Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, Founding Rector of Üsküdar Üniversitesi, was the May guest of the Mental Hijrah Readings program organized by the Türkiye Diyanet Foundation (TDV) Women, Family and Youth Center (KAGEM). Tarhan, who made evaluations on the existence of Allah, the universe, and universal acceptances within the framework of his latest work 'Psychology of Wisdom', noted that his biggest goal with his 'Psychology of Wisdom' works was to tell the truth to young minds. Underlining that there is a desire to find Allah in the genetic codes of our soul, Tarhan emphasized that throughout the 20th century, religion was seen as an obstacle to development, and that knowledge should not be loaded into minds or libraries, but should be reflected in behavior.
“The jihad of this era is in the direction of proof”
Tarhan, who stated that his motivation for writing the 'Psychology of Wisdom 1-2' works, which met readers through TİMAŞ Publications in recent months, was to explain religious values to the young generation in the light of scientific truths, underlined that religious belief cannot be instilled in people of this era through pressure and threat. In the program moderated by İhsan Açık, Deputy Head of the Board of Trustees of the Türkiye Diyanet Foundation, Tarhan said: “There are approximately 7 million young people between the ages of 20-25 in our country. Only 20% of them have a connection with religion, 80% have no connection with religion. We have such a reality before us. It is necessary to invest not only in the worldly lives of young people, but also in their eternal lives. My only goal in writing the 'Psychology of Wisdom' book was to convey my professional experiences and scientific facts in everyday language that everyone can understand. I see the truth with my professional experience; in psychiatry, I know a lot of information between quantum and consciousness, and as I see them and read the book of the universe, it's as if the seal of Tawhid (Oneness of God) stands in everything. But I thought a lot about how we can convey this truth to young people. I tried to explain complex issues by simplifying them. People who deal only with natural sciences and technical sciences cannot find the truth. People who deal only with religious sciences also find it in a different way; both need synthesis. Both are science actually. It is not possible to convince people of this era with pressure and threats; we can see this method in undeveloped societies. In developed societies, results are obtained through persuasion and convincing. What is Jihad? It is to overcome obstacles that lead people to Allah. The jihad of this era is in the direction of proof. My biggest goal in this work was to tell the truth to young minds.”
“Knowledge should not be loading libraries into our minds, knowledge should be reflected in our behavior”
Tarhan, who drew attention to the content of the concept of wisdom in the online program with high participation, stated that the pandemic led to a major change in the Islamic world in terms of accelerating digitalization. Tarhan said: “It is important what we should understand by wisdom. The 20th century was the age of information, but does information lead us to the truth, or if it does, does that information become wisdom? Knowledge should be able to change people; knowledge should be able to make people better. Knowledge should not be loading libraries into our minds; knowledge should be reflected in our behavior. There is knowledge (ilim), intuition (irfan), and wisdom (hikmet). For example, in irfan, there is the transformation of knowledge into life. In hikmet, there is leading to truth and living it. The word 'sofya' in Hagia Sophia Mosque means wisdom; they aimed for wisdom when building Hagia Sophia. Do you see Fatih's wisdom; he did not change its name after converting it into a mosque. High wisdom, the purpose of human existence, is the purpose of seeking truth. The path of wisdom within understanding answers the search for meaning. The 21st century must be the age of wisdom. As someone interested in human mental health, I also wrote a manifesto at the beginning of the book, reassessing humans due to Covid-19. With this change, many researchers in the West will soon find Tawhid (Oneness of God) in their effort to find the truth, I predict. With scientific developments and the advancement of artificial intelligence, people in the 21st century want to rule the world. In 2018, they called artificial intelligence a 'god of the earth,' and suddenly a virus emerged that disrupted all their assumptions. We held meetings that we couldn't do for years due to the compulsory digitalization caused by the pandemic. Most importantly, Covid broke the back of the Islamic world in digitalization. It created an opportunity to convey the truths we hold to the digital world. It enabled us to overcome our fears about digitalization. I always said social media is the language of the youth. When we suggested going there, it was said we couldn't protect ourselves; my ideas were rejected by saying we couldn't control our egos there. Compulsory digitalization made us use the internet for the path of right and truth. Young people are already a digital generation; the pandemic accelerated our ability to tell the truth in that universe.”
“The Post-Materialist Manifesto announced the collapse of materialism”
Tarhan stated that the materialist perspective collapsed by failing to make sense of the universe, and made explanations about the common points of quantum physics and the religious understanding of the universe. Tarhan said: “Materialism has collapsed right now. In 2014, faculty members at the University of Arizona and Columbia University published a manifesto. Titled the Post-Materialist Manifesto. According to the post-materialist science manifesto, materialism does not explain the universe. They concluded that to explain the universe, we now need to do post-materialist science. As Üsküdar Üniversitesi, we translated and published this manifesto into Turkish. According to quantum, there is information in the universe first, not matter. Then comes mathematics, geometry, energy, and physics. After that, it is accepted that there is matter, chemistry, biology, and living beings. So, first, there is information, a universal database. The equivalent of this universal information database in the Quran is Levh-i Mahfuz (The Preserved Tablet). By using scientific data, establishing individuality, and employing reasoning methods, we can explain that Allah is a necessary being, Vacib-ul Vujud (the Existent by Necessity). We could not explain Tawhid (Oneness of God) to the world; it is our fault as Muslims. They could not find Tawhid because we could not explain it in a language they understood. One of my reasons for writing this book is that there are two things that tell us about Allah: the Holy Quran and Prophet Muhammad. But there is a third source that tells us about Allah: the book of the universe. The universe is currently a simulation. Real life is now the metaverse of the afterlife. Just as we are trying to create the metaverse of the world, we are actually living the metaverse of the afterlife. We live in a simulation. According to quantum consciousness, there is actually no such thing as matter. What we call matter is actually an energy band. What we call matter is actually entirely an energy particle. Everything is digital. Everything can be converted and transmitted into digital format. So, we are currently conscious observers. When we look, we exist; when we don't look, we don't exist. But we do not cease to exist after death. We move to a different energy band. According to this quantum physics, there must also be a belief in the afterlife.”
“Throughout the 20th century, religion was seen as an obstacle to development”
Tarhan stated that if bees disappear, there will be no life left on Earth in 20 years, and if humans disappear, the world will be a better place in 50 years. Tarhan said: “That’s why we are guests in this world. As Mevlana said, we are passing through the world, not living in it. In the 20th century, religion was seen as an obstacle to progress, that is, to development. They liquidated the church by saying that religion is an obstacle to advancement and development. They did the same thing all over the world. For example, in Russia, they established Atheism as the official ideology. Wasn't it done in Turkey? The same storm raged in Turkey until 1950. The current education system, which excludes religion with the view that religion is an obstacle to progress, is not much different. Our education system currently does not put religion into a scientific category. My intention here is that both religion and spirituality are scientific categories. While emotions were not accepted until Descartes’ Error, now emotions are accepted as a scientific category all over the world. Spirituality and spiritualism are also scientific categories. The soul is also a scientific category. When this is accepted, only rectitude remains in a person, and we only understand that this is a scientific category if it is Tawhid (Oneness). I want those who oppose the theses in this book, those who are anti-religion, anti-belief, to present an anti-thesis saying 'this is wrong in the book I wrote, it did this.' It’s been several months, there is no different objection or opinion. Let them come out and say this idea is wrong; I gathered all the information with sources and references. That's why strong belief is needed.”
“There is a desire to find Allah in the genetic codes of our soul”
Tarhan stated that with his work 'Psychology of Wisdom', he aims to enable people to find Allah through mathematical sciences and to bear witness to Him, and that he wanted to give the zakat (alms) of his profession with this work. Tarhan said: “In the genetics of our soul, biologically in the codes of our soul, there is an urge to find Allah. All human beings have a desire for immortality, a desire for eternity. This alone is proof of the existence of the eternal realm. The common human desire for eternity is also proof of the eternal realm. For a person to bear witness to the truth in this world means to be able to say, 'I have seen the truth, I accept it, I believe in it, and I bear witness to it.' It is like testifying to the truth. The word 'Kalima-i Shahada' (Declaration of Faith) also indicates that you are among those who bear witness when you stand before the divine on the Day of Judgment; in a way, you are saying, 'I believe and accept this as if I have seen it.' You say it with your tongue and confirm it with your heart; it is a kind of testimony in that sense. This testimony is actually a good question, and I, in my own way, said that by writing this 'Psychology of Wisdom,' I am trying to bear witness to this matter with my partial will and to give the zakat of my profession. If people change their perspectives after reading this book, they can also succeed in bearing witness to Allah while studying physics, chemistry, mathematics, nature, and astronomy.”