THE AIM, THE REASON, THE METHOD

We do have a contract. In fact, this shows the type of people we wish to be through the words we wish to abide by. Now to other answers, which we haven’t yet responded to. The type of place I am wishing for, the type of place you are wishing for, the place where we wish several things together will it be this, may there be such a thing as us?

There are numerous types of organizations outside. I do not wish us to appear so we can be unique. Just, to have a beautiful place where we can go in the world, a place where can beautify with our own, where we can beautify ourselves, a place where we can purify ourselves with its beauty if, one day, we ever slip. I desire such a place like this to own. I have friends who desire such a place to own. Do you have such a desire? That’s what you should ask. The answer to this question does not only point to us. But something called “us” was born as the desire of each of us to answer this question.

Let me draw your attention to a similar question. Actually, let me quote a different question from Hermann Hesse’s letter “Since I am what I am, since I have these needs and problems that seem to past tangential to many others – what should I do to endure life in spite of everything and create as much beauty out of it as possible?” Your life, education of your own soul, these are the tasks whose responsibility lies with the individual, that is you, and which left you with no choice but to deal with it all alone. However, all these sensitivities, the thought and understanding that have been being worked on, and the ability to comprehend beauty, give humans the responsibility of doing justice to the beauty, for sure. It gives the capability of it as it gives the responsibility of it. What makes a person active in this world is his ability to bend on himself. Since I have already quoted Hesse, let’s consult his suggestion for ourselves as well. “ Even though the pious, God-centered man of the previous cultures had devoted all his attention solely to the personal relationship with God, he had high social values that were intrinsic to him. This has always been the case since the Ancient China throughout all ages: The virtuous, valuable, desirable, perfection-oriented man would always know himself by establishing a direct relationship with God, it would not matter whether he is a general or a hermit, even slightly at this point. if the man actualized the reason for his existence which is maturing his self to the highest of the values within accordance with his consciousness, only then he would be valuable and important in influencing others, society, and the state on his own.”

I find analytical examinations boring, yet to highlight something important I will provide one about our own lives. Our lives have three parts. The first one consists of similar actions such as school and work. Those are done for the bread, and you might find them enjoyable from time to time. The long continuation of these actions requests a meaning which is given by the mind. For instance, if you are an engineer you would like to think and would think you are easing the human-life, offering something good to it. Yet, it is vain. These are the weird and empty chores of life. What we have to do is to get expert at these chores. However, they are not in direct correlation with the reason for living, and our creation. Yet, since these are a huge part of our lives, they are a part of our trial as much as anything is. The second one is the intimate area which you get back to eventually once you wander around, consisting of your friends, family, and your life. Some items in this area are mandatory, some are arbitrary. And for sure it includes means of the trial since it includes the fact of life for social relationships. In the end, those two do not require to hustle to exist. Many people will go to university, and for what? Just because there is nothing better to do, just because the others are going as well, just because just in case. When applying those types of chores, people are not in the state of questioning their reasons. Even if they are, they tend to think it is unnecessary to question for the sake of their mind.

After all, both of those two owe the continuity of their existence to a single type of people. And the third one is the desire for the good that lies inside of the man, which only exists through a calling. Isn’t it vague enough? Indeed, it is. But one secretly longs for such goodness. I will talk the third alongside the desire of the man to bend on his own soul and the desire of a man to leap into a moral action: wishing to believe and doing good deeds. Only if you know what is good you would be entitled to do good. The time you spend on your own, on your own soul, and on your own salvation would make you take on certain responsibilities. It will oblige you just because it makes you eligible. This means that you have to do it once you’re able to do it. Just like when you reach the age of wisdom, it becomes obligatory for you to use your mind and perform prayer. First, it is a right, then a privilege and an obligation. Therefore, I set our formation specific to this third issue. I need other bricks because of my need to be a wall and the necessity of being a wall. With this, we gave the first definition of the reason for the formation.

I have seen some organizations that are only interested in the thought. They had the desire to be a pious man, a mullah, a scholar etc, etc. They weren’t well interested in what the ideas they followed requested to do in life as much as they were interested in talking, in forming grandiloquent words, in becoming wise, in publishing things. I have also seen organizations that are only interested in the action as well. They, too, were in a state of intoxication through the ecstasy of the action and were alienated from thinking. On the surface, they were performing good deeds but neither one of them cared for the other nor they were in a state of desire to be locked as bricks.

The variety of organizations for sure is more than these two. However, what intrigues is that they all consist of one single dominant part of human tendency. We might have two options at this point. The first one is that we can define the situations of the organizations in the field and negating these, we can identify ourselves as a third, fourth, or fifth sect. By that, we’d think that we excluded ourselves from them. However, the character of an organization is created by focusing on one of the tendencies of one’s own. Any tendency is not glorious on its own just because it’s a part of our nature. If we prefer this path as well, we would write down our name in history as any other sect that has focussed on any other tendency. Is “Reductio ad absurdum” connecting us to the other? It is impossible for us to unify around the form of the good. Yet we can unite against the form of the bad. The Aim, the reason, and the method. With these examinations, we will define the aim, the reason, and the method of our motion. Our aim focuses on two things: to beautify ourselves and to beautify our environment. Wishing to believe, and doing good deeds. Without these two together the other cannot exist.

Alija Izetbegovic places Islam in the middle of a dichotomy in his publications. He divided human life into two internal and external issues. He observed some mystique tools, art, and then philosophy as matters which deal with the internal world of a person. On the other hand, he classified materialistic instruments, science, and social studies as activities of the outer world. Machine and melody, as he called them, mysticism and rationalism. These are hasty and crude definitions, but there are still truths that they point out and capture from their essence. For example, Christianity, which was interested in the soul of man and advised him to forgive, was on one side, and Judaism, which suggested to its members to master nature and respond to it, was on the other hand, but thus defined the duty of a Muslim as the obligation to oscillate between these two pendulums. This means, both forgiving and responding in kind are good. Weirdly, both I and we had been stuck in the middle of this dichotomy as highly confused heads through our experiences. However, there is no need to be afraid of these contradictions, they are very fundamental and very instructive. He too, realized that an ambivalent mind which an Islamic mind would eventually reach, and described his job as a job that oscillates in contradictions. We too have been dragged into this place through our own experiences by focusing on not betraying our own hearts. 

So? So we will deal with our own souls but fight against the ugliness in the world. We will read. Our interest in ourselves will be as if “we were running to an arsenal to get ourselves a gun and ammunition.” Therefore, this place means two things to me: A school of thought and a building of action. These may be frightening for you, you may prefer to keep your nose clean. But I would like to remind to that this attitude is conformist and demonic.

Thus the aim and the reason have been derived as this. So, the name Aliya became the strange breakthrough story of people who seek a place for themselves between two previously mentioned orientations which Aliya defined as his way of comprehending the world by escaping from the singular existence of these two different tendencies (either just thought or just action) in his experiences. A strange story of finding yourself in the middle of a contradiction that was clearly unresolvable in the beginning. On the other hand, the name, Aliya, is an important and representative figure for us to take an example of as he emerged from this contradiction, this dichotomy with nothing but success.

As for the method, determining it is a more detailed task. Everyone, in whatever nature God has created them on and in whatever way has given them the opportunity to exist, will fill a place required by this initiative towards self and then towards the outside world.