Ramadan is a month of blessings and contains the Night of Power, described as “… better than a thousand months” in the Quran (Surat al-Qadr, 3), itself sent down as a guide for all mankind. Throughout this month, Muslims fulfil their fasting obligations and give thanks to the Lord for all His blessings. In Surat al-Baqara, Allah tells us this about Ramadan:
The month of Ramadan is the one in which the Quran was sent down as guidance for mankind, with Clear Signs containing guidance and discrimination. Any of you who are resident for the month should fast it. But any of you who are ill or on a journey should fast a number of other days. Allah desires ease for you; He does not desire difficulty for you. You should complete the number of days and proclaim Allah’s greatness for the guidance He has given you so that hopefully you will be thankful. (Surat al-Baqara, 185)
Despite this, even as you read these lines, wars are taking place all over the world, and people are dying, being expelled from their homes and generally being oppressed.
In order for there to be real justice, people have to adopt the moral values that will enable them to set aside their own interests for the sake of that justice. Those values are the values of the Quran, and apply to all mankind, discriminating between none, insisting that all means be shared on a fair basis, and aiming to create a world in which superiority lies not with the strong but with the honest.
Justice can only prevail when people live fully in accordance with the moral values of the Quran. Indeed, the time of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), that of the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs who followed, and then the days of Ottoman rule, are all striking examples of that fact.
Great efforts were made to ensure that justice prevailed in the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman sultans issued many edicts against officials who misused their power against the interests of the people, and even constructed a system the public would be content with, even if they did not personally witness its operations.
Thanks to this just administration that prevailed in the Empire, millions of people belonging to the three revealed faiths and various denominations thereof, with different languages and cultures, of many different races were able to live in peace, free from any oppression, in an area encompassing all the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East.
American and European scholars admit they are highly impressed by the Ottoman’s vision of justice, which is in fact an expression of the perfection of the moral values revealed in the Quran. That is because the way that the Ottoman system that refused to make any concessions when it came to justice and the truth never changed down the centuries stemmed from the conception imposed by those very values.
For six centuries, the Ottoman Empire ruled over millions of members of the three faiths and of various schools and sects, with all their different languages, cultures, races, worldviews and beliefs. The Ottoman rule was based not on oppression and compulsion, but on tolerance and social compromise.
Adnan Oktar's piece on The Gulf Today:
http://gulftoday.ae/portal/05c7a931-89a7-477b-84f3-51d8fd7b4f38.aspx
