Within the Hizmet Movement, Fethullah Gülen is perceived as a profound scholar (‘alim). His personal qualities such as “humility, asceticism and dedication to good deeds (al-‘amal al-salih)” revive
Within the Hizmet Movement, Fethullah Gülen is perceived as a profound scholar (‘alim). His personal qualities such as “humility, asceticism and dedication to good deeds (al-‘amal al-salih)” revive the Suffa traditions of the early Islamic centuries. Gülen’s example of “lead(ing) a single, simple (poor), humble and pious life dedicated to God in all aspects” iconizes the Hizmet notions of sacrifice and altruism (diğergamlık). These qualities are communicated through Gülen’s informal “school,” in which he instructs and teaches Islamic sciences—theology (kalam), Qur’anic exegesis (tafsir), methodology of hadith (usul al-hadith) and Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) to Turkish theology graduates.
The rest of this chapter will describe briefly the core concepts of the Hizmet Movement (aka Gülen Movement).
Local circles (sohbet)
Sohbet is a Turkish word used to refer to a range of cultural processes that include “pleasant conversation or a facial and verbal communication on a certain subject with a group of fellow friends.” In the Hizmet Movement a normative dimension of its meaning, one that distinguish- es sohbets from ordinary meetings, is that sohbets are developed and nurtured among friends and brothers (or si