1. Approve of yourself.
“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”
If you don’t approve of yourself, of your behaviour and actions then you’ll probably walk around most of the day with a sort of uncomfortable feeling. If you, on the other hand, approve of yourself then you tend to become relaxed and gain inner freedom to do more of what you really want.
This can, in a related way, be a big obstacle in personal growth. You may have all the right tools to grow in some way but you feel an inner resistance. You can’t get there.
What you may be bumping into there are success barriers. You are putting up barriers in your own mind of what you may or may not deserve. Or barriers that tell you what you are capable of. They might tell you that you aren’t really that kind of person that could this thing that you’re attempting.
Or if you make some headway in the direction you want to go you may start to sabotage for yourself. To keep yourself in a place that is familiar for you.
So you need give yourself approval and allow yourself to be who you want to be. Not look for the approval from others. But from yourself. To dissolve that inner barrier or let go of that self-sabotaging tendency. This is no easy task and it can take time.
2. Your limitations may just be in your mind.
“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
So many limitations are mostly in our minds. We may for instance think that people will disapprove because we are too tall, too old or balding. But these things mostly matter when you think they matter. Because you become self-conscious and worried about what people may think.
And people pick up on that and may react in negative ways. Or you may interpret anything they do as a negative reaction because you are so fearful of a bad reaction and so focused inward on yourself.
If you, on the other hand, don’t mind then people tend to not mind that much either. And if you don’t mind then you won’t let that part of yourself become a self-imposed roadblock in your life.
It is, for instance, seldom too late to do what you want to do.
3. Lighten up and have some fun.
“Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.”
“Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.”
Humor and laughter are amazing tools. They can turn any serious situation into something to laugh about. They can lighten the mood just about anywhere.
And a lighter mood is often a better space to work in because now your body and mind isn’t filled to the brim with negative emotions. When you are more light-hearted and relaxed then the solution to a situation is often easier to both come up with and implement. Have a look at Lighten Up! for more on this topic.
4. Let go of anger.
“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”
Anger is most of the time pretty pointless. It can cause situations to get out of hand. And from a selfish perspective it often more hurtful for the one being angry then the person s/he’s angry at.
So even if you feel angry at someone for days recognize that you are mostly just hurting yourself. The other person may not even be aware that you are angry at him or her. So either talking to the person and resolving the conflict or letting go of anger as quickly as possible are pretty good tips to make your life more pleasurable.
5. Release yourself from entitlement.
“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”
When you are young your mom and dad may give a lot of things. As you grow older you may have a sort of entitlement. You may feel like the world should just give you what you want or that it owes you something.
This belief can cause a lot of anger and frustration in your life. Because the world may not give you what expect it to. On the other hand, this can be liberating too. You realize that it is up to you to shape your own life and for you to work towards what you want. You are not a kid anymore, waiting for your parents or the world to give you something.
You are in the driver’s seat now. And you can go pretty much wherever you want.
6. If you’re taking a different path, prepare for reactions.
“A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.”
I think this has quite a bit of relevance to self-improvement.
If you start to change or do something different than you usually do then people may react in different ways. Some may be happy for you. Some may be indifferent. Some may be puzzled or react in negative and discouraging ways.
Much of these reactions are probably not so much about you but about the person who said it and his/her life. How they feel about themselves is coming through in the words they use and judgements they make.
And that’s OK. I think it’s pretty likely that they won’t react as negatively as you may imagine. Or they will probably at least go back to focusing on their own challenges pretty soon.
So what other people may say and think and letting that hold you back is probably just fantasy and barrier you build in your mind.
You may find that when you finally cross that inner threshold you created then people around you may not shun you or go chasing after you with pitchforks. They might just go: “OK”.
7. Keep your focus steadily on what you want.
“Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.”
What you focus your mind on greatly determines how things play out. You can focus on your problems and dwell in suffering and a victim mentality. Or you can focus on the positive in situation, what you can learn from that situation or just focus your mind on something entirely else.
It may be “normal” to dwell on problems and swim around in a sea of negativity. But that is a choice. And a thought habit. You may reflexively start to dwell on problems instead of refocusing your mind on something more useful. But you can also start to build a habit of learning to gain more and more control of where you put your focus.
8. Don’t focus so much on making yourself feel good.
“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.”
This may be a bit of a counter-intuitive tip. But as I wrote yesterday, one of the best ways to feel good about yourself is to make someone else feel good or to help them in some way.
This is a great way to look at things to create an upward spiral of positivity and exchange of value between people. You help someone and both of you feel good. The person you helped feels inclined to give you a hand later on since people tend to want to reciprocate. And so the both of you are feeling good and helping each other.
Those positive feelings are contagious to other people and so you may end up making them feel good too. And the help you received from your friend may inspire you to go and help another friend. And so the upward spiral grows and continues.
9. Do what you want to do.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Awesome quote. And I really don’t have much to add to that one. Well, maybe to write it down and keep it as a daily reminder – on your fridge or bathroom door – of what you can actually do with your life.

Islam and the Ottoman Empire

Nov. 20 Ottoman History 4 comments

If you read many Western histories of the Ottoman Empire, you may not even learn that the Ottomans were a Muslim empire. They are often seen as a typical European multi-cultural empire whose only purpose in existence was to promote its own interests. The truth is far from this, however. Throughout its history from the 1300s to the early 1900s, the Ottoman Empire was a strongly Muslim state at its core. Islamic law and ideas formed the basis of society, law, and government. Ottoman sultans saw themselves as the protectors of the Muslim world. With this emphasis on Islam, however, protection for other religions in the empire was ensured in ways that would take Christian Europe centuries to match.

The Ghazis

At the very beginning, the Ottoman state was nothing more than a small tribal alliance led by a Turkish bey, by the name of Osman. His beylik (small state) in western Anatolia bordered the hostile Byzantine Empire. Osman was known as a ghazi, or a soldier of the faith. In the Turkish culture of the time, huge emphasis was placed on being a Muslim soldier defending Muslim lands against Byzantine attacks. The Byzantines had been in a state of war with Muslim empires on and off since the Righteous Caliphate of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali.

The first Ottoman sultan, Osman, set a precedent of Islam being an integral part of the Ottoman state.

Under Osman, the Turks of Anatolia found a common identity in sticking to Islam in all walks of life, and using their expertise as soldiers in defense of Muslim lands. This emphasis on Muslim identity is seen in Osman’s advice to his son:

Son! Be careful about the religious issues before all other duties. The religious precepts build a strong state. Do not give religious duties to careless, faithless and sinful men or to dissipated, indifferent or inexperienced people. And also do not leave the state administrations to such people. Because the one without fear of God the Creator, has no fear of the created…Depend on God’s help in the esteem of justice and fairness, to remove the cruelty, attempts in every duty. Protect your public from enemy’s invasion and from cruelty.

Clearly, the patron of the Ottoman Empire (Ottoman is a Latin corruption of Osmanli, the Turkish name for their empire) placed great emphasis on Islam as a pillar of his state. All subsequent sultans of the Ottoman Empire were coronated with Osman’s sword by a religious scholar. This symbolized the status of the sultans as the defenders of Islam.

Leaders of the Muslim World

From their humble beginnings as a small Turkish state in the 1300s, the Ottomans would grow to become the premier Muslim empire throughout the 15th to 19th centuries. In 1517, the Ottoman Empire extended its domain to include the Arabic-speaking regions of North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and the Arabian Peninsula. With this, they now controlled the 3 holy sites – Makkah, Madinah, and Jerusalem – and thus bore the responsibility of the protectors of the holy cities.

Makkah in 1910, during the Ottoman reign in the city. The square arcade around the Ka’bah still stands today as the inner-most part of the mosque.

In the holy cities, the Ottomans placed much emphasis on the protection and preservation of Islam’s most important places. The oldest parts of the current Masjid al-Haraam in Makkah, the inner arcade of pillars, was built by the Ottomans in the 1500s. In Madinah, the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman greatly decorated the grave of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), while also protecting the grave from damage with a brass and gold covering that still stands today. In Jerusalem, Sultan Suleyman ordered the rebuilding of the city’s walls, which also still stand.
Besides just architectural achievements, the Ottomans were the ensurers of the yearly pilgrimage to Makkah. They organized official processions of pilgrims from Yemen, Central Africa, and Iraq. The main pilgrimage routes however were through Damascus and Cairo. Every year the sultan would appoint a special delegate who would lead the pilgrimage from Damascus. He would take with him vast amounts of gold and silver as a gift to the people of Makkah and Madinah to help support them economically. During the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid II in the late 1800s, a railway was built from Istanbul to Madinah, to help transport the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims going to the holy cities.

Much of the older part of Masjid al-Nabawi in Madinah, including the house of Muhammad (PBUH) [above] was built or renovated by the Ottomans

In addition to protecting the holy sites, the Ottomans saw it as their duty to protect Muslims worldwide, whether or not they lived within the borders of the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman naval fleets intermittently aided Muslim rebels fighting persecution in newly Catholic Spain in the 1500s. Also, in 1565, the Ottomans sent their fleet to distant Sumatra (present-day Indonesia) to protect the Sultanate of Aceh from Portuguese attacks. From these examples and others, it is clear the Ottomans were very willing to use their military power to protect Muslims everywhere, regardless of whether they were a prt of the Ottoman Empire or not.

Islam and Government

Unlike the modern secular ideas regarding government separation from religion, the Ottomans felt that Islam should play a vital role in the government. After 1517, the Ottoman sultan was also the caliph or khalifah of the Muslim world. The caliph ideally plays a role as a spiritual and political leader of all Muslims worldwide. With the sultan-caliph at the top of the government, a complex religious bureaucracy developed that ran the religious affairs of the empire.
According to Islamic law, the most important and basic duty of a Muslim ruler, particularly a caliph, was to maintain Islamic law throughout the empire – the shari’ah. Scholars of Islamic law, the ‘ulema, were organized in a heirarchical fashion. At the top were two top Islamic judges that were permanent members of the sultan’s group of advisors. Under them were the qadis, or judges, of the major cities of the empire, such as Damascus, Cairo and Baghdad. They oversaw all the laws of the Ottoman Empire, and presided over civil and criminal cases in their cities. For example, a qadi‘s job included diving up inheritance after someone’s death, finding solutions between two feuding parties, and prosecuting criminals. These qadis also oversaw lesser qadis that presided in smaller towns throughout the empire.

Sultan Suleyman Kanuni personally sorted through the Ottoman Empire’s laws with the mufti of Istanbul to make sure they all abided by Islamic guidelines

Before laws could be sent down to individual qadis throughout the empire, they had to pass through another Islamic branch of the government. Separate and independent from the sultan was the mufti of Istanbul – also known as the shaykh al-Islam. Mufti is an Arabic word meaning a scholar qualified to interpret religious laws, and shaykh al-Islam means “the scholar of Islam”. The shaykh al-Islam had the right to review any laws the sultan wanted to implement, and reject the ones that went against the shari’ah. In many cases, the sultans would work closely with him to ensure all of the empire’s laws conformed with Islam. For example, Sultan Suleyman was nicknamed Kanuni, meaning “the law giver” because he personally went through all the empire’s laws in the mid-1500s with the shaykh al-Islam to ensure none contradicted Islamic laws.

The Millet System

While analyzing the Ottoman Empire’s Islamic character, one must keep in mind that much of the empire’s population was not Muslim. Large communities of Orthodox Christians, Jews, and Catholics all lived in the empire. At some times, Muslims even formed a minority of the empire’s population. At no time in the empire’s history were non-Muslims forced to abide by any Muslim laws. Instead, a system of religious pluralism, known as the millet system, was implemented. In the millet system, each religious group was organized into a millet, or nation.
Each millet was allowed to run by its own rules, elect its own leaders, and enforce their own laws on their people. For example, after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II had the Orthodox Christian community of the city elect a new patriarch, who served as their leader. By not enforcing Islamic laws on non-Muslims, the Ottoman Empire ensured social and religious stability and harmony within its borders for much of its history. Contrary to this, throughout the rest of Christian Europe, religious freedom only began to take root in the 1700s and 1800s. Denial of rights and persecution of non-Christians continued, however, as is seen in the Holocaust of the 1940s and the ethnic cleansing of Muslim Bosnians in the 1990s.

Conclusions

While the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey, officially employs a policy of state secularism, the history of the Ottoman Empire is intertwined with Islamic history. For centuries, the Ottomans were the protectors of the Islamic faith. They presided over the holy sites of Islam, and made it their mission to protect Muslims from outsiders. Islamic law was the fundamental basis of the empire’s law system itself. Along with this emphasis on Islam, non-Muslims never had their rights violated, and in fact found stability and protection in the Ottoman Empire.
Bibliography:
Hourani, Albert Habib. A History Of The Arab Peoples. New York: Mjf Books, 1997. Print.
Itzkowitz, Norman. Ottoman Empire And Islamic Tradition. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 1981. Print.

Be Sociable, Share!

Four Major Changes in Global Prosperity

by Nathan Gamester  |   1:00 PM October 30, 2013

• Comments (26)
•        

It was Abraham Maslow who gave us that famous observation — “when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”  We all understand the implication: Anyone attempting to solve an ambiguous problem should start out in possession of a broad set of tools.
It is curious, then, that we continue to fall into the trap of reaching for one dominant tool for measuring the success of nations –- a narrow gauge of economic growth — and believing that the fixes it suggests are the one way to achieve progress.
Of course economic success is important –- most obviously in providing citizens with the things that make life better (healthcare, education, etc.) -– but only up to a point. Wealth alone does not make for a happy and successful society. Measuring success based solely on wealth, therefore, misses the many nuances of human wellbeing. National prosperity should be defined as much by human freedom, sound democracy, vibrant society, and entrepreneurial opportunity as it is by a growing economy.
Over recent years, governments too have increasingly begun to realize that focusing on GDP growth alone does not necessarily lead to improvements in living standards of their citizens. Put simply, what’s good for increasing GDP may not be good for the long-term betterment of society. The outcome of this is the realization that what we measure needs to catch up with what we value.
Over the last seven years, the Legatum Institute has been at the forefront of this “beyond GDP” discussion. Our annual Prosperity Index –- the 2013 edition of which we released yesterday –- measures national prosperity based on eight core pillars that combine “hard” data with survey data. The result is the most comprehensive assessment of national prosperity of its kind.
This year the Prosperity Index offers five consecutive years of comparable data. The world has changed a lot over the last five years, and events have occurred that changed the course of history for millions of people — the financial crisis of 2008, the Arab Spring, and the ongoing civil war in Syria, to name just a few.
In assessing national prosperity, considering trends over five years of data allows us to step back from the twists and turns of specific circumstances and, instead, consider the general direction of travel. And so what do we observe from this vantage point? Here are four observations that stand out.
Global Prosperity is Rising. Despite the tumultuous events of the last five years, global prosperity is actually still on the rise. This is driven by big technological advancements, as more and more people gain access to infrastructure vital for commerce and entrepreneurship to thrive. Also driving global prosperity are huge advancements in global health (especially across sub-Saharan Africa). For example, life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa has risen by more than three years just since 2010.
Latin America is Rising. The Prosperity Index shows that Latin America is a region on the rise, demonstrating steady economic growth. Countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Panama perform well on economic measures. In fact, in the last five years, every single country in Latin America and the Caribbean (with the exception of Jamaica) has improved its economic performance in the Index.
Europe’s Loss is Asia’s Gain. The trend from Latin America adds to a wider observation that a new economic order is emerging. As many Western countries – predominantly European countries – have fallen from being among the top-performing economies in the world, they have been replaced at the top by Asian countries. Malaysia, China, and Thailand now rank among the top 15 countries on economic measures, occupying rankings that, five years ago, were held by countries such as Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, and Ireland.

Bangladesh overtakes India. For the first time, Bangladesh has overtaken India, ranking 103^rd overall, compared to 106^th for India. The two countries have been moving in opposite directions since 2009. India has fallen down the rankings on six of the eight pillars of prosperity, while Bangladesh has improved its position on six of the eight. India has declined most dramatically in Safety & Security, the Economy, and Governance. The data show that Bangladeshis live longer, healthier, and safer lives than their Indian counterparts.
Using a broad framework for measuring success allows for a clear-eyed understanding of the factors that both promote and restrain prosperity. This – to borrow Maslow’s terminology – provides the policymaker with tools beyond just a hammer with which to fix problems.
The path to prosperity for nations is complex. The history of human progress reveals a wide array of factors that combine to propel nations forward on their journey of development. The precise combination and ordering of these elements may be debated and questioned, but the truth remains: national progress – much like human progress – is comprised of a complex blend of different factors.
The Prosperity Index, much like Maslow’s most famous contribution (the hierarchy of needs), attempts to provide a framework to understand and measure some of the most important factors that drive progress and development.

More blog posts by Nathan Gamester

More on: Economy, Global business, Sustainability

Nathan Gamester

Nathan Gamester is the Programme Director for the Prosperity Index at the Legatum Institute.

• 
  
• Comments (26)
•        

What to Read Next

• The Two-Minute Game that Reveals How People Perceive You
• Train Your Brain to Focus
• The Interview Question You Should Always Ask
• The Most Important Job Interview Question
• An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day
• A 90-Minute Plan for Personal Effectiveness

Recommended by

Comments

Posting Guidelines

We hope the conversations that take place on HBR.org will be energetic, constructive, and thought-provoking. To ensure the quality of the discussion, our moderating team will review all comments and may edit them for clarity, length, and relevance. Comments that are overly promotional, mean-spirited, or off-topic may be deleted per the moderators' judgment.

All postings become the property of Harvard Business School Publishing

FEATURED PRODUCTS

Nine Things Successful People Do Differently - Harvard Business Review

Buy it now »

Making Yourself Indispensable - Harvard Business Review

Buy it now »

MOST POPULAR

• 
  
• 
  

• From:
• Last 24 Hours
• Last 7 Days
• Last 30 Days

1. How to Pick Your Battles at Work
2. How Anxiety Can Lead Your Decisions Astray
3. Update Your Job Search
4. This Isn't Capitalism -- It's Growthism, and It's Bad for Us
5. The Best (and Worst) Countries to Be a Woman
6. The Dangers of Denial
7. Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance

All Most Popular »

The Last Great Caliph: Abdülhamid II

Apr. 06 Featured, Modern History, Ottoman History 61 comments

Throughout Islamic history, one of the uniting aspects of the Muslim world was the caliphate. After the death of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, his close companion, Abu Bakr, was elected as the first khalifah, or caliph, of the Muslim community. His job as leader combined political power over the Muslim state as well as spiritual guidance for Muslims. It became a hereditary position, occupied at first by the Umayyad family, and later by the Abbasids. In 1517, the caliphate was transferred to the Ottoman family, who ruled the largest and most powerful empire in the world in the 1500s.
For centuries, the Ottoman sultans did not place much emphasis on their role as caliphs. It was an official title that was called in to use when needed, but was mostly neglected. During the decline of the empire in the 1800s, however, a sultan came to power that would decide to revive the importance and power of the caliphate. Abdülhamid II was determined to reverse the retreat of the Ottoman state, and decided that the best way to do it was through the revival of Islam throughout the Muslim world and pan-Islamic unity, centered on the idea of a strong caliphate. While Abdülhamid’s 33-year reign did not stop the inevitable fall of the empire, he managed to give the Ottomans a final period of relative strength in the face of European encroachment and colonialism, with Islam being the central focus of his empire.

Islamic Reform

The Ottoman Empire in 1878

Throughout the 1800s, the Ottoman government had been trying desperately to slow the decline of the empire. Beginning with Mahmud II and throughout the reigns of Abdülmecid and Abdülaziz, attempts at reforming the empire were at the forefront of the government agenda. These Tanzimat (reorganization) reforms attempted to rebuild the Ottoman state along liberal, European lines. Islam (and religion in general) was given a back seat in public life, as secular ideas began to influence laws and government practices.
These reforms proved to do nothing to reverse the decline of the empire. If anything, the increased emphasis on non-Islamic identities of Ottoman subjects just further promoted the nationalistic aims of the Ottoman Empire’s numerous subjects, which created further disunity in the empire. During the Tanzimat Era, the Ottoman provinces of Serbia, Greece, Wallachia, Modova, Abkhazia, Bulgaria, and Algeria were all lost to European encroachment or nationalism.
Abdülhamid decided to take a radically different approach. Because of the loss of European territory that had occurred just before and in the first few years of his reign, the empire was now overwhelmingly Muslim. Throughout Ottoman history, Christians had been a major part of the population, at some times being about 80% of the population. Throughout the 1800s, however, the Ottoman Empire was losing Christian-majority lands in Europe, and was getting a net influx of Muslim immigrants coming into the empire. With about 3/4th of his empire Muslim, Abdülhamid decided to emphasize Islam as the dominant uniting factor among his subjects.

Tughra of Abdulhamid II

The rest of Europe was experiencing powerful nationalistic movements in the 1800s. Pan-Slavism and Pan-Germanism were examples of uniting factors for people who spoke the same languages and had similar cultures. The Ottoman empire had always been multi-cultural. Turks, Arabs, Albanians, Bosnians, Kurds, Armenians, and many others made up the empire. Abdülhamid attempted to make Pan-Islamism a uniting factor for Muslims, both inside and outside of the empire’s borders.
To show his role as supreme leader of Muslims worldwide, Abdülhamid placed much emphasis on the holy sites of Makkah and Madinah. In the 1800s, a building program commenced in the holy cities, with hospitals, barracks, and infrastructure being built in the Hejaz to aid in the yearly gathering of Muslims in Makkah – the Hajj. The Ka’aba itself and the Masjid al-Haram that surrounded it were also renovated with a modern water system that helped reduce the severity of floods.
In 1900, Abdülhamid commenced the beginning of the Hejaz Railway. It began in Istanbul and traveled through Syria, Palestine, and the Arabian desert, ending in Madinah. The goal of the railway was to better connect the holy sites with the political authority of Istanbul, as well as make the pilgrimage easier. To show his emphasis on the protection of Makkah and Madinah, Abdülhamid decided that the gauge (width of the rails) of the Hejaz Railway should be slightly smaller than standard European ones. His reasoning for this was that if Istanbul were to ever fall to European imperialists, he wanted to make sure they could not use the Hejaz Railway with European trains to easily invade Makkah and Madinah.

Non-Ottoman Muslims

Throughout Ottoman history, there have been examples of the sultans helping Muslim communities outside their borders whenever the opportunity arose and the Ottoman state was capable. For example, in the 1500s, the Ottoman navy was a key force in the Indian Ocean, aiding local Muslims fighting Portuguese colonialism as far away as India and Indonesia. Abdülhamid considered it his duty to do the same in the 1800s, especially since large populations of Muslims in Africa and Asia were under European imperial control.

The opening of the Hamidiye University in Beijing

Delegations were sent to African Muslim kingdoms such as Zanzibar, giving gifts from Abdülhamid and asking them to acknowledge the caliph as their protector against European imperialism. Similar delegations were sent to Muslims living within Russian and Chinese borders.
In 1901, Abdülhamid sent one of his advisors, Enver Pasha, along with numerous Islamic scholars, to China. When they arrived in Shanghai, they were warmly greeted by the Chinese authorities, and especially so by the local Chinese Muslims, who had lived in China for centuries. Abdülhamid later helped establish a Muslim university in Beijing, called the Peking (Beijing) Hamidiye University. Even as far away as China, Abdülhamid wanted to create a sense of belonging and unity among Muslims, centered on the caliphate.
Abdülhamid’s efforts resulted in the caliph of the Muslim world being acknowledged in Friday prayers from small towns throughout Africa to the major Muslim communities of India and China.

The Issue of Palestine

In the late 1800s, a potent nationalist movement was forming among European Jews: Zionism. Zionist ideology called for a Jewish state to be established in their ancient homeland, Palestine. Although European Jews were dispersed throughout Europe, the unique financial and political power of numerous Jewish families was able to make Zionism a major force in the late 1800s.

In the late 1800s, Sultan Abdülhamid II attempted to bring back the Islamic character of the Ottoman Empire.

Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement, personally requested from Abdülhamid II special permission to settle in Palestine, in exchange for 150 million pounds of gold, which could have helped the Ottomans repay their enormous debts. Herzl’s aims were not to settle there and live under Ottoman authority, he clearly wanted to establish a Jewish state carved out of Muslim lands (as of course happened in 1948). Abdülhamid realized that his role as caliph required him to protect the sanctity and sovereignty of Muslim land, so he responded to Herzl with the following:

™Even if you gave me as much gold as the entire world, let alone the 150 million English pounds in gold, I would not accept this at all. I have served the Islamic milla [nation] and the Ummah of Muhammad for more than thirty years, and never did I blacken the pages of the Muslims- my fathers and ancestors, the Ottoman sultans and caliphs. And so I will never accept what you ask of me.

He further prevented the purchase of tracts of land within Palestine by Zionist organizations, ensuring that their attempts at establishing a foothold there were futile. Ultimately, the Zionists were allowed to purchase land and settle in Palestine after the reign of Abdülhamid II, when the Young Turk movement was in charge of the Ottoman Empire.

Legacy

Abdülhamid II was the last of the Ottoman sultans who had any real power. He was overthrown in 1909 by a group known as the Young Turks. They were Western-educated liberal secularists who vehemently disagreed with the Islamic direction that Abdülhamid took the empire in from 1876 to 1909. After his overthrow, his brother Mehmed Reshad was chosen as sultan by the Young Turks, but he effectively had no power, and the empire was run by an oligarchy of three ministers in the Young Turk government.
Three more people held the office of caliph after Abdülhamid II: Mehmed V, Mehmed VI, and Abdülmecid II, none of which had any power. In 1924, the caliphate was abolished by the new Turkish parliament and Abdülmecid and the rest of the Ottoman family were forced into exile. As such, Abdülhamid II was the last of the caliphs to have had any power over the Muslim world. The tradition of a strong, in charge caliph that commenced with Abu Bakr in 632 was upheld by Abdülhamid in the late 1800s before finally being overthrown by liberal elements within the empire.
Abdülhamid II died in Istanbul in 1918, and was buried in a mausoleum along with Sultans Mahmud II and Abdülaziz near Sultanahmet Square.

Kisah Shalawat Nabi Muhammad SAW

Anda Akan meneteskan air mata mendengar berita ini.

Terutama permohonan Malaikat Isrofil kepada Allah SWT.

Rasulullah S.A.W telah
bersabda bahwa :
“Malaikat
Jibril, Mikail, Israfil dan Izrail A.S. telah berkata kepadaku"

Berkata Jibril A.S. : “Wahai
Rasulullah, barangsiapa yang
membaca selawat ke atasmu
tiap-tiap hari sebanyak
sepuluh kali, maka akan saya
bimbing tangannya dan akan saya bawa dia melintasi titian
seperti kilat menyambar.”

Berkata pula Mikail :
“Mereka yang berselawat ke
atas kamu akan aku beri mereka itu minum dari
telagamu.”

Berkata pula Isrofil :
“Mereka yang berselawat
kepadamu akan aku sujud kepada Allah S.W.T. dan aku
TIDAK AKAN mengangkat
kepalaku sehingga Allah
S.W.T. mengampuni orang itu
(yang bershalawat).”

Malaikat Izrail pula berkata :
“Bagi mereka yang
berselawat keatasmu,akan
aku cabut ruh mereka itu
dengan selembut-lembutnya seperti aku mencabutruh para
nabi-nabi.”

Apakah kita tidak cinta
kepada Rasulullah S.A.W.?
.
Para malaikat memberikan
jaminan masing-masing untuk
orang-orang yang berselawat
ke atas Rasulullah S.A.W.

Dengan kisah yang
dikemukakan ini, kami harap para pembaca tidak akan
melepaskan peluang untuk
berselawat ke atas junjungan
kita Nabi Muhammad S.A.W.

.
Mudah-mudahan kita menjadi orang-orang kesayangan
Allah, Rasul dan para malaikat.

Bacaan Sholawat Nabi sangat
beragam, ini adalah satu dari
beragam itu.

Ya Nabi Salam Alaika Ya
Rosuul salam alaika
Ya Habiib salam alaika Sholawatulloh
alaika.

Dalam Al Qur'an Allah swt. berfirman:
"Sesungguhnya
Allah dan malaikat-malaikat-
Nya bershalawat untuk Nabi.
Hai orang-orang yang
beriman, bershalawatlah
kamu untuk Nabi dan ucapkanlah salam
penghormatan kepadanya".
(Al-Qur'an S. Al-Ahzab ayat
56)

Nabi Muhammad saw. bersabda:
"Bershalawatlah
kamu kepadaku,karena
shalawat itu menjadi zakat
penghening jiwa pembersih
dosa bagimu". (Diriwayatkan
oleh Ibnu Murdawaih).

Dari Abu Hurairah ra.
diberitakan Nabi Muhammad
saw. bersabda:
"Janganlah
kamu menjadikan rumah-rumahmu sebagai kubur dan menjadikan kuburku sebagai
persidangan hari raya.
Bershalawatlah kepadaku,
karena shalawatmu sampai
kepadaku dimana sajakamu berada". (HR. An-Nasai, Abu
Dawud dan Ahmad serta
dishahihkan oleh An-Nawawi)

Subhanallah....

AMALAN DO’A YANG PINGIN DAPET JODOH..

Banyak jamaah yang pingin dapet jodoh, jangan asal mencari jodoh. Carilah dengan cara cara Allah yaitu TAHAJUD dan SEDEKAH kemudian BERDO’A. Karena Jodoh di Tangan Allah, bukan di tangan manusia. Lalu, mengapa kita tidak langsung meminta kepada-Nya?

Katakanlah: "Cukuplah Allah bagiku." Kepada- Nyalah bertawakkal orang-orang yang berserah diri." (QS Az-Zumaar [39] : 38)

Do’anya…
"Rabbana hablana milladunka zaujan thayyiban wayakuna shahiban lii fiddini waddunya wal akhirah"

"Ya Tuhan kami, berikanlah kami pasangan yang terbaik dari sisiMu, pasangan yang juga menjadi sahabat kami dalam urusan agama, urusan dunia dan akhirat." aamiinn...

TIPS MENUNGGU DAN MENJEMPUT HADIRNYA JODOH"

1. Jangan fokus pada siapa yang harus dipilih. Tapi fokus melakukan perubahan diri yang lebih baik agar pantas mendapatkan jodoh yang baik.

2. Jangan menginginkan seseorang menjadi seperti yang kita harapkan. Tapi bagaimana kita bisa menjadikan diri seperti orang yang kita harapkan.

3. Berusaha memposisikan diri untuk siap lahir batin serta berani menghadapi pernikahan kapanpun jika sewaktu-waktu jodoh telah hadir.

4. Berusaha untuk tidak patah semangat dan trauma terhadap masa lalu yang kurang menyenangkan. Bukalah lembaran baru yang lebih baik mulai hari ini dan untuk hari-hari selanjutnya.

5. Menjalin hubungan persahabatan dan persaudaraan sebanyak-banyaknya. Akan lebih baik jika banyak bergaul dengan sahabat yang baik. Siapa tahu jodoh kita berada di antara mereka.

6. Jangan terburu-buru menilai atau memberi kesimpulan kepada seseorang itu tidak layak bersama kita. Karena sejatinya jodoh itu akan hadir atas ridha Allah. Sedangkan kewajiban kita hanya berikhtiar.

7. Jangan terlalu mengkhawatirkan usia. Di usia berapapun menikah tetap baik jika kita mampu mempertanggungjawabkan pernikahan tersebut di hadapan Allah. Bagi pasangan, keluarga besar serta masyarakat.

8. Teruslah beriikhtiar dan berdoa. Karena doa bisa mengubah yang tidak mungkin menjadi mungkin sesuai kehendak-Nya.

Ya Allah..
Dekatkanlah jodoh orang yang membaca status ini.
Tenteramkanlah hatinya.
Lapangkanlah dadanya.
Bahagiakanlah hidupnya.
Luaskan rezekinya.
Mudahkan segala urusannya.
Kabulkan cita-citanya.
Jauhkan dari segala musibah.
Jauhkan dari segala penyakit, fitnah, prasangka keji, berkata kasar serta kemunkaran.

Aamiin Allahumma Aamiin
_______________________

4 TIPS CINTA JARAK JAUH

Cinta jarak jauh adalah, dua orang yang saling mencintai, namun ia terpisahkan oleh jarak yang jauh di sana, Terhalangi oleh perbatasan Waktu.

Namun inilah tips Cinta jarak jauh :

1. Jika engkau merindukannya, maka Rindukanlah dia dalam Munajadmu agar ia sama , merindukanmu dalam Munajadnya

2. Jika engkau Teringat akan Kasih sayangnya, maka Do'akanlah agar ia selalu dalam keadaan yang baik, dan selalu dalam lindungan-Nya

3. Jika engkau Takut kehilangannya.. Maka angkatlah tanganmu dan pejamkan matamu.. Dan katakanlah '' Ya Allah aku sangat menyayanginya, aku sangat merindukannya, dan aku takut kehilangannya, Maka jagalah ia untukku, Ya Allah sungguh Kutitipkan ia kepada-Mu .. dan Sayangilah ia dengan Kasih sayang-Mu agar selalu dalam lindungan-Mu

4. Yakinlah, Cinta jarak jauh ini tidak akan selamanya..
Percayalah bahwa suatu saat nanti Cinta ini akan bersatu dalam ikatan yang Suci..

PAHALA BUAT SEORANG ISTRI

“Sekali suami minum air yang disediakan oleh isterinya adalah lebih baik dari berpuasa setahun”.

“Makanan yang disediakan oleh isteri kepada suaminya lebih baik dari isteri itu mengerjakan haji dan umrah”

“Mandi junub si isteri disebabkan jimak oleh suaminya lebih baik baginya daripada mengorbankan 1,000 ekor kambing sebagai sedekah kepada fakir miskin”.

“Apabila isteri hamil ia dicatatkan sebagai seorang syahid dan khidmat kepada suaminya sebagai jihad”.

“Pemeliharaan yang baik terhadap anak-anak adalah menjadi benteng neraka, pandangan yang baik dan harmonis terhadap suami adalah menjadi tasbih (zikir)”.

“Tidak akan putus ganjaran dari Allah kepada seorang isteri yang siang dan malamnya menggembirakan suaminya”.

“Apabila meninggal dunia seorang dan suaminya redha, nescaya ia dimasukkan ke dalam syurga”. (Hadis Riwayat Tarmizi)

“Seseorang wanita apabila ia mengerjakan sembahyang yng difardhukan ke atasnya, berpuasa pada bulan Ramadhan, menjaga kehormatan dirinya dan taat kepada suaminya maka berhaklah ia masuk syurga dari mana-mana pintu yang ia suka”

Why Companies Can Profit By Paying You More

By Sanjay Sanghoee Oct. 28, 2013Add a Comment

• • inShare13
• Read Later

Getty Images

• Email
• Print
• Share
• Comment

Follow @TIMEBusiness

Here are some hard facts: Income inequality in America is almost double that of other developed nations, two thirds of our national wealth is concentrated in the hands of the top 5 percent richest Americans, and 95 percent of income gains since the financial crisis have accrued to top wage earners, leaving rank-and-file workers still struggling for a piece of the pie.
While no one actually celebrates inequality, the business community does not see the issue as one of fairness but of economics. At higher wages, businesses cannot afford to employ the same number of people, which creates a whole new problem.  The solution, then, is to identify the economic value in paying higher wages, and make a business argument for it rather than a moral one:
Skilled Labor
Consumers today demand highly specialized products and services, and a specialized marketplace requires knowledgeable and skilled workers. While the automation of physical tasks might require fewer workers for the same job, the jobs themselves are more technical.  On the manufacturing front, some 600,000 jobs remain vacant in the US due to a lack of skilled labor, and most workers are 45 years or older, which means that unless industry actively provides training for the next generation, we will eventually have an even bigger shortfall.  This is also not to mention that our economy today is highly dependent on information technology and knowledge-based services, which require higher education.
Some companies do provide training for employees, but for the most part workers are expected to learn new skills themselves. For low-wage workers with little time or money, however, that is a Herculean task. Eventually, this will lead to an acute shortage of skilled labor in America, which will weaken the competiveness of domestic businesses and open the door for foreign companies to fill that void. To avoid this, companies should invest in their workforce, either through better wages or direct sponsorship.
(MORE: 5 Reasons Your Job Is Making You Miserable)
Productivity
Many businesses consider healthcare benefits (which are a form of wages) an avoidable expense. The ongoing and heated debate over the employer mandate of Obamacare underscores this point.  Yet good healthcare, especially when it is preventative, can save companies money over time. Workers in better health are more alert and productive. Sick employees cost businesses money by missing work or being late, being unable to perform their duties, making mistakes, and even making their colleagues sick. It is estimated that the US economy loses $576 billion a year due to this factor, of which $227 billion is attributable to lost productivity alone.  What this means is that lost productivity is extremely expensive and is something companies should factor into their calculations when considering the pros and cons of offering benefits.
Innovation
Not all workers are inventors. However, successful innovation is not just the result of technical skill or creativity but of careful observation of what customers want. The most profitable ventures come out of fulfilling an important need in the market, and that need is best identified by those who are in the trenches with customers every day. These could be sales people but they could also be customer service representatives and even a cashier who interacts with customers and hears their complaints and requests. Yet some of these workers also tend to be the lowest paid, so they have little incentive to share the feedback that could help their company innovate, and that is a loss for businesses.
Amazon (Ticker: AMZN), which was ranked as the second most innovative company in the US in 2013 and is one of the most successful companies in the world, actively encourages its frontline workers and even interns to conduct experiments based on customer insights, and it values their input highly.  So highly, in fact, that it not only pays most workers full benefits and stock awards on top of their salaries, but also pays for 95% of the tuition for courses that its employees may want to take – even if those courses are not directly connected to their work.
(MORE: Sticker Shock: Tony New Audis and Mercedes Don’t Cost a Lot)
Customer Service
Good customer service fosters consumer loyalty and enhances profitability, whereas customer dissatisfaction can damage market share (consider how AT&T’s consistently poor customer service rankings hurt its business in the past). According to customer research conducted by American Express, 66% of consumers are willing to spend 13% more on goods and services if they received better customer service, which are meaningful numbers.  But customer service is directly related to employee attitude, which in turn depends on wages. Companies need to recognize that even a small increase in wages can inspire a positive attitude in workers that will keep customers happy and coming back.
These arguments are not hypothetical but form part of a smart business framework which can translate into success through a stronger workforce, lower turnover, higher customer satisfaction, profitable innovations, and eventually, better performance.  In addition to the examples cited above, companies such as Whole Foods (Ticker: WFM) and Costco (Ticker: COST) have also adopted this philosophy with strong results. Both companies, which pride themselves in paying their workers well above the living wage and better than their competitors, are highly profitable, well-respected, and currently trading at 5 year highs.  While their success may not be solely the result of employee satisfaction, there is no reason to believe that it is not a contributing factor since a motivated workforce leads to better service, better ideas, and more efficiency.
Higher wages, therefore, can be good business.
Sanjay Sanghoee is a political and business commentator. He has worked at investment banks Lazard Freres and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, at multi-billion dollar hedge fund Ramius, and has an MBA from Columbia Business School. His articles have appeared in FORTUNE, Bloomberg Businessweek, Christian Science Monitor, and Huffington Post, and he has appeared on CNBC’s ‘Closing Bell’, TheStreet.com, and HuffPost Live on business topics. He is also the author of two thriller novels. For more information, please visit http://www.sanghoee.com.

Read more: http://business.time.com/2013/10/28/why-companies-can-profit-by-paying-you-more/#ixzz2j6blWk00

PEMBONGKARAN ! - Rahasia Kelebihan Berzikir Dari Sudut Sains.

Seperti mana yang kita tahu berzikir boleh membuatkan hati menjadi tenang , tapi apakah kebenaran saintifik terhadap aktiviti berzikir ini?
Bahkan hasil kajian Dr Masaru Emoto telah membuktikan molekul air akan menjadi kristal sewaktu dibacakan doa....benarkah zikir akan menenangkan? Ikuti pembongkaran rahsia kelebihan berzikir dari sudut sains.

Otak sebenarnya ialah satu himpunan aktiviti-aktiviti bio-elektrik yang melibatkan sekumpulan saraf yang dipertanggungjawabkan untuk melakukan tugas-tugas tertentu bagi membolehkan ia berfungsi secara sempurna.

Ketika otak berfungsi, berlaku perubahan kimia di dalamnya yang melibatkan pergerakan ion-ion atau atom-atom yang membawa cas. Setiap hari empat belas juta saraf yang membentuk otak ini berinteraksi dengan enam belas juta saraf tubuh yang lain.

Semua aktiviti yang kita lakukan dan kefahaman atau ilmu yang kita peroleh adalah natijah daripada aliran interaksi bio-elektrik yang tidak terbatas. Ukuran isyarat otak yang terhasil daripada aktiviti elektrik yang dapat dikenal pasti melalui kaedah Electro Encephalo Graphy (EEG).

Oleh itu, apabila seorang itu berzikir dengan mengulangi kalimah-kalimah Allah S.W.T seperti Subhanallah, beberapa kawasan otak yang terlibat menjadi aktif. Ini menyebabkan berlakunya satu aliran bio-elektrik di kawasan-kawasan saraf otak tersebut.

Apabila zikir disebut berulang-ulang kali, aktiviti saraf ini menjadi bertambah aktif dan turut menambah tenaga bio-elektrik. Lama-kelamaan kumpulan saraf yang sangat aktif ini mempengaruhi kumpulan saraf yang lain untuk turut sama aktif. Dengan itu, otak menjadi aktif secara keseluruhan.

Otak mula memahami perkara baru, melihat daripada perspektif berbeda dan semakin kreatif dan kritis, sedangkan sebelum berzikir otak tidak sebegini. Otak yang segar dan cerdas secara tidak langsung mempengaruhi hati untuk melakukan kebaikan dan menerima kebenaran.

Hasil kajian maksimal yang dilakukan terhadap subjek ini dimuatkan dalam majalah Scientific American, keluaran Desember 1993. Kajian dilakukan di University of Washington dengan menggunakan ujian imbasan PET yang mengukur kadar aktiviti otak manusia secara tidak sedar.

Dalam kajian ini, sukarelawan diberikan satu senarai perkataan benda. Mereka dikehendaki membaca setiap perkataan tersebut satu persatu dan mengaitkan perkataan-perkataan dengan kata kerja yang berkaitan. Apabila sukarelawan melakukan tugas mereka, beberapa bahagian berbeda otak mempamerkan peningkatan aktiviti saraf, termasuk di bahagian depan otak dan korteks.

Menariknya, apabila sukarelawan ini mengulangi senarai perkataan yang sama berulang kali, aktiviti saraf otak merebak ke kawasan-kawasan lain dan mengaktifkan kawasan saraf lain. Apabila senarai perkataan baru diberikan kepada mereka, aktiviti saraf kembali meningkat di kawasan pertama.

Ini sekaligus membuktikan secara saintifik bahawa perkataan yang diulang-ulang seperti perbuatan berzikir, terbukti meningkatkan kecergasan otak dan menambah kemampuannya. Jika ia mengaitkan tentang kecerdasan otak, maka betullah sabda Rasulullah S.A.W yang bermaksud:

“Orang yang berzikir kepada Allah S.W.T ditengah-tengah orang yang lalai ibarat sebuah pepohonan yang hijau ditengah-tengah pepohonan yang kering.”

Oleh itu, saudara-saudara se-Islam, ketika saintis barat baru menemui mukjizat ini, kita umat Islam yaitu umat terpilih ini telah lama mengamalkannya dan menerima manfaatnya. Malang bagi mereka yang masih memandang remeh tentang kepentingan berzikir dan secara nyata mengabaikannya.

Cium istri Berpahala
Cium Pacar DOSA

Pandang istri berpahala
Pandang pacar DOSA

Pegang tangan istri Berpahala
Pegang tangan pacar DOSA

Senyum dengan istri Berpahala
senyum dengan pacar DOSA

Mesra dengan istri Berpahala
Mesra dengan Pacar DOSA

Romantis dgn istri Berpahala
Romantis dgn pacar DOSA

Menikah itu membuat semua hal menjadi sunnah dan bernilai pahala, menikah itu penyempurna dari setengah agama.

Pacaran itu membuat semua hal menjadi haram dan bernilai DOSA, pacaran itu perusak dari setengah agama.

Yang setuju ? mana jempolnya.

Gabung yuk di Fp : '' ISLAM ITU INDAH ''Untuk membaca kisah hikmah,motivasi,inspirasi,jodoh,istri sholeha,keluarga sakinah dll

Semoga Bermanfa'at..

Thanks to research from the University of Michigan and nearly three centuries of medicinal use, we can now utilize ginger root to not only kill ovarian cancer cells, but also prostate cancer cells with zero toxicity.
Truly among the great medicines of the world, ginger has long been used to treat inflammation and nausea, but the results presented in a session at the American Association for Cancer Research show that in every single instance where ginger powder was used to treat cancer cells, they all died as a result of being exposed to the compound. In medical lingo this is called apoptosis (cancer cell suicide.) When ginger is present, the cells even attack one another, called autophagy.
While ginger has been deemed a great natural remedy for those who are undergoing chemotherapy, it can also be used in larger quantities to treat cancer of its own accord.
Another study showing ginger’s ability to fight ovarian cancer concludes with:

“Ginger inhibits growth and modulates secretion of angiogenic factors in ovarian cancer cells. The use of dietary agents such as ginger may have potential in the treatment and prevention of ovarian cancer.”

Ginger has also been proven to treatprostate cancer. The British Journal of Nutrition published the results of an American study recently in which ginger extract (zingiber officinale) killed human prostate cancer cells while healthy prostate cells were left alone. Whole ginger extract was revealed to shrink prostate tumor size by a whopping 56%
Further adding to the benefits of ginger, the spice has no toxicity when consumed even in high doses, and does not cause people to endure the very uncomfortable side effects of chemo and radiation treatments. The American Cancer Society admits  that more than 15% of men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and more than 20,000 American women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year. Many of these cases can be helped with ginger root.
While Big Pharma would have these men and women endure very invasive treatments, some simple ginger root powder can cause their cancer cells to commit a certain death.
Source:
Natural Society

trust me no mater what country. McDonald is not Halal

Sorry McDonald's lovers yucky news!! Hamburger chef Jamie Oliver has just won a battle against one of the largest fast food chains in the world. After Oliver showed how McDonald’s hamburgers are made, the franchise announced it will change its recipe. According to Oliver, the fatty parts of beef are “washed” in ammonium hydroxide and used in the filling of the burger. Before this process, according to the presenter, the food is deemed unfit for human consumption. According to the chef and presenter, Jamie Oliver, who has undertaken a war against the fast food industry: “Basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold in the cheapest way for dogs, and after this process, is being given to human beings.” Besides the low quality of the meat, the ammonium hydroxide is harmful to health. Oliver calls it “the pink slime process.” “Why would any sensible human being put meat filled with ammonia in the mouths of their children?” asked the chef, who wages a war against the fast food industry. In one of his initiatives, Oliver demonstrates to children how nuggets are made. After selecting the best parts of the chicken, the remains (fat, skin and internal organs) are processed for these fried foods. The company, Arcos Dorados, the franchise manager in Latin America, said such a procedure is not practiced in the region. The same applies to the product in Ireland and the UK, where they use meat from local suppliers. In the United States, Burger King and Taco Bell had already abandoned the use of ammonia in their products. The food industry uses ammonium hydroxide as an anti-microbial agent in meats, which has allowed McDonald’s to use otherwise “inedible meat.” Even more disturbing is that because ammonium hydroxide is considered part of the “component in a production procedure” by the USDA, consumers may not know when the chemical is in their food. On the official website of McDonald’s, the company claims that their meat is cheap because, while serving many people every day, they are able to buy from their suppliers at a lower price, and offer the best quality products. In addition, the franchise denied that the decision to change the recipe is related to Jamie Oliver’s campaign. On the site, McDonald’s has admitted that they have abandoned the beef filler from its burger patties. ************************************* AND REMEMBER SHARING IS CARING To SAVE this , be sure to click this photo and SHARE so it will store on your personal page. For more Click and join us here--- https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/488100881283543/ — with Adriana Vazquez.

How Muslims Helped Cause the American Revolution

Oct. 06 Islam in the Americas, Philosophy 42 comments

Today’s American political landscape can be quite a confusing and frightening place. The ideas of the Founding Fathers are commonly cited as the foundation of the nation. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are seen as the infallible documents on which American life are based. Freedom, democracy, and liberty are the cornerstones of political and social ideas in the United States.
At the same time, however, the rising tide of Islamophobia is making its presence felt. Politicians support the characterization of Islamic life as incompatible with American society. Media “pundits” decry the supposed influence Muslims are having on destroying the basis of American political and social ideas.

The truly ironic part of this is that Muslims in fact helped formulate the ideas that the United States is based on. While this article will not argue that Islam and Muslims are the only cause of the American Revolution, the impact that Muslims had on the establishment of America is clear and should not be overlooked.

Islamic Philosophy and the Enlightenment

The political and social ideas that caused the American colonists to revolt against the British Empire were formulated in a movement known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that argued that science and reason should be the basis of human society, not blind following of monarchs and church authority. On July 4th, 1776, in Philadelphia, the American revolutionaries signed the Declaration of Independence, a document written by Thomas Jefferson and heavily influenced by the Enlightenment, which made official their break from Great Britain and the establishment of the United States of America.
The Enlightenment was driven by a group of European philosophers and scientists who were going against the prevailing ideas of governance in Europe at the time. Among these thinkers were people such as John Locke, René Descartes, Isaac Newton and Montesquieu.

John Locke

John Locke, an Englishman who lived from 1632 to 1704, promoted some of the most influential ideas of the Enlightenment. He pioneered the idea that humans are naturally good, and are corrupted by society or government to becoming deviant. Locke described this idea in his An Essay Concerning Human Understanding as the tabula rasa, a Latin phrase meaning blank slate. The idea was not original to him, however. In fact, Locke directly took the idea from a Muslim philosopher from the 1100s, Ibn Tufail. In Ibn Tufail’s book, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, he describes an identical idea about how humans act as a blank slate, absorbing experiences and information from their surroundings.

John Locke borrowed many of his Enlightenment ideas from the Muslim philosopher, Ibn Tufail

The same idea manifests itself in the life of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him). He stated that “No child is born except on the fitra.” Fitra here can be defined as the natural, pure state of a person. According to Islamic thought, all humans are born in a natural state of purity, with belief in one God, and that as they grow older, they adopt the ideas and beliefs of the people around them, particularly their parents. This is the intellectual forerunner of the tabula rasa that Locke learned from Ibn Tufail.
Through Locke, this concept would influence the political idea that humans should not be constrained by an oppressive and intolerant government. His ideas, which he borrowed from Ibn Tufail, would end up forming a cornerstone of America’s revolutionary ideas that the colonists in America would be much better off if they were not under the oppressive British government. Locke further expanded on the subject by describing something he called the social contract. In this social contract theory, the people must consent to be ruled by a government that in turn agrees to protect the natural rights of its citizens.
This same concept is also seen in 1377 in the Muqaddimah of the great Muslim historian and sociologist, Ibn Khaldun. In it, he states, “The concomitants of good rulership are kindness to, and protection of, one’s subjects. The true meaning of royal authority is realized when a ruler defends his subjects.” Here Ibn Khaldun is explaining one of the main political ideas of the Enlightenment, 300 years before Locke proposes the same argument: that a government must defend, not infringe on, the rights of its citizens. Later, in 1776, the preamble of the Declaration of Independence stated a similar argument: “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
John Locke also pioneered the concept of natural rights: the idea that humans all have a set of God-given rights that should not be taken away by any government. In the Declaration of Independence, this is stated as “…they [men] are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
While most American and European textbooks promote this as a unique “Western” idea, the truth is that it is far older than John Locke and Thomas Jefferson. Again, in the Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun explains: “Those who infringe upon property commit an injustice. Those who deny people their rights commit an injustice.” He goes on to explain that this leads to the destruction of a state, and cites examples from the life of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) where he forbade injustice. The concepts that a Muslim government should not infringe upon rights was very clear in Islamic law and was a well-accepted idea throughout Muslim empires.

Other Philosophers

Other Enlightenment philosophers were heavily influenced by earlier Muslims and Islamic ideas. Without going into great detail, the following are some examples:
Isaac Newton was greatly influenced by Ibn al-Haytham, the Muslim scientist who pioneered the scientific method, optics, and the laws of motion. In Europe, Ibn al-Haytham was well known, as were his ideas about science and philosophy. Isaac Newton borrowed from Ibn al-Haytham the idea that there are natural laws that run the universe (an idea first proposed by Caliph al-Ma’mun as his rationale for establishing the House of Wisdom in Baghdad). Later Enlightenment philosophers used the idea of natural laws to support concepts of natural rights, the government’s role, and economic systems. All of these ideas influenced the Founding Fathers of America who cited them as the basis of the United States.
Montesquieu is usually cited as the first to propose the ideas of separation of government into several branches. During his time in Europe, monarchs held absolute power and shared control of the state with no one. The Muslim world had historically never run in such a way. While caliphs in the Umayyad and Abbasid Empires held most of the power, there also existed the idea of shura, which was a council whose job it was to advise the caliph. In those governments there also existed ministers who carried out tasks under the supervision of the monarch. Perhaps the most important however, were the qadis, or judges, who formed a legal system based on Islamic law and were independent of the ruling caliph. A prime example of how Islamic governments are designed to work through a bureaucracy is Imam al-Mawardi’s Al-Ahkam Al-Sultaniyyah [On the Ordinances of the Government], written in the early 1000s. In it, al-Mawardi explains how the caliph and other government officials are to carry out their roles within their individual spheres, all while staying within the framework of Islamic law.
This system of government was well known in Europe from the Muslim European states in Spain and Sicily, where many European Christians traveled to study under Muslim scholars. Al-Mawardi’s work was translated into Latin and disseminated throughout Europe, where he was known as Alboacen, a Latin corruption of his name.

Coffee

All of the philosophical ideas already mentioned would not have had much effect if it were not for a curious black drink that came out of the Muslim world – coffee.
During the Middle Ages in Europe, the drink of choice was alcohol. In France and other areas that grew grapes, wine was the dominant drink, while beer and ale were popular further north. Drinking water was actually rare, as it was believed that alcoholic beverages were cleaner than water and more filling. The result of this belief was constant drunkenness among the European population.
In Yemen in the middle of the 1400s, a new drink that was made from coffee beans was beginning to become quite popular. The Yemenis were roasting and then boiling coffee beans in water to produce a drink that was rich in caffeine, a stimulant that causes the body to have more energy and the brain to think more clearly. Through the 1400s and 1500s, coffee spread throughout the Muslim world, and coffee shops began to pop up in major cities. These coffee shops became a center of urban society, as people met there to socialize and enjoy the company of others.

A British coffeehouse in the 1700s

By the 1600s, these coffee houses had spread to Europe as well. Although there was initial resistance to drinking a “Muslim drink” in Christian Europe, the beverage caught on. The coffeehouses became a central aspect of the Enlightenment, particularly in France. Whereas previously Europeans had been drinking alcohol regularly, they now met in coffee houses, where they discussed philosophy, government, politics, and other ideas that were the cornerstones of the Enlightenment. French Enlightenment philosophers such as Diderot, Voltaire, and Rousseau were all regular customers at the coffeehouses of Paris.
Were it not for this drink from the Muslim lands, Europe might never have had the Enlightenment, as the philosophers would never have met to discuss ideas, nor had the mental clarity (due to alcohol consumption) to think philosophically.

How Did This All Lead to Revolution?

As previously stated, the American Revolution was a direct effect of the European Enlightenment. The theories of rights, government, and the human self that were the basis of Enlightenment took form in the 1700s at the hands of great minds such as Locke, Newton, and Montesquieu. They, however, borrowed their ideas from earlier Muslim philosophers such as Ibn Tufail, Ibn Sina, and Ibn Khaldun. Were it not for their ideas which were rooted in Islam, the Enlightenment may not have been as insightful, or may not have even happened. Added to this was the effect that coffee had on Europe in giving the philosophers a forum to expand their ideas and learn new ones.

The signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 in Philadelphia

Without the Enlightenment, the American colonists never would have had the intellectual backing they needed to revolt. The ideas of freedom, liberty, and human rights that America is founded on are originally Muslim ideas formulated by Muslim philosophers working with the Quran and Hadith as their basis. While it is not accurate to claim that Muslims single-handedly caused the American Revolution, their contributions and influences cannot be overlooked. Those who claim that Islamic ideas are not compatible with American society must remember that it was those Islamic ideas that helped form American society, freedom, and liberty in the first place.


Bibliography:
Khaldūn, I. (1969). The muqaddimah, an introduction to history. Bollingen.
Morgan, M. (2007). Lost history. Washington D.C. : National Geographic Society.
Russell, G. A. (1994). The ‘arabick’ interest of the natural philosophers in seventeenth-century england. Brill Publishers.