Prof. Tarhan: "There is no other era that uses time capital so badly"

President of Üsküdar University Psychiatrist Prof. Nevzat Tarhan attended the program organized by AKEV. In his speech titled "Qur'anic Morality According to Bediuzzaman in a Changing World", and Tarhan made remarkable evaluations. Stating that there are currently 3 dangers that threaten the world, Tarhan said that the use of alcohol for recreational purposes has increased over the years and hedonism has come to the fore. Adding that there is no other era that uses time capital so badly, Tarhan emphasized that we should have a concern to raise our children with good morals.

Three dangers awaiting the future...

Pointing out that the new generation attaches more importance to hedonism and the pursuit of pleasure than previous generations in the program held by the Ankara Culture and Education Foundation (AKEV) in Ankara, Prof. Nevzat Tarhan shared important remarks. Tarhan stated that "There is a serious global threat in the world right now. The World Health Organization mentions that there are three dangers that await the future. The first is the spread of income inequality in the world, the second is climate change, and the third is isolation. England and Japan have established a Ministry of Loneliness. Globally, there is a significant increase in crime, violence, and taking guns to school, especially in the United States. There is also an increase in divorces and suicide rates. They ask the question, 'Why is there economic prosperity and material prosperity in this whole world, but why is there no spiritual prosperity?' The rate of those who say they are happy is going down. As a result, there is now an epidemic of narcissism, especially among young people. The Guardian Journal published a news article about this. According to the report, the new generation attaches more importance to hedonism and the pursuit of pleasure than previous generations. The most important sources of motivation are to be fast, rich and powerful without bothering. TurkStat also has a statistic. According to TurkStat data, recreational use has increased over the years. Curiosity, friend influence, and emulation have decreased. It was curiosity before, friend influence, emulation that always focused on addiction. Now the pursuit of pleasure, hedonism has come to the fore. In the past, curiosity and the influence of friends were the most important reasons, but now entertainment but use is a greater risk factor. In other words, the world is not getting better morally."

"The events in Gaza have been an event in which we have been helpless"

Emphasizing that the meaning education given by the Qur'an has traditionally been forgotten, Prof. Nevzat Tarhan stated that "We have now created a traditional Islam in the form of a book of rules in the Holy Quran. The current understanding of Islam is a traditional understanding of Islam. The Islam in the Qur'an and the Islam currently practiced in this region are incompatible. This is a serious questioning, and we have experienced an example of this most recently in the Gaza incidents. Gaza was an incident that broke our hearts, which we still cannot solve and we are helpless against. There is a Hadith of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) about this. There will come a time when Muslims will be like trash on water. They will be like straw and will be tossed around. Everyone will rush at them, and they will not be able to do anything. He says that there will be many Muslims, but there will be a disease in them. It is referred to as Vehn disease in the Hadith. Vehn disease is the increase in the love of the world and the increase in the fear of death among Muslims. At the moment, it seems to exist. It is as if the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) addressed this time. When you look at people right now, unfortunately, there is an Islamic tradition that does not think of death."

"The only alternative to capitalist morality is the morality of the Qur'an"

Drawing attention to the four symptoms of California Syndrome, Prof. Tarhan said that "The first is hedonism, the ego ideal, choosing the pursuit of pleasure as the purpose of life. In second place is selfishness. The third symptom is loneliness. In the fourth, unhappiness and depression appear. At present, global morality has become capitalist morality. No matter what religious practices or religious rituals a person is living like this, the morality of that person is capitalist morality. At the moment, there is only one alternative to capitalist morality, and that is the morality of the Qur'an. Globally, especially after the end of the Cold War, capitalism became the only doctrine in the world. It became not the economic doctrine in the world, but the moral teaching. In fact, in terms of bringing competition in an economy, the capital system has contributed to many humanity, but it has brought competition and changed morality on the other hand."

"The most important security issue at the moment is the problem of protecting the family"

Stating that with the change of the world, young people are moving away from Anatolian wisdom, Prof. Nevzat Tarhan said that "As soon as the human child is born, the human child is psychologically born prematurely. Psychologically, they are born prematurely. At the age of 1 they are standing, at the age of 15 they can distinguish between good and bad. They are learning morality. They learn from life, from their mother and father Now in the world this teaching has ceased. The transfer of family culture is not done by the family, but by the media. Currently, the most important security problem is the problem of protecting the family because the family also creates morality, and we have to present this morality with a livable morality at this time. The world is changing, and our young people are moving away from our own values and Anatolian wisdom. This is not a difficult thing to see. It is seriously reflected in the statistics. Türkiye's statistics show a very rapid change between 2012 and 2022, this 10-year statistic. It shows that global change is reflected in Türkiye. In other words, Türkiye is no longer in a very protected position in this regard. The reason why we call the family the last refuge is that the family was the only protected area of the family against the changes in the social world and the changes in the society. At the moment, the family is also experiencing serious difficulties in this regard.”

"We need to be able to find the peace of believing"

Explaining the importance of capturing the spiritual pleasure and peace of believing in God, Prof. Tarhan expressed that "Right now, we are not in Muslim morality, not in Quranic morality, but in capitalist morality. It is good to criticize ourselves. On the other hand, Bediuzzaman feels the need to do something against this truth after modernism began. He asks ‘How do we explain the moral values of the Qur'an to today's youth, to today's people?’ The first here is the truth, and the spiritual pleasure and peace that comes from believing in God. Since we have turned our morality into a worldly morality, we need to be able to capture the pleasure, taste and peace of believing to turn our morality into the original morality. If a person believes and cannot find this pleasure, this peace, let them remember the verse ‘O you who have believed, believe.’ This means that faith needs to be constantly renewed. In other words, faith needs to be nurtured continuously. Faith just exists and doesn't exist. For faith to turn into faith and become applicable, that person must believe it with their five senses. The mind and the heart need to synthesize together. The mind accepts it, but people cannot apply the knowledge they know to be true because they do not accept it in their heart and spirit."

"Religious knowledge cannot be built without the belief in monotheism"

Emphasizing the importance of the belief in monotheism, Tarhan stated that "If you want to solve a higher math problem, you cannot do higher math without knowing basic math. Just like this, without basic knowledge of faith, without knowledge of faith, we cannot put other issues of religion in a logical framework. To be placed in a logical framework, one must first believe in faith in one's mind. It is not enough just to believe. Without belief in the form of tawhid, you cannot build that person into other knowledge of the religion. For this reason, if a person who does not believe in tawhid reads the Qur'an in a critical and questioning way, the Qur'an does not reveal itself. There is such a feature in Risale-i Nur as well. If you read Risale-i Nur as a criticism, you will not understand it. You say there is no such thing. There is the same feature in the Holy Quran."

"There is no other era that uses time capital so badly"

Stating that people can catch the flavor of faith when they change their perspective on the world, Tarhan expressed that "We will start with ourselves to change the world. Right now, people are so influenced by everyday events that occupy the minds that they do not care about their children. They don't take the time to teach their children good morals. They do not take the time to tell the depth of the truth. They devote much more time to trivial matters. There is no other era that uses time capital so badly. If you change this perspective, you will catch the flavor of faith."

"We should be concerned with raising our children with good morals..."

Emphasizing that care should be taken to raise children with good morals, Tarhan said that "The life of the world is a testing ground. Good and evil, light and dark, beauty and ugliness, hot and cold exist in the world according to the law of entropy. In other words, when one decreases here, one increases. In fact, there is no cold, there is no heat. In fact, there is no darkness, there is no light. In fact, there is no evil, there is no good. For this, we need to be proactive for good morals. We cannot be self-righteous. We should be concerned with raising our children with good morals. If this does not happen, a state should have a concern about raising good people."

"A person who forgets God sees life as a threat and danger"

Pointing out that people do not want to get out of their comfort zone, Prof. Tarhan made the following remarks: "A person who forgets God sees life as a threat and danger. One sees diseases, accidents, calamities, risk-taking, going to war as a threat. One does not want to get out of their comfort zone. It reveals a conformist type of person. Behind this is the fact that faith does not turn into tawhid, tawhid does not turn into submission, and submission does not turn into tawakkul (trust in God). It gives two worlds of bliss. Not only bliss after death, but bliss in this world as well. A person who catches this says that there is peace in this world. We call it authentic happiness. Authentic happiness is pure happiness. Whether a person is in prison or in the palace, one experiences the same happiness."

 

Üsküdar News Agency (ÜNA)