Human Dignity

We see Abdurrahman Şeref Bey as an important touchstone for examining the cultural transition of the Ottoman State-Turkish Republic. As I read his honorable stance as a scientist and politician, his writings, the students he trained and his teaching methods, I became convinced that he was a distinguished intelligence that held theory and practice together. These days, we are planning to bring her perspective to the agenda again while reading "human dignity"-centered readings with my teacher Banu Yüksel.

We made and published his work titled Moral Science with the Ottoman Turkish text and simplification with my teacher Aygün Akyol. It was first published in Elis publications in 2012, and its second edition was published in 2019. It was formed from the lecture notes of the Sultan of Mektebi and the School of Civilization (Faculty of Political Sciences), which trained the last period bureaucrats of the Ottoman Empire. Here, Abdurrahman Şeref Bey gives the principles of moral science in man himself, in the perfection of creation, in the perfection of his spiritual qualities, in his mind and intelligence, as first respect for human dignity, secondly responsibility and thirdly thinking good/good. According to him, paying attention to and respecting the issues that ensure human dignity forms the basis of moral science. (p.39)

As I read, I share some paragraphs on social media with their sources, a friend who saw this wrote, "I cannot call it a negotiation in the country, but the level of discussions has dropped, people have started to use a style that destroys each other's dignity, stop hurting each other's dignity, and most of them are people who say they prioritize religious values." . And I said, "I don't follow these kinds of discussions to protect my mental health for a long time." Then send a few links and say, "At least write about human dignity!" This text appeared.

Reading Accompanied by Neşat Ertaş Folk Songs: Seeing with the Eyes of Life

Neşet Ertaş is one of the people with whom we follow the Turkistan-Turkey contact through verbal culture. It is another blessing to stumble upon a folk song called "Duality Point" while listening to Steppe's Teaser in the Human dignity readings, and to listen to what he says with all his heart. I thought I'd do today's book review by listening to his album in the "Kalan Music Archive". For me, Neşet Emmi is a scholar who searches for the fault in himself by saying "Don't Say Aslı Bozuk, Come To This Person". What a need for "Arife Tarif" anyway! If you saw it in the Right Square, He is yours, You are His, He is in you, You are in Him. If you knew it. The wise one senses this, crushes the gum in his heart, always travels with you, If you have seen it with the eyes of your soul.

Human Dignity:

The key term to protect human dignity is to see with one's heart and to listen with one's soul. To know him as a friend/parent/comrade is to see his creations as a trust. Because human dignity means that a person has the highest mental and moral values ​​as a person, and therefore possesses an intangible and inviolable core value. The important thing is that the person knows himself and wants things that he does not want done to himself, that will hurt his honor / dignity / dignity, never be done to others.

Human Dignity as a Social, Philosophical, Religious and Legal Concept

In this context, human dignity, which emerged as a social concept, expresses both the respect one has for himself and the respect for himself by others. In this direction, the first aspect of the concept, that is, the self-respect of people: self-respect, dignity, dignity, and the second aspect, that is, the personal value on which the respect shown by others is based: honor and dignity.

In modern philosophy, it has started to come to the agenda more frequently with the humanism (humanism) movement, in which human is accepted as the highest value. Because, in ancient philosophy, Protagaras' human is the measure of everything, it has a historical dimension that goes up to his words.

In this context, if we look at its theological dimension, it goes back to the first human imagination. The main subject of the revelation process is man. It is important to understand man as a "person" in terms of being a being with will and responsibility. In this sense, one of the main problems of theology regarding human dignity is the question of whether human freedom has a cognitive basis in self-knowledge and whether the dignity of a person is given to him as a "person" or whether a person gains his dignity by his own free will as the addressee of revelation.

And ultimately human dignity is a legal concept. Legal rules as a kind of social order rule, wherever there are people; It will protect man against man, man against society, and man against the state. (K. Onur ARSLAN, “The Concept of Human Dignity and Protection of Human Dignity as a Basic Principle in the Context of Protection Measures” Tbb Magazine 2015 (120), p.158)

Human Dignity in Turkish Thought: Sheikh Galip and the "Human" Poetry

As you know, in the period when the Enlightenment philosophy caused significant changes and transformations in the West, the Ottoman Sultan Selim III tried to make reforms that would seek answers to the problems experienced in his country. Live a life with him in accordance with the Mevlevi teaching, which has very good law. 

Sheikh Galip (1757-1799) Müsemmen, that is, in his divan poetry, which has eight lines in its lines, he said, "Goodbye, you are the zübde-i alam you/You are the man who is the dreaded equator", he explained the turbulences in the philosophy of that period and the basic education of Turkish people. values, their metaphysical foundations, that is, fully “Human”.

To translate it into contemporary Turkish, one must first know that he is the apple of the eye of all creatures, that is, the essence of the universe, in order to understand his honor, dignity and the meaning of his existence. Because the source of all love and bravery is in man. Especially when you look at the eloquence in the expression "you are not as you know, but a sentence", this ghazal should actually be called "human".

Although it was written in a heavy language in the Ottoman Turkish of that day in the 18th century, he says, "You are not as you know, you are more valuable than anything else", why do you not know yourself. In the continuation of this line, he states his metaphysical basis: He says, "You are ta'em with Rûhsun nefha-i Jibril", that is, with the blowing of Gabriel, who is called "Spirit", you are a wife, you are like his twin. The verses of Surah Sajda 9. and Surah Hijr 29 "I breathed into you from my soul" also show the metaphysical foundations of human dignity.

In Nâbî's words, "We are the realm of sugra, but we have come together with the realm of kubra and the Keffe-i mizan-i wisdom". In other words, man is the small universe (microcosm), but it can only be expressed so beautifully by saying that we are like the same equal scales of the unity of the big universe (macrocosm) and the scales of wisdom.

So what must a man do first to preserve his dignity?” Let's get the answer to the question from Şey Galip.

“Merteben ayn-i musemmâda is esmâ don't think

Don't think that the goods are in the property of the goods.

Do not think that the commandments you see are dreams.

Don't think that you are someone else but a ghost

Do not think that the mâ'ni, which is fixed with discovery, is a cause.

Don't think that what is said about you is mudârâ"

Here, all the technical terms of Islamic philosophy related to the honor of belief are expressed. Do not think that the rank you have reached and the titles you have acquired are real, these are just names, the real rank is in the person who gave it to you. The place where you will go round and round is the Creator of all things (things), you are only one of them. And the knowledge of all objects has been given to you by Allah.

The fact that the name and the person named are the same is one of the most discussed issues in theology and philosophy, according to the general view, this is possible only for God, but according to the Mu'tazilites, thinking like this carries the risk of talking about many ancient beings. As a matter of fact, today, my teacher Aygün Akyol and I read this part of Gazzali's work called Faysalü't-Tefrika, it was tawafuq.

In the context of the project of Reterritorialization of Philosophy in Anatolia, we have been reading Farabi's Count of Sciences, Gazzali's al-Munkız mine'd-Dalal (Relief from Confusion and Confusion), Averroes' Faslu'l-Makal for years, now they are Arabic original. We appear before our students with our own translations along with the text. In this context, the last text, that is, how people otherize those who think they have the only truth and have different points of view, make takfir of takfir and explain the foundations of this way of turning religion into a faction.

Although people consciously continue to use the attitude of polarization and marginalization by abandoning the courtesy and courtesy in the negotiations, the level has recently dropped and the human dignity/dignity has begun to be damaged. This is exactly what Sheikh Galip tells; namely:

Do not think that the events that have happened and that you see are dreams. Yes, this world is just a game and fun, it passes in the blink of an eye and you experience this relativity in your dreams every day, but you are another being; But because you are not aware of it, you are actually deceiving yourself. Don't think of yourself as a Ghost that accepts every form, don't think that the meaning that is fixed through discovery is your only cause, don't think that the qualities said about you are words that were said to get in your favor. Take a good look at yourself, you are the essence of the world; you are the apple of the eye of beings.

The soul that you have and is blown to you is beyond time and space, the body remains in this deceptive and deceptive world, but to have a soul above time and space, to know the essence of itself, that is, to know oneself, to overcome the problems one experiences, to get rid of the records of time and space, and to get rid of the physical and metaphysical is to maintain contact.

In the words of another poet, Gubarî, “Don't be heedless, you are hungry, you are the realm of kübrâs/Sidre vü levh ü pen ar-ı muallâs.” That is, you are the macro cosmos, do not be heedless of this situation, if you open your eyes, you have the potential to reach the experiences of our Prophet with the ascension. 

As a result, what happens if human dignity is not protected, if the measures to protect it are ignored? Gülşenî explains what will happen in this case as follows.

“You are the purpose of the world, you are the soul of you/Hayf, who is the disciple of you.”

In today's language, "you are the purpose of the creation of this world, and you are its soul. It's a shame if you become an apprentice to ten."

(Selman Bayer, “Şeyh Galip’te İnsan Telakkisi”, Sabah Ülkesi, sayı 57 Ekim 2018, https://www.sabahulkesi.com/2018/12/13/seyh-galibte-insan-telakkisi/;  Vedat Ali Tok, “Hoşça bak zâtına kim zübde-i âlemsin sen Merdüm-i dîde ekvân olan âdemsin sen” Şeyh Gâlib, Diyanet İlmi Dergisi, Haziran 2010, s.58, https://dosya.diyanet.gov.tr/flip/index.php?YIL=2010&TR=17&DERGI=haziran_2010.pdf&SAYFANO=58