IDDEF stands for "Federation of Associations that Value Humanity”.
What Does “Valuing People” Mean To Us ?
According to our Chairman Mahmud Efendi, “Contemplating a human being's afterlife is the greatest value given to a human being”. Thinking about people's afterlives entails communicating God's commands and prohibitions to all people, regardless of language, nation, race or gender, and explaining how to comply with them, thereby assisting these people in finding comfort and peace in the afterlife.
IDDEF Was Founded By Whom And When ?
IDDEF was founded in 2009 as a result of the efforts of our scholar, Mahmud Efendi, and the İsmailağa Community, who have long been involved in preaching and education.
Services
What Services Does IDDEF Provide ?
The primary objective of our services at IDDEF is to provide education and activities. Aside from these, our second core consists of various humanitarian aid services such as the construction of water wells, food and goods distribution, emergency disaster relief, health aid support, qurban, zakat, and ramadhan, as well as the construction of complexes such as mosques and madrasahs.
Why Are We Working In So Many Different Countries ?
Muslims all over the world are struggling to survive in the midst of wars and economic hardships. These are the most severe and exhausting conditions we have ever witnessed. We decided to take responsibility for solving these problems after evaluating the requests for assistance we received from various geographies. We know that Allah commanded us to maintain Ummah unity and that our Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) never said that Mecca or Medina would suffice for us. The Sahabe-i Kiram left their hometown to serve Islam. It should not be forgotten that scholars who served outside their homelands, such as Scholar Ahmed Yesevi and Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, helped spread and strengthen Islam in Anatolia.
Do You Have Any Activities In The Base Country ?
Our domestic activities are managed by our brothers and sisters' institution, the İsmailağa Foundation.
Projects
Where Will Our Madrasahs Be Located ?
In areas where Islamic education has been pushed to the margins due to economic, social, and political issues, missionaries, perverted sects, and terror-supporting fringe groups are attempting to infiltrate Muslim societies by exploiting this void. Terrorism, violence, and sectarianism have reached a peak in the last decade as a result of these activities among Muslims who have lived in unity and peace with a proper understanding of Islam for centuries. All of these issues can be resolved by learning Islam correctly. The only institutions that train scholars by continuing their education in the manner shown by our Prophet (pbuh) are madrasahs, and the people who know Islam best and will teach it are scholars who have received its training. As a result, we are revitalising madrasahs and working to establish new madrasahs.
How Are Madrasahs And Teachers Selected ?
First, our teachers visit the chosen country and conduct research on the madrasah system. IDDEF undertakes the best madrasah in the region, along with its teachers and students, after analysing the local system with questions such as which group, which sect, which method, and similar questions. This madrasah is designated as the central madrasah and begins its operations. There are times when we cannot find a madrasah or a good teacher with the qualifications we require in the cities we visit. In this case, we, as an institution, organise the opening of the madrasah, the appointment of teachers, and the admission of students.
How Is The Madrasah Establishment Process Carried Out ?
Selected madrasahs receive technical and physical infrastructure support, and their deficiencies are addressed. The administrative system has been restructured in a manner similar to our current madrasah system. The best teachers work in madrasahs with complete administrative and physical facilities to raise the highest quality students. After the central madrasa educates its first students, some of them travel to Turkey to receive advanced education before returning to their hometown as regional teachers. Students who do not travel to Turkey but have graduated establish local madrasahs affiliated with IDDEF's central madrasah and educate their own students. As a result, circles of knowledge continue to grow and spread in a controlled and rapid manner.
What Kind Of Education Does IDDEF Provide In Madrasahs ?
Regardless of their country or madrasah, every student who completes their education grows up to be a knowledgeable scholar and a talented preacher. Although most of our madrasahs offer specialised education, we have also established scientific knowledge to serve as Hadith scholars and Hafiz. Throughout their training, we provide our students with versatile and functional knowledge. In some of our madrasahs, we provide vocational training that the region requires and is capable of, in addition to Islamic education. In this way, we ensure that our teachers are versatile individuals capable of meeting society's daily needs. We take great care to ensure that students retain their own dispositions and sects and do not lose any of their cultural elements during their education. Depending on the country's conditions and needs, our madrasahs can only offer boarding and daily education. We organise additional courses in the form of seasonal courses for young people and students who are unable to attend the madrasah on a regular basis during the summer and winter school holidays. Male and female students are served in separate buildings. The curriculum in all of our madrasahs is generally similar, but it may differ from region to region depending on the needs and situation. The most important aspect that our teachers pay close attention to is that the lessons are taught in accordance with the Ahl-i Sunnah Wa'l Jamaah belief.
What Does The Ahl-i Sunnah Wa'l Jamaah Creed Mean ?
Literally, it means “People of the Sunnah and the Community”. Some sources refer to it simply as Sunni Islam. To put it another way, it means following the sunnah of our Prophet (pbuh), the practice of the companions, and the comments made by Mujtahids on these issues. The creed of Ahl-i Sunnah Wa'l Jamaah is the most accurate way of understanding Islam and is followed by the vast majority of Muslims worldwide today. The preservation and spread of this belief is central to both our educational work and understanding of our service. Following the path of Ahl-i Sunnah Wa'l Jamaah has taught us to continue education, preaching, and Sufism together. As a result, we base our work on these three guiding principles.
Does IDDEF Stay In Touch With Academics And Local Communities ?
According to our scholar Mahmud Efendi, "Everyone who teaches within the Ahl-i Sunnah Wa'l Jamaah is our teacher, and everyone who learns within the Ahl-i Sunnah Wa'l Jamaah is our student." Based on his words, we support the Ahl-i Sunnah Wa'l Jamaah scholars and communities in the countries we visit, both materially and spiritually. On the other hand, because of the connection between these scholars, who have a high public reputation, and IDDEF, the public sincerely embraces and protects our work.
Why Do We Prefer To Work With Local Teachers Rather Than Turkish Teachers In Madrasahs ?
Contrary to popular belief, there are 700-year-old madrasahs in both Africa and Asia that have educated great scholars. These madrasahs have a much deeper understanding of how to communicate with the public, what the public wants, student education, and a variety of other local issues than we do. In fact, the success of these systems has been demonstrated by the scholars who have studied in these madrasahs, who have assisted millions of people in becoming Muslims over the last century. However, the real need of these madrasahs, which have suffered heavy blows, particularly in the last 50 years, as a result of economic and political problems, is physical and administrative support, as well as the completion of deficiencies and the improvement of educational quality. As a result, IDDEF prefers to hand over our madrasahs to local teachers in the name of providing a better madrasah education.
Wouldn't It Be More Effective To Educate Foreign Students In Turkey And Then Send Them Back To Their Home Countries ?
The number of students enrolled in our madrasahs exceeds 8000. We intend to increase this number significantly in the near future. Bringing 8,000 students to Turkey and educating them is, of course, a huge financial and logistical undertaking. Furthermore, after arriving in Turkey, these international and underage students must go through a difficult cultural and physical adaptation process. All of these issues have a significant impact on the quality and efficiency of education. As a result of our research, we discovered that on-site training activities are much more affordable and provide much higher quality education. As a result, we prefer to educate students in their home countries.
How Do We Conduct Inspections Of Madrasahs ?
Our madrasahs are regularly inspected in terms of administrative and educational quality by our inspector teachers, who come from Turkey. Our teachers working in our madrasahs also inform our institution about the situation of the madrasah and the students with regular monthly reports. Furthermore, we hold an annual consultation meeting with our teachers and students, who meet at the guidance seminar we hold once a year, to eliminate problems and deficiencies in our system. We collect reports that we receive as a result of these systematic audits in a database and present them as information to our donors.
What Types Of Preaching Do We Do ?
The teachers we assign serve as full-time imams in the mosques we have identified or opened in three ways. Our scholars establish scientific knowledge in order to raise public awareness and revitalise Ahl-i Sunnah Wa'l Jamaah. On Thursday evenings, after night prayer, science and knowledge meet. Throughout the week, visual and written announcements are made inviting the public to participate. Following the programme, snacks are distributed to the general public as a treat. In addition, we provide transportation for our teachers and hold weekly conversation meetings in the villages surrounding the mosque. This method of preaching is particularly effective against the work of missionaries and heretical sects operating in rural and village areas. Furthermore, thanks to the special training they receive, our teachers identify regional problems and offer solution suggestions with the help of IDDEF. People respect and admire our teachers. Participation in conversations and the science of knowledge continue to expand.
Why Do We Undertake The Water Well Project ?
663 million people worldwide, the majority of whom are Muslims, lack access to safe drinking water. Every week, water obtained from muddy puddles and purified under primitive conditions claims the lives of 2000 people, the majority of whom are children and babies. Because men go to work, it is mostly the responsibility of women and girls to find, transport, and purify water. Muslim women and girls walk an average of 6 kilometres per day and spend 40 billion hours per year looking for water. Girls are unable to attend madrasah because of the time spent searching for water, and women are unable to take care of their families. Women and girls who walk for many kilometres alone on deserted roads in search of water face numerous threats, harassment, and dangers. Another major issue is that Muslims who cannot find clean water are unable to perform important Islamic rituals such as ablution, latrine, and cleaning. The parts played are so heinous that they violate human dignity. However, providing Muslims with a bowl of clean water to drink, saving wives and daughters from the agony of finding water, and leading our Muslim brothers and sisters to a life worthy of Islamic honour are all very simple problems that can be solved by digging a well. We, as IDDEF, can solve these problems and construct water wells with the help of our donors.
İnsana Değer Veren
Dernekler Federasyonu
İDDEF, tüm dünyada eğitim çalışmaları amacı ile kurulmuş, bu çalışmalarına destek olarak çeşitli alanlarda insani yardım faaliyetlerinde de bulunan, İstanbul merkezli İslami ve insani bir yardım kurumudur.