MUHAMMED FETHULLAH GÛLEN

He has been from his earliest years a gifted Islamic scholar and thinker, and a prolific writer and poet. His father taught him Arabic and initiated in him his profound love of the Prophet and his Companions. He received further training in the religious sciences from Muhammed Lutfi (d.1954) a celebrated Muslim scholar and spiritual master. Fethullah Gülen so distinguished himself that he was asked to begin teaching when he was only fifteen. He did this while continuing his studies in the religious sciences.

In 1958, he was appointed to teach in Ucserefeli Jami in Edirne. In 1966, he transferred to Izmir. From there, as well as teaching, he traveled throughout the country to address public gatherings. During this period, as his reputation grew, he was invited to address large conferences in cities all over Turkey on a variety of subjects related to Islam in the modern world, for example, The Qur’an and the contemporary science, The Islamic perspective on Darwin’s view of nature, Social justice in Islam. He also answered many questions put to him by university students on current issues.

He retired from formal teaching studies in 1980 having inspired a whole generation of young students. Fethullah Gülen is profoundly learned in the religious sciences of Islam, but he also mastered the principles and theories of the social and physical sciences of this age. His Arabic and Persian are perfect and he knows good French and some English. His special gift the particular aim of his scholarship, is to urge the young generation to harmonize intellectual enlightenment with wise spiritually and a caring, humane activism.

Fethullah Gülen has written a number of well-known books, most of which are among the best-seller in Turkey. Some of his books are no available in English translation. The one here presented is a collection of fifty or so addresses delivered by him during the year of 1989, on the life and achievement of the Prophet Muhammad in his diverse roles as the founder of Islamic civilization. The Turkish version of “Prophet Muhammad the Infinite Light” is one of his books have so far sold about 400.000 copies in there years. In that book we meet the Prophet Muhammad as the last Divine Messenger, as preacher, orator, military commander, statesman, as father, husband, companion, as the most compassionate member of humanity and the most truthful and devoted servant of the One God.