guidance. That is why it sets out the conditions for approaching it. For those who are not muttaqi it is not a guidance; on the contrary, it has an effect that increases their deviation further. The Qur’an increases the guidance of some and the misguidance of others. That is why already in the first, second verse of the book it is said: “This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for the muttaqin.” So muttaqi-ness is the first condition for this book to turn into guidance.

If even the Qur’an itself can be misleading, according to the manner in which it is approached and the character and intention of the one approaching it, would there not be conditions for Elmalılı’s directing us correctly about the Qur’an?

Would someone who in the Qur’an feeds his own arrogance, confirms his legends, supports his superstitions and turns it into an instrument of power not do the same with Elmalılı or another author? Have we not seen how certain theologians, who for years have said “the Qur’an, only the Qur’an” and whom no one can match in rhetoric, produced out of this Qur’an messages serving the secularists, the February 28ers? Have we not watched other civilian figures, who likewise say “the Qur’an, only the Qur’an,” turn this cause merely into a livelihood? And when it is seen that an important part of this livelihood consists in feeding an insatiable egotism, these persons can undergo an instructive tossing about, as though they themselves had received revelation and discovered an unprecedented truth, one that renders meaningless everything they have told about the Qur’an so far. Could this not be a punishment for straying from the path of the summoners to truth whose most important quality is that they “do not ask for a wage or a benefit”?

When one looks at the CHP members’ reasons for holding an Elmalılı panel, it is as clear as day that they are not at all empty-handed regarding him. There are those well-known aspects that make Elmalılı important for them, which they think will make him useful in today’s political context. Hak Dini Kur’an Dili is a commentary written in light of the decision, taken by the Grand National Assembly in the early years of the Republic, to produce a Turkish translation and commentary of the Qur’an and to have sermons read in Turkish.

With this feature it is in fact not only a Qur’an commentary but also the most vivid witness of an instructive history lived in this period on religion and secularism. If one wishes, it can also be seen through Elmalılı’s story what kind of oppression, discrediting and persecution Islamic scholars and men of religion were subjected to in this period, and into what kind of channel religious education was sought to be dragged.

Is the CHP in a position to hope for an inheritance share from the greatness of the work he wrote, a greatness that is beyond doubt and that no one can object to and to which everyone must pay due?

Now that they have begun reading Hak Dini Kur’an Dili, I would certainly not want to discourage them. Please let us keep reading, understand, see the intellectual depth, the allama’s subtlety and wisdom in it, and take our share of its bounty.

But first, how about taking a somewhat closer look at Elmalılı and the real story of the commentary project?