Sule Yuksel Senler (Rahmatullahi ‘Alaiha) was born on the 29th of May 1938 in Turkey.
The times when she was born were turbulent times for the Muslim world and especially Turkey. The enemies of Islam, worked hard to absolve Turkey of its Islamic heritage and culture. Irreligious secularization of the masses and abhorrent Turkish nationalism was being spread under the auspices of Mustefa Kemal Ata-Turk, who was leading the government which succeeded the Ottoman Empire.
Mustefa Kemal and his allies, forcefully banned the Hijab, adopted the Latin script for the Turkish language instead of the erstwhile Arabic-Persian script, banned polygamy and many other signs of Islam.
Mustefa Kemal Ata-Turk (1881 – 10 November 1938) worked his way from the Turkish military towards the Presidency and found the Republic of Turkey, and served as its president from 1923 until his death in 1938.
Atatürk and his colleagues wanted to Turkify Islam. They ordered the Muslims to use the Turkish word “Tanri” instead of Allah for God and use the Turkish language in the Salah (the Muslim daily prayers) and Adhaan (the call to prayers). He worked tirelessly to eliminate Islam from the lives of the Turkish Muslims.
He was succeeded by Ismet Inonu.
Sule Yuksel Senler was born in central Turkey’s Kayseri to a relatively secular family, who later settled in Istanbul. She was the eldest
daughter to a family of six children. Sule Yuksel Senler dropped out of school and had to work when her family went bankrupt and her mother ailed. She worked as an assistant to an Armenian tailor after leaving middle school.
Even though her family adopted a secular lifestyle. Her brother, Özer (Uzair), was a follower of Shaikh Saeed Nursi, a Muslim theologian who played a vital role in the revival of Islam in Turkey. He introduced her to the Islamic magazine Risale during her 20s (Risalah in Arabic) which had a positive influence on her.
She started writing about her life with a story that was published in (the magazine) Yelpaze Review (1958-60) by Safa Onal.
Her first writing works were published in the weekly newspaper Kadin (1961-63) under the title of of
Duycoar-Gorioer (Sense-Opinion).
In the very years, her articles, poems and stories were published in Medeniyet Daily (Ankara) and Hor-Seizler Daily (published by Ahmet Polat, Erzurum).
During her 20s she started attending the Tafseer classes of Shaikh Saeed Nursi [1877-1960] (Rahimahullah), and she attended them without the headscarf.
Once when someone retorted to her and asked her to wear the Hijab during the Tafseer classes she assertedly said : “If you don’t accept me like this, I won’t come again.”
She soon turned towards a religious lifestyle Alhamdulillah. Since
1965, aged 27, she started praying and wearing the Hijab.
At that time she was the first and only veiled journalist in Turkey. Her works had been published in Yeni Istiklal, Babalide Sabah (she edited pages
for a womens paper) and Bugon (daily anecdote, 1967).
She head-wrote works and she prepared Islamic content based pages
for girls where she now began preaching about the Hijab to them, for Seher Vakti that she published – with her brother.
She gave lectures on topics like- ‘The Position of Women in Islam and Obligations upon them’, ‘Spiritual Crisis in Turkey’ and ‘Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’ around various cities in Turkey.
She was successful in inspiring many women to wear the Hijab. The enemies of Islam, hypocrites- who bore Muslim names, started filing lawsuits against her for her Dawah efforts (Islamic call).
In 1967 the Turkish Women’s Union filed a lawsuit against her for an article in which she wrote:
“It’s a must that Muslim women put on their headscarves.”
During the 60s and 70s she travelled around Turkey giving lectures and many of her followers began to wear the headscarf, but her actions didn’t go unnoticed by the powers of the time.
She asked the Turkish people, especially the women to turn to Islam. Nevertheless, her harsh criticisms against western values received backlash from secularist female activist groups such as the Turkish Women’s Union, and she was judged in court against allegations of speaking out against Turkish laicism.
One conference in particular, in Ankara’s Faculty of Language, History and Geography, in 1971, caught the attention of then-president Cevdet Sunay, who said:
“Those behind [the increasing number of] covered women on the streets will be punished…”
Sule Yuksel Senler wrote in an article that the President should seek forgiveness from Allah and the entire nation for his insulting comments on Hijab clad women.
Şenler responded in a letter to Sunay saying that he “should apologize to Allah and the nation.”
A warrant was put out for her arrest, and when she was hospitalised, the police were called, but doctors helped her escape.
She lived on the run until she was taken ill again with tuberculosis. Now unable to run, she handed herself into the police and was thrown into Bursa jail for a 9-month sentence. After public outcry, Sunay pardoned her two months in, but she refused amnesty and carried out her whole sentence, despite her ill health.
“Mother Sule was a woman with a cause, having a stance of life with strength, courage and an uncompromising attitude,” said Muzeyyen Tasci, a conservative Turkish author, who was mentored under Senler’s tutelage for nearly 30 years.
The autocratic response to Senler’s headscarf made her famous among conservative women and men.
“People who wanted to silence my aunt’s voice, indeed, somewhat promoted her in a better way. If they did not indict my aunt, imprisoning her and bringing more bans, newspapers would not talk about her and neither Sule Yuksel Senler nor Sulebas could have been known [by the larger public],” her niece Aysenur Alev Yilmaz said.
After her release, she defiantly continued delivering lectures, writing articles, and authoring books for several years as a journalist. She defended and propagated the message of Islam, all whilst battling advanced age and illness. She authored many articles and books on Islam and related topics.
On the 27th of Dhul Hijjah 1440 (28th August 2019), Şule Yüksel Şenler, aged 81, took her last breath and passed on to meet her Lord.
Innā lillāhi wa innā ilayhi rājiʿūn. Indeed, to Allāh we belong, and to Him we return.
We ask Allah to accept her Jihad for the sake of her attempts to revive Islam in Turkey. We beseech Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) to expand her grave, shower His infinite mercy upon her, forgive her sins, and grant her family patience. We also ask Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) to make this difficult time an expiation of sins and the raising of rank in the sight of our Lord.
Allah says in The Quran:
Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah [i.e. they have gone out for Jihad (holy fighting), and showed not their backs to the disbelievers], of them some have fulfilled their obligations (i.e. have been martyred), and some of them are still waiting, but they have never changed [i.e.they never proved treacherous to their covenant which they concluded with Allah] in the least. (Quran 33:23)
-Abu Muaaz Mohammed Manna
11th Rabi Al-Akhir 1441.
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Compiled from:
https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/2019/08/29/sule-yuksel-senler-icon-for-muslim-women-passes-away
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Kemal_Atatürk%27s_personal_life
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Note: This article doesn’t encourage seeking Islamic knowledge from any of the links or personalities mentioned above. Sule Yuksel Senler or Shaikh Saeed Nursi (May Allah have mercy on both of them) were mentioned only to remind the Ummah about their efforts to revive Islam in the turbulent era of secularism in Turkey. We do not agree to everything that they have or may have propagated. We ask Allah to accept their good deeds and forgive their mistakes. Aameen.
Saheehus-Seerah 