Author(s): Sümeyye Erdoğan / Language(s): Turkish
Issue: 6/2024
Mehmet Akif Ersoy defends the necessity of a society based on Islamic principles. He also dealt with social issues through his poems. In his poetry corpus called Safaḥāt, he addressed the wars, corruption, economic troubles, disagreements and social changes experienced by the Turkish society. Akif draws attention to the excess and negative aspects of these great changes in society. He stated that the reason for the situations that cause enchantment in the society is the deviation from rules and principles of Islam. He states that the solution is only to application of the religious rules and principles correctly. According to Akif, there is a need for good fiqh scholars who explain religion correctly to people in order to achieve this goal. The current understanding of religion in the society should be corrected on the basis of the Qur'ān, Sunnah and consensus (ijmā). Likewise, people's inadequate and wrong knowledge in the fiqh brings corruption in many issues in society. Undoubtedly, the family is among those most affected by the bad consequences of deviation from religion. Akif believes that societies without a proper family life are doomed to fall behind. The problems in family life that Akif faced and criticized during his lifetime still remain valid today. Accordingly, in this study, the social problems related to family life witnessed and criticized by Ersoy were analysed and evaluated in terms of Islamic law. In this way, the corruption in family life caused by moving away from the rules of Islamic law is intended to be clearly demonstrated. Due to the fact that they are within the scope of the subject, the poetic stories conveyed in the poems of Köse Imam, Meyhane and Asım are emphasized. In the plots of the poems, we come across the subjects of dowry, judgement of marriage, alimony, polygamy, relationship between spouses, property regime and divorce. Akif’s comments about the case studies in the work are included. Afterwards, a statement was made on the relevant subject and the misunderstood/applied situations were explained according to Islamic law. As a result of the study, the damage on family life of the deactivation or misinterpretation of the provisions of religion has been revealed. According to Akif, issues such as giving women the value they deserve in family, removing polygamy from being an arbitrary practice, correcting misconceptions about divorce, obtaining and protecting the financial rights of women during the marriage are only possible with the correct understanding of Islamic legal principles. It was through Islam that a society in which women were not even considered human beings, and in which there was uncertainty in family was transformed into a society of the age of bliss (al-asr al-saada) has been reached only with Islam. For this reason, women, children and family suffer the most in societies where religion/fiqh is put into the background. The upbringing of the generation that will carry a nation forward is only possible by by eliminating the misunderstandings about the family and correcting the problems.
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