Islamic Heritage – Visit to Suleymaniye Mosque

Salam aleikum. PCU I pray this finds you well and blessed. Welcome back to my series on Islamic heritage kicking off here in Istanbul yet again Subhan Allah because we have a leader today that we're going to be finding out about and just reading about him makes you realize that he embodied all of the areas of a great Islamic leader. The biggest of these being Adela Yes, Justice. He reigned over a golden era of the Ottoman caliphate, his name given to him by the way, by the enemies of Islam. Suleiman the Magnificent

it's really interesting that this period of Islamic history was ruled over by a man named after King Solomon or Solomon in the Holy Quran. And of course, Solomon was known for what for justice, this 46 year period of Islamic history is seen as the longest period of perfection of Islamic justice SubhanAllah.

Wow, just wow. So when the leaders and the Pope's built higher Sophia they commissioned it, it was said that they boasted that they've outdone King Solomon from the Bible because higher Sophia was so magnificent. And so when Suleiman the Magnificent, or the law giver as he was known to the people who lived under him, commission buildings like this, which had courts and bars and gardens and places to eat for the poor, he said that in doing these projects, who has restored the honor of Suleiman.

trees around here

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the field with weird birds like parrots and parakeets, and that's because the Ottomans had a tradition of selling birds for cages. Yes. They also had a tradition where pious people would come to the markets, and they would buy the birds and then just let them go into the trees. One of the things you'll notice about Istanbul is strange squawks and screeches from tropical areas. That's why no, what's amazing is that Allah to Allah, in his wisdom brought together a man of vision and a man of action, a man of practicality and a man of ideas. We've got some a man, the magnificent, the law giver, with all of that power and wealth and the ideas for expanding the law of Allah across the

world. And you've got at the same time, me Marcin, and this I mean incredible architect known for perfecting insurmountable, right, unimaginable insurmountable engineering ideas, problems that nobody else could have done. No computer writing it down thinking about it testing the air, divine divine intervention, divine ideas, inspiration coming to this man. So we're I always wonder how on earth did they get those huge domes up? Right? We you know, there has been TV programs where they try to replicate it, building bridges like the Romans did, and they can never do it. But there was a technique and you see that lovely little dome archway over there. Okay, so it's got the central dome

and a couple of smaller ones coming off it. It's kind of a bit like a miniature of the main mosque. Well, that's exactly what me Marcin and Rahim Allah did, he built this first test his mathematical ideas. And that is if Pong. That is the ideal from Islam, of doing things to the highest standards. And we should all be aiming at that. That idea, the essay on the perfection of whatever we do

you see that writing above the main entrance. focus now on the writing. I know it's all amazing. We'll come back to that. Right that writing on the red background. I just want you to think about how we're meant to be people of intention and inspiration as Muslims because this this right here

This is a charter for success. This is a charter for stating your your goals right? We're all goal setting. Listen to this.

Sultan Suleiman has drawn nearer to God,

the Lord of Majesty and omnipotence, the creator of the world of dominion and sovereignty. Sultan Suleiman, who is his slave, made mighty with divine power, the kala, resplendent with divine glory, who performs the command of the hidden book, and execute its decrees in all regions of the inhabited quarter, conqueror of the lands of the Orient and the Occident with the help of Almighty God and his victorious army, possessor of the kingdoms of the world, Shadow of God over all peoples Sultan of the Sultan's of the Arabs and the Persians, propagator of satanic candles, tents of the Ottoman hands, Sultan, son of the Sultan, Sultan Suleiman Han, may the line of his alternate endure until

the end of the line of the ages.

You know, I get asked a lot. Why are so many European people, Americans, two Australians, flocking to Istanbul to live here. And as an artist, myself, a writer and an actor brought up in an artistic environment, I can tell you with absolute certainty, that it is the beauty that lies on every corner. It is the art, it's the calligraphy it's the paintings, it's the structures, and these had their roots in the reign of Solomon, the magnificent then law giver because Subhanallah you talk about a vision for society that isn't materialistic, right? It's artistic, its spiritual at its roots. He founded special organizations for the arts, they started off with 40 You might call them

guild where people could specialize in calligraphy, in creativity there in poetry, in architecture, and 5060 years later on, there were 2000 organizations, which really are alive today in the structures that you see in Istanbul, Allahu Akbar, we have to nurture the arts, we have to look after the arts, it's, it's the soul of a society.

Last time I came in here, I cried. This is to me, the most spiritual mosque in Istanbul that I've been to. And I see non Muslims coming here day out from Poland, from Italy from Russia, and there is a moment you know, it's almost like you want to catch them when they fall. There is so much peace and beauty in here that

it's just a

couple of really wonderful facts about the building here which you're seeing. It's it's quite simplistic actually, it's not brassy, or flashy, and has

the kind of Windows that they used to have in churches so that stained glass was pulled across. But more than 3000 craftsmen have the highest degree worked on this which is considered the most magnificent yet simplistic mosque in the whole of Istanbul and if you come here, you mustn't miss out on a

lovely, a really new sign it really new knew about where to place things, where the windows come where the where the air comes through, it's amazing.

While the Europeans called him the magnificent, the Ottomans called him communi or the law giver. Suleiman was acknowledged as such for having freed 1000s of Persian and Egyptian slaves, giving justice to those who were wronged by his predecessors, ending discrimination against Jews and Christians until there was a flux of migration into the Empire. He punished corruption and law breakers as well as codifying the Ottoman Kanoon within the Islamic Sharia, and this would serve the Ottoman Empire for longer than 300 years.

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Sultan Suleiman was a warrior who pushed back the impositions of European warlords into the territories of the Muslims, but he was also a poet. He wrote in Turkish, Persian and Arabic.

The people think of wealth and power as the greatest fate. But in this world spell of health is the best state. What men call sovereignty is a worldly strife and constant war. worship of God is the highest throne and happiest of all, estates.

Sultan Suleiman and his beloved wife Hurrem, were interested in all the people in the different realms of the Ottoman Empire. And especially it seems one area in particular, had their hearts Jerusalem, Chi from her own endowment, her own money, built a mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. And around it she made sure that there was a 55 room lodge for pilgrims to Alexa Masha Allah, and there was a granary for milling grain so that the people had bread, and even kitchens and a stables and so much more.

And she wasn't on her own. Her husband requested and made sure that the Dome of the Rock was completely refurbished. And he took care of the city walls as well. So Pamela,

he took his whole role actually as guardian of the three major mosques of Islam very seriously. And in Mecca during his lifetime, though all of the minarets were completely redone, and the seventh was added to the main mosques of handler and inside the mosques of Mecca and Medina. Candles were donated so people can pray in the night, and even musc and even food was donated for Beautification and the smells of those wonderful areas of prayer. Subhanallah but you know, I really love I really love the fact that he built kitchens for the poor in both Mecca and Medina. And who did he donate that risk to that Baraka, his beloved wife. In other words, he said, Oh Allah, all of the males that

are fed from the kitchens in Mecca and Medina from the pilgrims and the poor, please put them on my wife's account on your Cayambe. Now, that is what you call a Muslim husband. It is a testimony to Saltonstall a man's fatherhood and philanthropic legacy that his daughter Mahama Sultana followed in his footsteps, she found out that the water channels of Mecca had disintegrated. These channels were in originally endowed by Haroun al Rashid's wife, Zubaydah. Metta, Amma went to her father, with all of her precious jewels in her hand, to ask for Mimar Sinan to be sent on an urgent mission to restore the waters of Mecca. Although the architect had only just finished laying the foundations

for the Suleimani a mosque, he mysteriously disappeared. It was presumed that he had abandoned the project. It was only discovered much later that the water channels which ran in the name to this day of iron Zubaydah was secretly restored by none other than Metro ma Sultana. Right that's it for today. I hope you've enjoyed following me to learn all about the legacy of Suleiman the Magnificent back then and now. And I'm reading all your comments, so keep them coming. They're really boosting me along to make more in this series. And if you're enjoying it, don't forget to subscribe to the channel, Salaam Alaikum