Question:
Salam alaykoum Shaykh,
I heard that Ottoman Empire was one of the greatest Islamic Empire and I did agree with that until today I read on Wikipedia some stories related to the empire. My question is why within the empire did brothers discuss the throne? One killed another for the power. Another example is Soliman ‘the Magnificent’ who killed his son. Why these things happened in a so-called Islamic Empire?
Answer:
`Alaykum Salam,
Allah Most High mentions in Surat al-Naml:
قَالَتْ إِنَّ الْمُلُوكَ إِذَا دَخَلُوا قَرْيَةً أَفْسَدُوهَا وَجَعَلُوا أَعِزَّةَ أَهْلِهَا أَذِلَّةً وَكَذَلِكَ يَفْعَلُونَ
which means, “She said: Lo! kings, when they enter a township, ruin it and make the honor of its people shame. Thus will they do.” (27:43)
Of course such a rule does not refer to every single king without exception, to wit the kingships of Sulayman and Dawud — upon our Prophet and them blessings and peace — and the Qur’an also mentions righteous non-Prophet kings such as Dhul Qarnayn, Talut, and Tubba`.
The Prophet — upon him blessings and peace — similarly said that after a righteous caliphate of 30 years there would dawn kingship and tyranny– meaning, again, generally speaking.
So this is the default; but whatever kings of the Umawi, Abbasi, Ottoman, Barmaki, Buwayhi, Ghaznawi, Moghul and many other dynasties strove to live and rule as closely as they could to the Prophetic model, gave a more pious model for their subjects to live by than their worldly counterparts. None of them, however, was infallible.
As for Sultan Sulayman the Magnificent and other great sultans you should look up actual Ottomanologists and even then will need to sift the wheat from the chaff. Arm yourself with healthy skepticism particularly with regard to the cape and dagger tales of court intrigues and assassinations as such accounts are more notoriously unreliable than even your “source”.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
