Turgut Ince, a 61-year-old former municipal worker, spends six days a week maintaining Kayseri’s historic Ulu Cami, seeking no reward but God’s pleasure.

By Abdullahi Yusuf

A 61-year-old retired worker in central Türkiye’s Kayseri has spent the past seven years voluntarily cleaning the historic Ulu Cami, a nearly 900-year-old mosque known also as “Sultan Cami” and “Cami Kebir.”

After retiring from the Melikgazi Municipality’s Parks and Gardens Directorate in 2014, Turgut Ince initially went to the nearby Hunat Mosque to pray and study the Quran. One day, while speaking with friends in the mosque courtyard, he heard that the mosque needed someone to help with cleaning and offered to do the work voluntarily.

Since then, Ince has made the mosque’s upkeep part of his daily life, cleaning it six days a week as if it were his own home. With an electric vacuum in hand, he diligently maintains all areas of the mosque from the carpets to the pulpit, the sermon platform and the prayer niche.

In addition to his cleaning duties, Ince also continues to study the Quran during his free time at the mosque.

Ince said he began volunteering not in search of payment, but to earn spiritual rewards. “I’m not doing this for money. I thought maybe I could receive a prayer, maybe gain God’s approval,” he said. “Otherwise, I could go work in industry for minimum wage. But that’s not my goal.”

He starts work each day around 9 a.m., ensuring the mosque is clean before worshippers arrive. “I clean the stairs, shoe racks, carpets, pulpit, sermon stand and the mihrab,” he explained.

Emphasizing the spiritual value of the mosque, Ince said: “I’m very happy. The atmosphere here is something else. Sometimes it feels like you’re in Mecca.”

Ince added that he plans to continue volunteering for as long as his strength allows.