İMTİHAN VE DÜNYEVİLEŞME

Being one of the key concepts used in the Qur’an, the word fitna (sedition) is derived from the root f-t-n in Arabic. In dictionary, the word fitna is used for the process of melting the precious mines such as gold and silver in high heat in order to separate the nonprecious mines from those precious ones. Purifying those mines rises their value. When this concept is used for humans, it has the metaphorical meaning of testing, examining, proving the human (İsfehanî, 1961, s.371; Manzûr, 990, s.317; Zebidî, 1994, s.424). The word fitna is one the basic concepts used commonly in both Qur’an and in hadiths and having meaning according to the place it is used. Various meanings were given to the fitna and its derivations in Qur’an. Thus, the glossators could not negotiate on a definite meaning for equivalence of the fitna in Qur’an. Based on the denotation meaning of the word fitna which glossators make sense, they have tried to interpret it according to its context. If the word fitna is related with Allah, it is used in order to express “trial, test and examination of human” ; related with human, it is used to express “misdeeds occurred due to actions such as trouble, disaster, killing, torment, distortion, intrigue” (İsfehanî, 1961, s.372); related to devil, it is used to express “deviation, distortion, temptation of human” (Bağdâdî, 1987, s.124; Rıza, s.362). The way that the word fitna is used mostly is to test, examine, and prove. The Quran does not only determine the place of human in the world, but also sets forth his creation purpose. On one hand, while remarking creation and incapability of the human, the Quran remarks the supremacy of human among other creatures stating his responsibility put by his Rabb. The main sense of presence of human on the world is to be the object of this responsibility (Meydani, 1994, s.550). Due to characteristics that human has among other creatures, the human both has the most privileged qualities and the most dangerous qualities. “By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it; And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right; Truly he succeeds that purifies it” (Surah Shams, 91/7-9). Through this dilemmic and complex structure, the human constitutes the main subject of the testing. So, he is the most important answerer and keeper of the testing. As an unbeliever disregards the testing fact, he puts himself at the centre and sees everything as a means in order to satisfy his own wills and desires, on the other hand, the one who puts testing fact at the centre of everything makes the life meaningful and valuable, so he has the power to saves it from monotony. All conflicts beginning with presence of human is almost the work of these two understandings (Soyalan, 1999, s.112 vd.). Stating that human shall be tested during his life, the Quran also defines why this testing is made as such: “Do people think that they will be left alone because they say: "We believe," and will not be tested. And İmtihan ve Dünyevileşme 413 We indeed tested those who were before them. And Allah will certainly make (it) known (the truth of) those who are true, and will certainly make (it) known (the falsehood of) those who are liars, (although Allah knows all that before putting them to test). (Surah Ankabut, 29/2-3). As it is clearly understood from the verse, it is possible with testing to determine who is sincere and who is insincere in human-being case and his belief. This testing is as to encompass yesterday, today and tomorrow. No one is freed from this testing. The word meaning examination / testing / proving used at the beginning of the 155th verse of Surah Bakqarah has been used with tekid lam. Using a verb with tekid lam gains the word a three-dimensional meaning. Regarding this, it is better to understand the statement “We certainly test you” as “We have tested, test and shall test you”. So, the meaning refers to a process covering past, present and future (Bayraklı, 2001, s.316-317). It is possible for human to pass the testing through values he produce in individual and social life. Thus, it is required to deal with and inspect the quality of the world. The case what the word World really means: a close life through time and place, or a low/servile life is not in a quality to be inspected only by linguistic analyses. To look at the statements such as game, amusement referring to the world life in verses, it is hard to deny that world means invaluable in fact. So, it can be said that one of these two meanings is primary and the other one is nominal (Öztürk, 2005, s.13). While denouncing the world life, it is meant the world life spent disregarding the afterlife. 2 The Quran does not decry, but praises the world life which does not cause to forget afterlife, does not oppose to human-being duties, and does not lead to perversion. Even, the Quran emphasizes that this is a beauty and a blessing and advises humans to pray as such: “And of them there are some who say: "Our Rabb! Give us in this world that which is good and in the Hereafter that which is good, and save us from the torment of the Fire!"” (Surah Baqarah, 2/201; Surah A’râf, 7/156; Surah Nahl, 16/122) Balanced stance of Islam on world and afterlife is aimed to develop human materially and morally and to make human reach to mature human. Nothing on the universe was created in vain and meaninglessly. Anything was put in presence area in an order and a harmony2 with a definite purpose and regarding a definite target. The verse “But seek, with that (wealth) which Allah has bestowed on you, the home of the Hereafter, and forget not your portion of legal enjoyment in this world, and do good as Allah has been good to you, and seek not mischief in the land. Verily, Allah likes not the Mufsidun (those who commit great crimes and sins, oppressors, tyrants, mischief-makers, corrupts)” (Surah Al-Qasas, 28/77) fundamentally sets forth the world and afterlife understanding of Islam. According to this verse, both the world itself and the creatures on it are of extremely important value in terms of world happiness on the one hand and of making preparations for afterlife on the other hand. So, union of world and afterlife is emphasized instead of separation of world and afterlife. Neither world is presented as an alternative for afterlife, nor afterlife is presented as an alternative for world. The thing gaining meaning to 414 Süleyman GÜMRÜKÇÜOĞLU each action done in the world is the desire to reach to divine targets by human (Kutub, 1992, s.306). The statement getting worldly meaning indifferent to religion forgetting Allah and afterlife and meaning alienation to religious values is an existential problem which closely concerns Muslim individuals and societies. For this reason, release from getting worldly is of a vital importance. Regarding the Quran’s understanding of getting worldly, establishing the balance of world and afterlife; quality of the world life; and setting forth the getting worldly with concrete examples are mentioned in the Quran (Güler, 2002, s.15). Statements such as getting worldly, taken in by world meta, by worldly things. “Allah increases the provision for whom He wills, and straitens (it for whom He wills), and they rejoice in the life of the world, whereas the life of this world as compared with the Hereafter is but a brief passing enjoyment.” (Surah Ar-Rad, 13/26), “…The life of this world is only the enjoyment of deception (a deceiving thing).” (Surah Aal-Imran, 3/185). It has been emphasized in many more verses that the world life is an enjoyment, amusement and deception. When we look at those verses, we see that statements such as preferring world to the afterlife, preferring short-term profits to the long-term profits, and having a life which Allah does not want for the meaning of getting worldly in the Quran. As to be seen in tale of Karun as an example for getting worldly in the Quran, one of the factors of getting worldly of human is negative effect of the fortune on human. One of the fundamental expressions which depicts clearly the getting worldly in the Quran is such verses in which knowledge competent ones who have been got worldly intellectually and spiritually, who do not pray according to this knowledge, although having knowledge on divine facts and knowing the answer towards world’s target. Emphasizing afterlife belief and blessings in many verses in the Quran and drawing the attentions this side is of extreme importance in terms of understanding the world life. Already, the Quran aims to take the human’s tendency to the world under control through the afterlife thought. So, the world is not a country of prizes, but a country of opportunities. In this regard, the afterlife thought emphasized by the Quran serves a substantial brake for controlling endless desires and wills of the world (Çelik, 2001, s.182, 185-187). That is to say, it is required to be careful while enabling world and afterlife balance. This is because world must be just a means for afterlife. In fact, good deeds done in world lead human to the eternal blessings, and the bad deeds lead to the Hell. If a human who thinks this reality finds the answer of why sent to the world, he perfectly performs his duties for both himself and for the society. Conclusion While explaining the human’s passing to presence universe from absence universe in the Quran, the mystery of creation of human step by step, slowly, and of being furnished with qualities such as seeing, perceiving, hearing has been stated with the responsibility law and İmtihan ve Dünyevileşme 415 testing fact. The basic concept emphasizing the testing fact in the Quran is the concept fitna. This concept’s having a wide usage area revealed the variety in meanings put on this concept. Yet, starting point of all meanings is that testing meaning come into prominence which emphasizes the testing fact. As testing fact is a means of development and spiritually nurturing of human, it is an indispensable part of human life. Testing is an inevitable reality in succeeding both world and afterlife works. This is because knowledge, comprehension, capability and qualification of human is generally measured with testing concept. So, anybody who wants to improve, renew and prove himself is faced with the testing fact. World life is a gate opening to the eternal universe and a waiting and evaluation area. In this mortal world, human shall be tested through all dimensions of his existence and through his thoughts, judgements, visions, feelings, behaviours, things he did and didn’t do. Allah created this world as a testing area for humans. World and everything in it was created for human, and the human was created for praying Allah. Those who are deceived and go wrong ways here shall be disappointed in afterlife. Those who follow the correct way and win the testing shall reach eternal happiness. According to the Quran, the world life is consistent of meta, enjoyment and amusement. Why Allah does not will humans be totally away from the world is because here is a testing area. This is because position of human in afterlife shall be according to the actions he performs in the world. Defining world with adjectives such as deceptive, invaluable, temporary does not state mean the unimportance of the world life. The pointed case is to forget the afterlife thinking that this life is permanent and crossing the line, showing outburst, injustice and careless behaviours. Disintegration (world-afterlife) in holistic life understanding that the Quran presents to Islamic society is mostly resulted from misreading and misunderstanding the realities. In this regard, resource works which interprets the positive or negative emphases made for world and afterlife in Quran and in hadiths as to be contrary to the holistic life understanding of the Quran and which places them as to be understood in this way are faced with. So, they enable understandings which break the world-afterlife union, which exclude the world and evaluate the world with a fatalist point of view. This makes us think that it is one of the reasons of Muslim societies’ falling behind. Whereas, as we try to explain above, according to the holistic understanding of the Quran, it is discussed that “the more world, the more afterlife” within the framework of belief, good deeds, and moral principles. Thus, we can say that the Quran encourages any kind of developments that ease the establishment of earth, the lives of humans and that raise the life quality. The difference between the one who embraces the creation purpose and having a suitable life and the one who gets wild and makes the world unliveable is the stances they have against the testing fact. This stance affects their point of views to the world and afterlife. 416 Süleyman GÜMRÜKÇÜOĞLU World and afterlife understanding put forward by the Quran is based on a balance. While basing this balance it was created with a moderate harmony without denying human nature as a contrary to Christianity and Jewishness. Yet, this balance does not mean that each universe is equal to each other. It is better to say that this balance is the one at the point of recovering innate feelings given to the human. That is to say, the human shall be tested and shall be proved through various troubles and problems, yet he shall benefit from beauties of this world; however, while benefiting, he shall not be fascinated with and shall not be slave of the world while he is the master. Equivalence between the world and the afterlife concepts in the Quran connotes us a balance that is free from overdoing and understatement. It is obviously seen that it is not possible to argue for a life understanding in which world blessings and opportunities are excluded and that this causes the result of seeing the afterlife meaningless. Similarly, it is certain that a life understanding which is isolated from afterlife thought makes the world life vain and invaluable. However, as tendencies and desires of human conceal this fact, Allah warns humans against keeping afterlife thought always fit. Still, it is a fact that humans are interested in the world unnecessarily and they have the tendency of getting worldly as to forget afterlife. The concept of “getting worldly” means humans’ concentrating his efforts, power and opportunity in all faithful, moral, social, commercial cases to worldly factors. Islam’s belief, performance and moral are presented as antidote against getting worldly which is a process of being away from self and tending to bitter interests of the world, and eluding from shade of individual and societies inspirations. Restructuring the relations between human and the world, placing it at a correct position and arranging it is possible with placing the testing fact at centre of everything. So, the one will make his life meaningful and valuable.