Why Hagia Sophia is so very important for Turkish Tourism as well as for Turkey?
Turkish Tourism Forever is my first professionel baby in my life.I started as a guide fifty one years ago in 1967 and when I received two awards from IRO (İstanbul Chamber of Guides) for the fiftieth year anniversary in 2017 I decided to work on a website and leave all my know-how that was accumulated in all those years to the future generations as a path finder.Gaining experience in any profession is a must in order to reach ones's climax.One has to pay for know-how and experience and have the patience that is needed.That is why I kept telling my students for all the past decades that ''to be or not to be''for a guide was to have them realise that ''being a good guide''was like ''running a marathon''and they should prepare themselves and make long range plans in order to reach that climax. However life may not give you all those needed years but I must admit that this was a blessing that I reached fifty one years as a guide and I am thankful to the All Mighty for this gift.I said to myself how can I show my gratitude to Allah for this specific blessing and then I remembered from the Qur'an Surah Al-Baqarah 2/3-''Mimma razaknahum yunfikuun'' which means ''Share with others from every blessing that has been given to you''.Also''El Kasibu Habibullah'' which means ''Allah loves those who work hard''has been an eyeopener for me in reaching any climax one chooses to reach.So I am following in the footsteps of the Great Architect Sinan of the Ottomans who worked till he died at the age of ninety-eight.He has been my mentor. Sinan who originally was an engineer; decided to work as an architect at the age of fifty and during the last fourty-eight years of his life he built 81 large mosques and 48 smaller ones(known as mescit).Süleymaniye in İstanbul and Selimiye in Edirne are some of those larger mosques that he built.Can you imagine he was busy constructing the Ramazan Efendi Mosque in Kocamustafapaşa district of İstanbul when he died in 1588?Among many other edifices the walls he was told to build around the old town of Jerusalem as of today still stand in this most troubled Holy City. In other words success does not come easy.So the climax question is: ''why did I choose Haghia Sophia in order to explain to you the Turkish Tourism?''First let me give you some facts before I give you my take.
1-Did you know that todays St.Sophia Museum was first built as a church by the son of Constantine the Great;Emperor Constantius and was opened on February 15,360.However it was burned down by the Christian inhabitants of Constantinople in 404 because of a religious dispute between their Queen Evdoxia and Patriarch John Chrisostomos.The second church was finished on 10 October, 415 at the time of Emperor Theodosius the second, and was burned down by the people during the famous Nika Riot of 532.This riot started at the Hippodrome during a chariot race and the Emperor ordered the killing of those who protested his regime.Some thirty thousand citizens of Constantinople were killed in one afternoon.For your information the Emperor Justinian was a Christian and so were the people who lived in Constantinople at that time.Do you know throughout history how many Christians have killed other Christians;how many Muslims have killed each other and how many Jews have done the same as they are still doing so?We do not need each other as enemies because Satan as the devil is the common enemy of mankind.Read your Holy Books to understand what I am trying to tell you now! History records the population of Constantinople to be around half a million people at the time when some thirty thousand were massacred in one afternoon.Can you imagine how the rest of those people must have felt like the next morning while they were burying their friends and relatives? That is why Emperor Justinian ordered immediately for the construction of the present building and he gave Architect Isidorus of Miletus and Mathamatician Anthemius of Tralles 39 days and nights to clear the rubble and start building the largest basilica of all times over the foundations of a much smaller church in order to rectify his status quo.However technically this was a grave mistake because Constantinople was within an earthquake zone.That is why the dome collapsed or cracked many times after the earthquake of 557 and each time it had to be restored.Had it not been for Architect Sinan who had to build buttresses from both sides pushing the dome to the center this historic religious heritage may have been ruined by now. The third and the final church was completed on 27 December, 537 and was consecrated as the largest Christian Basilica in the world for the next 1089 years until St.Peter's Basilica in Rome was finished in 1626.At this point let me remind you that the Blue Mosque which is located across from the St.Sophia Museum was completed in 1616.
2-St.Sophia Church (meaning the Holy Wisdom Church) went through some hard times based on politics and religious differences.Especially we must remember the ''Iconoclastic Period''(726-842) when those differences ended up with a major unrest and all the figured mosaics that adorned the walls were destroyed.That is why the earliest figured mosaic that exists today is from the tenth century;which is after the iconoclastic period had ended.That is true for all the other churches of Constantinople that existed at that time.However when I was in Ravenna,Italy;I visited two very famous churches San Vitale and San Apollinare which were both from the sixth century just like St.Sophia Church of Constantinople,but both churches had original two dimensional mosaics and they were not effected by the picture breaking iconoclasm.I noticed the same thing when I was in Greece.Somehow iconoclasm effected the Eastern part of the Roman empire and the West was not influenced.
In my opinion Islam starting from Mecca in the Arab Peninsula;during the seventh century spread quickly towards the West and influenced the life styles of many nations.A hundred years after Prophet Muhammad passed away Muslims had conquered Spain and they passed over the Pyrenean Mountains into France. They were about 100 miles away from Paris and on 10 October 732 at the Battle of Poitiers the Muslim Umayyad armies under the leadership of the Governor of Andalusia;Abdurrahman el Gefiki lost to Charles Martel of the Franks and had to return to Spain where this Civilization of Andalusia prevailed until 1492 for the next 760 years.At this point I will refer you to Ambassador Ingmar Karlsson of Sweden whose book I read in 2002 which was titled''Islam and Europe The Model of Andalusia'' where he claimed Spanish Andalusia was some 300 years ahead of the rest of Europe when it changed hands from Muslims to the Catholic King Ferdinant and Queen Isabella in 1492. That is why Constantinople was effected with the Iconoclastic movement as a result of the Muslim expansion to the West.
Here is a little reminder regarding the issue of pictures.When you visit one of our mosques you will immediately notice the lack of human depiction.The Qur'an puts forward the uniqueness of Allah as the only God to be worshipped.As frescoes,mosaics,icons and statues were used in churches to depict the Biblical stories which was an early method in teaching about Christianity and Christians worshipped those depictions of Jesus Christ and his mother Virgin Mary,is why Muslims have been carefully educated not to have such depictions in or around their mosques. That is why the arts of calligraphy and miniature are very advanced in Islam.As you know the miniature art is an indirect depiction. When you visit the Chora Church (Kariye Museum) in İstanbul one can see the finest Byzantine mosaics in the world belonging to the fourth church of Chora which was completed in 1321.The proprietor of the fourth church of Chora was Theodore Metochites;Grand Legotite of Constantinople a title which is like the mayor combined with the treasurer in our times.Make sure when you see this mosaic panel presenting Jesus Christ a model of the fourth church which was built by him please notice the turban he is wearing on his head.As you know a turban is a Muslim headgear.However Theodore Metochites was an Orthodox Christian.Is that why some people in Constantinople kept saying that they would rather see the turban of the Sultan in Constantinople rather than the conical hat of a Latin Cardinal as a result of Schism of 1054? Please do not forget the Great Schism of 1054.That is when the Latin Church in Rome had seperated itself from the Orthodox Church of St.Sophia in Constantinople.Both edicts were placed on the inner wall of St.Sophia which excommunicated the other sect;one was declared by the Latin Pope and the other by the Patriarch of Constantinople.As of today both Churches are still divided but trying to unite.
That is also when in Italy the famous painter Giotto was performing who in time was known to be the father of all the Italian Renaissance artists.My Italian counterparts once told me ''The art of Renaissance started in Italy'';I will never forget that statement which is not true.!The introduction of the third dimension in paintings started in Italy with Giotto and to see some of his paintings please visit the Uffizi Gallery Museum Hall Two in Florence,Italy.Yes Italian Renaissance started with Giotto however four hundred years before he painted Madonna di Ognissanti around 1310,there were mosaic artists in Constantinople who could use the third dimensional format and they executed the mosaic which you still can see today in St.Sophia Museum.The panel that shows Virgin Mary with infant Jesus Christ in the middle; Constantine the Great on the right presenting the model of the walls of Constantinople and on the left is Justinian presenting a model of the third church that he had built;was executed in the tenth century.So next time you look at that panel please notice how both emperors are turned towards the centre,while Virgin Mary has equal cheeks and her nose is in the center while the cheeks of each emperor is not symmetrical and their noses are shifted towards the side that they are turned.Virgin Mary and infant Christ is two dimensional while both emperors are three dimensional.Do not forget that the introduction of the three dimensional paintings became widely used during Renaissance.
To blow ones mind; 12000 years ago near Şanlı Urfa (ancient Edessa) in South East of Türkiye today at the Göbekli Tepe Mound; man worshipped their dieties in the format of two t -shaped stone pillars in the middle some 5 meters tall each decorated with three dimensional animal figures carved out of stone and twelve smaller t-shaped pillars around forming the congregation.So three dimensional depictions are Eastern innovations...I hope my Italian counterparts will read my blog some day.After all Italians were Romans once and Trojans before that which ties our history together because Troy is in Türkiye today.So Renaissance went from Constantinople to Italy when the city was conquered by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet the second in1453.That is why the peak period of Italian Renaissance started in the second half of the fifteenth century when those Christian artists left town for Italy.
3-When Mehmet the Second conquered Constantinople he first went to visit St.Sophia Church and on the following first Friday they held the ''Friday Prayer'' in ''Aya Sofya Camii''.Quickly a temporary Mihrab was added so they started to use it as a mosque.That was the beginning of a new era for St.Sophia.This edifice served 916 years as a Church;482 years as a Mosque and in the last 83 years it has been used as a Museum.God willing St.Sophia will be 1500 years old in the year 2037.Now I would like to focus your attention to the interior of St.Sophia Museum.At the top right there is a wide-angle shot of the Apse of the church and the Mihrab of the mosque and to the left side the picture is a close up of the same scene.Now let us all focus on the close up picture.In the apse you can see the mosaic panel of Virgin Mary and infant Jesus Christ again in a two dimensional format which dates back to 967.I will always remember that date because I became a guide exactly a thousand years after that mosaic was placed in the apse.However on the right in the caligraphic format you can see ''Allah''written in Arabic as well as Prophet'' Muhammad'' written with the same format on the left forming a symmetry.These two circular wooden plates each seven and a half meters in diameter are covered with camel skin and are painted to green;depicting Paradise.The Qur'an talks about ''Paradise''to be green.Altogether there are eight discs with the names of the first four Caliphs:Ebubekir,Omar,Osman and Ali as well as Hasan and Hüseyin;the two grand children of our Prophet Muhammad.These names can be seen in all our mosques in the same order.Underneath the apse of the church exactly seventeen degrees to the right one can see the Fridays pulpit known as the Mimber.The direction of the church is towards Jerusalem (West to East) while the direction of the Fridays pulpit is towards Mecca.(To South West ).
This is a very interresting angle so I always ask my group members to take a picture at that location.Then I point out to the the mosaic panel of Virgin Mary with infant Jesus Christ in between Allah and Prophet Muhammad.Islamic symbols are on both sides of the Christian symbols and visitors take pictures of all of them together without any hard feelings; they seem to accept it as is.For the last 83 years these symbols stood side by side and no one underneath them has killed one another for their religious differences.Can you just imagine a similar act of tolerance to take place with the Cordoba Mosque-Cathedral in Spain which served first as a mosque for 450 years and has been a church in the last 782 years? Would the Spanish people ever accept to convert it into a museum?Apparently they have recently done so according to the next article which was sent to me by my good ole high school mate Prof.Metin Arik and here is that article:
Ban Remains on Muslim Prayer in Spanish Cathedral
by Soeren Kern
February 14, 2013 at 5:00 am
All had been relatively quiet at the Córdoba Cathedral for more than 750 years, until January 2004, when Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden began encouraging Muslims to "reconquer" Spain for Islam by declaring it to be "the lost Al-Andalus." Many Muslims believe that much of Spain still belongs to them, and that they have every right to return and establish their rule there.
A court in southern Spain has acquitted eight Muslims who were accused of resorting to violence to break a ban on Muslim prayers in a cathedral in the city of Córdoba. The church was once the world's second-biggest mosque and remains the single most powerful symbol of Islam in Spain.
Some observers say the ruling, which caught Spanish public prosecutors completely by surprise, reflects a desire by local judges to dispense with a highly sensitive case that has the potential to inflame Muslim sensibilities.
But the ruling is likely to embolden the growing Muslim community in Spain and elsewhere, who believe they have a legitimate claim to the historic monument because of its former identity as a mosque.
The trial, held at Criminal Court of Córdoba on February 4, 2013, involved an incident that took place on March 31, 2010 at the Córdoba Cathedral, also known as the Great Mosque of Córdoba, one of the most visited monuments in Spain.
An altercation broke out when eight members of a group of 118 Muslim tourists from Austria unrolled their prayer rugs inside the church, kneeled on the floor and began praying loudly. When security guards ordered them to stop, the Muslims responded by attacking them.
After a dozen police reinforcements were called into the church to arrest the Muslim offenders, they, too, were attacked. Two security guards were injured in the melee, which police said was planned in advance.
Spanish public prosecutors had asked the court to sentence the eight defendants to a total of 15 years in prison for disturbing public order, assaulting law enforcement officers and injuring the security guards.
During the trial, the Muslim defendants denied all of the accusations against them, saying they were the ones attacked by the security guards and the police, and not the other way around.
During their testimony, the plaintiffs displayed evidence of their injuries to the court; but they also offered what the judge considered to be contradictory accounts of several details of the incident. As a result, the defendants were acquitted based on a lack of evidence.
In his ruling, Judge Juan Luis Rascón said although it was proved beyond a doubt that the defendants engaged in Muslim prayers in the cathedral, they did so "in an area not specifically dedicated to Catholic worship." He added that there were "logical doubts" [dudas lógicas] as to whether the incident was planned in advance. Moreover, there was no proof that the ringleader of the group, Zaid El-Aifari, actually assaulted a security guard with a knife, as the prosecutor had alleged.
Rascón also said it is not within the court's competence to assess whether Muslim prayers performed inside a Catholic church could be considered to be a provocation.
Finally, Rascón said that although the defendants' behavior may be considered by some to be "socially reprehensible," to convict them would "do a disservice to freedom of religious thought and respect for the plurality of religions."
Prosecutors were blindsided by the ruling, which they say will be appealed. The decision was all the more surprising because another judge involved in the case had previously ruled that the incident was indeed premeditated, that the defendants were "clearly organized" (they had used walkie-talkies to coordinate their movements inside the building), and that security cameras had recorded the incident.
Some observers have speculated that the judge's decision may have been politically motivated. They point to the fact that before becoming a judge, Rascón was a politician with the Spanish Socialist Party, which is firmly committed to multiculturalism and has long sought to undermine the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Spanish society.
In any case, the dispute over Muslim demands to share the church are unlikely to subside.
The Córdoba Cathedral is built on the site of what was originally the Visigothic church of San Vicente, which was built in the year 590. After the Islamic conquest of Spain, Muslims razed the church and in 786 replaced it with a mosque. In 1236, Córdoba was reconquered by King Ferdinand III of Castile in the Reconquista, and the mosque was subsequently consecrated as a church, which it has remained ever since.
All had been relatively quiet at the Córdoba Cathedral for more than 750 years, until January 2004, when Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden began encouraging Muslims to "reconquer" Spain for Islam by declaring it to be "the lost Al-Andalus."
In a speech titled "Message to the Muslim People," bin Laden said: "No Muslim territory should ever become non-Muslim. … Let the whole world know that we shall never accept the tragedy of Andalusia."
Andalusia, a region in southern Spain, derives its name from Al-Andalus, the Arabic name given to those parts of Spain, Portugal and France that were occupied by Muslim conquerors (also known as the Moors) from 711 to 1492.
Many Muslims believe that much of Spain still belongs to them, and that they have every right to return and establish their rule there.
In April 2004, not long after bin Laden's call to arms, the president of the Islamic Council of Spain [Junta Islámica], the late Mansur Escudero, formally petitioned Pope John Paul II for the right to pray in the Córdoba Cathedral, in the interests of promoting "inter-faith dialogue." At the time, the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue rejected the request out of hand.
In December 2006, Muslims sought to capitalize on Pope Benedict XVI's efforts to defuse Muslim anger after his so-called Regensburg Lecture, in which he quoted disparaging remarks by a 14th century Byzantine emperor about the Prophet Mohammed.
In a letter to the Pope, Escudero wrote: "We invite you to create a new example, to send a message of hope to the world. Do not fear. Together we can show the violent, the intolerant, the anti-Semites, the Islam-phobes and also those who believe that only Islam has a right to remain in the world, that prayer is the strongest weapon imaginable."
The letter says Spanish Muslims do not intend to take control of the building or "recover a nostalgic Al-Andalus." Rather, they seek to restore the "spirit of Al-Andalus, where Muslims, Christians and Jews co-existed in relative harmony."
Shortly after mailing his letter to the Pope, Escudero declared: "Al-Andalus will continue being Al-Andalus for Muslims of all ages. It is there; we have created it. Here we have our dead, who remain alive, awaiting Resurrection Day."
In September 2007, bin Laden's deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, said: "Reconquering Al-Andalus is the duty of the Islamic nation in general and of you [the Al-Qaeda fighters] in particular."
In October 2007, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa endorsed Escudero's demands during an OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) conference against "Intolerance and Discrimination" held in Córdoba. In his opening remarks, Moussa said Muslims must be allowed to pray in the Córdoba Cathedral "to demonstrate our religious coexistence."
Moussa said: "All churches and mosques are built for prayer and to be used for this end; I think there wouldn't be a religious clash at all; the clash would be instead of a political nature." However, he ignored questions pertaining to why Christians are not only forbidden to pray in mosques but are even prohibited from building churches in some Muslim countries.
The Roman Catholic Church in Spain has so far held its ground by continuing to reject Muslim demands for joint use of the cathedral. It says Muslim proposals "fit within the framework of a false dialogue."
According to the Bishop of Córdoba, Demetrio Fernández, the recent violence shows the impossibility of sharing a house of worship with Muslims, which would be akin to "sharing a wife between two husbands." As a result, he says, the ban on Muslim prayers must remain in place.
Fernández asks: "Would they be happy to do the same in any of their mosques? Absolutely not. I understand their religious feeling and they have to understand ours as well. The religious feeling is the deepest one in the human heart, so it is not possible to share."
In an opinion article in the Spanish newspaper ABC, Fernández compared the situation in Córdoba to the Basilica of Saint John the Baptist in Damascus. After the Arab conquest of Damascus in 634, the Byzantine cathedral was converted into a mosque. Also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus, it is considered by some Muslims to be the fourth holiest site in Islam.
Says Fernández: "We wouldn't think of asking for the Damascus mosque, because it belongs to the Muslims and for them it is an emblematic place. It is the same for Christians because Saint John's basilica is very important to us, but we understand that history does not go back. It only goes forward. So, it does not make sense to ask for the Córdoba Cathedral to convert it into a mosque. It does not make sense because history is irreversible."
Many Muslims disagree with Fernández, and the dispute is unlikely to go away until the church concedes defeat. As the Muslim population in Spain continues to grow in size (it is expected to nearly double by 2030) and in political influence, history may be reversed earlier than most Spaniards might imagine.
European countries often try to teach us,the Turks,about ''Human Rights,The Rule of Law,Fraternity and Democracy''; however this has been a one sided act of tolerance from the Turkish governments to the world for all these years and no one even talks about this issue..From the burning of the mosques and churches worldwide acts of Islamophobia to the banning of minarets in different countries we are honoured to have some 57 churches in İstanbul as well as 25 synagogues and over three thousand mosques and peoples of the world can manage to live here side by side in harmony.Our Nato ally the Greeks keep asking for the Heybeliada Theological Seminary to be reopened so they can have sufficent church fathers for these churches in İstanbul.They can educate them in Greece and send them to Turkey because there is only one mosque recently opened in Athens;just one mosque,and they are still debating to decide whether this mosque should have a minaret or not.Like many places on earth the ''Call to the Prayer;Ezan'' disturbs those who are not Muslims.I would like to remind my Greek counterparts about ''The rule of Reciprocity''!!! How about that?
On the other hand just recently Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos dropped a wreath to commemorate how close Turkey and Greece came to having a war for the Kardak rocks which are located only 3,5 miles away from Bodrum,Türkiye in 1996.At that time the US and NATO members acted as mediators to settle this conflict in between the two member states of the Nato Alliance.The Greek Minister is doing this while Turkish Armed Forces are advancing towards Afrin City in Syria fighting against the PKK/PYG guerrillas backed by the United States of America with 5000 truck loads of heavy ammunition as well as 2000 plane loads of guns.May be right now another Nato member country leader will mediate and remind President Donald Trump about the fifth amendment of Nato as well as telling him that there is no way that we can fight terrorism by supporting one terror group against a Nato member.May be we should stop the activities of the Nato İncirlik airbase in Adana,Türkiye so our allies will cut this crap and get back to business as usual.It is getting harder recently to understand what kind of an alliance Nato is.!
4-According to the historians the worst massacres and destruction that took place in the history of Byzantium,Constantinople and İstanbul happened when the Fourth Crussades conquered Constantinople in 1204 and ruled it for the next fifty-seven years.By the time they had left the city in 1261 it was almost totally ruined and burned down.The riches of Constantinople were carrieed to Venice,Italy which is no surprise to me.It was the Dodge of Venice;Henrico Dandalo who led the Fourth Crussades into Constantinople rather than to Jerusalem!Of all the Crussades only this fourth one was not destined for Jerusalem and if by now you would like to know why it was I will give you my take regarding this issue which you may have never heard of before.!
I will present two reasons for this issue;the first was for religious and the second one was for political aspirations.Let us remember what had happened in 1054.The Great Schism divided the Christian world at that time into two parts.The Italian Latin Pope versus the Greek Orthodox Patriarch.So the Latin Fourth Crussades not only took revenge of this seperation with the conquest of Constantinople but some of those soldiers rode on their horses into the St.Sophia Church and carried away its riches.They also named another church in Constantinople at that time to be the Patriarchal Church of the Latins after having robbed its riches away.The Church of Akataleptos was then was dedicated to St.Francis of Assisi by the Latins and they tried to downplay the importance of St.Sophia.The second reason will explain why they ended up burning the city when they had to leave in 1261.Some 2500 years ago in 1275BC Troy was ruined by the Achean Greeks.The story of the Trojan wooden horse and Brad Pitt's movie Troy will reveal some facts if you are familiar with Homers Iliad and Oddysey.At this time please check one of my blogs called''From Troy to Constantinople''for the details.Aeneas and his old limping father are the only men leaving the sixth city of Troy alive as the the Greeks were burning down their city which they had thought was impregnable.Paris had given Aeneas the ''Sword of Troy'' to leave the burning city and he told him to settle somewhere else and declare it Second Troy accoding to the movie and Homers epic story.As explained in my earlier blog Aeneas went to Nemi in Italy at that time which recently changed the history of the Italian people.Therefore the Latin Invasion of Constantinople ended in 1261 by burning the city down where most of the inhabitants were Greek Orthodox.This was a political and a religious devestation that todays İstanbul had to go through and by doing so the Latins were shooting two birds with the same stone.This animosity is far from over by the way.That is why of the 18 British and French allied war ships that forced their way through the Dardanelles on March 18,1915 one was named ''Agamemnon'' and the other one was ''Vengeance''.When will this vengeance stop?If you check the Qur'an Surah(Chapter)-2 Verse 120-''For,never will the Jews be pleased with you,nor yet the Christians;unless you follow their own creeds.'' Therefore now you know why this animosity will continue forever is how I see it.
''LETÜFTEHANNE'L KONSTANTİNİYETE,VE LE Nİ'MEL EMRÜ ZALİKE'L EMR,VE LE Nİ'MELCEYŞÜ ZALİKEL CEYŞ'' -''Meaning '' CONSTANTİNOPLE ONE DAY WILL DEFINITELY BE CONQUERED BY A GLORIOUS COMMANDER AND HIS ARMY''
5-The above picture is a so called hadith (a saying attributed to Prophet Muhammad ) that hangs on the wall as you exit St.Sophia Museum towards the Blue Mosque.From the Arabic numerals underneath the saying we can identify the year when they decided to place it on the wall.It must be be the year 1689 according to the Latin calender.In front of this panel I usually gather around my group members and point to them in the direction of the entrance gate of the St.Sophia Museum.At that time I show them the earphones that are available for rent at 10 $ a piece which will assist them for a guided tour of the museum.I also tell them that they can do the same tour for free should they refer to their smartphones and go on line and do a web search.So then comes my question.! Why should they pay me 500$ to do the same tour? So what kind of information must I provide them so they will give me their blessings for the amount that they have paid.As we all know ''information is the most valuable commodity in the world as long as the information is correct.''So how should we analyze the above shown hadith to find out if the information is correct or not.Some scholars say it is true while others do not.Extensive Qur'anic research has shown me how to approach this issue!
For someone who is a true believer of Islam then he or she must accept the Holy Qur'an as is.However if you are a professor of Hadith you need to check out the validity of each and every hadith before you can tell your students that the hadith is valid or not.At this time I must confess that I spent some ten years to understand the Qur'an.So in Qur'an Chapter 69-Al-Haqqah (The laying bare of the truth ) Verses 44 to 47 it says:''44-Now if he (Prophet Muhammad ) (whom We have entrusted with it) had dared to attribute some of his own sayings unto Us,45-We would have seized him by his right hand,46-and would indeed cut his jugular vein,47-and none of you would have been able to save him.''Therefore Prophet Muhammad had never ever dared saying something which would contradict with the Holy Qur'an.! This is a so called hadith and it contradicts with the essence of the Qur'an because of the concept of Al-Gayb that is mentioned in several parts of the Qur'an.Al-Gayb meaning the unseen is totally existent at the level of Allah;please check the Qur'an Surah Al-Anam 6,Verse 59.The All-Mighty has enlightened Prophet Muhammad with some Old and New Testament stories and some sixty percent of the whole Qur'an is compiled of such Biblical stories.Within the Qur'anic style in one of such stories Allah reveals one scene from the life of Prophet Moses in the following manner in Surah Al-Qasas-28/44-''You were not there when Moses went up the Mount Sinai to receive the ten commandments'';which is like an explanation and in essence contradictory to those people who opposed Prophet Muhammad and they kept on claiming that Prophet Muhammad had written the Qur'an.The pure word of Allah;the Qur'an; once this Biblical story was revealed to Prophet Muhammad by Angel Gabriel which up to that moment was unseen and unheard of by the Prophet Muhammad then became known and was no longer Al-Gayb.Then the Qur'anic clerks wrote down every word that was revealed to our Prophet who oversaw the correctness including the spelling of the newly revealed verse.In that case how can you believe those scholars who claimed Prophet Muhammad to be illiterate?Yes the word ''Ummi''in Arabic means illiterate.However it also has other meanings like ''the way he was born from his mother''.The important fact one must understand is:Prophet Muhammad did not know the Old and the New Testaments until they were revealed to him by Allah. He was a merchant until the age of fourty when the Qur'an started to be revealed.Can you imagine a merchant for at least twenty years before becoming a prophet doing business all over the Arabian peninsula and unable to read and write?How did he do his book keeping?May be he had a book keeper however one can not be a true believer of Islam and accept that there can be spelling mistakes in the Qur'an.So how did he then correct those people who wrote down the revealed verses?
Therefore the above shown picture of this so called hadith is not correct according to the Qur'an because there is no mention of it in our Holy Book.In Chapter 5-Al Maidah Verse 3 ''Allah is telling us that he has completed His Book and chose Islam as a religion for us.'' Are we trying to tell Him that He left this so called hadith out of His Book and we must fill in between the lines which he rejects in Chapter 49-Al-Hujurat (The Private Apartments) Verse 16-''Say; Do you perchance want to inform Allah of the nature of your Faith,although Allah knows all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth?Indeed Allah has full knowledge of everything.''
Therefore Prophet Muhammad had no way of knowing that Constantinople was going to be conquered one day according to the Qur'an and especially 831 years after he passed away was when the city was conquered.However there must have been some strong rumours that groups of Muslims must have believed in it was probably why people like ''Eyyub-el Ensari'' came with a mission to conquer Constantinople when he was 84 years old after Prophet Muhammad passed away.This is just one detail that I wanted to share with you is why the litmus paper test for any information regarding Muslims can not contradict the Qur'an.
You may find tons of literature regarding this so called Hadith and I hereby summerized what I studied in the last ten years relating to the Holy Qur'an so I do hope you did not find my rate overpriced.As there are other verses in the Qur'an with which I can prove to you my case.But I will leave it at that for now so my future colleagues can further their research and tell us their point of views.We can all learn from each other and Prophet Muhammad said:''if what you know today is the same as what you knew yesterday then that means you lost one day.''
Sapanca,Türkiye 29 January,2018 -20:40 local time
So the climax question was: ''Why did I choose Haghia Sophia in order to explain to you the Turkish Tourism?'' Here is my final wrap up:
1-As much as we have had St.Sophia as a museum in the last 83 years;we all know by now that for the last fourteen centuries it served as a religious edifice.Ever since the days of Prophet Abraham Allah has sent His Prophets with His Divine Message to the Jews,Christians and Muslims.We learn the names of those Biblical Prophets from our Holy Books.Following their time Christianity was born in Jerusalem with the arrival of Jesus Christ.Muslims regard him as the messenger of Allah namely as a Prophet,while Christians through ''trinity'' accept him as the son of God and worship him and his mother Virgin Mary as well as God.Muslims have accepted according to the Qur'an the continuity of the prophethood;therefore they have a question:If Jesus Christ is the son of God who is the Prophet of Christians?Prophets were specially ''the chosen ones''from their communities and were sent with the Divine Message in the language of those communities so they could understand ''the word of Allah''.As there was only one God as the Creator otherwise there could always be chaos in the Universe as well as in the World;just like when the Greco-Roman Gods and Goddesses disagreed the Trojan War lasted some ten years.One Allah for all,and according to Allah The Qur'an is ''The Newly Refurbished Final Message''.The sects that exist within different religions in our times is the result of our ''Religious Culture''and The Religion of Allah does not comprise these manmade sects.Otherwise we would have to debate if Jesus Christ was a Catholic,Orthodox, Protestant or Anglican and by the same token Muslims would have a similar debate over their Prophet Muhammad in order to decide if he was Sunni,Shia or Wahhabi;and that would be really absurd.
2-The Order of Allah ''Thou shall not kill''also exists in the Qur'an in Surah 5-Al-Maidah Verse 32 as it did in the Old and the New Testaments.What is widely known as the Holy Crussades for the Christians or Cihat for Muslims is a longer debate.One can learn about Cihad being referred as the Greater and the Lesser Cihat in the Qur'an.Muslims are only allowed to kill grown up warriors.Killing children,women or elderly is a sin and Muslims can only kill someone as an act of self defense.The greater Cihad is done with the Qur'an against our inner self as explained in Surah-25(Al-Furqan),Verse 52.According to the Qur'an no one can justifty killing an innocent person and then turn around and claim that he has done so in the name of Allah and will be punished in this world as well as in the hereafter.We can not send the bill to Allah for all of our sins and hope for salvation.This is why teaching the basics of the three Abrahamic religions is a must if you hope to live peacefully.That is why the first order of Islam was ''Read in the name of your Creator,Allah'...''-Al-Alaq(the Germ Cell)-96/1.Close to eight hundred verses exist in the Qur'an which literally translates as ''don't you use your intelligence that we have given to you so you can reason out and understand what is right and what is wrong at the level of Allah?''(Please read Surah 3-The House Of Imran,Verse 65.
3-Some people have claimed that the days of the Crussades is over however that is not what US President George W.Bush said in his first speech after 9/11/2001.Today this continued desire from many nations has made this world uninhabitable.The nostalgic ''Peace Corps'' of the 1960's seems like a joke within sixty years; more so like a science-fiction scenario more fictitious now than ever before.
By making an analogy let me take you to Jerusalem;where the so called Wailing Wall;the western wall of the Temple of Solomon still remains adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque as well as the Church Of The Holy Sepulchre;all located at the ''Crossroads of Religions''reminds me of St.Sophia which has served in the last almost fifteen centuries at the Worlds heart forming another ''Cross Roads of Religions''in İstanbul.The so called ''Omphalos''floor mosaic inside the old church reminds me of the Omphalos stone in Delphi,Greece which was at the heart of the Greek World where the Oracle lived.St.Sophia was at the heart of the Roman World and that was designated by the ''Million Stone''that still stands across from the Museum today.By 1675 the British relocated the centre of the World to London,England by establishing the Greenwich Royal Observatory.The location change for the Prime Meridian is hardly remembered in our times.
4-The ruling Ak Party Government under the leadership of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been criticized in the last fiftteen years by some internal and external policy makers for being ''Islamist''and ''Neo Ottoman''.In a city with more than three thousand mosques there are those thousands of people who would like to see St.Sophia as a mosque,However despite the existing edict of Sultan Mehmet the second who conquered Constantinople in 1453 and converted the church into a mosque;which later through the order of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was converted into a Museum in 1935.The irony is that the edicts of Sultan Mehmet the second that was given to the church fathers in Galata as well as in Bosnia are still in place and the Turkish people are not making an issue out of it at the time of the Ak Party Governments.
5-When a Russian SU-24 fighter plane violated Turkish airspace on 24 November 2015 it was downed by a Turkish F-16 pilot which caused great damage to the Turkish-Russian relations.During those difficult times when both parties were trying to negotiate a peaceful solution to this crisis one member of the Duma Parliment in Moscow by the name of Mr.Sergey Gavrilov announced that peace could be reestablished if Turkey would accept to turn over St.Sophia Museum to the Russian Orthodox Patriarch who would start to use it as a church again.
Politics and Religions have always been inseparable.In the Qur'an Surah 2-Al Baqarah Verse 120 you can read for yourselves;whatever the Muslims will do in order to establish a more peaceful environment like The Ottoman Jerusalem for 401 years;the Peoples of the Books(namely the Jews and the Christians)will never be pleased with the Muslims as long as they stay on course with their own Religion.The next article was sent to me from Doha;Qatar.I would like to thank my friend Sheikh Abdulaziz for this next article which will explain to you how politics go hand in hand with religion.
Queen Elizabeth Claims She Is ‘Direct Descendant Of Prophet Muhammad’
Queen Elizabeth has begun claiming she is a direct descendent of Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, and has instructed BBC News to begin pushing this idea in the Muslim world, according to BBC staff.
The extraordinary move by Queen Elizabeth has sparked fears the Illuminati are in the final stages of preparing to use Islam to usher in the New World Order, with the House of Windsor at the apex of the pyramid.
Claiming to be the 43rd great-granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad, the Queen cited the genealogical guide to royalty, Burke’s Peerage, for proof of her claims.
According to Harold Brooks-Baker of Burke’s Peerage, the British royal family is descended from Mohammed through the Arab kings of Seville, who ruled an Arab caliphate in Spain after the death of Muhammad. At its peak, the caliphate ruled over territory from the Caucasus (Eurasia) to the Iberia Peninsula (Muslim Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar).
It was the fifth largest empire in history, governing 62 million people (29% of the world’s population at the time). Muhammad’s blood passed directly through this lineage to the European kings of Portugal and Castille, and through them to Queen Elizabeth, via England’s 15th century King Edward IV.
Here’s the ancestry of Queen Elizabeth in full, courtesy of Burke’s Peerage:
Elizabeth II, Queen of the UK – daughter of
George VI, King of the UK – son of
George V, King of the UK – son of
Edward VII, King of the UK – son of
Victoria, Queen of the UK – daughter of
Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn – son of
George III, King of Great Britain – son of
Frederick, Prince of Wales – son of
George II, King of Great Britain – son of
George I, King of Great Britain – son of
Sophia, Electress of Hanover – daughter of
Elizabeth of Bohemia – daughter of
James I/VI, King of England, Ireland & Scotland – son of
Mary, Queen of Scots – daughter of
James V, King of Scots – son of
Margaret Tudor – daughter of
Elizabeth of York – daughter of
Edward IV, King of England – son of
Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York – son of
Richard of Conisburgh, Earl of Cambridge – son of
Isabella Perez of Castille – daughter of
Maria Juana de Padilla – daughter of
Maria Fernandez de Henestrosa – daughter of
Aldonza Ramirez de Cifontes – daughter of
Aldonza Gonsalez Giron – daughter of
Sancha Rodriguez de Lara – daughter of
Rodrigo Rodriguez de Lara – son of
Sancha Alfonsez, Infanta of Castile – daughter of
Zaida (aka Isabella) – daughter of
Al-Mu’tamid ibn Abbad, King of Seville – son of
Abbad II al-Mu’tadid, King of Seville – son of
Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn Abbad, King of Seville – son of
Ismail ibn Qarais – son of
Qarais ibn Abbad – son of
Abbad ibn Amr – son of
Amr ibn Aslan – son of
Aslan ibn Amr – son of
Amr ibn Itlaf – son of
Itlaf ibn Na’im – son of
Na’im II al-Lakhmi – son of
Na’im al-Lakhmi – son of
Zahra bint Husayn – daughter of
Husayn ibn Hasan – son of
Hasan ibn Ali
Why is Queen Elizabeth promoting her Muslim ancestry?
BBC Arabic, at the request of the Queen, has begun promoting the idea that she is a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. Numerous television segments broadcast on the BBC in the Muslim world have been devoted to the idea. The BBC is attempting to convince Muslims that Queen Elizabeth, as a direct descendent of the Prophet Muhammad, is a legitimate head of their faith.
Those among us who have studied the Illuminati and their plans to usher in a New World Order will not be surprised by this latest move by the Queen of England.Sharia law is the ideology of the New World Order.Albert Pike’s ‘sequence of three world wars prediction’ is of particular interest. Pike was a top Illuminati Grand Wizard, a notorious Luciferian, and a General for the Confederacy in the American civil war. In the 1880s he openly stated that Islam will be the central component in World War 3, and that the Illuminati will lead Islam into direct confrontation with the West. In the 19th Century Albert Pike created a framework for bringing about the New World Order. We have already seen what the New World Order has done with Islam. They have used it to foment a crisis, a clash of civilisations. Make no mistake, the Illuminati is using Islam to achieve its goals.It is documented that Albert Pike wrote a letter to a friend in 1871 outlining the final and largest of the three world wars – World War III. This letter was much more than simple correspondence between friends. It serves as a blueprint that spells out exactly what will happen in the last war, and it is being followed to the letter by the Illuminati to this day.In this notorious letter/blueprint, Albert Pike is recorded as saying his military program might take 100 years or a little longer to reach the day when those who direct the conspiracy at the top will crown their leader King-despot of the entire world, and impose a Luciferian totalitarian dictatorship upon what is left of the area.Pike seems to indicate a conspiracy to start a war so that the Antichrist can ascend to his position as world ruler.Pike’s letter also details the specifics of the first two world wars – with chilling accuracy;
“World War I must be bought about in order to permit the Illuminati to overthrow the power of the Tsars in Russian and of making that country a fortress of atheistic communism.”
“The second World War will be fought for two reasons. To establish the State of Israel, and to expand communist control over Europe.”
“World War III must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences between the political Zionists and the leaders of the Islamic world.”
According to Pike, Islam will be the central factor in the downfall of the West. Islam will then be decimated itself, allowing for the new religion of Luciferianism to spread on the earth. All Muslims will fall for this system. There isn’t a single Muslim on this earth who will not submit to the religion of the New World Order, according to Pike’s historical prophecies.
Islam is merely the Illuminati’s tool to destroy the West. They followed Pike’s blueprint when they destroyed the World Trade Centre in 2001 and blamed it on Muslims. The crisis that would come was a long awaited prophetic fulfilment. As Albert Pike had predicted, Islam was the religion used to foment a crisis.
And as we all know, from that point things only got worse. What is the common factor every time you see a crisis? Who is behind it?
The Illuminati want you to believe it is inherently a problem with Islam. They want you to remain ignorant of the truth: that they are using the religion to achieve their ultimate goal – to destroy the West as we know it, and usher in a New World Order.
It has all been mapped out. We have seen what they are doing with the migrant crisis, and with terror attacks, and so on. They are using Islam to stir the pot. Only through understanding the history of the Illuminati can we possibly understand the present state of the world, and make sure the Illuminati does not shape our future.
This blog has been longer than others but according to my experience it is only the tip of an iceberg when it comes to understanding the importance of St.Sophia in our lives.Thank you for your patience.
İstanbul,Türkiye-10 February 2018 Saturday 22:58 local time
SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO OPRAH WINFREY:
When Michael Jackson passed away on June 25,2009 I was on a Cruise ship in the Mediterrenean with Oprah Winfrey's 1500 Harpo guests as one of the three Turkish Guides.When the news reached out cruiseship she had to leave for couple of days to join his funeral ceremony.So now I would like to leave you in peace with his Divine feelings.
İstanbul,Türkiye 26 February 2018 -13:30 local time.