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A Bucket with a Hole 73

Hizmet Studies ReviewVol. 1, No. 1, Autumn 2014, 75-95

‘A Bucket with a Hole’: Hizmet Women and the Pursuit of Personal and Professional Progress Through Sohbetler (Spir-itual Conversations)

MARGARET J. RAUSCH, [email protected]

University of Kansas

ABSTRACT The view that progress can only be achieved through secularization and that, by contrast, religion spreads ignorance, oppression and stagnation prevails among lib-eral secularists, including adherents of Kemalism, the approach to secularism and nationalism crafted by the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938). By promoting a new approach to language and culture through public education, centered on replacing the old pious Ottoman lifestyle with a secular Western one, Kemalism ultimately fueled the rise of Islamic revival initiatives. Like other men and women of faith who have increasingly ques-tioned this dichotomy since the 1980s, affiliates of Hizmet, a movement inspired by Fethullah Gülen, whose teachings promote self-perfection, compassionate acceptance of others and service to humanity, view faith as a source of guidance and personal growth. To them, what is impor-tant is reviving Islam’s core message that education advances equality and that social justice fosters individual advancement, global societal reform and progress for humanity. Drawing on fieldwork observations and interviews carried out among young Kansas City-based women af-filiates of Hizmet, this article explores the function of sohbetler, weekly gatherings for spiritual reflection, in their pursuit of those goals. It also investigates their understandings of the contro-versy surrounding the role of faith in society in relation to liberal secularist perspectives on it. It begins with a comparison of the role of language and culture in the formation and promotion of both perspectives and approaches.

Introduction

The commonly held assumption that secularization constitutes a prerequi-site for progress in all areas of society today dominates politics, the media and popular opinion. Religion, by contrast, is often seen by secularists as a source of ignorance, oppression and stagnation, and thus a hindrance to progress. Most

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liberal secularists perceive the wearing of head-coverings by Muslim women as an outward sign of their oppression, and the deliberate decision by educated urban women to cover as a political statement against liberal secularism and an effort to expand Islam’s influence in social and political realms of the public sphere, while they view the opposite, the conscious choice to uncover, as a victory in the strug-gle against oppression.

By contrast, liberal secularist and feminist scholars have endeavored to docu-ment the ways by which women resist, challenge and struggle to eliminate struc-tures and practices that perpetuate oppressive religious ideologies, including Is-lam. They have demonstrated that ritual and practices to cultivate piety can no longer be perceived as strictly private endeavors with no bearing in other areas of the practitioners’ lives, but are instead integral to their sense of identity and their approach to other aspects of their every-day lives at home and work, and have repercussions in other spheres of their communities and societies. Highlighting these repercussions, recent studies have revealed the ways by which women prac-titioners are carving out new niches for themselves by re-signifying or revising existing practices, or creating new ones, as a means to reassess and revise local configurations of gender status, roles and relations, and to renew and enhance their sense of commitment to Islam and to encourage others to follow their exam-ple (Raudvere 2003; Torab 2007). They have underscored the ways of women’s increased commitment to Islam to open up opportunities to improve their daily life circumstances, enabling them to circumvent oppressive structures and prac-tices and to exercise more control and agency (Deeb 2006; Mahmood 2004). They have shown that the oppression is rooted in local culture and erroneously linked to Islam by extremist interpretations of the foundational texts.

The existing scholarly literature on women Hizmet Movement affiliates ex-plores the positive impact of their movement’s involvement in the conditions of their daily life, their personal development and their access to educational and career opportunities. Drawing on extensive interviews with three women affili-ates employed as teachers at Gülen-inspired schools in Turkey, Elisabeth Özdalga (2003) elaborated the ways in which their personal engagement with the works of Fethullah Gülen and Said Nursi and their involvement in the movement enabled them to define their educational goals and career paths and structure their marital relationships and family life in positive and beneficial ways. Likewise, Anna J. Stephenson (2007) drew on research among women affiliates living in Houston, Texas, to elucidate the positive impact of their study of Gülen’s and Nursi’s teach-ings and participation in movement activities in the US on their decisions regard-ing educational goals, career paths and marital relationships. Similarly, Maria F. Curtis (2005) linked the personal transformations undergone by women affiliates in Austin, Texas, particularly with regard to their sense of identity as Muslims, as members of affiliate communities and as Turks, to the positive personal develop-ments resulting from their immersion experiences while living in ışık evleri, or dormitories built by affiliates in conjunction with high schools and universities in


Turkey, and their participation in sohbetler, spiritual reflection gatherings, in Aus-tin. All three scholars revealed that the women affiliates’ movement involvement fostered personal life improvements and enhanced access to higher education, career paths and the means to have an impact on their communities and society.

By contrast, Bernadette Andrea (2007) explored Gülen’s “gloss on” the rights enjoyed by Ottoman women, underscoring the discrepancy between the early limitations on and late development of women’s rights in regions dominated by Jewish and Christian traditions and Muslim women’s much more advanced rights, specifically in the context of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s early eighteenth-cen-tury visit to the Ottoman Empire. In her writings, Lady Montagu recorded her surprise at finding that Turkish women’s daily life circumstances differed greatly from depictions found in the widely read contemporaneous accounts written by European men. In addition to enjoying property ownership and other rights not available to their European women contemporaries, Ottoman women were highly educated, socially active and dedicated to pursuing charitable endeavors and cultivating personal piety, instead of languishing in ignorance, debauchery and decadence as they were portrayed in male authors’ travelogues. Furthermore, Andrea explained the potential of the Qur’an, recognized and applied historically by Muslims and currently by Gülen and Hizmet movement affiliates, to establish gender equality and guide the cultivation of ethical comportment, underlining the absence of the latter from the “generally accepted Christian canon” and its application in eighteenth-century European law and daily life.

This current article expands the existing scholarship on women affiliates by the role of faith and piety in the process of development and refinement under-gone by the women affiliates. The women Hizmet Movement affiliates residing in Kansas City on which this article focuses emphasized the fact that their faith and piety are integral to moving forward, to improving themselves and their lives and to making progress in this process. Faith and piety constitute the main dis-tinguishing feature of their approach, in particular in comparison with liberal secularists in their view. This article investigates these women affiliates’ under-standing of the role of faith and piety in this process, and their perspectives on the controversy surrounding the role of faith and piety in society today. It begins with a brief comparative exploration of the role of language and culture in edu-cation as articulated by Gülen and as defined in the formative period and later implementation of approaches to nationalism and secularism.

Promoting Nationalism and Self-Perfection: Language and Culture in Education

Recent scholarship on religious reform movements has stressed the role of language in cultivating new sensibilities in unison with ethical values and modes of comportment. Similarly, Véronique Bénéï (2008), in her study of the practices


used in public primary schools in Marathi, India, to inculcate nationalist senti-ments in pupils, revealed that the combination of language, morality and emo-tion is effective in achieving this goal because it mimics the aspects of experiences in infancy and early childhood. Bénéï asserted that the mother is key to the child’s introduction to ritualized behavior and the first person to satisfy self-preservative needs and sensual desires and to offer a sense of security and trust, which have an enduring impact on later experiences. Her sensory presence, comprising bodily contact and verbal interaction, is vital in constituting the “primary sensorium”. Equally crucial is her role in language acquisition, which is integral to socializing morality and emotion, since mother-tongue learning, as linguistic anthropolo-gists Garrett and Baquedano-Lopez have asserted, both encodes embodied emo-tions and forms the basis of moral socialization. Similar linkages of language to morality and emotions have been found in religious and secular movements in various historical and contemporary contexts (Corrigan 2002; Pinto 2005; Red-dy 2001). Whereas most nationalist projects identify one language and ethnicity with the nation, as Bénéï reveals, local languages are used to arouse a sense of belonging despite the status of Hindi and English as official languages. This aim of including rather than excluding the languages and ethnicities found through-out India explains its characterization as one of three countries, alongside Indo-nesia and Senegal, which have succeeded in promoting true democracy (Stepan 2011). As will become clear below, Gülen and movement affiliates, by promoting dialogue, embracing diversity and cultivating the compassionate acceptance of others, strive to resolve interracial, interethnic and interfaith tensions worldwide.

Hizmet: a Language and Culture of Compassion for and Service to Humanity

Gülen’s vision of education focuses on language and culture as integral to self-perfection and global societal reform. Whilst spiritually grounded, its holistic approach and goals comprise multi-level intellectual, emotional and material de-velopment. By contrast, in nationalist projects language and culture are employed as means to unify, improve and integrate, but sometimes as tools for envisioning diversity with mistrust and animosity.

Education, in Gülen’s view, is a life-long process that begins in childhood. Both parents participate in the education of their children through their words and deeds, which reflect their values and principles. Role modeling is an essential component of education during this, but also subsequent phases, as elucidated in the following excerpt:

The real teacher[s] ... lead and guide the child in his or her life and in the face of all events … . [A] child is cast in his or her true mould and attains to the mysteries of personality … [I]magination and aspirations, or specific skills …, everything acquired must [be] ... a guidance to the ways to virtue ... to connect happenings


in the outer world to their inner experience ... . [As] intermediaries, teachers ... provide the link between life and the self ... find a way to the heart of the pupil and leave indelible imprints upon his or her mind. Teachers ... provide good examples for their pupils and teach them the aims of the sciences ... through the refinement of their own minds ... .

Educating people is … the most difficult task in life. In addition to setting a good example, teachers should ... know their students well, and address their intellects and their hearts, spirits, and feelings ... , not forgetting that each individual is a different ‘world’. (Gülen, 2006b)

Gülen emphasizes the importance of developing the whole individual and advocates equal participation for women and men as parents and teachers.

Education, according to Gülen, continues beyond formal schooling in the form of further development of the self. For men and women affiliates, it entails the individual and communally supported pursuit of self-perfection, through the acquisition of attributes and propensities such as self-supervision (muraqaba), self-scrutiny (muhasaba) and limiting one’s relationship to material things (zuhd). It centers on self-renewal through the emulation of advanced-level affiliates and prepares affiliates to offer service to humanity as a means to address global prob-lems linked to widespread animosity and lack of compassion for others, which he understands as arising primarily from excessive materialism.

Gülen envisages self-perfection as a means to revitalize compassionate ac-ceptance of others, which is central to true humanism. It empowers spirituality against the carnal self (nafs) instead of shunning the material world. The compas-sionate acceptance of others, dialogue and a mutually supportive existence are central to discovering ‘true identity’. The two essential components, action and thought, are integrally linked to serving and guiding others, as articulated in the following excerpt:

[T]he way to true existence is action and thought, and likewise the way to renewal, individual and collective.

Action … means embracing the whole of creation with full sincerity and resolve … expending all one’s physical, intellectual and spiritual faculties in guiding the world … .

As for thought, it is action in one’s inner world. Any truly systematic thinking entails seeking answers to all questions arising from the existence of the universe as such. In other words, … [it] is the product of a conscious mind relating itself to the whole of creation and seeking the truth in everything through its language.

[T]he realization of such noble aims depends on the existence of guides and leaders able to both diagnose our external and inner misery and to be … in constant rela-tion with the higher worlds ... . Thus, all the institutions of life will be remolded ... . Sciences will progress hand-in-hand with religion, and belief and reason com-


bined will yield ever-fresh fruits of their cooperation. In short, the future will wit-ness a new world built in the arms of hope, belief, love, knowledge, and resolve. (Gülen 2006a)

Unlike early European Christians, early Muslims, honoring the message of the Qur’an, saw no contradiction in combining science and religion, which Gülen underlines in the extract above. Furthermore, he elucidates the interconnection between language and culture and the central role of language in developing thought, at present and progressively, as follows.

Language is one of the fundamental dynamics in the composition of a culture. Language is an important tool for humankind in our efforts to better understand the cosmos and events both holistically and analytically. The more richly and colorfully a nation can speak, the more they can think; the more they can think, the broader is the span their speech can reach. Every single society leaves behind what they speak and think today for its validity to be probed, tested and pro-tected by future generations. In this way, a huge reserve of experience and learn-ing are saved from being wasted; the knowledge and ideas of the past are utilized for the benefit of the present; what was right or wrong in the past is compared with the rights and wrongs of today so that we do not tread the same path and suffer from the same errors. This is valid for all nations of the world; the capacity of a language to express a thought is related to the level of development it has achieved, and a thought can become the instrument by which the language is tuned to this level of development. From every aspect, language plays a defining role in the formation of our culture. (Gülen 2008b)

This elevation of the interplay between language and culture, and between language and thought, is linked to the interrelationship between reason and spir-ituality, but also to emotion, whose disavowal was at the core of European En-lightenment thinking. Also emphasized is the humility and honesty which, while essential to acknowledging past mistakes and present flaws and ensuring future advancement, are lacking in many current contexts, particularly in the West. Gülen uses the term ‘nation’ to encompass all societies and peoples, in their past, present and future forms, defined by their unique languages, which number be-tween 3,000 and 6,000, and refers to the potential service that they can offer oth-ers when they develop themselves so as to promote the advancement of humans as a species and family. Elsewhere, Gülen grounds the compassionate acceptance of others (hoşgörü), imprecisely translated into English as ‘tolerance’, in the fol-lowing Qur’an verses: “If your Sustainer had so willed it, He would have made humankind into a single nation, but they will not cease to be diverse ... . And, for this God created them [humankind]” and “O Humankind! God has created you from a male and female and made you in diverse nations and tribes so that you may come to know one another”. Implied here is a self-perfection process com-parable to that undertaken by movement affiliates, facilitated by group spiritual reflection and conversations (sohbetler), in which more advanced affiliates serve as


role models and monitor novices’ progress.While providing no explicit guidelines for sohbetler, Gülen makes clear that

his writings offer a new language and culture to be cultivated by a future genera-tion of role models for humanity, whose attributes and tasks are elucidated in his writings. They will “put might under the command of right, never discriminate on grounds of colour or race”, and “unite in their character profound spirituality, wide knowledge, sound thinking, a scientific temperament, and wise activism … . Never content with what they already know, they will continuously increase in knowledge – knowledge of the self, knowledge of nature, and knowledge of God”. They attain ‘true life’ by applying the attributes and values developed in the self-perfection process.

… There is a mutually supportive and perfective relation between one’s actions and inner life … . Attitudes like determination, perseverance, and resolve illuminate one’s inner conscience, and the brightness of this inner conscience strengthens one’s will power and resolve, stimulating him or her to ever-higher horizons. They will always seek to please the Creator and humanity [...] and enjoy orderliness, har-mony, and devotion to duty in their outer worlds. At the same time, they increase the pure light of their inner worlds ... . Their intellect can combine ... all current knowledge ... and thereby obtain new syntheses. They are so modest that they see themselves as just ordinary people … . [T]heir altruism has reached such a level that they can forget their own needs and desires for the sake of others’ happiness. (Gülen 2008a)

The attributes and values listed here enable them to confront societal prob-lems globally.

Key to their resolution is guiding others, as elaborated in the following ex-cerpt:

In order to awaken the people and guide them to truth ... they ... implant hope in our hearts, enlighten our minds and quicken our souls ... . They will visit every corner of the world ... and pour out their reviving inspirations into the souls of the dumbstruck people. (Gülen 2006c)

As revealed here, affiliates continuously pursue self-perfection in preparation for, but also in the process of, offering service and guidance to others. All three aspects, cultivating self-perfection, guiding others by example, and compassion-ately accepting and serving all of humanity, are equally accessible to men and women, and both are able to work to resolve societal problems. Most impor-tantly, every action is undertaken to please God.

This vision stands in sharp contrast to the concept of ‘progress’ as it is under-stood in the Western European philosophical tradition from its emergence until very recently. The enthusiasm with which the tenth- to the fourteenth-century Muslim scholars embraced advanced knowledge of philosophy, medicine and sci-


ence (which they wrote treatises on) alongside their deep religious conviction, was not matched by Europeans’ experiences of these fields, which came centu-ries later. After the treatises were translated into Latin and Europeans began to embrace, study and teach these fields in their universities, in some cases using the translations as textbooks, their reaction and approach were entirely different. In fact, their vision of science and rational thought as being incompatible with and contrary to religion led them to distinguish sharply between the body and intellect and between emotion and reason. This dichotomy resonates in projects promoting nationalism created around the globe beginning in the late nineteenth century, including Kemalism, the Turkish version.

Kemalism: Turkish Style Nationalism

To understand Kemalism, a brief examination of its early twentieth-century origin is warranted. Scholars studying a recently discovered treatise by the British philosopher, physician, influential Enlightenment thinker and Father of Liberal-ism John Locke (d. 1704) found that it revealed a further dimension of the later effect of this dichotomy on later Western thought (Bauman & Briggs 2003) and argued that in order for humans to become ‘modern’, their language had to be purified, so he crafted a tool to strip language of its direct connections to social forms, which he felt was crucial for the further development of rational thought, and ultimately science. In his language purification program, he claimed that only elite, white, educated men were capable of rational thought, relating this capacity to language and placing European men apart from other socio-economic classes, and that all women and all non-Europeans were inferior in their intellectual ca-pabilities. This idea later influenced not only other developments in linguistics and language ideology, but also politics and philosophy, giving birth to the idea of white European supremacy, the European mission to colonize and civilize the world, and the ideologies of secularism, which aimed at separating politics from religion, and de-emphasizing the importance of and eventually discrediting the latter, and nationalism, which had as its goal to create a homogeneous ‘populace’ that spoke the same language in terms of linguistic code, but also felt a strong emotional attachment and allegiance to, and consequently an intense willingness to wage war against non-citizens for the sake of, one’s nation.

The danger of taking nationalism as an ideology and its promotion as a politi-cal agenda emerges to an extreme extent clearly in the historical example of Nazi Germany, where ethnic cleansing was unabashedly carried out in a systematic manner. However, the racist and ethnocentric tendency that is concealed in na-tionalism had already been articulated in the nineteenth century by the French philosopher and expert on ancient Middle East civilizations and languages Ernst Renan, who was incidentally known for his deep devotion to his native province of Brittany, in a public lecture which was attended by the early Muslim reformer who crafted the original moderate form of Salafism, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani. The


latter publicly voiced his rejection of Renan’s claim that Semites as a ‘race’ are in-tellectually incapable of rational thought in a response displaying his intellectual prowess. To this, Renan pointed out that al-Afghani’s intelligence derived from the fact that he was of Persian, in other words Aryan origin, which he interpreted as further evidence for his theory. Both terms are language-based: ‘Aryan’ is a designation which, though commonly understood in racist or ethnic terms, was in fact originally coined in reference to speakers of Indo-European languages, and ‘Semite’ likewise refers to Hebrew and Arabic speakers, but also speakers of Aramaic (Jesus’s mother tongue). Paris in particular, but Western Europe in general, in the nineteenth century served as the incubator for the new ideology of nationalism, and Muslims from different regions were present at its incep-tion. Among them were the Young Turks, a late Ottoman political reform group founded in Istanbul, which, while initially embracing the Ottoman tradition of multi-ethnic and multi-religious tolerance, after returning from Europe, expelled all of its non-Turkish members.

The new ethnocentrism and racism led to pan-Turkism, an attempt to unify Turkic peoples in the Ottoman and Russian Empires, and later Turkish support for Germany and then for Hitler during World Wars I and II, as well as aspects of Kemalism, the nationalist ideology and reform program of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, after whom it was named. Featuring radical political, cultural, religious and social reforms designed to distance the new state from its Ottoman past and to promote secularism, democracy, political and social equality for women, state support of the sciences and free education, and a Westernized lifestyle, Kemal-ism was introduced and implemented during Atatürk’s presidency (1923-1938). Central to it was the restriction, control or elimination of Islamic symbols and practices, including replacing Arabic script with the Latin alphabet, removing Arabic and Persian words from Turkish, and outlawing the wearing of Islamic attire in public. This latter restriction encompassed a ban on women’s head-cover-ings, which became particularly problematic in the 1990s, when it forced women who chose to cover to pursue higher education and employment in private firms and institutions or abroad. It was finally lifted in 2008, when practicing Mus-lims were finally allowed to serve as prime minister and as president. As a result of these repressive policies, Atatürk’s model fell short in every category of the framework used to assess democracy as implemented in countries across the globe (Stepan, 2011). In Turkey, in the public schools, pupils begin their day by recit-ing in unison a pledge of allegiance to their nation. It begins with the words ‘I am a Turk’, which immediately excludes those belonging to other ethnic groups, and ends with a pledge to uphold the principles of Kemalism, which emphasizes secularism. Despite these efforts to promote democracy, as elsewhere, it has been replaced by inequity, corruption and violence.

Hizmet movement affiliates, like affiliates of other religious and liberal secular-ist reform initiatives, seek ways to promote dialogue and peace through educa-tion. Whilst liberal secularists in Turkey have actively opposed Gülen and the


movement’s activities and institutions for decades, ascribing to them the hid-den agenda to establish an Islamic state which is oppressive, particularly towards women, scholars studying the impact of women’s movement involvement have revealed that it leads to personal and professional progress.

Whilst differing drastically in intended outcome, their approaches are com-parable. Both seek to revive a forgotten language as the basis for a new culture in which progress, promoted through education, is central. The core differences lie in Kemalism’s promotion of secularism and its drive to homogenize and exclude, which contrast starkly with Hizmet’s religious orientation and intent to embrace and encourage diversity.

The Research Subjects and Techniques

The remainder of this article is based on fieldwork conducted during sohbetler, or spiritual gatherings, held weekly in the homes of the women affiliates residing in Kansas City and nearby towns. They comprised fifteen women from Turkey, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan who had been in the US for between one and five years and who ranged in age from twenty to twenty-five. One was an Ameri-can mother of three, married to a Turk, who, though previously employed as a teacher, was a stay-at-home mother until her youngest child reaches school age. All but two were married. Eight had one or two children. Five were enrolled in undergraduate or graduate studies programs, five were employed as teachers or researchers and five were exclusively stay-at-home mothers.

Difference also characterized their knowledge of the teachings and works of Nursi and Gülen and of their movement involvement before coming to the US. The five stay-at-home mothers had limited awareness of Hizmet and little or no direct contact with affiliates prior to marriage. Their awareness stemmed from their husbands who, in four cases, had brought them to the US. The involvement of the fifth young woman, an American convert, began with her acquaintance with and later marriage to a Turkish affiliate. The other ten had read works and actively participated in sohbetler and in Hizmet service and networks in their countries of origin. Two of the women’s parents were directly or indirectly in-volved in affiliate networks and movement activities. At the time of the research, all of them were committed to applying the teachings in their daily lives and were actively participating in movement activities.

The field research entailed participatory observation of sohbetler and con-ducting informal interviews. Open-ended questions were used to elicit responses. Their views are presented progressively from their early responses to final conclu-sions.

Three themes emerged in the initial conversations about the importance of their movement involvement. Articulated as ‘setting higher standards’, ‘a bucket with a hole’ and ‘ablalar as role models’, an examination of the themes is followed by a discussion of the distinguishing feature of their path in relation to that of lib-


eral secularists which forms the main body of the article. It concludes with a sum-mary of their ideas for reassessing the controversy surrounding the role of faith in society and resolving the tension among groups bearing different perspectives.

‘Setting Higher Standards’ Through Education, Dialogue and Hizmet (Service)

The first theme mentioned by the women Hizmet movement affiliates in Kan-

sas City when asked about the most important aspects of their involvement was “setting higher standards”. The women agreed that setting higher standards oc-curs within three realms, education, service and dialogue, which are interrelated and contribute to the pursuit of higher standards on a number of levels.

Education, on one level, encompasses the secular learning program offered in the Gülen-inspired schools established worldwide. Offered to the rest of the com-munity by those affiliates teaching in the schools, it raises the level of knowledge of the pupils. On another level, the schools transmit higher standards in terms of moral values and ethical principles through example modeled by the teachers. All the levels of learning described here correspond to the expectations generally encompassed by educational institutions.

The difference in the way the women affiliates perceived their impetus to pur-sue education at any level was related to their religious commitment. They also viewed it as an opportunity to apply Gülen’s teachings in their lives, as one affili-ate explained:

When I read Gülen’s teachings about education, they rang a bell with me since I truly believe in the power of knowledge. Gülen’s interpretation of the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) very first revelation is very unique and gave me a fresh perspective. The first revelation begins: “Recite! In the Name of your Sustainer, Who created. He created humankind from an embryo. Recite! For your Sustainer is Most Bountiful, Who taught the use of the pen – taught humankind what they did not know”. Gülen explains that this command from God is very relevant today and that it illustrates the importance of education. I have applied this concept to my life by embracing books even more than I had before and by targeting my goal of attending medical school.

Here, the choice to pursue higher education is tied to Gülen’s interpretation of the Qur’an verses cited above. Furthermore, just as they viewed every other posi-tive endeavor in their daily lives, the women perceived their pursuit of higher ed-ucation as a means to seek God’s approval, to fulfill His command and to imitate the Prophet Muhammad’s example in their daily lives. This affiliate also explained that her choice to pursue higher education and a career path were directly linked to her capacity to serve the community through her future employment, which would expand the opportunities available to her to please God. Thus, education enabled them to raise their ‘standards’, intellectually and spiritually.


Hizmet was understood as any action undertaken to assist others. It encom-passes the smallest act that responds to the needs of someone encountered at any moment in daily life. It includes performing any task that would benefit others, whether fulfilling requests made by others in one’s daily life or offering one’s services through the movement’s institutions and activities, as described in the following passage:

I have participated in a number of events organized by people who share a com-mon vision. These activities included community outreach activities, volunteer-tutoring of younger students, leading and participating in youth group-like ac-tivities, participating in big-sister-like activities, participating in Ramadan dinners with various members of the community, fundraising activities for orphanages and so on. The degree of my participation varied in these activities. In some of them I was responsible for organizing, preparing and leading the activity. In some of them I was simply a participant who attended the event, in particular the Ramadan dinners. Whereas in others I co-shared the responsibility with others for coming up with a plan and for executing what needed to be done. Participating in these activities is very important to me because this is what I believe in. I believe in help-ing others in any way I can and leaving a positive imprint in this world and in my community. I believe in the importance of interfaith and intercultural dialogue.

Performing hizmet opens up opportunities for interaction and dialogue and can result in a learning experience on multiple levels, as emphasized in the fol-lowing quotation:

Being involved in these activities with people who share the same values has changed my life for better because it makes me feel like part of something big and important instead feeling alone and isolated. It is part of human nature at times to feel alone and isolated and as if nobody knows what one is going through, whereas by being actively involved with a community I have realized that we have so much in common with others and that others can benefit from my experiences and how I overcame or dealt with certain issues just as much as I can benefit from theirs. Another benefit of being involved in the activities is that we motivate each other and help each other to sustain our conviction and our dynamics. One last benefit I would like to mention is that no matter how much desire one possesses to do good and carry out certain actions, there are always times when we need help in achiev-ing those goals because they are not a one-person job, thus this is where a few sets of hands, legs and brains come in very handy!

As this woman points out, hizmet fosters interaction, dialogue and learning between those offering and those receiving the service, but also among those shar-ing in the preparatory work for larger service activities. Most importantly, accord-ing to the women, hizmet, regardless of the time and energy invested, is offered voluntarily, without any expectation of recompense, monetary or otherwise, and it enables them to please God.

Dialogue is the third means for promoting higher standards in one’s own life and in society. Dialogue is integral to education or any learning as it enables an exchange of ideas. Dialogue encompasses all levels of communication, whether


embedded in an organized activity or simply between two individuals. It involves a conscious effort to understand the ideas, attitudes and perspectives of others and can lead to a rapprochement between individuals and the groups to which they belong. It eliminates misunderstanding and dissolves tensions that harbor conflict. It opens up space for and channels meaningful interaction. The women emphasized intercultural and interfaith dialogue, but included dialogue between members of different groups residing in the same country, bearing the same cul-tural background and adhering to the same religion. It falls into the category of hizmet, as it was aimed at improving the lives of others and of society as a whole. Engaging in conscious, reflected dialogue also enables them to set an example and thus constitutes another means to gain God’s approval.

At the end of their reflection on setting higher standards, the women began to rethink their terminology. They acknowledged that there were no official stand-ards and that their goal was to improve the moral values and ethical principles in society and in their lives. This improvement comprised acts of faith and piety, as expressed here:

There is no exact definition of having higher standards. The idea is that we believe that we are in a struggle in this world and we should always try to be a better person. For example, if you are giving charity, try to give more, pray more, be more altruistic and helpful etc. We never think that a certain amount of praying is enough. We should always try to get closer to God by increasing good deeds and decreasing and eventually ceasing to commit bad deeds and considering pleasing God in every aspect of life.

They agreed that the word ‘higher’ was appropriate because it underscores the goal of striving to improve one’s own attitudes, expectations, levels of knowledge and awareness and modes of behavior, as well as to encouraging others to do the same. Ultimately, the phrase ‘setting higher standards’ and the three realms of activity for working towards that goal meant that one can and should constantly reassess one’s developing standards by stepping back and scrutinizing one’s at-titudes, expectations, levels of knowledge and awareness, and modes of behavior regarding every aspect of one’s daily existence. It constitutes an important com-ponent of the movement’s approach as it entails continuous expansion of knowl-edge, improvement in comportment and personal transformation, all of which are indicative of progress.

‘A Bucket With A Hole’: Progress Through Piety

Making progress is the second important goal of their mission, according to the women participants. Progress, expressed in simple terms, entails making each day different from the preceding day, learning something new each day and im-proving their behavior and actions from one day to the next. As one woman affiliate explained, one can understand the meaning of this goal by envisioning


oneself as “a bucket with a hole,” a bucket in which water can never remain for a long period of time. Stagnant water, she elucidated further, collects impurities and becomes contaminated, whereas water that is regularly replenished, or that flows as in a river, undergoes constant renewal. She was drawing on the following text by Gülen:

Stagnant waters become mossy; inactive limbs are subject to over-calcification. By contrast, waterfalls are always clean. Those who always keep their brains active and souls purified will one day see that they have germinated numerous ‘seeds of beauty’ in themselves and all their efforts have come to fruition. Only ploughed land can be sown; only gardens trimmed and trees pruned yield the best fruit. (Gülen 1985)

She related this idea to a story of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Proph-et, which she further explained as follows:

Hazrati Ali had very high standards and his knowledge was exceptional. Nonethe-less, he said that his knowledge is like a drop of water in an ocean. So how can we say that we are well educated? All of us have something to learn. So our purpose is to learn at least one new thing in each day.

The following reference to the image of a waterfall in one of Gülen’s book links these two ideas: “Those who belittled you, considering you just a drop, never thought that one day you would grow into such a waterfall” (Gülen 1992). The emphasis is on growth through learning. It encompasses both knowledge learned by reading or attending an educational institution and knowledge ac-quired through daily life experiences.

Progress is not made through the acquisition of knowledge and experience alone. This acquisition is supported and fostered through spiritual development. Spiritual development consists of increasing the number of prayers and devo-tional recitations one performs. Furthermore, emphasis is placed more on the progress in one’s capacity for behaving in accordance with moral values and ethi-cal principles and the increase in one’s devotional observance that results than on the content of the knowledge and experience acquired. One of the women elaborated her views on this process as follows:

Daily life is a constant struggle. We believe that human beings have the ability to be even better than angels and at the same time fall to lower than devils. God gave us the ability to separate what is good and bad and let us free in our choice. This world is like an examination, and we are trying to score as high as we can. There is not a certain or set score for passing the examination. We should not try to answer all the questions. In other words, we can never be sure about ourselves, and there is no guarantee of going to heaven even if we are practicing Muslims. Therefore, we always try our best not to stay at any certain level in terms of practicing religion. But of course we can never be perfect. Faith lies between fear and hope. We always hope for forgiveness. In addition to that, we do not know which answer will receive


a higher score. I mean, God may forgive us because of a very small good deed. It is not a mathematical calculation. If you pray a lot but break someone’s heart you might be in trouble. Making each day different means trying to improve spiritu-ally by praying, doing good deeds and trying to have a better personality and have good morals.

Here, emphasis is placed on the renewal and improvement of one’s moral and ethical standards and spirituality, on the mutual support of the actions in the private spiritual and the public everyday realms, and on the individual nature of the process. This progress is measured on an individual level but the outcome and repercussions of individual renewal and improvement have benefits for the individual and for society. Individual progress entails an increase in one’s ability to provide more service to society and to be more effective as an example to others through one’s comportment.

They all agreed, however, that there is no specified set of standards, no way of measuring one’s performance or progress. Instead, the process of monitoring one’s progress depends on personal scrutiny and judgment, but there is a network of support and assessment to guide and facilitate one’s progress, as described in the following comment:

The highest standard is to gain the approval of God. Nobody knows if he or she gains or does not gain this approval. And also whoever thinks that he or she is a very good person, that he or she is better than the others and that he or she has gained the approval of God and will enter paradise, he or she will start to fall down immediately. We can say that these standards are not our creation. Our purpose is to follow the way of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his compan-ions. Of course, consultations with those who are spiritually more advanced than we are help us to reach higher standards and to constantly improve ourselves. They guide us to better ways and higher levels in all our thoughts and actions.

This response indicates that humility is central to the assessment process and that, whilst the process is individual in nature, assistance can be sought from those who are spiritually more advanced. Seeking assistance especially at early stages in one’s spiritual development is highly advisable and beneficial, according to the women. Ablalar, or big sisters, in particular within the context of sohbetler headed by them, most commonly serve to provide this assistance in most cases.

Ablalar as Role Models

Ten of the women affiliates had participated in regular sohbetler and had pro-gressed under the guidance of ablalar for two or more years. They perceived this experience as enriching and integral to their initial spiritual development. This experience established the firm foundation on which they were now able to build. They learned to monitor their personal development and the balance between their spiritual growth and their capacity to apply the moral values and ethical principles which they acquired in the initial phase of supervised training with


their ablalar.In recounting this initial phase, many of the women emphasized the impor-

tance of the role that their ablalar played in their development, as is shown in the following comment:

Ablalar try to affect us both by being a role model, a living example, and by per-suasion. When you see them around always helping others, you just admire them and want to be like them. Some ablalar have considerable knowledge about Islam, about Gülen’s books, and they try to share what they know with us. Generally, this happens during daily sohbetler in lighthouses. Sometimes, they kindly warn you if you make a mistake and try to help you correct your faults. I can tell that the most influential point of ablalar is they they exercise what they tell us, you actually see them living according to their beliefs.

Each of the women acknowledged the two-fold nature of the role of the abla, her function as a teacher and as a role model. In their function as teachers, besides actually reading the texts under study in the sohbetler and guiding the discus-sion of the texts, ablalar monitor the progress of participants by collecting lists of their weekly activities. These lists encompass additional prayers and recitations, but also the hizmet that they have performed. This function encouraged them to improve and increase their activities from week to week and assisted them in learning to eventually monitor their own progress.

Most of the women underlined the significance of the abla’s function as role model, as articulated in the following comment:

Ablalar help their students to improve themselves. They try to motivate them and try to help with their homework for school. They also try to teach them something about religion, if possible. But the most important and beneficial way to learn something from an abla is by observing her. Her attitude and behavior are more effective than what she says.

Some women described their deep admiration for their ablalar and their desire to emulate every aspect of their behavior. In addition to the opportunity of learn-ing from ablalar by observing and striving to imitate them, sohbetler provided the possibility of developing a sense of belonging to a group and group support and a nurturing atmosphere, all of which enhance one’s capacity for personal and spiritual development, as expressed in this comment:

Sohbetler in the US and Turkey are almost the same. We gather and one abla reads from an Islamic book. It could be a book by Gülen, an interpretation of the Qur’an or Risale-i-Nur. We discuss whatever we read and try to figure out the implications of reading and ways we can apply those to real life. Sohbetler are interactional. They are not like lectures. Everybody who attends tells what she understood. There is a very nice and harmonious atmosphere in sohbetler. Sometimes we go jogging, eat delicious food after the sohbet and have fun together. When I was in college, during daytime, I was always busy with courses and worldly issues. When I returned home


and attended the sohbetler, the abla kept me focused on the other world, on my responsibilities and on the idea of struggling to be a better person. I felt like I was getting my spiritual food from sohbetler.

Most of the women underlined the importance of the nurturing atmosphere and group support, but also the source of friendship and social activities provided by the sohbetler in the initial phase of movement involvement.

Sohbetler vary widely in relation the composition of the participants and broader community, as described in the following comment:

The different types of groups depend on their situation. Their levels are different. In Turkey these groups are distinct, though not always homogeneous. The distinc-tion is based on the level of knowledge about religion and the Hizmet movement. At beginning level, sohbetler are like meetings with some supplemental social activi-ties. The purpose is to acquire the basics. At intermediate level, sohbetler are more advanced in terms of expectations. In some cases, the group starts to participate in activities organized by the movement. At the advanced level, the group is aware of and committed to the goals of the movement. The affiliates are expected to begin to actively help other people and to eventually serve as ablalar. There are other levels of participation as well. For example, my father is no longer a teacher in a school founded by the movement. He is now a businessman, but he is still involved. He attends sohbet and he tries to find financial support for the movement. My mother is a housewife but is involved socially. She attends sohbet, excursions and confer-ences and coordinates fundraising activities to finance poor students.

This quotation reveals that sohbetler vary widely in structure, content and pur-pose as well as in the composition of the participants. Thus they are adapted to varying kinds of needs and levels of expectation. Likewise, sohbetler provide the necessary regular contact for perpetuating their efforts in monitoring and en-hancing their spiritual development.

‘Being Closer to God’: a Guiding Principle and Hindrance to Col-laboration

The final line of inquiry encompassed the controversial role of faith and piety

in Turkish society today, and the tension between practicing Muslims and liberal secularists. I pursued this line of inquiry in my conversations with the participants in the sohbetler by specifically addressing the difference between the activism of women Hizmet affiliates and liberal secularist women active in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Turkey and the possibility of collaboration between these two types of group. To stimulate their reflection, I described some of my findings. Activists in NGOs, like women affiliates, I pointed out, are working to improve the circumstances of women’s lives. In addition to their successful cam-paign demanding revision of the Turkish penal code to prevent early marriages, oppressive behavior and honor killings, as well as the ensuing side effects such as suicide among teenagers, they have taught the women communication skills and


ways to improve their relationships with their parents, spouses and children, and to demand their own rights and the rights of their daughters to pursue secondary and higher education and to seek employment. In spite of their obvious commit-ment to women’s education, their responses to my inquiries regarding the fact they were not working for lifting the headscarf ban were similar. Although the headscarf ban excludes women from pursuing higher education or working in fields that would otherwise be open to them, forcing them to study and/or work abroad, none of the NGOs were supporting efforts to have it revoked. Whilst some activists asserted that this was due to limitations in their resources and that joining the struggle to lift the ban was not a current priority, most felt that the ban hindered only women wearing headscarves as part of a political agenda which aims to establish an Islamic state and to force all women to wear headscarves, as has occurred in Iran.

Their reactions to my findings and to my inquiry into what distinguishes af-filiates from NGO activists who also strive to assist women in improving their lives and into the potential for collaboration between the two groups included the following comments:

This is a tough issue. Both devout and less devout women can seek progress. They can be very successful and influential members in the society as long as they have the motivation to do so. The difference is that devout Muslim ladies pursue higher education and seek to be active members of the society not just for this world. For example, I want to be a professor, but this is not only for showing people how smart I am and for gaining a reputation. I want to serve God through my job by serving as a good example to my students and by changing people’s minds through my publications. Hopefully, if I can become a professor one day, my real purpose would be in the other world, not this one. We should use worldly opportunities and our positions as a tool to achieve and promote higher standards in terms of spirituality and being closer to God. The idea is to serve God by serving society and to do whatever you do for the sake of God, for becoming closer to God.

This response emphasizes the difference in motivation, whereas the following quotation raises the issue of bias both on the part of liberal secularists and move-ment affiliates. The speaker focuses in particular on the idea that head-coverings constitute a significant hindrance:

I think they could work together and it might be a good idea. The problem is that some of the organizations are secular. They see religion as an obstacle to modernity and the progress of women whereas women movement affiliates get strength from religion. For some secular women, the criterion for modernity is taking off the scarf and wearing less clothing, therefore they do not even want women with head-scarves to have education and high status in society. It depends on which organiza-tions are being considered. This prejudice does not hold true for all organizations. But please note that sometimes there is bias on both sides. For example, some religious women think that those secular women spoil family structure. In fact, I think the situation is getting better. There is less tension and more respect between secular and practicing women. Once they have a chance to interact, they realize


that they have a lot in common and there is no point in looking at each other as if they are enemies.

In her conclusion, she described a trend toward improvement in relations between the two groups. Another affiliate elucidated the complexities of both views as follows:

I think it is most honest to view this issue from the perspective that practicing Islam does make a difference. What some scholars are trying to say is that prac-ticing Muslims face the same challenges as non-practicing ones. They too deal with temper tantrums or teenage issues. They too have problems in their financial, family and business lives and so on. However, what is overlooked is the difference in response to these issues. Of course, we are all human. We have similar human tendencies, whether positive or negative. However, the way a practicing believer responds to these challenges and to the blessings of this life is significantly differ-ent. For example, when a non-believer accomplishes a great success or is blessed with a child, it is very easy for that person to become arrogant and conceited, whereas when a believer faces the same situation, the first inclination is to give thanks to God immediately. The same is true for hardships. It may be difficult for a non-practicing person to deal with problems since they may question the reasons behind them and become outraged with the facts. Whereas, for a believer, there are so many consolations for even the tiniest problem that it would require me to write a few pages just on this topic. Some of those consolations are: there are worse things than what we are challenged with; we still have many more blessings than some people; in the realms of the global world and destiny, there are so many jus-tifications for the existence of certain problems; this may be just a small reminder to us that we are going astray and that God is warning us while we are still in this world so that we can correct our ways and repent before its too late; and if nothing else, with a proper response, this can be a way for some of our sins to be erased.

These responses demonstrate the centrality of faith in defining their own ap-proaches to life and to resolving important problems in today’s society in particu-lar. They recognized the differences and difficulties, but asserted that they would welcome opportunity and felt that they would benefit from cooperating with liberal secular women activists.

Conclusion

Drawing on fieldwork observations and on interviews carried out among women affiliates during sohbetler, gatherings for spiritual reflection and conver-sation, this article juxtaposes the Hizmet movement and the Turkish nationalist project, which it presents as alternative approaches to promoting equality, justice and ultimately progress. Their juxtaposition highlights similarities in their use of education to develop and promote a language that can serve to cultivate values and attitudes central to their perspectives and underlines the link that this lan-guage forges with moral sensibilities, which enables their success. Finally, it points out a crucial difference between them: the Turkish nationalist project’s tendency to homogenize and to disregard diversity and the movement affiliates’ conscious


efforts to compassionately accept and offer service to every human being regard-less of ethnicity, religion and political perspective, which, in their view, fosters their personal and professional progress. More importantly, however, it derives from the Qur’an and therefore renders their actions one means to achieve their ultimate objective of pleasing God.

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