35- and "Those who obey Allahu ta'ala and His Prophet and those who fear Allahu ta'ala and who are cautious of Him are the ones that will be saved on the Day of Judgement." (surat an-Nur, 52) It is easy to understand now why the reformers who know nothing about these ayats do not have any right to speak, by saying that they will reform the religion, ill about the religious scholars who have placed the fear of Allahu ta'ala into Muslims. If it were bad to place the fear of Allahu ta'ala in Muslims, it would be necessary (Allah forbid!) to impute this to the Qur'an. Almost every page of the Qur'an invites Muslims to the fear of Allahu ta'ala with the command, "O you who believe! Fear Allahu ta'ala!" It is declared in the thirteenth ayat of the surat al-Hujurat, "To Allahu ta'ala the most valuable of you is he who fears and is cautious of Him." 'IItiqa' in these ayats means 'to fear'. It arises from their imitating European Christians that reformers want to eradicate the fear of Allahu ta'ala in Muslims and to replace the thought that Allahu ta'ala is only benevolent, merciful and protective for the care and distress of His human creatures, as Christians believe. To love Allahu ta'ala considering Him only as merciful, bounteous and not to fear His wrath and punishments means to consider Him weak like a ruler who is unable to operate the law or like the parents who spoil their children by doing what they wish. Those who make progress in the way of tasawwuf, when they are in His attribute of Jalal (Severity), could not think of the Divine Mercy or of the love of Allahu ta'ala, and when His attribute of Jamal (Beauty) surrounds them, they forget about the torture in Hell and the fear of Allahu ta'ala; in these states called ecstasy of tasawwuf, they utter words slighting love or fear, but when they recover, they repent of such words. The ayats "Those who work should work for these very happiness!" (surat as-Saffat, 61) and "Those who compete one another should compete for this," (surat al-Mutaffifin, 26) order to work willingly for the blessings in Paradise. Ahmad Mithat, one modernist reformer in his book Niza-i 'Ilm ve Din (The Disputes Between Knowledge and Religion) tries to disesteem the belief in the Resurrection, which is fundamental of iman, while he indicates each of the blessings of Paradise such as food, drinks and houris as concepts pleasing one's greed and materialistic desires. It is the clear evidence of their intention to blemish Islam that religion reformers run after worldly pleasures, say that men should perform 'ibadat only to get worldly pleasures that are more attractive, sweeter and more pleasing than everything else, deny the existence of any pleasure in Paradise and speak ill of the religious scholars who does not teach religious duties as to be performed for worldly pleasures. Such unpleasant allusions to Islamic scholars, who struggled to get Muslims absorbed in performing 'ibadat in order that they might attain the blessings of Paradise and escape punishment in Hell, have been seen so often. For example, a Baktashi said:

"Whenever a zahid mentions Paradise,

He talks about eating and drinking."

Such words direct unpleasant allusions to the eighteenth ayat of the surat al-Waqi'a.

Another group in denial of the blessings of Paradise and the punishments in Hell say that they are of no value when compared to love for Allahu ta'ala. Whereas, one's performing 'ibadat for them does not indicate that he does not love Allahu ta'ala. Those whom Allahu ta'ala loves are in Paradise and Allahu ta'ala is pleased with those who are in Paradise. Indeed, the greatest felicity is to attain His consent. But by ridiculing the blessings in Paradise which Allahu ta'ala praises and tells Muslims to strive to attain, one does not attain Allahu ta'ala's consent. Because religion reformers want 'ibadat not in order to escape the punishment and to win reward in the next world but for worldly order and comfort, it is understood that they do not think of Allahu ta'ala's consent.

Love for Allahu ta'ala is the teaching which Islam considers as the most important. But saying that this love alone will suffice for worldly order and regarding the fear of Allahu ta'ala insignificant and unnecessary, although it is the source of every sort of happiness, is a clear sign of knowing nothing about the Qur'an al-karim and Hadith ash-Sharif. Hadrat Muhammad ('alaihi 's-salam), the most exalted of men in every respect, said, "It is me who, among you, fears and shows caution towards Allahu ta'ala most!" This hadith and the preceding one about "Suhaib' point out that the fear of Allahu ta'ala is necessary. Fearing Allahu ta'ala should not be supposed like fearing a cruel person! It is the fear combined with reverence and love. In poems which lovers wrote to their darlings there are many couplets telling about similar fear in them. A lover who regards his darling much higher than himself does not deem himself worthy of this love and explains his feelings in such a fear.

The fear of Allahu ta'ala and love for Allahu ta'ala are like two wings taking people to salvation and happiness. The Prophet (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) said, "If one fears Allahu ta'ala, everything fears him. If he does not fear Allahu ta'ala, he fears everything," and "The extent of one's intellect will be evident in the extent of his fear of Allahu ta'ala." A person who fears Allahu ta'ala tries strictly to carry out His commands and to abstain from His prohibitions. He does not harm anybody. He shows patience towards those who harm him. He repents of his faults. He is a man of his word. He does every goodness for Allahu ta'ala's sake. He does not cast malicious glances on the possession, life or chastity of anybody. He does not wrong anybody in trade. He does favors to everybody. He abstains from doubtful things (between haram and halal). He never flatters the occupiers of high posts or the cruel. He respects the men of knowledge and good morals. He likes his friends and they like him. He gives advice to wrong-doers and does not follow them. He is compassionate towards those younger than him. He shows honor to his guests. He does not talk behind anybody's back. He does not run after his pleasures. He does not say anything harmful and even useless. He never treats anybody harshly. He is generous. He wishes property and rank in order that he may do favors to everybody by means of it. He does not behave hypocritically. He is not arrogant. Thinking that Allahu ta'ala sees and knows every moment, he never commits evil. He is firm to His commands and runs away from His prohibitions. In short, those who fear Allahu ta'ala are useful to their country and countrymen.

35 - The reformer says:

"Because the Ottoman state was based on the principles of the religion it began everything with madrasa education. In madrasas today, Arabic, sarf, nahw, logic, fiqh, badi', bayan, ma'ani are taught. They teach them in order to understand the religious books which are in Arabic correctly. They say that the gate of ijtihad have been closed. The majority of those who got education in the madrasa have remained on the first steps of these branches of knowledge. [Even] one out of a hundred hodjas does not know how to read and write correctly. Many of the hodjas, whose lives elapse in the madrasa, cannot pass beyond reading and writing as if it were a sea without shores, and the meaning remains unknown to them like the poles. They are lazy, ignorant and fanatical. I wish their fanaticism were for something which they knew. They are fanatical in defending something which they do not know. And their purpose is to exploit Muslims and live comfortably. Though these hodjas are ideally and morally ignorant, they are in the disguise of religious scholars. There are real scholars among them. It is a debt for us to respect them. Today, there is nothing left of Islam in madrasas. Pulpits, made in order to teach the religion, decency and the Qur'an, are used for nothing but deceiving Muslims."

When the excessive reformer Baykiyev of Kazan, Russia, said these words, Islam, whatever was left of it on the earth, existed only in the madrasas which he disliked, and today in communist Russia, at the beginning of the programs of which it is written that it is necessary to eradicate religions, none of those madrasas and mosques, which offend the eyes of this excessive reformer, remains. Religion reformers should know also that religious hodjas who, to them, are reactionaries in every respect are also behind in robbing the people when compared to them. Since their lives elapse in contentment, they get little use from the people. On the other hand, they do not neglect rendering even small services to them. When no hodja was left behind within four years of the First World War to wash dead bodies in villages, it was understood that even the hodjas, who were regarded ignorant, were not unnecessary or useless. Later in the time of Sultan Vahiddedin Khan, many of the subjects that are taught in today's high schools were introduced into the madrasas in Istanbul, yet it was seen that no hodja was graduated as qualified as the earlier ones. We have told briefly in the preface about the reasons that caused the decay of these centers of knowledge which in the past had educated Molla Fanari, Molla Husraw, Abussuud, Ibn Kamal, Gelenbevi and many others. Freemasons had not only deprived the madrasas of knowledge and money but also spread the nickname 'softas' (bigots) for 'students'. It is surprisingly fortunate that, despite such defeatism and neglect shown to them, madrasas have produced men of knowledge who could more or less rebut the enemies of religion, and this must be because of the faid and baraka (blessing) in the exaltation of the profession of teaching Islam. Some madrasa graduate men of religious profession, being unable to endure the insults directed to them through official tongues, have had to throw themselves into other areas of business in order to protect their honor, while some others, taking no notice of the insults, have adhered to their religious and national customs and continued living in an endeavor against nafs. It is obvious that those who graduated the madrasas which had been brought into an undesired state and deprived of teaching knowledge and science could not be men of knowledge. For this decay, there was another more effective reason, which was unnoticed and therefore not mentioned by religion reformers: the hodjas who should have performed the duty of al-amru bi 'l-maruf wa 'n-nahyu 'ani 'l-munkar more than others kept silent against and even followed the cruel who put the madrasas into such a state, even sometimes helping the degenerate who introduced irreligiousness into this country and eradicated the religion. Although the fingers distinguishing right from wrong with unmistakable attention and unshaken conviction should belong to religious hands and there should be men of religion ahead of fighters for Islam opposing to injustice, the recent state of men of religion has been more tragic. Men of religion, who, while teaching that the intended couple had to be of the same social class, held the madrasa student and the Sultan's daughter in the same category and regarded helpers of the cruel baser than everybody, have been replaced by those who are much baser in piousness than they are in knowledge today.In the following, the news reported in the daily Vakt dated June 20, 1928, is given: The professors of the Faculty of Theology in Istanbul have announced the program of the improvements that will be done in our religion suitably with the modern life and progress. This announcement is signed by Koprulu Fuad, Izmirli Ismail Hakki, Sharafaddin Yaltkaya, Mehmed Ali Ayni and their friends and says: "Like other institutions, the religion also should follow the current of life. The religion cannot remain dependent upon its old forms. In the Turkish democracy, the religion also has to undergo its development. Our mosques should be made inhabitable; desks and coat-racks should be put in them, one should be allowed to go in them with shoes. Language of worshiping should be Turkish, and the Qur'an and the khutba should be read in Turkish. Musical instruments should be placed in mosques. The khutba should be delivered not by imams but by religious philosophers. The Qur'an should be studied not with the view-point of kalam or tasawwuf but of philosophy. We request that this program, which concerns the ultimate policy of Turkey and will have a creative effect on all Muslim countries, be accepted."