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The making of civilization for a religion is very much dependent on the existence of Sages who developed a language of universality. By the same taken, it can be suggested that a given civilization owes its existence, as well as its dynamism and continuity, to such great personalities. Mevlânâ is a good example in that respect. Because Mevlânâ is one of the greatest men who have survived throughout the ages representing plurality and multiplicity of Islamic civilization he was born into and continue to be the one of the best known, if not the best known, sage in different cultural and religious territories. But despite the degree of his popularity, the concepts, definitions and descriptions he used or he developed within the Sûfi paradigm he belongs to have been widely misunderstood as in the case of reason. The popular maxim about the concept of reason in sûfi thought try to make us believe that the reason in Sûfism is categorically negated and Mevlânâ represents no exception in that regard. The purpose of this paper is to open to discussion this very maxim and suggest that the concept of reason in Mevlânâ as well as in Sûfi thought in general is not negated as popularly believed. Although it may seem to an ordinary mind a bit paradoxical, sûfi approach to reason, in fact, open up new horizons to reason by calling its limits into question. In other words, in Mevlânâ, and in Sûfism in general, reason is such an important concept that without its guidance Sûfi experience has no value on its own right. The paper will also bring into attention that the Sûfi teaching and that of Mevlânâ may offer to the problems in contemporary thoughts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kutadgu Bilig which is accepted as a first siyasetname of Turk-Islam literature is not just an advice book and it is also not a didactic religion book. Yusuf Has Hacip, the writer of the book, aimed to create a life philosophy which makes human beings to be happy on earth and afterlife. When the background of the book is analyzed, decisiveness of the system of Islamic essences is noticed. Studying the book completely under this perspective goes beyond this work. Because of that, this paper is aimed to study death and the belief of afterlife which are the basic notions of life philosophy and the reference points that formalize these notions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to classify the Islamic Law Concerning religious belief freedom with respect to its special characteristics. Islamic scholars have different views when concerning the subject of freedom of religious belief Naturally, historical thinking has substantial effect in these different approaches. But more importantly, the criteria of interpretation of the applicable Islamic Law need to be considered. Two important criteria are "belief" and "person". Most of the differences among Islamic scholars can be explained by the difference in importance placed to either one of these two criteria. These differences can be observed clearly in cases involving crime and punishment, the citizenship status of non-Muslims, the argument of justification for war and the consequences of religious conversion. Therefore, the main reason why Islamic scholars reach different conclusions in these matters is not in the ambiguity of Islamic Law but the differences in its interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]