All praise belongs to God Almighty.

O God, send Your salutations upon Your Messenger, Muhammad (pbuh), who is the key to Your gates of mercy.

We ask you O the Most Merciful One, to have mercy on Hocaefendi’s soul, to grant him the highest level of Paradise, and to make him a neighbor to the Prophet, peace be upon him.

I ask you O the Most Merciful, to forgive me, for the following words , should have been uttered not by me but any of those thousands who hails from a distant corner of the world where they went to serve, inspired by Hocaefendi; this special man whose legacy we’re honoring today. The countless schools he inspired have brought about so many selfless individuals, and they are the ones who deserve to offer their prayers at his funeral… I open my hands and put them under the hands of all of these heroes of service and present their duas and prayers to you, O Lord, along with mine. Please accept them all.

We are mourning and are indeed heavy-hearted. Mend our hearts, O Lord. Send Sakeena – tranquility – upon this beautiful congregation here, as well as all the people around the world, regardless of their creed or color who are feeling heartbroken. We all feel like we’ve lost a father. We all feel as if we’re orphaned. There is a huge void in our lives at this very moment – and You are the Only one who can heal and mend hearts…

But we also know that in the Quran – Your Divine Message – You instruct us not to call people who die on your path, dead. “Rather they are alive, but you do not comprehend.” 

We’re all witnesses to the fact that this special man spent his every moment in your path… But we might not be able to comprehend how he might be alive now.

However, there is a clue…

Your beloved Messenger once told that when a man dies, his deeds come to an end, except for three things: Ongoing charity; beneficial knowledge, and a righteous child who will pray for them.

All of the services and institutions of Hizmet community is also his charity – so they live on.

All of his speeches and books are beneficial knowledge – so they continue.

Yes, he didn’t have any children; but in a way we are all his children; so we pray and will continue to pray for him.

But more importantly, what is alive is his LEGACY.

We ask you O Lord to enable us to uphold this legacy…

A legacy that goes all the way back to the best of creation, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

It is said that during the momentous experience of the day of judgement, while everyone else will be only concerned about their own souls, only the Prophet will be concerned for others, saying “ummeti, ummeti… my people, my people..”

Hocaefendi lived according to that Prophetic concern for people.

We are witnesses to this, O Lord.

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi famously stated “If only the faith of my nation was secure, for which I’d be ready to burn in the flames of Hell.”

Hocaefendi exhibited this type of sacrifice for all people throughout his life…

We are witnesses to this, O Lord.

He lived for others and motivated many others to do so. Everyone here is a living proof to this.

We are witnesses to this, O Lord.

We live in a world seemingly connected, yet brutally isolated, with each soul isolated in their own echo chambers, glued to their smartphones, disconnected from a life of meaning and purpose, and fallen prey to polarization and hate of others.

Hocaefendi imbued Mawlana Rumi’s invitation of “come whoever you are.” But he took it up a notch by saying “No… we don’t wait for others to come; you go out and seek them. Go out to the people! Build bridges of mutual understanding…”

Hence his students and followers did not say “come, whoever you are.” They said, “NO! we are coming to where you are.”

And just like that…he is being buried today not in his homeland, but here… As he himself responded to this very call of reaching out to people… Just like how most of the Prophet’s companions left their homelands to build bridges and were buried in faraway places from Spain to China.

That is his legacy, and we are witnesses to this, O Lord.

And finally, thank you o Giver of abilities, for blessing him with such a powerful ability to transform people… to move souls … to donate their time and money, and ultimately commit their whole lives to the service of others.

He lived as he believed… and he spoke… and speak he did! He was first, an orator…

He was sincerely humble with not even an ounce of false humility.

He always wanted to connect people directly with the Creator of Heavens and Earth, with the Truth, and moved himself out of the picture. It was never about him; it was about the Creator and His Messenger.

And thus in his speeches, he would so eloquently and passionately transfer us all to what he would call “The Epoch of Rose,” the time of the Prophet and his companions, and leave his audience right in front of these blessed scenes. People were indeed transformed and have since become ambassadors of peace; ambassadors of giving, of devotion, of sacrifice, of compassion, of always leaving an empty chair for each and every person on their table.

And now, as his physical existence is no more, he is literally removed from between the Creator and his creation, without the man we all knew as Fethullah Gülen…

We stand before his teachings and his legacy …

So, O Lord, help us to reflect that Muhammadan light, to carry that bright torch of justice, truth and love he so selflessly passed on…without bringing our egos into the equation, without having any ulterior motives, and without ever taking a break…

As we lay his body to your earth, may that serve as a new blessed seed planted in our hearts to reenergize all of us to spread across the globe yet again, to reach out, to lend a hand, to connect, to build bridges of understanding and cooperation.

We implore you, O Facilitator of everything good to help us actualize the deep vision he has left us with; a vision we have not done justice to; a vision we have not been able to fully understand. Make us keys that open the doors of mercy, and locks that shut the door of evil.

We see how much we need this, and we see how much the world needs this.

You are the Only One who Truly Responds to Prayers.

Wa aakhiru da’wahum anil hamdu lillahi rabbil alameen.

“The end of their prayers is: all praise belongs to the Lord of Everything.”