Security and Safety, or Happiness?

Tuesday, 18 May 2004

In someone who has read this entire book, perhaps this image may arise: “To belong to no religion, to be free, to bear no one’s yoke.” Even though I advocate being free, shedding needless burdens, and refusing to submit to the slavery that belongs to any religion whatsoever, if we do not investigate the roots of these things and do not know their causes, then the literal meaning of what is written here remains nothing more than empty boasting and inflated words. Let us also not forget that I am not the first in the world to deliver the message of being free. Many people have died for this cause, sacrificed everything they had for it; many novels, poems, and articles have been written about it, proverbs have been coined, and films have been made. For this reason people have been thrown into prisons, left to rot in dungeons, tortured; in short, everything has been done to take away their freedom. Although submission is something humanity has never loved, people have adored making others submit. They have forced others to do the very thing they themselves hate. Such people have, for some reason, never valued love. Seeing others hate them has not troubled them very much. By confronting people who knew nothing of hatred with deeds that would make them hate, they have practically forced those people to hate them because of the things they did. Although there has never been a single person on earth who hates no one, these people, through their deeds, have practically created the type of human that would hate. Did these people wish to be rid of their enemies, or to create enemies? In fact, looking at it logically, we say that whatever institution, organization, state, religion, nation, workplace, or family follows such a path, through this policy it gains only enmity and hatred. Who does not know that this is so? Why do people do such things? Hatred, pride, spite, conceit, self-interest, and every other baser feeling of this kind—why do they make a person do such things? Some people, far from being troubled by being hated, even perceive it as a work of power, as though it were a badge of honor.

Some people, on the other hand, have regarded obtaining the things they wish to possess through love as the greater achievement. They too have thought of their own interests, committed fraud, told lies, deceived one another and the people, and slaughtered human beings. Even so, they were greatly troubled by the eyes before them looking at them with hatred, and they classified winning those people’s love as success and losing that love as failure. The first type of person did not care at all about earning hatred, and for them love is a sign of weakness; the second type of person, however, valued love. He strove to be loved, and, contrary to the first, regarded being hated as a weakness and a defeat. As I said, even though they too often obtained this love through fraud, through secrecy, by shedding innocent blood—that is, without deserving it—they still held the value of love above hatred. Is a king who is loved by the people and by others the strong one, or the one who is hated? And if we also consider their happiness, their inner peace, which of the two is in the better state?

Even though one of them values love, here I have essentially dealt with two types of people who both have corrupt qualities. Now, apart from these, imagine yet another type of person. The one who wins love through heartfelt friendship and honesty—that is, deservingly—his happiness is incomparably different from both of the other two types of people. He wins people’s love through honesty, through uprightness, deservingly, and in a manner he is worthy of.

Consider once more, by another example, three types of athletes. Let all three have won the gold medal. This award given to them means that they did the very best that was expected of them. Suppose that one athlete does this work under the pressure of his mother, his father, or someone else, forcing himself every time, feeling hatred and fear. Again, imagine that his mother, father, or others are always pressing him to be successful. Let us even suppose that they try to influence the jury. Even if the person does not love that sport at all, let us say that his available means, fear, pride, exertion, and ambition—along with the jury’s nudging—finally carried him to the gold medal.

Let us take the other type of athlete as someone who does not much like discipline and has no diligence. Let him be someone who, like everyone, loves fun, pleasure, and living. And he is of a character who, if necessary to succeed at all costs in that sport, could resort to doping and other frauds. Despite all these negative qualities, thanks to the superior talent he has possessed from birth and a number of lucky coincidences, he too wins the gold medal in the competition.

Now we come to our third type of athlete. Let us suppose that he not only does this sport with joy, but that in his life this sport is almost his only joy. His success is bound neither to ambition nor to the gold medal. Because of the love he feels and the pleasure he takes, through the exercises, experiments, and discoveries he constantly makes, he takes happiness from that sport—that is all. Those who saw this success of his pushed him into the competition too, saying, “You must show yourself,” and he won the gold medal. In truth he does this thing solely and only because of the terrific degree of pleasure he feels. Whether he wins the gold medal or not, his reason for doing this sport does not depend on these things. If he wins the medal he is glad, but if he does not, he is not saddened.

Please ask yourself: of these three types of athletes, about which one would you say, “He is the happiest”?

In this example, just as the gold medal gives every athlete happiness, it also generally gives that athlete security. All three athletes have won the gold medal. The difference is that only one of them does not rely on that medal. While for everyone the goal is the gold medal, that one’s goal is not the gold medal but being happy. For the other two, that medal is a label, glory, fame, a wealthy future, and accordingly it gives a feeling of security. But for the one who does this work with pleasure and happiness, that medal is only a gift, not a source of self-confidence. Whether such an athlete exists is unknown. And if he does, whether the human beings of our world could refrain from spoiling these feelings of his—that too is unknown.

A state, a religion, an army, any institution, or a person: the more one supposes he possesses and believes how very powerful he is, the more this changes his outlook and his behavior toward and view of people. What kind of change is this? Although many things may be counted as the reason for this change, the most important underlying cause is the feeling of security he possesses. That is, the feeling of “Nothing can happen to me, I need no one, I am the mightiest.” People think that this kind of feeling of security gives a person comfort and happiness. And for this cause they do everything they can. The passion to win a lot of money in games of chance, the desire to become rich, people’s readiness to sell all values for money… Selling one’s body, one’s personality, one’s spouse and children, even one’s soul—it is often for this reason. It is solely for this reason that women always seek a rich man. I do not say they seek a husband, because rather than a family known as the relationship of husband and wife, they love a free life full of security much more. And this, according to them, comes about only with money. Building up armies, military power, buying and hoarding buildings, insurances—life insurance, business insurance, fire, flood, natural disaster, unemployment… and so on, all these are things invented in order to live in security. If we said that in some place people prefer feeling secure over being happy, I think it would not even be a lie. They believe that the security one will possess will automatically bring happiness along behind it.

The things opposed to the feeling of security are: insecurity, suspicion, uncertainty about what will happen, being in the balance, danger, fear, misery, crawling in poverty, want, pain, pessimism, and, in the end, death. Who wants these? No one wants them. But is the situation really so or not? Or, as humanity, do we seek the feeling of security and safety in very strange and wrong places, and are our methods of obtaining it very foolish? Come, let us investigate this.

Gold, silver, wealth; the earth and its fullness—all of this, whose is it? Even without believing, many a person would answer this question, “God’s.” We, however, say it with belief: it is God’s. For this reason our desire to have recourse to His wisdom on this matter too would be the wisest course of action. No psychologist, none of the best doctors of the soul who have ever lived, no one who has ever studied human beings throughout history, can know humanity as well as God or love it as He does. For all of us are the work of His hand. For this reason, in the matter of security and safety too, taking His opinions is, in my view, a most fitting and wise manner of conduct.

God, who long beforehand knew that the people of Israel would ask for a king for themselves, gives beforehand, through Moses, the following commands concerning the things a king must do:

He shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt in order to multiply horses; for the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’ Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, that his heart turn not away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.

And it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests, the Levites; and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left; to the end that he and his sons may live long in the midst of Israel, in his kingdom. Deuteronomy 17:16-20

In the old days, the horse meant a military power, many women meant excessive pleasure, and gold and silver meant wealth. God, however, sees the way of life bound to all these things as decisive steps taken toward the lifting up of a person’s heart. Astonishingly, we humanity run only after these very things. And the things we run after, God forbids! I wonder why? After all, do not all these things give us pleasure and the feeling of security and safety? Are we not in fact striving to possess all these things, saying that we will attain security? Power, pleasure, lawlessness—are these not the things humanity runs after? Why, then, does God not want all these things?

In another place, before Moses died, look at what God says to the people of Israel through him:

Take heed to keep His commandments, His ordinances, and His statutes which I command you this day. Beware lest you forget the LORD your God; lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built good houses and dwelt in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies; then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty, drought-stricken ground; who brought forth water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna*, which your fathers knew not, that He might humble you, and that in the end He might prove you, to do you good; and lest you say in your heart: ‘My own power and the might of my hand have made me this wealth.’ Deuteronomy 8:11-17 (manna*: a honey-wafer-like food, like large grains of seed, which God rained down from heaven for those forty years)

So then, this lifting up of the heart, this feeling of conceit, is something bound to the wealth a person possesses and therefore to the security he feels. For this reason God continually warns people about this matter. Indeed, sometimes such things happen that a person is amazed. For example, after God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt, He gave them commandments and laws they were to keep. In one of these laws was, “Work six days and rest on the seventh day.” This is also called the “Sabbath” or day of rest. Animal or slave or human being—no one was to do work on that day, but was to rest. (Exodus 20:8-11) Because working on the Sabbath day was forbidden, on the sixth day they were to gather a double portion, so that no one would work the following day, but would rest. God works such miracles that the manna they gathered enough for two days stayed for two days in the heat without spoiling at all; whereas, if they did this at an ordinary time, the manna, staying overnight for a single day, would breed worms and spoil. By this too God gave assurance and proof that His commandments could be kept. (Exodus 16:14-36) The human mind cannot grasp these miracles. Rather, out of trust and faith, one is expected to obey God. But those people, despite all this, would not listen to His word; either, when they were to gather a one-day portion, they gathered a two-day portion and the manna bred worms and spoiled, or, when they were not to gather, they went out looking for manna. Or, going out to gather wood on the Sabbath day, by working on the day one was not to work, they committed offenses that would cost them their lives. (Exodus 31:14-16 and Numbers 15:32-36)

By not resting and by trampling this command that was for their own benefit, why were these people so disobedient, even at the cost of their lives?

The reason is, in fact, always to live in security. A person greatly loves to hoard—why? So that “should I one day be in need, I may use it.” We are very afraid of being in want. Being in want to a human being is indeed often terrible. Is being in want of God like this too, that these people were always in a frenzy of hoarding? The more humanity fell into a frenzy of hoarding, God, in response to these feelings of theirs, did just the opposite: He always gave them the food they were to eat on its own day. You shall gather only a one-day portion; tomorrow I will give again, He says. Was there ever anyone who went hungry and remained in want? No, none of them remained hungry and in want. Although they walked in the wilderness for forty years, even their sandals—that is, their shoes—did not wear out. Is there a shoe that can last forty years? Indeed, could such a shoe even be made in our own time? Suppose we say a shoe could be made—but what about such a foot? Look at what is written about this; let us read it exactly:

These forty years, your garment did not wear out upon you, and your foot did not swell. Deuteronomy 8:4

In that desert heat where these people walked for forty years, neither did their feet swell nor did their garments wear out. Though from time to time God left them in want and humbled them, this was to train them. (Deuteronomy 8:2-6) What do we, who read all this, say? We think that they, because they did not know God, did not trust Him. Even though the things they did were disobedience to God’s command, they were meant to secure security for themselves. Gather a two- or three-day portion, so that perhaps if tomorrow he falls ill, or cannot work, or falls out with God, what will he do? Does a day or two profit him? Now, in our own time, while there is not a slice of bread in the houses of many nations, in the houses of many other nations they possess a hoard of food enough to last months. And is it only a hoard of food? Alongside hoards of clothing, goods, and money, there are people so sick that they cannot even throw out things that ought to be called garbage, but hoard them. Yes, the reason for all this is to obtain the feeling of security and safety. This greed for hoarding is even greater among the rich. Whereas poor people have no difficulty sharing, the greatest problem of rich people is sharing.

My son relates his experience with his schoolmates at the school he attends thus: “We do lend one another money, and they do bring it back and repay. Or, whereas ordinary well-off people actually share things like food and drink with a friend, our very rich friends either eat the things they are eating secretly from others, or hide them when there is no need at all. Just as, when he himself borrows money, he does not repay; while he has more pocket money each week than a normal student receives in a month, he never lends even the smallest amount of money to anyone.” Is a rich child—or an adult—who has these qualities, who is in safety and security, happy? Will you say, “He too is happy doing this”? That person does this because he is afraid of certain things, of losing, of being made a fool, and perhaps of whatever else may not even come to mind. He cannot behave like every normal person. Is one who has these feelings happy with such fears he meaninglessly feels?

Once you enter rich circles, take a look at the streets; or take a look at the streets of rich countries. In the street you can hardly hear a child’s voice, nor can you see a child. Whereas the children of poor neighborhoods, the children of hungry and naked people, play together, run about, and shout together; why is this situation absent in the children of rich, wealthy countries? Is it because playing in the street is very ill-mannered, very foolish? No, again it has nothing to do with bad manners or foolishness. The real reason is that the hearts of wealthy people are lifted up on high—that is, they have become conceited. There will be problems among any friends, and indeed there are. Quarrels, even fights, do happen. But the children of wealthy people, in their relations with other children, over the tiniest problem, both break off from each other and go home. In their homes they have computer toys, tanks, rifles, sound systems, talking dolls, video, DVD film collections, camera phones whose bills they never pay, and every kind of thing that would not even come to mind. The tantrums, the inability to forgive, the selfishness, the conceit they show one another over that tiny problem are because of this. Because he has no need, and therefore he goes home feeling secure. The family child growing up in a poor country, in want, is needy. He is in need of people, of a friend, of togetherness. His toy and his happiness and his everything are those friends. For each of them the situation is like this. I have seen that friendships formed in boarding school and in the military are entirely different. Of some it is said, “prison friendship too is entirely different”—why? Because they are all under the same want and difficult conditions. And therefore they are all in need of one another. This need need not necessarily be material. Wealth makes a person tighter, stingier; want, however, makes one generous! People who are alike in this matter of want forgive one another, protect one another, share their feelings and listen to one another. They weep together in their sorrows and laugh together in their joys. They share, and they take happiness from this. But until when? Until such time as these people too obtain that feeling of security spoken of. Once the feeling of security and safety enters into a person, that person practically goes mad. All his friendship, love, and joy of sharing depart. He is no longer one who weeps with those who weep and rejoices with those who rejoice. Why? Because from now on he has no need of anyone! Because now he too has everything!

But no matter what these people we speak of come to possess—even if they have roomfuls of electronic toys, the most luxurious homes, cars, and yachts—they can obtain from none of these lifeless things the pleasure a person feels or receives from the company of another human being. The greatest discomfort he can feel in his relationship with people is the feeling, “May nothing pass from me, may they not harm my goods.” Nearly all his discomfort is here. And in his relationship with every person, they have the mindset, “Those people are talking to me solely because of my wealth.” Generally this is no lie either. For either, being poor, he finds him ugly and unwanted; or, if the other party too is wealthy, this time out of jealousy he cannot stand him. Without going into the details of these things, what I want to say is that wealth makes a negative effect in these relationships and makes its owner unhappy. Whereas even someone’s greeting an ordinary, even a poor, person with a smiling face makes that person very happy and lets no negative thoughts pass through his mind; the wealthy person, out of fear, tries to keep his face all the more grave and sour in response to that greeting. Always there is within him the thought and fear: “May they not want something of me, may they not bother me.” For this reason, smiling, likable, humble people are looked upon with fear in rich societies. This is the fear: “How is this one going to swindle me, what is he going to want from me?” In such societies, being sour-faced, those people’s ignoring even their surroundings as much as possible so as not to have to give even a greeting, and if necessary walking straight on without looking at anyone’s face at all, are all the work of this wealth, this label, this feeling of security they suppose they possess. This has by now become an upbringing, a rule, taken from childhood on. They are wealthy, they have need of no one, and therefore they have nothing to do with anyone.

Alongside this, those who really are smiling generally do it while surely expecting something. Either he is selling something, or he is an insurance agent, or he has other never-ending expectations. If the new neighbor who comes to the neighborhood has such qualities, he may also be someone who wants things from everyone, a troubled person, a freeloader. But to come across likable people who have these qualities out of sincerity, from the heart, because they value people, expecting no gain at all, is like winning the biggest jackpot in a lottery. Such conditions have been brought about by the systems in which societies live, but most of all by man himself. Not just some of us—all of us, more or less, have the same qualities. Often it is only circumstances and situations that make us different.

People lie, they die, they kill, they are afraid, they act two-facedly, saying “crooked to the straight, straight to the crooked, light to the darkness, darkness to the light.” Beneath the thing they are afraid of losing there is always the fear of losing the security they possess or will obtain. He has a house, he has a car, he has a job, a wife, children. All these give him security. He has a country, a religion; he has his circle, his friends, his label; he is afraid of losing these. It is because all these give him security. And these are not enough; he takes out insurance. He thinks of himself, his house, his car, his future, his old age, right down to the room where he will be left alone in his illness. Because with these he feels security and comfort, and he lives with these feelings.

In order to obtain hard-to-obtain and desired things, people think, and indeed believe, “One is made happy only by these things.” After people have possessed these things with great fervor, were they really able to become happy? Those who possess them, they themselves, say “no.” So then, being in safety and security is not enough to make a person happy. Moreover, as we see that the things people cling to as “safety and security” resemble soap bubbles, it is not at all difficult to understand that these passions have been sought in very wrong places and sources. For humanity, in fact, the highest point that the feeling of security and safety can reach means a person’s life of pleasure, boundless and irresponsible. For them this means “reaching the summit.” The greatest goal is to live comfortably and fearlessly, in need of no one at all. Someone may say, “What is wrong with these things?” I too do not advocate that living fearlessly, comfortably, and if possible without being in need of people, are bad feelings; rather, I am trying to say that humanity’s methods of obtaining these things are wrong. In order to secure a safe life for themselves, people have trampled underfoot their honor, their dignity, their character, their happiness. And alongside this, have they been able to secure a safe and comfortable life? Since the earth was established and man entered into sin, there has never been such a guarantee. To tell the truth, the only reason preventing humanity’s madness, their utterly destroying one another, is God.

Old societies too, like present-day humanity, looked only to their own comfort, their pleasures, and to being in wealth. Because some of them had working minds, they did not take upon their backs the burden of anything that would hinder them. They knew that a king, a ruler, military armies would form a terrible obstacle to their reaching this aim. There were human societies that were aware of this, and they lived in history. That is, rather than the security that military safety would bring, they strove to be happy. They did not multiply thick-walled castles, many armies, weapons, and horses. They appointed neither a king nor a ruler over themselves. They kept away from themselves everything that would constrain them. And in the place where they lived, none of the things in the world were lacking. They did neither good nor ill to anyone. That is, they had relations with no one. These too are the greatest characteristics of people who feel themselves in safety, security, and pleasure. They ask nothing of anyone, and they give nothing to anyone. They say, “Leave me alone—or leave us alone.” Many people, making a wrong interpretation of this matter concerning the Laishites, which is mentioned in the Book of “Judges” of the Holy Scriptures, have also drawn a wrong meaning from it. The name of this people of Laish occurs in a period at the very beginnings of Israel, when they had no kings, in the time when the judges lived. Look at what is written about them in the Holy Scriptures:

So the five men departed and came to Laish. They saw that the people of the city dwelt free from care, like the Sidonians, in peace and security. There was no one in the land ruling over them or oppressing them. They were far from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with anyone. Judges 18:7

Indeed, some German translations write that they were rich and had need of nothing, which also fits the statements of those five men mentioned in the later verses. The five men spoken of here belong to the sons of Dan, a tribe of Israel. And their aim, a good while after they had come out of Egypt, was to obtain the lands God had given them and to live there. For this reason they beforehand sent men into the country they were to seize, so that they would not afterward meet with a difficulty. These men, whom in our present time they call spies or agents, are called “çaşıt” in the old Turkish translation of the Holy Scriptures.

Someone reading the verses above conjures up in his eyes an innocent people, keeping to themselves, far from doing evil. In fact, from the characteristics they possessed, these people resemble the wealthy children of the rich country in the example I gave. It is also certain that this people had the kind of intelligence that partly lived the freedom I write of in this book. They protected themselves from being made asses by appointing over themselves neither a king nor a ruler nor anyone else giving commands. They gave no importance at all to acquiring military power. It is also normal for a people who follow such a path to attain wealth and abundance in a very short time. The absence of a king over them, as in all other countries, also shows that they knew nothing of the thing called taxation. Nor did they have any military investment. There were neither a superior nor officials constraining them for bribes, saying, “Give this, do that” for the sake of bureaucracy. In short, it is clear that they were aware of the pressure in the order and system of Satan—that thing we call an organization, with its many arms and forms like an octopus—and they appear to have kept away from these things. Their keeping away was not because they wished to reject organization as a method Satan uses, but only out of their own self-interest, their selfish gain. The history in the Holy Scriptures does not write that this nation continued its existence for long ages. Nor do we have any information about where they came from, from whom they sprang. But this much is certain: it cannot be said that they existed for a very long time like some empires. And from the path they followed, it is already understood that this would be impossible.

In fact, the reason for their perishing was not the absence of a ruler, a king, over them. For in the same way, at that time there was in Israel too no king, no ruler, and no possessors of commands constraining them. Yes, from time to time, because of their sins, though God did not protect them and gave them into the hand of their enemies, the reason for this was not their being without a king, without a ruler, but, as I said, the sins arising from their own foolishness. Concerning the nation of Israel in those days, He also writes thus:

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Judges 17:6

So then, the reason for the perishing of the Laishites was not the absence of a king, a ruler, over them. They were surely intelligent people, and because of the means they possessed, they had also very quickly become people of wealth—that is, rich. But however wealthy people, people in wealth, turn out to be, in time these too surely turned out that way.

Let me weary you a little and, prolonging this subject a bit more, try to explain with examples in what sense people in wealth are so. According to the experience I have gained from the country I live in, I will give the German people as an example. But by no means take this only as the German people; take it as all people who are in the same situation. Although the unification of east and west corrupted them in every kind of way, in some respects Germans have qualities superior to many nations. More precisely, this was so in the old days. There are surely reasons for these changes as well. Otherwise it is not a matter connected with being German, or with race. All people show developments according to circumstances and situations. Whatever person is raised under the same circumstances and situations, from whatever race he comes, he too comes to possess the same or similar qualities. The matter is not the state of being German, Laishite, English, American; in any case, as human beings we all come from one blood. And that is Adam and Eve. In the Holy Scriptures it is written plainly thus:

…of one blood He made every nation of men… Acts of the Apostles 17:26. There are billions of narrow-minded people who, because of their pride, their arrogance, the wealth they possess, and the education they have received—right down to their skin, to the color of their hair—cannot stomach that this is so.

Anyway, without prolonging the talk any further, let us come to our example. Politicians, before elections, greatly love to present foreigners to the German people as the cause of every kind of evil. It is also a fact that in the aid given and in relations with other countries, Germans in the old days always ranked at the very top. When east and west united, they fell into their own troubles—that is another matter. Still, we used to hear that the greatest amount of support in Europe was often provided by the Germans. But according to politicians and to ordinary people, the cause of unemployment, lawlessness, and many of the country’s problems is always the foreigners. And this, especially according to them, is the Turks. When they come together, without seeing any opposition, they especially love to disparage the Turks. All of them, as it were, from that moment become united. If a person listens to their conversations, the meaning that comes out is that if the Turks are a problem to them at the head of things, then when there are no Turks, or if there were none, these men would as it were have no problems left at all. Once, they gathered around the same thought concerning the Jews. To them, for some reason, they did not feel the need to give advice, saying “you must integrate,” as they do to the present-day Turks. In every country they entered in Europe, they sought out and found the Jews who were citizens of that place, and burned them alive. These same people adopted this attitude toward the Italians before the Turkish workers, and toward the Spaniards before them. The mind and the spirit are always on the same path; only the times and the names are different.

The Germans, at the time when East Germany was communist, used to give a gift of a hundred marks to every person who came from the east. Of those Germans who took this money, how many went straightaway to seek out, to see, a relative, a sibling, a friend they had lost years before? As far as we know, they all piled straight into the shopping centers. Indeed, the doors of those supermarkets would close at certain times, queues would be formed, and a certain number of people would again be let inside and it would close again, so that shopping could even be done at all. Otherwise, because of the crowd of people, it would be impossible to move an arm in those giant stores. Alongside this, the thefts, filthy deeds, and lawless acts committed were all hidden and not made public. But if a Turk so much as made a peep, the Bild Newspaper put it on the front page—that too is a separate matter. In the Germany where I lived for years, no one gave me a gift of a hundred marks and said, “Go shopping.” And why should they? Those gifted hundred marks were for the cold war, to bring down the communist bloc. That is, people did even a gift of money with the mindset of fighting against something! They planned and programmed this cold war very well, but apparently none of them thought about what the state of the world would be after they won the war!

Those politicians steer these people as they wish with their narrow minds; this far exceeds our subject. If a person asked the German people, “What would you say to sending all these foreigners, especially the Turks, back to their own countries?”—I believe they would all shout with joy, “Hurrah!” I understand them so well. With the knowledge they possess, as though all their problems would then be over. In fact, they want to have no relations with anyone at all. By relations, I mean the fear they possess that everyone who says hello will want something from them. But let them sell their own cars, machines, tanks, and weapons in the markets abroad. But let no Japanese, French car or goods enter their countries at all. And from watermelon to eggplant, from kiwi to Chiquita banana, from cocoa to coffee, meat products to dairy—let those countries supply goods to these people.

In Germany, in the old days, there were very few people who knew what an eggplant, an olive, a watermelon, a melon was. Who does not love such things and deny their benefit? Again, this arises from the logic of “eat the cream of the whole world, but do not leave me the stalk, the garbage.” Those called stalk and garbage are also human. However lowly they may be, they are people who, like themselves, come from Adam and Eve, from the same lineage. Whether their churches surely taught them, “They came from another planet; or we are not of their lineage,” is unknown! These are the people who make and grow those bananas, watermelons, coffees, and the cocoa of the chocolate they love most. Working themselves in the best workplaces, shoving them off into the filthiest places, unwanted, called “brainless”—those, in their own expression, “filthy foreigners!” Those people whose feet they always strive to pull out from under them by placing obstacles wherever possible. People born and raised in that country, who have by now become its citizens. In fact, what the Germans want from these people in their dream world is this: Let them do all these filthy jobs; at twelve o’clock at night let him fill his belly at a bargain price from the foreigner’s restaurant; on Sundays at the train stations let him eat fresh rolls, white bread, hot chicken, and every kind of food, where more than ninety percent of the workers are only foreigners—were all these things in the dream of Germany and the Germans? These people are to do these jobs, but they will not tolerate even seeing their faces. When told to go, he will go; when told to come, he will come; when told to get up, he will get up; when told “hup,” he will flee. Would a dog fulfill these wishes of theirs in their dreams?

We said this is the dream of their people. I would like to say that their laws were not yet this simple and ugly, but those too remain only on paper. Moreover, ever since they brought to their head the daughter of a church pastor, Merkel, who came from the east, both their laws and their applications have taken a form that only tramples human rights underfoot. The demolished East Germany was carried to the west. On condition that those ugly things they caused to be demolished be applied throughout all of West Germany. The abundance they possessed in the old days arose from their laws being humane, if only a little. But those laws too are no longer applied justly and humanely as they used to be. As I said, I gave the Germans as an example because I live there and know them. If I were in England I would give it as an example, in America there, in Turkey I would give Turkey. Again I say, if we Turks had been Germans and the Germans Turks, what would have happened then? The maturity, the gentlemanliness they had in past times, we might perhaps seek with a candle and not find. Many people do not know these things, nor do they want to know. They always want to think one-sidedly. But whether Turk or German or American, or whatever we may be, for everything we do a day will surely, but surely, come when an account will be demanded of us all.

Let us come once more to what state a society will fall into because of wealth. To the state of being like the Laishites. The Laishite wants no one, has nothing to do with anyone, is of no benefit to anyone. All the Laishite knows is his own pleasure, his own boundlessness, his own self-interest, the security he has acquired. Do not suppose that the Laishite received this wealth as a gift from another person either. No, he too worked with his own hands, and whatever he obtained, he obtained himself.

Well then, what were this people of Laish’s relations with God like? They were zero. How do we know this? All the peoples of that region in the land Israel was to take had in fact earned God’s curse by their ways of life and practices. In this matter Israel was like the executioner who would carry out God’s judgment. But from this it must not be inferred that God had need of the people of Israel. For in many wars the number of people God killed was greater than the number they killed. In the Book of Joshua it is written thus:

And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, while they were at the descent of Beth-horon, that the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them as far as Azekah, and they died; those who died from the hailstones were more than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword. Joshua 10:11 There are also many other verses similar to this. By this it is written that God approved those wars and that those nations truly deserved to perish because of their every kind of filthy and abominable deed. Among these were the Laishites too. (Deuteronomy 9:4-5; Leviticus 20:1-23)

Despite all this, one people comes forth from among these nations. Fearing God, for the sake of their lives, they lie in order to make peace with the Israelites. They obtain a promise from them and make a covenant. (Joshua 9:3-27) That people were saved in this way. We see that God also spared the lives of this people, who came to make peace with His chosen people out of fear of God and His decree. Yet this people were the most courageous of any in that region. (Joshua 10:1-2) The others, though they were cowardly and weak, set out to make war against God in one place. Yet even if only one, a people showing repentance comes forth. So then, repenting was a matter of the heart. This matter does not look to power, might, courage. Beside those nations that followed all these events, the people of Laish were carefree, in a state of living solely for themselves, their pleasure, their comfort, having relations with no one. By whose grace, in fact, do they taste this comfort? Who created this nation that takes pleasure and thinks of its own interest? Whose is the earth and its fullness? Had they lived, they would surely have answered these questions with arrogance. They would have gone on and on explaining with words like, “Our own hands made all this. We are more intelligent than everyone. We are the most superior race”! Whereas, precisely so that they might not think just such base thoughts as these, what had God commanded the people of Israel? Come, let us read it from its place:

“Do not say in your heart, ‘For my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land as an inheritance’; rather, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that He is driving them out from before you. Not for your righteousness (uprightness) and not for the uprightness of your heart do you go in to possess their land; but because of the wickedness of these nations…” Deuteronomy 9:4-5

These words were for the Israelites, who were to carry out God’s judgment. And again, what had we read?

“and lest you say in your heart: ‘My own power and the might of my hand have made me this wealth.’” Deuteronomy 8:11-17

Yes, the Laishites thought this way. They trusted in the works of their own hands. They supposed they had built a paradise according to their own pleasures. This selfish, self-serving attitude of theirs, thinking only of themselves, was far from God. They had become an arrogant nation. They resembled the children in the upbringing of wealthy and capricious rich people, and their mothers and fathers. We said beforehand that generally all riches and wealth bring with them a haughty heart and arrogance. In the Laishites too this heart-attitude had developed. Their moral state cannot have been any different from that of the other nations. God writes, alongside the many abominations of these nations, how they debased themselves by even having sexual relations with animals.

Let us come to the present-day Turkish-German relations we spoke of and left half-finished. Is there anyone who does not share the views about Turkey that Yaşar Nuri Öztürk wrote in his book titled “I Give an Answer”? Bribery, fraud, loving money above everything else, and because, just as they do not love uprightness, they are also enemies of upright people—did God not scatter them throughout the whole world? Have they yet come to their senses? No; again, the Turk’s greatest enemy is the Turk himself. They practically take pleasure in doing to one another whatever evil they can. If the Germans and the peoples of many other countries hate the Turks, I do not say that they are surely right in each of their hatreds, but would it not make me a fraud and a liar to say that there are no respects in which they are right? The reason I write these lines is that perhaps they may be ashamed and take a lesson from these debased and despised states of theirs, from what they do to one another and to humanity. To understand and take a lesson requires an upright and humble heart. On the other hand, the Turk and the Kurd too may be like this, and each will receive from God the share that falls to him, or has received it. And the German people? Are they not being tested too? They can be sure that from these tests they too will receive the share that falls to them. Every nation and people, every single individual, will receive from God the share that falls to him. What became of the end of the Laishites? Let us read how it is written:

The sons of Dan went their way…and came to Laish, to a quiet and secure people, and put them to the sword; and they set the city on fire. There was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with anyone. (Judges 18:26-28) The words of these verses express the punishment God gave in response to the deeds of those nations. For their deeds were evil. Even when they lay down and rose up, always in their minds and imaginings there were only feelings such as evil, thinking of self, perverse pleasure, and hatred. With these qualities, with the wealth and prosperity they possessed, they were quiet and secure. And this lasted only until God’s judgment came upon them.

I wrote this piece about the Laishites also because, after reading this book, I feared the existence of people who might draw a meaning about freedom entirely in the spirit of the Laishites. Many people do not understand the meaning of freedom. They see freedom as boundlessness. Whereas freedom is not boundlessness, but on the contrary, something very bounded, something that ends the moment you harm another, or even yourself. Freedom, again, by no means means irresponsibility. Is someone who thinks only of himself, selfish, egoistic, sadistic, taking pleasure in doing evil, free? In fact that person is the captive, and at the same time the slave, of all these feelings of his. Jesus Christ says thus: “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.” (John 8:34) And the apostle Peter:

“They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for a person is a slave to whatever overcomes him.” 2 Peter 2:19

Everyone says they love freedom. But when one looks at our world, the road humanity is going down is entirely of the form of enslaving and being enslaved to sin. What matters, rather than the things spoken and longed for, is how we conjure those things up in our minds and what we sincerely expect. Some see and expect what is meant by being free to be everyone’s fearing them. Others, while saying “freedom, democracy,” say, “but democracy is good only if the party I want comes to power.” Still others—for example, the Jehovah’s Witnesses—while speaking with hatred of every kind of thought and belief that opposes them and forbidding their members even to speak with such people or to greet them, shout that they are in favor of freedom being given in the world to all the teachings and practices they themselves spread. To see organizations and institutions that give no one freedom within themselves raise their voices, “Give us freedom,” and for this reason appeal to the state courts, is not a spectacle to be wondered at in our world.

There was a film called The Beach. It means “beach.” Perhaps it played in Turkey too. If I am not mistaken, it must be a 1996 production. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the lead. The plot of the film:

It takes place in a paradise-scenery spot in Thailand, which mostly American, backpacking tourists discover in an empty region that no one knows. Mafia-like farmers, who are engaged in growing narcotics in the fields, allowed these tourists to live there, though they did not want to. Their one condition: they will tell no one of this place, and no one will know it. Otherwise this will be their end there. These adventure-seeking tourists, made up of every nationality, live there in a small group of some twenty to thirty people. They see this place as though it were the paradise of their dreams. But the paradise of their dreams! For it is very certain that the true paradise will not be made up of people of the character they possess. I will not tell the whole film. In a problem that arose on this island where they lived, because they thought of their own comfort, they suddenly clothe themselves in every kind of attitude devoid of humanity. A shark kills one of them and gravely wounds another. Because their location might perhaps be revealed, they do not even allow the wounded one to be taken to a doctor. In fact all these things are decided by a woman who holds authority there. They abandon the wounded one to death for days, in plain sight, in agony. Indeed, because the man is screaming in agony, none of them can bear this sound, and they throw him out of the house they sleep in. Only one person among them always takes a stand on his side, that is all. Sure enough, that gravely wounded man too dies after days. In that make-believe paradise there are also other problems such as jealousy, deceiving one another, envy, and the like. And the last straw that overflows the cup is that, before coming there, one of them gave the map of that place to others as well. Although these people did not believe in the existence of that place, they turn up at a most unexpected time. Of course, the farmers no longer turn a blind eye to this situation either.

At first those people see the comfort they possess and that paradise-scenery place as a great jackpot. That not everyone possesses this privilege, and that it is kept secret, increases the allure of that place a further degree. There is almost no law or rule at all. The most important law is that the rule of secrecy not be broken. The other rules too are bound to this. To keep this union that must be kept secret from being broken, they are ready to do anything. Whoever breaks this rule, they are ready even to kill him without blinking if necessary. The beginning of organizations that organize people is also like this. At first glance the aim and goal appear in a form that addresses individuals’ interest, happiness, comfort, and most of all their future. In time you suddenly see that individuals, rather than serving this aim, have become servants and indeed slaves only to the rules they themselves laid down, so that this organization not be brought down, not fall apart, not be harmed. For however well a person plans, there are in those rules many mistakes, errors, gaps they could not see, and surprises they could not calculate. And the more the problems multiply in the organization, the more the eyes of the administrators become fixed on the organization’s problems. Now they begin to lay down law upon law, rule upon rule. That is, whatever the cost, it is the organization that must stand and not fall. The goal has now veered off in a direction very different from the dreams at the beginning. What comes first is now no longer the person, but the organization. For this reason every organization expends great effort to present its own demolition as though it were the demolition of its members too. They expect all their members to see these as though they were inseparable bonds. Their most important goal is to make them believe this absolutely. If all of them strive to the last breath, saying “I will defend the interest of that organization,” not even one person is left among them able to breathe. And such an outcome is only a matter of time.

This film also has a book. When I watched this film, the Laishites came to my mind. Their situation was surely perhaps not exactly the same, but their heart-attitudes were, unfortunately, the same. There are many peoples, nations, religions, and persons who resemble the Laishites. The things people do to possess the very comfort, pleasure, privilege, safety, and security they run after, just like those Laishites, are of a nature that leads not to happiness but, on the contrary, to unhappiness. They seek safety and security in the wrong places and things. And for this reason they cannot find happiness. Rather, they end up doing nothing but embittering life for one another and angering God.

In order to make clear that it is empty for people to feel security and safety toward wealth, riches, power, might, and label, God gave many examples. Alongside these, history too is a very fine example. Those very glorious, famous Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Alexander the Great, Rome, whom I also mentioned in my last piece—where are they? And those great men, do they too live forever? Where are those terrifying kings? All that generation of humanity who lived running after the things our present world runs after—where are they? Will you say, “They lived and died happily”? History by no means writes that it was so. Even if some were so fortunate, this again does not mean that every day of theirs passed in happiness and peace. Not only in this world—they also did many things for which they will have to give an account on the day of judgment. And from that day no one will escape. God has fulfilled everything He has said up to now. Concerning the matter of the last days and the day of judgment too, He will surely fulfill what He has said.

In fact humanity believes neither in a resurrection nor in a day of judgment, or does not want to believe. They want only to pass well the lifespan they will live in this world, that is all. And they are determined to do this in the most pleasurable way at any cost—that is the main idea of the matter. Even so, why should I traverse such a laborious road for the sake of something that will not, in the end, truly make me happy? Because we said everything has a price, and that price must be paid. If we wish to build a deceptive safety and security resembling a soap bubble, and the whole world is running after it, then even to obtain that will not be easy. And for the price that must be paid for this, I am in favor of considering, “Is it worth it?” In the end, what is the thing we wish to reach? Should we make our effort in order to be happy, or in order to secure safety and security? Do you say, “These are things bound to one another anyway”? Do you say, “How can a person who is not in security be happy”? Of course, to want security and safety is not a wrong thing. But how and in what manner our world tries to obtain them is very laughable and also ugly.

Come again, let us first speak about those who feel themselves in security and boast of their deeds. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon in the role of world ruler of the time, while walking on the roof of his palace in one of Babylon’s most brilliant periods, said in his heart thus:

… “Behold, great Babylon, which I have built as the capital of my kingdom by my mighty power, for the honor of my majesty!” Before the word was out of his mouth, a voice was heard from heaven: “O King Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdom has been taken from you. You will be driven away from among men, and you will dwell with the wild beasts. You will be made to eat grass like an ox. Seven times will pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of men, and gives them to whomever He wishes.” Daniel 4:29-32

If you read the continuation of the verses, it is also written that these things came to pass at once. And all these events the king himself later writes and proclaims throughout the whole world. In the fourth chapter of the Book of Daniel, this king’s words occur just as they were. So then, this man understood some things. In history it is written that this man was a very successful king. While still at what would be called a child’s age, having an army separate from his father, he made conquests and seized countries. In the year he came to the throne at around twenty-one years of age, he made war against Jerusalem and took captives and carried them off. The prophet Daniel too went into exile to Babylon at that time. This king’s successes upon successes followed one after another. When successes multiplied, when wealth and power increased, the feeling of safety and security came too. In his own eyes now no one could do anything to him, and the greatest was again himself. Moreover, he had need of no one!

“Before destruction comes pride, and before a fall a haughty (proud) spirit,” it is written in Proverbs of Solomon 16:18.

But this king has a very good quality. When he understands his mistake, his fault, he turns back at once from that fault and sin. By no means suppose that every king mentioned in the Holy Scriptures is like this. On the contrary, when kings were shown their faults, they became all the more enraged, all the more filthy. Here I want to compare Nebuchadnezzar with the Egyptian king Pharaoh. The story of how Moses went to Pharaoh and worked miracles before him, how Pharaoh hardened his heart in all the plagues that came upon Egypt, and how in the end he was forced to release the Israelite slaves, occurs in the Holy Scriptures. There is a terrible difference between Nebuchadnezzar and this man who, later regretting the decision he had made, went in pursuit of the Israelites and practically set out to make war against God in order to destroy them. Both are in similar positions. Both are in the role of world ruler of their time. For neither is there on earth a rival who could stand against their power, but the heart-attitudes of these two men are very different from each other. Nebuchadnezzar too makes the same mistakes. He too shows the same stubbornness. But before the miracles God works, he at once submits and casts off that proud, arrogant state. And understanding these mistakes he made, he also has them proclaimed throughout the whole world! What king, president, ruler shows this humility? And has it proclaimed throughout the whole world, “I did such and such foolish things before God”? Yes, in Israel, and most of all in Judah, such kings did emerge from time to time. Only, a point that draws attention is that these two kings did not know the true God, and that the religious education, the belief they had received from childhood on, was very far from the real God. That is, these two kings too were not like the Israelites. Even so, the reaction of the two was very different. One declared war on that God; the other willingly humbled himself before Him.

Blessed are the kings who are like Nebuchadnezzar. Error, pride, arrogance, conceit—faults such as these, we all commit. From the moment we enter into wealth and these things lift us up, feel ourselves in safety and security, at that very moment pride, arrogance, conceit, merciless behavior, or similar feelings of this kind begin to develop swiftly in us. The prophets, who were aware of this danger, prayed to God thus:

Remove far from me falsehood and lying words; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread of my portion; lest I be full and deny You, and say: Who is the LORD?

Or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. Proverbs of Solomon 30:8-9

No one denies that wealth and riches are power. God too knows that this is so. People say, “There is no door that money cannot open or close.” There are many sayings uttered about money, written about its power and might. In the Holy Scriptures, however, these very meaningful verses are written:

He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will be renewed like green leaves. Proverbs of Solomon 11:28

Wealth is of no avail in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. Proverbs of Solomon 11:22

For wisdom is a shelter, and silver is a shelter; but the excellence of knowledge is this, that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it. Ecclesiastes 7:12

When one looks at the truth of the matter, money, goods, wealth, glory and fame, union, and many other things people desire, which we could go on listing, have not been able to secure happiness. And not only happiness—at the same time they have not been able to secure the expected, the hoped-for security either. Kings who for years were a lion in their countries could not find a hole to flee to, to hide in, for their lives in the face of a danger that came in a single day. And moreover this came upon them in an instant. Could their billions in the banks, their palaces, their armies, their fame save them? If this comes upon those who seem never to be shaken, then think of us who are ordinary!

To what disgusting ways people resort in order to deceive one another. Women, girls, make their first marriage to a rich husband and plan, even before finding that husband, to divorce with a great fortune. They set up families with such a heart-attitude. Having children, in the eyes of those women of countries like Europe and America, appears only as a money tree. To read in the daily newspapers that large amounts of alimony are collected thanks to that child is by now quite normal. People do not hide their aims. Whatever they wish to do, they do openly. Things that in the old days brought shame, people now run to the courts over, saying “our right.” And the courts grant them their claim. The situation of men before women in rich, so-called civilized countries is nothing but a scandal. Nearly all rights have been given to women. The aim is to protect neither the woman nor the child; the real aim is to drag humanity into the mire. And they try to achieve this only by arranging their laws in this direction.

Men, on the other hand, at every opportunity think only of their sexual pleasures. If he sets up a workplace, the first person he will hire is a woman. Whether or not that woman is capable of the work. He takes sexual pleasure even from her company. In the old days, when a woman went looking for work, she was told, “You go, let your husband come.” Now, when a man goes looking for work, he is told, “You go, let your wife come.” My sister, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and nearly the whole world are still defending women’s rights! The Witnesses’ wives beat their husbands, and those poor men do not make a peep. He is ashamed, and cannot tell of it. But let that man dare slap the woman! During the twenty years I was among the Witnesses, in the magazines and books they put out, not a single publication came into my hand other than the oppression of women. The whole image given is this. To be a man in Europe and the so-called civilized countries, and to be a woman in Arabia and such countries—both are terrible and inhuman. And what forces people to all this is, as I said, their laws. These two opposite societies too take their power from the laws. And it is not the asses and dogs wandering loose in the street that make the law! These are their own laws; they made them themselves. The kings of Esther’s time, mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, no longer live. The earth has filled with “Vashtis and Jezebels”! (Verses relating to the subject: from the Holy Scriptures, the whole of the first chapter of Esther and 1 Kings 18:4, 21:25, and 2 Kings 9:7) Or with the Nabal type of men. It must also be noted that even the women living beside such men called evil lack for nothing. (1 Samuel 25:2-38) I passed the whole Holy Scriptures through my mind and thought about how many men there are who tortured their wives, made life poison for them, incited them to dishonor, immorality, and even to death. On the contrary, there are many women who dragged their husbands to death, but the worst man I could call to mind was none other than this Nabal. And even so, he neither incited his wife to fraud nor pushed that woman into an offense that would lead her to death before God. As I said, even the thing that the woman living beside that man lacked is only spiritual. Could this woman not have felt that lack beside a man like David as well? And such a lack exists in nearly all women! Or is it perhaps I who am mistaken? The Holy Scriptures speak of very valuable women and very valuable men too. Again, in those Scriptures, in the relationship between husband and wife, in causing their husbands to fall into offense before God and inciting them to what is evil, the role of women has, for some reason, been much greater than that of men.

Over the last sixty years, women’s striving, saying “I will obtain freedom,” generally the responsibility of supporting a family with fatherless children, and along with all this, the burden that falls upon those women… Whatever God has said, we always strive to do exactly the opposite. We are still struggling with terrible pains. Am I siding with the man, or disparaging the woman? I am neither siding with the man nor praising the woman. As all humanity, I am voicing their wrong efforts, efforts belonging to evil. When I look at those who struggle to wage the war of equality between man and woman, and at those who struggle to change many other things like this, I liken even the best of them to vinegar that harms its own vessel. I took this saying too from the proverb, “The harm of sharp vinegar is to its own jar.” Humanity, with their sharp minds, saying, “The farther we are from God, the more we do the opposite of what He has said, the more good will come to us,” by their deeds make themselves and their surroundings unhappy and embitter their lives. Please, concerning this subject and the road all humanity is going down, read the whole twenty-eighth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, in its new Turkish “Yasanın Tekrarı,” with reflection. All the words written there will come upon this generation too. And there no distinction is made between woman and man.

Yes, is our subject only the wrongs of women? The smallest of the communities that make up nations is called the family. If even the order of the family is thus untrustworthy, what is to be expected from that society, that nation, that world? If under the roof they live under, eat, drink, and take shelter, people are looking to gouge out one another’s eyes, how is he to look with a love-filled gaze at the one outside? How many families are built and joined with love? The word love is by now not even made a subject in films. Sexuality, their own pleasures, showing off—these are the things our world desires. Was it not so in the old days too? Yes, but it was not this widespread and blatant. Thanks to those films, the media, the schools, the environment, family upbringing, the politicians, and most importantly those two-faced religious people, the education all humanity has received has become only a preparation for an end, for perishing. As is said, it leaves no other remedy; humanity too is advancing swiftly, but surely, on a road that will leave no remedy other than their own perishing. (Proverbs of Solomon 8:36, Ecclesiastes 8:11) And the common aim of this humanity is, so to speak, to live in “safety and security”!

Let us take up this whole subject once more by looking at religious circles too. A little earlier I said, “In order to obtain security and safety, people run after money, riches, and self-interest, and trample all values underfoot.” Religious people call those who are not of themselves “worldly.” Well then, after what and whom do these religionists who believe in God run in seeking a feeling of security? With all my years of experience, I have not seen a person who trusts in God alone with his whole heart, and if I have seen one, I did not realize it! And if such people exist, they anyway do not, with great fervor, advertise themselves and sit at the very front everywhere, so that I might see them. I say this too according to my own point of view. Though I hardly think so, I hope that on this matter I am very, very much mistaken. The experiences I gained by looking at those who give such splendid speeches and leave no ash on the grill, those who for years, for a whole lifetime, devoted nearly all their strength to their religion, were more terrible and more astonishing. These religious people show the greatest weakness and greed in the matter of money. Exceptions aside, in none of them is there a full uprightness and valuing of the truth. Often the people themselves are not even aware of this situation. If those who become aware of it dare to criticize them, then about that person they say: “This one is Satan, by no means speak with him, he is very dangerous, do not even greet him, and by no means read the books they write either.” If there is a Satan, is that person living inside only one human being, so that you flee from that person too?! Does this Satan not touch the possessors of certain labels, but enter only into others? And do only you possess that label of immunity, so that this Satan cannot enter into you? As I said, even when I spoke with my most sincere truths, they saw the truth as though it were a danger and fled with a terrible panic of fear. Would you believe it, there are people who are Jehovah’s Witnesses or who remain there solely because they are afraid of their wives. Does that person, by submitting because he is afraid of his wife’s pressure and perhaps of her leaving him, suppose that he is serving God? Or does he submit only out of the anxiety he feels, because he is afraid of his organization, his religion, his environment, not knowing where he would go if he were expelled? There are also those who are afraid of losing the things they possess. If someone has made a career in that path—and with what troubles he came to be there only he himself knows—there are so many who are afraid, saying, “Is all this to be thrown away with the back of a hand?” Remaining there gives them a feeling of safety and security. Those husbands and wives too dwell in the same houses, built upon a two-facedness based on interest, loveless and untrusting not only toward God but toward one another. Is this what gives them a feeling of security and safety? Is this the security-filled, safe life they call it? They see remaining bound to their organization, not saying no to the religion they belong to, as great loyalty; and opposing their crookedness, immorality, and lies, and leaving them, they perceive as committing treason. Their pretexts, again, are their comforts and the things they suppose to be their interest.

Someone I was friends with was doing a study with himself and his family, and I was trying as much as I could to encourage them to read the Holy Scriptures, to study. One day that friend said: “If we set about doing what you say, or what is written in these books, no one will ever come to us again or greet us.” On this person I speak of, it was written “Muslim” in his identity card. Moreover, this friend said that he had no real friend at all. And the people he said would not come to his house, would not greet him, were, frankly, people he did not much like either. Even so, they gave him fear. In that environment, which he did not like, some of whose existence he could not even tolerate, what kind of feeling of security this gave him is unknown. This person I call a friend had no close relationship with either religion or religiosity. Again, like everyone, or like the great majority of humanity, the religion he possessed was written only in his identity card. If you ask me, these people are looking for a pretext. Their hearts have not been accustomed to love toward God and are without knowledge, and at the same time unwilling. From the beginning, the person has occupied his heart with everything other than God. The name of God has been taken into the mouth only in certain places, under certain customs, rules, and fears. In order to come out right against the one before him, he has shut and silenced their mouths by saying, “God commands it thus.” For once this word enters into the matter, just try to object! By this means, many people have subconsciously always seen God as merely one who gives commands, sets prohibitions, and punishes. Who loves such a God anymore! Or who feels security toward such a God? Where does humanity really seek security, and where does it find that safety? What are the human relations of those who have nothing at all to do with religion, with one another, like? If people who learn love in the name of God could produce works only as good as those in these examples I write of, with difficulty and by force, then you think about the others.

I want to say plainly this: nowhere except with God can an absolute security be found; only the person who takes refuge beside Him is in safety. And true happiness is bound to nothing else but this. For since the owner of everything and the one who created us is Himself, the one who best knows with what we will be happy and with what unhappy is again Himself. People who hear this, with the aim of objecting, at once say, “Stay hungry and be happy—we shall see.” Whereas what has staying in a hungry or needy situation to do with the love of God? If I am able to say, “If He gives me something I love God, if He does not I do not love Him,” this is not love in the first place. And what is meant by bread is how people sell themselves for the sake of material things. Fearing the lack of such things, they have always felt insecurity in their lives. With their efforts for the sake of the things they wish to obtain, they have had only lives far from God. Jesus Christ, who knows these things very well, says these words to the people of that time and to all humanity:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. Here moth and rust consume them, and thieves break in and steal. Instead, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. There neither moth nor rust consumes them, nor do thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light. If your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. Accordingly, if the ‘light’ within you is darkness, how terrible that darkness is!

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will cling to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

“For this reason I tell you: Do not be anxious about your soul, ‘What shall we eat or what shall we drink?’ or about your body, ‘What shall we wear?’ Is not the soul more important than food, and the body than clothing? Look at the birds flying in the sky! They neither sow nor reap nor gather food into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

Which of you by being anxious can extend his life by a single moment? And why are you anxious about clothing? Look at how the lilies of the field grow! They neither toil nor spin. But I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, is it not much more certain that He will clothe you, O you of little faith?

“So then, do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

The nations always go after these things. But your heavenly Father knows that you need all these. Seek first His kingdom and the righteousness that is from Him, and then all these things will be given to you as well.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow. Let tomorrow’s anxiety be tomorrow’s. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:19-34. Parallel verses are written in Luke 12:22-31 too.

This person whom God sent to the earth and gave authority to speak in His name—that is, Jesus Christ—does he not plainly say after what we must run with effort? Let us ask ourselves, “Who knows better?” Let him who wants to deceive himself deceive himself. Whoever and whatever the thing we run after is, only from it can we expect security and safety. As for happiness, all these rich people say that they themselves and their children could not find it. And in religions, among people belonging to sects, the suicide figures are far higher than in any other institution. (This fact was presented as the greatest factor in the French state courts’ rejection of Jehovah’s Witnesses as a religion.) Come, let us suppose that, even if temporary, even if false, we are in security and comfort; but who can give us happiness, real and eternal happiness? On the matter of who can give it, a translation of the Quran gives a clue on this. There it is written briefly thus:

He is the God of the Blessed Throne. The Believers, Sura 23:116

Although this word ‘blessed’ occurs only in the Osman Nebioğlu translation, it is not difficult for us to understand that God is a happy one and that He Himself gives this feeling to man. If we set out with the logic written in the Psalms, “Does He who created the ear not hear? Does He who made the eye not see?,” it is most fitting for us to say, “Does the one who gives happiness not know what happiness is?” It is God who wants man to be happy, to rejoice. In the writings known as the Law of Moses, concerning a festival that God wanted them to keep, it is again written plainly thus:

On the first day you shall gather the good fruit of fruit trees, palm branches, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the valley, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. Leviticus 23:40

There were festivals like this that God commanded. The aim was to give those people joy, not to constrain them with rules, to throw them into depression.

Just as He is the source of wisdom, justice, might, and love, God Himself is also the source of happiness. If we seek happiness at this source, I surely believe we will find it. Our keeping away from religions, organizations, and sects will provide us with very great ease in drawing near to the true God. For these institutions take from your hand whatever happiness you have, if any. And afterward, please let us not attribute to God the unhappiness we have or will have.

What is the source of the fights and quarrels among you? Is it not your passions that war in the members of your bodies? You desire something, but when you cannot obtain it you kill. You are jealous, but when you cannot reach your desire you quarrel and fight. You do not obtain, because you do not ask of God. And when you do ask, you do not attain your request, because you ask with evil intent, to use it for the sake of your passions.

You unfaithful ones, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:1-4

God provides that the one He names “My beloved Son” be born in a stable. He lays Him in the manger of cows and asses. Jesus Christ, who is mentioned in the Gospel and who gave His life as a sacrifice or ransom for the sin of all humanity, was born thus. (Luke chapter 2; Mark 1:11; Matthew 3:17) Since the gold, silver, rubies, and the whole earth are God’s, why did those who trust in Him not suffer the lack of these things? The answer is within the question, because they trusted in Him. Gold, riches, goods cannot secure security; they are lifeless things, and they bring no happiness either. And just because everyone runs after these things, this by no means proves that those things will secure security and bring happiness. Humanity has always run after leaders, gone to their deaths because they wanted it, without knowing what they wanted. With enthusiasm they exalted them and bowed to the ground before them. Everyone who saw this did the same thing. He deified that man who was like himself. He idolized lifeless paper money, gold, goods, riches. Humanity’s mind has been filled only with what they call entertainment—weddings, dances, parties—with gossip, jealousy, envy. They have approached one another not with love but with two-facedness, with enmity. What then became of this humanity that has run after these things for thousands of years? Answer for yourself. Whoever still stubbornly hopes to seek happiness and security there, going after those things—let him at least not hope for anything from God. Whatever we put in the place of God, we are idolizing that thing. This may be money, it may be a person, our pleasures, and, as I touched on a little earlier, it may be anything. I say again, from whomever and wherever we hope for the things to be expected of God, we are worshiping not God but idols. The thing called an idol need not necessarily be like the figures of old, wooden totems, great monuments. “Whatever the thing we hold at the highest level and value is, that thing is God for us.” Whatever the thing or things we value most is, we carry it in our hearts and minds. And with this our whole life will pass in obtaining it or them. A person understands the real value of that thing, how far below his expectations and how worthless it is, only after possessing it. On this matter I do not want to utter too many inflated words. The things I speak of are anyway things everyone knows but does not act upon as one should. Only, let us not deceive ourselves. If we are saying we love God, let us consider these words of the apostle John:

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world, namely our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God (not in the way Muslims and Christians understand it)? 1 John 5:3-5

I write these verses especially. Up to now the Muslim world has understood the term “Son of God” in the way the Christian world believes. For this reason they cannot even tolerate this saying. But they themselves do not read God’s words, and just as they do not encourage them to be read, the Gospel and the whole Holy Scriptures came to be accepted as though they were something in the monopoly of the Christian world. This is what it means to break one’s fast out of anger at the infidel. Who can take the word of God into his monopoly? They too, looking at the Christian world, moved a further degree away from God, from whom they were anyway far by their deeds.

If we wish to overcome the world, if we die in our old personality and in the self this world wishes to give us, and are born in the new personality created according to God, then, as it says in the verse, we too overcome this world. That is, we must strive to cast off the old personality from ourselves and to put on a new person. And this is something that lies only in our own hands. (John 3:1-21 and Ephesians, in new Turkish “Efesliler,” 4:17-31)

Let those who, for the sake of the riches of this world, show every kind of effort far from God and succeed, not be deceived and congratulate themselves. Look at what the Quran says on this matter:

Whoever wants this world, We quickly give to whom We will what We wish; then We make hell his abode; he enters it condemned and driven away. And whoever wants the Hereafter (eternal life and paradise) and strives for it as it must be striven for, and believes—these too will see their reward. Al-Isra, Sura 17:18-19

All the things I have spoken of under this whole subject will surely annoy many, being of the kind of the well-known old sermons. Truly, as I stated in the heading of my subject, people sought security and happiness in the very opposite—in places that will bring insecurity and unhappiness—and they still seek them there. The most vivid examples are in our own expectations, our ideals, the things we wish to possess. Up to now, the course of our world has tried to give us those values. And the state of our world is plain to see! With this piece, hopping from branch to branch, with many examples, I have tried to remind you again of things you already know.

Namely, “Whoever wants to enjoy life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful words. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears hear their supplication. But the Lord is against those who do evil.” 1 Peter 3:10-12