1 - Endless Bliss - Hüseyin Hilmi Işık

continue to proliferate. From where shall we learn our religion
so that we can defend ourselves from these attacks?
Whom does a person who has trouble with his eyes resort
to? To a dustman, a porter, a lawyer, a teacher of mathematics
or to a doctor who is an eye specialist? Of course, he goes to
the specialist and learns its remedy. And he who is seeking
ways to save his faith and îmân should approach a religion
specialist, instead of resorting to a lawyer, a mathematician, a
newspaper or movies. Where and who are the religion
specialists? Are they the translators who learn Arabic in Beirut,
Syria, Iraq or Egypt? No. Religion specialists are now under the
ground! It is very hard to find them on the earth today!
To be a religious savant, it is necessary to know
contemporary knowledge of science and art to the extent of a
graduate level at the faculties of science and letters, to receive
a doctorate degree in these branches, to know the Qur’ân alkerîm
and its meaning by heart, to know thousands of hadîths
and their meanings by heart, to be specialized in the twenty
main branches of Islâmic knowledge, to know well the eighty
sections of these branches, to have efficiency in the delicate
points of the four madhhabs, to reach the grade of ijtihâd in
these madhhabs, and to reach the highest grade of tasawwuf
called “Wilâyat-i Khâssa-i Muhammadiyya.” Where is such a
savant now? I wonder if those who are known as religious men
and who know Arabic perfectly could read and understand the
books of those great people? If there were such a savant today,
no one could attack the religion, and the false heroes who
bluster shameless slanders would look for a place to take
shelter. Formerly, in madrasas and mosques, also
contemporary scientific knowledge was taught. Islâmic savants
used to be brought up well versed in scientific knowledge. The
Tanzîmat Kanunu (Reorganization Law), which the freemason
Rashid Pasha prepared in cooperation with the British
Ambassador and announced on 26 Sha’bân 1255 [1839 A.D.],
during the reign of Sultan ’Abdulmajîd, prohibited the instruction
of scientific subjects in madrasas. This was the first step taken
towards the stratagem of educating ignorant men of religion.
Once there were many such savants. One of them was
Imâm-i Muhammad Ghazâlî (rahmatullahi ’alaih). His work is a
witness to his depth in religious knowledge and his high grade
in ijtihâd. He who reads and understands these writings of his
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