Why Was Tolstoy’s Book “The Prophet Muhammad” Hidden?

It has an important place in the Turkish press and is known for its attitude towards the phenomenon of religion. Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyDid he choose to become a Muslim shortly before his death? Or are these just allegations?

Tolstoy’s anarchist stance And while religious people claimed that he was a “secret Muslim” due to his conflict with the Church, some researchers spent their lives proving that Tolstoy was a deist and criticizes Islam in response to these claims. So who is the real Tolstoy, let’s figure it out.

Tolstoy, who was born in 1828 to a family with land-rich noble roots; His father was a count and his mother was a princess. However, he lost both of them at an early age.

As someone who went to various regions for his education and devoted himself to reading, Tolstoy devoted himself to writing. This person, whom we know with War and Peace, Anna Karanina and many important works, We would not be wrong if we say that he spent half of his life establishing the philosophy of belief. The following sentences he wrote in his diary at the age of 24 show some clues about his faith:

“I made a short formula of my principles: “I believe in only one thing: in the beautiful God, immortality of the soul and eternal punishment for our actions. I do not understand the mystery of the Trinity and the birth of the son of God; but I respect the faith of my ancestors and I do not reject it.”

After he was excommunicated by the Orthodox Church for his opposition to the government, these words he said about religion remained:He who starts out by loving Christianity more than the truth, goes by loving his denomination or church, and eventually arrives at self-love above all else.”

His meeting with Arab culture and therefore with Islam coincides with the years 1844-1845. read in childhood “One Thousand and One Nights” He continued his journey that started with Tsar Alexander I in 1905 by studying Oriental Studies at the Faculty of Arabic and Turkish at Kazan University. His first contact with Muslims was with Sheikh Shamil’s Muridism movement.

It is understood that Tolstoy, who wrote the works of Kazakhs and Hadji Murat through muridism, saw Islam as a spiritual journey. Just in these years, the Volga Tatars and Bashkirs On the offensive of Russian imperialism those were the years. Kazan suffered from an intense missionary influx after the occupation; Christianization was carried out alongside the colonization.

It is said that Tolstoy raised the banner against the Church. Moreover, this situation has been a great source of morale for the Tatars.

During this period, Tolstoy began to correspond with Kazan Tatars. Many sources confirm this. Alone From Kazan Tatars not; Receiving solidarity support from all around, Tolstoy said, “I greatly appreciate the spiritual relations with Muslims.“He said. While he was doing research on religion, Explaining Islam He makes the following distinction between faith and trust:

“What you call faith is actually trust, that is, the recognition as true of what a well-known person has said; all religions are based on such trust… There are thousands of conflicting trusts from this trust, and that’s why all the evil in the world comes from that trust. faith is only the belief that accepts the existence of the supreme command, He is the God from whom I come and return, for whom I live and of which I am a part.”

When Tolstoy started to research religions, people from some religious movements also contacted him. Among them are Baha’is and Qadianis, who are of Muslim origin.

The fact that he was in contact with many Muslims did not make him a Muslim, nor did it turn him against Islam. He just thinks that Islam developed more naturally than Christianity. In addition, Tolstoy, who made many readings about religion, of course, also researched many things about the religion of Islam. Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov “The Life of Prophet Muhammad and His Religious Teaching” work is one of them.

Besides “The Sayings of Muhammad” by Sühreverdi After his work (The Sayings of Muhammad) was published, Tolstoy translated this book into Russian. In this book, he actually emphasized justice and equality through Islam.

Hz. Muhammad’s hadiths and his admiration for Islam with his own interpretations, revealed by Hz. The book of Muhammad was tried to be kept secret.

We know how important Tolstoy was. Since he was seen as a person of divine power in his period, if he was a Muslim, it would have brought a strong sympathy and curiosity towards the religion of Islam in the Russian society. That’s why this book is always “hidden book” remained as It was first published in the Azerbaijani press in 1978 after years.

In the 40th volume of the 90-volume corpus, which was published in 1958 and contains all of Tolstoy’s works, “Hz. There are also hadiths of Muhammad that are not included in the Qur’an.

Tolstoy’s tomb.

The one who married an Arab and converted to Islam in the book There is talk of a Russian woman named Valeriya Porohova. Porohova says that Tolstoy converted to Islam in his last remaining years and made his will that he wanted to be buried in the ground just like Muslims. Strangely enough, this woman, who also says that she was buried according to Islamic methods, adds that there is no cross on her grave.

It is revealed with the book that the Soviet governments have kept this fact secret for years because they fear that the Russians will turn to Islam. The point is, we don’t know whether Tolstoy was a Muslim or not. However, if it is necessary to make a comment based on what he wrote and what was said about him, even if he did not accept Islam, his views and opinions His outlook on life was very close to Islam.