Social and ethical thought of Bediüzzaman Said-i Kürdi

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1126716 (Table of Contents)

The purpose of this study is to present the formulation of ethical realm in the thought of Bediüzzaman Said-i Kürdi (1876-1960). Throughout a depiction of the idea in the Classical Age of Islam, and depicting that in this age ethical domain was determined by metaphysics, the Scripture and political concerns it is claimed that the alienation of the Islamic World from the spirit of Islam through the modernization process, new inclinations emerged to internalize the modernist social mentality on one hand and adoption of the Islamic legal understanding into modern conditions on the other. Bediüzzaman is claimed to have synthesized these two trends within the framework of 19th century Sufi approaches to ideal notions of society. Through Sufism, Bediüzzaman reevaluated the the Enlightenment ideals on the assumption of man's true existence in the world as a caliph of God, and had reached a modern social thought. Through this social thought, he developed a new interpretation of Islamic law which based itself upon reason and assumed freedom as a telos.