A Map of the Divine Subtle Faculty: The Concept of the Heart in the Works of Ghazali, Said Nursi, and Fethullah Gulen

The heart in the Islamic understanding is the expression of a human being's spiritual existence. It is a Divine gift and Divine subtle faculty bestowed upon humanity. It is a polished mirror reflecting God. Like a general, the heart commands all other bodily organs and faculties, which are its troops, Everything that comes from a human being, whether good or bad, is a product of the heart. Mehmet Y. Seker, a scholar of Sufism and tasawwuf, studies the concept of the heart in the Islamic tradition looking at how it is approached by three prominent scholars and thinkers of Islam: Ghazali, Said Nursi, and Fethullah Gulen. Being the first in English to take as its focus the human heart from an Islamic spiritual, this book comparatively analyzes classical and modern age interpretations and evaluations on the concept and adds to the rich literature of spirituality in the Islamic tradition.

Mehmet Yavuz Seker completed his undergraduate studies at Ankara University, School of Theology and his post graduate studies at Sakarya University, Turkey. He received his Ph.D. from the Australian Catholic University, studying Islam and Muslim-Catholic relations. A regular speaker at conferences both nationally and abroad, he has appeared on various television and programs and published in diverse magazines and journals. Author of nine books, Seker is a professor at the department of Sufi studies, Canakkale University’s School of Theology. He lives in Istanbul, Turkey.