Islam's Reformers .pdf

eason should be freed from being a slave of the religion.Reason is an unlimited blessing given by Allah. It is necessaryto get out of the four madhhabs and to give freedom to reason.”And Celâl Nûrî, another reformer, writes in his book Târîkh-iTedenniyyât,“ ‘The gate of ijtihâd has been closed,’ they say. Nonsense!The Ottomans remained chained to wrong, coarse laws. On theother end of the world, social conditions had already improved.The Ottomans did not follow them. They lagged behind.”The standards of living have changed, and science and artshave improved, but from which inventions have the rules ofIslam prevented them, so that reformers direct such unpleasantallusions as “coarse laws” to them? Does Islam say, “Don’tconstruct roads, don’t run trains, don’t build ships, leave yourminerals under earth or sell the right of exploiting them tocommunists or capitalists, don’t do trade with disbelievers.Machinery, techniques, planes, electricity and radio are theinventions of disbelievers; don’t learn them. Don’t earn money.Kill each other in football games?” No! Islam emphaticallycommands -as well as it considers morals and virtues- to workin arts, sciences and to search and learn what the disbelievershave invented. This will be explained more detailedly in thefollowing pages.13 - The reformer says:“Islamic laws, which were formerly suitable for the Ottomans,did not suffice and became deficient later, because they werelike the Arab bedouins at the beginning of the establishment ofthe Ottoman State. Later, they spread in Europe and the sociallife changed. As for the laws, they remained fixed.”It is obvious how reformers regard Islam by saying that Islamis a religion suitable for bedouins living in tents and it needsreform in order that it be accepted by civilized nations. On theone hand they say, “Superstitions have been mixed with thereligion. It needs to be returned to its former state.” On the otherhand they do not hesitate to say, “The former state of thereligion was for those who lived in tents in Arabian deserts.”14 - The reformer says:“Islam was put forward by only one man.”These words of the reformer show his disbelief in that thereligion was sent by Allâhu ta’âlâ. Also Dozy, a Dutchman- 28 -