On the occasion of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi’s 751st Anniversary of Union, an event organized by the Üsküdar University Institute of Sufi Studies with the participation of Prof. Dr. Emine Yeniterzi and Üsküdar University Rector's Advisor Cemalnur Sargut, highlighted the understanding of “Tawhid” in Mevlana and Mevlevi thought; emphasizing the increasing importance of the feeling of “Unity” in these days.
Prof. Dr. Yeniterzi: “We gathered not only to commemorate Mevlana, but more to understand him.”
Sargut: “Tawhid is to be able to see Allah's oneness in all of His names. This is only possible through love. Wherever one looks, one should see Allah manifested in all of His positive and negative names.”
The event held at the Üsküdar University Central Campus Nermin Tarhan Conference Hall attracted significant interest from participants.
Dr. Lecturer Cangüzel Güner Zülfikar: “We aim to reach wider audiences with our studies”
The opening speech of the program, broadcast live on Üsküdar University Television and its Youtube channel, was delivered by Dr. Lecturer Cangüzel Güner Zülfikar, Deputy Director of Üsküdar University Institute of Sufi Studies, who spoke about internationally supported projects on Hz. Mevlana and his works being carried out at the Institute of Sufi Studies.
Understanding Mevlana Today
Zülfikar: “We are carrying out a joint project with Kyoto University's Kenan Rifai Sufi Studies Center. In this six-year project, supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japanese researchers and we worked on research concerning Mevlevi Order for the first three years, under the title “Multifaceted Studies in Sufi Research from the Perspectives of Metaphysics, Literature, Music, and Rituals”. Within this scope, on August 28, 2023, we organized a Symposium titled “Mystical Philosophy and Art in Sufism: Poetry, Music, Sema Ritual”. The book on this first three-year phase of the project will be published by Kyoto University and is expected to be released in March, inshallah.
Another ongoing project we are jointly conducting with the Institute of Islamic Studies at Humboldt University of Berlin is the "Masnavi Children's Project: Moral Education Project with Selected Stories from the Masnavi," which has been renewed. We aim to provide moral education to our children through stories selected from the Masnavi. Within the scope of this project, we conduct practical studies with children and observe how they understand these stories. Last year, we organized a workshop for this project and were deeply impressed by the children's thoughts. These joint efforts with Humboldt University continued with a symposium titled “Thinking New Methods with Hz. Mevlana in Contemporary Education” held in Berlin on October 11-13, 2024. At the meeting, we evaluated from different perspectives how Mevlana's works can be further utilized in education today, with studies titled “Reason in Hz. Mevlana”, “Studies on Methods of Values Education in Hz. Mevlana’s Masnavi”, “Esoteric Dimensions of Aesthetics in the Masnavi”, “If a thorn pricks your hand, be thankful, for there is a rose there! The Understanding of Beauty in the Masnavi”.” He summarized the Institute's work on the subject.
Prof. Dr. Emine Yeniterzi: “We gathered not only to commemorate Mevlana, but also to understand him.”
“Tawhid is the essence and fundamental principle of the Islamic religion. It is for the servant to accept Allah as one in His essence, attributes, and actions, and not to associate anyone else as His equal, counterpart, or partner. In the Sufi understanding, in addition to knowing the existence and oneness of Allah with intellect, consciousness, and heart; this belief must also be lived through the stages of finding and becoming. This is possible through acts of worship, righteous deeds, refraining from prohibitions, and good morals,” she said.
Shop of Unity
In the interview on Şeb-i Arûs and Tawhid, Prof. Dr. Emine Yeniterzi stated that Mevlana wrote the Masnavi as a guiding work for all people; while drawing attention to its depth, which highlights the paths to becoming a perfect human being and the mistakes one can make on this path, in addition to topics of Allah, creation, and servitude, she exemplified "Tawhid", the fundamental principle of Islam, through Mevlana's unique work, as knowing Allah's existence and oneness with intellect, consciousness, heart, affirming it with the tongue, and acting upon it with the limbs.
Yeniterzi expressed that the concept of "Duality," from which the work also takes its name, is actually an emphasis on Unity, with these words: “Our Masnavi is a shop of unity. Whatever you see there other than one is an idol,” said Mevlana, explaining the wisdom behind Allah creating the material world in pairs of opposite poles or as contradictions, and presenting these dualities as witnesses pointing to the fact that unity belongs solely to Allah. Mevlana, with the saying “Our Masnavi is a shop of unity. Whatever you see there other than one is an idol,” sheds light on the belief of tawhid in his work, and named his work "Masnavi", meaning "dual," because he explained the wisdom of Allah creating the material world in pairs of opposite poles or as contradictions. All these dualities and multiplicities are witnesses to the fact that unity is exclusively for Allah. These multiplicities are also a means of trial for people on their worldly journey. For indeed, humanity is a being responsible for achieving the tawhid of intellect, knowledge, heart, morality, and faith. A person who fulfills this responsibility realizes their tawhid with their Lord, with themselves, and with society.
The hadith, “Believers are like one body in their mutual love, compassion, and protection. If one limb of the body suffers from illness, the other limbs also suffer from sleeplessness and illness,” indicates the necessity of the belief in tawhid in social life. Therefore, every person must purify themselves of bad habits that harm the principle of tawhid in social relations, such as arrogance, jealousy, lies, hypocrisy, deceit, resentment, prejudice, haste, ignorance, anger, hostility, and stubbornness; and acquire good habits and behaviors such as empathy, tolerance, patience, generosity, humility, trust, brotherhood, friendship, appreciation, forgiveness, not seeking faults, and good intentions. In this journey from evil to good, one must receive a share of love that nourishes their spirituality like a cure; one must not deviate from the principle of “We love the created because of the Creator,” she stated.
Cemalnur Sargut: “Tawhid is to be able to see Allah's oneness in all of His names.”
Üsküdar University Rector's Advisor Cemalnur Sargut, who made important evaluations in the context of the belief in Tawhid, said: “Tawhid is to be able to see Allah's oneness in all of His names. This is only possible through love. Wherever one looks, one should see Allah manifested in all of His positive and negative names. This is just like the human body. Our body has eyes, and also intestines… Each is different, but all are necessary for each other. When you notice this unity in the body, you begin to understand the necessity of the differences in the universe. Junayd al-Baghdadi (Hz.) beautifully states: 'Gathering without distinction is heresy.' That is, first you will distinguish. You will see separations, differences, but he also says 'Distinction without gathering is falsehood.' It is not correct to see only separation. To unite differences, to evaluate them within a whole, becomes tawhid.”
“To be able to love friend and foe equally is a very high state.”
Sargut, stating that one cannot see the manifestations of Allah unless one sheds their own existence, said: “In the Holy Quran, it is stated that everything is a blessing. This means that both those who do us harm and those who do us good are blessings… Hz. Mevlana says, 'A friend does not elevate you, but your enemy makes you evolve.' To be able to love friend and foe equally is a very high state. However, this is only possible by being annihilated in Allah. Unless one sheds their own existence, one cannot see the manifestations of Allah. In this world, we see a diversity, but that diversity is actually oneness, a reflection of Allah’s unity. For example, look at a rose bush. It has roots, a stem, branches, thorns, and a flower. The thorn can prick your hand, but the rose enchants you with its scent, color, and beauty. What appears as multiplicity is actually oneness, a whole. To realize this is the consciousness of tawhid.”
“Knowing that beauties belong to Him is the beginning of tawhid consciousness.”
Sargut noted that for something to be understood, its opposite must exist: “Just as opposing poles are required for electricity to be generated, we too, by creation, must be tested with opposites. Because these opposites are bridges that lead us to unity. If there were no ugliness, we wouldn't recognize beauty; if there were no darkness, we wouldn't know light. Therefore, this bipolarity is a necessity in creation, but we should not remain in this opposition. What makes this possible is love. A love for Allah so profound that we transcend opposites and realize that everything is one. We do not fully know Allah. We need to know Him intellectually, heartily, and with love. We must understand how humble, how forgiving, how giving Allah is. Love is the strongest bond that connects us to Him, allowing us to communicate with Him. To speak with Him, to observe Him in every beauty we see, and to know that those beauties belong to Him is the beginning of tawhid consciousness,” she said.