How was the path from sects to congregations formed?

A cursory glance at the 'History of Religions' reveals the following important observation at first glance. As an evolutionary line, as the Iranian sociologist and Islamic thinker Ali Shariati points out, the birth of the Abrahamic religions is associated with geography, and the synthesis of Greek Paganism and Hinduism-Buddhism is emphasized. When we look at the biblical religions, one of the most distinctive features of all biblical religions is the fact that mythological stories were first and foremost imbibed. As is well known, each scriptural religion not only asserts the existence of these stories, but also tries to prove that its mythological stories can better influence moral behavior. In practice, the struggle between religions through the clergy in an attempt to outdo each other has produced strife and tension. 

So much so that it can be said that the existence of this overt struggle and the tension that was put forward at the level of imposition has continued for centuries. Furthermore, it can also be seen that this imposition has led to wars of religion, and that in the conflicts between people who share the same beliefs in wars of religion, for example, as a result of the tension between Protestants and Catholics, blood has been shed to the extent of genocide, such as the St. Bartholomew's Massacre in 1572. In fact, the fact that about 5,000 Protestants were killed in Paris after these murders, and that this number reached 25,000-30,000 when the Paris massacre spread to other cities with a resonant phenomenon, impresses people just as much. This is true for almost all biblical religions. It is a natural consequence of the degeneration of religions, deviation from religion, in other words, sectarianization. 

On the other hand, by introducing worldliness into otherworldliness, or rather politics into religion, attempts have been made to control believers by utilizing the mystical epic side of religion. Let us also note that in the process of political control of religion, the difference arising from the reduction of mythology from the abstract to the concrete has given birth to sects and then cults. This is the traditional fate of all religions of the book. The universal religion first transformed into sects and then, as an administrative phenomenon, from sects to cults. What should not be forgotten is that both in the west and the east, sects constituted the driving force of centralized administration. This is due to the fact that monarchical and feudal structures, which want to apply obedience and allegiance unconditionally, see this as a necessity.

In other words, the worldly administrative phenomenon, which wants to concentrate power in a single hand, has become stronger when it cooperates with the otherworldly. When we look at the Islamic world, being in cooperation with the government has also empowered the cult leaders. In this way, a sacred alliance has been formed that can be used for the benefit of both sides. In other words, while lodges and dervish lodges in the living area, in the neighborhood, revealed the educational aspect of the sects, guilds and guild organizations in the professional organization took the production activities of the society under control. In this way, sect sheikhs supported by the government strengthened their position as opinion leaders.  The religious interpretations produced by the sect leaders responded to the needs of the production structure and social organization of the society in which they lived, not the basic provisions of religion. For this reason, as a result of the Ottoman economic and social order's inability to renew itself and the loss of its vitality over time, the old cultural centers of Anatolia turned into towns. (1)  

Sufism is the most sincere, heartfelt, heartfelt, heartfelt path of devout Muslims. As you know, in Sufism, there are 4 doors to reaching "Truth" and each door has 10 stations inspired by the 10 Commandments of the Prophet Moses (Evamir-i Ashara). The four doors of Sufism are "Sharia, Tarikat, Marifet and Truth". As a doctrine, by passing through these doors one by one, one reaches the "Truth", the divine being, Allah. One of his students asked Mevlana;

"Sir, I don't understand this matter of the 4 gates. Could you explain it to me in a language I can understand?

Mevlana:

"Now look, there are four people studying in the madrasa across the street and they are all bent over their desks. You go and slap the backs of their necks, then come back and I will tell you."

The student went and slapped the neck of the first one. The one who had been slapped immediately got up, turned around and with a stronger slap knocked Mevlana's student to the ground. The student was beaten and would have turned back, but he obeyed his teacher and continued on. Trusting in the Creator, he slapped the second one. He immediately stood up and raised his hand. Just as he was about to slap him, he gave up and sat down. The student continued and slapped the third one. The third one looked away for a moment and then resumed his work. The fourth, despite being slapped, continued his work without a care in the world. The student returned to Mevlana and told him what had happened.

Mevlana;

"Here are the examples you need to understand the issue of the 4 gates.

- The first one was someone who could not pass the gate of Sharia. Since there is tit for tat in Sharia, when he was slapped, he got up and returned the same to you.

- The second one is at the door of tariqa. When he was slapped, he also got up and was about to return the slap when the promise he had made in the teaching of the tariqa came to his mind. "Do good even to those who do evil to you". So he turned, sat down and continued his work. 

- The third has come to the door of marifat. He knows and believes that good and evil come from one Creator. He wondered which demon the Creator had used for this evil, so he turned around and looked at it.

- The fourth has also passed the gate of truth. He knows that good and evil are one and the same. Therefore, he did not even look back...

Why? Because the stations of the gate of Truth clearly confirm and demonstrate this: 1. To be humble, 2. Not to see anyone's faults, 3. Not to withhold any good deed you can do, 4. To love every creation of Allah, 5. To see all human beings as one, 6. To be oriented and directed towards unity, 7. Not to conceal the truth, 8. To know the meaning (to understand man's place in the universe and Allah), 9. To learn the divine secret (To witness the metaphysical realm by seeing it), and 10. To attain divine existence. (2)

Turks did not embrace Islam by the sword, as some writers have written and drawn, but through Sufi greats, including the Imams of Ahl al-Bayt. In Turkish history, Ahmet Yesevi, Kutbeddin Hayder, Hacı Bayram-ı Veli, Âhi Evran-ı Velî, Abdal Musa Sultan, Taptuk Emre, Sarı Saltuk Baba, St. Mahmud Hüdâi are great Sufi masters who will be remembered in 1000 years and 2000 years. The Turks' interpretation of Islam has been molded by these great masters with a view that "looks at 72 nations with one eye", teaches people to live in peace with nature, God and other people, and prioritizes divine love, solidarity and sharing over lust, fame and greed for wealth. Sufism is a path of personal development compatible with each person's own personality traits and lifestyle. Its aim is to produce a mature human being, a human being who has reached the divine truth and who can be shown as an example in his/her environment. (1)  

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's December 17, 1927 speech challenging the sects, which is circulating on the internet and which many famous journalists have included in their articles without any scrutiny, is a forged text. It is divisive and polarizing. In fact, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's words in his second speech in Kastamonu on August 30, 1925, which is even more effective in its real foresight, are integrative and descriptive of all the above narratives: 

"Sirs and people, know well that the Republic of Turkey cannot be a country of sheikhs, dervishes, disciples, followers, and members (in fact, it is not a country of members, but a country of madmen). The truest and most authentic tariqa is the "tariqa of civilization" (the tariqa of civilization). Doing what civilization commands and demands is enough to be human. Rüesa-yı tarikat (heads of tariqa) will realize this truth with all its clarity and will immediately close their lodges and accept that their disciples have already reached the age of maturity." (3)

As can be seen, Mustafa Kemal tasked the heads of the sects with the task of closing them down without engaging in friction and conflict, without challenging the sects. His concern was that sects would evolve into congregations. For this reason, with the establishment of the Republic, the first priority was to secularize the Republic.  The most crucial common point of the laws numbered 429, 430 and 431 adopted on March 3, 1924, which secularized the Republic of Turkey, was the withdrawal of the barracks, mosque and school from politics and the exclusion of politics. 

In other words, this was an important milestone in the history of the Republic of Turkey as a movement to prevent politics in the "barracks, mosque and school", so to speak, which caused irreparable damage to the survival of the Ottoman Empire. For this reason, perhaps as a trilogy of secularism, the first of the laws enacted on March 3, 1924 that secularized the Republic of Turkey is the Law No. 429: Law No. 429: Law on the Abolition of the Ministry of Sharia and Awqaf and the Ministry of Erkânı Harbiye-i Umumiye. With this law, mosques and barracks, as political authorities, were brought under the umbrella of the state and the first foundation of today's Presidency of Religious Affairs, General Directorate of Foundations and General Staff was laid. With this law, the Ministry of Sharia and Awqaf was abolished, religious affairs and state affairs were separated and the mosque was taken out of politics. With the abolition of the Ministry of Sharia and Awqaf, the resources belonging to the foundations allocated to schools and madrasas were transferred to the national education budget. In a way, this law also aimed to remove religion from the economy. More precisely, the phenomenon of religion, which had been secularized, was reintroduced into the realm of otherworldliness and theology.

The General Staff, which was structured as a ministry under the Council of Ministers, was also separated from the "political administration" and depoliticized under the umbrella of the state. This important structural process is also the work of the laws that secularized the Republic of Turkey.

Law No. 430: With the Law No. 430: Law on Tevhidi Tedrisat, the school was taken out of politics. In other words, just as educational institutions were given a predominantly national character, they were also taken out of politics. The survival and future of the republic was guaranteed by uniting "people who were in constant conflict with each other" in a single model within three separate channels of educational activities aiming at three opposite lifestyles closed to each other. With this law, three separate education systems were unified, the first channel, which was behind the times, was closed down, the second was improved and the third was placed under the supervision and control of the Ministry of National Education. With this law, which means "Unification of Education", all madrasas and schools run by private foundations were connected to the Ministry of Education.

On November 30, 1925, another important step towards the secularization of the Republic of Turkey was taken with the adoption of the Law No. 677 on the Restriction of Dervish Lodges, Zawiyas and Tombs, and the Ban and Relief of Turbarians and Certain Titles. In addition to the closure of dervish lodges, zawiyas and tombs, all sects and the use of titles and arts such as sheikhship, dervishhood, discipleship, dedelik, seyitlik, çelebilik, babalik, emirship, nakiplik, caliphate, fortune-telling, witchcraft, sorcery, blow-drying, and copying for the purpose of foretelling the unseen and granting good fortune, as well as the performance of so-called otherworldly services belonging to these titles and arts, were also prohibited. In this context, the young ruling cadres of the Republic, who adopted the principle of advancing on the path of reason and science, strongly rejected mystical understandings that attributed the achievements to miracles. The words of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror, who, after the conquest of Istanbul, showed his sword to the mullahs who welcomed him in front of Hagia Sophia and said, "Thank God, the conquest was made possible by the blessing of our prayers," and said, "Hodja masters, do not forget the right of this" are a reflection of the same understanding. (4) 

With the establishment of the Republic, dervish lodges and dervish lodges were closed down, but the sects stopped their activities, but their transformation from sects to congregations could not be prevented. Sects had an important place in the Ottoman state order. The sects focused on lust, fame and wealth, the three basic concepts that bind people to the temporary whims of this world and distract them from human virtues. In this sense, sects were established and served as institutions where people were purified from immoral sexual perversions, their ambition for office and position was eliminated, and they were freed from the greed for money and wealth. (1) In the beginning, sects were initially useful in otherworldly life, but they deteriorated when they became involved in politics and economics. 

After the establishment of the Republic, Turkey's most fundamental problem was industrialization and urbanization, and a rapid transformation was undertaken in this direction. Let us recall that in 1923, over 90 percent of the population lived in rural areas, whereas today this rate has dropped to less than 10 percent. But what has been done? The urbanization that Europe did in 300 years has been accomplished in 90 years.  But at what cost? What has happened? The eco-politics of the communities that evolved from sects to congregations came into play first. However, this has also come at a great cost. First of all, let's put it first, "unbalanced and disproportionate industrialization and distorted urbanization". Naturally, with the wave of internal migration from villages and towns to cities, which accelerated after the 1960s, the masses who wanted to preserve and maintain the closed culture and conservatism of the town in the big city occupied the suburbs. In the ghettos formed in the suburbs of the big city, they started to live under the protective umbrella of a community, each with its own demands in politics and economy. 

The community promised two things to those who migrated to the city. First, to preserve and maintain the agricultural and primitive trade society lifestyle in the town, and second, to provide these people with a certain income and life security. In return, the communities demanded three things from them.  First, material support through cheap labor and monetary donations, second, unconditional loyalty and obedience to the internal rules set by the community and the authority it represents, and third, support for the political organizations with which the community cooperates. Within this system, the rich contributed to the establishment of a community economy through financial support and the poor through cheap labor. For the uneducated disciple on the ordinary street, the authority of the sheikh and the congregation has taken precedence over everything else. Congregations have also been able to use this power to bargain with political right-wing parties. Undoubtedly, in this way, the ruling elite of the sect gained political power through high profits and wealth accumulation, while the political parties secured the votes of the electorate whose support was guaranteed. (1) 

As a natural consequence of this, Urban Islam, which had been honed over centuries, lost its positions in the face of Suburban Islam and succumbed to the pressure of the suburbs. Young people and women also lost out. As if the patriarchal family pressure on them was not enough, they were subjected to the pressure and exploitation of the rules of the ruling elite of the community as a higher formation. Many of them found themselves in this situation. It is sad to say that, most painful of all, the manifestation of divine truth has given way to the outcome instead of the truth. In other words, the false world has become more attractive.   

After all this, I would like to say that in the background of today's environment, which is shaken by pedophilia and child abuse cases, lies the fact that one cannot ignore the fact that the ruling elite of the community is prostrated to the ruling elite of the community, and that the trinity of politics, capital and the community walk hand in hand arm in arm. As you know, such events cannot and should not be characterized as minor incidents. If it is, then it will turn into a big avalanche that grows bigger and bigger, and the nation will be the loser, because it is obvious, dear readers, that you cannot be a nation with a society divided into communities.

Footnotes

(1) Dündar Murat Demiröz, “Cemaatlerin Ekonomi Politiği”, Yeni Birlik gazetesi, 12 Aralık 2022, s.7

(2) Sufinin Yolu, https://www.facebook.com/373226729373572/posts/1945150778847818/ Erişim Tarihi 18.12.2022/

(3)  Kastamonu’da İkinci Konuşma 30 Ağustos 1925, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’ün Kastamonu Nutku: Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi binasında partililerle yapılmıştır.                                                                                                   , Hâkimiyet-i Milliye Gazetesi, 01.09.1925; https://isteataturk.com/g/icerik/Mustafa-Kemal-Ataturkun-Kastamonu-Nutku-30081925-/1609/ Erişim Tarihi 18.12.2022/

(4) Esat Arslan, “Lâiklikten Sekülerliğe”, Kırmızılar, 05 Haziran 2017; https://www.kirmizilar.com/tr/index.php/tartisma/item/546-laiklikten-sekulerlige/ Erişim Tarihi 18.12.2022/