Bir milletin cemiyet hayatını düzenleyen en önemli faktörlerden birisi ahlaktır. Nitekim bu faktörün cemiyet hayatındaki önemi, kutsal kitapların tamamında vurgulanmıştır. Mehmet Akif de, inandıklarını karaktere dönüştürmüş bir münevver olarak yiriminci yüzyılın buhranlı yıllarında ve Batı'nın ekonomik, kültürel ve askerî saldırısı karşısında, Türk Milleti'ne kurtuluş reçetesi olarak sunduğu Safahat'ı yazarken ahlak faktörünün toplumdaki önemini tekrar hatırlatma ihtiyacı duymuştur. Akif, kalabalıkların bilinçsizce oluşturdukları normlara uyum sağlayan sıradan bir insan değildir. Tam tersine o, inandıklarıyla bütünleşmiş aydın bir fert olarak yaşadığı toplumun geleceğine yön vermiş ender bir şahsiyettir. O, insanlara hem güçlü, bilinçli, inançlı ve özgür bir fert olmayı öğretmiş, hem de kuvetli karakteri ile toplum için basiretli ve inandıklarını hayata geçiren bir fert timsali olmuştur. Zira Akif, hem şiir ve vaazlarıyla hem de günlük hayatıyla, her zaman Türk milletinin millî ve dinî değerlerini ön plana çıkaran önder bir kimlik olmuştur. Akif, gerçek bir aydın olarak insanları cehaletin, köleliğin ve sömürgecilerin pençelerinden kurtarmak için toplumda bir meşale rolü üstlenmiş; hayatı boyunca, İslam dinine ve Türk kültürüne ait ahlak değerlerini ön plana çıkararak insanlara yol gösterdiği gibi Türk toplumuna aykırı olan ahlak değerlerini de eleştirmiştir. Bu tespit, Safahat'taki şiirlerde çok bariz bir şekilde görülmektedir. Nitekim Akif, söz konusu şiirlerinde ahlak faktörünü ferdî, ailevî ve toplumsal anlamda bir bütün olarak ele almıştır

One of the most important factors that regulate the social life is morality. Thus this importance had been emphasized in all of the holy books. Mehmet Akif, as an intellectual who transferred his beliefs into his life, was in need of reminding the moral values to society in the depression years of the beginning of the 20th century when the militan and cultural attack of the West was intense towards the East. He wrote his book Safahat as a reminder. Akif isn’t an ordinary person who obeys the society’s norms which are created unconsciously. On the contrary full of faith in what he believes he directs the nation the righteous path. He advises Muslims to be strong, conscious, faithful and free. He practised these values throughout his life. He became a leading figure who emphasized the religious and national values with his poems, speeches and his daily life. His emphasis went along with his criticisms about the immoral behaviours against the common morality of the Turkish nation. These criticisms can clearly be seen in his book Safahat. In his poems Akif takes morality and immorality issues in the personal, domestic and social sense Morality is one of the most significant factors which organize the social life. As a matter of fact, importance of this factor is emphasized in all of the sacred books. Mehmet Akif as an intellectual who turned what he believed into characters needed to remind the importance of the morality factor in the social life again and gave a great importance to this matter in his work while he was writing his book Safahat which he presented it as a prescription to Turkish Nation against the cultural, economic and military attack of the West during the depressing years of the twentieth century. At the same time, Akif is not one of the people who accommodate themselves to the norms that are unconsciously formed by the crowds. On the contrary, he is an exceptional person who led the society in which he lived as an enlightened individual and integrated what he believed into his life. He taught how to be a strong, conscious, faithful and free individual to the people. Besides, he became a symbol who was prudent and actualized what he believed in life for the society with his strong character. Likewise, Akif was a leader identity who always brought national and religious values of Turkish Society into forefront both with his poems and sermons along with his daily life. Therefore, he uses art as a tool for conveying his thoughts, raising awareness of the people, showing the right way and criticizing the mistakes. Indeed, it can be easily seen that Akif revealed many unfavorableness and defects in the society to keep people away from the negative behaviors in his poems of his work which is called Safahat. According to Akif whose personality was profoundly affected by the Islamic teachings, a human being is the caliph of God in the world by its creation and attained the secret of being the most valuable existence. Therefore, this creature should be at the highest moral position. From this point of view, it can be seen that the ‘’high morality’’ which corresponds to ‘’sense of virtue’’ was emphasized in his work called Safahat. The Poet explained that this aforementioned position can be acquired not with knowledge and conscience but ‘’being afraid of Allah’’ like the following: It is neither knowledge nor conscience raising the morality, Sense of virtue comes from being afraid of Allah. The writer presented the formula of reaching the position of ‘’high morality’’ for the individuals of the society by this way. Furthermore, Akif reveals many faults and mistakes of the individuals in the society and offers a solution to these mistakes in his work. On the other hand, the poet who lived at the end of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of twentieth century’s Turkey where a century old culture and civilization understanding was crashed as a result of the encounter of Ottoman Empire with Islam world and most importantly with the Western world struggled for unity of family not to be damaged and criticized all the attitudes which try to scatter this unity structure in many poems of his work called Safahat. In his poems, Akif criticized men for spending their time in such places as ginmills and estaminets and having bad habits such as drinking alcohol and gambling as men who have such bad habits destroy the unity of family by spending their time, money and energy which are the rights of their family in such places as ginmills and coffeehouses. Additionally, Akif considers many attitudes damaging the family structure that he perceives as the core of the society and the entire social integrity as immorality and criticize them seriously. However, Akif is not a poet who only reveals the mistakes of individuals or society and criticizes them. In contrast, he is an intellectual who provides solutions to get rid of these mistakes after determining them and shows ways of advancing. For instance, Akif offers being heedful against the unwariness, knowledge against ignorance, hope against desperation, determination against laziness, righteousness against lies, faithfulness against betrayal, understanding the west as a whole with its positive and negative aspects instead of looking at it one way, working in determination and believing God truthfully instead of wrong faith and acquiring good habits instead of bad habits. Akif as a real intellectual played a role in the society to save people from slavery, ignorance and colonial powers and he led people by bringing the moral values that belong to the Turkish culture into the forefront and criticized moral values that are incongruous with Turkish society. This assessment can easily be seen in the poems of Safahat. Akif approaches morality factor as a whole in his poems in terms of individual, family and society. Akif presented a work which never loses its persistency and validity to the İslam world by writing the work called Safahat. The fact that this work was written on the basis of morality provides it a universal qualification. Namely, moral values in Safahat are common values because the attitudes which Akif considers as immorality and criticizes have been criticized and will be criticized throughout the history. For instance, betrayal is a behavior which has never been accepted by any society. Therefore, Akif created a universally valid work based on the period and society he lived in. However, this work is needed mostly by the society in which he lived. Because there is a need for people of East who were divided, lost their self-confidence, lived in poverty and ignorance against the religious, military economic and cultural attack of the West at the beginning of Twentieth Century to gather strength around the actual religious and moral values. For this reason, Akif revealed ideas which do not belong to society and imposed by the West (for example the idea of West which claims Eastern people are lazy and useless) based on the religious and moral values and opposed such ideas. Then, he put up a high wall that cannot be climbed in front of the West using the Islamic moral values. Such a wall defeated West in Çanakkale and Independence Wars although they were predominating in terms of guns and army. Thus, ideas of Akif are still needed today and they will never lose their validity and currency.