Bu çalışmada Mehmet Âkif Ersoy'un yedi kitaptan oluşan Safahat adlı eseri, içerik bakımından incelenmiştir. Safahat'ın çok sesli bir eser olma özelliği taşıması, eserin içeriğinin oluşmasında önemli bir etken olarak değerlendirilebilir. Konu başlıklarının dönemin birey ve toplum hayatında yaşanan gerçekliklerden alınmış olması, eserin temel özelliklerindendir. Yaşanan gerçekliklerin bir yansıması olarak Safahat, her dönemde okunması gereken bir metindir. Bir metni okumak, onu her düzeyde ayrıntılı olarak incelemek, yapılandırmak demektir. Bu yapılandırma işlemi de metinden hareketle olmalıdır. Bu çalışmada Safahat, bu bakış açısıyla incelenmeye çalışılmıştır. Eserin geniş hacimli olması, içeriğindeki konu başlıklarının önemiyle doğru orantılıdır. Konu başlıklarının öneminin yanı sıra bu konuların işleniş biçimi de dikkate değer bir noktadır. Eserin söylem biçimi, dilin her düzeyde son derece etkili kullanımıyla gerçekleşmiştir. Bu açılardan Safahat, dil ve edebiyat incelemelerinin de temel eserlerinden biri olma özelliğini taşır. Sadece yazıldığı dönemle sınırlı kalmayan bugüne de kendini taşıyan eser, Türk Dili ve Edebiyatının klasik eserlerindendir. Safahat'ın çok sesli oluşu ve biçemi, onu edebiyatımızda çok daha farklı bir yere taşımıştır. İşlevsellik ve fayda esası, samimiyet, inanç, erdem gibi değerler, Mehmet Âkif Ersoy'un tüm eserlerinde geçerli olan ve hayata bakış açısını yansıtan kavramlardır. Bu kavramlar, Safahat'ta da temel söylem özelliği olarak karşımıza çıkar

In this study, Mehmet Âkif Ersoy’s Safahat, consisting of seven books, was examined in terms of content. Safahat’s polyphonic structure can be thought as an important factor in the creation of the art piece. One of the basic features of the art piece is the fact that the main titles have been taken from the realities experiences in the lives of individuals and the society. As the reflections of the real events, Safahat is a text that should be read in every era. To read a text means examining it in detail at every level and also structuring it. This structuring process should be done in accordance with the text. In this study, Safahat was examined with this point of view. The large volume structure of the art piece is directly proportionate to the importance of the main titles. As well as the importance of the main titles, these titles’ narration style is something that should be paid attention to. The art piece’s manner of discourse is thanks to the impressive use of the language at every level. From these angles, Safahat has the property of being one of the fundamental art pieces of the language and literature studies. As an art piece not left behind in the era it was written and managed to arrive these days, it is one of the classics in Turkish Language and Literature. Safahat’s polyphonic structure and style gains the art piece a unique place in our literature. Values such as functionality and pragmatism, sincerity, belief, virtue are the terms that reflect Mehmet Âkif Ersoy’s point of view towards life, which can be seen in all his art pieces. These terms welcome us as the main feature of discourse in Safahat Mehmet Âkif ERSOY had always been chasing for the ideal human and a liveable World. However, the conditions of the era were not the conditions that desired much for the Turkish people and the Islamic world. Besides the financial losses that started with the war environment, there was the loss of the moral virtues. In Safahat, Âkif both listened to the layers of the society and spoke to them. Safahat is not an art piece based on its own era. It is like a call for the Turkish nation. His works are like a real stage on which reality comes into life. In the art piece, besides criticizing of the loss of social values, indifference, laziness, poverty, ignorance, some advices are offered to get of these problems. As a polyphonic masterpiece, Safahat is a text that should be read and understood in every era. It is not right to categorize Safahat as a single written type of literature, since Safahat is a polyphonic artwork with many subject, styles, narrations and valuable as a result of these. Although there is a fictional world in the written narrations, Âkif goes beyond this fictional world. Since the narration was created from the real things, it includes historical information. The case of sincerity is the locus of point for Âkif’s understanding of life and art. Besides the literary language, daily language was also used for the narration. This selected style is a simple Turkish that could be understood by the society. With this, Âkif had the intention of education for a larger portion of the society. The fact that descriptions are everywhere in Safahat is the reflection of the realistic impressions to the speech. This type of narration is one of the indicators of Âkif’s power of narration. We can see the reflection of humans from every layer of the society. Any subject about family life and social life are selectively focused on, the existing problems are put forward. It is possible to hear the voice from every layer of the society consisting of a blind beggar, a sick student, an orphan who could not go to school because of poverty, a mother who lost her children, people that spent time playing games in coffee houses, a widow woman who died alone, the stranger not knowing anything around them, a woman who tried to keep her family together, real religious people who tried to rescue their people, villagers, town dwellers in Safahat. Besides these, the voice of Muslim world, Europe, Arabia, The Balkans, Turkistan in Safahat. Moreover, Âkif uses his Akifian tone so that we can hear and understand the voice of the God. Âkif focuses on the ideal human in Safahat. According to him, as a clever creature, humans should use their mind as they should and should not waste their lives with meaningless works and bad habits. According to him, the life is a process which includes spiritual and intellectual need of the humans besides the physiological needs. However, humans’ intellectual and spiritual needs are ignored in this rush. In fact, a human’s feature of being human can only be achieved with a spiritual satisfaction. The comparison of east and west can be seen at every level perceptibly and discretely in the art piece. The foundations, schools existing in the society hot far away from realizing their functions. Akif’s ideal human is far different from the ideal society. One of the subject Akif focuses on to reach the civilization is to organize the educational institutions and educate new teachers. He wants the teachers to be efficient, faithful, decent and fair. Âkif shows in his most of the poems that the revolution achieved with virtue and science is the path to reach the ideal society. On of the subjects Mehmet Âkif focuses on in Sahafat is what it religion and what it should be. He tells Islam as the religion of the life in his poems as a religious scholar. He often emphasizes that the situation in which Muslims were the reason of their ignorance. He tells that the societies who took the name of Muslim knew nothing about Islam, did not understand it and showed no effort to understand it. With this wrong perception, Islam turned into a religion only for the death. The responsible for this is not Islam, it is our ignorance and illiteracy and this perception is valid for all of the population of Islamic religion. The human he wants is the one who really understands Islam and live with it. Islam is not against science and civilization; it is actually against the ignorance. Fighting at the ideal front, Mehmet Âkif suggests the cooperation of society and the intellectuals at any opportunity. Social development can only be achieved when intellectuals and society come together and the intellectuals show the society the right path. From this point of view, what is valuable for Âkif is useful science, useful literature and useful art. Emphasizing the fact that the science and civilization of the West are the result of cooperation of society and intellectuals, the poet states that the secret of all the aspects that make human life better such as wealth, happiness, success is to work. Âkif evaluates the perception of the West about the East in Safahat. He strongly criticizes the the silent attitude of the modern world against the torture and the indifference and their support for the torture. He focuses on the idea that Europe’s perception about East and Islamic worlds should change. Âkif, lists what should be done so that Turkish and Islamic world could reach the desired development level. He often focuses on the necessity of benefitting from positive sciences, because a nation reaches the desired development level if it develops in every aspect. Literature should also fulfill its responsibility in this development process, because the purpose of art and literature should be to educate a nation. Literature should give hope to a nation and make the nation live it. Literature should also be a living literature. Despite these negative events, Mehmet Âkif is still full of hope, because hopelessness contradicts with his belief. One day, the expected reborn will take place. Survival will be possible via getting rid of ignorance, laziness and hopelessness. With working, science, literature, unity, the model of ideal human and society will come into existence. As a result, Safahat is a polyphonic master piece in which all these emotions and ideas are narrated, and more importantly the knowledge of life is reflected.