Sociological evaluation of Cemaleddin Afgani's life and ideas

Jamaleddin Afghani was born in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, in 1838. Afghani lived between 1838 and 1897 and became the focus of many discussions with the ideas he put forward. At the same time, he was known as a thinker with a predominant activist side. While he was still alive, many articles were written for and against him. Even today, his thoughts are discussed and examined from various perspectives. According to some, he is a staunch defender of the Islamic faith, according to others, he is a British agent who tries to weaken Islamic thought by approaching Islam with a reformist approach. Jamaleddin Afghani should not only be seen as a religious scholar and thinker, but also as a politician and activist. When we look at the conditions of the period in which he lived, it will be seen that he further developed his political and activist side. He lived in such a period that the Islamic world was divided both ethnically, sectarian and regionally, the consciousness of unity and solidarity disappeared, degeneration in the faith and moral structure emerged in the society, and most importantly, in the hands of the Western colonists, there was a political and economic puppet. transformed. He traveled to countries such as England, France and Russia and had the opportunity to get to know them closely and he came up with the idea of how colonialism works and how to get rid of it, and put forward opinions that are still important today. Opposing the idea of religion-politics separation that became widespread in the Islamic world during his lifetime, Afghani defended the idea of religion-politics unity against this idea. He sees it as a religious duty for Muslims to determine their management style and to elect their rulers. He frequently expressed his view that religion is not for politics, politics is for religion. It has struggled to ensure that the people gather around religion and form unity in order to be effective in political decisions. He hoped that if Muslims could unite and become politically conscious, they would be able to stand up against the colonial inside and outside. He thought that if they did so, they would determine their own destiny and win their former glory. In this study, Afghani's life, personality, activist aspect and political, economic, religious and cultural ideas have been tried to be examined by considering them sociologically. Keywords: Nationalism, Islamic Union, Politics, Religion