In a heartfelt tribute to the late Mullah Mustafa Durgun, a man who dedicated his entire life to educating youth and reforming society, friends and community members share their memories of his unwavering commitment and selfless devotion to his cause.

The friends of Mullah Mustafa Durgun, who dedicated his whole life to the education of the youth and the reformation of the society and gave up everything for this cause and filled his life with goodness and blessings, emphasized his determination to fight.

A board member of ITTIHADUL ULEMA, Mullah Abdulkuddus Yalçın, one of his friends who met the late Mullah Mustafa Durgun in the 1990s, talked about Durgun's determination to struggle while Tevfik Şanlı, one of the family elders of Bozek neighborhood which Mullah Durgun visited in the 1990s, talked about his dialog with people and the interest he created. Ittihadul ULEMA Secretary General Molla Muhammad Özer said that the last wishes of the deceased were fulfilled through the funeral ceremony.

Mollah Muhammad Özer, Secretary General of ITTIHADUL ULEMA, who knew Mullah Mustafa Durgun, a member of ITTIHADUL ULEMA, closely and visited him a few hours before his death and almost received his will, started his speech with the prayer "May Allah have mercy on Mullah Mustafa and honor him with Paradise" and shared the aspects of Durgun that impressed him.

Muhammed Özer

"Despite his advanced age, he dedicated the last 15-20 years of his life to the young children studying in his madrasa"

Özer said: "He certainly had many qualities, but I would like to mention 2 of them that caught my attention. The first was his upright position in the Islamic line. In other words, he never kept silent when the boundaries of Islam were violated. He was uncompromising, uncompromising, and he objected. This characteristic was very prominent. The second characteristic was that after the opening of ITTIHADUL ULEMA, specially in the last 15-20 years of his life, despite his advanced age, he devoted his time to the little children who were studying in the preparatory madrasah. In other words, he gave a lot of time to these little children. He took care of them with much patience, mercy and compassion. All the children he took care of for 15-20 years were present at the funeral. So he raised a generation and left a generation behind.

Özer talked about the conversation he had during his visit before his death and said, "Before Mullah Mustafa Durgun passed away in the evening, I visited him during the day. When I visited him, he said, 'ITTIHADUL ULEMA should take care of my funeral. As you can see, all the scholars and disciples of ITTIHADUL ULEMA were present at the funeral. We buried him with khatims, dhikr, and takbirs. The latter asked me to send greetings to the community. We conveyed Durgun's greetings to his community and madrasas. I heard about Durgun's demise around 10:00 p.m. At that moment, I felt that another Ulema had left the world whose place will be empty. As ITTIHADUL ULEMA, we have members, teachers, madrasas and students, but the void of Durgun will always be there, that void will always be there.

Abdulkuddus Yalçın

"His speeches were very effective because they came from the heart and faith"

Mullah Abdulkuddus Yalçın, member of the board of directors of ITTIHADUL ULEMA, who told the story of meeting the late Mullah Durgun, said: "Before 2000, Islamic weddings were held. Our weddings were for the purpose of inviting people to Islam, and in our weddings, important personalities would come together, approach a person they found in the environment, and after getting acquainted, they would start talking. Many people were really won to the cause of Islam. Weddings were held in squares. There were no musical instruments, only spoken poems. All the poems were full of Islamic messages. Since I had a beautiful voice in those days, my friends also called me".

Yalçın emphasized that Durgun's most outstanding characteristic was his uncompromising nature and said: "He would not compromise even if the other side was offended. At that time, Bismil was the home of the PKK. The people and the guise of religion were also inclined towards them. One day Durgun was talking about the rule of the Qur'an and Islam. When a mullah asked Durgun, "Who will do it? He replied, "We will! So Durgun's speech was very effective. Because it was obvious that it came from the heart and from faith. In fact, those who came there were also touched. There were many speakers, but Durgun's speech was different. It had a really serious effect on both the family members and those who came from the neighborhood to pay their respects.

"Durgun was very fond of the Quran. He knew Tajweed very well and his voice was beautiful"

Sharing the process of emigration with Durgun, Yalçın said: "There was great pressure on Muslims in the 2000s. No Muslim was comfortable. Alhamdulillah, we took some emigration and we had to leave our duty, our hometown, our relatives, but Durgun's was different. He lost his family and was completely cut off. He stayed with us for a while and then in other houses. When he stayed with us, I saw that Seyda was humble. From the outside, one might have thought that this man was arrogant, but when we stayed together, we saw that he was not like that at all".

Yalçın added that Durgun had a very modest and hardworking structure and that this diligence made him uncompromising and said that along with these characteristics, Durgun also had a playful mood.

Yalçın said: "Durgun was very humorous. Because he had lost his own children, when an activity came up, he would immediately say 'I'm ready to do. He used to use a Kurdish expression: 'jı me yeki hebu ez mame farıs ha mal ha ber garıs' (either at home or on duty, I don't have a home anyway. I will do whatever duty there is). Durgun was very fond of the Qur'an. He knew the tajweed very well and his voice was beautiful. He used to give Qur'an lessons to children. Later, when he had a house, he gave Qur'an lessons to the congregation of the mosque and established serious and sincere friendships with many people.

Yalçın said: "Alhamdulillah, madrasas were opened. When the madrasas were opened, he devoted himself to teaching as much as he could. Even in those days, Durgun used to read. We also discussed Hanafi and Shafi'i jurisprudence and other Arabic books with him at home. In addition, he was sick; he had diabetes, prostate, and heart problems, and he often went to the doctor. Nevertheless, he was like a young man. We were happy with him and benefited a lot from him. He was indeed a culture, a school and a madrasa. May my Lord (Jalla Jalaluhu) have mercy on him. May He not deprive us of His reward. May he and we be among the martyrs and the righteous."

Tevfik Şanlı

"'I am not a man of Zakat, Allah gives me my sustenance', he would refuse the offered Zakat money"

Tevfik Şanlı, a resident of Bozek neighborhood who met Mullah Durgun in recent years, said: "I did not know Durgun before. In recent years, he used to come to our neighborhood and lead Friday prayers. Every time he came to the neighborhood, he would bring us together and talk about Islam and the Qur'an. He was an Islamic mujahid, he was brave. He was not afraid of anyone. He was a valuable scholar. After we met him, we really loved him as a neighborhood."

Emphasizing that Molla Durgun did not desire worldly goods, Şanlı expressed his interest and concern for children as follows:

"His house was in the Ergani district. When he came to our neighborhood, he would fill his pockets with sweets and distribute them to the children who met him at the entrance of the neighborhood. So much so that on Friday morning, all the children of the neighborhood would go to meet him with the joy of "Today is Friday, Durgun will come and distribute sweets". He would never be debtful to anyone and would refuse the zakat money offered by people, saying, "I am not a zakat man, Allah gives me my sustenance. When he was working in the upper mosque of Ergani, someone gave him zakat money. He did not take it and said, "Zakat is not mine, give it to the poor. Then the person who gave the zakat said, 'Durgun's faith is as much as Ergani's.'"

Şanlı said: "Durgun worked day and night for the cause of Allah. He used to come to my house and I loved him like a brother and he loved me too. May Allah not deprive us of his blessings and knowledge. Durgun sacrificed his soul for the cause of Allah and the Qur'an. He had no possessions; if he had given zakat, he would have been a rich man. He had nothing but himself, not even a house. Like a companion of the Prophet, he had either 2 quilts or none. He traveled from village to village in the cause of Allah and preached Islam. He devoted his soul to the cause of Allah and the Messenger until his last breath. May Allah not deprive him of his goodness and blessings.

The legacy of Mullah Mustafa Durgun is one of unwavering faith, selflessness, and a lifelong commitment to education and reform. His impact on the community, especially the young minds he nurtured, will continue to be felt for generations to come. As friends and community members reminisce about his dedication and unwavering principles, they are reminded of the profound influence he had on their lives and the community at large. Mullah Durgun's legacy serves as an enduring source of inspiration for all those who strive to uphold the values he held dear. (ILKHA)