The Nature and Role of Sufism in Contemporary Islam
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The Nature and Role of Sufism in Contemporary Islam: A Case Study of the Life, Thought and Teachings of Fethullah Gülen A Dissertation Submitted to The Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Heon Choul Kim August 2008 © by Heon Choul Kim 2008 All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Title: The Nature and Role of Sufism in Contemporary Islam: A Case Study of the Life, Thought and Teachings of Fethullah Gülen Candidate’s name: Heon Choul Kim Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Temple University, 2008 Doctoral Advisory Committee Chair: Dr. Mahmoud M. Ayoub The resurgence of Sufism in the contemporary world has necessitated reexamining the nature and role of Sufism in contemporary contexts. A series of the reexaminations reveal that contemporary Sufism cannot be fully explained by traditional theories; instead it must be understood in accordance with changing contexts. On this basis, this dissertation directs itself to an investigation of the contemporary manifestations of Sufism. It specifically examines Sufism in the life, thought and teachings of Fethullah Gülen (b. 1941), as its case study. Gülen is known to be one of the most influential contemporary Muslim leaders, and has led a fast-growing movement expanded to global proportions. Much of the research that has consequently followed the inception of the growth of the movement presents Gülen as one of the major figures in defining the contemporary global Islamic experience, and suggests that the studies of Gülen contribute to a better understanding of contemporary issues in Islamic studies including the resurgence and transformation of Sufism. Remarkably, almost all of the studies on Gülen and the Gülen movement underline the importance of further research on Gülen’s approach to Sufism. Terms like ‘quasi-Sufism’ and ‘neo-Sufism’ are assigned iv to his thought, while such phrases as ‘a Sufi order,’ ‘a Sufi-oriented movement’ and ‘a Nurcu branch in the Naqshbandiyya’ are circulated to characterize his movement. However, this terminology has not been adequately examined by any extensive research to warrant its justification. This dissertation examines Gülen’s view on Sufism in order to understand how Sufism manifests itself in contemporary contexts, addressing what Sufism means in the contemporary world. Viewing Sufism as a dynamic discipline interacting with given contextual conditions, I primarily argue that there are distinctive characteristics of Sufism that appeal to the contemporary world enough to allow Sufism to resurface; it is necessary to identify those characteristics to understand the nature and role of Sufism in contemporary Islam. Gülen’s Sufism, as an outcome of its interaction with a contemporary context, provides a better understanding of the characteristics in a way that it represents one of the contemporary manifestations of Sufism. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe my gratitude to many people who have made this dissertation possible. My deepest gratitude goes to my advisor, Professor Mahmoud Ayoub and his wife Ms. Dasmalina Ayoub. I have been amazingly fortunate to have an advisor who opened my intellectual eyes to religious phenomena. His insightful guidance and patience have been greater than I could possibly thank him for. I must also thank Ms. Ayoub whose never-failing encouragement did not allow me to be lazy. Particularly, the ‘tawwakul’ (trust in Allah) that they showed me by words and actions has greatly impressed and practically helped me overcome many crisis situations through these difficult years and to finish this dissertation. I am deeply grateful to the members of my committee. Dr. Zeki Sarıtoprak’s deep concern, pioneering work and suggestion of this topic, made it possible to know where to begin with this dissertation. I am also indebted to Professor Khalid Blankinship for his encouragement, corrections and suggestions, and Dr. Vivienne Angeles for graciously agreeing to be a member of my committee and for having given of her time and support. I also thank Dr. Terry Rey, the new Chair of Department of Religion and department representative at my oral defense for his encouragement that led me to do best in my defense. I wish to mention with immense gratitude Professor John Raines, Professor Leonard Swidler, Professor Rebecca Alpert, Dr. David Watt and Dr. Monte Hull. With their contributions to the development of my academic knowledge/skills and moral support, I could manage my study and life in the USA up to this point of graduation. vi The names of my dear friends cannot be dismissed from my appreciation. Dr. Pam Detrixhe, Eric Jeitner and Dr. John Krummel helped with editing and proofreading, Dr. Florian Pohl, Dr. Song Chong Lee, In Chang Yoo and Katherine Cohen provided moral support. I greatly value their friendship and appreciate their belief in me. I also must acknowledge Ms. Janice Anthony, the Graduate Secretary for the Department of Religion, for her consistent encouragement. I offer my gratitude to the librarians of the circulation desk, who helped me adjust to a new country. I am grateful to many members of the Gülen movement in Pennsylvania. Among them are Bekir Aksoy, the Chair of the Golden Generation, who helped me to understand some difficult Turkish materials, and Dr. Ismail Buyukcelebi, who gave me an initial impression of the Gülen movement by his ascetic and humble attitude and helped me to access invaluable materials related to this dissertation. Finally, I would like to express my heart-felt gratitude to my dear parents, brother and sisters in South Korea, who have been waiting to hear my accomplishment with concern and patience for the 15 years I have lived so far outside my country. And, I give special thanks to my wife, who has taught me about love and inspired me to understand Sufi love as deep as I can and realize its very necessity in personal and communal lives in the contemporary world. vii A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION I have used the Arabic rather than the Turkish transliteration for common Islamic terms, rendering in Arabic form and vocalization most Islamic terms covering conceptual, group and ritual names. For example, I have written tasawwuf rather than tasavvuf, Naqshbandiyya rather than Nak şibendilik, and sama rather than sema. The compromised words of the modern Turkish orthography with the English alphabet are used for the English spellings such as Fethullahcilar. However, bearing in mind that Gülen and the Gülen movement are the primary focus in this dissertation, a Turkish preference has been given to terms, especially those that are used as symbolic vocabularies in the movement. For instance, rather than khidma, I have retained hizmet to indicate its specific usage in the movement. In addition, the Turkish spelling has been retained for some common nouns like tekke. For the sake of reading convenience for those who are not familiar with Turkish, I would like to note the pronunciations of seven Turkish consonants and vowels; the Turkish ‘c’ is read as ‘j’ (like Hocaefendi as Hojaefendi); ‘ç’ as ch (like charity); ‘ ğ’ unvocalized vowel; ‘ ι’ as i in bird; ‘ö’ German ö, as in schön; ‘ ş’ as sh in short; ‘ü’ German ü, as in Führer. To reduce clutter somewhat, I have written well-recognized words (tariqa, shaykh, Sufi) without italic. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………………. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ………………………………………………………… vi A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION ………………………………………………viii INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………… xi The Summary of the Problem and Thesis …………………………………….. xii Methodology and Sources …………………………………………………….. xv Contributions to the Field ………………………………………………………xviii Chapter Outlines ………………………………………………………………. xviii CHAPTER 1. CONTEMPORARY DISCOURSE ON SUFISM ……………………………… 1 1.1: Foreign Origin Thesis of Sufism …………………………………………. 6 1.2: Islamic Sufism ……………………………………………………………. 13 1.3: Sufism Moribund vs. Resurgent ………………………………………… 18 1.4: Neo-Sufism ……………………………………………………….. ……... 24 1.5: Dynamic Sufism …………………………………………………………. 27 2. TURKISH SUFISM: ITS CONSTRUCTIONAL FACTORS …………………. 32 2.1: The formation of Turkish Sufism (9c – 14c) …………. …………………. 38 2.2: The development of Turkish Sufism (15c – 20c) ………………………….85 2.3: Contemporary manifestation (20c – present) ……………………………...101 3. SUFISM IN GÜLEN’S LIFE ……………………………………………............111 3.1: Sufism in Gülen’s life career …………………………………………….. .115 3.2: Sufism in Gülen’s lifestyle ………………………………………….……..148 4. THE NATURE OF SUFISM IN GÜLEN’S THOUGHT ……………………….175 4.1: Sufism in Gülen’s works ………………………………………...................177 4.2: Gülen’s Sufism …………………………………………………………….192 4.3: Is Gülen a Sufi? …………………………………………………………….232 5. THE PLACE OF SUFISM IN THE GÜLEN MOVEMENT …………………....242 5.1. Gülen’s leadership ……………………………………………………….....244 5.2. The identity of the movement ……………………………………………...262 5.3. The membership of the movement …………….. ……………………….....276 5.4. The organizational structure of the movement ………….. ………………..291 5.5. The financial resources of the movement …………………………………..308 ix 5.6. The activities of the movement ……………………………………………325 6. CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………………….357 6.1. Reflections: A turning towards Sufism …………………………………..358 6.2. Implications for the academic discourse on Sufism and Religion ………..374 BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………………….383 x INTRODUCTION The Islamic revival in the contemporary world includes the resurgence of Sufism. This phenomenon is quite contrary to what many modern specialists on Sufism predicted that the more societies become modernized