Mawlid (Holy Birth) Activities of Lastprophet.info

Editor

Within the framework of the Week of the Holy Birth this year Lastprophet.info has put its name to a number of activities in a variety of areas in Turkey. The aim, of course, was better introducing and acquainting people with Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

First of all, a series of lectures were organized under the theme "Comparative Theological and Religious Studies in the World and Turkey". On the panel were expert academicians who had studied in countries of the West, like the United States, Great Britain, Germany and Italy, as well as in Turkey and the Islamic world, where they carried out research in theology and religious studies. The evaluations were made on the basis of the countries by researchers who had carried out field studies in the country in question, or who were still carrying out their research. Thus, we were able to attain firsthand information and answers to the many questions concerned with such research.

At the same time, the Mawlid that was recited in the Darulaceze (Nursing Home) for the elderly, whom the Prophet advised us to treat with great care and attention, warmed their hearts. The elderly residents showed great interest in the reading of the Quran that accompanied the Mawlid-i Sharif, and joined in with the hymns and prayers.

One of the highlights of the week was certainly the "Hadith and Seerah Research Awards" which accepted submissions only from Turkey this year. The awards were presented with the aim to encourage research at postgraduate level in Hadiths and Seerah. The competition is planned to integrate the works of scholars outside of Turkey in the next years to come.

Another original activity was the launch of the Young Scholars Seerah Workshop, a series of scholarly meetings; the first step to organize the first link in the chain of the Seerah Workshop was taken at a consultation meeting.

The primary aim of the siyer workshop is to evaluate siyer literature, which has begun to rapidly increase in type and quality both in Turkey and throughout the world, and to draw attention to those things that are needed in this field today; in addition, it is necessary that new contributions be made to seerah studies in Turkey and the world and that direction be given to new seerah studies.

The consultative meeting, in which not only theologians, but also sociologists, historians and political scientists participated, concluded that the subject for the 1430/2009 Siyer Workshop should be Modern Turkish Seerah Literature.