VEIL AND MEANING – IBRAHIM KALIN

MY COMMENTS :

In the work written by İbrahim Kalın, our current Undersecretary of MIT and one of the important thinkers of our country, a comparative series of thought articles on the concept of reason in the Islamic thought system and its equivalent in the West are discussed under different headings.

The work contains important messages advising that the views on reason and science, which are given the impression that Western writers are dominant in today's world, should be embodied in our religion in a much more comprehensive way.

The current pragmatic approach has been criticized because the concept of rationality has lost its original meaning since the Enlightenment of the West and has moved away from being an effort to reach virtue and wisdom, which are the main goals of reason, by turning to concrete sciences.

It is also understood that since in our religion, reason is tried to be explained as a single and simple concept, there is no need for a distinction like the western thinkers do. Even when considered from this point of view, it is stated that in Islamic philosophy, reason is one of the most sacred values and it is explained that the human mind, which is limited by the unseen and the unknown, must deal with science in order to reach the truth, the good and the beautiful.

Therefore, it is clearly shown that there is a serious difference of understanding between the concepts of rationalism, enlightenment and reason in the West and the perspective of Islamic thinkers on the same concepts. The concept that the West sees as an organ that will benefit man by reducing the mind to a single concrete structure and observing our visible world, its inferences and; has a content that expresses both our ability to comprehend the power of Allah and our ability to live in harmony with other creatures thanks to his wisdom in our religion. For this reason, in Islamic philosophy, reason expresses the source of actions taken to gain Allah's consent by being aware of the good, the right, the beautiful, the moral, the virtuous, the useful and other useful human values. In the West, on the other hand, the useful and concrete beings, the mind, keeps all kinds of thoughts and information about the unseen world and the mystical aspects of man abstract from this concept.

As can be seen, the work is an important guide in terms of showing how deep the meanings of reason can be and that if this concept is clearly comprehended for humanity, the so-called rational and enlightened understanding that humanity has been living in for 200 years can be truly established and an order befitting a human being can be established.

In conclusion, it should be stated that the work is one of the important books that people of all ages should read in order to develop their world of ideas and dhikr and to remember their true goal again.

MY QUOTATIONS(*) :

Rather than being an independent tool standing on its own feet, reason is a substance that functions within a larger context of existence, intelligibility, and moral thought.
The idea of reason and rationality that we encounter in the Quran functions within the context of what I call the metaphysics of creation, which states that the universe was created by a wise God for a specific purpose. This approach begins with the premise that the world has a beginning and an end, and that in His essence everything else ceases to exist. The beginning (mebde) and the end or return to God (mead) provide a range and horizon for our rational views and moral choices.
The Enlightenment mind, claiming to be autonomous and self-sufficient, does not accept any external authority such as history, tradition, or religion. It does not reject religion outright, but subjects it to the scrutiny of individual human reason. It draws boundaries for religious belief and does not accept any role or authority of religion outside these boundaries.
Kant defined enlightenment as “ man’s liberation from self-imposed tutelage . “ Tutelage is man’s inability to use his own understanding without the guidance of another .” Much of the oppression and ignorance that has shaped human history has been caused by man’s own immaturity.
Horatius emphasizes that a person must be persistent in order to achieve his goal by saying , " He who begins a task is only halfway through it; dare to know/dare, begin !"
In Latin, the verb sapere literally means “know”. However, this knowing is not an ordinary knowing, but “knowing with wisdom”. The word sapiens, which comes from the same root, does not express inferential/quantitative knowledge, but rather wisdom. Homo sapiens is not a creature that knows quantitatively, but a being that looks at things with a wise eye.
With John Dewey's philosophy of pragmatism, what is valuable for a person is the things that provide him with ease and comfort in his practical life. Pragmatism, which expresses the spirit of the age, reduces all kinds of transcendent principles and values to practical benefit.
We need to touch upon the bifurcation of reason and intellect, which emerged as a result of a major philosophical transformation in the history of Western metaphysics.
In the Islamic tradition, such a distinction has never been made. The word 'aql' means both deductive and intuitive reason in the two contexts discussed above.
Freedom is not the removal of all boundaries and rules, but the use of reason together with virtue.
As Socrates reminds us, a person does not do wrong knowingly. He first convinces himself that what he is doing is not wrong, and then commits the action.
Religion can only be clarified and understood through reason. Reason is like a foundation, religion is like a building. Without a building, the foundation is useless. Without a foundation, the building is not strong.
Thinking is not just about enumerating the physical properties of entities or the logical relationships of concepts.
The mind works in two ways: from the inside out, in its innate form, and from the outside in, in its acquired form.
When the mind becomes a mirror reflecting the truth - which requires serious work, attention and effort - it carries a trace of the divine being that is the source of truth. The light of the mind comes from this light of truth. When the curtain is lifted, the meaning that emerges illuminates the mind.
The human mind moves horizontally between facts and concepts and connects them. Vertically, it relates what is below to what is above. The Quran insists that these two axes of causality, the horizontal axis that organizes the world of physical causes and the vertical axis that imposes the "divine command" on the natural world, converge and merge.
Because reality is multi-layered and multi-dimensional, it cannot be perceived by a single cognitive method. The unseen world refers to the realm of existence known only to God.
Contemplation as wisdom reveals the reason and justification for something. It answers the question of “why” before the “how” because the question of “why” is the beginning of all questions.
On the path of wisdom, both knowledge and method must be good, correct and beautiful. We cannot reach true knowledge through wrong methods. One of the fundamental problems of the Islamic world today lies here: There are so many rules in our lives, but so little wisdom. A rule without wisdom is blind, and a wisdom without a rule is lame. Contemplation is another name for the act of ruling with wisdom and protecting wisdom with a rule.
Wisdom is to grasp the concepts of good and beautiful simultaneously, for if something is true it is good and if it is good it is beautiful. It is impossible for something that is true to be bad and something that is good to be ugly. (it is impossible, impossible) Therefore, the concepts of good, right and beautiful are a whole and it is not possible to separate them from each other.
The word kokoro in Japanese means heart, mind, intellect and soul. In Japanese culture and thought, this concept expresses the inner integrity of man and his harmony with the universe.
The word existence (wujud) does not appear in the Quran. However, the conceptual framework within which the world of creation is presented points to an order of existence in which God's creative action is manifested.
Existence precedes knowledge. Existence precedes knowledge and encompasses it. Existence is concrete, dynamic, and encompassing. In contrast, the human mind operates with abstract concepts. It transforms existence into an abstract and universal concept that the mind can understand.
The mind is the first thing that God created, because God creates things according to a certain order and principle. Therefore, " the mind is the closest thing to the divine ."
If we can use our minds to persuade ourselves to read signs in the “visible world,” through correct thinking, we can arrive at a rationally coherent understanding of God and the universe.
The vacuum created by the failure of Enlightenment reason has been filled by the new forces of global hyper-capitalism, a culture of nihilism and narcissism, and scientific arrogance.
To recover the meaning of being human, man needs a new concept of reason as a “thinking being,” that is, a being who sees, hears, listens, encounters, responds, reacts, contemplates, loves, protects, performs the other acts of human reason, and never loses his vision of the greater reality of which he is a part.
When the mind begins to function as a device that connects and protects us to our essence, it will become possible to live in harmony and harmony with our fellow beings, the world of existence, and the Creator.

MY EVALUATIONS:

Subject : In this work, a series of comparative thought articles on the concept of reason in the Islamic thought system and its counterpart in the West are discussed under different headings.

Style: It is seen that the sentences in the author's narrative convey the intended message to the reader in a concise and concise manner. However, it should be stated that the author's extensive vocabulary can be noticed by the reader from the first pages. However, since many words are words we can encounter in daily life, only the meanings of some important concepts are given in parentheses. In this respect, it would be appropriate to state that a vocabulary that can be understood by every reader is used.

Originality : The work should not be evaluated with the originality criteria that can be expected from a fictional novel in terms of its subject and genre. However, it is one of the books that can be considered original in its genre in terms of its method of processing the concept of reason and its ability to evaluate this concept comparatively according to two different cultural and historical understandings.

Character : The work will not be evaluated in this category due to its nature.

Fluency : Considering the issues expressed in the style section, it should be noted that the work has a generally fluent narrative. Although some dictionary usage may be required due to the large vocabulary, this situation is not at a level that will disrupt the reading process. However, it should be stated that it is not possible to evaluate the work in terms of immersion.

General : In the evaluation made out of 10 according to the criteria stated above:

Subject: 8.5

Style: 8.5

Originality: 7

Fluency: 8

The overall average of the work, which received the points, is 8 points . It should be noted that the work has reached the 8 threshold and deserves to be one of everyone's bedside books due to its subject. The work, which allows the differences between two different understandings to be clearly seen in a comparative way, reveals once again how much importance Islam gives to reason and humanity.

(*) : All parts under the title My Quotations:

VEIL AND MEANING

Author : Ibrahim Kalin

Publisher : İnsan Publishing

Edition : 7th Edition – February 2023

The photo used on the cover was used as a quote from the book.

VEIL AND MEANING – IBRAHIM KALIN

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