M. Fethullah Gulen: Essays, Perspectives, Opinions

An intellectual with a distinctive spiritual charisma, a prolific writer and poet, M. Fethullah Gulen has been an extremely effective and popular scholar of Islam for the last 3 decades. Many college and university students and graduates, as well as the general Turkish public, have been attracted to his message of tolerance and compassion through education and self-improvement. His efforts to achieve this lofty goal, which had its humble beginnings in Turkey, now spans the globe and includes people from many different walks of life.

The foundation of his message consists of joining religious belief and modern scientific education to create a better world, one based on positive activism, altruism, interfaith and intercultural dialogue, and a desire to serve others and thereby gain God’s good pleasure. Gülen has spent his career impressing on people that true religion preaches love, tolerance, open-mindedness, compassion, hard work, peace, and many other values and practices that lead a person to virtue and perfection. And, he believes, fusing the two types of education mentioned above enables a person to better understand the Creator’s revelation of Himself to humanity.

The millions of people who believe in his ideas and goals have made themselves felt mainly in the fields of education and interfaith and intercultural dialogue activities through non-governmental organizations. Their activities have brought about hundreds of successful institutions, for Turkish businessmen have gone abroad in order to open and fund high schools, colleges, and universities in many countries with limited access to modern education and its resulting benefits. Other schools have been established in America and Europe.

This work presents Gülen through a short biography, a selection of various articles, his views on modern education and its importance, and how he has been presented in the media. It is by no means a comprehensive presentation of his life and influence upon millions of people; rather, it is meant to serve as an introduction to those who desire a better understanding of Gulen’s message and what it has accomplished over the years.