Guest Author - Serkan Tufan

In the last articles, I talked about the charity foundations in Islam civilization called 'vakif' and how people were committed to support others in society. Today, I will give very interesting examples from the charity foundations established in Ottoman State

Among the countless foundations, a couple of incredible examples are worth mentioning.

-The vakif foundations for treating immigrating birds in case they fell sick or injured and having them continue to their routes (!!!),

-the person who establishes a vakif after plantings roses thinking that when people cross the street, they might pick and destroy the leaves and roses if its thornes tear people's clothes, so he allocates the income from a Turkish bath and six rental office income to pay the people the money for the clothes, ensuring they would not harm the roses (!!!),

-the foundation for children and household servants who might break the potteries while trying to carry water from city fountains to their homes, which would replace their potteries to ensure that they would not face any trouble at home (!!!),

- the foundations who would manage the little bird houses around the city to ensure birdies get enough food and clean their living spaces (!!!),

-the foundation for giving out charcoal and wood to get poor warm,

-the foundations for supporting orphan girls financially to be able to prepare their weddings and household items (!!!),

- the foundations for to help out people who are in debt by paying out their loans (!!!), foundations for supporting and strengthening widowed women,

-the foundations for giving out books and food checks to students,

-the foundation for taking care of the funerals of people who have no relatives,

-the foundations for buying presents for children to make them happy in the holidays,

-the foundations for building ramps and heightened spaces for heavy box carriers to get a rest without putting their boxes and bags on the floor for rest and bothering to lifting them again (!!!).

These are amazing examples whose records are kept in Ottoman State archives today in Turkey. You can see how the mercy and compassion of these Muslims reached out not only to other people regardless of religion, but also to animals, and to environment.

In the next article, I will give examples of Fatih Sultan Mehmed's charities (the great sultan of ottoman) and a little bit about Selahaddin Eyyubi (the great Sultan of Jerusalem during Crusades)