Symbolic Practices and Tradition As Protector and Preserver Of Islam

At our recent "Living With the Qur'an and Sunnah" seminar, Dr. Mehmed Dilek explained the vital need of muslims to unite and hold fast together under a common ground, namely via the route of devotional practices.

Dr. Dilek, who teaches Hadith Sciences at the Ilahiyat faculty, Akdeniz University - stressed the importance of common symbolic practices such as the Call to Prayer, Islamic Greetings, Veiling, Fasting, and Congregational Prayers as means of preserving Muslim identity in the face of pressures of assimiliation and globalisation.

Dr. Dilek stated that the practices such as stating the "Bismillah", "Al Hamdullah", "La Ilaha Illalah", "Allahu Akhbar" as well as others all derive from an Islamic tradition that must be preserved and protected in our times. In this respect he quoted the words of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi who stated that "In each symbolic act and utterance there lies both the indication and consciousness of the light of Islam".

Dr.Dilek described the symbolic acts of Islam in the words of Fahreddin Al-Razi also as "Signs and manifestations of obedience to Allah" and he also presented an example from the Qur'an that stated that such devoted acts indicated a display of reverence and God-conscious awe and fear towards God.

He also stated that "The service accrued through devotional symbolic acts provides benefits towards the community and general society. Such benefits do not change whether such acts are compulsory or voluntary. Though this does not mean that personally obligatory acts can be neglected."

Dr. Dilek stated that on the one hand such devotional acts are the foundation of the Belief of the muslims and help the inculcation of the religion. But on the other hand, they also serve as a means to introduce Islam to non-muslims and draw their attraction to the religion with such examples being that of the Call To Prayer which most muslims heed on a daily basis.

Dilek recalled how Bediuzzaman Said Nursi considered that each act of symbolic devotion resembles that of a "great hoca (teacher) that provides continual spiritual lessons to the gazers and observers".

While stating that the Call to Prayer (Adhan) is a powerful symbol of Islam, Dilek related the following memory from his previous life experiences:

"Whilst I was doing my military service I used to stay in a place where it was not easy to hear the Adhan. But one day I managed to hear the Adhan, and my friend became very happy upon hearing it and said 'What a good and wholesome sound'."

Thus all the things that remind people of Islam come from the symbolic traditional acts, and Dr. Dilek expressed this by stating “Such acts increase our Iman, and if we already have Iman then such acts protect and preserve it”.

Dilek continued, “Even the smallest symbolic act of devotion is not considered small at all. For it reinforces the Iman (Belief) of the one who practises it”.

One of the aims and missions of the Risale-i Nur is to preserve the traditional devotional acts of Islam and Bediuzzaman Said Nursi stated such that “I have been charged with all my strength to preserve and protect our tradition”.

Dr Dilek also emphasised the need for a non-partisan and non-factional involvement of the general humanity towards unity in religious practice and tradition, stating “There is no form of Dhikr (litany) that is owned by a particular Tariqah, there is no book that only belongs to a particular community, and certainly the Risale-i Nur does not simply belong to the Nur cemaat”.