He is an Islamic intellectual, preacher, Ottoman propagandist, pan-Turkist, and Turkish thinker. Gülen's father was elected as the village headman in 1941. He was registered as Mohammed Fethullah, according to official sources, and he was born on #27-04-1941# .
Fethullah Gulen, son of Ramiz Efendi, became acquainted with science, literature, and religion in his early childhood. His mother, Rafia Khanum, was a well-known pious woman. Her mother taught her son the Qur'an when he was over four years old She would not sleep in the middle of the night and teach her son the Qur'an.
His father's house hosted all the well-known scholars and Sufis in the area, so Fethullah Gülen sat in the assembly of scholars and listened to them. His father taught him Persian and Arabic.
He studied in religious schools. As a child and young man, he was spiritually educated along with religious men. He did not forget to study other sciences and philosophy During his school years, he became acquainted with and deeply influenced by the messages of Noor, a universal innovative movement led by Badi'uzzaman Saeed Nursi.
As he grew older, his views and culture became more diverse and he studied Western culture with their ideas and philosophies along with Eastern philosophies, as well as the established sciences such as physics, chemistry, cosmology, biology, etc.
When Fethullah Gulen reached the age of 20, he was appointed imam of the Üç Şerefeli Mosque in Edirne, where he spent two and a half years.
He began his preaching work in Izmir at the Kestane Pazari Mosque in a Qur'an recitation school dedicated to the mosque. He then worked as an itinerant preacher, traveling throughout western Anatolia explaining the Islamic way to the people.
He has several books translated into many languages of the world, including religious, historical and Philosophical books. He has a Movement known as Hizmet (which means Service), which is a moderate Islamic movement, the goal of the movement is to establish ties and make connections throughout the world by opening colleges, schools, and universities. It has many supporters both inside and outside Turkey.
In 2016, Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Fethullah Gulen and his followers of carrying out a coup, and many of his followers were imprisoned and deported.
It is worth to mention there are several schools and universities belonging to the Hizmet movement in Kurdistan and it is worth to mention the movement has many Kurdish Followers.[1]