Fethullah Gulen Sayings

#1. Criticizing and objecting to everything means an attempt to destruction. If you do not like something, try to make something better than it. Being destructive causes ruins, while being constructive brings about prosperity.

M. Fethullah Gulen

#2. I have never had, nor will I ever have, any [political] ambitions. The only thing on which I have always set my heart is being able to gain God's good pleasure and, therefore, trying to make him known correctly and loved by humanity.

Fethullah Gulen

#3. Mature people never make difference of opinion a means of conflict.

Fethullah Gulen

#4. Nations that can manage to develop their language and make it accommondating while at the same time staying faithful to the roots of it are the most communicative societies that are also most dynamic in thought.

M. Fethullah Gulen

#5. My only role in the opening of the schools has been to suggest and encourage opening them. But it is impossible for there to be a [central authority] controlling the schools. They are in more than 100 countries, and there must be many different companies that have opened and run them.

Fethullah Gulen

#6. Goodness, beauty, truthfulness, honesty, and being virtuous are the essence of the world. Whatever happens, the world will one day find this essence, for no one can prevent such an event

M. Fethullah Gulen

#7. Language is not only a means of speech and thought, it is a bridge with the significant function of bringing the wealth of the past to our day and conveying today's heritage and our new compositions to the future.

M. Fethullah Gulen

#8. Tolerance, a term which we sometimes use in place of the words respect, mercy, generosity, or forbearance, is the most essential element of moral systems; it is a very important source of spiritual discipline and a celestial virtue of perfected people.

Fethullah Gulen

#9. Speech is the resuscitation breath for living corpses and the water of life for those who want to live forever.

M. Fethullah Gulen

#10. Poetry is another name for a person's telling of the self, existence and what is beyond, and one's own perceptions.

M. Fethullah Gulen

#11. Interfaith dialogue is a must today, and the first step in establishing it is forgetting the past, ignoring polemical arguments, and giving precedence to common points, which far outnumber polemical ones.

Fethullah Gulen

#12. I have repeatedly declared that it is impossible for a true Muslim to be a terrorist, nor can a terrorist be regarded as a true Muslim.

Fethullah Gulen

#13. One will never reach distant shores, if he chooses to remain upon the dock, In fear his little ship of dreams may be dashed against the rocks.

Fethullah Gulen

#14. A small minority in Turkey even accuses me of having political ambitions, when in fact I have been struggling with various illnesses for many years.

Fethullah Gulen

#15. A perfect poem owes its perfection to sounding the voice of the heart and the melodies of the conscience, as well as its ability to reflect the considerations, beliefs, opinions, and horizons of thought of the poet, but not due to its formal or mental aspects.

M. Fethullah Gulen

#16. Politics can be a factor neither in shaping Islam nor directing Muslims' acts and attitudes in Islam's name.

Fethullah Gulen

#17. The purpose of our creation is obvious: to reach our utmost goals of belief, knowledge, and spirituality; to reflect on the universe, humanity, and God, and thus prove our value as human beings.

Fethullah Gulen

#18. I have never imagined being or wished to be chosen as something important in the world. I have always tried to be a humble servant of God and a humble member of humanity.

Fethullah Gulen

#19. Islam as a religion focuses primarily on the immutable aspects of life and existence, whereas a political system concerns only social aspects of our worldly life.

Fethullah Gulen

#20. I am not indifferent to the appreciation of kind people. [The voters were] extremely kind in naming me the world's top public intellectual, a title to which I can never see myself as entitled.

Fethullah Gulen

#21. After sowing seeds in the soil and completing our various tasks, we need to be able to walk away without seeking to be noticed. We should not hold on to any expectations about witnessing the harvest.

M. Fethullah Gulen

#22. Only a few people seem to realize that social harmony and peace with nature, between people, and within the individual only can come about when the material and spiritual realms are reconciled.

Fethullah Gulen

#23. We can say that the people closest to God are teachers who devoted themselves to being beneficial to others. For they are the ones who build the human; they are the ones who build the society. the ones to build the present and future, and the ones to put their stamp on the future are teachers.

M. Fethullah Gulen

#24. Only those who overflow with love will build the happy and enlightened world of the future.

Fethullah Gulen

#25. Tolerance is our safest refuge and our fortress against the handicaps that arise from schism, factions, and the difficulties inherent in reaching mutual agreement

Fethullah Gulen

#26. Terrorism is one of the cardinal sins that the Koran threatens with hellfire.

Fethullah Gulen

#27. A person is truly a human if he or she learns, and teaches, and inspires others. It is difficult to regard as truly human someone who is ignorant and has no desire to learn.

Fethullah Gulen

#28. Love is one of the most subtle blessings that the All-Merciful One has bestowed upon humanity.

Fethullah Gulen

#29. Some people may regard my views well and show respect to me, and I hope they have not deceived themselves in doing so. Some people think that I am a leader of a movement.

Fethullah Gulen

#30. Muslims have never been and never can be so base as to expect any solutions to their problems through terror.

Fethullah Gulen

#31. Lovers cannot imagine any opposition, no matter how small, to the beloved. They cannot endure to see the beloved veiled by something that causes Him to be forgotten. Moreover, lovers regard as futile any speech not about the beloved, and any act not related to Him as ingratitude and disloyalty.

Fethullah Gulen