Faruk Beşer All daily Yeni Şafak Columns

Faruk Beşer

Author

Faruk Beşer was born in the Black Sea city of Turkey’s Trabzon in 1952. Graduating from the Islamic sciences faculty in Erzurum, he earned a Ph.D. at the same faculty. He has held various positions for eight years under the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs. He taught for two terms at the Malaysia International Islamic University as a lecturer in the early nineties, and also at the faculty of Islamic and Arabic studies in Dubai in 2005 and 2006. He is still lecturing at Marmara University. Beşer, who has published 22 books, has been writing for Yeni Şafak since 2012.

Are we Muslim or Ahlussunnah?

May 01 2016, Pazar

A Muslim is one who believes and submits to Allah, in other words, one who does not only have faith, but also abides by His orders and prohibitions, or at least accepts to abide by them. One's degree of Muslimness depends on how much they abide by them. Prophet Abraham and his son Ismail's submission in terms of sacrificing and being sacrificed is described in the Quran as, “they both became Muslim…” They were already mu'min (believers), but it means they turned their faith into complete submiss

Amr bil Maruf

Ağu 08 2014, Cuma

I believe that one of the terms which has been underestimated, which lost its essence, weight and meaning today while having the top significance, is Amr bil Ma''ruf wa Nahy an al Munkar. It is so important because this is one of the fundamental terms in Islam and thus pertaining to the Islamic law and Islamic ethics.It has been underestimated and depleted from its essence, because non-specialists apply the wrong methods and instead of inviting others, they make people hated. Specialists, on t

ISIS, Qaradawi and the Caliphate

Tem 13 2014, Pazar

Last week, we talked about ISIS and said, "Until now we have counted on the uprisings of Qaradawi and the International Union of Muslim Scholars (UMS), of which he is chairman, and now they seem hopeful for some reason after this move". Upon this, perhaps as a reply to our article, the Union of Muslim Scholars published a declaration. An academic at Qatar personally sent me an e-mail telling me that he had met with the General Secretary Dr. Ali al-Qaradaghi and it"s impossible for them to suppo

Is there any need for unity in Islam?

Tem 11 2014, Cuma

Every one knows that Islam is a religion of unity and unification. That is to say, Muslims are not allowed to split into groups, sects or camps through fights or disputes. The meaning of this, of course, is not having the same idea on every issue. However, they have to meet on the fundamental issues, the obligatory fundamentals (ad daroorah ad deeneyyah), which constitute the basics of the religion. If anyone separates from this basic principle, as the prophet – peace be upon him - said, he or

Why are we being polarized?

Tem 06 2014, Pazar

We have said earlier that the answer to this question was "ignorance". As a so-called poet said:Again you, oh the long-rooted ignorance,Wherever there is evil, you are there. In addition to that, what is Islam and how it can be learnt, what are its sources of information, in what way and how these sources must be accessed to, and knowing what kind of knowledge signifies what kind of meaning… These are the preliminary outlines of knowledge.As a result, we should consider the sect or tradition as

The situation of Muslims: Is it going to be any better?

Haz 20 2014, Cuma

I suppose every believer has asked this question to himself or others many times: why Muslims are torn into pieces? Why are there sects, groups, communities, orders that are not contesting for good but fight and vilify, slander or even excommunicate each other? Why ironically do Muslims have enough of enemies as themselves? Why are they at each other''s neck, being in war and slaughtering each other? Don''t we all claim that Islam is the religion of unity, unification? Is it possible that any b