Necip Fazıl's Last Interview and the Young Person He Trusted
By: Ümit Elönü
The final days of the painful life of Master Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, who wanted to be remembered as a madman for the cause of Allah and His Messenger; February 5, 1983... Professor Ayhan Songar, Professor Süleyman Yalçın, Ahmet Kabaklı, Ahmet Taşgetiren, and Ayla Ağabegüm visit the Master at his home to conduct an interview. The interview is also filmed. This interview, the transcript of which was published in the Türk Edebiyatı (Turkish Literature) Journal (July 1983) following the Master's passing, is now published on the internet as "The Master's last interview." This "last interview" is also the harbinger of the work titled İstikbâl İslâmındır (The Future Belongs to Islam) by the thinker Salih Mirzabeyoğlu, which we will attempt to introduce.
Although the part we will mention is for some reason missing from the published video, in the full text of the interview published in the Türk Edebiyatı Journal, the Master mentions a young man he trusts and the study he had him conduct, upon a question by Ahmet Taşgetiren: "- Master, I have a question: It is also being discussed in the West, there are thoughts in the style of 'The new century will be the century of Islam!'... Do you see Islamic countries in such a state of preparation in terms of spiritual content?"
I HAD A YOUNG MAN CONDUCT A STUDY
- Ha, interesting... Answer: I don't know about this Ramadan, will Allah give me the strength for Tercüman... (...) There, I had a young man I trust conduct a study called "The Future Belongs to Islam." His study turned out well... I am taking this Captain Cousteau into account. He converts to Islam, you know; he sees a "miracle of the Quran." There is also a Professor...
These are transmissions from one to another... He also has a book... An interesting person; someone has translated it... He fell asleep; it is an event to be reported in 8 columns. Toynbee, using the exact words, says, "The future belongs to Islam, that is the only thing we have not experienced!"..." The "young man I trust" that the Master refers to is Salih Mirzabeyoğlu! The thinker Mirzabeyoğlu, who tried to live his life by being annihilated in the Master's path and not betraying his trust—and did not—reads the first fruits of his work to the Master; the date is January 17, 1983... The place is the Master's home... Thinker Mirzabeyoğlu describes that moment in his work titled Tilki Günlüğü (Fox Diary): "I am reading my work titled The Future Belongs to Islam. My Master is listening with his eyes half-closed and a smile. While saying, 'Beautiful, beautiful!', his voice suddenly changed:
- Okay, it's understood... You are diving entirely into the abstract, it won't do!.. You will coat it with sugar and make them swallow it... This is pure thought; you are writing it for me. Review it again! My fabric is abstract... But these mediocre people are as disgusted by abstract thought as if cigarette smoke were blown into their faces... First, you will present Captain Cousteau...
- I presented that later, sir.
- It won't do!.. There is a truth in the middle; first, you will ring the gong, everyone will turn and look, then you will present the idea... (...) they will first take an interest by saying 'wow'; you will practice journalism... The men will look, a bunch of abstract ideas; no one will read it!... (...) You have a very high aptitude for abstract thought, the lack of which I have complained about the most until now... There is excessive isolation!.. Consistency in everything; you will not break the consistency..."
Having finalized and submitted his work in accordance with the Master's request, thinker Mirzabeyoğlu receives the good news of an "introduction" from the Master: "The Future Belongs to Islam!.. What a beautiful subject you have... I don't know how long Allah grants me, how much longer I will live. But you must appear as having a significant share in our cause... There will be an introduction by me anyway... Your entire identity will be visible..."
SIFTING THE UNIVERSE
Following the passing of the Master, who died before he could write the introduction, thinker Mirzabeyoğlu embarks on "a difficult task like sifting the universe" to find the introduction, and distills ideas from dictionaries, etymology, numerology (abjad), and dreams.
Wait, do not immediately dismiss it by saying "Captain Cousteau did not convert to Islam." Yes, it was said that Captain Cousteau did not convert to Islam, but for the Master and Mirzabeyoğlu, the issue is not whether Cousteau converted to Islam or not. As the Master said, that issue concerns journalists; and Captain Cousteau himself!.. In the hands of the thinker, it is merely one of the pretexts through which he will explain his idea. As a matter of fact, thinker Mirzabeyoğlu, while writing the etymologies of the word "Hades" in his work Ölüm Odası B Yedi - Giriş (Death Room B Seven - Introduction), also points out how the subject of "Captain Cousteau is Muslim" should be evaluated: "Hades: (...) To express one's thought. To imagine another style in the meaning and concept of a word, in the phrasing and style of a matter: Like 'Captain Cousteau is Muslim'..."
Mirzabeyoğlu also explains why he addresses the conversion events from the West as follows: "(...) the work we are doing is not a work of simple reporting; while giving place to individual manifestations as a kind of seasoning around the truth that 'The Future Belongs to Islam,' it is also to keep our opposites in mind and to mark them as elements that serve as an appearance of a synthetic intellectual quality. That is to say, we are not compiling, and the work we never want to do is to be among those who refute the absolute truth of 'The Future Belongs to Islam' in their own persons with ideas of the pumpkin seed variety!.."
With the main headings of "The Landscape of Philosophy and the Truth of Life," "Culture and Perception of Time," "There Would Be No Civilization Without Prophets," "On the Perception of Mystery," and "The Address of the Remedy," Mirzabeyoğlu shows us the future, which he calls "a delusion we cannot see," by "coming from the very root of the cause of existence and becoming."