Moral Corruption, Ideal Individual and the Meaning of Life in the Context of Atabetu’l Hakâyık

Abstract

Atebetü’l-Hakâyık, which is one of the most important pieces after Kutadgu Bilig within Turkish Literature in the Islamic period, is written by Edip Ahmed in the first part of the 12th century. In addition to being advice and propriety book, this piece strongly addresses the disappointment and protest of the poet towards his age.
Atebetü’l-Hakâyık discusses the approved and unapproved characteristics of the individual ideal, it additionally makes a moral criticism on the religious life of his society by mentioning about all parts of the social structure:
“The worship became a show, and the devout converted to a metaphor. Pub districts got developed and masjids got ruined. The scholar gave up the actions and the ascetic quitted taqwa. Wise people make sama prayer by inventing a new dance. Right people cannot find a way to defend themselves. However, wrong people have all the opportunities. Public enslave themselves to rich people by deeming them important, and however, when seeing poor people, they go another way by ignoring the poor ones…”
In this regard, this piece has two essential themes as follows: (a) his recommendations towards being the individual ideal and (b) his warnings which emphasize that not having a deeply religious life comes with moral problems.
Atebetü’l-Hakâyık strongly describes the social life of that period. It can be clearly seen that the advice and related feelings such as hurt, protest, hope, hopelessness, acquiescence have an influence on the content of the book and give an impression which makes us say that Edip Ahmed also lived what we lived.
The poet seeks the individual ideal everywhere in his book. He wants to see the individual ideal; however, when pursuing this aim, he also knows that goodness can increase via the good people. Therefore, he draws attention to the subject of good friend, which is the last characteristic of the individual ideal. The poet says that whoever has a good friend becomes a good person by himself and acknowledges that people would have more favor because of having a good friend. However, he emphasizes that the most important thing in friendships is goodness; it is not about doing something wrong. No matter how careful and master the individual is, he or she might do wrong or might have shortcomings. For this reason, the poet points out the importance of realizing the difference between wrong and evil in the friendships while stating that people who leave their friends because of their faults will not find a person around.
According to Edip Ahmed, being knowledgeable, keeping the language strong, considering the meaning of life; being helpful-generous, humble, and benign, and having good friends are the minimum necessary characteristics which make people reach the goal of the individual ideal. Even in a minimum level, it is not easy to reach this goal because Edip Ahmed addresses that the individual should keep himself/herself away from ignorance, having big mouth, absurdity, stinginess, arrogance, and greed. As moral life does not require a certain time, circumstance, and level, it comes with attention, concentration, and permanent dynamism. Since weakness will make the individual and the society to have problems with attention, concentration, and dynamism, it will bring with many religious and socio-psychological problems like freeloading, laziness, making a fast buck, self-seeking, and so on.
The path of the individual ideal is possible to follow; however, it is also quite difficult to practice and maintain despite all as this way conflicts with the interests of the human being. Moral life is not like other parts of life because moral lifestyle initially keeps the personal interests waiting, does not reward immediately, and makes people lose in a short time. When people cannot get the rewards of their moral behaviors in the short time, they might have misgivings which are stated with the following adages: “Sickness is stemmed from the goodness,” “Do good things so that you can find evil.” Thereby, these people might lose the superior moral life’s source, which is the belief referring to that goodness is essential, and the evil is temporary. Such weakness of belief might lead both individuals and societies to a stalemate which may also be called as moral deadlock. By this stalemate, the individual loses his/her belief in justice, compassion, fidelity, and trust.
In the view of Edip Ahmed, the individual ideal who finds own value within the tradition of Islamic thought is a developmental existence who is taught the names of the things by Allah, has the power of getting knowledge, has the divine support for getting knowledge, and is the responsible (Khalifa). Therefore, in the tradition of Islamic thought, the individual is a being who does not go beyond the scope of the divine, develops within its boundaries, and aims to mature. However, in the tradition of Western thought, the development of humanity occurs in the consideration of Prometheus. Nonobedience to God and stealing the knowledge, power, and freedom from the Gods are symbolized with the stealing of the fire. With this regard, Prometheus represents insurrection and repudiation. In the case of Christian theology, the primitive man is the symbol of the fall, sinful, and even could not atone for his sin. Even though all human beings are similar, Edip Ahmed’s proposal of the human style who goes between being the individual ideal and having protested moral corruption is different in the context of the meaning and the goal than one who is offered by the tradition of Western thought. Namely, this human-style differs regarding what to do and where to get the power to do it throughout life. Human being neither is an insurgent nor an existence who is exiled to the earth as a sinful. Within the life course, his preferences will determine if he is good or bad. Consequently, the individual ideal and the moral corruption discussed in Atebetü’l-Hakâyık represent the tradition of Islamic thought.
This study aims to examine Atebetü’l-Hakâyık in the context of the individual ideal and moral corruption. The main problem of the study comprises the needed characteristics of the individual ideal who is in the moral corruption deadlock. By a socio-psychological approach, this research discusses the themes of the individual ideal and the moral corruption within the consideration of value, religion, world life, and the search for meaning.

Ahlaki Çözülme, İdeal İnsan ve Hayatın Anlamı Bağlamında Atebetü’l-Hakâyık

Abstract

İslami dönem Türk edebiyatının en önemli eserlerinden biri Atebetü’l-Hakâyık’tır. Edip Ahmed’in bu eseri ideal insan tipinin nasıl olması gerektiği hakkında kısa ve özlü bilgiler vermesinin yanında bulunduğu dönemin dini hayatını eleştirel bir gözle ele almıştır. O, ideal insanın sınırlarını bazı değerler üzerinden belirlemiştir. Bu değerler, bilgili olmak, dili korumak, alçak gönüllü olmak, yardımsever-cömert olmak, hilm sahibi (sakin, ağırbaşlı) olmak, iyi arkadaş edinmek ve hayatın anlamına vakıf olmaktır. Toplumsal düzenin bozukluğuyla ilgili ise şair öncelikle vefasızlığın üzerinde durmuştur. Daha sonra ise samimiyetsiz dini hayatın belirtilerini inandığı gibi yaşamamak, iyi insanların suskunluğu, sistemin bozukluğu, adaletsizlik ve dünya malına düşkünlük olarak sıralamıştır. Ayrıca şair, ideal insan ve ahlaki yozlaşma arasında gidip gelen insanın tarihsel serüvenini kader inancı çerçevesinde açıklamaya çalışmıştır. Şaire göre birey, her daim ideal insan hedefi doğrultusunda bir hayat yaşamaya çalışmalıdır. Bu hedeften uzaklaşmak sadece insanın değil toplumun da ahlaki bir çıkmaza girmesine ve dolayısıyla yozlaşmasına neden olabilir. Şaire göre bu durum acı bir gerçeklik olsa da insanın ve toplumlarının kaçamayacağı tarihsel kaderdir. Şöyle ki; insanın psikolojik zaafları dünyanın gidişatına göre her an baskın olabilir ve birey ideal insan hedefinden uzaklaşabilir.

Keywords

• Edip Ahmed,Atabet'ül-Hakâyık,ideal insan,ahlaki yozlaşma,hayatın anlamı

References

1. Ayık, Hasan. Ahlak Sorunumuz. Rize: Önce Kitap, 2018.Baumeister, Roy F. Meanings of Life. New York: The Guildford Press, 1991.Festinger, Leon. A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, (Evanston, Illinois: Row – Peterson Company, 1957.Fromm, Erich. İnsan Olmak Üzerine. 1. Baskı. İstanbul: Say Yayınları, 2018.Fromm, Erich. Sağlıklı Toplum. Trc. Yurdanur Salman - Zeynep Tanrısever. İstanbul: Payel Yayınları, 2006.Fromm, Erich. Sevginin ve şiddetin kaynaǧı. Trc. Yurdanur Salman - Nalan İçten. İstanbul: Payel Yayınevi, 1994.Göka, Erol. Geçimsizler: Kişilikleri Tanıma ve Geçinmeyi Kolaylaştırma Kitabı. İstanbul: Timaş, 2011.Gülensoy, Tuncer. “Atebetü’l Hakâyık”,Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslam İslam Ansiklopedisi İstanbul: TDV Yayınları, 1991.Izutsu, Toshıhıko. Kur’an’da Tanrı ve İnsan. Trc. M. Kürşad Atalar. 4. Baskı. İstanbul: Pınar Yayınları, 2016.Migati, M. B. - Masarani, M. Z. - Ed-Dendesi, A. A. El-Kutuf min Luğati’l Kur’an, Beyrut: Mektebetü’l Lübnan, 2006.Özçelik, Kenan. “Atebetü’l Hakâyık ve Risaletü’n Nushiyye’de İkili- Karşıt Anlatım” Yunusun Dili, thk. Alim Yıldız, Abdullah Özkan Ordu: Rumi Matbaa, 2019.Payot, Jules. İrade Terbiyesi. Trc. Hakan Alp. 4. Baskı. Bursa: Ediz Yayınevi, 2019.Phenix, Philip H. Realms of Meaning. USA: McGraw-Hill Book, 1964.Tarık, Ramazan. İslam: Medeniyetlerin Yüzleşmesi, çev. Ayşe Meral (İstanbul: Anka Yayınları, 2003.Yıldırım, Ali - Şimşek, Hasan. Sosyal Bilimlerde Nitel Araştırma Yöntemleri. 11. Baskı. Ankara: Seçkin Yayınları, 2018.Yüknekî, Edip Ahmed. Ataabetü’l-Hakâyık. Ed. Hatice Coşkun. İstanbul: T. C. Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı, 2019.Yüknekî, Edip Ahmed. Günümüz Diliyle Atebetü’l Hakâyık Gerçeklerin Eşiği. 2. Baskı. İstanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, 2013.