In plea for sympathy of Arabs and Muslims by the fabricated hadith of the Conqueror “Al-Fatih”, They abused the inauthentic and doubtful hadiths in favor of their state

In plea for sympathy of Arabs and Muslims by the fabricated hadith of the Conqueror "Al-Fatih",

They abused the inauthentic and doubtful hadiths in favor of their state

Banu Ottoman quoted prophetic hadiths in conferring religious sanctity on the rise of their state and ruling the Arab countries in political and religious terms. They intended to seek the sympathy of Arabs and Muslims and gain their affection by removing their effects resulting from the crimes they committed against the Arabs and the occupation of their land. 

The Ottoman Turks interpret the hadiths advocated by them, if they do not include doubtful chain of narration, according to their desires. For example, the hadith which promise a conquest at the end of time: “Verily you shall open (conquer) Constantinople. What a wonderful leader will he be, and what a wonderful army will that army be!”. This hadith is related to two points:

First:

the narration chain of hadith includes two defects: The first defect is that the first narrator of the hadith (Abdullah bin Bashr Al-Khathami) is classified by the scholars of discrediting and endorsement of narrators as an anonymous narrator. In addition, this hadith was narrated only by Al-Waleed bin Al-Mugheerah Al-Maafiry, and transmitted by Imam Ahmed in his “Musnad” and Al-Hakem in his Musnad; but it was declared as doubtful by Al-Albany and Al-Arnaout. Therefore, it is indicated that this addition is doubtful due to the anonymous narrator. The Second defect is that: the hadith was narrated by Reed bin Al-Habab, whose name, father’s name and identity are in lack of the scholars’ consensus. The interest in Constantinople and its conquest and the preparation of Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan during his caliphate to conquer it may due to the interest of Yazid bin Muawiyah, who was a prince of that army, in the conquest of Constantinople.

The missionary hadith of the conquest of Constantinople was declared as doubtful by the narrator Al-Ghnawy.

Second:

Presumably, if the hadith is authenticated, the Emir intended in this hadith is not Muhammad Al-Fatih nor his Turkmen army when he conquered Constantinople in 1453, for several reasons:

1. The hadith was mentioned in contexts about the signs of the Resurrection and its proximity, and there are similar hadiths supports this context. It is authenticated in Sahih Muslim that Constantinople will be conquered at the end of time, the era of Al-Mahdi. Abu Hurairah narrated that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger, peace be upon him, 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, would be killed ani 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 in prayer. 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)”. 

2.Moreover, this is proven by the statement of the Prophet in the hadith narrated by Amr bin Auf, may Allah be pleased with him: “Until the best of the Muslims go out to fight them, the people of Hijaz who do not fear the blame of anyone for the sake of Allah. They will conquer Constantinople with Tasbih and Takbir”. Thus, Conquest will be only once by and only by the Arabs, as it is related to the great epic before the Antichrist came out.
3.The contemporary scholars and historians of Muhammad Al-Fatih did not establish a correlation between the hadith mentioned above and the conquest of Constantinople, despite they praised Muhammad Al-Fatih, such as Al-Suyuti and Al-Sakhawi, as they know that the hadith or its correlation to epics of the end of time is doubtful.

Scholars and historians have not established a correlation between Muhammad Al-Fatih to the hadith of the conquest. Moreover, the narrators agreed that the conquest is meant by that conquest at the end of time.

1. Hammoud Al-Tuwaijry, Ithaf Al Jama’a bma gaa fi El-ften wa Al-malahem wa Ashart Alsa’a, 2nd Edition (Riyadh: Dar Al-Sumaiy, 1414 AH). 

2. Muhammad Al-Nisaboury, Al-Mustadrak Ala Al-Sahihin (Mustadrak Al-Hakim), edited by: Mustafa Abdel-Qader Atta, (Beirut: Dar Al-Kotob Al-Ilmiyah, 1990).