Question:
Salam alaykoum warahmatullah wabarakatuhu Qubt-az Zaman Cheikh Mohammad Nazim ( Q S) . Salam alaykoum warahmatullah wabarakatuhu Ya Sayyedi Al Qutb Al Mutassarif Cheikh Hisham and all professors on this website .
Bismillahi rahmanil rahim . Allahumma Salle’ala sayyedina Mohammad wa’ala aalihi wasahbihi wasalam .
I have questions about:
– the 3 Sultans Selim.
According to the books of history,they said that Sultan Selim II drunk alcohol and his face was red because he drank a lot .Is it True?
– In Ottoman empire, Sultan Mehmed El Fatih decided, ,to publish a law which allow to execute his brothers.And lots of people use this argument for discredit Ottoman empire. And Ulemas of this age accept and make this law halal .How answer to his attack ?
-These 3 Sultan come back to put back the ShariahtAllah ?
. BarakAllahufik for your consideration.
Wasalam.
Answer:
Wa `alaykum as-Salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
According to traditional knowledge, historical conditions progress from the subtle to the gross. This natural progression is interrupted by the supernatural missions of the holy prophets and their inheritors, who remind people by word and example of the heavenly origin of humanity. Likewise within the era belonging to the Seal of Prophets, peace be upon him, there has been a progressive worsening of the characteristics of people. Now, how should the more subtle be understood by the gross? This in fact is an obstacle for modern people in their understanding of history, even when they bother themselves with it at all.
The Holy Prophet promised that an age of Sultans would precede the age of tyrants, and it is clear that we find ourselves at the end of the latter, while the Ottomans best embody the identity of the former. Perhaps modern people seek to find fault with Ottoman principles of dynastic succession because no single dynasty in history ruled for so long. Still, dynastic safeguards appropriate to the age of Sultans are not necessarily appropriate for other ages.
Moreover, Ottoman imperial law is not to be simply equated with the shari`at, of which it is but an extension appropriate for its specific historical conditions. Of course, it could also be said that the Ottoman `ulama generally knew better than the `ulama of today.
One characteristic of the age of Sultans is the involvement of the awliya in advising its rulers; in the words of the very great Khwaja al-Ahrar, may Allah sanctify his secret: “Our business is to protect the Muslims from the evils of tyranny. It is therefore our duty to make contact with worldly rulers, winning their hearts and turning them in the direction we wish them to take.”
Among the saints whose patronage extended over the Ottomans, the Shaykh al-Akbar Ibn `Arabi – may Allah sanctify his secret – holds a preeminent place. In his writings, Shaykh Muhyiddin relates a story that may be relevant to your concerns about Sultan Selim II; this story concerns a sovereign who, to quote Michel Chodkiewicz:
…one day found himself reproached for devoting himself in isolation to entertainments, to the pleasures of the table and of drink. He replied to the protestors by asking them: “The ways, are they sure? The judges, do they render justice? The enemy, is he subjugated? So, what more do you want?” Ibn `Arabi seems quite satisfied with this reply.
Furthermore, again according to Shaykh Muhyiddin, only rarely since the Rightly-Guided Caliphs has a political ruler been in reality a Qutb. This union of spiritual authority and temporal power belongs most fully to the end of time, that is, to the age following the age of tyrants when there will be a sudden reversal, as it were, of historical conditions.
Mahmoud Shelton
