OUR DUTY, YOUR DUTY

Prof. Dr. M. Es'ad COSAN

Islam, July 1988

As Muslims our first task is to dedicate ourselves to Islam. All other tasks are secondary because we have been sent to this world to be tested as to whether we are the best servant as compared to others. We have a lot of responsibility towards our faith in the Lord, our religion and other Muslim brothers and sisters. We must not spend our lives in pursuit of a lifestyle that we will later regret.

Did God send us to this world only for pleasure? Are our main tasks to eat and to sleep? Are the beloved servants of God supposed to waste their valuable lives living in darkness as the infidels or to grasp for material things as the heedless? Absolutely not!

In that case, we must never forget our main goal in life. We must plan every task in the light of our religious consciousness. We must direct our strength towards gaining the approval of God. We must eagerly perform the commandments of God.

While fulfilling a duty given to me by Hodja Mehmed Zahid Kotku, the duty to serve all Muslim brothers, I have received great blessings from God and support from all of you. I am very thankful for that. Since I cannot contact each and everyone of you personally, I decided that in addition to my sermons, I would like to try to be of service by means of the press. Thus, I started publishing a magazine with the assistance of some brothers. Elhamdulillah, the result has been beneficial and productive. You have received our work with great interest and love. Our magazines have been published with great success throughout the years and have increased from one to four. As a result of this experience, we have learned that by publishing magazines we can fulfill our religious duties in the most effective and positive way. We can see clearly that we must continue to publish our magazines even if we cannot make a profit, even if we have to constantly struggle to get our job done.

All other accomplishments are tied to this publishing business. It is their foundation; it supports and strengths them. This publishing business is more productive and well suited to the conditions prevailing in our country nowadays than the traditional ways of service, such as the construction of mosques and schools, opening of Koran courses, foundation of pious institutions and other activities. The publishing business aids, supports and quickens the development and success of long and wide-ranging political, educational, economic and defense projects. Therefore, we feel it is our duty, in spite of the difficulties, to continue our efforts to search for new ways to enrich our endeavors in this business.

It is your duty to support us the best way you can. Due to the fact that publishing is as important as reading the Koran, praying in the mosque, making shikir, founding organizations or being involved in any other activities to performance our duties as Muslims, we ask you to please support us in an effective way.

I am being very honest about our problems. Due to the high cost of paper we are facing difficulties, a severe crisis. For example, last month we had to reduce our number of employees. In addition, we had to raise the price of the subscription. In reality, we first thought about stopping the publication of the magazine. Perhaps you should know that we cannot collect the money , which adds up to millions, from most of our dealers in Turkey. Although they have sold the magazines and made subscriptions, they have not paid us, leaving us in a lot of difficulties.

I request that you pay your subscription directly to us. Also, I would like you to let you friends and acquaintances know about our magazines. Those who can afford i should make subscriptions for those who cannot.

I would like to thank you in advance for all your help and support

(Islam, July 1988)