A letter from a teacher to her students — a reflection on how studying theology dissolved her assumed paradigm and immersed her in a vast ocean of meaning, on the discipline's ability to connect with so many other fields, and on the recognition that absolute truth belongs only to Allah while we, throughout our lives, remain searchers.
Dated 23 August, 2025.
A Deepening Affection: Lost in the Universe of Meaning in Theology
When I finished high school, my goal wasn’t study theology. As the daughter of a religious scholar and mufti, I believed I had sufficient knowledge about Islam and had thus formed my Islamic weltanschauung! However, as time progressed, when I began studying theology with great interest and love, my perceived paradigm — which I believed I possessed — collapsed, and I found myself immersed in the vast ocean of theology. From the very first days, as I encountered our course content and met our authoritative professors, I realized that theological education held a pool of knowledge that lifetimes couldn’t encompass. Being a diligent student who scrupulously followed lectures and took notes also taught me the process of inquiry.
Our professors’ dedicated approach and their lenient and patient demeanor in the face of questions compelled me to read and understand more each day.
In the years that followed, encountering fields such as Islamic history, philosophy, exegesis, hadith, law, history of sects, kalam, and many others, each with its unique approaches, enriched my experience. Theology’s ability to connect us with so many different disciplines enabled me to question the meaning of life more sagaciously and transformed my perspective on life. I learned that interpretation is a richness but not an absolute. This learning opened dozens of doors that led to a better understanding of human history. I internalized the approach that every historical period has its own ethos and that those periods must be understood within their own historical context.
I came to realize that absolute truth belongs only to Allah, and that we, throughout our lives, are individuals searching for truth. With this awareness, I observed, and continue to observe, the immense value of being lost in the universe of meaning in theology.
How fortunate you, my dear students, are to have earned the honor of being students of A.Ü. Faculty of Theology. With a sense of accountability and the hope and expectation that you will add many more meanings to the universe of meaning in theology…
With love,
Nahide Bozkurt