Religion and change in Ziya Gökalp

Ziya Gökalp is a scholar and a sociologist, who interested in different matters of Turkish societies and study about them. Having impact on the formation of modern Turkey in terms of ideas, Gökalp keeps being an important person an deven in today his ideas are being discussed. In this Research, we deal with the religion and the change in context of Gökalp?s ideas, that how Gökalp took religious element up and how he took social change up. In this study we have dealt with Gökalp?s ideas about religion and social change. Generally Gökalp dealt with the functions of religion in the social context. According his, religion must be dealt with dynamically and shouldn?t approach to religion dogmatically, and that these should be justified with ?Orf (tradition)?. In this context, Gökalp had asserted the theory of ?İctimai Usulü Fıkh (Social Method of Islamic Law)?. He put forward in this theory that the Shari?a (Muslim canonical laws, religious law) has two braces: ?Nass (clear Muslim rulers) and Orf?. The former is perfect, clear and constant. However the latter is a changeable field according to the changing time. In this study we dealt with religious matters and possibility of the methodology propounded by them. We have evaluated the relationship between religion and change in this context. We have determinate that Gökalp made the interpretations as sociological justifications more than religious ones.