M. Es’ad Coşan / M. Es'ad Coşan (Rh.a) Külliyatından
Therefore, we shall establish a strong division of work among ourselves. We shall assign every job to the qualified and competent of that community. We shall work with all the power we have in our area and try to gain the most superior knowledge, the deepest insight and widest experience. While harmonizing and coordinating our personal efforts in the most beautiful way, we shall present the most superior success.
(May Allah have mercy on him)
Mankind’s success in civilization today is an accumulation of ages. It has been a collective effort, not one of an individual or of any discrete group. In reaching this level, it is the last two hundred years that have seen the greatest burgeoning. At its base, a great number of complex factors are to be found, and it is impossible to attribute development to one cause. We should see that there are abundant reasons for social formations, that developments are the shared resultants of a great many effects, and so we must accustom ourselves to getting down into the details.
The sciences, too, have multiplied, broadened and developed, so much so that one individual cannot encompass them, no matter how competent he or she is. This realization has driven us to division of labor, collective work, order and organization and specialization.
No longer must we see the failure of individual efforts in solving social, economic, political, commercial and international problems. We must work hand in hand in the light of science, intellect, logic, love, respect, belief and joy.
Our sacred book, the Noble Qur’an, and our Messenger—may Allah grant him peace and blessings—commanded that we entrust every task to an expert in it. This extraordinarily important key to success is a work principle that will not grow old over the ages. Those who have followed this principle have risen. As for those who have acted against this principle, they have met with frustration.
Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, who visited the Ottoman Empire in the period of Suleyman the Magnificent, said in astonishment, “Here those who are successful and competent are promoted—shepherds can even become viziers—whereas in our European countries is it so? Because the stupid and witless children of aristocrats are put in authority on account of the fathers, our countries are backward and wretched.”1
Our Messenger—may Allah grant him peace and blessings—said in a noble hadith, “When trust is lost, wait for the Day of Resurrection to begin.” When he was asked how trust would be lost, he answered, “When it begins that work and duty are given to the incompetent, wait for the start of the Day of Resurrection.”2
Therefore, we shall establish a strong division of work among ourselves. We shall assign every job to the qualified and competent of that community. We shall work with all the power we have in our area and try to gain the most superior knowledge, the deepest insight and widest experience. While harmonizing and coordinating our personal efforts in the most beautiful way, we shall present the most superior success.
That is because believers deserve the best and most beautiful in This World and in the Hereafter.
FOOTNOTES
* Başmakaleler 3: İlim ve Sanat ve Panzehir Dergileri Başmakaleleri, Istanbul: Server İletişim, 2008, p. 31, 32.
1. Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, Kanuni Devrinde Bir Sefirin Hâtıratı: Türk Mektupları, Ankara: Serdengeçti Yay., 1953, p. 121.
2. Bukhari, “Rikak”, 35; Ahmad b. Hanbal, II, 361, hadith no: 8714; Ibn Hibban, I, 307, hadith no: 104; Al-Bayhaqi, Al-Sunan al-Kubra, X, 118.
