Obituary: Late Professor Hasan Onat

Abstract

Dr. Hasan Onat, who was born in 1957 in Cankiri, Turkey, after his primary education therein, got his secondary and high school degrees from the boarding school in Yozgat. He graduated from Divinity School of Ankara University in 1979 and started to work here as an assistant in the department of History of Islamic Sects. Between 17 August 1999 and 16 August 2020 he held the deans office in Corum Divinity School of Gazi University. As he was continuing his studies in Divinity School of Ankara University where he had held a position for a long time, he passed away on September, 27, 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic to which he was exposed. The first issues that come to mind when the name of Hasan Onat is mentioned; The common denominator of Islam is to understand tradition very well, to put being human at the center, to try to understand the information age, to consider differences as wealth, to understand change, to understand the relationship between ideas and events, the relationship of mind and revelation, the relationship between religion and science, and to understand modern Western thought. He also often stated that religion emphasized individual liberation and thought that Muslim society could only develop by empowering the individual. He was hopeful about the future of the Islamic ummah. But the tides were also shaking his hopes from time to time. Despite this, he never hesitated to work and struggle in the name of protecting the human dignity bestowed upon him by God Almighty.