Social Responsibility - The Main Characteristic of a Devoted Volunteer in Hizmet Movement

“The Hizmet movement comprises of volunteers, who with their profound sense of responsibility feel the need to contribute in solving the problems of their own societies and of the entire world.” That is how the movement is introduced in an article titled “Basic characteristics of Gulen Movement”. Because of their strong social responsibility, the devoted volunteers of Hizmet movement are not interested in daily political debates nor in the hot discussions of news of the day, but always can and do focus on the actual problems of the society and contribute to the common good of the community.

Most of us today may think social responsibility is just logical. After all we all read and learned about it as part of the civics or character education classes during our middle schools years. But how many of us are really walking the talk? Looking at the news on corruption and observing the unethical manners of many political or business leaders, we cannot say that the majority of us have actually internalized it.

When it comes to talking about it, we all believe that we all should be responsible for our actions, we should act ethically and be transparent and uphold moral values. But when it comes to practice, we are not that good. The famous behavioral economist Dan Ariel analyzes the current status in his latest book, The Honest Truth about Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone –Especially Ourselves: “Most of us think of ourselves as honest, but, in fact, we all cheat. From Washington to Wall Street, the classroom to the workplace, unethical behavior is everywhere.” It is not just ethics we fail, but also the basic citizenship principles we do not follow. Recent educational studies concur that there should be more emphasis on the civics and citizenship education, but we need the role models first. In a recent study by AEI, “High Schools, Civics and Citizenship: What Social Studies Teachers Think and Do”, reveal that “teachers who are civically active are consistently more likely to emphasize the importance of civic action and responsibility to their students.”

Like many other virtues, when it comes to “social responsibility” we should start from our own selves, and that is what the devoted volunteers do in the Hizmet Movement. Instead of getting into the hot debates, they focus their energy in addressing the issues of their local societies. They think globally, but act locally. With a good understanding of the tradition and also the problems of modern life, Fethullah Gulen provides profound principles to guide the Hizmet movement on how to be socially responsible and thereby contribute more to society’s ongoing sustainable development.

Gulen identifies the three greatest evils in the world as ignorance, poverty and disunity, and guides the movement to act against these significant issues at a very practical level. Ignorance is addressed by establishing schools all over the world; poverty is dealt with by a network of charitable organizations, and disunity is fought through interfaith and intercultural dialog activities.

In a recent volume of essays edited by Sophia Pandya and Nancy Gallagher, “The Gulen Hizmet Movement and its Transnational Activities: Case Studies of Altruistic Activism in Contemporary Islam”, it is clarified that “The group does not proselytize Islam, and while it certainly promotes specific Islamic principles, members are trying to achieve positive social change by furthering universal values of tolerance, dialogue and peace through their educational and other secular “service” activities.”

In the same volume of essays, Michael and Karen Fontenote, describe “The Characteristics and Appeal of the Hizmet Movement” as “A number of factors account for the appeal that the Hizmet Movement holds for both Turks and Non-Turks: Gulen’s extraordinary transformational leadership qualities, a widespread hunger for spirituality that’s fulfilled by Gulen’s neo-Sufism; an educational vision that seeks to reconcile science with religion; the movement’s direct and personal approach to aid which satisfies the altruistic impulses; the movement’s successful promotion of a moderate tolerant version of Islam truly interested in interfaith dialogue; the dedication, enthusiasm and manifest good will of its followers, and finally, the appeal of a dynamic movement with real potential to have positive impact on an international scale.”

Looking at the main characteristics of the Hizmet movement in Fontenote’s analysis, one can conclude that the devoted volunteers take social responsibility as a tenet of their weltanschauung: “Generally, Gulen’s followers are enthusiastic, hard working, highly motivated, unobtrusive, and filled with good will. They lead purposeful lives, labor without expectation of tangible reward, and are more concerned about the quality of the work than whether they will receive credit for it. Most of all, they have tended to internalize one of Gulen’s most significant ideas –that everyone, through their daily activities in their daily lives, can positively influence the world. ”

Published on fethullah-gulen.net, 06 August 2012, Monday

Related Article:
How Fethullah Gülen Generated Social Responsibility?