This is a man who loved. A man who loved passionately and fiercely. That’s his secret. We wonder, how can someone who came from nothing and left with nothing changed so much?

And the answer is, this is a man who loved. This is a man who loved Allah with passion and strength. He loved Islam with passion. He loved humans with passion. Not just Muslims. He loved Muslims, but he loved humanity. And that is his secret. That is what allowed someone who came from nothing and left with nothing to change so much.

The question that we must ask ourselves, friend and foe, and it is an important question: What did he leave behind? Did he leave behind a palace with a thousand rooms or a library with a thousand books? Did he leave behind a trail of tears because of injustice and pain? Or a trail of tears because of the love in the hearts of the people, some of whom never met him? Did he leave behind cars and gold and silver and bank accounts? He left with his garment and left nothing else behind, but his legacy and the love in your hearts that he sow.

I have a message from him, if I may be so pretentious. I can hear him say to you: “Hizmet was never about me. It was always about you. Don't make it about me. I never asked you to make it about me. It's about you and your power. Your power to love and your power to transform. I was not given a special power. Only, I found my power through the love of Allah. Find your power through the love of Allah and the love of humanity. And you will transform as well.”

He left behind books, institutions, and soft hearts. That's the only legacy you left behind. All those who doubted, all the cynics, all those who pointed fingers, all those who sowed false narratives: that's what he left behind. He started his career in a cold, barren window in a mosque in the city of Edirne in Turkey. And he left in a small room in Pennsylvania. That was his first abode in palace, and that was his last abode in palace, and transformed the world in between. Not in the sense of revolution, not in the sense of political ideology, not in the sense of creating tribe and nationalism and flag, but in the sense of sowing love in the hearts that then transformed other hearts, and so the fire of love goes.

I knew him not through him, but through you. I knew he was your family and came to love him. Because, as we say in Christianity, “You shall know them by their fruit.” And I knew him by his fruit. There was not a member of Hizmet I have met other than respect and admiration. Who is the teacher who taught these people?

Intelligence is for everybody. Capabilities for everyone. That's not what impresses. And there are tons of it here. But what's unique about this movement is the humility and the dedication and the perseverance and the lack of ego and the love of humanity. That is what made me an admirer of the Hizmet. I sing its praises everywhere. I shall remain an admirer and a friend till the last breath of my life.