www.wansaiful.com

Ibn Khaldun showed that wealth is something that should not depsised. Rather, early Muslims accumulated a huge amount of wealth and that helped propel them to greateness.

Ibn Khaldun said:

The group feeling of the Arabs was consolidated in Islam through the prophethood of Muhammad… They then advanced advanced against the Persians and Byzantines and … confiscated their worldy possessions. They amassed enormous fortunes. It went so far that one horseman obtained … about 30,000 gold pieces.

Ibn Khaldun further added:

Al-Masudi said: “In the days of Uthman, the men around Muhammad acquired estates and money. On the day Uthman was killed, 150,000 dinars and 1,000,000 dirhams were in the hands of his treasurer. The value of his estate in Wadi l-Qura and Hunayn and other places were 200,00 dinars. He also left many camels and horses. The eights part of the estate of az-Zubayr after his death amounted to 50,000 dinars. He also left 1000 horses and 1000 female servants. Talhah’s income from the Iraq was 1000 dinars a day, and his income from the region ofash-Sharah was more than that. The stable of Abd-ar-Rahman b. Awf contained 1000 horses. He also had 1000camels and 10,000 sheep… Az-Zubayr built himself a residence in al-Basrah and other residences in Egypt and al-Kufah and Alexandria…

It is obvious therefore that the pious great Muslims were wealthy. Wealth therefore is not something Muslims should despise. In fact, if the companions were to be examples, wealth is something to be aimed for. Ibn Khaldun went on to say:

Such were the gains people made. Their religion did not blame them for amassing so much, because, as booty, it was lawful.

(source: The Muqaddimah, translated by Franz Rosenthal (2005), p. 162-163)

The Philosophy of Liberty

Nothing fancy, but some good points.

MCA published my article in their The Guardian. See here.

The latest e-update I received from the European Stability Institute makes a uplifting read. It tells how the AK Party is successfully leading a centre right agenda- reforming their economic and political landscape towards greater liberalisation.

The ongoing debate in Turkey about reforming their constitution to ingrain liberal democracy into the fabric of their society.

See below for the text of the ESI e-update, with some links if you want to read further.

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Following Turkey’s July elections everything is set for the incoming Erdogan government and Turkey’s next president to renew reform efforts directed at EU membership. Before elections Turkey’s government set itself a target to meet EU standards for accession by 2014. Prime Minister Erdogan vowed in his first speech after AKP’s election victory that “with the strong support of our nation expressed in these elections we will work towards realizing our Republic’s objective of EU membership”.

At the same time all realistic dates for EU accession of Western Balkan countries (except Croatia) are slipping further away. The Kosovo diplomatic quagmire deepens. Relations between the EU and Serbia could easily deteriorate as a result, despite the efforts of Serbian reformers such as Milica Delevic, whose portrait by Tim Judah is on the ESI website. While the powers of the military in Turkey are set to be reduced further, Bosnia-Herzegovina welcomed yet another High Representative with unlimited powers (supposedly required as long as Kosovo’s status remains disputed). While Turkey has launched a debate on a new, more democratic constitution the constitutional reform process in Bosnia-Herzegovina remains stuck.

Will future historians point to the summer of 2007 as the moment when it first became clear that Turkey would join the European Union before either Serbia or Bosnia-Herzegovina?

Islamic Calvinist as Turkish president
Turkey’s likely next president, Abdullah Gül, is familiar to ESI readers, as he plays a central role in our 2005 report on Islamic Calvinists which explored the social, economic and cultural changes and the role of Islam in his home province of Kayseri. There is more background information on Gül’s home region of Kayseri and on other leading figures of the post-election AKP on our website.

Conventional wisdoms overthrown
For political forces trying to capitalize on anti-EU sentiments in Turkey the results of the July elections were a surprising setback. The nationalist and EU-skeptical MHP did enter the Turkish parliament, but with a smaller share of the popular vote (14 percent) than in 1999 (18 percent). The no less nationalist Youth Party lost. So did the Islamist Felicity Party. The Democratic Party did not enter parliament despite an election manifesto meant to capitalize on frustration with the EU: “we do not embrace a negotiation process that is open ended and in which the result is not guaranteed … We categorically reject the impositions that are being made on Turkey that are not a part of the Copenhagen Criteria, that threaten Turkey’s independence, national sovereignty, unity and safety of borders, and that are only being brought up by the EU because of AKP’s submissiveness.” The Republican People’s Party (CHP), whose leader Deniz Baykal repeatedly warned that “nationalism is this society’s main glue … nobody should toy with the nation’s honor, and nobody should show disrespect to this nation’s basic values”, also tried unsuccessfully to benefit from EU-skepticism.

The victorious AKP was the only political force which campaigned on a platform of accelerating the process of EU integration. Already in April Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül and Chief EU negotiator Ali Babacan presented a 412-page “Program for Harmonization with EU Legislation” including a self-imposed deadline to complete the harmonization with the EU Acquis by 2011.

Its election manifesto was clear:

“The program for harmonization with the EU acquis which we released on 17 April 2007 includes details about the calender and responsible institutions for the reforms that will take place between 2007-2013. This document includes 188 laws and 576 regulations and is a concrete indication of our decisiveness towards Turkey’s obtaining the highest standards irrespective of the political problems of the EU membership process”.

This message was repeated throughout the election campaign. As Ali Babacan told an energy conference in Istanbul on the eve of elections Turkey would become “a Third World country” unless it applied EU standards of democracy and the rule of law. One of the many new faces of the AKP, economist Mehmet Simsek, affirmed that “the accession process for full EU membership will continue to be the anchor for Turkey’s economic and political reforms”.

The pre-election conventional wisdom on Turkey was that embracing the EU had become a risky political strategy. One Turkish commentator reflected this mood in April 2007: “I have recently been bombarded with emails. Most of the emails are about how the country is being divided, the dirty games forces from abroad are playing, and how the country’s land is being sold out. The main enemy in the letters is the EU.”

This conventional wisdom has to be questioned now that the elections are behind us. It clearly paid off for the AKP to restate its commitment to EU integration. It helped the government to set ambitious targets itself. And it turned out that there were a lot less votes in EU-skepticism than a large part of the Turkish political class had believed. As Erdal Saglam wrote on 24 July in Hurriyet: “There are some joint lessons for all parties from the results of these elections. The primary one is about the EU target. … governments need to be pushed to adopt all European values and not only those that are in their interests.”

If you haven’t seen it, click here.

If you live in the United Kingdom or Ireland, and you want to know more about recent developments in Turkey and how these can be related to us, then block your diary for 10 November 2007.

Malaysia Think Tank London will be organising a half-day seminar with the prominent Turkish commentator, author and thinker, Mustafa Akyol, on Saturday 10 November 2007.

The exact venue will be confirmed soon - weare still trying to confirm it. But I thought I should let you know now so that you can make yourself available.

See some of Mustafa’s writings:
- arguing against non-creationism
- about the Ottoman caliph, Sultan Abdul Hamid II
- on Erbakan’s Saadet vs Erdogan’s AKP

MZuhdi has updated his critique. Twice this weekend. Not bad…

Click on “Critique” page on top to see it.

We are initiating an important consultation with Muslims in Britain.

If you are a Muslim and you live in Britain, and you belief in free enterprise, community, the family, personal choice, and the value of hard work, then do join the CMF and you will be invited to take part in the consultation.

The “Critique” page has been updated today, with the fifth digresssion by Mzuhdi.

It has been 8 months and I am beginning to doubt his ability to stick to his own title.

See my comments at the top of the page, and scroll down to see the fifth installment.

Click on the link at top right.

So…. Mawi is celebrating Merdeka in London?

I am not a fan, so you will not be seeing me there…