‘İnsan-ı Kamil’ – the perfect man


Several murders have occurred in Turkey lately – all beyond the level of insanity. In return, society produced certain periodical and hysterical reactions. As in all traumatic events, we will eventually forget about the murder of Özgecan Aslan after reactions cool down only to wake up again by yet another traumatic incident. A new kind of habit has, however, emerged in Turkey that has put a substantial portion of the blame of such ferocious murders on the government and even on the religion of Islam.It is both natural and necessary that on account of a social problem, governments should be criticized, new perspectives and postulations should be raised, academic and social propositions should be offered for its solution and from such public debates governments should distill an eventual course for the benefit of society. It is deplorable that a hollow dissension and a culture of enmity that emanate from Turkey's present opposition political parties have begun to spread through society itself. Each and every kind of murder is committed by individuals. They have begun to be abused as a pretext for attacking the government. Last week in the U.S. a malefactor murdered three young Muslims for no apparent reason and nobody thought it proper to put blame either on the president or on Christianity. Instead, American society focused on the individual psychology and life of the murderer.Services for qualified education and health, salutary cultivation of individual and family and protecting the lower classes from social decay and poverty and the youth from all kinds of detrimental addictions constitute some of the most fundamental duties of the social state.Besides, society's relations with religion determine its moral values, which themselves constitute the humane ground for the peaceful coexistence of the individual and collective elements of society in the social framework of respect and law. Unfortunately, almost the whole energy of most of the governments of Turkey was spent drawing the state's wealth and politics, which were monopolized by the Republican People's Party (CHP) tradition, into democratic ground. All governments endeavored to resolve the social problems in the grip of army, judiciary and bureaucracy. With rare opportunities to bend over social problems, a decade-long struggle of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government could not have achieved taking society to a whole new level.İnsan-ı KamilFrom the holy Adam onward, the main purpose of revelations brought forward by succeeding prophets was to solidify the faith of God's subjects, to consolidate a solid ground of law among them and to transform the earth into a prosperous, habitable and advanced humane space. Whenever prophets became influential over societies, peace and tranquility reigned over them, while outrages occurred in their absences. The Quran is narrated through holy stories how had chaotic societies found peace and justice by the coming of Adam, Abraham, Moses and Jesus – the last one before Muhammad. Again, we well know the periods of development of the religion of Islam that emanated from a period of extreme injustice and cruelty on earth and began to spread from the Arabic peninsula under the leadership of Prophet Muhammad through the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe. The higher purpose of Islam has been bringing forward "al-Insan al-Kamil" – the perfect man. The concept of "İnsan-ı Kamil," (al-Insan al-Kamil in Arabic) which is formulated in the law and philosophy of Islam, refers to a faithful, learned, just and moral individual that puts others' rights before his or her own interests and exists for the community while protecting his or her own law. In Islamic philosophy "İnsan-ı Kamil" is defined as the devoted individual to God.