The words “millet” (nation), “milliyetçilik” (nationalism) and “milliyetçiler” (nationalists) are used interchangeably with “ulus” (nation), “ulusçuluk” (neo-nationalism) and “ulusalcılar” (neo-nationalist). But a closer examination reveals that there are slightly different meanings to these words. Those who use the world “millet” or those who adopt a nationalist ideology acting on the word “millet” are generally perceived as people who are more attached to history, religion and tradition. As for those who adopt an ulus or ulusçuluk ideology, these people are perceived as more Western and secular with certain attitudes removed from history, religion and tradition. This is in great part a wrong conceptualization peculiar to Turkey.The world “millet,” which means nation in English, originates from the Arabic world “imla,” which refers to a writing system. As for “imla,” it comes from the word “imlal,” the conceptual meaning (or terminology) of which means the road that is followed. In Arabic, words have two meanings: the root meaning and the conceptual meaning. Conceptual meanings are generally developed on the basis of root meanings. But over time, a gap develops between the conceptual and root meaning of words. During the days of the Ottoman Empire, nation meant the “tarikat-u mesluke,” or the road that is followed. From the perspective of faith, the concept of nation is equivalent to religion. But in this situation religion is concerned with prophets, not God. Religion has two dimensions. First, religion is the accumulation of every message delivered to a prophet from God by way of Gabriel and communicated to the people by the prophet. Aside from this, there is religion that refers to the “lifestyle” that the prophet demonstrated and invited mankind to adhere to. The latter is equal to nation. In that case, in terms of faith, nation is a religion, and in terms of law, it is the road that is followed (Shariah). Nation is the philosophical poetry of rules and a lifestyle. In the social sense, it means the road that individuals have gathered on and collectively follow.
Consequently, neither in etymology nor in a valid conceptual meaning that is connected to this etymology does the Turkish word for nation mean a society in the quantitative sense. Yet in Turkish we use the word nation to express a numeric population. When we say “Türk milleti” (Turkish nation), it includes everyone who resides within the borders of Turkey. When we look at it from the perspective of constitutional citizenship, everyone connected to the Republic of Turkey legally or politically, no matter if they are Turkish, Kurdish or Arab, signifies the Turkish ulus or Turkish millet. However, the word millet technically does not have such a meaning. In the holy Quran, the word religion is used as nation. When referring to the “religions” of the Christian and Jews in Surah Al-i Imran, the word nation is used. It explains that they will not be happy with you until you follow their nation, in other words, until you follow their law, lifestyle and rules and until you live, dress, eat, sit, marry and divorce, divide your inheritance and look like them. This means adhering to their lifestyle and legal system, not necessarily converting to their religion or accepting their belief in a trinity. When Abu Talib was on his deathbed, the Prophet Muhammad said to him, “Uncle, recite the Shahadah so that I can be a witness for you.”
Right when Abu Talib was about to recite it, Abu Jahl intervened and said: “Are you going to leave the nation (Shariah and religion) of Abdul Muttalib? I swear the Arab rich people and women are going to laugh at you thinking Abu Talib fell weak and accepted Muhammad’s religion out of fear.” Abu Jahl provoked Abu Talib’s pride by focusing on the “nation/religion” relationship. In another incident, the Prophet Muhammad said, “Blasphemy is one nation.” This is in relation to the law of inheritance and stipulates that Muslims and unbelievers cannot inherit each other’s belongings. As is explained in the Quran, Prophet Joseph said to the Egyptians, “I abandoned the nation of a people and came here.”
The word people, a numerical population, and the word “nation” are used in the same verse and right next to each other.
