Why Is the Islamic World in Ruins?

Ancient sages and the philosophers likened the universe, life, and existence—with everything in it, including the names and attributes of God—to a two-winged bird that contains all things within itself, that flies toward infinite perfections and unique beauties, and that possesses a perfect soul (i.e. software, as defined by modern science) and a marvelous intellect. They also gave it a name and called it the Simurgh (Anka Bird). Anka means long-necked, therefore seeing everything and drawing everything to itself. This bird has one soul, yet countless individual manifestations. Now, the part of this bird called the Islamic World has one wing broken and the other wing cancerous. Per means wing in Persian and Kurdish. The word şan means illness and cancerous. Together, by way of a genitive construction, the two words become perişan (i.e miserable in modern Turkish).

There are more than a hundred causes and real reasons for this wretchedness. For example, in ten thousand matters they cannot reconcile religion and science, which are their two indispensable wings. Therefore, the wing of science remains broken, and the wing of religion remains cancerous. And for example, in the hands of the religious people—especially Muslims—there are ten thousand miraculous items of knowledge and subjects which, if they were correctly reconciled with the sciences, would become manifest. Also, alongside this functional and miraculous structure, there are ten thousand concepts, each of which is a miracle if fully understood, but which have died through being misunderstood.

Yes, it can definitely be said that if these two important duties were fulfilled and properly lived out, one-winged ideas such as materialism, hedonism, selfishness, racism, and the like would be completely cleansed from the world, and both the Mahdi and the Messiah would, in effect, have come to the world.

I published forty-five books on these twenty subjects. But even that was not enough. This evening, I will touch only briefly on five subjects, one short issue and one concept each, so that existence and life may appear meaningful, blessed, and beautiful to our people as well. So that poisonous and meaningless wars and worthlessness on earth may come to an end. So that worldly life may also become a festival for us.

Here Are Five Issues:

1- Out of fear of materialism, Muslims did not embrace the natural sciences, which are modern and proven forms of knowledge. Because of this, and because of the resulting loss of language, they also embraced their religion as a heap of superstitions.

2- They tried to apply the concept of military struggle (aka Jihad) against educated, civilized and religious people, whereas military struggle was/is necessary in a savage environment and only against savages.

3- Religious truths—above all Allah, Adam, and Islam—although they are universal laws and realities visible everywhere and at all times, were understood as historical material, or as completely metaphysical, or as things belonging only to 1400 years ago, and therefore as superstitions. As a result, they were defeated by absurdity and materialism.

4- Islamist movements, that is, religious groups, began at the start of the 20th century as modern revivers. But due to being influenced by blind politics, over time they turned into mullahs. And a mullah, in today’s sense and in today’s condition, means one wing cancerous and the other wing broken.

5- When Europe became intoxicated with modern sciences, it regarded the Holy Bible as historical information and threw that sacred book into the Garbage Dump of History. As a result, this situation made all humanity miserable, including the Islamic World. Yes, Europe is a power that affects everything happening in the world.

The First Affliction: The Failure to Reconcile Religion and Science

At the beginning of the 20th century, enlightened men equally versed in religion and science—Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Muhammad Abduh, Elmalılı Hamdi Yazır, Mehmet Akif Ersoy, and Said Nursi—cried out greatly about this matter. They wrote independent books. They wrote elegies over the fact that Muslims, out of fear and mostly negligence, excluded the physical sciences. So much so that they reaffirmed the rule settled 1300 years earlier: “If religion (revelation) and reason (science) conflict, science is taken as the basis; religion is interpreted accordingly.” Bediüzzaman Said Nursi’s expression on this matter and his book Muhakemat are very interesting.

“It is among the established principles: when reason (science) and transmitted revelation conflict, reason is taken as the basis and transmission is interpreted accordingly. But that reason must truly be reason.” (That is, if that reason is not an individual’s opinion, but scientific matters which are the reason of humanity.)

An important reminder: In the science of legal methodology, reason does not mean the individual’s opinion and intelligence, but rather proven scientific matters. Therefore, here the concept of reason does not mean the reason of this person or that person, as some common Nur followers think, but the positive sciences, which are the reason of humankind. See the İşaratü’l-İ‘caz commentary on verse 21 of al-Baqara.

Unfortunately, 125 years have passed, yet the Islamic World has not advanced even an inch in this matter. This brother of yours too has been struggling for thirty years. But apart from writing books, he could not achieve any further development. Nevertheless, he found a prescription for this illness, namely: if our people, especially Islamists, knew language well, including hermeneutics; knew enough science to understand lessons in a medical faculty; and could think freely without putting their minds into anyone’s pocket through imitation— This problem will resolve itself.

Practically speaking, if every believer understands how the universe works through physics, chemistry, biology, and software, that believer can solve this matter too. Thus he will have lived the reality of Enlightenment, which, although two hundred years have passed, has never visited the Islamic world. Yes, although the Islamic world repeatedly experienced the Renaissance in Baghdad, Damascus, Andalusia, India, and Samarkand, it somehow could never become enlightened. And perhaps it never will... Because we can understand from the Qur’an, by way of allusion, that the lifespan of Islam is about to end.

The Second Affliction: Misunderstanding and Abusing the Concept of Jihad

I have two observations on this matter.

First Observation:

Violence has two main causes: hunger and identity. In other words, economy and religion. The real weapon of violence is the animalistic emotions within man. The Prophet Muhammad, as a contemporary Dhu’l-Qarnayn, gave humanity order by balancing not only violence and peace, but all other opposites as well. According to him, if opposites were united on the middle path, all excesses, especially violence, would come to an end. But in his age there were no sciences. Therefore the balance was not fully established. Balance, that is justice, was the foundation of all organizations and all organisms, above all the state. The opposite of balance is the concept of oppression (zulm). Etymologically too, this word means darkness, and therefore imbalance.

With verse 14 of Sūrat al-‘Ankabūt, the Prophet Muhammad (in a way) said: My community, just like the primitive community of Noah, will commit imbalances and will drown in the sea of time and in the flood of events because of imbalances and oppression: wa hum dhalimuun—because of their oppression and imbalance. (See the article entitled The Meaning of Noah’s 950 Years of Life.)

He said: My religion will remain effective only this many years. Therefore Jesus son of Mary will come and save my community. Well, what was the remedy that Jesus brought? Verse 106 of al-Baqara whispers a secret to us. Namely:

Although many laws in nature are rigid, there are many laws there. Normal religions are modified forms of these laws. If one goes out of effect, God activates either the same law or a better one. Thus Jesus brought better laws. He said: I did not come to abolish the other religions; I came to complete them. (Matthew 5) That means the other religions have deficient aspects. Yes, Jesus did not use ordinary laws. He used much more productive and miraculous laws. For example:

1- If someone strikes your right cheek, then turn the other cheek as well, so that violence and greater loss may not arise. That enemy of yours becomes your brother.

2- Other religions told you to love your friends. I say that unless you even love your enemies, you will not have believed.

3- If someone asks for your extra shirt and you do not even take off the shirt on your back and give it, you will not have believed.

4- You will believe: Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s. You will not make religion an instrument of the state and of politics.

5- Man does not live by bread alone. He also lives by revelation (spirit and software).

Thus the entire Gospel is full of such supra-legal miraculous principles. The lexical meaning of Injil in Arabic means a generation that is very, very new and that transcends every kind of material form. Or it comes from the word Angel. That means a generation like angels.

Islamic Sufism, with the exception of this last century, always lived like Jesus. Especially Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī lived exactly that way, and because of it he transformed Mongol violence into a paradise of wisdom. He laid the groundwork for a new civilization. In our age, Said Nursi, who served religion at the forefront for 76 years, though he used to be very hot-tempered in his early life, as the “New Said” lived exactly like Jesus. He wrote 6000 pages of books. Half of them concern faith; the other half concern positive action. Positive action, in today’s terms, means being constructive, never using violence. It means that religion will now protect itself not with weapons but with sciences. Said Nursi (may God be pleased with him), as a summary of those three thousand pages, says in the following letter:

Let us immediately recall: in another of his letters, he says that in our age, because there are many weapons of mass destruction and because humanity is experiencing the savagery of materialism and kills one for a thousand, violent (negative) action is absolutely not the solution.

“In my small defense this time (in my defense called the 12th Ray), I said: The compassion, conscience (balanced perception), truth (scientificity), and right (law) in the Risale-i Nur Collection have prevented us from engaging in politics. Because innocents fall into affliction; we would thereby oppress them. (He was being tried with execution on the charge that he was making religion an instrument of politics. In response, he said this.)

In this current stormy century, selfishness arising from a cruel civilization, racial fanaticism, military despotism born from the world war, and mercilessness stemming from misguidance have together given rise to such an extreme degree of oppression and tyranny that if the people of truth were to defend their rights by material force:

Either by an extreme oppression, under the pretext of partisanship, they would burn many poor innocents, and in that case they too would become the greatest oppressor, or they would remain defeated.

For people who act and attack with those feelings mentioned above strike down and ruin twenty or thirty men because of the fault of one or two men, under trivial pretexts. If the people of truth, striving on the path of righteousness and justice, were to strike only the striker, then in return for thirty losses they would gain only one, and would remain in a defeated position.

If the people of truth, following the tyrannical principle of retaliation in kind, were to crush twenty or thirty helpless souls on account of the fault of one or two, then they would be committing, in the name of right, a terrifying injustice. This is the real wisdom and reason why, by the command of the Qur’an, we avoid politics and interfering in administration with utmost force and hatred. Otherwise, we possess such a rightful power that we could have defended our right fully and perfectly.

And since everything is transient and perishing, and death does not die and the door of the grave does not close, and hardship turns into mercy, of course we remain silent with patience, gratitude, and trust in God. To force us by brute force to break our silence is utterly contrary to fairness, justice, patriotism, and national honor.

In short: the people of government, the people of politics, the people of administration and order, the judiciary and the police, have no business troubling themselves with us. If they do, it is only because some hidden irreligious hypocrites, with the fanaticism of the heretical movement coming from materialism—a kind of absolute unbelief, a terrible human plague which no government on earth can defend and which no sane human being likes—deceive some officers and make them fearful and drive them against us.

And we too say: not only if they drive a few such fearful people against us, but even if they drive the whole world against us, with the power of the Qur’an and God’s help, we will not flee. We will not surrender arms to that apostatizing absolute unbelief and that heretical movement!”
Said Nursi

Second Observation: Understanding the Concept of Jihad Correctly

Jihad means every kind of effort and striving to prevent the corruption of the individual and society, even of the environment; including war... In this process, Islam gives priority to the way of peace. War is a tool resorted to within a certain legal framework only when no other remedy remains. Leaving the detail of this matter to other articles, it is necessary here to recall six notes.

1) In war, spoils are not the main purpose. It is a strategic matter so that the opposing enemy may not grow strong again. If this strategy is absent, property and possessions are left in the hands of their owners.
“Booty belongs primarily to the poor and to the public.” (al-Anfāl, 1–2)

2) The ultimate aim of both jihad and war is that no one should be forced away from his religion. The name of this coercion in the Qur’an is fitna. This concept occurs in four or five places in the Qur’an. Fitna means an act or deed that forcibly diverts you from your true goal. A beautiful woman is also called fettane, because through her attraction she causes a person to abandon what is lawful and leads him to the unlawful.

3) In Islam, jihad is oriented toward defense. That is, if you do not defend yourself, the other side comes and turns you away from your religion. (B. Said Nursi, Lemeat)

4) In the past, because people were savage, they were persuaded by force. Therefore Islam at times used the sword. Now they are civilized; they cannot be persuaded by sword and force. Now proof and evidence are needed for persuasion.
“Against the civilized world, the sword must absolutely not be used. One must use the weapons of knowledge, proof, and art.” (B. Said Nursi, Makaleler)

5) The report, “I was commanded to fight people until they say ‘There is no god but God,’” is contrary to the Prophet Muhammad’s 23-year prophetic life and to the Qur’anic verses commanding peace and treaty. It is an invention of fanatical hadith scholars. Yes, in history, hadith scholars, like today’s jihadists, foresaw no remedy other than war. Unfortunately, this is the understanding that dominated Islamic history. Indeed, this understanding suppressed even the other schools of Islamic jurisprudence. If we listen to the hadith scholars in that way, we would all have to become ISIS- or al-Qaeda-like.

6) In April 2022, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan explained five or ten reasons such as industry, art, colonialism, and cinema for the West’s superiority over the Islamic world. Unfortunately, he did not explain the most important reason. That is the West’s defeat of both the Church and the Islamic World, indeed the whole world, through their sciences and knowledge. Unfortunately, the President does not know the importance of science. If he did, he would not have threatened to tear out an artist’s tongue over the Adam-Eve issue.

YES, THIS AGE IS THE AGE OF SCIENCE; THE STRONGEST AND IRRESISTIBLE WEAPON IS SCIENCE...

The Third Affliction: Not Knowing the Fundamental Concepts: for Example, Allah, Islam, and Adam-hood

Because Muslims do not know these three basic pillars, the religion of Islam, miraculous in every word, presents itself as a monstrous structure. Unless God's existence and eternity are known with such certainty and vividness that they feel as real as something seen with one's own eyes — rather than merely as an abstract or imagined concept — that belief will not translate into genuine morality. (Qur’an 9/10). Unless the fact that Islam is peace and balance is known and applied to life, Muslims become unbalanced and oppressive in every matter.

Furthermore, as long as 'Adam' is understood only as a historical figure who lived seven thousand years ago — rather than as an archetype representing language, knowledge, and civilization itself — Muslims will be unable to truly be civilized. It is necessary to give brief explanations on these three matters.

The Concept of Allah

A) “Names” mean concrete, definite dimensions of existence, both lexically and in reality. As Ibn ‘Arabi explained, the words accepted as the names of Allah are not names in themselves. They are the names/labels of the “concrete names” (aka beings and events in the universe) (Encyclopedia)

B) The Qur’an does not ascribe attributes to Allah. It sees attributes—that is, limited qualities—as contrary to the truth of Allah’s infinity. To qualify Allah in a limiting way or to bring limited examples for Him is shown as something the polytheists do.

C) According to the understanding Muslim philosophers, especially Ibn Sina, acquired from Aristotle, what they understood concerning Allah from the concept Necessary Being is not the same as what Said Nursi and other theologians understood. Muslim philosophers understood from that concept a reality like form (suret), that is, software. They regarded the maker of the software, the software, and the output of the software as one. They said the knower, the knowledge, and the known are one (Alim, ‘ilm, ma’lum). They said there is no existence other than God’s existence. Said Nursi and the other theologians, however, see the universe as an independent separate existence. They know God as being in the heavens.

D) In Islamic philosophy, abstract and concrete concepts are clear. But for Said Nursi, above all causality, everything is abstract. Even energy (force) is a reflection of abstract power, and what it is remains uncertain. Whereas since the universe is cybernetic, that is, the Name of Justice, causality is concretely stored within it and within every sub-file of it.

E) Thus, because such ontological weaknesses exist in Said Nursi and because he cuts off all causes at the root and accepts that beings and events are affected from very far away, that is, from outside, today the Risale-i Nur no longer speaks to the people of university. Our people are falling rapidly into agnosticism and atheism.

F) In our enlightened age it has become completely apparent that existence has three legs:

1.    Infinite energy in thousands of varieties (though in reality all one),

2.    An infinite software that makes that energy into object (atom and cell), that is its form and soul,

3.    And the reality of evolution, which gives those infinite objects a tendency to develop forever.

Religion called these power, knowledge, and will, (qudrah, ‘ilm, iradah) seven thousand years ago. These three are one reality; knowledge in particular is God’s essential being. But because the pious could not understand/apply these, especially because they could not see this three-part system in the universe, they were driven from life and from the world of knowledge to the bottom of the hell of ignorance. In our time, who is a person of truth and who is a charlatan is no longer clear. Therefore the great majority of people will go to Paradise. Because we are again in a fetret period.  Fetret means that the religious message is dim. Yes, the miraculousness of religion is not clearly visible; therefore responsibility is not fully realized.

The Concept of Islam

The root of the word Islam is silm. Its abstract lexical meaning and idiomatic usage is peace. Its concrete meaning is ladder. Because the ladder unites and reconciles (makes peace between) below and above. Among the six meanings of the verbal pattern if‘āl, the most common in the word Islam is making the root word transitive; thus it means to reconcile (i.e. to make peace). Well then, what does it reconcile? Above all, the poor and the rich, the abstract and the concrete, the east and the west, Moses and Jesus, society and the individual, matter and meaning, this world and the hereafter, woman and man, and most importantly, faith and the sciences.

Throughout history there have always been many extremist religions, sects, and political movements. As for the heavenly religions, that is, those coming by true revelation, from Noah to Muhammad they are all named Islam. (4/163; 42/13) But because of severe necessity they too can sometimes become extreme. Namely:

The Qur’an says that Islam is exactly the same as the religion of Abraham, dating back 4000 years. (22/78) The name of this religion is Islam. Islam means reconciling and balancing all opposites, turning summer and winter into spring. Christianity, Buddhism, and later Islamic Sufism prioritizing and focusing on spirituality, and Judaism and Islamic jurisprudence prioritizing and focusing on the state and law, are in fact deviations arising from historical necessity. Otherwise, they too were originally Islam. (3/84) Yes, Judaism, in its essence and foundation, is the union of Moses and Aaron (law and sainthood). Christianity too, in its essence and foundation, is the togetherness of Torah and Gospel. (Matthew 5)

Many writers say Islam means submission. But this is not completely correct. Islam is the name of the harmony and unity between the Creator, who is the infinite file, and the servants, who are limited files; it reconciles the universal will and the particular human will, and it makes cleanliness the first obligation between the pure ecosystem and the human being who generates impurity. Yes, in the religion of Islam, man is so free that he can become a god-man (the Perfect Human) [İnsan-ı Kâmil]. In the system of existence and software everything is recorded—except human freedom. (Āl ‘Imrān, 142; al-Hadīd, 25)

As for Shari‘a, used in the sense of Islam, lexically it means a great river. The Jordan River is called Sharī‘a. Idiomatically, however, it is used for the mainstream of religion and sometimes for the science of jurisprudence (fiqh). Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd, and Bediüzzaman used this word more in the sense of the mainstream of religion.

We said Shari‘a is a great river. The basic characteristic of a great river is that it never becomes polluted and never gets blocked. Bediüzzaman, right at the beginning of Muhakemat, connects this to the straight path, the middle between excess and deficiency, that is, being free from every kind of extremism and every kind of stagnation. That means those who think Shari‘a consists merely of medieval fiqh and law are mistaken. Because that fiqh, and that legal system too, has by now become blocked, can no longer function today. They have lost the Straight Path.

The Third Affliction: Not Knowing the Concepts of Adam and Adam-hood

(On this matter we will suffice with the miraculous interpretation of two verses and one authentic hadith. Otherwise I have five books on this subject. Yes, if this concept were known, it would become the strongest spiritual and scientific weapon in the hands of the religious people.)

A- The First Verse: al-Nisā’, 4/1

“O all people (with your poor and your rich, your women and your men), act responsibly toward the laws of justice and equality of your Lord who created you within a single self (unity of species), and who created the mates of that species from the same kind (that is, man from woman and woman from man), and spread from them many men and women. And beware also of failing to respect the law of Allah—by whose name you ask things of one another—and the rights of kinship. Surely Allah is one who knows and watches over your state.”

Words of the First Verse

“Yā ayyuhā” — a three-layered particle of warning. (Yes, people need to be warned in order to become civilized.)

“al-Nās” — all human beings (man, woman; rich, poor; free, slave; everyone)

“Ittaqū” — means both “act responsibly” and “beware.” In this verse it is repeated twice. The first time it carries the first meaning; the second time the second meaning.

“Rabbakum” — from your Lord who created and developed all of you, who nurtured you...

“alladhī khalaqakum” — He who is known by creating you.

“min nafsin wāhidatin” — nafs means personhood and unity of species. Wāhida is an emphatic adjective. That is, never imagine that woman is a being apart from man, nor that the poor are apart from the rich.

“wa khalaqa minhā zawjahā” — since it does not say zawjatahā, it means creating woman from man and man from woman.

“bassa” — means multiplying exactly without breaking the monad and the unit, indicating that present creation is the same as the first creation.

“minhumā” — from those two, woman and man...

“rijālan kathīran” — many men

“wa nisā’an” — and women... This shows that while there is equality, men have a certain degree of superiority, at least an abundance of strength.

“Therefore act responsibly toward the laws of Allah, who has beautiful names, by whose name you ask things from one another, and beware of trampling kinship ties.”

“Ittaqū” — beware.

“Allah” — Allah” is the One who possesses the universal beautiful names and the ordinances: “alladhī tasā’alūna bihi” — He is the One by whose name you make requests of one another, for He is the station of sanctity and authority. Therefore, act responsibly before Him. And as for “al-arḥām,” beware of trampling upon ties of kinship and family, or violating the sanctity of the wombs.

“Inna Allāha kāna ‘alaykum raqībā” — truly Allah is over you (‘alaykum), kāna—always, everywhere, raqībā—a complete watcher.

[Do not read this verse through the conditions and knowledge of today; read it through the conditions and knowledge of fourteen hundred years ago, so that its miraculous character may become fully manifest to your imagination. Moreover, even if some infer an incorrect biological claim from the verse, that does not diminish its social, civilizational, and egalitarian lesson.]

B- The Second Verse: Sūrat al-A‘rāf, verse 11

“Know with certainty that We created you, then We gave you form... Then We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate for Adam’... They all prostrated except Iblis (Satan)... He was not among those who prostrated...” This verse has a four-dimensional meaning: biological, ontological (science of being), sociological, and unseen/spiritual.

Ontological Meaning:

“By oath! We first created your reality from the four basic elements, as a genetic inscription that was unseen (spiritual) and biological; then by putting it into practice We shaped it. Then—that is, when you began to live a social collective life—a reality called Adam emerged. It became superior even to the angels. We said to those angels, ‘Prostrate for Adam.’ With the exception of Iblis—that is, all evil, harmful creatures both spiritual and material—all the angels—that is, all spiritual and material good things—submitted to the human being, They bowed down in prostration before his collective spiritual personality.  But Iblis and his followers were not among those who prostrated...”

Biological Meaning:

“The reality of man was created (appeared) on earth as a genetic reality from the world of meaning; you were created in seven periods as atom, molecule, amino acid, protein, virus, cell, and divisible (developing) cell. Then, by developing this cell and genetic reality, We gave it form and shape as seven paleontological generations. Then it developed as brain and culture in such a way as to rule over everything. All beneficial beings came under its command. That is, everything submitted to it. Evil creatures, however, constantly harm it and make it ill.”

A footnote: Just as “khalaqnākum” (“We created you”) has 7 letters, pointing to seven periods, the phrase “We gave you form”[1] also has 7 letters in Arabic and points to seven paleontological periods. Together with the four periods of socialization, this makes 11. That is, together with the civilizations of Adam-hood, Noah-hood, the Family of Abraham, and the Family of ‘Imrān (3/33), it makes 11 (7+4=11).

Biologically too, after those seven periods of atom, molecule, amino acid, protein, virus, cell, and growing cell, there pass another four periods in the womb, which is like a counterpart of earth’s womb (nutfa, ‘alaqa, mudgha, and new form), so it may be said that verse 7/11 strongly points to this. The angels, that is, all vital functions, are mobilized in the service of this biological creature.

[The letters of the affirmative clauses of this verse, together with the three shaddas, are 46. It may be said that this points to the 46 chromosomes, which are the program of human creation. The four letters of the emphatic oath “wa-laqad,” which forms the basis of the sentence and indicates certainty, may be said to point to the four basic elements of life: nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.]

“We shall show everything in their lives with knowledge... for We are not unaware of creation.” (Qur’an, 7/7)

Sociological Meaning:

“We shaped your social life as four fundamental periods: Adam, Noah, the Family of Abraham, and the Family of ‘Imrān (3/3). Then We gave your life a form with the Islamic period. Humanity fully became Adam. Except for Iblis, everything and every nation served this Adam for fourteen centuries. Humanity reached the summit in unity and tawhid. It became the khalif of the face of the earth. Even the angels prostrated before its exemplar in the unseen world.”

[Such a meaning may seem strange at first. But the Arabs’ seven hundred years of dominance and the Turks’ seven hundred years of dominance are strong evidence of this—for the Arabs use the verb khalaka, and the Turks use the word suret. As they occur, both are seven letters. Their total is 14 and 1400 years.

The numerical value of the sentences “We created you, then We gave you form” (khalaknakum thumma sawwarnakum) is, according to various calculations, 1899, 1923, 1945, and 2039, reminding one of various religious, geographical, and political shapings of the Islamic world. For the shape (borders) and political form of Islamic lands changed on those dates. And, God willing, will change again. The value of the sentence “We said to the angels: prostrate for Adam” is 1423.

The verse, together with the shaddas, has 76 letters. That is 4 x 19. Without shaddas, except for the sentence “Iblis did not prostrate,” its letters are 57, 3 x 19. In one respect this points to the four fundamental periods; in another respect to the first three periods—creation, form, prostration. Because the number 19 is a structural form within creation. Its connection with the Qur’an is great and obvious. For example, the value of “li Ādama” (“for Adam”) is also 76. That is, from the ratios of these letters it is sensed that in the universe the ratio of evil to good is like 1 to 4. And that too is by Allah’s permission. It is within a certain order. It is not contrary to tawhid (unity of existence).
The four sides and four dimensions of the world, created in the 19-format, are for Adam.]

Unseen and Spiritual Meaning[2]:

“Firstly, Man is a material form, then he acquires faculties like imagination, then he learns abstract values, then he develops inwardly and comes into contact with the unseen world, and becomes true Adam[3]; he meets the angels. He makes his self and all his other faculties servants of the spirit, but the material devil never fully submits to spirit and spirituality. Since it is coarse and hard, it cannot bow and prostrate, for such is its nature.”

[The seven stages of material development, the childhood period up to the age of seven, the existence of seven selves and seven feelings in man, prostration being a very elevated state of abstract comprehension, the subtle correspondences shown in the footnote, and the spiritual dimension being essential for Adam-hood—these count as a spiritual permission to give such a meaning and interpretation.]

C- Commentary on the Hadith Concerning Adam

(Shu‘ab al-Īmān, 7/162)

The text of the hadith is as follows:
“All of you are from Adam, and Adam is from dust. Therefore the Arab has no superiority over the non-Arab, nor the white over the black. In the sight of Allah, the best of you are those who act most responsibly.”

Here we must write five important explanations so that the miraculousness of the hadith may appear.

1- As was seen in the previous two verses, Adam is the collective name of fifty billion religious and civilized human beings. In this name, man and woman, old and young, Muslim and non-Muslim are equal. Yes, today it is proven by ten branches of science, especially biology and anthropology, that there was not a single person called Adam seven thousand years ago who was 36 meters tall. Therefore what is intended here is the unity of species. And the equality resulting from it. Otherwise, even children of the same father are generally not equal. Moreover, in metaphysical language the concept of Adam-hood and religion is seen as a father figure because it has raised humanity.

2- The hadith says that humanity has unity of species. Everyone is created from the same DNA and the same chromosomes. Therefore all humanity is equal, above all in natural rights. Superiority is only in spiritual values such as morality and knowledge. (Verse 13 of al-Hujurāt also bears this meaning.)

3- Yes, fifty billion people are equal in law and the material of all of them is the elements of dust. Therefore for them to act arrogantly and claim superiority over one another and over nature is an extremely foolish and ignorant affair.

4- The phrase “the Arab over the non-Arab” means not only that the Arab nation has no superiority over the non-Arab or the Persians, but also that the beautiful has no superiority over the ugly. Because the word Arab means beautiful. The word Ajam also means ugly.

5- This ḥadīth, which is not found in the primary sources, interprets the first two verses; likewise, the ḥadīth “Show full respect to the date palm, which is your maternal aunt” (Ibn ʿAdī, 1/130) offers a scientific explanation of the meaning of this ḥadīth as we have interpreted it here. Yes, both verses and both hadiths here show one of the most fundamental laws of the universe: the reality of evolution, which is governed consciously, deliberately, and in a four-dimensional software-like manner. Because Muslims reject this universal law instead of simply rejecting coincidence (i.e. randomness), they lose a value as great as the universe.

The Fourth Affliction: Muslims’ Bankruptcy in the Sciences

For example, rather than grounding itself in the miraculous nature of religion and the spirituality of the Ahl al-Bayt, Iran has attached itself to missiles and nuclear weapons that take human life, and it treats the violation of human rights as an achievement, a form of expertise, and even a religious virtue, and it considers many superstitions of the Safavids  as “Islam.”

For example, instead of introducing the Arabs to the sciences, the Muslim Brotherhood calls them to a jihad that is imagined to consist merely in killing non-Muslims. They are constantly longing for weapons and the sword—so much so that the sword has become their emblem.

And for example, the Nur community thinks that reading the Risale-i Nur by memorization and imitation, without truly understanding them, is religion and service. On this basis, they wait for the Mahdi and the Messiah to come into the world. Yunus Çengel, an engineer regarded by them as their greatest scientist, instead of using the science, consciousness, and software in the universe against disbelief, is able to say: “Sir, the brain is a piece of flesh, matter is nothing, and a person’s raising his hand is not really a physical event at all; the real factor is hidden behind it..”

The theologian İbrahim Özdemir, who relies on him and places his trust in him, likewise use the same language. Metin Karabaşoğlu, a thinker, writer, and angelic soul from this community, says on the one hand that the sciences must be taken as the basis, yet on the other he keeps using the term “Prophet Adam”. He also constantly repeats the first ḥadīth mentioned above in response to the points I have explained here.

And for example, Cübbeli Hoca narrates the Signs of the Last Day—which are all sociological and ontological miracles—in such a ridiculous and superstitious way that Ahmet Hakan and CNN Türk are delighted with his ratings. They keep broadcasting the same things repeatedly.

For example, another group, lacking any real share in the sciences while also seeing religion as mere legal stratagems and a bit of medieval fiqh, regards stealing state property as war booty and engages in corruption. They present the natural sciences as a trap set for the Islamic world. Because they are completely ignorant, and because they understand religion as a system for deceiving God, other people, and even themselves, their Islam does not turn into ethics. As a result, our people become divided, many of our precious young people may become atheists, and ninety-five percent of our scientists remain agnostic. Former Speaker of Parliament Bülent Arınç summarized this issue very well in the media. May God be pleased with him and with his friends.

The fifth affliction is Europe’s one-sided structure, enthroned at the top of the world

Yes, Europe is responsible for everything that happens in the world. Whether directly or indirectly. Namely:

Our Life-Simurgh, which is 3.5 billion years old, has five million branches, that is, species, vegetal and animal. Its most important branch is us human beings. Humanity separated from animals 9 million years ago; every million years it evolved a little more, and finally 300 thousand years ago it attained its present form and a brain capable of perceiving the abstract. 30–40 thousand years ago it was able to give names to things, especially living beings. It knew languages, even if simply, and began to speak. This ability evolved into philosophy and science about 2500 years ago. Eight thousand years ago it was using mythological language. They saw everything like a dream and recorded it that way. Finally, in the 700s BCE, because of prosperity and freedom in Greece, scientific and philosophical thinking and reading began. A scientific and philosophical explosion occurred. But minds became so confused that the Sophist movement emerged, saying that existence and life are not real, and even if they are real, we have no chance of knowing them. They did much harm. Their harm could only be removed by geniuses such as Pythagoras, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Humanity became enlightened to a degree suitable to that age.

After this period came Jesus, who brought many innovations in religion and science, and as science also took possession of this Greek accumulation. Indeed the first Apostles even accepted the concept of Logos on which these six Greek philosophers relied on. They said that the real Logos, that is, the real consciousness and software in the universe, is Jesus—that is, revelation.

When Christianity became institutionalized as a state religion around 500 CE, and the Church crippled the scientific wing, humanity entered the darkness of what came to be called the Middle Ages. In time, Christian Europe began to be devastated by hunger. Eventually, some fourteen hundred years later, this Greek intellectual legacy passed into the hands of the Muslims. Because Islam possessed balance and a true dialectical character, the Islamic world experienced a significant Golden Age through this Greek heritage. Soon afterward, this legacy passed to Europe. With it, Europe began to think scientifically, dialectically, and rationally. As a result, the sciences began to flourish, and in the eighteenth century the Enlightenment began. But the reaction against the Church was so strong that Europe drifted into materialism in a way that disrupted its spiritual and dialectical structure. This tendency reached its peak with Marx. People once again began to say that there is no truth in being and in life. Yes, Europe today is one-winged, and it is trying to make the whole world one-winged as well.

The greatest error of this period was that the Bible, despite the fact that each of its sentences functioned as an ontological and sociological law, came to be read as historical narrative and was thereby set aside. Unfortunately, this mistaken reading also spread into the Islamic world. Muslims, contrary to the Qur’an, say that the Torah and the Gospel have been corrupted, and in doing so they are, in effect, shooting themselves in the foot, since the same narratives are also present in the Qur’an.

We shall leave this matter to our commentaries on the Torah and the Gospel, and here attempt to offer four explanations of miraculous passages related to our subject. Perhaps Europe will recognize its error, and the world may enter a new Golden Age through its balanced sciences. Namely:

1- “When God created Adam (man), He created him in the likeness of God (in a structure able to know abstract values like God). He created them—meaning Adam is not one person—male and female. And He blessed them. When they were created He called all of them by the name Adam.” (Genesis 5:1–3)

Yes, even today in law, woman and child are still called “man” [adam] in a generic sense.

2- “And the Lord God made to grow out of the ground every tree pleasant to the sight (Physics) and good for food (Chemistry), and in the midst of the garden the tree of life: the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Biology). And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:9 and 25)

Yes, just as biology lies midway between physics and metaphysics, so too in material terms it lies between physics and chemistry. It yields its fruit at puberty. Yet in the life of paradise—that is, in childhood—sexuality is forbidden to the human being. When man eats from it, he becomes immortal in a sense as a species. As an individual, however, he is cast into the world of responsibility. But this immortality is an illusion. True immortality is through one’s own spirit and knowledge. Sociologically as well, in childhood and in the earliest anthropological periods, humanity is naked and without shame—until it eats from the tree of consciousness...

3- “And the Lord God said: Adam, by knowing good and evil, has become like one of us (those who perceive the abstract). Now he must not be allowed to reach out and take from the tree of life and eat and become immortal. Thus the Lord God sent Adam out from the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove him out, and to guard the way to the tree of life he placed Cherubim and a flaming sword turning every way at the east of the garden of Eden.” (Genesis 3:22–24)

Yes, by distinguishing good and evil, Europe underwent an intellectual and social dialectical process. It became, as it were, a Caliph governing the earth. But instead of reaching out to infinity and eternity, it settled on the transient worldly life. Yet worldly life is full of cherubim (angels of distress) and wars. Eternalization is not permitted in it. This means that if Europe were to continue this dialectical process in a balanced way, and read the Holy Book not as History but as universal laws, then Adam—humanity as a species, not the individual—would become immortal again.

4- “And the Lord God made coats of skin for Adam and for his wife and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21)

Yes, among all living beings, the only species that wears clothes is the human species. This is both a grace from God and an elevation, a uniform, for man’s cultivating and civilizing the earth.

Many stories are told in connection with the love of Adam and Eve. Yet these stories do not concern the biological love of man and woman; rather, they speak of the love between power and spirituality, spirit and matter, science and art. This means that Adam and the truths associated with him are, in themselves, miraculous. They are manifestations of God’s name al-Ḥaqq. They cause one to affirm that being and life are real, blessed, and beautiful. But because both wings of the Muslim world are broken and diseased, Muslims are unable to carry out their essential task: to lead humanity—especially those devoted to science—to affirm that being and life are true and meaningful.

March 19^th, 2026
Bahaeddin Sağlam

[1] The expression “savwarnākum” (“We gave you form”) has 7 letters and points to these seven paleontological periods of formation. Together with the letters of “thumma” (“then”), that is, as the phrase “thumma savwarnākum,” it becomes 9 letters. Along with those seven periods which are the periods of man’s formation, there are also two earlier shapeless periods, making 9 periods. These very long ninefold periods, expressed in millions of years, are accelerated and realized in 9 months in the womb. Thus every day thousands of Adams are being born.

These first two shapeless periods—after the seven periods of atom, molecule, amino acid, protein, virus, cell, and divisible cell—then after the two intermediate shapeless periods expressed by “thumma,” received a command toward the birth of humanity in its present condition. And Mother Earth, in nine periods, gave birth to a very beautiful, very great child called “human.” “We created you from it, then We shall return you to it.” (verse meaning) And as stated in verse 10 of this sūra, man has been placed upon the table of the earth amid abundant blessings so that he may know God’s perfections, that is, so that he may thank Him. He has become a perfect result for the world. [The use of the expression “We” while narrating all these formations is a sign that Allah creates these miraculous acts of creation behind the veil of causes. It is an encouragement for the people of knowledge to investigate those causes...]

[2] The letters of the verse, 76 plus the verse number 11, make 87, or 83 years in the sense of the thousand months of the Night of Power; plus the sūra number, i.e. 83+7=90, which points to 90 years and to the letter ṣād, and thus to spirituality and spiritual reality. Yes, in the Islamic world many great Adams (saints) of such lifespans have emerged. The chief reason for the weakened periods in Islamic history is the absence of such great figures

[3] The sciences of Adam descended to the Prophet Muhammad. (Delâilü’n-Nur)