Guest Author - Serkan Tufan

In the last article I mentioned that in Islam, charity is only given for Allah's sake with the purest intentions. Charity giving started with Prophet Muhammad , the Messenger of God(peace be upon him), who, despite the enormous amount of income He got through presents, earnings from family, and left overs from wars that are his share, chose to spend every penny of it for people in need.

Not only He spent his whole income for the women, children, sick, elderly, and others in need, He was also appointed by other people to distribute what they bring for poor, which is called 'sadaka' in Islam. Allah , through His order for Prophet Muhammad and His family, forbade them to eat or use sadaka money and food. So He would distinguish what is a present or an income and 'sadaka', and would immediately distribute sadaka to those in need. Once He could not sleep in the night thinking that, there maybe some 'sadaka' dates left at home, so He would get up and give it out and then go to sleep.

When He died, they could not find almost anything that He kept for himself. Even his shield was on hold in a Jew's house for his loan dues. He chose to led such a humble life, despite being God's beloved servant, a King, and the leader of his community. In fact , once, Angel Gabriel, who regularly bring him revelations from God, came and asked Him: "Your Lord asks what you wish: a slave Prophet, or a King Prophet?", and He said, "I wish none other than being a slave, a servant to my Lord". His enormous sensitivity led His sincere companions and those come after to follow His example (peace be upon Him). Whereas the modern times manipulated our senses of value and virtue and made status and money the most desirable thing in the world, Islam civilization lived an opposite example for many centuries, earning and using money for those in need. In fact, one person's status in the society were measured by his knowledge, the piety, and virtues he has, not that if he has financial power and class status.

That is why the Kings and Sultans in Islam history were in general mostly seeing themselves as the most responsible one, carrying the heavy burden to serve their people, not as lucky and irresponsible ones who can enjoy every benefit of the world. Yes, Prophet Muhammad once said: "The ruler of the nation is the one who serves it" .In fact, in the holiday times, the Ottoman Sultans specially employ people who would shout at them during the parades, and would say " Do not ever be proud ! Allah is greater than you! " They wanted to be humble servants of God, and were extremely cautious about their mission in this world, so they tried to stay away from luxury and arrogance....

These important assets that Islam have led people to found so many organizations to do charity and giving. In Ottoman State (1299 -1924), the foundations for societal support were founded and peaked its perfection to create a supportive and nurturing societal system that always highlights alliance, neighborhood, and care for all, which have never been achieved even today. In this system, most of the responsibility of the government was the protection and security of its people, the protection of borders from attacks, carrying out justice and service to the people by appointing local leaders, and judges for people's needs. However, educational needs, facilities such as water and sewer, the protection and care of elder and sick and almost all other things were taken care of by the strong system of "Vakif" foundations that people create as part of their charities.

"Vakif" means stopping and making stable, and as a term 'vakif' means in order to be closer to Allah, assigning the property, money, and other assets permanently for a religious or societal purpose through the foundation and its employers people establish themselves. When founded, a Vakif foundation would get approved by a judge and the documents would explain its purposes, how the assets would be used permanently for that purpose. A person needed to be free, in good mental health,and to have reached puberty to be able to establish a vakif foundation. That is why people, women and men who have financial assets were drawn to and do something for Allah's sake through vakif foundations starting at very young ages such as 13, 14.

Now, what would vakif foundations do? The biggest vakif foundations were established by Sultans, their wives, their children and relatives from their personal property. Yet, all citizens who had financial strength established foundations in Islam civilization. There were many foundations to build hospitals and treat everyone free regardless of their race, religion, gender etc. Schools, city water fountains, roads, libraries, rehabilitation centers for mental patients, bridges, homeless shelters, guest houses, baby nursing places, shpping malls, barns, laundry facilities, lighthouses, law courts, graveyards, castles, animal hospitals and care centers, Turkish baths, nursing homes, free restaurants, hotels, mosques and many others were built and run for free by these foundations and their employers through people's charities.

In the next articles, I will give very interesting examples from vakif foundations, which are the important bases for the great Islam civilization