Fethullah Gülen and Mohandas Gandhi: Hizmet and Ahimsa--Convergences in Growing Deep Peace
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66362/iji.v2i1.36Abstract
This essay offers a comparative reflection on Mohandas Gandhi and M. Fethullah Gulen as religiously grounded practitioners of nonviolence, service, and peacebuilding. Drawing on Gandhi's principles of ahimsa and satyagraha and Gulen's emphasis on hizmet, dialogue, and compassionate service, the article identifies ethical convergences between two figures shaped by different historical, cultural, and religious contexts. The study argues that both Gandhi and Gulen understood peace not merely as the absence of violence but as a disciplined way of life rooted in truth, humility, love, and practical service to others. Through biographical comparison, interpretive reflection, and attention to each figure's spiritual vocabulary, the essay shows how their visions challenge domination, resentment, and the politics of fear. It also suggests that the margins of history often preserve the deepest resources for human renewal. The article concludes with a hopeful account of peace as a long historical trajectory sustained by persons and communities committed to compassion, justice, dialogue, and the transformation of self and society.
In this paper I discuss Fethullah Gülen and Mohandas Gandhi: Hizmet and Ahimsa-- Convergences in Growing Deep Peace.
References
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Johan Galtung, “Violence, Peace, and Peace Research,” in Journal of Peace Research 6(1969): 167-191.
Liz Essley White, “The Bizarre American Lobbying War over Turkish Run Schools,” in Politico, Feb. 3, 2018, at https://www.politico.eu/article/bizarre-american-lobbying-war-over-turkish-run-schools-fethullah-gulen/
Muhammed Çetin, The Gülen Movement: Civic Service without Borders (Clifton, NJ: Blue Dome Press, 2010)
M. Fethullah Gülen, Toward a Global Civilization of Love and Tolerance (Istanbul: Tughra Publishing, 2010), p. 1.
Richard Attenborough, Gandhi (1982), at https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083987/
Muhammad Yunus, Creating a World without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism (NY: Public Affairs Press, 2009).
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