About us | Advertising | Contact | Get Home Delivery | Archive
Mar 19, 2010 Homepage
News
Business
Interviews
Columnists
Op-Ed
Arts & Culture
Expat Zone
Features
Travel
Leisure
Life
Cartoons
Women
Health Briefs
Weird But True
Sports
Turkish Press Review
Today's think tanks
Turkey in Foreign Press

Columnists
HÜSEYİN GÜLERCE h.gulerce@todayszaman.com National

What Gülen said of the Olympics


The fifth International Turkish Olympics held in Istanbul has become the nation’s greatest common denominator.

Today's interactive toolbox
Bookmark and Share
Video Photo Audio
Send to print Send to my friend
Post your comments
Read comments
At a time when there were certain attempts to polarize this society through its political preferences in the wake of the annulled first round of the presidential election, we hugged each other in tears. The audience expressed great appreciation for the event. An old friend of mine, from my younger days, told me over the phone he regretted not having known this movement that serves the nation and not having taken part in it. The thing I most wonder about is what the honorable Fethullah Gülen -- who, I am pretty sure, watched the entire show live -- said of the event since he was the architect and pioneer of this human-oriented project, which is based on education and dialogue and involves the proliferation of Turkish schools throughout the world. I found the answer I was seeking at www.herkul.org in his own words. I would like to share it with readers:

“Obviously this is not an ordinary job. Those who are in it are unable to grasp its magnitude. You cannot appreciate what it means for the world, either. To us, it is a divine blessing. God’s will should be taken into consideration; otherwise, we put the emphasis on ourselves. It is a matter of expressing ourselves. Supposing we are at the heart of everything is a colossal mistake and an illusion. This sometimes happens through open statements. We look for the best opportunity to mention what we did. This is part of human nature. Overcoming this weakness is relevant to the bonds with God. Putting the emphasis on ourselves is the immaturity of the human being. ‘Let God be mentioned; but also let me be mentioned and praised’ -- this is the talk of the devil and the profane manifestation of our flawed nature. We should always say it is God who did all this.

“Self-esteem is the sickness of old age. You can get rid of it by invigorating will and determination. Selfishness should be destroyed. This is God’s job in macro terms. It is not possible to assert that this is human nature. To imply that it may be the human at work would be a big lie, comparable only to the assertion that “I confronted Mt. Everest and subsequently I destroyed it.” These young teachers -- who I hope did not consider age, status and fame when doing their job -- will stay away from the sickness of self-esteem and become more focused on furthering their cause.

“When it is the right time, God will bestow things you cannot imagine. At that time, you will be amazed by God’s blessing, just like you are very surprised now. When that happens, you will know once more that it is God’s job -- not yours -- and wonder how something huge like this happens. We should remember we are not capable of doing it so that God will not cease His blessing. If we express our gratitude to the Gracious, He will not stop blessing us.

“If you ponder over your probable action when the time arrives, God will not let you go astray. Leading a life of pain, devotion and dedication is the path of Prophets and God’s beloveds. This path has become the path of actual heirs of the Prophet. They have changed the fate of humanity many times. If such a change is to happen again, they will do it. The devoted community that expressed its commitment to the Prophet Mohammed, the pride of all humanity, and is determined to take action for the good of the entire world will lead the change.”

07 June 2007, Thursday
HÜSEYİN GÜLERCE
   
Articles of Today
All in the family
NICOLE POPE
A new closure case under way?
YAVUZ BAYDAR
Taner Akçam’s letter to the prime minister regarding the Armenian question
ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ
How many hundreds of thousands of informants are there in Turkey?
HÜSEYİN GÜLERCE
Misled by appearance
ALİ BULAÇ
Saving face
CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON
The Armenian genocide and disgrace
ETYEN MAHÇUPYAN
Erdoğan’s unwelcome remarks
FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK

Other Articles of the Columnist

  What Gülen said of the Olympics
  Welcoming the summer with hope
  War is disaster for a country…
  Party leaders should come together
  The timing of the bombing
  A turn toward fascism would spell the end for CHP
  The AK Party and a grab-bag of surprising moves
  The most important day on the horizon: June 4
  Chaos prevention and partisanship
  Today is the day to be hostile to hostility
  The AK Party’s golden ticket
  Open letter to Mumcu and Ağar
  Who can hold back that Turkey?
  They hit us in Malatya…
  Will Gül be the candidate?
  Stop looking under the clouds and start looking at people’s hearts
  May 1, 1977 - April 14, 2007
  Ask your conscience
  When Justice is afraid...
  Sezer’s surprising gesture....
Columnists
ABDULHAMİT BİLİCİ
ABDULLAH BOZKURT
ALİ BULAÇ
ALİ H. ASLAN
AMANDA PAUL
ANDREW FINKEL
ASIM ERDİLEK
AYŞE KARABAT
BEJAN MATUR
BERİL DEDEOĞLU
BERK ÇEKTİR
BÜLENT KENEŞ
BÜLENT KORUCU
CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON
DOĞU ERGİL
EKREM DUMANLI
EMRE USLU
ETYEN MAHÇUPYAN
FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK
FİKRET ERTAN
GÜRKAN ZENGİN
HASAN KANBOLAT
HÜSEYİN GÜLERCE
İBRAHİM KALIN
İBRAHİM ÖZTÜRK
İHSAN DAĞI
İHSAN YILMAZ
KATHY HAMILTON
KERİM BALCI
KLAUS JURGENS
LALE KEMAL
MEHMET KAMIŞ
MICHAEL KUSER
MUHAMMED ÇETİN
MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE
NICOLE POPE
ÖMER TAŞPINAR
ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ
PAT YALE
ŞAHİN ALPAY
SELÇUK GÜLTAŞLI
SUAT KINIKLIOĞLU
YAVUZ BAYDAR