Sermon of the Day: Suicide and Gossip

Today I went to the DITIB mosque around the corner from my apartment to attend Friday prayers and listen to the sermon.  This was the first time I’ve ever gone in with everyone else on a Friday and sat down to listen to one.  I’ve heard sermons broadcast on loudspeakers outside of mosques in Istanbul before, but this time I went inside and got a spot on the floor at the back of a room adjacent to the main hall.  I could see the preacher from where I was sitting, but I wanted to choose a place far enough out of the way that I wouldn’t get in the way of anyone’s prayers.  A few minutes before the sermon ended, as the room started filling up, I went out to the courtyard so as not to take space away from someone who would actually use it to pray.  A short while later there were about 10 latecomers in the courtyard with me complaining with one of the workers at the mosque about the lack of space.

The sermon turned out to be a twofer.  The preacher talked about the sin of suicide for ten minutes and then switched rather abruptly to the issue of gossip.  More specifically, the second half cautioned believers against making accusations about honorable women.  That is, don’t claim that so and so slept around without knowing for sure, otherwise you could ruin a woman’s life forever.  In short, mind your own business.

On suicide, the preacher focused on the importance of religious belief and practice in helping a person deal with emotional despair.  He referred to an unfortunately high number of suicides in the community over the past few years, something I know nothing about.  He then suggested that Muslims who commit suicide lack religious faith, for if they were close to their religion, they would have realized that suicide is a sin punishable by damnation.  Suicide, therefore, is most certainly not the easy way out.  As the preacher put it, “If you can’t endure your psychological problems, how are you going to endure hell?”

It’s possible to perceive more far-reaching messages in this sermon, but I’m not very sure this is warranted.  First, when I say “Muslim” and “suicide,” what do you think of?  Right.  Well, unless I missed it, the preacher didn’t refer to bombings once during his message.  He may not have talked about the importance of psychological counseling and how God helps you in times of darkness either, but the focus was very much on confronting depression.

Second, on gossiping about women, you could look at it as a message concerning integration.  After all, the stereotypical Turkish man thinks of German women as, well, slutty.  Not the best belief for promoting integration or healthy relationships between the sexes.  Perhaps the imam was cautioning the crowd against holding such assumptions.  But from the way he talked, it seemed pretty clear to me that he was referring to relations with Turkish women.  After all, what a Turkish man thinks about a German woman isn’t likely to have a lasting impact on her life, but for a Turkish woman the story could be very different.  Was this a reference to “honor” killings?  If so, there would definitely be an integration angle, since the Turkish immigrant community has received a lot of negative attention in the past year following the murder of Hatun Surucu (by the way, yesterday I interviewed Hüseyin Midik, the man quoted in this BBC article, and I’m planning to post a brief write-up soon).  However, the preacher’s primary focus was clearly on gossiping.

Interpreting cultural objects like these sermons is tricky because meaning is so slippery.  What do these sermons mean?  Can we ever answer that question?  Is it necessary for my research?

Fill the Coffers

Toward the end of the sermon I was very surprised when the preacher said something like, “I want you to continue listening to me, but right now someone is going to come around to collect donations because it takes a lot of money to pay for the electricity, water, etc.”  As people started fishing around in their pockets for change, the preacher kept speaking and a man circulated through the crowd with a cloth sack accepting donations and occasionally making change for larger bills.

This afternoon I wrote Fatih to ask if this was common.  He just wrote back and said that it’s a bit strange to take a collection while the sermon is being preached, but he’s encountered it before.  He said from a religious point of view it’s a bit suspect, but from a financial perspective…well…it just makes sense.

My interview yesterday with DITIB official Hüseyin Midik brought out some of the difficulties faced by the organization, including a lack of money.  I’ll discuss this and more when I write up the highlights of that interview tomorrow.