What are we rushing about, what are we anxious about?

In Turkey, let us admit that the ease with which debate, especially around concepts such as religion, nationalism and homeland, turns into accusations of treason, deviance, even of destroying religion prevents any in-depth discussion of any subject. A state of suspicion prevails, adopted by almost every segment, that whoever puts forward an idea will not put it forward merely as an idea, as a thought, and that there must surely be some other ill intent behind it.

This being so, people focus more on proving how loyal they are to the established beliefs, values or institutions that are cited as references than on developing their ideas.

Or it goes the opposite way: they rebel, saying they trample on the references of interlocutors who judge them so easily.

Nation, homeland and religion thus turn into reference values that divide and fragment people further, rather than uniting them. Who are the loyal members of this nation? Which of us are the true children of this homeland? Those who came to these lands first? Or those who came much later and shout the loudest for the homeland? And before that, what is a homeland? What is a nation? On what are the principles that establish and secure a nation founded? Is it our natural bonds that will tie us to one another and relate us to one another, or a contract around certain principles? What is it?

We cannot find an atmosphere of calm in which to conduct a debate around these, because the whole effort of certain people is precisely to keep these from being thought about: Strike, do not let them speak. The different sparks of thought on this that we do hear, for better or worse, turn out to be the words of those who have gone off the rails in the face of the noise that arises. Crazy, but able to contain a measure of truth.

The same goes for religion.

In essence religion is God's religion. And God is the One who creates all people without distinguishing between believer, hypocrite and unbeliever, who withholds neither His mercy nor His compassion from them, who gives even sinners an opportunity in this world for their sins, who does not cut off either their sustenance or their breath because they have sinned, and who grants them respite for as long as the life allotted to them. Our Lord, who has kept the door of repentance wide open for each of His servants despite all their sinfulness, who loves all His servants so much that He draws ten steps nearer to the one who takes a single step toward that door.

By contrast, those who speak in the name of religion, in the name of God, seem not to be aware that God is at an equal distance from all His servants and that all His servants can establish contact with Him whenever they wish. However far anyone may be from God, God is nearer to every servant than the jugular vein. However far they may be, when a servant wants to pray there is no veil between them and God. That is, the God whom some, God forbid, try to turn into a property and draw into their own ranks is the Lord of everyone. Even if some are unaware of it. So what is this monopoly of spokesmanship that those acting especially in the name of religion try to establish in the name of religion?

Years ago, we are at one of the conferences where, again, subjects such as Islam, the Qur'an, the Sunnah, interpretation, modernism, historicism and hermeneutics were being discussed abundantly and heatedly. I think it was a session in which some people, on the grounds that someone was again claiming historicism, displayed a panic of "Religion is slipping away" and accused those who defended it of almost leaving the religion. The session was chaired by Prof. Dr. Sait Şimşek of the Faculty of Theology at Selçuk University. As calmly, as unhurriedly as possible, and in his wise style, he made a magnificent adjustment: "Religion does not slip away because some people said this or that. Do not panic. Religion is God's religion. God protects His religion. Let us look after ourselves. What are we in a panic about?"

Since that day I have found that asking this question, looking at the condition of everyone who speaks in the name of religion, is a sound measure. What are those who panic that religion is slipping away really in a panic about? This religion is the religion of truth. And truth, like the sun, even when clouds come between and nights come and go, shows its light in such a way as to ensure that everything else is seen.

Of course, again, it shows to the one who sees. No one is an agent, guarantor, overseer or controller over anyone.

Then what is the meaning of being so eager to push people outside religion, outside Ahl al-Sunnah, outside the nation, just because they think a little differently?

Remember we had asked? Do you not love believers at all? Have you never loved? Do you not know at all what it means to love for the sake of God? To love for the sake of God is to love a person with their faults, their mistakes, their good deeds, their shortcomings, their abundance. Because no human being is faultless or complete. If there is a deficiency that would extinguish this love, you strive with compassion to complete it. If there is a fault, you work with mercy to correct it. Instead of doing this, what does it express to receive their slip of the tongue or foot like someone lying in wait for prey, and to rush to pounce on them savagely?

Might this not be a bit of an expression of the envy Cain felt toward Abel? Might it not be a bit of a continuation of the envy the brothers felt toward Joseph?

There is no servant without error. The faults you find in your brother, gossip about, and use as an occasion to single him out, if we were to look, perhaps a thousand times as many would be found in you. Your advantage is perhaps only that your brother is not as stingy as you, or that you have not been exposed to such envy. Will you kill a brother who has so much service and effort, and so much affection in people's hearts, for a fault? Come to your senses. The story of Abel and Cain is not a story about a war between unbelievers and Muslims.

In the same way, the story of Prophet Joseph is not an event that took place between Muslims and unbelievers. It is exactly your story.

The field of religion is not a market. Because whether people believe or not belongs to God beyond a certain point, it should not be anyone's concern. Whether people have become atheists, whether they have become deists, whether they have gone astray, everyone is doing to themselves whatever they do. Is the anxiety I feel on their behalf about the customers of a trading house I have set up in the name of religion dwindling, or is it truly concern about people's ultimate fate?

Of course I have a faith that makes me very, very happy, one that has penetrated to my marrow. My desire to share this faith with everyone is a desire for everyone to be happy. In the end it is a love of people. A love that shows itself through compassion, through the wish to share a good that I have. For that reason, when I see a person going astray I only grieve. And I grieve a great deal; I pray to God to grant him guidance. In a way that will further inflame his deviance, making him

a target, I believe, carries a great burden of sin.

The point of reference that those who claim to represent God's religion perhaps need to set themselves straight by is this: Do they derive any gain from the cause they champion? So that the righteous man who came from the far side of the city could bear witness, saying, "Follow those who ask no reward of you"?