Özet:

The Presidency of Religious Affairs is one of the leading institutions providing services in the field of non-formal religious education in our country. The Directorate of Religious Affairs, which is responsible for enlightening society on religion, operates in a very wide area in the context of religious services. Religious services carried out by the Presidency of Religious Affairs are not only limited to mosques but also many religious and cultural studies are carried out outside the mosque. At the point of carrying out these activities, many officials such as muezzin, imam, Qur’ān course teachers, religious services specialists and preachers, undoubtedly carry out the works related to their own service areas. However, the profession of imamate comes to the fore more than the others at the point of presenting non-formal religious education activities to the public. This situation is probably due to the fact that those who perform the duty of imams are directly and widely intertwined with the public and have direct contact with them. Throughout history, the profession of imamate has been among the professions that people talk about the most. As a matter of fact, the education level of the people who carry out the profession of the imam, the salaries they receive, the duties and roles they fulfill in the society, and their social image and reputation are still discussed on various platforms from time to time. These discussed issues are actually issues that are evaluated within the scope of the concept of status. In this research, the profession of imamate; the status of the profession has been tried to be determined after it has been discussed with different dimensions such as its historical development, the conditions of being appointed to the profession, and its duties and responsibilities. This research aims to evaluate the profession of imamate, which is the most visible face of the Presidency of Religious Affairs in the field of non-formal religious education in our country, and the past and present status of this profession in terms of various criteria. In order to determine the status of a profession in a healthy way, studies with holistic approaches are needed. In this study, a holistic approach was preferred and the status of the imamate profession was examined not from a single perspective, but from many aspects such as social and institutional image, prestige, education level and economic situation. This is also the original side of this work. A case study, one of the qualitative research designs, was used in the research, and a literature review, one of the documentary scanning types, was used as the data collection technique. There is a strong relationship between the status of a profession and the quality of those who practice it. The status of the profession and the quality of those who carry out that profession mutually affect each other. This influence can be either positive or negative. Undoubtedly, although the status of the profession of the imam and the prestige of imams have changed periodically in the historical process, it can be said that this profession is defined as the profession of the prophet in Muslim societies and is generally respected profession. In our country, the field of duty of the imamate profession has expanded and diversified, especially in recent years, within the framework of the new service policy of the Presidency of Religious Affairs. In this context, there has been an increase in the visibility of imams in society and their roles. These increasing roles have brought along religious, social and cultural activities that contribute to society, and all of these have contributed to the rise of the profession's status by increasing its reputation. The imamate, which is the religious representative office, is a duty that has emerged for people to follow it. In this respect, the prestige, institutional and social image of the profession of imamate is an issue that should be sensitive not only to the Presidency of Religious Affairs but also to the whole society. Because negative examples about the image and reputation of imams can be transferred to religion by making generalizations. Therefore, for whatever reason, the abuse of religion, religious values and religious officials should never be allowed in any of the media tools.

Anahtar Kelimeler: