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After telling about this event, Ökten explains his own
ideas for a reformation: If we wish to understand our
missing civilisation, “we have to read the works by the
supreme personalities of this civilization." he adds:
“today people have to read Yahya Kemal first, in order
to understand what Fuzuli said.”
We Are the Poor Guards of a Big Treasure
There are too thick curtains between big personalities
of our civilization and us. These curtains are so
intense and heavy for us. In his poet "the festival
morning in Suleymaniye", Yahya Kemal says, “The
dusty curtain of time is fading away from the scene”.
Okten thinks that quality factor steps in at this point.
He also adds that the first condition of promoting
quality is qualifying oneself.“For instance, suppose
that an important intellectual figure, love him or
loathe him, has passed through our civilisation. There
is a group peculiar to him. When you read his books,
you will realise that he is a qualified person. Unfortunately,
though, it can not be achieved by reading just
two books, using lots of footnotes and quote too
much like some intellectual figures do today.What
matters is what you yourself say.
Built Your Existence
One of the important roles on the formal breaking
points in societies belongs to the youth. There are a
variety of ways and phases to prepare for this role. According
to Okten, the most important and nesessary
one of these ways is to live the reality while building
one's own existence by retiring to oneself. He first tells
a story that happened many years ago: “In Vienna,
a lady who was studying there came up to me and
said she was bored and that she wanted to come back
to Turkey. She asked for my opinion about it.” Upon
hearing this, Okten suggests an interesting solution to
the young lady. “Stay in Vienna," he says. "Live there
for thirty or fourty years but keep your values. If you
can achieve this, you can become a role model. If you
have no solid or reliable values, it doesn't mean anything
to stay in Vienna.
Ökten soon adds, though, that the aforesaid criteria
and values are not written in books, and he says that
though books can be altered, those criteria are written
in a person's heart, and the heart cannot be altered.
With these words, he emphasizes that the criteria of
each person is peculear to him or her, and his or her
own civilization. As the concluding remarks of the interview,
Okten gives us a formula he has acquired due
to his experiences: “The heart finds the first place for
itself in the adventure of rendering the codes of the
civilization in the perception of civilization and human.
Because in the case of opinion flows, inspiration is received
from hearts, not from books.”
Prof. Dr. Saadettin OKTEN
Sadettin Okten was born in 1942, Soğanağa, Beyazıt. Since he knew to read,
he began his school life from second class at Koca Ragıp Paşa, in 1949. At
the same time, he followed the talks of his father Mahmud Celaleddin Okten
who was the legendary literature teacher of the high school of Kabataş,
Daruşşafaka and Vefa and the founder of the religious vocational schools.
Okten began to Vefa High School in 1953. He graduated from faculty of
construction at ITU and began his academic life at faculty of architecture in
ITU at the same year. Between the years 1971 and 1973 he has been in
USA as a doctorate student then he received the title of doctor in
1977. He studied in Belgium in 1979 and 1980 and he received
the title of associate professor in 1982. Okten came
to MGSU faculty of architecture in 1985 and he became
the professor in 1989. Then he retired in
2004 voluntarily. He is praiseworthy with
his knowledge about “civilization of
Islam”, “western civilization”,
and “city”. Prof. Dr. Sadettin
Okten continue his
studies recently.