The final years of cÖmer el-Fuɔâdî's life were marked by religious and political tensions in the Ottoman Empire present since the time of its foundation, and his contemporaries came to note him as a central figure in the debates that caused those tensions. Therefore, to a great extent, any assessment of his life and legacy must be grounded in the context of his polemical response to the religio-political crisis revolving around Muslim mysticism. The crisis was best symbolized by the intractable debate over the legitimacy of the Halveti semâc, chanted litanies set to musical accompaniment, and devrân, the circular motions that went with it that sought to bring the seekers into a mystical state. The debate over these practices had ancient roots, but had usually not taken on the form of a lengthy and sustained campaign against them. But by Fuɔâdî's time, the level of aggression and hostility over the issue had risen significantly.

To a modern observer the debate appears quaint or eccentric. Some might liken it to the Byzantine debate over Iconoclasm, sometimes interpreted as an obscure doctrinal dispute that had little relevance to the Byzantine Empire's very real problems in staving off Arab and Bulgarian invasion. Nevertheless, a closer examination of the underlying issues suggests that there was more to the semâc/devrân conflict than hair-splitting clashes between theologians and mystics. Instead, the very foundations of Ottoman religious law was at stake.