Akademik Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, Yıl: 5, Sayı: 41, Mart 2017, S. 269-279 Yayın Geliş Tarihi / Article Arrival Date

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Akademik Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, Yıl: 5, Sayı: 41, Mart 2017, s. 269-279

Yayın Geliş Tarihi / Article Arrival Date Yayınlanma Tarihi / The Publication Date 31.12.2016 02.03.2017

Dr. Celal EMANET Garden State İslamic Center, İslam Tarihi [email protected]

“ISLAMLASHMAQ” TERM IN SAID HALIM PASHA

Abstract

Beginning in the late eighteenth century, Ottoman Empire became the first Muslim state to reform its administrative, educational, military, and eventually the political systems. Reformist thinkers who grew up during the late Ottoman era who produced their work during the republican period constitute the first generation of these post-Ottoman reformist thinkers. A respected statesman and diplomat, Said Halim Pasha was first and foremost an influential thinker, one of the most out- spoken representatives of the Islamist school during the Second Constitutional Pe- riod (1908-1920). In his famous work entitled lslamization (Islamlashmaq), Said Halim proposes a complete Islamization of Muslim society, which includes forget- ting their pre-Islamic past and purifying themselves of their pre-Islamic heritage. This study will be focused on Said Halim Pasha’s views of politics relating to Is- lamization. Keywords: Said Halim Pasha, Islamlashmaq, Imitate, Westernisation, Religion.

“Islamlashmaq” Term In Saıd Halım Pasha

SAİD HALİM PAŞA’DA “İSLAMLAŞMAK” TERİMİ Öz

XVIII. yüzyılın son çeyreğinde Osmanlı İmparatorluğu yönetim, eğitim, askeri ve nihayetinde de politik alanlarda reformlar uygulayan ilk Müslüman devlettir. Os- manlı Devleti’nin son yüz yılında yaşamış pek çok reformist düşünce adamı vardır ki; onlar meşrutiyet döneminin hazırlayıcıları ve Osmanlı sonrası reformistlerinin ilk jeneresyonudur. Osmanlı Devleti son dönem sadrazamlarından, II. Meşrutiyet döneminde (1908-1920) İslamcılık fikrini temsil eden ve bu fikirlerini açık bir şekilde savunan Said Halim Paşa görüşleri ile dikkat çeken bir devlet adamıdır. Said Halim Paşa kaleme aldığı ‘İslamlaşmak’ adlı meşhur eserinde unutulan İslam öncesi ve kendilerine miras bırakılan şeyleri onları nasıl arındırdığını hatırlatarak Müslümanların topyekun olarak İslamlaşmasını öngörmektedir. Bu çalışmada İslamlaşmak bağlamında Said Halim Paşa’nın politik fikirleri tartışılmaktadır.

Anahtar kelimeler: Said Halim Paşa, İslamlaşmak, Taklitçilik, Batılılaşmak, Din.

Introduction 270 Said Halim Pasha was a statesman who served as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Em- pire from 1913 to 1917. He was born in Cairo, Egypt on 19 February 1864 (11 Ramadan 1280).1 As the grandson of famed Egyptian viceroy Muhammad Ali Pasha, Said moved to Istanbul with his family when he was 8 years old. After learning Arabic, Persian, English and French from private teachers, he went to Switzerland to study political science. He stayed there for five years and returned to Istanbul after graduating from university in 1888.2 When he had become a high- grade official, it was announced that he was related to the Young Turks movement. Therefore, his residence was investigated and although no illegal or incriminating documents could be found, he had to go into exile to Egypt in 1905. Then, Said H. Pasha joined Young Turk circles, and took on the responsibility of inspector of the Committee of Union and Progress in 1906.3 Under Khediv Abbas Hilmi’s administration (1892-1913), Egypt became a safe haven and center for Young Turk opposition to the Hamidian regime. During this time, Said H. stayed in Egypt as an inspector of the CUP and continued to provide financial support to Young Turk activities there and in Paris.4 Said H. Pasha returned to Istanbul with the revolution of 1908. After a succession of lesser official positions, he became the Secretary General of the ruling Committee of Union and Progress in 1912, Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1913, then for three years Grand Vezir, until February 1917.5

1 İbnulemin Mahmut Kemal İnal, Son Sadrazamlar 4 vols. İstanbul, Dergah Yayınları, 1982, p. 1893; Hanefi Bostan, Bir İslâmcı Düşünür: Said Halim Paşa, İstanbul, İrfan Yayınevi, 1992, p. 19. 2 Bostan, Bir İslâmcı Düşünür: Said Halim Paşa, p. 19, 25. 3 İnal, Son Sadrazamlar, p. 1893; Bostan, Bir İslâmcı Düşünür: Said Halim Paşa, p. 23. 4 Jacob M. Landau, The Politics of Pan Islam: Ideology and Organization, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 84; Bostan, Bir İslamcı Düşünür, Said Halim Paşa, pp. 20-25 5 İnal, Son Sadrazamlar, p. 1906; Bostan, Bir İslâmcı Düşünür: Said Halim Paşa, pp. 71-73.

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He was one of the signers in Ottoman–German Alliance. Yet, he resigned after the inci- dent of the pursuit of Goeben and Breslau, an event which served to cement the Ottoman– German alliance during World War I. It is claimed that Mehmed V wanted a person in whom he trusted as Grand Vizier, and that he asked Said H. Pasha to stay in his post as long as possible. His term lasted until 1917, cut short because of continuous clashes between him and the CUP, which by then controlled the Ottoman Empire.6 During the court martial trials after World War I in the Ottoman Empire, he was accused of treason as he had his signature under Ottoman–German Alliance. He was exiled on 29 May 1919 to a prison on Malta.7 He was acquitted from the accusations and set free on 29 April 1921, and he moved to Sicily. He wanted to return to the Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, but this request was rejected. He was assassinated on 6 December 1921 in Rome by Arshavir Shirakian, an agent of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, for his alleged role in the Armenian Genocide.8 Other sources, however, stated that he was unrelated to the Genocide.9 The funeral of Said H. Pasha, who was not allowed to enter his country, was brought to Istanbul on 29 January 1922 and, taken from his water residence in Yenikoy, was laid to rest with a great ceremony. His body was buried right next to his father in the garden of the tomb of Sultan Mahmud II.10 Said H. Pasha wrote eight pamphlets, all in French, at different times and whose names were Meşrutiyet (Constitutional Monarchy - 1911, Turkish in 1918), Mukallidlerimiz (Our Imi- tations, 1911), Buhran-ı Fikrimiz (Our Opinion Crises, 1917), Buhran-ı İctimaimiz (Our Social 271 Crisis, 1916), Ta’assub (Fanaticism, 1910), İnhitat-ı İslam (The Collapse of the Islamic World, 1918), and İslamlaşmak (Islamization, 1918) respectively. All these pamphlets were published in one book in 1919 under the title of Buhranlarımız (Our Crises). Said H. Pasha wrote another important book in which he summarized his thoughts, when he was in exile in 1922 titled İslam’da Teşkilat-ı Siyasiyye (Political Organization in Islam). Said H. Pasha urged Muslims in his writings not to follow the ‘West’, and the world of Islam should find its own answer to its problems in the context of its own traditions and Sha- ri’ah. He had said the ‘Muslim fanaticism’ is “in reality not the enmity towards Christians, but the West’s enmity towards the East.” His writings emphasized the central position of Islam in social and political behaviour. He maintained that Islam, as a unity of the eternal truths of equality and solidarity, had no fatherland. No less characteristic was his saying that a Muslim’s fatherland was the place in which the Shari’ah prevails. Despite the great influence that European political thought had on Said H. Pasha, he advocated the use of original ideas for political reforms; however, these ideas appeared when the Islamist movement debacle was already in the

6 İnal, Son Sadrazamlar, p. 1893; Bostan, Bir İslâmcı Düşünür: Said Halim Paşa, p. 23. 7 Sukran Vahide, Islam in Modern Turkey, State University of New York Press, 2005, p. 380; İnal, Son Sadrazamlar, pp. 1909-10; Bostan, Bir İslâmcı Düşünür: Said Halim Paşa, p. 84.

8 Feroz Ahmad, “Said Halim Pasha, (Mehmed),” The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, vol. 3. 2009, pp. 459-460. 9 Robert Gerwarth, John Horne, War in Peace: Paramilitary Violence in Europe after the Great War, Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 176, 180. The activist known as Arshavir Chiraciyan was later on announced as a national hero by the Dasnaktsutyun Committee and the Italian police did not even bother to catch Said Halim Pasha’s murderer. 10 İnal, Son Sadrazamlar, p. 1912; Bostan, Bir İslâmcı Düşünür: Said Halim Paşa, pp. 104-105; Bilal N. Şimşir, Malta Sürgünleri, Milliyet Yayınları, İstanbul, 1976, pp.262-263.

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“Islamlashmaq” Term In Saıd Halım Pasha making. His importance was realized many years later; yet his ideas still contain incongruities with the contemporary understanding of democracy and human rights.11 Muslim Society and Imitation of the West By the late nineteenth century, a large part of the Muslim world had begun to lose much of its cultural and political sovereignty to Christian occupiers from Europe. This came as a result of European trade missions during earlier centuries that had propagated Western technology and modernization. There was a large shift of power due to the declining Ottoman Empire, which led to an essential subordination of Muslims because of Western technology and modernization. This subjugation by Christian empires led Muslims of the Middle East to question their own beliefs as well as their aspirations, making many wonder whether the success of Western occupation was due to the inferiority of their own Islamic ideals. Out of these self-criticisms came an assortment of responses, including adaptation of Western ideals, advocating for separa- tion of religion and politics, complete rejection, and calls for armed struggle against Western powers. However, one of the major responses to western modernization and occupation of the Muslim world was Islamic modernism.12 Within Muslim society, there are many problem areas that need to be investigated. What is wrong with Muslim society? The problems of Muslim societies in the current context are numerous. Most laws in these countries are based on a mix of Western models with some cultural element. Unfortunately, they lack values which Muslims cherish. According to Said H. Pasha, a community’s own values should be prioritized in reforms which is a community should 272 form its own model by grounding on its own traditional and intellectual structure and by bearing in mind other systems o f thought if there is any. In that sense Constitutionalism, Basic Law, was seen as a stranger to Islam and Ottoman State. Because according to Said H. Pasha, the constitutions such as democrat and senate would not be appropriate because there are not classes in Islamic communities. It would not be appropriate to compare the women rights in Islam with the feminism emerged as a Westerner notion, because the meanings of liberty and equality notions in Islam are different.13 The dangerous illusions with regard to the effect of “Westernisation” on the Muslim world which are cherished in some Muslim countries, can only proceed from a defective imagi- nation and imperfect knowledge of the questions, which are vital to the Muslim world, and yet are treated with an incredible frivolity unworthy even of the mentality underlying the movement. Such deplorable illusions prevent their entertainers from perceiving that the harm which “Westernisation” must inevitably do the Muslim world will always be in strict proportion to the measure of its Westernisation; and so the more complete the transformation, the more harm it will do the Muslim world, bringing it in the end to utter ruin. Such deplorable illusions do not let their victims realize the truth, which is: that safety for the Muslim world lies in building up its social, political and economic life solely on the unchangeable, eternal foundation of Islamic truth.14

11 Michelangelo Guida, “The Life and Political Ideas of Grand Vezir Said Halim Pasha,” İslâm Araştırmaları Dergisi, Sayı 18, 2007, p. 101. 12 John L. Esposito, Islam: The Straight Path, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 126-7. 13 Aygün Akyol, “Modenization of Ottoman and Its Reflection on Republican of Turkey,” Proceedings of the International Conference of Asian Philosophical Association, Aug. 29-31, 2012, p. 41. 14 Said Halim Pasha, “The Reform of Muslim Society,” Islamic Studies, vol. 47, no. 3 (Autumn 2008), p. 403.

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Said H. Pasha states that the road to acquiring material power and happiness passes through recognizing the rules of nature created by God and the knowledge coming out of these rules. He sets forth that the backwardness of Muslims stems from their unconsciousness of these kinds of knowledge and sciences. As to Pasha, this backwardness which he sees as a big trouble for Islamic world is not of an ethical or social one but of an economic and material one.15 To compensate it, it is necessary to welcome the missing parts of sciences from West immediate- ly.16 In addition, what Islamic society will take from West should never be political and social. This is because the most suitable political regime for a society is the one which makes the most of its social structural needs and supplies it with the best required political principles. For a society whose social needs are not same as Western ones, to implement the Western kinds of methods will certainly result in calamity.17 In the observation of Said H. Pasha which it was deplored that during the course of history, the moral and social ideals of Islam had been gradually de-Islamized through the influence of local character and the pre-Islamic superstitions of Muslim nations.18 Far from helping the cause of Islam and of the Muslims, these despicable practices have only encouraged vicious attacks from anti-Muslim propagandists who have falsely identified Islam with social, moral, and political degeneration. Some of the detractors of Islam have even gone so far as to identify the cause of social decadence in the Muslim countries with the tenets of Islam itself and thus they claim that Muslims will remain in a state of inferiority so long as 273 they retain their faith in Islam. These malicious attacks have also been un-leased at Muslim societies in North Africa and the Middle East, causing concern among Muslim intellectuals and in some cases driving a few of them to seek refuge behind either the secular thinking of capital- ist apologists or the un-Islamic concepts of Marxism. Discerning Muslim intellectuals have answered these attacks. Far from being outlived, it was claimed that Islam had never been fully lived. Whatever was wrong with Muslim societies was not due to the tenets of Islam but was the direct result of the discarding of its principles of progress and social justice. Muhammed Ikbal, having discussed Said H. Pasha’s thoughts on “Islamization”, firmly states the accuracy of these evaluations. Said H. Pasha who, in the words of Iqbal, was following a line of thought more in tune with the spirit of Islam pointed to the inability of the Muslims to accurately decipher their Islamic duties, as the main cause of societal decadence in the Muslim world.19 A slightly different conclusion was reached by Muhammad Iqbal in India who was also responding to what he saw as a moral vacuum at the heart of capitalism. Although impressed by aspects of the material civilization of European capitalism, he was increasingly concerned by the effects of its driving principles on the moral order. The Religious Reform Party, on the other hand, led by Said H. Pasha, insisted on the fundamental fact that Islam is a harmony of idealism and positivism; and, as a unity of the eternal verities of freedom, equality, and solidarity, has no fatherland. ‘As there is no English Mathematics, German Astronomy or French Chemistry,’ says the Grand Vizier, ‘so there is no Turkish, Arabian, Persian or Indian Islam. Just as the uni-

15 Said Halim Paşa, Buhranlarımız ve Son Eserleri (nşr. M. Ertuğrul Düzdağ,), İz Yayıncılık: İstanbul 1991, p. 234. 16 Paşa, Buhranlarımız ve Son Eserleri, p. 250. 17 Paşa, Buhranlarımız ve Son Eserleri, pp. 249-250. 18 Sherif, Muzafer and Carolyn Sherif. Groups in Harmony and Tension. New York: Octagon Press, 1966 p. 89. 19 Muhammad Iqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Lahore: Javid Iqbal, 1962 p. 156.

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“Islamlashmaq” Term In Saıd Halım Pasha versal character of scientific truths engenders varieties of scientific national cultures which in their totality represent human knowledge, much in the same way the universal character of Is- lamic verities creates varieties of national, moral and social ideals.’ Modern culture based as it is on national egoism is, according to this keen-sighted writer, only another form of barbarism. It is the result of an over-developed industrialism through which men satisfy their primitive instincts and inclinations. He, however, deplores that during the course of history the moral and social ideals of Islam have been gradually de-Islamized through the influence of local character, and pre-Islamic superstitions of Muslim nations. These ideals today are more Iranian, Turkish, or Arabian than Islamic. The pure brow of the principle of Tawhid has received more or less an impress of heathenism, and the universal and impersonal character of the ethical ideals of Islam has been lost through a process of localization. The only alternative open to us, then, is to tear off from Islam the hard crust which has immobilized an essentially dynamic outlook on life, and to rediscover the original verities of freedom, equality, and solidarity with a view to rebuild our moral, social, and political ideals out of their original simplicity and universality.20 Said H. Pasha sees one of the reasons of decline as Muslim’s being unable to benefit from their religion. This also has several reasons. One of them is the effects of the pre-Islam life. Islam emerged in a specific cultural atmosphere to specific cultural groups. The cultural groups that embraced Islam afterwards combined their value judgments with religious reality. Every nation uses its own way of life and perception in religious context. And that caused many differences in the way of perceiving and practicing Islam. Above all when the concept of time 274 was added to this ground many differences emerged I both understanding the text and practicing Islam. Said H. Pasha believes that these differences caused Islam not to be understood and Is- lamic societies declined because of this reasons.21 Another reason is that the religion couldn’t be interpreted for new needs. For this reason necessary solutions couldn’t be created about the situations that were faced with. For instance the Muslim world has been deemed to have started when politics was given more important than religion.22 One can only sympathize with the Muslim intellectual who correctly observed that one of the misfortunes of the Muslims in recent years has been that they have more than their normal quota of politicians and only few social reformers.23 For Said H. Pasha, if the task of modern Muslim thinkers is so far from easy, it is because it calls for a lot of perseverance, self- denial courage, and above all, faith - a faith that never wavers - in the cause of Islam; a faith ardent and absolute, which shall arm Muslims of intellect to become champions of Islam, with confidence in themselves which they must have in order to perform their heavy task. Finally, Said H. Pasha says that the task calls for high moral qualities without which Muslim thinkers can claim no right to exist at all.24 While it is unfair to blame the Muslim political leaders for all the woes of Muslim world, we have to admit that they are responsible for many of these ills. The systematic short- comings of the bureaucracy that they were part of and the predatory values of their native society combined with their own weak characters to make these Muslim leaders guilty of the many

20 Iqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, pp. 156-57 21 Akyol, “Modenization of Ottoman and Its Reflection on Republican of Turkey,” p. 42. 22 Said Halem Pasha, The Reforms of Muslim Society, Pamphlet published by Begume Aisha Bawany Wakf, Lahoe, 1967 p. 14. 23 G. E. von Grunebaum, Modern Islam: The Search for Cultural Identity, Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1962 pp. 184-275. 24 Khan, Rasheeduddin. “Perspective and Prospects,” Seminar New Delhi, February 1974 p. 18

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“Islamlashmaq” Term In Saıd Halım Pasha crimes that they have so often been accused of. Unfortunately, the admirable concepts of Islam- ic leadership have only been studied and talked about but never practiced and emulated. To sum up; the disease from which the Muslim world is suffering comes of ignorance of the natural physical laws, preventing it from taking advantage, of the benefits of nature, con- demning it to material poverty, and at the same time compromising its political independence. On the other hand, the disease by which Western society is attacked proceeds from ignorance of the natural ethical and social laws, which keeps it in perpetual social fever. The first is deprived of material well-being; the second of social well-being. To escape from its disease, Muslim society must dispel the ignorance which is the source of that disease. It must therefore turn to Western society, which, more fortunate in this respect, possesses science. On the other hand, Western society, if it is anxious to be healed of its particular illness, could not better than turn to Muslim society and borrow from it the ethical and social laws which the Shari’ah contains. Thus the help and collaboration which Muslim society has to ask of Western society are limited and of a very definite kind. Such help and collaboration can in no case be of a social or political kind. Indeed, the “Westernising” of Muslim society, in whatever degree, would be the greatest mistake imaginable. The Term of “Islamlashmaq” in Said Halim Pasha The late eighteenth century, Ottoman Empire became the first Muslim state to reform its administrative, educational, military, and eventually political systems. It was also first to introduce religious reform, including measures such as granting equal rights to religious minori- 275 ties and development of a religious theoretical framework to legitimize its overall reform pro- ject. Despite this history, in terms of theory Islamic reformist discourse in Turkey has remained underdeveloped.25 İslamlaşmak, considered as the most important book of Said H. Pasha, consists of some ideas showing the important transformation in his thoughts. However, it can be alleged that his thoughts matured in the Political Organisation in Islam published in Rome in 1921. The Otto- man political experience after 1908, namely the defeat in the First World War and increasing Westernization in political and daily life, influenced his thoughts and brought about some important changes in his political and social ideas. Said H. Pasha, in the book of İslamlaşmak, implies an important opposition against the prominent political, social and intellectual climate of the Ottoman state, which began to collapse after the First World War. This social, political and moral anarchy exposed many contradictions in his thoughts. İslamlaşmak was first published on 15 November 1918 in four issues of the journal Sebîlürreşad26 with Said Halim Pasha as the author and Mehmet Akif as the translator. It was produced in booklet form 32 pages in April 1919.27 Said H. Pasha, in this work, stresses on how the term “Islamlashmaq” should be comp- rehended. Muslimism is being a complete whole encompassing belief, ethics, social and political systems and he explains the birth of these systems from one another in a nice way.28 Pasha, specifically, stresses that Islam is a universal and a humanitarian system. Just calling oneself a

25 Shireen T. Hunter (ed.), Reformist voices of Islam: Mediating Islam and Modernity, New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2009, p. 227. 26 Sebîlürreşad means Correct Road and was founded as a journal in 1908 by Ebu’l-Ulâ Zeynel Abidin and Eşref Edib with Mehmet Akif as the editor under the name Sırat-ı Müstakîm (Straight Path) but the was changed to Sebîlür- reşad in 1912. The journal ceased publication in 1925; it was revived in 1948 and continued until 1965. 27 Said Halim Paşa, İslâmlaşmak, Darulhilafe Hukuk Matbaası, İstanbul, 1337. 28 Paşa, Buhranlarımız ve Son Eserleri, p. 184.

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Muslim without subscribing and conforming to Islamic ethics is of little use; accepting the moral views of Kant or Spencer, living one’s social life a Frenchman and one’s political life like an Englishman will result only worse confusion.29 Said H. Pasha, as a bureaucrat who knows both Western and Islamic societies very well tried to specify the most proper political regime and related foundations for Muslims by taking the social and structural needs of Islamic society into consideration. Said H. Pasha’s scholarly personality is more important in respect to his political personality. His most important characteristic was his “thinking mind.” Every work he produced and every thought he had shows how a deep viewpoint he has and what sort of an analyst mind he possesses. As he has a special way of thinking, the principles he put forward, too, carry a composition embracing the whole Islam- ic.30 For instance, Ahmet Şeyhun claim that Said Halim’s political theory is similar to Ibn Tay- miyya’s thought, who equally declared, in his work entitled Siyasa Shari’ah that the sovereignty of the Shari’ah must be supreme authority in any Muslim society.31 The salvage and welfare of the Muslim states can only be realized with their abidance by the Islamic rules. We have always said this. However, “to Islamize” is suitable for the expression of various means. Hence, it is thought to be vitally important to put forward what is understood by the expression: Islamic belief is faith in a Sublime Reality both manifest and hidden. There is no inter- mediary, no priestly class, no special spiritual group and precedence among Muslims is based only on piety and learning. Faith in Allah and the message sent through the Prop- 276 het is the Muslim’s unconditional belief. Belief in Allah confers freedom on the believer. Islam exhorts him – nay, almost forces him – to think, to learn, to try to discover reality and meaning, to exert and develop all his mental and spiritual faculties. It is only in this wide interpretation of individual freedom that people can reach equality with each other. Freedom and equality, when assu- red, give birth to the concepts of the mutual help and ‘love thy neighbour’.32 Said Halim discusses the nature of political systems in the Islamised environment. The political rules of Islam have come out from its social principles. Islam doesn‟t let opposition and competition among the various social classes and political parties. It sets and limits the relations between the rulers and the ones being ruled. In that way it realizes the political balances. It doesn‟t make people accept a certain way of administration. Islam' lets people establish go- vernments suitable for their needs on the conditions that it respects and obeys mutual rights and duties.33 Politics, he says, would be devoid of spite, hate and unfair competition because political power would be a ‘quasi-religious’ responsibility based on ‘social solidarity’ and used for the preservation of Islamic ethics and social order: Whoever is elected as Head of State will possess full authority and he will be obeyed. But all his actions will be subject to strict scrutiny because the security of the nation –

29 Syed Tanvir Wasti, “Said Halim Pasha – Philosopher Prince,” Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 44, no 1, January 2008, p. 95. 30 Eşref Edip, İslam Alemi için Pek Büyük Bir Kayıp 12 vols. İstanbul: Sebilürreşad, 1922, p. 257. 31 Ahmet Şeyhun, Said Halim Pasha: Ottoman Statesman and Islamic Thinker, İstanbul: The Isis Press, 2003, p.148 32 Paşa, Buhranlarımız ve Son Eserleri, pp. 187-88, 229-231-236; Said Halim Paşa, Toplumsal Çözülme (nşr. N.Ahmet Özalp), 2.baskı, Bir Yayıncılık: İstanbul 1985, p.154. 33 Paşa, Buhranlarımız ve Son Eserleri, p. 172; Elçin Karlı, “The Concept of State in Said Halim Pasha and Ziya Gökalp,” Unpublished MA Thesis, Fatih University, January 2010, pp. 26-27.

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which includes his own security – is his responsibility. The nation will appoint him to this high office on the basis of his personal qualifications and the welfare of the State. The Head of State must function in accordance with the Shari’ah. Otherwise, if and when there is enough feeling against him, the nation will make him relinquish his office. He can hold office as long as he respects the basic rights of citizens to freedom, equality and social welfare.34 Said H. Pasha thinks that Islam is superiority over other societies in terms of social institutions is that its principles have been extracted from divine laws. He remarked that the social structure of Islam was established upon the sovereignty of Islamic law, which he defined as the moral and social values composed of “natural” realities. In his view, “Shari’ah means sovereignty of moral and social laws which are natural and suitable for human nature and it cannot be changed for the desires of people. Like natural science, all people are equal in the laws of Sha- ri’ah and it is the source of real freedom.”35 In this way, he concludes that sovereignty is the domination of the divine power, which is the defender of social justice and moral realities. To him, the domination of the divine power means sovereignty of science, reason, and wisdom.36 Said H. Pasha states his approach to understanding the religion as ‘We first see the reason of our drawback as our inability to understand and practice Islam better. Today we see the reason of our drawback not as our fault and neglect but as our religions deficiency.’ At this point he states that the religion should be understood well.37 Said H. Pasha states that Islam has peculiar beliefs, ethical orders based on these beliefs and an understanding of a social life origi- 277 nated from the moral values. As a spontaneous outcome of this unity, it has some political regu- lations of completely its own. Pasha emphasizes on the fact that, owing to its essences that form an immaculate unity, Islam is the most perfect, splendid and mature human religion.38 He proceeds to enunciate the Islamic view of international relations in which local cultures lend rich- ness to the whole. He writes: Apart from his beliefs, a good Muslim must be mature in all respects, a person of broad understanding, well educated; he must not seek happiness in the misery of others or rise by trampling on others. In addition to all this, he may also be a good Turk, a good Arab, a good Iranian or a good Indian… While conforming to the dictates of Islam, he must do his duty and act not out of fear of punishment but with freedom of conscience. He must be taught that the Universe is unique under its Creator, though it has countless worlds, limitless matter and forces and immeasurable spaces which work together in perfection according to their own laws. He must learn to replace fear with hope and fal- seness with sincerity.39 Conclusion

34 Paşa, Buhranlarımız ve Son Eserleri, pp. 194-196; Paşa, Toplumsal Çözülme, p.163-164; Paşa, Buhranlarımız ve Son Eserleri, p. 193; İsmail Kara, “Said Halim Paşa’nın Hayatı ve Görüşleri,” Fikir ve Sanatta Hareket, Sayı 11-12, pp. 21-22. 35 Said Halim Pasha, “İslam’da Teşkilat-ı Siyasiye, İslam’ın İctimaiyyatı,” Sebilürreşad, no: 20, issue; 495, Istanbul, 11 March 1338, p. 1. 36 Pasha, “İslam’da Teşkilat-ı Siyasiye, İslam’ın İctimaiyyatı,” p. 1. 37 Akyol, “Modenization of Ottoman and Its Reflection on Republican of Turkey,” p. 45. 38 Karlı, “The Concept of State in Said Halim Pasha and Ziya Gökalp,” Unpublished MA Thesis, Fatih University, January 2010, pp. 93-4. 39 Paşa, Buhranlarımız ve Son Eserleri, pp. 218-222; Paşa, Toplumsal Çözülme, pp.180-183.

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“Islamlashmaq” Term In Saıd Halım Pasha

Said H. Pasha is one of the Ottoman statesmen in Decline Period, who is known as the person who is the theorist of Islamism movement. He is exclusively a “thinking head” in that he never shapes his thoughts with the effect of others’ ideas. He has a thinking style of his own. Though not a sociologist, his approach towards the causality and quality of events just like a sociologist and his suggestions on solutions reflect a general and universal character. He clari- fies what he implies with Islamization. According to him, Islamization means to put Islamic beliefs, political and social institutions into practice.40 Although he was sharply critical of West- ern values, he emphasized that freedom and equality were among the most fundamental of Is- lamic principles. In his opinion, freedom is a duty of Islam. All Muslims must have the freedom that would produce equality in social life. However, he insisted that personal inequalities, which were consequences of individual qualities, talents, and capabilities, were accepted by Islamic society.41 He alleged that while elites had been democrats in Islamic society because they strived to work for the people, members of lower classes had been aristocratic on the grounds of their inclination towards aristocratic ideals. Therefore, there would be no struggle between up- per and lower classes in Islamic society, because they have aimed to reach to the same ideals. He added further, “for this reason all Muslims should try to perfect the application of Islamic morality and social order.”42 Said H. Pasha found an opportunity to examine today’s civilization which was called as “Western civilization” in his time especially when he was in Europe. Hence, he gained experience in order to compare the Eastern foundations with those of the West. As one of the thin- 278 kers who know the West very well, he implies that the peace and relief in Islamic world could only be possible by thoroughly Islamization of society.43 In conclusion, Islamization is an important process which brings Islam and modernity at the parallel stand. By having such process, Islam is secured from allegations that this religion is conservative and old. Oppositely, Islam is current, universal and suitable to be applied regardless the place and time. Muslims should not be afraid with modernity and the West. They can be modern and devout to Allah the Exalted simultaneously. The tremendous efforts are already given by Muslim scholars to properly develop the Islamization. However, without proper understanding, obsession to a particular sheikh and extremism in rejecting modern knowledge, Muslims are left to the edge of misunderstan- ding and confusion. This is not only due to the modern knowledge but also failure to appreciate the Islamic teachings as formulated in Qur’an and Sunnah (the life-example of Prophet). But only if we regain our lost self-confidence can we expect to go forward once again . Never will the goal be reached if we destroy our own social institutions and imitate a foreign civilization – foreign not only in an historical or a geographical sense but also in the spiritual one. And the way has been pointed out to us in the words of the Holy Our'an: “Verily, in the Messenger of Allah you have a good example for everyone who looks forward to God and the Last Day.”44

40 Pasha, İslamlaşmak, p. 5. 41 Pasha, İslamlaşmak, pp. 8-9. 42 Pasha, İslamlaşmak, p. 10. 43 Karlı, “The Concept of State in Said Halim Pasha and Ziya Gökalp,” p. 91. 44 Qur’an, 33:21.

The Journal of Academic Social Science Yıl: 5, Sayı: 41, Mart 2017, s. 269-279

“Islamlashmaq” Term In Saıd Halım Pasha

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The Journal of Academic Social Science Yıl: 5, Sayı: 41, Mart 2017, s. 269-279