Mehmet Akif Ersoy's Views on Some Issues of Islamic Family Law

Abstract

Mehmet Akif Ersoy defends the necessity of a society based on Islamic principles. He also dealt with social issues through his poems. In his poetry corpus called Safahat, he gave place to the wars, corruption, economic troubles, disagreements, and social changes experienced by Turkish society. Mehmet Akif draws attention to the excess and negative aspects of these great changes in society. He stated that the reason for the situations that cause enchantment in the society is the departure from the rules and rules of Islam. He states that the solution is only to live the religious provisions correctly. According to Akif, there is a need for good fiqh scholars who explain religion correctly to people in order to achieve this situation. The understanding of religion in the society; It should be corrected by filtering the mind based on the Qur'an, Sunnah, and consensus. Likewise, people's inadequate and wrong knowledge in the field of fiqh brings corruption into many issues in society. Undoubtedly, the concept of family is among those most affected by the bad consequences of being away from religion. According to Mehmet Akif, societies that do not have a proper family life are doomed to fall behind. The problems in family life that Mehmet Akif faced and criticized during his lifetime still remain valid today. For this reason, in our study, the social problems of family life witnessed and criticized by Mehmet Akif were evaluated in terms of Islamic law. Thus, it is desired to clearly reveal the corruption in family life caused by moving away from the rules of Islamic law. Due to the fact that they are within the scope of the subject, the poetic stories conveyed in the poems of Köse İmam, Meyhane, and Asım are emphasized. In the plots of the poems, we come across the subjects of dowry, alimony, polygamy, relationship between spouses, property regime, and divorce. Mehmet Akif's comments about the case studies in the work are included. Afterwards, a statement was made on the relevant subject, and the misunderstood/applied situations were explained according to Islamic law. As a result of the study, we see the damage to family life of the deactivation or misinterpretation of the provisions of religion. According to Mehmet Akif, issues such as giving women the value they deserve in family life, removing polygamy from being an arbitrary practice, correcting misconceptions about divorce, obtaining and protecting women's financial rights during the marriage process are only possible with the correct understanding of Islamic legal principles. Because, from a society where women are not even considered human beings, girls are buried alive, and there is uncertainty in family life, a society of the century of bliss has been reached only with Islam. For this reason, women, children, and family life suffer the most in societies where religion/fiqh is put into the background. Raising the generation that will carry a nation forward is only possible by removing the wrong information about the family and correcting the problems.