OSMAN NURİ KÜÇÜK ACADEMY

 Religion is one factor that has determined human life, thought, art, wars, attitude towards other people, and the environment throughout history. Anyone who wants to understand himself and his surrounding, in short, human beings, cannot stay away from the content of religion – at least from the cultural impact of religion on people - which has influenced individuals and society throughout history and today.

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  Throughout the history of Islamic thought, we see examples of cultural-based religion and knowledge-based confrontation in different scenarios in the lives of Farabi, Ibn Sina, Jabir b. Hayyan, Ebu Cafer al-Kharezmi, Ebu Bekir er-Razi, Gazzali, İbn Rüşd, İbnü'l Arabî, Mevlânâ and many others whose names we cannot list here.

We come across different examples of this confrontation in many thinkers, including the founders of modern science and those who lead to the Renaissance. From Dante to Voltaire, from Charles Darwin to Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein… This is true for many thinkers and scientists in the history of science and thought. Even Freud, who saw God and religious experience as an illusion, wrote a book on the future of religion. While examining the class struggle and social change, Karl Marx observed the effect of religion and faith on people. Friedrich Nietzsche, who subjected Christian morality and moralists to harsh criticism and said, "God is dead," examined the subjects of religion and theology in many of his works. There are many other examples.

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Therefore, the effort to understand the sacred texts of religions is not only reserved for experts in the history of religions but also for every individual who wants to understand themselves.

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When the narratives about religion are limited to a particular group, the deep metaphysical concepts of existence leave their place to a shallow and divisive religiosity after a while or turn into hostility against faith and humanity that completely hates religion and tries to erase all traces of it from life.

   In this respect, the sacred texts are the addressees of thought and contemplation rather than faith. But how to understand the scripture has been a matter of discussion for centuries. It is not an exaggeration to say that this element has been the basis of many discussions about culture throughout history and today.

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  In principle, no one can dictate one's faith to another. In reality, this is not possible for faith, which is defined as the action of the heart. Because one's voluntary participation is mandatory. This voluntary participation makes faith free, untouchable, and protected. However, recognizing and knowing the object and content of belief is a must for every religionist, materialist, atheist, deist, nihilist, agnostic or theist.

    One must decide for himself—at least in principle—what to believe. But it is imperative for every person to know what he rejects, criticizes, or believes. That's why Onk Academy's heading is the phrase “Knowing comes before faith.”

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The School of Understanding the Qur'an, together with all the relevant sub-disciplines of social sciences such as philosophy of science, history of religions, linguistics, religious sciences, anthropology, sociology, psychology, with their pros and cons, examines the role of beliefs and religions in the history of humanity and in the life of individuals and society today through the Qur'an. In addition, when relevant comparisons are made with other religious texts such as Torah, Psalms and Bible in relevant situations.

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In short, the School of Understanding the Qur'an offers an education that is the product of 27 years of academic and private studies, in which Professor Küçük synthesized methods in social sciences, religious sciences, linguistics, Sufi psychology and the methods of understanding the Qur'an by important figures of the tradition of hikmah and wisdom such as Mevlânâ and

Ibn Arabi. 

Topics to be Covered with the Holistic Wisdom Method

• Humankind’s relationship with faith, religion, and the sacred

• Humankind's first religion: the Holy Mother: Nature

• Formation of mythological beliefs

• The most common belief myths

• Spiritual pursuits

• Astrological teachings

• Fortune telling, divination

• Institutionalization of beliefs

• General characteristics of religions

• The institutionalization process of religions

• The origins and causes of the scholastic mentality

• Divine religions

• Why religions exist: Benefits and harms

• Erosion of meaning in religions and its causes

• Deterioration in religions over time and its causes

• Novation and renewal

• Why did religions become shallow?

• Narrowing of language, meaning and thought becoming shallow

• The surface and depths of faith history

• What it means to be human

• The role of religions and faith in humankind's search for meaning

• Context is everything: “The Holistic Wisdom Method”

• What is Faith?

• Man-Nature-Universe-Allah in the Qur'an

• Examining the verses of the Qur'an in terms of humankind's relationship with the Nature and the Universe

• Evaluation of the Qur'anic verses in terms of science-religion relationship

• Physics and metaphysical unity of the universe

• Laws of Physics-Metaphysics

• The principle that humans are hostile to what they do not know: Two aspects of fanaticism and bigotry in the history of religions; Religiosity without Ilm / Aggressive hostility against faith

• Fatalism

• The problem of evil

• Is there divine justice?

• Male-female relationship

• Social life arrangements

• Sufi signs of verses

• The Qur'an's view of other religions and beliefs

• The view of the Qur'anic verses about freedom