| Reading the World in Fethullah Gulen's Educational Philosophy |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by Magdy Said | |||||||||
| Thursday, 04 May 2006 12:00 | |||||||||
|
Thoroughly reading of the words enables the person to reflect on the world, this quote was said by the educational Brazilian thinker Paulo Freiri as a title for his first message, to those who are courage enough to lead the education and teaching career[1]. This quote represents a summary of his educational philosophy and in the construction of his sober critical thinking through what he called the emancipational education in contrast to the banking education, which enables the people of intellect to reflect on this world by reflecting the words. It is the same quote that we can use referring to the philosophy of Fethullah Gulen, one of the most Islamic Turkish contemporary thinkers who is considered to be one of the greatest students of the Islamic revival Imam Bediuzzaman [Said Nursi], we can also add this quote: "reflecting on the words enables us to reflect on life and the world" to refer to his philosophy and the practices of his movement in its educational side, this paper is presenting how Gulen had formed his philosophy and educational practices. 1- Reflecting the World according to Fethullah Gulen To avoid diving in deep seas of Fethullah Gulen's writings, I investigated his critical reflection of the world through his view of human needs and the problems of the world to what is relevant to his view of the role of education to solve these problems. 1-1: Human Needs: In his article titled "Education from Cradle to Grave", we can see the point of view of Fethullah Gulen to human needs in a detailed way. These needs should be satisfied, in Gulen's perspective, through education, the view that we can put in points in his own words:
1-2: Community Needs: In the same article and under a subtitle of: The Real Meaning and Value of Education he has stated that:
1-3: World Problems: In his article titled "Educational Services Spreading all over the World", with a subtitle: Why Education?, Gulen speaks about the world crisis in the shadow of western thought & civilization, the speech which we will try to crystallize and brief it in those points:
Claims are made today that religion is divisive and opens the way to killing others. However, it is undeniable that religion, especially Islam, has not led to the last several centuries of merciless exploitation, especially the twentieth century's wars and revolutions that killed hundreds of millions of people and left behind even more widows, orphans and wounded. Scientific materialism, a view of life and the world that has severed itself from religion and a clash of interests caused such exploitation.[8] 2: Change Strategic Map of Fethullah Gulen Before I present the views of Fethullah Gulen in fulfilling the needs and solving the human problems through education, I would like to present the importance of the education change strategy for him, through my readings and reflection in the writings of Fethullah Gulen and what has been written about him, I tried to investigate the change strategy in the movement. It is doubtless that the thought and practices of the movement aimed at making a change in the construction of the human being and the lived reality or there would not be logical reason to words and deeds if every thing in reality goes smoothly, according to the views of the movement and its spiritual leader Fethullah Gulen. It is useful before I start presenting my conception of this strategy to demonstrate that the modern western culture is based on two basic things: the first one is the typical intensive production; the second is the marketing concept. The over power of this culture resulted in two things: the first is patterning, which reflects the style of production lines. The second is: merchandizing, which means turning every thing into a commodity that is bought and sold. Patterning and merchandizing affected every thing even humans who became a pattern commodity, or so they want him to be, he is considered in this culture no more than a buckler in a huge production machine or a machine in a huge factory. The growth of the national and international oppression power that depends on arming itself turned the human into a helpless creature in controlling the production to lead another direction to produce another product. However, Allah bestowed upon humans a mind and a free will so he must not submit to this culture and should awake and change the path of the production process, which what Gulen and his movement are trying to do: 2-1: Title of the Strategy: We can say that this strategy is like a buckler against the machine strategy or the machine strategy against the factory strategy, strategy of the oppressed against the strategy of the cruel dominants whether on the national or the international level. 2-2: Features of the Strategy:
2-3: Purposes of the Strategy:
2-4: Means of the Strategy:
2-5: Outcomes of the Strategy:
2-6: Position of Education in the Strategy Education is one of the most important human activities which participate in forming human beings (the final product), examining and observing the writings of Fethullah Gulen and his movement we find that it participated a great deal in this issue because the main focus of his movement are in the fields of: Education and Media, Spirituality and Dialog. The first two fields occupies a big place in the movement in addition to their participation in forming the family (they are the first and the most important incubator in forming the human) and forming the general environment through creating an awareness and general conduct. The third is Gulen's focus on rekindling the spiritual dimension of the Islamic faith which adds strongly to the dimensions of forming human beings, while the fourth is both intra- (within Turkish society) and inter-faith dialog which Gulen pioneered in Turkey starting 1994 and henceforth spread to the international community which adds to the efforts of re-shaping the environment in the direction of tolerance and love . 3- Features of the Educational Philosophy of Fethullah Gulen There are five well-known questions that the educational process is revolving around:
In the following lines, I will try to analyze the educational philosophy of Fethullah Gulen through discussing these five points. 3-1: Why do we learn? Or purpose of learning: The answer of the question about purpose of learning lies in satisfying the human & community needs and solving the problems of the world, which we have pointed to them during our talking about Fethullah Gulen point of view regarding those points, which he affirm in other words:
"Who knows, maybe in the near future, thanks to these volunteers who devote themselves to letting others live, the mind and soul will embrace each other once again, conscience and logic will become complementary depths of each other, physics and metaphysics will stop fighting and withdraw to their own realms, and everything will find the opportunity to express the beauty in its own nature through its own language, the intricacy of legislative rules and the principles of creation will be rediscovered, people will regret having fought each other over nothing, an atmosphere of peace that was not previously established in the marketplaces, in the schools and homes will be established, and breezes of happiness will blow, chastity will not be violated, honesty will not be oppressed, hearts will always breathe respect and esteem, no one will envy others, their property or their reputation, the powerful will treat the weak justly, the weak and the poor will have the chance to live humanely, nobody will be arrested on the strength of mere suspicions, no dwelling or workplace will be attacked, nobody's blood will be shed and the weak will not cry, everybody will adore God and love humanity, It is only then that this world, which is the hallway to Paradise, will become an Eden that is fascinating to live in. 3-2: What we learn? Or the content of education In their teaching program Fethullah Gulen's institutions affirm two essential educational contents:
And because the contradiction between science & religion was a field of intellectual debate according to the Western historical experience which we have pointed to before, because of that Gulen has put his arguments in this debatable issue, clarifying that the contradiction is an illusion, pointing to that:
Gulen adds to these two essential contents a third important one, when he advises educating trades and crafts: "A community's survival depends on idealism and good morals, as well as on reaching the necessary level in scientific and technological progress. For this reason, trades and crafts should be taught beginning at least in the elementary level. A good school is not a building where only theoretical information is given, but an institution or a laboratory where students are prepared for life."[15] 3-3: Who is learning? Educational institutions belonging to Fethullah Gulen are spreading allover Turkey and many other countries of the world, offering their services to their student whether Muslims or non-Muslims, as stated by Bekim Agai:[16] Motivated by his ideas, Gulen's followers became active in the educational field. In the 1980s and 90s more than 150 private schools as well as 150 dersanes offering additional courses were established (Agai 2004, 13ff). By now, the movement has established over 250 educational institutions outside of Turkey in nearly all parts of the world, they are concentrated in the post-communist Balkan countries as well as the former Soviet Union. Gulen has expressed that: Whatever happens, despite those who blows out the candles, these men have long illuminated the hearts that are thirsty for light wherever they go, they warn the pure natures of what lies behind things and events, and they announce the universal human values to unspoiled souls.[17] 3-4: Who educates? Fethullah Gulen has concentrated in his writings on the role of the teacher & the school and their essential criteria, from these writings we have chosen those quotations:
Gulen also borrows from the light of prophethood the example of the educator, and adds to criteria of the real educator those points:[21]
In fact, the practical experience has showed the success of the schools & teachers of Fethullah Gulen as stated to by many researchers; one of them is Ruth Woodhall who pointed to the factors of success of these schools:
Ruth also adds to these factors another point from Ozgala's words:
3-5: How to Educate? The question, which faces us here regarding the educational experience of Fethullah Gulen, concentrating specially on education faith & morals in addition to science is: How they can address these issues in extremely secular countries preventing education of religion in their non-religious schools? The answer to this hard question we can find it in Gulen's own words:[25]
The answer is in the "Good Example" teachers present to their pupils, Gulen has borrowed this way from the "Example" of the Messenger, who was an educator by actions and manners too: God's Messenger represented and expressed what he wanted to teach through his actions, and then translated his actions into words (..) As a result, whatever he preached was accepted immediately in his house and by his followers, for his words penetrated all their hearts.[26] Gulen also pointed to another aspect of the way of education by refusing the way of ear & memory, and by stimulating the way of mind & spirit, saying: "Information rightly acquired at school and fully internalized by the self, is a means by which the individual rises beyond the clouds of this gross world of matter and reaches to the borders of eternity. Information not fully internalized by the self is no more than a burden loaded upon the pupil's back. It is a burden of responsibility on its owner, and a devil, which confuses the mind. That kind of information that has been memorized but not fully digested does not provide light to the mind and elevation to the spirit, but remains simply a nuisance to the self.[27] This way reminds us with another reformer whose life was also the education, and who was exposed in his life to those two ways of education, and he has chosen the second one namely "the way of mind and spirit". He is Imam Muhammad Abdo[28], whose ideas about reforming life through education resemble that of Fethullah Gulen. Conclusion Fethullah Gulen shifts through his educational philosophy from reflecting the world reflecting the whole universe, life and humans. He derived this philosophy from the words of Allah in the noble Qur'an when Allah addresses man to reflect upon the verses and the signs in the horizon to enable the humans learn the laws of life and existence. He depended in his philosophy on a deep and profound reading, an understanding and critical reading, to the writings of both Islamists and westerners, using these readings he was able to define the needs of human, society and the problems of the world, which its solution the human should be reformed altogether, mind, body and soul. He depended on his philosophy in answering the five pivotal questions forming the educational process by teaching the students the art of reading life, reflecting on the world and existence to illuminate for the rest of the humanity a light that brings hope to the souls of a new generation, a generation of mind and soul, a generation who knows its creator as it knows the world and the universe around it. The educational philosophy and experiment of Gulen widens the horizons to many comparative studies, to start with is the study of the Islamic schools in Egypt that are established by national efforts and supported by Islamic and national powers to resist occupation and illiteracy in the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century and compare this experiment with the one of Gulen's considering the resemblance and the differences exposed by the differences in time and place. We can find resemblance in the trial of either those "old" or the "new" Egyptian Islamic schools to mix between the best of both traditional "religious' education & the modern "western" education, which means to mix between the study of science & religion on the basis of re-forming the human being. On the other hand we can find differences in the "level" of teaching science, and in the "way" of addressing religion, the fact that makes it important nowadays to benefit from the experience of Gulen's schools special "mix". Dr. Magdy A. M. Said, an editor & writer, was born in Cairo at 1961, graduated from Faculty of Medicine Cairo University at 1986, then working as a physician till 1994. He has got a Diploma of Anthropology from "Institute of African Studies at 1996. Since 1992 he has started his journey outside the world of medicine, starting as editorial secretary in "Al Ateba'a" the magazine of Egyptian Medical Syndicate, then working in the field of social research, micro-credit, environmental development, then finally e-journalism. He has published several articles (more than 100 articles) in different newspapers & websites since 1987. He is author of several books and articles: Co-author of "Students' Elections in the Egyptian Universities 1988-89"- a published Arabic book - 1989. "The Institutional Social Islamic Work - El Gam'eia El Shar'eia, El Hoda Central Branch as a Case Study"- non-published Arabic research- 1990. "Albania between Hopes and Dangers"- a published Arabic book- 1994. "Experience of Bank of the Poor"- a published Arabic book- 1999. Human Relief Agency: Environment of Establishment & Condititions of Quit of the Role- a published Arabic paper- 2001. Imam Mohammad Abdo & Civil Society- a published research paper- 2005. [1] Paulo Fereri, teachers are the founders of the culture, messages to those who are courage enough to lead the teaching career, translated by hamid `Ammar and others, Cairo, Egyptian Lebanese house, 2004, p.61. Magdy Said, Southern Methodist University, March 4-5, 2006
3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."
|
|||||||||
| Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 July 2008 11:15 ) |