Prof. Nevzat Tarhan: “The earthquake pushed us towards the search for truth”

President of Üsküdar University, Psychiatrist Prof. Nevzat Tarhan was the guest of the live broadcast show titled "Ramazan Sevinci (Joy of Ramadan)" program hosted by Serdar Tuncer on TRT1. Tarhan made evaluations on 'the month of Ramadan and the impact of the earthquake on mental health and monotheism. Emphasizing that the search for truth began in people after the earthquakes, Tarhan underlined that the earthquakes that occurred would cause the society to become wiser in the mid-term and long term. Tarhan said that "The earthquake that occurred pushed us towards the search for truth. It has opened up a great perspective and new horizons in our soul in discovering our own inner world and the reason for the existence of the universe, that is, in discovering life. I think these effects will lead us to wisdom as a society in the mid-term and long term.".

"We need to make semantic deductions after the earthquake"

Expressing that it is necessary to make spiritual deductions after the traumas and disasters experienced, Tarhan emphasized the effect of patience and endurance training in the society by the earthquake. Tarhan said that "After the earthquake, our civil comfort was disrupted. We felt that death was close. We felt that our health was at risk. We felt that we were helpless, weak and powerless. For example, spiritual lessons should be learned from this experience. When we say spiritual, it is necessary to draw semantic conclusions. We make semantic deductions on the scale of post-traumatic growth. For example, we say that one of the questions is; ‘I'm beginning to appreciate what I have, which means a sense of gratitude. I realized that I could face things strongly’. For example, a person says ‘I felt strong. I am resilient’. That means patience and endurance training. You can draw this conclusion or the person says that I have become more interested in spiritual matters. Therefore, one empathizes, understands the deprivation better and feels the need to share with the people in need. Even a person who stayed in the mosque after the earthquake said that ‘It is my landlord who lies there, and he lies here.’. People are equalizing in circumstances and difficulties.”.

"The earthquake pushed us towards the search for truth"

Emphasizing that the search for truth began in people after the earthquakes that occurred, Tarhan underlined that it would cause wisdom as a society in the mid-term and long term. Tarhan said that "This is the age when egoism is seen the highest in the history of mankind. Egoism and secularism teach us to live as if there is no death and no afterlife. This teaching of modernism distanced us from the truth. The resulting earthquake pushed us towards the search for truth. It has opened a great perspective and new horizons to our soul in discovering our own inner world and discovering the reason for the existence of the universe, that is, in discovering life. Therefore, I think this thing will lead us to wisdom as a society in the mid-term and long term. In other words, to become wise means to be able to realize the meaning of one's life, to be able to live in the right way. Modernism has so much glorified the self-serving, a type of person prophethood themselves only. This earthquake shook modernism.".

"What really affects people is not traumas, but the feeling of uncertainty"

Tarhan made remarks on the earthquake and stated that one should not fall into despair. Tarhan said that "Sometimes a person experiences such a despair in their life that they hit the bottom, but they can go higher after that. For this reason, one should not despair in any way. Events such as earthquakes have visible and invisible causes, and it is necessary to look at them from an internal perspective. This earthquake caused a trauma. What really hurts people is not the trauma. What really hurts is 'uncertainty.' Uncertainty is what causes the most anxiety, what causes fear, what disrupts human mental health the most. In other words, 'what will happen next', 'what will happen to my child', 'what will happen after I die', 'there is death...'… This uncertainty is the most fearful thing for the human being. This uncertainty identifies the fear of death, anxiety, and one's search for meaning as the biggest cause of fear, as it overwhelms everything. The biggest cause of anxiety disorders that disrupt the mental health of the person is this type of depression. When a person is included in the belief system, they get over this mood. However, one's belief system must be resilient and reasonable.".

"We are heading towards a child-dominated world"

Emphasizing that a patriarchal and matriarchal world order have been becoming to a 'child-dominated' world order, Tarhan underlined that there will be no personality development in children who grow up in comfort. Tarhan stated that "Children are now moving towards a world that is not patriarchal, not matriarchal, but child-dominated. The children became like the master of the house. The mother-child relationship is like the slave-master relationship. Mothers are like a slave and children are like a master. There is a sacrifice here as 'We did not live, so I will let my child live, we did not eat it, so I will let my child taste it'. And, this leads to doing whatever the child wants in the name of raising the child well. If you want to raise a child well, you can do whatever the child says, however, you need to teach the child personal limits. Just as you teach the boundaries of your own home and your neighbor's house, you teach them to stop at a red light, and children will do what is necessary for their age. We will talk to our children like they are adults; however, we will not expect adult behaviors. We sit and play with our children like children. However, we approach our child like an engineer, trying to give them the shape we want. That child obeys the mother until puberty, after puberty they become hostile to the mother and the father. Motherhood and fatherhood mean companionship. We raise the child in comfort. Personality does not develop in comfort; psychological stability does not occur in comfort. If we want to raise a child with psychological resilience, we need to confront them not only with the comfortable and pleasant aspects of life, but also with the realities of life. When we do not do that, we are raising a child like a greenhouse flower. When one takes it out, it collapses in the first storm.".

"First of all, the question marks about the existence of Allah should be eliminated"

Stating that the recent increase in the use of social media makes people doubt about religion, Tarhan said that "In the book Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge, fate is mentioned, and in order for a person to understand the quality of fate, to understand the word Gathering of Humans (Hashr), to understand the resurrection after death, there should be no doubt in one’s mind about believing in Allah first. Our current education system brings doubt, questioning brings doubt. This doubt is that the child does not need it yet, there is no need this doubt by the school, the Internet is enough for that. Social media is making everyone question right now. Nowadays, there are young people who no longer question how to pray, but why they should pray. It is the duty of all of us to answer these questions and to eliminate the question marks. We should not be afraid of the young person who asks questions. In governments acquired through fear, the reverse identity is revealed. Now you cannot say to a person who says why I will do this and you cannot explain it with the fatwas of Mulla Fanari. We will explain this situation by synthesizing the point of view you can tell, which is the natural sciences and the religious sciences. When I tell children and the youth that the two are together, it is easy to understand fate, it is easy to understand the Gathering of Humans, it is easy to understand the prophethood (nubuwwah), it is easy to understand the need for worship after the question mark in the mind about the existence of Allah are removed. Therefore, first we need to correct the thought.".

"There are 4 fundamental ways to see the truth"

Tarhan talked about 4 ways to see the truth and said that "It is not for science to confirm, but for the mind to approve. Is there anything in the Holy Qur'an that transcends mind? No, then that’s it. There are 4 ways to see the truth, the first is experiment and observation, positive science. Our current science just does not show this. The second is that the methods of reasoning have become theorized. Thought experiments that have just been introduced. And, the third one is what we call rational intuition. For example, Newton found out the law of gravity with the rational intuition. Archimedes found it so. He focused and focused, then he discovered. The fourth one is the belief. If those three was fail to find a cure, a person takes refuge in their faith with the fourth way. Hegel says that ‘Everything that is reasonable is real, everything that is real is reasonable.’. Now, if nothing in the Holy Qur'an does not makes sense, then it is all real. The existence of one God is reasonable, which thing is not reasonable in the Holy Qur'an, some things are Sufism. Tell me, for example, which one is not appropriate. I could not find anything inappropriate in the Holy Quran, it is all appropriate.”.

 

 

Üsküdar News Agency (ÜNA)