The article relates the biography and main ideas of Abai Qunanbayev, a famous Kazakh thinker and poet who promoted education and social justice. His understanding of faith emphasized the importance of education and ethical living and highlighted the value of hard work and altruism.

Abai (every one. “attentive,” “circumspect”) Qunanbayev, whose real name was Ibrahim, was born in 1845 in what is know today as the East Kazakhstan Region, in Jidebay tract which is part of Chingiz-Tau Mountain Range. His father, Qunanbay Uskenbaev, was an influential rich man. Abay gained a basic knowledge of Islamic sciences from a mullah in their village and then further developed it in the city Semey, where he studied with Mullah Ahmet-Riza. Simultaneously, Abai attended a Russian school, in which he mastered Russian and, via Russian translations, began reading Western literature. As he would famously describe this period of his life later on, “My East has become my West.”[1] Having finished his five-year school program, Abay composed his first poems. When he returned to his village at the age of 13, his father expressed a desire to assign him an administrative position and arranged for Abai to get the proper training. Shortly, the young man comes to play an increasingly active role in lawsuits both between ordinary citizens and influential administrators, thereby gaining first-hand insights into the poor state of his people’s social and economic affairs. Abai’s historical epoch was beset with such issues as Russia’s colonialist attitude toward the Kazakh people, the latter’s disunity, low-quality education, and widespread social inequality. Throughout the seventies of the 19^th century, Abay continued his self-education in the field of Russian literature, spending all his free time reading books. In Semey, he became acquainted with Russian democrats E. Michaelis, N. Dolgopolov, B. Grosspen and, with their help, obtained a better grasp of the ideas of such classics as A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov, N. Gogol, L. Tolstoy, M. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I. Goethe, etc. Abai also became privy to the outstanding legacy of such Eastern classics as Nawawi, Nizami, Fuzuli, Saadi, Ferdowsi, and Jami. Thus, Eastern Islamic culture, understood as a fusion of the Peripatetic thought with elements of Persian and Turkish Islamic cultures, profoundly influenced Abai’s philosophical and ethical views.[2] Abai’s original works, especially his poetry, creatively combined the motives of both Eastern and Western classical literature. In toto, he authored 170 poems and 56 translations, several epic poems, and his masterpiece Qara Sozderi (“Book of Words”).[3] Notably, Abai significantly contributed into the development of Kazakh literature by introducing to it the “poem” genre (i.e., a short poetic work dedicated to a certain theme).

Faith in Allah

According to Abai, one’s “faith” (iman) in Allah can be classified either as “investigative” (yaqini) or “imitative” (taqlidi). The “imitative” faith is not based off of evidence. This type of faith is represented by the information that one gains from one’s parents, relatives, and other members of one’s entourage, and is short-lived. In contrast, one can never lose one’s “investigative” (yaqini) faith. What acts as a crucial catalyzer of this type of faith is education. Faith as yaqini is so self-evident and firm that the horizon of its possessor can hardly be beclouded with any doubts; nor can it be subverted by any counterevidence. However, this “investigative” (yaqini) faith is not the last stage in one’s spiritual development, as it needs to be constantly further extended and strengthened by one’s “intuitive feeling” (sezim).

According to Abai, “Faith (iman) is to affirm as true, and to believe in, the complete and indivisible unicity and existence of Allah almighty, His commandments, and His statements that He conveyed to us through His Messenger (pbuh).[4] The “investigative” (yaqini), self-evident type of iman obtains when its possessor is not only certain herself but can also make a persuasive case thereof to any of her interlocutors. Even if someone attempts to prevail upon the possessor of this type of faith in an attempt to make her relinquish it and, if unobeyed, threatens her with death, she will never flinch.[5] Otherwise, one’s faith remains merely “imitative” (taqlidi). That is, Abai does not only accept the object of iman but also proves iman’s veracity based on evidence that he would consider “scientific,” thereby relegating the thematized objects of one’s iman from the category of “dogma” to the category of “established scientific knowledge.” Further, Abai borrows most of his examples from natural phenomena. For Abai, the self-evident fact that the order of things is created in a way beneficial to humanity proves the existence of God beyond any doubt. According to him, “The Agent Who created human beings’ eyes, eyebrows, tongues, teeth, and other organs must be someone Whose knowledge and power are unlimited. It is Allah who created all of these.”[6]

Abai espouses a Qur’anic viewpoint on the problem of the creation of the world and human beings. Allah created the world in a brilliant manner. Then, out of soil, He created the first human being and his spouse. Then He populated the Earth with different tribes and peoples. Allah created this world with an unsurpassable mastery and brought it to a state that is most comfortable for human living. However, human beings need to work to make use of things that were created for him and to perform certain activities to fully deploy them. One needs to live one’s life in a such a way that would allow one’s love for others to crystalize and one’s hatred for others to vanish; one needs to be modest and never show off, as these traits are, according to Abai, the very crux of authentic human existence in our common “cosmic” hotel.[7]

For the thinker Allah is a unique, incomparable substance that controls everything, all human living included. Any human being is necessarily connected to Allah. However, only those who intentionally attend to this connection obtain the feeling of joy and come to effuse love vis-a-vis everything created:

Love people and become the divine wisdom’s addressee,
There exists no other genuine joy in this world, you see.[8]

In Abai’s view, everything existing has a name and an essence. One’s life in this world is indeed truth, but it is a temporary truth. When one passes away, one continues to exist, albeit in a different dimension and in a different kind of way. They were the prophets (peace be upon them all!) who drove home to humankind the most paramount idea – human beings exist eternally and, upon their physical death, vanish not, living on in a different yet perpetual manner.

Abai also describes the generosity of the Creator. He gave human beings water and air as a free gift, as well as honoring them with intelligence. What He asks in return is nothing more than their thankfulness, their realization that they are guests on this planet and hence need to be grateful: “It turns out you are a guest in this world.”[9] That is, the aim of one’s life cannot be consumption of food and drink as is the case with animals because such a behaviour counts as an ingratitude toward the Creator. This world of ours is a testing ground in which one needs to “find” his or her Creator, praise Him, and carry out His commands, the meaning of one’s life being attainable only that way.

The Spiritual Dimension of Faith

Abai believed that the believer should not stick only to the extrinsic aspects of religion, such as one’s fasting, prayer, or pilgrimage to Mekkah. What really mattered in his sight was one’s intrinsic apprehension of religion, i.e., its very gist. For Abai, this intrinsic apprehension is tantamount to a greatest kind of humanism, one that no philosophical school in the world could ever oppose.[10]

Within inward, Sufi outlook, Abai attached an enormous importance to hard work and education. Abai calls those who earn their livelihood in an honest way as nothing but “saints,” as diligence and hard work are, in his understanding, invariable character traits of all “perfect human beings.”[11] According to Abai, “One needs to acquire skills. The livestock might perish due to jute (a freezing winter); skills, however, always perdure. A craftsman who sells whatever he created with his own hands and does not cheat anyone, is the best Kazakh.”[12] Here is how he describes his attitude to the importance of hard work:

Taking risks and daring can lead to triumph everyone,
While those who are lazy and slothful create none!
There exists no “dirty” work. Follow a donkey [in a manual job]
At least your hands and your honor will remain clean of daub![13]

Further, thanks to hard work, people can get rid of a range of flaws affecting the social dimension of human life, such as parasitism, idleness, addiction to frivolous, lightheaded life, etc.[14] According to Abai, “God gifted you with various capacities so that you could deploy them and work. You, however, do not spend this power for the sake of a righteous labor. God gave you knowledge, but what have you spent it on? Were you to do things wisely, you could become rich.”[15] For the Kazakh thinker, one’s attitude to hard work is an objective measure of that person’s spiritual perfection. According to Prof. Grigoriev, “The tight correlation of ‘hard work’ with things ‘spiritual’ is, in Abai’s view, one of the decisive conditions of the rational and moral-psychological renewal of both human being and society.”[16]

What is Knowledge?

Abai considers knowledge from two viewpoints, knowledge as received through one’s senses, and knowledge as received through one’s memory, the latter being the storehouse of what one’s senses receive. The former needs to be retained by being continuously re-processed and re-comprehended through repetition, which also positively affects the tenacity of one’s memory. One’s ability to be attentive and observant (mulahaza), too, plays no lesser role, correlating with such things as motivation, holism, self-control, and perseverance[17]. 

Speaking of divine omniscience, Abai cannot but touch upon the related issue of the freedom of human will. For him, whether one is sick, poor, healthy, whether one suffers from a mental disorder or, on the contrary, evinces an admirable mental and physical state, whether one tends to be violent and aggressive or forgiving and kind – all of these states and attitudes are essentially caused by the volition of the Creator. However, the Creator does not compel His servants to commit evil or perform good deeds, leaving room for their own execution of a chosen course of action. While creating good and evil, life and death indeed belongs exclusively to Allah, human free will is akin to fire – human beings can freely deploy it either to bring benefit or wreak havoc.[18]

Seeking Knowledge

Human beings are brough to inner perfection if their spirit comes to know the gist of the Universe. During this process, however, the animalistic aspects of their nature must be kept in check by the lofty, in fact, divine spiritual aspects thereof. As the “7^th Word” says, “Human beings cannot become truly human unless they disclose, for themselves, the visible and invisible secrets of the Universe and obtain some explanation of everything. Otherwise, the life of such a person would be no different from that of an animal. Right from the beginning, Allah distinguished human beings from animals with their unique soul (ruh). Then why do we, having come of age and acquired some knowledge, fail to seek – and indeed satisfy – that sense of wonder that was making us forget food and sleep when we were children? Why do not we choose the way of seeking knowledge? … No, we decided not to. Displaying hysterics and gloating, we have not advanced beyond a dunghill in the aul (village). The soul (ruh) was ruling over us only in the days of our childhood. Once we grew up and became stronger, we did not allow it to lord it on over us; instead, we subjugated it to our body and looked at everything around with our [material] eyes, not with our [immaterial] intellect. We no longer trust the impulses of our soul. Being content with the appearances of that which one’s gaze perceives, we do not even try to penetrate the outward shell of things, thinking that we lose nothing because of that ignorance.”[19] Hence, for Abai, the process of “humanization” of human beings is unthinkable without knowledge: “Without disclosing for themselves the manifest and hidden secrets of the Universe, without explaining to themselves everything about it, human beings cannot be who they really are. The mode of the existence of these ones is no different from that of animals.[20]

Furthermore, in the “7^th Word,” Abai mentions that, when human beings are born, they naturally come to posses two desires, carnal and intellectual. If the first one conduces them to the fulfilment of their own “ego,” the second one represents the activity of their soul (ruh) and manifests in the desire to acquire knowledge. Human beings are worthy being called “human” only when they are grasped by the second one.[21] In his work called The future Time as a Blue Mist, the poet states that the “ego” of human persons or their “I” is that which we call “intellect” or “soul” (ruh). At the same time, their self-interested love of consumption, their excessive desire to constantly replenish whatever their “I” attributes to the category of “Mine,” prevent them from developing their God-given potential. For them to say, “It’s mine,” is to follow their carnal desire; as for their genuine “I,” it is their unrestricted desire to know the essences of things around, to develop their intellect and spirituality, i.e., to become tolik adam (“perfect human being”). If this lofty “I” gains the upper hand over the mercantile “Mine,” the person becomes tolik adam (“perfect human being”); otherwise, this person loses the right to be called a “human” at all. Of course, there must be a synthesis between the material and spiritual, the altruistic and the individual, but, for Abai, it is always the divinely illuminated, spiritually elevated “I” that must be allowed to preponderate. In other words, one needs to overcome the consumerist or, in Abai’s parlance, “philistine” (togishar) aspect of one’s personality.[22] In other words, one’s spirituality should gain the upper hand over one’s carnality, as, according to Abai’s “6^th Word,” “The spiritual qualities are principial. One’s living soul and one’s responsive heart must lead one’s way; it is then that one’s hard work and wealth gain any meaning.”[23]

According to Abai, there are two kinds of people: genuine human beings (adamdar) and bondmen (pendeler). The adamdar are generous, kind, diligent, modest, self-conscious, frugal, reliable, thankful to others, just, persevering, and positive in their thoughts about others. They regard themselves as soulmates of all other human beings and respect their human dignity. They bear with hard conditions and faithfully serve the needs of all other human beings. As for the pendeler, they are haughty, mean, deceitful, and susceptible to bribery. They consider themselves right and others wrong, fail to honor their promises, genuinely love nobody, are slothful and mercantile.[24] One of the most intractable issues with them is that they fail to realize that they know nothing, which is, according to Nasiruddin al-Tusi (d. 1274), a famous Islamic philosopher, the pinnacle of ignorance. “For one, we are worse than animals. Animals have no knowledge but at least never claim or argue that they do. As for us, we know nothing and yet treasure our ignorance. Passionate and quarrelsome, we do not even want to replace it with knowledge.”[25] For the pendeler, even those in their closest entourage are aliens, for they regard anyone as either their rival or servant. According to Abai, “It the fullness of their stomachs that freed them from any worry and led them astray.”[26] The ignorant pende is the slave of extrinsic circumstances. She does not even think about mending her ways, for all that she strives for is worldly pleasures attainable right now and here; she does not give a second thought regarding the future and the consequences of her unconscionable behaviour. As Abai writes, “…The ignorant are happy with things they should not be happy with at all. They do not remember what they did or what they said. They are happy with some trifles to the point of loss of consciousness, to the point of inebriety. They are not ashamed of things they must be ashamed of; instead, they are ashamed of things they must take pride in. This is all due to their ignorance and folly.”[27]

In contrast, the adamdar are assiduous, proactive, and never totally depend on other people: “If you want to live your life decently, then tread on your path in a sober manner, relying on your strength. Work hard, and the earth shall yield its fruits, never leaving you stranded.”[28]

What is Love?

According to Abai, if love is devoid of perpetuity, it is not even worthy being called “love.” The entirety of the Universe perpetually reflects elevated love. Hence, for Abai, “a world bereft of love is empty, so give it away to an animal!”[29] The major “law” of the Universe is that things around us coexist harmoniously by means of love; this harmony is the meaning of the Universe’s life. Since the very fact of the creation of human beings is a manifestation of love, the fabric of human life should effuse love. As Abai says, “Allah has created humankind with love, so love it more than you do yourself!”[30] According to Esim, “Abai defines the relationship between Allah and human beings by nothing else than the category of ‘love…’ The duty of human beings is to love the Creator who created them with love. Furthermore, a human being should love all other human beings as brothers and sisters, as well as loving justice (adilet),” for “these three characteristics of the category of ‘love’ (suyu) constitute, in Abai’s opinion, the essence of sainthood (imani gul).”[31]

For Abai, one needs to live in accordance with the Islamic legal-ethical discourse (shariat). Both the world and human beings are created by a transcendent ground of all power and being – God. Hence this transcendent ground is able, and has all the right, to assign human beings any sort of responsibility. One such responsibility is human beings’ duty to incessantly strive for important goals, i.e. their sense of determination and commitment (talap). Just like God exists in the state of constant activity and engagement, in the same way, human beings need to be proactive and engaged as regards every sphere of life. They need to strive for elevated goals without ever forgetting that the genuine source of all power and activity is God and not their own “ego.”[32] Thus, Abai’s notion of talap features a special philosophical profundity. It is a passionate drive that exists in everything, every living being. The major object of this drive must be one’s knowledge of Allah and obeying His commands. At the same time, this drive is an act of divine creation, for, in Abai’s view, talap and jaratilis (creation) are self-same.[33]

Who is Human Being?

According to Abai, human beings are the quintessence of existence. Indeed, sans them, there is simply no meaning to this world. The world is out there for human beings, and human beings exert an enormously complex influence upon their environment. Of paramount importance here is the role of intelligence, as it distinguishes human beings from all other entities and renders them the masters of this world: “Everything in this world is created in a way that serves the benefits of something… The human beings, however, are created such that they possess intelligence and reign supreme over everything else.”[34]

Human being is a mystery: “A myriad of scholars have pronounced their ideas on human beings. There is no secrete in the world more intractable than human beings, as both God and nature are to be understood only qua human beings… The lifetime of human beings is as short as the distance between the eye and the eyebrow. Such is the nature of human beings; their bodily existence is nothing but a mundane deception.”[35]

Abai speaks of the existence, as far as human beings’ makeup is concerned, of three seminal substances: body (ten), soul (jan), and spirit (ruh). The ten is some sort of illusion that, however, obeys the laws of physics. As for the jan and the ruh, they never content themselves with the ten and seek a different, more lofty level of existence.[36] As for the “ego” of human beings, it resembles the ruh – even if it is not visible, one can intuit its existence. The only genuine and unique “ego” that exists in the Universe is that of Allah’s. The goal of the human “ego” is knowledge of the divine “ego.” If, however, one deploys one’s “ego” in any other manner, one inescapably succumbs to a sort of egotism resulting in the attitude of self-aggrandizement – something one needs to steer clear of at all times.[37]

Abai’s philosophy gives priority to the issue of the unique nature of human beings. Everything existent is meant to serve humanity, for the divine love chose them as the locus of its greatest self-manifestation. As Abai states in his masterpiece Kara Sozder (“Words of Wisdom”), the “perfect human being” (tolik adam) should exemplify the three major attributes of human personality, each being a divine principle inherent in genuine humanity – “knowledge,” “mercy,” and “justice.” As Abai writes, “Do not tell, based on your ignorance, that one cannot assimilate oneself to Allah. Indeed, one cannot replicate divine creation in all its details. However, do be like Him in all your affairs, follow the way He showed you! Here are the most luminous manifestations of Allah: Life, Knowledge, Power, Vision, Hearing, Will, Speech, and Creation. The Creator has endowed human beings with these eight divine qualities, but not on a scale of perfection comparable with His own.” He gives special attention to the divine quality “Knowledge,” as it is human beings’ ability to acquire knowledge that distinguishes their essence from that of animals’: “This aspiration to observe everything, know everything, learn about everything, constitutes the essential need of our ruh … If we do not aspire to acquire knowledge, our ruh ceases to belong to humanity, becoming that of an animal.”[38]

So, “perfect human beings” incessantly work on perfecting themselves. At one point of this activity, they come to observe that their hearts overbrim with the rays of inspiration. At this spiritual station, they come to understand the Holy Qur’an and the Prophetic Traditions in a most brilliant manner. “Now, let us remind ourselves,” says Abai, “that at the beginning of our learning God had been All-Knowing, All-Merciful, All-Just. If you have attained these qualities, it means you were diligent enough, became a genuine Muslim, and obtained perfection in doing good.”[39] These “perfect human beings” achieve success in both worlds thanks to their developing, within themselves, the divine character traits. For Abai, it is them who “discovered electricity, subdued lightening in the sky, learnt to communicate with the furthest ends of the Universe, subjugated the power of fire and water and made them do something that thousands of people cannot – not to mention that they also ennobled the mind and thoughts of people and taught them to distinguish between truth and falsehood.”[40]

To see God in everything – this is the intellectual modus vivendi of the “perfect human beings.” They are supposed to recollect the divine prototypes of things that reside in them even before they are born; then they are supposed to come to know themselves, then – the entire world.[41]

There is a multitude of humans on Earth, with each human being inherently carrying a certain great value. Human beings, nonetheless, need to determine what these values are and understand the exact role they are to play in their societies. Only those people who have acquired their own “place” in their respective society are able to bring up promising new generations. Every human being needs to have an opportunity to become that who he or she is in reality and to demonstrate that he or she is, or is not, genuinely human, i.e. the principal creation of God and the most precious locus of divine attention. Hence Abai’s legendary precept, “Be human!”

Every human being can become tolik (“perfect”), but such an endeavor requires, among other things, a strict self-control. Thus, in his “First Word,” Abai says, “If you want to be among the smart, ask yourself – at least once a day, once a week, or once a month – how do you live? Have you done something useful for your education, for your worldly or otherworldly life, will not you feel bitter later, when the time [of divine reckoning] comes?”[42]

A human being who achieves high spirituality, spends his or her life on the cutting edge of lofty emotional experiences and realizes that what matters is not only knowledge per se but also the process of its acquisition. According to the Kazakh thinker, “This type of human being, having found a truly decent object of passion, seeks eagerly; later on, when recollecting [this process of seeking], he or she understands what an elevated pleasure what he or she received in fact was. He or she never regrets that his or her life passed on this way.”[43]

Bringing Up New Generations

If, according to Abai, a society needs to be changed for the better, one’s foremost way to facilitate such a change is to bring up new generations. Everybody needs to change for the better, everybody needs to aspire to some ideal; even the most inveterate evil-doers are susceptible to some sort of edifying. Such betterment, however, is rather the matter of attention one is able, and willing, to pay to those in one’s circle. For Abai, those who work on the upbringing of new generations are Allah’s beloved servants.[44] “If you want your son to be a [genuine] human being, give him education; that way, we will do good to him and your people,” says the Kazakh thinker.[45]

Thus it was this idea of bringing up new generations that constituted Abai’s main hope for the bright future of his people; one can say that he was possessed by it day and night. He realized that one can improve the state of the Kazakh Steppe only by way of providing a holistic and comprehensive education. Progressively for his time, Abai thinks that the latter must include women: “We need to establish schools, we need to educate all, ladies included. It might be when our youth mature and our aging fathers stop interfering with the affairs and speeches of our youth that Kazakh people correct their ways.”[46] For the Kazakh thinker, transformation of society by way of transformation of the character traits of its denizens is of paramount importance, as the power of the state, its economy, its ability to remain independent are all grounded in the high moral qualities of the individuals.[47] This being said, one’s character traits are usually formed and informed by various social factors, so one needs to mitigate the destructive impact that the environment wields vis-à-vis the young minds; otherwise, one will hardly succeed in engraining the norms of high morality into the minds and hearts of new generations. Along with heightening the sense of their morality, one also needs to teach them self-criticism and self-contemplation, thus predisposing their minds to wisdom and deliberation.[48]

When there are no new generations capable of influencing others, the rulers come to lose their morality. As a result, the authorities and governors not only come to commit crimes but also turn a deaf ear to the advice of wisemen. Abai thinks that these authorities begin to believe that they can “buy with their cattle [and other properties] literally anything” and that “honesty, intellect, knowledge, faith, and, in fact, people themselves are no worthier than their cattle.”[49] As Abai says somewhere else, “The hoarder is pleased only with one thing – cattle, shying not from deceiving his own people.”[50]

Hence, Abai transposes the attributes of the “perfect human being” that gained importance in Sufism to the sphere of social relations and envisages the ideal society as “perfect human being” amplified. For him, the realization of this goal depends on every single individual in the society striving for good deeds.[51] This process of edification should start from the early childhood: “A child who aspires to knowledge can be considered a [full-fledged] human being; one can hope that such children will strive to understand themselves and the world around, that they will learn to acquire what is good and never sell honor or stoop to evil-doing.”[52]  

Tolerance, Non-Violence, and Pluralism

In his “34^th Word,” Abai underscores the importance of trust, friendship, and mutual assistance. As for animosity and hatred, for Abai, their causes are ephemeral and always ill-founded. The very inner nature of human beings conduces them to love fellow human beings: “A human being is [essentially] a friend of another human being.” Indeed, your nature, the place from where you hail and where you are headed to, your destiny – these are all self-same with those of other people.”[53] People are inherently each others’ equals, so different peoples have to show each other nothing but respect. In the final analysis, all people are merely guests on this planet, and it is hardly becoming of the guests to feud each other in front of all the manifested bounties of their Master’s. As Abai says, “You and all other people are nothing but guests of this worldly life. People, you are the guests of each other! Then why do they ignorantly antagonize someone else’s wisdom, why do they envy someone else’s happiness, why do they ask Allah to give something to you by taking that thing away from someone else? Is it becoming of such a lofty being to hurt a human being for the sake of another human being?” wonders Abai.[54]

The thinker also upheld the idea of cultural pluralism. “Perfect human beings” display their love for pluralism as the manifestation of the variety found among different names and attributes of the Creator:

Endowed with compassion for the needy,
In helping all people thrive be speedy!
Should you love creatures on His behalf and on His account,
Becoming His own “child,” you will get His love’s fullest amount!
All people differ, and there surely is a wisdom for that.
Mind it well: pitted against a pack, the wolf is impotent.
To rush to everyone’s rescue is our foremost duty,
To show mercy and teach truth in all their beauty![55]

According to Gharifullah Esim, “Abai never divided humanity into races, religions, or political formations; rather, he was inviting to love all human beings as brothers. This fact characterizes Abai as a Renaissance personality and positions him at the very apex of Renaissance’s spiritual thought… Renaissance is the time when a new idea of the world was born. To love all human beings as one’s brothers and sisters is an idea that Abai deepens and affirms all the way long.”[56]

By Way of Conclusion

Abai Kunanbaev is an important representative of Kazakh national philosophy. His ethics is inextricably connected with his approach to the fundamentals of Islamic faith and “approaches, in its broad outline, unified and holistic manner of thinking.”[57] As both poet and thinker, he was profoundly troubled by the situation in which his people found themselves. Abai was profoundly interested in Russian literature which allowed him to gain access to the European philosophy of his time. Thanks to his open-mindedness, Abai effected a creative synthesis of the philosophies of different cultures, one in which one culture enriches the other without losing its own authenticity. Abai thus utilized the best traditions of Arabic-language ethical thought without ever losing sight of the features of the Kazakh mentality of his time.[58] Furthermore, he was displayed the ideas of Kazakh culture in a way that enabled them to retain their relevance up to this day. The thinker conducts a thoughtful analysis of the moral flaws of his contemporaneous society in a manner that appeals to almost every human being even nowadays. If, according to Filosofsko-Ensiklopedicheskiy Slovar (“Philosophical encyclopedia”), humanism is “…a historically variable system of worldviews that invariably accepts the value of human beings as individuals, that acknowledges their right to freedom, happiness, development, and realization of their potential, that considers common good as the touchstone of all social institutions, and that regards the principles of equality, justice, humanity as the desirable norm as it comes to the relationships between people,”[59] one can easily claim that Abai’s philosophy is exemplifies a type of humanism, one developed by him as an original synthesis of Islamic worldview with the cultural traditions of Turkic thought.

Abai’s poetry conveyed the national flavor of Kazakh culture and reflected the viral concerns of Kazakh society. Abay’s key imperative, “Be human!” is a leitmotif of all his works and enables him to impart momentum, and a new social facet, to the traditional idea of self-knowledge. Abai’s “perfect human beings” not only achieve harmony with the Universe and Allah but also dedicate themselves to the cause of improving the conditions of their society, demonstrating a firm resolution to settle all pressing issues of their neighbours.

According to Abai, it will be on the basis of this new type of education and upbringing that there will come about a new type of society in the Kazakh Steppe, i.e. that of “perfect human beings” who will bring about a throughgoing transformation of Kazakh society. Unfortunately, this project was never destined to be realized during Abai’s lifetime. Moral degradation of the elites, bribery, fraud – these flaws of Abay’s contemporaries prevented his ideas from being fully appreciated and put into practice. However, the poet’s call to every human being to pay attention to the much-neglected treasure trove of humanity residing deep within us and the enormous spiritual potential of every one of us to do good – yes, this call of Abai’s is still reverberating throughout the Kazakh Steppe and stirring the conscience of everyone who cares to listen thereto.