God promises the final inheritance of the world to His righteous servants. So in order to have a right to this promised inheritance there must be a group of righteous people. What are the criteria of righteousness or what qualities should the heir possess to whom the final dominion of the earth was promised by God?
The first and foremost quality of the heir is perfect faith. The Qur’an determines the purpose of man’s creation to be belief in God which is woven from the threads of the knowledge of God love enthusiasm and spiritual fulfilment.
Indeed it is only in the light of faith that man by realizing his essential nature with all its dimensions and the existential aims of creation can penetrate the inner reality of existence. Contrary to this lack of belief is a suffocating dungeon. In the view of an unbeliever existence began with chaos developed in the frightening uncertainties of coincidences and is speeding towards a terrible end. In this uncertain movement of existence there is neither a breath of compassion to relieve us nor a place of security to embrace us in our human desires nor even a piece of ground to step on.
A believer who knows from where he came from and the destination of his life together with his responsibilities sees everything as clearly as ‘daylight’ and because of this he travels to his destination in utmost security. During his sojourn he carefully studies existence and what lies behind existence. He examines things and events over and over again and tries to establish a connection with everything around him. He never refrains from making use of the studies of others and where he lacks in sufficient knowledge and experience goes on with his researches without tiring and losing hope.
There is an inexhaustible source of power on which a believer relies during his travel – there is no strength and power save with God. This phrase is a source of power which a man who has obtained it feels no need for another. A believer who has equipped himself with this source of power aims for none but God. He leads his life to secure His approval. He has an abiding optimism with which to overcome every obstacle and challenge all kinds of worldly opposition.
The second quality of the heir is to become overflowing with love. A person with a heart content with belief in and knowledge of God feels in proportion to the degree of his belief and knowledge a deep love for all human beings and even the whole creation. It is this person who spends his whole life-span in the colourful fluctuations of universal ecstasies raptures and spiritual pleasure.
Today as in every era there is need for hearts to be enraptured with love and overflow with zeal so that a new revival could be realized. Without love it is impossible to accomplish any permanent movement especially if the movement is related to the Hereafter. The Divine love which we feel in order to gain God’s approval is a boundless and mysterious source of power. The ’heirs to the earth’ should never be heedless of this source and should make as much use of it as possible.
We need to look into the origin of existence from the perspective of the Qur’an and the example (Sunnah) of the noble Prophet upon him be peace and blessings. The origin of man his place in the universe the Divine purpose for his creation and the way he should conduct in his life as well as his final destination are in such a harmony in these two sources – the Book and the Sunnah – with human thoughts and feelings and man’s aspirations that we cannot help but be filled with wonder and admiration. These two pure sources are for men of understanding a spring of love and enthusiasm and a means to ecstasy. Those who have recourse to them with pure intention and with petitions of needs are not refused and those who take refuge in them gain immortality. They need to do so however with the sincerity of people like Imam Ghazali. Imam Rabbani. Shah Waliyullah and Bediuzzaman. They need to approach these sources with the excitement of Ghalib Dede and Mehmed Akif and turn to them with the conviction and activity of Khalid. Salah al-Din and Mehmet the Conqueror. Indeed by combining the love and enthusiasm of those personages with modern methods and styles we will penetrate into the ever-fresh essence of the Qur’an and arrive at a universal metaphysics.
To turn to sciences with a sensible synthesis of intellect logic and consciousness is the third quality of the generation who were promised the final inheritance of the earth. This turning which will also provide a direction for the general inclination of humanity which is lost among some obscure hypotheses will be a significant step in the liberation of mankind.
As pointed out by Bediuzzaman mankind is increasingly concentrating on sciences and technology driving all their strength from sciences. Bediuzzaman also pointed out that in order to present to the masses the product of scientific knowledge eloquence and rhetoric will gain momentum and ascendancy. In fact we no longer have any other way to escape from the cloudy atmosphere of illusions enveloping us. We no longer have any other way to reach truthts and most importantly the most manifest Truth.
In order to compensate for the last few centuries it is necessary to rise to the highest level of scientific knowledge and by removing the inferiority complex from our subconsciousnes to realize self-assertion. To achieve this we must re-evaluate sciences in the light of the prism of the Islamic thought and become unique representatives of scientific knowledge.
Since we have not been able so far to assign a true direction for sciences and consequently confused revealed knowledge with scientific theories and sometimes scientific knowledge with philosophy serious confusions have appeared in scientific thought and scientists have lost considerable esteem. In Turkey this void were exploited by foreigners very well and many foreign schools sprouted up. The younger generations as a result were alienated from their society. After a while these inexperienced generations lost all their religious and moral values with the result that as a whole nation we were all degraded in thought ideals art and life. In the schools foreigners or native minorities established and ran to which we entrusted our children without any worries. Western culture and values were given priority over science and scientific thought. It is for this reason that our young generations although they had to cope with the age in science and technology split into different parties like Marxism. Durkheimism. Leninism and Maoism. Some consoled themselves with the dreams of a communist system and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Some were carried away by the existentialism of Sartre. Marcuse. Camus and the like. Indeed we witnessed in this land all such deviations all of which were unfortunately nursed and promoted in supposed centres of science and knowledge. Meanwhile religion and religious people were unceasingly attacked by destructive representatives of unenlightenment and evil aspects of modern Western civilization were propagated. It is impossible for us to forget that dark period of our history and those who were responsible for it will always be remembered as the national and historical criminals in the conscience of people.
What remains now is to build a happy bright future. This requires us to realize a revival through scientific thought which we have to inculcate in the minds of the young generation. The suffering of the people on account of what befell them in the past the exasperation produced in their hearts by servility to foreign powers and the national reaction to centuries of exploitation cause us to sigh and lament in equal proportion to the regret of Adam the weeping of Yunus (Jonah) and the pains of Ayyub (Job) upon them be peace. Such thoughts and feelings together with historical experiences stimulate and guide us to further exertions towards our destination.
The fourth characteristic of the generation to whom the final inheritance of the earth belongs is to review and re-evaluate the established views of man life and the universe. The following points should be considered in this respect:
Firstly the universe is a book written by God for us to study over and over again. Man is a transparent index of all the worlds a being able to discover the depths of existence. As for life it is the manifestation of the meanings filtered from that index and book and reflected by Divine Expression throughout the universe. If man life and the universe are three aspects of a single reality with each having a genuine colour of its own then a partial approach to them will be a disrespect to both man in particular and the whole creation in general as it will demolish the harmonious composition of reality.
