Abstract
Muslims who moved away from the idea of civilization, which based on the revelation, set by the Prophet in Medina and relying on reason and developing with knowledge, fell back when they could not bring new discoveries in the idea of civilization in the face of the West. The decline was inevitable when the Ottoman State, which was the carrier of Islamic civilization, could not renew itself according to the requirements of the era. A number of thinkers began to make great efforts to ensure that the Islamic world and the Ottoman Empire would be good again. Especially in the 19th century, thinkers who appeared in various parts of Islamic geography presented some suggestions and came up with solutions for the liberation of the Islamic world and the Ottoman Empire. For the liberation of the Ottoman Empire and the Islamic world, the currents of thought that first began with the current of Islamism in the 1870s continued with Turkism, Ottomans, Westernism and Ittihad-i Islam. In the 19th century, intellectuals of the period such as Jamaluddin Efgani, Muhammad Abduh, Hayreddin Pasha of Tunis, Emir Shekip Arslan, Said Halim Pasha, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Mehmet Akif came to the fore as activists of these thought movements. In particular, Islamism and the unifying aspect of Ittihad-i Islam have taken a great place in minds. Islamism aimed to make Islam dominant again in life by making contemporary interpretations in the fields of faith, worship, morality, philosophy, politics, law and education in the 19th and 20th centuries. By a rational method, it aimed to bring the Muslim mind that the Prophet had built in Mecca back to life. Thus, it aimed to civilize, unite and develop the Islamic world by freeing it from the exploitation of the West, the effects of modernism, bondage, imitation, superstition. Activists of this movement, who prioritize political, scientific and intellectual work, have put forward many proposals and solutions. Muhammad Abduh, who had the idea of Islamism/Ittihad-i Islam, worked throughout his life to glorify Islam and Muslims and to free the west from its captivity. Mehmet Akif also did not compromise his ideas in question during the Republican periods of legitimacy, Ittihad and progress in which he lived. Therefore, the efforts of these two people should be well known for the systemization and continuation of Islamism / Ittihad-i-Islam thoughts. In this case, we will try to put forward the views of Muhammad Abduh, who grew up in the Egypt of the Islamic geography and knew the West well, and Mehmet Akif, who grew up in the Anatolia/Balkan, as a comparison of Islamism and the Ittihad-i Islamic movement added to it.