HULÛSİ EFEN HULÛSİ EFENDİ - Hulusi Efendi Vakfı

Sempozyumu (Symposium)
OUR UNIVERSAL VALUES
Culture means refinement and gracefulness. Culture provides
elaborate tastes, manners and character to mankind. The concept of
“Islamic culture” contains a number of our activities within the context
of moral values, social stratum and ethic rules. The concept of culture
one hand contains arts, literature and architecture, but on the other
hand also flourishes as an expression of a well-trained intelligence with
a keen interest on justice and tolerence. The Islam Religion encourages
the works of art and science if and only if their ultimate purpose is for
the benefit of humanity, but does not encourage such works if they
are based on “art for art” or “science for pleasure”. Indeed, all of the
attempts and works of our people reflect the ultimate goal of benefit
for humanity, and even, for all other living bodies.
If we are to refer to our cultural heritage, we should emphasise the
cooperative success of Muslims in different fields like science, literature
and architecture in various locations and different periods throughout
the history.
The remarkable progress which our ancestors have achieved especially
in the field of architecture, arts and science, really deserve a special
appreciation. When we look back to the history, we realise that our
ancestors have erected and established Mosques, Madrasahs ( Muslim
Seminary), Külliyes( Complex of a building adjacent to a Mosque) of
their times, and the civilization of souls in the form of pious foundations-
all have been the source of a great pride.
On the vast land which we are now living, our Foundation has assumed
a very important mission for the ultimate purpose of protecting our
cultural heritage and also, of transmitting the same values to the
generations who will follow ours. When we mention culture, we
surely are referring to a very wide field of interests; Sometimes the
concept refers to the life of a grand Veli( A holy man), sometimes to
moral beauties, sometimes to poetry, sometimes to literature, and
even sometimes, simply to the natural beautities of the beautiful town
9