Were the Osmanlis the conquerors of Constantinople prophesied by the Prophet Muhammad PBUH?
Bismillahirahmanirraheem,
All praise is for Allah and peace & blessings be upon the prophet, his family and noble companions, Amin.
The Prophet Muhammed ﷺ said, “Verily you shall conquer Constantinople. What a wonderful leader will her leader be, and what a wonderful army will that army be!” Narrated by Imam Ahmad.
Abu Huraira RA reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying:
“The Last Hour would not come until the Romans would land at al-A'maq or in Dabiq. An army consisting of the best (soldiers) of the people of the earth at that time will come from Medina (to counteract them). When they will arrange themselves in ranks, the Romans would say: Do not stand between us and those (Muslims) who took prisoners from amongst us. Let us fight with them; and the Muslims would say: Nay, by Allah, we would never get aside from you and from our brethren that you may fight them. They will then fight and a third (part) of the army would run away, whom Allah will never forgive. A third (part of the army) which would be constituted of excellent martyrs in Allah's eye (sight), would be killed and the third who would never be put to trial would win and they would be conquerors of Constantinople. And as they would be busy in distributing the spoils of war (amongst themselves) after hanging their swords by the olive trees, the Satan would cry: The Dajjal has taken your place among your family. They would then come out, but it would be of no avail. And when they would come to Syria, he would come out while they would be still preparing themselves for battle drawing up the ranks. Certainly, the time of prayer shall come and then Jesus (peace be upon him) son of Mary would descend and would lead them. When the enemy of Allah would see him, it would (disappear) just as the salt dissolves itself in water and if he (Jesus) were not to confront them at all, even then it would dissolve completely, but Allah would kill them by his hand and he would show them their blood on his lance (the lance of Jesus Christ).”
Sahih Muslim 2897
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Apostle (may peace he upon him) saying:
“You have heard about a city, one side of which is on land and the other is in the sea (Constantinople). They said: Allah's Messenger, yes. Thereupon he said: The Last Hour would not come unless seventy thousand persons from Bani lshaq would attack it. When they would land there, they will neither fight with weapons nor would shower arrows but would only say: "There is no god but Allah and Allah is the Greatest," and one side of it would fall. Thaur (one of the narrators) said: I think that he said: The part by the side of the ocean. Then they would say for the second time: "There is no god but Allah and Allah is the Greatest" and the second side would also fall, and they would say: "There is no god but Allah and Allah is the Greatest," and the gates would be opened for them and they would enter therein and, they would be collecting spoils of war and distributing them amongst themselves when a noise would be heard saying: Verily, Dajjal has come. And thus they would leave everything there and go back.”
Sahih Muslim 2920 a
Anas bin Malik RA said:
"Constantinople will be conquered with the coming of the Hour."
Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2239 - Sahih
The Prophet is also reported to have said, with various weak narrations, that “The great Malhamah, the conquest of Constantinople, and the coming of the Dajjal occur in (the span of) seven months.”
This is a clear prophecy shared by our beloved prophet SAW that the Muslims (who were reportedly at the time 10) in number would conquer the famous capital of christiandom to the amazement of the companions!
All Muslims academics by consensus agree that it was Prophecy of Prophet Muhammed SAW that the city would be conquered by Muslims, however they differ about the context, timing and origins of the Muslims who would conquer the city, this is due to Hadith narrations that mention a peaceful conquest, a warring conquest and an end times conquest by people of Medina.
Almost all Hadith on this topic refer to the conquest being at the end of times closely succeded by the arrival of the Antichrist and soon after the return of Eesa (Jesus) PBUH which as we know, has not yet occured.
In 1453 Constantinople was conquered by Sultan Muhammad Al Fatih and the Osmanli Muslim army (Proclaiming Islam) who rolled ships over land by night and broke great walls down with a revolutionary new canon the likes of which the world had never seen and achieved something nothing short of miraculous.
The Muslims inhabited Constantinople thereafter and the Osmanli Muslims built many Mosques & Madrassas and made the city a base of operations for the caliphate up until its demise in 1923 after lasting approximately 600 years spanning 3 continents, the largest and most enduring Islamic state ever in Muslim History. Scholars and Muslims from Muslim lands flocked to the city of Constantinople (Istanbul) and increased the Muslim population until the city had become predominantly a Muslim society beyond doubt regardless of heretical groups within it, the core of Islam and what is taught all over the Muslim world is present, ie the 4 schools of Sunni thought and Maturidi Kalam.
Western historians concede it was conquered by Sunni Muslims and most Muslims in the region for centuries have never questioned the legitimacy of the conquest in the name of Islam.
So how do we reconcile the fact that the Hadith refer to an end times conquest by the people of Medina yet the Osmanli Turkish Muslims have conquered it and established Islam there as the dominant religion?
We should judge all history and our current conditions against the standard set in the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammed SAW and Allah knows best the reality of the issue of Constantinople,
There are 3 obvious possibilities:
There are errors in the Hadith narration not in the Hadith of the Prophet SAW in terms of what he said.
The conquest of the Osmanli Muslims is illegitimate and not recognised by Rasulullah SAW either because they were either not good muslims, a heretical sect or outside of Islam entirely.
It refers to a 2nd Conquest at the end of times.
Allah knows best.
Some scholars have found the safe view to be the position of a 2nd conquest (regardless of errors in leadership and astray and innovated practices of some people which is expected that’s why Allah sends reformers every 100 years), this way you don’t have a chance of perhaps wrongly making takfir of Muslims nor potentially slander those who have passed away, nor do you deny the Hadith which are Sahih in this matter the consequences of doing so would be kufr if it they are accurate, and so the position of a 2nd conquest is perhaps safest for the Ummah as we cannot say Islam is not the main religion of the city and we judge the past and present by what Allah has revealed, ultimately we have insufficient evidence to make blanket takfir of 600 years of collective Muslim History an effort of the whole Ummah regardless of the faults (such as common knowledge issues like fratricide & building tombs), Allah will judge each person individually, so we build on what we have, commend the good and condemn the bad and Allah knows best and we ask of him by invocation alone.
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